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Wilson's
Tales of the Borders
AND OF SCOTLAND.
HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE.
WITH A GLOSSARY.
REVISED BY
ALEXANDER LEIGHTON,
_One of the Original Editors and Contributors._
VOL. XX.
LONDON:
WALTER SCOTT, 14 PATERNOSTER SQUARE,
AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.
1884.
CONTENTS.
THE DOMINIE OF ST FILLAN'S, (_Alexander Leighton_) 1
SAYINGS AND DOINGS OF PETER PATERSON, (_John Mackay Wilson_) 34
THE HEROINE: A LEGEND OF THE CANONGATE, (_Alexander Leighton_) 66
THE BARLEY BANNOCK, (_Alexander Campbell_) 93
GLEANINGS OF THE COVENANT, (_Professor Thomas Gillespie_)--
xx. JOHN GOVAN'S NARRATIVE 111
xxi. "OLD BLUNTIE" 120
xxii. THOMAS HARKNESS OF LOCKERBEN 124
xxiii. THE SHOES REVERSED 132
THE LOST HEIR OF THE HOUSE OF ELPHINSTONE, (_Rev. G. Thomson_) 143
TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS, (_John Mackay Wilson_) 194
THE MISER OF NEWABBEY, (_Alexander Leighton_) 226
THE SEA SKIRMISH, (_Anon._) 258
WILSON'S
TALES OF THE BORDERS,
AND OF SCOTLAND.
THE DOMINIE OF ST FILLAN'S.
CHAPTER I.
PLEASANT REMINISCENCES OF MY FATHER.
It is now about twenty years sin' I first raised my voice in the desk o'
the kirk o' St Fillan's, in the parish o' that name, and He wha out o'
the mouths o' babes and sucklins did ordain praise, hath never thought
meet, by means o' ony catarrh, cynanche, quinsy, toothache, or lock-jaw,
to close up my mouth, and prevent me frae leadin the congregation in a
clear, melodious strain, to the worship o' the Chief Musician. When I
was ordained session clerk, schoolmaster, and precentor, I had already
passed about thirty years o' my pilgrimage; yet filled wi' Latin and
Greek, till my _pia mater_ was absolutely like to burst, I had,
notwithstanding, nae trade by the hand. The reason was this. My father,
who had been for forty years sexton o' the parish, had seen, wi' an e'e
lang practised in searchin for traces o' death in the faces o'
parishioners--for the labourer maun live by his hire, and the merchant
by his customers, "and thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands"--a
pleasant leucophlegmatic tinge about the gills o' Jedediah Cameron, my
predecessor in the three offices already mentioned. Weel, as the
husbandman in dry weather, when his fields are parched, and his braird
thin and weak, watches the clouds that contain rain--mair precious to
him than the ointment that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's dry
beard--my guid father watched the dropsical signs or indications in
Jedediah's face, daily and hourly, in the fair and legitimate hope o'
gettin the aridity o' my starvin condition quenched and satisfied. He
was an argute sexton, and had learned, in his younger days, some
smatterin o' Latin, though I never could ascertain that he retained more
of the humane lear, than the twa proverbs, "_Vita mortalium
brevis_," "Life is short," which comes originally frae Homer;
and "_Pecuniae obediunt omnia_," which comes frae the sixth chapter
o' Ecclesiastes--"Money answereth all things."
But my father was never contented wi' his ain _prognosis_. His ain ee
for death was as gleg as that o' the hawk for its quarry; but the
glegness wasna a mere junction or combination o' a keen and praiseworthy
desire to live, and a lang experience o' lookin for death in ithers; he
had science to guide him; he knew a' the Latin names comprehended in Dr
Cullen's "Nosology;" an' Buchan's "Domestic Medicine" was scarcely ever
out o' his hands, except when there was a spade in them. I hae the auld,
thumed, and faulded, and marked copy o' our domestic AEsculapius yet;
and, as I look at the store from which he used to draw the lore that
enabled him to see, as if by a kind o' necromantic divination, a guid
lucrative death, though still lodged in the wame o' futurity, I canna
but drap a tear to the memory o' ane wha toiled sae hard for the sake o'
his son. But I examine the book, sometimes, in a mair philosophic
way--to mark the train o' my auld parent's mind, as he had perused his
text-book; for it was his practice, when he saw ony o' the parishioners
exhibiting favourable symptoms--such as a hard, dry cough, puffed legs,
white liver lips, or even some o' the mair dubious indications, such as
a pale cheek, spare body, drooping head, difficulty in walking, morbid
appetite, or bulimia, the _delirium tremens_ o' dram-drinkers, the
yellow o' the white o' the ee o' hypochondriacs, and the like--to search
in Buchan for the diseases portended by thae appearances, and, when he
was sure he had caught them, to draw a pencil stroke along the margin
opposite to the pleasantest parts o' the doctor's descriptions. I never
saw mony marks opposite the common and innocuous complaints--_cholica_,
or pain in the stamach; _catarrhs_, or cauld; _arthritis_, or gout;
_rheumatismus_, or rheumatism; _odontalgia_, or toothache; and sae
forth: thae were beneath his notice. Neither did I ever observe ony
marks o' attention to what are called prophylactics, or remedies, to
prevent diseases comin on: thae nostrums he plainly despised. But, sae
far as I could discover, he had a very marked abhorrence o' what the
doctors ca' therapeutics, or means and processes o' curin diseases, and
keepin awa death; and as for what are denominated _specifics_, or
infallible remedies, he wouldna hear o' them ava--showin his despite o'
them by the exclamation--"Psha!" scribbled with contemptuous haste on
the margin. The soul and marrow o' the book to the guid man--bless
him!--were the mortal symptoms--the _facies Hippocraticus_, the
Hippocratic face; the _raucitus mortis_, or rattle in the throat;
_subsultus tendinum_, or twitching o' the hands and fingers; the glazing
o' the ee, and the stoppin o' the breath, and the like o' thae serious
signs and appearances. A strong, determined stroke o' the pencil marked
his attention to and interest in the Doctor's touchin account o' thae
turns o' the spindle wharby the thread o' our existence is wound up for
ever. It may be easily and safely supposed, that the melancholy words,
descriptive o' the oncome o' the grim tyrant himsel--"_and death closes
the tragic scene_"--sae touchingly and feelingly introduced by the
eloquent author werena lost on my respectit parent.
Guid man as he was, however, (I shall return presently to his study o'
my predecessor's dropsy,) it is painfu for his son to hae to say that,
though very generally respectit by people when they were in health and
prosperity, he hadna the same veneration extended to him by the same
individuals when they fell into disease. But though rejectin his visits,
sae lang as a patient was in life and capable o' bein benefited by his
lively manners, the breath was nae sooner out o' the body, than he was
sent for, ye might almost say by express. It is some consolation to me,
that my parent was far abune shewin resentment at conduct sae
contradictory and offensive. In place o' bein angry when invited to the
house o' a dead patient, from which he had been expelled during his
illness, he uniformly appeared well pleased--repairin, wi' the greatest
good humour, to the residence o' the deceased, and disdainin to exhibit
the slightest indication o' pique or anger. There are some men wha brak
the prophet's command--"Rejoice not over thy greatest enemy being dead,
but remember that we die all;" but I can safely and upon my honour and
parole say, that my parent shewed nae greater signs o' happiness on the
death o' an enemy than he did on the death o' a friend. A man has a
pleasure in statin thae things o' a father.
These early associations hae a charm about them that's very apt to lead
a person off his direct road; "_Patriae fumus igne alieno
luculentior_"--the very smoke o' our father's fireside is clearer than
anither's flame. How bright, then, maun the virtue and honour o' a
father and mother appear to a dutiful and affectionate son! I was
stating, at the time when I was seduced into that pleasant episode, that
my father kept up a daily inspection o' the leucophlegmatic face o' my
predecessor, Jedediah Cameron; comparing, with, the greatest diligence,
the aqueous symptoms there discernible, with the description given by
his oracle, Dr Buchan; and, as his hopes strengthened, edging me, by
slow degrees, into the dominie's desk, and the schoolmaster's chair o'
authority, as the friendly and gratuitous assistant o' the dying man.
But my father had mair sense than to trust, entirely and allenarly, in
an affair o' sae gigantic importance, to ony dead authority. He was at
the heels o' Dr Dennistoun, our parish physician, as often as that
worthy man would permit his approach; and it was sometimes said, though
in a jocular way--and nae man likes a joke better than I do--that he
consulted the doctor as the farmer does the barometer, with a view to a
guid crop. But, were this even _vero verius, certo certius_, how could
my parent be blamed for being industrious? Unless ye thresh and grind,
ye hae little chance o' a dinner--"_Ni purgas et molas, non comedes_;"
an auld saying o' Diogenianus, particularly applicable to my father, who
had to support, by his industry, an idle sou--_bos in stabulo_--long,
bare-boned, ill-filled up, as hungry and voracious as a Cyclops, and
never weel-dined but on the day o' a dead-chack. I might blame my
respectable parent for consulting Dr Dennistoun about expected deaths
and burials, if mortals could avoid ony o' the twa; but we hae nae
Elijahs in thae days, "to be taken up in a whirlwind of fire, and in a
chariot of fiery horses." Death comes to a'--_mors omnibus communis_;
and Jedediah Cameron--bless him!--had nae chance o' bein made an
exception; otherwise my lank wame and lean cheeks stood a puir chance o'
bein sae weel filled up as they afterwards came to be, when I held his
three offices.