CHAPTER VI YEAR 1765



As there was little in the last year that concerned the parish, but
only myself, so in this the like fortune continued; and saving a
rise in the price of barley, occasioned, as was thought, by the
establishment of a house for brewing whisky in a neighbouring
parish, it could not be said that my people were exposed to the
mutations and influences of the stars, which ruled in the seasons of
Ann. Dom. 1765. In the winter there was a dearth of fuel, such as
has not been since; for when the spring loosened the bonds of the
ice, three new coal-heughs were shanked in the Douray moor, and ever
since there has been a great plenty of that necessary article.
Truly, it is very wonderful to see how things come round. When the
talk was about the shanking of their heughs, and a paper to get folk
to take shares in them, was carried through the circumjacent
parishes, it was thought a gowk's errand; but no sooner was the coal
reached, but up sprung such a traffic, that it was a godsend to the
parish, and the opening of a trade and commerce, that has, to use an
old byword, brought gold in gowpins amang us. From that time my
stipend has been on the regular increase, and therefore I think that
the incoming of the heritors must have been in like manner
augmented.

Soon after this, the time was drawing near for my second marriage.
I had placed my affections, with due consideration, on Miss Lizy