Transactions. 29 



circunisttance well, for I took the opportunity of Staying to some of the 

 elders of St. Michael's, after my father's death, that they should now make 

 use of common loaf bread in the communion. My reason for doing so was 

 chiefly that shortbread is very biittle and inconvenient to handle. The 

 cakes were large and round, with a dividing line down the centre and also 

 across, in order to assist the officiating clergy in breaking. But strangers 

 who assisted my father at such times were often afraid to touch the bread 

 in case of an accident. 



Rev. Mr Fraser, of Colvend, had written an interesting' letter. 

 He said : 



When I came here, now forty-seven years ago, shortbread was the 

 bread used in all the surrounding parishes, and in the parishes in the 

 Stewartry generally. It was certainly used in Colvend, Buittle, 

 Urr, Kirkgunzeon, Parton, Corsock, and Kirkbean and Newabbey. 

 Mr M'Lelland, my oldest elder, tells me that about the year 1848 he was 

 present in Dr Wardlaw's Church, Glasgow, and that the bread used was 

 shortbread. Dr Wardlaw, as you know, was a Congregationalist. This, I 

 think, is an interesting fact, and shows that the custom was not confined to 

 Galloway or to congregations of the Established Church. I had an inter- 

 esting conversation with Mr John Paterson, baker, Dalbeattie, who.«e 

 father used to supply shortbread to several of the surrounding parishes for 

 the communion ; and his impression is that in his father's time shortbread 

 was universally used throughout the Stewartry. The ministers and elders 

 of Galloway in the last century were of a stern and unbending character, 

 and would probably oppose any change in the bread of the communion, 

 hence, perhaps, the continuance of the custom so long in this quarter. 



In a second letter Mr Fraser said : 

 Mr Dunlop, my assistant, himself an Irishman, tells me that he com- 

 municated some 10 or 12 years ago in Duncairn Church, Belfast, the 

 minister of which at the time was the Kev. Dr Killen, and that the bread 

 used was shortbread. I asked if Dr Killen was a Scotchman, thinking that 

 he might ha\'e imported the use of shortbread from Scotland ; but it 

 appears he was Irish. But, then, the Presbyterians in Ulster are mainly of 

 Scotch descent ; they might have brought the use of shortbread with them 

 at their immigration. 



Rev. Mr Sturrock, Corsock, had written a letter, in which he 

 stated that he wished to introduce a change, but was prevented 

 by one of his elders. Rev. R. Moreson, Kintail, Stroma Ferry, 

 wrote that there was no tradition there as to the use of any kind 

 of bread at the communion except the ordinary wheaten loaf, 

 which, in the recollection of the oldest inhabitant, used to be g'ot 

 all the way from Inverness. Mr Thomson stated that he had 

 written to the Rev. Dr Goold, who had never heard of the use of 

 shortbread until he mentioned it to him. He (Mr Thomson) 

 sug-gested that it was just possible that it was a relic from the 



