History of the Fife Pitcairns

CANON PITCAIRN'S LIFE AT ECCLES. 319
trust to send you good news, and if you will put off coming till
Tuesday (as we have no telegrams on Sunday), I do hope and
trust to be here to welcome you in thankful peace. — Dear love to
Mrs Pitcairn, Your most affectionate friend, S. Roxburghe.
Note. — The Duke died on the 23rd of October 1892.
The extracts I have printed from Canon Pitcairn's Diary
serve as a slight index of his work and character ; and the
letters he received show the love and esteem he was held
in. Before ill-health undermined his constitution, and in-
creasing deafness precluded him from taking such an active
part in the work of the Diocese, and meeting his fellow-
clergy, he had been a most energetic clergyman, not only
in his own parish but in diocesan affairs.
Having been trained first as a civil engineer, it proved
of great use in his clerical career, for being one of the
Committee of the Church Building Society, looking over
and passing plans for churches and rectory houses, he
was thus enabled to be of great practical use.
He was very methodical, and arranged his days care-
fully, or he could not have got through the immense
amount of work he had to do ; for in the earlier part of
his career he was Organising Deputation Secretary of the
Church Building Society, and of the Bible Society, and
had his own parish as well to attend to. Later he was
Treasurer for many Societies, and his accounts were kept
in a most accurate and orderly way. Canon Pitcairn kept
a Diary without a break for forty-two years, which in itself
is rather a remarkable thing. In it he kept a record of
many interesting events which happened during that long
time in the Manchester diocese. During the whole of those
forty-two years, as I said before, there is not one ill-natured
or unkind remark about any one in the Diaries, only thank-
fulness to God for His many mercies, and kindly feeling
to every one.
He had on the whole a very pleasant lot, which was
made the more so by his contented disposition. He loved
his dear old church, his parish, and his schools, and took
great pride in having everything kept up in proper order.