132 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [West Church.
the 27th October, 1592, by ?(the hail1 elderes, deacones,
and honest men of ye parochin . . . .
quha hes agreit, all in ane voice, that in all tymes
coming, thair be ane preaching everie Thursday,
and that it begin at nyne hours in ye morning, and
ye officer of ye kirk to gang with ye bell at aught
hours betwixt the Bow Fut and the Toun-end.?
This Thursday sermon was kept up until the middle
of the eighteenth century. The ?? toun-end ? is
supposed to mean Fountain Bridge, sometimes of
old called the Causeway-end.
. In 1589 the Kirk Session ordained that none in
the parish should have ?? yair bairnes ? baptised,
admitted to mamage, repentance, or alms, but
those who could repeat the Lord?s Prayer, the
Belief, and the Commandments, and ?gif ane
compt yair of, quhen yai ar examinet, and yis to be
publishit in ye polpete.? In the following year a
copy of the Confession of Faith and the National
Covenant was subscribed by the whole parish.
From the proximity of the church to the castle,
in the frequent sieges sustained by the latter, the
former suffered considerably, particularly after the
invention of artillery. At the Reformation it had
a roof of thatch, probably replacing a former one
of stone. The thatch was renewed in 1590, and
new windows and a loft were introduced; two
parts of the expense were borne by the parish, the
other by Adam, Bishop of Orkney, a taxation
which he vehemently contested. Among other
additions to the church was ?a pillar for adulterers,?
built by John Howieson and John Gaims in August,
1591. The thatch was removedand theroof slated.
In 1594 a manse adjoining the church was built
for Mr. Robert Pont, on the ?site of the present
one, into which is inserted an ancient fragment of
the former, inscribed-
RELIGIOXI ET POSTERIS
IN MINISTERIO.
S.R. P. G. A. 1594
The burying-ground in those days was confined
to the rising slope south-west of the church, and
as ? nolt, horse, and scheipe ? were in the habit
of grazing there, the wall being in ruins, it was
repaired in 1597. The beadle preceded all funerals
with a hand-bell-a practice continued in the
eighteenth century.
-In consequence of the advanced age of Messrs.
Pont and Aird, a third minister, hlr. Richard
Dickson, was appointed to the parish in May, 1600,
and in 1606 communion was given on three successive
Sundays. On the 8th of May that year the
venerable Mr. Pont passed from the scene of his
labours,and is supposed to have been interred within
the church. To his memory a stone was erected,
which, when the present edifice was built, was removed
to the Rev. Mr. Williamson?s tomb on the
high ground, in which position it yet remains.
His colleague, Mr. Aircl, survived hini but a few
months, and their succkssors, Messrs. Dickson and
Arthur, became embroiled with the Assembly in
16 I 9 for celebrating communion to the people
seated at a table, preventing them from kneeling,
as superstitious and idolatrous. Mr. Dickson was
ordered ?to enter his person in ward within the
Castle of Dumbarton,? and .Mr. Arthur to give
communion to the people on their knees ; but he
and the people declined to ??comply with a practice
so nearly allied to popery.? Mr. Dickson was
expelled in 1620, but Mr. Arthur was permitted to
remain. Among those who were sitters in the
church at this time were Williani Napier, of the
Wrytes house, and his more illustrious kinsman,
John Napier, of Merchiston, the inventor of logarithms,
whose ?dasks,? or seats, seem to have
been close together.
The old church, like that of Duddingstone, was
furnished with iron jougs, in which it appears that
Margaret Dalgleish was compelled to figure on the
23rd of April, 1612, for her scandalous behaviour;
and in 1622, John Reid, ?poltriman,? was publicly
rebuked in church for plucking ?geiss upon the
Lord his Sabbath, in tyme of sermon.?
We are told in the ? History of the West Church,?
that ? in 1622 it was deemed proper to have a bell
hung in the stekple, if the old ruinous fabric which
stood between the old and new kirks might be so
called,? for a new church had been added at the
close of the sixteenth century. In 1618 new communion
cups of silver were procured. ?They were
then of a very peculiar shape, being six inches in
height, gilt, and beautifully chased; but the cup
itself, which was plated, was only two inches
deep and twenty-four in circumference, not unlike
a small soupplate affixed to the stalk of a candlestick.
On the bottom was engraved the following
sentence :-I wiz fa& flse COVJ of saZvafimnc and caZ
@one fhe name of fh b ~ d I I 6 PsZm. I 6 I 9 ; and
around the rim of the cup these words :-Fw fire
Vmf Kirk ovfvith EdinhrgAe.?
The year 1650 saw the church again imperilled
by war. Its records bear, on the 28th July in that
year, that ? No sessione was keiped in the monthe
of August, because there lay ane companie at the
church,? the seats of which had been destroyed
and the sessioners dispersed, partly by the army
of Cromwell, which lay on the south side of the
parish, and that of the Scots, which lay on the
north; and on the 13th of that month, after
Cromwell?s retreat to Dunbar, the commission of
West Church.] MR. NEIL MWICAR. I33 -
those of other sections of the city, took courage, and
sought to retrieve their past ill-conduct by noisily .
preparing to raise forces to defend themselves in
case of a second visit from the Highlanders.
the General Assembly met in the church, and
passed an Act, which, however necessary, perhaps,
in those harassing times, concerning ?? the sine and
guilte of the king and his house,? caused much
suffering to the Covenanters after the Restoration.
It was known by the name of the West Kirk Act,
and was approved by Parliament the same day.
Subsequently, during his siege of the castle
Cromwell made the church a barrack; hence its
roof and windows were destroyed by the guns of
the fortress, and soon little was left of it but the
bare walls, which were repaired, and opened for
service in 1655.
For some years subsequent the sole troubles
of the incumbents were breaches
of ?the Sabbath,? such as when
William Gillespie, in 1659, was
?fund carrying watter, and his
wyfe knoking beir,? for which
they had to make public repentance,
or filling people for
?taking snuff in tyme of sermon,?
contrary to the Act of
18th June, 1640; till 1665,
when the ?? great mutiny? in
the parish occurred, and the
minister, William Gordon, for
? keeping of festivals,? was
railed at by the people, who
closed the doors against him,
for which a man and a woman,
according to Wodrow, were
scourged through Edinburgh.
At the Revolution, those
of ground to the west was added to it (including
the garden,with trees, shown in Gordon?s Map), from
the old boundary to the present west gate at the
Lothian Road. About the same time several
heritors requested permission to inter their dead
in the little or Wester-kirk, which had been a
species of ruin since the invasion of Cromwell.
In 1745, after the victory of the Highlanders at
Prestonpans, a message was sent to the ministers
of the city, in the name cf ?Charles, Prince Regent,?
desiring them to preach next day, Sunday,
as usual; but many, alarmed by the defeat of Cope,
sought refuge in the country, and no public worship
was performed within the city, save by a
ST. CUTHBERT?S CHURCH.
(From Cmdm of Potkicmay?s Mu@.)
ministers who had been ejected in 1661, and were
yet alive, returned to their charges. Among them
was Mr. David Williamson, who, in 1689, was
settled in St. Cuthbert?s manse ; but not quietly,
for the castle, defended by the Duke of Gordon,
was undergoing its last disastrous siege by the
troops oC William, and the church suffered so much
damage from shot and shell, that for many months
after the surrender in June, the people were unable
to use it, and the repairs amounted to LI,~OO.
If tradition has not wronged him, Mr. Williamson
is the well-known (? Dainty Davie? of Scottish
song, who had six wives ere the seventh, Jean.
Straiton, survived him. He died in August, 1706,
and was buried in the churchyard, where the
vicinity of the grave is alone indicated by the
letters D. W. cut on the front of the tomb in which
he lies.
The ancient cemetery on the knoll having been
found too small for the increasing population and
consequent number of interments, in 1701 a piece
clergyman named Hog a t t h e
Tron.
It was otherwise, however,
at St. Cuthbert?s, the incumbent
of which was then the Rev.
Neil McVicar, yho preached
to a crowded congregation,
many of whom were armed
Highlanders, before whom he
prayed for George 11. and also
for Charles Edward in a fashion
of his own, recorded thus by
Ray, in his history of the time,
and others :-
?(Bless the king! Thou
knowest what king I mean.
May the crown sit long on his
head. As for that young man
who has come among us to
seek an earthly crown, we
