292 The Buchanites and Crocketford. 



the Buchanites that their period of grace wasn't only two 

 hours as at Irvine. Their landlord, Mr Davidson, was both 

 able and willing — as indeed he had a good right — to be of 

 service to the poor outcasts at this crisis. He made up his 

 mind to put them into a farm. Nearly a mile from where 

 the little Galloway village of Crocketford now stands lay the 

 farm of Auchengibbert Mains, in the parish of Urr. It was 

 badly fenced and had no outhouses ; the dwelling-house was 

 low-roofed and dark, and hopelessly inadequate for the lodg- 

 ment of forty-four human beings. But it would be empty 

 at Whitsunday, and Davidson took it readily on lease in the 

 joint names of himself, Hugh White, and Mrs Buchan. As, 

 however, the Buchanites would have to leave Closeburn on. 

 the loth of March at the latest, Davidson succeeded in getting 

 put at their disposal for the intervening time the old mansion- 

 house of Tarbreoch, which was situated about five miles to 

 the south-west of Auchengibbert. For this old house they 

 all set out on foot at one o'clock in the morning of the loth 

 March, with carts and horses lent them by their well-disposed 

 landlord. 



. A new era began for the Buchanites when at W^hitsunday 

 they entered Auchengibbert. The failure of the fast had 

 rudely shaken their faith. They were not now so sanguine 

 of personal translation as they had been, and it therefore 

 behoved them to take a more worldly, a more business-like 

 view of their position. They accordingly decided that they 

 would charge for their services in the ordinary way. Other- 

 wise it would speedily have been their fate to tramp the 

 country as beggars, like some of their former associates ; for 

 when they arrived at Auchengibbert their destitution was 

 alarming. Among the forty-four of them there were only 

 four shillings and sixpence in money (which bought for them 

 3 stones of oatmeal), a cow, a calf, and two stirks on credit, 

 and two gift horses. 



If — on principle — they were to a large extent idlers in 

 Dumfriesshire, they — again on principle — became models of 

 industry in Galloway. Most of them were skilled in some 

 trade or other, as spinner, carpenter, tinsmith, or wheel- 

 wright ; and they set to work at once to turn their wilderness 



