KlKKCUDBKIGHT OlD ClOCK. 113 



beautifully wooded gleu known as Kirkbean Gill. This rock is 

 known as the " Deil's Coffin." In the rocks further down are 

 some water-worn holes called the " Deil's Pots and Pans," but 

 nothing takes place there so far as I can learn and no tradition is 

 attached to these. I suppose it is by way of insult to his Satanic 

 majesty that the following is sung- as the urchins dance on his 

 " coffin" : — 



Some say the deil's deed, the deil's deed, the deil's deed, 

 Some say the deil's deed, an buri't in Kirkcaldy. 

 Some say he'll rise again, rise again, rise again, 

 Some say he'll rise again an' dance the Hielan' Laddie. 



II.— 7%^ Old Clock of Kirkcudbright. By Mr JoHN M'KlE. 



This quaint horological machine, whose working parts were 

 originally all of malleable iron, exhibits excellent workmanship in 

 the forging of its wheels and in the cutting of their teeth, but 

 when it was made minutes were not held to be of such account as 

 they are in the present day ; consequently it had no minute hand 

 — one to indicate the hours being then considered sufficient. It 

 had two dials — one facing- east, and the other north — that could 

 be seen from any part of High Street, which at that time com- 

 prehended the whole town. There is no authentic record when or 

 where it was made. There is a tradition that it came from 

 Holland, and may, in all likelihood, have been presented to the 

 burgh by William Maclellau, the first Provost, an ancestor of the 

 Lords Kirkcudbright. The first authentic notice of the town 

 clock, or, as it was then quaintly styled, the " kuok," is to be 

 found in the earliest existing records of the Town Council, and 

 is dated 1576, wherein, after a narrative of the election of 

 magistrates and office-bearers, it is set forth that one, John Hall 

 is appointed keeper of the " knok," and subsequently he and others 

 continue to be made custodiers of the old timepiece from year to 

 year. The following excerpt from the Council minutes shows the 

 existence of a curious regulation, namely, that every burgh was 

 bound to maintain and uphold a town clock ; and from the same 

 excerpt it will be seen that, in 1642, the question was not one of 

 erectuag a new clock, but of transferring the old one to a new 

 steeple. 



