Portions of the County Buildings are appropriated to a public Reading-room, the Savings Bank, and the Post-office.

SCHOOL-BUILDINGS.

(Pp. 320, 321.) What was formerly the Infant School in Queen Anne Place is now not merely such, but also a Female Industrial School for poor girls, in which all the ordinary branches of education are taught, with sewing, for which there is a separate teacher. There were recently added to the east end of the building two small side-rooms, which, although contracting the playground, have been ascertained to be a great convenience. The whole is superintended by a committee of ladies, and the children pay one penny per week, which goes to the general funds of the institution. The school is under Government inspection, and there are several pupil-teachers. Miss Thomson has for many years been the principal teacher, and although not yet certificated, has acquitted herself to the high satisfaction of all concerned. Indeed, it has been from her peculiar fitness for the situation, with the weekly superintendence of the committee of ladies, that the seminary has so long enjoyed its great popularity, and its large attendance of pupils. She has a salary of £40 per annum, with a free dwelling-house adjoining the school.

CHURCHES.

(Pp. 321, 324.)-Abbey New Church.-The interior of the tower of this church was lately, at the expense of James Kerr, Esq. of Middlebank, one of the heritors of the parish, closed up by a ceiling on the same line with that of the church itself, and in the same style of ornament, in the expectation of thereby improving the hearing. It is doubtful whether it has had this effect to any very perceptible extent, but it has not injured, on the contrary, in the opinion of many it has improved, the appearance of this portion of the edifice.

At the beginning of July 1858 there was erected in the north transept of the church the front panelling of the ancient Royal Gallery, which was in the nave of the old church, nearly opposite to the pulpit, after being renovated, stained, and varnished, chiefly at the expense of her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and partly by private sub

scription.

The defaced royal arms of Scotland and Denmark, in the centre, have been renewed, with the letters I.+R. and A+R. (Jacobus Rex, Anna Regina), and date, 1610. As the panelling was not long enough to extend the whole breadth of the transept, two side-pieces have been added, in which have been inserted in characters of the period the two following inscriptions, in order to commemorate ten of the royal, and two of the other distinguished personages who are shown at p. 133-7 of first volume, and p. 143 of second, to have been interred within the walls of the ancient Abbey Church, nave and choir, of Malcolm III. and David I. The following are the inscriptions :

St Andrew's Quoad Sacra Church, North Chapel Street, was in April 1849 fully endowed by a handsome contribution from James Kerr, Esq. of Middlebank, with which his Gairney property is burdened.

The other Quoad Sacra Church, the North, connected with the Establishment, is also endowed.

Scotch Baptist Church.-The religious body connected with this edifice, who were first settled in church order here in 1805, and who firmly maintained Scotch Baptist principles, at length, after many changes, broke up on 7th July 1854. Their place of worship was sold to the Holy Catholic Apostolic Congregation, commonly called Rowite or Irvingite, and a small body of that de

nomination now meet there. The English Baptists, joined by the Scotch, have their place of meeting in the Maygate Church, with the Rev. Mr Thomson as their pastor.

Gillespie Church. This elegant edifice, named in honour of the Rev. Thomas Gillespie, the founder of the Relief Church, and erected on the site of his place of worship, was opened for Divine service November 4, 1849. It is of Gothic architecture, with high turrets, each surmounted by a lofty crown, and the copestone in the centre, with an ornamented cross, all seen to great advantage from most of the approaches to the town. The interior, too, is neat and commodious, with a high and massy pulpit; and in front of the precentor's desk is a small platform, on which is placed a white marble baptismal font, resting on a marble slab, also white, streaked with blue, a present from a lady to the minister, out of personal respect for him. The church has stained windows, and is seated for about 600.

Free North Church and Free St Andrew's Church have been built since the publication of the first volume; the former situated in Bruce Street, and the latter in St Margaret's Street, and both are neat structures, each accommodating about 500 sitters.

The Evangelical Union Congregation occupy the room formerly belonging to the New Mason Lodge, situated immediately above the Ladies' School, Queen Anne Place, and which is their property.

On the 27th June 1849 there was erected in front of Queen Anne Street Church a good statue to the memory of Ralph Erskine, the first minister of it, and one of the honoured fathers of the Secession Church in Scotland, by the congregation of Queen Anne Street, aided by liberal contributions from their fellowtownsmen, and other friends, in various and distant parts of the country. The statue is seven and a half feet in height, and was executed after a design from Alexander Handyside Ritchie, Esq., sculptor, Edinburgh, by Mr Andrew Balfour, builder, Dunfermline, at the cost of nearly two hundred pounds.

Ralph Erskine, who had been ordained to the second charge in the parish of Dunfermline in 1711, and promoted to the first charge in 1716, seceded from the establishment in 1736, and died in 1752, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-second of his ministry.

The inauguration of the statue was celebrated by a procession of the Free Masons of the place, joined by a deputation of the Grand Lodge of Edinburgh, and the St John's Lodge of Cupar, accompanied by the Dunfermline Instrumental Band, along with a numerous attendance of ministers and members of the Secession Church in Dunfermline and elsewhere. The principal shops in the town being shut during the ceremony, there was a great turn-out of the inhabitants, as well as of many persons from the neighbourhood.

The Rev. Dr Kidston, the father of the Secession Church, offered up an appropriate introductory prayer, after which part of the 64th Paraphrase was sung by the audience near the platform. Addresses were then delivered successively by the Rev. James Young, minister of Queen Anne Street Congregation, who enumerated the articles deposited, and the several steps which had been taken in the erection of the monument; and by Professor M'Michael, minister of Gillespie Church. Among the speakers on the occasion were also Dr Dewar, Mr Ritchie, and Mr Ballantine of Edinburgh, Mr Balfour,* Mr James Morris, the late James Hunt, Esq. of Pittencrieff, Bailie Gray of Edinburgh, Mr W. Frazer, Inverkeithing, who was connected with the family of Ralph Erskine by birth, and Mr R. E. Beveridge of Urquhart.

In the evening a soiree was held in Queen Anne Street Church, numerously attended, at which the Rev. James Young, as minister of the congregation, presided. Addresses were delivered appropriate to the occasion successively by the Rev. Dr Johnstone, Limekilns; the Rev. John Law, then of St Margaret's Church, now at Inverleithen; the Rev. Dr Kidston of Glasgow; the Rev. Dr M'Farlane of Glasgow, son of one of the late ministers of Queen Anne Street Church; the Rev. A. Thomson of Edinburgh, and the Rev. William Anderson of Glasgow. Between the addresses, pieces of sacred music were sung, and the whole service was concluded by the singing of the last two verses of the 58th Paraphrase, and the pronouncing of the benediction by the Rev. Mr Frazer of Alloa, a descendant of the Erskines.

In the course of the evening the following lines of Ralph Erskine were quoted :

* Mr A. Balfour died suddenly on the 17th July 1858, in his 46th year.

X

F

His

presence grave did reverence great command, And gained profound respect from every hand;

His very look could vanity restrain,

His countenance put levity to shame."

The lines, too, which Dr Husband, one of the late ministers of Queen Anne Street Church, inscribed on the Bible which was used by Ralph Erskine, were cited :—

"His silver tongue did living truths impart,

With raised hand, fit emblem of his heart;

He saw, he felt, he sang redeeming love,—

Death called him hence, to tune his harp above."

Note to Abbey New Church, p. 323 of First Volume.-The inscription, of which there is in the session-house or vestry a framed copy in excellent preservation, written on a roll of parchment, and deposited in the foundation-stone of the building, is given at full length on pp. 534-537, along with a short account of the ceremony on laying the foundation-stone, and an abstract of the animated and appropriate address delivered on the occasion by the late (Thomas, 7th) Earl of Elgin.

(Pp. 324-7.) Banks.-There are four banks in Dunfermlinethe Bank of Scotland, in Abbey Park Place; the British Linen Co. Bank, in Canmore Street; the Commercial, in Abbot Street; and the National, in Guild-Hall Street,-all good buildings, with the dwelling-houses of the agents adjoining them.

The MacLean Hospital. This hospital, situated to the eastward of the Prison and Poor-house, is a commodious building of two stories, finished in June 1849. It is so named after the late Rev. Allan MacLean, minister of the first charge, Abbey Church, in consequence of a donation of £500 from his trustfunds for its erection, at the suggestion and offer of his trustees, the late James Hunt, Esq. of Pittencrieff, the late Robert Douglas, Esq. of Abbey Park, and myself, his colleague, and afterwards his successor, with the concurrence and liberal contribution of the Parochial Board of Dunfermline. It was designed chiefly for maid-servants, and other persons infected with fever or any contagious disease, residing in the town or parish, not in houses of their own, or in houses with defective accommodation, so as to have cleanly and well-aired apartments, support, and regular medical and other attendance, either at a small charge or gra