Chronicles of Strathearn Part 7

M'Gruther and his two neighbours obeyed the summons of the laird of Drummond, and took charge of the company of Highlanders raised in Glenartney; but the laird could not save them from the consequence of their obedience. When the Rebellion was quelled they were banished to America and sold as slaves. The two M'Gruthers managed to get back to their native country, but were doomed to spend seven long years in hiding.

The origin of place-names may not be of so much interest to the reader as it is to the writer of this article, but we cannot resist the temptation of recording a suggestion made to us years ago as to the origin of the word Glenartney, by Mr James Ferguson, the present keeper of the forest, and the worthy successor of old Drummond-Ernoch. It is this: _Gleann-ard-an-fheidh_--"the high glen of the deer." This would certainly account for the last syllable of the modern name, and would also accord with the fact of the place being an ancient forest; but we prefer the derivation _Gleann-ardan_--"the glen of heights," and we think the last syllable has been added merely to suit the imperfection of the Saxon's vocal organs.

The mansion-houses of the head of Strathearn and their occupants are of some historical interest, but, as our s.p.a.ce is limited, our reference to them must be brief, and confined to a few of the oldest. On the margin of Loch Earn stands Ardvoirlich House. The present occupant of the estate is Colonel John Stewart, who spent the first part of his life in India, and now resides upon the estate. With the exception of the Drummonds, who trace their ancestry back to Maurice, the Hungarian, who lived about the time of the Norman Conquest, the Stewarts of Ardvoirlich are the oldest family in the district. They lay claim not only to a long ancestral line, but also to Royal blood, through a son of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, and son of Robert II.

Among the antique curiosities of this family, it is said, there is a large gem called _clach dhearg_--red stone, seemingly white rock crystal, bound with four silver bands, which used to be regarded as a talisman, giving to water into which it is dipped virtue for the cure of all diseases of cattle. In recent times the Stewarts have been a family of soldiers who served in India. Their burying-place is within the old Chapel of Dundurn, but the monuments erected to the memory of members of the family recently deceased are in the Parish Church of Comrie. They are all handsome, and a great ornament to the interior of the Parish Church; but one of them is worthy of special notice on account of its artistic beauty. It is that erected by the Governor-General of India and other dignitaries and friends to commemorate the death of William Stewart, who, along with his wife and infant son, was murdered in the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It is a cenotaph of pure Carrara marble, with the figure of a Sepoy soldier with arms reversed on the one side, and a Hindoo in a kneeling posture on the other.

Dunira House is the seat of the Dundases. The present proprietor is Sir Sidney James Dundas, the third baronet of Beechwood and Dunira, who succeeded his father, Sir David Dundas, Bart., in 1877. What is the word Dunira derived from? Is it like Dundurn, "the hill or fort upon the Earn"? or is it _Dun aoraidh_, "the hill of wors.h.i.+p"? It is difficult to say; Gaelic words have been so much corrupted to suit the tongues of the Saxon. There is little doubt, however, that in ancient times the locality was intimately a.s.sociated with divine wors.h.i.+p. Not far from the east lodge there are to be seen large standing-stones, supposed, as already said, to be the remains of an old Druidical circle. On the hillside, above Dunira House, there is a place called Drumnakil, which signifies the "ridge of the chapel"; and farther to the north-east, near the hill of Dunmore, is Ballochintaggart, "the gap of the priest." At Drumnakil there is an old burying-ground, the grave-stones scarcely discernible among the rank gra.s.s; but all trace of the chapel, or monks' cell, if ever there was one, has disappeared.

Dunira was once the property of Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville and Baron Dunira. He was son of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session. He was called to the bar in 1763, and elected member of Parliament for the County of Edinburgh in 1774, and after holding several important offices under the Crown, he retired with Pitt in 1801, and the following year he was raised to the Peerage. After his death his Perths.h.i.+re friends paid a tribute to his memory and worth by erecting a monument on Dunmore Hill, at Comrie. It is an obelisk, 72 feet high, built in 1812 of Innergeldie granite. A better site could not have been chosen. From the top of Dunmore Hill there is a magnificent view of varied landscape. To the west you have a peep at Loch Earn, the Aberuchill Hills, and the old white-washed Castle nestling among its trees; to the south you have the village of Comrie and the strath, with the Earn and the Ruchill winding their way through the plain; to the east, Sir David Baird's Monument, the Knock of Crieff, Turleum, the Ochils, and one of the Lomonds of Fife; looking to the north, we see Glenlednock stretching far towards Loch Tay, with Spout Rollo at its head, and guarded on each side by the lofty peaks of the Grampians. This, like so many others of our Highland glens, has suffered much through depopulation during this century. An old Glenlednock farmer still living in the parish informs us that in his recollection there were thirty-six tenants with their cottars, where there are now five and a few shepherds. One cannot help admiring the industry, economy, and thrift of these old Highland farmers, who in such numbers could live and thrive and pay higher rents to the landlord than the few who are now in possession of the land.

Aberuchill Castle was for nearly three centuries the seat of the Campbells of Aberuchill and Kilbryde. It was originally built in 1602, but has since been modernised and enlarged. The Crown granted a charter of the lands of Aberuchill in 1596 to Colin Campbell, second son of Sir Colin Campbell of Lawers. His son James was made a baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles I. in 1627. He fell fighting for Charles II.

at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Sir Colin, only son of Sir James, succeeded him. He was the most distinguished of the family. Bred to the law, he rose to the position of Lord of Session with the t.i.tle of Lord Aberuchill. Sir Colin was a Whig and a Presbyterian when the most of the gentry of Strathearn were either Episcopalians or Popish Jacobites. His name is a.s.sociated with the ma.s.sacre of Glencoe, inasmuch as he was a member of the Council that refused the certificate of the Sheriff-Depute of Argyle that M'Donald of Glencoe had taken the oath of allegiance to King William, unless they got a warrant to receive it from the King. From 1693 to 1702 he represented the County of Perth in the Scottish Parliament, and died in 1704. From the Campbells, the estate pa.s.sed into the hands of the Drummonds. It is now the property of Captain Robert Dewhurst, son of George C. Dewhurst, Esq., lately deceased.

It would be unpardonable to write anything about Comrie without making allusion to the earthquakes which have made it famous. In the Statistical Account of Scotland, published in the year 1794, the Rev.

Mr M'Diarmid, minister of the parish, gives an account of the first recorded earthquake in the district. During the autumn of 1789 loud noises, unaccompanied by any concussion, were heard by the inhabitants of Glenlednock; but on the 5th of November of that year they were alarmed by a loud rumbling noise, accompanied with a severe shock of earthquake, which was felt over a tract of country of more than twenty miles in extent. The Rev. Mr Mackenzie, successor to Mr M'Diarmid, writing in 1838, in the last Statistical Account, says that "at and after the time of the last Statistical Account the earthquakes were so frequent and violent, and accompanied with such noises, as to occasion great alarm, especially one which occurred on a Sabbath while the congregation was a.s.sembled." The year 1839, however, was the time of the great earthquakes. Writing in 1842 in the last Statistical Account, the Rev. John Ferguson, minister of Monzievaird, says:--"At this time they began to be frequently felt, nearly 20 shocks being occasionally experienced in 24 hours. The most violent one happened about ten o'clock on the evening of 23d October, 1839. The shock seemed to pa.s.s along through the parish of Monzievaird from north-west to south-east. For a second or two every house for miles around the village of Comrie was shaken from top to bottom; and while the motion was pa.s.sing away to the eastward it was accompanied by a tremendous noise like the roar of 100 pieces of ordnance discharged at once and gradually dying away in the distance. This earthquake was partially felt throughout a great part of Scotland, as far as Inverness, Dunbar, Berwick, and the banks of Loch Awe. In this neighbourhood it was very alarming. Several individuals fainted, and most of the inhabitants of the village of Comrie spent the whole night in the streets, or in the churches, which were very properly opened for prayer. Many stone d.y.k.es were thrown down, walls of houses rent, and chimney-stalks shattered, the stones being frequently s.h.i.+fted from their places, but no serious damage was sustained. The shocks have again diminished both in frequency and violence since the autumn of 1839." Another severe shock occurred in November, 1846, but from that date they have decreased both in number and intensity. The cause of these subterranean commotions is in this as in similar cases a matter of conjecture, but there is good cause for thankfulness that they have hitherto been attended with no serious damage to life or property.

The Session records of some parishes in Scotland are of some historical value, but this is not so with those of Comrie. Beyond the perpetual reiteration of cases of discipline and doles to the poor, there is little to be found in them to throw light upon the Christian life and work of the parish. So meagrely kept were these records that until the year 1829 the Christian name and surname of the Moderator and Clerk never appear in the minutes--not even the Secession of 1843 is recorded, though the minister left the church with a great majority of the congregation to wors.h.i.+p upon Tomachessock. The only exception to what we have just stated, perhaps, is a minute of Kirk-Session dated 17th November, 1772, recording the honour due to Patrick Campbell, Esq.

of Monzie, then deceased, and the Rev. Robert Menzies, minister of the parish, for the active and benevolent part they took in the building of the Dalginross Bridge over the Earn. The bridge was built in 1756 at a cost of 230.

The Parish Church was erected in 1805, and holds 1044 sitters. The manse was built in 1784, and an addition was made to it in 1822. A new church was built in St. Fillans in connection with the Church of Scotland in 1878, and in March, 1895, it was endowed and erected into a parish _quoad sacra_ under the old name of Dundurn. It is curious to note how the land has been changing hands during the last 180 years.

In 1715, the heritors were the Earl of Perth, Duke of Athole, the proprietors of Aberuchill, Lawers, Monzie, Cultabraggan, Ardvoirlich, Comrie, Strowan, Drummond-Ernoch, and Balmacuin. At present they are the Earl of Ancaster, Marquis of Breadalbane, and the proprietors of Ardvoirlich, Dunira, Aberuchill, Strowan, Lawers, Dalchonzie, and Drumearn.

ON THE BANKS OF THE DEVON

By Rev. E. B. SPEIRS, B.D., Glendevon

Seeing that "St. Serf's Bridge" still spans the Devon at one part within the parish of Glendevon, and that the good Saint did not himself build the bridge, but, following a common practice, baptised and made Christian what was a Pagan structure, reared in this instance by the Imperial legionaries, it might be permissible for the local historian to go back at least to the times of the Roman occupation. After describing the camp and the Roman road which still exist in the mind's eye of the antiquaries, he might then go on to tell of holy St.

Servan's feats in the way of detecting sheep-stealers by making them, like Speed under the influence of Proteus' reasoning, cry "Baa," or relate some such pretty human story as that of how he turned water into wine for the sake of a sick monk, or unfold the thrilling tale of how he fought the Dovan dragon, as Wyntoun sings, or at least says:--

"In Dovyn of devotyoune And prayere, he slew a fell Dragoune, Quhare he was slayne, that place wes ay The Dragownys Den cald to this day."[1]

The more exact methods of writing history now in vogue, however, almost compel the chronicler to begin with the first certain mention of Glendevon in accredited records, and that belongs to the year 1521. On the eleventh of July of that year an interesting ceremony was gone through down at Cambuskenneth, on the banks of the Forth. Abbot Mylne, a man both of culture and character, who to a genuine love of letters added a love of art and architecture, and who was ultimately the first President of the Court of Session, had re-built the great altar, the chapter-house, and part of the cloister of his Abbey, and had laid out two new cemeteries. In order to signalise these notable additions and restorations he invited the Bishop of Dunblane to conduct a consecration and dedication service. The Bishop was directly a.s.sisted in this solemn function by three of his princ.i.p.al clergy--his archdeacon, George Newton; John Chesholme, prebendary of Kippane; and "Jacobus Wilson, prebandarius de Glendowane." John Tulydaf, warder of the Minorites of "Striueling" (Stirling), preached on the efficacy of dedication after the celebration of the Ma.s.s, and amongst those present were the "n.o.ble and powerful" Lord John Erskin, Jacobus Haldene of Glenegges (Gleneagles), Knight, and various others of the local clergy, n.o.bility, and gentry, together with a large concourse of people from the surrounding district. The official account of what took place on this high day when Glendowane, Glendovan, Glenduen, or Glendevon, first emerges into the light of history, is duly signed by Jacobus Blakwood, presbyter of the Diocese of Dunblane, public notary by apostolic authority, who was on the spot and saw everything properly done.[2] The name of Prebendary Wilson occurs in several doc.u.ments both before and after this, all of which have reference to matters connected either with Cambuskenneth or Dunblane. He gets prominent mention in a paper dated from Cambuskenneth, June, 1530, in which he is styled "Canonicus Dunblanensis," heading a list of "venerable and discreet" gentlemen, including Ala.n.u.s Balward, vicar of Kalender, and Andreas Sym, vicar of c.u.mry, but we cannot trace him further down than March of the following year. It is clear from this that Glendevon was attached to the "Kirk of Dunblane," and that the Parish Church was served from there, not, it is to be hoped, in the slovenly fas.h.i.+on characteristic of these times, when the stipend was too often fought for by different teind hunters in the shape of the bishop of the diocese and the abbot of some neighbouring monastery, a state of things to which Prebendary Wilson himself bears witness. There is something almost pathetic in the thought that less than forty years after that dedication service in which the Prebendary of Glendevon took part, these additions were to be pulled to pieces by the savage mob which wrecked, amongst other religious houses, the stately monastery on the Links of the Forth; and it is just possible that the great destroyer--spiritually at least--of what Canon Wilson helped to build up was in his parish in 1556. At any rate a spot is still pointed out on the glebe where, according to tradition, John Knox preached. We know from his own statement[3] that he spent some time in the early part of the summer of that year at Castle Campbell--which is only some four or five miles distant--"whare he taught certane dayis"; so it is at least not utterly improbable that he may have come through Glenquey past the Maiden's Well, and visited a possible congregation in Glendovan, exhorting them to "prayaris, to reading of the Scriptures, and mutuall conference unto such tyme as G.o.d should give unto them grettar libertie."[4]

The second direct mention of Glendevon in public records is of a somewhat unsavoury order, and affords a rather curious ill.u.s.tration of the beliefs of the people of Scotland in the seventeenth century. John Brughe, one of the most notorious necromancers and wizards of his day, was tried at Edinburgh on November 24th, 1643, for practising sorcery and other unholy arts, and amongst the charges brought against him was that he had met Satan thrice "in the kirkyeard of Glendovan at quhilkis tymes ther was taine up thrie severall dead corps, ane of thame being of ane servand man named Johne Chrystiesone; the uther corps, tane up at the Kirk of Mukhart, the flesch of the quhilk corps was put above the byre and stable-dure headis" of certain individuals in order to destroy their cattle.[5] John's object in collecting Glendovan "muild"

was, according to this indictment, not a beneficent one; but it is to be remembered to his credit that he used the powdered bones of the dead and other materials, notably "ane inchant.i.t stane of the bignes of a dow egg,"[6] for the healing of man and beast, and we are told that for curing a number of oxen afflicted with the murrain by administering a pint of one of his patent medicines, accompanied with the invocation, "G.o.d put thame in their awin place," repeated thrice, he got "ellevin od schillings, with twa peckis of meill and thrie tailyeis of beiff."

In those days, when not only human nature but Nature herself lay under the black shadow of one of the foulest of superst.i.tions, the fair banks of the Devon were much frequented by the devil, who had whole "covins"

of witches and wizards in his service, so that it is not surprising to hear that John was frequently in his company. "That John Brughe had been with the devil at the Rumbling Brigs and elsewhere was affirmed by Katherine Mitch.e.l.l to be of veritie, at the tyme of hir criminall tryell at Culrose, and immediately befoir hir executione, the said John Brughe being confronted with hir at the tyme."[7] We can claim this renowned empiric not only for the Glendevon district, but in a sense for the Presbytery, since it was alleged against him that he had got his uncanny knowledge "from a wedow woman, named Neane Nikclerith, of threescoir years of age, quha wis sister dochter to Nik Neveding, that notorious infamous witche in Monzie, quha for her sorcerie and witchecraft was brunt fourscoir of yeir since or thereby." Spite of all he had done for the "b.e.s.t.i.a.ll," and all the testimonials he had from patients whom he had cured of their "seiknessis" by enchanted drinks, Glendovan and Mukhart mould, and sympathetic conjuring of "sarkis, coller bodies, beltis, and utheris pertaining als weill to men as to wemen," John was found guilty and condemned to be strangled and burned. These were the real Dark Ages, when intimations were frequently made from the Glendevon and other pulpits that the minister and session would be glad to receive information against suspected witches, and when the common p.r.i.c.ker who p.r.i.c.ked poor witches "with lang preins of thrie inches" to discover the marks of Satan, was specially busy in the vale of Devon, where in a record year no less than sixteen of the local "covin" were burned. In the Roll of Fugitives from kirk discipline drawn up by the Synod of Perth and Stirling in 1649, Glendevon was represented by a warlock, "Mart.

Kennard, suspect of witchcraft," but of his fate we know nothing. In this connection it may be remarked that though the "Kirkyeard of Glendovan," immortalised by John Brughe's ghoulish visit, contains no epitaphs, humorous or otherwise, it possesses a "Plague Stone," a large rough slab, under which lie those who died of what is vaguely called the Plague (1645?), and the lifting of which was duly guarded against by a solemn curse p.r.o.nounced over it on whoever would dare to remove it, for two hundred years ago a curse could break bones or "ryve the saull out of ye."

Two years after John Brughe suffered at Edinburgh, the quiet of the usually peaceful valley of the Devon was broken by the clatter of cavalry and the skirling of the pipes, as Montrose, having in his usual brilliant fas.h.i.+on outwitted Baillie, marched through, burning and plundering as he pa.s.sed, leaving Muckhart, Dollar, and, above all, Castle Campbell, the lowland hold of the detested Argyles, heaps of blackened ruins, a march which was to end in the b.l.o.o.d.y Battle of Kilsyth, that "braw day" when, as the Highlander with grim humour remarked, "at every stroke I gave with my broadsword I cut an ell o'

tamn'd Covenanting breeks." When Chambers says[8] that "the Covenanting army marched close upon the track of Montrose _down Glendevon_, at the distance of about a day's march behind," he, of course, means down the Devon valley, and not down Glendevon proper, since it is pretty certain that Montrose, in making his descent from the north, entered the low country not by Gleneagles, but by the south-east end of the Ochils. Glendevon Castle--originally built, it is supposed, by the Crawfords[9] in the sixteenth century--thus escaped the fate which befel Castle Campbell[10] and Menstrie House, and other places in the Devon and Ochil district at this time, when the fierce strife was not merely between cavaliers and Covenanters, but quite as much, and specially during the Devon valley march, between the Ogilvies and Macleans on the one hand, and the Campbells and their friends on the other. It is, however, impossible, to say whether the Keep, which has been in the possession of the Rutherford family since 1766, was actually at this time in the hands of the Crawfords, and, indeed, the traditions regarding its owners.h.i.+p are so vague--one of them a.s.signing it to the Douglases--that, in the absence of authentic records, it is impossible to make any really satisfactory statement regarding its origin and history.

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Some years later the parish of Glendevon came prominently before the public in connection with the deposition and excommunication of its doughty true-blue Presbyterian minister, the Rev. William Spence, M.A., though it was not till he had been removed from his living that the really romantic part of his career began. He had graduated at St.

Andrews in 1654, and after some years of schoolmastering[11] and probationers.h.i.+p he was, in 1664, duly admitted on the new Black Prelatic conditions to the parish of Glendevon. Under the mild rule of Bishops Leighton and Ramsay he lived quietly there for fourteen years.

His name occasionally appears on the Synod and Presbytery Committees during this period, and he seems to have done his best to get the brethren stirred up to "better the provision of Glendovan." The Bishop and Synod did actually order a "perambulation" to be made to see if anything could be annexed from the adjacent parishes, especially "Denying and Fossoquhy," so that, as Mr Spence put it, "ane augmentation proportionablie might {196} be made to him out of the vacant teindes of the said paroches in respect of the poornes and meannes of his stipend for the present."[12] The perambulation, beyond affording a pleasant outing to the visitors in the long May days, does not seem to have had any practical result. Mr Spence had, however, been thinking of higher things than teinds and augmentation, and had been looking far beyond the bounds of his own parish, and, spite of the extreme gentleness of the somewhat mongrel Prelatic-Presbyterian rule under which he was, and the general atmosphere of conformity which he breathed, he began to have serious searchings of heart about the state of the "poor afflicted" Church. Accordingly, towards the end of 1678 he took the bold step of presenting a paper[13] to the Presbytery of Auchterarder drawing the attention of the Court to the sundry gross corruptions under which the Church was suffering and to the horrid defection from its first purity, obvious to {197} every man who did not wilfully shut his eyes. The evils against which he asked the Court to testify were doctrinal, liturgical, disciplinary, moral, and what may be called ecclesiastical. He includes in the sweep of his very impartial denunciation not only the pernicious tenets of Pelagianism, Arminianism, Lat.i.tudinarianism, and Popish errors, but "the dotage of Quakers and other enthusiasts," human inventions in wors.h.i.+p, and the private essays made to introduce or impose an unwarrantable liturgie of unsound and useless form, the loose spirit of atheism, profaneness, and unG.o.dliness reigning in all corners of the kingdom, and the dreadful differences that prevailed, and calls for a return to sound doctrine, the practice of "the gude Kirk primitif," the exercise of a strict discipline, and the ways of peace. At the special meeting of Presbytery called to consider his paper he asked to have it back, apparently because he now thought its terms were not strong enough, and meanwhile a committee was appointed not to deal but to confer with him "until he should get full satisfaction of everything that was his scruple." He refused, however, to meet the Committee or attend the Presbytery, on the ground that he had {198} not "clearness" as to the authority and const.i.tution of a semi-prelatic Court. The Bishop and Presbytery thereupon suspended him, and he was summoned before the Synod in April, 1679, but did not attend, on account of "ane aguish distemper which had seized on him." A Synodal Committee with full powers was then appointed, before which he compeared in May, but spite of earnest entreaties of the Bishop he would withdraw nothing, and even added that he did not think the present Church government agreeable to Scriptural rules--a view shared by some of the Episcopalian bishops themselves. The Bishop and Committee recorded their opinion that the paper was contrived and adhered to for advancing some private interest against the unity and peace of the Church, and rather unfairly insinuated that Mr Spence was the more hardened therein by the late execrable murder of the Bishop of St. Andrews and the expectation of a Revolution to follow thereupon, and unanimously resolved that this unruly and unreasonable member be deposed. Mr Spence was quite prepared for this, and, "with some signs of choler in his countenance,"

handed a second paper to the Bishop, which turned out to {199} be a protest against the sentence of the "pretended" Bishop and Synod of Dunblane pa.s.sed on him. He was asked to retire for a little till they should consult, but he scornfully replied that he did not own their jurisdiction, and was making for the church-door when the Bishop ordered the beadle to lay hold of him, and carry him to his house, and desire the Baillie to keep him safely until he should find caution to answer before a competent judicatory. This was Mr Spence's first taste of imprisonment, of which he was to have a very large supply, of very different quality, too, later on. The good Bishop on his own responsibility sent three of the brethren that night to reason with him, but Mr Spence would not yield, and was let out on bail. He appeared at the next meeting of Synod, but, spite of the threat of excommunication, stuck to his guns and argued against his treatment on technical grounds, and on the following day, when, after being duly cited, he neither compeared nor pled "ane aguish distemper," the Bishop and Synod charged the Presbytery of Auchterarder to proceed with the excommunication, which after some bungling they did, and finally the superior Court ordered the {200} intimation of the excommunication to be read from every pulpit in the Diocese on the first Sabbath of January, 1681, but no attempt was made to detain the unruly member, and the door of grace was left open to the very last, quite remarkable leniency when it is remembered that 1680 was the year of the Sanquhar Declaration and Airds Moss, and that the peroration of Mr Spence's protest would have done credit to Cuddy Headrigg's mother. "For these reasons specially, and many others I need not mention now, I, the said William Spence, protest against the sentence aforesaid, and disown the same, seeing the said inflicters have hereby proclaimed themselves to be the patrones and abettors of all the said corruptions, supplanters of the Gospel faction for Anti-christ, promoters of the powers of darkness, enemies to the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and such from whom all good Christians ought to separate because of their maintaining and defending soul-murdering heresies, and in persecuting with the utmost violence and rigour any man who darr open his mouth for the truth of Christ. (_Sic Subscribitur_), Mr William Spence."[14]

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Mr Spence as yet was only an ecclesiastical rebel, and instead of going over to the extreme Covenanters, made his way to Holland, where he joined the colony of Scotch refugees. Ultimately he attached himself to the Earl of Argyle as a kind of secretary, and conducted part of the correspondence between the Earl and the English plotters. He was in London in 1683, apparently on the Earl's business, when he was arrested and imprisoned for some months, but as he could not be efficiently examined in England, where torture was not legal, he was finally sent down to Scotland along with Carstares and other suspects in His Majesty's "Kitchin Yaucht," which did not go at a royal pace, for the journey to Leith took thirteen days. They arrived late at night on November 14th, having left London on the 1st, and were taken straight to the Tolbooth.[15] A week after, orders came from London that Mr Spence should be put to the torture, but for some reason or other he was left alone till the April of the following year, being evidently in irons all the time, his close connection with Argyle rendering his imprisonment {202} extra rigorous.[16] He was taken out of irons on the 25th of that month, but it was not till the 24th of July that he was ordered to appear before the Council and required to take an oath to answer all the questions put to him. He refused and protested, and was tortured in the boot, but, spite of the awful agony, remained "obstinate and disingenuous," whereupon the Privy Council "resolved to use all methods necessary to bring the said Mr William Spence to a true and ingenuous confession, and for expiscating the truth in so important a matter, do recommend to General Dalziel forthwith to call for the said Mr William Spence from the Magistrates of Edinburgh, and to cause such of His Majesty's forces, officers, and soldiers, as shall be found most trusty, to watch the said Mr William Spence by turns, and not to suffer him to sleep by night or by day, and for that end to use all effectual means for keeping him awake."[17] The "effectual means" were "p.r.i.c.king,"[18] and the intention was to induce raving, so that in his {203} delirium the brave prisoner might perhaps reveal his secrets.

The torture was continued for eight or nine nights, but Mr Spence did not rave, and tired his tormentors out. It was next resolved to try the "thumbkins" on him, and, indeed, Spence seems to have been one of the first regular prisoners to suffer this new Muscovy torture,[19] for the Act of Council authorising the use of "the new invention and engine called the thumbkins" was pa.s.sed only a fortnight before; but the sanguine expectations of the Lords were not fulfilled in the present case, for though he sank under the agonising torment, he would not yield. Ten days later he was again threatened with the boot, and having meanwhile understood from his friends that the Government practically knew already all he could tell them, he promised to make a free and ingenuous confession on certain conditions--namely, that no new questions should be put to him, that he should not be obliged to be a witness against any person, and that he himself should be pardoned.

Unfortunately, by a sheer accident in disclosing the meaning of some of the ciphers used in Argyle's correspondence, he put the Council {204} on the track of the cipher[20] which expressed the name of his fellow-prisoner, the famous Carstares, who, however, does not in any way blame Mr Spence for what happened. He was sent back to prison, strict orders being given that he was not to be permitted to see Carstares, and when the Council adjourned for the holidays on September 13th, he was removed to Dumbarton Castle, and granted liberty within the walls. Whether he escaped, or was allowed to go out of the country, we cannot tell, but it is clear at any rate that he rejoined his old master in Holland, and the next we hear of him is that he was one of those who accompanied Argyle when he made his disastrous descent on Scotland in the spring of 1685. When the little fleet arrived off Kirkwall Mr Spence must needs go ash.o.r.e to visit his uncle who lived there, along with one of the Earl's scouts. "Both," says Wodrow,[21]

"were discovered and catched by the old bishop there. The Earl was peremptorily resolved to recover the two gentlemen, and ordered Sir Patrick Hume with a party of Fusileers to attack the town"; but the captains were obdurate {205} and nervous, and gave the Earl time only to seize seven islanders and a vessel "lying ther with meall and money," when the s.h.i.+ps sailed away, leaving the unfortunate secretary to his fate.[22] He was sent down to Edinburgh,[23] indicted for treason, and remitted in due form to the a.s.sizes, tried, and found guilty, and we seem at last to be near his end when we read that the Lords ordained Mr William Spence to be taken to the Cross of Edinburgh on Wednesday next, July 22nd, and there to be hanged. Before that day arrived, however, he got a reprieve, and on August 17th he was allowed to remove to a chamber in Edinburgh because of sickness--quite unaccountable leniency at a time when the authorities did not scruple to hang dying men in their night-s.h.i.+rts. The Magistrates were made responsible for his safe keeping, and he undertook to re-enter the prison on the first of September. His reprieve was now continued till {206} November 1st, and the last we hear of him was that in a letter from the King, dated October 14th, orders were given that he was to be kept a close prisoner. His master had been executed on June 30th, and had testified before his death that Mr William Spence had been to him a faithful friend and servant. It is impossible to say what became of him between this time and the Revolution, and unless he succeeded in escaping, it is highly probable that he remained in prison till the general clearance made by the alarmed authorities on the eve of that event. All we know for certain is that the General a.s.sembly of 1690, amongst other items of business, declared his deposition null and void, and restored him to his old parish, the minister, Alexander Meldrum, having been deposed shortly before for not reading the Proclamation of the Estates, and not praying for their Majesties William and Mary. He remained in it only a few months, and in the autumn of 1691 he was translated to Fossoway, where he ended his days in peace in 1715,[24]

at the age of 80, a clear proof {207} that he was a man of iron const.i.tution as well as of iron will and iron convictions.

We have to go forward something like a hundred years before the parish or its fair stream comes again into notice, though probably in the interval occurred the summary act of justice commemorated by the Glendevon "Gallows Knowe," on which some of the last Highland reivers were hung, and also the tragic event at "Paton's Fauld," a spot a short distance from the old drove road opposite the "Court Knowe," where two local gipsy families effectively settled their quarrel by practically annihilating each other.[25] It was in August, 1787, that Burns first made acquaintance with the Devon, which he has celebrated in three of his poems, though it is evident that both on his flying visit to Harvieston and during the longer stay he made in October of the same year he was more pleased with the human flowers that bloomed on its banks than with the awesome grandeur of the Rumbling Brig, and that Peggy Chalmers and Charlotte Hamilton were more intimately a.s.sociated with his fond memories of the Devon valley than Caudron Linn and the Deil's Mill. Although the ladies at Harvieston were somewhat disappointed[26] that the more prominent local glories did not inspire the poet to an outburst, it is clear that the subtle softness of the Devon scenery made a deep impression on Burns, if the more aggressive beauty of its waterfalls and gorges left him cold. You feel this in all he has written about it, and it is significant that in one of his last songs, composed when he was down in body, mind, and estate, his thoughts went back to the "crystal Devon, winding Devon," whose music seems to have got into his verse, and to the happy days he had spent on its "romantic banks" and amidst its "wild sequestered shades." It may be noted here that the "Holy Fair" was continued in Glendevon long after Burns' famous attack, and that down to 1835 the minister of the parish received an annual grant of five, and sometimes ten s.h.i.+llings, for gra.s.s destroyed at the Sacrament; while a handy paris.h.i.+oner also drew five s.h.i.+llings per annum for putting up the Communion tent on the glebe, and a little extra now and then for making a road to it.[27] It is impossible to say if Burns when at Harvieston was ever actually in Glendevon, but about thirty years later the home of the Taits, which the poet found so pleasant, is brought into close connection with the parish owing to an incident which had its own share in giving to the Church of England one of its wisest, if not one of its greatest, primates. It was in Glendevon House that young Archibald Campbell Tait, according to his own statement, which was found in his desk after his death, written on a sheet of foolscap, had an experience which he never forgot. His words are--"I had ridden over with my brother Crawfurd from Harvieston to Glendevon to visit old Miss Rutherford, and stayed the night in her house. I distinctly remember in the middle of the night awaking with a deep impression on my mind of the reality and nearness of the world unseen, _such as through G.o.d's mercy has never left me_."[28] And with this fragment of spiritual history our local record comes to a close. If the parish of Glendevon, nestling, like Burns' Peggy, "where braving angry winter's storm the lofty Ochils rise," and its clear winding river, occupy but a lowly place in Scottish story, they have something better even than archaeological treasures and stirring memories--the abiding presence of that spirit of beauty, which is above all change, and which ever haunts

"The green valleys Where Devon, sweet Devon, meandering flows."

[1] Much of the legendary history of the Devon is given in the extraordinary poem "Glenochel," by Mr James Kennedy.

[2] See _Registrum Monasterii S. Marie De Cambuskenneth_, A.D.

1147-1535. Edinburgi: 1872; p. 122.

[3] _History of the Reformation_, Vol. I., p. 233.

[4] The parish was served by readers from 1568 to 1586, when the reader Symon Pawtoun was presented to the living, and, curiously enough, his successor, A. Marsch.e.l.l, after being minister for a year, was forced by the Presbytery to accept the lower position.

[5] See _The Darker Superst.i.tions of Scotland_. By John Graham Dalyell. Glasgow: 1835; p. 579.

[6] Mr Wood Martin in his learned work, _Pagan Ireland_ (London: 1895); describes similar usages still prevailing in Ireland.

[7] _Dalyell_, p. 671.

[8] _History of the Rebellions in Scotland_. By Robert Chambers. Vol.

II., p. 87.

[9] _Statistical Account of 1794_, p. 234.

[10] _Memoirs of the Marquis of Montrose_. By M. Napier. Vol. II., p.

537.

[11] He was schoolmaster at Abernethy, and subsequently married the daughter of the parish minister. She died in 1708 at the age of 80.

[12] See _Register of the Diocesan Synod of Dunblane_. Edited by John Wilson, D.D. Edinburgh: 1877; page 91.

Before the pa.s.sing of the Act of 1810 for augmenting parochial stipends in Scotland, the stipend was 21 17s 11d, the smallest in Scotland. 50 Geo. III., cap. 84.

[13] _Diocesan Register_, p. 251.

[14] _Diocesan Register_, p. 150.