Transactions: 53 
insuperable distance from the ordinances in which they delighted 
to join, and was one main cause of the erection of the Meeting 
House at Mainsriddel. But it was not the only cause. There 
was at that time current in the parish a fama affecting the 
character of the minister of Colvend, and there were rumours 
prejudicial to the minister of the adjoining parish of Kirkbean, 
which led the thoughtful and goodly people of both congregations 
to withdraw from the ministrations of their respective ministers, 
and to erect what has for well-nigh a hundred years been known 
as the Meeting House. The knowledge of these things was fresh 
in the memory of some when I came to the parish. A story told 
me by one who knew the woman well would have been worthy 
of a place in Dean Ramsay’s Reminiscences. Margaret Thomson 
was one of those resolute godly women who left her minister and 
walked every Sabbath from Kirkland in Colvend to Mainsriddel 
in Southwick, a distance of nearly seven miles. Meeting her one 
Sunday returning from service at the Meeting House the minister 
accosted her, ‘‘ Well, Margaret, where have you been?” ‘“Thave 
been at the Meeting House.” ‘‘ What makes you go so far if you 
can get the Gospel preached nearer home?” “If you get a tune 
played what does it signify what instrument it is played on?” 
“Ah,” says Margaret, “ but [ aye liket it blawn through a clean 
whustle.” The minister didn’t tackle Margaret again. She only 
died a year or two before i came to the parish. 
There was no minister in the Meeting House when I came to 
the parish in 1844, but there was one appointed the year after, 
who soon left. After a vacancy of a year or two the Rev. Mr 
Fullarton was chosen, who remained minister of the congregation 
up to the time of his death some five years ago. His adherents 
were not numerous ; but there were many members and adherents 
of the E.C. who lived on the Southwick side of the parish, 
They, with their families, as a rule, attended Mr Fullarton, and 
formed no inconsiderable part of his congregation. They did 
not, indeed, leave the Established Church, but regularly as the 
times came round communicated in the Parish Church. Mr 
Fullarton lived to a great age, to nearly ninety, and died respected 
and beloved by all who knew him. 
When it became apparent that the ministry of the Rev. Thos. 
Fullarton, owing to his great age and failing strength, was 
drawing toa close, Mr Stewart (now Sir Mark J. Stewart) resolved 
to put into execution a purpose which he had long entertained, 
