" TIMBER TO TIMBER."
(To THE EDITOR OF TRH "SPECTATOR.") Srn,—In the notice of Rowland Hill's Life in the last Spectator, a story is quoted which the reviewer deems apocryphal. I sus- pect that it is so, at least as regards Mr. Hill. It will be found in the " Annals of the Parish," wherein an account is given of the forcible " placing" of the hero, Mr. Micah Balwhidder, in the Kirk of Dalmailing --
" Mr. Given, that was then the minister of Lugton, was a jocose man, and would have his joke even at a solemnity. When the- laying of the hands upon me was adoing, he could not get near enough to put on his ; but he stretched out his staff and touched my head, and said, to the great diversion of the rest, ' This will do well enough ; timber to timber." Given and Lugton are, of course, feigned names, but in his " Notes and Illustrations" Mr. Galt says that the story was commonly told of Mr. Thom, minister of Govan, at the " placing " of a neighbouring minister-
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