First, of the placing.--It was a great affair; for I was put in by
the patron, and the people knew nothing whatsoever of me, and their
hearts were stirred into strife on the occasion, and they did all
that lay within the compass of their power to keep me out, insomuch,
that there was obliged to be a guard of soldiers to protect the
presbytery; and it was a thing that made my heart grieve when I
heard the drum beating and the fife playing as we were going to the
kirk. The people were really mad and vicious, and flung dirt upon
us as we passed, and reviled us all, and held out the finger of
scorn at me; but I endured it with a resigned spirit,
compassionating their wilfulness and blindness. Poor old Mr
Kilfuddy of the Braehill got such a clash of glar on the side of his
face, that his eye was almost extinguished.

When we got to the kirk door, it was found to be nailed up, so as by
no possibility to be opened. The sergeant of the soldiers wanted to
break it, but I was afraid that the heritors would grudge and
complain of the expense of a new door, and I supplicated him to let
it be as it was: we were, therefore, obligated to go in by a
window, and the crowd followed us in the most unreverent manner,
making the Lord's house like an inn on a fair day, with their
grievous yellyhooing. During the time of the psalm and the sermon,
they behaved themselves better, but when the induction came on,
their clamour was dreadful; and Thomas Thorl, the weaver, a pious
zealot in that time, he got up and protested, and said, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the
sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a
robber." And I thought I would have a hard and sore time of it with
such an outstrapolous people. Mr Given, that was then the minister