During the long incumbency of the minister’s father, no built place of
worship existed in Strathaird. The little chapel of the early Celtic
Church, of which the memory is preserved in the name Kilmaree, had long
disappeared, and the clergyman used to preach from a recess in the
basalt crags, with a grassy slope in front on which his congregation
sat to hear him. My host, however, in the early years of his tenancy
of the parish, had succeeded in getting a small church erected wherein
his people could be sheltered in bad weather. I can recollect one of
these Sundays when the weather was absolutely perfect--a cloudless
blue sky, the sea smooth as a mirror, and the air suffused with the
calm peacefulness which seems so appropriate to a Sabbath. We were a
large but singularly quiet party, as we steered for the little bay of
Kilmaree, each wrapped up in the thoughts which the day or the scene
suggested. As we approached our landing place, we were startled by two
gun-shots in rapid succession on the hillside above us. The sound would
under any circumstances have intruded somewhat harshly into the quiet
of the landscape. But it was Sunday, and such a thing as shooting on
the Lord’s day had never been heard of in Strath. An Englishman had
rented the ground for the season, and he and his wife were now out with
their guns. The surprise and horror with which this conduct was viewed
by the minister and his family soon found an echo through the length
and breadth of the parish.
[Sidenote: THE MINISTER OF GLENELG]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account