by a blast of wind, on the first Monday of February, by which a
great snow storm got admission, and the school was rendered utterly
uninhabitable. The smaller sort of lairds were very willing to come
into the plan with an extra contribution, because they respected the
master, and their bairns were at the school; but the gentlemen, who
had tutors in their own houses, were not so manageable; and some of
them even went so far as to say, that the kirk, being only wanted on
Sunday, would do very well for a school all the rest of the week,
which was a very profane way of speaking; and I was resolved to set
myself against any such thing, and to labour, according to the power
and efficacy of my station, to get a new school built.

Many a meeting the session had on the subject; and the heritors
debated, and discussed, and revised their proceedings, and still no
money for the needful work was forthcoming. Whereupon it happened
one morning, as I was rummaging in my scrutoire, that I laid my hand
on the Lord Eaglesham's letter anent Charles Malcolm; and it was put
into my head at that moment, that if I was to write to his lordship,
who was the greatest heritor, and owned now the major part of the
parish, that by his help and influence I might be an instrument to
the building of a comfortable new school. Accordingly, I sat down
and wrote my lord all about the accident, and the state of the
school-house, and the divisions and seditions among the heritors,
and sent the letter to him at London by the post the same day,
without saying a word to any living soul on the subject.

This in me was an advised thought; for, by the return of post, his
lordship with his own hand, in a most kind manner, authorized me to
say that he would build a new school at his own cost, and bade me go
over and consult about it with his steward at the castle, to whom he