Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

Church Discipline. 337
The well at Strathill, near Muthill, like the more
reputed fountain of St. Fillan, in Strathearn, was be-
lieved to cure persons afflicted with lunacy. An insane
woman at Airth, Stirlingshire, having been conducted
to Strathill for cure, Mr. Drummond, minister of Muthill,
sought information on the subject from Mr. Forsyth,
minister at Stirling. Mr. Forsyth's letter in reply will
be read with some interest : —
"March 16, 1663. — 1 received a letter from yon, to be
communicat to the minister at Airth, anent ane Agnes
Sympson, who was brought to your well at Strathill. I
obeyed your desire in the face of the Presbytery. The
minister hath called the man who conveyed that woman
before his Session, and, upon Wednesday last, they ap-
peared before our Presbytery. All of them, being four,
two of them named James Mitchels, and two John
Sympsons, friends of the woman, did freely confess that
they had taken that woman to the well ; that they had
stayed two nights at an house hard by the well ;
that the first night they did bind her to a stane at the
well, but she came into the house to them, being loosed
without their help. The second night they bound her
over again to that same stane, and she returned loosed.
And they declare also that she was very mad before
they took her to the well, and since that time she is
working and sober in her wits. The Presbytery hath
required me to give you an account of their diligence,
and to desire what further ye require to be done. And
they do intreat you to let them know what course the
Church hath used to take in the like case, and what
censure was inflicted upon such delinquents ? " *
* "Geographical Collections relating to Scotland," in the Advocates
Library, vol. hi., p. 97. 1749. Folio. t