cealed from the servants, to whom it would have been imprudent to intrust the secret. The pious wish of the lady was not, however, gratified, as it was not possible to approach the bed of the dying saint without being seen by the servants. She returned so far without her errand, though not without the blessing of the good man, though she had not the pleasure of hearing it pronounced with his own lips. God's people, how different soever their stations in life may be, are nevertheless one in spirit, and they feel the indescribable bond of Christian attachment uniting their hearts together in the Lord. This Christian gentlewoman, though occupying a much higher standing in society than this suffering witness for Christ, considered herself on a level with him as a believer, and felt for him as a fellow-saint. She came to visit him in his affliction because he belonged to Christ, and to speak a word of comfort to him, and to hold fellowship with him in the Spirit; and she was doubtless blessed in her deed, and the favour of Him whose suffering servant she had come to see, would rest upon her. "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye did it unto me." Alexander Gray died full of faith and patience, and in the comfortable views of the glory that was to be revealed. His life of wanderings and distress ended in peace, and he entered into the joy of his Lord. This worthy man was as much a martyr for civil and religious liberty, as if he had fallen by the bloody Clavers on the moor, or by the hand of the executioner on the scaffold. His life was really sacrificed in the cause, though it was not taken away by violence; and his name is retained among the honoured worthies who "loved not their lives unto the death."

James Gray, after the decease of his esteemed and beloved brother, felt his heart still more strongly attached to the cause which he had espoused. He was a man of true piety and of unbending principle. The suffering of the party with which he was connected, did not deter him from casting in his lot among them. He was on all occasions ready to assist the sufferers, whatever might be the distress in which he himself might be involved. When the Covenanters rose in the west; for self-defence in asserting their privileges, he was ready to unite with them. He was not, indeed, at the battle of Bothwell Bridge, but he was on his way to join his brethren there. Having understood that the sufferers were in arms, he made ready with all haste, and proceeded toward the place of their encampment. As he was marching onward, however, he was met by the fugitives from

the battle-field, who informed him of the mournful fate of their companions. To advance was needless, as the fate of the day was already decided, and he returned with a number of the fleeing party to his own house. Their hearts were full of grief; and sorely did they lament the disastrous issue of the conflict. The mystery of Providence in permitting their defeat they could not well understand; but, believing that the great Ruler of the world does all things well, they felt resigned to the divine disposal. The time of their deliverance, however, was not yet come; but the principles which eventually wrought out their emancipation eight years afterwards, did from this period operate more energetically and widely on the public mind.

The family at Cambusnethan Mains courteously entertained the wanderers, and with an unsparing hand supplied their necessities. The homely fare prepared for the daily use of the household was found inadequate to the wants of the company that had arrived, and hence all the female occupants were instantly employed in making suitable preparations. The empty bread-basket was soon replenished with cakes, hard and hot from the girdel, and creamy milk and fragrant butter, fresh from the well-kept dairy, were placed beside the ponderous kebbock on the hospitable board; and many a hungry and weary wight was, on that occasion, after thanks given to Him who fills all his creatures with plenteousness, refreshed and strengthened by the simple but healthful fare of which they partook. "Use hospitality one to another, without grudging," is the injunction of Scripture; and it is an injunction which our persecuted forefathers did not treat with neglect, even though their compliance with it exposed them to the spoiling of their goods, and also to the loss of their lives. The company at Cambusnethan Mains, after the kindly entertainment they had received, dispersed and sought safety in their various places of concealment. James Gray was after this subjected to much trouble from his enemies, though they did not succeed in apprehending him. He was preserved during the trying times that followed; he saw the Revolution, and lived many years after it. The descendants of James Gray are persons of honest reputation in the places where they live, and the character of their ancestor is worthy of their imitation.

The "bread-roller," as it is called, which was so busily employed on that eventful day in the kitchen of Cambusnethan Mains in spreading out on the baking board the oaten cakes and the broad thin scones, "the wale o' Scotia's food,"

P

is still preserved, and is in the possession of a female descendant of the name of Gray, resident in Douglas, and greatgreat-grandniece to Alexander Gray. It has been carefully handed down as an heirloom in the family, and is kept as a valuable relic of the olden time.

There is in the town of Douglas another memorial of covenanting days-the" meal-basin" of John Brown, the martyr of Priesthill. It is a specimen of good workmanship, considering the times. It is made of plane-tree, and is capable of containing at least two pecks of meal. It is in a state of good preservation; and although the wood-worm has made in it many perforations, it may yet, with tolerable care, be kept for generations to come. It is interesting to hold in

one's hand the identical vessel which rested on the knees of the saintly Priesthill, while his wife rained from her hand the snow-white meal with which she thickened the porridge that steamed over the fire of glowing peats piled endwise on the hearth.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Curate of Kirkbride-Two Pious Families.

KIRKBRIDE is an old ruinous church among the mountains in the upper part of Nithsdale. The parish, which originally derived its name from the church, was, upwards of a hundred and thirty years ago, divided, and attached to the respective parishes of Durisdeer and Sanquhar. The church, the naked walls of which are still standing, is very small-not capable of containing perhaps above a hundred persons. It stands on a sloping side of a green mountain, and commands an extensive prospect to the south-east. The view is terminated by the dark blue mountain of Criffell, which overlooks the Solway Frith, and a large tract of the west coast of England. This part of the country was, in ancient times, for the most part clothed with a dense forest, especially in the straths and valleys, and round the bottoms of the mountains; and this is probably the reason why this church was built so far up on the breast of the hill, and above the upper limits of the forest. The scenery in the immediate locality of the ruin is very grand. The hills around are not clad with heather-they are covered with deep verdure. On the right there is a deep glen, called "The Lime Cleuch "-probably on account of the limestones which have occasionally been found in it. The sides of this glen are bold and precipitous, and the mountains at its upper extremity rise to a great height. On the left is the deep and darkly-wooded ravine through which the Enterkin pours its troubled stream, whose romantic or rather terrible pass among the Lowther Hills, is celebrated for the battle of the rescue which took place in the times of the covenant, and in which also Drumlanrig, of persecuting notoriety, intercepted, on his journey to Edinburgh, a party of Covenanters, on a Sabbath morning, on their way to a sacramental occasion in the low country, but

whom he durst not attack in the narrow and dangerous defile, though he promised to hold a reckoning with them on another day. To the north of the venerable ruin lies the small but beautifully secluded valley of Strathquhairn, in the centre of which stands a solitary hut built of stone and turf, and which is not without incidents of its own. The lonely churchyard, overgrown with rank grass, contains a variety of tombstones which mark the resting-place of the ancient dead. Some of these monuments are of considerable antiquity, and bear inscriptions in characters so fantastic that few can decipher them. From the eastern gable of the building is still suspended the bell, the sound of which assembled the people of forgotten generations to the worship of God; its iron tongue is, however, now silent, save when an occasional preacher congregates among the graves the worthy inhabitants whose "fathers worshipped in this mountain."

It is not correctly known in what particular era this little place of worship was first erected, although tradition has its own tale respecting it. It is probable, however, that it has been reared since the Reformation, on the site of an older structure. The religious history of the place is not without interest. It is reported to have been the very first of the parishes, in the south-west of Scotland, the majority of whose population threw off the Papal yoke, and embraced the principles of the Reformers. The tradition is, that the reformed worshippers, who were not permitted to occupy the church, because the civil authorities had not yet declared the Protestant religion to be the religion of the land, met in the west corner of the churchyard, around an aged thorn tree, under which the preacher stood. The truth of this tradition seems to receive confirmation from the fact, that among the many persons and things annually excommunicated by the Pope, the ancient thorn tree in the burying-ground of Kirkbride is particularly denounced. This circumstance was attested by a literary gentleman, a licentiate of the Church of Scotland, a very worthy man, lately deceased, who, when in Rome with his pupil, heard the thing with his own ears; and the circumstance was to him the more interesting, that Kirkbride was not two miles distant from the place where he was born. The people always had this tradition, but its certainty was not before absolutely known.

It appears, then, that the doctrines of the Reformation were very acceptable to the secluded and simple-hearted people of this parish, and that the truth in its saving power