Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

344 Scotland, Social and Domestic.
Youths who desecrated the Sabbath were whipped.
The Kirk-session of St. Andrews, in May, 1649, sen-
tenced a young man who had broken the Sunday, " to
be scourged in the Tolbooth by ane of the town officers,
at the sight of the magistrates." On the 25th Feb-
ruary, 1685, the Kirk-session of Dunfermline ordained
two apprentices, " being lookit upon by the Session as
twa of the perversest knaves in all the burgh for Sab-
bath breaking," to be whipped before them, and then
confined " in the bell-house."
For some time after the Reformation, marriages were
solemnized on Sunday as well as on other days. The
practice of marrying on Sunday began to be discounte-
nanced ; it was latterly prohibited. In 1630, the Kirk-
session of Abercrombie, in Fife, passed the following
decree : — " Heirefter none shall be married on the Sab-
bath except they pay to the use of the poor 58s., and
oblige themselves to keep good order." In " discharg-
ing absolutlie any marriage to be solemnized upon the
Lord's day," the six Kirk-sessions of Edinburgh, in
November, 1643, specified that they did not hold "the
thing unlawful in itself, but because it occasioneth pro-
fanation of the Lord's day by such as must be employed
for preparation of necessaries thereto, as baxters and
cooks." In these words did the Presbytery of St.
Andrews discountenance the interment of the dead
on Sunday, — "March 8, 1648. Whereas there is a
superstitious practice of makeing graves upon the
Lord's day, quhen it may be convenientlie eschewed
the Presbyterie do appoint that no graves be made
vpon the Lord's day, bot in case of urgent necessitie
allowed by the minister and session."
Attendance on ordinances was enforced by penalties,