ANNALS OF THE PARISH
Or The Chronicle of Dalmailing during the ministry of the Rev. Micah
Balwhidder. Written by himself and arranged and edited by John Galt




INTRODUCTION



In the same year, and on the same day of the same month, that his
Sacred Majesty King George, the third of the name, came to his crown
and kingdom, I was placed and settled as the minister of Dalmailing.
{1} When about a week thereafter this was known in the parish, it
was thought a wonderful thing, and everybody spoke of me and the new
king as united in our trusts and temporalities, marvelling how the
same should come to pass, and thinking the hand of Providence was in
it, and that surely we were preordained to fade and flourish in
fellowship together; which has really been the case: for in the
same season that his Most Excellent Majesty, as he was very properly
styled in the proclamations for the general fasts and thanksgivings,
was set by as a precious vessel which had received a crack or a
flaw, and could only be serviceable in the way of an ornament, I was
obliged, by reason of age and the growing infirmities of my
recollection, to consent to the earnest entreaties of the Session,
and to accept of Mr Amos to be my helper. I was long reluctant to
do so; but the great respect that my people had for me, and the love
that I bore towards them, over and above the sign that was given to
me in the removal of the royal candle-stick from its place, worked