ples on which the secession was formed; others, that it was a virtua! renunciation of their act and testimony. They who assert the lawfulness of taking the burgess oath are called BURGHERS; their opponents, ANTI-BURGHERS. The Burghers, who never approved of covenanting, any more than scruples about taking the burgess oath, consider the Anti-Burghers as too rigid: the Anti-Burghers think the Burghers too lax. The Anti-Burghers excommunicated the Burghers, on account of their sins in taking the burgess oath, and neglecting to renew the covenant. But each party lays claim to the lawful constitution of the Associate Synod. The Burghers are most numerous on the south side of the Tay the Anti-Burghers on the north. The region between the Tay and the Forth is the hottest quarters of religious zeal and controversy in Scotland.

On the secession, the place fixed on for the education of candidates for the ministry was Abernethey. A very spacious church was built, chiefly at the expense of Mr. Moncrieff, the ejected minister, who, as already observed, was a man of very considerable landed property in the parish: in fact, I believe the principal heritor; for in this part of Stratherne, as in Fife, to which it is conti guous, there are not any great lords or lairds, at least there were not any great ones then. The earl of Weemys has since extended his domains from Elcho, across the Erne, in a south-westerly direction, to the summit of the Aichils, and among other estates picked up that of Culfargie, sweetly situated

in very rich ground at the conflux of the water or rivulet of the Farg and the Erne.

In the new kirk of Abernethey, or the vestry, called the Session House, lectures in theology were given three or four times a week to the students, during the session, by Mr. Moncrieff, and Mr. Wilson, of Perth, who were appointed professors of divinity by the Associated Synod. There was also, at what was now called the College of Abernethey, a professor of philosophy, that is, of logic and metaphysics. The students of philosophy were not taught in the church, but in the house of the professor. They lodged with the burghers of Abernethey, or with the farmers in the neighbourhood.

It was not the business or object of the professor of philosophy to point out the legitimate mode of philosophical investigation, and trace the progress of science, but only to skim over some systems then in vogue, of dialectics, ontology, and pneumatology. The great object was, to prevent the minds of the students from being seduced into any speculations that might ultimately tend to lessen their reverence for the covenant. Mr. Moncrieff generously administered to the wants of the students when they stood in need, as they often did, of his assistance. In his declining years, they sometimes received the benefit of his instructions, not in the new church of Abernethey, but in his own house, at Culfargie. They also attended, sometimes, on Mr. Wilson, at his house in Perth, about seven miles distant. On the death of Mr. Alexander Moncrieff, though he was succeeded by his

son, Mr. Matthew Moncrieff, in his clerical function among the Seceders, the Divinity College was translated from Abernethey to Alloa, where it was conducted by Mr. William Moncrieff, a younger brother of Matthew's, and esteemed not only a more profound scholar, but a more zealous abettor of the covenant; yet, for many years thereafter, the philosophy of the Seceders continued to be taught at Abernethey. One of their professors, a Mr. Pirie, though he had received no other education than what he got among the Seceders, being naturally intelligent and acute, attained to not a little notice in Scotland by a printed controversy, which he carried on with lord Kaims, about liberty and necessity. The great text book for philosophy, at the College of Abernethey, was Locke's Essay on Human Understanding.

After the death of Mr. Alexander Moncrieff, one of the principal fathers, and certainly the principal patron of the secession, the rigid tone that marked its first establishment at Abernethey was greatly relaxed. Mr. Matthew Moncrieff, though a firm believer in all the distinguishing doctrines of the Seceders, was, by nature, social, frank, and candid; a man of lively passions, and prone to a reciprocation of civilities and good offices with all his neighbours. Mr. Matthew, a laird as well as a minister, was a bit of a sportsman; and though he did not dare to shoot, he enjoyed sometimes the diversion of coursing with a couple of greyhouuds which he kept, to the great scandal of his congregation, and other Seceders. One Sunday, as he was crossing the Aichils, to assist at the Seceder sacra

ment, at Auchtermuchty, a hare started from under his horse's feet, and he could not refrain from aiming a lash at her with his whip, and even gallopping a few paces after her as she fled. This was reported by the servant who accompanied him on his return to Abernethey. It was a great offence, and a subject of much sorrow. Mr. Matthew was rebuked by the associated presbytery, and obliged to profess contrition. Matthew roared so incessantly against the established church, lustily thumping the pulpit, and was withal of so open and kindly a disposition, that he was a general favourite among the Seceders of all parts. Some of the more hypochondriac, when he was mentioned, would say, shaking their heads, 66 Aye, he is a man that would gar ony body like him :-But oh! that beast," meaning the hare. Others, not quite so strait-laced, would say, "Hoot! he's no a wrang man, for a the beast." This became a proverb in all the middle parts of Scotland, and is so at this day. Speaking of any one who, though subject to some failing, is a good sort of a person on the whole, they say, "He's no a wrong man for a the beast."

Mr. Moncrieff's lady, a very handsome woman, a daughter of Mr. Scott, of Cotts, in the East Nook of Fife, was of a disposition quite congenial, and, added to this, a very extraordinary share of true wit and humour. The sociability and the frankness of Matthew, and the gaiety and wit of Mrs. Moncrieff, were united in Mr. Gray, the minister of the established church of Abernethey, who inherited, like his predecessor, a paternal

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estate. Though but a very small one, and not at all to be compared with that of Culfargie, it was a good help to his stipend, and with both under the management of his lady, an excellent woman, being both genteel in her manners and prudent in her conduct, he was enabled to indulge, in no small degree, his natural turn to the hospitable intercourses of society. The families at the parsonage of Abernethey and at Culfargie lived together in the greatest intimacy; which was considered by the Seceders as a great backsliding on the part of their pastor. The strictness, the dismal tone, and the hypocrisy, too, of the Seceders, served Mrs. Moncrieff (who had professed herself to be a Seceder only out of complaisance to her husband), as an inexhaustible fund of merriment. There were other two persons in this neighbourhood besides the minister of the establishment and the Seceding minister's wife, highly distinguished by wit and humour. They were also distinguished by eccentricities in their character and conduct, which sometimes gave their sallies a wider course, and still more celebrity. These were, Mr. Friar, laird of Invernethey, and Mr. Kier, laird of the Western Rynd. These four persons were not unfrequently to be found in company together; and certainly, if a stranger passing through this parish had happened to fall in with this society, he would have been apt to set Abernethey down, not for the most dismal and hum-drum, but the merriest place in Britain.

When Mr. Gray came first to Abernethey, the