/u
 
 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS.
 
 
 Do O^ (^
 
 LAYS 
 
 THE COVENANTEES, 
 
 JAMES DODDS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the FIFTY YEARS' STRUGGLE OF THE COVENANTEES ;" AND 
 " THOMAS CHALMERS, A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY," ETC, 
 
 WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 REV. JAMES DODDS, 
 
 Wnn PORTRAIT, ETCHED BY R. IF. MACDETU 
 FROM A PHOTOGRAPH. 
 
 CEtiintiurgi}: 
 
 JOHN MACLAKEN & SON. 
 
 1880. 
 
 • » i j« J » ^ > 
 
 1 j l I 1 I I 'i ll j ; . ■ j i )
 
 EDINBTJRGH : 
 
 rRINTEB BY LORIMER AND GILLTES, 
 
 31 ST. ANDREW SQUARE.
 
 
 PEE FACE 
 
 The length of the Memoir in this vokime may seem dis- 
 } proportioned to the size of that part of it from which it 
 ^ derives its name. But the urgency of friends and the 
 S' abundance of materials placed at my disposal have com- 
 pelled me to lengthen out considerably what was originally 
 
 5? intended to be a mere biographical sketch. Mr. Dodds's 
 (J) 
 
 •" remarkable character and not uneventful life deserve a 
 o 
 
 c^ fuller portraiture than what is here presented ; but I hope 
 ^ no great injustice has been done to either of them in the 
 following Memoir, which, though concise, may yet be found 
 y^ sufficiently comprehensive. 
 
 W The Poems in this volume, published in two different 
 S magazines more than thirty years ago, were at one time 
 ^ partially revised by their author for publication in a separate 
 form. They were greatly admired by many competent 
 judges when they first appeared, and it is believed they 
 will stand the test of impartial criticism at the present day. 
 Had the author lived to revise them now, they would 
 probably have further benefited by the last touches of his 
 critical hand. He was a writer who loved more to condense 
 than to expand the productions of his pen ; but few readers
 
 vi PBEFACE. 
 
 of his " Lays of the Covenanters," will wish that they had 
 undergone any serious compression previous to their present 
 appearance. While their poetical merits must be left to 
 the judgment of the public, I may be permitted to say, 
 with some confidence, that they breathe the very spirit of 
 the Covenanting times, and do historic justice to a body of 
 heroic men who, whatever faults may be imputed to them, 
 were true to their conscience, and died in the cause of 
 liberty. 
 
 Having undertaken to prepare the Memoir, and edit the 
 Poems, at the request of Mr. Dodds's family, I have received 
 much valuable assistance from Mrs. Bontor, his eldest 
 daughter. My best thanks are also due to various friends 
 who have favoured me with letters of Mr. Dodds, and other 
 biographic materials ; especially to Dr. Charles Rogers, 
 who, besides sending me some interesting personal remini- 
 scences, kindly gave me the use of a number of volumes 
 which I have found to be of great service in giving com- 
 pleteness to my narrative. 
 
 I am responsible for the Illustrative Notes at the end of 
 the volume, w^ith the exception of those relating to " The 
 Aged Covenanter," " The Christian Exile," and " The Dove 
 and the Ruin." The Notes referring to these last were 
 prefixed to them by the author when they first appeared. 
 
 J. D. 
 
 Dunbar, November, 1879.
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Birth and Early Education. Youthful Characteristics. Life at the 
 
 University. Erratic Courses. A Happy Return, ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Schoolmaster at Sandyknowe. Humble but Honest Industry. Varying 
 
 Moods of Mind. Bold Aspirations. Fine Literary Efforts, . 24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Lawyer's Clerk at Melrose. Oratory and Popular Politics, Hard 
 Work and great Poverty. Dreams of going to the Bar. Sympathy 
 and Advice of Mr. Carlyle, . . . . . . .37 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 A Lawyer's Clerk in Edinburgh. Early Struggles over. Struggles of 
 another kind. Religious Convictions. Becomes acquainted with 
 Mr. John Hunter. Lays of the Covenanters. Yisit to Humbie. 
 His enjoj-raent of the Country, . .... 51 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 Removes to London. Parliamentary Solicitor. Professional Success. 
 Great interest in Local Railways. Carlyle. Letters in the Dura- 
 fries Courier and the Scotsman. Leigh Hunt. Craigcrook Sonnets. 
 Morgan WiU Case. The Glen Tilt Case, . . . .70
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Visits to Galloway. Two Galloway Lairds. Lectures on the Cove- 
 nanters and their Times. Rev. Dr. Rogers. Inauguration of the 
 Guthrie Monument at Stirling, Public Breakfast in his Honour. 
 Monument to the Wigtown Martyrs. Address at the Laying of 
 the Foundation Stone. Wallace Monument Movement. . . 89 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Scottish Literary Institute. Kossuth. Popular Lectures. Proposed 
 Lectures on the Christian Evidences. Essay on " Scottish Lyrics 
 and Scottish Life," Publication of " Fifty Years' Struggle of the 
 Scottish Covenanters." Lectures on the Reformation Period of 
 Scottish Church History, , . . , . .106 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Contributions to the " Oak." Life of Dr. Chalmers, Withdraws from 
 General Society. Family Life. Scenes of his Holiday Recreations. 
 Growing love of Nature. Overwork and failing Health. Closing 
 Years and Last Days. Death and Burial at Dundee. Conclusion, 121
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 The Death of Archibald, Fiest Marquis of Argtle, 
 The Death of James Guthrie, . 
 Sharpe Offering a Bishopric to E-obfrt Dohglas, 
 The Christian Exile, .... 
 
 Battle-Song of the Pentlands, 
 
 The Aged Covenanter, .... 
 
 The Battle of Airsmoss, 
 
 Cargill taken Prisoner at Covington Mill, on the Glide, . 
 
 Renwick in the Cottage of John Brown op Peiesthill, 
 
 Renwick's Visit to the Death-Bed of Peden, 
 
 Peden's Shroud, ....... 
 
 Trial and Death of Robert Baillie of Jervieswoode, 
 The Martyr of Priesthill, ..... 
 
 Meeting of General Dalziel and Captain John Paton of Meadow 
 head, ....... 
 
 The Dove and the Ruin, ..... 
 
 John Knox Administering the Sacrament at Calder House, 
 
 FACE 
 
 145 
 150 
 157 
 159 
 164 
 169 
 174 
 181 
 185 
 200 
 213 
 214 
 221 
 
 240 
 246 
 249 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES, 
 
 255
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION. YOUTHFUL CHARACTERISTICS. LIFE AT 
 THE UNIVERSITY. ERRATIC COURSES. A HAPPY RETURN. 
 
 James Dodds, the author of the following poems and of 
 other writings of undoubted merit, was born on the 6th of 
 February, 1813, at Softlaw, in the parish of Sprouston, 
 near Kelso. Having lost his father when he was a mere 
 child, his early training was left to his mother, a warm- 
 hearted and excellent woman, who had soon reason to 
 rejoice in the opening powers and promising character of 
 her son. But the person who exercised most influence on 
 his youth, and whom he always regarded with unbounded 
 veneration, was his grandfather, under whose roof he and 
 his mother lived during his earliest years. That venerable 
 relative, after whom he was named, was indeed one of the 
 finest conceivable specimens of a class of worthies in humble
 
 2 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 life for whicli Scotland was once famous. He was a man of 
 singular piety and gravity of character, of great intelligence, 
 and gentleness of disposition. He had a love of reading, and 
 a taste for wholesome religious literature, which greatly added 
 to his mental stores, and gave him a high authority among 
 his neighbours. He was a member of the Secession Church 
 in its best, or at least its most primitive days, and took a 
 deep interest in all matters that concerned the spiritual im- 
 provement of the nation, and the spread of the Gospel in 
 heathen lands. In spiritual intelligence and mental devel- 
 opment he was far in advance of his neighbours. He was 
 among the first in his own district, indeed among the first 
 in Scotland, who subscribed to the " London Missionary 
 Society," that great Institution which so materially helped 
 to inaugurate in this country the era of missions. Old 
 James Dodds believed that the Society would be " a liber- 
 ator and regenerator of a benighted w^orld, of all degraded 
 humanity." He took in the Evangelical Magazine and 
 delighted in the fresh missionary intelligence and wholesome 
 spiritual food it provided, month after month, for its numer- 
 ous readers on both sides of the Border. His grandson 
 always delighted to speak of him " as a grand old man, a 
 veritable patriarch, an Abraham among his people,'' who, 
 though born in humble life, was well educated and intelli- 
 gent, a deep thinker on the great social and political events 
 of his day, and as remarkable for his unfailing good sense
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 3 
 
 as for his fervent piety." He was gifted with a rich fancy, 
 and addicted to solitary meditation on the hill-side, in the 
 calm of the twilight, or amidst the blast of the midnight 
 storm. He was a saint on earth and an oracle among his 
 fellows. He made a deep impression upon all who even 
 casually met with him in this world ; and his grandson, who 
 grew up in his presence for years, learned to look upon him 
 with a reverence that almost became a passion. Till his 
 dying day James Dodds spoke of '' his grandsire old " with 
 a depth of feeling which often moved him to tears. 
 
 The youth, thus trained at the side of such a saintly 
 character, soon displayed a measure of intelligence that 
 excited the admiration of all his companions. Little is 
 recorded of the first schools he attended, but it is certain 
 that he displayed in his earliest years a wonderful aptitude 
 for learning, and a precocity of talent quite extraordinary. 
 He made verses, and recited sermons in the hearing of 
 his companions, when he was quite a child. His imagina- 
 tion, fired by old ballads and border tales, suddenly acquired 
 great power, and lifted him into an ideal world. He would 
 often gallop about from place to place on an imaginary 
 steed, and then astonish the rustic minds of the people 
 around him by thrilhng narratives of battles with wild 
 beasts and encounters with savage men. These marvellous 
 creations of his child-brain were for the time as real to him 
 as life itself. At other times he would gather round him a
 
 4 MEMOIR OF JAMES JDODDS. 
 
 miscellaneous audience to listen to his harangues or sermons 
 on scriptural subjects, modelled, for the most part, after the 
 discourses he heard from the pulpit. Yet what struck 
 many of his more intelligent hearers was not the liveliness 
 of his fancy, but the maturity of his understanding, The 
 wonder of the sages of the hamlet was that one so young 
 could speak on subjects so important with the gravity and 
 sobriety that belong to riper years. 
 
 Before he was much above thirteen years of age he had 
 read and mastered many of the works of Dr. Johnson, and, 
 what is more remarkable still, had grappled with Bishop War- 
 burton's " Divine Legation of Moses." And so thoroughly 
 did he enter into the spirit of these great writers that he 
 actually, in his youthful enthusiasm, admired their very 
 faults. Their dogmatism and arrogance he would often, 
 more in earnest than in jest, praise and even imitate. The 
 educated persons he became acquainted with were often 
 amused to hear the rustic but precocious youth talk in the 
 pompous language of Johnson, argue sometimes in his play- 
 ful, sometimes in his surly style, and lay down the law most 
 dogmatically on some difficult question. Warburton's con- 
 troversial arrogance seemed to be a high merit in his eyes, 
 and he enthusiastically praised the argument of the Divine 
 Legation, splendid paradox as it is now admitted to be. 
 But these fits of admiration and imitation he afterwards 
 regarded as the intellectual frolics of his youth, the ebulli-
 
 MEMOTB OF JAMES DODDS. 5 
 
 tions of a mind that wanted the firm guidance of some 
 accomplished preceptor. Indeed, looking back to his early 
 days, he often described himself as self-willed, passionate, 
 and proud, apt to assert his independence in an extravagant 
 way, to rebel against salutary restraint, and even to indulge 
 in the language of sarcasm, which is so unbecoming in the 
 mouth of the young. These strange characteristics of his 
 youth, however, were accompanied with singular warmth and 
 generosity of heart, which gained him friends and conciliated 
 enemies. 
 
 When about eight years of age he was sent to live with 
 an uncle and aunt in the parish of Mertoun, for the sake of 
 attending a school at which he might be prepared for the 
 University of Edinburgh. The parochial schoolmaster, a 
 Mr. Penny, was an original in his way, but a man of con- 
 siderable acquirements, and able to teach more than the 
 elements of Latin and Greek. He was in the habit of 
 making his more intelligent pupils read in turn passages 
 from any newspaper that had fallen into his hands in those 
 days of limited political knowledge. As one piece of news 
 after another was read the old pedagogue uttered sundry 
 significant exclamations, or offered some pungent criticisms. 
 In this way he " taught the young idea how to shoot," and 
 strove to implant in the minds of his pupils germs of serious 
 and fruitful thought. 
 
 But when he was about eleven years of age the young
 
 6 MEMOIB OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 scholar ran away from Mertoun in a fit of passion, or possessed 
 by a strong spirit of adventure. Instead of returning to the 
 house of his grandfather, who had, some years before, re- 
 moved to Muserig, two miles from Kelso, he made his way 
 to Edinburgh, in order, as he said, " to see the world." In 
 one of his letters, written late in life, he thus speaks of this 
 adventure : — " I had a vague idea of living by my pen, and 
 carried away in my flight a quantity of poems, and a history 
 of the world, by which I expected to get riches to live u.poD, 
 and immortal fame after death." He was traced to Edin- 
 burgh, and brought back to live with his grandfather, who, 
 while other relatives rated him severely, kindly forgave his 
 youthful folly, and overcame him by the power of kindness. 
 
 But notwithstanding this strange escapade, James Dodds 
 gradually won for himself many admiring friends, and 
 attracted the attention of several influential persons who 
 were able to assist him in his early difficulties. Mr. Innes, 
 the factor of the Duke of Roxburgh, on whose estate his 
 grandfather lived, actually made arrangements for sending 
 him to the University of Edinburgh. This gentleman acted 
 from first to last in this matter with considerate kindness. 
 
 The Rev. W. Kell, Episcopal minister at Kelso, an excel- 
 lent scholar, and well disposed to befriend humble merit, 
 was another true friend of the youth ; so also was his son, 
 William, a young man of fine parts, and the most amiable 
 disposition. Between William Kell and James Dodds there
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 7 
 
 sprang up thus early a friendship of the wannest kind ; it 
 was like that of David and Jonathan, beautiful and true on 
 both sides. But young Kell's career, which was full of 
 promise, was soon cut short. His was one of those delicate 
 characters that open like lovely flowers to the world for a 
 brief season, and then suddenly pass away. 
 
 It may here be mentioned that James Dodds, from his 
 boyhood, attended, with his grandfather and mother, the 
 ministry of the Rev. Robert Hall, of the Secession Church, 
 Kelso, and brother of the better known Dr. James Hall, of 
 Brought on Place Church, Edinburgh. Mr. Hall was an 
 able man and an excellent preacher, but eccentric in his 
 habits, and possessed of a somewhat imperious and choleric 
 temper. His eccentricities both in and out of the pulpit 
 were tolerated by his large and attached congregation out 
 of respect to his fidelity as a preacher and pastor. But 
 he was quite a spiritual hero in the eyes of his young 
 hearer from Muserig, who admired his vigorous sermons and 
 enthusiastically extolled his very oddities and extravagances. 
 The native humour of the youth, and his keen sympathy 
 with all that he thought genuine in character had probably 
 more to do in producing such overflowing admiration than 
 either sound judgment or a just knowledge of human nature." 
 
 In November, 1828, the Muserig scholar proceeded to Edin- 
 burgh, in order to commence his studies at the University. 
 He had made no choice of any profession, though doubtless
 
 8 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 his mother and other relatives hoped he would study for the 
 ministry of the Secession Church. His grandfather was 
 now dead, and he missed the blessing of the noble old man 
 when he left his home. He was, in many respects, better 
 furnished for the initiatory classes of the University than 
 most country students of his day. His knowledge of Latin 
 and Greek was considerable, and the amount of his literary 
 information was quite uncommon in one so young. But in 
 regard to other matters he was remarkably deficient. He 
 wanted method and system in the prosecution of his studies. 
 His fierce spirit of independence and his dislike of restraint 
 also made him ready to quarrel with the professors and his 
 best friends. These faults of his fiery youth he soon came 
 to see in their true light, and he never ceased to lament 
 them as long as he lived. 
 
 At this period began my personal acquaintance with the 
 subject of this memoir. We were cousins, and, though we 
 had never met before, we had carried on for years an 
 epistolary correspondence. Lodging together during the 
 winter session, we had abundant opportunities of studying 
 each other's characters, tempers, and literary attainments. 
 I soon found that, though somewhat younger than myself, 
 he was decidedly in advance of me in various regions of 
 thought. His knowledge of books and literature seemed to 
 me quite beyond his years. He was evidently, also, not one 
 of those precocious youths who grow up into commonplace
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. ' 9 
 
 characters, but a lad of remarkable ability and a robust 
 habit of mind. I soon found that he could be petulant 
 enough when heated by argument ; but I also found that he 
 was essentially kindly and good-natured. In the warmth 
 of his heart he was ever ready to forgive and forget all blows 
 given and received in controversy or debate. At the out- 
 set of his career, as well as in his later days, I was always 
 struck with the child-like simplicity that gave a peculiar 
 charm to his character. 
 
 In the University we only met in the second Latin class. 
 He was a fair Latin scholar, but somehow he did not 
 vigorously apply himself to his classic studies, and soon 
 incurred the censure of Professor Pillans. That professor, 
 though a good scholar, and an excellent teacher, was a little 
 fussy and fidgety in conducting the business of his class, 
 and occasionally displayed qualities which a youth like my 
 cousin was sure to regard with dislike, and even contempt. 
 The consequence was that he soon became a sort of marked 
 man in the class, as he took little pains to conceal the spirit 
 of rebellion that harboured in his heart. The professor was 
 right in the main, and the refractory student well deserved 
 the sharp admonitions which he occasionally received. He 
 afterwards deeply regretted '' the boyish petulance of his 
 student days," and though he once bitterly said to me that 
 " Pillans would be nothing if he were not a Latin scholar," 
 he lived to acknowledge the personal worth and public
 
 10 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 services of that distinguished Latinist and educational 
 reformer. 
 
 With Mr. Wallace, the Professor of Mathematics, one of 
 whose classes he attended, my cousin was greatly delighted. 
 That eminent mathematician was a man of great simplicity 
 and genial wit. He often seasoned his instructions with 
 quaint sayings, and commended himself to his students by 
 the child-like frankness of his character. James Dodds was 
 just the person to relish immensely the good or odd things 
 said by the worthy old mathematical Scotchman, and often 
 at night he read to me out of his note-book, not statements 
 or solutions of geometrical problems, but the racy remarks 
 or humorous allusions of his favourite professor. He showed 
 a keen appreciation of the class of characters to which 
 Wallace belonged, and too exclusively applauded what was 
 simple, odd, or old-fashioned in the men he met with in life. 
 In his reckless student days he certainly gave way too much 
 to likes and dislikes that were inspired more by capricious 
 feeling than sober conviction. I often had occasion to con- 
 demn both his transient ebullitions of resentment and his 
 regular quarrels ; but I never found in him any trace of 
 malice or ungenerous feeling. Want of knowledge of the 
 world, a naturally warm temper, and an exaggerated sense of 
 independence accounted for most of those juvenile explosions 
 which brought him into much trouble, and afterwards filled 
 him with an almost excessive remorse.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 11 
 
 I persuaded him to join with me a debating society, com- 
 posed chiefly of Dumfriesshire and Galloway students. He 
 soon took a leading part in the debates, and manifested an 
 oratorical talent which quite astonished his fellow-members. 
 At one bound he became, I may say, the first debater in the 
 society. He seemed to have found there the proper arena 
 for the exercise of his powers, which were eminently those 
 of a public speaker. He had a ready command of ideas 
 and illustrations which he clothed on the spot in vigorous 
 and pointed language. He showed little or nothing of the 
 mere schoolboy declaimer, though he was not yet sixteen 
 years of age. On the contrary, his acuteness and reasoning 
 powers were as extraordinary as his fluency and vigour of 
 speech. His chief fault was his want of calmness and 
 self-command. A proneness to sarcasm, sometimes of a per- 
 sonal kind, and an occasional ferocity of spirit, must also be 
 numbered among his infirmities. But his genius for oratory 
 was immediately recognised by all who heard him speak. 
 Dr. Wilson, late of Dundee, now of Edinburgh, who knew 
 the young debater when first he tried his powers, says of 
 him, that " his eloquence was quite unique, and far surpassed 
 that of any other student of his day." 
 
 His chief antagonist in debate was John Anderson, who, 
 in after-life, went to Madras as a Christian missionary, and 
 nobly distinguished himself on the mission-field. Anderson 
 had been at least a year a member of the society before my
 
 12 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 cousin joined it, and had taken a prominent part in its 
 debates. He was a man of an ardent temper, of a ready 
 wit, and a very clever speaker. He was extremely fond of 
 argument, and always entered the lists of controversy with 
 peculiar zest. He was a good deal older than my cousin, 
 and naturally felt some chagrin when he found himself boldly 
 confronted by the juvenile aspirant. At first the two debaters 
 regarded each other with some dislike and jealousy, when 
 they took opposite sides, as they generally did, in argument. 
 Anderson had previously been foremost in the fight, and the 
 new comer was determined to brook no superior, and even 
 to win the oratorical crown if possible. Yet they soon came 
 to know each other well, and to esteem each other highly. 
 They had indeed much in comm-on, and could warmly sym- 
 pathise with each other as they talked of their early struggles, 
 and gave vent to their generous aspirations. They never 
 met as members of the debating society after that winter of 
 1828-9; but in the following summer, and for some time 
 after, they had not a little personal intercourse, which they 
 mutually enjoyed. 
 
 Eighteen years after, when the Rev. John Anderson was 
 enjoying a needed season of rest in Scotland, he spoke to me 
 with great tenderness of feeling about James Dodds, whom 
 he had never forgotten amidst his absorbing missionary toils 
 in India. He was pleased to hear of his quiet settlement in 
 London, and to find that some fears regarding his lot in life
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 13 
 
 had been disappointed. He spoke warmly and generously 
 of his old antagonist and friend. And when the devoted 
 missionary, worn out with incessant cares and toils, died at 
 Madras in 1855, his old rival received the sad intelligence of 
 his death with feelings of affectionate sorrow, which he beauti- 
 fully expressed in a letter to me, part of which I here quote: — 
 " You rightly appreciate the feeling that sprang up between 
 Anderson and me. From young, fierce, teeth-gnashing 
 athletes, we became respectful acquaintances, and then for 
 many a day attached companions. At the time when you 
 were not in Edinburgh we were constantly together ; m}^ 
 lodgings in Arthur Street were his ' howflF,' and there, over 
 potations of coffee, we laid down laws to the universe. Though 
 brisk and satirical, he was in reality a mild creature. In 
 this he far surpassed and differed from me ; for though I was 
 capable of great devotion to a friend, I was then also pas- 
 sionate, turbulent, and insolent to a degree which now amazes 
 me. He was peculiarly gentle with me ; and that period 
 has left upon me the impression that he was anxious to soften 
 me, and infuse into me a blander spirit of friendliness. At 
 all events, I have very distinct and tranquillising dreams of 
 that period ; and it is refreshing to know that his impressions 
 at that period were something like my own. There was in 
 him real mildness and loving-kindness ; and I can easily see 
 by what Divine process that sharp, ringing, cutting tonorie 
 only became the organ of an energetic, penetrating, invincible.
 
 14 MEMOIR OF JAMES DOBDS. 
 
 and holy benevolence. I loved to hear of his career. I 
 have often in snatches heard of it. Death after such a life 
 is stript of all terror and gloom. Such a man only enters 
 into peace, walking in his uprightness. I weep at the strange 
 exciting recollections of his youthful course and mine at the 
 points where they blended ; but I cannot weep over such a 
 grave as his, such a blessed and delightful resting-place. The 
 picture you have drawn of him living in the Lord and dying 
 to the Lord, will remain ineffaceably, and, I hope, profitably, 
 traced on my mind." 
 
 I am bound to say that my cousin, when I first knew him, 
 was too much of a hero-worshipper. The Rev. Robert Hall 
 was his first hero, and even after he had gone to college his 
 boyish admiration of the eccentric old Seceder minister 
 existed in full force. Mr. Hall's odd sayings and doings, 
 his simplicity, piety, and pomposity, are fresh in the recollec- 
 tion of the few surviving members of his flock at this day. 
 But what others looked upon as singular and even blame- 
 worthy in his manner of acting and speaking, his youthful 
 admirer lauded to the skies. I have heard that admirer 
 hold forth for hours on the intellectual strength and sturdy 
 moral qualities of Mr. Hall, whom he regarded with a sort of 
 humorous but deep and genuine affection. Most people failed 
 to see in his idol any surpassing merits, but it must be allowed 
 that the old Seceder was, in the best sense, "a true man," as well 
 as a vigorous though somewhat antique preacher of the Gospel.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 15 
 
 Among the political heroes of the student's early life 
 Henry Brougham long held the foremost place. His 
 admiration for Brougham amounted to a passion when I 
 first knew him ; but in time it quite subsided within the 
 limits of truth and sobriety. With his native love of intel- 
 lectual power and lofty eloquence, he was also the man to 
 estimate highly the genius of Chalmers. I well remember 
 the efforts he made to get into the Edinburgh Assembly 
 Koom when a meeting was held in it to support the cause 
 of Roman Catholic emancipation, and at which Dr. Chalmers 
 was to speak. He heard the great orator with unbounded 
 delight, and enthusiastically described to me, on his return 
 from the meeting, the effect of that eloquence, which had 
 taken the whole audience by storm. He has admirably 
 described the whole scene in the Assembly Room in his 
 excellent " Life of Dr. Chalmers." That great orator and 
 philanthropist he admired and venerated to the last, as the 
 truest of our modern Christian heroes. 
 
 During his brief college career he also got acquainted 
 with the celebrated Dr. Andrew Thomson, minister of St. 
 George's Church, Edinburgh. He heard Dr. Thomson's 
 famous speech on the abolition of negro slavery, a speech 
 which rose to the very height of eloquence, and thrilled the 
 whole heart of the country. Everything in the shape of 
 high and impassioned oratory had for him an irresistible 
 attraction, and nothing could keep him back from a meeting
 
 16 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 where eminent public sjJeakers were to be heard. In his 
 young days, and till he was well advanced in life, he believed 
 that his true vocation was that of a public speaker ; and he 
 often yearned for an opportunity of exercising in some 
 conspicuous sphere that gift of eloquence of which he was 
 sometimes painfully conscious. 
 
 Dr. Robert Gordon, of the High Church, Edinburgh, was 
 another minister whom my cousin greatly admired. He 
 regularly attended his church during the college session, 
 and highly appreciated his grave and noble sermons. Dr. 
 Gordon had a fine presence and an air of great solemnity 
 in the pulpit. But he was a close reasoner and a powerful 
 expounder of evangelical doctrine, rather than a fervent or 
 imaginative orator. Yet he was one of the most effective 
 preachers of his day, while both his private and public life 
 were eminently spotless and dignified. I thought it a good 
 sign of the wayward and somewhat unmanageable student 
 that he held Dr. Gordon in great reverence, and steadily 
 attended his ministry. As having been brought up in the 
 Secession Church, he occasionally went to hear Dr. John 
 Brown, long a shining light of that Communion; but the 
 minister of the High Church was the man he preferred to 
 every other ornament of the Edinburgh pulpit. 
 
 At the conclusion of the college session he remained in 
 town, and endeavoured to support himself by private 
 teaching. Failing in the attempt, he soon began to feel
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 17 
 
 the pinchings of poverty, and, sorely against his will, he 
 applied to his patron for assistance. But his letters were not 
 acknowledged, and he was afterwards led to believe that they 
 had been wilfully intercepted by some clerk or underling of 
 the factor. Whether his suspicions were well-founded or 
 not, he at last received from Mr. Innes a letter full of sharp 
 remonstrance and rebuke, extremely likely to wound to the 
 quick his fiery spirit. The consequence was just what 
 those who knew him could have easily predicted. He could 
 not defend himself, for he had been going on in a reckless 
 manner, frequenting the theatre, courting the society of 
 actors, and altogether forgetting the prudence that was 
 expected of one in his position. But he felt that he was in 
 many respects unjustly and cruelly assailed by one who, 
 instead of demanding explanations from himself, had listened 
 to the interested accusations of secret enemies. He there- 
 fore fired up in a grand explosive style, hurling wrath and 
 defiance at his offended patron, and renouncing all future 
 dependence upon him for support. 
 
 But if, like a wild colt, he thus rushed into the desert of 
 independence, he soon found that it is not given to young 
 men to be so independent as they would wish. Youth is 
 naturally dependent on the counsel and active help of 
 age ; and a premature assertion of independence, even when 
 it is not a mere piece of bravado, is seldom distinguishable 
 from downright rashness and folly. The truth of this was
 
 18 MEMOIB OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 afterwards fully acknowledged by him who thus madly 
 bolted from the course which had been prescribed for him by 
 those who really wished him well. The unhappy student 
 made desperate efforts to get a few pupils, but met with no 
 success. Having searched Edinburgh in vain by night and 
 day, he had at last to give up his attempt. His resources 
 were soon exhausted, and poverty in its direst form at last 
 stared him in the face. Driven to the necessity of leaving 
 Edinburgh, he determined to walk to England, and there 
 seek his fortune. When he set out on his journey he had 
 just eighteenpence in his pocket ; but on leaving town, he 
 fell in with a young lad from his own part of the country, 
 who, on learning the low state of his funds, insisted on giving 
 him other eighteenpence, which was all he had in his pocket. 
 This fine display of youthful generosity he never forgot, 
 and could seldom speak of without tears. 
 
 The hardships of his journey to the south are not to be 
 described. His three shillings were soon gone, and he 
 became familiar with the pangs of hunger. With all his 
 book-learning he knew wonderfully little of the world, and 
 failed to lay out his little stock of money to advantage. 
 He actually began with ordering breakfast at a roadside 
 inn, for which he was charged just the half of the pittance 
 he possessed. But by way of making amends for this piece 
 of extravagance, he changed the remaining one-and-sixpence 
 into pennies, which he spent one by one in the purchase of
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 19 
 
 bread. At last, footsore, weary, and utterly destitute, he 
 arrived at Newcastle. 
 
 Having acquired in Edinburgh a strong taste for the stage, 
 he went as soon as he was able to the Newcastle theatre, and 
 asked to see the manager, in the hope of being employed 
 by him in some capacity or other. That personage received 
 him much more kindly than might have been expected, 
 and actually offered him a share of his own untasted dinner, 
 cautioning him, at the same time, to eat slowly at first, lest 
 after his long fast he should do himself harm. Suspecting 
 at once that his strange guest was a runaway from some 
 family or school, he advised him strongly not to think of 
 the stage, but to return at once to his friends. But finding 
 the youth bent on a trial of theatrical life, he told him that, 
 though he could not himself give him employment, he would 
 recommend him to a strolling company then in the town. 
 Obliged by hunger, as well as by a craving of another kind, 
 the student accepted the position that was soon placed 
 within his reach, and entered on a new line of life, that of 
 a strolling player. 
 
 Though his heart was often heavy, and his future was all 
 dark before him, he became the low comedian of the company. 
 He had at the time an exuberant fund of humour of a 
 somewhat rollicking character, and it is not to be wondered 
 at that he sang in many a barn comic songs with voice and 
 gesticulations provocative of immense laughter and applause.
 
 20 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 But while thus doing the work of an actor, after his own 
 fashion, he made himself useful as the scholar of the com- 
 pany, and wrote play-bills, posters, and advertisements with 
 no little literary skill. He was even employed in touching 
 up old, and composing new pieces. But all the time he 
 was in a state little above destitution. The proceeds of the 
 performances were so small, or his share of them so humble, 
 that he hardly obtained daily bread and the commonest 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 For nine months he thus lived, or rather starved, among 
 the players who strolled about the north of England in the 
 exercise of their unprofitable calling. His abandonment of 
 this strange life was brought about in an unexpected manner. 
 It happened that the company had been performing in a 
 considerable town, and had been so much more successful 
 than usual that the low comedian had been able to take 
 respectable lodgings for himself, and thus to escape company 
 at night which had not been always agreeable. Being told 
 by his landlady that the Rev. Mr. Kell, of Kelso, and Mrs. 
 Kell were lodging in the town, he resolved, after a severe 
 struggle with his pride, to call on his former friends. He 
 met with a kind reception from them both, and was induced 
 by Mrs. Kell to tell her the secret of the life he was leading. 
 Nothing could exceed the tact and kindliness of this excellent 
 lady in dealing with the erratic genius on that occasion. She 
 knew that he had grievously offended all his friends and
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 21 
 
 well-wisliers, and lay open to the charge of rebellion and 
 ingratitude. But, without using a single word to provoke 
 within him a spirit of defiance, she fairly melted him by her 
 motherly gentleness, and persuaded him to give up at once 
 the miserable line of life he had been following. To this 
 lady and her equally generous husband belongs the credit of 
 rescuing from danger and impending ruin a youth of fine 
 parts, who was evidently born for work of the highest kind. 
 They had the penetration to see through the extravagances 
 and eccentricities which for the moment had overlaid the 
 better features of his character ; and they had the Christian 
 charity to perform an act of deliverance which many would 
 have considered equally undeserved and useless. 
 
 It must not be supposed that James Dodds, during this 
 extraordinary period of his life, was guilty of any vicious 
 excess or vulgar dissipation. He was naturally and by habit 
 a sober youth. He had a great repugnance to intoxication 
 and all its evils. He had become about this time, it is 
 true, a lover of tobacco ; but his pipe, modestly and not ex- 
 cessively indulged in, was almost his only luxury. Even in 
 his lowest fortunes he never lost the moral and religious 
 feelings of his youth. It must be confessed, however, that 
 the players among whom he lived for a time, though a 
 kindly, good-natured set, were by no means models of 
 purity ; and he witnessed among them scenes which he ever 
 afterwards strove to banish from his memory. The force of
 
 22 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 the untoward circumstances in which he was involved, 
 partly by his own misconduct, his sudden and almost unac- 
 countable passion for the stage, wounded pride, and the very 
 extravagance of a wayward temper, were the causes that 
 combined to drive him from Edinburgh, and make him 
 plunge into the wide world in quest of adventures, and of 
 daily bread. Nobody saw more clearly, or lamented more 
 keenly than himself the pride and folly that marked this 
 period of his life. He often looked back upon it as a strange 
 and troubled dream, wondering how he could have been led 
 into it, and thanking God that he had been brought out of 
 it in such a remarkable way. 
 
 It would appear that the admirable woman who, under 
 God, rescued him from a miserable life, did not limit 
 her benevolence to a single act of interposition. She 
 had more of the Good Samaritan in her heart than thus to 
 stop short in her work of mercy. She took the rescued 
 wanderer to her own home, introduced him to the amenities 
 of a refined Christian life, attended to his personal comforts, 
 and treated him as if he had been her own prodigal son, 
 restored to his father's house. Under her fostering care, 
 and softened by her disinterested affection, the youth came 
 to himself, and was soon, as he afterwards used to say, 
 sitting at the feet of his benefactress, " clothed, and in his 
 right mind." 
 
 It is of this lady that he evidently speaks in his preface
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 23 
 
 to the Sermons of the Rev. Robert Hall, of Kelso, which he 
 afterwards edited. After stating that he owed to her his 
 final reconciliation with his venerable pastor, he adds : 
 " Should my name ever chance to be known, this shall be 
 known also, that, in the hour of deepest adversity, when all 
 men stood aloof from me, she stepped boldly forward, 
 rescued me from misery, restored my health, perhaps my 
 life, and certainly my character ; placed me in her own 
 family, and made me hope for better days. And better 
 days I now see ; but I never cease to thank her, and Heaven 
 shall reward her for these acts of a most excellent and rare 
 charity. I could not refrain from saying this much, and 
 they who know matters will be surprised that I could say so 
 little." It is not every one who, even in the writer's cir- 
 cumstances, and with some portion of his gifts, could have 
 penned such a tender and manly acknowledgment as this.
 
 24 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SCHOOLMASTER AT SANDYKNOWE. HUMBLE BUT HONEST INDUSTRY. 
 VARYING MOODS OF MIND. BOLD ASPIRATIONS. FINE LITERARY 
 EFFORTS. 
 
 For some little time after his restoration to the proper 
 haunts of men, James Dodds enjoyed peace and rest in his 
 former home, and among friends, who received him back 
 with kindness. Through the good offices of Mrs. Kell, he 
 was reconciled to his old minister, Mr. Hall, whose wrath 
 had been inflamed against him by various accounts of his 
 conduct, some true, and some false. The affection thus 
 renewed between the aged minister and the young member 
 of his flock was of the warmest character, and was only 
 terminated by death. But reconciliations and restored friend- 
 ships could only prepare the way for settling down to honest 
 labour, however humble. Accordingly, like many a Scottish 
 youth who has risen from poverty to a good, or even eminent 
 position in the world, James Dodds betook himself to the 
 teaching of a humble country school. He did not reach, or 
 perhaps aim at, the position of a parochial schoolmaster, an
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 25 
 
 important personage in those days. An assistantship in a 
 superior school, or a tutorship in a gentleman's family, even 
 had either of these posts been within his reach, would pro- 
 bably not have suited his very independent spirit. As matters 
 stood, he accepted the situation of teacher of a small adven- 
 ture-school at a farm-place, in the parish of Smailholm, six 
 miles north-west from Kelso. 
 
 That farm-place was Sandyknowe, celebrated in connec- 
 tion with the early life of Sir Walter Scott. Nearly sixty 
 years before, that child of genius had spent the opening 
 dawn of his life, or, as he has himself informed us, " awoke 
 to the &st consciousness of existence," at Sandyknowe, near 
 which stands Smailholm's ruined tower, now immortalised 
 in his song. That farm belonged to Walter Scott's paternal 
 grandfather, but it had in former times been the property of 
 a distinguished Border family, the Pringles of Whytbank. 
 Brought out of Edinburgh, a lame and somewhat sickly 
 child, for the benefit of the pure country air, the future 
 great minstrel of the Border had his young imagination 
 excited by the most romantic scenery in the Lowlands of 
 Scotland. Lying at the foot, or perched on the summit of 
 Smailholm Tower, when yet a mere child emerging out 
 of helpless infancy, he could gaze on a landscape rich in 
 natural beauty, and studded over with hills, and towers, and 
 famous spots rendered classic by the deathless power of 
 poetry. In his introduction to the third canto of Marmion
 
 26 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 the minstrel thus sings of Smailhohn's ancient border 
 
 keep : — 
 
 " Then rise those crags, that mountain tower, 
 Which charmed my fancy's wakening hour. 
 It was a barren scene and wild 
 Where naked cliffs were rudely piled ; 
 But ever and anon between 
 Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green. 
 And well the lonely infant knew 
 Kecesses where the wallflower grew, 
 And honeysuckle loved to crawl 
 Up the low crag and ruined wall." 
 
 Almost beneath the shadow of Smailholm Tower, James 
 Dodds opened his rustic school, and began a career of steady 
 labour and manly industry from which he never afterwards 
 deviated. His chief supporter was Mr. James Stewart, the 
 tenant of Sandyknowe farm, which then belonged to the 
 estate of Mr. Scott, of Harden, the grandfather of the present 
 Lord Polwarth. Mr. Stewart was a very worthy man, a 
 Seceder of the old school, and much respected by all his 
 neighbours. In his house the young schoolmaster resided, 
 at least during the schooldays of the week, and found him- 
 self treated like one of the family. To Mr. Stewart's 
 children this was an advantageous arrangement. For nearly 
 four years did the youthful schoolmaster occupy this humble 
 position ; and though fit for something far higher, he cheer- 
 fully went through a round of toil that many lads like himself 
 would have found most irksome.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 27 
 
 Not confining the attention of his more promising pupils 
 to books, slates, paper, and such instruments of learning, he 
 often took them out, in the spring and summer evenings, to 
 the fields, the hills, and woods, and taught them precious 
 lessons from the book of Nature. With the more advanced 
 and intelligent of them he entered into lively conversation 
 about the different objects that lay at their feet, or formed 
 the chief beauty of the landscape. He knew well that if 
 he taught them how to observe and name a plant or flower, 
 how to watch the habits of birds and beasts and insects, how 
 to love and be kind to all God's creatures, he was greatly 
 adding to their sum of useful knowledge, and enlarging their 
 capacity of innocent pleasure. His own intense love of 
 Nature was richly gratified by these out-of-door excursions, 
 seldom paralleled in the annals of an obscure country school. 
 
 I remember once visiting him at Sandyknowe, on my way 
 home to Dumfriesshire, at the close of a college session at 
 Edinburgh. I found him in excellent spirits, and quite 
 content, in the meantime, with his humble circumstances, 
 but full of grand aspirations in regard to the future. In 
 conversation, his natural humour overflowed, and there was 
 no end to his power of literary allusion. He seemed quite 
 at home with the Stewarts, and he had already acquired 
 a high character in the neighbourhood as a painstaking 
 teacher. From Mrs. Stewart I received a most interesting 
 account of Sir Walter Scott's last visit to Sandyknowe.
 
 28 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 The great novelist was on the eve of his departure for the 
 Continent in the hope of some recruitment of his shattered 
 energies. Along with Turner the painter, his son-in-law 
 Lockhart, and his old friend Mr. Skene, he visited in one 
 day of September, 1831, a number of places dear to his 
 childhood. Sandyknowe was the first scene that he sought, 
 the dearest of them all. While Turner was sketching the 
 castle and its romantic environments, Sir Walter and the 
 rest of his party went into the farm-house, and were hospit- 
 ably received by the "gudewife." He was deeply affected, 
 and could not restrain his tears as he spoke of his child- 
 hood's days spent at Sandyknowe. I cannot recall the 
 words he used on the occasion as reported to me by Mrs. 
 Stewart, but they were such as flowed from a heart full of 
 sadness, yet touched with the kindliest and homeliest feel- 
 ing. It has always struck me that the basis of Sir Walter 
 Scott's character was the homeliness and shrewdness of an 
 old-fashioned Scottish laird or farmer. Even the marvellous 
 genius with which he was gifted never in the least obliterated 
 those plain but sterling qualities which made him such a 
 true man, and such a favourite with the humblest as well 
 as the highest classes of his countrymen. 
 
 From our earliest years, my cousin and I corresponded by 
 letter, and the correspondence, especially on his part, was 
 often of a very enthusiastic character. His letters were 
 very extraordinary productions, full of eloquence and passion.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 29 
 
 intermingled witli wit, humour, and literary aspirations. Up 
 to this period of his life, and till he had reached mature middle 
 age, his letters to me, if not so numerous as I often wished, 
 were always remarkable as compositions. Indeed, I know 
 of nothing in private correspondence like them for original 
 sentiment and forcible expression. Should they ever see 
 the light, they would occupy a unique place in epistolary 
 literature. They were, to a large extent, the impassioned 
 outpourings of an imaginative and aspiring mind ; intensely 
 subjective, yet never egotistical ; full of lofty flights of fancy, 
 yet also full of deep reflection and sober thought. Their 
 autobiographical value is great ; yet in a sketch like this 
 they can find no place. 
 
 The years passed at Sandyknowe formed for James Dodds 
 a period of needful and fruitful repose. He gained a bare 
 subsistence by his toil, but he was by no means unhappy. 
 In literary attempts, and in occasional intercourse wdth 
 youthful friends, he found his purest pleasures. The follow- 
 ing passage of a letter dated November, 1833, speaks of his 
 innocent happiness, and of the joy he had experienced in the 
 company of bis friend William Kell : — 
 
 " This last summer I have spent as merry as a grasshopper. 
 Mr. William Kell has been down the whole season. To his 
 company I may apply the eulogium pronounced on Plato's 
 feast, ' not only delightful at the time, but also leaving a 
 delightful relish behind it.' He finishes his studies for the
 
 30 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 English Church this winter, and somewhere in the month of 
 January or February he begins his race for a mitre. He is 
 a man whom it is impossible not to love for his talents and 
 his estimable qualities." 
 
 But he did not always write in this blithesome mood. 
 Even at this quietest period of his life he was often visited 
 with sad misgivings, " blank imaginings," and the soaring 
 aspirations of young ambition. He had long felt that he 
 possessed the fire and passion of an orator ; and his early 
 desire was to make his way to the Bar, where he thought he 
 might exercise with most effect his power of doing good in 
 the world. As illustrative of the mood into which he often 
 fell, and the grand dreams inspired by his young ambition, 
 I quote the following passage from a letter he wrote some 
 time after his Sandyknowe life : — 
 
 " It would be affected modesty in me to deny that I do 
 believe I have a capacity for forensic and active life. My ambi- 
 tion is to drink deep at the well-spring of abstract truth, and 
 then, by dint of unwearied diligence, practical steps, and what 
 persuasion I can use, to direct little fertilising streamlets of 
 secular reformation and improvement through the valleys and 
 by the waysides chiefly of my native land. The discipline 
 through which I have passed has been harsh, but wholesome. 
 It is true, I have been lashed with scorpions ; poverty, cala- 
 mity, dejection, misused powers, misspent opportunities, and 
 hopes blasted ere half opened, and physical suffering, down
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 31 
 
 even to the most pincliing pangs of hunger, have been as 
 familiar to me as the winds of heaven. For years my youth 
 has been but the revolutions of the impaling wheel. But 
 what of that ? The marks of torture are printed on my soul, 
 never to be effaced. But brighter, I may say holier, char- 
 acters have there also been engraved, deep, deep sympathy 
 for all the sons and daughters of adversity, and all the hap- 
 less victims of oppression. Were you to know me now as 
 intimately as you once did, you would scarcely recognise me. 
 Many of the outward appearances are the same, the ready, 
 boisterous laugh, the bursts of frolic glee, the explosions of 
 temporary violence. But all within is changed. There 
 seems ever in my ear a voice, saying, ' Watch ! canst thou 
 trifle away a moment of the lifetime allotted to thee, or any 
 of the talents that have fallen to thy share, while so many 
 of thy fellow-men are sunk in ignorance, crime, poverty, 
 and slavery ? ' Oh ! this is no day-dream, no illusion. It 
 is the absorbing, restless, ruling principle of my life, a fate 
 whose eyes are ever on me, a spirit whose touch I ever feel, 
 like live coals from the altar. Not for myself do I live, not 
 for pelf do I struggle ; but I have been born to war with 
 oppression, whether it be under legal forms or public policy ; 
 and my only resting-place shall be the grave." 
 
 But though impetuous thoughts and resolves thus often 
 agitated his mind at Sandyknowe, he never got disgusted 
 with solid and undemonstrative work. While he regularly
 
 32 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 taught his village school, he engaged in his first literary 
 venture, the preparation for the press of a number of the 
 Rev. Robert Hall's sermons. Mr. Hall died in 1831, and 
 some members of his flock encouraged the project of printing, 
 in a modest volume, a few of his sermons. James Dodds 
 was the very man to edit such a volume, and to prefix to 
 its contents a biographical sketch of the author. Accord- 
 ingly, he undertook with all his heart a task which in a large' 
 measure was self-imposed. The manuscripts of the best of 
 Mr. Hall's sermons had unfortunately been destroyed before 
 the volume was talked of, and the editor had to pick out as 
 he best could from a confused mass of ill-arranged and half- 
 legible papers the materials of his projected publication. 
 With incredible pains and labour he deciphered and put in 
 order the eight sermons which he considered sufficient, with 
 preface, dedication, and biographical sketch, to form a toler- 
 able memorial volume. 
 
 The " editor's advertisement," or preface, was in excellent 
 taste, as the extract from it already given is sufficient to 
 show ; but as much cannot be said of a lengthened and 
 laboured Dedication of the book to Lord Brougham. Any- 
 thing more extravagant and stilted in style than that pro- 
 duction of his pen can hardly be conceived. It is full of 
 noble thought and generous aspirations, but its high-flown 
 language, and most artificial and involved sentences entirely 
 spoil the effect of the whole composition. It seems to show
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS, 33 
 
 how a young writer of great ability may only make himself 
 look ridiculous by an elaborate attempt to be striking and 
 powerful. Few men of his years could have written it ; but 
 the few who could have equalled it in vigorous thought would 
 probably have avoided its strained and exaggerated style. 
 
 The biographical sketch of Mr. Hall, prefixed to the 
 sermons, is in much better taste, and indicates no ordinary 
 power of analysis. While evidently regarding the deceased 
 minister with a biographer's partiality, the editor performs 
 his task with considerable discrimination. The following 
 extract from the portrait of Mr. Hall is given as inter- 
 esting in itself, and a fair specimen of the author's 
 manner : — 
 
 " Mr. Hall was of a tall, commanding stature, noble 
 aspect, muscular and majestic deportment ; and though 
 from slovenliness and irritable temper his countenance 
 had early lost its beauty, yet his form retained its majesty. 
 He was of a large and robust make, his face rough and 
 sanguine, the expression in his features austere and fiery, 
 his walk erect and dignified, his whole appearance eccentric, 
 but solid and imposing. He might have been seen a few 
 days before his death, though in his seventy-fourth year, 
 pacing the streets with a deportment so lofty, a step so 
 elastic and firm, as to preclude the suspicion that a few 
 revolving hours would see him reduced to stiffness and a 
 corpse."
 
 34 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDB. 
 
 The book, published by subscription, had little more than 
 a local circulation, though it really deserved a wider pub- 
 licity. The editor was only in his twentieth year, and had 
 given evidence of no ordinary literary powers. It is not 
 known whether Lord Brougham acknowledged in any way 
 the elaborate compliments paid him in the Dedication ; but 
 the writer of that remakable effusion seems to have retained, 
 for at least a considerable time, his high admiration of the 
 Lord Chancellor, then in the height of his power and fame. 
 He even went to the trouble and expense of attending the 
 Grey Festival held at Edinburgh, in 1834, to express the 
 gratitude of Scotland to Lord Grey, who had recently retired 
 from the Premiership of the Government which had carried 
 the Keform Bill. That festival had all the dimensions of a 
 national demonstration, and helped to excite the flickering 
 flames of Liberal enthusiasm. It was attended by Lords 
 Brougham and Durham, and other political celebrities, who 
 took a prominent part in the proceedings. James Dodds 
 had thus an opportunity of seeing and hearing a man 
 " whose example," as he had said in his Dedication, " had 
 been from boyhood his pole-star and delight." In a letter 
 to me, within a few months after the festival, he simply says, 
 ''I thought extraordinarily of the Chancellor, though his 
 speech was but meagre ; yet I picked up from him some valu- 
 able lessons in elocution." These words show at once that his 
 admiration for Brougham had become more discriminating.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 35 
 
 and that he was always looking forward to public speaking 
 as his chosen means of doin^:^ scood, and making^ a ficrure in 
 life. 
 
 During the years that he taught his school at Sandy- 
 knowe, not the unhappiest of his life, though spent in 
 poverty and obscurity, he regarded as his home the house 
 of his uncle, James Dodds, with whom his widowed mother 
 resided. In that humble house at Muserig he usually lived 
 from the Saturday of each week till the following Monday, 
 when he walked back to Sandyknowe to resume his work. 
 He also spent his annual vacations with his uncle and 
 mother. His Uncle James, at that time unmarried, was a 
 father to him in every respect, and treated him with un- 
 wearied kindness. He was a man who greatly resembled 
 his own father, " the Abraham among his people," the 
 Christian sage of a great mind and a large heart, whose 
 memory deserves to be enshrined in a more enduring record 
 than this brief and imperfect memoir. 
 
 Not discouraged by the limited success of his first literary 
 venture, James Dodds projected a little monthly periodical, 
 to be published at Kelso, under the name of The Border 
 Beacon. The prospectus, written by himself, in the usual 
 flaming style of such productions, bears the date of August, 
 1835, and the magazine appeared in the following October. 
 In the said prospectus the band of young aspirants who had 
 leagued together to set the Tweed on fire at Kelso are made
 
 36 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 to say : — " We are anxious to be well acquainted with 
 Ettrick, to shake hands with Teviotdale, to be peculiarly 
 linked in the bands of confraternity with Eskdale, to be 
 affectionately regarded in Liddesdale, to be taken under the 
 wing by the Merse, and in fine, to be solicited even on the 
 remote shores of Berwick-on-Tweed." The local allusions 
 couched in these words may have been clever once, but 
 they are only obscure now. Yet, though the ingenious 
 kindlers of the Beacon "claimed the support of the wise 
 and enlightened around them," they met with such inade- 
 quate encouragement that in five months their watch-fire 
 was extinguished. The little monthly contained some 
 excellent papers, and was sold at threepence, " to suit all 
 classes," as the prospectus had gently put it ; but there was 
 plainly no scope for such a publication in a small county 
 town and a thinly-peopled district. It served, however, to 
 exercise the promising talents, and indicate the ardent 
 aspirations of a few young men who aimed at edifying and 
 amusing their neighbours without counting the cost of 
 their literary experiment. One of the most active and able 
 of these adventurers was Mr. William Brockie, who loved 
 James Dodds through life, and still survives to venerate his 
 memory.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 37 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 lawyer's clerk at MELROSE. ORATORY AND POPULAR POLITICS. HARD 
 WORK AND GREAT POVERTY. DREAMS OF GOING TO THE BAR. 
 SYMPATHY AND ADVICE OF MR. CARLYLE. 
 
 Having made up his mind that the profession of the law 
 would best suit his talents and his aims in life, James Dodds 
 left Sandyknowe in March, 1886, and bound himself 
 apprentice for five years to Mr. Scott, a writer or solicitor, 
 residing at Abbotsmeadow, in the immediate vicinity of 
 Melrose. As an apprentice or clerk of a country legal 
 practitioner he passed the next five years of his life, and 
 went through a vast amount of ill-remunerated toil which 
 he never looked back upon with any satisfaction. He 
 applied himself, however, with remarkable industry to the 
 endless copying of dry law papers, and the mastering of the 
 principles and details of Scotch law. That he was diligent 
 in doing his work, and wrought hard for his master, with 
 his head as well as with his hand, is well known to many 
 who became acquainted with him at this period of his life. 
 Indeed, it was impossible for him to rest satisfied mth the
 
 33 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 mere mechanical drudgery of a law-clerk. His keen and 
 active intellect soon grappled with the legal principles in- 
 volved in such cases as Mr. Scott had to conduct in the 
 Sheriff Court, or had otherwise to manage for his clients. 
 Long before the term of his engagement had expired, he 
 was employed by his master to write important law papers, 
 or pleadings, for the Court, as if he were himself a regular 
 legal practitioner. He once sent me a specimen of his com- 
 positions of this description, and I remember reading it with 
 no small amazement at the knowledge, acuteness, and 
 eloquence it disjDlayed. Mr. Scott had certainly an excel- 
 lent bargain in his clerk, but failed to remunerate his 
 services in a decent, not to say liberal, manner. I forbear 
 to mention the paltry yearly salary he paid a young man 
 who served him as few could have done, and whose claims 
 upon his justice and charity were of the highest kind. 
 
 While Mr. Dodds was thus toiling at the oar in a country 
 writer's office, he forgot not the claims of literature, and 
 was also drawn into the turmoil of provincial politics. He 
 read the English classic authors, especially Shakespeare, 
 with great avidity, and even made them the subjects of 
 critical study. He actually prepared and delivered lectures 
 on a number of Shakespeare's plays and leading characters, 
 illustrating them with appropriate recitations, which added 
 greatly to their popular effect. His audiences often con- 
 sisted chiefly of plain country people, who knew little of
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DOBDS. 39 
 
 Shakespeare but what he told them in his own dramatic 
 style. " It was amazing," says Mr. Brockie, " to see how 
 he fascinated the douce old wives of Gattonside by his 
 Shakespearian recitations. Many who had never read a 
 play in their lives, and who would not for the world have 
 crossed the threshold of a theatre, went to hear Mr. Dodds 
 recite and comment night after night, and always came 
 away delighted, as well as instructed." It appears, indeed, 
 that the ardent lecturer and reciter contemplated at this 
 time the preparation of a series of studies on Shakespeare 
 for publication in some magazine. His purpose, perhaps 
 never seriously formed, soon passed from his mind; and, 
 meanwhile, literature with him gradually gave way to 
 politics. 
 
 At this period the agitation excited by the great Eeform 
 movement of 1831-32 was still strong in Scotland, a country 
 which had just been awakened to a new political life. On 
 the Scottish Border, and in such towns as Galashiels, Hawick, 
 and Jedburgh, political feeling ran high, and Liberalism was 
 in the ascendant. The young clerk, budding into a lawyer, 
 and aiming at public life, joined with all his heart the 
 Liberal party, and soon distinguished himself as a speaker 
 at political meetings. He was by education and conviction 
 a Scottish Whig of a pronounced character ; but, like a true 
 Whig of that class, he never adopted subversive principles, 
 and always advocated the cause of progress and reform
 
 40 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 within the lines of the British Constitution. In what are 
 now called the Border Burghs, which, since their enfranchis- 
 ment, have been represented by a distinguished Liberal, the 
 nephew and biographer of Lord Macaulay, Mr. Dodds won 
 no small reputation as an eloquent champion of popular 
 rights. On various exciting occasions he swayed the multi- 
 tude by his bold denunciation of oppression and advocacy 
 of liberty. He sympathised always deeply and sincerely 
 with the working classes, and often described his chief 
 mission in the world to be the defence of their rights. 
 Accordingly, when he spoke in public he never failed to 
 strike a responsive chord in the poor man's heart, and to 
 cheer him with the hope of better days. His popularity in 
 the burghs was as great as it was honestly acquired. It 
 was never sought for from unworthy motives, and it never 
 served to alleviate the deep poverty in which his life at this 
 time was passed. He was one of the most generous and 
 disinterested of popular champions. From first to last he 
 acted from the purest aims, and showed a noble superiority 
 to the money power. 
 
 Many stories are still told of his wonderful activity in 
 advocating the popular cause at this period. Often on a 
 winter evening he left his lodging about eight o'clock, drove 
 many miles to a public meeting, spoke for an hour or two, so 
 as to enthrall all hearts, and then returned through the cold 
 and darkness to his humble home, where he arrived about
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 41 
 
 two or three in the morning, and was ready by nine to take 
 his place at the office desk. Not only plain country people, 
 but the most highly educated and the best informed of his 
 audiences were led captive by his eloquence. A lofty aim 
 always inspired his oratory, and moral reform was still 
 dearer to him than any measures of a merely political kind. 
 He had an enthusiastic love of liberty, and could kindle a 
 corresponding flame in the hearts of all who heard him ; 
 but he knew the value of religion, and religion with him 
 meant Christianity. To all who knew him at this period of 
 his life it was a subject of regret that he was not enabled 
 to occupy some sphere worthy of his extraordinary powers. 
 But dark adversity continued to pursue him ; and he who 
 for years was the most brilliant orator on the Border was 
 living all the time in a state of absolute indigence. 
 
 In some of his letters written during the Abbotsmeadow 
 period of his life, he playfully alludes to the employments and 
 weaknesses of a country writer. He speaks in one place of 
 the Courts breaking up for a week or two about Christmas, 
 and his thus " getting a little breathing space from quibbles." 
 In another he says, " almost every passion is now scourged 
 and mortified out of my withered frame but hopes of obtain- 
 ing ' decree,' fears of being exposed to the dreadful scrutiny 
 of a just count and reckoning, and a grinning satisfaction on 
 being appointed by some rich old maid, in her last will and 
 disposition, to the management of her trust-estate for behoof
 
 42 MEMOIR OF JAMES VODDS. 
 
 of all the legatees, whicli I contrive in due time to translate 
 into for behoof of myself." By this time, as has been seen, 
 he had begun to take a very serious view of life, and was 
 often visited by desponding thoughts ; yet, like all men of 
 his stamp, he often indulged in a hearty laugh on looking 
 at the humorous side of things. But humour is one of the 
 balsams of the mind, one of the essential oils that help to 
 give a pleasant flavour to life, and to make the human 
 machine go with a tolerable smoothness. 
 
 In a letter written at the beginning of 1840, when the 
 fourth year of his apprenticeship was about to terminate, he 
 speaks of the Scottish Bar being the goal of his ambition, 
 and then goes on to mention some of his encouragements in 
 regard to that matter. " As a friend," he says, " unbosom- 
 ing my own experiences, not as a crackling boaster, I am 
 happy to tell you that among a wide circle of shrewd, 
 observant men, and amongst the whole body of the popula- 
 tion, my own ' many-headed darling,' I enjoy a degree of 
 esteem, confidence, and influence which cannot easily be 
 matched, especially when it is considered how giddy and 
 unsettled my early days were. Do not misunderstand this 
 effusion. If I know myself, it is not vanity. But you have 
 often pressed me for a bit of neighbourly chit-chat in my 
 letters, and that is the dose I am now administering. 
 
 " Meanwhile, owing to the miserable smallness of my 
 salary I have had to live in the greatest poverty, and even
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 43 
 
 my dauntless heart would have sunk but for the cheering 
 confidence and affection of the people around me. If the 
 shepherd in Virgil knew what love was, and that he was 
 born on the hard, flinty rocks, much more may I say the 
 same of poverty. Little wonder, then, that all mind, soul, 
 and strength has been gathered up into one object, to be in 
 all things the advocate of the poor. For all my life the 
 peasantry and honest artisans have been my best friends ; 
 but chiefly of late years have they been dear to my heart. 
 Over all this district, from the forest to where the Tweed 
 laves the English soil, the hinds of Ettrick and Teviotdale, 
 and the laborious reflective weavers on the Slitrig and the 
 Gala own me for a common brother. In their lowly cots, 
 and in the bosom of their lovely families have I spent all 
 the little leisure I have had ; and thence returning, in the 
 vigils of sober but earnest meditation, have I brooded, and 
 patiently matured my thoughts, and nursed the resolves 
 Avhich the Angel of Mercy whispered in my ear. There may 
 be much of earthly ambition in all this ; but I deny vanity 
 in the matter. I forswear all sinister ends. He who shall 
 be my Judge knoweth that, if there be, as there is, much 
 of the human clay of ambition in these schemes, it is an 
 ambition to make the peasantry of Scotland the glory and 
 noblest spectacle of all lands." 
 
 About a month after this letter reached me, I received in 
 another a long, impassioned account of himself, his views
 
 44 MEMOIR OF JAMES DOBDS. 
 
 and aspirations, wound up with a touching reference to his 
 narrow circumstances, and the depressing effects of his 
 almost despairing struggle for existence. He also hinted 
 that he might, if he had only the opportunity, be able to 
 eke out his means of livelihood by contributing literary 
 articles to one of the London periodicals. He mentioned 
 that he had recently made a complete study of Shakespeare, 
 and could probably produce an original article or two on 
 that well-worn theme. It occurred to me to forward his 
 letter to Mr. Carlyle, along with a brief explanatory state- 
 ment, in the hope that the great writer might, with his 
 customary benevolence, take an interest in the prospects of 
 the struggling and aspiring youth. This I did without the 
 knowledge of that youth or any of his friends on the Border. 
 In due course, I received from Mr. Carlyle the following 
 kind and characteristic reply, which now for the first time 
 sees the light. As it is alike honourable to the illustrious 
 author and the object of his kindly interest, I need make no 
 apology for giving it to the public : — 
 
 5 Cheyne Kow, Chelsea, 
 
 London, bth February, 1840. 
 
 Dear Sir, — It would surely be a duty and a luxury to 
 help a young man struggling in such difficulties, outward 
 and inward, as those of your cousin. Unfortunately, how- 
 ever, there seems nothing, or very little beyond barren
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 45 
 
 sjrmpatliy and wishes, that I could offer in the way of help. 
 A man is not so easily helped ; the help that would avail 
 such a man as your cousin seems to be must come from 
 within rather than from without. 
 
 As to this project of writing for the periodical press, I 
 must say, in the first place, that there is yet no evidence of 
 your cousin's having acquired a faculty to write what would 
 be successful or useful there. Then, secondly, my concern 
 with that department of things was always in the utmost 
 degree exoteric, and for a good many years back has alto- 
 gether ceased ; so that any furtherance of mine could 
 advance him but a little way, if at all. And then, alas ! 
 thirdly, that it is doubtful to me whether the highest con- 
 ceivable '' success " in that course might not be for your 
 cousin an evil in place of a blessing. I speak advisedly in 
 this matter. There is no madder section of human business 
 now weltering under the sun than that of periodical litera- 
 ture in England at this day. The meagrest bread-and- 
 water wages at any honest, steady occupation, I should say, 
 are preferable for a young man, especially for an ambitious, 
 excitable young man. I mistake much if your cousin were 
 not wise to stick steadfastly by his law and what benefits 
 it will yield him ; studying, of course, in all ways, to per- 
 fect and cultivate himself, but leaving all literary glory, &c. 
 &c., to lie in the distance, an obscure possibility of the future, 
 which he might attain perhaps, but also could do very well
 
 46 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 without attaining. In another year, it seems, his official 
 salary may be expected to increase into something tolerable; 
 he has his mother and loved ones within reach ; he has, or 
 by diligence can borrow and have, some books worth read- 
 ing ; his own free heart is within him, to shape into humble 
 wisdom, or mar into violent madness ; God's great sky is 
 over him, God's green, peaceable earth around him. I 
 really know not that he ought to be in haste to quit such 
 arrangements. 
 
 Nevertheless, if he persist in the purpose to write, which, 
 in my ignorance of the details of his situation I know not 
 that he should absolutely avoid doing, let him by all means 
 try it. If he turn out to have the fit talent, he will 
 decidedly find an editor; if not, it is better in all ways 
 that he do not find one. I will, with great readiness, 
 forward his paper to the proprietor of Fraser's Magazine, 
 who is my bookseller, and have it looked at. I would offer 
 it to any other editor whom your cousin might suggest, 
 provided I knew such editor; but except Mr. Tait of 
 Edinburgh, whom I did once know, I can think of no other 
 much worth applying to, if, indeed, these be worth it ! 
 They will make short work of the business, and answer 
 truly, '' This thing seems fit for us ; this thing seems not 
 fit ! " That is all they will answer. 
 
 In conclusion, I should say that your cousin ought 
 decidedly to try for some other subject to start with than
 
 MEMO IB OF JAMES DODDS. 47 
 
 criticism on Shakespeare. Doubtless he must know best 
 what he has the call to write upon, if he have really an 
 imvard call. But the thing he will have the chance to 
 write entertainingly upon will be something he specially 
 himself has seen, not probably Shakespeare, I should say, 
 which all the world these two centuries has been doing its 
 best to see. Excuse this abruptness. Heaven knows I 
 would gladly help your cousin, if I could. t\)Jt€ (piXoi ! 
 For the present I subscribe myself yours truly, 
 
 T. Carlyle. 
 
 Soon after the receipt of this letter, another reached me 
 from Mr. Carlyle, enclosing for my cousin a note of intro- 
 duction to the Rev. Dr. Aitken, minister of Minto, a very ac- 
 complished man, who was in easy circumstances, and possessed 
 a good library. The philosopher thought it likely enough 
 that Mr. Dodds might easily call on Dr. Aitken, as Minto 
 is at no great distance from Melrose ; and that the cultured 
 and kindly minister might be of real service to one who 
 so greatly needed and deserved help. This friendly office 
 brought the young clerk and Dr. Aitken together, and led 
 to a lasting friendship between them. But in the course 
 of the same year there arose a friendly correspondence 
 between that clerk and Mr. Carlyle himself. With gieat 
 pains and wisdom did Mr. Carlyle endeavour to encourage 
 his youthful correspondent, and guide him along a safe
 
 48 MEMOIR OF JAMES VODDS. 
 
 practical path. The following letter speaks for itself, 
 though the ardent effusion to which it is evidently a reply, 
 cannot now be produced : — 
 
 London, 2lst Sej^temher, 1841. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — The truthful genial temper manifested in 
 your letter cannot but increase the interest I felt in you. 
 It will be good news in all time coming to learn that such 
 a life as yours unfolds itself according to its promise, and 
 becomes in some tolerable degree what it is capable of 
 being. The problem is your own, to make or to mar ; a 
 great problem for you, as the like is for every man born 
 into this world. 
 
 You have my entire sympathy in your denunciation of 
 the " explosive " character. It is frequent in these times ; 
 and deplorable wherever met with. Explosions are ever 
 wasteful, woeful ; central fire should not explode itself, but 
 lie silent, far down, at the centre, and make all good fruits 
 grow. We cannot too often repeat to ourselves, " strength 
 is seen not in spasms, but in stout bearing of burdens." 
 
 You can take comfort in the meanwhile, if you need it, 
 by the experience of all wise men, that a right heavy 
 burden is precisely the thing wanted for a young strong man. 
 Grievous to be borne ; but bear it well ; you will find it 
 one day to have been verily blessed. " I would not for any 
 money," says the brave Jean Paul in his quaint way, " have 
 
 I
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 49 
 
 had money in my youth." He speaks a truth there, 
 singular as it may seem to many. 
 
 By the way, do you read German ? It would be well 
 worth your while to learn it ; and not impossible, not even 
 difficult, even where you are, if you so resolved. These 
 young obscure years ought to be incessantly employed in 
 gaining knowledge of things worth knowing, especially of 
 heroic human souls worth knowing ; and you may believe 
 me, the obscurer such years are, it is apt to be the better. 
 Books are needed, but yet not many books; a few well 
 read. An open, true, patient, and valiant soul is needed ; 
 that is the one thing needful. 
 
 I have no time here, in this immeasurable treadmill of a 
 place, to answer letters. But you may take it for a new 
 fact, that if you can, as you say, write ivithout answer, your 
 letters shall be altogether welcome ! If at any time a 
 definite service can be done by answering, doubt not I shall 
 make time for it. I subscribe myself, in great haste, yours, 
 with true wishes and hopes, T. Carltle. 
 
 Before I wrote to Mr. Carlyle, my cousin had read his 
 '' French Revolution," and had formed a very high opinion 
 of its merits. A vigorous and genial criticism of that 
 masterpiece from his pen came under the eye of the 
 philosopher, and naturally served to deepen his interest in 
 its author. The consequence was, that when Mr. Dodds
 
 50 MEMOIR OF JAMES LODDS. 
 
 went to reside in London six years afterwards, he enjoyed 
 the coveted advantage of friendly intercourse with Mr. 
 Carlyle. As one of a favoured circle, he went to his house 
 on his reception evenings, and listened with admiration to 
 his sage-like and powerful utterances on men and things. 
 He once told me that he had heard from Mr. Carlyle's 
 lips the substance of many of the " Latter-Day Pamphlets," 
 a good while before they were published. Though never a 
 professed imitator of Mr. Carlyle's style and manner, he was, 
 like many other literary young men of the day, powerfully 
 influenced by the searching and earnest spirit that pervades 
 all his writings.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 51 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 A lawyer's clerk in EDINBURGH. EARLY STRUGGLES OVER. STRUGGLES 
 OF ANOTHER KIND. RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS. BECOMES ACQUAINTED 
 WITH MR. JOHN HUNTER. LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. VISIT TO 
 HUMBIE. HIS ENJOYMENT OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 In 1841, soon after the expiry of his apprenticeship at 
 Abbotsmeadow, Mr. Dodds went to Edinburgh in order in 
 push his way in his profession. Mr. Scott, on parting with 
 him, bore testimony to " the faithful, honest, and becoming 
 manner in which he had performed his duties," and expressed 
 an earnest hope " that his talents, qualifications, and disin- 
 terested singleness of heart might conduce to his success in 
 life." The young lawyer soon found employment in the 
 office of Mr. Maurice Lothian, a gentleman well known in 
 the legal circles of Edinburgh. He enjoyed the benefit of 
 the recommendations of the Rev. Dr. Aitken and other 
 Roxburghshire friends interested in his success, and pos- 
 sessing some influence with the Liberal party. Mr. Lothian, 
 who still survives, remembers well the arrival in town of 
 young Mr. Dodds from Melrose, and the good impression
 
 52 MEMOIR OF JAMES BODDS. 
 
 he made on every one by his character and ability. He also 
 states that at the time " he was sure the genius of the lad 
 would not long submit to the drudgery of a clerk." But 
 Mr. Dodds, from his first commencement of work in Edin- 
 burgh, was determined to shrink from no drudgery that 
 might commend him to his employers, and serve to plant 
 his foot firmly on the ladder of promotion. 
 
 His affairs, after he came to Edinburgh, began materially 
 to improve, and he was able gradually to clear off the debt 
 he had been absolutely obliged to contract in Melrose. I 
 occasionally saw him at this period, and continued to 
 correspond with him in the old confidential manner. I found 
 him generally in excellent spirits, and enjoyed greatly the 
 vivacity of his conversation. But underneath the outward 
 show of humorous glee and intellectual enjoyment, there 
 lay a deep vein of seriousness, and even of melancholy, 
 which escaped the notice of the ordinary observer, and only 
 appeared in various letters addressed to myself. To show 
 something of his inner life at this time, I venture to quote 
 a passage from one of these letters : — " 15th Sept., 1841. 
 — Although all outward things wear a sufficiently smiling 
 appearance, yet I have never had darker moments within 
 since I came here. This arises entirely from inward 
 causes. It is the revolution that has long been going on in 
 my nature come to the last agonising crisis. I have fought 
 in my own way ' with wild beasts at Ephesus.' I have
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 53 
 
 fought ^vith poverty, pride, calamity, wild passions as ever 
 wrung any poor heart, scepticism, total darkness, and 
 bewilderment and disbelief. I have nearly boxed the whole 
 compass of torturing experiences that the soul can be sub- 
 jected to ; and now, with broken trembling heart, I pray to 
 God that this weary warfare may end. Methinks, I begin 
 dimly to discern the far-off beams of His ancient throne. 
 ! may the wings of time, and the breezes of true in-felt 
 humility soon bring me to the full light of life. But I see 
 His hand in all. My nature is interwoven with all the 
 darkest passions that man can inherit ; and it has been 
 His good pleasure to burn out these foul corrupting taints 
 by passing me, soul and spirit, through the furnace of suf- 
 fering, mental suffering chiefly, and much of outward also." 
 About this period, or shortly before it, his mind got 
 greatly unsettled as to the ground and evidence of Christian 
 truth. Even after he was thoroughly persuaded that Christ- 
 ianity was true, he was perplexed for a time with doubts 
 about the respective claims of the Protestant Churches and 
 the Church of Rome. Determined to take nothing upon 
 trust, and to satisfy his mind in regard to all such matters 
 by independent inquiry, he began to study with great 
 earnestness the standing controversy between Protestants and 
 Romanists. While pursuing his studies in this field, he 
 became acquainted with Dr. Gillis, at that time the Roman 
 Catholic Bishop of Edinburgh, an accomplished man, and a
 
 54 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 very acute controversialist. The Bishop had many conver- 
 sations with him, argued with him in the most winning 
 manner, and lent him many books on his side of the great 
 questions in dispute. Some of Mr. Dodds's friends, who 
 were cognisant of his conferences with a man who had won 
 not a few converts to Rome, began to entertain apprehen- 
 sions as to the result. They feared that his poetic, imagi- 
 native, and impulsive temperament might be powerfully 
 wrought upon by the imposing claims and outward grandeur 
 of Rome. But all fears as to his Protestantism soon passed 
 away ; and after this crisis of his spiritual life was over, he 
 was more satisfied than ever with the great doctrines of 
 Evangelical Christianity. But even when his mind was 
 tossing on a sea of religious doubt, he kept steadily in view 
 the great object he had set before himself, which may, in 
 general terms, be said to be his advancement in life by 
 means of the Law. In a letter to his early friend, Mr. 
 Brockie, written about this period, he says : — ''I have 
 remarked, and probably so have you, that while, at first, the 
 world keeps back a young fellow, and thinks less of him 
 than he deserves, through its excessive jealousy ; on the 
 other hand, it pushes him on, and exalts him as much 
 beyond what he deserves, the moment he has secured its 
 good graces by talent, diligence, and steadiness. We who 
 have nothing but our wits to live by, may comfort one other 
 with these words. But this one thing we must all remem-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 55 
 
 ber, that no genius, no surpassing talents, no wit, no charm- 
 ing social powers, even no excellence of character, will enable 
 us to make real, permanent progress in life, without that 
 lord-paramount of all earthly qualities, steadiness, dogged, 
 unflagging steadiness. This quality, small, coarse, and 
 unadorned as the acorn, is the one, after all, which gives 
 strength, magnitude, perseverance, and grandeur to the 
 character, and roots it fast and massive as the oak." 
 
 It may here be stated that before he went to Edinburgh 
 Mr. Dodds was married to Miss Janet Pringle, with whom 
 he had become acquainted at Abbotsmeadow, and who, 
 though considerably younger than himself, turned out to be 
 the very wife he needed to promote his comfort and happi- 
 ness. His marriage was thought by some of his friends to 
 be hasty and improvident, but it was, in the end, the source 
 of the purest domestic happiness. Mrs. Dodds, during the 
 whole period of her wedded life, entirely sympathised with 
 her husband, attended wisely to his household affairs, and 
 even assisted him in his literary undertakings. Her instinc- 
 tive taste and judgment were greatly deferred to by her 
 husband as he penned his poems and prepared his lectures. 
 When she condemned, he was more than doubtful of the 
 merit of his compositions ; when she approved, he was 
 satisfied that he had produced something that would stand 
 the test. As a wife, a friend, and the mother of his children, 
 she was nearly all to him that a woman can be to a man ;
 
 56 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 and she has survived him to cherish his memory, and to 
 take an intelligent interest in the preparation of this faith- 
 ful, though imperfect, record of his life and labours. 
 
 After spending some time in Mr. Lothian's office, where 
 he was always treated with marked kindness, Mr. Dodds 
 entered the service of Mr. George Rutherford, W.S., 84 Great 
 King Street, another respectable legal practitioner of that day. 
 While he was a clerk in Mr. Rutherford's office he was in- 
 vited by Mr. John Gordon to meet at his house Mr. Carlyle 
 and other literary friends. How he was struck with Mr. 
 Carlyle cannot now be exactly ascertained ; but his admira- 
 tion of the author of the " French Revolution," was almost 
 unbounded, and, doubtless, suffered no diminution on this 
 occasion. He met, however, another gentleman in Mr. 
 Gordon's house who became the best and most useful of all 
 his friends. This was the late Mr. John Hunter, a man of 
 high eminence in his profession, and who held for many 
 years the responsible situation of Auditor of the Court of 
 Session. Born in the academic atmosphere of St. Andrews, 
 and connected by marriage with Lord Jeffrey, Mr. Hunter 
 had a decided taste for literature which, even in the midst 
 of the toils of an engrossing profession, he always found time 
 to cultivate. His hospitable house at Craigcrook, where Lord 
 Jeffrey had long resided, was for many years the resort of 
 literary men connected with Edinburgh. This accomplished 
 gentleman was greatly impressed with the intellectual powers
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODVS. bl 
 
 of James DodJs from tlie moment he met him, and, before 
 parting with him at Mr. Gordon's, he cordially invited him 
 to call at his office as soon as he could make it convenient. 
 Through an awkward modesty that often led him into prac- 
 tical mistakes, Mr. Dodds neglected to call on his new 
 friend in terms of the invitation ; but Mr. Hunter some 
 time after, having encountered and stopped him on the 
 street, insisted on the interview he had desired. This led 
 to an engagement which laid the foundation of Mr. Dodds's 
 future career as a professional man. He left Mr. Ruther- 
 ford's service to enter the office of Messrs. Lockhart, Hunter, 
 & Whitehead, the eminent legal firm of which Mr. Hunter 
 was a leading partner. Mr. Hunter from the first treated 
 his young friend with considerate kindness, highly appreciat- 
 ing his legal attainments, as well as his literary talents, and 
 planned for him some professional career w^hich in good time 
 might suit his aims in life. From Mr. Whitehead, also, another 
 member of the firm, he received the kindest treatment. He 
 also became Avell acquainted wnth Mrs. Whitehead, a lady 
 of remarkable intellectual powers, who was destined to 
 acquire distinction in the field of fictitious literature. Mrs. 
 Whitehead consulted him frankly about her literary produc- 
 tions, and placed the greatest confidence in his judgment. 
 She was struck, as many others were, with the maturity of 
 his powers, and with that strong literary good sense which 
 formed not the least remarkable feature of his character.
 
 58 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 Meanwhile he continued to write to Mr. Carlyle, and 
 occasionally received wise and kind replies to his somewhat 
 high-flown letters. Of these replies the following charac- 
 teristic specimen has been preserved : — 
 
 London, 20th May, 1843. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — Several weeks ago I duly received your 
 letter, and read it, as I always do your letters, when the}^ 
 bring such news of you, with welcome and pleasure. It has 
 been in my mind ever since to write to you with a certain 
 expansion in some hour of leisure, but as that hour does 
 not arrive, and, alas ! gives no promise yet of arriving, I 
 must content myself with this swift and brief acknowledg- 
 ment, rather than with none at all, which is the other 
 branch of the alternative. 
 
 You are an enthusiastic man, and look at all things 
 through magnifying lenses, productive, too, of beautiful 
 prismatic tints brighter than nature ; nevertheless, I find 
 your image of the object sharply distinct, and just, too, 
 though exaggerated on a larger scale than usual. The 
 scale is not mathematically important ; the distinctness and 
 the justness are alone important. On the whole, I like 
 that mood of mind very well ; a true portrait and a gigantic 
 one, done with haloes and tints of the rainbow ; there are 
 worse kinds than that. 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to find you persevere so man-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 59 
 
 fully, ''following your star," where, except the star itself 
 occasionally beaming in the distance, there can be little to 
 cheer you by the way. Persevere, persevere ; that is the 
 strength of a man. I will promise you all manner of good 
 if you persevere. You shall have victory, more conquest 
 perhaps than perhaps you yet believe ; you shall have heroic 
 battle, which is the noblest conquest of all. 
 
 It is far from my advice that you should relax in your 
 law studies, in auy of your studies, which I honour you for 
 prosecuting in a strenuous silence. Nevertheless, it strikes 
 me that you might be gradually attempting something in 
 the way of writing too. You have, doubtless, hours now 
 and then which, by thrifty assiduity, you might devote with 
 advantage to trials in that kind. I speak with reluctance 
 about writing, whither, I know, all your ambition tends, 
 opposed by all your virtue and philosophy. But I fancy 
 you are getting stronger on that latter side, and can afford 
 a little excursion there by a time. "Writing as well 
 as law requires to be learned; and to writing, as I can 
 predict, you, amid all your law^, or after all your law^, will 
 pretty certainly come at last. A solid man know^s how to 
 combine the ideal with the practical ; to do the ohligato 
 better than another, and combine with it the voluntario, 
 which others think not of. May a good Genius guide you 
 always. 
 
 To Gordon, who likes you well, I send many kind re-
 
 60 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS, 
 
 gards, and with good hopes and good wishes, I am, yours 
 most truly, T. Carlyle. 
 
 With Mr. Gordon, now Dr. Gordon, Mr. Dodds became very 
 intimate during his residence in Edinburgh. Of this accom- 
 plished gentleman, first known as the editor of the New 
 Statistical Account of Scotland, and afterwards as Secretary 
 to the University of Edinburgh, he had the highest opinion, 
 and greatly did he enjoy his friendship. Of him he wrote 
 to a friend in the following terms : — " Few men in Edin- 
 burgh possess more real influence than he does, though 
 hundreds have a more showy name. He is a true-hearted 
 man, and one of the best friends I have in Edinburgh. He 
 is, like myself, an eremite ; when we get together in his 
 snug library, we sit talking metaphysics, when all the 
 other grave citizens are drawing on their night-caps. He 
 is naturally a great linguist, and is master of the principal 
 European tongues. He is what Carlyle calls ' a true man.' " 
 
 It may here be mentioned that Mr. Dodds, though having 
 no special turn for languages, made himself, a few years 
 after this, when he was settled in London, a master of French 
 and German. So thorough was his knowledge of them both 
 that, though he never spoke either of them with any fluency, 
 he could translate with the greatest ease the most difficult 
 French and German books and technical papers. Carlyle's 
 advice as to German was not thrown away upon him ; but
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 61 
 
 in his linguistic studies lie had an eye as much to business 
 as to literature and philosophy. 
 
 The following letter of Mr. Carlyle is specially interesting 
 for its reference to the first interview he had with his young 
 friend in Mr. Gordon's house at Edinburgh : — 
 
 Chelsea, 4th Maij, 1844. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — Several weeks ago I received a very 
 pleasant letter from you which has never yet been in any 
 way acknowledged. Nothing can exceed the hurry one is 
 kept in here. I prefer writing you even this much to 
 absolute silence, which, in some bad hour, you might inter- 
 pret otherwise. 
 
 My interview with you in Edinburgh remains very clear 
 and very pleasant. The sight of your face, of your indomit- 
 able laughing eyes, gives new assurance ; your w^hole way 
 of life seemed to me of good augury. With thews and 
 sinews such as these, a man who will walk along steadfastly, 
 regardless of the weather and wayside provocations, is sure 
 enough to make some handsome journey of it. Right good 
 speed to you ! My best wishes go with you always ; and if there 
 be at any time any help or service I can lend you, fear not to 
 ask it. With many kind regards and good hopes, and begging 
 you to remember me affectionately to the Gordons, — I am, 
 in great haste, yours always truly, 
 
 T. Carlyle.
 
 62 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 Soon after the date of the above, Mr. Carlyle, having 
 heard of his friend's resolution to proceed in due time to 
 London, to prosecute his adopted career as a lawyer, in a 
 Scotch line of business, thus addressed him in the friendliest 
 tone : — 
 
 Chelsea, llth July, 1844. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — You are probably right in your deter- 
 mination towards London : at least I will by no means say 
 you are wrong. Your description of Edinburgh life has 
 much in it that agrees with my own experience and obser- 
 vation there, and certainly the patience with which you have 
 seen and admitted all that, and silently gone on with it, and 
 are still ready to go on with it, in manful diligence under 
 such conditions as there may be, is of good augury for you 
 here or elsewhere. " Go where we will, we find ourselves 
 again in a conditional world." 
 
 Of Law in London I know nothing practical. I see some 
 few lawyers in society at times, a tough, withered, wiry sort 
 of men ; but they hide their law-economies, even when I 
 question them, very much under lock and key. I have 
 understood that the labour is enormous in their profession, 
 and the reward likewise ; the successful lawyer amasses 
 hundreds of thousands, and actually converts himself into 
 what we might call a " spiritual speldrin," no very blessed 
 bargain ! On the whole, I would not prophesy for you the 
 first prizes in such a course, nor like you the worse that you
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 63 
 
 went without prize at all in it. But there is much here 
 besides Law ; Law is a small item here. 
 
 The great question is : Dare you, Must you ? It is an 
 awful enterprise that of London, but also full of generous 
 results if you have strength. Strength to look chaos and 
 hell in the face ; to struggle through them toward the 
 Adamantine Isles ! For a literary lawyer, I should say 
 Edinburgh was far preferable. Success in Law here is totally 
 incompatible with Literature. This you should reflect on 
 before starting. 
 
 On the whole, if you have the offer of a clerkship that 
 will secure you subsistence, there can be no harm in coming 
 up to take a view of us, and to try what kind of chaos we 
 are. There is much here to interest a brave young Scotch- 
 man, to expand him, to repress him, and in many ways 
 instruct him, if he have strength to learn. If he will not 
 learn, they will kill him here in one way or other. 
 
 You may depend very certainly on my omitting no oppor- 
 tunity that may arise to further you in this matter. If my 
 power equalled my inclination you were very safe in it. If 
 your present half-certain outlook end in nothing, pray ap- 
 prise me of that, and I will at least speak to some persons 
 about it. 
 
 And so I will wish you a wise resolution, wise and genuine 
 as in the sight of God your Maker, which indeed is wishing 
 you all. The heedless clamour and babble of our fellow-
 
 64 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 creatures do but bewilder us. " Thou must be a great 
 man," they cry, " or we will not be flunkies to thee ! " 
 '' Who wants you for flunkies ? I will be a small man ! " 
 — Believe me, yours very sincerely, T. Carlyle. 
 
 About the year 1844, Mr. Dodds began to study in a 
 special manner the history of the Scottish Covenanters. 
 In his boyhood he had admired the martyrs of the Covenant, 
 and their noble struggles for religious liberty. But it was 
 only now that he deeply studied the literature of the period 
 in which they lived, and made himself familiar with the 
 records of their lives and sufferings. The result was, that 
 the characters of these spiritual heroes fired his imagination, 
 and woke to new life within him the spirit of poetry which 
 had often possessed him from his youth. From that period 
 much of his reading consisted of works bearing on the 
 ecclesiastical history of Scotland, from the era of the 
 Reformation to the great persecution of the Presbyterians, 
 which "began with the restoration of Charles II. in 16C0, 
 and only terminated at the revolution of 1688. As he 
 strove to realise the features of the Covenanting times, and 
 especially the heroic spirit of the Covenanters, his thoughts 
 and feelings flowed almost imperceptibly into the mould of 
 poetry ; and hence the origin of these beautiful and stirring 
 Lays which form the more precious portion of this volume. 
 
 At this time, we often exchanged poetical productions
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 65 
 
 with each other for the purpose of friendly criticism, and he 
 sent me, in due course, a copy of his exquisite poem on the 
 '' Death of the Aged Covenanter," which had appeared in a 
 provincial newspaper called The Border Watch. I was so 
 struck with its extraordinary beauty and spirit, that I urgentlj^ 
 entreated him to send it to the Free Church Magazine, in 
 whose columns it might obtain a wider publicity. The late 
 Dr. Hetherington, who was the editor of that periodical, 
 gladly inserted the poem, and sought the acquaintance of 
 its author. From 1845 to 1847; a succession of "Lays of 
 the Covenanters," all of the same stamp, and possessing the 
 highest merit, were contributed by Mr. Dodds to the Free 
 Church Magazine, and also to Loiue's Edinburgh Magazine, 
 a periodical which existed at that period, though soon after 
 it w^as discontinued. These effusions attracted much atten- 
 tion as they appeared, though the name of the author was 
 not generally known. The best judges have declared that 
 they will stand a comparison with Aytoun's once popular 
 " Lays of the Cavaliers." Indeed, I have always thought 
 that in point of polish, fire, and sincerity, they are far 
 superior to these belauded productions of the Edinburgh 
 professor. The public will now have the opportunity, for 
 the first time, of calmly forming a judgment of their merits 
 as a series of poems illustrating a most characteristic period 
 of Scottish history. That they breathe a fine spirit of 
 poetry, piety, and patriotism, and also give in a lively
 
 66" MEMOIB OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 manner the very " form and pressure " of the Covenanting 
 times, will be admitted even by many judges who are not 
 in entire sympathy with their author. Nor is that Scotch- 
 man or Presbyterian to be envied who can read them without 
 any admiration of the bloody but finally victorious struggles 
 of the enthusiastic and dauntless children of the Covenant. 
 
 These "Lays of the Covenanters" were not written 
 rapidly, or with that bold negligence which sometimes marks 
 poetic inspiration. Their author studied carefully his 
 themes before he attempted to embalm them in verse. He 
 laboriously collected all the information about them which 
 lay within his reach, that he might realise them more 
 vividly in his own mind, and present them with correspond- 
 ing liveliness to others. He also corrected what he had 
 written with incessant care ; and however accurate his 
 manuscript was when sent to the printer, the proof was 
 sure to be returned with many important alterations. 
 These alterations were invariably for the better, and 
 generally in the way of condensation. But Mr. Dodds, 
 whether he expressed his thoughts in prose or in verse, 
 was a very careful and conscientious writer. He had no 
 ambition to compose with rapidity, and never boasted of 
 the ease with which he could write a poem or an essay. 
 Some of his ordinary letters were even written with uncom- 
 mon pains; and the popular lectures which he prepared 
 and delivered during the latter part of his life, were the
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 67 
 
 fruits of much careful and industrious research. Though 
 irresolution and procrastination often marked his conduct 
 through life, no man ever brought a greater amount of 
 dogged perseverance to a task he had once deliberately 
 undertaken. A lecture which he could easily have prepared 
 sufficiently well in a few days, often cost him weeks of hard 
 reading and sustained intellectual as well as manual toil. 
 
 While he was in Edinburgh, he visited me at the manse 
 of Humbie, a parish of East Lothian, of which I was 
 minister for some years before 1843. It so happens that 
 Humbie, lying at the foot of the Lammermoor Hills, and 
 watered by various pleasant streams that traverse in their 
 courses romantically wooded deans, abounds in highly 
 picturesque scenery. I had given him a glowing account 
 of the natural beauties that surrounded the manse, and 
 prepared him for rural sights and scenes which I knew he 
 could well appreciate. He came out of town in high spirits, 
 ready to satiate his appetite for the sweet and beautiful 
 in nature. And certainly he revelled in the lovely scenery 
 of Humbie with deep and contagious delight. We walked 
 and talked together for hours in the midst of lovely w^oods, 
 and sparkling waters, a calm September sky over our heads, 
 and all around us the glorious garniture of Summer just 
 touched into brighter colour by the gentle hand of Autumn. 
 There was a fine mixture of poetry and philosophy in my 
 cousin's conversation. Every sentence he uttered betrayed the
 
 68 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 man of deep poetic feeling, yet of sober and earnest thought. 
 At times he seemed perfectly entranced with delight as he 
 drank in at every pore the beauty that teemed around him, 
 and listened to the sweet, innumerable sounds that came 
 Yrom the woods, the streams, the air above his head, and 
 the very grass at his feet. I was reminded of the swoons 
 which Wordsworth describes himself as falling into, during 
 his enraptured youth, through the overpowering and trans- 
 porting effect of that life and beauty which he saw and 
 felt in all Nature. It was impossible to be in James 
 Dodds's company during the short period of a country walk 
 without being impressed by his poetical temperament, and 
 his exquisite sense of natural beauty. Benevolent feeling 
 was largely blended with his rural enjoyment. The sight 
 of a lamb, an ox, or any wild animal of the wood, or bird 
 of the air, or fish of the stream, moved him to sympathy 
 with the joys of all living creatures. He would sometimes 
 stand still and solemnly apostrophise a staring member of a 
 grazing herd of cattle, talking to the dumb animal in a half- 
 serious, half-humorous vein, as if it were entitled to all 
 the respect of a "man and a brother." I mention these 
 things as characteristic of the abandonment into which this 
 man of genius almost unconsciously flung himself when, 
 escaping for a few days from the toils and cares of the 
 town, he plunged into the pure and simple pleasures of the 
 country.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 69 
 
 In confirmation of the description I have given of his 
 intense enjoyment of nature, I quote from one of his letters 
 to a friend, written after the period of his visit to Humbie, 
 the following passage relative to his experiences among the 
 Pentland Hills : — " The treasures hid in the bosom of the 
 Pentlands are untold and inexhaustible. A day spent there, 
 with visions of the eye and visions of the mind, seems long 
 as an antediluvian age, yet sweet and rapturous as Adam 
 and Eve's short day in Eden. Its profound solitude and 
 clear bright aspect of a sunny summer day are not of this 
 earth. I have been whole days in nooks of it so lone and 
 still, that not a linnet's wing was to be seen, or a lamb 
 nibbling ; and not so much as the hum of a bee was to be 
 heard. Yet, with that indescribable hallelujah-like murmur- 
 ing which floats all over the wilderness, and the mighty 
 dome of heaven arching above, one felt as, like Jacob, in no 
 dull solitude, but in a celestial-peopled ethereal sphere, 
 where angels of God Avere ascending and descending, hovering 
 around and speeding on their thousandfold ministrations. 
 I then understood something of the natural beauty and 
 significance of David's ' lifting his eyes to the hills whence 
 came his aid.' " 
 
 — MS^^SB^^^N —
 
 70 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 REMOVES TO LONDON. PARLIAMENTARY SOLICITOR. PROFESSIONAL 
 SUCCESS. GREAT INTEREST IN LOCAL RAILWAYS. CARLYLE. LETTERS 
 IN THE " DUMFRIES COURIER " AND THE " SCOTSMAN." LEIGH HUNT. 
 CRAIGCROOK SONNETS. MORGAN WILL CASE. THE GLEN TILT CASE. 
 
 TowAEDS the close of 1846, Mr. Dodds removed from Edin- 
 burgh to London, in order to commence business as a 
 Scottish Parliamentary agent. He had by this time acquired 
 great knowledge and valuable experience in the office of 
 Messrs. Lockhart, Hunter, & Whitehead. He had mastered 
 all the ordinary details of Scottish legal practice, and was 
 no stranger to the general principles of law. His acuteness, 
 his penetration, and his knowledge of human nature also 
 helped to qualify him for that branch of the legal profession 
 which he now adopted. Both Mr. Hunter and Mr. White- 
 head acted by him in the most generous manner on this 
 occasion. Without their assistance and patronage he could 
 not safely have undertaken the risk of establishing himself 
 in London. Being also a married man, he required 
 all the help and encouragement in his new line of life
 
 MEMOIB OF JAMES DODDS. 71 
 
 which kind friends could offer, or himself could properly 
 receive. 
 
 When settled in London, he wrote to me cheerfully of 
 his prospects, and described himself as more composed in 
 mind than he had previously been. " My mind," he said, 
 " has been delivered from bondage and wretchedness for ever. 
 That liberty, that glory never can be taken from me more in 
 this universe. Now I know God, and am known of Him. 
 In Him I live, move, and have my being. I know in 
 whom I have believed, and no vain babble of man can 
 henceforth obscure that knowledge, or shake that belief. 
 But this is a subject so ever present with my own thoughts 
 that I am apt to let it run over without stop or measure." 
 
 "I am here in a very nice place, spacious, airy, and 
 
 pleasant, close upon Westminster Abbey, whose ancient, 
 
 venerable columns and spires daily and almost hourly greet 
 
 my eye. I must get hold of a sly corner and have myself 
 
 buried there, let dean and chapter say what they will. The 
 
 Titans stormed Olympus ; why not take by storm a niche 
 
 in the Temple of Fame ? Ay, well ! Fame is good 
 
 enough as an epaulette for parade ; but Duty is the wedding 
 
 garment, without which we never can be admitted into that 
 
 which is truly immortality. 
 
 And give to me, made lowly wise. 
 The spirit of self-sacrifice ! " 
 
 In another and still more characteristic letter, he wrote
 
 72 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 to me as follows : — " I am here with many hopes, and also 
 with many anxieties. The support I have is of a solid and 
 propitious kind. You may be assured that I shall not 
 relax in industry and anxious care to establish the business, 
 which is in some respects my only worldly hope. Yet you 
 will wonder when I tell you in confidence that I have no 
 vocation this way. This, in other days, might have alarmed 
 you for the success of the attempt ; but it is otherwise with 
 me now. Whatever may be the longings and imaginings of 
 my soul, these never interfere with the plain daily labours 
 of life. Should the next phasis of my proteus-like exist- 
 ence be a ' navvie,' welcome the coarse smock, the little 
 basin hat, hobnails, wheelbarrow, everything. The present 
 with me is divine, heaven's clock striking the hour wher- 
 ever its hand may point. The step that is next I never 
 fear to take ; right on, some goal, were it even Death, meets 
 one. You may be sure, then, I shall prosecute this new line 
 of life with diligence, ardour, and zeal ; and though not a 
 sanguine person, I expect to meet with some success." 
 
 Mr. Dodds, as has been noted, was a great admirer of Dr. 
 Chalmers. In one of his letters, written a few days after 
 the death of the great Christian philanthropist, he thus 
 alludes to that event : " The death of Chalmers came upon 
 me just like one of those grand solemn nights that follow a 
 long beautiful summer's day. After the first tears shed, 
 not for him, but for ourselves, I felt only a solemn, ex-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 73 
 
 alted joy. ' That great spirit,' I said, ' half angelic even 
 while here, has soared to its high and glorious kindred.' 
 Every man must feel by instinct, whatever his belief, 
 that a soul such as his must have entered into the 
 noblest and most glorious regions of the universe. As 
 to intrinsic purity and grandeur. Humanity never was 
 more highly developed than in the character of Chalmers. 
 How can one grudge that such a bounding and upward 
 leaping spirit has regained its own element ! " In such 
 a strain could the hard-headed, hard-working Parliament- 
 ary agent write amidst the anxieties and toils of his new 
 business ; and thus did he show that, while his mind and 
 bodily strength were necessarily given to harassing legal 
 work, his heart was largely preoccupied with higher things, 
 and with men who were great in the world of thought and 
 philanthropic action. 
 
 His office at first was in Abingdon Street, Westminster, but 
 he afterwards removed it to Fludyer Street. The principal 
 part of his business for many years was the management of 
 railway bills before Parliament : and, of course, the bills that 
 fell into his hands were nearly all connected with Scotland. 
 By this time the great trunk railways, both in England and 
 Scotland, had been constructed, or were in process of con- 
 struction ; but there remained a large number of branch 
 lines to be projected and made, in order to complete the 
 railway system, and fully develop the resources of the
 
 74 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 country. Mr. Dodds felt it his duty, therefore, as it was 
 manifestly his interest, to make a thorough study of the 
 projection and formation of those smaller local lines which 
 were specially needed in the North, and which could be 
 economically and profitably made. He was, in consequence, 
 highly successful in promoting local railway enterprise, and 
 in getting through Parliament many of the bills to which 
 it gave rise. At various places, during the Parliamentary 
 recess, he conferred with landed proprietors, merchants, and 
 other persons interested in railway extension, lectured in 
 public halls on the benefits of improved locomotion, and 
 otherwise stimulated the great railway movement of the 
 day. He thus soon became well known in that branch of 
 his profession which he had been induced to select ; and at 
 length he assumed a partner to assist him in his gradually 
 increasing business. 
 
 It may with perfect truth be affirmed that Mr. Dodds, 
 for years, did more than any other man to promote the 
 formation of local, or branch railways in Scotland. One of 
 the first and most successful of these lines, the St. Andrews, 
 which proved the parent or forerunner of many others, was 
 almost entirely his own creation. Speaking of it in a letter 
 to Mr. Hunter, he says, '' From the first projection of it, I 
 advised and superintended all the successive steps taken ; I 
 attended to all the local and preliminary arrangements, as 
 well as to the subsequent parliamentary proceedings. I do
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 75 
 
 not mean to say that I was factotum, surveyor, engraver, 
 and everything, but that I was taken as the advising 
 solicitor throughout ; and I have to say that owing to the 
 success of this St. Andrews line three other schemes of the 
 kind have been committed to my care. I have always acted 
 on the maxim that such enterprises can only succeed through 
 the exercise of great personal diligence, and the observance 
 of strict economy. 
 
 Before his firm had been established four years, it reached 
 a degree of eminence which even his sanguine friends had 
 little expected. It was particularly successful in obtaining 
 the management of Scotch appeal cases before the House of 
 Lords. In 1850, Mr. Dodds wrote to Mr. Hunter that his 
 firm had, at the time, the largest appeal business in London, 
 a business three or four times larger than that even of some 
 of the old houses ; and that the success had attracted the 
 special notice of the House of Lords' officials. '' This," he 
 adds, "is all very agreeable, and as it becomes known in 
 Edinburgh it will certainly tell in our favour. As you well 
 know, a large business enlarges business, and he that hath 
 much to him shall be added more. We have no fewer than 
 thirteen good appeal cases in hand ; and I am told that 
 fifteen is the highest number that any firm like ours has 
 ever been known to have." 
 
 Mr. Dodds had not been long in London before he made 
 his appearance at 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, then as now the
 
 76 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 residence of Mr. Carlyle. During the first years of his 
 London life he attended many literary reunions under the 
 philosopher's roof, and became acquainted there with some 
 of the first literary men of the day. Among those whom 
 he met either in Mr. Carlyle's house, or elsewhere, may be 
 mentioned Dr. John Carlyle, "Barry Cornwall," Professor 
 Craik, Mr. G. H. Lewes, and Mr. Leigh Hunt, with all of 
 whom he was on friendly terms. Though never obtrusive 
 in the company of such men, he quietly took part in many 
 a brilliant conversation, and seldom failed to contribute to 
 its value. He had really great conversational powers, 
 though on some occasions he did not do himself justice as 
 a talker. His poetic fancy and rich vein of humour, joined 
 to his literary stores and wide reach of general information, 
 were fitted to make him shine at any dinner-table, or in any 
 evening party. But a sort of strange bashfulness, or down- 
 right waywardness, not unfrequently made him sit silent in 
 company, or say little that betokened the extraordinary 
 affluence of his mind. 
 
 His intercourse with Mr. Carlyle was kept up by him 
 very eagerly for some time ; but it gradually slackened, and 
 at length was almost entirely discontinued. The increasing 
 claims of business, the extent of his labours as an author 
 and public lecturer, and his growing love of quiet domestic 
 life induced him to give up literary society, and indeed 
 society of every kind. In respect of the world he became
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 77 
 
 much of a recluse, though he diligently attended to the duties 
 of his profession, and never failed to respond to the legiti- 
 mate claims of literature and philanthropy. But though he 
 ceased to visit Mr. Carlyle, he always retained his original 
 admiration of his genius, and his affection for him as a friend 
 and benefactor. In proof of this, it may be sufficient here 
 to quote a passage from a paper on Carlyle, sent by him 
 about this time to the Dumfries Courier : — " The tongue 
 has the ' sough ' of Annandale, an echo of the Solway, with 
 its compliments to old Father Thomas. A keen, sharp, 
 singing voice, in the genuine Border key, and tranquil and 
 sedate withal, neighbourly and frank, and always in unison 
 with what is uttered. In his conversation he sees the very 
 thing he speaks; it breathes and moves palpable to him, 
 and hence his words form a picture. When you come from 
 him the impression is like having seen a great brilliant 
 panorama, everything has been made visible and naked to 
 your sight ; but, more and better far than that, you bear 
 home with you an indelible feeling of love for the man, deep 
 as the heart, long as life. No man has ever inspired more 
 of this personal affection. Not to love Carlyle when jo\x 
 know him, is something unnatural ; as if we should say we 
 did not love the breeze that fans our cheek, or the vine-tree 
 which has refreshed us both with its leafy shade and its 
 exuberant juices. He abounds himself in love and good 
 works. His life, ' not only of books,' but as a man amongst
 
 78 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 his fellows, has been a contmual shower of benefits. As to 
 the young men, more especially, to whom he has been the 
 Good Samaritan, pouring oil upon their wounds, and binding 
 up their bruised limbs, and putting them in the way of 
 recovery of health and youthful energy, the number of 
 them can scarcely be told, and will never be known till the 
 great day of account." 
 
 The article from which this is quoted forms one of a 
 remarkable series which Mr. Dodds communicated to a 
 Dumfries newspaper under the names of London Echoes. 
 These productions of his pen w^ere far superior to the letters 
 of London correspondents that make such a figure in pro- 
 vincial journals. They were really lively, original, and 
 eloquent essays on leading men and popular topics of the 
 day. The fresh and faithful sketches of eminent characters 
 they contained gave them a high literary value, and suggested 
 to many the idea of their republication in a separate form. 
 One paper, on Joseph Mazzini, was greatly admired by Mr. 
 Carlyle and his friends, to whom the great Italian patriot 
 was familiarly kno-svn. All of them were greatly relished by 
 the editor of the once famous Dumfries Courier, Mr. John 
 M'Diarmid, himself a man of genius, who, while he con- 
 ducted his paper with unsurpassed spirit, published a 
 number of original works fall of admirable rural sketches, 
 and breathing a fine appreciation of the works of nature. 
 Between Mr. Dodds and Mr. M'Diarmid a warm friendship
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 79 
 
 sprang up, based on common tastes and literary connection. 
 They often met at Dumfries, where the generous editor of 
 the Courier kept open house for literary men, and for dis- 
 tinguished strangers who came to visit the last humble 
 home and the splendid mausoleum of Burns. 
 
 The letters in the Dumfries Courier were continued some 
 time after this, much to the delectation of the town and 
 country readers of that paper. At a later period, Mr. Dodds 
 contributed articles of a similar kind, but of a fully more 
 political character, to the Scotsman, the leading Edinburgh 
 journal. They attracted much attention while they appeared, 
 and were universally admired, though their authorship was 
 known only to a few. Mr. Dodds was repeatedly urged to 
 collect them into a volume, and publish them with his 
 name. He even seriously entertained this idea of republica- 
 tion, and at one time made some preparations for carrying 
 it out; but the pressure of business, and his characteristic 
 irresolution in regard to such matters, prevented him from 
 doing more than make a beginning. The remarkably skilful 
 and brilliant sketches, which so many wished to see in a per- 
 manent shape, were left, therefore, to lie buried among the 
 treasures that enrich, at rare intervals, the strata-like files 
 of the newspaper press. 
 
 One of the chief literary personages Mr. Dodds got early 
 acquainted with in London was Mr. Leigh Hunt. A friend- 
 ship of no common warmth sprang up between him and the
 
 80 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 veteran author. Mr. Hunt, like many men of genius of the 
 past generation, was improvident in money matters, and was 
 consequently often in pecuniary difficulties. In regard to 
 worldly business he was little better than a child, and where 
 other men would have extricated themselves, he was utterly 
 helpless. Mr. Dodds more than once took the management 
 of his affairs, giving him legal advice, conferring with his 
 creditors, and arranging about the payment, or partial pay- 
 ment of his debts. Yet while his acquaintance with the 
 brilliant poet and essayist gave him at times not a little 
 trouble, the delight he took in his society suffered no abate- 
 ment. He admired Hunt as much as ever, in spite of the 
 weaknesses that made him a bit of a burden to his friends. 
 In some of his letters to Mr. Hunter he hits off the man in 
 admirable style. In September, 1850, he writes : — " 1 have 
 been much with Leigh Hunt this season, and seen him in 
 all phases. He is a glorious creation. I wonder the angels 
 have not run off with him long ago ; there are so many 
 things about him almost too fine, too subtle, too mystically 
 bright for him to dwell among ordinary mortals. It takes 
 a good deal to make me wonder ; I have read, and felt so 
 much, and seen so much of the world. But Leigh Hunt 
 does make me ivonder. As he speaks to you, what he says 
 is all so momently inspired, so pure and simply flowing, but 
 all so ethereal, so wise of the loorld, yet not mere worldly- 
 wise, and so heavenly-tinctured, that one sometimes feels as
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 81 
 
 if he were about to unveil his radiant wings, and, with a fare- 
 well look of enchanting sweetness, fly to the orb which is his 
 home. I never felt anything like the perpetual spell with 
 which he entwines you ; crisply clear, yet somehow so strange 
 and bright that one has to look out now and then to the 
 trees and stone-walls to assure oneself of being still in the 
 sphere of the ' Kensington 'buses.' Were I to write to you 
 immediately after leaving him, I could retain a great part 
 of his conversation; but some of it is so flashingly im- 
 promptu, and some so delicate and quint-essential that it 
 cannot always be preserved." 
 
 In another letter to the same friend, Mr. Dodds suggests 
 that Mr. Hunt should be asked to contribute an article to 
 the Edinburgh Revievj on the '' Court of Urbino." A book 
 had just been published on that out-of-the-way, but interest- 
 ing subject, and the practised essayist, supremely acquainted 
 with the history of Italy in the Middle Ages, was anxious to 
 write an article on a Court so long renowned for its gentle- 
 men wits and scholars, and where Eaphael himself first rose 
 to distinction. Mr. Hunter was well acquainted with Mr. 
 Empson, editor of the Edinburgh Review at that time. 
 He was just the man to press the claims of Mr. Hunt, which 
 were supported, as Mr. Dodds mentions, by the strong 
 opinion of Lord John Russell. The result was that Mr. 
 Hunt, who, it seems, had contributed to the Revieiu in 
 former days, was requested to write an article on the subject
 
 82 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 that had attracted him so strongly. The title chosen for 
 the article was the " Dukes of Urbino/' and how the writer 
 laboriously prepared it, appears from another letter of his 
 friend : — " Hunt says he never wrote anything with so much 
 labour, with such heaviness both in the head and in the 
 heart; that he could hardly drag on, though he knew all 
 the parts of the subject as well as all the walks of Kensing- 
 ton Park ; that he sat often puzzling himself for half-an- 
 hour over a common link of his narrative that on former 
 occasions would never have cost him a moment's thought ; 
 that he wrote, rubbed out, altered, and changed the 
 alterations ; that, if the right sort of thing had filtered 
 out at last, great was the quantity of gravel it had been 
 strained through. After he had finished his work, he was 
 under some apprehension that the residuum, when tested, 
 would be found worthless, and that Mr. Empson would 
 return it. But Mr. Empson accepted the article, and 
 praised it very highly." The Quarterly Review of that 
 year had also an article on the subject of Urbino, so asso- 
 ciated in the public mind with the great name of Kaphael. 
 
 But while Mr. Dodds was intimate with Mr. Carlyle, Mr. 
 Hunt, and a few other authors of eminence, he did not 
 court the society of London literary men. The late Pro- 
 fessor Craik he well knew, and greatly admired for his 
 moral worth and his distinction in literature. But from 
 newspaper-men, magazine-men, and miscellaneous " popular
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 83 
 
 "writers," he deliberately stood aloof. Neither his tastes nor 
 the calls of business permitted his formal entrance into 
 literary society. In one of his earlier letters from London, 
 he says : — " I have an invincible repugnance to pushing 
 acquaintance among the litterateurs of the day. I generally 
 find professional and mercantile men in every way more 
 valuable acquaintances, not only more sedate and amiable, 
 and more free from envy, malice, and all uncharitableness, 
 but also better informed, more deliberate and judicious, 
 nay, much abler and more enlightened men altogether." 
 
 During his autumnal visits to Scotland, Mr. Dodds 
 frequently spent some days at Craigcrook, the delightful 
 and classic residence of his friend Mr. Hunter. Sheltered 
 from the west by the beautifully wooded Corstorphine hills, 
 and commanding a picturesque view of Edinburgh, with its 
 romantic environs, that mansion, long the loved home of 
 Lord Jeffrey, is equally attractive to the lover of nature and 
 the student of Scottish literature. Mr, Hunter was a man 
 whose native love of letters was never abated by the study 
 and practice of law ; and in Craigcrook he passed the latter 
 portion of his life in the enjoyment of as much earthly 
 happiness as falls to the lot even of the most successful men 
 of business. The troops of friends that gathered round him 
 embraced much of the talent and culture of the Scottish 
 metropolis. Between him and Mr. Dodds the friendship 
 that existed was of a very peculiar kind, tinged as it was on
 
 84 MFMOIB OF JAMES UODDS. 
 
 the part of the younger man with a deep sentiment of 
 gratitude and chivalrous devotion. 
 
 The following sonnet, written by Mr. Dodds in October, 
 1853, is a singularly beautiful testimony to the harmony of 
 Mr. Hunter's life and surroundings. A finer tribute has 
 seldom been paid by one friend to another. Professor Craik 
 declared it to be worthy of any living English poet. 
 
 CRAIGCROOK. 
 
 TO J. H. 
 
 I HAVE not found so true a Harmony 
 
 As crowns this life of thine, my much-loved friend I 
 
 See ! the bright roses o'er the violets bend ; 
 
 The oaks with hazels sing in windy glee ; 
 
 The lawn looks coy up to yon gazing hill ; 
 
 On the same bough are dove and blackbird seen : 
 
 And, as we talk under this alley green. 
 
 The robin makes a third, with answering trill. 
 
 Within, thy Home is meet for such a spot : 
 
 Thy youthful dreams, how rare ! have grown to truth ; 
 
 Still rarer, life keeps fine as dream of youth ; 
 
 Rarest and best, this harmony is given, 
 
 Thy Real drinks music from Ideal Thought, 
 
 And Earth o'ervvreathes, not hides, the Gate to Heaven !
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS, 85 
 
 Mr. Hunter, with great skill and felicity, replied to the 
 effusion of his friend in what he called 
 
 A REPLICATION OF RHYMES. 
 
 TO J. D. 
 
 Thine own life too hath reached a Harmony, 
 
 Of rounder, nobler swell than mine, my friend ! 
 
 He is the Hero, whose strong soul can bend 
 
 A turbulent nature, panting in the glee 
 
 Of young ambition to ascend the hill 
 
 Where Worldly Greatness, crowned with power, is seen ; 
 
 And, conqueror of himself, can seek the green 
 
 Low vale where true Peace dwells, and list the trill 
 
 Of home-bred joys that sanctify the spot. 
 
 Earth's dazzling meteors for the Torch of Truth 
 
 Thou hast exchanged ; and for wild dreams of youth 
 
 More glorious aims and nobler gifts are given, 
 
 A Soul of power, a well of lofty Thought, 
 
 A chastened Hope that ever points to Heaven. 
 
 J. H. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that Mr. Dodds's business 
 rapidly increased after he had once fairly settled in London. 
 That business consisted almost entirely of the management 
 of private bills before Parliament, and of Scotch Appeal
 
 86 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 Cases in the House of Lords. As a Parliamentary solicitor, 
 he was equally remarkable for his sound judgment and great 
 industry. But in the conduct of appeal cases he was also 
 very skilful and fortunate. One Scotch appeal case, above 
 all others, got him signal honour, and showed what he could 
 have done had he belonged to a higher branch of his pro- 
 fession. This was known in legal circles as " The Great 
 Morgan Will Case." An old gentleman of the name of 
 Morgan, who had made a large fortune in the West Indies, 
 died without leaving any near or recognised relatives. He 
 had not made a formal will, but there were found among 
 his papers certain rough jottings indicating his intention of 
 leaving his property to build and endow a Boys' Hospital in 
 the town of Dundee. These jottings, or scrawls, though 
 distinct enough in their way, were universally thought at 
 first to be of no testamentary validity. The opinion of 
 leading Scotch Counsel was taken by some Dundee citizens, 
 and found to be quite unfavourable to the claims of the 
 town. But Provost Thoms, a shrewd and public-spirited 
 man, was not quite satisfied that the Morgan " writings " 
 were altogether valueless, and sent to Mr. Dodds a facsimile 
 of them for his inspection and opinion. During one of his 
 Parliamentary vacations, Mr. Dodds made a complete study 
 of the whole matter, and the result was, " that he formed," 
 to use his own words, " the clearest and most decided opinion 
 as a lawyer that the said writings were a perfectly good will.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 87 
 
 and contained an effectual bequest of as much money as 
 should be necessary for establishing a hospital for the 
 education and maintenance of 100 boys in Dundee." 
 
 He wrote out a full opinion to that effect, and in the 
 autumn of 1855 he expounded his views regarding the 
 whole matter at a meeting in Dundee attended by about 
 200 of its leading inhabitants. A considerable sum was 
 immediately subscribed to try the whole question in the 
 Courts of Law. A claim for the town of Dundee was soon 
 after made in the Court of Session, but it w^as rejected 
 almost with contempt. Encouraged, however, by a favour- 
 able opinion of Sir Richard Bethel, afterwards Lord West- 
 bury, the Dundee claimants carried the case to the House 
 of Lords; and there the highest judges of the kingdom 
 decided unanimously that " the writings " formed a good 
 will, and that there was an effectual bequest of as much 
 money as was required to found such a hospital as the 
 testator had mentioned. The decision of the Supreme Court 
 of Appeal almost literally accorded with the views Mr. 
 Dodds had maintained in opposition to the highest legal 
 authorities in Scotland. 
 
 Mr. Morgan left nearly £100,000, and thus there was 
 abundance of funds for the erection of the hospital. Mr. 
 Dodds, writing with just pride of the result of the litigation, 
 said : " The benefit to Dundee will be incalculable. Much, 
 no doubt, will depend on the soundness and wisdom with
 
 88 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 which the Institution may be planned, and afterwards 
 administered. But we may hope that good sense will pre- 
 vail, and that the experience gained from so many other 
 towns where large hospitals exist will not be lost on 
 Dundee." 
 
 Another Scotch appeal case in which he was profession- 
 ally engaged greatly interested Mr. Dodds, from the public 
 rights it involved. This was the celebrated Glen Tilt Case, 
 arising out of an attempt of the Duke of Athole to restrict, 
 or rather prevent, the access of tourists and the public 
 generally to one of the grandest mountain scenes in Scot- 
 land. The Duke obtained a decision in his favour in the 
 Court of Session ; but Mr. Dodds, on being intrusted with 
 the conduct of an appeal to the House of Lords, expressed 
 a decided opinion that the popular side would win in the 
 Supreme Court. He flung his whole soul into the case, 
 which he looked at not merely with the eye of a lawyer, but 
 with the feelings of a public-spirited Scotchman. It cost 
 him much labour and careful thought, and he looked forward 
 with great anxiety to the issue. Supreme was his satisfac- 
 tion when the House of Lords pronounced what he thought 
 not only a just, but a most important and valuable judg- 
 ment.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 VISITS TO GALLOWAY. TWO GALLOWAY LAIRDS. LECTURES OX THE 
 COVENANTERS AND THEIR TIMES. REV. DR. ROGERS. INAUGURA- 
 TION OF THE GUTHRIE MONUMENT AT STIRLING. PUBLIC BREAK- 
 FAST IN HIS HONOUR. MONUMENT TO THE WIGTOWN MARTYRS. 
 ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION STONE. WALLACE 
 MONUMENT MOVEMENT. 
 
 It has been already stated that Mr. Dodds, when writing 
 and publishing in periodicals his poems on Covenanting 
 themes, made a special study of the history of the Scottish 
 Covenants and their heroic adherents. By means of genuine 
 historical research, he strove hard to realise the scenes and 
 times to which his poetical outpourings referred. Even after 
 he had ceased to write Lays of the Covenanters, he con- 
 tinued, at his leisure, to prosecute that line of study which 
 always had for him a strong fascination. He read critically 
 all books of Scottish Church History that fell into his hands, 
 and made a special elSbrt to get access to works of original 
 or standard authority. Still further to enliven his concep- 
 tions of the Covenanters and their struggles, he visited, 
 during his autumnal journeys in Scotland, many scenes made
 
 90 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 famous by the battles and martyrdoms of the religious 
 patriots whom he so sincerely admired. 
 
 Certain regions in the Lowlands of Scotland were specially 
 attractive to him, as being the native homes or chosen 
 haunts of the men of the Covenant. These are Lanarkshire 
 and Ayrshire, with Dumfriesshire, Wigtown and Kirkcud- 
 bright that go by the name of Galloway. It so happened 
 that calls of business frequently took him, between the years 
 1850 and 1860, down to Galloway, a region peculiarly rich 
 in Covenanting memories. In Galloway he always enjoyed 
 himself exceedingly, delighted with its fine mountain scenery, 
 and solemnised by its lonely martyrs' graves. With one 
 gentleman of that district he became well acquainted, Mr. 
 Mackie, of Bargally, at that time member for the Stewartry 
 of Kirkcudbright. At Bargally he always found a hospitable 
 welcome, and there he spent, at various periods, some singu- 
 larly happy days. The company of Mr. Mackie, the delights 
 of his home, the scenery and very air of the place, all charmed 
 him after escaping from the cares and toils of business in 
 London. He celebrated in various beautiful poems Bargally 
 and other pleasant spots in Galloway ; and to Mr. Mackie 
 he felt strongly bound by many ties of grateful affection. 
 
 He was also wonderfully taken with another Galloway 
 "laird," the late James Stewart, Esq. of Cairnsmore, who 
 was a great friend of Mr. Mackie, though opposed to him in 
 politics. " Bargally " and " Cairnsmore," as the two gentle-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 91 
 
 men were popularly called, after the fashion of Scotland, 
 loved each other as brothers. They were both very excel- 
 lent and generous men in their generation, aspiring not to 
 fame in the world, but content with the simple ways of 
 country life. Yet Cairnsmore had talents which, if fully 
 cultivated, might have borne him to high distinction. One 
 of his sons, Patrick Stewart, rose to eminence in India as a 
 gallant and scientific soldier, being the first man who suc- 
 cessfully introduced the field telegraph into active military 
 operations. But let us see what Mr. Dodds, fresh from 
 London life, writes of " Cairnsmore " in June, 1856: 
 " When I was at Bargally I made Mr. Stewart's acquaint- 
 ance ; and an extraordinary man he is. He invited me to 
 Cairnsmore, and there I spent with him an agreeable day. 
 I was exceedingly struck with his wonderfully plastic and 
 powerful mind, and his marked and original character, a 
 Dalton, self-buried in the sands of Cree. He is one of the 
 world's 'great men,' comparatively lost. He has been de- 
 ficient in ' the last infirmity of noble minds.' " There always 
 have been not a few Cairnsmores in the world, especially 
 among heirs to comfortable estates, and men who from choice, 
 or force of circumstances reside in the quiet places of the 
 country. High talent, in order to blaze up among men, 
 requires a culture, an excitement, and an opportunity, which 
 are not always, perhaps not often, found united at the right 
 time or in the right way.
 
 92 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 While be thus nourished his intellect and imagination 
 with the exciting materials supplied by his visits to Galloway, 
 Mr. Dodds prosecuted with renewed relish his historical 
 studies. The result was the preparation of a series of bio- 
 graphical papers, which he first delivered as popular lectures, 
 and finally expanded into a volume. No compositions of the 
 kind were ever written with greater fulness of heart, or with 
 greater pains and industry. Mr. Dodds, while admiring the 
 Covenanters, and their struggles for liberty, was very careful 
 to ascertain the truth concerning their principles and practices, 
 the character of their leaders, and the proper bearing of the 
 events that make up their history. He was no blind en- 
 thusiast in this matter, but a keen and thoughtful historical 
 student, bent on doing justice alike to the persecuted and their 
 persecutors. What he has written of the Covenanters has, 
 therefore, a high value in the eyes of all impartial readers. 
 He has never sunk the philosopher and the statesman in the 
 Scotchman and Presbyterian in treating of men and struggles 
 that peculiarly appeal to the prepossessions of most students 
 of Scottish history. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Dodds became acquainted with the Rev. 
 Dr. Charles Rogers, Royal Chaplain, Stirling Castle, then 
 engaged in appealing to the patriotism of Scotland for the 
 erection of a monument to the great national hero, Sir 
 William Wallace. Dr. Rogjers, the oricjinator, and for 
 many years the indefatigable promoter of the Wallace
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 93 
 
 monument project, was specially attracted to Mr. Dodds by 
 a common sympathy with the Covenanters. He induced the 
 London Parliamentary solicitor, then hardly known beyond 
 the limits of his own legal circle, to deliver at Stirling and 
 other towns a series of four lectures on Covenanting sub- 
 jects. These lectures, prepared with much care, and read 
 with remarkable effect, attracted great attention, and were 
 warmly admired by large audiences. After being celebrated 
 in many parts of Scotland they were at length delivered by 
 special request in the Queen Street Hall, Edinburgh. The 
 requisition addressed to the author for the delivery of these 
 lectures in the metropolis was signed by judges, members of 
 Parliament, professors of the University, magistrates, doctors 
 of divinity of all the Churches, physicians, advocates, editors, 
 artists, and other influential citizens. The high expecta- 
 tions of the requisitionists were amply justified. The most 
 accomplished men who heard them were greatly struck with 
 their eloquence, as well as the original research and historic 
 insight they displayed. 
 
 In November, 1857, was inaugurated in the new ceme- 
 tery at Stirling a statue to the memory of the martyr, 
 James Guthrie. This noble monument to one of the 
 greatest of Scotland's spiritual heroes was erected mainly 
 through the liberality of the late Mr. William Drummond, 
 an excellent man, who did honour to Stirling and his native 
 land. Mr. Dodds was requested to deliver an inaugural
 
 94 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 address on the interesting occasion, and cheerfully undertook 
 the honourable task. Standing beside the unveiled monu- 
 ment, and in presence of the magistrates and a great multi- 
 tude of the citizens of Stirling, he dilated in magnificent 
 style on Guthrie and his times, the principles of the British 
 constitution, and the great liberties we now enjoy. Part of 
 his estimate of Guthrie's character is as follows : " By what- 
 ever test we try him, we shall not hesitate to pronounce him 
 the first man of his day, the first in talent, in weight of 
 intellect, in fertility and decision of mind, in promptitude and 
 force of action, in all that kind of intellectual aptitude and 
 energy which rouses and sustains the people in their contests 
 with despotism, and commands ultimate success, though it 
 may not be attained in the lifetime of the leader himself. 
 ... To his solid and brilliant qualities he added a charac- 
 ter as spotless and lofty as humanity can attain to, or earth 
 behold. No stain ever fell upon it, no breath of calumny 
 ever assailed it. Hard things have been said of Knox and 
 Melville, and some of them, I for one admit, deservedly. 
 Against Henderson little has been alleged ; for he was 
 grave, prudent, temperate, and subdued, and laid himself 
 little open to the attacks of scandal ; yet against him also 
 insinuations have been levelled. But against Guthrie the 
 mouths of all the dogs of his time were silent. The chroni- 
 clers of scandal were dumb ; and his bitterest enemies always 
 spoke respectfully of his character."
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS, 95 
 
 The address concludes with this splendid peroration, 
 which is quite Demosthenic in style and spirit : " Beside 
 this monument, as an altar of freedom, let us plight our 
 faith and swear our covenant to be the enemies of all that 
 is false and slavish, the friends and promoters of all that is 
 true, good, and free. Yes ! immortal spirit of the long- 
 departed martyr ! I know not what are the laws of the 
 spirit-land ; I know not in what part of the universe is the 
 stately and beatific palace where thou dwellest ; I know 
 not what are thy employments, or where is the circuit of 
 thy flight. But I am persuaded, not from any certain facts, 
 but from the promptings of feeling, and imagination, and 
 sympathy, that thou still hast an interest in sublunary 
 concerns ; that thou art not all lost in heavenly ecstacies, but 
 still watchest that struggle for freedom in which thou didst fall 
 a martyr. If then, immortal spirit ! thou art now hovering 
 over us in this the scene of thy labours and griefs, thy loves 
 and joys when in the flesh, bear witness ! that, standing 
 around this monumental stone, we devote ourselves to the 
 maintenance of those principles for which thou didst die so 
 nobly, and resolve rather ourselves to perish than survive 
 the liberties of our country and our race." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Beith, of Stirling, who was present at the 
 inauguration ceremony, declared, at the breakfast given two 
 days afterwards in honour of Mr. Dodds, that "he beheld in 
 the statue one of the most beautiful pieces of sculpture that
 
 96 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 could be seen in Scotland ; that he had listened to an 
 oration, bearing on the history and character of the illustri- 
 ous dead, which for truth, beauty, judgment, and power 
 could not be excelled ; that it was not an easy thing to be 
 true to history, true to the views of Guthrie which might 
 be justly entertained, and yet to make a speech which would 
 offend none, but give satisfaction to persons of all shades of 
 opinion who heard it." This high and discriminating praise 
 was amply merited. In all his speeches delivered on public 
 occasions Mr. Dodds uniformly combined the calm judgment 
 of a philosopher with the fire of a poet and orator. 
 
 At the breakfast, which was presided over by the chief 
 magistrate of Stirling, Mr. Dodds was presented with a 
 magnificent quarto Bible, in a box formed of Scottish oak, ele- 
 gantly bound, and bearing an inscription commemorative of 
 his services at the inauguration of the Guthrie monument. He 
 made a beautiful speech in returning thanks for the precious 
 gift, and descanted delightfully on the classic beauties and 
 historic glories of the ancient town of Stirling. Speaking 
 of the civic munificence of Mr. William Drummond, he 
 said: "When a private citizen walking your streets, and 
 attending to his shop with the rest of you, without parade, with- 
 out flourish of trumpets, as quietly and easily as he would pur- 
 chase a toy for a child, pays down a large price for that bold, 
 commanding site on which Guthrie's monument is placed, 
 and makes it a gift for the public weal, there is every
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 97 
 
 reason to be encouraged, to be stimulated, to anticipate a 
 growing interest and harmony in all that relates to the 
 beautif)dng of your city. Such munificence transcends the 
 usual limits of provincial liberality. It carries us back to 
 the palmy days of Genoa and Florence, when the citizens 
 considered it their duty, their pride, their glory to dedicate 
 their wealth to the graceful and classical adornment of those 
 cities within whose walls that wealth had been made, and 
 in whose increasing importance and grandeur they felt a 
 common interest. This tendency in man to improve, to 
 beautify, to lavish, as it were, the treasures of his brain 
 and heart on that corner of the world where he dwells, and 
 which is his home, is a tendency that has a solemn aspect, 
 and contains within it matter of high significance and 
 import." 
 
 One of the results of the visits Mr. Dodds paid to friends in 
 Galloway was his delivery at Wigtown of his lectures on the 
 the Covenanters. These lectures had the effect of giving new 
 life to a movement originated in the place some years before 
 for the erection of a monument to the "Wigtown Martyrs." 
 These martyrs have been peculiarly celebrated in the history 
 of Scotland, and their very names are dear to all^true Scot- 
 tish Presbyterians. Margaret Lauchlison, a widow of sixty- 
 three, and Margaret Wilson, a maiden of eighteen, in terms 
 of a sentence of one of the Courts of the persecuting 
 
 Government of the time, were drowned on the 11 th of 
 
 H
 
 98 MEMOIB OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 May, 1685, near Wigtown, at a place where the waters of 
 the small river Blednoch mingle with the salt tide of the 
 Solway. Both of the women met their doom with a 
 quiet but exalted heroism. The younger of them, who 
 was last put to death, especially showed a beautiful and 
 pathetic Christian fortitude that has touched the hearts and 
 bedewed the eyes of thousands since her day. All the 
 leading historians who have given any account of these 
 melancholy persecuting times in Scotland have failed not to 
 record with gentle hand the tragedy of the tender but 
 heroic Wigtown martyrs. It has been reserved for a Scot- 
 tish lawyer of the present day, Mr. Mark Napier, the 
 biographer of Graham of Claverhouse, known as Viscount 
 Dundee, to deny the reality of the execution of the two 
 women at Wigtown, and to heap upon their heads the 
 coarsest ribaldry. But his attempt to gainsay the truth of 
 history has signally failed, and the reality of the martyrdom 
 has lately been proved afresh by a superabundance of 
 authentic and consistent evidence. 
 
 On the I7th August, 1858, Mr. Dodds delivered an 
 inaugural address at Wigtown on the occasion of the laying 
 of the foundation stone of a monument erected to the 
 memory of the martyrs. An immense assemblage of 
 people was gathered together from all parts of the surround- 
 ing country to witness the impressive ceremony, and to hear 
 a vindication of the Covenanters. Mr. Dodds's speech was
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 99 
 
 one of his greatest efforts. With a full heart he did justice 
 to the two Galloway women who died for the truth, and 
 then he splendidly expatiated on his favourite themes, the 
 heroism of the Covenanters and their services to British 
 liberty. Alluding to the attempts made by her executioners 
 to shake the constancy of Margaret Wilson, and her simple, 
 sublime bearing in the midst of her last trial, the orator 
 said : " Dragged half-dead from the waters, she was urged 
 again ' to pray for the king,' which then meant, as was 
 well understood, to approve of, to bid God-speed to, the 
 whole tyranny and iniquity and Antichristianism of the 
 ruling powers. She had already been overwhelmed in the 
 horrors of death ; the black devouring floods were hissing 
 at her feet, as if greedy for their prey ; life, and the sweets 
 of life, inviting her one way ; death, in one of his most 
 wild and horrific forms, yawning to swallow her up the 
 other way. Will not her heart fail ? Will not the strain 
 upon her nerves be too great for her to bear ? Her mind 
 must be bewildered. Surely for life, for sweet young life, 
 she will grasp at any straw that is offered. Not so the 
 holy, heavenly maiden. Amid the roar of the waves, the 
 groans and lamentations of the people, the mingled flatteries 
 and threats of the persecutors, and amid the awfulness of the 
 pains of death, half-endured, her intellect was calm and un- 
 clouded, her judgment firm and unshaken, her thoughts as 
 clear, and her language as precise and careful as if she had
 
 100 MEMOIR OF JAMES BODDS. 
 
 been a professor in the chair of theology, and not a poor 
 maiden of eighteen in the midst of her martyr agonies." 
 
 In May, 1859, Mr. Dodds met with a bereavement that 
 deeply touched his heart. This was the death of his vener- 
 able mother, the only parent he had ever known, a woman 
 of strongly marked character, from whom he had derived 
 not a little of his ardent temperament. Of warm feel- 
 ings, of deep unquestioning faith, and simple-minded piety, 
 she exercised a stronger influence upon her son than perhaps 
 either of them knew. During the later portion of her 
 lengthened life she was dependent on her son for support, 
 and for some years before her death she lived under his roof 
 in London, where she was cared for by him and his family 
 with all true affection and respect. 
 
 Having been appointed London Secretary to the Central 
 Committee charged with procuring funds for the Wallace 
 monument, Mr. Dodds, along with Dr. Rogers, held meetings 
 at Dunfermline, Falkirk, Ayr, Dumfries, and other important 
 towns. In all these places he was the principal speaker, 
 and wisely, as well as eloquently, did he plead for the 
 national tribute to the memory of the martyred Scottish 
 hero. In his interesting " Leaves from my Autobiography,'* 
 Dr. Rogers speaks of his fellow-labourer " as a gentleman of 
 rare gifts and true patriotic sentiment, who had consented 
 to join him in carrying on the work." The Dunfermline 
 meeting was presided over by Mr. Baillie Cochrane, of Lam-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES D0DD8. 101 
 
 ington, M.P., a descendant of Wallace, and the owner of his 
 estates. At Ayr, a town sjDecially associated with the ex- 
 ploits of the hero, the chairman of the meeting was Sir 
 James Fergusson, of Kilkerran, M.P. ; and there Mr. Dodds 
 thus disposed of a common objection to the project of a Wallace 
 monument : " Some have expressed a vain fear that the 
 erection of such a monument, as betokening our Scottish 
 nationality, may be antagonistic to England. Antagonistic 
 to England ! our majestic and mighty sister, united to us by 
 community of race and opinion, by long and endearing inter- 
 course. It is almost impossible even to imagine a contin- 
 gency which would bring about the smallest collision between 
 us. But it is easy to foresee a turn of events in Europe in 
 this uncertain and troubled time, when the nationality of 
 Scotland, our inspiring recollections, and our adhesion to 
 the liberty of nations, may be of immense importance in 
 strengthening our common British Empire, and carrying it 
 triumphantly through conflicts and unhallowed combinations 
 which may yet menace or overtake it. And if a time ever 
 come when despotism enters the lists with the one empire 
 of free men, I can say the first soldier ordered by the tyrants 
 to march against this land, or any of its dependencies, the 
 first gun fired in the battle between despotism and freedom, 
 will send a thrill of exultation through old Scotland such as 
 she has never felt since the day that Wallace fought the battle 
 of Stirling Bridge, and Bruce the battle of Bannockburn."
 
 102 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS, 
 
 The foundation stone of the national monument to Wal- 
 lace on the Abbey Craig, Stirling, was laid with extraordinary 
 pomp and ceremonial, on the 24th June, 1861, the 547th 
 anniversary of the battle of Bannockburn. The procession 
 of Volunteers, representatives of Municipal Bodies, Curling 
 Clubs, Gardeners Lodges, Oddfellows and Masonic Lodges, 
 was unprecedented for its extent, variety, and splendour. 
 Marshalled in the King's Park, under the command of 
 Lieut. -General Sir James Maxwell Wallace, K.C.B., a de- 
 scendant of the illustrious hero, it moved in triumphal array, 
 with banners flying and pipers playing, to the lofty emin- 
 ence that has been called the geographical centre of Scot- 
 land, where, with all the antique and gorgeous ceremonial of 
 Scottish Free Masonry, the stone was to be laid. It was three 
 miles in length, and as it marched along the winding road, 
 and up to the sacred height, it presented a most majestic 
 spectacle. The Duke of Athole, K.T., as Grand Master 
 Mason of Scotland, presided at the ceremony, and did full 
 honour to the august occasion. When the stone had been 
 lowered to its place, and declared duly laid, a salute of 
 artillery, by express command of the British Government, 
 was fired at a given signal from Stirling Castle. Nothing 
 that was fitted to stir the hearts of the great assembly and 
 to honour the glorious name of Wallace was wanting to the 
 ceremonial of the day. Sir Archibald Alison, in an eloquent 
 speech delivered on the spot, said : " The guns of Stirling
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODJJS. 103 
 
 Castle announce tbat the Sovereign of the realm, the de- 
 scendant of Robert Bruce, has given her cordial consent to 
 the movement. The Duke of Cambridge, in the name of 
 the army, has presented the meeting with the sword of Sir 
 William Wallace. The Earl of Elgin, the lineal descendant 
 of King Robert Bruce, has sent the sword of that noble 
 Sovereign ; and the Duke of Montrose, the Lord Lieutenant 
 of the County, has sent the sword of his illustrious ancestor, 
 Sir John de Grseme. The highest in rank, the first in 
 station, have combined in this great movement ; and more 
 striking still is the proof which the movement gives of the 
 universal and deep sense of gratitude and admiration in 
 which the services of Wallace to his country are now held, 
 after the lapse of six hundred years, by his grateful coimtry- 
 men. Upwards of 25,000 men in uniform have assembled 
 here to-day from all parts of Scotland to do honour to his 
 memory. Above double that number have come as spectators 
 to witness the scene. There has been no assembly like 
 this at Stirling since the day when the army that fought at 
 Bannockburn assembled under this Craig." 
 
 Mr. Dodds took part in this extraordinary national de- 
 monstration, and spoke at the banquet that followed the 
 spirit-stirring proceedings of the day. Sir Archibald Alison, 
 as chairman, proposed the usual loyal toasts with more than 
 usual eloquence, and, in a regular speech, did ample justice 
 to the toast of the evening, '' The Immortal Memory of Sir
 
 104 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 William Wallace." That learned sheriff and eminent his- 
 torian while dwelling on the heroic character and im- 
 perishable achievements of Wallace, took occasion to show 
 that the independence of Scotland, due mainly to Wallace 
 and Bruce, was really not an injury, but an immense benefit 
 to England. Scotland and England, which were united in 
 1707, on equal terms, as sovereign nations, have both been 
 stronger and happier ever since, and form practically one 
 glorious and powerful realm, free from all rivalry but what 
 is useful and honourable. 
 
 To Mr. Dodds was reserved the perilous honour of speak- 
 ing near the close of the banquet. His subject was " Scot- 
 tish Nationality," and though nearly all the previous speakers 
 had touched upon it, he contrived to invest it with the 
 fascination of fresh and genuine eloquence. The speech he 
 made was one of his happiest efforts, and was received, 
 according to the reporters, with "great and enthusiastic 
 applause." After adverting to " the inextinguishable pug- 
 nacity of the Scottish mind," he went on to say : " There 
 are some people who still dispute upon the rival claims 
 of Bruce and Baliol to the throne. Over the coffins of 
 John Knox and of Queen Mary, I need not say what fierce 
 contentions are still carried on. The battles of the Cove- 
 nanters and the Royalists are still fought with unabated zeal 
 and acrimony. Most of even our greatest men are but the 
 objects of a divided homage. But there is one name which
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODVS. 105 
 
 silences all controversy ; there is one man in our history 
 before whom all Scotsmen stand calm, reverent, and recon- 
 ciled. That name, that man is William Wallace. We all 
 feel that he was connected with no party, and engaged in 
 no party work ; that he belonged to the privileged few who 
 found or save nations, and whom posterity venerate with 
 unmingled and undivided homage. I repeat, he is the 
 highest and purest symbol of Scottish nationality." 
 
 He concluded his brilliant harangue in these words : 
 " Our nationality is but another guarantee for the peace and 
 security of the whole Empire. Our love of freedom and in- 
 dependence is now a strength not a weakness to England. 
 Every nook of British ground is sacred in our eyes. Should 
 ever any daring invader touch the queenly brow of England, 
 he would soon hear the voice of the North swelling with the 
 old cry, Nemo one impune lacessit. If the foot of the foe 
 shall never be planted on the gray rocks of our Abbey Craig, 
 neither, so long as we have breath to draw, or blood to shed, 
 shall it ever be planted on the white cliffs of Dover. Scottish 
 nationahty is not weakness, not jealousy, not dissension, 
 but one of the main pillars and supports of the whole 
 British Empire."
 
 106 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SCOTTISH LITERARY INSTITUTE. KOSSUTH. POPULAR LECTURES. PRO- 
 POSED LECTURES ON THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. ESSAY ON " SCOT- 
 TISH LYRICS AND SCOTTISH LIFE." PUBLICATION OF "FIFTY YEARS' 
 STRUGGLE OF THE SCOTTISH COVENANTERS." LECTURES ON THE 
 REFORMATION PERIOD OF SCOTTISH CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 In "The Scottish Literary Institute," originated by Dr. 
 Rogers, Mr. Dodds for some time took a special interest. 
 He thought it might be the means of usefully bringing 
 together literary men connected with Scotland, and contri- 
 buting to the relief of such of them as had fallen into a 
 state of indigence. The first anniversary meeting of the 
 Institute was held at Glasgow in November, 1857, and 
 was attended by a promising array of members. Mr. Baillie 
 Cochrane, the chairman, made a very eloquent speech in 
 praise of Scottish genius and the objects contemplated by 
 the Society. Professor Blackie advocated the cause of 
 Scottish University Reform with which his name had been 
 so honourably identified. Mr. Dodds, as a leading member, 
 proposed as a toast, " The Literary Progress of the Scottish 
 People." With singular vividness did he expatiate on a
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 107 
 
 theme which he had made peculiarly his own. Speaking of 
 the freedom the Scottish people had long enjoyed, and the 
 uses which they made of it, he said : "For this perfect freedom 
 they repay the State, and more than repay, they strengthen, 
 support, and beautify it, by their steadiness, orderliness, 
 peaceable deportment, and rational and manly obedience to 
 the laws. A favourable contrast this to the frivolous and 
 frantic outbreaks of the drilled populations of the Continent, 
 drilled as scholars no less than as subjects. As a small 
 illustration of the wide and varied sphere of literature in 
 which even the humblest of our country people move, I 
 may be allowed to mention that my first reading of Milton 
 was from the book-shelf of a common blacksmith. I was 
 first initiated into a knowledge of the globes and of geo- 
 graphy by a ditcher in a little hamlet. My first spell at 
 astronomy and electricity was in a manuscript written by a 
 plain farmer, who also constructed telescopes and electric 
 machines. I first heard of Goethe by a forester's wife 
 getting me when a boy to read to her ' The Sorrows of 
 Werter ' ; and I was introduced to the wonderful exploits 
 of Don Quixote by a ploughman in one of the lonely and 
 secluded valleys at the foot of the Cheviots." 
 
 The Institute did good service in calling public attention 
 to the great question of the Reform of the Scottish Univer- 
 sities. But for a variety of reasons, which need not here 
 be specified, it failed to strike its roots in Scotland, and
 
 108 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 after various attempts at remodelling and reconstructing it 
 had been made, it ceased to exist. Probably the gravita- 
 tion of Scottish literary talent to London, the great mart of 
 literature, as well as of commerce and politics, had as much 
 to do with its failure as any other assignable cause. It has 
 been virtually succeeded in London by the '' Grampian 
 Club," also projected by Dr. Rogers, and more likely to 
 enjoy a prolonged vitality. 
 
 I must here mention Mr. Dodds's friendship with Kossuth 
 during the great patriot's residence in London. Writing to 
 me in June, 1856, he says : "From various reasons I have 
 come into very close contact with Kossuth, as near the soul 
 of the man as such a man can ever be approached. And 
 his historic grandeur only rises the closer the view. Such 
 is the beautiful, I had almost said the divine, simplicity, 
 that is, the perfect comprehensive unity, of those tran- 
 scendent natures amongst men. And then the sparkles at 
 times of Magyar dignity, of the wild Asiatic spirit ! I 
 have seen pathetic instances of this. Something would 
 occur drawing from him a few fierce ringing words, as if he 
 were still the ' Kossuth Lajos ' of Hungary ; and then a 
 sudden check and droop of the eye, as if a voice within 
 whispered, ' Hush, poor, powerless exile.' " 
 
 In one of the articles, chiefly sketches of eminent char- 
 acters, contributed to the Scotsman, and which attracted 
 general attention by their remarkable brilliancy, Mr. Dodds
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 109 
 
 delineated Kossuth with life-Hke truth, and in a spirit of 
 enthusiastic admiration. Kossuth was to him very much 
 a man after his own heart, w^ho seized hold of his imagina- 
 tion, while inspiring him with boundless affection. He had 
 also a profound sympathy with the Hungarian cause, as 
 with the cause, indeed, of all oppressed nationalities. A 
 copy of the Scotsman containing the article was sent to 
 Kossuth, and here is his reply to a letter Mr. Dodds had 
 addressed to him on the occasion : — 
 
 London, 3rd Ajjril, 1856. 
 My Dear Sir, — I have shown my wife your letter, as 
 also your article in the Scotsman. The paper had been 
 mailed to my address previously, and my wife was the 
 first to read it, and call my attention to it. I have no 
 words to say how deeply we w^ere touched by it; both 
 of us. Though I am very far from believing that I de- 
 serve anything like what you say, and though the humble 
 ambition, the only I know of, of endeavouring to do my 
 duty to the best of my modest abilities is certainly not 
 deserving of any praise, still I do not hesitate to confess that 
 your article acted like a cheering sun-ray in the night of 
 our adversity ; such is the halo of unfeigned affection and 
 sincerity that lightens the expression coming straight from 
 your heart, so full of noble emotions, and so indulgent in 
 overlooking defects, and in heightening the w^ork of plain
 
 no MEMOIB OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 common honesty into the merit of virtue. It was like a 
 balm on a burning wound. I forgot to blush at the 
 unmerited praise, so much good did your affection do my 
 heart. My thanks, and my wife's thanks, for it. From 
 some similarity of expressions about the growing importance 
 of lectures you happened to use in your letter, we had some 
 idea that the article was your production. I am very glad 
 to know that such is the case. 
 
 You say Saturday, 5 o'clock. You shall be welcome, 
 heartily welcome. — Yours affectionately, Kossuth. 
 
 Shortly before the date of this letter, Mr. Dodds had 
 been in communication with Kossuth on the subject of 
 popular lectures as an obvious and excellent means of 
 influencing public opinion. He wished to see the eloquent 
 Hungarian turn his gifts to account in this line, and urged 
 him to think favourably of the matter. A few sentences of 
 Kossuth's reply to him on the subject of public lecturing 
 may here be given : — 
 
 " Your letter gave me peculiar pleasure. It is just of such 
 a nature as I expect from my friends and well-wishers who 
 desire to assist me by kind advice and friendly co-opera- 
 tion in earning by honest labour the means for the sub- 
 sistence and education of my family. Indeed my lectures 
 at the Spa-field schoolroom were a trial step in that direc- 
 tion, delivered not so much with the view of pecuniary
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS, 111 
 
 reward as to try whether the English public is not tired of 
 hearing the earnest words, perhaps words of rebuke, from 
 the poor exile. I have since that time received several 
 invitations from several parts of England, and, taking the 
 advice of my friends, especially of Sir Joshua Walmesley, I 
 have come to certain resolutions about lecturing in public. 
 Under such circumstances, your offer to endeavour quietly 
 to mature and to work out my idea of lecturing could not 
 but be very agreeable to me, and I should be glad to see 
 you and to talk with you about this subject in the course of 
 the present week." 
 
 As to Mr. Leigh Hunt, Mr. Dodds rendered the most valu- 
 able personal and professional assistance to Louis Kossuth ; 
 and in all matters of this kind, nothing could be more pure 
 and disinterested than the motives that guided his conduct. 
 His admiration of genius and patriotism in misfortune was 
 with him something like an overpowering passion. His 
 sympathy with genuine intellectual power, and with all 
 that is lofty and generous in human character was ex- 
 quisitely keen. Most of his extant correspondence, and the 
 general tenor of his life, testify to this feature of his moral 
 nature. Wherever he had an opportunity of showing his 
 sympathetic ardour in the cause of truth and liberty, he 
 was ready to make all efforts, and even to brave all odium 
 in taking his line of action. Nor w^as his an evanescent 
 or impractical enthusiasm ; he could not only admire and
 
 112 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 sympatliise with noble men, but could set about helping 
 them in a prosaic and business-like way. 
 
 It has already been seen that Mr. Dodds, falling in with 
 the fashion of the times, and acting upon his own views of 
 popular enlightenment, gave some of his spare hours to 
 public lecturing. His lectures on the Covenanters had 
 been so successful that he was induced to prepare a number 
 of others, chiefly on historical subjects. One of the first of 
 these, and one of the best, was on Savonarola, which was 
 delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, as 
 well as in many provincial towns. He also prepared two 
 lectures on the " War of Italian Unity," in which he drew 
 life-like portraits of Garibaldi, Cavour, and Victor Emmanuel, 
 and gave a most animated account of the great struggle that 
 led ultimately to the triumph of Italian independence. 
 " How England and Scotland met the Spanish Armada in 
 1558 " was another of his popular lectures, and was greatly 
 admired by numerous audiences. There was another called 
 ^'The Firth of Forth in the Winter of 1559-60." All 
 these lectures were written with much care and with a view 
 to solid instruction as well as to rational entertainment. 
 They were also delivered with great emphasis and spirit ; 
 for Mr. Dodds, an orator by nature, was also a master of 
 elocution, and read his productions either in prose or verse 
 with remarkable effect. 
 
 Still more usefully to employ his powers as a lecturer, he
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 113 
 
 proposed at one time to prepare a few lectures, or familiar 
 addresses, on this important question, " How may a plain 
 man know that Christianity is from God ? " He was con- 
 vinced that the answer to this question demanded a method 
 of reasoning skilfully adapted to the popular mind, and that 
 a layman might manage the matter more successfully than 
 a clerical or professional advocate. By this time the fearful 
 doubts which once assailed his mind had passed away. His 
 battle with Romanism and unbelief, at one period of a 
 tremendous character, had resulted in the victory of simple 
 faith. He had bravely prosecuted his own researches. He 
 had explored by himself the foundations of religion ; he 
 had called no man and no Church master, but had, single- 
 handed, and under the Divine guidance, fought his way to a 
 calm and settled conviction of the truth of Christianity. 
 Yet, though originally trained up in one of the strictest 
 sects of Scottish Presbyterianism, he declined to identify 
 himself absolutely with that or any other visible communion, 
 and held the position simply of a member of the Church 
 of Christ. Of preachers, while he lived in London, he 
 preferred the older and more experienced to the younger 
 men, whose teaching was less mature, though it might be 
 conveyed in brilliant modern language. The late Dr. 
 Leifchild he specially admired as a Christian teacher and 
 a man of worth and wisdom. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Hunter, of date May, 1858, he thus 
 
 I
 
 114 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 develops his ideas about these proposed lectures on the 
 Evidences of Christianity : — 
 
 "I have of late years been much impressed with the 
 feeling that, besides the active infidelity at work amongst 
 our population, there has been an increasing slip-shodness 
 amongst professing Christians, a want of realising to them- 
 selves why they believe, while they just float sleepily down 
 the stream ; and hence Christianity has lost much of its living 
 power. And hence again the prevailing laxity which we 
 have had so much reason to lament, in personal deportment, 
 in commercial transactions, and in many other things. 
 There can be no remedy, but we must just rot, as France 
 seems to be doing, unless Christianity takes a more vital, 
 rational hold of our nation. I wish particularly to address 
 young men, who in these days of enterprise and rapid loco- 
 motion are hurried from scene to scene, and launched into 
 places far removed from home, where they are apt to be 
 seduced and ruined in consequence of never having seriously 
 thought over the question, ' How do I know Christianity to 
 be from God ? ' 
 
 '' You know I am neither fanatic nor sectarian, too little 
 of either to please whimsical and denominational people ; but 
 I consider that the civil salvation of our country depends 
 upon a Christian revival, that is, a revived conviction, 
 and an inward profound faith, that Christianity is God's 
 word to man. I am the better witness, too, because in my
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 115 
 
 time I have struggled through all the shades and labyrinths 
 of doubt, and it is by hard fighting that I am what I am. 
 I therefore understand well the springs of doubt, and my 
 sympathy is not against the doubter, but rather with him, 
 as a wandering brother, in order that I may persuade him 
 that yonder is the sun to guide, not the ignis fatuus 
 to mislead him." 
 
 But this project, though applauded by his friend Dr. 
 Kogers, did not meet with all the encouragement he ex- 
 pected from his other friends in Stirling, where he proposed 
 that the lectures should first be delivered. He appears, 
 therefore, to have given up the idea before he had made any 
 great progress in the work of literary preparation. The 
 failure of this scheme, inspired by the highest of motives, 
 is certainly to be regretted, as the projected lectures would 
 not have failed to be fresh and original, though simple, con- 
 tributions to the Christian argument. 
 
 Though Mr. Dodds never became what is called a 
 " Magazine writer," he occasionally contributed papers to 
 works in which a friend was specially interested. In 1857 
 he wrote for Dr. Eogers' " Modem Scottish Minstrel " an 
 essay on " Scottish Lyrics and Scottish Life." That essay 
 is a very unique production, and is to a large extent com- 
 posed of a perfectly idyllic picture of the ^' Good Duke 
 James of Eoxburghe," a nobleman who, after reigning for 
 some years with rare benevolence in his princely castle of
 
 116 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 Floors, near Kelso, departed this life at the patriarchal age of 
 eighty-six, lamented by the poor and lowly as few dukes 
 have ever been. He had succeeded to his dukedom when 
 somewhat advanced in life, after a memorable and protracted 
 litigation ; but he spent his last and best days in giving 
 employment to the poor on his estates, making all his 
 servants happy, and causing the land around him to smile 
 with new peace and plenty. Mr. Dodds, when a boy, had 
 sometimes got his ear pinched by this king of Tweedside ; 
 his venerated grandfather was treated by that king as a 
 personal friend. His imagination, therefore, is fired and his 
 heart is melted, as he describes the court of Floors, the 
 joyous band of retainers that gathered round it, the fre- 
 quent holidays that saw the great and the small brought 
 together on the green before the castle, and the good 
 duke, who occasionally danced with the most retired 
 rustic maiden he could find, acting as the grand pre- 
 siding genius of the scene. The whole forms an exqui- 
 site paper, full of truth and poetry, though there is in 
 it, like a fly in a piece of finest amber, the unaccountable 
 blunder of attributing to Wordsworth two famous lines of 
 Chevy Chase. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Dodds published "The Fifty Years' Struggle 
 of the Scottish Covenanters, 1638-1688." This work con- 
 sisted of his lectures on the Covenanters, in an expanded 
 and corrected form. The lectures, he confessed to his
 
 MEMOJE OF JAMES DODDS. 117 
 
 friends, had cost liim a world of trouble ; lie had ransacked 
 for them a whole department of the State Paper Office, 
 had consulted in his investigations some fifty or sixty 
 volumes, and had often toiled at the task of composition 
 till one or even two o'clock in the morning. When the 
 volume was being prepared for the press a similar variety 
 of labour was gone through, so bent was he on giving fresh- 
 ness and accuracy to his narrative. The work, pubHshed 
 first by an Edinburgh firm., was very favourably received, 
 and more than justified the author's fame as a lecturer. It 
 was afterwards transferred to a London publisher ; and from 
 first to last it has run through several editions. It is gener- 
 ally admitted to be one of the best books on the subject 
 published in modern times, or indeed at any former period. 
 The life-like accuracy of its sketches of the leading Cove- 
 nanters and their persecuting opponents has struck every 
 impartial reader. Indeed, the work is more a series of 
 biographies, with picturesque descriptions of events and the 
 scenes in which they occurred, than a regular and connected 
 history. The insight of the author into the men and the 
 times he undertakes to describe shows a true historic genius ; 
 while the glow of his narrative, and the striking imagery 
 that is ever at his command, bespeak the spirit of an orator 
 and poet. He never disguises his deep sympathy with the 
 Covenanters, and always speaks of them as profoundly 
 sincere, even when mistaken, as men of like passions and
 
 118 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 infirmities with ourselves, yet genuine religious patriots and 
 valiant pioneers of modern British liberty. But while he 
 takes the Scottish Presbyterian view of their characters and 
 struggles, he writes of them like a philosopher and states- 
 man of the present day. His is not a blind devotion to the 
 noble old Covenanting cause. He aims rather at an intelli- 
 gent appreciation of the men who upheld that cause, and, 
 according to their light, defended it at the risk, or at the 
 cost, of life itself. 
 
 It was at one time Mr. Dodds's intention to prosecute 
 still further his researches in Scottish ecclesiastical history, 
 especially that portion of it which relates to the rise and 
 progress of the Eeformation. He actually, with a view 
 probably to the issue of another volume, prepared two 
 elaborate lectures on " The Crisis of the Scottish Reforma- 
 tion, 1557-1560." These he delivered at Moffat, in 1863, 
 with great applause. '' The audience," says a local reporter, 
 " was spell-bound as he detailed with the vividness of pic- 
 tures the chief events of that glorious epoch. He described 
 Mary of Lorraine, Mary Queen of Scots, the Duke of Chatel- 
 lerault, Maitland of Lethington, and other Lords of the 
 Congregation, in words which made them almost seem to 
 take life and bodily presence. Of Knox himself, the chief 
 figure of his tableaux, every one could catch the very 
 impress, and realise the very presence, from two scenes he 
 described most effectively, the one in which the words, ' John
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 119 
 
 ELnox is come ' are uttered in the Church of the Greyfriars, 
 and the other presenting the preaching of the Reformer at 
 Stirling. He clearly explained the state of Europe, and 
 specially of Scotland, the efforts made by Knox, with the 
 difficulties his schemes encountered ; and often he made the 
 heart thrill and throb as he unveiled the course of Provi- 
 dence in our history. He exhibited a remarkable power of 
 impressing his hearers with a weird feeling of reality. It 
 was not merely the dim shadowy ghost of the Past that he 
 called up, but its very self. As by some inexplicable 
 magnetic influence, he carried one away whithersoever he 
 would, without any apparent effort, more irresistibly than 
 any other eminent lecturer of the day." This is high praise, 
 but not unmerited. In his best moods, when lecturing on 
 a subject that appealed to the higher feelings, Mr. Dodds 
 exhibited all that living action and transporting power 
 which give the true orator an irresistible sway over his 
 audience. He was never so much at home, never felt and 
 spoke so like a man inspired, as when he introduced upon 
 the scene the noble and picturesque though somewhat stern 
 worthies of Scottish Church history. 
 
 Even in introducing the Covenanters to a London 
 audience he stirred up that enthusiasm which springs 
 from sympathy with heroic struggles for liberty. At the 
 beginning of 1865, he was requested by the Rev. Newman 
 Hall to deliver a lecture on the Covenant] n,2f times in Scot-
 
 120 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 land, and to read, by way of illustration, a selection of his 
 Lays, at a Monday evening meeting of the congregation. 
 The entertainment was a splendid triumph. An audience 
 of 3000 people listened in breathless attention both to the 
 prose and the poetry of the lecturer, except when they could 
 not restrain their sympathetic emotion. On various other 
 occasions Mr. Dodds gave in London a similar lecture, with 
 suitable poetical illustrations, and always with decided suc- 
 cess. Had considerations of emolument chiefly swayed him 
 he might have turned his popular lectures of this kind to 
 profitable account. But, though never a rich man, and for a 
 large period of his life having a numerous family dependent 
 upon him, he was no adept in attending to his own pecuniary 
 interests, but let slip many excellent opportunities of honour- 
 ably adding to his income. Yet the success of the popular 
 reading of his Covenanting Lays increased his desire to 
 publish them in a small volume, with appropriate notes 
 and illustrations. He actually made considerable progress 
 in maturing such a literary project; but from that inex- 
 plicable irresoluteness which in matters of this kind often 
 came over him, he never took the final step, and let his 
 enterprise of pith and moment suddenly drop.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS, 121 
 
 CHAPTER Vlir. 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE " OAK." LIFE OF DR. CHALMERS, WITHDRAWS 
 FROM GENERAL SOCIETY. FAMILY LIFE. SCENES OF HIS HOLIDAY 
 RECREATIONS. GROWING LOVE OF NATURE. OVERWORK AND 
 FAILING HEALTH. CLOSING YEARS AND LAST DAYS. DEATH AND 
 BURIAL AT DUNDEE. CONCLUSION. 
 
 In 1868 Mr. Dodds contributed a few striking papers 
 to the "Oak," one of the publications of his friend Dr. 
 Rogers. Two of these are highly characteristic, one entitled 
 " Henry Brougham, in 3IemoTiam," and the other a sketch 
 of Mr. Gladstone. Of Lord Brougham, the idol that en- 
 tranced his youth, he says : " In ubiquity, in universality, 
 he distanced all his contemporaries. They selected each 
 his stronghold to attack, or his bastion to erect. Brougham 
 poured his fire of destruction everywhere, and everywhere 
 also were the marks of his hammer and chisel to be traced, 
 trying to reform and to renovate. Hansard, thou heavy- 
 looking Memnon's stone ! thou wast vocal through all 
 these years, as if touched by the morning sunbeam, with the 
 music of his wonderful discourses, full of eloquence, argu- 
 ment, invective, knowledge, patriotism, and humanity, full
 
 122 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 of magical phrases which the people caught up as a refrain, 
 of principles and sketches of policy which he could only half 
 develop, but which others have had the time and the skill 
 to adapt and realise." 
 
 The article on Mr, Gladstone is written con amove, and 
 with singular prescience. It appeared nearly a year before 
 that statesman became Prime Minister. The following pas- 
 sage, therefore, is not only a fine piece of criticism, but has 
 a touch of the prophetic : — '' He brings to every subject an 
 active and subtle mind, vast knowledge, and thorough official 
 experience. He has watched almost every political question of 
 the day from its first germ up to its present stage of growth ; 
 nothing comes upon him by chance or surprise. He never 
 acquiesces or rests in conclusions, even in his own conclu- 
 sions, but is ever probing them and revising them, and trying 
 their strength. He is a friend to Plato, and of course more 
 a friend to Gladstone, but most of all a friend to truth. 
 Whatever his opponents may insinuate, certainly the public 
 now accepts his changes and conversions, which are always 
 forward, never backward, as springing from a conscience daily 
 better informed and more enlightened. His inconsistencies 
 are only taken for marks that he is growing wiser. . . . 
 Whatever changes have passed over him, in one thing he is 
 unchanged, he examines every subject in the light of a 
 divine law ; and it is this ethical, this Christian principle 
 of judgment, which he always pursues either expressly or
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 123 
 
 tacitly, that often illuminates bis speeches with a moral sub- 
 limity beyond the reach of oratory or rhetoric. In fine, he is 
 a well-trained and accomplished politician ; he has been an 
 able and efficient administrator ; latterly he has been giving 
 proof of that rare faculty, the power to devise and found 
 practical schemes, to realise his ideas, in other words, the 
 power of fruitful legislation. Such have been his past 
 characteristics, his past performances. He will soon be on 
 his trial, whether he is to be the guiding statesman in the 
 new era on which w^e are evidently entering." 
 
 Mr. Dodds's second and last publication of importance 
 appeared in 1870. This was called "Thomas Chalmers : a 
 Biographical Study." He had projected a series of similar 
 "Studies," to consist mainly of appreciative sketches of 
 eminent men of this century. He had certainly many 
 qualities fitting him for such a task, such as subtle analytic 
 skill, a fine power of word-painting, and a keen sympathy 
 with everything morally grand and noble. He had also an 
 exquisite eye for the winning weaknesses of great men, and 
 the beautiful simplicity of genius. He could touch with 
 genial hand the odd, the fantastic, and the humorous, as 
 well as the solemn and the pathetic in human life and 
 character. But this new project was not destined to call 
 into play his peculiar powers. He was forced, indeed, by 
 failing health and spirits, as well as by the pressure of 
 outward circumstances, to give up more than one of his
 
 124 MEMOIR OF JAMES LODDS. 
 
 cherished literary schemes. Chalmers was the first and 
 the last picture in his projected gallery of modern great 
 men. 
 
 And a very complete and carefully- finished picture it is. 
 The artist had a life-long love and reverence for Chalmers, 
 had heard him make one of his greatest speeches, and had 
 watched his splendid philanthropic career from its meridian 
 to its sudden close. It was with peculiar delight, therefore, 
 that he found at last an opportunity of letting the world 
 know what he thought of the greatest pulpit orator, and one 
 of the noblest men of his time. In a small octavo volume, 
 of 400 pages, he contrived to sketch in brief and bold outline 
 the life of Chalmers, to describe the various fascinations of 
 his genius, and to expatiate on the amount of noble work 
 he did in his day. He acknowledges his great obligation 
 to Dr. Hanna's admirable Life of the great Christian 
 philanthropist; but he introduces into the earlier part 
 of his biography a quantity of interesting new material, 
 for which he was mainly indebted to his friend Dr. Eogers, 
 a native of Fife, and well acquainted with the land of 
 Chalmers. 
 
 While thus occupying much of his leisure in literary 
 work, and occasionally lecturing before popular audiences, 
 Mr. Dodds gradually withdrew from nearly all society, and 
 confined himself to the loved and loving circle of his own 
 family. Some of his relatives and oldest friends complained
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 125 
 
 of this retirement ; but at length the failing state of his health 
 formed a fair excuse for it, and strengthened the habit into 
 which he had fallen. What is called literary society, though 
 at one time fairly open to him, he never much affected, and 
 at last even the attractions of his circle of friends and neigh- 
 bours lost their power to draw him from his own fireside. 
 But his home was a happy one. He was blest with a wife 
 who sympathised with him in all his efforts, and under all 
 his trials ; who understood him, and knew well how to soothe 
 the irritations that sometimes disturbed his equanimity. 
 He was also surrounded with loving children, to whom he 
 was passionately attached, and in whose thorough education 
 he took more than a fatherly interest. 
 
 One of these children, speaking of her father's home-life 
 during his later years, says : "While a hard-working, conscien- 
 tious business man, he was a most devoted father to his family, 
 who all owe the best part of their education to him. His duties 
 in his own house, combined with the literary work he carried 
 on in a very earnest spirit, kept him ever busy, and ever 
 wishing that the hours of labour could be doubled. I 
 never saw him resting. If for a spare half-hour he sat in 
 his arm-chair among us, his speech was ever of the good, 
 the useful, the noble. He listened to our smallest remarks, 
 and made use of them to speak to us of the higher aims of 
 life. He patiently sifted the dross from our talk, and gladly 
 found in it the smallest grains of gold. We spent our Sab-
 
 126 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 bath afternoons in looking closely into the Bible with him, 
 and my wonderful reverence for special portions of the holy 
 book is the direct result of his teaching. On other days we 
 read with him books of travels, poems, plays, in fact, almost 
 every kind of literature. Speaking from ray larger expe- 
 rience of life, I can safely say that I never saw such devotion 
 to his children in any father. He always loved youth, and 
 to the last had admirable patience with and infinite pity for 
 the follies of the young, as well as the most tender kindness 
 in listening to the expressions, however vague and crude, of 
 their hopes and aspirations. He used to say to us that the 
 noblest and best ambition a man can have is, that when he 
 is gone, his children and his children's children should speak 
 of him with love and reverence ; and then he would add, ' I 
 desire nothing better for my monument.' " 
 
 This is a picture not overcoloured by the faithful hand of 
 filial affection. Mr. Dodds, with all his professional acute- 
 ness, his official hardness, and occasional explosions of 
 " sacred wrath," was to the last a gentle and generous man, 
 preferring the pure enjoyments of domestic life to the dubious 
 pleasures of general society. It was only when he found 
 himself in a small circle of congenial friends that his con- 
 versational powers appeared to the highest advantage. Yet 
 most people, when first in his company, were amazingly 
 attracted by his conversation. He had the art of speaking 
 well on subjects which people near him best knew, or most
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS, 127 
 
 liked ; and, while he spoke to the purpose himself, he drew 
 out the powers and the knowledge of others, and thus 
 abjured the sovereignty of monologue. He could also tell 
 stories like other men, but in this department he sometimes 
 failed. His stories were not always fresh, and he was apt 
 to tell them too minutely and circumstantially, as if his 
 hearers required to have them explained. He forgot that a 
 story or anecdote is hardly worth telling unless its points 
 shine out under the thinnest drapery of words. But on the 
 whole he was, in his happiest moods, a most admirable 
 talker. Wit, humour, literary anecdote, love of nature, and 
 knowledge of the world, especially of human character, en- 
 riched and variegated his conversation in a way that often 
 carried people off their feet, and made them wonder at the 
 amount and variety of his intellectual stores. 
 
 Like all hard-working professional men in these days, Mr. 
 Dodds had his annual holiday in the country ; and during 
 his season of recreation his supreme delight was to have his 
 family around him. He usually bent his steps to Scotland 
 for rest and pure air, the sight of old friends, and a fresh 
 acquaintance with Nature. At one time he is found 
 luxuriating with his wife and children at Colvend, a charm- 
 ing district near the mouth of the Nith and on the shore of 
 the Solway, that arm of the sea which always powerfully 
 affected his imagination ; then, one autumn, he and his are 
 at Moffat, one of the finest of Scottish watering-places, so
 
 128 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 excellent are its mineral wells, so superb its surrounding 
 scenery ; in another autumn lie pitches his family tent at 
 Cockbumspath, near Dunbar, where the bold scenery of the 
 coast, Dunglas Dean and Castle, with its fine old chapel, 
 Ravenswood Tower and Fast Castle, all immortalised in the 
 "Bride of Lammermoor," inspired him with boundless 
 delight, and woke within him the spirit of poetry. Of 
 the towns he most loved to visit on business or pleasure 
 may be mentioned Stirling, Dundee, St. Andrews, and Dum- 
 fries, in all of which he had warm friends, who were always 
 prepared to give him a hearty welcome. His love of the 
 country seemed to grow as he advanced in life. One of the 
 books he most read and enjoyed during his later years was 
 the old-fashioned but still delightful '' Natural History of 
 Selborne." Speaking of Mr. White's volume in a letter to 
 Mr. Hunter, he says, in a fine flow of spirits : '' O that I had 
 studied swallows, snails, and grasshoppers as he has done ! 
 He has suggested to me a journal every one should keep, 
 especially in the country, ' Nature Notes.' What a rich 
 journal you might have had by this time in such a treasure- 
 house of Nature as Craigcrook is ! Won't you yet begin to 
 note down all about your flowers, trees, bees, robins, black- 
 birds, and other creatures ? What a record to read from in 
 an afternoon to a poor smoke-dried city man like me ! How 
 I should gloat over its pages ! After all, what are all trans- 
 lations of Goethe and Schiller to such a volume ? Words-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 129 
 
 worth felt this to the core of his sympathetic heart when he 
 
 exclaimed so irreverently, as some think, so sensibly as I 
 
 think, 
 
 ' Up ! up ! my Friend, and quit your books, 
 Or surely you'll grow double : 
 Up ! up ! my Friend, and clear your looks ; 
 Why all this toil and trouble ? ' 
 
 Now, my dear friend, for my return, do have ready a daily 
 record of your pansies, potatoes, and pigs, anything which 
 nature has placed all glowing on the table spread before and 
 around you." 
 
 But during the last ten years of his life, in spite of his 
 abstemious habits and annual periods of recreation in the 
 country, Mr. Dodds's health sensibly declined. Indeed, before 
 he had been many years hard at work in London, he occa- 
 sionally felt himself affected with dizziness, and other symp- 
 toms of a diseased or irregular action of the heart. At times 
 he was alarmed about himself, as if his life might be suddenly 
 cut short ; but for years his naturally robust constitution bore 
 him safely through sundry rather serious attacks, and enabled 
 him to do a vast amount of work with apparent impunity. 
 As life advanced, however, and the demands upon his energies 
 did not diminish, his bodily strength became visibly impaired, 
 and his family grew anxious about the general state of his 
 health. The toils of his profession, often of an anxious kind, 
 severe literary work, which frequently kept him up to a late
 
 130 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 hour of the night or an early hour of the morning, as well as 
 the exposure, excitement, and fatigue connected with public 
 lecturing, gradually weakened his bodily powers, and aggra- 
 vated the ominous symptoms from which he had begun to suffer. 
 He became, it may be said, another victim of that prevalent 
 and fatal disease of the day, overwork. He wrought his brain 
 too vigorously, and had too few intervals of rest. The usual 
 consequences followed, heart disease, with its serious con- 
 comitants, and the painful apprehensions to which it gives 
 rise. 
 
 Yet up to 1874, and after he had reached his sixty-first 
 year, he continued, on the whole, to enjoy such health as 
 enabled him to attend to business, to enjoy himself with his 
 family, and even to continue his favourite occupation of lec- 
 turing in public. By this time, however, his dear friends, 
 Mr. Mackie, of Bargally, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Whitehead, and Pro- 
 fessor Craik were no more ; and their loss, with various other 
 bereavements, rendered his visits to Scotland much less 
 attractive than they once had been. He had frequently a 
 presentiment, amounting almost to a conviction, that his life 
 would be suddenly shortened, and this, if it failed adequately 
 to restrain^his mental labour, had the effect of making him 
 still more domestic and retiring in his habits. But in the 
 summer of 1874, when, in spite of all the loving care of his 
 family, his health became very weak and precarious, he re- 
 ceived a kind invitation from Mr. T. Thornton, solicitor. Dun-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 131 
 
 •dee, to pay him a lengthened visit, in order to try the effect 
 of perfect rest and change of air. Mr. Thornton and he had 
 •long been closely connected by ties of business and friend- 
 ship, and the invitation, so thoughtfully given, was at once 
 accepted. 
 
 After spending a very happy day with all the members of 
 their family that could be collected together, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Dodds left London for Scotland on the 24th of August, and 
 arrived comfortably at Carlisle, where they spent the night. 
 Next day they went on to Dundee, where they were most 
 liindly received by Mr. Thornton. Mr. Dodds was soon 
 able to confer with that gentleman and other friends on 
 matters of business, and seemed to improve daily in strength. 
 After spending a few pleasant days in Dundee, he and Mrs. 
 Dodds went up the country to Glenisla, to pay a visit to Mr. 
 Thornton's brother-in-law, Mr. Peter Hean. Mr. Hean, who 
 had considerately invited them to share with him for a while 
 the delights of his residence in the Forfarshire Highlands, was 
 a most attentive host, and did everything possible to make 
 the invalid's sojourn at Glenisla of a refreshing character. 
 Mr. Thornton and his son joined the party, and helped to 
 make the visit still more enjoyable. Reading, writing, talk- 
 ing by turns, and in a moderate measure, strolling out into 
 the open air to explore and enjoy the romantic scenery of the 
 place, inhaling with conscious enjoyment the pure mountain 
 air, and abandoning himself in his own fashion to the prized
 
 132 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODBS. 
 
 society of dear friends, and the elevating spirit of the sur- 
 rounding scene, Mr. Dodds made rapid progress in what all 
 around him considered the path of recovery. He made 
 several excursions with his friends to interesting places in 
 the neighbourhood, one of which was Forter Castle, a ruined 
 stronghold of the ancient clan of the Ogilvies. On the party 
 being entertained at tea by the housekeeper of the tenant of 
 the place, he was introduced by the Rev. J. Simpson, of Glen- 
 isla, to that worthy woman as the author of the " Fifty Years' 
 Straggle of the Scottish Covenanters; " and great was her 
 delight on the occasion. She eagerly declared that she had 
 read the book over many times. 
 
 In perfect peace and rest did Mr. Dodds pass a precious 
 fortnight in this delightful corner of the Grampians. His 
 mind was in a quiet and contemplative mood, ready to enter- 
 tain the exalted thoughts inspired by the natural grandeur 
 around him, and to ascend to the higher region of spiritual 
 ideas and aspirations. The place, the air, the friends near 
 him, the simple pleasures, and the tranquil employments of 
 the hour were all to his taste, and seemed expressly fitted to 
 prepare him for that passage into the unseen world which 
 to him was so nigh at hand. What secret communion he 
 enjoyed meanwhile with his God and Saviour cannot be 
 stated here with any certainty. But he habitually rested 
 on the great doctrines, and cherished the sublime hopes 
 of the Christian religion. He had long before this won
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODBS. 133 
 
 for himself, won by hard intellectual toil and many 
 a spiritual struggle, an assured conviction that Jesus 
 Ohrist is the Divine Son of God and the only Saviour 
 ■of sinners. 
 
 E-eturning refreshed and invigorated to Dundee, he was 
 ^ble to visit a number of friends, to attend to some matters 
 of business, and even to touch up several of the lectures that 
 still occupied a portion of his leisure. In conferring with 
 ^Ir. Thornton on some important professional matters which 
 gave that gentleman not a little anxiety at the time, he showed 
 a, clearness of judgment and a vigour of intellect never sur- 
 passed in his best days. He was also led to think that his 
 ailment had taken a favourable turn which might end in 
 his restoration to a fair measure of health. On the evening 
 of Friday, the 11th of September, he applied his wife's hand 
 to the region of his heart, and said, "Do you feel how much 
 stronger it beats ? I think if I am spared to get over this, 
 I will make an old man yet." On the afternoon of the 
 next day, Mrs. Dodds left for Edinburgh, on the under- 
 standing that her husband, now so much recruited, would 
 join her early in the following week. 
 
 Almost immediately after his wife's departure, he walked 
 out of town in the direction of Lochee, for the purpose of 
 calling on the Rev. Archibald B. Connell, the United Pres- 
 byterian minister of that place, whose acquaintance he wished 
 to make, and to whom he had received a letter of introduc-
 
 134 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 tion. But when, after his solitary walk, he had almost reached 
 the door of Mr. Connell's house, he was seen suddenly to fall 
 down, and was immediately taken up in a state of uncon- 
 sciousness. He expired before he could be carried into the 
 house he had expected to enter. Mr. Connell and he 
 had been quite unknown to each other, and had never con- 
 sciously met in this world. Even after the unknown stranger 
 had lain dead for hours in Mr. Connell's house, that gentle- 
 man did not know his name. A more pathetic, a more tragic 
 visit was never paid by one poor mortal to another in this 
 world. " Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go 
 about the streets." 
 
 Dr. Lennox and Dr. Pirie, of Dundee, having pronounced 
 the cause of death to be apoplexy resulting from heart disease,, 
 the body was conveyed to the house of Mr. Thornton, where 
 it lay till it was committed to the grave. Mrs. Dodds received 
 the terrible news in Edinburgh by telegraph, when in a lonely 
 lodging; her daughter, Mrs. Deschamps, and her husband, both 
 of whom she had expected to meet, having not arrived from 
 London. She left early next morning for Dundee, which she 
 reached in the forenoon when the church bells were ringing. 
 All the members of her family at that time in this country soon 
 followed, to share, and, if possible, to lighten her overwhelm- 
 ing sorrow. The widow and her children found the features of 
 the departed not darkened and disfigured, but only subdued 
 and chastened by the hand of death. His eldest daughter,.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 135 
 
 Mrs. Bontor, thus describes what met the eye in the chamber 
 where the body was laid : " The grand repose of my father's 
 face in death we shall never forget. The seal of everlasting 
 life seemed set on his brow. His face was so noble and 
 beautiful that our quietest, happiest hours during that awful 
 time were spent in the room Avhere he lay. He was to the 
 end, and even in death, as he had always been in life, the 
 head and stay of his wife and children." 
 
 The funeral took place on Wednesday, the 1 6th September, 
 and was attended by a number of the most distinguished 
 citizens of Dundee, many of whom had long been connected 
 with the deceased by the ties of friendship. Among those 
 present were Mr. P. H. Thoms, of Aberlemno, Mr. G. H. 
 Thorns, Sheriff of Orkney, Shetland, and Caithness, Mr. 
 Yeaman, M.P., 'Mi. George Rough, ex-Provost of Dundee, 
 Mr. W. 0. Dalgleish, of Mayiield, Mr. Leng, of the Dundee 
 Advertiser, with Mr. Thornton and other friends. The Rev. 
 Dr. Wilson, of Free St. Paul's, and the Rev. A. B. Connell 
 conducted the funeral service, and duly adverted to the 
 solemn pathos of the scene. Dr. Wilson had known Mr. 
 Dodds in his early college days, and could well recall some 
 of the first efforts of his oratorical powers. He was now by 
 a touching providence called to offer up prayer over the life- 
 less remains of his long-remembered friend, and to follow 
 them to the place of burial. The interment took place in 
 the Eastern Necropolis, a cemetery which Mr. Dodds had
 
 136 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 often admired when in life. It was noticed that the funeral 
 procession passed close to the " Morgan Hospital," that 
 noble institution which, but for the singular energy and skill 
 of the deceased, might never have enriched the charities of 
 Dundee. 
 
 A suitable monument was in due time erected over the 
 grave by Mr. Dodds's family. With the name of the departed, 
 and the dates of his birth and death, there are inscribed upon 
 it his favourite word, Patientia, and the following brief, but 
 expressive sentences : — " One who loved his fellow-man." 
 '' The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart ; 
 and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the 
 righteous are taken away from the evil to come." " He shall 
 enter into peace." 
 
 It may here be proper to state that Mr. Dodds left a widow, 
 four sons, and three daughters, all of whom still survive. His 
 eldest son, James, long held a high mercantile position at 
 Bombay, and is now settled at Yokohama, Japan. All the 
 daughters are married. Two of the younger sons reside in 
 London, where their mother also has her home. 
 
 This Memoir would certainly not be complete without the 
 following extracts from a letter of Mr. Thornton, of date 
 1st July, 1879. That gentleman was one of the most loved 
 and honoured friends Mr. Dodds ever possessed, and by his 
 signal kindness at the time of their great trial he has earned 
 the deepest gratitude of Mr. Dodds's family. A finer tribute
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 137 
 
 could not be paid to the memory of the departed than in 
 the following words : — 
 
 " He was a dear friend of mine. His annual visits to me 
 are among my most pleasant memories. His genial humour 
 and fund of anecdote made him a pleasant companion, and 
 he left behind him always a savour of something higher and 
 better. Nobody could talk long with James Dodds without 
 being penetrated by a sense of his intellectual strength, 
 and enthusiastic devotion to everything noble and good. 
 In our quiet walks, and in the daily intercourse of domestic 
 life, the hidden springs of his nature were often revealed. 
 Full of knowledge regarding Covenanting times, he could, 
 in familiar conversation, make the worthies of the persecut- 
 ing days live over again. Enthusiastic, too, in the cause of 
 liberty all over the world, he made the names of Cavour 
 and King ' Honest Man,' as he loved to call Victor 
 Emmanuel, become familiar in my home as household words. 
 I felt his death very deeply at the time, and as his familiar 
 form and beaming face recur to my memory I feel more and 
 more the loss of one whose friendship and faithfulness were 
 among the most precious of my possessions. . . . 
 
 " His name will for ever be associated with the vindication 
 of the rights of the town of Dundee under the testamentary 
 settlements of the late Mr. Morgan, and the consequent 
 erection in Dundee of Morgan's Hospital for the mainte- 
 nance and education of the children of poor burgesses. To
 
 138 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 him also must be attributed no small share in the promotion 
 of the bridging of the Tay, which has since been carried out so 
 successfully. In conjunction with myself, he brought forward 
 Bill after Bill for authorising the scheme, and he looked 
 forward to its accomplishment with unflagging interest and 
 perfect faith. He was not destined, alas ! to see its com- 
 pletion. But from the grave in which his body lies the 
 silvery Tay with its noble bridge may notu be seen ; and 
 those who lay a wreath on the sod which covers his ashes, 
 or pluck a flower from the sward beside his tomb, may, 
 while they remember James Dodds as the eloquent delineator 
 of the Scottish Covenanting heroes, and the impassioned 
 advocate of Italian liberty, also look around and couple 
 with his name the promotion of one of the greatest 
 engineering conceptions of his friend Sir Thomas Bouch, 
 and the establishment of one of the best and most useful 
 charities on the banks of the Tay." 
 
 Little more need be said about the life and character of 
 the subject of. this Memoir. The narrative now given will 
 be considered sufficient to show what kind of man Mr. 
 Dodds was, what he actually did, and what in more favour- 
 able circumstances he might have done. That his individu- 
 ality was very pronounced, and that he possessed not only 
 high mental powers but many of the qualities of genius, 
 will probably be admitted by all who peruse these pages ; 
 while those who intimately knew him will certainly acknow-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 13» 
 
 ledge the literal truth of all that has here been said of his 
 extraordinary faculties. It is true that the high aspirations 
 of his youth were never realised, that he never was per- 
 mitted to enter that forensic arena where most probably he 
 would have won the greatest triumphs ; but he displayed 
 in one important department of the legal profession all the 
 powers that go to form a first-rate lawyer. His legal 
 acumen and professional knowledge were of a very high 
 order ; and in all his dealings with his clients he uniformly 
 acted like a man of incorruptible integrity. He was one 
 who consulted less his own interests than the interests of 
 others, and was infinitely more ready to wrong himself than 
 anybody else. He was also capable of prodigious industry and 
 application when important matters of business demanded 
 his attention ; and the signal professional triumphs he 
 gained were due as much to his moral energy as to his legal 
 erudition. 
 
 Many of his friends always regretted that his splendid 
 oratorical powers never found a worthy field for their exer- 
 cise. When he spoke at a public dinner, on a political 
 platform, or in a popular assembly, he carried all before 
 him by his commanding eloquence. His oratory was cer- 
 tainly coloured with the hues of poetry, and was often 
 instinct with sentiment and passion ; but it usually con- 
 tained a sound body of argument, and was uniformly 
 directed to the noblest ends. He was a philosophic
 
 140 MEMOIR OF JAMES UODDS. 
 
 thinker, as well as a poet and orator ; and although a man 
 of advanced views in many important subjects, he generally 
 stated them with wisdom and moderation. Those who knew 
 him best believed that he was fitted to make a great figure 
 in the House of Commons had he found the requisite oppor- 
 tunity; but, perhaps fortunately for himself, he was finally 
 content to remain in a comparatively humble walk of life, 
 remote from the struggles and disappointments of political 
 ambition. He found special delight in literary work ; but 
 while he wrote powerful and spirited prose, he poured out 
 his soul most fully in his poetry. Most of his poems 
 indicate the hand of a true master of the lyre ; but his 
 '' Lays of the Covenanters," which form the most precious 
 portion of this volume, betray the true fire of genius. 
 These burning tributes to the immortal religious heroes of 
 Scotland were greatly admired by many competent judges 
 "vvhen they first appeared more than thirty years ago. 
 They are now presented to the public for the first time as 
 a regular series of poetic illustrations of Scottish History, 
 in the hope that their merits will be generously recognised 
 by many readers who have hitherto been ignorant of their 
 existence. 
 
 It was at one time contemplated to append to the follow- 
 ing " Lays " a number of Mr. Dodds's miscellaneous poems, 
 chiefly those which relate to scenes connected with memories 
 of the Covenant. But, in the meantime, his fugitive pieces.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES DODDS. 
 
 141 
 
 some of them of a domestic character, and all of them remark- 
 able for their poetical spirit, are withheld from the public. 
 This volume is strictly indicated by its title ; but an oppor- 
 tunity may yet be given for its moderate enlargement.
 
 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS.
 
 A series of brief biographical sketches of the chief personages 
 celebrated in the following Poems will be found at the end of this 
 volume. The geographical terms and local allusions contained in 
 the diflferent pieces will be understood w^ithout much difficulty by 
 the intelligent reader.
 
 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 THE DEATH OF ARCHIBALD, FHIST MARQUIS OF 
 
 ARGYLE, 
 
 Who was Executed at the Cross of Edinburgh in May, 1661. 
 
 From MuU to Cantire a low wailing is heard, 
 And the banks of the Aray lament for their lord ; 
 For the pine which so long hath withstood every blast. 
 From the top of the mountains down headlong is cast. 
 The name of Argyle, which was first in the land, 
 Is a skiff dashed to pieces on Jura's rough strand. 
 
 As a prisoner he stands where he once sat a peer, 
 
 And the lowest to fawn are the loudest to jeer ; 
 
 And there scowl in fury his deadhest foes, 
 
 And the whisper goes round them, " Remember Montrose." 
 
 But so false are the charges, the slanders so base, 
 
 That back on their authors they roll with disgrace,
 
 146 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 His judges, tho' void of compassion or shame, 
 
 Can fasten no treasonous blot on his name : 
 
 In discomfited rage for a moment they pause, 
 
 Like a hawk when the prey hath escaped from his claws. 
 
 But who at the portal knocks loudly and fast ? 
 'Tis a herald from Court, let his message be passed. 
 All eyes are enkindled, '' 'Tis a pardon ! " Ah no ! 
 From a source so polluted no mercy can flow. 
 'Tis a casket of letters which Monk hath betrayed, 
 As the price for his basely won coronet paid. 
 The pent-up dissembler, the heart-rotten knave. 
 With a warrior's plume, but the soul of a slave. 
 
 May his name stand for aye a reproach and a scorn ! 
 
 May gem and green leaf from his forehead be torn ! 
 
 In their curses let minstrel and annalist join. 
 
 They, the champions of honour, and vOwed to her shrine. 
 
 Be the faults of the dead in their dark house concealed ; 
 
 But baseness like this even death cannot shield, 
 
 That the living may learn, and may shrink from such crime 
 
 When they hear the deep curse of the far after-time. 
 
 Thus the handle is given, no matter how weak, 
 It serves them their long-hoarded vengeance to wreak ; 
 Then peal, ye hoarse trumpets ! the traitor proclaim, 
 Argyle be attainted in honours and name.
 
 DEATH OF MARQUIS OF ARGYLE. 147 
 
 His doom is pronounced with an ill-suppressed joy, 
 
 For the dragon is loosed, and his watchword, " Destroy ! " 
 
 In meekness he rises, no fear on his cheek. 
 
 And raises his hand with a motion to speak : 
 
 " My sovereign, this hand placed the crown on his brow. 
 
 To a crown more exalted he hastens me now. 
 
 In an earthly king's grace ye will grant me no part. 
 
 But the grace of the Lord hath been sealed to my heart : 
 
 When He comes to the judgment, and all eyes shall see. 
 
 No such measure be yours as ye mete unto me ! " 
 
 He awaits in his dungeon the doom thus decreed, 
 Nor doth God cast him off in the hour of his need : 
 In patience he waits, with a conscience at rest, 
 And a courage which never till now filled his breast. 
 
 Not his the bold heart that leaps up for the fray. 
 
 Nor the fierce daring game that ambition will play, 
 
 Nor the patriot's wild fervour, that bursts like a flood. 
 
 And will ransom his country or perish in blood. 
 
 Yet, if self made him waver and wind on his road. 
 
 If he crept where a bolder would nobly have strode, 
 
 If a close worldly spirit was mixed with his zeal. 
 
 Still his ends were his country's, her rights and her weal ; 
 
 Long was he the bulwark, in trouble and woe. 
 
 Her dear-cherished faith to preserve from each foe.
 
 148 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 And now all his frailty and fearfulness fly, 
 
 Serene and composed he prepares him to die : 
 
 For they who are true, though in weakness and fear, 
 
 New strengthenings shall find as new struggles appear : 
 
 And Argyle, though faint-hearted in prosperous days, 
 
 Now looks upon death with a hero's firm gaze. 
 
 Thus the mist may have hung over mountain and glen. 
 
 And gloominess shrouded the dwellings of men ; 
 
 Yet the sun ere he sets through the gray clouds may soar, 
 
 And sink in soft lustre behind Bein-an-or ! 
 
 On the morning of blood all his friends gather round. 
 But his hopes ever brighten, his comforts abound ; 
 And his foes shrink abashed, who came thither to smile 
 O'er the last abject looks of the fallen Argyle. 
 No ! calm as a martyr, not cowed like a thrall. 
 He falls as a prince of the people should fall ! 
 
 '* I could die like a Roman, but rather will die 
 
 As a Christian, whose charter is sealed in the sky. 
 
 My doom may seem stern, but the time will soon show 
 
 That soundest they sleep who are sleeping below. 
 
 To sin or to suffer shall soon be your choice. 
 
 And the elect shall weep, but the world shall rejoice : 
 
 The pang of a moment shall blow me ashore. 
 
 Where they sin not, nor suffer, nor grieve any more ! "
 
 DEATH OF MARQUIS OF ARGYLE. 149 
 
 The death-blow is struck, and the bloody head shown, 
 As a trophy to hang on the newly-raised throne : 
 And the poor mangled corse, in its red currents dyed, 
 By a few faithful clansmen is borne o'er the Clyde ; 
 In the vaults of Kilmun they have laid him to rest, 
 Where Loch Holy bemoans to the hills of the west. 
 
 Ah ! the furnace is heated, and fierce is the flame, 
 
 And peer, priest, and peasant must pass through the same 
 
 Till Scotland be seven times tried like the gold, 
 
 And return to her faith and her love as of old : 
 
 Then on her long night shall arise a bright day, 
 
 And the sign, when a standard shall float in Torbay I
 
 150 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 THE DEATH OF JAMES GUTHRIE, 
 
 Executed at the Cross of Edinburgh, 1st June, 1661. 
 
 Slowly, slowly tolls the death-note, at the Cross the scaffold 
 
 stands : 
 Freedom, law, and life are playthings where the Tjnrant's voice 
 
 commands : 
 Found in blood your throne and temple ! foretaste of a 
 
 glorious reign ; 
 Though the heavens were hung in sackcloth, let the Witnesses 
 
 be slain I 
 
 'Tis the merriest month of summer, 'tis the sweetest day in June, 
 And the sun breathes joy in all things, riding at his highest noon; 
 Yet a silence, deep and boding, broods on all the city round, 
 And a fear is on the people, as an earthquake rocked the ground. 
 
 Slowly, slowly tolls the death-note, at the Cross the scaffold 
 
 stands ; 
 And the Guardsmen prance and circle, marshalled in their 
 
 savage bands ;
 
 DEATH OF JAMES GUTHRIE. 151 
 
 And the people swell and gather, heaving darkly like the deep, 
 When, in fitful gusts, the north winds o'er its troubled bosom 
 sweep. 
 
 Now the grim Tolbooth is opened, and the death-procession forms. 
 With the tinsel pomps of office, with a vain parade of arms ; 
 Lowly in the midst, and leaning on his staff, in humble guise, 
 Guthrie comes, the Proto-martyr ! ready for the sacrifice ; 
 Guthrie comes, the Proto-martyr ! and a stem and stifled groan 
 Runs through the multitude ; but patiently he passeth on ; 
 And the people stand uncovered, and they gaze with streaming 
 
 eyes. 
 As when of old the fiery chariot rapt Elijah to the skies. 
 
 On his staff in meekness leaning, see him bend infirm and weak; 
 Man in youth, and old in manhood, pale and sunken is his cheek. 
 And adown his shoulders flowing, locks grown prematurely gray, 
 Yet the spirit, strong in weakness, feels not languor nor decay; 
 And a loftiness is on him, such as fits a noble mind, 
 Like the oak in grandeur rising, howsoever blows the wind ; 
 On his lip, though blanched with vigils, sits the will to dare or die, 
 And the fires of grace and genius sparkle in his cloudless eye. 
 
 " This frail and mortal flesh, I give it 
 Freely to the Lord of all ! 
 Were my limbs of brass and iron, 
 *T were an offering far too small.
 
 152 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Life is only ours to serve Him ; 
 
 And our term of service done, 
 Death for Him and for His Covenant 
 
 Is an honour cheaply won. 
 
 " Not as felon, nor as traitor, 
 
 Whatso evil tongues proclaim, 
 Am I hither come to suffer 
 
 Every brand of outward shame. 
 Fixed and serious in my purpose 
 
 Where the hand of God was seen ; 
 Yet in all things have I laboured 
 
 To preserve my garments clean. 
 
 " I was loyal when this kingdom 
 
 Bowed to Cromwell's haughty frown ; 
 Few would own the royal standard 
 
 All defaced and trodden down. 
 Then the flatterers who doom me 
 
 To suffer in the street. 
 Whined and fawned like stricken spaniels 
 
 Kound the Lord Protector's feet ! 
 
 " Constant to my Prince, and constant 
 To the vows we both had taken, 
 Faithful to his right I stood, when 
 By his summer friends forsaken.
 
 DEATH OF JAMES GUTHBIE. 153 
 
 Loyal am I, free to render 
 
 Unto Caesar Caesar's due, 
 Tribute, custom, temporal honour, 
 
 And obedience leal and true. 
 
 " But the King who reigns in Zion, 
 
 High o'er every earthly throne. 
 Shall I flinch from His allegiance ? 
 
 Or my solemn vows disown ? 
 With uplifted hands I swore it. 
 
 When the Nation joined in band. 
 Monarch, magistrates, and nobles. 
 
 And the peasants of the land ! 
 Though I knew by signs and shadows, 
 
 That my life-blood must be spent 
 In the work and in the warfare, 
 
 Struggling for the Covenant. 
 
 " Welcome scaffold ! 'tis a Bethel, 
 
 Angel-wings are hovering here ; 
 Welcome ladder ! thou shalt lift me 
 
 Far beyond this cloudy sphere. 
 Ah ! thou Daughter of my people ! 
 
 Sweet and lovely at thy birth, 
 When the throes of Reformation 
 
 Shook the old astonished earth.
 
 154 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 What a blight is on thy beauty, 
 Since thou hast forgot thy truth, 
 
 And the joys of thy bright morning, 
 The sweet espousals of thy youth ! 
 
 " Thou shalt suffer ! God's true Gospel 
 
 Shall be darkened, and a brood 
 Of locusts overspread thy valleys. 
 
 Leaving neither flower nor food ; 
 And the wild-boar from the forest 
 
 Rush on thy defenceless home ; 
 For thy watchmen do not warn thee 
 
 Of the woes about to come ; 
 But they slumber, drugged with wine-lees. 
 
 Or they quail in carnal fear ; 
 And thy bondage shall continue 
 
 Till the Lord Himself appear. 
 Till He make His right arm naked, 
 
 To avenge His people's wrongs ! 
 And restore the mournful captives. 
 
 With everlasting songs. 
 
 " Here my pilgrim's staff is broken. 
 All my bands are now untied ; 
 I die to live with Him for ever. 
 Who for my salvation died.
 
 DEATH OF JAMES GUTHRIE. 155 
 
 Faith, which long hath groped and wavered, 
 
 In this world's uncertain light, 
 Leaping from its mortal prison, 
 
 Now is passing into sight. 
 Earthly cares and human contests, 
 
 Inward pangs and darkness cease. 
 Now, Lord ! dismiss Thy servant 
 
 Into everlasting peace ! " 
 
 He hath spoken ! Seal his sentence ; little boots it what ye do : 
 He hath spoken ! and recorded darker, heavier doom on you ! 
 
 Hurry on the doom assigned him, by the minions of your State, 
 Rend the head from off his body, fix it on your city-gate ; 
 Let the Lyon-Herald taint him, be his arms reversed and torn ; 
 Be his earthly goods confiscate, let his household wail and mourn ; 
 Crush the Spiritual by the Carnal, answer Conscience with the 
 
 sword. 
 By the dungeon and the scaffold force submission to your word; 
 Good and Evil, Force and Freedom, let them close with deadly 
 
 yeU! 
 'Tis a warfare old as Satan, deep as the abyss of Hell ! 
 
 He hath spoken ! and his words are not water on the ground ; 
 Years may vanish, but his warnings shall in all their truth be 
 found ;
 
 156 LAYS OF TEE COVENANTEES. 
 
 He hath spoken ! and the Nation to its inmost soul hath heard, 
 And the withered bones are shaken by the breathings of his 
 
 word; 
 And, though dead, his guiding spirit in the land for aye shall 
 
 dwell, 
 And Oppression s boasted strongholds shiver at the mighty spell.
 
 SHARPE AND ROBERT DOUGLAS. 157 
 
 SHAEPE OFFERING A BISHOPRIC TO ROBERT 
 DOUGLAS. 
 
 OCTOBEB, 1661. 
 
 In his chamber the aged pastor sat, 
 
 Whilst autumn winds were sighing, 
 And the shades of a dull October eve 
 
 On Salisbury steeps were lying. 
 His face bore the trace of a lofty line, 
 
 Though with age and care grown hoary ; 
 And he mourned the Church's sad decline, 
 
 And the land's departing glory. 
 
 There came to him one of wily speech, 
 
 With an eye so glazed and leering, 
 That never looked with steadfast gaze, 
 
 But from side to side was veering ; 
 And proffered him wealth and priestly power, 
 
 The noblest to attend him. 
 Obedient tools to work his will. 
 
 And sharp swords to defend him.
 
 158 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 " Away with all thy sinful baits, 
 
 Back to thy masters bear them ! 
 Hence with these Babylonish rags 
 
 To the backs that crouch to wear them ! 
 What ! with untempered mortar daub 
 
 The wall which God hath broken ? 
 Or nurse the fig-tree which is cursed 
 
 By the word which the Lord hath spoken V 
 
 Sharpe rose in haste, while his sullen soul 
 
 With secret rage did smoulder ; 
 But as he passed, the stern old man 
 
 Smote him heavily on the shoulder. 
 " I see what ravelled threads are twined, 
 
 And the hand that turns the spindle ; 
 And vows which highest Heaven hath heard 
 
 Hell's breath like tow shall kindle. 
 
 " What though the ark of God be spoiled. 
 
 And sheep and shepherd smitten ; 
 And Ichabod be on the doors, 
 
 Where Bethel once was written ? 
 The ground is clear, the game is set, 
 
 And thou art stript to win it ; 
 Then take St. Andrews' mitred pomp, 
 
 And the curse of God within it ! "
 
 THE CHRISTIAN EXILE. 159 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN EXILE. 
 
 Alexander Smith, previous to the Reformation, was Minister 
 op colvend, near the mouth of the nith. 
 
 Scene. — Shetland. Winter of 1664. The Exile discovered upon a rock 
 at the sea-side, reading in Romans, chap. viii. ver. 28, to the end. 
 The Evil Spirit near him, but in\4sible. 
 
 THE EXILE. 
 
 (Reads.) " We know that aU things work together for good 
 to them that love God, to them who are the called according to 
 his purpose. For whom he did foreknow he also did predes- 
 tinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might 
 be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he 
 did predestinate, them he also called ; and whom he called, 
 them he also justified ; and whom he justified, them he also 
 glorified. What shall we then say to these things ? If God 
 be for us, who can be against us ? He that spared not his own 
 Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with 
 him also freely give us all things?"
 
 160 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 EVIL SPIRIT. 
 'Twas sweet upon the Criffel, 
 
 When the summer winds were still, 
 And golden streams of sunset 
 
 Came floating o'er the hill ! 
 
 'Twas sweet, from off the Criffel, 
 
 To gaze across the foam; 
 Then glide into the valley, 
 
 Where stood thy peaceful home. 
 
 THE EXILE. 
 
 Ah, fond deceitful heart ! why dost thou roam ? 
 Where God appoints thee, is not that thy home ? 
 Nature would chain us to some one loved spot ; 
 Grace makes the heart yield gently to the lot. 
 On wends the pilgrim, rough or smooth his way, 
 For earth hath nought to charm him, or dismay. 
 From every shore, and under every zone. 
 Straight is the passage to my Father's throne : 
 In life, in death, my great Kedeemer lives. 
 And mine the all things which He freely gives. 
 
 (Reads.) " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's 
 elect ? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? 
 It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even 
 at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."
 
 THE CHRISTIAN EXILE. 161 
 
 EVIL SPIRIT. 
 
 Dost hear the Urr ? What music 
 
 It murmurs to the dell, 
 Where thy children merrily sported, 
 
 Where all thy people dwell ! 
 Nor wife nor child is near thee, 
 
 Thou pinest in hopeless w^oe : 
 Thy home is on the ocean-cliff. 
 
 Where the wintry tempests blow. 
 Where the wild waves roll in thunder 
 
 Up the rock-girt Ronas Voe ! 
 
 THE EXILE. 
 
 Hush, ye rebellious thoughts that madly stir ! 
 
 Hark to the voice of Heaven's own messenger, 
 
 " Who shall accuse the elect? Who shall condemn V 
 
 No weapon that is formed can injure them : 
 
 Theirs is the helmet which no blow can pierce. 
 
 Theirs the great spell that binds the universe. 
 
 Then howl, ye tempests ! rave along the steep. 
 
 The peace within lulls all these storms asleep. 
 
 Earth ! yield no food. Sky ! with thick darkness frown. 
 
 Rich is heaven's manna, bright the eternal crown. 
 
 Wife ! I have loved, and love thee ! Children ! take 
 
 These tears shed sadly, fondly for your sake : 
 
 M
 
 162 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 Our griefs shall knit us faster, and the love, 
 Divided here, shall purer burn above. 
 Exile from home, I still am nigh to God, 
 And death but leads me to His blest abode ; 
 They only reap who faint not in the furrow, 
 They shall return with joy who sow in sorrow ! 
 
 (Reads.) " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? 
 Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or naked- 
 ness, or peril, or sword ? (As it is written. For thy sake we 
 are killed all the day long ; we are accounted as sheep for the 
 slaughter.) Nay, in all these things we are more than con- 
 querors through him that loved us." 
 
 EVIL SPIRIT. 
 'Tis but a drop from the inkhorn, 
 
 Thou shalt be free once more ! 
 And the Solway sound thy welcome 
 
 From this waste and howling shore! 
 Thy God hath thee forsaken 
 
 Afar amidst the sea : 
 Why suffer in His service 
 
 Who cares no jot for thee ? 
 
 THE EXILE. 
 
 Get thee behind me, Satan ! now I know 
 
 'Tis thou, vile serpent ! that dost wound me so ;
 
 TEE CHRISTIAN EXILE. 163 
 
 But though a breath could waft me hence, that breath 
 
 Shall ne'er be drawn by me : Exile and death 
 
 Are light : Sin is the only fearful thing. 
 
 Thou hast not cast me off, my God ! my King ! 
 
 Thou that didst shine in Patmos, Thou dost shine 
 
 Even on a heart so poor, so cold as mine ! 
 
 These towering rocks are Ebenezers, reared 
 
 To mark where Thou hast graciously appeared 
 
 To strengthen my weak soul : these waves that roar 
 
 In mighty majesty along the shore, 
 
 The sound of many waters that attend 
 
 Thy goings forth. In awe, in faith I bend. 
 
 Earth dwindles ; time and sin and death are past ; 
 
 Alpha and Omega 1 Thou first, Thou last, 
 
 Thou Ever-Living One, that reign'st above ! 
 
 Oh for an angel's harp to sound Thy love ! 
 
 (Reads.) '■' For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, 
 nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
 shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is 
 in Christ Jesus our Lord 1" 
 
 ^/ v .-'g^^ 'S'T r r(^<^?*L * >--'
 
 164 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 BATTLE-SONG OF THE PENTLANDS. 
 
 This day must set in blood ! 
 
 Each true man to his post ! 
 Strike for Christ's Crown and Covenant, 
 
 And God be with His host ! 
 
 Though few and faint we be, 
 
 And the tempests wildly blow, 
 Yet here, upon this naked heath, 
 
 We fearless dare the foe. 
 Long hath the tyrant raged. 
 
 And the people have been dumb : 
 Sword of the Lord ! avenge the past, 
 
 And free the time to come ! 
 
 Not for the fading leaf 
 
 That decks the conqueror's head, 
 Nor sinful thirst for blood or gold, 
 
 Our feet have hither led :
 
 BATTLE-SONG OF THE PENTLANDS, 165 
 
 We combat for our rights, 
 
 For our heritage Divine. 
 Lord ! look down from heaven in love, 
 
 And visit this Thy vine. 
 
 Our homes in blackness lie, 
 
 And our pleasant fields are waste. 
 And our fathers and our brethren 
 
 Like beasts of prey are chased. 
 Our priests are driven forth, 
 
 And our temples are defiled ; 
 And the house of God must now be sought 
 
 Far in the desert wild. 
 
 And now that, front to front. 
 
 We have met the tyrant's horde, 
 Woe be to him that slacks his arm 
 
 Or turns away his sword ! 
 Better to fall in fight 
 
 For the charter of our land, 
 Than pine in bondage and in fear, 
 
 A crouching, hunted band. 
 
 And if we fall, this hill 
 
 Like Lebanon shall grow. 
 And other times in gladness reap 
 
 What we in trouble sow.
 
 1G6 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 And where our ashes rest, 
 
 Beneath the heather sod, 
 The youth of Scotland shall renew 
 
 Their Covenant with God. 
 
 This day must set in blood ! 
 
 Each true man to his post ! 
 Strike for Christ's Crown and Covenant, 
 
 And God be with His host ' 
 
 Dirge over the Slain, 
 
 Who ivere interred in Rullion Green the Day after the Battle. 
 
 Allelujah ! praise the Lord ! 
 Be His holy name adored ! 
 They who suffer for His Word 
 Shall walk with Him in glor}^ 
 
 " Earth to earth, and dust to dust ! " 
 Earth ! to thee we now intrust 
 The slaughtered bodies of the just, 
 
 A sacred treasure given ! 
 Here, upon the mountain side. 
 They boldly stemmed the tyrant's pride, 
 Heroes fought and martyrs died 
 
 For fatherland and heaven !
 
 BATTLE-SONG OF THE FENTLANDS. 167 
 
 Where they fell shall be their grave, 
 Meetest burial for the brave ; 
 Though the wintry tempests rave, 
 
 Calm shall be their slumber ! 
 Souls redeem'd from guilt and pain, 
 Ye who suffered also reign, 
 Joined to that immortal train 
 
 Which no tongue can number ! 
 
 Nor myrrh nor aloes have we here, 
 Mourning pomp, nor costly bier; 
 Rude must be their sepulchre, 
 
 Rude the stone placed o'er them. 
 But safe each mangled corse shall lie : 
 The brightest watchers of the sky 
 Shall watch them, with unfailing eye. 
 
 Until their Lord restore them. 
 
 By the Nith and by the Ken, 
 
 By Clyde and Ayr, through hill and glen, 
 
 Where dwelt these gallant Westland men. 
 
 May mourning hearts find gladness ! 
 Holy Spirit ! comfort-giver ! 
 Shall the sword destroy for ever ? 
 Wilt Thou not this land deliver 
 
 From misery and madness ?
 
 168 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 Brothers ! on Carnethy's head 
 
 Sinks the sunset, dusky red : 
 
 O'er the turf which wraps the dead, 
 
 A parting tear we offer, 
 Leave the martyrs to their rest, 
 "Within the mountain's frozen breast ! 
 An hour still comes for all oppress' d, 
 
 A crown for all who suffer. 
 
 Allelujah ! praise the Lord ! 
 Be His holy name adored ! 
 They who suffer for His Word 
 Shall walk with Him in glory !
 
 THE AGED COVENANTER. 169 
 
 THE AGED COVENANTER. 
 
 His Death on hearing of the Defeat at the Pentlands. 
 
 O Lord ! remember in Thy love Thy persecuted flock, 
 Who flee for refuge from the wolf to mountain and to rock ! 
 And if, to right their cruel wrongs, the sword they nobly draw. 
 Oh ! may it flash like cherubim's, in brightness and in awe ! 
 Our lily flowers of Presbytery by swinish hoofs are soiled ; 
 Our ancient Scottish liberties by lawless hands despoiled; 
 The peaceful hearths at which we sat, our children on our knee, 
 Are ringing now with the tramp and curse of a heathen soldiery. 
 
 '* Hey for the boots and the thumbikins, 
 
 But and the gallows tree ! 
 And hang the Whigamore loons 
 
 "Where Whigamore loons should be ! 
 Round by the edge of the Pentlands, 
 
 Up on the Rullion Green, 
 I troAv we spilled their sour milk, 
 
 And tapp'd their Covenant spleen."
 
 170 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 What shoutings, fiercer than the blast ? These shouts ! I 
 
 know them well ! 
 'Tis the fiendish rout and revelry of the troopers of Dalziel ! 
 His ruthless nature only knows to ravage and to slay, 
 And many a godly family are fatherless this day. 
 In all the glens of Galloway a wailing voice is heard. 
 And sore-afflicted Annandale mourns like a mateless bird ; 
 And Kachel for her children weeps, whilst Herod quaffs his 
 
 wine, 
 Yet ever turns a ghastly eye to Bethlehem's awful sign ! 
 
 The foxes have their hiding-place, and burrow safely there, 
 The partridge finds some leafy nook, free from the fowler's 
 
 snare ; 
 But shade or shelter none is found our poor oppressed to save, 
 Hamlet or city, house or field, mountain or forest-cave. 
 Where faithful pastors fed their flocks, false curates give them 
 
 straw. 
 And gobble up all carnal things with foul insatiate maw : 
 A sav'ry feast for the Bomish Beast black Prelacy prepares. 
 The jackal only tracks the prey which the huge old lion tears. 
 
 " There's a pack for the Haddo's Hole, 
 There's a pack for the Old Tolbooth ; 
 And we'll blind the eyes of Presbytery, 
 And grind her snarling tooth.
 
 THE AGED COVENANTEE. 171 
 
 Hey for the boots and the thumbikins, 
 
 But and the gallows-tree ! 
 And hang the Whigamore loons, 
 
 Then harry the West Countrie ! " 
 
 Oh ! bear me to my bed in haste, my heart hath burst in 
 
 twain, 
 When green and goodly oaks are rent, shall withered stocks 
 
 remain ? 
 As Eli fell, when Aphek's field beheld the ark depart, 
 So Scotland's broken Covenant hath broke my trembling heart. 
 I thought to sleep amid mine own, by Scalpa's rushing wave, 
 But now mine aged bones have found the Greyfriars for a 
 
 grave : 
 And where, in nobler monument, could my poor dust be stored, 
 Than there where Scotland's martyr-host are waiting for their 
 
 Lord ? 
 
 " Huzza for the crown and the mitre ! 
 
 We'll pledge them in merry brown ale : 
 ' Life's but a span, and a soldier's a man ' 
 
 Then drink till our pockets fail 1 
 And Old Tom will find us in booty. 
 
 With fines from the West Countrie churls, 
 Who'd cock up their greasy blue bonnets 
 
 Above all our dukes and earls."
 
 172 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 A bloody sword gleams far and wide, and the priests of Baal 
 
 shall tread 
 In rage upon God's heritage, and righteous blood be shed : 
 But, hark ! the mighty angel's voice proclaims from sea to 
 
 shore, 
 That Babylon is fallen, is fallen, is fallen to rise no more I 
 From gifted Wishart's bed of fire to gracious Guthrie's death. 
 The righteous blood shall be required, in wonders and in wrath : 
 The dainty surplice shall not screen, and the Council shall sink 
 
 dumb, 
 And the sceptre quiver like a reed, when the days of vengeance 
 
 come. 
 
 Some precious ties encircle me, some mem'ries of the past. 
 
 An old man's heart, though dimmed, hath gleams the brightest 
 at the last, 
 
 My little homestead, and the kirk, and Orkney's sea-voice 
 stern ! 
 
 But cease, my passing soul ! why thus with earthly visions 
 yearn ? 
 
 Yet must we part, spouse of my heart, mirror of love and truth. 
 
 The solace of my life's decline, companion of my youth ? 
 
 How sweet hath been our fellowship through long, long change- 
 ful years ! 
 
 We meet in heaven, where death is not, nor warfare, change, 
 or tears !
 
 THE AGED COVENANTEE. 173 
 
 Now earth, and time, and creature- thoughts are fading from 
 
 mine eye. 
 man ! thou art alone with God, prepare thyself to die : 
 The faintest and the feeblest of the followers of the Lamb, 
 'Tis by the sovereign grace of God I am now what I am ! 
 The veil is parting, flesh is failing, light or path is none ! 
 God of the feeble, guide of the feeblest! Glory 1 peace ' 'tis 
 
 won ! 
 " Into Thine hands I do commit my spirit ; for Thou art He, 
 Thou Jehovah, God of truth, that hast redeemed me ! "
 
 174 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF AIRSMOSS. 
 
 Fought in July, 1680. 
 
 'Tis morn, the broad red sun 
 
 Gleams through his misty covering ; 
 The plover and the wild curlew 
 
 On fitful wing are hovering. 
 The wearied ones have laid them down, 
 
 If but a moment they may rest ; 
 Earth ! they shall soon be all thine own, 
 
 Then take them gently to thy breast ! 
 
 Scarce have their e^^elids closed 
 
 When the watcher's warning cry is heard, 
 And each with a sudden bound 
 
 Starts from sleep, and grasps his sword. 
 Along the dark, outstretching heath, 
 
 Sullen and fierce the troopers come, 
 With helmets' glare, with cries of rage. 
 
 With loud harsh clang of trump and drum. 
 
 One moment, stern and still, 
 
 The martyrs view them gathering nigh ;
 
 TH£! BATTLE OF AIRSMOSS. 
 
 One moment, with an earnest look, 
 Each on his brother turns his eye. 
 
 But Danger's hour is Freedom's birth, 
 No fear or craven look is there ; 
 
 All circle round the man of God, 
 
 Who calmly pours their latest prayer. 
 
 Cameron's Last Peayer. 
 
 Shepherd that didst Joseph lead ! 
 
 Helper in the hour of need ! 
 
 Treader in the winepress ! we 
 
 Lift our waiting eyes to Thee ! 
 
 On rush the foeman like a flood. 
 
 And the desert gapes for blood. 
 
 Lord ! spare the green, the ripest take 
 Hear us for Thine own name's sake 1 
 
 Here stand we, on the last retreat 
 That earth will yield our weary feet ; 
 From rocky cave to mountain chas'd. 
 From mountain to the desert waste ; 
 From the waste to heaven we soar, 
 Sinless, painless evermore. 
 
 Lord ! spare the green, the ripest take : 
 Hear us for Thine own name's sake !
 
 176 ' LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 With a longing strong and deep, 
 
 With a bridegroom's joy we leap ; 
 
 We have panted for this hour, 
 
 To grasp the tyrant in his power ; 
 
 And write in blood our legacy 
 
 To nations struggling to be free. 
 
 Lord 1 spare the green, the ripest take 
 Hear us for Thine own name's sake ! 
 
 Through the floods be Thou our guide, 
 In the flames be at our side ; 
 Purge us from our drossy clay, 
 Wash our mortal stains away : 
 Christ our King hath pass'd before ; 
 Bloody sea, but blessed shore ! 
 
 Bearer of the eternal keys, 
 
 Bear us through our agonies ! 
 
 How long, O Lord ! shall Zion lie 
 
 A scorn to all the passers-by ? 
 
 Shall godless heart and gory hand 
 
 For ever scourge Thine ancient land ? 
 
 Awake, arm of the Lord ! 'tis time, 
 
 The earth is drunk with blood and crime. 
 
 And crush the thrones that will not fear Thee 
 Smite the lands that will not hear Thee !
 
 THE BATTLE OF AIBSMOSS. 177 
 
 Now for the onset ! Brothers, kneel ! 
 Lord, give us faith and holy zeal ; 
 Loose the ties that gently bind us, 
 Heal the hearts we leave behind us ; 
 May we die as die the brave, 
 And Freedom yet spring from our grave ! 
 
 Treader in the winepress ! we 
 
 Rise to be evermore with Thee ! 
 
 By the black and weltering swamp, 
 
 A small green mound uplifts its brow, 
 'Twas the altar whence their incense rose : 
 
 'Tis their camp and battle-fortress now ! 
 The startled hare hath fled the brake, 
 
 No lark remains to greet the morn ; 
 The raven only flaps his wing, 
 
 And whets his beak on the gnarled thorn. 
 
 " Down with the cut-eared dogs !" 
 
 The troopers gnash their teeth and cry : 
 " God is our refuge and our strength !" 
 
 Is the brief and sternly-breathed reply. 
 With hunger, toil, oppression worn, 
 
 Their numbers few, their weapons rude, 
 In firm and close array they stand 
 
 Against that ravening multitude. 
 
 N
 
 178 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 The blades like lightning flash, 
 
 And volleyed thunders rend the sky ; 
 The war-steeds paw the heathery sod, 
 
 Aloft the glittering pennons fly. 
 But, as from Ailsa's sea-beat cliff, 
 
 The howling surge is backward toss'd ; 
 Even so these fierce battalions reel. 
 
 Stemmed by that firm, devoted host. 
 
 Though few and scant equipped. 
 
 Eight forth they burst with one loud cheer, 
 And many an empty saddle tells 
 
 The fate of many a cavalier. 
 Before that storm of peasant strength, 
 
 Dark sweeping as the northern blast. 
 White plume and glittering pennon whirl. 
 
 In one wild wreck and ruin cast. 
 
 High on his gallant roan. 
 
 From rank to rank Kathillet flies ; 
 Where he rushes terror spreads. 
 
 Where he strikes a foeman dies. 
 But what avails the lion's might 
 
 When crowding hunters round him close ? 
 Pierced from behind, Rathillet falls, 
 
 Amid the yell of deadly foes.
 
 THE BATTLE OF AIBSMOSS, 179 
 
 " Shame on the coward arm !" 
 
 Young Chryston cries, and, like a dart, 
 Flies to avenge Rathillet's fall ; 
 
 An eagle, young and strong of heart. 
 Whose nest is on the Calder banks ; 
 
 On fierce and fiery wing he rushes, 
 And in one glorious hero-burst, 
 
 Forth from its fount his young heart gushes. 
 
 And Cameron, soul of fire ! 
 
 What quenches others quickens thee ! 
 In the tumult still his voice is heard, 
 
 " For Scotland's faith and liberty !" 
 Priest of the outcast ! down he sinks. 
 
 The shepherd 'mid his slaughtered flock. 
 Brave one ! thy Master calls thee home. 
 
 Then soar through blood and battle-smoke ! 
 
 Long rolls the unequal strife. 
 
 And men and horse like foam are driven ; 
 And shouts and shrieks, curses and prayers, 
 
 Ring wide through all the vault of heaven. 
 At length, in threefold numbers ranged. 
 
 On press the foe with rage and pride. 
 Till one by one the martyr-band 
 
 Drop by their faithful pastor's side.
 
 180 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 Like reapers dropping down, 
 
 Their sheaves around them thickly strewn ; 
 So drop the soldiers of the Cross, 
 
 By numbers crushed, and toil alone. 
 Silence again is on the heath, 
 
 The war-steed's neigh comes faint and far. 
 Ye chosen ones, to glory rise ! 
 
 The harp, the crown, the morning star ! 
 
 By the black and weltering swamp, 
 
 A small green mound uplifts its brow ; 
 'Twas their altar, 'twas their battle-ground, 
 
 'Tis their martyr-spot and death-bed now ! 
 There, shrouded in their own heart's blood. 
 
 Their bodies rest upon the field. 
 Till pious hands shall make their tomb, 
 
 And lay them where their truth was sealed. 
 
 For their rights and faith they fell ! 
 
 They fell that these might ever stand. 
 Men of a race that shall ne'er forget 
 
 What they owe to that dauntless martyr-band. 
 Then rear for them no sculptur'd pile, 
 
 Set a rough grey stone on the lonely heath ! 
 Not a hind or child in Scotland all 
 
 But can tell right well luho lie beneath !
 
 CARGILL TAKEN PRISONER. 181 
 
 CARGILL TAKEN PRISONER AT COVINGTON MILL, 
 ON THE CLYDE. 
 
 July, 1681. 
 
 The Clyde roUs on majestic, beneath a July moon ; 
 
 The sky is calm and cloudless, well-nigh as bright as noon ; 
 
 And far into the heavens Cothwhan uplifts his height, 
 
 With his young and floating tresses, all bathed in streams of 
 
 light : 
 Like some angelic watcher, to watch with radiant eye 
 O'er holy Cargill's slumber in the miller's cot hard by. 
 
 II. 
 
 The blessing rest upon thee, and deep, serene repose ! 
 
 And the cloudy pillar hide thee from the fury of thy foes ! 
 
 With strong heart hast thou wrestled in the fulness of the day. 
 
 And thy God shall be thy glory when the earth-lights die away. 
 
 Whoso are true and faithful unto their latest breath. 
 
 Bud when the false ones wither, and greenest look in death.
 
 182 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 III. 
 
 But see those forms that darkly from the distant heights appear ; 
 That hollow sound, whence comes it, like horsemen trampling 
 
 near ? 
 'Tis but the dark wood waving where St. John's Kirk standeth 
 
 lone, 
 And that hollow tramp of horsemen is but the night- wind's moan. 
 And all is peace and sweetness, the moon looks from on high 
 On her cradled children smiling with her blessed mother-eye. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Ah no ! 'tis not the dark wood, 'tis not the night-wind's moan, 
 'Tis the savage troop of Bonshaw that are hither rushing on. 
 The door is burst, the chamber is filled with steel-shod feet, 
 And the aged slumberer shaken from his slumbers still and sweet. 
 He looks at first half-wildered, then meekly riseth up, 
 And with cheerful heart prepareth to drink his Master's cup. 
 
 V. 
 
 Across the Clyde they bear him, and to Lanark roughly ride, 
 
 While beneath the horse's belly his legs are closely tied. 
 
 And loud the jeers and laughter, and Bonshaw yells with glee, 
 
 " A blessed day for Bonshaw, a blessed prize to me, 
 
 Six thousand merks are clinking on that blessed saddle-tree ! "
 
 CARGILL TAKEN PRISONER. 183 
 
 VI. 
 
 By the ancient kirk at Lanark, in the eye of all the hills, 
 Then spake God's ancient servant, and time the word fulfils : 
 " I tell thee, cruel Bonshaw, that on high hast built thy nest, 
 By whom God's Church and people so long have been opprest, 
 Where now thou stand'st exulting in the greatness of thy lust, 
 A bloody hand from thine own wild band shall strike thee to 
 
 the dust. 
 As low as thou art lordly shalt thou welter in thy blood, 
 And this shall be ere yon ash tree again begin to bud." 
 
 VII. 
 
 And so before that ash tree again began to bud, 
 
 As low as he was lordly did he welter in his blood. 
 
 A bloody hand from his own wild band did strike him to the dust, 
 
 Where then he stood exulting in the greatness of his lust. 
 
 By the ancient kirk at Lanark was the mangled carcase laid. 
 
 And the word returned not empty which the godly man had said. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 But gently, like the streamlet that seeks the ocean's breast. 
 Old Cargill passeth onward to his centre and his rest. 
 Even as an aged pilgrim, who sadly toils along. 
 Enters the city gladly at the quiet even song.
 
 184 
 
 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The wise and wakeful virgins, whose lamps were trimmed and 
 
 bright, 
 Went forth to meet the Bridegroom at the mid-watchof the night, 
 And dreaded not the darkness, their lamps so clearly burned, 
 But forth they went rejoicing, and with bridal wreaths returned.
 
 BENWICK AT PRIESTHILL. 185 
 
 RENWICK IN THE COTTAGE OF JOHN BROWN 
 OF PRIESTHILL. 
 
 November, 1683. 
 
 A SKETCH. 
 
 November winds are loud and chill 
 Round thy roof-tree, lone Priesthill ! 
 Earth is wound in her shroud of snow 
 And the clouds toss to and fro. 
 AU around the moorland's rim 
 Day is closing dungeon-dim ; 
 Scarce doth twilight intervene. 
 Night at once engulfs the scene : 
 Storm and darkness, fear and danger. 
 Woe's me for the homeless stranger ! 
 
 But in Priesthill's humble dwelling, 
 W^hile without the storm is swelling,
 
 186 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 The hearth-stone glows with cheerful heat 
 From well-dried turf and fragrant peat ; 
 In midst the candle-coal is set, 
 And flames with many a lambent jet. 
 The shepherd lads and maidens fair 
 With busy hands the wool prepare, 
 And caird and spin the white and black 
 For hoddin' gray to ploughman's back. 
 The mother, meek and sweet of face, 
 With matron charms and inbred grace. 
 Sits with her first-born on her knee. 
 Singing her artless lullaby ! 
 Her little step-child, Janet, dear 
 As daughter of her own she were, 
 With flaxen ringlets waving light 
 Around a brow so lily white, 
 And blue eyes laughing to a cheek 
 Where rosebuds blow so fresh and sleek, 
 Sometimes with demurest art 
 Awhile she acts the housewife's part, 
 Then, dancing off with nod and beck, 
 Hangs on her new-found mother's neck. 
 
 Old Colly basking in the blaze. 
 
 Well hast thou spanned the heights and braes.
 
 RENWICK AT PRIESTHILL. 187 
 
 And threaded through the whirling drift, 
 By rough moss-hag and craggy clift, 
 And homeward brought the bleating herd, 
 While scarce from the door thy master stirred. 
 Such human forethought moves in thee, 
 And more than human constancy ! 
 
 With sudden start he pricks his ears ; 
 Is it his master's step he hears ? 
 Some hours agone he crossed the heath, 
 Regardless of the frost-wind's breath. 
 The sweets of Gospel truth to shed 
 Around a neighbour's dying bed ; 
 'Tis nigh the time of his return. 
 No ! stranger feet are hither borne ; 
 For Colly growls in under tone. 
 Mingling with the night-wind's moan, 
 And guards the door with sentinel's frown ; 
 But Janet kindly pats him down, 
 And hies her boldly forth to see 
 Who there in such a night should be. 
 She soon returns, with looks so bland, 
 Leading a stranger by the hand, 
 Whose tatter'd garb and feeble form 
 Seem all unfit to bide the storm.
 
 188 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 She guides him to her father's chair, 
 Whilst those within their tasks forbear, 
 Each to bestow, in their degree, 
 Some mark of hospitality. 
 
 The good wife gives him welcome cheer, 
 For all in need find welcome here, 
 The wanderer's home, a resting sweet 
 To wayfaring and wearied feet ; 
 And here the poor make daily moan. 
 And daily leave their benison. 
 The young from hill and dale repair. 
 Here is their school and house of prayer ; 
 Here oft the dead in sin have leapt. 
 And tears of dawning hope been wept. 
 And pierced and bleeding souls been bound. 
 And sliding feet new strength have found ; 
 And the saints of God, in trial and fear, 
 Seek the Urim and the Thummim here ! 
 
 But with her welcome doubts arise ; 
 For troubled times breed jealousies, 
 And villain spies on every hand 
 Glide like serpents through the land. 
 In cities, midst the throng of men. 
 In furthest nook and loneliest glen.
 
 RENWICK AT PRIESTHILL, 189 
 
 On the sea where the good ships fly, 
 
 In the haven where they lie, 
 
 To the far sequestered cot, 
 
 Where roaming beggar travels not, 
 
 In bogs which scarce the bitterns hannt, 
 
 On steeps that know not bnsh or plant, 
 
 Through tangled forest, pathless waste. 
 
 Where the coney ne'er was chased, 
 
 By the day which blazons all. 
 
 Under midnight's deepest pall, 
 
 At the selfsame table fed, 
 
 Harboured in the selfsame bed, 
 
 They lurk and creep, and watch and mark. 
 
 Strike unseen, and shoot i' the dark. 
 
 And follow still, with bloodhound's scent, 
 
 The children of the Covenant ! 
 
 Oft they take Devotion's guise, 
 
 And, Judas-like, betray their prize. 
 
 Thus, rob'd like minister of light, 
 
 Satan plies his ancient spite ! 
 
 When terror stalks by dale and town. 
 Well may the wife of godly Bro\\m 
 Feel some misgivings at the sight 
 Of unknown guest in such a plight.
 
 190 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 With haggard mien and uncouth dress ; 
 
 Is this from guile or wretchedness ? 
 
 Deep in her memory hath she stored 
 
 Peden's dark foreshadowing word, 
 
 When she and her partner plighted their faith 
 
 By the mountain-stream to be one till death : 
 
 " Bridegroom ! cheriwsh well thy bride ! 
 
 Bride ! rejoice thee at his side ; 
 
 But keep the linen clean and meet 
 
 To be a martyr's winding-sheet." 
 
 To hide the throbbings of her heart, 
 And the tear that to her eye would start, 
 She rocks her first-born on her knee, 
 And sings his evening lullaby, 
 Some antique snatches, quaint and wild. 
 That oft have stilled the cottar's child. 
 
 The Mother's Song. 
 
 " Hush thee, baby ! hush thee, 
 Till the morning break ! 
 
 Sweetly may'st thou slumber, 
 Softly may'st thou wake ! 
 
 Hush, my little baby. 
 
 Till the morning break ! "
 
 RENWICK AT PRIESTHILL. 191 
 
 " Where's the way, mother ? 
 
 Whither shall I go ? " 
 " Stay at home, my darling ! 
 
 The hills are deep with snow ; 
 And bitter through the hawthorn 
 
 The blasts of winter blow." 
 
 " Where are all the heather-bells 
 
 That daddie brought to me ? " 
 '' Spring will come, my bonny bird ! 
 
 With flowers upon the lea, 
 And big a bower by yon burn-side 
 
 For the linnet and for thee ! " 
 
 " Hush thee, baby ! hush thee, 
 
 Till the morning break ! 
 Sweetly may'st thou slumber, 
 
 Softly may'st thou wake ! 
 Hush, my little baby, 
 
 Till the morning break ! " 
 
 ' Caird the black, and caird the white. 
 
 Weave the speckled gray ! 
 Garment meet for man to wear 
 
 Through his chequered day ; 
 But they who wear't with patience 
 
 Shall shine in bright array ! "
 
 192 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 " Hush thee, baby ! hush thee, 
 
 Till the mornirig break ! 
 Sweetly may'st thou slumber, 
 
 Softly may'st thou wake ! 
 Come, sweet spring I 
 And sweet lark sing. 
 
 And thy nest in the moorland make ! 
 The lambs shall leap, 
 Where the blaeberries peep, 
 
 And softly my baby shall wake ! " 
 
 II. 
 
 The stranger mark ! how altered now ! 
 Whence the flush upon his brow, 
 And the flush upon his cheek, 
 And tears that more than language speak ? 
 As the quick'ning breath of morn 
 Kustles through the mountain thorn ; 
 So, whilst the mother's voice is stealing 
 O'er his ear, all thought and feeling 
 Thrill beneath that homely ditty, 
 Her cradle-song of love and pity ! 
 
 Fond dreams, lov'd gleams of youth revive : 
 He sees the home by Minnyhive,
 
 BEN WICK AT PRIESTEILL. 193 
 
 "WTiere erst he felt a motlier's care, 
 
 Where she would comb his golden hair, 
 
 And sing to him some olden strain, 
 
 " Fair Margaret," or the " Young Tamlane ; " 
 
 Or, when the thickening shades came on. 
 
 Some holy history would she con 
 
 By the merry evening fire. 
 
 He sees again his godly sire, 
 
 Remov'd by an untimely blow. 
 
 Like the sheltering oak laid low. 
 
 He kneels with him in prayer, and now 
 
 He wipes the death-dew from his brow ; 
 
 But while his tears anew are shed, 
 
 He whispers : '' Blessed are the dead ! " 
 
 Blithe visions, too, now pass before him. 
 
 Glad sounds of other years come o'er him : 
 
 Dalwhat's melodious murmur swells 
 
 By heath-clad steeps and broomy dells, 
 
 Where oft the wild-brier's bud he sought. 
 
 And caroll'd to the blackbird's note. 
 
 blissful visions ! short relief 
 
 To bosoms crushed by wrongs or grief, 
 
 A balsam even, for the time, 
 
 To the conscience gnaw'd by crime ! 
 
 Why so swiftly pass away ? 
 
 Come not at all, or ever stay !
 
 194 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Delusions all ! unreal and vain ! 
 No, not in vain ; for still remain 
 The blest ideas thus impress'd, 
 Which, finding here no place of rest. 
 Seek it in the realms above. 
 Where centre perfect truth and love ! 
 
 While thus his fancy bee-like skips, 
 
 And honey from each blossom sips. 
 
 The door is open'd : Yes ! 'tis he. 
 
 The master of the family ! 
 
 Sweet to his home as summer gale. 
 
 Known and belov'd through all the dale ; 
 
 For all revere, and all obey 
 
 His holy, patriarchal sway. 
 
 Of firm and stalwart frame is he. 
 
 And aspect grave, yet mild and free ; 
 
 His cheek with hardy lustre glows. 
 
 Such as the mountain-breeze bestows ; 
 
 And here and there a furrow's trace 
 
 Flings its shadow o'er his face. 
 
 His locks, now tipp'd with silvery sheen, 
 
 Fall o'er a forehead clear, serene ; 
 
 And his the blue and glintin' eye 
 
 Of Scotland's noblest peasantry.
 
 RENWICK AT PRIESTHILL. 195 
 
 But as the sun, though sunk from view, 
 Still sheds a calm celestial hue 
 Upon some lofty mountain's height ; 
 So all in him of good and bright 
 Which Nature's genial hand supplies, 
 The human-strong, the human-wise, 
 Is hallowed by a light Divine, 
 Streaming from the heavenly shrine. 
 
 He greets the stranger, and he gazes, 
 
 The face some deep emotion raises. 
 
 He knows him through his rude disguise, 
 
 A brother's love beams in his eyes ; 
 
 He doffs his bonnet reverently. 
 
 And thus, in tend'rest courtesy, 
 
 His stammering tongue hath found a vent ; 
 
 '' The Angel of the Covenant 
 
 Take thee underneath his wing, 
 
 And thy feet to safety bring ! 
 
 No prince or peer in Christendom 
 
 Were half so welcome to my home ! " 
 
 'Tis Kenwick ! Ah ! how changed from him. 
 
 Of rosy cheek and graceful limb, 
 
 Who but a year before had passed 
 
 Some happy days as Priesthill's guest !
 
 196 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Such havoc in so short a space 
 
 Have toil, and thought, and watchfulness, 
 
 Stormy seas, and travel long, 
 
 And adder-stings from the evil tongue. 
 
 And the burning spirit's bane, 
 
 Hours of rapture, months of pain. 
 
 Wrought upon the beauteous youth. 
 
 But deeper insight into truth. 
 
 Peace that passeth human lore, 
 
 Strength and faith unfelt before. 
 
 Calmer, clearer, loftier mind, 
 
 Earthly passions heaven-refined, 
 
 These have come to him instead, 
 
 If the roses from his cheek are fled. 
 
 Oh ! who can tell the pure delight 
 Which shower'd its blessings on that night? 
 When heart to heart responsive beat. 
 And soul with soul held converse sweet. 
 Themes, dearer prized than treasur'd gold, 
 The labouring tongue strove to unfold ; 
 And long-pent feelings found their way. 
 Like well-springs in the month of May. 
 As husbandman delights to view 
 The blade refresh'd with vernal dew ;
 
 RENWICK AT PRIESTHILL. 197 
 
 As the shepherd on the rock 
 
 Counts with joy his spreading flock, 
 
 Free from taint, and fleecy fair ; 
 
 As the nighted traveller, 
 
 Lost within the forest maze, 
 
 When first the morning meets his gaze, 
 
 Forgets his weary wandering 
 
 To hear the lark and merlin sing, 
 
 While the village chanticleer 
 
 Proclaims some place of shelter near : 
 
 Such, yea, far exceeding this. 
 
 Were those joys of holiness 
 
 Which around that household shone. 
 
 On their hill-side bleak and lone. 
 
 While the youthful priest and the shepherd saint 
 
 Spoke with heavenliest ravishment 
 
 Of God's long dealings with the land, 
 
 And the wonders of His hand ! 
 
 O'er those who spake and those who listened 
 
 The Kainbow of the Covenant glisten'd ! 
 
 The pious host, with speech benign. 
 Where love and wisdom both combine, 
 Himself by sharp experience taught, 
 Returns his every inmost thought,
 
 198 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 And, like a stream, receives impress'd 
 Within a clear and glassy breast, 
 Those eddying joys and fears which roll 
 In Renwick's more impassioned soul. 
 The lowlier acts of household care 
 The goodwife and her maidens share. 
 She now prepares their evening meal ; 
 The shepherd lads, with modest zeal. 
 Bring forth their holiday attire, 
 And give whate'er his wants require ; 
 The maidens stooping, homely, neat. 
 Bring water for his aching feet ; 
 Whilst little Janet's failing eye 
 Folds at length in dreams of joy, 
 With her head so lovingly 
 Pillow'd on the stranger's knee, 
 On her parted lips a smile 
 Enough his sorrows to beguile. 
 ■ Unearthly splendours light his eye, 
 His soul is lost in ecstacy : 
 Back as in a swoon he sinketh. 
 But his soaring spirit drinketh 
 At the crystal fount of life, 
 Pure from human sin and strife, 
 "Where the shadow never flew, 
 Where the earth- wind never blew,
 
 BENWICK AT PEIESTHILL, 199 
 
 Where it flows in ebbless tide 
 From eternal springs supplied ! 
 
 Peace with you all, household blest ! 
 
 Peace with you all, and heavenly rest ! 
 
 Be peace and rest vouchsafed a while, 
 
 Not to relax, but nerve for toil ! 
 
 A tempest lies before you all, 
 
 Already deep to deep doth call; 
 
 But with your sufferings ye shall find 
 
 The valiant and submissive mind. 
 
 And now your record is on high, 
 
 Your recompense is in the sky ; 
 
 And what ye sought not shall be given, 
 
 Fame wide as is the cope of heaven. 
 
 Your land, though late, shall know your worth, 
 
 And boast the honour of your birth. 
 
 When prince and warrior are forgot, 
 
 Or known but as a nation's blot. 
 
 Then Brown and Eenwick's fame shall be 
 
 Remember'd in our history. 
 
 When battlefield and palace gay 
 
 Sink in oblivion and decay, 
 
 The Patriot and the Christian still 
 
 Shall pilgrims be to loved Priesthill !
 
 200 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 BENWICK'S VISIT TO THE DEATH-BED OF PEDEN. 
 
 Feeruart, 1686. 
 
 Through the small and dingy lattice gleamed the last red 
 beams of day, 
 
 One wintry burst from the setting sun, where the dying pro- 
 phet lay ; 
 
 Where, from his weary wanderings, with toil and suffering worn, 
 
 He had come to close his pilgrimage within his native Sorn. | 
 
 Oh ! rest thee, aged, weary one ! be all thy conflicts past ! 
 Lone dweller in the wilderness, rest calmly at the last ! 
 
 The change hath touched his countenance, so wan, and fixed, 
 
 and cold, 
 And shrivelled up his frame that was so stalwart and so bold ; 
 His unshorn locks and matted beard in strange wild clusters 
 
 hang. 
 And the frequent start and shiver tell how near his dying pang. 
 But bright the sunshine on his brow ! the brow which God 
 
 hath given 
 To those who are His gifted ones, the messengers of heaven !
 
 BENWICK AT PEDEN'S DEATH-BED. 201 
 
 For his the lofty impulses, the clear, far-sweeping ken, 
 
 That have stamped him as a holy seer among the sons of men. 
 
 Oh ! rest thee, aged, weary one ! be all thy conflicts past ! 
 Lone dweller in the wilderness, rest calmly at the last ! 
 
 His eyes are closed, but not in sleep, he murmurs forth a 
 prayer : 
 
 " That poor and wasted remnant, Lord, do Thou in mercy spare ! 
 
 The wolf hath burst into the fold, the shepherds they are gone, 
 
 In all our hills and valleys round we are not left with one : 
 
 Israel's Shepherd! guide the flock, the yearlings gently bear ! 
 
 That poor and wasted remnant. Lord 1 do Thou in mercy spare ! 
 
 Sun that shines in Scotland ! there shall be a dread 
 eclipse !" — 
 
 But the words of terror died away upon his feeble lips ; 
 
 And the latch is opened softly, and a pale sick youth appears. 
 
 Whose term of life hath numbered little more than twenty years. 
 
 Though something of the rosy bloom peeps from that faded 
 cheek. 
 
 And those dove-like eyes with tenderness and youthful yearn- 
 ings speak ; 
 
 Yet ye may see that toil and care, and sleepless thoughts have 
 crushed 
 
 The gentle blossomings that might in his young heart have 
 flushed ;
 
 202 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 And youth and strength, and soul and life, as first-fruits, he 
 
 hath bound 
 Unto the altar's horn, and there may they in peace be found. 
 
 As he entered, Peden raised his eyes, and asked the stranger's 
 
 name. 
 And what the errand was for which to this lone place he came : 
 " Father ! my name is Renwick, I have come to speak with thee, 
 To see thee in these troublous times, and crave thy prayers for me !" 
 
 The old man's face with something flushed between the scowl 
 
 and sneer. 
 For false reports against the youth were scattered far and near. 
 " Are you the Renwick that has made such noise throughout 
 
 the land ? 
 Turn round about, and let me view your measure as you stand. 
 Narrow thy shoulders, frail thy limbs. Slim youth, thy heart 
 
 is bold, 
 If thou dost think that thou alone canst Scotland's Church 
 
 uphold !" 
 
 ** father ! do not mock me thus. To thee my spirit cleaves. 
 The railing Shimeis pain me not, but thy least whisper grieves. 
 The noise and strife are not by me ; my Lord's reproach I bear; 
 And in the scandal of His Cross I also have my share : 
 They seek to drive me from the land, a hissing and a scorn. 
 father ! hear and pity me ; my heart with grief is torn !"
 
 BEN WICK AT P EDEN'S DEATH-BED. 203 
 
 The old man softened as the dew, and Ren wick's hand he takes, 
 *' Tis a bloody land, a treacherous time ; we walk on asps and 
 
 snakes. 
 Sit down by me, and tell me o'er the story of thy life, 
 For well I know that cniel words cut sharper than the knife." 
 He leant upon the truckle-bed ; whilst, keener than a lance, 
 The old man watched him with an eye, before whose searching 
 
 glance 
 The traitor and deceiver oft like drunken men had reeled, 
 And all their leper-spots laid bare, so long and well concealed. 
 But Renwick's pure and noble mind with meekness met the gaze. 
 With look as sweet as the lark doth greet the morning's first 
 
 bright rays ; 
 And, leaning on the truckle-bed, old memories stirred again. 
 And rushed upon his parched soul like a summer burst of rain. 
 
 He told how, from his mother's womb, he was vowed unto the Lord, 
 And from his childhood he was taught to lisp the Holy Word ; 
 What bright celestial glimpses in his youthful dreams he saw. 
 Then how his tender heart was wrung by the terrors of the law; 
 What demon-shapes danced round his steps, and held his 
 
 thoughts in thrall, 
 And the candle of the Lord went out, and blackness covered all ; 
 And all this goodly frame of things was a dry and barren clod. 
 Till, gasping in his agony, he groaned, " There is no God !"
 
 204 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 But as the watchman, spent and chill with watching out the 
 
 night, 
 Sees earth again put on her robes'of pure and natural light ; 
 Even so on Renwick's darkened soul the Sun of Righteousness, 
 With healing on His wings, arose to brighten and to bless. 
 He told how Scotland's gaping wounds made his young heart 
 
 to bleed. 
 And he prayed that God would give him strength to help her 
 
 in her need : 
 How 'mid the sobbing crowd he stood who saw old Cargill die, 
 Then forth he rushed to solitude, and spread his hands on high, 
 And sealed his mother s vow in heaven, the aged, widowed one ; 
 The strong in heart, the great of faith, who loved her only son. 
 Oh ! tenderly, most tenderly ! yet ever longed to see 
 That where the " Crown and Covenant " led, his post or march 
 
 should be. 
 He sought the faithful remnant out, the brave contending band, 
 Who would not yield to Antichrist dominion in the land, 
 But homes forsook, and spoiling took, in rocks and caverns lay, 
 And worshipped there their fathers' God, and looked for coming 
 
 day. 
 And made a rampart of their hearts, their life-blood freely gave. 
 To save the Zion of their souls from being Babylon's slave. 
 He told how, after prayer and fast, and wrestling with the 
 
 Lord, 
 They with one voice had chosen him to labour in the Word ;
 
 REN WICK AT P EDEN'S DEATH-BED. 205 
 
 How godly men in Groningen had laid on him their hands, 
 And how the Spirit made him free, untying all his bands. 
 Through storm and danger and man's wrath, he reached his 
 
 native shore. 
 And still, amid reproach and grief, his Master's cross he bore ; 
 And he lifted up the standard where the Darmead waters flow. 
 When Muldron's wild and desolate heights lay thick with drifted 
 
 snow, 
 He lifted up the standard where old Cargill laid it down, 
 Where Cameron left it as he rose to wear the martyr's crown. 
 To the hungering souls in Scotland he had broke the bread of 
 
 life, 
 And shunned all innovations and all bitter roots of strife ; 
 But chief of all, his aim had been to guard with faithful hand 
 The Gospel's native purity, and the Covenants of the land. 
 Because he could not dance in step with the piping of the times, 
 And dreaded all compliances as heaven-defying crimes. 
 Those that his brethren should have been did all affection 
 
 quench. 
 Nay, cut him from all fellowship even as a rotten branch, 
 " Schismatic ! Jesuit ! whited Devil I" these were the names 
 
 that rung 
 From the Presbyterian Issachars who had lost the ancient 
 
 tongue ; 
 And afar in mountain solitudes, no succour, no relief, 
 He had kept the flock together, in danger, storm, and grief.
 
 206 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 While thus he told how best-loved friends were severed from 
 
 his side, 
 Tears of deep agony gushed forth, and mournfully he cried : 
 '' Woe's me that I in Mesech am a sojourner so long I 
 That I in tabernacles dwell to Kedar that belong ! 
 My soul with him that hateth peace hath long a dweller 
 
 been; 
 I am for peace, but when I speak, for battle they are keen !'* 
 
 " My son ! my son !'* with broken voice the dying saint ex- 
 claimed, 
 " How sore, how undeservedly hast thou, my son, been blamed 1 
 And I, too, have defamed thee, I ; but I am punished now. 
 When thou standest at my dying bed with clear and open 
 
 brow, 
 A chosen vessel of the Lord, which I have sought to shiver : 
 Lord, from this weak and erring clay make haste and me 
 
 deliver I 
 I am an old man, soon to leave this troubled scene below ; 
 Then stay a while, and speak with me, and pray before you go." 
 
 And he spake with him most cheeringly, with a reverent, tender 
 
 love, 
 And he prayed as they alone can pray whose hearts' home is 
 
 above !
 
 BEN WICK AT P EDEN'S DEATH-BED. 207 
 
 He prayed that, in His own good time, the Lord would grant 
 
 release, 
 And let His servant, worn with age and toil, depart in peace ; 
 That all his works and sufferings with acceptance might be 
 
 crowned. 
 And the fruit, in ages yet to come, might gloriously abound. 
 The old man wrapt him in his arms, and kissed him, brow and 
 
 cheek. 
 Whilst Renwick pressed the clay-cold lips, and strove his love 
 
 to speak ; 
 But the fountain of his soul was stirred, and he sobbed, in heart 
 
 oppressed. 
 And do'^TL he sank, and his burning head he laid on Peden's 
 
 breast. 
 
 " Weep not for me, my son ! in peace and quietness I die. 
 
 As here beneath my brothers' roof in Auchincloich I lie. 
 
 Not far from A}t's old murmurings, by bank, and rock, and 
 
 tree. 
 Mine eyes shall close safe from my foes, then do not weep for me ! 
 But oh ! the young and tender Vine ! with its first and precious 
 
 birth. 
 The ruthless spoiler lays its boughs and promise in the earth. 
 Long, long and bitter could I weep to think of such a sight. 
 Ah, Scotland ! it is yet to come, thy darkest hour of 
 
 night !"
 
 208 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 Whilst the words were trembling on his lips, a startled look he cast, 
 
 As if the rustling of a wing had o'er his body passed ; 
 
 He raised him on the bed, with strength which time had little 
 
 marred. 
 Like a rock whose sides the winter storms and mountain streams 
 
 have scarred. 
 Like Elijah on the mount he sat, and turned an earnest ear. 
 As hearkening to the still small voice whose whisp'rings floated 
 
 near : 
 With utterance chok'd, yet stem, he spake, and his eye with 
 
 splendour glistened, 
 And Eenwick trembled as he gazed, then bowed his head and 
 
 listened : 
 
 " A bloody sword ! a bloody sword I 
 Forged and furbish 'd by the Lord ! 
 For thee, O Scotland ! 'tis unsheathed. 
 From the martyr'd saints bequeathed ! 
 
 " Many a weary mile and day 
 Shall ye walk in Galloway, 
 By the Nith and by the Clyde, 
 Through Ayr's borders far and wide, 
 And never see a chimney smoke, 
 Never hear the crowing cock. 
 But behold the desolation 
 That must fall upon this nation !
 
 EENWICK AT FEDEX'S DEATH-BED. 209 
 
 '' Many a sweet conventicle, 
 In the glen and on the hill, 
 Hast thou had, sinful land ! 
 But another is at hand 
 That shall shake thee from thy day-dream ! 
 Many a sermon, like the May-beam 
 Precious seasons, gracious dealings. 
 Holy, heavenly soul-revealings, 
 Have in by-past time been thine ; 
 God hath preached in love divine : 
 But because thou hast abhorred 
 The Law and Covenant of the Lord, 
 He shall preach by fire and sword ! 
 
 " Darker shades begin to thicken. 
 And the tyrant's rage shall quicken. 
 And the Church shall reel and stagfofer, 
 As hollow friends and cowards drasf her. 
 From the west sea-bank to the east sea-bank. 
 Horseman prance and sabres clank ; 
 And not a gleam from sun or star 
 To tell the wanderers where they are ! 
 The vain and false ones shall disown 
 Christ's sole kingly crown and throne ; 
 He shall be again denied. 
 And afresh be crucified,
 
 210 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 And for a season He shall lie 
 Buried ignominiously. 
 But the stone shall be rolled back, 
 And his winding-sheet shall crack, 
 And he shall rise, the Mighty One ! 
 And His crown be as the sun, 
 Shining o'er His gathered host. 
 Not a jewel shall be lost. 
 Nor the golden ball be dim : 
 Praise and glory be to Him ! 
 
 " Then the Remnant shall come forth 
 From holes and caverns of the earth, 
 And Scotland's widow'd Church look brave, 
 And a ' bonny bairn-time ' have ! 
 Her Maker shall her husband be. 
 And her second progeny 
 Outnumber and outstrip the first. 
 But this house of Cain, accurst. 
 Steeped in treachery and blood. 
 Freedom, like a rolling flood, 
 Shall sweep them hence for evermore 
 From the throne and from the shore. 
 Our Lord shall soon a feather twist 
 From the wing of Antichrist ;
 
 BENWICK AT PJEDEN'S DEATH-BED. 211 
 
 And this York, that treads down all, 
 Like a wither'd leaf shall fall ; 
 And never shall a Stuart reign 
 In this ransom'd land again. 
 
 " Times of trouble, times of fear ! 
 People of the Lord, keep near. 
 By patient waiting, fervent prayer. 
 To the Lord, whose seal ye bear ; 
 For only praying folk can pass 
 Through all this storm and wretchedness !" 
 
 He sank forwearied, like a steed which at length hath reached 
 
 the goal, 
 His flesh too weak to bear the throes of that rapt prophetic soul : 
 Some moments as in swoon he lies, with strange low mutterings, 
 As one on whom the shadows press of dread unearthly things ; 
 But again he lifts his eyes that beam with a beatific grace. 
 And with a father's yearning heart he looks on Kenwick's face. 
 " 'Tis time we part ! Not far from hence the Slayer hath a den. 
 And I know the night-shades gather thick around old Blaxeden. 
 
 " Rough is the path before thee, planted thick with thorns and 
 
 briers. 
 And a spirit, meek and fearless, and a wary step requires ; 
 And thy feet are soft and tender yet : but keep a constant eye 
 Unto thy Master's will, and thou shalt quit the stage with joy ;
 
 212 LAYS OF THE COVEN ANTEUS. 
 
 While they who walk with stately step, and bend their necks in 
 
 pride, 
 Shall soil their garments, and be fain their squalid looks to hide. 
 Who trust in self are forth at sea in a frail and broken ship ; 
 Who build their Church upon the breath of a prince or cour- 
 tier's lip, 
 Are building on the shifting sand, or on the fleeting cloud. 
 And stand they may, so long as they are tools to serve the proud. 
 Trust thou for ever in the Lord ! for everlasting strength 
 Is in His arm, and He shall rise to plead thy cause at length !" 
 And he drew him nearer, and he placed his hand upon his head, 
 And, with a pause of inward prayer, these solemn words he said : 
 *' God be thy sun and shield ! Farewell ! And when we meet 
 
 again, 
 It will not be as now, my son, in peril and in pain !" 
 
 And slowly Renwick left the bed, his finger raised above. 
 The old man's eye still following him with looks and tears of 
 love!
 
 PEVEN'S SHEOUD. 213 
 
 PEDEN'S SHROUD. 
 
 A Tradition of Auchinleck, where his body was at first interred, 
 
 ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 1685. 
 
 They drag the corpse from its place of rest, 
 
 And rend the shroud wherein it was drest. 
 
 And the bones of the saint, which were sealed in the tomb, 
 
 Are in mockery raised for a traitor's doom. 
 
 The shroud, borne aloft on the wings of the blast, 
 
 Ajound a plane-tree's branch is cast ; 
 
 And from that hour until this day 
 
 That branch hath withered and died away ! 
 
 A hundred springs are past and gone. 
 And sixty more since then have flown ; 
 Whilst wood and vale with beauty teem, 
 By Lugar's sweetly "winding stream. 
 When all is fresh and green around, 
 No bud upon that branch is found. 
 
 Blacken'd and bare. 
 
 With its point in the air. 
 
 Fixed it remains 
 
 As in dumb despair : 
 Nor sun, nor wind, nor dewy cloud, 
 Can loosen the curse of Peden's shroud !
 
 214 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 TRIAL AND DEATH OF ROBERT BAILLIE OF 
 JERVIESWOODE. 
 
 'TwAS when December's darkening scowl the face of heaven 
 
 o'ercast, 
 And vile men high in place were more unpitying than the blast, 
 Before their grim tribunal's front, firm and undaunted stood 
 That patriot chief of high renown, the noble Jervieswoode. 
 
 The hand of death is on him pressed, the seal of death is there ! 
 Oh ! the savage of the wilderness those weak old limbs would 
 
 spare ! 
 Frail, frail his step, and bent his frame, and ye may plainly trace 
 The shadow of death's wing upon his pale and sunken face. 
 These twenty long and dreary months in the dungeon he hath 
 
 lain, 
 Long days of sickness, weary nights of languishing and pain ; 
 For him no gale hath breathed its balm, no sun hath blessed 
 
 the year. 
 No friendly hand to smooth his couch, nor friendly voice to cheer;
 
 BAILLIE OF JEEVIESWOODE. 215 
 
 His lady, in their lonely hall, doth mournful vigils keep. 
 And where he sat and where he walked his children watch and 
 
 weep. 
 Yet o'er his weakness and decay an ancient grandeur falls, 
 Like the majesty that lingers round some mouldering palace 
 
 walls ; 
 The light of calm and noble thoughts is bright within his eye, 
 And, purged of earthly taint, his soul prepares to mount on high. 
 Nor is he left alone, a sister faithful to him clung, 
 With woman's heart, with home-born love, with angel look and 
 
 tonoTie : 
 
 o 
 
 There in that Golgotha she sits, so tender, so benign, 
 Fair as the moon's sweet glimpses through the cloudy tempest 
 shine. 
 
 The court is met, the assize are set ; the robes of state look 
 
 brave, 
 Yet the proudest and the lordliest there is but a tyrant's slave ; 
 Blood-hirelings they who earn their pay by foul and treacherous 
 
 deeds, 
 For swift and fell the hound must be w^hom the hunter richly 
 
 feeds. 
 What though no act of wrong e'er stained the fame of Jer- 
 
 VIESWOODE ? 
 Shall it protect him in those times that he is wise and good ? 
 So wise, so good, so loved of all, though weak and worn with care,
 
 216 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 Though death comes fast, he is the last whom Antichrist would 
 
 spare ! 
 For his the bold and freeborn mind, the wisdom of a sage, 
 The glow of youth still cherished in the sober breast of age ; 
 The soul of chivalry is his, and honour pure from stain, 
 A heart that beats for liberty, and spurns each galling chain. 
 Whether entwined by hands that bear the crosier or the sword ; 
 For he would see all nations free in Christ who is their Lord. 
 
 And once, with England's patriot-band, by tyrant power 
 
 oppressed. 
 He had dreamed of free and happy homes in the forests of the 
 
 West, 
 To breathe the uncorrupted air, to tread the fresh green sod, 
 And where the broad Savannah rolls, in peace to worship God ! 
 These are his crimes ! the treason this for which he now is 
 
 tried. 
 But though the forms of law are kept, all justice is denied. 
 Woe ! that a land so favoured once should witness such disgrace ! 
 Shame ! that a land so powerful yet should brook a scene so 
 
 base ! 
 Unroll your parchments black with lies, shut fast your coward 
 
 doors ; 
 And brand the aged chief with crimes his generous heart abhors : 
 When truth avails not, well you know how to supply the lack. 
 With secret tales, and with wild words extorted by the rack!
 
 BAILLIE OF JERVIESWOODE. 217 
 
 There is an hour for every power, an hour of darkness this ! 
 Spur on, ye slaves of Antichrist ! or ye the goal may miss ! 
 
 His strength increasing with his need, he raises bold and high, 
 
 And fixes on Mackenzie base his clear and searching eye : 
 
 " How canst thou thus, my lord, 'gainst me such accusation 
 
 bring, 
 That I have been a man of strife, in plots against the king ? 
 I hate the way of violence, the anarchist I spurn ; 
 Who scatters firebrands little knows where they may fall and 
 
 bum. 
 In my degree I have been bold to guard the nation's right, 
 And keep alive within these realms the lamp of Gospel light : 
 But, in my gloomy dungeon laid, didst thou not visit me. 
 And solemnly avow that I from wicked plots was free ? 
 How canst thou, then, unto my charge such grievous actions lay. 
 And all thou hast so solemn said as solemnly unsay ?" 
 
 The whole assembled multitude full on Mackenzie turned, 
 That even his hardened countenance with shame and anger 
 
 burned : 
 " True, Jervieswoode, I told thee so as my own private view : 
 Here I discharge the functions which to the Crown are due." 
 " If thou hast a conscience for thyself, and another for this 
 
 place, 
 I leave thee to the God of heaven and His all-pardoning grace !
 
 218 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 My lords, I add no more, proceed, right well I know my 
 
 doom; 
 Death hath no terrors for my soul, the grave it hath no gloom ! " 
 
 'Tis one from old Saint Giles ! the blasts of midnight shake 
 
 the hall, 
 Hoarse sounding like a demon's voice, which the stoutest hearts 
 
 appal. 
 His doom is uttered. " Twelve hours hence thy traitorous 
 
 head shall fall. 
 And for a terror be exposed upon the city wall ; 
 Thy limbs shall quartered be, and hung, all mutilate and bare. 
 At Jedburgh and Lanark town, at Glasgow and at Ayr : 
 That all good subjects thence may learn obedience to the State, 
 Their duty to our gracious king, and bloody treason's fate." 
 A horror seizes every breast, a stifled cry of dread, 
 " Who sheds the blood of innocence, the blood on his own head!" 
 That packed and perjured jury shrink in conscience-struck 
 
 dismay, 
 And wish their hands as clean of guilt as they were yesterday ; 
 Mackenzie's cold and flinty face is quivering like a leaf, 
 Whilst with quick and throbbing finger he turns o'er and o'er 
 
 his brief; 
 And the misnamed judges vainly try their rankling thoughts to 
 
 hide. 
 Beneath an outward painted mask of loftiness and pride.
 
 BAILLIE OF JERVIESWOODE. 219 
 
 Even she, the sweet heroic one ! aje watchful at his side 
 Whose courage ne'er hath blanched as yet, though sorely, sharply 
 
 tried, 
 Even she is crushed beneath the weight of this last and deadly 
 
 blow. 
 And sinks upon her brother's neck, o'er whelmed in speechless 
 
 woe. 
 
 He, he alone, is calm of soul ! Powers of no mortal birth 
 Axe gently loosening every tie that links him to the earth ; 
 And inward faith gives outward force, strong is his deep dark 
 
 eye. 
 And his brow and lip are beautiful as in the days gone by. 
 Meekly he rises to depart, but pauses for a space 
 And looks upon his cowering foes with calm and saintly grace : 
 " The time is short, the sentence sharp ; your malice I forgive ; 
 For God hath made me fit to die, as ye, my lords, to live !" 
 
 And meekly he departs, his toils, his work and warfare done. 
 And his martyr-chariot waits him, and his triumphs are begun. 
 
 And twelve hours thence, upon the block, his reverend head 
 
 did fall. 
 And for a terror was exposed upon the city wall ;
 
 220 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 His limbs were quartered, and were hung, all mutilate and bare, 
 At Jedburgh and Lanark town, at Glasgow and at Ayr : 
 And thus through all broad Scotland these martyred relics go. 
 Like a fiery cross to rouse the land to the tyrant's overthrow. 
 
 The ancient halls of Jervieswoode are desolate and grey, 
 And its ancient oaks and lime trees are sinking in decay ; 
 These are of things that perish, and their place soon knows 
 
 them not. 
 But a glory from the past illumes this consecrated spot : 
 To him who braves the martyr's death is deathless honour 
 
 given, 
 For the faith that breeds heroic deeds is dear to earth and 
 
 heaven ; 
 And through all succeeding ages, amongst the wise and good, 
 Enshrined shall be the memory of the noble Jervieswoode ! 
 
 -^^^^M^^^^^^
 
 THE MARTYR OF PRIESTEILL. 221 
 
 THE MARTYR OF PRIESTHILL. 
 
 Time — The First Morning of May, 1685. 
 
 Scene I. — Interior of the Cottage of Priesthill ; Early dawn ; John Brown 
 and his family engaged in their morning devotions ; His family, consisting 
 of his wife, by a second marriage, whose maiden name was Isabella Weir ; 
 his daughter Janet, about ten years of age, by his first marriage ; and an 
 infant boy by the second. 
 
 They sing part of Psalm xxvii. — 
 
 " Against me though an host encamp. 
 My heart yet fearless is : 
 Though war against me rise, I will 
 Be confident in this. 
 
 One thing I of the Lord desired. 
 
 And will seek to obtain, 
 That all days of my life I may 
 
 Within God's house remain ; 
 
 That I the beauty of the Lord 
 
 Behold may and admire. 
 And that I in his holy place 
 
 May rev'rently inquire." 
 
 He then reads in the gospel of John, chapter xvi., in which 
 the following passages occur : — 
 
 " These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be ofiended. They 
 shall put you out of the synagogues : Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever
 
 222 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they 
 do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. 
 
 " It is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter 
 will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. When 
 he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth : for he shall 
 not speak of himself ; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak : and 
 he will show you things to come. 
 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto you. That ye shall weep and lament, but the 
 world shall rejoice : and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned 
 into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is 
 come : but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more 
 the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore 
 have sorrow : but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your 
 joy no man taketh from you." 
 
 After offering up a solemn and memorable prayer, he 
 rises, blesses his family, and goes out with his implements of 
 labour. 
 
 Scene II. — The Heights to the west of Lesmahagow; Claverhouse, at the 
 head of three troops of dragoons, and attended by Cannon, the spy, who 
 has undertaken to betray Brown. 
 
 Claverhouse. Another vile, misty morning. May-day, 
 too ! May-day in Ayrshire ! Certainly this Ayrshire is a 
 great breeder of Whigs and mists, very suitable companions. 
 [Turning to the Spy). We shall catch the weasel, though ? 
 
 Cannon. No doubt of it, sir. His wife, who takes me for 
 one of the brotherhood, told me he was to steal home this 
 morning from his hiding in the moors. But, may I beseech
 
 THE MARTYR OF PRIESTHILL. 223 
 
 you, sir, spare his life ! If he were not crazed by conventicles, 
 he is a good, innocent man, that would not do an act of wrong 
 or violence to gain the whole world. In one way and another, 
 he has been friend to almost everybody from Clyde to Ayr's 
 mouth. AVhen my own wife and children were lying ill in one 
 
 bed 
 
 Claverhouse. Peace, chattering booby! I have let you 
 talk so far, because I like to know what edge my tools have 
 got. Hark ye, sirrah ! I keep two pistols in my belt, one 
 for Whig vermin, the other for such ill-dipt rascals as you. 
 Beware! Soldiers! see that you are charged. We're on the 
 Ayrshire moors, and belike may start a covey of psalm-singers 
 in some of the hollows. 
 
 Scene III. — The high moor ground overtopping Priesthill ; Cairntable Hill 
 rising straight opposite ; Brown occupied in casting turf for fuel, but often 
 stopping from working, and looking around him, and upwards, in an earnest 
 and meditative manner. 
 
 In a glen in the same moorland, but at some little distance, and unseen, 
 a number of the young men and women of the surrounding hamlets are 
 supposed to have met together, to hold the old revels of "May Morning." 
 
 Brown. Again the earth, waked from her wintry trance, 
 Starts up with looks of promise and of joy. 
 All nature is alive, all life is fresh 
 With youthful brightness and a new-felt power. 
 Copy, tho' faint, not utterly defaced.
 
 224 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 Of that first glorious birth and spring of being, 
 When on the shapeless mass the Spirit of God 
 Moved, and brought forth a world all good, all fair. 
 
 Down from the mountains gently come the winds. 
 The plains beneath open their breasts to meet them: 
 The mist, which erewhile hung upon the morn. 
 Veiling its extreme loveliness, disparts ; 
 And bird and beast to one great song of praise 
 Are all attuned. 
 
 'Tis the First Morn of May! 
 
 (A ixmse.) 
 
 And there thou look'st abroad, Cairntable! watching 
 As with a hunter's eye the growing light ; 
 While the Sun paws the orient clouds, impatient 
 To run his mighty race. Into thy bosom. 
 Swelling with vernal impulse, dost thou draw 
 The fatness and rich influence of the morn. 
 For nourishment of all thy founts and streams. 
 And all thy herds, and manifold sweet creatures 
 To whom thou art a nurse, yea, and a mother. 
 And yonder (dearest, loveliest sight of all !), 
 Deep in the hollow of the valley, like 
 The lark's nest in the wilderness, peeps forth 
 Mine own beloved home ! lightly the smoke
 
 THE MARTYR OF PRIESTHILL. 225 
 
 Curls on the morning breeze, where Isabel, 
 God's richest earthly gift to me, attends 
 Her household and her household duties, with 
 A care no less than Martha's, yet is not 
 Like her world-cumber'd, but the better part, 
 Like holier Mary, hath she wisely chosen. 
 Methinks I see my little Janet skipping 
 About the door, blithest of children she ! 
 Yet never thoughtless in her merriment. 
 Prudent already as a housewife, and 
 A help and meet companion to her mother. 
 
 {A ixmse.) 
 
 wife! O children! can I give you up? 
 Most precious are ye to me ; never man 
 Yearned with more fondness o'er his home of love. 
 Myself of silent spirit, in them I found 
 A centre, and perpetual stored-up fountain 
 For all the gushing fulness of my heart. 
 Too much of idols have they been, too much 
 Have come between me and the Sovereign Lord. 
 Yet merciful as sovereign, blessed Saviour! 
 Forgive this frailty, subjugate this passion, 
 And make mine earth-affections stoop in awe, 
 And, even as bondmaids, to their heavenly mistress 
 In deep and all-resigning homage bow. 
 
 Q
 
 226 LAYS OF TEE COVENANTEES. 
 
 And verily the hour of trial comes ! 
 
 The blast already ruffles in the branches ; 
 
 I hear its fatal singing. 
 
 Tho' 'tis May-day, 
 And bud and sap around me, yet I know 
 That not with me 'tis May-day. 
 
 'Tis at hand, 
 The withering tempest that will strip my home, 
 Not the abode as now of simple joys. 
 But house of death and mourning ! I am warned 
 By the times and seasons. In the cave and dungeon. 
 On scaffold and on highway and lone moor, 
 And hard-fought battle-field, one after one 
 My brethren perish. I am also warned 
 By inward tokens and foreshadowings, 
 By presages and burdens from without. 
 But yestermorn, when Peden left the dwelling, 
 (Whose sore, wayfaring feet turned for a night 
 To seek short respite underneath our roof), 
 Thrice did he press poor Isabel's hand and groaned. 
 His eyes with sorrow more than age, bedimmed, 
 "Alas, poor thing! a dark, a misty morning!" 
 'Tis seldom now he speaks. His heart is dumb 
 Beneath the visitation of the Lord. 
 In desert paths he wanders, and all night 
 Derns in the clifty rock, sleepless, and wrestling
 
 THE MARTYR OF PRTESTHILL. 227 
 
 For the remnant of the people! 
 
 Yes ! I know 
 
 Mine end is near : we must be hunted down. 
 
 And now, Lord ! I am ready to be offered : 
 
 My times are in Thine hand, so is my strength ; 
 
 Through suffering make me perfect ! 
 
 Sweet the ties 
 
 That bind me to the earth ; but greater still 
 
 The voice that calls me on ! 
 (Noise as of shouting and singing heard at a distance.) 
 
 What strange and startling noise is this which breaks 
 
 Upon the desert solitude! 
 {Noise continues, and voices heard singing confusedly.) 
 
 Mat-Song. 
 
 " Eound the thorn on the sweet May-morn, 
 Dance it merrily, dance it merrily I" 
 
 Alas! 
 Now I remember; 'tis an heathenish custom 
 Amongst the village youth to celebrate 
 The first May -morning with wild dance and song ; 
 Dark relic of old Pagan revelries. 
 For many bygone years, whilst in this land 
 Flourished a pure and gospel ministry. 
 This baneful weed was all but rooted out. 
 Since Antichrist again hath raised his horn.
 
 228 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES, 
 
 These secret, poisonous seeds are springing up: 
 As blight or mildew in one night may rot 
 What a long fertile spring hath richly nourished. 
 And they that would enslave the human soul, 
 And turn to their base ends the powers of man, 
 Must first corrupt before they fetter. 
 
 Wise 
 And uncorrupted spirits brook no chain! 
 
 O sinful, woeful land ! where half thy children 
 
 Cain-like destroy the other, or but mock 
 
 Their dying groans, and dance upon their graves : 
 
 Where God's poor flock are slaughtered all day long, 
 
 And no account is taken, save in heaven! 
 
 But know, the axe is laid at thy vile root, 
 
 And thou shalt be hewn down, with stroke on stroke. 
 
 (The voices become louder, and seem approaching nearer, 
 singing in a rough and boisterous manner.) 
 
 MAY ^Ol^Qc— continued. 
 
 " Eound the thorn on the sweet May-morn, 
 Dance it merrily, dance it merrily ! 
 They that mourn when buds are born, 
 Will certainly die in December. 
 
 Maids and shepherds ! fresh and young, 
 Light of heel and blythe of tongue, 
 Ere lamb has leapt or lark has sung, 
 Merrily keep the May-day
 
 THE MARTYR OF PRIESTEILL. 229 
 
 Who can tell what may hap to-morrow ? 
 "Who would couple youth and sorrow ? 
 Then come and range the green woods thorough : 
 JMerrily keep the May-day ! 
 
 Kound the thorn on the sweet May-morn, 
 
 Dance it merrily, dance it merrily ! 
 They that mourn when buds are born, 
 
 Will certainly die in December. 
 
 The curate sits at the alehouse door, 
 And benison gives to the wild uproar. 
 Mess John was not so jolly of yore : 
 
 INIerrily keep the May-day ! 
 Troubles there be by land and sea, 
 Things are not as they used to be : 
 But — Youth and May ! — ho, what care we ? 
 
 Merrily keep the May-day ! 
 
 Eound the thorn on the sweet May-morn, 
 
 Dance it merrily, dance it merrily ! 
 They that mourn when buds are born, 
 
 Will certainly die in December ! " 
 
 {The voices suddenly stop ; in a feiu moments a shout is 
 heard : " The troopers ! the troopers I " and the multitude 
 rush doivn the slopes dispersedly. Claverhouse marches up 
 with his troops, ivho surround Brovjn.) 
 
 Scene IV. — Same part of the moor ; the troops surrounding BroTVTi 
 Claverhouse rides up to him. 
 
 Claveehouse. Your name is John Brown of Priesthill ? 
 Brown. It is.
 
 230 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 Claverhouse. Pray for tlie king. 
 
 Brown. Prayer is like the galea of heaven, which come not 
 at man's bidding, but when and how the Spirit of God deter- 
 mineth. I neither feel call of duty, nor inward motion, to 
 pray for the man whom thou callest king. 
 
 Claverhouse. The man indeed ! manifest traitor that you 
 are. 
 
 Brown. 1 am no traitor. I owe James Stuart no allegiance. 
 Unto me the tyrant and antichristian cannot be king, although 
 by force of circumstances he may have usurped the throne of 
 the land wherein I dwell. 
 
 Claverhouse. Enough, brood of Satan ! What punishment 
 were sufficient for such a villainous rebel ? You have sealed 
 your own doom ; you shall die within a few minutes. 
 
 Brown. So be it as to God seemeth meet ! But mark me : 
 I am no rebel, even against the lawless and unchristian authori- 
 ties of the time. I have had no light to join in active resist- 
 ance as many have done. Besides mine own calling as a 
 shepherd and tiller of the ground, a sense of duty hath led me 
 only to teach, instruct, and admonish the young, and to minister 
 such comforts as mine own experience enabled me to the sick 
 and dying. Thus have I humbly sought to do my generation- 
 work in the Church and commonwealth. Beyond this circle 
 have I never walked ; and though willing and rejoicing to die, 
 if it be God's time, and for His honour, I protest that I die not 
 for rebellion, confusion, bloodshed, or any violent act.
 
 THE MARTYR OF PRIESTHILL. 231 
 
 Claverhouse. I come to execute sentence of death, not to 
 hear a morning lecture. I shall be better to you than you 
 deserve, and allow you to go down and see your family before 
 you suffer punishment for your proclaimed and obstinate treason. 
 Soldiers ! advance with the prisoner. 
 
 Scene V. — Cottage of Priesthill ; little Janet, who has been at the door, runs 
 in to her mother in great terror. 
 
 Little Janet. mother ! mother ! what a troop of soldiers 
 Are coming down, and father in the midst ! 
 
 Isabel. 'Tis come, the thing that I so long have feared : 
 Oh for the grace to grapple with this hour ! 
 
 {Takes up the infant from the cradle,) 
 
 My boy ! my boy ! my fatherless ! 
 
 {Rushes out luith the infant in her arm, and leading Janet 
 by the hand.) 
 
 Scene VI. — Bank before the cottage ; Brown in front of the troops ; Claver- 
 house near him ; his wife and children come forward. 
 
 Brown. Isabel ! this is the day I spake of. 
 When in thy father's house at Sorn I sought 
 Thy hand in marriage. 
 I told thee then what now is come to pass ! 
 You see me summoned shortly to appear
 
 232 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Before the Court of Heaven : another witness, 
 With testimony sealed in mine own blood, 
 Against the rulers of this land. The call 
 Is instant. I must take the yawning pass 
 Even at a bound : brief time for leave-taking, 
 Or for the weighty and the solemn things 
 Which the departing spirit fain would say. 
 Isabel ! (looks at her with great anxiety) 
 Art thou then willing that we part ? 
 
 Isabel (taking him by the hand, and raising both their 
 hands towards heaven) — 
 
 Jesus ! look down, 
 Behold thine handmaid offers unto Thee 
 This priceless jewel of her life, beyond 
 All reckoning rich and dear ! 
 
 Brown. Then, Answerer of Prayers, my voice is heard ! 
 This, this is all I wait for. Not a cloud 
 Or speck hangs on my parting hour, but bright 
 As May's first sun, the path before me shines. 
 
 Claverhouse. Go to thy prayers : the morning wears apace. 
 
 Brown. I thank thee that thou dost not cut me off, 
 As thy authority might well avouch, 
 Even at one sweep ; but giv'st me time for prayer. 
 That I may gird my loins and trim my lamp, 
 Ere I go down into the darksome vale : 
 The vale of shadows called, but pathway rather
 
 THE MABTYll OF PRIESTHILI. 233 
 
 Unto the only true realities : 
 Where shadow broods no more nor any darkness, 
 But all things have their end, and God shines forth, 
 Final and manifest in all His works ! 
 
 Cannon (aside). Most wonderful, that he of such reserved 
 And maiden bashful ways, who always shrank 
 From strangers and great throngs of people. 
 And from a constant lowliness of mind, 
 Did stammer in his speech, speaks now with boldness, 
 And with a ready and commanding utterance, 
 As if he were the general of these troops, 
 Not their poor prisoner — and woe's me ! my victim ! 
 Angels are near, his ministering servants : 
 Whilst I, sold to the devil ! feel through my brain, 
 And through my limbs, a freezing dizziness. 
 As if a curse were cleaving to my bones. 
 
 Could I undo 
 The fatal knot which yesternight I twisted ! 
 Or that the earth would crush me, ne'er to rise 1 
 
 Beown (luho has been standrng for some time in silent- 
 thought, kneels doivn to pray. His uife and children 
 kneel beside him) — 
 '' Eternal One ! Holy and Ever-blessed ! 
 Inhabiting the high and holy place ! 
 Who with Thy glory fillest earth and heaven, 
 And boldest all things in Thine infinite hand,
 
 234 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 And rulest all by Thine almighty will ! 
 Angels and men, creatures and substances 
 In every place and state, are but Thy servants, 
 And at Thy bidding move, or are at rest. 
 All living things are Thine. The dying also 
 And the dead are Thine. 
 
 " Father of mercies ! 
 God of all comfort ! unto Thee I come 1 
 To Thee in mine extremity I come ! 
 To Thee my closing eyes look up ! To Thee 
 My soul, about to quit this tabernacle. 
 And pass into the far and unknown path, 
 Lifts up its supplications ere it flies ! 
 For Thou alone canst guide me through this gloom. 
 Where creature unto creature can no more 
 Give help or passage ! 
 
 " Unto Thee I come ! 
 And rest upon Thy promises, and take 
 Thee as my covenant God in Christ. All hope, 
 All other refuge I disclaim, and cling 
 With simple faith unto the uplifted Cross ! 
 Hide not Thy countenance, nor take away 
 Thy Holy Spirit, promised Comforter, 
 Eternal Dove from the Redeeming Ark, 
 Bearing the olive-branch to drowning souls, 
 And tidings that the flood is overpast !
 
 THE MABTYR OF PBIESTHILL. 235 
 
 " Oh, may the death 
 Which now awaits me, as a mustard-seed, 
 Small in itself, and weak, nursed by Thy grace, 
 Spring in due season from beneath the clod, 
 And bud, and cast forth fruit, though but an handful. 
 In honour of Thy blessed name and cause ! 
 And, Lord! Thy Church and people in this land, 
 Oh, visit them, and listen to their cry! 
 Build up our Zion's walls, and on her towers 
 Be Thou the glory!" 
 
 Claverhouse. Tush with thy babbling ! thou hadst leave to 
 pray, 
 But not to preach. Done with thy sermonising ! 
 
 Brown. Thou knowest not what preaching is, or prayer, 
 If this thou callest preaching. 
 
 Bear with me 
 For a short space. My tongue shall soon be sealed 
 In silence of the dead, never again 
 To jar upon thine ear, or any man's. 
 Then suffer me, thus called so suddenly, 
 Before the great tribunal, here to spread, 
 In mine own way, though barbarous unto thee. 
 My supplications and my wrestling thoughts 
 Before the Lord who is to be my Judge, 
 In whom I also trust as my Redeemer. 
 Mine is the great part in this morning's work ;
 
 236 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 Bear with me, for my soul is in its throes, 
 And in the travail of the immortal birth ! 
 
 Claverhouse. Death and ten thousand furies ! dost thou 
 play 
 Conventicler with me ? (Aside.) The soldiers melt ; 
 This praying must be stopped. You three in front, 
 File out, and instantly despatch the prisoner! 
 
 (TJie soldiers do not move or obey the order.) 
 
 Brown. (Still kneeling.) 
 " Son of Man, who stand'st at the right hand 
 Of God ! rend Thou the heavens, come down. Receive 
 My parting spirit, which now is lost in love. 
 In beatific love! Amen! Amen!" 
 
 (Rises and goes forward to his family.) 
 Isabel, farewell! Thou know'st where comfort is: 
 One in the Lord, an higher union waits us! 
 My sweet, unconscious, smiling babe ! one kiss ! (Kisses him.) 
 In malice be a babe, a man in Christ! 
 My daughter! be thou faithful to thy mother, 
 As thou hast ever been, and serve the Lord : 
 As thy years ripen, may thy graces grow! 
 
 (He hangs over them and weeps, then suddenly checks 
 himself J and lualks apart.) 
 Blessed, Holy Spirit, be Thou! that speak'st 
 More comfort to my heart than speaks the voice 
 Of my oppressors' terror to my ears.
 
 THE MARTYR OF FRIESTHILL. 237 
 
 1st Soldier. (Iqi a low broken voice.) 
 'Tis work for butchers this, and not for soldiers. 
 I'd sooner dip my hands in burning brimstone, 
 Than in such innocent blood. My conscience stings me. 
 
 Soldiers. (A murmur through the whole troojos.) 
 So say we all. 
 
 Claverhouse. What, curs! vile mongrels! do ye whinge, 
 and cower, 
 And change your colour at a Whiggish rant. 
 At old sing-songs leam'd at conventicles ? 
 (Aside.) What ! knitting their brows ! upon the very verge 
 Of mutiny ! 'tis time to end this business. 
 
 {JDraivs a large pistol from his belt, and presents it at 
 Broiun.) 
 
 Die in thy folly, rebel ! peasant slave ! 
 
 {Fires ; Brown instantly falls ; his wife, with a p^iercing 
 shriek, falls upon the body; the troops hurry off, tuith 
 horror depicted upon their countenances; Claver- 
 house remains, looking on the scene ivith affected 
 indifference and contempt) 
 
 Claverhouse. Woman ! what think'st thou of thy husband 
 now? 
 
 Isabel. (Raising herself from the body.) 
 Much did I always think of him, but more 
 Than ever now, when, from an humble state.
 
 238 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 The Lord hath chosen him to be a witness, 
 
 Even unto death, for His own cause and kingdom. 
 
 Clavekhouse. 'Twere a good deed to lay thee by his side. 
 
 Isabel. And so thou wouldst, were it permitted thee! 
 But canst not do what hath not been decreed. 
 But you ! how will you answer for this work ? 
 
 Clavekhouse. To man I'll answer; as for God, I'll take Him 
 Into mine own hand. So much for gossip! 
 
 (Claverhouse rides off; the ividoiu wraps her plaid over 
 the mangled body, gathers her children around her 
 and sits doiun and weeps. A short time having 
 elapsed, there arrives on the spot old Christian Steel, 
 from the Cumimerhead, "that singular godly and 
 Christian luoman," ^uho comes up to the mourners 
 and throius her arms around them.) 
 
 Christian. Isabel ! and is thy master taken, 
 And from thy head removed this day ? and hath 
 He won the martyr's crown, which ever shines 
 The brightest mid the diadems of heaven ? 
 And hath the Lord espoused thee to Himself, 
 Adopting all thy children? In one day, 
 How great the loss, but greater the exchange! 
 No wonder that thou sittest on the ground, 
 Gazing on earth and heaven, and telling them, 
 " See what the Lord hath wrought ! Holy His name!"
 
 THE MARTYR OF PRIESTHILL. : 
 
 Arise, my daughter! and dry up thy tears. 
 
 (Raising her, and still keeping her arms around her.) 
 Enough of lamentation for the dead, 
 Whose death hath been a triumph, and whose triumph 
 Shall never fade. Enough of lamentation ! 
 But for a moment hath the Lord forsaken, 
 With tenderest mercies will He gather thee. 
 Arise, my daughter! my fair children, rise! 
 Large is your need, but Grace hath large supplies. 
 Deeply the creature yearneth, but not more 
 Than may be filled at heaven's unbounded store. 
 
 This cottage henceforth shall a Bethel be, 
 An angel spot, which men will come to see 
 From the far lands, and as they see will say, 
 " The just man's memory passeth not away I" 
 The Martyr of Priesthill shall be a name. 
 In cloudiest times, to kindle Scotland's flame. 
 A sample of her ancient chosen seed, 
 Stedfast to truth, and strong in word and deed. 
 He lived by faith, and faith lived in its fruit, 
 The harvest showed the richness of the root : 
 His soul serene in Nature's dying strife, 
 Faithful to death, he won the crown of Life!"
 
 240 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 MEETING OF GENERAL DALZTEL AND CAPTAIN 
 JOHN PATON OF MEADOWHEAD, 
 
 When the Latter was brought Prisoner to Edinburgh, August, 1684. 
 
 Hath his good sword her temper lost, 
 
 Or her master now forsaken ? 
 Or why, such wars and dangers passed, 
 
 Is he a captive taken ? 
 Nay, nay ! his arm is powerful yet, 
 
 His sword as keen as ever; 
 But he is life-worn, and would fain 
 
 That God should him deliver. 
 
 The same that won his maiden scars 
 
 At Lutzen, famed in story ; 
 And since, in every hard campaign. 
 
 Hath shared the toil and glory. 
 But chiefly to his native land 
 
 His heart and sword were given ; 
 That she might keep her ancient rights 
 
 And her covenant with heaven.
 
 DALZIEL AND CAPTAIN PAWN 241 
 
 And still his frame is knit like brass, 
 
 Age passes gently o'er it, 
 As loath to touch the stately pile : 
 
 Alas ! who shall restore it ? 
 And still his adamantine step 
 
 Sounds like the charger prancing : 
 The troopers shrink as he looks round. 
 
 With eyes like an eagle's glancing. 
 Oh, had he roused his ancient strength. 
 
 He'd given these kites to slaughter, 
 Until the swamps about Lochgoin 
 
 Had run with blood like water ! 
 
 But death, familiar to his thoughts, 
 
 With no dark shadow haunts him ; 
 And, strong and valiant in his mind. 
 
 No earthly suffering daunts him. 
 Nor his the merely brutal strength. 
 
 That like the whirlwind sweepeth, 
 But when his work and warfare end. 
 
 Calm as a dove he sleepeth. 
 And he surrenders patiently 
 
 To those who come to snare him : 
 When, fast as horses feet can tramp, 
 
 To Edinburgh town they bear him.
 
 242 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 And now they skirt Corstorptiine Hill, 
 With August blossoms merry : 
 
 When by the way Dalziel rides forth, 
 To see what spoils they carry. 
 
 His grizzled beard falls down his breast, 
 
 Like a knot of scorpions twisted ; 
 His flinty brow with harshness scowls, 
 
 And violence unresisted. 
 Like fire from the blacksmith's forge, his eye 
 
 Glares forth with lawless fury : 
 Woe worth the land, where such a man 
 
 Is general, judge, and jury ! 
 
 Yet, albeit bred in savage deeds. 
 
 His heart's blood all congealing. 
 One touch of kindness lingers there : 
 
 The true old soldier's feeling. 
 When he beheld amid his band. 
 
 Old Paton wearily wending, 
 Unwonted pity lit his face, 
 
 A glow to his grey cheek lending. 
 
 Down from his coal-black steed he leaps. 
 
 The aged prisoner meeting, 
 And takes him kindly in his arms : 
 . A right old veteran's greeting.
 
 DALZIEL AND CAPTAIN PATON. 243 
 
 '' John ! had we but sooner met, 
 
 These pinions had not bound thee ; 
 But I shall sue, and 'twill go hard 
 
 If pardon be not found thee." 
 
 '' Thy suit will be in vain : my life 
 
 Though scantly worth the taking, 
 Must go to feed an ancient feud, 
 
 Long years of vengeance slaking. 
 Thou, General, hast the soldier's touch, 
 
 The soldier's mind and mettle ; 
 But I am in the bishop's clutch. 
 
 Not on the field of battle." 
 '' What, sayst thou so ? I'll save thy life : 
 
 Or, if they dare refuse it, 
 I'll fling my sword down in the mire. 
 
 For slaves that like to use it." 
 
 'Twas then a vile, obsequious groom 
 
 Came up his zeal to blazon : 
 " Ha, Paton ! art thou caught at last. 
 
 Thou spawn of Whiggish treason ? " 
 " Friend, stint thy speech ! I've served the king, 
 
 More true and tried than thou art : 
 Time was my sword and life were pawns 
 
 For the royal House of Stuart."
 
 244 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 " True, my old comrade ! thou wert first 
 
 Wherever duty called thee : 
 At Wor'ster, where the game was lost, 
 
 No dangers e'er appalled thee. 
 There for the king thy blood was shed, 
 
 Thy sword was fell and ready ; 
 And in all changes thou hast been 
 
 A soldier tried and steady. 
 Let house-dogs whine and gnaw their bone, 
 
 Snug-kennelled from the weather; 
 Our jaws were set where the war-dogs met. 
 
 And we lapped red blood together. 
 Since then in hostile camps we've fought, 
 
 Each would have slain the other; 
 Yet now in thee I only see 
 
 A soldier and a brother ! " 
 
 Then round he turned, all black in the face, 
 
 His beard as stiff as brambles. 
 And his staff came whack ! on the varlet's back, 
 
 Till he rolled like an ox in the shambles. 
 ''Lie there, false loon! and cool thy tongue, 
 
 This noble foe decrying : 
 One whiff of his sword would send ten like thee 
 
 As summer-gnats a-flying ! "
 
 DALZIEL AND CAPTAIN FAWN. 245 
 
 They parted, these two hoary chiefs : 
 
 Dalziel's request was granted, 
 But treacherous fingers came between, 
 
 And the act of grace prevented. 
 
 Old Paton dies with a soldier's heart, 
 
 With a martyr's high devotion ; 
 Rests from his labours and his woes. 
 
 From war and wild commotion. 
 
 Dalziel lives on : this one bright act 
 
 His dark career to chequer, 
 As the stormy sky one ray darts forth. 
 
 Then thicker glooms and thicker. 
 
 Guilt sears his conscience : festering lust 
 
 His dotard heart debases : 
 Till, at the sumptuous banquet set, 
 
 While splendour round him blazes. 
 In a moment dead he falls like lead. 
 
 As the wine to his lip he raises ! 
 
 N&:&^S^%^^N
 
 246 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 THE DOVE AND THE RUIN. 
 
 TRAVELLER. 
 
 DOVE ! that charmest the stream and grove, is this fit haunt 
 
 for thee ? 
 The walls are blackening into dust, the chambers foul to see : 
 No cowslip peeps beneath the bush, no lark salutes the morn ; 
 Spring quickens not the plane tree's leaf, nor swells the budding 
 
 thorn. 
 Oh, hie thee to the Almond banks, where beeches stately grow; 
 For there thy wing may sweetly rest, thy murmurs sweetly flow. 
 This spot is waste and desolate, and leaf and blade are sear ; 
 Then why, tender, warbling dove ! why art thou resting here ? 
 
 DOVE. 
 Slight no spot in this beautiful earth. 
 
 Crumbling tower, or desert wild ; 
 For Nature, which hath given them birth. 
 
 Bestows fit dower on every child. 
 Love makes lovely all she looks on. 
 
 And flow'rets spring where she glides along; 
 Ruins smile and deserts blossom. 
 
 And branchless thickets fill with song.
 
 THE DOVE AND THE RUIN. 247 
 
 From confusion order wakes, 
 After midnight morning breaks : 
 This spot is drear, the leaves all sear, 
 Yet I, the Bird of Love, am here. 
 
 TRAVELLER. 
 
 The curse of rapine stamps decay on buttress, arch, and wall. 
 The earth around is barrenness, whereon no dews may fall ; 
 The spoiler of the saints is spoiled, his heritage laid bare. 
 And all is blackness now where he, the bloodhound, had his lair. 
 The blight may fail to strip the flower, the lightning lose its aim. 
 But vengeance from the Lord shall blast the persecutor's name. 
 This spot is waste and desolate, and leaf and blade are sear ; 
 Then why, gentle-hearted dove 1 why art thou resting here ? 
 
 DOVE. 
 
 When for the crown and the covenant 
 
 Scotland's faithful remnant stood, 
 And Antichrist did hotly pant 
 
 To glut his maw in the elect's blood. 
 O'er the moorland tracked by foemen, 
 
 In torturing cell, on gallows tree, 
 Peace hung o'er them, heaven before them 
 
 And death but gave them victory. 
 When the bloodhound held this den. 
 Weakest things had strengthening then !
 
 248 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEBS. 
 
 This spot is drear, the leaves all sear, 
 Yet I, the Bird of Peace, am here ! 
 
 TRAVELLER. 
 
 But what avails heroic strife ? the crown of glory won ? 
 
 The father's creed is ridiculed by his degenerate son ; 
 
 The burning martyr- words of faith are laughed at with disdain. 
 
 He sealed the covenant with his blood, his blood is shed in vain. 
 
 To endless struggles, baffled hopes, our weary lot is fixed ; 
 
 The victory that one age proclaims is still undone the next ; 
 
 And prostrate in inglorious dust our aspirations lie ; 
 
 'Tis better that we eat and drink, to-morrow we must die ! 
 
 DOVE. 
 
 If thou hadst faith like a mustard-seed, 
 
 Couldst thou tremble thus aghast ? 
 The clouds may shift, but the sun shines through. 
 
 And tempests rage, but the earth stands fast. 
 Symbols wane, the truths rekindle 
 
 With fuel fresh and wider spread : 
 Old oppressions stir; but valour. 
 
 By ages stronger, strikes them dead. 
 Forward, forward rolls the war ! 
 Triumphs beckon from afar ! 
 This spot is drear, the leaves all sear. 
 Yet I, the Bird of Faith, am here.
 
 p 
 
 JOHN KNOX AT CALDER HOUSE. 249 
 
 JOHN KNOX ADMINISTERING THE SACRAMENT 
 AT CALDER HOUSE, 
 
 The howling winter winds have passed, and spring steps forth 
 
 again 
 To shed her first s^veet gifts abroad, on mountain, stream, and 
 
 plain ; 
 And freshly bud the Calder w^oods, the Almond freshly gleams, 
 And bails with gurgling, fond delight, the sun's returning beams. 
 
 Another spring approaches, too, though faint and dim its power; 
 The Man hath come, John Knox hath come, but scarcely yet 
 
 the HoUE ; 
 For Scotland must be fiercely struck, and rent with breach on 
 
 breach, 
 Before the spring of Heavenly Truth her darken'd soul can reach. 
 
 Yet great and chosen ones there are, of counsel deep and wise. 
 Who soon for truth and liberty in stemless force shall rise :
 
 250 LAYS OF THE COVENANTEES. 
 
 And fast the Worthies of the land are gathering, staunch and 
 
 true; 
 The men who ne'er resolve a thing but their right hands will do. 
 This day, in Calder's ancient hall, a faithful few have met, 
 And round the Table of their Lord a brother band are set. 
 
 In that same ancient stately hall high festivals have been, 
 And antique rites, and pageantry, and gorgeous pomps, I ween; 
 And barons bold, and ladies bright, in rich array have shone, 
 And dreaded conclaves have been held by the proud Knights 
 of Saint John. 
 
 A noble concourse once again to that same hall repair, 
 And barons bold and ladies bright again assemble there ; 
 But not for pomp or dalliance vain, far other is their aim. 
 Their Christian Faith and Liberty with one voice to proclaim. 
 
 And, mingling with the noblest, sit the lowly village youth, 
 And hoary sires and matrons new-begotten to the Truth ; 
 While some sweet cottage children there, with little twittering 
 
 tongue, 
 Point to the antlers and the spears that round the wall are hung. 
 The stranger in the gates is there, the minstrel blind and grey, 
 Whose heart is smitten with the sound of the high celestial lay, 
 " Glory be unto God on high, and peace be on the earth. 
 To men goodwill," as angels sang at great Immanuers birth!
 
 JOHN KNOX AT C ALDER HOUSE. 251 
 
 All sit, one family of love, within that stately hall : 
 'Vain man hath made divisions, but God is the God of all! 
 
 And Knox is in the midst of them, long driven to and fro ; 
 He comes their trusted counsellor, their guide in weal and woe. 
 The great Apostle of the North, Reformer of his land, 
 Which to its latest days shall bear the broad marks of his hand. 
 
 But not this day with levin-words to shatter and consume ; 
 He comes with influence as of spring, to cherish and illume : 
 His message peace, and love his theme, not as it yet shall be, 
 When his patriot soul shall burst and roll, like tempest on the sea. 
 
 That eagle-glancing eye looks soft, and on that brow so stern 
 A glow of solemn tenderness ye plainly may discern ; 
 That fiery heart, which yet shall stir the nation to its base, 
 Itself is melted in the flame of pure Redeeming Grace. 
 
 '•' ye that hunger, hither come, and plenteously be fed ! 
 The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him whose feast is spread. 
 In truth and spirit worship Him, no other service bring ; 
 A broken and a contrite heart be all your ofi'ering. 
 No table this of sorcery, no idol Mass is here, 
 No sacerdotal mummery to rouse the vuJgar fear : 
 These are the symbols of the Death which raised our fallen race ; 
 Salvation to this house hath come ; believe, receive, embrace !
 
 252 LAYS OF THE COVENANTERS. 
 
 I break the bread, I pour the wine, even for His own Name's sake : 
 Come ye unto the banquet room, and of His grace partake!" 
 
 He breaks the bread, he pours the wine ; in fervent prayer they 
 
 bend, 
 That the Holy Spirit in His power may on their feast descend ; 
 Then silently from hand to hand the bread and wine are passed. 
 Till all have owned their dying Lord, from the first unto the last. 
 
 Oh ! how bright on roof and cornice do the golden sunbeams lie. 
 As if gazing down upon them, each one a seraph's eye ! 
 A deep and blessed stillness doth through all the chamber creep, 
 As when the stars of midnight lay this heart-sick world to sleep. 
 
 On that assembly falls a fear, but with the fear a joy. 
 
 And pious vows and songs of praise their raptured tongues 
 
 employ; 
 A sacred influence fills their hearts, a light, and strength, and 
 
 love, 
 Are winnow'd on them from the wings of the brooding Holy Dove. 
 'Tis thus the graces signified flow through the outward sign. 
 And the Human, in its flights of faith, half soars to the Divine !
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.
 
 ILLUSIEATIVE NOTES. 
 
 THE DEATH OF ARCHIBALD, FIRST MARQUIS OF ARGYLE. 
 
 Archibald Campbell, the eighth Earl, and first Marquis of Argyle, was, 
 in his time, the most distinguished and patriotic of Scottish noblemen. 
 Having received an excellent religious education, he was eminent during 
 his whole life for his attachment to Protestantism, and especially to the 
 Presbyterian Church of his native country. He attended the famous 
 Reforming General Assembly of Glasgow in 1638, and took an important 
 part in its deliberations. But, attached to monarchy, and the family of the 
 Stuarts, he upheld the cause of Charles II. after the death of his father 
 Charles I., and actually put the crown on the head of the young king 
 when, in 1651, he was acknowledged at Scone by a large proportion of the 
 Presbyterian party as the true heir to the throne of the three kingdoms. 
 But, on his restoration in 1660, Charles utterly forgot the services 
 rendered to him and his cause by Argyle ; and when that nobleman came 
 up to London to congratulate the King on his return, he was committed 
 to the Tower, and immediately afterwards sent down by sea to Scotland 
 to be tried for high treason. The chief charge against him was his having 
 virtually acknowledged the Government of Cromwell. The whole circum- 
 stances of his trial show that his death was determined upon by the King 
 and the Court, who were resolved to restore Episcopacy in Scotland, and 
 thought it necessary to begin by striking down the head of the Presby- 
 terian interest. The execution of Argyle was thus in reality a judicial 
 murder. 
 
 This nobleman was considered deficient in some of the warlike qualities 
 of his renowned race, and certainly he was more of a statesman than a 
 
 255
 
 256 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 warrior ; but no patriot or Christian martyr ever met death with greater 
 heroism. The story of his last hours and his deportment on the scafiFold 
 is wonderfully touching. The depth of his Christian principles and the 
 fine nobility of his nature were evidenced by his whole conduct at the 
 time of his trial and up to the moment of his execution. He was the first 
 victim of the black ingratitude of Charles II. and the persecuting tyranny 
 of the Government of the Restoration. He was soon succeeded in the 
 career of martyrdom by Guthrie and a noble army whose names still 
 shine with undimmed lustre in the annals of Scotland. 
 
 DEATH OF JAMES GUTHEIE. 
 
 This distinguished martyr was the son of the Laird of Guthrie, the repre- 
 sentative of an ancient Forfarshire family. Educated for the ministry, 
 James Guthrie, as soon as he was ordained, took a very high place among 
 his brethren as a preacher of the Gospel, and a zealous defender of the 
 rights of the Church of Scotland. He was a man of high talents, and 
 spotless character, no less eminent for his candour and prudence than for 
 his burning zeal in the service of his Divine Master. He was appointed 
 minister of Lauder in 1638, and was translated to Stirling in 1649. He 
 took a leading part in the councils of the Covenanters. Soon after the 
 Restoration of Charles II., in 1660, he was marked out for vengeance by 
 the Court party. He was accordingly tried and condemned for high treason 
 at Edinburgh. He received his sentence with perfect equanimity, and was 
 executed on the 1st June, 1661. His death, like that of Argyle, had all 
 the features of a judicial murder. As he was among the first, so certainly 
 he was one of the noblest of the Scottish Covenanting martyrs. 
 
 SHARPE OFFERING A BISHOPRIC TO ROBERT DOUGLAS, 
 OCTOBER, 1661. 
 
 Robert Douglas, a man of honourable birth, and said to be even of royal 
 extraction, was an eminent minister during at least twenty years before 
 the Restoration, and was frequently selected to preach in presence of the 
 Scottish Parliament. He had served in his youth under Gustavus
 
 THE CHRISTIAN EXILE. 257 
 
 Adolphus, and had gained the friendship of that great Protestant hero. 
 Mr. Douglas was a patriotic and zealous Presbyterian, and was among the 
 first to detect and denounce the treachery of James Sharpe who had long 
 been his friend. The incident of his rejection of an offered bishopric is 
 well authenticated, and agrees with what is known of his lofty and dLs- 
 interested character. Sharpe, a native of Banff, born in 1613, studied 
 for the Presbyterian ministry, and after teaching philosophy for a short 
 time at St. Andrews, was appointed to the parish of Crail, Fifeshire. He 
 soon took a prominent part in the management of Church affairs, and 
 when Monk marched to London to restore Charles II., he was sent to that 
 General as an agent of the Scottish Presbyterians. But instead of 
 defending the cause of Presbyterianism, he basely betrayed it, conformed 
 to Episcopacy, and accepted as his reward the Archbishopric of St. 
 Andrews, at that time the Prhnacy of Scotland. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN EXILE. 
 
 Alexander Smith was, previous to the Restoration, minister of Colvend, 
 lying on the Sol way. By the Act 1662, he was, with many hundreds of 
 his brethren, ejected from his charge. Still continuing the exercise of 
 his ministry, which was then a crime, he was summoned before the High 
 Commission Court. Sharpe was present ; and Smith, in speaking to him 
 merely styled him Bir. On being asked by the Earl of Rothes if he 
 knew whom he was addressing, he replied, with a simplicity more pungent 
 than the most laboured satire, " Yes, my Lord : I speak to Mr. James 
 Sharpe, once a fellow-minister with myself." Chiefly, it may be supposed, 
 for this heinous offence, he was banished to the Shetland Islands. "For 
 four years," says Wodrow, " he lived alone in a wild desolate island, in a 
 very miserable plight ; he had nothing but barley for his bread, and his fuel 
 to prepare, it was sea-tangle and wrack, and he had no more to preserve 
 his miserable life." He was recalled, only to be again banished to the 
 Orkneys ; and, no further trace remaining of him, it may be concluded 
 that he there fell a sacrifice, at once to the rage of his persecutors and his 
 own lofty and devoted heroism. 
 
 The poem is an attempt to bring out something of that struggle of 
 emotions, natural to one in his situation, and to evince the triumph of 
 
 S
 
 258 ILLUi^TRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 faith which he so gloriously achieved. Criffel is a lofty mountain in 
 Galloway, commanding a splendid view of the Solway Firth. Urr is a 
 river that issues from a loch of the same name, and falls into the firth 
 near the small island of Heston. 
 
 BATTLE-SONG OF THE PENTLANDS, AND DIRGE OVER 
 THE SLAIN. 
 
 The Battle of the Pentlands was fought on the side of a ridge called 
 RuUion Green, in 1666, between a party of armed Covenanters under 
 Colonel Wallace, and a superior force of Royal troops commanded by 
 General Dalziel, The Covenanters, mostly men from the West of Scot- 
 land, had taken up arms in defence of what they considered their national 
 and constitutional liberties ; but, fatigued by exhausting marches, and over- 
 powered by numbers, they were defeated after making a brave resistance. 
 About fifty of them were killed, but many more were taken prisoners, 
 and dragged into Edinburgh, where they were punished with merciless 
 severity. 
 
 DEATH OF THE AGED COVENANTER. 
 
 Amongst the four hundred Presbyterian ministers who, about the year 
 1663, gave up or were ejected from their livings, on account of their 
 refusal to conform to Episcopacy, was Arthur Murray, an aged minister of 
 Orkney. " This good and aged man," says Wodrow, " was living in the 
 suburbs of Edinburgh, through which Dalziel's soldiers marched in 
 triumph, on their return from the battle of the Pentlands. When he 
 opened his window, and saw them display their banners, and heard the 
 shouts of the soldiers, triumphing over the prisoners, he was struck to the 
 very heart, took to his bed immediately, and died in a day or two." 
 
 BATTLE OF AIRSMOSS. 
 
 AiRSMOSS, in the parish of Auchenleck, Ayrshire, was the scene of a 
 celebrated battle fought between a considerable body of Royalist troops
 
 BEN WICK AT PBIESTHILL. 259 
 
 under the command of Bruce of Earlshall, and a small but determined 
 body of Covenanters, headed by Richard Cameron and Hackston of 
 Rathillet. Many of the Royalists fell, but the Covenanters were over- 
 powered by superior numbers. Cameron was found among the slain, and 
 Hackston, being severely wounded, was taken prisoner, and carried to 
 Edinburgh, where he was put to death Avith revolting barbarity. 
 
 CARGILL TAKEN PRISONER AT COVINGTON MILL, ON 
 THE CLYDE, JULY, 1681. 
 
 Donald Cargill, born about the year 1610, in the parish of Rattray, 
 Perthshire, was one of the ministers of Glasgow at the period of the 
 Restoration ; but stoutly resisting the introduction of Prelacy, and main- 
 taining the rights of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, he was 
 deprived of his office by the Government. He became, in consequence, a 
 field-preacher and a leading spirit among the persecuted Covenanters. 
 He had certainly the courage of his opinions, for after preaching to a large 
 congregation at Torwood, a place between Stirling and Falkirk, he openly 
 pronounced sentence of excommunication against the King and the Duke 
 of York, the Dukes of Monmouth, Lauderdale, and Rothes, Sir George 
 Mackenzie, and Sir Thomas Dalziel of Binns. This act of defiance 
 specially incensed the Government, and every effort was made by it to 
 apprehend the undaunted Presbyterian minister. Its vengeance was at 
 length gratified by the apprehension of Cargill near Lanark, through the 
 activity of Irving, the laird of Bonshaw, Dumfriesshire, who commanded 
 a troop of horse in the Royal service. Cargill was immediately con- 
 demned in Edinburgh, and was executed the day after his condemnation. 
 Though he went such lengths in resisting a tyrannical government, this 
 martyr is described by his contemporaries as a man of singular devout- 
 ness and exemplary life, not naturally of a bold and imperious, but rather 
 of a mild and amiable temper. 
 
 RENWICK IN THE COTTAGE OF JOHN BROWN. 
 
 James Ren wick, the last of the Covenanting Martyrs, was born in the 
 parish of Glencairn, Dumfriesshire, in 1662. He witnessed the execution
 
 260 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 of Donald Cargill, and was confiimed by it in his resolution to support the 
 Covenanting cause. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, but was 
 denied a degree, as he could not take the oath of allegiance. He went, in 
 consequence, to the University of Groningen, in Holland, where he com- 
 pleted his theological studies, and was ordained as a minister of the Gospel. 
 Eeturning to his native land, he took an active part in guiding the counsels 
 and conduct of his persecuted brethren. He was apprehended in Edin- 
 burgh in the beginning of the year 1688, and condemned by the High 
 Court of Justiciary to suffer death as a traitor. His execution was delayed 
 a few days after the ordinary time that he might have the opportunity of 
 suing for a pardon, which probably would have been granted to him on 
 easy terms. But, in the true spirit of a martyr, Eenwick refused to act 
 against his conscientious view of duty, and preferred death to what he 
 considered dishonour. He was only twenty-six years of age when he 
 died in the cause of religion. He is described as being of small stature, 
 light haired, and of a somewhat boyish appearance. His dauntless heart 
 gave no ruggedness to his character. On the contrary, he was mild in 
 manner, and usually addressed his audiences in the language of sweet per- 
 suasion. The quotation from Graham's " Sabbath " is well known — 
 
 " The lyart veteran heard the Word of God, 
 By Cameron thundered, or by E-enwick poured 
 In gentle streams." 
 
 RENWICK'S VISIT TO THE DEATH-BED OF PEDEN. 
 
 Alexander Peden is a unique character in the history of the Scottish 
 Covenanters. His fervent piety was combined with a certain eccentricity 
 and spiritual exaltation that gave him a peculiar influence among his 
 fellow-religionists. He was a native of Sorn, in Ayrshire, and, shortly 
 before the Restoration, he was ordained a minister at New Luce, in 
 Galloway. He was allowed to remain in his parish only three years, owing 
 to the tyranny of the Government, which he had offended by his bold 
 avowal of true Presbyterian principles. After preaching his last sermon 
 to his sorrowing flock, he left his pulpit, and thereupon struck its closed 
 door three times with his Bible, saying, " I arrest thee in my Master's 
 name, that none ever enter thee but such as come in by the door as I have
 
 BAILLIE OF JEllVIESWOODE. 261 
 
 done." These words were prophetic, for none ever entered that pulpit 
 duriiiff the stormy times that followed ; and, after the Eevolution, it was 
 occupied by a true Presbyterian. The wanderings, the hardships, the 
 escapes, the faithful contendings, and strange prophetic sayings of this 
 sturdy son of the Covenant are enough to jfill an interesting volume, and 
 have, in various works of a more or less authentic character, been strik- 
 ingly recorded. The reconciliation between Alexander Peden and James 
 Renwick is a fine passage in the lives of both these worthies. Peden had 
 been mismformed about certain points of Renwick's character and conduct, 
 and when he was near his death he sent for his young brother that he 
 might have an interview with him. Renwick answered the call at once, 
 and soon the two men understood each other entirely. Peden gave Ren- 
 Avick his blessing, and sent him away with many prayers for his welfare. 
 Soon after, the aged confessor, wearied with toils, and daily in danger of 
 his life, entered into his rest. His body, after it had been buried forty 
 days, was dragged out of its grave and dishonoured by a troop of dragoons ; 
 but it was finally deposited beside the remains of other martyrs at Cum- 
 nock, in his native Ayrshire. 
 
 TRIAL AND DEATH OF ROBERT BAILLIE OF 
 JERVIESWOODE. 
 
 Robert Baillie of Jervieswoode, Lanarkshire, in respect of his character, 
 abilities, and martyrdom, has been called the Scottish Sydney. A country 
 gentleman by birth, and possessed of a highly-cultivated mind, he took a 
 leading part in defending the liberties of his country, so grossly violated 
 by the Government under which he lived. After suffering for a consider- 
 able time a most cruel and unjust imprisonment, that brought him to the 
 brink of the grave, he was tried on the 23rd December, 1684, before the 
 Court of Justiciary, for conspiring against the life of the king. The utmost 
 that could be proved against him was a desire for more just and lenient 
 measures on the part of the Government, not for the subversion of the 
 Government itself. But after a trial that was commenced at midnight and 
 lasted till nine next morning, he was condemned to be hanged and quar- 
 tered as a traitor, and the sentence was carried out only a few hours after 
 it was pronounced. This noble gentleman, thus judicially murdered, met 
 his death with sublime Christian fortitude. His heroic sister, Lady
 
 262 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 Graden, iittended him on the scaffold, and soothed him with her presence 
 in his last moments. Bishop Burnet, Dr. Owen, and other eminent per- 
 sons have borne ample testimony to the lofty character and high intellect 
 of the martyred Baillie of Jervieswoode, whose name and memory are 
 inexpressibly dear to all true-hearted Scottish Presbyterians. 
 
 THE MARTYR OF PRIESTHILL. 
 
 John Brown, the Christian carrier of Priesthill, in the parish of Muir- 
 kirk, Ayrshire, deservedly occupies a high place in the martyr-roll of 
 Scottish Covenanters. He was shot by Claverhouse at his own door, in 
 presence of his wife and children. The hardened troopers were so melted 
 by Brown's prayer, offered up in the expectation of immediate death, that 
 they refused to fire upon him at the word of command, wdiereupon their 
 commander himself shot his victim through the head with his own hand. 
 The interview between Brown and his wife before they were parted by 
 death, and the conduct of the poor woman in composing and weeping over 
 her husband's mangled remains, are among the most pathetic things in all 
 history. The character of Brown, both in life and at death, shone forth 
 with the highest lustre ; while the act of Claverhouse, in killing him so 
 brutally, is universally execrated. 
 
 MEETING OF GENERAL DALZIEL AND CAPTAIN JOHN 
 PATON OF MEADOWHEAD. 
 
 Captain John Paton, of Meadowhead, Ayrshire, holds an honourable 
 place in Covenanting history. Trained in his youth to the profession of 
 arms, he held a military command both at the Pentlands and at Bothwell 
 Brig. He ardently upheld the cause of the Covenant, and distinguished 
 himself by his consistent Christian character, and excellent soldierly 
 qualities. He was apprehended in April, 1684, and executed for high 
 treason the 9th of May following. He confessed at his trial the charges 
 brought against him, but held that he was justified in bearing arms against 
 a government which had forfeited all claim to the allegiance of the
 
 JOHX KNOX AT CALDEE HOUSK 263 
 
 Scottish people. He died with great fortitude, forgiving all his enemies, 
 and committing his wife and six children to " the husband of the widow, 
 and the father of the fatherless." 
 
 His meeting with General Dalziel, in the circumstances described in the 
 poem, was a touching incident that shed a beam of light on the darkness 
 of an evil time. The feeling of old comradeship displayed by Dalziel on 
 the occasion is creditable to a man who has few other claims to the respect 
 of his countrymen. Thomas Dalziel, of Binns, Linlithgowshire, was a 
 cavalier ofl&cer of the Claverhouse stamp, rough, unscrupulous, and ready 
 to do the work demanded of him by a tyrannical government. It was he 
 who defeated the Covenanters at the Pentlands ; and for a considerable 
 time he was commander of the Eoyal forces in Scotland. He died in his 
 house at Binns, at Michaelmas, 1685, not much more than a year after the 
 execution of his old comrade Paton. 
 
 THE DOVE AND THE RUIN. 
 
 In an excursion in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, the writer had 
 occasion to pass an old ruined tower, which, in former days, was the seat 
 of one who gained unenviable distinction as a ready and unscrupulous 
 tool in the persecution of the Scottish Covenanters. On entering the 
 doorway to examine the ruin, a dove was observed nestling near the roof. 
 The place, and the weU-known emblematic character of this favourite of 
 the groves, suggested the poem. 
 
 [The tower mentioned is understood to be the tower of Binns, in Lin- 
 lithgowshire, once the residence of General Dalziel, a man of such evil 
 repute in the days of the great persecution.] 
 
 JOHN KNOX ADMINISTEEING THE SACRAMENT 
 AT CALDER HOUSE. 
 
 This Poem, which appeared first in " Dra wing-Room Table Book," 
 edited by the late Mr. C. Hall, is now by permission reprinted in this 
 volume. It refers not to the Covenanting period of Scottish history, but 
 its subject and spirit are such as to make it worthy to appear beside the 
 Lays of the Covenanters.
 
 264 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
 
 Calder House, Mid-Lothian, was in the time of Knox the residence of 
 Sir James Sandilands, who in 1563 was created Lord Torphichen. He 
 had previously been head of the order of the Knights of St. John of 
 Jerusalem in Scotland. This dignity, with the ceremonials it involved, is 
 gracefully alluded to in the Poem. Sir James was one of the strongest 
 supporters of the Reformation, and was a warm personal friend of Knox. 
 At Calder House, the great Eeforraer met the Earl of Argyle, Lord James 
 Stuart, afterwards Earl of Murray, and other powerful supporters of the 
 Reformed reliojion. 
 
 /■ 
 
 LOEIMER AND GILLIES, PKINTERS, 31 ST. ANDREW SQUARE, EDINBURGH.
 
 THE UNIVERisllY i_iort/\nT 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 Form ti-9 
 
 20m-l,' 42(8519) 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 4610 
 
 Do elds - Lays 
 
 1)7 1 of the 
 
 Covens.nters. 
 
 PR 
 
 4610 
 D7 1