64 DUMFRIESSHIRE AND GALLOWAY MINISTERS IN CUMBERLAND. 
Another Mr Allen ministered in spiritual things to the people 
of Bewcastle, the reference to whom by the good Bishop is ex- 
ceedingly quaint :—‘“ The man’s a poor ejected Episcopalian of 
the Scottish nation. The men of Bewcastle would be well con- 
tent with him if they had him wholly to themselves as in justice 
they ought.’’ Allen, at Bewcastle, appears to have been some- 
thing of a pluralist, endeavouring to minister to both the people 
of Bewcastle and Stapleton at the same time. 
Ejected Scotch Episcopalian parsons found also congenial 
employment as schoolmasters, no less than three in succession 
becoming masters of Sebergham Grammar School. Their names 
were Blain, Halifax, and Jackson, and all three were classical 
scholars of high attainment, and all three were personal friends 
of the ejected rector of Annan, through whose influence they pro- 
bably found their way to Sebergham. Chancellor Ferguson, 
speaking of them, says (“ Hist. Diocese of Carlisle,’’ p. 184) :— 
“The first kept school at Sebergham in a mud hut, and was after- 
wards master of Wigton Grammar School, and domestic and 
examining chaplain to Bishop Law. The second succeeded Blain 
at Sebergham, and also at Wigton Grammar School, and became 
incumbent of Westward; the third, mathematician as well as 
classic, became vicar of Morland and was the intimate friend of 
Archdeacon Paley (author of the ‘ Evidences of Christianity ’).’’ 
Bishop Nicholson, to whom reference has been made, was a 
keen observer, and his “Miscellany Accounts,’ from 
which we have quoted, contain graphic descriptive notices 
of all the churches in his Diocese of Carlisle. Visiting 
Kirkbride Church, he found the parson from home “and 
the key of the church would not be found. However, I easily. 
put back the lock of the great door with my finger, and quickly 
discovered why I was in a manner denyed entrance. I never yet 
saw a church and chancel out of Scotland in so scandalous and 
nasty a condition. . . . The whole place look’d more like 
a pigsty than the House of God.’’ So far as the writer has been 
able to ascertain, the Bishop’s travels in Scotland had been no 
further than Ruthwell to view the cross, so that the members of 
this society can imagine better than the writer can describe the 
condition of the Dumfriesshire churches two and a-half centuries’ 
ago. i 
One of the principal roads between Scotland and England 
