awakened among the heritors in behalf of a steeple.

But when the steeple was built, a new contention arose. It was
thought that the bell, which had been used in the ash-tree, would
not do in a stone and lime fabric; so, after great agitation among
the heritors, it was resolved to sell the old bell to a foundery in
Glasgow, and buy a new bell suitable to the steeple, which was a
very comely fabric. The buying of the new bell led to other
considerations, and the old Lady Breadland, being at the time in a
decaying condition, and making her will, she left a mortification to
the parish, as I have intimated, to get a clock; so that, by the
time the steeple was finished, and the bell put up, the Lady
Breadland's legacy came to be implemented, according to the
ordination of the testatrix.

Of the casualities that happened in this year, I should not forget
to put down, as a thing for remembrance, that an aged woman, one
Nanse Birrel, a distillator of herbs, and well skilled in the
healing of sores, who had a great repute among the quarriers and
colliers--she having gone to the physic well in the sandy hills to
draw water, was found, with her feet uppermost in the well, by some
of the bairns of Mr Lorimore's school; and there was a great debate
whether Nanse had fallen in by accident head foremost, or, in a
temptation, thrown herself in that position, with her feet sticking
up to the evil one; for Nanse was a curious discontented blear-eyed
woman, and it was only with great ado that I could get the people
keepit from calling her a witchwife.

I should likewise place on record, that the first ass that had ever
been seen in this part of the country, came in the course of this