?The West Chum.: MR. ROBER?T PONT. 13x1
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE CHURCH OF ST. CUTHBERT.
Iiirtory and Antiquity-Old Views of it Described-First Protestant Incumbeqts-The Old hlanse-Old Communion Cups-Pillaged by Cmmwdi
-Ruined by the Siege of 1689, and again in ~g+~-Deaths of Messrs. McVicar and Pitcairn-Early Body-snatchem-Demolition of the Old
Church-Erection of the Ncw-Cax of Heart-bud-Old Tombs and Vaults-The Nisbets of Deau-The Old Poor How-Kirkbraehud
Road-Lothian Road-Dr. Candlish?s Church-Military Academy-New Caledonian Railway Station.
IN the hollow or vale at the end of which the North
Loch lay there stands one of the most hideous
churches in Edinbutgh, known as the West Kirk,
occupying the exact site of the Culdee Church of
St. Cuthbert, the parish of which was the largest
in Midlothian, and nearly encircled the whole of
the city without the walls. Its age was greater than
that of any record in Scotland. It was supposed
to have been built in the eighth century, and was
dedicated to St. Cuthbert, the Bishop of Durham,
who died on the 20th of March, 687.
In Gordon of Rothiemay?s bird?s-eye view it
appears a long, narrow building, with one transept
or aisle, on the south, a high square tower of three
storeys at the south-west corner, and a belfry.
The burying-ground is square, with rows of trees
to the westward. On the south of the buryingground
is a long row of two-storeyed houses, with a
gate leading to the present road west of the Castle
rock, and another on the north, leading to the
pathway which yet exists up the slope to Princes
Street, from which point it long was known as the
Kirk Loan to Stockbridge.
A view taken in 1772 represents it as a curious
assorlment of four barn-like masses of building,
having a square spire of five storeys in height in
the centre, and the western end an open ruinthe
western kirk-with a bell hung 011 a wooden
frame. Northward lies the hare open expznse, or
ridge, whereon the first street of the new town was
built.
After the Reformation the first incumbent settled
here would seem to have been a pious tailor, named
William Harlow, who was born in the city about
1500, but fled to England, where he obtained
deacon?s orders and became a preacher during the
reign of Edward VI. On the death of the, latter,
and accession of Mary, he was compelled to seek
refuge in Scotland, and in 1556 he began ?pub
,licly to exhort in Edinburgh,? for which he was
excommunicated by the Catholic authorities, whose
days were numbered now; and four years after,
when installed at St. Cuthbert?s, ? Mr. Harlow attended
the meeting of the first General Assembly,
held in Edinburgh on the 20th of December, 1560.
He died in 1578, but four years before that event
Mr. Robert Pont, afterwards ah eminent judge and
miscellaneous writer, was ordained to the ministry
of St. Cuthbert?s in his thirtieth year, at the time
he was, with others, appointed by the Assembly
to revise all books that were printed and published.
About the saiiie period he drew up the Calendar,
and framed the rule to understaqd it, for Arbuthnot
and Bassandyne?s famous edition of the Bible. In .
1571 he had been a Lord of Session and Provost
of the Trinity College.
On Mr. Pont being transferred in 1582, Mr.
Nicol Dalgleish came in his place ; but the former,
being unable to procure a stipend, returned to his
old charge, conjointly with his successor. IVhen
James VI. insidiously began his attempts to introduce
Episcopacy, Mr. Pont, a zealous defender of
Presbyterianism, with two other ministers, actually
repaired to the Parliament House, with the design
of protesting for the rights of the Church in the face
of the Estates; but finding the doors shut against
them, they repaired to the City Cross, and when
the obnoxious ?Black Acts ? were proclaimed, pub.
licly denounced them, and then fled to England,
followed by most of the clergy in Edinburgh.
Meanwhile Nicol Dalgleish, for merely praying
for them, was tried for his life, and acquitted, but
he was indicted anew for corresponding with the
rebels, because he had read a letter which one of
the banished ministers had sent to his wife. For
this fault sentence of death was passed upon him ;
but though it was not executed, by a refinement of
cruelty the scaffold on which he expected to die was
kept standing for several weeks before the windows
of his prison.
While Mr. Pont remained a fugitive, William
Aird, a stonemason, ? an extraordinary witness,
stirred cp by God,? says Calderwood, ?Land
mamed, learned first of his wife to speak English,?
was appointed, in the winter of 1584, colleague to
Mr. Dalgleish, who, on the return of Mr. Pont in
1585, ? was nominated to the principality of Aberdeen.?
Aware
of the igqorance of most of their parishioners concerning
the doctrines of the Protestant faith, and
that many had no faith- whatever, they offered to
devote the forenoon of every Thursday to public
tzaching, and to this end a meeting was held on
Pont?s next colleague was Mr. Aird.
