3[i!. W. Kedbie oil the Earlij llistor// and Proceedings of (he Society. 113 



a paddle which lie had introduced for steam-boats, on the principle of a 

 canoe paddle. A similar contrivance had been suggested some time 

 before by Captain Dumotte ; but neither plan came into use. 



" The heating of kirks" was more than once discussed. As a matter 

 of economy, Mr. Matthew Spreul thought it would be cheaper to keep 

 a large building constantly heated 365 days in tlie year, than to heat it 

 fifty-two times a-year, or once a-week. 



Mr. James Watt, architect, produced a specimen of chai'red wheat, 

 taken from a vault at Castlecary, where it had been left by the Romans, 

 that being one of their Scottish stations. Quantities of this wheat 

 were obtained from the same place many years afterwards, when that 

 part of the Roman Wall was crossed by the Edinburgh and Glasgow 

 Railway. 



Mr. Macdonald, silversmith, exhibited to the Society a pair of un- 

 usually large silver spurs, each weighing about fourteen Troy ounces, 

 which he had bought as so much silver in the way of business. They 

 were made in Spanish America, or some other country where the expor- 

 tation of silver as bullion was prohibited, and the expedient of manufac- 

 turing it into articles for export was consequently resorted to for the 

 purpose of evading the law. Mr. Duncan of Mosesfield, the bookseller, 

 bought the spurs from Mr. Macdonald, after seeing them in the Society, 

 and was in the habit of passing them off upon his friends as the spurs of 

 King Robert the Bruce, lately disinterred, along with his remains, at 

 Dunfermline. The report of Robert the Bruce's spurs having been 

 exhibited at the shop of Mr. Duncan, speedily got wind, and reaching 

 the ears of the Earl of Buchan, that nobleman negotiated the purchase 

 of them from Mr. Duncan, who now felt that he had carried the plea- 

 santry too far ; but finding himself unable to get out of the predicament 

 gracefully, it was thought better to allow the Earl to carry off the spurs 

 and deposit them in his collection, with the spell of their antiquity and 

 royalty unbroken. 



The Society requested that this paper might be continued at its 

 next meeting. 



November i«, 1857. — Tlie President in the Chair. 



Mr. Ebenczer Miller and Mr. David Donaldson^ere elected mem- 

 bers. 



Mr. Cockey gave in the following abstract of Treasurer's Account 

 for Session 185G-57 : — 



Vor.. IV.— No. 1. o 



