The book Arran; - Cook Clan

CHAPTER X
IMPROVEMENT AND EMIGRATION
Religious life—the Revivals of 1804-5, 1812-13— the 'outcrying' and
various opinions thereon—an Arran communion and church-going
renewal of improvement in the island—clearances and emigration—the
Sannox clearance—the occasion of the Canadian Boat Song—story of
Megantic settlers—condition of the other properties, the Westenra
and Fullarton estates—exports of the island— population—commercial
directory.
I
To the prophet on the mountain there came first a great
wind and thereafter an earthquake. Arran in the early
years of the nineteenth century was first profoundly moved
by successive outbursts of religious emotion, then suffered
a social upheaval, in which, over the greater part of the
island, the old order of things and the old landmarks were
finally removed.
For both experiences the island was still almost virgin
soil. Arran, we have seen, had at no time, so far, been
marked by any prominence in religious zeal. The religious
revivals which had spread from district to district of Scotland
in the years after 1742 never touched its shores. A ' slumber
of spiritual death ' is the description of the religious state
of the island at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
' Thirty years ago,' it is written, ' the state of religion in
this island was exceedingly bad.' ^ Yet Kirk Sessions had
been pretty wakeful throughout the eighteenth century, nor
had ministers been asleep. The Rev. Gershom Stewart, in
' Revival of Religion in Arran, by Rev. Angus M'Millan, minister of Kilmorie (1830).
203
—