The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

364 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
fastly 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 Benncorie 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.
" 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.*
"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 Dumfries-shire, where the work of his
chisel is not yet to be seen. It is easily distinguished from the work of any
other artist by the primitive rudeness of the emblems of death, and of the
inscriptions which adorn the ill-formed blocks of his erection. This task
of repairing and erecting gravestones, practised without fee or reward, was
the only ostensible employment of this singular person for upwards of forty
years. The door of every Cameronian's house was indeed open to him at
all times when he chose to enter, and he was gladly received as an inmate
of the family; but he did not invariably accept of these civilities, as may
be seen by the following account of his frugal expenses, found amongst
other little papers (some of which I have likewise in my possession), in his
pocket-book after his death:"o Gatehouse of Fleet, 4th Februacry, 1796.
ROBERT PATERSON debtor to MAnGARET CaRYSTALEr
To drye Lodginge for seven weeks,..... ~0 4 1
To Four Auchlet of Ait Meal,..... 0 3 4
To 6 Lippies of Potatoes...... 0 1 3
To Lent Money at the time of Mr. Reid's Sacrament, 0 6 0
To 3 Chappins of Yell with Sandy the Keelman,t 0 0o 9
~O 15 5
Received in part,.. 0 10 0
Unpaid,.....~0 5 5
"This statement shows the religious wanderer to have been very poor in
his old age; but he was so more by choice than through necessity, as, at
the period here alluded to, his children were all comfortably situated, and
were most anxious to keep their father at home. But no entreaty could
induce him to alter his erratic way of life; he travelled from one churchyard to another, mounted on his old white pony, till the last day of his
existence, and died, as you have described, at Bankhill, near Lockerby, on
the 14th February, 1801, in the 86th year of his age. As soon as his body
was found, intimation was sent to his sons at Balmaclellan; but from the
~ The house was stormed by a Captain Orchard or Urquhart, who was shot in the attack.
t "A well-rlsown humourist, still alive, popularly called by the name of Old Keelybags, who deals in the
keel or chalk with which farmers mark their flocks."