Breadland, I saw his braird on what had been the cows' grass, as
even and pretty as if it had been worked and stripped in the loom
with a shuttle. Truly, when I look back at the example he set, and
when I think on the method and dexterity of his management, I must
say, that his coming to the parish was a great godsend, and tended
to do far more for the benefit of my people, than if the young laird
had rebuilded the Breadland-House in a fashionable style, as was at
one time spoken of.

But the year of the great calamity was memorable for another thing:-
in the December foregoing, the wind blew, as I have recorded in the
chronicle of the last year, and broke down the bough of the tree
whereon the kirk-bell had hung from the time, as was supposed, of
the persecution, before the bringing over of King William. Mr
Kibbock, my father-in-law then that was, being a man of a discerning
spirit, when he heard of the unfortunate fall of the bell, advised
me to get the heritors to big a steeple; but which, when I thought
of the expense, I was afraid to do. He, however, having a great
skill in the heart of man, gave me no rest on the subject; but told
me, that if I allowed the time to go by till the heritors were used
to come to the kirk without a bell, I would get no steeple at all.
I often wondered what made Mr Kibbock so fond of a steeple, which is
a thing that I never could see a good reason for, saving that it is
an ecclesiastical adjunct, like the gown and bands. However, he set
me on to get a steeple proposed, and after no little argol-bargling
with the heritors, it was agreed to. This was chiefly owing to the
instrumentality of Lady Moneyplack, who, in that winter, was much
subjected to the rheumatics, she having, one cold and raw Sunday
morning, there being no bell to announce the time, come half an hour
too soon to the kirk, made her bestir herself to get an interest