History and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns

10 LAND OF THE LINDSAYS.
fro in the adjoining river, until some of them were nearly killed.*
It was only then that Mr. Gray abandoned his post, and claimed
protection from the civil authorities, and until the following'
January, he did not reappear in the parish ; but matters being
then amicably settled, he resumed his labours in peace, and the
Episcopalians delivered over to him the " communion vessells and
vestments," which they had all along retained and made vise of.
During the disturbance of " forty-five," however, matters were
otherwise conducted, for then the kirk-session were declared to
have acted an exemplary part " in the late unnatural rebellion ;"
and, with the exception of the dissent which occurred here, in
common with that in most other parts of the kingdom in 1843,
the parishioners may be said, ever since the notorious "rabble"
of 1714, to have moved quietly on " in the noiseless tenor of their
way."
None of the clergymen or schoolmasters, so far as we are
aware, were famous for anything beyond their immediate sphere
of duties. They seem to have been good useful men in their
time, with the exception of one " heartless pedagogue who be-
longed to the town of Cromarty." When scarcely a year in
office he was " detected privately in the night tyme treacherously
stealing of a pt of our Sessione records wherein was contained
baptisms and marriges,"f and, fearing the worst, he clandestinely
departed, and was never again seen in the district. But of all
his successors, the name of Mr. Bonnyman, who flourished to-
wards the close of last century, lives most vividly in the minds
of the parishioners.
Though best remembered in the rather unenviable charac-
ter of a miser, to which, if tales are true, he had a pretty
legitimate claim, he had also the reputation of being a good
scholar, and prior to his settlement at Edzell, was tutor in the
noble family of Kintore. Loath to expend money on fire to
cook his food, or to warm himself in all but the severest frosts
of winter, he nightly lurked about the blazing hearths of the
villagers, and went daily from house to house with his " brose
cap " under his arm, and made choice of the " broo " of the
" fattest kail pot" to slake his scanty supply of meal ! J He was
* See Appendix, No. I. f Parish Beg. 170G.
t Brosc is " a kind of pottage made by pouring water or broth on meal, which is stirred in
while the liquid is boiling." — Jameson's Scot. /Hot, in voce.