The internal economy of a Scotch¹ parish is not so clearly comprehensible now-a-days as it was in former times. Civilization itself has made countless² inroads upon the original unities³ everywhere, and the changes that have come to pass within the recollection of the living generation are almost as great though very different from those which made Scotland during last century so picturesque⁵ in its state of transition. When Sunday morning dawned upon the Holy Loch, it did not shine upon that pretty rural picture of unanimous church-going so well-known to the history of the past. The groups from the cottages took different ways—the carriage from the Castle swept round the hill to the other side of the parish, where there was an “English Chapel⁶.” The reign⁷ of opinion and liking⁸ was established in the once primitive⁹ community. Half of the people ascended¹⁰ the hillside to the Free Church, while the others wound down the side of the loch to the Kirk, which had once accommodated the whole parish. This state of affairs had become so usual that even polemical feeling had ceased to a great extent, and the two streams of church-going people crossed each other placidly¹¹ without recriminations. This day, for a wonder, the sun was shining brightly, notwithstanding a cloudy stormy sky, which now and then heaved forward a rolling mass of vapour, and dispersed¹⁴ it sharply over the hills in a flying mist and shower.

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