80 ANTIQUITIES OF GiRTHON. 



haud nearer the sea, and on the other further up the parish 

 inland than the present villag-e. There are many signs of former 

 cultivation in the most remote and barren parts of the hills, and 

 districts were solemnly assigned to elders two hundred years ago 

 where now not a single soul is to be met for miles. 



The only ancient Kirk-Session Records in existence are fi'om 

 1694 to 1701, and again some fragments (apparently jottings) 

 from 1730 to 1742. They are very curious as a picture of the 

 life and church discipline in Galloway between the Revolution and 

 the '4.T, but they are probably not greatly different from similar 

 Records in other parishes. I cannot find any passages that touch 

 on matters of wider than parochial interest, except, perhaps, an 

 entry in 1700 receiving John M'Millan, chaplain to Murray of 

 Broughton, as an elder. This was the famous Cameronian who 

 became minister of Balmaghie shortly after. 



There is written into the Session book — apparently in the 

 year 1700 — a form of "Oath of Purgation," which may not be 

 unique, but is so much more terrific than that given in the " Form 

 of Process " approved by the General Assembly of 1707, that I 

 venture to transcribe it %erbatim : — 



"Whereas I in of Girthon have 



been and am accused by the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright and 

 Session of Girthon of the horrid sin and scaudall of Adulterj' 



alledged to be committed by me with I hereby 



declare myself Innocent of the said guilt, and in Testimony of my 

 Innocence I swear by the Eternall God the Searcher of all hearts, 

 Invocating him as Witness, Judge, and Avenger, wishing in case 

 I be guilty that he himself may appear ag-ainst me, as witness, and 

 fix the guilt upon me ; he himself may proceed as judge against 

 me, who hath witnessed that whoremongers and adulterers he will 

 judge (Heb. 13, 4), he himself may avenge his own cause who 

 hath declared he will not hold them guiltless that taketh his 

 name in vain (Exod. 20, 7), and that the Roll of God's curse which 

 enters the house of false swearers (Zech. 5, 4) may enter my 

 house if I be guilty and remaine in the midst thereof untill it con- 

 sume the timber and stones yof (thereof) and root out the remem- 

 brance thereof from the earth, and that the righteous Lord may 

 make me ane Example and Terror to all false swearers before I go 

 off this world — and finally that all the curses written in the book 

 of God from the beginning of the Genesis to ihe end of the 



