Bits from Blinkbonny; or, Bell o' the Manse

PAGE The Artist and his Bits—Blinkbonny—The Author and his Relations—The Good Folks at Greenknowe—The Manse—Once thinking of getting married—The Interrupted Call—Mr. and Mrs. Ba...

“The Books”—P.P.C.—Marriage Presents—“The Confession of Faith”—Toasts—“The Frostit Corn”—“The Country Rockin’”—Auntie Mattie—“The Farmer’s Ingle”—Peggy Ritchie on the Churchyard...

Coming Events—Bell and the Seed Potatoes—Her Idea of the Government—Knowe Park—Spunks—The Town-Clerk of Ephesus—Bell’s summing up—Daisy—The Eve of Battle—Sir John McLelland’s Op...

The Meeting in Beltane Hall—The End of the Ten Years’ Conflict— George Brown’s Exercises—The Bellman’s Difficulty—Sabbath Services at the Annie Green—“Thae Cath’lics”—The Secess...

The Disruption of 1843—Hardships—Scotch Villages and Church Matters—The New Church—The Session and Deacons—The Beadle, Walter Dalgleish—The Precentorship—Psalms and Hymns—Mr. Ba...

The Three Ministers of Blinkbonny—Mr. Walker—The Ten Virgins—The finest o’ the Wheat—Bell’s Fee—Alloa Yarn—Bell’s Cooking— Sheep’s-head—Mr. Kirkwood and the Potato-Soup—Dan in t...

Miss Park on Dan—The Sweep’s dead—Mrs. Gray’s Elegy on her Husband—The Coffin for naething—The New School-master—The Roast Beef in the Lobby—The Examination Committee—“Hoo’ to g...

The Dorcas Society—The Morisonian Controversy—Colonel Gordon’s Second Visit—A Real Scotch Dinner—Champagne—Dan an’ the Duke o’ Gordon—The Smuggler’s Log-book—Colonel Gordon’s Wi...

The Forms of Procedure—Reception of the News of Bell’s Marriage by Mr. Taylor, and by Sir John McLelland—“Her Weight in Gold”—Bell’s Presents—“Hook ma Back”—Mr. Walker’s Violin—...

The Packing at Knowe Park—The Bachelor Umbrella—Nellie’s Box—Dan and Rosie—Dan on Evangelical Effort—On “The Angel’s Whisper”—Bell in Edinburgh—Home to Blackbrae—Andrew Taylor’s...

An eminent artist, a member of the Royal Scottish Academy, who, although well up in the seventies, and feeling many of the infirmities of advanced age, still continues to enrich...

I need hardly tell that between Mrs. Barrie and Bell the relationship of mistress and servant was more than cordial, more than intimate,—I can find no better word to express it...

My stay at the manse had been longer than I expected. When I reached Greenknowe, I had hardly recovered from the scare I had got by the proposal to conduct family worship, and m...

“They lay aside their private cares To mind the Kirk and State affairs; They’ll talk o’ patronage and priests Wi’ kindling fury in their breasts, Or tell what new taxation ’s co...

Sir John had written to his steward to tell me that Mr. Barrie had left the Established Church; the steward showed me the letter; it was a compound of amazement, sympathy, and a...

“Long, long be my heart with such memories filled, As the vase in which roses have once been distilled; You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will, But the scent of the ro...

“Confide ye aye in Providence, for Providence is kind, An’ bear ye a’ life’s changes wi’ a calm an’ tranquil mind; Though press’d an’ hemm’d on every side, ha’e faith an’ ye’ll...

The formation and early history of the Free Church congregation of Blinkbonny is the subject of the following chapter; and I feel it to be one of special difficulty, not from an...

“An’ wow but the lassie was pawky an’ slee, For she smiled an’ she smirkit till a’ man, Growin’ a’bodie’s bodie, baith muckle an’ wee, An’ our folk wadna let her awa’, man; For...

The energy of the Free Church had been a subject of special dislike to Miss Park; and when she heard that Mr. Barrie called on Dan, and that Bell, for whom before the Disruption...

The Blinkbonny Free Church congregation was now a strong one,—so strong that a Dorcas Society was added to its other schemes, and proved of great service to the members as well...

The “Forms of Procedure” in the translation of a Scottish Presbyterian minister are somewhat elaborate, and require a good deal of time for their various requirements of intimat...

As my readers are more familiar with Mrs. Tait by her old name of Bell, it will be as well to hold to it in what little we have to add to these “bits;” for although she filled h...