at that
early period of his life, imbibed the religious enthusiasm by which he
afterwards became so much distinguished.
    The religious sect called Hill-men, or Cameronians, was at that time much
noted for austerity and devotion, in imitation of Cameron their founder, of
whose tenets Old Mortality became a most strenuous supporter. He made frequent
journeys into Galloway to attend their conventicles, and occasionally carried
with him gravestones from his quarry at Gatelowbrigg to keep in remembrance the
righteous whose dust had been gathered to their fathers. Old Mortality was not
one of those religious devotees who, although one eye is seemingly turned
towards heaven, keep the other steadfastly fixed on some sublunary object. As
his enthusiasm increased, his journeys into Galloway became more frequent; and
he gradually neglected even the common prudential duty of providing for his
offspring. From about the year 1758 he neglected wholly to return from Galloway
to his wife and five children at Gatelowbrigg, which induced her to send her
eldest son, Walter, then only twelve years of age, to Galloway, in search of his
father. After traversing nearly the whole of that extensive district, from the
Nick of Bencorie to the Fell of Barullion, he found him at last working on the
Cameronian monuments in the old kirkyard of Kirkchrist, on the west side of the
Dee, opposite the town of Kirkcudbright. The little wanderer used all the
influence in his power to induce his father to return to his family; but in
vain. Mrs. Paterson sent even some of her female children into Galloway in
search of their father, for the same purpose of persuading him, to return home;
but without any success. At last, in the summer of 1768, she removed to the
little upland village of Balmaclellan, in the Glenkens of Galloway, where, upon
the small pittance derived from keeping a little school, she supported her
numerous family in a respectable manner.
 
  HERE LY THE BODY OF JAMES M'COMB IN CROFTS OF CROSSMICH AEL WHO DIED MAY 1TH
                                  1760 AGED 63
 
There is a small monumental stone in the farm of the Caldon, near the House of
the Hill in Wigtonshire, which is highly venerated as being the first erected by
Old Mortality to the memory of several persons who fell at that place in defence
of their religious tenets in the civil war, in the reign of Charles Second.1
    From the Caldon, the labours of Old Mortality, in the course of time, spread
over nearly all the Lowlands of Scotland. There are few churchyards in Ayrshire,
Galloway, or Dumfriesshire, where the work of his chisel is not yet to be seen.
It is