stone and coal;" and we know that its inhabitants-estimable and enterprising-claim for it the distinction of being the highest market town in England. The effect of the exhilarating air of alpine slopes is wont to make delighted pilgrims almost dance. At Deardengate, however, it, or something else, seems to have made Mr Ramsay's people doze. Against this dozing during divine service he appears to have waged a willing, well-intentioned warfare. Take the following as characteristic specimens of his method of attack -" Heigh! heigh!! See, S is asleep again! Look at her!" The fair sleeper, startled into consciousness, promptly retorted-"Well, yo' should preych so as to keep us wekken!"

On another occasion, making, what old Weller, in a very different discourse, called "rather a sudden pull up," he shouted "Fire! fire! fire!" The alarmed people asked, "Where? where, Mr Ramsay? where?" With statuesque, Dantean grimness, he replied, " In hell, for sleepy sinners!"1 Much has happened in this district, as elsewhere, since those days, and such outré proceedings do not now occur. It does not appear, however, that because of them the people loved their aged pastor less, and perhaps they caused him to be remembered all the more.

We may now leave this subject, with the reference made to it by Dr Brown in his sketch. It is in these words:

1 It was not at Haslingden, however, but in a church elsewhere of another denomination, where the atmosphere had been rather close, and the sermon, perhaps, somewhat soporific, one Sunday morning, that after service one worshipper said to another forming part of a group going homeward, "Eh, Dick, did ta yer Ned snoring i' t' sermon?" "Yer him? Did aw yer t' thunder i' Friday neet? Ned's a coshun-he fairly wekken'd us o'!"

1

"A disagreement having taken place between the Rev. Peter Ramsay and the principal landed proprietors in the neighbourhood, Mr Ramsay found it necessary to leave on 8th December 1811, and afterwards accepted the charge of the Independent Congregation at Deardengate, Haslingden."

The "principal landed proprietors" were, of course, the Grants. But is there any proof that all or any of the elder brothers actually approved of what the youngest had done? The following incident will show that it was so. James Bennet, after being many years in America, revisited Ramsbottom, and gave a lecture on his reminiscences in connection with Dundee Chapel. He, then a young man, and his wife, were present when Mr Ramsay was ejected from the chapel, and the latter intimated, outside, that he would preach in the graveyard in the afternoon. He did so, and James and his wife were present. Next day, at the works, Mr William Grant came to him and asked if he had heard Mr Ramsay in the afternoon. He said he had; whereupon Mr Grant said, "You go down and work in the croft!" Bennet, who was not quite out of his apprenticeship, was a block printer, and accustomed to work in a dry and very warm room; and to go down to the cold damp croft was as great a punishment as the master could well inflict. He went, as ordered, but he said he never forgot it. This incident shows, clearly enough, that more than Mr Charles Grant approved of the That event of 1811 closes the Like the first, it covers eighty

expulsion of Mr Ramsay. second period of our history. years.

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CHAPTER III.

1811-1891.

T this point we begin the third period of eighty years, and this will bring us down to the time of writing. It falls conveniently into three minor periods of unequal length-viz.:

I. From 1811 to 1829; embracing the ministry of the Rev. Thomas Nelson, and that pre-eminently of the Rev. Dr George Brown, with the prominent and memorable part taken by Mr William Grant as elder and trustee; official documents, minutes, &c.

II. From 1830 to 1869; embracing the ministry of the Rev. Dr Andrew MacLean; the building of St Andrew's Church by Mr William Grant; its forcible seizure; reception and consecration by the Bishop of Manchester; death of Dr MacLean, correspondence, claim, &c.

III. From 1869 to 1891; embracing the ministry of the Rev. J. Kerr Craig, with the building of New St Andrew's; and that of the present minister, including the liquidation of church debt, the forcible seizure of Dundee property and its recovery by trustees appointed by St Andrew's (Dundee) congregation, memorial notes, Presbytery and Parliament.

SECTION I.-1811-1830.

Some time after the ejectment of Mr Ramsay, the Rev. Thomas Nelson, a licentiate of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, came to Dundee Chapel. Mr Nelson was a native of the parish of Auchtergaven, in Perthshire-a parish which suggests the name of Lord Nairne, who in 1745 left his estates and the splendid baronial mansion, whose restoration after a destructive fire he had all but completed, to follow the fortunes of the young Pretender, and never saw loved Auchtergaven again. On his attainder his title was forfeited and his estates sold. These were purchased by the Duke of Atholl, who razed the stately mansion to the ground. Mr Nelson, though licensed, was not ordained. He remained, however, at Dundee Chapel for about three years. In 1890, we discovered a volume of the 'Evangelical Magazine' for the year 1814, which, strangely enough, has bound up with it a sermon bearing the following title :

A sermon preached in the Presbyterian Chapel, Holcombe, on the 7th day of July 1814, being the day appointed for a general thanksgiving for the return of peace. Deus nobis hæc otia fecit. Virgil. By Thomas Nelson, licentiate of the Presbytery of Edinburgh. Bury: Printed by B. Crompton, Fleet Street. 1814.

The text is Psalm cxvi. 12, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" We extract the following portions from the closing section of the discourse:

"It becomes us to show our gratitude to God for His benefits by the deep devotion of our hearts, and the active endeavours of our lives to perform the duties enjoined by the authority of His commandments. If thou rejectest the counsel of God against thyself, and, because thy deeds are evil, despisest the light which He has sent into the world,

revealing mercy and pardon and eternal life; then thou hast nothing to do to declare the statutes of the Lord, or to take His covenant in thy mouth. But if, on the contrary,

when thou framest thy lips to utter His praise thou feelest devotion actuate thy heart; if thou turnest not away thy foot from the house of prayer on the day which He has commanded thee to worship Him in the public assemblies of His people, but callest the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and dost honour it; not speaking thine own words, nor finding thine own pleasure;' if with the conviction of faith, and the sentiment of hope, thou thankest Him for His unspeakable gift, that of sending His Son to redeem the world from the dominion and the punishment of sin, to bring in a perfect righteousness, and life and immortality to light; thou shalt enjoy the peace which has been proclaimed for thee on earth, and be raised to the glory that is reserved for thee in heaven.

"Come then, my brethren, and let us learn righteousness from the judgments of the Lord, which have been abroad in the earth. Let each of us, in his own place, walking in his uprightness, at once maintain the greatness of our country and show our gratitude to God for His benefits towards us. For righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.'''

The peace whose thanksgiving celebration at Dundee Chapel has furnished us with this sermon was that which resulted from the overthrow of Napoleon, followed by the treaty between him and the allied European Powers, in which he renounced the empire of France and the kingdom of Italy for himself and his descendants. The treaty was signed by him at Fontainebleau, on the 11th of April 1814. That