(which was actually delivered in these very words by
a Highland laird, while on his death-bed, to his son) had so much weight with a
Scottish earl as to lead to his planting a large tract of country.
 
18 Cheverons - gloves.
 
19 John Semple, called Carspharn John, because minister of the parish in
Galloway so called, was a Presbyterian clergyman of singular piety and great
zeal, of whom Patrick Walker records the following passage: »That night after
his wife died, he spent the whole ensuing night in prayer and meditation in his
garden. The next morning, one of his elders coming to see him, and lamenting his
great loss and want of rest, he replied, - I declare I have not, all night, had
one thought of the death of my wife, I have been so taken up in meditating on
heavenly things. I have been this night on the banks of Ulai, plucking an apple
here and there.« - Walker's Remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Mr.
John Semple.
 
20 This personage, whom it would be base ingratitude in the author to pass over
without some notice, was by far the most zealous and faithful collector and
recorder of the actions and opinions of the Cameronians. He resided, while
stationary, at the Bristo Port of Edinburgh, but was by trade an itinerant
merchant, or pedlar, which profession he seems to have exercised in Ireland as
well as Britain. He composed biographical notices of Alexander Peden, John
Semple, John Welwood, and Richard Cameron, all ministers of the Cameronian
persuasion, to which the last mentioned member gave the name.
It is from such tracts as these, written in the sense, feeling, and spirit of
the sect, and not from the sophisticated narratives of a later period, that the
real character of the persecuted class is to be gathered. Walker writes with a
simplicity which sometimes slides into the burlesque, and sometimes attains a
tone of simple pathos, but always expressing the most daring confidence in his
own correctness of creed and sentiments, sometimes with narrow-minded and
disgusting bigotry. His turn for the marvellous was that of his time and sect;
but there is little room to doubt his veracity concerning whatever he quotes on
his own knowledge. His small tracts now bring a very high price, especially the
earlier and authentic editions.
The tirade against dancing, pronounced by David Deans, is, as intimated in the
text, partly borrowed from Peter Walker. He notices, as a foul reproach upon the
name of Richard Cameron, that his memory was vituperated,