Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, fifth series, no. 118, vol. III, April 3, 1886

No. 118.—Vol. III.
Price 1½ d.
SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1886.
HALF A CENTURY AGO.
Just as the old familiar landmarks of a place undergo in the course of time that change and decay which are the common lot of all things earthly ere they are finally removed from sight, nevermore to exist save as a name or memory, so many of the features or characteristics of our social life are continually being submitted to that process of transformation, and, in many respects, of obliteration, which prevails alike in the moral and the physical world. That process is to be witnessed every day. It is a result of the inevitable law to which everything human, every institution of man’s making or developing, is finally subservient. Assuredly, there is no feature or characteristic of life, whether viewed in a national or in an individual sense, but has to submit sooner or later to this universal order of things; and so, naturally, we may look, and look in vain to-day for that which but yesterday was an interesting and distinguishing trait in a certain aspect of the social life of those who then filled, as we do now, the measure of the time.
This reflection is irresistible in considering such a subject as that of ‘Beadles,’ a class of individuals who once filled a unique and peculiar place in the humbler walks of the social life of their time; for, as a class, they certainly cannot be said to form a feature in the social life of the present day. Of course, even yet the number of persons fulfilling the orthodox functions appertaining to the beadle is as large as ever—in all probability, larger. No minister surely, in Scotland at least, but enjoys his appurtenance in the person of his ‘man’ or officer. But the beadle of fifty years ago, the beadle with whom Dean Ramsay delighted to ‘forgather,’ where now is he? Sadly do we fear that he is at length sleeping his last long sleep within the quiet precincts of his ‘ain kirkyard,’ while another performs, after a fashion, those functions of his office which were ever his delight and pride, and which brought him in their performance not a little of that social renown which assuredly belonged to him, and to him alone.