Counties > Renfrewshire > 1832-1833 - Historical and descriptive sketches of the towns and principal villages in the Upper Ward of Renfrewshire

36 SKETCH OF FOLLOKSHAWS, &C.
The Eastwood Kirk is about a quarter of a mile from Pol-
lokshaws. There is no village at the said Kirk. Robert Wod-
row was minister here from 1703 till 1735. He published,
about 1720, a History of the Sufferings of Scotland from 1660
to the Revolution in 1688, in two bulky folio volumes. He
was rather a plodding writer; his work is rather a mass of
rich materials for history, than a history itself. Dr. Burns of
Paisley, has lately presented the public with a new edition of
Wodrow's History. He has added many valuable notes froni
tradition, from contemporary and subsequent writers, together
with a copious Index. For such a work, arranged, as it is,
like annals. in the order of dates, a minute index is essentially
necessary ; the exertions of this laborious and discriminat-
ing writer, will be like the opening up of a new coun-
try, clearing away the brushwood, making new roads, and
bringing to public view, the precious, but before hidden
treasures, left by the respectable minister of Eastwood. From
the eminent talents, indefatigable industry, and extensive
reading of our distinguished townsman, Dr. Bums of St,
George's, the work will assume a new and more interesting
form, and cannot fail to be received as a valuable addition
to modern literature.
John Maxwell of Nether Pollok was the father of the cele-
brated Robert, Bishop of Orkney. The Bishop was first
rector of Tarbolton, in 1521 ; next, Provost of the collegiate
church of Dumbarton ; and at last was promoted to the See
of Orkney. He built the stalls in his cathedral, which are
curiously carved with arms of his predecessors in the bishop-
ric, and furnished the steeple with a set of excellent bells. In
1526 when James V. made his fa:nous tour through the Scot-
tish Isles, he was nobly entertained by this Bishop in his pa-
lace of Kirkwall.
In an Inventory of his geir. the following is a catalogue of
the books of his library, which shews the fewness of the rays
that emanated from the sun of knowledge and the gloaming
of truth, that veiled in obscurity the intellectual energies of
the mind, and shed its darkened influence over the times.
The namis of ye bukis.
Item, ane prent Pontificall.
Item, ane small text of ane Pontificall.
Item, ane auld written Pontificall.
Item, seculinoruin scripturam.
Item, cathena aurea sancte Thome.
Item, psa.lterium cum commento Edward episcopi.
. Item, bibla in pergamena scripta.
Item, ane Inglissebukeof goweir.
Item, ane Inglisse buke of ye histories of aaintis iiffis and!
stories of ye bible.
Item, ye cornakillig