YEAR 1769
I HAVE my doubts whether it was in the beginning of this year, or in the
end of the last, that a very extraordinary thing came to light in the
parish; but, howsoever that may be, there is nothing more certain than
the fact, which it is my duty to record. I have mentioned already how it
was that the toll, or trust-road, was set a-going, on account of the Lord
Eaglesham’s tumbling on the midden in the Vennel. Well, it happened to
one of the labouring men, in breaking the stones to make metal for the
new road, that he broke a stone that was both large and remarkable, and
in the heart of it, which was boss, there was found a living creature,
that jumped out the moment it saw the light of heaven, to the great
terrification of the man, who could think it was nothing but an evil
spirit that had been imprisoned therein for a time. The man came to me
like a demented creature, and the whole clachan gathered out, young and
old, and I went at their head to see what the miracle could be, for the
man said it was a fiery dragon, spewing smoke and flames. But when we
came to the spot, it was just a yird toad, and the laddie weans nevelled
it to death with stones, before I could persuade them to give over.
Since then, I have read of such things coming to light in the _Scots
Magazine_, a very valuable book.
[Picture: The Elder’s Wife]
Soon after the affair of “the wee deil in the stane,” as it was called, a
sough reached us that the Americas were seized with the rebellious spirit
of the ten tribes, and were snapping their fingers in the face of the
king’s government. The news came on a Saturday night, for we had no
newspapers in those days, and was brought by Robin Modiwort, that fetched
the letters from the Irville post. Thomas Fullarton (he has been dead
many a day) kept the grocery shop at Irville, and he had been in at
Glasgow, as was his yearly custom, to settle his accounts, and to buy a
hogshead of tobacco, with sugar and other spiceries; and being in
Glasgow, Thomas was told by the merchant of a great rise in tobacco, that
had happened by reason of the contumacity of the plantations, and it was
thought that blood would be spilt before things were ended, for that the
King and Parliament were in a great passion with them. But as Charles
Malcolm, in the king’s ship, was the only one belonging to the parish
that was likely to be art and part in the business, we were in a manner
little troubled at the time with this first gasp of the monster of war,
who, for our sins, was ordained to swallow up and devour so many of our
fellow-subjects, before he was bound again in the chains of mercy and
peace.
I had, in the meantime, written a letter to the Lord Eaglesham, to get
Charles Malcolm out of the clutches of the pressgang in the man-of-war;
and about a month after, his lordship sent me an answer, wherein was
enclosed a letter from the captain of the ship, saying, that Charles
Malcolm was so good a man that he was reluctant to part with him, and
that Charles himself was well contented to remain aboard. Anent which,
his lordship said to me, that he had written back to the captain to make
a midshipman of Charles, and that he would take him under his own
protection, which was great joy on two accounts to us all, especially to
his mother; first, to hear that Charles was a good man, although in years
still but a youth; and, secondly, that my lord had, of his own free-will,
taken him under the wing of his patronage.
But the sweet of this world is never to be enjoyed without some of the
sour. The coal bark between Irville and Belfast, in which Robert
Malcolm, the second son of his mother, was serving his time to be a
sailor, got a charter, as it was called, to go with to Norway for deals,
which grieved Mrs. Malcolm to the very heart; for there was then no short
cut by the canal, as now is, between the rivers of the Forth and Clyde,
but every ship was obligated to go far away round by the Orkneys, which,
although a voyage in the summer not overly dangerous, there being long
days and short nights then, yet in the winter it was far otherwise, many
vessels being frozen up in the Baltic till the spring; and there was a
story told at the time, of an Irville bark coming home in the dead of the
year, that lost her way altogether, and was supposed to have sailed north
into utter darkness, for she was never more heard of: and many an awful
thing was said of what the auld mariners about the shore thought
concerning the crew of that misfortunate vessel. However, Mrs. Malcolm
was a woman of great faith, and having placed her reliance on Him who is
the orphan’s stay and widow’s trust, she resigned her bairn into his
hands, with a religious submission to his pleasure, though the mother’s
tear of weak human nature was on her cheek and in her e’e. And her faith
was well rewarded, for the vessel brought him safe home, and he had seen
such a world of things, that it was just to read a story-book to hear him
tell of Elsineur and Gottenburg, and other fine and great places that we
had never heard of till that time; and he brought me a bottle of Riga
balsam, which for healing cuts was just miraculous, besides a clear
bottle of Rososolus for his mother, a spirit which for cordiality could
not be told; for though since that time we have had many a sort of
Dantzic cordial, I have never tasted any to compare with Robin Malcolm’s
Rososolus. The Lady Macadam, who had a knowledge of such things,
declared it was the best of the best sort; for Mrs. Malcolm sent her
ladyship some of it in a doctor’s bottle, as well as to Mrs. Balwhidder,
who was then at the downlying with our daughter Janet—a woman now in the
married state, that makes a most excellent wife, having been brought up
with great pains, and well educated, as I shall have to record by-and-by.
About the Christmas of this year, Lady Macadam’s son having been
perfected in the art of war at a school in France, had, with the help of
his mother’s friends, and his father’s fame, got a stand of colours in
the Royal Scots regiment; he came to show himself in his regimentals to
his lady mother, like a dutiful son, as he certainly was. It happened
that he was in the kirk in his scarlets and gold, on the same Sunday that
Robert Malcolm came home from the long voyage to Norway for deals; and I
thought when I saw the soldier and the sailor from the pulpit, that it
was an omen of war, among our harmless country folks, like swords and
cannon amidst ploughs and sickles, coming upon us; and I became laden in
spirit, and had a most weighty prayer upon the occasion, which was long
after remembered, many thinking, when the American war broke out, that I
had been gifted with a glimmering of prophecy on that day.
It was during this visit to his lady mother, that young Laird Macadam
settled the correspondence with Kate Malcolm, which, in the process of
time, caused us all so much trouble; for it was a clandestine concern:
but the time is not yet ripe for me to speak of it more at large. I
should, however, mention, before concluding this annal, that Mrs. Malcolm
herself was this winter brought to death’s door by a terrible host that
came on her in the kirk, by taking a kittling in her throat. It was a
terrification to hear her sometimes; but she got the better of it in the
spring, and was more herself thereafter than she had been for years
before; and her daughter Effie or Euphemia, as she was called by Miss
Sabrina, the schoolmistress, was growing up to be a gleg and clever
quean; she was, indeed, such a spirit in her way, that the folks called
her Spunkie; while her son William, that was the youngest of the five,
was making a wonderful proficiency with Mr. Lorimore. He was indeed a
douce, well-doing laddie, of a composed nature; insomuch that the master
said he was surely chosen for the ministry. In short, the more I think
on what befell this family, and of the great meekness and Christian worth
of the parent, I verily believe there never could have been in any parish
such a manifestation of the truth, that they who put their trust in the
Lord, are sure of having a friend that will never forsake them.