posite the shell and
figures is what appears to be a representation of the Virgin and Child,
alongside of which is a figure of the Crucifixion.[19] This old bell is
used to announce the half-hour as measured on the Steeple Clock,[20] as
also to tell the living that the mortal remains of some brother or sister
are about to be laid beneath the turf.

The large bell--used to announce the services of the church, and, through
the kindness of Lady Rollo, to ring at "matins" and at "even-song"--is of
very full tone. It was a gift to the church by a highly-respected
heritor of the parish, and bears this inscription:--

"T. Mears of London fecit.

"This Bell was presented to the Parish Church of Dunning by Mark Howard
Drummond, Esq. of Kelty, Major of the 72nd Regiment of Albany
Highlanders, in token of his attachment to his native parish, and of his
zeal to promote religious, industrious, and early habits among the
parishioners.--August 3d, 1825."

Mention has already been made of the fact that the patron Saint of
Dunning was S. SERF. The same Saint had churches dedicated to him at
Monivaird (Monzievaird), at Creich, and at Dysart. But, inasmuch as he
seems to have lived for some considerable time at Dunning, and also to
have died there, perhaps this is the most fitting place for a page or two
as to his history.

That he was a real historic personage does not admit of doubt; but the
exact time at which he acted his part on the world's stage is involved in
great obscurity. The legends of him are very conflicting, so much so,
that it has been supposed by some that there were two S. Serfs. It is
the legends, however, that are two-fold, and not the Saint. According to
the Aberdeen Breviary, and writers who follow its guidance, S. Servanus,
or S. Serf, or S. Serb, or (in Aberdeenshire) S. Sair, belonged to the
5th century, and was the disciple of S. Palladius; others putting him a
little further on, and making him out to have been the instructor of S.
Kentigern at Culross. But most people who carefully read the pages of
Skene[21] will be satisfied that S. Servanus belongs to a later period
still. It so happens that there is preserved in the Marsh M.S., Dublin,
and printed in Skene's _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_ (p. 412, ff.),
a Life of the Saint, which, notwithstanding some excessively wild and
incredible-looking stories mixed up with it, is the only life of his that
is consistent with itself and with otherwise