Grampian Club > Leaves from my autography

330 LEAVES FROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
for his ' Cliurcliyard Improvement Society/ was now
seeking to obtain five shillings from the clergy for
one of his unsaleable books." The paragraphist
expressed a hope that the clergy would treat the
sender of the schedule as he deserved ! I know
not whether copies of the journal containing this
paragraph were sent to the clergy ; but not long
after its publication I ceased to obtain returns.
Not only so, but several of my reverend brethren
l^roceeded to act towards me as one who had offended.
Two clergymen of an adjacent county returned to
me the schedules by post, roughly bundled up, and
unstamped ; a parish minister near Campbeltown re-
turned his schedule, inscribed with words used by my
opponents ; and another brother, more ingenious, and
not less spiteful, was at pains to sketch a tombstone,
on which, in sarcastic rhymes, he set forth my al-
leged perversity. An industrious writer in the
county of Forfar, who had commenced a collection
of tombstone inscriptions connected with the north-
eastern district, afraid that he would be identified
with me, advertised in the provincial journals that
his undertaking was unconnected with mine ! I now
attempted to obtain answers to my queries from local
antiquaries and parochial teachers, but succeeded
very partially.
When canvassing in the central counties in connec-
tion with my newspaper, the Stirling Gazette, and
over a wider held in support of my tract enterprise,