28 Operations and Finds in Upper Nithsdale. 



these operations, and also to indicate that more work of this 

 nature lies ready to be entered upon. 



The late Mr Donaldson, minister of Kirkconnel, was chiefly 

 instrumental in causing a substantial freestone cross to be erected 

 on Glenwharry Hill at the traditional grave of St. Connel, the 

 patron saint of the church. A rude block of freestone formerly 

 marked the place, but in erecting a wire fence on the Ayrshire 

 boundary it was broken into pieces by the fencers for socket 

 stones for iron straining posts. St. Connel flourished early in 

 the seventh century, and has in this district left several place- 

 names to commemorate his name and work, such as "Kirkconnel" 

 in Tynron, the site of St. Connel's chapel on the farm of Kirk- 

 cudbright, in Glencaiin ; " Connelpark " in New Cumnock, 

 " Connelbush " and " Connelbuie " in Sanquhar, and the name of 

 the parish and cliurch in Kirkconnel. 



Mr Donaldson was also the moving spirit in placing in the 

 south wall of the church at Kirkconnel an elegant slab in 

 memory of the Rev. Peter Rae, minister of the parish, clerk to 

 the Presbytery of Penpont, and tlie historian of tlie rebellion of 

 1715. He was tianslated in 1737 from Kirkbride, an extinct 

 parish in Nithsdale now embraced in the parishes of Durisdeer 

 and Sanquhar, and was a person of note in his day. In turn Mr 

 Donaldson's classic and manly face, which many of you will 

 remember, has been I'epresented inside the church where he 

 laboured so long by the erection of a marble medallion by his 

 devoted parishioners and friends. A nd very recently the present 

 minister of the parish, Mr MacVicker, has placed in the church 

 a massive font stone, bearing some ancient ornamentation and 

 mouldings. For a long period it formed the side of a " lunkie 

 hole " in the northern boundary wall of the glebe, and no doubt 

 many a poor sheep had derived immediate benefit from it as a 

 " rubbing stone." Jn the cavity of the font there has been 

 placed a beautiful silver basin for use at baptisms in the church, 

 with the names of all the ministers of the parish from Peter 

 Rae's time inscribed thereon. The Scriptural injunction against 

 removing the ancient landmarks which our fatiiers had set up 

 may have been set at defiance by removing this stone to the 

 church, but as we know time changes all tilings both in form 

 and use. 



At Sanquhar kindred work has be.en going on for some years. 

 The foundations of the old cliurch of Sanquhar have been built 



y 



