those times there were no such things as pews; but only forms,

removeable, as I have heard say, at pleasure.
It, however, happened, in the course of nature, that certain forms

came to be sabbathly frequented by the same persons; who, in this
manner, acquired a sort of prescriptive right to them. And those

persons or families, one after another, finding it would be an ease
and convenience to them during divineworship, put up backs to their

forms. But still, for many a year, there was no inclosure of pews;
the first, indeed, that made a pew, as I have been told, was one

Archibald Rafter, a wright, and the grandfather of Mr Rafter, the
architect, who has had so much to do with the edification of the new

town of Edinburgh. This Archibald's form happened to be near the
door, on the left side of the pulpit; and in the winter, when the

wind was in the north, it was a very cold seat, which induced him to
inclose it round and round, with certain old doors and shutters,

which he had acquired in taking down and rebuilding the left wing of
the whinny hill house. The comfort in which this enabled him and

his family to listen to the worship, had an immediate effect; and
the example being of a taking nature, in the course of little more

than twenty years from the time, the whole area of the kirk had been
pewed in a very creditable manner.

Families thus getting, as it were, portions of the church, some,
when removing from the town, gave them up to their neighbours on

receiving a consideration for the expense they had been at in making
the pews; so that, from less to more, the pews so formed became a

lettable and a vendible property. It was, therefore, thought a hard
thing, that in the reparation which the seats had come to require in

my time, the heritors and corporation should be obligated to pay the
cost and expense of what was so clearly the property of others;

while it seemed an impossibility to get the whole tot of the
proprietors of the pews to bear the expense of new-seating the kirk.

We had in the council many a long and weighty sederunt on the
subject, without coming to any practical conclusion. At last, I

thought the best way, as the kirk was really become a disgrace to
the town, would be, for the corporation to undertake the repair

entirely, upon an understanding that we were to be paid eighteen
pence a bottom-room, per ANNUM, by the proprietors of the pews; and,

on sounding the heritors, I found them all most willing to consent
thereto, glad to be relieved from the awful expense of gutting and

replenishing such a great concern as the kirk was. Accordingly the
council having agreed to this proposal, we had plans and estimates

made, and notice given to the owners of pews of our intention. The
whole proceedings gave the greatest faction" target="_blank" title="n.满意；满足">satisfaction possible to the

inhabitants in general, who lauded and approved of my discernment
more and more.

By the estimate, it was found that the repairs would cost about a
thousand pounds; and by the plan, that the seats, at eighteen pence

a sitter, would yield better than a hundred pounds a-year; so that
there was no scruple, on the part of the town-council, in borrowing

the money wanted. This was the first public debt ever contracted by
the corporation, and people were very fain to get their money lodged

at five per cent. on such good security; in so much, that we had a
great deal more offered than we required at that time and epoch.

CHAPTER XVII--THE LAW PLEA
The repair of the kirk was undertaken by contract with William

Plane, the joiner, with whom I was in terms at the time anent the
bigging of a land of houses on my new steading at the town-end. A

most reasonable man in all things he was, and in no concern of my
own had I a better faction" target="_blank" title="n.满意；满足">satisfaction than in the house he built for me at

the conjuncture when he had the town's work in the kirk; but there
was at that period among us a certain person, of the name of Nabal

Smeddum, a tobacconist by calling, who, up to this season, had been
regarded but as a droll and comical body at a coothy crack. He was,

in stature, of the lower order of mankind, but endowed with an
inclination towards corpulency, by which he had acquired some show

of a belly, and his face was round, and his cheeks both red and
sleeky. He was, however, in his personalities, chiefly remarkable

for two queer and twinkling little eyes, and for a habitual custom
of licking his lips whenever he said any thing of pith or jocosity,

or thought that he had done so, which was very often the case. In
his apparel, as befitted his trade, he wore a suit of snuff-coloured

cloth, and a brown round-eared wig, that curled close in to his
neck.

Mr Smeddum, as I have related, was in some estimation for his
comicality; but he was a dure hand at an argument, and would not see

the plainest truth when it was not on his side of the debate. No
occasion or cause, however, had come to pass by which this inherent

cross-grainedness was stirred into action, till the affair of
reseating the kirk--a measure, as I have mentioned, which gave the

best faction" target="_blank" title="n.满意；满足">satisfaction; but it happened that, on a Saturday night, as I
was going soberly home from a meeting of the magistrates in the

clerk's chamber, I by chance recollected that I stood in need of
having my box replenished; and accordingly, in the most innocent and

harmless manner that it was possible for a man to do, I stepped into
this Mr Smeddum, the tobacconist's shop, and while he was

compounding my mixture from the two canisters that stood on his
counter, and I was in a manner doing nothing but looking at the

number of counterfeit sixpences and shillings that were nailed
thereon as an admonishment to his customers, he said to me, "So,

provost, we're to hae a new lining to the kirk. I wonder, when ye
were at it, that ye didna rather think of bigging another frae the

fundament, for I'm thinking the walls are no o' a capacity of
strength to outlast this seating."

Knowing, as I did, the tough temper of the body, I can attribute my
entering into an argument with him on the subject to nothing but

some inconsiderate infatuation; for when I said heedlessly, the
walls are very good, he threw the brass snuff-spoon with an ecstasy

in to one of the canisters, and lifting his two hands into a posture
of admiration,--cried, as if he had seen an unco -

"Good! surely, provost, ye hae na had an inspection; they're crackit
in divers places; they're shotten out wi' infirmity in others. In

short, the whole kirk, frae the coping to the fundament, is a fabric
smitten wi' a paralytic."

"It's very extraordinar, Mr Smeddum," was my reply, "that nobody has
seen a' this but yoursel'."

"Na, if ye will deny the fact, provost," quo' he, "it's o' no
service for me to say a word; but there has to a moral certainty

been a slackness somewhere, or how has it happened that the wa's
were na subjected to a right inspection before this job o' the

seating?"
By this time, I had seen the great error into the which I had

fallen, by entering on a confabulation with Mr Smeddum; so I said to
him, "It' no a matter for you and me to dispute about, so I'll thank

you to fill my box;" the which manner of putting an end to the
debate he took very ill; and after I left the shop, he laid the

marrow of our discourse open to Mr Threeper the writer, who by
chance went in, like mysel', to get a supply of rappee for the

Sabbath. That limb of the law discerning a sediment of litigation
in the case, eggit on Mr Smeddum into a persuasion that the seating

of the kirk was a thing which the magistrates had no legal authority
to undertake. At this critical moment, my ancient adversary and

seeming friend, the dean of guild, happened to pass the door, and
the bickering snuff-man seeing him, cried to him to come in. It was

a very unfortunateoccurrence; for Mr M'Lucre having a secret
interest, as I have intimated, in the Whinstone quarry, when he

heard of taking down walls and bigging them up again, he listened
with greedy ears to the dubieties of Mr Threeper, and loudly, and to

the heart's content of Mr Smeddum, condemned the frailty and
infirmity of the kirk, as a building in general.

It would be overly tedious to mention, however, all the outs and ins
of the affair; but, from less to more, a faction was begotten, and

grew to head, and stirring among the inhabitants of the town, not
only with regard to the putting of new seats within the old walls,