Report of Meetings. By James Hardy. 247 



Eccles village lies in a flat expanse, well screened with trees 

 on the south side. Eccles consists principally of a row of cot- 

 tage houses, with flower gardens in front of several of them, on 

 the north side of the public road ; and a shorter row at the west 

 end on the south side, the rest of the space on that side being an 

 orchard. At the east end on the north side is the farm house, 

 and the hinds' cottages ; and on the other side of the road the 

 capacious manse. There is also here the Free Church and its 

 manse, near the road passing south towards Eccles Newtown, 

 and Birgham. Near the foot of the bank is the public school 

 and schoolhouse. In front, near the churchyard wall, is a decaying 

 stump of what has once been a very large tree, 8 yards in girth, 

 with six steps of sandstone placed against it, perhaps as leaping- 

 on-stones for those who used to ride double to the church. This 

 stump is cut at the level of the churchyard wall, to prevent children 

 — who will climb — from being injured should they fall. It is 

 said that this was one of a row of fine ash trees, that stood for- 

 merly within the circuit of the churchyard, and that about 1770, 

 Sir John Paterson, the owner of Eccles, whose memory still 

 haunts the village as an encroacher on public rights, defrauded 

 the heritors out of the space between those trees and the new 

 churchyard wall. This stump is the only remnant of the true 

 boundary. 



Mr Melville, the schoolmaster, shewed the Club, the church 

 and churchyard, the old hand bell for ringing before and warn- 

 ing to funerals, and the old Session book. Mr Melville was so 

 kind as to examine this book to ascertain its contents, and he pre- 

 sents this summary : — 



" The book goes only as far back as 1720. The great majority of the 

 cases refer to breaches of the seventh commandment. Among other 

 cases I find in 1723 some persons brought before the Prebytery for mak- 

 ing penny weddings. Then there are cases of rebuking for scandalizing, 

 swearing, or drunkeness. Two or three times the Session complain of 

 bad coppers being put into the plate. I find also that those who re- 

 fused to be married in church were to be fined 2/6 for the poor. One 

 of the beadles was rebuked for giving tokens to some persons whom 

 he did not know. There are of course plenty of cases of sitting six times 

 on the stool of repentance. Some farmers would not do this, and they 

 were allowed on payment of something to the poor, to keep their own 

 seats. In a difficult case of discipline, the minister read the whole pro- 

 cess before the congregation, and then proposed waiting a little to see 

 * what Divine Providence may cast up.' — I find collections made for the 

 church all over the world — Lithuania, North America, Saxony, New 



