Anniversary Address. 25 



At the Manse the party were hospitably entertained at lunch, 

 and Mr Cook exhibited two handsome silver Communion Cups, 



the inscription on which bears that they were (jrlVEN BY Sr 

 EOBEET SINCLAIE OF LAMFOEMACVS TO THE KIEK 

 THEEOF * 1674. 



The Church was afterwards visited, of which Mr Hardy says : 

 — " The church was built ' upwards of a century ago,' says the 

 Statistical Account, apparently on old foundations. A stone in- 

 troduced into the south wall preserves on a shield the engrailed 

 cross of the Sinclairs, with the initials "I. S." There are tomb- 

 stones in the churchyard — throughs — to the Eev. Eobert Mon- 

 teith and the Eev. George Bell, and to the Eev. Selby Orde. 

 The first was the friend of the Eev. Alexander Carlyle of In- 

 veresk, and of John Home, author of ' Douglas ;' and his name 

 will long survive in Skirving's ballad of ' Tranent Moor,' for his 

 conduct, or alleged conduct, in the runaway battle of Preston- 

 pans. In the interior of the church are tablets to the memory of 

 Mrs Eaitt and the Eev. Walter Weir." The Church occupies a 

 very sheltered spot among wood, and not far off is the mansion- 

 house, which, as already stated, was visited by some of the party 

 who preferred a quiet saunter to the longer and rougher walk 

 up the Dye and to Eunklie. Of the mansion-house Mr Hardy 

 says : — " It was in the year 1715 that the present mansion-house 

 was erected, as was ascertained by an inscription on a stone ob- 

 served when the present re-edification of it took place. New 

 walks and flower borders have been laid out ; the garden has 

 been renovated also, a promising herbaceous border being one of 

 the additions. Pyrola minor grows wild in the wood within the 

 policies across the Dye. This year and last the foliage of the 

 beeches here has been much blotched and mined, and punctured 

 with small openings, by the larvae and images of Orchestes Fagi, 

 a small leaping dusky black beetle. There are numerous orna- 

 mental coniferse here, mostly juvenile. The shoots of Pinus 

 nolilis were hurt by summer frosts in 1881. Picea Nordmminiana 

 is found to be the hardiest of the pines; the height of the tallest is 

 at present 38 feet. Besides these there are here silver firs ; stone 

 pines and black Austrian pines; also Picea Cephalom'ca{40 ft. high); 

 Abies Douglassi (47 feet high) ; Sequoia WelUngtonia, of a height 

 of 32 feet, and diameter at one foot from the ground 7 feet ; and 

 Cedrus Deodar a. As regards the heights, &c., there are others of 

 the same kinds nearly as high. The sizes are very good con- 



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