1856 — Anonymous, Claude de Vesci: A Tale, Volume II, Bell and Daldy (1856), page 218:
All this was carried from the Hand-inHand to wife and children in every Thordale home, so that such a churchful was never known as flocked in on the Sunday afternoon — the whole parish was there, determined to have "a good seeght of t' wonderful young Lord."
[…] See how eloquent your mountains make me!--I think that would make one hard and cruel; and one would need the prayers of a churchful of good women, even as good--as you."
The text was in Romans 5th and 13th - the minister a skilled hand; and the whole of that able churchful - from Argyle, and my Lords Elchies and Kilkerran, down to the halbertmen that came in their attendance - was sunk with gathered brows in a profound critical attention.
There was GInny's husband, lying on the floor and raving the same as he always did when he was dead drunk, while a whole churchful of sober and apparently sane people listened as if he were telling them where to find gold.