Biggar and the House of Fleming

THE SOCIETIES OF BIGGAR 371
Alexander Dickson. The annual procession at first was fixed
to take place on the day after Biggar Midsummer Fair in July,
but it has been changed to the Tuesday after the Fair that
was wont to be held at Skirling in June. The Whipmen's
Society allows its sick members 5s. per week for twelve weeks,
3s. a-week for twenty-four weeks, and then one guinea quar-
terly so long as sickness continues.
Biggar has several Book Associations or Libraries, but none
of them are of a very old date. The Biggar Library, founded
in 1797, principally by the exertions of the Rev. Patrick
Mollison of Walston, contained about 1000 volumes, and was
supported almost exclusively by the higher classes of the town
and neighbourhood. The number of members at length fell
gradually off, and it continued in a languishing condition for
several years. In 1863, it was joined with the Biggar Parish
Library, which was founded, in 1800 by the working classes of
the town and neighbourhood. At one time this library was
under the charge of John M'Ghie, shoemaker, one of the most
shrewd and intelligent men of his time in Biggar. He had read all
the books in the Ubrary, and many of them several times over.
As he was endowed with a most tenacious memory, he could
give a summary of the contents of any one of them to which
his attention might be directed, as well as a very correct esti-
mate of its merits. His conversational powers were of a high
order. It was a treat of no ordinary kind to sit beside him
while engaged with his elshin and his Ungle, and hear him
discourse with fluency and critical acumen on poetry, philo-
sophy, politics, religion, and general literature. He was a
notable specimen of not a few men living in obscure corners
of our country, and pursuing an humble vocation, who have,
nevertheless, entered into the very depths of the great masters
of literature, and have had a powerful influence in stimulating
and moulding the minds of the generation around them.
The Parish Library, forty years ago, had fallen very much into
a state of dormancy. The members had dwindled down to eleven
in number, the income had become a trifle, and the addition
of new books had, in a great measure, ceased. The merit of
restoring it to more than its primitive vigour is due to Mr
Allan Whitfield, who, at the time referred to, was elected presi-
dent. That gentleman got a new catalogue and a new set of