Arrochar, Tarbet and Ardlui Heritage

Arrochar, Tarbet and Ardlui Heritage Group - The History of Arrochar Parish.

This article is by Rev. Ian D. Reid - the original manuscript of which is part of the Arrochar Parish Church's papers. Although not dated, a copy of this article was reprinted in the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times in January, 1959 and was later reprinted as a pamphlet which was sold in aid of the Church Fabric Fund.

On the 25th. of January, 1659, two instruments of law were signed by which the Parish of Arroquhar came into being. Sir John Colquhoun, the then Chief of Colquhoun, subscribed to a bond whereby he agreed to denude himself of the sum of 400 merks yearly, payable by the Laird of Macfarlane for the tithes of his lands of Arroquhar, and 15 bolls teind meal, payable forth of the lands of Arroquhar belonging to Walter Macfarlane of Gartartan (Stuckgown) in favour of the Minister of Tarbet and his successors in all time coming, and to be uplifted by the first minister after his entry to the ministry of Tarbet. On the same date John Macfarlane, fiar of Arroquhar and Laird of Macfarlane, granted a bond, binding himself to "cause, begin, finish and perfect the building of a new kirk with a manse for the minister of Tarbet, and also give and mortify a competent glebe, under the pain of 3,000 merks Scots to be uplifted by the Presbytery of Dumbarton and employed by them for pious uses within the said lands of Arroquhar."

Though the 25th. of January, 1659, may be regarded as the Birthday of the Parish it was actually in the year 1648 that Walter, the 16th. Chief of Clan Macfarlane, first proposed to the Presbytery of Dumbarton that his lands of Arroquhar should be disjoined from the Parish of Luss because the church in Luss was inadequate for the population, and that it was extremely inconvenient for the parishioners living in the lands of Arroquhar to attend services at a church which was at least ten miles from their dwellings. The suggested new parish was perambulated by the Presbytery in the following year, 1649, and as a result a site was selected for a church at West Tarbet. The exact location of this site is not now known, but tradition has it that it was at or near the place called Tighvechtichan, a point on the old drovers' road where a watch tower was maintained by the MacFarlanes to give warning of the approach of enemies, or cattle droves from the Argyll country. That site is now occupied by the Village Hall. The selection of a site seems to have been the sole result of that perambulation, but in 1658, when Walter was still Chief and his son John had become fiar of the lands of Arroquhar, the Presbytery laid the case before the Council of Estate of Scotland. The Council of Estate appointed a Commission of Enquiry. No record of the proceedings of this Commission is available, but the Order of the Council of estate, dated "Holyrood House, 24th. December, 1658," appointed Robert Hamilton of Barnes, and others, to be their Commissioners, "to call before them all parties interested in the dismemberment of the lands of Arroquhar from the Parish of Luss, and in the erection of a new church at Tarbet, with a manse and the provision of a glebe for the minister, and if they found a general concurrence, that all parties concerned should forthwith proceed to the building of a church and manse and to the provisioning of a glebe, conformably to the Act of Parliament."

That Commission of the Parliament of Scotland must have undertaken its remit with a celerity which is indeed rare today, for one month after the Order of Council was issued the Parish of Arroquhar was disjoined from Luss by the two bonds signed on the 25th. January, 1659. In fact, in all the records consulted the first minister of the new parish, Mr. Archibald McLachlan, is given as having entered into office in the year 1658.

Though the legal instruments were signed, and the minister appointed, no other practical steps were taken at that time. It was not until 1678 that the Presbytery of Dumbarton again took cognisance of this northern extremity of its bounds, and another "perambulation" was made. The following is the Minute recording this: "Presbytery of Dumbarton at Tarbet. September 10, 1678. Sederunt - Moderator, Messrs William Andersone, Arthur Miller, Thomas Allan, James Buchanan, William McKechnie. The brethren foresaid, having met at Luss, and travelled al the way from thence to Tarbet, and seen the bounds to the end of Lochlomond, northward, sixteen miles distant from the kirk of Lusse on the one side, and from Tarbet to the side of Lochlong on the other side, and seen the bounds to the head of Lochlong, lying likewise at a great distance from the Kirk of Lusse, and having considered the vastenesse of the distance, as said is, and ruggedness of the way, finde it absolutely necessarie that there be a dismembratione, and a church built at the Tarbet, within the Laird of Macfarlane's land for the accommodatione of the people of these bounds, that the people from the foote of Glenowglasse, and upward upon the side of Lochlomond, and from Gorton in the Parech (parish) of Row, to the head of Lochlenge (informed to be about the number of 400 souls) may repair thither to attend the ordinances, who are now living in ignorance."

Even this severe instruction of the Presbytery had little effect on the Macfarlanes for though they appointed successive ministers it was not until the year 1733 that a church was erected. In 1709 the Presbytery had obtained a decree of the Court of Session for a church, manse and glebe for the parish of Arroquhar, but the implementing of that decree was delayed because of the minority of the then laird of Macfarlane (Walter, 20th Chief) and of his embarrassed financial circumstances. Mr. Alexander Graham of Duchray, writing in 1724, notes: "in this parish there is no church yet built," and he adds, "all the inhabitants use the Irish language." Some parts of the original church of Arroquhar remain, some fifteen feet to the south of the present building. The South Door is still intact and on the lintel is carved the date 1733. In 1951 the ruins were "sealed" by the County Council of Dunbarton Works Department when the Burial Ground was transferred to the Local Authority under an Act of Parliament of 1947. In 1958, when a new chancel was being made, the foundations of the original church were revealed as running in line with the ruins outside and the present pulpit is now over what was probably the northern end of the church built in 1733. This first church served as the place of worship until the year 1847, when the Heritors built the present magnificent building facing Loch Long and the west from its situation in "God's acre."

To revert to the Birthday of the Parish it appears that though the dismemberment from Luss and the erection of the new Parish of Arroquhar was done so quickly, the Macfarlanes were in no great hurry to implement the bond which they had had signed. Walter (16th Chief), who was father of the John who had signed the bond, had attached himself to Charles I, and besides having his cattle at Inveruglas destroyed by Cromwell's soldiers, was fined 3,000 merks. Walter had two sons, John and Andrew, who each succeeded to the chieftainship, and Andrew had a son, John, who sided with the Revolution Party in 1688. Having suffered so severely in these troublous times, and having to build a new castle at Invereoch (now occupied by Arrochar House - part of which is the original Invereoch House), it is little wonder that the Chiefs of Macfarlane failed to make good the promise to erect a church, manse and glebe for the Minister. It appears, too, that the regard which the whole clan had for the church of their forefathers in Luss could not be easily diverted.

In 1742, the Honourable Helen Arburthnot, daughter of Robert, Second Viscount Arburthnot, and second wife of John the 19th Chief of Macfarlane, made a present of two Communion Cups for the Church of Arroquhar. On the Cups is engraved the family crest of the Arburthnots being a peacock's head on a wreath, couped proper, with the following inscription: "The gift of the Honble Helen Arburthnot to the Parish of Arroquhar." These Cups were in use at the November Communion, 1958. This lady also bequeathed the sum of 200 merks Scots to purchase a bell for the kirk of Arroquhar, and also 500 merks Scots for behoof of the poor of the parish. Neither of these legacies was paid to the Kirk Session for many years after for the estate of The Macfarlane of that Ilk passed through troubled waters, chiefly due to heavy investment in the Darien Scheme, and in 1785 the estate was sold on behalf of creditors and it was not until 1802 that the Kirk Session received complete payment of the 200 merks bequeathed by Helen, Lady Arburthnot. The Session resolved to apply this money to the purpose for which it was bequeathed but delays again occurred. Thirteen years elapsed before the bell was actually acquired and on 3rd. January, 1815, Mr Gillespie, minister of the Parish, reported to the Session that he bought a Bell for the Church from a Mr. Brownlee of Greenock, at a total cost including freight, chain, rope, the smith's and wright's accounts, of £24 3s 10d. The Bell was hung on the Bell-Tree for there was no place for a bell in the plain structure of the old kirk; and when the new church was built in 1847, the bell was placed where it now hands in the church tower. An amusing and somewhat apocryphal tale is told by the late Rev. Hugh Winchester in his "Traditions of Arrochar and Tarbet and the Clan Macfarlane." "Malcolm Macfarlane, an erring parishioner, had been summoned to a Kirk Session meeting in the Manse in a case of discipline. He had been severely reprimanded and left in an angry mood. He had to pass the Bell-Tree on his way home and he thought he'd relieve his feelings by pulling the bell. But a neighbour's goat wandered past and Malcolm seized him and tied him to the rope. The goat tugged and struggled to escape, and the bell rang with ragged and broken sounds, and out came minister and session to seek cause. Seeing an uncanny looking thing with horns rushing to and fro in the twilight, some of the Session thought it was Auld Nick himsel, and it was only when the minister mustered up courage enough to approach the tree that he found it was old Mary Campbell's goat." There is no record of the 500 merks Scots ever being paid to the Session out of the estate of the Macfarlanes.

The first minister, Archibald McLachlan, was appointed in 1658, and demitted the charge on 4th. November, 1701. He was occasionally accused of solemnizing clandestine marriages. He died in October, 1731, at the age of 94, in the 71st year of his ministry, one of the longest in the Church. He demitted the charge of Arroquhar in 1701 on the grounds of "infirmities of body and various secular discouragements", which last consisted of the want of a church, manse and glebe. In the meantime, however, the people of Arroquhar wanted rid of McLachlan, possibly because of neglect of duty on his part, and they brought a libel against their minister. The Presbytery were not willing to deal harshly and they appointed an assistant, one Robert Macfarlane, a bursar of the Presbytery. Robert knew the situation at Arroquhar and refused to accept the appointment and appealed to the Synod of Glasgow. The Synod determined to uphold the appointment of the Presbytery, and that Robert Macfarlane must obey, unless he can prove, as he alleges, "that there is neither kirk, nor manse, nor kirk session, nor school in the Parish." Robert Macfarlane proved that there was none of these things but he had to take up the appointment though declared "transplantable" and in due course he was translated to Fintry (in 1705).

A third minister was a Daniel Reid who was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Dumbarton on 6th. August, 1706 and was ordained and inducted to Arroquhar on 28th. August, 1707. He was deposed on 16th. October, 1716, but appears to have returned to minister until 1727 or 1728.

In 1729 John McAlpine, A.M., was ordained at Tarbet, Lochlomond, on 25th. September, and it was during his ministry that the first church was built in the Parish of Arroquhar, in 1733. McAlpine was translated to Campbeltown 2nd Charge on 2nd. January, 1750.

He was followed by Alexander Macfarlane, A.M., who was admitted to Arroquhar on 2nd. January, 1754, and died in Arroquhar in 1763. He was a distinguished Gaelic scholar and a great wit. He translated Baxter's Call to the Unconverted; the Psalms of David with the Paraphrases; and some Sermons, into Gaelic.

The sixth minister was a John Grant, A.M., who was presented by Sir James Colquhoun of Luss in January, 1764, and ordained in September of the same year. He only stayed until 25th June, 1765, when he was translated to Abernethy.

John Grant was followed by a William Grant, A.M., a native of Keith who does not appear to have been a relation of John. William was admitted to Arroquhar on 14th May, 1766. In 1772 he was presented to Fintry by William, Duke of Montrose, which he resigned and was translated to Luss on 1st. December of the same year.

John Stuart, son of the minister of Killin, was the eighth minister and was presented to the Parish by Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, Bart, in October 1773, and ordained on 12th May, 1774, and was translated to Weem on 26th. March, 1776. This John Stuart eventually came to Luss and while there translated the Holy Scriptures into Gaelic. He was honoured by his Alma mater with the degree of Doctor of Divinity and was also a Fellow of the Royal Society. He died at Luss in 1821 and was buried there.

In 1776 John Grant was presented by Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, and admitted on 26th June of that year. He demitted on 7th December, 1779.

Hugh McDiarmid, who was promoted from the Gaelic Chapel of Ease, Glasgow, was presented by Sir James Colquhoun of Luss in April, 1780, and he demitted on the 5th. December of the same year, and was settled in Comrie in 1781.

The eleventh minister was John Gillespie, who was licensed by the Presbytery of Dumbarton on 3rd October, 1780, presented by Sir James Colquhoun of Luss in 1781, and ordained in Arroquhar on 23rd. July, 1782. He remained as minister until he died on 28th. August, 1816, and was buried at Arroquhar. During his ministry the First Statistical Account of Scotland (edited by Sir William Sinclair in 1792) was issued, and Mr. Gillespie wrote the Account for Arroquhar. Mr. Gillespie, in his Account, makes little mention of Church matters except to say, "The stipend, including the glebe, is below the minimum. The manse, which is in bad repair, was built in the year 1754. Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, Bart., is patron." It is not known where this Manse was situate as the succeeding Minister, Mr Peter Proudfoot, who wrote the Second Statistical Account of the Parish mentions the erection of a new manse in 1837, and this remained the Manse until the year 1951. Perhaps the last sentences of the First Statistical Account reveal Mr Gillespie's nature: "The sale of the estate of Arroquhar, which happened some years ago, contributed not a little to extinguish the remains of that system of barbarity, which so long retarded the progress of civilisation in Europe. In proportion as it lost its influence, the manners of the people changed to the better. They are now civil, well bred, honest, industrious, and not addicted to an immoderate use of spirituous liquors." The 'system of barbarity' was the feudal clans, and at the time this was written there was a shebeen in almost every corner, and at least six recognised public houses between Tarbet and the head of Glencree, (about six miles).

Peter Proudfoot was licensed by the Presbytery on 7th. May, 1816, presented by Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, Bart., on 21st. January, 1817, and ordained at Arroquhar on 8th. May, 1817. As stated above, he wrote the Second Statistical Account of the Parish, published in 1839. In addition to his mention of the new Manse he writes: "The church is situated rather at a corner of the parish; but the great body of the parishioners are at no great distance; some families are at the distance, however, of ten or twelve miles. The church was built in 1733, and will soon require a general repair. It is seated for about 300. The sittings are all free. The glebe contains about 19 acres; but with the exception of little more than three acres, is all hill ground and of inferior quality. It is not worth more than £9 annually. The stipend is £231, with 12 bolls meal. This also includes communion elements. The teinds are exhausted. There are no government churches, no chapels of ease, no catechists, no Dissenting chapels, and no Dissenters within the parish. Divine service is exceedingly well attended. In summer, the church is generally crowded to overflowing, and is felt then to be much too small; and, in winter, when the weather is favourable, it is filled. Probable average of communicants, 216. No religious societies; but collections are occasionally made for religious purposes, which have always been liberal."

It was during the ministry of Mr. Proudfoot that the Ten Years' Conflict which ended in the Disruption in 1843 divided the Church in Scotland. Mr Proudfoot has not left any record of his own feelings at the time and I have had to glean something of them from "An Account of the Origin of Ballyhennan Church, 1845," written by Colin Mackenzie, the first Free Church minister in Arroqhar. From this it appears that Mr Proudfoot's "mind had been weakened and distracted by sickness and embarrassment in his worldly affairs." He had had great difficulty in making up his mind on the important questions at issue, and he took no steps to inform his people on the subject, previous to the Disruption. "Though various printed papers and pamphlets published by the Committee of the Convocation were regularly received at the Manse, not one of them ever found their way into the hands of the parishioners" ... "The time of the meeting of the General Assembly was at hand ... Their strong attachment to their minister, and a reluctance to part with him in case he should keep his 'living.' ... Not many days after his name was seen in the newspapers among those who had signed the Deed of Demission. This was a surprise to most of his people, but a great disappointment to the Established party as the general opinion was that he would have acted otherwise ... On his return he preached on 11th June, not in the church, but in Arrochar House." On the next Sunday a Mr. Reid, a probationer, officiated at Arrochar House, Mr Proudfoot being a hearer. Then on the third Sabbath, to the consternation of the whole parish, it was found that Mr Proudfoot had returned to the Establishment Church. His health deteriorated rapidly, and he died on 27th. October, 1843, and was buried in Arroquhar. From this date both congregations, the Free Church as well as the Establishment, had to procure ministers as best they could.

The great surge of Evangelical Fervour which poured forth in Scotland from the Disruption has been described far better in other histories, and in the parish of Arroquhar there was soon practical evidence of that spirit which was abroad among the Scots. Money poured in for a General Building Fund, and after an open-air Communion Service on the first Sunday of August, 1843, it was decided to petition to the Free Church Presbytery for sanction to build a church and call a minister. Application was made to Sir James Colquhoun, Bart., of Luss, the proprietor of Arroquhar for a site; which was readily granted, close to the Burying Ground of the Parish at Balhennan (now Ballyhennan). This proximity to a burial ground by a Free Church is unusual, and tradition also has it that near this church lie the bodies of the Norsemen who were defeated in a battle with the Scots at Tarbet ("neck of land") as they attempted to carry their long Viking ships from Loch Long to Loch Lomond. "A contract for building was entered upon with Mr Alexander Stewart, builder at Dunoon, the church to be seated for 250 at £240 sterling, the members of the congregation to cart all the materials. The work was commenced on 10th. January, 1844, and finished on the 11th. day of April, 1844, and fully settled for with the contractor." Colin Mackenzie, who was then minister of Sheildag but had been 'outed' by his Laird, accepted the call to the Free Church, Arroquhar, and was inducted on the 18th. April, 1844. The Session records of Arroquhar Free Church do not record when Mr Mackenzie left Arroquhar, but on 8th. December, 1882, his death is noted and he is referred to as Senior Minister.

In 1869 the second minister of the Free Church was ordained. He was Mr Kippen and he was minister here until his death on 26th. October, 1881. A set of stained-glass windows at the rear of the nave of the church commemorate his ministry.

On 13th. April, 1882, John Robson Elder, was translated from Cromarty to Arroquhar Free Church, and he ministered here until his death in May, 1897.

He was succeeded on 21st. October, 1897, by the Rev. A.P. Telfer, who had been a member of Duff College, Calcutta. During Mr. Telfer's ministry the Free Church union with the United Presbyterians took place and from 4th. November, 1899, the local church became the United Free Church and a member of Dumbarton United Free Presbytery. There is also recorded in the Minutes of Session the decision of the House of Lords of 1st. August, 1904, when the residue of the old Free Church obtained the whole of the property it had claimed. On the 5th. of May, 1904, is recorded the last issue of Communion Tokens by Arroquhar Free Church. Mr Telfer applied for a colleague and successor on 2nd. October, 1925. Mr Telfer died on 24th. November, 1938, and was buried in Arrochar churchyard.

On 28th. April, 1926, Mr Richard D.E. Stevenson was inducted to the United Free Church of Scotland, and during his ministry the Basis and Plan of Union between the United Free Church of Scotland and the Church of Scotland was submitted and approved. On 1st. September, 1929, at a joint meeting with the Parish Church it was agreed that the new names of the churches would be (Parish) Tighness and (United Free) Bally Hennan. On 10th. November, 1929, the two ministers dispensed the Lord's Supper to the whole Parish in Bally Hennan Church. In 1947, Mr Stevenson applied for permission to demit office to facilitate local union, and on 23rd. June, 1947, a Service of Recognition of Local Union was held in Tighness Church.

On the death of Mr Peter Proudfoot, on 27th October, 1843, the Established Church determined to have a Gaelic-speaking minister, and after severe competition (Arroquhar was regarded as a plum with a stipend of £240 whereas the school-master had only £30 or £40 per annum) the Rev. John Macfarlane, assistant at Saddell from 1822, was admitted to Arroquhar in 1844. Mr. Macfarlane was granted his Doctor's Degree while in Arroquhar. Of him the story is told that one day an exciseman, who was new to the district, travelled from Glasgow to Tarbet by coach and met Dr Macfarlane on the way. The exciseman thought he might safely rely on the reverend gentleman for help and guidance. So he told the Doctor that the excise authorities had received information that a certain man in Morelaggan was just about to commence a brew, and that he had been sent down to catch him. Dr Macfarlane certainly gave him the right directions but as the day had been cold and wet he suggested that the gauger might come in and get some refreshments before he proceeded on to Morelaggan. The gauger accepted and while he was regaling himself on the Manse brew, the Minister's housekeeper had sent a swift messenger to warn old Macintyre that the gauger was coming, and by the time the refreshed exciseman reached Morelaggan there was nothing of a questionable or lawless nature to be seen. It was Dr Macfarlane who purchased the ruins of the original church for the sum of £10 and at his death in 1868, he was buried within the old walls where the old pulpit was supposed to have stood.

The fourteenth minister, Mr James Dewar, M.A., was the son of a schoolmaster in Arroquhar. He attended Glasgow University to study for the ministry and graduated M.A., and then was licensed to preach by Glasgow Presbytery on 8th. January, 1851. He was assistant to Rev. D. Jamieson of St. Paul's. Glasgow and then to Norman Macleod of St. Columba's. He was then presented by the Duke of Argyll to Kilmodan where he was ordained on 8th September, 1851. He was there until May, 1869, when he was translated to Arroquhar. Mr. Dewar was minister in Arroquhar until 1901, when he died and was buried in Arroquhar Churchyard. During his ministry he took an active part in local affairs, and he was the driving force behind the erection of the Mission Church at Ardlui, and also the erection of the Parish Hall midway between Arrochar and Tarbet. There were both built in 1895, the year that the West Highland Railway was opened for traffic. Ardlui Church was built to serve the shepherds, and the railway workers and the summer visitors to the northern tip of Loch Lomond. It is about a mile from the boundary between Perthshire and Dunbartonshire, set some fifty yards to the left of the main road to Crianlarich. It is a substantial stone harled building with an outside belfry. It seats 80 people and is a pleasing church inside and out. It was built for a little more than £600.

Mr. Dewar was followed as minister by Dugald Macfarlane who came from Glencoe in 1902 and was minister of the Established Church until 21st. December, 1906, when he was translated to Kingussie. Mr Macfarlane remained at Kingussie for the rest of his life and during his term there was honoured by being elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1937.

Coll Archibald Macdonald, M.A., B.D., was the sixteenth minister of Arroquhar, being translated from Ardrishaig on 2nd. May, 1907, and he remained in Arroquhar until he was translated to Legierait on 4th. June, 1913.

Mr. Hugh Sinclair Winchester, M.A., B.D., was trained as a school-teacher and was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh. He was ordained at Arrochar on 11th. September, 1913. During World War I he served as Chaplain to the K.O.S.B., (King's Own Scottish Borderers) and saw service in France and Palestine. He published three Bible Class Handbooks which were widely used, and also "Traditions of Arrochar and Tarbet and Clan Macfarlane" which is now out of print. He retired from Arroquhar on 28th November, 1935, and died on 8th. November, 1958.

The eighteenth minister was William Fraser Wills who was ordained at Montrose in 1935, and came to Arroquhar in 1936. In 1940 he was translated to St. George's Tron, Glasgow.

Mr James E. Esslemont followed Mr Wills on the 22nd November, 1940, as nineteenth minister of the Established Church and remained in Arroquhar until the 31st. of March, 1947, when he demitted the charge.

The Rev. R.D.E. Stevenson, minister of the United Free Church at Tarbet (Bally Hennan) being agreeable to facilitate local union by retiring, the Parish became once more a single charge from the 23rd June, 1947, and the united charge had as its first minister Angus MacCuish from 20th October, 1947, until he was translated to Stornaway High on 6th December, 1950.

The present minister, Iain Dunnet Reid, was ordained and inducted to the charge on 25th. June, 1951, as twenty-first minister of Arroquhar.

The Parish lies on the neck of land in the northernmost part of the County of Dunbarton between the sea Loch Long and the fresh-water Loch Lomond. Taking as the starting point the middle of Loch Long opposite Glendouglas, the parish boundary goes through that glen to meet the imaginary county boundary running down the centre of Loch Lomond. It follows that boundary, taking in two farms on the east side of Loch Lomond, until it reaches the road bridge over the Falloch river. It then turns west still following the county boundary until it meets the Loin Water. At that point by Act of General Assembly, 1953, it invades the County of Argyll and takes in that part of the Parish of Lochgoilhead and Kilmorich contained "in a straight line to the point 'Rest-and-be-Thankful' on the Inverary Road then south-east in a straight line to Coilessan Farm, and then south down Loch Long to the original point opposite Glendouglas. The Ecclesiastical Parish is about 50 square miles, and contains very much 'high ground' (seven mountains well over 2,500 feet), very little arable, no general farming, and mostly hill-grazing for sheep. The population is about 850 and the industries are sheep-farming, forestry, Hydro-electric scheme, Torpedo Testing Range, and British Railways. These all tend to employ the older groups of men and there is an exodus of the young from the community as they approach manhood and womanhood. The people of the parish are in the majority 'incomers' and there is no true communal spirit expressed yet. When it is realised that the four industries in the district are all new, the Railway in 1895, the Torpedo Range in 1912, Forestry in 1922, and Loch Sloy Hydro-Electric in 1949, the lack of 'roots' is partly explained. And to create a certain amount of dis-union, each of these industries have had built for their employees blocks of houses which are placed at considerable distances from each other, resulting in little coteries within a Parish which should be a single community.

THE Parish of Arrochar is the most northerly in the modern county of Dumbarton, and Luss is just south of it.

These two parishes were one at the beginning, and as they now stand they are the result of a most interesting struggle between the idea of its Church as the Church of a Clan, and the idea of it as the Church of a Territorial District.

The story, however, centres round the first of these ideas-round the Church, in fact, of the Clan Macfarlane-and it is in connexion with the story of that Clan, that I now propose to treat the history of the Church of Scotland in the Luss and Arrochar country.

The eponymous ancestor of the Clan Macfarlane, was a certain chief, Parlan or Partholan (Latinised into Bartholomew) who flourished at Arrochar in the reign of David ii. (1329-1371) but the history of the Clan must, I believe, go back far beyond that time. The name Parlan, however it came in, is non-Gaelic, and several things go to show that the Clan are the modern representatives of the Athacots (or Attacotti) whom Richard of Cirencester describes as dwelling in the Lennox country at the time of Agricola and Agricola's successors. (Chalmers, Caledonia. Irving, Book of Dumbartonshire, vol. I County.) But who were the Athacots? We find them distinguished from the Picts, Scots, Britons and Saxons; and their country, Loch Lomondside, if Richard of Cirencester's description be correct, is just the place where we should expect to find some old remnants of a prehistoric people, still working out their destiny. The Lennox country indeed, is a mountainous wedge between the old spheres of the other contending powers; and admirably suited for such a last refuge. My own idea (if I may venture to have one) is that the Athacots were a part of the pre-Celtic, Iberian, "dolichocephalic" people, whose chambered cairns are scattered over Argyllshire, Arran and Bute, and who apparently gave us the one or two Shemitic idioms which we find in modern Gaelic. "These Athacots," says Richard, "deserved high praise" for having sustained the attacks of the enemy after "the subjugation of the neighbouring provinces;" in fact, so determined was their opposition that the Athacots got a character from the Romans of the utmost ferocity, S. Jerome even describing them as cannibals. This character agrees somewhat with that given to the Clan in the days of the Stewart Kings of Scotland.

To such a people, assuming our facts are right, it was that the earliest Christian missionary came about the year MD. 500. This missionary was S. Kessog. In a delightful little pamphlet entitled "Saint Kessog and his Home," lent me by the Rev. Mr. Dunlop, minister of Luss, Miss Mary Colquhoun, the "Bardess" of the Colquhoun Clan, tells what we know of the Saint, and the church which he founded.

The date of the death of S. Kessog (or Mac-Kessog) is given in some calendars as 10th March, A.D. 520. Now the 10th of March, if it was his day, is, curiously enough, the New Year of the Druids-the day near to which the mistletoe was gathered, and we may have here a link between the present Church of Luss and the old pagan religion. The year of death is put somewhat later by David Camerarius (De Scot. Pict, lib. iii.) who says "Superis dedit Makkessogum Boina sub annum Christi DLX, anno Congalli regis secundo." The name itself, "Mac Kessog," shows the high repute in which the Saint must have been held, by the people he worked among. "Mac" is really for "Mo"-a title of honour; and "og" here is a term of endearment.

Mac Kessog was of Royal lineage, like S. Columba, and came of that dynasty which held his birth-place, the commanding Rock of Cashel. Which of the great schools of Ireland had the honour of educating him for the ministry is not known, but according to some authorities, Kessog was also called "Moshenog of Beithach." Perhaps this name "Moshenog,"-"my little o1d man (?)" gives us an inkling of S. Kessog's personal appearance. In Scotland we trace his pilgrimmage in the dedication of the church at Luss, and in other dedications at Auchterarder and Callander. There is a Kessog's Ferry at Inverness, and fairs called after S. Kessog were held on the Saint's day at Comrie and Cumbrae.

But it was at Luss that the Saint made his home. Half warrior himself-he was known as the "Priest-Soldier"-his message and his whole bearing went straight to the hearts of the brave men of the Lennox. Dempster (Menologium) tells us that his name was invoked by the warriors of Leven as they went to battle; while his picture, as a soldier carrying a charged bow, lent them courage.

But I have no doubt that S. Kessog, like S. Columba, taught also the higher virtues of Christianity. Indeed he showed his own essential humility and distrust of the world by retiring finally to Inch-ta-Vanach on Loch Lomond ("the island of the two monks") and there, perhaps with an attendant, he would ring his "little bell" outside his modest chapel, to call to the holy offices of the Faith-a little bell that down to the Seventeenth century was held in great veneration in the Lennox. For we find that so late as the year 1675, James, Earl of Perth, was retoured in the lands of Barnachills with the Chapel and Holy Bell of S. Kessog.

How long S. Kessog lived at Inch-ta-Vanach, or how he met his death, is not now known. Tradition asserts that he fell by the hand of assasins at Bandry, a mile and a half below Luss village, and just where the United Free Church now stands. Perhaps his slayers were men of an outlying Clan, for another legend tells that he suffered martyrdom among foreigners in a foreign land, and that his remains, embalmed with sweet herbs, were brought for interment to the church on Loch-Lomondside, at the village where his home had been. This village was then called Clachandhu-"the black hamlet" ; but lo! one of the herbs sprang up from his grave, and spread itself over the wall of the church ; wherefore the Parish took the name of "'Lus," which in Gaelic signifies a plant or herb. This herb, it is added, continued to flourish as long as the old church stood, but when it was pulled down it perished. The church thus became celebrated, and numerous devotees went to it on pilgrimage.

The original "church" would be a little oratory, built by S. Kessog on the shore, almost opposite to his own little chapel on Inch-ta-Vanach, an oratory from outside of which he would preach, and inside which he would celebrate the Eucharist. It is quite likely that it was the first of many successors on the spot where the Church of Luss now stands.

At Bandry there was a cairn known as S. Kessog's Cairn (Carn-na-Cheasaig). This existed as late as 1796. In the middle of the Eighteenth century, when the military road along Loch Lomond was formed, the cairn was partly removed. In it a large stone was found carved as a recumbent effigy for the tomb of an ecclesiastic. It is supposed to have been placed by mediaeval devotion on the traditional site of S. Kessog's martyrdom. It is now in the chapel at Rossdhu, and represents a Bishop or Abbot, mitred and habited in eucharistic vestments-alb, stole, tunic, chasuble, maniple and amice. (S. Kessog and His Home.)

The Saint indeed was long held in reverence, and on the 6th of March, 1316, we find King Robert the Bruce confirming to John de Luss, knight, a charter by Malcolm, fifth Earl of Lennox ; and granting therewith, "for the honour of his patron, the most holy S. Kessog, to his beloved and faithful bachelor (baculario) freedom from exactions for the Royal household during the king's progresses within the lands of Luss, and exemption from appearing as a witness (ratione testimonto perhibendi) before the king's justiciar." (Reg. Levenay p. 21, quoted in Origines Parochales.)

More significant still-on 18th March, 1315, King Robert the Bruce granted to the Church of Luss the privilege of Gyrth or Sanctuary for three miles round by land and water, partly for the honour in which he held S. Kessog, and partly, I suppose, in token of his friendship for Earl Malcolm who was one of the Bruce's most devoted servants and adherents.

The church of Luss possesses now a set of Communion vessels with the figure of S. Kessog engraved upon them.

We have these legends and these material links revealing to us S. Kessog and his coming. After him the light grows dim. For six centuries the darkness continues, and to many of our Scottish historians the country north of Dumbarton as far as Glen Falloch becomes almost a lost land. We know however, that by the time of the great king Cadwallawn (circa A.D. 633) the district had come under the sway of the Briton rulers of Strathclyde. In Glen Falloch, above Loch Lomond, just a little beyond the point where Perthshire and Dumbartonshire meet, is a stone called Clach-na-Breaton, which marked the northern boundary of their kingdom. Now in Gaelic and Welsh we have many old poems and records dealing with this ancient British country and its frontier wars. Tighernac, for example, in 711, records a great conflict between Britons and Scots at Loirgeclat (probably Loch Arklet), where the Britons were defeated ; and another battle in 717 at the stone called Minvircc, probably Clach-na-Breaton.

In these battles the ancestors of our present Clan Macfarlane would, in all likelihood, be fighting; and when we have worked out the Celtic sources for these dim years between the Sixth and the Twelfth centuries we should have something very interesting to add anent the origin of the Clan and the historical connexion of the present church of Luss with that old one of S. Kessog's. In Glenloin above Stronafyne are some old mineral workings which may belong to this time. (Note from C.J.T. Macfarlane, Esq., Stronafyne, Arrochar.)

When light begins to break again we find a chief Alwyn ruling the Lennox in a Scotland now consolidated under the wise and godly rule of King David I. (1124-53). Alwyn's ancestry is lost in the mists of the years before his date, though some have traced his descent from an English noble who fled to Malcolm Canmore's protection after the Battle of Hastings, and others have connected him with Kenneth III. (971-995), and the royal Scottish House. But Alwyn's name, which is Welsh or British, betrays affinity with the Kingdom of Strathclyde, and he may have simply been (Celtic records should help us here) the lineal heir of the chiefs who led the men of Glenfalloch and Arrochar to battle in the time of Tighernac. Whatever may have been his origin, it is interesting to note that there is no break in ancestry between this chief and the latest chiefs of the Clan Macfarlane.

This Alwyn, who held the title of Earl, seems to have taken a wide interest in the ecclesiastical and civil life of the reign of King David I. There is scarcely a charter indeed of that "'Sair Sanct for the Crown" which he does not witness. And he himself was very generous to the Church. For instance, he mortified to the Church of Kilpatrick in his Earldom the lands of Cocknach, Edinvarnan, Baccum, Finbealuch, Craig in Tulloch, Monach, Dalmanach, etc. These lands were soon transferred to the Abbey of Paisley, and formed for long its most valuable appanage.

To Alwyn succeded his son Alwyn II who made a promise of the lands of Luss, in his earldom, to Maldwin, Dean of Lennox.

Maldwin would be rural dean of Lennox or "Dean of Christianity" there. He would be vicar of the Church of Luss, and would exercise a superiority over the clergy of the "deanery of Lennox "-an ecclesiastical division which corresponded to the modern Presbytery of Dumbarton.

Maldwin evidently was married, and he may have been connected with the house of Earl Alwyn, whose eldest son was also called Maldwin.

And this other Maldwin, the heir of Earl Alwin, when he in turn succeeded to his father's power, confirmed his father's promise and handed over the aforesaid lands of Luss to his namesake. These lands never passed from the possession of Maldwin the Dean's family; they remain to-day in possession of the Colquhouns, one of whom married the heiress of Luss about the year 1390.

But Alwyn II. had made another promise, viz., of the lands of the Upper Arrochar or the "plough-land" of Luss-to Gilchrist his second son. (In this testament we are shown the derivation of the name Arrochar. It is evidently the name for an old Celtic division of land - almost equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon "carucate" - and would seem to be a cognate of the Latin "aratrum," a plough.)

When the new earl came to his earldom he confirmed Gilchrist in these lands.' Legal evidence of this earliest "donatio" lies bound up with many of the original Macfarlane charters in the Procurators' Library, St. George's Place, Glasgow. So that we have now (circa 1220) three, or rather four, owners of the ancient territory, viz., (1) the Church, with various possessions; (2) Maldwin the Dean with Luss in his own right, minus its upper plough-land; (3) Gilchrist with the "Arrochar" aforesaid ; and, (4) Maldwin, the Earl, with Dumbarton Castle and the richer lands to the south. In 1238-to finish our list of owners-King Alexander II. caused Earl Maldwin to hand over Dumbarton Castle to his Royal authority. Dumbarton Castle has ever since remained a national fortress.

With this we enter upon the history of the Clan Macfarlane proper and of its church. For to Gilchrist of Arrochar was given the rule not only of a lovely land of lochs, and waterfalls, and glens, but also of a warlike people, the men who held the frontier of the earldom against Bredalbane and Argyll ; and in his lands the old history of the Lennox Clan, as a real clan, went on without a break. And so did the Clan's connexion with the Church at Luss, only in a way that is very curious -and significant.

Gilchrist's men, on their separation, found themselves not without a church indeed-for they still regarded Luss as their own ; but with a church in the lands of a man who was not their Chief. If the territorial system had then been in the ascendency, Gilchrist would simply have built a new church in his new barony; but the clansman clung to the old associations in a way perhaps unparalleled in Church history ; (cf. However the connexion of Argyll with the graveyard in Kilmun, in the Lamont country. - F.A.S.) and right down through the centuries till 1658, Luss remained the Church of the Macfarlanes, and its graveyard, the burying place of their chiefs. The present church covers a portion of the ground on which was their vault later on ; and built into one of the northern gables is a stone which bears the following inscription engraved underneath a skull and other emblems of life's transitoriness, thus:

In the part of the Churchyard of Luss adjacent to the north gable containing this inscription, are several tombstones to the memory of members (one supposes) of the chiefs family for they have carved on them the Macfarlane shield. On the back of one tombstone is a particularly fine semi-relief of the full Loch Sloy coat-of-arms.

But far more ancient than these, a rare "sow-backed" stone lies in the churchyard near 'the gate, and at least three stone coffins are shown, lying now among the other tombs. These stone coffins were dug up when the foundations of the new church were being prepared. They are made of two stones placed one above the other with the insides (of both) hollowed out.' (There are similar stone coffins in Peterborough Cathedral Churchyard and at Lincoln. Note by Mr. Horace Macfarlan, Boston, U.S.A., who has examined the stones at Luss.) "R. McF." is engraven on one, but whether this is an ancient mark or not it is hard to say.

The first minister of Arrochar, after Arrochar had been formed into a separate parish, is buried here. His tombstone bears the inscription: "Here lies the corpse of Master Archibald McLachlan, late minister of the gospel at Tarbet," (i.e. West Tarbet, Arrochar) "who departed this life October, 1731, and of his age 94 years." Mr. McLachlan's was one of the longest services in the Church of Scotland.

The continued clinging of the MacFarlanes to the church at Luss is all the more remarkable, in that the Rector of the Church before the Reformation, like its minister afterwards, was always appointed under the patronage of the Laird of Luss, till patronage was abolished in the latter half of last century.

An added interest is given to this association from the facts that as far back as 1390 the old lairds of Luss (who were probably real Lennox people themselves) had passed away, and their heiress married a Colquhoun, the laird of a castle and lands further to the East; and that with the Colquhouns the Macfarlanes were sometimes at deadly war. An interesting sidelight on this circumstance appears in the records of the Presbytery of Glasgow, in which, under date 1610, John Campbell, A.M., is accused of assisting the Clan Gregor-the old ally of the Macfarlanes-against his patron at Glenfriun (Battle 1603).

What indeed did the Lairds of Luss do about their church? Maldwin, the Dean to whom the grant was made, circa 1220, would as Dean hold on to the old church, and so would his ecclesiastical successors ; but Gilchrist of Arrochar and Gilchrist's successors-Duncan, Maldwin, Parlan, Malcolm, Duncan-evidently maintained their position as its chief adherents; so much so that we find the Colquhouns, who succeeded to Luss about the time of this last Duncan, seeking a place of worship elsewhere! That was, perhaps, a reason why the Chapel of Rossdhu was built; This chapel is just beside Rossdhu House, the modern residence of the Colquhouns, and is in Luss Parish. No records of this chapel earlier than the Seventeenth century have been discovered ; but the building is obviously very ancient, and has indeed been ascribed to the Twelfth century. Beneath its stone floor is the burying place of the family of Colquhoun of Luss. In the chapel, at its west end, the effigy of S. Mackessog which was found in his cairn at Bandry, has been placed for preservation, as already noted. One old notice of this chapel is interesting. In 1556 a vacancy having occurred in the office of Chaplain by the death of Sir James Wright, Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, undoubted patron of the church or chapel of Rossdhu, went on 12th April to the Altar of the blessed Virgin Mary in the Church of Rossdhu, in the diocese of Glasgow, and there presented Sir Thomas Henderson to be chaplain of the said church or chapel, by delivering 'to him a missal book, a cup, and other vestments of the altars according to the form and tenor of the foundation of the same.' (Original instrument at Rossdhu. Quoted Sir W. Fraser "Chiefs of the Clan Colquhoun.")

Thus we see the Clan system, even in the so late as Sixteenth century, proving itself too strong for the Territorial. We have a clan, the Macfarlanes, whose church is not in their own barony; and we have another clan, the Colquhouns, who find themselves able to lay only the claim of patronage to the " Parish" church which is in their lands, while they worship in a church of their own, which is simply the church of their clan and of its chief, and not the church of a parish at all!

It must here be mentioned that away up Glen Luss there is another old chapel about which not much is known. It is said to have been dedicated to S. Michael; and in 1838 gold coins of the reign of King James IV. were found in a corner of the wall. At that time the chapel is described as having an arched vault, with narrow lancet openings, a stone which held a cross, and a stone spout which is now used in the adjoining farm. Further, there is reason to think that the home of the priest who officiated at the chapel was at Edintagart in Glen Luss, on the site of the present farm-house of that name. (Original instrument at Rossdhu. Quoted Sir W. Fraser "Chiefs of the Clan Colquhoun.")

A third chapel dependent on Luss stood at the mouth of the Endrick, in the lands of Buchanan and near the residence of the Lairds of Buchanan. (Origines Parochiales.) The lands of Buchanan formed part of the Parish of Luss till 1621. Probably the Buchanan family erected this chapel for their own use, and never had it erected into a parish church. Here again we see, how in early times a church began in connexion with a family rather than a parish; and we get some inkling of a way in which Patronage might in such cases arise and be justified. After 1621 the parish church of the Buchanan district was that of Inchcaillach, now in ruins, but still having round about it several Macgregor and Macfarlane gravestones. To-day the parish church of this district is that of Buchanan.

There is also a burying ground at Auchenheglish (or Auchnaheglish) part of the estate of Auchendennan Righ, in a part of Bonhill parish, which, till 1648, belonged, to Luss. At any rate, several ecclesiastical remains were found there some time ago, when the foundations of a new building were being laid, and the name Auchhaheglish tells us that the place is " the field of the Church." (From the late Rev. William Simpson, D.D., minister of Bonhill.)

Only in the barony of Arrochar itself was there no church ; and yet there was one sacred spot in the lands which Gilchrist had heired. It was Gilchrist's son, Duncan, I think, who was ruling in Arrochar when the Battle of Largs was fought in 1263. Before that battle King Haco sent an expedition, under one or two of his lieutenants, to ravage Loch Lomondside, and the Glen of Tarbet. Tradition says that a desperate fight took place between Duncan's clansmen and the Norse. I do not know if the dates will fit properly, but it is said that the chieftain's young grandson, Parlan, led the clan to a glorious victory, and that henceforth and forever his enthusiastic followers acclaimed themselves "MacPharlain," while the name of Gilchrist, by which they had hitherto been known, dropped away. To bury the slain in this action the little graveyard at Ballyhenan was begun, half-way between Arrochar and Tarbet and just where the United Free Church now stands. Here also are many ancient Macfarlane stones which should tell a story when examined properly-many with the shield of the chiefs family sculptured on them; and there are at least two old stones there adorned with what looks like ancient Celtic tracery. It is only right to add that there is another tradition about this old graveyard-to the effect that it originated after an attack of plague in which many people died, and had to be buried at once.

At Loch Sloy are one or two mounds that look like the coverings of graves. Recent excavations, however, have disclosed nothing. It has been suggested that these mounds are merely "lazy beds "-an old agricultural expedient for making potatoes grow quickly ; but then men do not often go from home to grow potatoes in the wilderness. There was no clachan at Loch Sloy-we only know it as the traditional gathering place of the clan.

The records of the Macfarlanes' church at Luss yield many instances of the interesting kind of ecclesiastical procedure we have noticed in the case of Rossdhu. Concerning these records we shall note only that between 1426 and 1432, John Cameron, Bishop of Glasgow, erected this church into a prebend of his cathedral, with consent of its patron Jno. de Colloquhone, Lord of Luss. It was agreed that the patron and his successors should have the right of presenting to the prebend ; and that the cure of the parish should be served by a vicar-pensioner bound to make continual residence, whose provision and collation should belong to the bishop, and who should receive a yearly pension of 20 merks. [So Origines Parochiales.]

At the Reformation the church of Luss was supplied by "James Layng, reader," who had probably served there in Roman Catholic times as parish priest, but was not able, or was not trusted by the Reforming leaders, to do the preaching that was now required. The records [in Hew Scott's Fasti] concerning William Chirnsyde, first reformed minister of Luss, bring clearly before us the difficulty then found in supplying parishes with clergymen. William Chirnsyde was appointed minister of Luss in 1572, and in the course of the seven years which followed he was twice withdrawn to be minister of other places, and twice brought back and installed in Luss to be minister there again.

From the Reformation to the Revolution, the history of the Clan itself is bound up with the history of the Church of Scotland as a whole. Duncan Laird of Macfarlane in the reign of James V. was "one of the first of any account who made open profession of the Christian (!) religion "-so runs a quotation from William Buchanan of Auchmar, "in this Kingdom." ("An account of the surname Macfarlane," in An Historical and Genealogical Essay upon the family and surname of Buchanan," etc. Wm. Buchanan of Auchmar, Glasgow 1723. Earliest printed account of the clan.) He joined Lennox and Glencairn at Glasgow Muir; but fell fighting against the English at Pinkie, Sept. 1547. Duncan's son, Andrew, led his clan at Langside, and decided the battle for the Earl of Murray, as the historians of that battle tell us. Andrew's grandson, Walter, supported Charles I., and, after being twice besieged in Inveruglas during Cromwell's usurpation, had his castle there burned down by a party of Cromwell's soldiers (1650 ?).

Walter's grandson, John, evidently supported Lauderdale, Charles II.'s minister, against the Covenanters. "At Bothwell Bridge," to use Sir Walter Scott's words in Old Mortality- "the defence made by the Covenanters, was so protracted and obstinate that the royal generals began to fear it might be ultimately successful. While Monmouth threw himself from his horse, and rallying the Foot-Guards, brought them on to another close and desperate attack, he was warmly seconded by Dalziel, who putting himself at the head of a body of Lennox Highlanders-the men of the clan Macfarlane-rushed forward with their tremendous war-cry "Loch Sloy." After a short and bitter struggle the passage of the bridge lay open, the Guards and Highlanders poured over, the dragoons of Claverhouse soon followed them, and after a still shorter struggle on the other side, the day, though not the cause, was lost and won. For even John Macfarlane himself sided with the Revolution party in 1638, and was appointed colonel of a volunteer force raised in his own vicinity.

But there was one of these chiefs [between say, 1542 and 1688], whose name I have omitted and who showed his interest in the Church in another way. This was John Macfarlane, son of that Andrew who fought' at Langside, and father of the chief whom Cromwell's men besieged at Inveruglas. His name has been carried down to us through the three centuries that have passed since he ruled at Arrochar, on the inscription above referred to on the old 1612 stone built into the wall at Luss church. Towards the foot of this inscription we read-(it will be remembered)

It was more than mere empty praise. For John Macfarlane (in the reign of James VI.) had built and endowed at his own expense an Almshouse at "Bruitfort" on the mainland opposite to his castle on the island called Eilean-a-Vow (Bhuth ?) The Macfarlanes seem to have had five places of residence during the years of their occupation of Arrochar. (1) On an island at the very head of Loch Lomond, now almost silted round by sand from the Falloch. (2) Eilean-a-bhuth also called "Elenore" = "Eilean Ur," the New Island. (3) Inveruglas. (4) At East Tarbet (5) at West Tarbet or Arrochar.

The alms-house was endowed with ample resources for the reception of poor wayfarers passing through the district. On its front there was a stone containing the armorial bearings of John, the chief, impaled with those of his fourth wife, Margaret Murray or Strowan, being 3 mullets, the well-known cognisance of the Murrays. The alms-house referred to no longer exists, although at a place opposite Eilean-a-Vow on the mainland the wall tracks of a house can still be traced. The spot is called " Croiteaphurte," generally pronounced, " Crutty forst," or " Cruta forst," (Sir William Fraser's spelling " Bruitfort?" (So Sir William Fraser, Chiefs of Coloquhoun.) It means the croft of the landing, or place where people embark or disembark from a small boat.

In 1648 negotiations were opened to have Arrochar separated from Luss, but so troublous were the times that the matter was not finished till 1658, when the Council of State appointed commissioners. In 1659 Sir John Colquhoun of Luss denuded himself of the tithes of Arrochar ! and John Macfarlane fiar of Arrochar- evidently the Chief at the time of Bothwell Bridge, and the Revolution later on-took over the whole responsibility, binding himself to erect a church and a manse, and to provide a competent glebe. The question of the old tithes of Luss make an interesting study in Church Law. We will only note here that - though John Macfarlane must have taken over a considerable amount of Free teind over and above that actually apportioned to the living of Arrochar, Arrochar has now lost its Free teind. At one time or another the Laird of Macfarlane must have gained an approbation of a reduction of all this Free teind. This reduction would not be disputed within the statutory forty years, and so there is now no possibility of augmentation of the Arrochar living from the teinds. A church was not built in Arrochar till 1733. The present church dates from 1847, the present manse was built in 1837.

There is now a United Free Church in the pass half-way between Tarbet and Arrochar villages-a change from the days of 1839 when the Rev. Peter Proudfoot could write in the New Statistical Account: "There are no Government Churches, no Chapels of Ease, no Dissenting Chapels, and no Dissenters within the Parish. The teinds are exhausted." The notice of Arrochar in the Old Statistical Account (circa 1790) has also some dry remarks by the Rev. John Gillespie, Peter Proudfoot's predecessor: "The greater part of the people in this Parish are Macfarlanes, who have always had, till of late, a strong attachment to the Laird, as their chief; and while this subsisted, misanthropy and ferocity of manners were prominent features in their character. Military roads &ldots;&ldots; the settlement of graziers from the low country"-much resisted at first- "and the sale of the Estate of Arrochar" to Ferguson of Raith in 1785 "have all contributed to extinguish the remains of that system of barbarity (!) which so long retarded the progress of civilization in Europe. The people are now well-bred, honest, industrious and not addicted to the immoderate use of spirituous liquors."

We may surmise that the Rev. John Gillespie was angry with the late Laird, John Macfarlane, the last of his race to hold his ancestral home. For the Laird became bankrupt about 1785, and the estates had been sold-moreover, the Laird owed to the Kirk Session at that time a sum of money running into three figures! And yet, even in 1790, the money was coming gradually back to the Kirk Session from the Macfarlanes' estates in Jamaica ; and the Rev. John Gillespie's own Session records show, under date 1801, that, to this Kirk Session at least, the Macfarlanes paid 20s. in the £1

Almost inevitably the estates passed from the hands of Ferguson of Raith into the possession of the Colquhouns, and that very soon. However, the Colquhouns were good landlords, for the New Statistical Account continues: "Within the last twenty years the population has considerably increased ; the system of feuing has continued, the character of the people, during the same period, has also considerably improved. A better conducted system of education based on Scriptural principles has been introduced ; and the establishment of a Sunday School, which has been in existence (1839) for upwards of twenty years,"-this is notable- "and the regular church-going habits of the people, have, it is hoped, been attended with the most beneficial results." A few of the old people at Arrochar still remember the Rev. Peter Proudfoot, and one old lady told me that she got all the schooling she had in this Sunday School of his, held in the Manse kitchen. The Rev. Peter Proudfoot knew no Gaelic at first, but he got an old man to teach him it, that he might be able to put up a prayer, at least, in the old language; and to this old man, for his pains, he gave a little house at the corner of his glebe to stay in.

In 1839, as he tells with some pride, there were no Dissenters among his flock, but in 1844 at the Disruption the minister himself came out, or nearly so. He wavered. It is said he held one service as a Free Church minister from the steps of Arrochar House, and then went back to his old church. But, poor man, he did not long enjoy his reconciliation, for he died that same year 1844. A note written by himself about his old church officer may be transcribed -here. Thus: "The old church officer who for upwards of two years was confined to bed, had the utmost horror of coming upon the poor's box ; and, from his salary being continued, from marriage dues, from the kindness of the benevolent, and from that disposition which was indicated by his own significant expression, "Providence is large, and I'll no come upon the poor's box" ; he lived and died without receiving a farthing from the Session, and he had safely husbanded for many a long day a guinea to pay for his coffin. It is to be feared that the feeling so remarkably exhibited by him is gradually, if not rapidly, diminishing." Several of this church officer's descendants are living in Arrochar, or elsewhere in Scotland, to-day.

At one time the people of Ardlui asked the minister-was it Mr. Proudfoot? for services at their end of the parish; and he promised to conduct such there if a pulpit was provided for him. Whereupon the existing hole in the " Pulpit Rock" on Loch Lomondside was blasted out, and a door put to it, and turf seats built up round about. But the first attempt at blasting ended in a tragedy, for in it the blaster lost his eyesight-Robert Macfarlane long afterwards known among the Tarbet people as "blind Rabble." The blast was completed by a certain Neil (?) Sinclair. Now the door has been burned by tinkers for fuel, and the seats have long disappeared ; but many services must have been held there in the memory of people living still, both by Mr. Proudfoot and by the Rev. Dr. John Macfarlane.

In the time of those older ministers the Sacrament Sunday was a wonderful day at the village church. Once, it is said, as many as seven steamers lay at Arrochar over Sunday for the occasion; for people came from all quarters to observe the sacred rite. The Pulpit Rock now had a novel part to play: it was there that refreshments were sold to the worshippers from a distance!

The Rev. John Macfarlane, D.D., succeeded Mr. Proudfoot. He was a close friend of the Very Rev. Duncan Macfarlane, Principal of Glasgow University, Moderator of the General Assembly for the second time in 1843; for he was put into the chair after the Free Church party had withdrawn. The Principal's ancestors are buried in Ballyhenan churchyard : his father was minister of Drymen, and while minister there held the office of factor on the estate of Arrochar. It is notable that another clergyman, Dr. Stewart, the great Gaelic scholar, who was minister of Arrochar (1774-6) and later of Luss, also held the office of factor for the Laird.

After the Rev. John Macfarlane came the Rev. James Dewar, M.A., the much loved minister of Arrochar, who held the charge from 1869 to 1902. Next (1902-7) the Dugald Macfarlane now of Kingussie; then the Rev. Coll Archibald Macdonald, B.D., now of Logierait, till 1913. The present minister is the Rev. H. S. Winchester, B.D.

One other personal note concerning the ministers of Arrochar must be given. In 1701 Rev. Archibald MacLachlan, first minister of Arrochar (who has already been mentioned as having been buried in the churchyard at Luss), was getting old, and had already been threatened (1697) with a libel by his parishioners for negligence in parish duty and family worship. The solution found by the Presbytery seems to have been to appoint a sort of assistant and successor-whom they called and ordained in December, 1701; But this assistant and successor was a certain Robert Macfarlane, and he refused to accept of the living, to the great indignation of the Presbytery who had educated him as their bursar eight or nine years, with the express view of getting him to fill one of their Gaelic-speaking parishes. The Synod, however, compelled him to undertake the charge, but declared him "transplantable" on his proving to the satisfaction of that reverend body that there was neither church, manse, glebe, kirk-session, or school in the parish ; these, indeed, were all to come later. Robert Macfarlane went to Fintry in 1705. [Irving, Book of Dumbartonshire, Vol. II.]

It is interesting to observe that out of the seventeen ministers of Arrochar since the parish was erected in 1658, four have been of the name of Macfarlane.

Sir Ian Colquhoun is the owner now of the Arrochar estates. Sir Ian succeeded to the lairdship of the Lennox country on the death of his father, Sir Allan Colquhoun, in 1910.

Thus, at the present time, the Macfarlanes are not in power in their old parish and countryside. But the two principal farms of the district are managed by Macfarlanes, i.e.,

Stronafyne.-Col. James Turner Macfarlane, J.P., C.C., Member of Parish Council, Chairman School Board.

Let us hope that "An Comunn Chloinn Pharlain" will revive more and more the interest of the clan in the Holy Place where their ancestors fought and worshipped-gaining through centuries of warfare and hardy existence in the glens of Arrochar, a communion with the Higher Things in their church, the Church of the Clan Macfarlane.

Arroquhar is a Celtic word, which signifies a high or hilly country. It is generally pronounced, in the Gaelic language, Arrar, which is a contraction of Ardthir, ard signifying high, and thir a country. The name is very descriptive of the place, which is high and mountainous, having very little flat or arable ground in it. The extent of the parish is near 14 miles long, exclusive of 4 farms, which lie on the east side of Lochlomond, near the north end of it. The mean breadth may be computed at 3 miles. It is situated in the county and presbytery of Dumbarton, and in the synod of Glasgow and Ayr.

Soil, Climate, and Diseases. - The surface of some of the farms is smooth, and clothed with a beautiful verdure, intermixed with heath and bent; of others rocky, but the intermediate spaces afford excellent pasture for sheep. When the pasturing of black cattle prevailed here, the surface was mostly covered with heath, and had a dismal appearance; but since the introduction of sheep, the country has assumed a different aspect. The climate is very temperate in this place, it being screened by the mountains from the northerly and easterly winds, the cold in winter is not so intense as in the low country; but there are frequent and heavy falls of rain from the south and south-west, accompanied with high winds. There are no local distempers prevalent here, except fevers, to which the poorer people are subject in the latter end of winter and beginning of spring. With respect to the small pox, the people begin now to see the advantages of inoculation, and to be more reconciled to it, though it is not yet much practised among the lower class.

Sheep, Horses, etc. - The number of sheep in the parish amounts to about 10,600; horses, 60; black cattle, 460. The sheep, in general, are black faced, and of the Linton kind. The while wool has sold here, these two years past, at about 7s. per stone of 24lb. English weight, and the laid at 5s. On an average, 8 or 9 fleeces of the white, and 5 or 6 of the laid wool go to the stone. If a premium were given annually for the best tups, there would be a competition, and consequently a considerable improvement made both on the sheep and wool. It is expected, that the Hon. Board of Trustees in Edinburgh, will give the same encouragement to this district of the county of Dumbarton, for the improvement of the breed of sheep, that they give to some other counties in the Highlands of Scotland.

Trees. - There is a considerable deal of oak growing in this parish, on the banks of Lochlomond. But as the woods are generally cut about 20 or 24 years of age, there is no great timber in them, except some standards left at last cutting.

Population. - In the month of March 1791, there were living in the parish of Arroquhar 379 person, of whom there were,

Abstract of Births and Marriages for the last six Years, as entered in the Parish Register.

From the above it appears, that there are, upon an average, 13 baptisms, and 5 marriages annually. From the year 1769 to 1775, the average of baptisms is nearly 12; but the marriages do not amount to 1 yearly. Hence it appears, that the population of this parish, since 1769, has increased, which is owing, probably, to the high price of labour, and the encouragement given to tradesmen and day labourers to reside in it. There has been, however, a decrease of 87 upon the whole, within these 40 years, as the return to Dr. Webster, in 1755, was 466. There is no register of burials kept in the parish.

Heritors, Rent, etc. - There are only two heritors, one of whom is proprietor of nearly the whole parish, but does not reside in it. The rent, after Whitsunday next, will be near £1200 Sterling. The farms, which were let in lease about 7 years ago, and, since that time, pay, on an average, double the former rent, and are still increasing in value. After the introduction of sheep into this country, the proprietors found it their interest, to let as much ground to one man as he could stock, so that the principal farms in this parish and neighbourhood are in the hands of a few. One man possesses now what was formerly thought sufficient for 5 or 6 tenants, and yet the condition of the lower class is not rendered worse. About 40 years ago, some of the tenants could afford to pay very little more than the public burdens for these farms, which now pay a high rent to the proprietor. Formerly, every tacksman was bound to perform work with men and horses, a certain number of days yearly, or to pay so much in lieu thereof, in the option of the master; but in most of the leases, which have been granted of late, these personal services, and the other casualties payable by the tenants, are converted into cash, and included in the rent.

Occupations.- The small tenants and cottagers find employment, either in repairing the high roads along with the military, building dykes, manufacturing timber and barks in woods, or at the herring fishing, which they generally attend, from the beginning of harvest till New Year's day.

Prices of Labour. - On an average, the wages of a man servant are 1s. a day, from the beginning of February till the beginning of November, without victuals. The day's wages of a wright are 1s.; of a taylor 8d.' of a carpenter 1s.6d.; of a shoemaker 8d.; and of a mower of hay 1s. besides their maintenance. The wages of women servants, in general, are 3d. a day; but in harvest 6d. exclusive of their victuals. When they eat in their master's house, they receive, on an average £3 a year, and the men servants, about £6. In this parish they all eat in the house, except shepherds, who live at a distant corner of the farm. These have a benefit from the master, that is to say, a house, 52 stones of meal, 2 cows grass, ground for potatoes, and grass for 60 sheep in the hill, which may amount in all to £14 or £15 Sterling per annum.

Church.- The parish of Arroquhar was originally an appendage of the parish of Luss, and was disjoined from it in the year 1658. The stipend, including the glebe, is below the minimum. The manse, which is in bad repair, was built in the year 1754. Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, Bart. is patron.

Poor. - The number of poor, upon the roll at present, is 9. The weekly collections amount to about £7 Sterling a year, which are distributed, together with the interest of £50 Sterling, left to the poor of the parish, by the late Robert Carmichael of Broomly, and the interest of another small sum appropriated for their benefit.

Fish. - The fish, which frequent Lochlong, are cod, haddocks, seath, lythe, whitings, flounders, mackarel, trouts, and herrings. Nobody in this place, a few individuals excepted, give themselves the trouble of fishing any of these species, but the latter, which are sometimes got in abundance. For these two seasons past, each man employed in the herring fishing, has cleared £8 on an average, between the middle of harvest and the 1st. of January.

Fuel. - The common fuel is peats, which are got in abundance in the hills. But it sometimes happens, that after all the expence and trouble of carting and fitting them up, the season may be so wet as to put it out of the power of the tenants to get them home. The better sort of farmers, who live near Lochlong, make use of coals, which cost about 5s. 6d. the Glasgow cart, including freight, &c. It is believed, upon the whole, everything being considered, that they are cheaper than peats.

Prices of provisions. - The average price of oat meal may be estimated at 1s. per peck. Sometimes Irish meal is imported into Lochlong, and sold under that price; but meal manufactured in the country is often above it. The average price of butter is 9d. per lib.; of common cheese, 5s. the stone tron weight; of a hen 1s.; and of eggs, 3d. the dozen. The price of beef is regulated by the Glasgow and Dumbarton markets.

Roads and Bridges. - The principal roads and bridges in this parish are kept in repair at the expence of government. The line of road, which leads to Inverary, being the most public, is kept in good order; but the line from Tarbert, leading to Tyndrum, is much neglected. In several places, particularly at the point of Farkin, and at Craig-an-aren, the road has been ill planned. Instead of bringing it up a steep hill, it should have been brought, at both places, round the point along the side of the loch, which would not have been much longer, and might have been executed at nearly as little expense as the present line. It is much wished, that the roads in these places may be soon altered, and the pulls taken off, which are so inconvenient for travellers, and so oppressive to horses. The other roads are kept in repair at the expence of the tenants and cottagers. last year the former were assessed at the rate of 11s. for every £30 of real rent. This assessment varies according to circumstances. The ultimatum is 12s. for every ploughgate, or £30 Sterling of rent, which the commissioners of supply cannot exceed. The latter pay from 1s.6d. to 2s.6d. according to their abilities. The bye-roads in Arroquhar might be kept in good repair with the one half of the money levied in it, or perhaps with less; notwithstanding, the assessment is as high as it is in these parishes within the district, where the roads are bad, (the trustees having it i their power, to appropriate the surplus money to any other part of the district, where they think it necessary), which is considered as a grievance.

Posts. - Every night, about 8 o'clock, (Wednesday excepted), a post arrives from Inverary, and another, at the same time, from Dumbarton. These are succeeded by other two, who wait their arrival, and set out soon after with the mails. They meet near the head of Lochlong, where they are all stationed, (which is half way between the post towns, or 22 miles distant from each), and succeed one another alternately. There being no allowance made for horses, they are obliged to travel on foot, which is a laborious task in winter. It rarely happens, however, that the snow is so deep on the road as to stop travellers. In March 1782, the communication between Dumbarton and Inverary was interrupted for a few days; but such a fall of snow, so uncommon at that season, may no happen again in a century.

Language. - Both the Gaelic and English languages are spoken here. The former is most prevalent, and is best understood, particularly by the old people. The names of places are Gaelic, and descriptive of their local situation.

General Character. - The greater part of the people in the parish are Macfarlanes, who have always had, till of late, a strong attachment to the laird, as their chief; and while this subsisted, misanthropy and ferocity of manners were prominent features in their character. Several circumstances, however, have occurred, to destroy the influence of the feudal system in this place. The military roads, which were made after the year 1745, opened a free communication with other parts of the kingdom, and an intercourse with strangers. The consequence of this was, that the mind expanded by degrees, to embrace, within its grasp, people of other denominations, and to weaken that prejudice which it conceived in favour of an individual, and a particular clan. The settlement of some graziers here, from the low country, contributed likewise to produce those happy effects. They were at first considered by the natives as aliens, and invaders of property, to which they had no natural right, being neither lineal descendents, nor collateral branches of the Macfarlane race. Such was their antipathy to their new neighbours, that they made several abortive attempts to extirpate them. This, however, gradually subsided. The sale of the estate of Arroquhar, which happened some years ago, contributed also not a little to extinguish the remains of that system of barbarity, which so long retarded the progress of civilization in Europe. In proportion as it lost its influence, the manners of the people changed to the better. They are now civil, well bred, honest, industrious, and not addicted to an immoderate use of spirituous liquors.

Name - Adopting the statement given in the former Statistical Account, Arrochar, formerly written Arrocher and Arroquhar, "signifies a high or hilly country; it is generally pronounced in the Gaelic language Arrar, which is a contraction of ard thir ; ard signifying high, and thir a country." The name is very descriptive of the general appearance of the parish, which is high and mountainous, and presents very little low or arable ground.

Extent, &c. - The parish is about 15 miles in length, exclusive of the farms of Ardleish and Doune, which lie on the east side of Loch Lomond, and commencing about two miles beyond its most northern point, extend down its eastern shore five or six miles, and form the boundaries of the properties of Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, Bart, and His Grace the Duke of Montrose, and also of the counties of Dumbarton and Stirling. The mean breadth of the parish may be computed at 3 miles: and it contains a surface of somewhat more than 48 square miles. It is bounded on the east by Loch Lomond, the farms excepted which stretch down its eastern shore, which are bounded by the counties of Perth and Stirling; on the south, by the water of Douglass and part of the parish of Luss; on the west, by Loch Long, and part of Argyleshire; and on the north, by the parish of Strathfillan in Perthshire.

Topographical Appearances - Its form is peculiar; towards the upper and lower ends of the parish; there is a considerable extent of mountainous country, while from Tarbet on Loch Lomond side, to Arrochar on Loch Long side, there is only a small isthmus of not more than a mile and three quarters. ben Vorlich is the highest mountain in the parish. It is distinguished for the richness of its pasture, its rare and varied botanical productions, and rises about 3000 feet above the level of the sea. The parish is so mountainous, that there is only a small proportion of arable ground, not more than from 300 to 400 acres.

There are no caves that require any particular notice. Tradition says that there was one of considerable extent in Ben Vorlich, and another of smaller dimensions, on the farm of Stuckendroin, the scene of some tragical event.

The extent of coast along Loch Lomond on the east is nearly 14 miles, and on the west along Loch Long about 3 miles. The shores of Loch Lomond are sandy, flat and occasionally rocky, with many most beautiful headlands. There are small bays at Cambusnaglass, Farkin, Tarbet, Inveruglas, Ardvorlich; and there are three islands in Loch Lomond, which may be considered as belonging to Arrochar.

The climate is generally mild, but variable. Frosts, though occasionally severe, are seldom of long continuance. Snow seldom lies above a few days upon the low grounds. Colds in winter and spring are sometimes general, and then they usually assume the character of influenza; inflammatory attacks were more frequent some years ago than at present. Typhus fever occurs occasionally, but has been confined almost always to one family, and never extended to more than two families in any one season, for upwards of twenty years.

Loch Lomond, the eastern boundary of the parish is twenty four miles in length, and in some places seven miles broad. From Lower Inveruglass, where the parish of Arrochar commences, up to near its northern point, it is of considerable depth. Opposite the point of Farkin, about a mile and a half from Inveruglas, it is 66 fathoms, a little farther north 80 fathoms deep; for about a mile south of Tarbet, it is about 86 fathoms deep; but about 2 miles north from it, opposite Alt Gary, it is 100 fathoms, which probably is its greatest depth; beyond that, its depth gradually diminishes to its northern end. It is almost unnecessary to add, that the scenery of Loch Lomond is singularly bold and beautiful, and for extent, variety, and magnificence, is not perhaps equalled or surpassed by any Lake in Great Britain. Loch Long, which constitutes part of the western boundary, is from 20 to 22 miles in length, and at some parts may be about 2 miles in breadth. Its depth in the immediate neighbourhood of Arrochar may be stated from 15 to 20 fathoms. Its shores are occasionally sandy, but their general character is rocky. There are several magnificent points in Loch Long, the opening of Loch Goil, and the bold and splendid scenery towards the head of Loch Long, are objects of general attraction and admiration.

There are no rivers in the parish that require particular notice. The water of Falloch, which rises and falls into Loch Lomond at its head, - of Inveruglas, which runs into Loch Lomond at Upper Inveruglas, - of Douglass, which enters the same at Lower Inveruglass, with the water of Linnhe that flows into the head of Loch Long, - are not remarkable for either length, depth, or breadth. There are several small but beautiful cascades in the parish.

Geology and Mineralogy. - Except where in one or two places it is traversed by a whin dike, mica slate is the only rock formation of the parish, - extending from the sea level to the summit of the highest hills; the schistose laminae are usually in parallel layers; but the section made by the new road along Loch Lomond to the foot of Glen Falloch presents them in every variety of contortion. Nor can there be any where a better field for studying the peculiarities of this primary rock so prevalent in the mountainous regions of our country. So far as we are able to judge, there are no indications of minerals, iron excepted; and these are but few and not very distinctly marked.

Zoology - White hares and Ptarmigan are to be met on Ben Vorlich. Several of the farms rear sheep of excellent quality. In Loch Lomond, salmon, salmon-trout, pike, perch, powans, usually called fresh-water herrings, and eels are to be met with. In Loch Long, there are salmon, salmon-trout, cod, sethe, lythe, ling, whitings, skate, halibut, founders, soles, with herrings in their seasons, and almost all the varieties of white fish. Muscles are found in great abundance towards the head of Loch Long, oysters but in small quantities, limpits, wilks, buckies, spout-fish; but crab-fish or partans are seldom met with, in any degree of perfection.

Caterpillars are occasionally troublesome in gardens, and several years ago they attacked, in immense numbers, and with great voracity, the oak woods; and in many places the foliage was utterly destroyed.

Landowners. - Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, Bart. is proprietor of almost the whole parish. The only other (and the only resident proprietor) is John McMurrich, Esq., of Stuckgoun, whose property, though not extensive, is one of singular beauty and value.

Parochial Registers. - There are no parochial registers of a more remote date that 1761. They are not voluminous, and have not been particularly well kept.

Within these few years a number of houses have been erected for sea-bathing quarters; for which Arrochar presents excellent opportunities.

The population of Arrochar in 1831 amounted to 334 males, 226 females, a total of 560.

The population has, of late, increased considerably. This arises from Arrochar having been of late years divided into smaller farms, and from the number of feus that have been taken. So lately as 1817, the land was almost all in the hands of one individual.

The yearly average of births for seven years may be stated at 12, marriages 3. No register of deaths has been regularly kept.

Number of persons from 30 - 50 years of age, as nearly as can be ascertained 143

Numbers of persons from 50 - 70 years of age, as nearly as can be ascertained 50

There are 105 families; 96 inhabited houses, and 6 uninhabited houses, at least for one part of the year; but three of these are usually occupied during the summer season. There are no fatuous, deaf, blind, or dumb persons in the parish.

English and Gaelic are generally understood; but while there are no individuals that cannot speak and understand English, there is a considerable number that have no acquaintance with Gaelic. Within the last forty years, Gaelic has rapidly lost ground, and will, ere long, as in other parts of Dumbartonshire, be known here only as a matter of history.

The inhabitants are shrewd, moral, and professedly religious. Poaching in game and salmon fisheries are now almost unknown.

There are fourteen farmers. The servants are generally shepherds, though they also assist in the ordinary work about the farm, and may amount to about 16. Cottars are occasionally but not permanently employed in farming occupations. There are no manufactures. There are 3 grocers, 7 public-houses, 5 of which are worse than useless, and ought to be abolished; but two are necessary, - the inns at Tarbet and Arrochar. There are 3 tailors, 6 shoemakers, 3 smiths, one master wright with 2 men. 23 individuals are employed in the herring-fishing.

Agriculture. - The parish consists of 31,011 English or 24,809 Scotch acres. There may be from 300 to 400 acres under constant or occasional cultivation. It does not appear that more ground could be cultivated with advantage. The number of acres under natural wood mus be very considerable; but the amount has not been ascertained. The oak woods are regularly thinned, and are in good order.

Rent. - The average rent of arable ground may be stated at £1.10s. per acre. The average rent of grazing is £2 for an ox or cow; eye or full-grown sheep, 2s.6d. to 3s.

Wages &c. - Farm-servant's wages may be stated at £20 per annum. Labourer's wages vary from 9s. to 12s. per week; wrights and masons, 15s. and 16s. per week. The sheep are of the black-faced breed. Cattle are either reared upon the ground, or brought when young from Argyleshire.

John McMurrich of Stuckgoun has reclaimed about 50 acres. The general duration of leases is nine years. Farm-buildings and enclosures are capable of considerable improvement. There are no mines; but there are two small whinstone quarries, formed from the whinstone dike that stretches from Loch Lomond to Loch Long.

Fisheries. - Herring fishing employs 23 hands, and is sometimes pursued with great success. Herrings are usually in Loch Long towards the beginning of June, and are in great perfection from the end of that month till the middle or end of July. When the fishing fails on Loch Long, the fishermen go to Lochfine, and follow the occupation till the end of the season, in the neighbourhood of Tarbert, and from Tarbert they go onwards to the vicinity of Campbelton. Each boat upon an average will clear from £30 to £60. There are usually three hands in an ordinary sized wherry.

Produce. - The annual thinning and felling of woods may yield about £300; of fisheries, £320. The amount of sown produce the writer has been unable to ascertain. Small quantities of kelp were manufactured some years ago; but, from not affording a remunerating price, the manufacture has been abandoned.

Navigation. - No vessels of larger size belong to the inhabitants than small fishing-boats. A steam-boat regularly plies from Glasgow to Arrochar, during the summer months, and vessels with coals and lime from Glasgow and Ireland come to Loch Long Head; and wool is frequently forwarded from this to the Liverpool market.