My father
had Campbell blood in him and was a friend of Argyle's. The estate of
Glenfernie was not to him then, but his uncle held it and had an heir
of his body. My father was poor save in stanchness to the liberties of
Kirk and kingdom. My mother was a minister's daughter, and she and her
father and mother were among the persecuted for the sake of the true
Reformed and Covenanted Church of Scotland. My mother had a burn in
her cheek. It was put there, when she was a young lass, by order of
Grierson of Lagg. She was set among those to be sold into the
plantations in America. A kinsman who had power lifted her from that
bog, but much she suffered before she was freed.... When I was little
and sat upon her knee I would put my forefinger in that mark. 'It's a
seal, laddie,' she would say. 'Sealed to Christ and His true Kirk!'
But when I was bigger I only wanted to meet Grierson of Lagg, and
grieved that he was dead and gone and that Satan, not I, had the
handling of him. My grandfather and mother.... My grandfather was
among the outed ministers in Galloway. Thrust from his church and his
parish, he preached upon the moors--yea, to juniper and whin-bush and
the whaups that flew and nested! Then the persecuted men, women and
bairns, gathered there, and he preached to them. Aye, and he was at
Bothwell Bridge.
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