Memoir of mrs. Stewart Sandeman, by her daughter [M.F. Barbour].

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Memoir ofmrs. Stewart
Sandeman, by her daughter ,,,

largaret Fraser Barbour, Margaret Sandemar

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MEMOIE

MRS. STEWART SANDEMAN,

BY HER DAUGHTER.

LONDON:

JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.

1883.

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EDINBURGH I

PRINTED BY LORIMER AND GILLIES,

31 ST. ANDREW SQUARE.

FEB ; )*

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PREFACE.

A TEAB before Mrs. Stewart Sandeman's death, she was
looking through a periodical and reading aloud from it
to her daughter. She came to the notice of a friend
lately deceased, remarking that it was very well done.
Her daughter asked, '' If any one wrote a page there
about you, I wonder what they would call it?" Instantly
she replied, "The child that was prayed for; nothing
else." The author intended to have compiled this as
an autobiography, since her mother's journals could
have furnished volumes. But others have decided that
this might not have been so suitable for readers in
general.

Her letters are found to be too hurried and personal
to admit of publication. From her earliest years she .
seemed impelled to record her deeper feelings in verse,
when another would have taken refuge in correspond-
ence. It has therefore been felt desirable to include
certain verses which tend to throw light on different
periods of her life. These, rapidly composed, and

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VI PREFACE.

never but in three instances revised, it would not have
been fair to her to include in this volume, biit for the
absence of letters.

In writing this book we have tried to carry out the
idea she herself unconsciously supplied.

Mabgabet F. Barbour.

BoNSKsn), November, 1883.

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CONTENTS.

■ ! ■

CHAFTER PAOB

I. ANCESTRY — B0N8KEID, 1

II. CHILDHOOD, 31

III. MOTHER AND DAUaHTER, 47

IV. SCHOOL, 64

y. MARRIAGE, 84

VI. PEGGY'S NURSERY, 96

VII. B0N8KEID, 107

VIIL SPRINGLAND, 118

IX. SCATTERING, 147

X. BEREAVEMENTS, 164

XL ALONE, . .189

Xn. LAST WORK, 231

APPENDIX, 263

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MEMOIB

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lES. STEWAET SANDEMAN.

CHAPTEK I.

ANCESTRY — ^BONSKEID.

rOK defence in the old days of Highland feuds,
raids, and cattle-reiving, the baronial mansion-
houses of Bonskeid and Fincastle stood high up
on the hill, a mile apart, on the west side of the ridge
between Blair -Athole and Strath - Tummel. Their
small chambers and narrow windows lessened the
severity of the blast In summer the occupants lived
much in the open air ; for the winter they migrated to
Edinburgh.

In the '45, Henry Stewart of Fincastle, then eighteen,
rode over with his men to Blair to join the rising force,
to the strains of his piper, who also sang a mournful
lament about his never returning. The boy from Bon-
skeid, in his sixteenth year, also went Some of the
older tenants, however, were beforehand with him,
waiting at the ford on Garryside, and by counsel and

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2 ANCESTRY BONSKEID.

crown pieces prevailed on him to turn his horse's head
the other way. Henry Stewart came safely home again
in spite of the piper's foreboding song. Nor did he
forfeit his estate, from his being under age.

Years passed, and in 1752 Henry Stewart gave his
sister in marriage to John Stewart of Bonskeid, who
conducted her along the avenue of old sycamores to
her new home. Miss Stewart of Bonskeid became the
wife of their cousin, Stewart of Shierglass, on Garry-
side. In 1753 a son, Alexander, father of the subject
of our memoir, and in 1756 a daughter, Isobel, were
bom at Bonskeid The little boy was not old enough to
go with his father when they carried the wife and mother,
too early taken, by avenue, road, and boatway, across
to their vault in Old Blair. The tapestry they had
seen her make for a square seat, still in use as a piano-
stool, they reverently preserved. The young people
diligently helped their grandmother at Fincastle in her
garden work, while she and her daughters faithfully
watched over the motherless brother and sister. She
kept a house register, found long afterwards with its
tbm and yellow leaves, telling when in each year
the first rose bloomed and the last sheaf was cut.
The lady's own hand records how many stacks of peats
were cut from the hill in the long, dry days of June,
how many stacks of hay stood in the full farm-yard,
when the bees hived and the virgin honey came to
table. As often as they were taken down through the
Coillebhrochan park to see the froth and foam at the
Tummel Linn, they heard the story of the eating of

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ANCESTRY — BONSKEID, 3

porridge by the vaUant King Robert when he brought
his soldiers there, after the battle of Methven (1306).
Much they honoured their ancestor who made him
welcome to the place, and received for reward these
woods in which the broken army spread itself to rest
The first take of salmon in the year was a great

FALLS OP TUMMEL.
From photo, by WiUon, Aberdeen.

event at Bonskeid and Fincastle. The right to the
salmon basket at Linn of Tummel was shared by them
— Bonskeid had four days and Fincastle two. Salmon
was plentiful in the river. After all within reach were
supplied, the Pitlochry cart went down the lowland
road with its fresh, cheap freights of fish. The little

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4 ANCESTRY BONSKEID.

Isobel soon tried her mother's spinniiig-wheel, and
she learned short words from her brother out of the
Proverbs, the only spelling-book of those days. Never,
they said, would they go far from these hills, dearer and
dearer each joyous day.

But the quiet life they had led was suddenly
broken into. The whole family were one day absent
at church in Blair, and the door locked. From. the
Reformation the Stewarts of Bonskeid had been Presby-
terian, while those of Fincastle at this date attended
the Episcopal service at Kilmaveonaig ; but they often
crossed and re-crossed the Garry together. On this
disastrous day, when Bonskeid reached the top of the
hill, he saw his house a burning pile. The version
given by the dairy-maid to her daughter, who related it
to us half-a-century ago, ran thus : — " I was in the
dairy the last thing, and left my fifteen bonnie
Jcehbucks (cheeses) ; when I came back in the after-
noon, they were burnt to cinders in a heap as black as
coaU' The ca»use of the fire was never known. The
house was a ruin, and the estate was so heavily
burdened that it could not be rebuilt. A farmhouse
was hastily erected to receive the inmates, who now
spent much of the year in Edinburgh. Old people
still tell that none walked the pavements of that city
with statelier gait than John Stewart — ^his children
often by his side. When they passed along, windows
would be sometimes thrown up, and heads bent forward
looking after him.

A darker day dawned for Bonskeid, though the

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ANCESTRY — BONSKEID. 5

morning looked like that of other market days. As his
wont was, Bonskeid and his men took the road to
Pitlochry, then consisting of but a few thatched and
scattered houses, though the centre for bargain and
business and the meeting-place. of fiiends. Supper
cooled that night, while the children watched the
down-hill path in vain for sign of his return. At last,
in the fading light, was heard a tramp of feet in silence,
and a burden was seen carried shoulder high. The
children — ^now twice orphaned — saw no more. But
soon they knew that they had lost their father, and
Alexander was old enough this time to go as chief
mourner to the old vault, with thronging hundreds
from the Highlands round.

He had fallen by the hands of his brother-in-law,
Stewart of Shierglass.

It was a superstition in the Highlands then that if
the manslayer could see daylight under the corpse, his
life would be safe. The stoiy was that Shierglass did
hide among brushwood by the roadside till the bearers
of the body passed on their five miles' march. His eye,
strained for very life, caught the sunset.

How the embroilment came about, remained a
mystery to those of this generation, till the following
letter was addressed to Bonskeid's great-grandson.
Colonel F. Stewart Sandeman, dated 9th March,
1879 :—

** My grandfather, John Cameron, was almost a hundred years
old when he died. When this tragic affair occurred, he was a
drystone-dyker, and had a small croft at Auldchlune, between

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6 ANCESTRY BONSKEID.

Blair and Pitlochry. The day after the market he Etood in want
of broom for thatching, and went early to the copse for it. He
there heard a voice cry, * John Cameron, come here.' To his sur-
prise he beheld Stewart of Shierglass standing with his nether lip
fearfully cut He told, with sincere honesty and grief, all that had
taken place. Stewart of Shierglass, with his brother-in-law, Stewart
of Bonskeid, and a few friends, had partaken of the flowing bowl at
a house west of Pitlochry. Each house had then its illicit store.
A i)etty quarrel arose among the company, during which Shier-
glass had been using his knife for some purpose, and, in the act
of placing it in his mouth to hold it, with the excitement made
a severe gash in his lip. The company then turned the laugh
against him. This so exasperated him that he drew his hand,
into which, by this time, he had placed the knife, still open, and
with a back-stroke struck Bonskeid, who was still laughing, fair
in the breast The knife penetrated to the heart. When he saw
what he had done he rose and went out All night he stayed in
the copse. After his pitiful tale he said that previous to that day
they had been fast friends, but that passion at being made a
laughing-stock had overcome him.

" My grandfather waded through the Garry, and carried over his
lady on his back. She spent all that day in the copse. My grand-
father kept watch for the pursuers, but happily they were left
undisturbed. When darkness approached, my grandfather con-
veyed back his charge, after their tearful parting, to her sorrowful
home, in humble transit, the same as she came. Mr. Stewart
fled the country for a lengthened period, but returned when the
affair came to be regarded as an unfortunate accident I have
often heard tliis story rehearsed by my mother, who died twenty-
three years ago. (Signed) Peter Bareon.''

Mrs. Stewart, Shierglass, followed her husband to
Holland, where several of her children were bom.

" She was never observed to smile," her grandniece
writes, "even after her return to Scotland, from the
day her husband and she parted in the copsewood."
" It was very trying," says the same aged informant,

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ANCESTRY — BONSKEID. 7

" for her or any of us to go to church after any death in
our houses. Scarcely could I enter our pew the Sabbath
after my sister's death, for my feet must touch the
flags which had been lifted to bury her the week
before."

The little Isobel went to her aunt at Fincastle,
cherished and beloved, nor was she ever very far from her
side till she became her daughter-in-law. The eldest
son of Fincastle married Louisa Graeme of Inchbrakie,
and Captain James, the second son, married his cousin
Isobel Stewart of Bonskeid. Alexander worked well
at Perth Grammar School, and his name is found on
the roll of Edinburgh University. He went with the
Scotch Contingent as surgeon to Holland, making
many friends, as his old letters show, returning, after
some years, to give in his thesis, and take the degree
ofM.D.

The Duke of Athole, his friend, secured his settlement
in Dunkeld. He lived near the Cathedral where the
remains of his lineal ancestor, the Wolf of Badenoch,
lie covered by his eflSgy in stone.

The old people took a pleasure in calling him " Baron
of Badenoch." Like every well-known country doctor,
he won the hearts of many on that country-side, and
hoped to have remained there till he should rebuild
the house which had been burned down. Seventeen
miles on horseback took him to the old place. Three
larches stand by the stream in the Glen of Fincastle.
Alexander Stewart, the old tailor at the head of the
Glen, tells how the Doctor, with his two eldest tenants,

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8 ANCESTRY BONSKEID.

Stewaxt and Scott, planted them as a memorial, and
that he was the boy who carried the young plants for
them to the spot There had always been two rooms
kept ready for Dr. Stewart at the farm-steading of
Coillebhrochan during his boyhood and student days,
part of the furniture' of which still remains.

In 1790 Dr. Stewart married Jane, the only child of
Mr. Thomas Bisset, commissary of Dunkeld. His pro-
sperity was short-lived. Small-pox had become a
scourge throughout the land; inoculation was intro-
duced to arrest the pestilence. Ardent in his profes-
sion, Dr. Stewart was the first to use it in Perthshire.
Sixty-nine children around Dunkeld went through it
safely under his hands ; the seventieth — John, his son
and heir, died. To him his mother addressed lines,
entitled " To the Memory of a Lovely Infant not Seven
Months Old," and ending, " whatever is, is right."

The little Jess, bom 1793, and Thomas, 1795, died
also in infancy ; very soon their mother, too, slept with
them — ^four journeys more for the bereaved man to
that old vault at Blair. As soon as possible Dr.
Stewart left Dunkeld and went to live at Perth,
which henceforth became the centre of his practice,
persuading his widowed mother-in-law to accompany
him. He succeeded to Dr. Wood, and took his house in
the Watergate, the town-house of the Duke of Athole in
old times, when the Court was held at Perth. The
original white marble mantlepiece of the ancient
dining-haJl was recently found, when the Free West
Church, Tay Street, was built on the site of part of Dr.

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ANCESTRY GASK. V

Stewart's house in the Watergate. In the stable
there, a horse stood always saddled, ready to take the
place of the exhausted one, when he dismounted and
had to start at once to answer some fresh call. His
practice covered a distance of thirty miles round Perth.
And yet the rider never so swiftly passed but he
gave a nod of recognition to the standers by the
cottage door, who styled him " the man of iron."

Gask.

Among Dr. Stewart's first patients at Perth was
Laurence Oliphant, the Laird of Gask. Seeds of ill-
ness had been sown in his constitution during the time
of his faithful following of Prince Charlie as aide-de-
camp in fight and hiding-place. His four daughters
now watched over him by turns like so many trained
nurses. Not till they lost him, and the old escutcheon
was hung out, would any of them listen to proposals of
marriage. They watched him as he had watched his
Prince.

As the eldest of these sisters will take a prominent
place in this volume, we must go one stage further
back, and speak of her mother. There appears before
us a youthful reader seated in her father's foreign home
in the Versailles Garden. She is in her sixteenth year.
Her beauty is already marked by French courtiers ; but
she is going on the morrow to be the wife of her first
cousin, Laurence Oliphant, younger of Gask ; and the
letter in her hand, long and closely written, is from her

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10 ANCESTRY GASK.

father, Duncan Robertson of Strowan, the chief of his
clan, who had spent the nine years that had elapsed
since the '45, when his estates were forfeited, as an
exile in France. She reads : —

" Versailles, Afay, 1765.

" My Deab Meogt, — As you are now past the age when
children are treated with authority and constraint, though not of
experience sufBicient to direct your conduct through the perplexi-
ties of a turhulent and vicious world, allow me to give you some
hints that may he of use to you in future. Most anxiously have
I studied your happiness, though perhaps you have sometimes
thought me too severe on your little faults.

" What I aim at is to stir up your resolution to practise vigor-
ously every duty you know, and your diligence in acquiring
more knowledge in things necessary and useful You have often
heard it said that religion is the only solid foundation for happi-
ness in this world or the next ; and happiness, or a false shadow
of happiness, is the spring of all human actions. But how few
have a proper notion of religion ! The mistaken world points it
out as a melancholy thing that deprives one of all the enjoyments
of life, and ties it down to a life of austerity. Would you know
how this false notion crept in ? Why, men of little penetration
observing the conduct of some mistaken devotees, imagined that
all religion consists in outward mortification and abstraction
from the world. Others, misapplying the example of some
ancient Christians who were obliged to retire from the society of
their heathen friends, amongst whom they must have continued
in idolatry, or been persecuted to death, looked upon religion as
a bugbear to be confined to caves or deserts or monasteries ; and
thus the world represents it to this day, ever glad of any pretence
to scandalise religion, and brings it into bad repute, as it every-
where condemns those sins, and that pride and vanity which they
are resolved not to part with. But in reality religion, so far
from having a tendency to damp the spirits or make life uncom-
fortable, is the only foundation for solid joy, insomuch, that
whoever is cheerful without it, may be compared to one in a

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ANCESTRY GASK. .11

burning fever, who raves with life and spirits, whilst life and
spirits are about to take their departure. Such is the condition
of every one, who, without piety, pretends to find happiness in
this world. What is called pleasure, intoxicates those who
pursue it, and a fit of sickness or reverse of fortune soon discovers
the cheat ; nay, a lonely moment is often intolerable even in
health and affluence. Hence the passion for shows and amuse-
ment everywhere. I earnestly entreat you, my dear daughter,
to have your Bible often in your hand, and let the dictates of it
remain eternally engraved upon your heart This will give you
double satisfaction in prosperity ; making adversity light, your
amusements innocent, your mirth free from folly, and your con-
versation inoffensive. You are desired in marriage by a gentle-
man who knows that you have no fortune.* What can be his
inducement ] Probably, indeed, he sees something agreeable in
your person ; but that is not the main point ; it is this — he him-
self has been brought up in the paths of honour and virtue, in
which he resolves to persist. He has a favourable opinion of
your temper and education, and expects to find in you an agree-
able companion for life. I have not the least reason to think he
will be disappointed ; you have a mother's example, and I thank
God you have a moderate share of common sense ; and I may tell
you for once that you advance in discretion as in years ; but, alas !
those years are so few, and your experience so little, that I give
you another half-sheet of such directions as I think may be of
use to you.

"Ist. Labour with all your might to preserve your mind in a
calm, cheerful, and benevolent disposition; this is the proper soil
for all virtues, both social and divine ; whereas the mind that is
soured, ruffled, or exasperated at every cross, accident, disappoint-
ment or contradiction, is like the troubled sea that throws up
dirt and mud, uneasy and unhappy in itself, vexing and trouble-
some to every one about it ; in short, a temper abhorred by God
and man. 1 acknowledge that it is not easy always to preserve
this meek and peaceable temper amidst the various rubs one
meets with in a perverse world ; but you must consider, my dear
Meggy, that we can acquire no virtue nor conquer any vice without

* Their estate had been forfeited in 1746.

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1 2 ANCESTRY — GASK.

a struggle. Ever since the fall of the first man, we are bom with
.a propensity to evil and an aversion to good, and those our
corruptions and weaknesses all our best endeavours will never
overcome without the grace of God, which is only obtained by
earnest prayer, and to that our best endeavours must be joined.
Let me cite Mr. Young —

" 'No man e'er found a happy life by chance,
Or yawned it into being with a wish.'

A single victory over an angry, peevish, or sullen fit, is a con-
quest more valuable than a kingdom, and one victory makes way
for a second, and so on. We cannot do the work all at once ; we
often faQ ; but we must inmiediately recover ourselves, combat our
vices and weaknesses one after another, nor suffer one of them to
govern us. They are tyrants that would enslave here, in order to
make us for ever miserable hereafter.

" 2nd, In all your conversation with your husband, let your
countenance and tone of voice, as well as your words, express your
affection and regard ; and if you happen at anytime to differ from
Ids opinion in small matters, propose your sentiments mildly by
way of getting information, and not by downright contradiction ;
and in general, avoid disputes with any one.

" 3rd!. Let your husband be your principal confidant. If any-
thing vexes or perplexes you for which you think there is a remedy,
communicate it to him ; let him never learn it at second-hand ;
and if any one would tell you a secret, with a caution not to
communicate it to him, answer with a smile that you can keep
nothing from your husband, and thus you will be free from many
impertinent tattles with which you would otherwise be pestered,
if you should converse much with the world ; though you may
doubtless hear many things not worth repeating to him, or to any-
one else. On the other hand, if your husband entrusts you with
a secret, let neither father or mother, brother nor sister, ever hear
of it. In short, as man and wife are said in Scripture to be one,
have no separate views or interests, in prosperity or adversity, in
sickness or in health.

" 4tK You know I always condemned gaudy and expensive orna-
ment in dress and furniture, but I seriously recommend to you

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ANCESTRY— OASK. 13

cleanliness and neatness in your person, and eveiything about
you. This caution may seem the less necessary, as I think you
have a natural turn for keeping the few things you have in the
best order you can ; but I should wish you to consider that this
love of neatness and order is not to be laid aside when yon are
married ; on the contrary, you must double it. A slovenly out-
side is the sign of a sluggish and lazy disposition ; and I assure
you that the observation holds in general. It is not so much
taken notice of in our sex, but is never pardoned in yours, and
the husband is always the person most offended.

"5^/^. Let a grave and serious countenance be confined to your
closet and retirement ; in company, take notice of your friends
with a cheerful complaisance, 'tis a tribute you owe them. Cheer-
fulness is absolutely necessary in youth, engaging in advanced
years, and charming in old age ; and in all stages of life it is a
mark of inward peace. To be cheerful, it is not necessary to be
always talking ; but never be what we call * absent ' when in
company ; give attention to what is said and done, and lend in
your word when you think fit. Mirth is the highest degree of
cheerfulness, and may and ought to be frequently indulged in by
the young as a proper recreation both for body and mind ; but
the excess of mirth is folly — every virtue stands between two
extremes, and it will be a good amusement for you in your leisure
hours to consider the virtues and their extremes.

" What I have written I beg you will read over and over again.

" My daughter, as the wife of Mr. Oliphant, claims a double
regard. I pray God that you may be a comfort to him, and the
instrument of happiness to his family.**

Laurence and Margaret were married at Versailles
in May, 1755, in presence of many of the French
noblesse and all their fellow-exiles. The most noted of
these was their grandfather, Lord Naime, who so
narrowly escaped the block, that there still exists a
dying speech which he had prepared to deliver on the
morning of 29th February, 1716, when a twenty-four

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1 4 ANCESTRY — GASK.

hours* reprieve arrived to stay his execution. His son,
Mr. Henry Naime, was there with Margaret's two
brothers, Collyear and Alexander, and her sisters.
Nearest the bride and bridegroom were their mothers.
Lady Gask and Lady Strowan, as they were still called,
in spite of attainder, in the exiled circle, both of them
daughters of Lord Naime. Their husbands, Laurence
Oliphant and Duncan Robertson of Strowan, had both
for many years been pensioners of the French king,
Louis XV, The bride could remember how at six years
old she had been hidden mth her mother and little
brothers in a hut in Athole, whence they were driven
by the threat of military execution, and escaped to join
the head of their house in France. It was a day when
family traditions were recalled, and when the marriage
of their ancestor. Sir Walter Oliphant, to the daughter
of King Robert the Bruce, was not forgotten.

The young couple had their home in Paris, keeping
there the day of rest, and walking by the precepts of
the Book which had been law in both families. In
1756 a son was given to them. Her first-born was
sometimes carried out by herself, as custom allowed.
Many would stand waiting for a glimpse of the lovely
pair when they passed firom the street or court up to
the balcony, on which all the chambers opened. The
beautiful apparition flitted only for one year from court
to balcony. The mother of seventeen then appeared
in mourning. The little son and heir-presumptive, no
more rivalling his mother s loveliness, had died. They
had to lay him to sleep in Pfere-la-Chaise, where others

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ANCESTRY^GASK. 1 5

of his kindred lie. For six years they treasured his
empty cot unfilled, and only in her dreams had the
girl a babe upon her bosom.

The estate of Gask had been bought back from the
Government for £16,000 in 1763 by their friends, and
the act of banishment was repealed.

Happy years were spent at Gask among their six
children, Marjory Ann Mary (Mrs. Stewart), bom 22nd
October, 1762 ; Amelia Sophia (Mrs. Steuart, Dalguise),
bom 1764 ; Carolina (Lady Naime), bom 16th August,
1766 ; Laurence, bom June, 1768 ; Margaret Euphemia
Janet Charlotte Alexandrina (Mrs. Keith), bora 1770 ;
and Charles, born 1772. In the names of no fewer than
three that of the Prince was remembered. Next to
religion and loyalty, economy had the first place in
their upbringing. The silver plate had been confis-
cated, family jewels sold, and the table of their child-
hood was laid with pewter only.

In 1772 Mrs. Oliphant's health gave way, and she
was sent to Spain, accompanied by her husband and her
eldest child, little May, who went all the errands for her
mother with her maid firom the hotels, and learned
Spanish by the way ; while the invalid retired to her
closet to write in verse the journal of their travels, and
to lay hold, on her children's behalf, of those promises
which she knew God would make good to them when
they should be deprived of her care. For two years
longer she was with them.

Through the small old window of her bed-chamber
at Gask the dim November light fell in while the spirit

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IG ANCESTRY GASK.

of the still beautiful but dying mother prepared to
take flight from the dwelling which her presence still
brightened. Outside all was cheerless ; the sun left no
mark on the dial, the stones no shadow on the long
grass of the churchyard In her room all was cheer-
ful. Her children were sent for ; she took leave of each
without emotion, making them feel as if she were only
setting out on one of her journeys in search of health.
As they were leaving the room she said, " See who will
be the best bairn, and stay longest with papa." To him-
self when they had gone, she added, " You see how
easily I can part with the bairns, for I know they are
in good hands," meaning their Maker's.

For these details we are indebted to a narrative
written in the third person by her husband, which
goes on to say : " On this last afternoon she took a
glass of TeTvb and water. He drank the remainder
of the glass to their merry meeting again, and she
thanked him. He desired of her, after death, to
ask of her Creator to be allowed to come and be
about him, to keep him from many faults he might
fall into. She said she would, and that it might be
that spirits would be allowed to be about their friends
here.

"Among the last distinct things, she said in the
afternoon, betwixt five and six, to the clergyman, after
a prayer, ' I have hardly breath, Mr. Erskine, to thank
you for your coming.'

" Died calmly between seven and eight at night, as
the recommendatory prayer was saying. About an hour

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ANCESTRY GASK. 17

before, said, ' Is it not time now V She meant, for the
recommendatory prayer.

" Dr. Wood who attended her, but was not present at
her death, wrote from Perth, ' I never saw young or
old resign life in so dutiful and so becoming a manner.'

" Some days before her death, Mrs. Oliphant asked

to see some of the old Scots Magazinea, and at the

year 1760, page 368, turned up the ' Dying Christian's

Soliloquy,' which she was then able to read for herself,

and had read several times afterwards by others —

twice by her husband :

" * The world recedes, it fliea from view ;
Ye mortal scenes and friends, adieu !' "

The widower and his mother. Lady Gask, lightened
the burden of sorrow by watching over the six mother-
less children. The following year, when Lady Gask
died, he prevailed on his aunt, Lady Harriet Naime, to
take her place. The children had a merry life under
her control, and lived to return her kind solicitude for
a long period, till she died, aged eighty-nine. Mrs.
Cramond was their governess, and Neil Gow came
periodically with his fiddle. They were fearless riders,
and enjoyed their beautiful home to the full Caroline
carried that home into the imaginations of thousands :
it still lives in the hearts of her countrywomen
by her song, "The Auld House." They could not
a£Ford a carriage ; Lady Harriet's mistake in ordering
the largest chaise from Perth to take her to the death-
bed of her sister at Lude, by writing "cheese" for
"chaise," is mentioned in Rogers' "Life of Lady Naime."

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18 ANCESTRY GASK.

We can see the afflicted famUy at Gask, old and young,
trying to comfort their grand-aunt as she sat in travel-
ling dress, ready for the journey. The double little
doors of the drawing-toom are thrown open ; two men
enter, carrying an immense cheese, and the party are
convulsed with laughter, and unable to explain them-
selves to the astonished bearers.

Lady Harriet loved tp speak to the girls about their
great-grandmother, Lady Naime, her own beloved
mother, who had put her trust in the God of Abraham
for her children's children's children. She read to
them from her copy of "Selections from Thomas k
Kempis," the edition of 1699. It lies before us as these
lines are written, one clasp entire, dim gilding still
upon it, and four out of eight engraved metal comers
on it still, though the hands of a long line of owners are
lying in the dust.

In the spring of 1786, six years before he was taken
from them, Mr. Oliphant, like his father-in-law, wrote
a letter to his four daughters : —

" Gask, Spring, 1786.

" My Four Dear Girls, — ^You have now got the substantial
parts of education — the principles of religion and loyalty, read-
ing, writing, sewing, dancing, a little of the harpsichord, and a
little French. . . . While we live in this life of trial and passage
to a better, you have the chance of marrying or of living single, and
most for the last . . . My own hope and wish is that we may be
all soon happy in heaven ; and this I am the more authorised in
as it is what we daily petition for in the Lord's Prayer by * Thy
Kingdom come,' as that implies not only the last day, but every
one's particular departure into happiness by death. The general
coming of the kingdom of our Saviour, though prayed for these

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ANCESTKY GASK. 19

seventeen hundred years, not having yet happened, and mayl)e not
to happen in our time, therefore, though we pray for the general
coming of Tighteousness and His kingdom, yet each of us also
asks for their own particular happiness, that they may go to their
Saviour, and be where He is. This is the Kingdom coming,
and the height of happiness to every one ; and this hope and
wish to be in Heaven should go along with us in all we do, and
be the principal bent of all our thoughts and actions. But as we
are only servants, and at our great Lord's disposal, we must wait
His time, and fit ourselves for going or for staying ; yet in our
prayers, with all due submission, we may be most importunate
for going.

"Your being useful through life, after daily asking God's
direction, I would suppose best brought about by a sweet and
gentle behaviour, and getting knowledge in, and acquaintance
with, every part of household economy ; you may say your turn
is not that way ; I answer it has pleased God so to form us that
we are capable of attaining, in a moderate degree, every necessary
thing we set ourselves about heartily.

" It requires no proof that house-wifery was the occupation
women were designed principally to be employed in, nor do the
men-housewives that now and then appear, alter the order estab-
lished by Providence for the women ; it only shows a whimsical
turn, or their wife's incapacity.

"The first thing, I take it, to make you successful in social
duties is what you already pretty well observe: going to bed soon
and rising, early ; in proportion to the steady observance of this
will be your progress in every article, and the avoiding of that
general hurry that you may observe among all ranks, which from
morning to night prevents them doing any one thing sedately and
properly, save trifling. The division of the day and keeping to
method will prevent the constant and perpetual excuse for
neglecting what is proper, *I have no time,' and * I want time' ; but
do you take time by the forelock and never delay till after what
you can do at present.

** A second is arrangedness in all the things about you, begin-
ning with your room, clothes, books, pen and ink, letters, papers,
nothing left about and littering, a place contrived for every thing,

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20 ANCESTBT — GASK.

and if much confined, in room be more ingenious and show what
length that will go. From the bed-chamber or closet this extends
to the public rooms, the pantry, kitchen, cellars, &a, according to
the line and way you are in.

"A third is keeping accounts, and in this you should be
regular for the sake of practice, though you had but a shilling to
account to yourself for ; you should make a little paper book and
put down in the first part, stock, money received, or debit, which
of the three words you choose ; and on the next leaf given out,
debursed, or credit, as you please, always remembering to leave a
column to the left hand for the date of the year and day of the
month, and columns at the right hand for ;£ s. d. ; sum up the
articles at the foot of the page and carry the sum to the next page.

"With these three helps all will go on purely, provided
humour be kept off ; humour is found more among the fair sex
than the men, and is a mixture of self-conceit, whim, and cross-
ness ; too wise to learn, they will not listen to and follow what
they see and know is right, but will satisfy their own inclination,
cost what it will ; and it is this humour and want of steadiness
that prevents woman in general from making as great a figure in
public affairs as the men, though their parts and penetration are
often quicker. There only remains to be constantly asking
questions and making inquiries ; and informing yourself of the
best methods : some of the old are best, some of the new : and
practising them as opportunity offers, relating to brewing, baking,
the kitchen, pantry, poultry, dairy, laundry, mantuamaker and
millinery business ; garden, respecting salads, greens, keeping of
fruits and roots ; flax or lint from the sowing to the weaving,
wool in the same manner, from the time and best method of
clipping or shearing to the weaving and dying. Farming too as
far as necessary, sowing, shearing, &c. ; nor is it improper to
know how many stuhes make a threve, what a firlet of proof in
casting a stack gives of stock ; the meal in a boll good oats, or the
loaves, farles, or bannocScs in a firlet meal ; what quantity good
bear or barley gives of meal per boU, and what outcome malt there
should be in a stipe. The doctor's art too, relating to ordinary
diseases, bruises, and cuts, dressing sores, &c. ; in general making
yourselves handy and useful, hints for which you will get almost

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ANCESTRY — GASK. 21

from everybody, as the bees gather their honey from many plants
and flowers, choosing always the best. Entertaining company
too, and studying to say obliging things, but without flattery.
Should a town life be your lot you will not find the knowledge of
these things unnecessary or useless ; they will help to turn your
thoughts and discourse off from the useless chat of the city.

"But you are not to make yourselves uneasy though yon do
not succeed entirely to your mind in these things : the hearty
endeavour is all that is required ; that done, you need have no
anxiety about an establishment through life; striving to live
well you may depend on being comfortably provided for here,
and made greatly happy hereafter ; which God, of His infinite
goodness, grant to all my dear children. Lau. Oliphant.''

We extract two leaves ifrom Marjory Oliphant's
journal in January and February, 1793 : —

*' Edinburgh, January.-'Oame here to attend Charles in a
rheumatic attack, for which he was severely bled. Many of our
neighbours are in town. I have been taking lessons in burnished
gilding for my picture frames. Also got recipes for curing beef
and bacon. Went to Martin's regarding the picture begun
yesterday.

"When I attempted to copy a face before him, he told me
I had brought the lake too dark, so as not easily to be overcome in
some places. He bid me paint boldly, not with the point of the
pencil. . . . For a very fair complexion— e.gr.. Lady Mary Lindsay's,
the shadows are usually bluish. In painting the dead colour of
Louis M*Craby's face (he was servant to the last Duke of Perth
and attended in his military excursions) there was a little yellow
in the red and white. The eyes left for next sitting. Heard
Stabilini play his last concerto. . . .

" Mrs. Siddons quite recovered of her cold. Saw two gowns
worked by Montgomery, South Bridge, for Queen Charlotte and
the Duchess of York. That for the latter was of Shetland wool ;
three spindles for the lb.*'

" Febrtuxry, — ^We have lost our dear grandmother at PotterhiU

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22 ANCESTRY— GASK.

(Perth), aged eighty-five. She was fifth daughter of William^
Loid Naime. She went off as if in a sleep in the easiest manner
possible. I never can be grateful enough to my dear brother Lau-
rence for the attention he has shown me on this occasion — preparing
me for the worst — recommending me to the care of friends to be
amused, and going next day to purchase busts for me to copy. When
going away he said, ' Now, I will break them to pieces if you do
not keep up your spirits.'' Uncle Collyear came to the funeral in
great concern for his mother. It afforded me great pleasure the
way in which he spoke of assistance from prayer ; his reverence
for the Holy Scriptures ; of our dear friends being probably our
guardian angels ; and of a speech he heard Mr. Burke deliver on
the subject of the French Revolution and the atheists in the
Convention. ' And shall,' said the orator ; ' shall he, in the face
of the glorious sun, dare to avow his disbelief of the Being who
made that sun to enlighten us.* ^.^.—100,000,000 of miles
distant from the earth.

^' I sent dear Laurence these lines on receiving a paint-box from
him : —

" Hail, little group of vivid colours gay.
Source of delight in many a rainy day,
Whose tints drawn forth shall with the rainbow vie,
And charm, like it, my fascinated eye.
Snows may overspread the ground, but in my room
Roses shall blow and crimson blossoms bloom,
* United light and shade,* gay green shall smile,
And purple clusters fancy's eye beguile ;
The yellow ear of plenty brave the storm.
And heavenly blue no dusky shades deform.
And let Lorenzo who the gift bestows
From May accept the gratitude she owes ;
To him may life its brightest colours wear,
And shade, oh ! lightly shade with grief or care.
Disease or pain, each swift revolving year."

Marjory Ann Mary Oliphant married in 1799 Dr.«
Stewart, and went from Gask to Perth. The access

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ANCESTRY GASK. 23

to the old-fashioned dwelling was from the Watergate.
Down a narrow court you came into a wider one, and
mounting steps, you saw a door painted dark green
with a great black knocker.

In the comer of the orchard-garden, sloping in front
of the house to the Tay, grew the fox-glove, from which
teacher and pupils distilled the digitalis for the labelled
bottles on the shelf. Other medicinal herbs grew there.
In those days the work of laboratory and clinique
.were mainly learned apart from the university work.
Beginners became apprentices to men in practice, had
apartments in or nea^ the doctor's dwelling, and even
dissected in secret under the very roof In the garden
harbour lay a coble, its anchor hard by the steps which
led down to the river. It was even murmured that
students had found the landing-place convenient for a
burden which each was bound to furnish during his
occupancy. The great grand-aunt of one who now sits
by the writer used to go out at midnight to make sure
that the watchers of Kinfauns churchyard were awake.
At one time she watched there for six weeks, and
spoiled Drysdale, the resurrectionist, of one of the stolen
bodies.

In the narrow lobby of the Doctor's house, leading
from the north rooms on the dark court to the bright
drawing-room over the garden of fruit-trees and flower-
beds by the Tay, there projected a section of building
which left little room to pass under. This was the
unsuspected dissecting-room used in emergencies, and
entered by a spiral staircase from an attic laboratory.

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24 ANCESTRY GASK.

There the apprentices of Dr. Wood, and before him Dr.
Elder, wrought ; and were now succeeded by Dr.
Stewart's assistants.

Mrs. Stewart threw herself into her new duties with
all the zest of the past. The house was a centre for
society, busy and gay. Her wit and repartee, her
pleasant easy parties, her taste for painting, made her a
great favourite with young girla She taught them
how to be useful as well as intellectual in their tastes,
how to gild their picture frames after the turning-
lathe had made them. Her own sketches in oil of
the garden - weeder at Oask, the farmer's, wife,
who nursed her baby brother, &c., still hang on the
wall.

For four years this went on till on a cold Sabbath
morning in February it came to a standstill, for a
messenger was seen passing swiftly to Gask ; and
through the city the news spread that a little girl had
been bom in the Watergate. Caroline Oliphant (after-
wards Lady Nairne), author of the ''Land o' the
Leal," &c., came to watch over her sister and child,
and her journals overflow with expressions of her
interest in both. She left Perth to be with her
sister Amelia, who had for some years been the
wife of Mr. Steuart of Dalguise. From thence she
writes: —

^'Dalouise, I3th March. — On the 11th came here with Mr.
Steuart, my sister Amelia, and the children, who had come in to
Perth, Tuesday last, and stayed the christening of little Margaret
of Bonskeid, which took place, as proposed, on Thursday, the 10th.

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ANCESTRY — GASK. 25

All of US sadly disappointed that Mis. Oliphant could not yentuie
to drive from Cask ; my brother with Dr. Robertson and my sister
Margaret came that day, Margaret to remain some time. The
company besides were Mr. Henry Naime, Captain and Mrs.
Stewart, the doctor's sister and brother-in-law, and Dr.
Farquharson who happened to arrive from Lude just in time.
Colonel Butter, Faskally, who had volunteered his company, was
prevented and sent an apology which pleased me in particular.
Dr. Farquharson the life of the party, really pleasant man, extremely
clever, and full of humorous stories, but says a great deal of his
own which to me is far more interesting. Have often observed
that a good teller of anecdotes, bon mots, &c., is apt to be satisfied
with the little ^clat which they procure him, though nothing better
than the daw in borrowed feathers. Even original turns of wit
though very pleasing at the moment, being but a play of fancy,
don't affect and attract me like effusions of mind and sensible
reasonings. Well, as to the christening, Mr. Peebles read the
service so audibly that May being in the room above joined,
which, as she could not attend in person so soon, was lucky.
Everybody praised the dear little stranger, who really is a fine
baby. Felt myself quite interested in Mrs. Stewart, Dr. Stewart's
sister, who married a brother of Major Stewart, Fincastle (a run-
away marriage), and has six children, with only a farm and
Captain Stewart's half-pay to support them. Four years having
elapsed since the Doctor's marriage, and no appearance of a family,
they had till now the prospect of the estate of Bonskeid ; yet she
showed so much tmaffected goodness of heart and interest
in May and the little baby, and was so pleased with her
brother's happiness on the occasion, that I really loved her.
Mr. Naime very much struck with both Captain Stewart
and her being so disinterested, and said funnily, "Well, I
thought none but the Gask family could have behaved in
that way.*'

" After dinner my brother and Drs. Robertson and Farquharson
went out to Cask. Next morning, about eleven, we set out, leav-
ing M. and her infant as well as possible, and feeling more thank-
ful than can be expressed for her safety and happiness. Have
learnt to trust my affairs now with more and more confidence to

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26 ANCESTRY — GASK.

the disposal of Proyidence, feeling by a thousand proofi3 that wa
are all under the immediate tuition of a very tender Parent, who,,
though He permits much evil in the world, and lets those who
disclaim all relation to him run on their blind course, and sooner,
or later feel the effects of following their own devices, yet moat
assuredly watches over those of His children who rely upon Him
and endeavour to please Him. Very lucky that some of the
wisest and brightest men have fully felt the force of this com-
fortable doctrine.'*

The wands woven into the wicker-work of little
Margaret Stewart's cradle were cut from many woods.
Like Hannah her mother could say, "For this child
I prayed." The answer had come, and she was not
going to draw back. A great new chamber was opened
in her own heart in which to stow away the new-found
treasure. According to the light she then possessed, this
little life, entrusted to her, was going to be lent to Him
who had given it.

In this same year, 1803, was registered a lease
dated two years earlier^ by which Sir James Pulteney,
Bart., and failing him his wife, Laura Henrietta,
Lady Bath, should have possession of Bonskeid and
Coillebhrochan for twenty-five years, dating from their
entry in 1796, with rights to make walks and
plantations as they might please, cut peats and wood,
fish in the "Tumble," and pledging themselves, ere
it expired, to build a house. And how had this come
about ?

Into the thickest of the birch-wood, by the old
Strath-Tummel road, there passed in 1796, not
far from the Tummel .side, an English travelling-
carriage, with two of the guests then visiting at Blair

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ANCESTRY GASK. 27

Castle. The occupants were Sir James Pulteney and
his wife, in her own right, Lady Bath. Entranced by
the prospect from a rising ground, from which the
course of the Tummel is seen in its sweep, she ordered
the coachman to draw up, saying, "This is the most
beautiful spot I have ever yet seen: I shall build a
house here." She was a great suflferer, and never to be
contradicted. Sir James gently said, "We shall find
out to whom it belongs." To Blair Castle they at
once returned and asked. The Duke was not a little
surprised, as Lady Bath was now only on her way
to visit the Lodge she had just built at Dalnaspidal
on his grounds for her husband's use. "It belongs,"
he replied,, "to my good friend Dr. Stewart, whose
house was burned down when he was a boy, and he
has never been rich enough to rebuild it." A mounted
express was sent oflF to Perth, and from thence Dr.
Stewart rode up by breakfast-time next morning. A
carte-blanche was given to Lady Bath, who was a
yearly tenant till 1801. Years passed, only planting
being done. She spent the summer in tents in the park
of Coillebhrochan, and directed the landscape gardener
to choose the unrivalled path by which one still
approaches to gaze on the larch- woods which she planted.
To the topmost summit of the crag guns distributed
the seed; while in the thick wood coach-houses, stables,
and rooms for men-servants were being erected.- One
autumn the party left for London, whence the news
suddenly arrived that the lady was dead. Only one
wall about six feet high, of great length and thickness.

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28 ANCESTRY GASK.

had been built for the castle she had projected. Sir
James's orders came for its removal The stones of it
appear in the fence or in the wall of the addition which
he now made to the offices, thus converting them into a
shooting lodge. The work was rapid and slight The
public rooms were formed from what were originally the
coach-houses; battlements surmounted the front to alter
the effect. Before the next shooting season the frimiture
had come down, much of it ordered by the lady herself;
her supporters in brass are still seen on each of the
black drawing-room chairs. As such it was sacred to
her husband ; and he charged the housekeeper, on her
leaving London with the servants, not even to unsew the
matting on any of it, but to leave the furniture numbered
for each room till he should follow. His last visit in
London was to the gun-smith's, who handed him a
new style of gun. They went out into the yard to try
it. When the turn of Sir James came, it went off by
accident, and he met his death. The heirs to the
property sent word to arrest the progress of the carts
which were conveying objects of art and vertu. They
were intercepted passing through Stratheam. Accord-
ing to the terms of the lease, eveiything found on
Bonskeid at the death of the lessees, came into Dr.
Stewart's hand free of charge.

The following description of the path from the Falls
of Tummel to Bonskeid, planned by Lady Bath, occurs
in an old guide book, and was written by John Steuart
of Dalguise in 1811 : —

''The course of the river upwards to the house of Bonskeid

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ANCESTRY GASK. 29

presents a continaed succession, for nearly two miles, of river
scenery of an nncommon character. The rocky and brawling bed
of the Tommel, in itself beautiful throughout, here forms pictur-
esque rapids, with bold and precipitous banks, rocks, and wood. The
whole is enclosed within wild and romantic woods, with ancient
trees often oyerhanging the water ; while some distant glimpse of
the impending mountains, or the descent of their picturesque
dedinties to the river's margin add to the general variety, so
as to produce a succession of landscapes, of characters strongly
marked, and not less strongly distinguished from each other.
Where an occasional glimpse of that battlemented house is caught,
its effect is extremely striking, and adds considerably to the interest
of this wild scenery. Bonskeid has long belonged to the present
family of Stewart Their ancestor, Alexander Stewart de Bonskeid,
is designated 'frater germanus Nigelli Stewart de Fothergill et
Garth, 1494,' in a charter, existing. Nigellus was descended of
Alexander, Earl of Buchau, fourth son of King Robert II. The
Earl is buried in the choir of the cathedral church of Dunkeld ; and
over his tomb is a recumbent figure in armour, rudely cut in stone,
and bearing the legend : 'ELic jacet Dominus Alex. Senescallus filius
Roberti regis Scotorum et Elizabethse More : Gomes de Buchan et
Dominus de Badenoch bonse memorise, qui ob. 24 die mensis Julii,
An.Dom.1394.'"

lUe terrarum mihi prceter omnes angulus ridet.

There is not in Albyn a sweeter retreat
Than the Glen where the Garry and wild Tummel meet ;
To the lone haunts of Nature their dark waters lead,
And lovely she smiles on the braes of Bonskeid.

On each side the grey crag crowns the heath-covered hill,
Where the native birch weeps o'er the rock-leaping rill ;
Wide wave the green woods o'er the Tummel's rude shore.
And the songs of the grove join the cataract's roar.

From the forest arises Ben-Vrackie's huge form,
His bosom deep-fiirrowed by snow, flood, and btorm.

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30 ANCESTRY — GASK.

And the eye at length rests where the first sunbeams phiy
On the dark pines and meadows of fertile Strath-Tay

Bat mark where yon arch o'er the Garry is thrown,
Its deep channel scooped from the torrent-rent stone,
Bocks rise all around like the walls of the sea —
On those heights fell the gallant but cruel Dundee.

Thongh drear is that Pass, 'twas the Pass of the brave,
And that black pool divided to give them a grave ;
E'en now the white foam on those dark waters spread
Floats calm, as when sullen they closed o'er the dead.

High towers, like the king of the deep glen below,
The bare silvery top of the proud Ben-y-gloe ;
And closes that vista of mountain and wood.
Where the rocks seem to rest on the breast of the flood.

Thus Nature's best charms o'er those regions prevail.
She frowns on the mountain and smiles on the vale ;
Boars in floods, sighs in forests, or decks the gay mead,
And these charms are united at bonny Bonskeid.

As Schiehallion protects from the storms of the west,
From the storms of the world may Bonskeid be at rest,
For there hospitality fixes her seat.
In the Glen where the Garry and wild Tummel meet. .

A Guest at Bonskeid, 1811.

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CHAPTER IT.

CHILDHOOD.

WHEN the conversation of any company is
flagging, it can often be revived by asking
each one present to recall the earliest
memories of childhood A motley and amusing group
of incidents of child-life comes up at once fresh from
far-oflf fields. The most commonplace mind among the
number may furnish the most interesting reminiscence.
The furthest back thing remembered by Margaret
was a journey taken" with her mother to the house of
her aunt Amelia, Mrs. Steuart of Dalguise, in August,
1806, when she was three and a half years old. " She
•made me," her record begins, " tiny books of coloured
paper sewed together, edged with orange, and varie-
gated ; and gave me a basket made of pasteboard by
herself, with this inscription in distinct black letters
written on the inside,

" My dear little Maggy, in case yon shonld ask it,
I'U tell you what things must be kept in this basket :
A pincushion, needlebook, scissors, and thimble,
To employ little fingers so tiny and nimble."

The brief record from which the above is taken was

31

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32 CHILDHOOD.

written by Mrs. Stewart Sandeman in her sixty-first
year. The whole of it will appear in this volume under
the proper dates.

Two of Mrs. Stewart Sandeman's cousins-german still
survive her, one at an age much beyond that to which she
attained. Her faithful maid, Christie, afterwards Mrs.
Harris, of whom we shall hear more, at eighty-Jhree is
teaching to this day in her house in Perth, after being
for forty years at the head of the Hospital Girls' School
thera Nor have many years passed since the death of
her first governess. Miss Clark. All these retained in
the store-house of memory vivid recollections of the
child they loved, and of the mother, calm, wise, and
patient, who had endeared herself to each of them.

The oldest of this circle, Mrs. Stewart, when seen lately,
and asked her first recollections of Margarets child-
hood, said, " Being eight years older, I sometimes got
charge of her when quite a little child. I came fi-om
Kinvaid to Mrs. Beveridge's boarding-school in the High
Street, and spent my Saturdays with Mrs. Stewart.
One day in the garden, my brother John, then Dr.
Stewart's assistant, was plajdng with us. The new
servant, Peggy, passed us on her way down the steps to
the river with her water-cans. Her tucked-up petticoat
showed her feet, and Dr. John remarked, ' See what big
clumsy feet Peggy has got' 'Don't say that,* said
Margaret in a moment ; ' do you not know that it was
God who tied these legs on to Peggy V As we went in
from the garden, we had to pass the door of one of the

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CHILDHOOD. 33

servants' rooms. It stood open^ and two of them were
whispering within. Margaret peeped in and gravely
said, 'Don't whisper, you know mamma doesn't like
whispering.'

" Kitty, her nurse, took her for a walk every morning
past the old Gowrie House, then si;ill standing, to the
Park farm, which my uncle kept for garden and dairy
produce. One Saturday, on her return, she came run-
ning to her mamma, saying, * Do you know when I was
going to the Park garden what I heard them saying ?
One man said, " There goes Miss Stewart, Bonskeid,"
and another said, " There goes Miss Stewart, Coille-
bhrochan." ' Her mother at once replied, ' Indeed I and
did you hear no one say, " There goes Miss Stewart of
the Watergate?" for that is all that you have to do
with at present.'

" Mrs. Stewart used to send us errands together. One
day it was for patterns of chintz to hang on a little bed,
and she bade me go to one or two places in search of
them. After getting some at the first we went on to
the second, and when I had chosen them, and the man
was putting them in paper, little Margaret said before
him, * Now, why did you come here ? I am sure those
you got in the first shop were quite as pretty,' making
me feel quite put out.

"She was a most lovely child. Another girl who
came in to tea said to her own mamma afterwards,
' Don't send me to the Watergate again, I feel so awk-
ward beside that fairy fljdng about.'

^ Margaret came in to dessert and sat by her father.

D

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34 CHILDHOOD.

No one could look finer than he did in full dress. Peers
looked poor beside him ! His blue eyes would sparkle,
and he had the kindest thing to say to every one
One evening the gentlemen were talking about having
been weighed, with the results. Margaret put her hand
aflfectionately on the shoulder of old Colonel OoUyear
Robertson, her grand-uncle, who allowed her all liberty,
saying, 'And what, I wonder, would this little
meagre mannie weigh?'"

It was no easy task for her mother to keep the little
girl from being spoiled. The most indulgent of all her
friends was Mrs. Bisset, the widowed and childless
mother of Dr. Stewart's first wife. Most graphically in
after life would Margaret reproduce to us these earliest
friends of hers. Mrs. Bisset made her morning visits
to the Watergate in the long, hooded cloak of black
silk, lined with grey fur, then in fashion, and now for
some years past in vogue again. She trysted the little
maid to tea to her apartments in St. John Street, up
one stair. Arrived there, the nurse was sent away for
the afternoon. Two cups were on the tray, from a set of
which each had a difierent hand-painted picture upon
it. The "four hours" (now revived as ' four o'clock tea')
included shortbread laden with comfits and orange-peel,
thick cream in the even then old-fe^hioned little cream-
jug, still preserved, and sugar-lumps to be lifted with the
tiniest of tongs opening like scissors. The lady herself,
with the tall widow's cap and gold spectacles, and the
kindest of care-woru faces, might she not be allowed to
enrich herself once more by doting on this child even

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CHILDHOOD. 35

to the spoiling ? Mrs. Stewart forgave herself for giving
in to the mourner, when she saw her thus enabled
, somewhat to forget the three grand-children who with
their mother slept far away in the vault of the old
church at Blair Athole.

Another friend of her childhood Margaret was
wont to describe most vividly, till we could almost
see him stand with his black apron and his awl
doing the finer parts of work in his front shop. Little
scarlet slipper fronts are lying there in half-dozens.
There the child had often sat on the low form to be
fitted with boot and shoe.- Now she has come on quite
another errand. Her mother had been long thinking
over what must be done on account of her self-will and
slow obedience. At length there was an outbreak.
Imperious accents had been heard behind the nursery
door; her maid had complained; and mamma had gravely
whispered that there were means of correction more
to be dreaded than her soft hand. So now she stands
with her white beaver pressed to the counter and hears
the order given for the tawae. Thereafter she went
morning by morning with nurse Kitty to see if it
was ready. Mr. Faimey could ill conceal his amuse-
meAt at the inquiry made in silence by these arch black
eyes peering up at him from below the counter. The
little figure was enveloped in a scarlet coat trimmed
with swansdown, made by her mother from the dress
uniform her father had worn in Holland, which had
long lain useless^ The tawse was placed in her
hands, and carried home; but straightway it was

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36 CHILDHOOD.

deposited by her in the slop-pail, where it had to
remain. For some time the admonitions which this
called forth secured obedience; but at length her
mother had to make one eflfort more to subdue her
spirit A strait-jacket of striped tick was made, blue
and white, and tied so as to render the little arms
powerless. She had been decidedly naughty, and being
made fast in the jacket, was left in the empty napery
room, without carpet or furniture. The linen presses,
which were said to contain a hundred table-cloths and a
thousand towels, stood high up round the walls, and a
well-filled ink-bottle, used for writing out the lists,
stood, with a pen, on the ledge. The shutters were
made fast, and the little prisoner paced up and down
in the darkness, untameable. The light which the
chinks admitted fell on the long curls, flushed fece, and
struggling shoulders of the beautiful child At last she
got a knot near enough to her mouth to loosen one end
with her teeth. Little by little, she freed first one
hand and then another; after which she climbed the
window-sill and unhooked a shutter. Revenge lay
with the ink-bottle. Down it was lifted, and once
more she paced the floor, darting a penful of ink in
every direction, till walls and floor bore the marks all
over. It happened to be her father who released her ;
and as his rule was not to punish, she went scot-firee.
Between step-grandmother and indulgent father, what
could a mother do ? But the child had no recollection
of any further attempt at restraint being required.
To her sister Amelia at Dalguise Mrs. Stewart had

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CHILDHOOD. 37

been accustomed to write every detail of her child's pro-
gress^ even firom infancy, as her little nephew Charles
was of the same age : —

" Decembefy 1804.— At a year and ten montha my little prl
has acquired some degree of pettedness and self-will, which, I
think, could have been preyented by a more sensible keeper, and
may still, I hope, be remedied without harsh means, if I can be
more with her.' I have great hopes that seeing other children
who are well managed may be of use to her also. She is
extremely quick, and has an excellent memory, with a sweet,
affectionate disposition ; not very merry, but disposed to talk and
be amused, with a good deal of infant fan in her. She can pro-
nounce all the letters except x and v."

** Her second birthday, 1805.— The self-will rather increases, but
she is merrier than before, loves to hear one talk, asks to have
the same story repeated, — for instance, about Noah*s ark. Her
understanding improves ; she goes to the garden for flowers ;
now spring comes, I shall be more with her there. She is fond of
hearing singing, and of bobbing up and down to any music of
drums, bells, &c At present she hides nothing from me. She
has been taught foolish little pieces of deceit by an old lady she
visits, such as offering imaginary things when she has nothing
in her hand, pretending to go to London, &c. I can do nothing
at present to counteract this. I showed her Adam and Eve, and
told her what fine flowers and fruit they had to take care of ; how
all the birds and beasts came round them ; and that the angels,
of whom she knew something from prints, came to visit them.
But unluckily I said ' came flying ;* so next time we were on the
subject she said, * Flying like a goose ? ' "

^ June, 1805. — I was obliged to whip her thrice in one day for
obstinately refusing to do what I bade her. She, however, tells
me distinctly that I will never whip her when she is a good
child. It is much better to amuse her into what is wanted of
her, without seeming to mind her ways. Talking on almost any
subject brings her round. The day after I whipped her, when
she was playing by herself, I heard her say to one of her imagin-
ary personages, ' What mamma bids must be done.' Yet it will

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88 CHILDHOOD.

require some time to get the better of her little gusts of passion.
She observes and asks the meaning of anything that passes in
company; not the smallest gesture^ word, object or noise, near
or at a distance, escapes her ; she is thus open to any impression
a good or bad companion would give.

" 16t^ September, 1805. — She likes much better to be decidedly
told what to do than to be allowed latitude. She gives freely of
whatever good things she gets ; has in reality no deceit, yet betrays
the natural propensity to disguise. Lately she wanted me not to
look at her doing something I had forbidden her to do ; she came
and bade me look to my own work or I shoidd prick my finger
with the needle. I quite expected her to add, * That you may
not see what I am doing.' This is the greatest instance of cun-
ning in her I have observed."

"2Qth June, 1807. — You will not complain of your pet's
height, dear Amelia, after hearing that^of mine. If my yard (not
an ell) is correct, she is three feet two-and-a-half inches, without
shoes and stockings ; so she is just an eighth taller than her
cousin James Oliphant, Gask. You wrote * long may they grow,*
which is in one way a needless wish, except for our Magpie. As
to most things you will find her like any other affectionate, playful
child, who has been much indulged ; her whole character may be
seen in one day. The simplicity of infancy is quite unimpaired
as yet. She sometimes does appear sullen, but only before
strangers. Instead of being like the man who, his wife com-
plained, hung up the violin at the outside of the door when he
came home, she takes it down there. Her memory is most
retentive, and she has the mind of a poet in miniature. She is
full of fun and humour, with, what I believe most children have,
a great sense of fitness of means to ends, and exactness in com-
paring things. She has great facility in getting poems by heart,
and in imitating tones and gestures. While I write she is per-
sonating Miss Hall, and teaching her school with no perceptible
difference in the accent. To a gentleman, who teased her yester-
day, she said gravely, * Kitty is away, and Miss N. is away, and I
will Twt give you my cat.* Keep this sheet and compare her with
it when we come. I fear she is a little spoiled ; of this you must
be judge. It comes from old women applauding every word and

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CHILDHOOD. 3&

action, and from maids not being clever enough for her. As to
her getting whatever she likes from her papa at meals, perhaps it
is of no consequence. He never praises or makes a fool of her, in
spite of the bewitching little ways she has with him, but enjoys
every little turn and word very much, when he can be with us,
which is seldom. When she saw a flame from a letter I had
thrown into the fire, she said, * Oh, mamma ! it was a pity to
bum that letter, since it was from Aunt Caroline (Lady Naime)/
When she asks who made us and gives us everything, I tell her ;
and she wanted to make a picture of Him to-day. I told her
about not doing that, and then she asked if she might make a
picture of King Qeorge. I said, ' Oh yes,' then she asked, ' Do
yon like King George better than God Almighty V I am often
sorry none of you are with me to enjoy her little prattle and
ways, as if you had not three of your own !**

Her aunt Caroline writes : —

" I came to Perth with Mr. Naime ; found my little niece
Margaret all that I expected ; never did see a finer looking child,
— ^very pretty and very intelligent. What a precious gift to her
mother !"

Her aunt Margaret (Mrs. Keith) also describes the
child in her journal at this time : —

" Little Margaret Stewart, Bonskeid, is very pretty, and clever
to an uncommon degree, which an only child is apt to appear,
people say. I find her decidedly so."

On the 9th April, 1808, Mrs. Steuart of Dalguise
died at Dunkeld, whither she had taken her children
for the winter to attend school The children took
measles; she caught the infection, and when seeming
to recover, sank from the after effects. Margaret went
with her mother to the house of mourning, and in her
record already quoted writes : —

" When we went to visit her bereaved husband and

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40 CHILDHOOD.

children at Dunkeld, where she died, except the black
frock, worn by Charles (my contemporary in age, and
fevourite cousin) I can remember nothing sad. I saw
the coffin ; but they covered it with green for me, and
it did not look funereal."

The event formed the crisis in the spiritual history of
Mrs. Stewart of Bonskeid. Recent intercourse with her
sister had been helpful to her ; but now she first came
into the light, and reflected it all around her. It was
for her child that the most tender proofe of this new love
were ever kept. Very lovely were the summer days of
1808, for the enjoyment of mother and child. " After
a cold, late spring," writes Mrs. Stewart, " the summer
was uncommonly fine, harvest very early, and mild
weather till the middle of November. Strawberries
and raspberries ripened of a second crop, many flowers
bloomed afresh, and a second brood of birds in some
places was hatched."

From first to last transparency was Margaret's
characteristic trait She never hid a secret from her
mother, whose heart was all intent to answer each fresh
demand for a new proof of love. Unsparing were
her eflbrts to keep her one jewel bright, and the inter-
change of confidence unbroken. Even at play there
must be truth to the letter. " Once while my mother
was playing with me," she wrote afterwards, "in the
dusk by firelight, in hiding a cork from her I placed it
where I thought it would lie concealed, but when she
came near the place, I said, * Oh, it would not be there.'
She did find it there, and from that time would not play

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CHILDHOOD. 41

that game with me. Another time as I lay fiat on a
board at my lessons with a hazel-nut in my mouth, she
said, ^Take that out of your mouth.' I removed it,
saying, 'There's nothing in my mouth.' I don't know
that I did mean more than play; but that nut was
found by me lyiug in her desk, when at sixteen I opened
it after her deat^L Only those two times in my life was
there a semblance of hidiag anything from her. She
inculcated the love of truth in a remarkable way. To
one very open and generally inclined to tell her my
every thought, there was perhaps little temptation to
the reverse. But ' the heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked,' and she had at times to say, 'I
think the glass is a little dim ; go away and get it made
clear : ' she meant that she could see into my heart just
as if there had been a window to look through.

" On the other hand, it was hard for me to learn the
reserve proper before strangers. One of my merriest
days was made dark by this before night. Sir William
and Lady Drummond were spending the summer with
their sisters at Logiealmond, after a long absence in
Italy where he was Minister at the Court of Naples.
Miss Maria, v^ho was not on such intimate terms as her
sisters with Lady Drummond, spent most of her time
studying and painting in her own room. After I had
passed the morning cutting out paper flowers and
painting them as she bade me, she took me a long walk
to look for wild-flowers for herself to paint. On the
way home she took me to the Italian valet's cottage,
to show me a pair of starlings. As we left. Miss Maria

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42 CHILDHOOD.

said in her firmest tones, 'Don't say we called here
to any one/ I meant to obey this order of one of
whom I stood in loving awe. But after dinner a bird
chanced to make a sound, and I exclaimed, ' Oh I you
cry like the starlings.' * What do you know of the
starlings V cried Lady Drummond. Then the secret
came out — ^there was silence. When we were alone
Miss Maria said to me, 'Margaret, you will be the
misery of thousands.' Sorrow was useless; in bed
I cried for my mother ; but I had learned a lesson.

" Another lesson I got in this way. Sometimes
I thought my evening dress was rather too plain, being
made only of white muslin, with tucks, while others
wore embroidery. One of these embroidered dresses
had been given me. My mother said such rich work
on the skirt would only be suitable to wear when I was
older. It had lain on the wardrobe shelf, as it seemed
to me, for a very long time. I was going out to a
children's party. My mother had not said what I should
wear. They were busy in the laundry, where I some-
times went to have a lesson; so I carried down my
dress, laid it on the table without unfolding it, and took
up the iron. Some one called me at the moment, and
off I ran. When I came back the iron had burned its
way through not one fold but eight, and my fine frock
was gone."

The old cook, Annie Gibb, who was long in their
service, used to relate her first experience of the little
girl, who showed her round the premises. " She tripped
downstairs with the store-room key, and we went in to

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CHILDHOOD. 43

get the supply of cooking butter. I scooped it out of
the large kit and heaped it on a plate. ' I think that
is too much/ said the child. ' Nay/ said L * Then had
not we better ask mamma, so as to know again ?' In
a moment the plate was balanced on her head, and she
walked with it slowly upstairs. I followed her and
lifted a large piece off, which was not fair in me. When
we got to her mamma she laid the plate down and put
her question. Mra Stewart said, * Oh ! that is not even
enough.' Disconcerted, the little housekeeper said,
' Indeed, mamma, downstairs I thought it did look
more.' "

One of the playmates of her childhood was George
Patton, afterwards Lord Justice-Clerk, Lord Glen-
almond. From their birth they had been next door
neighbours, and went to play in each other's gardens.
Margaret and he were once seen coming up the ancient
little flight of steps which led from the Tay to the
Watergate garden, where the two set about build-
ing an altar to Friendship, exchanging grave and
earnest looks as it rose under their chubby hands.
After George moved to Marshall Cottage across the
Tay, they were often rowed to each other's gardens on
either side the river.

Everybody was reading Scott's " Lady of the Lake "
when it came out in the summer of 1810, and she
learned many lines by heart. She was staying at Kin-
fauns with her mother, where it was being read aloud
to a company, many of whom did not know the ddnoue-
Toent, and was warned not even in a whisper to repeat

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44 CHILDHOOD.

the significant lines. At length she stealthily ap-
proached one of the party, and slipped under her
embroidery a folded piece of paper on which was
printed in large characters (she could not write) —

" And Snowdon's Knight is Scotland's king.'*

During that visit Lady Gray taught her on the Sab-
bath evenings to think of a Scripture character, to be
found out by twelve questions : — first, Which book ?
second, Man, woman, boy, or ^1 ? third. King, priest,
prophet, or private man ? fourth. Good, bad, or indiffer-
ent ? and eight other questions at discretion. To her
last year Mrs. Stewart Sandeman played thLs game
with children, but allowing more questions, and taking
in all the company. A basket of apples was often
brought out, to be eaten as we played, one being neatly
pared by each till the long red and yellow paring hung
down all in a piece, and was thrown into the fire.
" Crambo " always came next. This consisted in
repeating the verse of a hymn, and whoever was quick-
est in beginning another verse with the last letter of
the preceding verse vjent on with it. So many words
end with the letter e, that in that case we had the
option of the letter which preceded it

Margaret accompanied her mother to the English
chapel on Sabbath morning, and went in the afternoon
with her father to the old church of St. John's, where
Knox once preached. " One of my early recollections,"
she writes, " is that in the Prayer-book I still possess,
given me by my mother as having belonged to her

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CHILDHOOD. 45

dear father, Mr. Oliphant, the names of the reigning
family were C5arefully covered over by slips printed
with the name of * Charles/ one of whose aides-de-
camp Air. Oliphant of Gask had been. Why my
earliest sympathies and my most ardent feelings were
enlisted for George III., I know not. His sad illness
and his well-known goodness, it may be, had their
share ; but I was very ill employed in chapel in picking
off the * Charles ' to restore the * George.' My strong
and lifelong abiding predilection for Presbyterianism
was also soon to be formed. When I was five years of
age, Andrew Thomson was appointed to the East
Church, and his brother to the Middle Church, — ^their
father, then of Greyfriars', Edinburgh, conducting the
induction services for both. In the afternoon I was
always anxious to go with my father, and there, being
lifted upon the seat, I enjoyed greatly the services of
the pastor. I used to come home, and with a square
black handkerchief tied round me for a gown, recited,
in exact imitation of the fine, bold, musical voice of
Andrew Thomson,

" * Father of peace, and God of Love,
We own Thy power to save ! '

and bits of his sermons. He left for St. George's, Edin-
burgh, when I was seven years old ; and one book still
bears the memorial of my sad loss in a square bit of
paper, printed with the date 14th May, — ^the day, I
think, he left us. I went to hear the farewell sermon,
but did not lift my head all the time lest I should burst
into tears."

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46 CHILDHOOD.

The impression made on her young mind is shown
by lines written half-a-century after : —

'*To Andrew Thomson, my First Minister.

^ " His message —yet I feel its power,

His deep-toned voice I hear ;
And, Lord, I bless Thee for the hour
It fell on childhood's ear.

Five summers over me had smiled

When here he came to dwell ;
And my first sorrow as a child

Was his last sad farewell.

Yet, noble champion of the truth.

By grace, 'twas ne'er forgot ;
It led me on through early youth,

And fixed my happy lot.

Church in which that lot is cast,

Had he been left thee now,
How fair the wreath thy hand had placed

Around his honoured brow !

Thomson ! how full fair Scotland's crown

Of radiant gems like thee !
Then never for one hour laid down

Their testimony be ! "

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for a ?t^t^.'ii ; out rnv h- ■•.»».• it '.lie.:, 1 ..*' t l y '' "iv ■ 'hief, \^- -. .-h .il

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*? (■'

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CHAPTER III.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

WHEN she was eight years old a schookoom was
fitted up for her, not so much that her mind
might be brought to love books, for that
it did already, but rather that it might be disciplined.
One instance of her early avidity for reading she herself
records. "Before I was eight years old I had devoured
the twelve volumes of Rollings History." More than
one firiend was engaged in looking out for a companion
governess for her. Lady Gray of Kinfauns, under whose
roof she had often passed happy days, recommended a
Miss Clark, a young lady then under training ; but she
was not to be free till her pupil would be nearly nine
years old. Till then her mother continued to do her
best for her, and the journal of 1811 reveals much of
that mother's character. Her sense of the value of
redemption is thus expressed : —

'^ Alas ! what would mj condition be were the tidings of salva-
tion false. To Christ I cling for safety and for succour. He is
mj hope in this Hfe ; I rely on Him for comfort in death and
admission to never-ending felicity beyond the grave. Some there
are who imagine that departed spirits shall not see their Redeemer
for a season ; but my hope is that^ like the penitent thief, we shall

47

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48 MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

immediately on our departure hence be with the Lord in Paradise.
Such was the hope of my pious parents, who seemed while still
on earth to have their souls in heaven. Let me die as they did,

blessed God, full of joy and peace in believing."

*^July 1, 1811. — This week my dear husband has been attend-
ing families in the country, where a putrid fever prevails.
Hitherto, he and his family have mercifully been preserved for a
number of years past from being infected by his constant practice.
Glory to Thee, God, for so great a mercy."

" July 8. — I had a bunch of roses given to me as I was prepar-
ing to go to church, and their charming appearance and fragrance
raised my mind to .that paradise where we shall meet with roses
that can never fade. I am ready to say, How can anything be
sweeter or more engaging than this flower, till I recollect St.
Paul's account of these things hereafter to be o£fered to the senses
then fitted for the enjoyment of heaven, * which eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard.' blessed Jesus ! enable me to be more
zealous, and to serve Thee better, to do all I can to bring others
to love and obey Thy mild commands, and to show by my cheer-
ful alacrity in doing Thy will, that Thy yoke sits lightly upon
me."

" Sixth Sunday after Trinity, — Old age approaches ; the Autumn
of my life has arrived. How can I ever praise God for all the
mercies of nearly fifty years, in childhood and youth, and after
youth was past; how few evils, and how many blessings have
been my lot ! I cannot praise Him in any manner as I ought.

1 feel quite unable, while a mortal, to express my thankfulness ;
but I will praise Him through all eternity for the blessings I
have enjoyed here, — yet, oh ! how much more for making that
eternity mine by redemption ; though I cannot at present com-
prehend how it will be possible to praise my God and my Saviour
in a manner worthy of them. But as combustible substances
appear black and dead till set on fire, so will this poor lifeless
drowsy soul be lighted up and refined by the Holy Spirit, as soon
as I am admitted to these pure regions of ine£fable brightness and
glory. In my present probationary state, I ought to labourin
the vineyard to do all I can to show my obedience and love. It

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MOTHER AND DAUQHTEB. 49

is only while on earth we can be doing and working for our Qod
and Savioar, and, as I have heard it well remarked, If the
redeemed in heaven could grieve or have regret, it would be for
having done so little work for their Master while they were on
earth."

It was in August, 1811, that the newly-finished
mansion-house of Bonskeid was taken possession of by
Dr. and Mrs. Stewart Miss Margaret Oliphant had
devoted herself for four years to the C5are of her mother-
less niece and nephews of.Dalguise, but had now
married Mr. Keith of Dunnottar. The married pair
came to Perth on their way north. Mrs. Stewart writes
under date 4th August : —

** Mr. and Mrs. Keith in ChapeL There ia now a house ready
for our reception, beautifully situated, and every way desirable,
but for one objection, which will prevent my ever making a
request of my husband to live there — it is the great distance from
a place of public worship. Should we or our heirs ever at any
future period reside there, I hope they will make a point of
allotting part of the house for a chapel, or having one built so
near that they and their neighbours could constantly attend it.
This would be a public blessing. May He who has cast our lot
in pleasant places, and afforded us the means of living comfort-
ably, incline our hearts to glorify Him by living as in His sight,
and endeavouring to promote holiness in ourselves and others.
Amen."

At that time the parish churches of Moulin and of
Old Blair respectively were the nearest places of worship,
and the roads to them were not so good as they are
now. Her earnest wish for nearer places of worship has
been granted.

For the first time, little Margaret and her mother
walked down together from the Bridge of Garry to the

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50 MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

Falls of Tummel with the rest of the paxty. The new
path by the river from the Falls to the house was not
yet finished ; as their arrival was unexpected, the path
had to be cleared before them. These circumstances,
and the bewildering beauty of the scene so often
imagined and now first beheld by mother and by child,
made an indelible impression on the minds of both.
The new furniture also, lying at yet unpacked in
the newly finished rooms, and the appearance next
morning of men with saws and hatchets to dear
the birch thickets in firont of the drawing-room
windows, which opened down to the floor, and at which
the heather and ferns still looked in, made up tiie
marvel As the saws rasped and the branches fell, the
Tummel came in sight with all the varied beauty of the
hitherto unsuspected surroundings. It will be remem-
bered that the public rooms had been intended for
coach-houses ; thus the only requisite for their site was
that they should be hidden among the birches. Mrs.
Naime came and painted a picture of the house in oil
for her sister.

Strangers, too, began to discover the beauty of the
place. In November, 1813, Mrs. Brunton, the authoress,
describes it thus to Miss Joanna Baillie, to whom she
had dedicated her " Self-control " : —

^'Coillebhrochan (Bonskeid) is the wildest of all hnman habita-
tions. It stands npon the banks of the Tummel, about two miles
(Highland miles perhaps) above the Pass of Killiecrankie. Did
you ever see the Tummel ? It is the stream of my affection ! Of
all rivers it is the most truly Highland : an impetuous, melancholy,

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MOTHER AND DAUGHTER. 61

romantic stream, foaming among the fragments that have fallen
from mountains which seem to have been cleft for its couise.
Coillebhrochan has no lawns nor gardens near it, no paltry work
of man's device to fritter awaj the majesty of nature ! Fortun-
ately there is no room for such disfigurements ; for the site of
the house occupies the only level spot between a perpendicular
mountain and the river. The walks. are cut in solid rock, and,
sometimes approaching the brink of the precipice, show the
Tummel foaming far below! Sometimes they descend to the
very bed of the stream, and then wind up its perpendicular bank
to show the noblest mountain view imaginable. But still all is
deep solitude ; no trace appears of any living thing, except now
and then a roe springing from a thicket, or an eagle sailing down
the glen.

" The place was advertised as shooting quarters, which brought
some strangers where Lowland foot had seldom trod; but
none inclined to take up their rest there. An Englishman who
visited it the day before I was there, declared that he * would
rather have a grave opened and jump into it alive, than be buried
in such a frightful desert.' You cannot imagine with what con-
tempt the servants related this specimen of Lowland taste.
' I should lose at least one child a-day in those whirlpools,' said
the Englishman. 'Your honour would need to bring a large
family with you then for the sununer ! ' answered the forester."

The Sabbath after leaving Bonskeid, Mrs. Stewart
writes : —

" Morning text, * So teach us to number our days.* Afternoon —
have forgot the text. I fear my thoughts are too much engrossed
by the new scenes I have been visiting. I have been thinking
much about the necessity of erecting a chapel on the grounds at
Bonskeid, and I am not without hopes it may some time or other
be put in execution.

"Besides her regular lessons, I have finished reading with
Margaret, Lindley Murray's book for young persons, entitled,
' The Power of Religion on the Mind in Retirement, Affliction,
and at the Hour of Death, exemplified in the testimonies and

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52 MOTHEB AND DAUGHTER.

experience of persons distinguished by their greatness, learning,
and virtue, — 11th edition. The characters of Josias Hanway,
Anthony Benezet, John Howard, and James Beattie I wish to
read at length ; the others, many of them, occur in history. Rachel
Oliphant writes that Chappones' Letters, which I sent her, have
been very useful to her, especially the chapter on Temper. I hear
from her boarding mistresses, Panon and Brodbelt, Queen's
Square, Bloomsbury, that she gives them much pleasure.'*

^^ October, 1811. — I have been with Margaret this week in a
family where nothing was wanting but signs of religion. In some
of the members I know it exists, but they do not choose to show
that they differ from those members of it, who, I fear, have none.
But while I blame them I do not vindicate myself ; on the contrary,
I will^all my life regret the cowardice I showed in allowing my
child, contrary to my own conviction and to general prohibition,
to read one of the many volumes of novels that were in all
comers. In this point I betrayed my trust as the guardian of
her education. May I be enabled henceforth to be more steady,
and may her taste be formed to what is excellent, not to what is
vile and refuse, in her intellectual amusements, by a better
Guardian than me. Alas ! what should I do if I did not think
myself permitted on all occasions to apply for help and direction
to my Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier ; though I cannot compre-
hend how the Lord of lords and King of kings should vouchsafe
to listen to the voice of so mean and unworthy a creature, who,
though deeply convinced of that meanness and unworthiness,
can yet feel proud and vain thoughts arise within me."

*^ December 28. — ^Finished reading new edition of 'Fn^ments in
Prose and Verse,' by Elizabeth Smyth, portions of Elopstock's
Letters translated in it, a good book for Margaret by-and-bye.
Also 'Friendly Instructor, or Familiar Conversations for Young
People,' by P. Doddridge, a very good little book for children
between eight or ten and fourteen.

'^ Mr. Skeete preached from, ' For the eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous.' When expatiating on the eyes of the Lord being in
every place, preserving Daniel from the lions, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego in the fiery furnace, I could not forbear thinking of

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MOTHER AND DAUGHTEB. 53

the many proyidentdal escapes I have myself experienced, and hov
narrowly my child has several times escaped from danger ; more
particularly on the 21st of Jane this year. Qlory to Thee, O
Lord ! for all Thy mercies. As she was ronning across the room,
through a conntiy-danoe, she tripped a peiaon's foot, who fell
oyer her ; a glass tumbler she had in her hand was broken to
pieces under her, yet she was not hurt or cut, nor any one
else."

'' January^ 1812. — Margaret wrote as follows, and showed it to
me (I had been displeased with her to-day for a little) : * O Lord
Almighty ! I thank Thee for all Thy mercies to me and all men.
I confess to Thee that I am a sinner ; forgive me all my sins,
especially disobedience to my parents' (I cannot accuse her of
that) ; ' grant that I may never do so again. Bless my dear father
and mother ; bless our gracious king ; and, if it be Thy will,
alleviate his sufferings in this life, and grant he may go to
heaven at last, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.' She has
asked me to give her a plain dish for dinner on the general
fast-day (for the king), and I shall be glad if she imposes little
acts of self-denial on herself from time to time, in the way of
eating as well as other things. Denying the appetite its cravings
helps to subdue the wilL"

Miss Clark had now entered on her duties with her
pupiL Lists of books are preserved as having been
selected for the schoolroom library for the child of nine
years old, as well as for the studies of her governess.
These studies were scarcely begun when Margaret had
whooping-cough so severely as to be considered in
danger. Her mother having left her on one occasion to
go to chapel, writes : " Text — ' Train up a child,' &c.
Though my child was absent, the sermon encouraged
me throughout I have great reason to hope that the
instructions I have endeavoured to give her, through the
blessing of God, will not be like seed thrown upon stony

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64 MOTHEB AND DAUGHTEB.

places, but that they will spring up, and bear fruit
abundantly."

The summer of 1812 was spent with the Keiths at
Ravelston, where Margaret recovered. Till she went to
school, her visits there were frequent, as well as to her
uncles and cousins at Dalguise and Gask, Sir George and
Lady Stewart at Murthly, Major and Mrs. Naime at
Holyrood, and to the Misses Drummond at Logiealmond.
The schoolroom work went on during all these visits.

*^8ept&mher 2, 1812. — Staid in the vestry till the afternoon.
Mrs. Buckle and her daughters, Jane and Frances, were with me,
on their way to Murthly. Mrs. Buckle, whose opinion I rely on,
approved of the way in which Margaret has hitherto been brought
up, advised me to check skilfully any tendency to pertinacity, to
which being allowed to join in conversation may lead ; admired
Dr. Stewart's great attention to everything and every one ; hoped
M. might yet be of use to bring about an interest in spiritual
things. She thought me not cheerful and complacent enough,
and dwelt on the duty of showing cheerfulness, inwardly realised,
in the countenance at all times. Probably her husband Mr.
Buckle's great usefulness, as in the case of my sister, is increased
by this."

A passage out of Lady Naime's life explains the
allusion : —

^ Some time before, Caroline was on a visit to the old castle of
Murthly, where Mr. Buckle had also arrived. He was a winner
of souls. At morning worship she was in her place with the
household, and listened to what God's ambassador said on the
promise, ' Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.'
Faith grasped it. From that hour she never had one doubt of
God's love to her in Christ.

'< But that afternoon she was seen no more. Her fair face was
spoiled with weeping when she again appeared. Her eye had
caught the glory of the Son of God, and burned with love to Him

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MOTHER AND DAUGHTER. 65

of whom she henceforth could say, ' Whose I am, and whom I
serve.' Her pen, her pencil, her harp, as afterwards her coronet,
were laid at His feet, to be henceforth used, used up by and for the
King."*

Immediately following the last entry are these lines
from Mrs. Stewart's pen : —

" My birth appointed was above.
And still I prove my Maker's love,
Year after year as on I move.
O'er me are Spring and Summer gone.
Life's Autumn now comes stealing on.
In health and ease the years have fled
Peaceful and silent o'er my head.
Hope's purple pinions onward fly.
And Faith, assuring bliss on high.
Now holy Charity my heart enfold.
Transform, subdue, and turn its lead to gold.''

Mrs. Stewart writes thus of a severe illness from
January to June, 1813 : —

" I thought I was going to leave this world for a better. How
earnestly did I then lament having failed in duty, and having
been gidlty of sin, and how firmly did I resolve, by Qod's gra-
cious assistance, to be more circumspect for the future. It pleased
TTim graciously to restore me the use of my limbs, and to raise
me up again."

Miss Clark, the governess, lived to a great age. In a
last interview with her, she was asked if she could
explain by anything in Margaret's youth, the venture-
someness and confidence which characterised Mrs.
Stewart Sandeman in speaking and writing regarding
eternal things to people with whom she had scarcely —
as others might think — a, right to make free. ** I came,"

♦ From "TheSoulgatherer."

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5'6 MOTHER ANB BAUGHTER.

she replied, " a girl in my teens, chosen, I often felt,
chiefly to make the old house merry for the little girl.
I could not make out how, even after Mrs. Stewart's
long illness the year after I came, her maid always
knocked at twelve to wheel her from the drawiug-room
to her cheerless room upon the courts Just as she lay
by the open window, delighting in the sunshine, the
apple-blossom, and the flowers in the garden sloping
to the river, with Margaret reading to her, she would be
wheeled away. No one must knock at her door till
one o'clock came; whatever the rank of the visitors,
only my pupil and I could receive them. At last I
said to her, 'Do you mind my asking why you are
taken away every day out of the sunshine into that
dark room?' She answered so kindly, 'Shall I tell
you ? All that hour I am asking one thing before all
from my God — that He will make Margaret His own
child. After that, I ask that, when she shall know
Him, each descendant to the end of time may know
Him too, and that every person to whose spiritual wel-
fare she shall devote herself shall be blessed with the
knowledge of Christ.' " Miss Clark and her pupil had
been startled and impressed by an incident during that
illness. Margaret had slipped into her room in the
morning to ask how she did. Her touch awoke her
mother, who opened her eyes, saying, before she well
remembered to whom, "What a disappointment! I
thought my Lord had come for me." She did indeed
walk with God ; did not yet see the child's hand clasped
in His ; knew she must leave her in the whirl of the

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MOTHER AND DAUGHTER. 57

world's throng; but, nothing daunted, shut herself in
to prayer. She spent the summer at St. Andrews,
Eonghom, and Bavelston, and returning to her home,
where Margaret was with her father, wrote : —

" September 2, 1813. — ^To my great joy I found my dear child
much improved, attached to her governess, and her temper sweet
and docile. Praised be Thy name, O Lord ! At St Andrews
studied and extracted from Paley's sermons ; also those of Dr.
Brown, Marischal College, Aberdeen ; and Scott's ' Bokeby.'
Also ' Calvary,' by Cumberland, and admired some of it much ;
also * Philemon,' a poem by Professor Brown, Aberdeen — most of
it well worth reading. Glanced over Parson's ' Voyage Bound the
World;* also Mrs. Graeme's 'Residence in India,' at Calcutta,
Bombay, Madras, &c. I have been giving lessons to a little girl
of nine, Helen Livingstone. Also studying BobVs ' Addresses
to the Young,' and Mrs. Hamilton's exercises. Perceval's account
of Ceylon is interesting."

^July 17, 1813. —Bead Gisboume's 'Walks in a Forest,'
Coutf s Sermons, Parson's * Travels in Asia and Africa ;* now
we are reading Herxiot's account of part of America, with very
pretty engravings."

On the steps before the rails of the Communion table,
answering in turn with Margaret the questions of the
Catechism, stood another girl of the same age : it was
Margaret Sandeman from Springland. The family were
patients of her father, and well acquainted with her
mother, but the girls first met on the chapel steps.
Mrs. Stewart chose her as her child's chief companion,
and from that time her Saturdays were oftenest spent
at Springland.

''It was during my recovery from scarlatina,"
Margaret wrote, "and while still confined to bed, for
I had it severely, that my mother first read to me

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68 MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

Milton's 'Paradise Lost/ from the edition of 1782,
which bore the inscription, * From Lady Harriet Naime
to Marjory Oliphant, 1784.' It was one of her feiyouiite
books, and she gave me that copy* I heard it with the
relish of an imaginative mind"

Before that the Iliad had been read in translation
till much of it was got by heart, and Eollin's Ancient
History was gone over several times.

During the war with France, Perth was one of the
principal stations for the French prisoners, who, landing
at Dundee, were marched up to the dep6t at the top of
the South Inch, afterwards enlarged into the great
General Prison for Scotland. Once a week the prisoners
were allowed to appear at their gratings to sell the neat
workmanship of their leisure hours. Margaret never
missed an opportunity of going with her governess to
this weekly sale ; the fauces of these brave men, their
politeness, and their gratitude for the purchases made,
were remembered by her, long after the fragile workman-
ship, dexterously and curiously displayed on boxes,
needle-books, yard-measures, silk-winders, made of
straw, painted, split, and diced, had disappeared from her
treasures. For this her sixpences were hoarded.
Gentlemen and ladies came for the costly articles, such
as models of a man-of-war in wood and ivory.

Interruption came to all the work of Perth, whether
to old or young, by the snow-storm which ushered in
the year 1814 — ^the last year of the French sojourn in
British prisons. Mrs. Stewart's journal records its
length and devastation. After copying into her book

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MOTHER AND DAUOHTEB. 69

Southey's " New Year's Ode," she writes the following,
including extracts from the newspaper :—

''The year began with £rost, which increased in Beverity for
three weeks. Thaw commenced January 25tlL The snow-storm
was so severe in England that four London mails were due that
day. The river Tay was frozen as feu: down as Newburgh, the
first time since 1740. People walked over the strange white
pavement to and from market, and Margaret could slide and
run from her garden door on the frozen river to her friend at
Springland. The 12th February was the most memorable
day, and one of general peril and alarm. The ice of the river
Almond had 3delded to the rise of the waters and appeared in
the Tay. The broken ice from the upper rivers arrived soon
after. Guns stood ready to be used in breaking up the ice to save
the bridge. About three o'clock the ice above the bridge began
to move, and, breaking against the piers, was carried down
through the arches. The force of the water, however, was not
sufficient to burst asunder the massy sheet, which extended from
the Barrack-ground to the opposite shore, until six o'clock, when
it rose, and began its motion with slow and quiet majesty. Those
who stood on the banks around gazed on this magnificent launch
of Nature's hand. But the sublimity of the spectacle soon
acquired much of the terrific. The ice farther down did not give
way ; a mile below, its solidity defied all the action of the water.
The blocks, wedged together, did great injury to shipping. Above
the bridge the river rose, covered the North Inch, upon which
masses of ice rested, and filled the sunk flats of the houses. The
moon rose on the High Street, half-flooded, and on the boats
C&rrying passengers to the houses in Canal Street and the South
Inch. The French prisoners suffered neither inconvenience nor
fear, standing high above the dreaded river, and underneath the
eminence from which the Bomans exclaimed, * Behold the Tiber.' "•

" September 18, 1815. — ^An annual meeting of a Society formed
for the purpose of educating poor children of Highland parents.
There was a dinner conducted with sobriety, and a ball in the
evening, the young women neatly and decently dressed, and
remarkable for good behaviour. They were the daughters and

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60 MOTHEB AND DAUGHTER.

connections of the sabscribers to the Institution. Dr. Stewart,
the president and director, asked if I would allow Margaret to go
to see the balL After a few moments' reflection, I answered
I would much rather not, and he was so good as not to desire it
I trust I will be enabled next year also to prevent her attending,
and that her own wishes will not be for it, as they are at present
Enable her, O Lord, in heart and mind to renounce the vanities
of the world. Though there were nothing against balls but their
preventing private and flEunily worship, that should be sufficient
to keep us from them."

" 1816. — The spring this year was late and very cold. Not an
oak leaf was out on the 29th of May. A sudden summer
followed, with great garden luxuriance. The take of salmon was
extraordinary ; during twenty-four hours from the morning of
August 12, the tacksman is said to have made £500. . This turned
out well for the weavers of Perth, among whom money was so
scarce at that time. Salmon was sold at 4d. per pound, and other
things cheap in proportion."

Mrs. Stewart writes : —

" December, 1816. — My dear child has this month had measles,
and happily recovered of them though severely iU. Let us be
thankful to the Father of Mercies for preserving her, and pray
earnestly that she may become a true and faithful disciple of the
blessed Jesus, and, the longer she lives, be the better prepared for
entering into the glorious inheritance He has purchased for His
servants by His blood."

These weeks of seclusion were long looked back to by
Margaret as having been weeks of reading aloud to her
by her mother and Miss Davidson, Scott's poetry being
all read through again as the lighter portion. In 1817
Mrs. Stewart went for the summer to Seafield, Ravel-
ston, and Holyrood House. These proved to be her last
visits to her sisters. She returned home, and wrote: —

^^ September 5. — In my absence I have read two volumes by

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MOTHER AND DAUGHTER. 61

Bev. Dr. Thomson, Edinburgli ; two by Sumner — a prize book on
the Evidences of Christianity ; Biddulph on the Litmgy ; volumes
by Gisboume, Sturm, and James, of Edinburgh ; the lives of
Williams, Doddridge, and Kirke White, &c &c. I am now
leading Sir Henry Moncrieff's Sermons. They are evangelical,
practical, and highly usefuL"

In 1818 we find her reading through Leighton's
Works, Milner's Church History, and " Redemption," a
poem by Walworth. With this her journal ends.

From the time of Mrs. Stewart's marriage, and until
Margaret was thirteen, a single knock was heard daily
at the same hour at the door of their dwelling. As
soon as she became tall enough to reach up and turn
the handle, the child was often the first to open the
door. The welcome visitor was Mr. Henry Naime, with
cocked hat, high gold-headed cane, and hair in the
queue worn in France. Tall, erect, with aristocratic
mien, he brought good cheer whenever he came. There
was somewhat of sadness imderneath, but it was kept
hidden. From the night he left, Culloden with the
Prince till that on which he stood by his dying pillow
at Rome, he was seldom absent firom him. He remained
in France till the last of the exiles had returned. His
stories of the past were inexhaustible. On a wet or
dull afternoon he would carry oflf his little listener with
him in fancy to sunnier climes. They would wander
among the gay flower-plots of Sancerre, which were still
his, although he had been obliged to sell the house to
which they belonged. Then he would lead her round
the comer of the stiff hedge to the quiet spot where his
father, Lord Nairae, his sister, and his brother had been

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62 MOTHER AND DAUGHTER

laid. Again he would repeat to mother and daughter
the oft-told tale of his escape with Prince Charies
Edward to France, and of the other time when he took
ship to Holland from Arbroath. On that occasion he had
adcompanied his father. Lord Naime, Laurence Oli-
phant, younger of Gask, the Rev. Mr. Maitland, Mr. W.
Drummond of Strathallan, and Mr. Graham of Garvock.
It took them five days to reach Amsterdam. He would
tell of their entertainment by the governor there ; of
the long cold journey in open carriages to Gothenburg ;
of the great reception, when Lord Naime gave a ball to
the ladies, which was attended by the principal families ;
of the dinner which preceded it, where one dish was a
wild turkey with twelve blackbirds round it, another,
two pickled geese, two hares, &c. Mr. Henry Naime
was poor ; the fifty Louis d'or allowed him annually by
Louis XV. had been chiefly used to pay his fathers
debts. He now lived in an apartment, on the third
storey, in St. John Street, from which he would descend
on Margaret's birthday, dressed in full court costume of
dark green satin, and carrying a parcel of bon-bons for
her.

In summer time another visitor often joined them,
Colonel CoUyear Robertson, Mrs. Stewart's uncle. He
still passed the winter months in London, where he was
often consulted by army men on account of his well-
known skill in military tactics. His other portfolio he
could more fitly bring to interest the little grand-niece
in the Watergate. This contained plans he had drawn
of the interior of the Ark, with all the measurements of

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MOTHER AND DAUGHTER. 63

the space required for all the animals which could have
been within it. After years of labour spent in this, he
was able by it to answer the objections of some sceptical
friends against the truth of that part of the Old Testa-
ment narrative.

These two aged men, who had passed through such
very "Varied scenes in life, engaged in learned con-
verse with the lovely eager listener seated at their feet,
formed a group which none who saw them could easily
forget

After Waterloo, Margaret wrote, at twelve years old,
these her first lines, on hearing in the garden by the
Tay the sound of the guns fired firom Edinburgh Castle
for the victory : —

"For the Forty-Second going into Battle.

" See a martial band advance
"With uplifted sword and lance !
Hark ! in stirring sounds they sing :
* Praise the Lord, of armies King.

In the battle's fiercest rage,

Where our bravest foes engage,

There may all the nations see

That we put. our trust in Thee.

And when Peace propitious smiles

O'er our mountains, rocks, and isles,

Grant then, Lord, that it may be

Still remembered 'twas from Thee.

When our country calls us home,

When to Scotia's land we come,

When our friends, our nation, hail.

Hear us tell the wondrous tale.

Still may this our chorus be,

'Twas the God of Hosts— 'twas He.' "

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CHAPTER IV.

SCHOOL.

AT fifteen, she went to school at Newcastle. Mrs.
Stewart's strength had been declining; she only
thought of her child's good, and never of herself,
else she could not have parted with her. " I left my
mother," writes Margaret, "without solicitude. Mar-
garet Sandeman promised to spend some hours with
her almost every day; and each of her sisters and
brothers would also do their part, besides my cousins
and their many Mends." Her parents had planned
that she should spend two years at school The travel-
ling chest had been ordered long beforehand ; it is still
preserved, full of keepsakes of herself, with its brown
leather cover, and brass nails set in patterns on the top.
Smaller preparations being completed, her father set
out with her on the coach journey to Edinburgh. They
rested at Holyrood with his sister-in-law and her husband,
Mrs. and Major Nairne, whose only child William was
now ten years old. The mother was then in the midst
of her anonymous song- writing, still undiscovered, but in
later years to be known as the authoress ©f the " Lays
from Stratheam." Next day brought them to Newcastle.
64 .

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SCHOOL. 65

"I was specially committed," writes Margaret, ''to the chaige
of Miss Smith (a lady without any earthly ties, who resided
in the houseX a devoted saint, who had just heen the means
of the conversion of her friend Miss Kemp, the talented and
dignified head of the Seminary. The powerful intellect and
proud spirit of the latter had bowed at the foot of the Cross. She
had been governess in Lord Barham's family to Baptist Noel's
sisters, and though not then a Christian, her defence of the
Sabbath had been made of use to her young pupils. Regarding
Miss Smith there was a mystery. None of us knew where she
had been brought up, or who she was. Her God had separated
her to the work of winning souls, and she stood as a mother to
the girls, not only while under Miss Kemp's roof, but always
after. My mother's highest aim was to see me the subject of
converting grace. I found on arrival, in a blue silk pocket-book,
or rather letter-case she had sewed for me, lines, most of which
have for long years escaped my memory —

" 'Dearest child, we give thee up,

But not to chance or fate ;
My Lord and Saviour is thy God,

Who shall secure thy state.
« « « » »

And to our arms thou shalt return

Again a child of God/ "

Mrs. Stewart Sandeman's recollections of those times
when God began to call her to Himself, and to fit her
for His service, were, like everything else in her ex-
perience, remarkably vivid. On the second Saturday
morning, when she was passing from the dressing-room
on her way out to spend the day at Frances Feather-
stone's (a fellow-pupil), Miss Smith met her on the
landing. Those whose life is one long act of kindness
to others can aflford to make a startling and pungent
remark when they see it is called for. Her words were :
" Miss Stewart, do you know that you must either be a

F

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66 SCHOOL.

child of God or a child of Satan ? " The girl was soon
out of sight ; but the words went with her.

"The arrow was winged from GocPs quiver, and it sank deep,
deep into my souL Conviction, rising higher it might be, or
sometimes lapsing into a deep uneasiness, a rankling sore within,
remained there for many years. My studies engrossed me.
Painting was the amusement; music, including thorough-
bass, employed two hours a-day. I occupied a coiner of Miss
Kemp's room — my mother's condition on my going there. The
girls thought I ^ould tell her whatever they told me, so the
side-stream of gossip had no chance of taking me in. I got the
first medal ; and it was to please my mother I toiled for it, to
think of the joy of her seeing the blue ribbon with it round my
neck Alas ! it was to her death-bed I carried it, though there
it gained the same sunny smile. Confirmation was to me a
heavy task. The examination was to be conducted from a printed
series of questions by a minister known and seen to be intem-
perate. He was clever, and preached weU ; and I prided myself
on my notes, written out before Sunday night from memory. One
night when I had read with great satisfaction my slateful. Miss
Kemp said, * Reach me down "Cooper." ' It was almost word for
word ; he had read the sermon from print. This clergyman was
supplemented by one supposed to be more serious ; but it was all
sad enough ; and the only relief I remember to have had was
when one evening at our prayer meeting the hymn was sung : —

" ' Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched.'

This I felt was enough for me, if Jesus were to do all this in me.
But the impression passed away. Once, the next morning
I think, as I was singing with some degree of appropriation :

" * One thing I know, all praise to Thee—
I once was blind, but now I see * —

I was surprised by my beloved Miss Smith resting her hands
on my shoulders, and asking me if I could say that But I began
to work again for salvation. I said hymn after hymn on Sabbath
evening in my turn ; my stock never became exhausted while
my two years there lasted. I read by the hour, as we all did,

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SCHOOL. 67

some book of divinity. Mine were Boston's 'Fourfold State
(miserable enough was I when I found the second book descrip-
tive of myself) and Venn's 'New Duty of Man.' We each
gave a digest when the book was closed. They forbade me paper
to write down my own verses; so I walked up and down the
dark schoolroom, trying to learn them by rote, and fix them so.
Still, the 'stricken deer' would seek during the holidays, at
Benton Lodge, in the green fields, a place to be alone, reading
Cowper's poems and suchlike. Satan had cast in his poisonous
darts of scepticism. A remark of Chalmers in his 'Astronomical
Discourses,' where he proposes to answer an infidel doubt, had
stuck in my mind regarding the smallness of the world, of this
little planet, and hence its insignificance in comparison with the
universe ; now it fixed itself deeper. I have thought I would
give anything could I but prove to demonstration Bible truth ;
and this fiery trial remained with me more or less till many
years after, when Jesus took possession of my heart

'' Walking in these fields, I read these lines of Cowper in large
print :

" * Legible only by the light they give

Stand the soul-quickening wordis, "Believe and live !" '

and prayed to make them my own. A young companion was
awakened at school, and soon found Jesus ; but I remained as
I was, playing the piano for the others at their prayer meetings,
and learning even by heart their chorus too :

< ' ' Buried in soirow and in sin,
At hell's dark door we lay ;
But we are raised, by grace divine,
To see a heavenly day.

Glory, honour, praise, and power
Be unto the Idunb for ever I
Jesus Christ is our Kedeemer,
HaUelujah 1 Praise the Lord I '

'' When I had been fifteen months at Newcastle, I had a letter
from my mother, saying that, as the holidays began in three
weeks, tiie places were already taken for my father's journey and
our return home. She hoped we should meet happily, * unless

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68 SCHOOL.

one of us should be suddenly called to a better world.' A
shadow crossed mj spirit : she was not so weU as usual,
I thought. But youth soon disperses shadows."

Margaret wrote to her father : —

«22n<2Afay, 1819.

My Dear Papa, — I received with very great pleasure your
affectionate note. I owe much to your kindness in coming for
me, and not in this alone but in every instance of it which
I have experienced since I was bom. I trust I shall be enabled to
repay in some way the sacrifice which you and Mamma have made
for my improvement. Many thanks for the money which is
designed for me. Miss Kemp will without doubt send the
receipt. I hope Miss Kemp and Miss Smith will go to Scotland
next year in the holidays. I have told Mamma about our draw-
ing master's intended visit to Scotland, and hope you will be
able to give him some information about inns. I hope he can
see the walks at Bonskeid, though Sir David Wedderbum is
there. I wish he may see it. — I remain, dear Papa, your affec-
tionate Daughter, M. Stewart.

" P.8, — Miss Kemp desires me to give her compliments to you
and Mamma, and to say that she hopes you will sleep here while
in Newcastle, as on Thursday she will have an empty house."

Before the three weeks had run out her father came
for her ; the journal continues : —

" One day, unexpectedly, my father arrived to fetch me, saying
she was not well, but concealing the sad reality that she was
within a few days of her journey's end. I gathered as much,
however ; and on the road home that word came with crushing
power, * In the world ye shall have tribulation.' "

No shadow; however, hung over the sick-room towards
which the child was travelling. Eagerly the dying
mother looked for her return. Her sister Caroline,
Lady Nairne, who had taken charge at her niece's

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%

SCHOOL. 69

birth, had now again been some time watching over
her sister in the altered scene. Christie, the same
little maid whom Mrs. Stewart had chosen some years
before and had taken exceeding pains in training, was
now repaying her mistress by minute and thoughtful
attention. Mrs. Stewart asked if a water-colour of
Bonskeid,* which Mr. Douglas, one of her friend,
was finishing, had not arrived It had ; but they had
not ventured to bring it in at such a time. "Bring
it and hang it opposite my bed," she said ; and to it
her eyes were always turning until they closed for
ever.

Mrs. M' Vicar, an intimate friend, came to take leave
of her. To her she said, "I have no pain — ^nothing,
only constant fever, — and but one unanswered prayer.
I have one little idol, too, that I have found it difficult
to give up, but I have committed her to good hands.
I have pleasure in * the well-ordered Covenant' "

Afterwards she asked her maid to bring the store-
room key for Miss Stewart When it was brought she
said, " You would not give it her in that state ? " and
sent it to be brightened. So this chamber, where the
command had been so often obeyed, " Enter into thy
closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy
Father," was now the scene of that open reward which
is never withheld.

Into that room, in her thirty-seventh year, — -just
twenty years before, she had come a bride from Gask.
She was then a duty-doer, a keeper of Church festivals,

* Engraved as a vignette to this volume.

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70 SCHOOL.

accustomed to record the text of each sermon she
heard, observing all that had been enforced by the
chaplain of her childhood, Mr. Maitland, — one of the
nonjuring clergymen. In that room, during nine years,
she had dressed for the ball and the theatre, going with
her husband wherever he led the way. Converse with
her sister, Amelia, at Dalguise, had indeed begun to
show her that there was more of heaven to be had on
earth than she weened : even the Saviour's hand to be
caught and held. Mrs. Hannah More's tracts had let
in further light. But it was only when she lost that
sister, and confronted death undisguised among her
weeping children, that she perceived and welcomed her
own share in the finished redemption. There, in the
motherless home at Dalguise, she had stood forth in the
light of God's grace. The dedication of her own child,
now five years old, to the Redeemer, was then made in
a new way, and had been lived out since, not only in
great things but in small.

The carriage with its two occupants arrived.

"At five o'clock,'* writes Margaret, " I entered my home. She
was now only listening for my voice. There, close beside her, lay
the store-room key for me, and already, to another room prepared
for him, she had sent my father's pillow. Her soul was at rest on
Jesus' bosom. Aunt Caroline, as she sat with her that long day,
thought once she saw the Saviour's glory come for her sister.
When I entered she kissed me, and touched what she saw hanging
on my neck — the silver medal. She would let none but me read
the Bible to her. After I had repeated ' My Qod the spring of all
my joys,' she asked for Hhe comforting hymn.' At each one
I tried she shook her head, until ' There is a fountain filled with
blood' brought the sign of assent. But a mother's love and a

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SCHOOL. 71

believer's faith were fast merging in the love of Jesus and the
fruition of glory. Her last words were from the hymn beginning,
* The hour of my departure 's come.* A short straggle ; Dr. Wood
said, * Take Miss Stewart away ; ' and I was left desolate indeed."

The following letter lay written to her daughter : —

^ Mt Deabest Mabgabet,— Look up with the eye of faith and
rejoice in the happy change.

« Whether I am suddenly called away off the stage of life, or
leave it by some lingering disorder, I am endeavouring to be in
a fit frame of mind for my departure, so that I hope to be found
watching when my Lord comes. It may, however, be the will
of God that my disorder may be such that I shall have no recol-
lection at the time, or be deprived of speech and unable to express
my feelings. It is, therefore, a satisfaction I wish to give you and
other dear friends, that I trust I shall die reconciled to Qod. by
the death and resurrection of my Saviour ; that is the only plea
I can make for pardon and acceptance — ^by free grace I am saved ;
and blessed be the Divine Spirit that gives me an earnest of the
glory that shall be revealed.

" If Mr. Skeete, or whoever is clergyman, thinks of endeavour-
ing to benefit the congregation of the English chapel by a sermon
on death the Sunday after the interment of my poor remains,
perhaps he will have no objection to take for his text the first
verse of. the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians — * For we know
that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of Grod, an house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens.' The apostle does not assert this as hoping only
for the accomplishment, but as if he saw and knew it as confi-
dently as any matter of fact on earth ; and not only for himself,
but for those he was addressing. * We hnow, &c. I hope that a
truly evangelical sermon will be preached and blessed to the
hearers, whatever the text may be.

" You know I was keen about a crimson pulpit-cloth, in-
stead of any cover that might be intended for our pew, but
when the other repairs take place the Vestry may perhaps think
of that. A copy of the Homilies is in every chapel in England,

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72 SCHOOL.

Mr. Skeete says, and surely they can afford one here. Thus
far written (but begun some weeks ago). — 2nd December^ 1816,"

A June day lent its light, early and late, to the large
funeral, for the eight-and-thirty miles to the old church
at Blair.

The summer holidays were spent in retirement by
the young mourner. Besides the irreparable loss of her
mother she lost two of her kindest friends in 1819 —
her grand-uncle, Colonel Collyear Kobertson, and her
uncle-in-law, Mr. Keith of Dunnottar, who never lost
an opportimity of giving tangible proof of his affection
for her and her lamented mother.

His widow lefb Ravelston, carrying in her hand a
farewell written to her once happy abode by her niece,
Margaret Stewart of Bonykeid, beginning —

" That lovely wood, that swelling hOl,
I now, alas ! must leave ;
But 'tis my heavenly Father's will.
And I no longer grieve."

Among her mother's papers Margaret found a volume,
containing, besides the journals from which many
extracts have been copied into these pages, the follow-
ing: " Unconnected hints and instructions for my dear
child, as they occur to my mind. Begun April, 1812."

<* It gives me much pleasure to see that her late disorder has
inclined her to increased carefulness about religion— that is, mak-
ing the proper improvement of it — ^and in the same manner
I hope every illness or affliction will be the means of spiritual
good.

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SCHOOL. 73

« She asked me lately if I would wish her not to go to baUs.
Though I would not say I hoped she would not, which might haye
entirely prevented her, as she tries in everything to act up to my
wishes, yet as I have not had her taught to dance, it will show her
that I do not wish her to show herself off, if she should at any
time be desired to go. Without excelling in dancing, and without
being adorned to attract admiration, her going will not have so
many bad consequences as is commonly the case. Another most
important objection remains, and that is the impossibility of
attending to the duty of evening devotion immediately before
or after even the simple preparations she would be obliged to make
for going to a balL Her dress, indeed, might be the same as at
home, but would not her thoughts be abroad ? and of course her
prayer would be an empty form. Another form would be
repeated, and with as little recollection next day, for the morning
would be passed in bed, breakfast would be late, and so all the
employments of the day would be in some degree deranged. This,
at the most moderate computation, is the effect of going to a ball ;
fatigue, catching cold, vain thoughts, or disappointed hopes, may
often be added.

'' As for the play<house, as she values my injunctions she will
never enter it So far as it exhibits the pomps of the world (not
to deter &om, but to invite to follow), she has renounced these in
her baptismal vow. Nor are the flesh and the devil less sworn
against anywhere than in the theatre as at present conducted. At-
tending it has, besides, thftobjection made with regard to balls — ^viz.,
the play must be so much in the thoughts, that evening devotion, if
performed at all, will be a mockery instead of a homage to Qod.
Going once will make one more keen to go a second time, and
continually while the opportunity is afforded ; while the price of
the ticket, &c., on each occasion might be the means of supporting
a poor family for almost a week. Another consideration is, that
every person who encourages the play-house by frequenting it, is
more or less answerable for the temporal and perhaps the eternal
misery of those poor creatures who contribute to amuse the
audience ; but who, after their gaudy part is acted, are often
destitute of the comforts and necessaries of life, while their
children are brought up in idleness and vice. There are excep-

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74 SCHOOL.

tions ; but this must be the case with the greatest part of those
who follow the wretched profession of actors and actresses. Let
my dear child, instead of encouraging, do what lies in her power
to dissuade any individual of that class who may apply to her
from continuing in that way of life. Let her give them books to
instruct their children, and the money a season'^ ticket would
have cost, to put them to learn some usefol employment, so will
she be exercising a double charity, and endeavouring to turn
souls £rom the error of their ways. Of those who do so, it is
said, ^ They shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.'

'^ I have already warned my dear child against balls, and pro-
hibited, as far as my commands will hereafter control her, going
to see plays. I must now express my entire disapprobation of all
sorts of gaming, that is playing at any sort of game for money,
however trifling the sum, laying wagers or taking bets, engaging
in lotteries, or any other thing where there is certain loss for
uncertain gain by way of amusement. I do indeed find myself
obliged sometimes to join in a game of commerce, where I put in
sixpence, and may gain the money of all the other players at the
table ; when I do so, the pool is invariably allotted to the poor ;
but I oftener lose my sixpence, which would have been certain
gain to some poor object I think the time lost is still worse,
and entreat my dear child will never play more than a very
limited time, more especially as a company goes to cards or back-
gammon at the very time that ought to be allotted to evening
prayers. I am therefore perhaps blameable in not prohibiting
them altogether, and indeed I trust when she may have a house-
of her own, cards will never be seen in it.

" I have allowed you to learn music ; the principal reasons for
doing so were higher, but one was, to be as a substitute for cards.
If the instrument is the organ, and the subject sacred music, you
not only will amuse, but delight and edify the company, even
on a Sunday evening.

" You have often heard my sentiments with regard to work. I
think you should work busily during some part of the day, but
not in ornamenting clothes for yourself, or even making them.
Mending I have no objection to ; it is what a servant seldom
does neatly ; it will not be apt to engage your mind too much.

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SCHOOL. 75

and it is the means of saving a great deal to give away ; for some
articles will last as long after being neatly repaired as before they
required mending, so one article may serve as long as two would
have done. Your chief works should be for the poor, whether
useful for them to wear, which is the best employment, or orna-
mental for them to sell ; in this your visitors may be very willing
to assist you. When engaged in working for others, your
thoughts will more naturally flow in a right train than if you
were making clothes or ornaments for yourself or friends.

'* Drawing is a most pleasing amusement, but it is too apt to
engross the thoughts to be much indulged in, and ought to be
confined to flowers, and light easy ornaments for your charitable
works. I spent much time and money in painting in oil; and
I would wish you never to attempt it. Drawing is one of those
employments that cannot so well be applied to charitable purposes
as many others. Where it can be made serviceable, I have no
objection to it, and it may sometimes be made instructive to young
people, either in the way of copying maps, or in making collec-
tions of drawings of plants, where the botanical and common
names can be subjoined (as in a collection of Miss H. Fergusson's).
Where the plants themselves can be dried properly, the process
will take up less time than drawing, and answer the purpose of
learning the names as well. Small books of these dried plants
might also be made for basket-women to sell. If sold along with
a little nosegay of the same flowers in a fresh state, it would increase
the interest.

"You will find reading a constant source of instruction and
amusement. You know my sentiments as to the nature of the
studies I wished you to pursue in your earliest years. The Bible
has been the constant companion, solace, and guide of my youth
and my old age, and I teust it will be yours through life. When
you were very yoimg, you delighted in reading hymns and get-
ting many by heart, and I regret that I ever permitted books of a
different descripti£>n to be put into your hands. I mean children's
story books ; because the tales in them were not true, and because
they prevented your continuing to relish as you would have done
your infant studies. I trust much mischief has not been done to
your understanding, since you now can listen with pleasure to

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76 SCHOOL.

histoij, and that Qod will graciously incline you again to relish
religious books, and put away from you all the evil my incon-
sideration may have occasioned, as well as supply to you every
good advice and means of instruction I have omitted. For this
I continually pray. It is very hurtful to read any book in a
cursory manner ; choose those that are excellent, and peruse
them regularly and deliberately, endeavouring to recollect what
you have read the day before, when you are going to resume your
reading. Even your present library of religious books, if studied
in this manner, will occupy a considerable portion of time, and
tend much to your improvement.

« When it shall please God to deprive you of your dear f&ther
and me, you will probably have no near relations who will have
it in their power to reside with you, and whom you could consult
and be directed by in anything that embarrassed or disquieted
you ; but He who allots your situation will be with you, His ear
will be open to your call, and His Word will afiford you light.
Walk by that safest of all guides, in simplicity of heart, wishing
and praying to be directed in the right way, and casting all your
care on Him who will never leave you nor forsake you. He has
called you to be His child, and has led you hitherto, therefore in
all your wants apply to Him for relief. Our blessed Saviour has
said that whoever does the will of God shall be as His sister and
mother. Who can despond after such gracious, such astonishing
encouragement ] Only bring it home to yourself, and keep these
and similar promises in your mind. Above all, if left to yourself
keep from all dissipation, pray to be enabled to make a plan to act
upon, and strictly adhere to it. Establish family worship, and be
intimate only with those who, like you, consider themselves as
pilgrims travelling to a heavenly country, not to be turned aside
by the vanities of this world, but partaking moderately of its
necessary refreshments to help you on your way. Help others
with all your power and influence to go on in the same blessed
road with yourself, but never permit, no, not the dearest friend or
relative, to take you aside from it. If narrow, it is safe and
pleasant, and offers a boundless prospect of your inheritance at its
termination.

** Nothing gives me more anxiety than the thought of your

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SCHOOL. 77

marrying without due consideratioii. In this most material of
all steps, pray earnestly and unweariedly to be directed. If you
do, you will not marry a man of whom you cannot think He to
whom you pray would approve. You may be taken in by a
designing and artful man if you marry on a short acquaintance ;
it is therefore necessary that you should be vigilant and watchful,
that you may not suffer yourself to be drawn on to so great a
partiality for an agreeable outward appearance and the semblance
of good qualities, as to make it painful for you to draw back when
upon further acquaintance you find the essential qualities wanting.
You know what these are, and how few possess them. Yet if you
many where they are wanting, you involve yourself in number-
less difficulties relating to this life. You will be thwarted in your
best designs, grieved to the heart to see him whom you are bound
to love and obey going on in a course you cannot approve,
and your prospect will be beyond the grave clouded by the
thought that your partner on earth does not live such a life as
to leave you a reasonable hope that he will partake with you
of the joys of heaven. How much more happy, easy, and
respectable will it be not to marry at all, than to be united to
one who, instead of leading and drawing you on in a holy life,
will be not only as a clog to impede your progress, but who will
be dragging you back. You wiU not be able to regulate your
time, your servants, nor your children, as you ought, nor to pay
that duty of esteem and love a wife owes and promises to a hus-
band. You will not be able to have regular family worship,
though that is so essential a duty that you cannot expect a bless-
ing on your home without it. See on this subject a sermon by
Drysdale, the introduction to Jay's * Family Discourses,' and an
excellent treatise * Concerning Prayer and the Answer to Prayer,'
by Mr. John Brown, minister at Wamphray (1720), where most
convincing arguments for family devotions are adduced. Oh,
may you never be mistress of a family where the day is not
begun and ended with prayer and praise to Him who gives us all
we have and are. I cannot see how the practice of card-playing
is consistent with the duties of the evening, and therefore I must
repeat what I have already mentioned, that I hope cards will not
be resorted to where you are mistress, nor be joined in by you

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78 SCHOOL.

when you are at the houses of others. The self-denial of coming
home, or retiring to your room when they begin, will be amply
repaid by the consciousness of doing what is acceptable to Gtod,
and having your mind less distracted during family and private
prayer than it would otherwise be.

*^8epUmbery 1818. — I would have thought it too soon to write
an3rthing on the subject of forming a connection, &c., had not a
late occurrence showed me that even a girl at school may be
addressed by foolish or artful men, actuated by motives of interest
much more than by r^ard or attachment You happily escaped
from this snare, but others may be laid by persons who are more
prepossessing in their appearance and manners, who yet may be
actuated by the same motives. Fix it, therefore, firmly in your
mind that you will never countenance the addresses of any person
who is not decidedly a religious man."

Dr. Stewart's practice had to go on. The summer of

1819 was an exceedingly hot one. Agitation, owing

to his loss, with exhaustion from over- work, in such a

season, brought on symptoms which threatened apoplexy.

He could not be prevailed on to take repose, though he

had fallen asleep at the bedside of more than one patient.

Neither could he be hindered from setting out again

with his daughter for Newcastle, where her mother had

requested that Margaret should study for two terms

more. An anxious circle of friends gathered to take

leave of them when the hour for starting came.

" A week before our journey," writes Margaret, " I had travelled
with my father in his gig, while he slept with the reins in his
hand, and the servant, who was mounted, had to lead our horse.
He would allow no one to accompany us on the journey to Edin-
burgh, but he trembled at every step while he walked from the
coach to the carriage, and on reaching the royal apartments of
Holyrood, the residence of my imcle and aunt, sank helpless into
a chair. Drs. Hamilton and Abercrombie bled him profusely, and

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SCHOOL. 79

contrary to expectation, he was still aUre in the morning. His
herculean constitution rallied so quickly that he was able to carry
out his venturous resolution, and took me on to Newcastle within
the week. He arrived haggard and exhausted, to the alarm of Miss
Kemp; but strict diet and abstinence were the means of his
recovery. He returned home, and I was left to my school work."

She wrote to her father : —

"Newcastle, IGth November, 1819.

" My Dearest Papa,— Your affectionate letter, which arrived
on Saturday, was rendered more welcome from my not having
heard for so long a time. We were rather uneasy about your
health. 1 rejoice to hear of its continuance, and may He, who
still studies our good whether He gives or takes away, long pre-
serve it to be a blessing to me and all around you, and when it is
His will that we should bid adieu to earth, may we, though
utterly sinful and unworthy in ourselves, be received into glory
for the sake of Him who died to save sinners, and die like my
dearest Mamma, rejoicing in that Saviour. I am quite delighted
with the patriotism of those whom I consider it an honour to
call my countrymen (and you among the rest) in subscribing
;£1000 for the poor. Long may Perth be a bright example of
benevolence in the higher, of submission and resignation in the
lower, classes. I have seen two lines, *Let Glasgow flourish
ever fair, and long may Perth with her compare.' However,
I think the latter has not only attained the comparative but the
superlative degree in this affair.

" The Sandemans are wanderers now. I must say Anna is not
the fixed star of Springland, yet we must not call her a wander-
ing star ; she is rather a planet shedding its mild influence around,
and then returning to its favourite point, for Springland will
still, I think, be her favourite place of abode. I shall, 'tis true,
miss them very much if they go, but shall I complain whilst my
dearest Papa is striving by every kind attention to please me ]
Many thanks for the stuffed birds ; yours has ever been kind-
ness which I fear I shall never repay, but it shall be the endeav-
our of my life to do so. The draught arrived safe within the

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80 SCHOOL.

letter. I am much obliged to yon for the money which you
send me. I will take great care of my music and all my books.
I was sorry I forgot the hair, but will send it in this letter. In
case I cannot write to Aunt Keith, will you tell her that I never
received two letters from her, so one has been lost I fancy. . Mr.
Croser's family are coming into town for the winter, so I shall
perhaps not be asked to go in the Christmas holidays. I have
heard nothing from Miss Chaytor. How little £2000 is, when
divided amongst four, yet I hope Mr. Kay's friends will assist his
children. Be sure, please, to remember me to General Stuart ;
and, if you see Miss Chaytor, to apologise for my not calling.
I am sure I did mean to ask you to go, but we went off in such a
hurry to Dalguise that I could not well do so. As for her
brother's displeasure, that shall not deter me from doing what
I consider as my duty, and I believe as to preaching I shall not
lose by the exchange ; though Mr. Skeete's opinion of the Scotch
clergy is very low, mine is not so. Miss Kemp desires me to
present her compliments and thanks for the draught, which is
perfectly correct, and for which she sends a receipt. Miss Smith
also desires her compliments to you. Farewell, dear Papa.

" Please give my kindest love to Margaret, and tell her to write
very soon. Love to Mrs. Hollo, Mrs. and the Miss Youngs, and
the Miss Scotts, Mrs. Marshall, Fen House, and the rest of the
Sandemans, and receiving the same for yourself — I remain, my
dearest Papa's affectionate daughter, Mabgaret.*'

Dr. Stewart wrote in answer : —

"Perth, 20th November, 1819.

"My Dear Margaret, — I was favoured with your very
sensible and well-expressed letter of the 16th current, evening,
Miss Kemp's receipt for her amount, and balance that was
intended for you. The sentiments expressed there are very proper
ones, and such as I would wish to be the rule of my conduct not
only to the present, but in the future. It surely is my duty, and
now a double charge devolves on me, and hope I will be sup-
ported in fulfilling that attention necessary from a parent to a
child that has never yet given me the most distant cause of

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SCHOOL. 81

offence, but ever anticipated my wishes ; and I look with pleasure
and satisfaction to the time that I will be blessed with her society
and advice in onr domestic concerns, which I know will be given
with sincerity, and from the heart Since writing last I have had
several of onr friends with me here. In the first place, Mrs.
Keith, on her way south. Colonel Collyear Robertson, on his way
south, waa at the same time joined by Mrs. Keith on her way to
Dalguise for the winter. Then came Mrs. Douglass and her
niece on their way to Edinburgh; and, some days after their
arrival, they were joined by her son George from his tour on the
Continent, in good health and spirits ; and he affords them great
amusement looking over his sketches and journals. All these
mention you with pleasure and regard, as do all our acquaint-
ances in town, and desire their best wishes to you. The Sande-
mans and the Miss Scotts are only arrived in town last week,
(Jeneral Stewart's family, the Rollos, the Youngs at Bellwood.
Miss Isabella is to be married soon, I believe, to Dr. Eamsay, who
came home some time ago in bad health from the East Indies,
and returns there again, having got weU, attended by her.
Margaret Sandeman wrote to you last week, I believe. I carried
her up to Logic Almond on Saturday, and Glas was of the party.
She remains for a week. He and I returned on the Sunday.
All there are weU. They had a letter lately from Sir William
and Lady Drummond telling of their safe arrival at Naples,
where they are to pass some time. I had a very long letter,
dated the 26th October, at Kome, from Mrs. Oliphant of Qask.
She says Laurence has got quite stout, and that she means to set
out from there early in the spring with her family for Qask,
where she means to stay for the future. I think they wiU be
home about July or August. She inquires very kindly for you ;
and says she received a good and kind letter from you. To-
morrow I am to have Captain Gilbert Stewart, Elinvaid here,
I believe, to acquaint me of everything being nearly arranged
for his marriage with Miss Nan. Stewart."

Most heartily she threw herself into her work till
the following spring. Friends previously made came
round her with every proof of love. Like a star shone

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82 SCHOOL.

before her eyes the text her mother chose and left in
her desk for Mr. Skeete to preach from on the Sab-
bath after her death, " We have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Yet how to reach it was the problem, and the fight
with unbelief lasted still.

" I went," she writes, " to the communion. At one time in pre-
paration I seemed to catch a glimpse of Jesus. At another time I
went in an agony to knock at Miss Kemp's door to ask her to let
me stay away, for I could not believe. She did not know the
depth of this unbelief, and refused. I felt that to all my over-
whelming sin was added that of doubting God's own Word."

But though in conflict with unbelief and unsatisfied,
she could on occasion, when placed on her defence
declare to which side she wished to belong.

It once happened, when the young ladies were amus-
ing themselves in the evening, that one of them twitted
Margaret on the tendency of the Scotch to boast of
their ancestry. Seated in her deep mourning, while
cut to the quick, she repeated grandly these lines in
answer : —

" My boast is not that I deduce my birth
From loins enthroned or rulers of the earth ;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,
The child of parents passed into the skies."

Before leaving school, she wrote to her father : —

"Newcastle, 2^h April, 1820.

" My Dear Papa, — It is a long time indeed since I wrote to
you ; but spring is at length arrived, and writing will soon be
unnecessary. I need not say that anticipation affords me
great pleasure. June is near, and I then hope to see you.
Have you been at Bonskeid lately] There has been a mas-

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SCHOOL. 83

querade here. I think it is a most improper thing ; for such
speeches are made, and it seems rather like children at play, to
say nothing of the waste of time.

'^ So Mrs. Sandeman and her daughter are to be in London.
Springland looks so desolate when they are gone; but really
nothing is certain on earth. I had hoped to see them all this
summer ; but disappointments are necessary for us. We
must learn to look higher for perfect happiness, my dear
Papa. We are all too apt to think that we can love Gk)d of our-
selves; the Bible bids us ask for new hearts, that we may
arrive in heaven. Do yoii think you will trust to Mr. Tyson
to bring mel He will not come till a day or two after we
break up. With what delight shall I see dear Scotland again ! —

** * O Tweed, gentle Tweed ! as I pass thy green vales,
More than life my tired spirit inhales ;
For Scotland, my darling, lies full in my view,
With her bare-footed lasses and mountains so blue.
To the mountains away my heart bounds like the hind,
For home is so sweet, and my (parent) so kind.' —

Bloomfield.
" You see, I retain my Highland spirit still, and my love for
Scotland ! I hope to hear from you, my dear Papa, in the
next frank, I have been going on with dancing at your wish,
but fear that I cannot say that I show * in every action dignity
and grace.' However, I trust you may see some improve-
ment."

When Miss Kemp gave up her charge of Margaret at
her leaving school, she wrote to Dr. Stewart : —

"Newcastle, June, 1819.

4e 4e ¥c 4( ¥c ¥c

" In parting with Miss Stewart we shall all feel deep regret,
for I never met with a young person who so completely interested
every one in her favour. She is, indeed, imiversally beloved
here. With regard to myself, I really cannot express my feelings.
The ties of affection and friendship which bind us will, I trust,
never be broken. May she long continue a blessing to you, sir ;
and may you long live to enjoy it, is the wish of ..."

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CHAPTER V.

MABBIAGE.

TURNED seventeen, she went home in June to stay
with her father for a little at Bonskeid, and visit
their friends in the neighbourhood Neither Dr.
Stewart nor his daughter could disabuse the minds of
tenants there of the terror that spirits were to be heard
wailing in the old burying-ground, called Claoidhe-^lle,
by the Tummel side, as well as making noisy demonstra*
tions at the Mains of Bonskeid. They asserted that ever
since the contractor who had built the new farm-house
there had stolen some gravestones to complete it, the
spirits had returned to the place where their ashes lay to
bewail the indignity to the dead. While the farm-servants
were at supper, stones came rattling down the chimney;
and when the inmates went to bed, low moaning sounds
were heard which would not let them sleep. An old
man still tells that when he went to supper with the
little boy of the family at the Mains, and the two sat
down by the hearth on their creepies (low stools) to eat
their porridge, a long wand would mysteriously come
over from the door and touch them gently till they

shivered with fear, and then as unaccountably be lifted
84

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MABBIAGE. 85

off again and vanish. Articles appeared in the papers
on the subject, and people came to see from all quarters.
While the minister of Blair- Athole and a friend were on
a visit of inquiry, the trough at which the swine were
feeding began to move, mounted to the roof, and
disappeared on the other side. At last the Rev. Dr.
Irvine, of Little Dunkeld, resolved to go and remain till
the mystery was solved. It became clear to him that
two yoimg persons who wished to marry and settle there
were determined to frighten the old people out of the
premises. When they found their plot was discovered,
and that they would now be watched, quiet was restored
to the graveyard and farm. The good people, however,
could not live at ease in the same house with the
dreaded stones which had come down the chimney, so
Dr. Irvine had them placed in his gig, took them to the
mason who was then erecting the wall round his manse,
and had them built into it, saying they would trouble
no one any more. A circle of beautiful green thorn
now grows like a labyrinth in the centre of the ancient
burying-place. Remains of a ruined wall can be seen
round it. The sacrilegious hands which removed every
gravestone may have pulled the wall down too. Of the
ancient Culdee chapel which tradition no less than the
old Celtic name indicates to have once stood there, and
connects with the Priest's Stone across the river, no trace
now remains. For dwellers on both sides of the strath
this was the favourite resting-place up to the middle of
last century. Thither the dead were brought from the
glen, and by the ford from over the water, in the public

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86 MARBIAGK

basket-work coffin, which was then in fashion, and laicj
in mother eartL Later still it became the customary
asylum for such as had forfeited the right to burial in
sacred places.

Mrs. Stewart had suggested that Christie should
return to be her daughter's maid; but Margaret had
become independent at school, and delayed the arrange-
ment One windy day, however, at Perth, she set
out as usual on her favourite walk to Springland.
As she reached the end of the bridge, a gust of wind
carried her large crape veil to the opposite side of
the bridge, where, unobserved by her, Christie was
walking. In a moment the girl was by her side,
the veil was securely pinned, and an invitation given
to call next morning. Margaret walked on, thinking
how each trifle seemed to bring about her mother's
wishes, and then stopped to look out on the beauti-
ful river on the banks of which her whole life was
to be spent. Farther north it was the roaring Tummel,
and here it was the wide, fast-flowing Tay. Never
could she be persuaded long to leave its banks, unless
for a visit of duty to any one who was ill. Seldom is
such a life of eighty years so perseveringly spent at
home. Next morning Christie came to remain. Sixty-
three years afterwards, she writes : —

" 22nd August, 1883. Miss Stewart was always Tvriting poetry
and throwing the scraps away, so I was always gathering them
and hoarding up those I liked. I thought perhaps you might
like to read the two I enclose — all that I have now. The one
that is so much soiled, I suppose I had snatched out of the fire.
It is addressed to her friend, Margaret Sandeman, after Mrs.

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MAKRIAGE. 87

Stewart's death, and is still legible, though torn, singed, and
marked with the folds of sixty years."

*' She is gone whose tender heart acled well a mother's part ;
She who loved us well when here surely claims the falling
tear.

Who shall now direct my way ? Who shall be my guide and

stay?
Who shall hush my every fear t Who shall dry the falling

tear?

Hark ! my friend, a soothing voice bids my drooping heart

rejoice ;
Tis my mother's voice I hear, see, she dries the falling tear.

' Ere I left that world of woe, and was done with all below.
While I saw thee weeping near, saw the frequent-falling tear,

Then with faith I asked of heaven that a Guardian might be

given,
Might dispel all grief and fear, and might dry the falling tear.

Then, my child, mourn not for me, Jesus shall thy guard-
ian be,
He who is for ever near ; then, oh dry the falling tear !

Nor forget my last request ere I mingled with the blest :
I bade thy Margaret be near, bade her dry the falling tear.

To her affection I resign that youthful heart that once was

mine;
Thy dropping spirit she wiU cheer, she will dry the falling

tear.'**

Maxgaxet received numerous visitors from town and
county. As the months passed more than one sought
her hand. A lady of rank held counsel with Dr. Stew-

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88 MARKlAaC.

art, to bring about a union with one of her relatives
who had occasionally met Miss Stewart. The girl
was not to be told, Hut a visit at the Castle was
arranged, and there accordingly she went. Nothing
came of this meeting, nor of subsequent interviews
at home ; at which her father was much displeased
Her heart was already given to the brother of her early
friend, Margaret Sandeman ; although he was too con-
siderate of her youth and prospects to take any oppor-
tunity for the existing feeling being made known on
either side.

A party of young people was made up to show a
school-companion from England the grounds of Craig-
halL Margaret brought home with her a white rose,
and told her father who had given it He questioned
her about the matter, and sent for Mr. Glas Sandeman.

"Might she not, at least," asked Mr. Sandeman,
towards the close of their interview, " be permitted to
go abroad ?" as it was well-known that her aunt and
cousins at Gask wished her to accompany them to
Italy. Not a word should, meantime, be spoken or
written by him to her. The reply was that he was a
fortune-hunter, but that his ambitious schemes should
be effectually guarded against, and that the marriage
must be now or never.

"Then," exclaimed the young man, "undoubtedly it
shall be now, should shei consent"

Margaret, in turn, when told of this interview, begged
to be sent to Italy for a year, free.

"And do you really believe that when you return,

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MARRIAGE. 89

after a year, you will do as I wish ? " asked her
father.

" Never, papa," was the reply, " could I do anything
but with your permission ; but in my own choice I am
unalterable."

After this conversation she wrote to him as fol-
lows : —

"My Dear Father, — How my heart is lightened by the
thought that my beloved father is not entirely estranged from me.
A wish from you is enough. You alone shall name the day.
Should it be six months hence, I will delay it ! Yes, with
delight shall I remain with you, if you will still love me, and
still feel pleasure in my showing myself, and subscribing myself
your attached daughter, M. Stewart."

The old chief, however, now in his sixty-eighth year,
would neither reason nor relent. The decree went
forth that the marriage should take place in a fort-
night, with her rights to property signed away ; other-
wise — ^with his permission — never. In a fortnight was
the wedding-day.

The morning of the last day in her Other's house had
come ; he had been called away for the forenoon. At the
ringing out of St John's bell she came down dressed for
church as usual, wearing, for the last time, mourning for
her mother. Miss Maria Drummond, who had spent
three weeks with her, bade her remain at home, as the
banns would be proclaimed. She handed Mr. Laurence
Oliphant, who had come the night before, a volume
of sermons to choose from, to read one aloud when the
household should assemble ; and offered Margaret some

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90 MARRIAGE.

small white pin-cushions to arrange with her initials in
pins, for fastening on the favours at the wedding next
day. The bride asked i£ she might delay this till the
morning. *' Brides are always useless/' said the lady,
and did it hersel£

The bride sat by, her thoughts sometimes reverting to
the paper of discharge she had signed for her father the
night before along with her marriage-contract which
settled on her some hundred pounds.

At nine o'clock on Monday morning, 18th September,
attired, as was then the fashion, in a riding-habit, a hat
with a white plume held in her hand, her hair plainly
braided, she descended the stair of the old house, leaning
on her father's arm. Margaret Sandeman was bridesmaid,
along with Miss Maria Her cousin, Laurence Oliphant
of Gask, was groomsman. Dr. William Thomson, of the
Middle Church, performed the ceremony. The guests
crowded in to the breakfast-table in the dark dining-
room. Dr. Stewart had ordered a cake of unusual
dimensions, and, it was remarked, had never played the
host with greater charm. The four horses could
scarcely draw the carriage through the moving mass of
citizens gathered in the narrow Watergate and filling
the streets at either end. Cheers rent the air when she
appeared ; cheers, too, for her husband, who was not less
beloved in the city ; and together they drove away —
'Fair Maid of Perth/ that she was, and fair matron
now to be. After a wedding-trip among the Scotch
lakes, they went to visit Mr.* and Mrs. Fraser at
Newton.

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MARRIAGE. 91

The windows of the apartments in Charlotte Street,
to which they returned, command a view of the
Grampian chain, the Tay, and Springland — the residence
of her fe,ther-in-law, Mr. David George Sandeman. He
had first married his cousin, whose son the bridegroom
was. His present wife had been Miss Margaret Fraser,
of Newton, Inverness-shire.

The brothers and sisters at Springland, who had all had
Margaret Sandeman for a playmate as far back as they
could remember, vied with one another who should give
her the warmest reception, or oftenest row her across the
river to their home, where she passed most of her time.
With the girls she continued her studies. Mademoiselle
Maillardknew how to impart that perfect French accent
which Margaret never afterwards lost. With Anna, so
good a performer that there was silence whenever she
opened the piano, the young bride practised her duets.

In these days embroidery formed the constant occu-
pation while reading aloud was going on. At the
French Court, under the old regime, it was supposed
conversation could not proceed without it. Margaret's
grandmother had told how, at Versailles, they would
work a pretty leaf with their tatting-shuttle, seeing
who would finish one first, and then toss it into the fire
of oakwood on the tiled hearth, unwilling to have it
thought they were working for any useful end. The
young ladies regularly visited the Perth Female School,
to found which Mrs. Stewart and others had secured
from the town a flat in the Hospital, buildings. On
Sabbath, husband and wife went always to Dr. Stewart's

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92 MARRIAGK

pew in the East Church, and spent every evening with
him when he happened to be at home.

In speaking of the happiness of these first years, her
husband repeatedly said that no words described her so
well as those of Bums —

" Artless simplicity marks her its ain."

We quote a verse from a ballad — one of the two
which Christie, her maid, sacredly kept for sixty years
after the young writer had thrown them aside, and
which gives us a glimpse of their life together; it
would be written only to sing once to him, to the
Scotch air to which the words were set, and then to be
thrown away. " There 's nae luck aboot the hoose," and
" Jock o' Hazeldean" were her favourite songs. Refer-
ring to her husband, she says : —

" He canna bear his wife to be

A moment frae his sight ;
And if I chance to speak a word,

He listens in delight
A single smile I dauma gie,

I canna heave a sigh,
But he, my dearest husband,

Is sure to ask me why."

Soon afterwards another bride entered the family —
Julia Bumand, wife of Hugh Sandeman in London.
She became to Margaret a sister indeed, and their
warm attachment lasted to the close of life. They
were of the same age. Year after year Julia's children
made Springland their home in summer time ; and her
daughter Margaret became the wife of Mrs. Stewart
Sandeman's fifth son, Charles.

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MABBIAGE. 93

One day in the autumn of 1821, Dr. Stewart met his
daughter in the street, she took his arm, and he saw her
home. The next day she was prostrated with lassitude,
accompanied by overpowering sickness. It was not
long till, as he watched by her bedside, her father
recollected that, just before meeting her, he had been
helping to lift a man in confluent small-pox. Her
mother-in-law kept watch beside her, told her the
complaint was simply a miliary eruption ; but found
various pretexts for removing the mirrors. When the
disease was at its height, however, Margaret chanced
to pull her watch from the pocket hanging overhead,
and turning it in her hand, opened the case, where she
at once caught sight of the frightful secret. Her watch-
ful mother-in-law looked on aghast — her care all in
vain. She only redoubled it. She had herself twenty-
one brothers and sisters, and great experience of life ;
nor could her stories to amuse the patient soon come to
an end. Her mother, Margaret Chisholm of Chisholm,
had married in her sixteenth year. It was told of her
that when the first visitors arrived at Newton to pay
their respects, the old butler could not find his mistress,
Mrs. Fraser, till he bethought him of looking up into
the branches of a large pear tree, whence she descended
to receive her friends. A year later she had carried her
baby with her into the closet where the linen was kept.
Having transacted her business with the housemaids,
she went to look after another part of household work.
When nurse came for baby, he was amissing, and
Mamma was at a loss. In a moment she flew with the

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94 MABRIAGE.

keys of the linen closet, and on one of the shelves found
baby safely laid.

The patient struggled bravely through; the long
dark tresses were saved, her husband separating hair
from hair, and only one mark remained on her temple.
But her first babe, little Marjory Ann, came trembling
into life in consequence, and opened her eyes upon the
world only for one short month.

In March, 1823, a second daughter was bom, and
was named Margaret Fraser, after the mother-in-
law who had so tenderly watched her through that
terrible illness. Another daughter was a disappoint-
ment to some of their friends ; and so the young mother
valued the more the congratulations sent her by old Mrs.
Allison of Montreal Cottage, accompanied by the mes-
sage that a girl was very useful as the eldest in a
family. The young mother trained her up to be less a
daughter than a sister for sixty years to come.

Remembering her own experience, Mrs. Stewart
Sandeman afterwards wrote these lines : —

What is a marriage without love 1

A mighty preparation
Of gold, and gems, and broidered robes,

Of settlements and station ;
Of smiling, curtseying Abigails,

To ornament the bride ;
And pretty ambling ponies for

Her chosen one to ride.

The last Parisian pattern for

Her bonnet there must be,
And the finest petUpoint for

Son bonnet de nuU,

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MABRIAGE. 95

Her cards for visiting engraved

With copperplate so fair ;
And the chains, and all the pretty seals,
The new-made shield to bear.
Oh ! charming the confusion, the bustle, and the show,
The decorated Bride^ and the smiling, scented Beau.

What is a marriage made by love 1

A deep and swelling joy,
A bliss too overwhelming —

Which knows not of alloy.
Two minds attuned in harmony

To feeling's softest tone ;
Two loves so fondly plighted, *

Two hearts becoming one.
Their whole existence lighted

By one unclouded ray;
All happiness before them,

And sorrow fled away.
The thought, all re-assuring,

Whatever storms may rise,
That still love's star of splendour

Shall re-illume their skies.
A hope that far outstretches

This dark terrestrial ball ;
A faith serenely smiling

That triumphs over all.

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M

CHAPTER VL

Peggy's nubseby.

MARGARET'S mother-in-law chose for her as
nurserymaid one who had served herself not
long before as housemaid. Peggy came to
her post, and held it for forty years without asking
respite or holiday, except to go with the children where
they went, and to visit them when they came to have
houses of their own, where she received all the love and
reverence due to a second mother.

She had only one near relative, an aunt, who left her
house furniture; and Peggy, in her independence of
spirit, paid the rent of the room all her lifetime, that
she might have a place at command to retire to, using
it for only one hour in the week — ^between morning
and afternoon church on Sabbath — till, resisting every
entreaty to the contrary, she retired to die there at the
close. She bequeathed the savings of a lifetime to
various charities in Perth, and to her church, after
dividing £200 in equal portions among the grand-
children of the &mily. So identified did a nurse at that
time become with the fsimily she served, that it was not

uncommon for her to be called by the family surname.
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PEGGY'S NURSERY. 97

Into the nursery at Baxossa Place, Peggy received,
Slst August, 1824, the boy who came at last, named,
for his grandfather, Alexander Stewart, as beautiful a
boy as ever bounded over the heather. His grandfather
gave him a rock at Bonskeid to be his own, with ferns,
and bluebells, and blaeberries, too, upon it ; it was just
opi)Osite the old front-door to the north. In later years
it was covered, by the desire of an English tenant, with
cart-loads of earth, and grass sown, and laurels and
juniper planted, for, he said, it was out of taste to have
anjrthing so rough as rock near a front-door.

He was a warm-hearted, if a passionate boy, but he
showed no temper to his sister; and these grew up
together as one in play and spelling-book till school days
came for both at the same school in Barossa Street,
where they sat on two forms, the one behind the
other.

23rd April, 1826, another boy came into the nursery
for the two others to take care of; for Peggy really made
them think they shared the charge with her from the
very first. As he was bom on the day when we used
to watch at the window for the rockets shooting up into
the dark sky, because it was the birthday of the king,
George IV., Augustus was added to the little boy's
name, David George, after his grandfather. The first
thing we dimly remember of him was seeing him carried
to the window by his papa, who wished to assure him-
self that his eyes were black like his mother'a As
weeks, they said, sometimes pass before the colour of a
baby's eyes is surely known, this examination was

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98 PEGGY'S NXmSERY.

repeated, till we began to wonder if there were anything
wrong in the colour of the blue eyes already in the
nursery. Perhaps this led us the more to watch these
large black orbs of his when they did begin steadily to
shine out on the inmates of that nursery, and this made
us the less surprised when passers-by would stop the
nurses on the street and ask his name. Not that these
black eyes smiled on us or others ; he was a very grave
child, and was not seen to smile even at his play till he
was four years old. He was easily put out when inter-
fered with, and though he did not get angiy like the
others, he became rather sulky, and then ran away of
his own accord to a convenient comer under the slab
of the open sideboard of the dining-room, or if it were
in the nursery, behind the folds of the dress of his dear
nurse Peggy, till he felt he could come out again. If
we followed him to bring him back among us, he would
say, before he could well pronounce the words, ** No
speak to me, black dog is on me." Where he got this
way of describing his little temper we did not know, but
we had to learn to wait his time ; and before long, with
slow pace, he would cross the floor to his little stool,
drawing it in before the chair on which his toys were
spread He liked the toys divided before he began to
play. He gave a large share to each of us, but
once allotted, his own was sacred. He was often seen
at such times with a little flock of sheep in order before
him, penned in with the white stakes and stiff row of
green trees on one side from the box of toys ; he would
spread his arms round them if any one came neax him,

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pbooy's nursery. 99

and say^ " Me no allow anybody meddle with me beasta"
His grandpapa. Dr. Stewart, made a joke of his grave
ways, and his care for his sheep, and said that if the
boy would get good Gaelic, he would try to get him
the parish of Dull when he was a man. David being,
after that, from his gravity, called " Davie Dull," kept
it in mind, and on a stormy day, when again the sheep
were set before him, he looked out at the rain and wind,
saying, " Oh, what my poor sheep do now, me take and
put them in me church at Dull."

David awoke early, and was clamorous for the strik-
ing of the light in the dark winter morning. Children
now-a-days can hardly fancy all that went on a genera-
tion ago before a light was got. No gas jets were then
ready to rise in a moment from a spark into a fan-tail
flame. No matches were then found to rasp on the
sand-paper. Before the hour could be seen on the
face of the nursery clock, the long weights of which
hung half-way down the wall, a great deal had to
happen. Peggy's grand object was to maintain quiet
in the nurseries till the youngest should awake, quite
early enough, of himself. Then she rose and felt for
the tinder-box. Then came a sound of the flint, a
sight of her face, and all was dark again. After many
strokes, one spark of light rested in the tinder, which
we had seen her make, then the brimstone end of a
long white wooden match tried to catch the flre and
give it to the candle. Years after, when lucifer
matches were invented, a lady gave David, as the
greatest possible present, one of the first boxes that

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100 Peggy's nursery.

found its way to Ferth^ so that he could light his own
candle for study in the early morning.

For use at breakfast Peggy had for each child a wooden
porringer, a pretty horn spoon, and milk-tin of different
shape or size, so as to avoid, as far as she might, the
ever rising disputes of the little ones. Instead of the
week-day content (milk and water) at tea-time, she asked
them to brovm tea with herself on Sabbath evenings,
and gave each a cup of tea out of her own tea-pot.

One of the most amusing events of the year to us
was when she carried the contents of a certain patch-
work bag, containing odds and ends which others would
have thrown away, to Miss Forrester's little china-shop
to be exchanged for stoneware, with the balance paid
in coin out of her own pocket, and let the children
choose mug, cup, saucer, sugar-basin, or tea-pot, accord-
ing as the breakage of their careless little hands might
have been. This made the children very careful of
such ware. Grotesque patterns and gaudy colours were
chosen for the new dishes, each of which seemed to
have a little history of its own. She assigned to each
child a broad, low, flat stool, which she scoured white
every Friday; and as one of her rewards, we were
allowed to turn them upside down for boats, the feet
being favourably shaped for this. The children of the
next generation, climbing up the same nursery stair,
had boat races beside Peggy in the same stools.

With the making-up of the fire for the day she
would by no means trust the nursery-maid. How often
we watched her doing it I To k-eep a cool nursery, save

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PEGOT*S NURSERY. 101

coal^and avoid dust, she put on each cinder, large or
small, saying the cinder was the best of the coal, from
which no more dust would fall; then some fresh coal
with dross, and a few ashes on the top, with a sprink-
ling of water to keep the flame down. All this time
baby was fast asleep where she had tucked him, after
his bath, in the crimson swing-cot with the green
gossamer curtains — ^the cot so tied that it could only
rock a very little way. She held it to be a sin to
awake him, as, if he did not get his sleep out, he
would not be happy all day after. If we stole
up to her and said he was moving and awake, she
would spring to the cot, and with a very slight rock and
a very faint hush ! hush ! quiet him again. Six baby
boys, one after another, had their slumbers watched in
that crimson cot by Peggy's jealous eye.

Each of those brought up in that nursery owed more
than they can ever tell to her who was to each a second
mother. The laws she made in many trifling little
things are law to them still. She was strict with
her children, yet they had no fear of her, nor minded
asking her the same question many times. One of
them remembers going to her again and again to ask
her the difference between an apostle and a disciple,
when she would have been ashamed to ask again any-
where else. She put the children to sleep for a treat
when she had time, by reading a chapter of the Bible,
or the Pilgrim's Progress, or the Holy War.

She was very orderly, thrifty, and saving. She had
a rule that only one candle was to be burned nightly;

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102 PEGGT*S NURSEBY.

and as she sat up late to mend or put to rights what
had been torn or spoilt in the day, she would try to
amuse the children by the light of a bright fire, till
bab/s bed-time came, without lighting the candle, so
that when her hands should be free it might bum
further into the night. Some said Peggy's candle was
the last to be put out along the Terrace. Little David
was the most apt to learn her habits of order and her
methodical ways. She could even trust him with the
candle to go into the next room, when she would trust
none of the others. She knew he would hold his little
hand up between the flame and the draught, and let
the socket swing between two fingers so as to cany it
straight

When sent with a message up to the nursery, his
more nimble companions often rushed down two or
three times over with the wrong article; but when
David was the envoy, he was sure to come back with his
sedate step and serious face, and with the commission
carefully executed. The fable of the hare and the
tortoise always found illustrations in him. In child-
hood, plodding was his life, nothing came to him
otherwise. He did not trust his memory, as it had
sometimes &iled; and he never dreamed of being
beaten in what he tried. He had been sent up for
some embroidery cotton, cut and folded in papers.
Other little feet going on other errands passed and
repassed him on the stair. He sat down on each step
to repeat to himself, " Long threads," and came safely
down again with his cottoiL

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Peggy's nursery. 103

When he was three years old, being hungry for
breakfiEust, he slipped away for his porridge, reaching up
on tiptoe to the window where it had just been set to
cooL The whole contents poured down into the poor
little bosom, taking off the skin from the chin down-
wards. His patience was pitiful to look on through
days and nights of pain, for he could not even bend
bis little head The dressing of the bum was borne
without a word, then at once he cried, "Cap on,
cap on; rise up, rise up; mamma's room, mamma's
room." He was very amusing in the whooping-
cough; arrested in his play by the coming fits, he
retired to prepare to meet the enemy by taking a firm
hold, and then trotted on again to his play. That
play was hushed for a few days by the fear that
the sister was to be taken away from them. One
remedy more was thought of, and Peggy hastened to
procure it The young patient detected in her hand,
half-hidden, on her return to administer it, a copy of
" Jack the Giant-killer" in yellow cover, as a reward.
Peggy had seen her looking at the book one day in the
shop window. The child long treasured the book.

When a child was really ill, our mother's room was
the hospital. There the kindest of fathers bent over
his little girl for weeks, morning and evening, and the
sweet mother taught, line by line, till it was committed
to memory, the hymn —

" Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone,

He whom I place my hopes upon ;

His track 1 see, and I '11 pursue

The nairow way till Him 1 view."

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104 PEGGY'S NURSERY.

The words of the whole are beautiful, and such is the
force of gracious habit, that they have been more or less
remembered by the learner every evening since.

Frederick, born 24th September, 1827, was now the
baby, and so fond of Peggy that nobody else had much
chance. Some one asked him why he would not be
happy with the rest downstairs. He said, '' Mamma is
just mamma, and papa is just papa, but Peggy is a
dear jewelly pet of a pet."

For reasons to be afterwards explained Mr. and Mrs.
Glas Sandeman exchanged their house in Barossa Place
for a less expensive one in a row then building in Mar-
shall Place, and Peggy proposed to undertake the nur-
sery work alone, only intrusting the children to the
housemaid — a kind, accommodating woman-— on the
Friday forenoons. It came to.be the weekly treat to
disappear with Jane among the daisies, the buttercups,
and the clover of the South Inch, just as we had done
the years before on the beautiful North. Set a-search-
ing for a four-leaved clover, strained eyes and tired
fingeis were then ready for a game at " Frdnch and
English" with the '' Carl Doddies" Jane had gathered.
Sides taken, the heads of either enemy were knocked
off. For luncheon a penny each had been served round
in the morning; thus there was a trip along the streets
to the baker's, and a roll and gingerbread — ^not the
square parliament-cake found everywhere, but a cake
with six round portions joined, which Perth still sup-
plies. On these Inches rich and poor had a boundless
playground. The lowing of the cattle on the first

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PEGGY'S NURSERY. 105

days after their winter imprisonment, and the varied
hourly ringing of the tuneful bells of St John's, must
linger in the ears of citizens scattered all round the
world. To every colony Perth has paid out her large
proportional tribute of the boys and girls from her great
playground.

This kind helper, Jane, the friend of Peggy and the
children, left the family only to be married. The inti-
macy continued, so that Peggy assisted her in sending
her only son to the university, and he is now a medical
missionary.

Each lesson was either prepared for school by the
children with their mother's help, or repeated to her
when learned. By her bedside, when it was scarcely
light, or by candle-light at an early winter hour, the
more difficult parts of the lessons were again repeated
by the little boys just before starting for school. When
the Latin rudiments were begun, this still continued.
Her little girl went to private classes and early began
French, Italian, and German. For some years at this
time their mother did not even dine out, except at her
fiither's house ; she was never off work, almost never ill,
never from home. As a reward for diligence she read
aloud in the evenings Gillies' "Greece," and popular
histories of Rome, France, and England, skipping what
she did not intend them to hear, and willingly stopping
to answer quiet questions or make it plainer by her own
version. The little boys sat at the table with her,
drawing, often in grotesque fashion ; the girl sat next
her working a sampler, with an old minute Gask one,

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106 peogy's nukseky.

bearing the initials of the children of the school-room
there, for a pattern.

She always stopped at nine to read God's word with
us. She did not put away our reading or play just at
that moment, for this does not lead children to love the
evening reading. She read early, and then we might
begin again till each would drop oflf to bed.

The fourth boy, Hugh, was bom on 28th July, 1830.
When the mother was indisposed, the little boys went on
tiptoe not only when passing the door but long after they
were out of her hearing. They went to see a menagerie
just then, where Frederick called out to the cockatoo,
" Be quiet, thing, don't you know mamma's asleep ? '*

Intending to be away for the day at Gask, when her
little girl of eight should be left to herself, Mrs. Sande-
man bought a pretty little copy of the "Pilgrim's
Progress," which the child had not before seen. She
set her to read it in a comer of the garden, and found
her in the same place in the evening, with the little
red square book. Christian and Christiana having both
been followed to the gate of the Celestial City.

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CHAPTER VIL

BONSKEID.

THREE years of unclouded prosperity had been
enjoyed by the circle at Springland, when a dark
shadow fell upon them. Margaret and her
husband were staying there in November, 1822 ; he was
about to take his eldest sister Anna to the Perth
Assembly. Before he could reach the carriage the horse
started, the driver fell, and the young lady was carried
along at full speed alone. When the horse was
approaching the toll-bar, half-way to Perth, fearing a
collision she resolved to get out. Gathering her ball
dress round her, she sprang out, and reached the road
apparently safe, but afterwards fell with her head on a
stone. The horse and carriage reached the stables in
safety. She walked home with her brother, and said
she was not hurt ; but while she spoke blood began
to trickle down on her white dress. A year after,
10th November, she died, at the age of twenty-three, of
effusion of blood on the brain, and the physicians attri-
buted the fatal issue to this cause.

Three years later Mrs. Glas Sandeman took the liveliest

interest in the marriage of her sister-in-law and the

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108 BONSKEID.

earliest friend of her life, Margaret Sandeman, to
William Fraser, younger of Culbokie, 25th July, 1826.
But the second sister, Jane, returned from the festivities
in Inverness-shire with a bad cold. Her illness and
death was to become the occasion of the deepest sorrow;
though the dark valley was brightened to herself, as to
the sister who went before, by simple faith.

At this period some deaths occurred among Mar-
garet's relations on her own side. In the end of
1828, the death of Charles Steuart, Dalguisc, of yellow
fever, at Gibraltar, where the 42nd Begiment was then
stationed, caused deep grief to his cousin and all her
family. Lady Naime wrote to her regarding it as
follows from Caroline Cottage, Edinburgh : —

" ^d January, 1829.~Many happy years to you and yours, my
dear Margaret. I hope you are now all well, iQcluding the
Doctor. We have not had a merry time durmg the holidays, but
I hope it has been profitable. Few events have been so much felt
by ^very one of this little circle as our last loss. How greatly
beloved darling Charles was I think we hardly knew ; his kind,
sweet, lively temper, added to a fine mind and excellent talents,
furnish incessant recollections — I dare not add, regrets; but
nature will in some degree prevail, and I need not tell you about
him. I have asked, dearest afflicted Margaret Hairiet to give me
a copy of the verses you wrote upon her brother's death ; they
express very naturally what mTist he felt, and some of us may per-
haps live to be thankful for what at this moment seems severe.
For all is love/ if we do but take events as from a Father's hand,
the blessing is sure. The firm trust that, amidst many tempta-
tions, our beloved Charles held by his Christian principles, and
was enabled by Divine grace to commit his soul to his Saviour,
not only in words, but in deed and in truth, is heartfelt consola-
tion to all who loved him, — and they were not a few. I did not
think it worth while to write on purpose to discuss the view of

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BONSKEID. 109

Bonakeid yon mention. I have not painted at all for a consid-
erable time."

This loss was followed by the death of her cousin,
Captain Gilbert Stewart, Fincastle. He had been one
of the most severely wounded of the officers in Spain
during the Peninsular War, and bore the unsightly
scars to the last Mrs. Sandeman wrote the following
lines for his widow at the funeral He was laid in the
Fincastle family burying-ground near Loch Tummel.

" Wake, wake ye the coronach, mournfully sound it,
Oh ! swift be it borne by the echoes afar,
For he over whom its sad dirge has resounded.
Was foremost in danger and bravest in war.

^ Now, now, is it swelling o'er moorland and mountain ;
Aye, wake it yet louder, for these are the strains
That bade him the foes of his country encounter.
And shed his best blood on Castilia's plains.

*' And gather, ye clansmen, to him ye were dearest,
True spirits like his beating high in your breast;
And now in his last hour should ye be the nearest
To bear him away to the place of his rest.

^' Te fought by his side in the land of the stranger.
And meet is it now that your tartans should wave
Where, far from the scene of his trial and danger,
'Mid his own native mountains we hollow his graro.

*^ Now hush these wild notes to the music of sadness ;
Fair lake, on thy waves let its last cadence swell ;
While, sorrow's tears mingling with hope's tears of gladness
We bid thee a long not an endless farewell.

" 1830;'

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110 BONSKEID.

From the time Dr. Stewart came to Perth prosperity
had largely attended him. His lands had been dis-
encumbered for him while he was with his regiment in
Holland, by the exertions of his cousin, Mr. Stewart of
Balnakilly, — the creditors on the estate had each given
up a year's interest His house had been built and
furnished for him by Sir James Pulteney and Lady
BatL The planting had been done by them under his
direction, the property improved, and the grounds laid
out without any expense to him. At various periods he
had originated, by imbuing others with his enthusiasm
for athletic sports, the Athole Gathering, the Dunkeld
Games, and the Highland Society of Perth. He had
bought Lick, Duntaulich, and the south side of Farragon.
He was beloved as a landlord, and had become trustee
and guardian to many, never sparing himself in the
discharge of the manifold duties. In the long minority
of his young neighbour, Archibald Butter of Faskally,
he did not miss one meeting of guardians, riding up
the thirty miles and back without a thought, looking
in on patients on the way north and south. While the
new house of Faskally was being built when Mr. Butter
came of age, he lent him Bonskeid.

But, unhappily, he scarcely knew how to refiise to sign
a bill when pressed hard by a Mend. He was at last
inextricably involved in the affairs of his brother-in-law,
Captain James Stewart, Fincastle. These troubles
ended in his own property being put under trust His
son-in-law having persuaded him to allow Mr. Morri-
son, accountant, Perth, to act for him, engaged to pay

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BONSKEID. Ill

his debts, on condition that his landed property should
be handed over to his wife and him. A few sentences
suffice to tell this ; but there were years of anxiety
and difficulty to pass through. As soon as Mr. Sande-
man saw what was before him, he took every step
within his power to prepare to give him assistance,
and to save the ancient part of the property for his
wife. Her strong attachment to it is shown in the lines
she wrote when she thought it was to be sold, and went
to see it for the last time : —

Beloved of my fathers through ages long past.
And oh, how beloved of their child to the last !
When chilling and cold on my bosom there fell
A summons to bid thee an endless farewell,
Then failed the last hope, that still vainly had strove
To ding to the land of my earliest love.

Yet I roused me and looked on the i^s gone by,
And lo ! through the space o'er which memory flew,

A long line of ancestry greeted mine eye,
ALl ending at last, my father, in you.

From the days of that Robert, the first of our race,
Through years of invasion and conflict and change,

I saw them unstained by contempt or disgrace
Through their own lovely lands in security range.

My boy, I had hoped the white plume on thy brow
Would shine e'en more bright than thy fathers of yore ;

But alas ! for thy mother, my darling, e'en now,
In sadly believing, her hope is no more.

Yet the oak of the forest, the pride of the wild.
Must bend to His thunder, by Whom it is riven ;

And the Qod of all Providence, grant thee, my child,
A changeless inheritance glorious in heaven.

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112 BONSKEID.

*******
Thou valley of loveliness ! * proud mountain brow ! t
Nor prouder nor lovelier ever than now ;
(Though the light fleecy clouds have your siunmit o'ercast
In mercy to shroud from my gaze — *tis the last)
Soft mists o'er the valley too, silently tell
Ye would spare me the anguish of such a farewell.
And bright recollections of hundreds of years
Have dissolved even Nature herself into tears,
While she views the sad heiress of mountain and dell
In agony bid them an endless farewell.

Yet hear roaring waterfall, precipice wild !

Oh, hear ye the vow of your desolate child ;

The son from his sire may be destined to sever

And lost to his bosom for ever and ever ;

But needs it for this that his sire must remove

From the depths of his fondness, the strength of his love ?

Nay ! sympathies bind him, none other can know,

As near to that heart as its ebb and its flow.

And first must the stream from its fountain retire,

Ere he cease to remember and honour his sire ;

And such be my love, such it ever shall be,

My own fairy land, my own valley for thee.

*******
And now, lovely spot, now the sunbeam has shined,
And I see by its light all thy beauties combined.
Lake, valley, and mountain, my sad vision meet.
With a smile my heart owns, but too fair and too sweet,
And I turn from them weeping for ever away,
Like our fathers from Paradise sentenced to stray.

But their image remains, 'tis engraven as fair

On memory's page, as if still it were there.

And there it shall rest till that solemn day.

When even these beauties shall vanish away.

And a new heaven and earth unto these shall be given,

Who are heirs of a heritage fadeless in heaven.

• The Vale of Tumtnel. • t The Giant's Steps.

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BONSKEID. 113

The arrangements for winding up the Bonskeid trust
were very tedious. They were prolonged by the impossi-
bility of findmg a purchaser for the whole of the Fin-
castle estates. After three years the Court of Session
authorised its division into lots. Mr. Sandeman had to
buy the lot which Mr. Colquhoun could not take — the
lower part of the glen of Fincastle, and along with it the
right to two days' fishing in each week at Linn of
Tummel ; Bonskeid had before possessed the other four
days. The end to be attained was worth labouring for,
and nothing was grudged in the pursuit

Towards the close of these negotiations Asiatic cholera
appeared at PertL At first, as usually happens, its
ravages were confined to the poor and the intemperate.
But one morning Adele Gilmour, the children's play-
mate, who had been out playing in the morning, was
seized by it and buried at nightfall The following
night Mrs. Sandeman's little girl of ten sickened ;
but before the doctor arrived every measure had been
taken ; for Mr. Sandeman and Mr. Morison being seated
at midnight with a good fire, studying the Fincastle
papers, both hurried up and at once applied hot foment-
ations. The doctors thought this circumstance led to
the saving of the child's life.

Mrs. Sandeman's joy and thankfulness when all was
settled regarding Bonskeid were thus expressed : —

* Imagination wherefore fly ?
See ! thy resting-place is nigh I
See these cool, inviting groves,
Shaded footpaths, cooing doves ! '

I

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114 BONSKEID.

— ' Yes, bright and beautiful these trees expand.
Fair the extensive prospect they command ;
And o'er the trellis of this green arcade,
India's exotics skilfully displayed ;
But yet though beautiful, they are not dear.
Home of my heart, I cry, — Not here, not here.'

* Haste thee, haste, the warder waits !
For thee ope the palace gates !

Lo, where lordly pomp can boast
All the world can value most,
Rest, nor farther wing thy way.
Stay thee, pretty trifler, stay.'

— ' Proudly waving o'er my head
Fame's armorial banners spread,
Burnished gold, and diamonds rare
Dazzle with their gaudy glare ;
Mid their radiance bright, but drear,
Still I cry, — Not here, not here.'

* Go, then, little fitful thing,

Lo ! I free thy quivering wing,

Wander where thou wilt for me,

Who have offered all to thee.

Away ! away ! with the glancing beam

Or illusion light of some happy dream.

That ere we could well believe it given

Has fled to the place whence it came, to heaven !

With Hope, her rainbow, around thee flinging.

And voices of seraphs about thee singing.

Away from the lowlands, away to the glen

Thou art gone, thou fair vision, and lost to our ken.

But I hear in the distance a wild thrilling ciy

As of joy in her utmost agony.

And I see thy form from yon hills descending

To a lovely vale where streams are blending.

And I see the roe-deer bounding fleet

To lay himself panting down at thy feet.

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BONSKEin. 115

I hear the eagle's piercing cry.
And the timid dove's soft tones reply,
And the voice of the distant waterfall,
And thy song of joy above them all.'

— * Ask ye where lies the land of bliss ?
In the pride of my heart I answer, " This.*'
Hie if ye will to your southern homes,
Your flowery glades and your jewelled domes,
Leave me, leave me in bliss to roam
'Mid the scenery wild of my Highland home ;
And when joy grows too intense, 111 rest
On the heathy side of yon mountain breast.
And silently weep o'er the spot so dear,
And silently whisper, — ^'Tis here, 'tis here.'

A far greater gift than the security of her earthly
inheritance was to be bestowed upon her from above.
It followed an illness which she had in the spring of
1832. Perhaps the loss of friends and the long period
of anxiety, prepared the way for the great change.
Let us read her narrative, written June, 1865, for the
account of her recovery from this illness, and for the
retrospect of her soul's history in these twelve years
from her leaving school : —

** I came home in 1820," she writes, ** and what of my soul 1
When Jesus, the beloved Jesus, the Substitute, has not yet been
apprehended for the sinner's own, ah ! what abundant room is
left for everything else ; and so it was with me. An earthly
attachment long felt gained strength, and suffice it to say that in
a few months it was carried into effect. I had knelt down to ask
direction, for I knew I should only marry a Christian ; but had
risen without obtaining, or rather was unwilling to listen when

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116 BONSKEID.

it came. Then followed the usual history of a soul that had so
placed itself. For that object I gave up all that was dearest ; and
besides, beUeved I was renouncing all prospects as to this world.
And most heartily I did it. But, my Saviour ! I knew Thee not
as mine. Who shall say how I delayed the revelation ? Fond-
ness, refined affection, love from the family which my husband had
already made my heart's chosen home— for many a year these
were all mine. But when my children were able to be told of the
truth of Qod I felt great anxiety. I was like Mrs. Graham, of
New York (a memoir much read at that time), 'never forgetting
the concern of the soul, yet struggling to act out a fedth that should
save, and could not.' Once when Mr. Thomson, of Moneydie,
preached that it was not to the faith, but to its object I must look,
there came a gleam of light. The death of Anna and Jane,
beloved sisters of my husband, and as much of mine, came, but I
groped on. I wondered how Miss Smith had said, the Spirit
must teach me. How could He now when the Canon was
closed ? In 1832, when Margaret was nine and I was twenty-
nine, I had a severe fever of influenza, and was long confined to
my room. Prayer was urgent ; the world was shut out ; I was
not happy. How could I be? I was convalescent; I had
dressed in a shot silk pink and blue, my favourite colour,
like the dove's neck, gayer than I would have chosen after-
wards, to take my first walk with my husband, on a sunny
day in May. Dearest Miss M. Sandeman* had sent books for

* This lady was Mr. Glas Sandeman's cousin, and afterwards widely
known in Edinburgh as having resided for many years in the family of
the Rev. John Duncan, D.D., Professor of Hebrew. Mrs. Sandeman's
journal, contains a notice of the work regularly done by Miss Sande-
man while resident in Perth : "It shows by its variety what one

woman can do. She has a letter from Mr. , New York, attributing

his first impressions to her class. She still conducts a young conmiuni-
cant's class weekly, where forty or more are often assembled. She has
a class for boys of a higher order once a-week, a class for young
ladies, a class for serrants/and a similar one early in the morning.
She visits a large district, the Jail, the House of Befuge, the School of
Industry, and the Infant School. She has a meeting for ladies on
Fridays, and one not confined to the congregation on Saturdays. Be-

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BONSKEID. 117

AHck as well as his sister to read ; and among them, with
*The Holy War,* was a little pamphlet, in brown paper,
lettered outside, 'The Fountain of Life.' To the best of
my memory I hare never seen it since. I sat down at the
head of the table to read it, as I waited for my husband. It
was a little spiritual allegory, but began by describing a fountain
to heal all diseases. An old man, one of the otherwise incurable,
was standing arguing on the brink, that he could not get in.
Said one standing by, *Will you not let the waves flow over youl*
When my eyes fell on the words, it was done. Salvation flowed
into my souL Heaven on earth was begun. I have never, by the
glorious grace of my living Saviour, had a doubt since. Once for
a few minutes, twenty years after, Satan threw a dart into my
heart at my Beloved's eternal sonship, but one word of God
dispelled it, and He saved from that first hour, and He has
undertaken all, and He stands in my place before God. I stand
accepted in the Beloved ; He has brought my children to Him-
self, and those made one with them.

'' I believe in, and now am claiming and getting, the promise
of righteousness upon children's children. Three of these are
already with Jesus, along with my three noble sons and my two
infants. Since I became a widow, Jesus has been to me what no
tongue can tell or heart understand but mine alone.

"The occasion of my writing this record is my having set
apart this Sabbath day to remember that my youngest son
and his wife are to-day taking to Thy house their third little one,
my name-daughter. Lord, for this youngest and weakest I claim

what I have seen given to 's children, and many of the others ;

and what I ask for all is the fulfilment of my sainted mother's
prayers in the salvation of every one who belongs to her child."
11 George Square,

Edinburgh, June, 1865.

sides, she visits those distressed in soul, writes many letters, is ever
ready to give advice, and, above all, gets near access to the Lord on His
Throne of Grace. The Lord be with her, make BGs face to shine upon
her, and through her labours revive His work in Perth."

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CHAPTER VIII.

SPRINGLAND.

IN order to receive Dr. Stewart into their house,
which his state of health now made desirable,
Mr. and Mrs. Olas Sandeman moved to Athole
Crescent, where he could have apartments on the ground
floor. But before he occupied them their seventh
child, the infant Anna, had entered and left the
dwelling after a month's short sojourn. This was a
peculiarly bitter trial, as the infant caught erysipelas
from the monthly nurse, who was not known to have
had it Her baptism, the day before she was taken,
was a most solemn event in the family, and touched her
grandfather deeply. The younger doctors had hoped for
recovery, but the old man shook his^ head hopelessly
at the first glance of the grave symptoms. When her
little brother Frederick heard the name was to be
Anna, he said, " Why not Christiana ? *'

The little boys asked why they might not sleep as
usual in the room that night with their marble white
sister. Their mother gave the same impression to her
children regarding death which she had received from

her mother, who wished her husband's motto had been,
118

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SPEINGLAND. 119

"Victory in death," instead of "Victory or death,"
She made them feel that after coming to Christ there
is no such thing to meet as death in the believer's
path. The dreaded beast of prey stands yonder, but ha
has been slain by Christ, the Conqueror. The awful
figure may cast a shadow across the road, or may not ;
but at the most God's child only steps upon a shadow
cast on a safe pathway. Death has been disposed of in
reality, and sleep has come in his room.

When the children required during such an illness as
that of their sister to be sent from home, there was one
country-house where they could always arrive unasked
to pay a visit. This was Logiealmond, nine miles
distant from FertL Three sisters, the Misses Drum*
mond^ resided there, the fourth having married Sir
George Stewart of GrandtuUy. These ladies never
allowed Mrs. Sandeman to feel that she had lost a
mother. Their housekeeper too, Mrs. Gilchrist, made
her room most charming to children. To reach that
room they must pass along a sunk stone corridor, which
never lost the scent of peat and wood-embers, sometimes
varied by a slight flavour of toasted oat-cake, or a whiflF
of roasted potatoes, and, when it was reached, all deli-
cious things were found in the good woman's cupboards.

From early childhood Margaret Stewart yearly so-
journed there. She called it her second home. " Tender
care," she writes, " was lavished on me, there was but
one drawback to enjoyment. The long summer
Sabbaths had to be spent in the chamber, or in the
lovely woods, all scented with hyacinth, orchid, primrose.

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120 SFRIKGLAND.

violet, and other wild flowers. No church bell broke
the silence. While others walked far to find a place of
worship, I remained; for, as a child, I could not
accompany them. Time wore on ; my little daughter
had taken my place under the friendly roof, but she had
not the same weekly deprivation. The old family
chapel, around which lie the ashes of their dead, has
put on its Sabbath garb as of old, for the use of the
dependents, and now a faithful man of Qod proclaims
' the fiilness that is in Christ,' and people wend their
way through the woods from the mansion and from the
cottages around."

All felt the influence of the Rev. John Omond.
The eldest sister never left the house on foot at any
time farther than the door-step, where she met and
parted with her guests. The second, who in earlier
days had declared that she would rather be a Roman
Catholic than a Presbyterian, appeared one Lord's
day in the great pew, to the unbounded joy of the
worshippers, and never was missing again. The third
died peacefully, resting by faith on her Saviour. The
eldest left her confession of faith, unbreathed in
human ear, to be discovered only by accident. It was
long after her decease that a relative, who at her death
came into possession of an Italian box, presented to
her brother. Sir William Drummond, when envoy at
Naples, found under the golden lid set with lapis lazuli,
malachite, and bloodstone, a small slip of paper con-
taining the words, "I have to thank God for having
found peace in Jesus, my Saviour." Thus did all the

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SPRINGLAND. 121

sisters ascend to rejoin their mother, the circumstances
of whose death had thrown for years after its occurrence
a terrible shadow over the house at Logieahnond.
Lady Naime, then Miss Oliphant, described it thus in
1791:—

<<LoaiEALMOKD, FHday, Zrd June. — On Wednesday night at
Qask I stood speecliless till I should know what agitated Laurence,
Margaret, and Charles so violently ; at last learnt that Lady
Catherine Drummond was dead, and came upstairs in great
affliction, but till next morning did not learn the dreadful truth
that on Tuesday evening she had walked too near where weeds
were burning, her clothes took fire, and she was burnt so much
that she died next day/

Mrs. Qlas Sandeman was as much interested in
Dr. Duff's return to Scotland, as she had been in his
going from the braes of Moulin fifteen years before,
to St. Andrews University, at the instance of her
relative, Mr. Stewart of Balnakilly, near whose resi-
dence Alexander Duff had been brought up.

In the spring of 1835, those who sat at the Com-
munion in Lady Glenorchy's Church, Edinburgh, were
astonished at the appearance of a stranger conducting
the service. He was so emaciated and exhausted that
it almost seemed as if he might have passed away with
the broken bread in his hand. It was Dr. Duff, who
had just returned from India. He rested during the
summer with his family at Edradour, at the foot of
Ben-y-Vrackie. Dr. Duff visited Perth to address the
Presbytery there on the Indian mission.

Mrs. Glas Sandeman and her children watched the
arrival of the missionary, still an invalid from over-

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122 SPRINGLAND.

work, at the door of the Rev. Dr. William Thomson,
a few doors from their own. They all heard him
preach on the Sabbath morning. The steep galleries
of the old Middle Church were crowded, and even
the seats behind the great pillars were filled. The
text was, "Be not conformed to this world." The
preacher cut right and left, root and branch, at the
worldliness in the Church of Christ. He described how
men and women carried it into God's house, and could
be seen stepping down the aisle, with a look so proud
that an archangel would blush to see it. The schools
gave an aftemoon|^holiday for his address on missions,
as the little city had been moved throughout at his
coming. *

Mr. Esdaile, the erudite minister of the East Church,
followed by the Presbytery, accompaniedhim to the pulpit
steps. The gaunt figure in the pulpit, soon rid of the
gown, was seen beneath the coloured window, which
had become a permanent picture-book for the little
people when wearied by the scholarly discourses of Mr.
Esdaile. Buton this day the eloquent descriptions of the
far-off land seized on their sometimes wandering atten-
tion. Snow peaks, dense forests, aromatic gardens, and
the Ganges' waters were the background. The idolatry
of India was pictured in the most graphic manner.
Each arrow-like sentence of appeal for help was barbed
with reproach to the selfish Britons who had come home
rich without doing anything to enlighten the natives of
poor, pillaged, ravaged, unhappy India.

Next day at school a penny a-week subscription

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SPBINGLAND. 123

began among the children. The mother took up her
pen and wrote : —

He crossed o'er our path, like an angel of light,
The swoid of the truth in his grasp, gleaming bright ;
O'er mountain and valley unwearied he flew,
Imploring our aid for the poor lost Hindoo.

The rich gorgeous East, with its dark Indian grove.
Was the land that he pled for — all pity and love ;
But we caught the swift glance and the dear mountain tone,
And claimed him with reverence and pride for our own.

Yes ! dark Ben-y-Vrackie, all rugged and wild,
And fair vale of Athole, ye welcome your child ;
For oft have his thoughts turned in fondness to you,
While he toUed for the soul of the darkened Hindoo.

And shall we not aid him with heart and with hand,
To ope fountains of truth in that desolate land ?
Nor break the witched charm that he over us threw,
While in anguish he pled for the erring Hindoo.

Some years previous a similar crowd, including the
above-named listeners, had gathered in the East Church
to hear Edward Irving, then at the height of his popu-
larity. He was preaching on the coming of Christ. The
afternoon was lowering, and a thunder-storm was about to
burst over the town. And as the preacher was reading
the words, " As the lightning cometh out of the east,
and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the
coming of the Son of Man be ; " he was suddenly inter-
rupted by an almost simultaneous flash and peal.

Dr. Stewart's last years were peaceful. His daughter
seldom left him but in the evening, when his grand-

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124 SPRINGLAND.

children read to him or played draughts. Daily^
attended by his servant, he walked round the North
Inch, and on Sundays to the East Church, where he
became a member. Mr. Charles Stewart, afterwards of
Kirkmichael, then of the Gaelic Church, Perth, came
to dine every Sabbath evening, and after dinner in-
structed the young people in presence of their grand-
father — ^he a listener in his arm-chair by the fire, and
they the pupils gathered at the table. During the
last week of his life, when paralysis prevented his eat-
ing, he still kept his seat at table, helping the children
to what he knew they liked best Weakness, increas-
ing rapidly, confined him one day to bed, but even then
he sent for his granddaughter, and asking her why she
was not practising her music as usual, bade her go to
the piano. He died on the 6th September, 1835, and
the funeral procession again took the old road to
Blair.

In May, 1835, Mr. David George Sandeman of Spring-
land, had been called away at his Edinburgh residence.
His wife, who had long resided at Pau in charge
of her delicate and widowed daughter, Mrs. Eraser of
Culbokie, set out for Scotland with her son. Captain
Sandeman, on hearing of her husband's death. At
Bordeaux she was taken from the carriage to rest in
the hotel, where she suddenly expired, and only the
embalmed remains came to her husband's grave. The
same year Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Sandeman, who
at her father's death took the family name, made
Springland their home.

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J. v..

\' . i

J •:.

Ll. " ,1

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SPRINGLAND. 126

On the first evening they spent there the blended
feeling of past and present was thus expressed : —

Two Roses.
1820-35.
'Twas on a dazzling snininer^s mom

You plucked that rose and gave it me ;
1 pressed it close, and felt no thorn
In that sweet hour of youthful glee.

Three lovely sisters gathered round —
My sisters they were soon to be, —

And how did every bosom bound
With joy, and hope, and harmony !

Again, this dewy summer's even,
A rosebud from that self-same tree

By my loved husband's hand is given —
Which rose is dearer, love, to me ?

The sisters, — two are laid to rest.
And one is exiled from her home ;

The parents, — ah ! that heaving breast
Tells who has newly closed their tomb.

The hour to-night is one of woe,
And falling tears this bud bedew ;

But sweeter does its fellow blow,
And fonder beats my heart for you

Than on yon dazzling summer's mom,
When that first rose you gave to me.
. I press it close, I feel no thorn.
This hour of calm solemnity.

In May, 1836, Mrs. Stewart Sandeman first occupied
Bonskeid with the feeling that it was now all their
own. Delicacy towards Dr. Stewart had prevented his
son-in-law from beginning meditated improvements

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126 SPBINQLAND.

there while he lived The family enjoyed during that
summer frequent intercourse with Mrs. Keith and Miss
Steuart, who were to spend the winter with Lady
Naime and her son on the Continent. Some years after
leaving Bavelston/Mrs. Keith had added to the cottage
at Steuartfield of Dalguise, built on a very elevated
situation. She carried out to the letter and to the last
the injunctions of the old epistle from her father to his
four little girls at Oask. There still remains a rug
which her diligent hands worked in imitation of pile-
carpet ; it was knitted during the time between the
sounding of the gong to dress for dinner and the time
when dinner was announced. Its progress was not
more perceptible to the little onlookers than that of
Penelope's web ; but the stripes for it were finished at
last, the border completed, and the children taught the
value of odd minutes ; she kept a large, round, China-
silk bag in the chiffonier, full of remnants of Berlin
wool for her rug. The children might take from it
what they pleased. The first pieces of their work were
done at her side. Her eyesight was not dimmed by
cataract till she had provided a series of manuscript
books sewed into black linen covers, with all the words
of our Dord in the Gospels copied in a large hand. The
half-text of the children appeared in some of these.
Diminutive pocket-books covered with silk contained
the first words or the first lines of all the hymns she
could repeat, aiding her ready memory to retain a very
large number. She had watched over her niece's
welfare since the deplored death of her mother in the

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SPRINGLAND.

127

year of her own widowhood, 1819. But she could now
see that in her case a mother remembered may be
almost as potent an influence as a mother possessed.
On a visit to Bonskeid, she wrote : —

" llih JTttne.— Glas and Margaret are so very kind ; slie
manages her house and children well, and is bringing them up to
help her in everything. May parents, brothers, and sister, all be
blest.''

LOCH TUMMEL.
From photo, hy WiUon, Abordoen.

" 16e^.— BoEENiCH, Loch Tummel-side.— I have had a long
walk and drive with my niece, and desire to be most thankful
for the delightful feeling of robust health so graciously bestowed

here. I write in the open carriage, while M and her daughter

go to visit a tenant's wife on this part of the property.

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128 SPBINGLAND.

In this farm-house at Borenich^ on Loch Tummel-
side, Rev. John Fraser, afterwards minister at Lowick,
Northumberland, had spent his youth ; as tutor at the
Perth Grammar School, he directed the education of
Mrs. Sandeman's elder boys, and was an intimate fiiend
of the fiwnily.

In October, 1836, their son Charles was bom; in
1838 their youngest, Frank ; and in 1837 their daughter
went to Brussels to Mrs. Keith of Dunnottar, and
Miss Steuart, Dalguise, who waited there to be near
Lady Naime and her only son dying of consumption
at the age of twenty-nine.

The plans which Mrs. Stewart Sandeman had formed
for the home-education of her daughter having failed, she
had decided to send her to school. Without confiding her
own thoughts to any one but her husband, she went to
Edinburgh and visited several schools, calling on Mrs.
Alexander Keith to learn the most recent accounts of the
party at Brussels. Mrs. Keith, who was just writing to
them, happened to mention the search for a school, and
within a week Maggy's grand-aunt, and for the next
two years, second mother, wrote for her to join them.
These incidents are told to keep in sight that chain of
Providence which, seen or unseen, winds all the way in
the path of those who seek God's guidance, and act
consistently with their constant prayer for it.

When Mr. Sandeman and his daughter drove up to
the door of Mrs. Keith's house in Brussels, the servant
in mourning showed that all was over. Through miss-
ing a steamer they had been detained, and Lord Naime's
funeral was already at the cemetery.

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SPRINGLAND. 129

The physician at Brussels advised that as far as
possible the bitterly bereaved Lady Naime should have
some one with her — and especially in her carriage on
her journeys — who did not remind her of her son, so
Maggy was often her companion.

Two letters from Lady Naime, the one written
after her daughter s arrival, the other two years later,
are here given : —

" Brussels, December, 1837. — Though writing, even to friends,
is no longer, as formerly, one of my occupations, I cannot resist
the temptation now offered of thanking yon for your kind letter,
and sympathy with me under the heavy affliction which it pleased
our Heavenly Father to send me. No one but myself can know
what 1 have lost in my darling companion of almost thirty yeais,
as none besides could witness his never-ceasing tenderness and
confidence. WhUst 1 had him, the thought that it was a thing
possible that I might lose him, though high in health and spirits —
the very thought would at times embitter to me our delightful
intercourse. This, 1 know now, arose from excess of attachment,
and surely I have much — ^much reason to give thanks for the
grace that enabled me to resign him at last with the full convic-
tion that all was well for him and for me. You are the first to
whom I have written of my inmost feehngs, as I really have not
strength of mind or body for much."

"Nice, 9^^ November, 1839. — I do indeed now very rarely
write to any one ; but I must, with my own hand and heart,
thank you my long-loved Margaret, for your kind and satisfactory
letter. ... I am much weakened in mind and body since I saw
you last, and how can -it be otherwise ? Age and sorrow will
tell, yet I am here a monument of mercy and tender dealing.
Surely loving-kindness and mercy have followed me all the days
of my life, and I know will follow me to the end. Though I am
sensible that both the outward frame and faculties are subject to
decay, I humbly trust that through grace the inward man is
renewed day by day. . . . The Holy Spirit is promised to all who

K

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130 SPRINGLAND.

believe our Lord's promises, and believingly pray for their fulfil-
ment • • . I have often in other days felt a chill of apprehension
when I read the words, ' He that loveth son or daughter more
than Me is not worthy of Me.' You are aware of the danger.
May you be kept from idolising any created good ! My mother,
when she had six thriving infants, resigned them every night into
our Saviour's hands ; she learned much by the death of her first
lovely boy at a year old, and was six years without a child. Then
your motiier eame to be her comfort ... Do you know a small
pamphlet, * The Sinner's Friend ' ] When people are convinced
of sin, it is quite a cordial. To the unawakened, nothing is good.
Praying for them is the only hope — ^though appropriate tracts
have been blessed, perhaps in answer to prayer. Adieu, dearest
M. May you and I, with all we love, meet in due time to part
no more, and in the meantime may you be enabled to fulfil your

The following letter came from her sister-in-law, Mrs.

Fraser, written a few days before her death: —

« Rome, 4th March, 183a
«Mt Dear Margaret, — ^I cannot leave this world without
saying farewell to you, my first, dear, and earliest friend. Often
do I think of our early days, and tell dear Glas that, in all my
absence and illness, I have ever loved and fondly thought of you
and him. I know how dearly you both love me, and that that
affection you will now transfer to my children. Do not grieve
for my loss ; I trusty through God's mercy, that I am going to
heaven. What a blessed change will this be, from pain and
suffering here ! I send you no little remembrance, as I have
desired in my will a sum of money to be given to each of my
brothers, to be laid out in some souvenir of their last sister.
" God Almighty bless you all. — Your affectionate sister,

"Margaret C. Fraser."

Her Journal contains the following : —

" May, 1838.— Pleasant to be left alone to-day to think over
my prospects for eternity. I desire that my Saviour should be
ail my joy ;— yet often I cannot believe in Him at all. Could I

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SPRINGLAND. 131

choose, I am sure I could part with everything that interferes
with my whole heart being His. May the glory of God be
revealed to my soul, His holiness, His Majesty. May all these
low thoughts of Him, and that evil heart of unbelief which fights
against my being happy in Him alone, be put down by His power.
Even after having been made one with Jesus, how quickly would
the world usurp its lost dominion ! May the scales never turn
again with me as to the real values of things, but may I this
week have direction in each step I take for myself or my children.
Then shall He receive me into His presence with exceeding joy ;
then shall the entrance be an abundant one for them and me.
May I pray perseveringly by His grace for all dear friends.
Truly I am always happiest alone with my Qod,^

No trouble was spared in procuring books interesting
for Sunday reading for the children. WhileMrs. Sande-
man lived in Perth, she went on Saturdays to get some-
thing fresh and true from the Religious Tract Society's
room at the bookseller's, and brought down next morning
the attractive brief memoir for the day ; at Springland
she kept a small store by her and sent the children to
learn the hjrmn and Shorter Catechism in the garden.
She urged such as employed the English Church
catechism to be very clear in their teaching of it to the
young ; she retained always a vivid sense of the decep-
tion, in spite of her mother's training, under which she
had remained for fifteen years, through having been
taught to say: "My baptism wherein I was made a
member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor
of the kingdom of heaven." She was decided in her
prohibition of novel-reading till her children were
seventeen ; they were then promised the use of their
own discretion. The choice of good stories for children
fifty years ago, was limited ; all the more prized were —

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182 SPRINQLAND.

" The Robins," " Robinson Crusoe," " Rasselas, Prince of
Abyssinia," "Sandford and Merton," "Henry Milner,"
"Father Clement," "Miss Placid and her Daughter
Rachael," " The Tales of the Covenanters," and Scott's
Poems. When seventeen came and the young people
were free to read fiction, some of them had not the wish
to begin. The true stories their mother had given
them to read and passages in her own history, stranger
than any found in this volume, were interesting enough.
The old people of the generation preceding hers lived
less on books than on the oral traditions handed down
and perpetually repeated to the young. She herself
added to a store of reminiscence real dramatic power
and genuine humour. She was not ajBraid of speaking
frankly to her children nor of showing them signs of the
anguish it would cost her should they in any wise flinch
from faithfully following the royal Master she served.
"Were a remark made in her presence which she thought
deserved censure, her way of most strongly conveying
this was to leave the room. And while the ofiender
sat trembling at the very thought of having vexed her
and framing an adequate apology, she would re-enter
the room by another door with a smile of guileless
dignity, making a remark quite foreign to the discussion
of five minutes before. Her instantaneous forgiveness
and forgetfulness of the past was almost startling to the
ofiender whose remembrance of the ofience was thus
lastingly secured.

At Springland there grew a weeping ash, under
which feasts of fruit were made frequently by the

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SPRINGLAND. 133

children, who gathered the fruit and arranged it on
the pale green and purple curled cabbage leaves for
themselves and their companions. When the number
was too large, their mother gave them the use of the
Tower. She would arrange their places for them, and
then leave them to themselves. These lines of hers,
preserved during forty years by one of the sharers in
these feasts, come to us to-day : —

" To THE Twelve Cousins met in the Tower, 1840.

" Meet in gladness, for the spell

Of youth, charmed life, has brightly bound ye.
Meet in gladness, it is well,

Earth's best gifts thus thrown around ye.
Taste the fruit, and cull the flower.

Like yon songster carol lightly ;
While, refreshing, near your bower.

Sunlit waters flow on brightly.

" Meet in gladness ! Why should care

Throw her envious shadows o'er ye 1
When life's pathway seems so fair,

Lighted up by Hope before ye.
Yet for Jesus — as ye part —
Keep the undivided heart,
And the Spirit's power implore
To protect you evermore."

* * * * *

After twenty-five years had passed, the cousins of
another generation are at play on the banks of the
same river. Change and grief of every kind has passed
over the owner of the dwelling, but her interest in
making children happy outlives it all. A snow-storm
has covered the landscape with white, loading the

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134 SPRINQLAND.

branches and burying the snow-drops; while Laura's
hands have shown the rest how to make a man of snow.
Her grandmother wrote regarding it when the thaw
came: —

" They gathered of the snow-drift,
They fashioned it in form,

A figure bright,

In robes of white,
It glistened in the storm.
They made it eyes, and for its head
They twined a wreath of berries red.
And happy little Laura ran -
To see her beautiful snow man.

'' The sunbeam came and kissed its cheek,

It melted quickly down.
The famished birds, with eager beak,

Plucked its bright berry-crown.
And sadly little Laur» spake,
* I cried as if my heart would break.'

" Yes, pretty little maiden !

Go, tell thy simple tale ;
Thy many fair young sisters

Have treasures just as frail.
Tell them to trust for happiness

No idols here below.
For quickly shall they melt away

Like thy poor man of snow."

The close of 1839 found the community in Scotland
deeply moved by the work of God which had taken
place at Kilsyth, mainly under the preaching of Mr.
William 0. Bums, afterwards missionary in China. In
many records of different kinds has the work so begun
at Perth been chronicled. No one spent a whole day

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SPEINGLAND. 135

in the company of Mrs. Stewart Sandeman, without
hearing snatches from her of the wondrous story.
It was the crowning of the preparatory work of the
faithful men who had long laboured, and still were at
their posts to hail it. The most careless of the comun-
ity reclaimed; Christians refreshed, and their exertions
doubled ; the sign-boards of nine publicans taken down
in one street, when the three months were over ; these
were the proofs of God's power sent forth. Mr. Sandeman
brought his daughter home from abroad on the last
night of 1839, the most remarkable night of all in the
beginning of that revival of religion. She was in after-
life asked by the editor of Mr. Bums' memoir to com-
municate her impressions of the revival in Perth, and
wrote as follows : —

** It was in a hotel in Rome that we first read, in the colunms of
Gdlignani^s Messenger, the name of William Bums. The article
was a bitter and sneering caricature. Arriving in Scotland a few
weeks later, without having had any opportunity of being in
church in the interval, and with the bewitching mummeries of
the Roman Church, as they surrounded the person of Gregory
XVI., in vivid recollection, we were taken to an inquirers* meet-
ing conducted by Mr. Bums in Perth ; and the forty years
which have since sped away, instead of eflTacing, have only
deepened the impression of the scene we then witnessed, Wil-
liam Bums was speaking from Revelation xiz. of the doom of
Antichrist, and the hallelujah which shall rise from the redeemed
when the smoke of Rome's tomient shall ascend in their sight He
was wamiing the unsaved that over their destruction also the
same assenting 'Amen, hallelujah > must yet arise, if they per-
sisted in rejecting Jesus. He was inviting poor sinners to come
to Calvary's fountain and wash and be clean. He was waming
such as imagined they had washed and were living unholy, thus :

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136 SPRINGLAND.

* You are saying, "If I sin it will easily be washed out again.*' Or,
if not Maying it with the lip, you are acting it out fearfully in the
life. Ah ! the soul that has washed its filthy garments in the
stream of Calvary is careful how the remedy is used. Many
belieyers have so much allowed the stains of conformity to the world
to disfigure the white robe, that instead of representing the work of
Gbd within, they are scarcely to be distinguished from the servants
of the deviL* He was setting before believers the coming joys
of the marriage-supper of the Lamb, and said, 'This blessed-
ness is not 80 far off as the world seems to think ; the meanest
saint can tell that it has already set in with a sweetness
unspeakable. Ushered into the breast of many by billows of
affliction and temptation, beating wildly on the soul with their
tempestuous swell, yet are the beginnings so glorious and so
blessed, that they are an earnest of a springing up of a life eternal
in the heavens. On the joys which shall crown our union with
Emmanuel no destroyer shall lay the withering blight of his
death-cold hand ; no ruthless separation shall snatch our happi-
ness from us, or us from our happiness. After washing for a few
days more in the free fountain here— after a few days more
weeping on account of sin and sonow — you shall awake sud-
denly in the city of our Gk>d, to walk with Emmanuel for ever in
the courts above. The company, small here, will be innumer-
able yonder. Ten thousand times ten thousand are their voices,
and ten thousand times ten thousand are the harps they tune ;
but it is as the sounding of one voice. Hallelujah ! 'tis the key-
note of an eternal song. Only one name rests upon their lips ;
it is Emmanuel They know but one song, the song of the
redeemed. It is sometimes difficult to say here ' all His judg-
ments are righteous,' for they are often heavy and severe. When
you join that company, your narrow and short-sighted views will
be gone. If I were ever to see the smoke of your torment
ascending before the throne, I would have to say Amen;
hallelujah ! and if you, standing on high, were to see the smoke of
my torment ascending, you too would cry Amen ; hallelujah !
... An hour has nearly elapsed since we began to speak with
you ; it is just taking wing ; a few seconds and it will have
fled to bear its tale to the judgment-seat. Shall it announce the

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SPRINGLAND. 137

BabmissioQ of a Binner, the retam of a prodigal, the adoption of
a son into the family above ?' The deepest solemnity pervaded
the asaembly, as the simple, searching truth was calmly pre-
sented. Individuals were conversed with in St Leonard's Church
for an hour or two afterwards ; and many a burden was there
laid upon ' the Lamb of Qod that taketh away the sin of the
world.' These inquiry meetings were held three times a-week,
and in the evening the church was open for the crowds that
thronged it from town and country. An. hour before the time of
service every seat was filled. The multitude generally remained
in silence, and many heads were bowed in prayer. The stairs
leading to the pulpit were also filled, and it was with difficulty
the preacher could be conducted thither. The Bev. John Milne,
the recently settled pastor of the congregation, usually shared
the pulpit with the speaker. We recall especially one evening
when a chair was handed up for James Hamilton, then of Aber-
nyte, to sit at their side. It seems now as if one chariot had
sufficed to carry home the three, William Bums, John Milne,
and James Hamilton. That night was one of power. * Tough
boughs require sharp pruning,* said the preacher, when some one
would have tried to blunt the knife, by advising him to the use
of more measured and tempered language. * A sleeping minister
and a sleeping congregation, what will they do in the day of
judgment ? ' He was privileged to break this sleep— in congre-
gations, in kirk-sessions, and in manses. The first part of his
discourse always embodied a mass of telling doctrine, holding
up the Divine law right in face of the conscience. The appeals
in the latter part were irresistibly winning, brimming over
with the freely offered love of Jesus. The Spirit was glorified.
He arrested many before the preacher had time to enter his
subject ; in some cases the arrow sped from the first psalm
that was given out, and many were awakened during the opening
prayer. It is not easy to describe his prayers. Adoration of
Jehovah's uncreated glory, as it falls on the darkness and cor-
ruption of man's heart, and reveals the abyss of a yawning hell,
filled the first part He brought himself and the saved part of
his audience down into the sides of the pit whence they were
hewn, in a way that made the greatest outcast in the church feel

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188 SPRINGLAND.

that he or she was sympathised with and carried abreast ; and
then his soul would as it were be seen to pass anew through the
cleansing flood, up into the very presence-chamber of the King
of kings, and there looked up into the Father's face with
unutterable love. His theology was unbiassed, and. swung like a
pendulum across the truth of God, avoiding all limited, classified,
partial, and one-sided expressions of it. His training of young
converts was thus invaluable to them. *No cross, no crown,'
was the term of enlistment. 'Suffering is the law of the king-
dom.' ' The greater your sacnflces for Christ, the more of His
joy will fill your heart.' * Forsake the glass, the dance, and the
song, if you would drink of the rivers of His pleasures, if you
would leap for joy on the shores of Emmanuel's land, if you
would take up the unending hallelujah.'

** He warned the young that if they would live near the Lord,
they must be content to be singular even among believers, and
to travel sometimes almost alone. * I am often reminded of this,'
he said, ' when setting out by the early stage-coach. The morn-
ing is sharp, companions few, and from the top of the coach you
see whole streets shuttered in as in the night. But just here and
there, one, earlier up than the others, has begun her morning
work, with no one apparently to notice or thank her. She will
find out the good of it before nightfalL So with you. Forget
the crowd, walk with God alone.'

'' It was a high standard he himself set before them. ' The
longing of my heart would be to go once all round the world
before I die, and preach one Gospel invitation in the ear of every
creature.' He had a tender regard for those who were kept long
in darkness ; saying, that those to whom the Lord had revealed
much of their own sin and misery in the place of dragons, were
often led into high places in the school of Christ.

" All the roads from the town were nightly trod by groups of
country hearers. Some were returning home to sing for the
first time the new song. Others with heavy pace carried an
arrow rankling in the heart. Others bore the good news of com-
panions in town turning to God, the public-house signs taken
down, the police comparatively idle, and families and workshops
sharing the wide-spread blessing."

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SPMNGLAND. 189

Throughout the Perthshire highlands the same im-
pressions were made during the summer, and on the
9th September, 1840, being a guest at Bonskeid, Mr.
Bums preached in the Tenandry Church to a large
audience deeply moved. The features of the work
remain written a generation after in the histories and
minds of hundreds of the Highlanders.

The summer of 1841 was spent at Fonab by the
Tummel-side, Bonskeid being let. Mr. Bums again
visited the district, and the country people gathered in
multitudes. About this time we find the following
entry in her Journal : —

" Fonab, 28ih September, 1841. — I have of late been much dis-
tressed by fears lest I am not God's own. Beading Erskine on
the promise was helpful. My Saviour knows it is my choice to
Jive on His Word, to go to Him as blind that He may guide me.
Pride, indeed, says " No ** to this ; but then Jesus sees into my
heart, — sees the full tide of joy which rises there when He enables
me to throw myself right into the ocean of His love. Then
can I drink great draughts from His promises, because of being
so desolate, so strengthless, so altogether sinful. I would, there-
fore, look to Christ every moment in reality, — ^away even from
ministers and Christian friends. How I feel a severe word, a
suspicious look ; then let me be tender to others. Let me have
such words spoken to me as I need most. I gave myself all quite
away to God. I would not draw back from this bargain since He
has the keeping of my soul. I would be as Mary weeping at His
feet, wiping His sacred feet."

" Springland, Ut October.— QreaX conflict in my heart ; yet I
pant, I long, I agonise to be in that rest of His — ^to live in Jesus,
to breathe in Jesus, to bask in the beatific vision. My whole soul
says Amen to the Gospel plan. It is my life to enjoy Him. He
is my choice.''

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140 SPRINGLAND.

When May, 1843, came, Mrs. Stewart Sandeman
joined the Free Church ; and although she could not be
in Edinburgh in person, her son and her daughter saw
the whole proceedings of that memorable day. Early
in the morning they were in St. Andrew's Church with
the multitude, hearing the protest of ministers and
elders read, seeing the Lord Commissioner withdraw
overcome, and then they left the church along with the
last outgoing men. Whilst the procession marched on
towards Tanfield Hall, the crowd upon the pavements
walked faster and arrived sooner. Thus they had a view
of the entire procession, recognising many an honoured
and well-known form. Thousands of young people
received a lifelong impulse from that scene.

She wrote, on 26th May, 1843:—

" QUITTINO THE MaNBE.

^ We are leaving the Bcenes of our happiest hours,
So gay and bo lovely with spring's opening flowers ;
Our diildien's last look to their homes has been given.
And faith'fl eye is fixed on her mansion in heaven.
Now, Scotland, onr task is accomplished for thee,
And the Chorch of onr countiy is faithful and free !

*' Last week in His house we united in prayer.
And we felt that the Qod of our fathers was there ;
Yet 't was aolemn and sad thus in parting to pray,
And the last song of praise on our lips died away.
Now, Scotland, our task is accomplished for thee,
And the Church of our country is faithful and free !

Yea, secured to thee now is the GospePs sweet sound,
And our conscience is peaceful, our fetters unbound ;
The shield of His truth He will over us fling.
And the shout that ye hear is the ' shout of a King.'

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SPRINGLAND. 141

The crown on His brow shall for ever endure,

HiB throne as eternity steadfEwt and sure.

Now, Scotland, our task is accomplished for thee,
And the Church of our fathers is faithful and free ! "

As she could not give all she could have wished in
money, she parted with some of her fietther's plate. A
portion of it shines in the communion cups of Moulin
Free Church, Pitlochrie, while her massive gold chain
is now possessed by her fiamily only in her portrait by
Watson Gordon. Twice her husband bought it back ;
but the third time she sold it, she got leave to lose it in
the sacred treasury.

In December, 1843, she received the following letter
from the Rev. William Grant, minister of Tenandry : —

« Mt Dear Madam, — In Mr. Sandeman's absence in London,
I must inform you that an interdict has been served on me and
that I have deliyered up the keys of the church. Our strong
expectations of retaining tiie church as having been a chapel of ease
belonging to the Society for Propagating Chnstian Knowledge,
are now at an end. We worshipped yesterday (24th December)
in the open air, a day unusually fine, and I intend being here also
next Sabbath, if the Lord will. I had the tent on the glebe
last Sabbath, but as Mr. Niven is to be in Tenandry Chapel
next Lord's day, I don't like to be so near. On this account
I write to ask permission to put the tent in your park or birch
wood at a little distance from the house. Your attachment to
the cause might have rendered this application, in the opinion of
some, unnecessary, but I wish to do nothing of that kind
unauthorised.

" I am almost single-handed in this country. We have had no
permanent relief sent as yet From Sabbath morning to the
following Sabbath night, I sometimes ride one hundred and fifty
miles, and after all cannot undertake the third of the work.
How anxious I am about my people ! So great is my concern

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142 SPRINGLAND.

for them in the present emergency and with their present
prospects, that I may say I have no other concern. Expecting to
hear from you, — ^Yours, William Grant."

Among lier papers we find the order sent to the
ground-officer after receiving this letter : —

*' David, — ^I am surprised to find that the people were, on
Sabbath last, worshipping in the open-air, and as Mr. Grant
wishes a place on our ground for the tent on Sabbath next, I have
told him that you will go to Tenandry to consult with him as to
the best place for it to be put, and I hope a convenient and
sheltered one will be found.''

As her manner was when deeply moved, she wrote
in verse.

" To OUR People, Worshippinq in the Tent in Snow at
BoNSKEiD, Pass op Killiecrankib.

" Ye are welcome, beloved ! though cold be the blast,
And slight is the shelter that we can afford,
Though a tear dim the eye when we think on the past,
Yet we welcome you here in the name of the Lord !

" And faint not, beloved ! we meet in His name.
If our pathway be rough, He hath guided us here.
In faith and in patience still following the Lamb,
We wait for our Master, and He shall appear !

'^ Oh ! be not faint-hearted, but think on His love,

Believe though these rocks and these mountains depart.
His covenant faithfulness cannot remove,
And His people still dwell in the depths of His heart !

** Then look unto Jesus, be watching His eye,
Poor sheep in the wilderness. He will be near.
And bright as these sunbeams, and clear as yon sky,
His Spirit shall bless you, His presence shall cheer !

" IsT Sabbath or January, 1844/*

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SPRINGLAND.

143

Mr. Sandeman at once had plans made for a chapel
two and a-half miles from the old church. It was opened
by Mr. Grant in 1844. Alexander, the eldest son,

PASS OF KILLIECBANKIEL
From photo, by FoIenMne S Sotu, Dundee,

who had been much in England preparing for India,
and was not yet quite in sympathy with the Free

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144 SPRINOLAND.

Church, good-naturedly told the servants that every
one might go with the &mily to the opening service,
and he would look after the house with his favourite
sporting dog, Glenny. The dog had noticed every
labourer and servant depart from the place, and coming
into the house and finding his master alone, behaved so
strangely to make him go out, that he took his cap,
locked the door, and appeared at his mother's side,
Glenny lying motionless at his feet.

The thanks of the congregation at Moulin, Pitlochry,
for the communion cups she had sent, reached her in
the following letter from the Secretary of the Free
Church Association there, dated 8th July, 1844 : —

<< The vote of thanks passed by acclamation on Tuesday evening
was not a formal one, as was evidenced by the giish of feeling on
the part of all present The speakers received the response of the
multitude in heartiest acquiescence. Your rich gift was for the
first time applied to its intended purpose on Sabbath, the 16th
ult., when upwards of 400 sat down to commemorate by means of
it the dying love of Jesus, the gift of God that is unspeakable.
We earnestly pray that God, ^ in whose hands our breath is,' may
privilege you often to renew your love to Him, His cause, and
His people, in the solemn ordinance which your bounty has so
materially enabled us to celebrate becomingly for the first of many
times, we hope, within the walls of our church ; and that, life's
troubles over, you may meet with many here to ' drink it new '
in that heavenly temple above, whence there shall be ' no more
going out ' as from earthly sanctuaries, but where all the wor-
shippers shall enjoy alike a happiness unalloyed and undisturbed,
because of its source and its immortality.''

In September, 1844, the Queen and Prince Albert,
during their stay at Blair Athole, visited the Falls of
Tummel, and the carriages were turned in the park at

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SPRINGLAND. 145

Coillebhrochan. Into these woods Robert the Bruce

retired after his defeat at Methven in 1306. The

I gable of an old house has been preserved to record

this in Coillebhrochan Park. It was in remembrance

of the shelter then afforded that he gave the lands to

be possessed by the family, which has since held them

from father to son, bearing alternately the names of

I John and Alexander. Mrs. Stewart Sandeman was the

I first heiress ; she wrote her welcome to the Queen : —

I '* She looked upon the foaming waters,

I She gazed upon the rocks around,

r And she, the Queen of England's daughters,

* Was hailed by mountain torrents' sound.
I << Fit throne for thee, our Highland Queen,

I Beside the roaring waterfall ;

For grand and solemn is the scene,
I And thou the Sovereign of it all.

' " Here on the soil thy foot-prints rest,

I Memorial sacred,"*^ as 'tis dear,

More deeply is thy name imprest
On every heart that loves thee here.
" Four centuries have rolled away

Since first these rocks 'twas ours to claim,
I And from this memorable day

j They shall be graven with thy name.

• ^ My fathers sleep in Highland glen,

Only a woman lives to pay
I This homage by her humble pen,

And now would bless thee on thy way.
** Oh ! blessings on thy honoured head.
Thou lovely and beloved one,
May God in quick succession shed.
And be Himself thy shield and sun."

* The marks of Her Majesty's footsteps were long preserved at
the spot.

L

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146 SPRINQLAND.

During the thirty-eight years following until the
Queen's train passed south in October, 1882, the hour
for the passing of the royal carriages opposite her
windows, across the Tay at Springland, being known
beforehand, was reserved for prayer for the Royal House.
The following lines are dated 30th August, 1864 : —
" On the Queen Unveiling the Prince's Statue.*
*' In widow's robes I see her stand,
She gazes round, she waves her hand,

The Union flag is furled.
A statue by its folds concealed,
Is now to open view revealed —
Ah I vain and mocking world !
" Is this thy best for her designed,
For her, the first of womankind,
For Britain's crowned brow ?
Love, wedded love, 'twas all her own,
The brightest light about her throne —
Is this its image now 1
«* We saw her erst a happy bride,
Her royal husband by her side —

The change, how can she bear 1
The sight I cannot longer brook.
Nor on that royal mourner look —
I seek relief in prayer.
*' Jesus, Thou Living One, to Thee,
Thou Prince of life, I bend the knee,
Make that riven heart Thine own,
Fill it with Thy celestial peace.
And when earth's troubled reign shall cease.
Be hers a heavenly throne !"
" Opening my Bible alone, while others were seeing the Queen,
I hoped for comfort This was in my chapter, * Thine eyes shall
see the King in H is beauty.' It came with power."

* The work of Brodie the Bcolptor. The original was removed to
Bonskeid after Mr. Brodie^s death, and placed there.

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CHAPTER IX.

SCATTERINa

DTJBING the succeeding years the scattering from
Springland began. Alexander had obtained a civil
appointment for Madras, and was being trained at
Haileybury College; David was to be the merchant,
and after learning weaving in Barossa Street, was sent
to Worksop School in Nottinghamshire, where only
French and German were spoken; Frederick went to
the University of Edinburgh ; Hugh was at the Perth
Academy; and Frank and Charles were the home pets
under Peggy's care.

But iji 1844 David having finished his apprentice-
ship in Glasgow, was brought to see the truth in a very
clear light at Springland in April, on his way to
business in Manchester. It was a most memorable day
to his mother and to him. She asked him after his
arrival on Tuesday if he would go with her to the
communion the following Sabbath. He said, " No, for
Mr. Somerville told me in Glasgow that it was only for
the friends of Jesus." ^' Will a child of mine tell me
on Tuesday that he will remain away from Jesus until
Sabbath ? Did you ever give yourself up to Him ? If

147

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148 SCATTEBING.

not, then do it now." On the way upstairs his sister
met him. They had been long parted. They went into
the schoolroom together. Ignorant of what had taken
place below, she knelt at his side in prayer. He went
up to his room, the west attic looking on the Tay, and
locked the door. There he knelt, and said from the
heart, " Lord Jesus, I give myself to Thee." It was
final — ^the last of so many weary steps. He realised
that he had been taken at his word by the unseen
Listener, and that he was no more his own, but given
away. Mr. Somerville came on the Saturday following
to assist in conducting the communion services, and to
stay at Springland. Far into that Sabbath morning the
faithful minister and the rejoicing disciple sat together
speaking of the Saviour and the ioheritance newly
claimed. He lived out this dedication at the communion
table, the family board, the office desk, the pattern-
rooms ID Manchester.

David told of the divine love at his Sabbath-class, in
the teachers' meeting, in a prayer meeting held weekly
in the house of an invalid. The light and the life grew
apace, and to his sister at Bonskeid a letter came from
him in September, begging her to find out if it would
be too great a disappointment to his father should he
now become a minister. His mother wished he might ;
often she had given up her six sons to the ministry.
Yet it seemed to her a doubtful course to iaterfere with
his father's cherished plan. His purpose was to divide
what he possessed equally among his children, leaving
it to the one who could earn its value to possess Bonskeid.

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He often quoted a remark of Sir Bobert Peel in the
House of Commons, that the father of six sons could
never call himself rich. He deemed it unfair to bring
up one son in luxury by leaving the others impoverished.
He had advised his own father against purchsuong more
land to bestow upon himself.

Mr. Sandeman took his daughter to Manchester to
have one interview with David before the University
classes began — unable to trust himself to approach the
painful question, and her mother beiag unequal to the
journey. A day with David and an hour with his
employer settled it; he was released from his two
years' engagement, and left for Edinburgh University.
On the 24th April, 1845, he was groomsman at his
sister's marriage to George Freeland Barbour.

It was a sore wrench for the mother to part with
the one who had shared her every thought She was
far from well, and she and her daughter had settled
between them that it should not be asked of her to
be present at the ceremony. The incident is recorded
because it was so like herself. They had parted in the
forenoon, when she gave to her daughter some verses,
beginning: —

" They bid me sing a song, my love,
When my heart is nearly breaking ;
They bid me smile to my gentle dove,
Her happy home forsaking.*'

She was not to be disturbed again. Every prepara-
tion for a quiet wedding was finished^ All at once the

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nursery bell rang for Peggy. On entering her mistress'
room, she was desired to bring in her coloured dress.
It was a dove-coloured shot silk, covered with a black
lace shawl, and she came down, the loveliest in the
room. Her black curls unmixed with grey, her eye
fixed on the bride all through address and prayer, the
smile never left her face. As she watched her daughter
change her attire for going away, with the Bible
in her hand, she gave her this precept, "Walk before
Me, and be thou perfect ; " adding, " I had set myself to
pray for you alone this afternoon. I opened my Bible
to search for a promise, when this met my eye, * Son of
man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine
eyes with a stroke : yet neither shalt thou mourn nor
weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Bind the tire
of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon
thy feet.' I dared not remain upstairs."

After three weeks spent at Bonskeid, the bride
returned to Springland on her way to Manchester,
where she was to take up David's class in the Sabbath
school of the Presbyterian Church, and attend to the
people he had visited. Her father and brothers had
an arch of flowers and every other mark of welcome
waiting for her. Her mother read to the family these
lines: —

•* Ye deck a bower for the bonny bride,
When she sits enthroned by her husband's side,
With the waving flag and the flowers of spring ;
And ye make the air with your welcomes ring.
Proud rose the arch for our highland Queen,
When she came to the land, where she ne'er had been ;

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SCATTEBING. 161

And round her gathered^ fresh and free,
The flower of her northern chivalry.
Ye deck the bower for Queen and Bride,
And welcome both with the full heart's pride.
**♦*♦*#

But make room, make room, there's a nobler band,
That higher yet should in honour stand.
For have ye forgot, like a tale that is told,
The day that is scarce two summers old,
When the noblest of Scotland's sons came by.
With the firm set step and the dauntless eye,
And gave Caledonia in guerdon to Thee
A Church that was loyaJ, faithful, and free 1
They left the fair manse in this sweet month of May,
And the woodland haunts and the garden gay,
And wife and children had tears in their e'e.
That Scotland's Kirk might be faithful and free.

Nor are they the last that the path have trod.
And given themselves to their country — to God ;
See these fair youths,* with the flashing e'e,
Haste on to keep pace with the brave and free ;
And proud and joyful may Scotland be,
Such ardent ones in their wake to see.
And when they are gone to their rest away,
They'll bear the burden and heat of the day.

After this trying parting, God was gracious; the
weakness of seven years passed away, and strength and
enjoyment were given for work and duty. She waited
on her boy Charlie, and still more closely on her nephew
William Fraser in typhoid fever. An orphan and the
only son of her earliest friend Margaret Sandeman, Willy
made Springland his home in his school holidays. He

* Her two sons, David and Frederick, preparing],for the xnixiistry.

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152 SCATTERINQ.

was very dear to her, and endeared himself the
more to his uncle by the remark which he made to
the Master of Loretto School on not having received
the usual letter, "I wonder what can be wrong with
the post-office that no letter has come from uncle
Glas!''

At this time she began a weekly class in the Tower
on the river, to keep hold of the pupils of a day-school
which had been taught there for four years. This
day-school had originated in a trifling circumstance;
Her daughter had for some time taught in the
house five children belonging to farm-servants in the
neighbourhood. One wet day their feet had left marks
on the stair-carpet. She was told that it would be
necessary to put them off at least till summer. This
was promptly done, but with sore regret It was not
long till her parents told their daughter that having at
once acquiesced in their will, she might have the use of
the Tower at the water's edge for the class. The five
children had not been many days settled on a school-form,
bought for them, when other little hands came knock-
ing. At length sixty children were on the roll, forty in
attendance ; the rule of admission was that parents had
either been too careless to send them or unable to spare
them to a regular school. The hours were from nine to
one, so the rest of the day was free for home work.
She took a great interest in the school, opening
the window to hear the singing of the rhymes and
hymns, and when the teacher was wanted to do any-
thing for her mother in the house, the children were

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8GATTEBINO. 163

on their honour to continae, the girls sewing, the boys
knitting, and all singing, till her return. They peti-
tioned to have also afternoon school on market-dajrs and
race-days. On these occasions some of the children
from the Perth infant schools used to come and join
the lessons. On the wedding-day above alluded to, the
children came in the morning and sang at the window,
receiving thence, as a present, their dress pinafores
and work-bags, now no longer needed. The best pupils
— ^two sisters, Margaret and Kitty — were soon received
at Springland, to be for thirty-eight years Mrs. Stewart
Sandeman's attendants and assistants throughout, in
sickness and in healtL

To all children she in a special manner endeared
herself. All through her life we find this exemplified,
till at the close her class-list preserves the names of
more than two thousand young persons regularly
instructed by her at diflerent dates.

She wrote to her daughter in Manchester, 29th
October, 1846 :—

"Deabest M., — As you would hear by the intimation fix)m
Gask, Aunt Naime died on Sunday. Her age was seventy-
nine. I had, as a child, expressed to my dearest Aunt a strong
desire that the title might be restored. She said sweetly, ' Ah
Maggy, we should have no keen wishes concerning earthly
things.' What she had then said came back so forcibly as I
looked upon her after the spirit had fled. What true dignity was
imprinted on that lovely countenance, which still bore a decided
intellectual impress ! I felt that she belonged to the aristocracy
of heaven.

" The day before, she was out in the garden-chair. They wheeled
her to the door of the chapel, which is nearly finished. Aunt

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164 SCATTERING.

asked Mr. Olipliant if he had written to the Bishop of Gashel
about consecrating it, seeing that he would not have it done by a
Scottish bishop. Mr. Oliphant said he had not, and that it was
as well at present to have no ceremony, as superstition was going
to such a height. He repeated the words—

* Jesus, where'er Thy people meet.
There they behold Thy mercy-seat )
Where'er they seek Thee, Thou art found |
And every place is hallowed ground.'

Aunt Naime heartily said ' Amen,* and added, ' the place will
soon be ready for me.' Next morning she was unable to speak,
but quite conscious. Mrs. Oliphant read to her portions of
Scripture and verses &om her favourite hymns. To her she
reached out her hand affectionately, and gradually became weaker
until she passed away."

In the autumn of 1846 Alexander lefb home for
India. A few days before he set out, she was spending
the afternoon on the terrace with him at her work,
while he walked up and down, reading aloud from the
Hindustani grammar. She wrote in pencil and laid
on the open book the lines, of which these are a part. .
It was often in this way, and not by conversation, that
she made known her deepest thoughts : —

<( And that strange volume in his hand,
Its character I may not know.
Ah ! speaks it not of that far land,
To which too soon himself must go ?

** Too soon~my heart, be still, be still ;
Blessed and happy 'tis to know
That one all-gracious, perfect Will
Controls our every step below.

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SOATTEBINO. 165

^ Almighty Ann ! awake, awake,
Upon him lay the grasp divine ;
Never Thy charge one hour forsake.
By oath and covenant he is Thine.''

It bad grieved his mother that the serious impres-
sions of his boyhood, although these bad never been
so deep as to give her confidence, had apparently passed
away at school in England. This is expressed in the
lines she wrote when be went to his first ball : —

** Go tread yon airy scene of joy,
If joy indeed it seem to be ;
But while its charms thy thoughts employ,
A mother's prayers shall go with thee.

" Amid the dance, the laugh, the song.
Each serious thought afar may be ;
Yet as the moments sweep along,
A mother's thoughts have flown to thee.
" Yes, full of life, and free from care,

Thy youthful breast may dance with glee ;
But there's a heart thou know'st not there^
A mother's heart is fixed on thee.

" While all around wear smiles so bright,
And joy lights up each face you see ;
E'en on this gay and mirthful night,
A mother's tears are shed for thee.

" Nor think me gloomy, dearest boy,
If scenes of mirth seem vain to me ;
How my heart pants to share heaven's joy,
A long eternity with thee !"

Early in 1846, she spent two months with her
daughter at Manchester. The day before she was to
leave it her first grandchild was being carried up-
stairs, when a dust-shovel, unperceived on the landing,

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156 SCATTEBIKG.

tripped the servant's foot, and the infant was thrown to
the ground. During days of suspense the grand-
mother's faith and calmness were conspicuoua
Recovery seemed to be complete, but six months
later she had to surrender the child to Him who
gave it

In November, 1846, she joined her husband at
Torquay, where his physician had sent him to
recover from an illness. They afterwards visited at
Clifton, her aunt Mrs. Keith and her cousin Miss
Steuart, Dalguise. Mrs. Keith's loss of her sister,
Lady Naime, loosened her hold of life, and full of faith
and love, engaged to the last in the good work which
ever engrossed her, she died at Clevedon in 1847.
They also spent some time at Brighton during this
visit to England in 1846. Her journal contains the
following : —

** Brighton, lOth December.

''Having to go to church alone, leaving Charlie and Peggy
with my husband, I was shown early into one of the pews for
strangers. A lady handed me the hymn-book, and, as we
waited, spoke. It was Mrs. Candy, wife of a missionary at
Bombay. I afterwards visited her. She gives a delightful
account of the way in which the Lord blesses her husband's
labours, especially to the good of young men. Eighteen of them
from Britain breakfast with him on the Monday morning, and
read the Scriptures. Numbers who left home careless are being
brought to Christ in India. The missionaries are full of
brotherly love, and meet often for prayer. She bore witness to
the zeal of our Free Church missionaries."

" IZih December,— A young woman, previously very ignorant,
living in the house, has been brought into conversation about
eternity. She was asked whether she had ever had any concern

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regarding it. * I am sorry to say I nerer liad time.' Did she
pray? *No.' How did she hope to get to heaven? * I never
had thought on the subject' But the result of the interview was
evident alarm and anxiety. A second followed, and she wept
bitterly ; the arrows of the Lord seemed wounding her deeply.
Her companion heard from her, and she likewise desired to have
conversation, and was in tears. The former of the two trembled
at God's Word, saying, * Yes, I felt I was a lost sinner ever since
you told me.' But she could not receive the glad tidings of a
Saviour ; the desire to do something for her salvation hindered
her. She admitted that in so doing there could be no safety for
her. She seemed earnestly to desire Christ, to see that He is a
perfect Saviour suited to such as she, could she but call Him
her own. Her friend is obliged to leave Brighton, and has com-
mitted her and her fellow-servant, who from the first was deeply
moved, into God's hands, that they may be brought into true
solid peace in Christ alone. They are entrusted to a Christian
lady's care. Their whole demeanour during the week was con-
sistent with what they expressed ; may this prove to have been
God's own work. Lord Ashley, Mr. Bickersteth, and others
have raised a fund of ;£20,000 for supporting 700 Scripture
readers in Ireland."

" Springland, 22nd Janua/ry, 1847.
" The subscriptions for the starving Lrish and Highlanders go

on liberally. When in Edinburgh, I found the ladies at S

making up quantities of red flannel for the L:ish poor. Dr.
Chalmers coming in to encourage them with his brilliant and
practical words. The ordination of the Parsi, Dhanjibhai, in
Canonmills was a grand scene. Dr. Candlish preached from
* The glorious liberty of the children of God.' About 5000 persons
were present. Dr. Wilson, of Bombay, sat by his young friend,
the Presbytery of Edinburgh around, with Drs. Chalmers,
Gordon, Cunningham, Buchanan, and other members of the
Foreign Committee. The charge by Dr. Candlish went over the
events of the Parsi's life, and alluded to his being the first fruits
of Persia unto God. * Smitten by the arrow of conviction you for-
sook father, mother, sisters, brethren; you left country, rank,
possessions, friends for Christ Do you repent it ? Look around .

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you, brother ! Behold your mother and your brethren. . . • Go
brother, and carry through trial, through Buffering—it may be to
death — the unsearchable riches of your God and mine. Qo^
impelled by Him, and at His call. Go not as a minister of man's
making, notiit the bidding of a Free Church, but in the name of
your Master and ours, on the strength of that commission given
ere He ascended, and which I trust He has sealed upon your
heart."

" 24«fc JkTarcfe.— The Fast ordered to be held, and proclaimed in
the Queen's name in the Grassmarket and in other convenient
places, has been kept with great order, and we trust by many
with much humbling before the Lord."

" 2l8t AprU, — The Reverend W. C. Bums, hitherto so blessed in
Scotland, England, Ireland, and Canada, has been ordained as
an evangelist to China at Sunderland. The committee asked
him when he could be ready to proceed thither. He replied,
* To-morrow.' He charged my son-in-law with his messages to
friends. During the ordination service there was not a dry eye
in the church."

" May, — The most revered name in Scotland is now

named as among the illustrious dead, and Chalmers has entered
glory ; his last day on earth a Sabbath ; his last exercise of wor-
ship in his family performed at its close. Monday morning they
drew the curtains to fin(} the noble tenement deserted. The
massive head with its crown of silvery locks lay on the pillow ;
the countenance, full of peace and dignity, seemed to say, ' I am
gone up.' Beside him lay his prepared deliverance on the Sus-
tentation Scheme and the College Report. The General Assembly
is waiting to receive his words of wisdom ; but the knock at his
door brings no answer. The desired documents — there they lay,
but the master spirit was departed. Professor Macdougall went
to tell the weeping Church, and to hear her cry, * My father, my
father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.' The
Assembly sang —

*' ' Take comfort, ChristianB, when your friends
In Jesus fall asleep/

and adjourned."

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SCATTERING. 169

In India Alexander distinguished himself as a civilian
in the Madras presidency. It was during the first year
of his residence there that divine truth took possession
of his mind. The society at Haileybury had not been
such as to lead to this ; nor would he accept of intro-
ductions to the missionaries abroad

He was upright and honest, making no profession of
religion ; but at sea, hearing the New Lights, as
decided Christians were there called, made game of at
the dinner-table, he said, " Not a word against the New
Lights ; my mother is one." This remark led two ladies
of the company to retire to their cabin to pray for him.
Their interest was further deepened by observing that
he forgot on more than one occasion that it was
Sunday. They were bound for Madras, as he was.
When the ship struck, and most people showed
anxiety as to their fate, he betrayed none. All the
more did these kind friends continue to make request,
until, on the Eastern shore, their prayers were turned
to praise. He kept out of the way of the Scotch
missionaries by going on Sundays to the Cathedral,
lived at the club, studied hard enough, but joined in
every amusement A fancy ball was in prospect j he
had ordered his dress. Cholera began to prevail, and
he had a slight attack In its spasms he exclaimed,
"My God I" It sounded in his own ear like prayer,
which had long been discontinued, but in that hour
was renewed, not to cease again. He recovered, and
the first day he was able to leave his room, asked at
the office of the club the way to the Free Church Mis-

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160 SCATTEBING.

sionary Institution. His buggy threaded the thorough-
£Etre, and left the fashionable part of the town behind.
Arrived, he introduced himself to Mr. Anderson, the
revered man whose labours were sealed by so much
proficiency among the pupils, and by many conversiona
He did not tell all his errand, but visited the variofus
classes. When Mr. Johnston and Mr. Braidwood
showed him some youths who had become deeply
interested in the Gospel message, the young stranger
replied, "But will it last?" He was invited back to
dine with them next Sabbath, and became a constant
visitor.

Free intercourse with the young natives who had been
baptised not only helped to guide his own feet into the
good ways of God, but much increased his proficiency
in the Tamil and Telugu dialects. To this he ascribed
the honours which he carried off in his examinations.
The joy which these tidings brought to his mother
knew no bounds. Daily during his voyage she had
withdrawn with his brothers, David and Frederick, to
ask this thing for him from God. He copied for her
passages from his New Testament which had brought
him light It was the little pocket Testament she
had given him in former days, which he searched for
as soon as he could creep from his bed to look
for it in his illness, and had covered with a piece cut
out of the velvet of his ball costume, which had been
brought in during his illness. To the sea-shore he
carried, in the cool mornings, a little text-book, in
which all the dates of birthdays and other family red-

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SCATTERING. ^161

letter days bad been marked by his sister, and which
had been packed in with his books unknown to him.

Along with Messrs. Harrison and Nesbit, two
Englishmen who had also become decided Christ*
ians, he applied to serve under Mr. Huddlestone
Stokes, who was an outstanding servant of Christ.
But that happy service did not last above four years.
The hot season came with severity in the trying
climate of Guntoor, and Alexander first, with eight .
others following during that year, had to be removed
from it by various results of sunstroke. He came home
invalided to Springland, to be once more at his mother's
side. She wrote before his arrival : —

"To Alick.
" Oh, welcome beloved ! across the white foam.
To the land of thy fathers, thy fair island home ;
To her heart that has longed for thee often in vain,
And pants to embrace her own darling again.

" That feeling of blessedness how could I tell.
Which fills all my bosom as waves onward swell,
Which a mother on earth is permitted to share,
Yet is worthy of heaven, and perfected there :

" To know that the Lord has in inercy received,
To know that on Jesus my child has believed ;
Ajid to gaze on thee now, thus for ever made one
With the child of my love, my thrice precious son."

She devoted herself to him, listening with keen
interest to his graphic details of his work. Travelling
in the South of France with his sister he met Miss
Caroline Bourgeois, whose father had been President of

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162 SCATTERING.

the Canton de Vaud, and they were married at Geneva
in the following summer. He returned to work
in India on the Malabar coast on the expiry of
his leave.

His mother closed the record of 1849 in these
words : —

" The year leaves ua lying low before our God, because of ein,
unfruitfulness, and unfaithfulness, and want of grace to praise
Him for deliverance. Cholera has passed over and carried away
many, while we are spared ; others have sunk, and we are all
alive unto this day. Trials of faith have been sent to many of
His people. The clouds have passed away, and the sky is clear
again. Waves have- gone over the believer, he has been tossed as
if out of life ; but has he been overwhelmed ? The child of God
has been cast into the seven-times heated furnace, but has one
hair of his head been singed? High above these floods, and bear-
ing his head over flood and flame, has shone the imperishable and
eternal word, * When thou passest through the waters,' &c. All has
been fulfilled this year, has it not 1 Let ua inscribe on the annals
of 1849, * He is faithful' "

And again : —

** I4th Jamutryf 1850. — I have sought to suppress even in this
record the distress caused me ever and anon by the words of
friends who seem to have a right to speak. They tell me I am
blighting the prospects of my family by trying to bring them up
as followers of Christ, as I see the path laid down in His
word. Each trial that comes I am charged with having brought
about The teachers chosen for them, the companions, ministers,
books — all come in for a share of the blame. Where health has
been lost, it is the missionary work attempted in addition to their
secular work that is accused. My heart is poured out in sorrow
when no eye sees it Ever since God led me, against all the bias
of my nature, .to follow in the path of blessing, this furnace has
been heated for me, and appeals have been made to me by not a
few to desist, my unbelieving heart sometimes speaking louder

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SCATTERING. 163

thaii them all. I pray tliat these fires may only bum the bonds
of self-will and cowardice, and confirm my choice wherein it is
God^s choice, for me and mine, on whose behalf He has done
wonderful things. Let the rebellious will be broken, let Satan be
bruised under our feet, let not the old question be still asked,
Where is now their Qod V

In her Journal she tells how a fire at the house of
Bonskeid was arrested in a singular manner :—

" July, 1852. — David and his friend Oswald Allan were on a
walking excursion, and chanced to be coming up the Pass of
Eilliecrankie, and on by the road over to Bonskeid, which is
let. They saw the glare of flame at the house, hurried on, and
reached it just in time to aid in extinguishing the fire. * We saw
the power of God in wind and flood and fire during that visit,*
he writes, * for there came on a pouring rain, and a blast which
uprooted trees by hundreds.' Our tenant tells us David stood on
the roo^ near the burning rafters of the offices, and by his cool-
ness in giving orders was a chief instrument in preventing the
spread of the flames. The servants had gone to dinner and left
the furnace door and laundry door open, the clothes were caught
in by the draught, and it is so far from the main house that the
flames took hold unobserved. Part of the offices will have to be
rebuilt.'*

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CHAPTER X.

BEBEAYEMENTS.

IN the autumn of 1852 Mrs. Stewart Sandeman's
brother-in-law David left home in Dumfriesshire
to consult a physician in London. While sitting
in his brother Hugh's house on the Sunday evening at
dessert, leaning as he talked, his head upon his hand, he
ceased speaking and was found to have died of disease
of the heart. His eldest brother Mr. Sandeman hastened
from Springland to the funeral, and on his return had an
illness at the Grange House, Edinburgh ; his wife came
over to attend him, and employed their little grandsons
Freddy and George constantly as her messengers from
the sick-room. On his recovery, they returned
home to Springland. The same evening the boys*
mamma was writing to Springland, and asked if
they had any message. Freddy said, "Tell Grand-
mamma that we have been working in our garden;
I can't send her any love, for all I have has gone with
her." It was only three months after that visit, that
their grandpapa came to Edinburgh to see them before
their intended journey to Manchester, which was thus,

almost imaccountably to themselves, delayed a day.
164

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> BEREAVICMENTS. 165

The boys laid down the railway-map before him, and
showed him all the towns which they must pass. On
the 4th of March, as he travelled north and they south,
the railway accident occurred which stole the two boys
away.* Their Uncle David went from college at Edin-
burgh to tell his parents of the five lives (including the
servants) gone or in jeopardy. His mother observed
him near the entrance, and opening the front door,
said, "Do not come up one step, till you say what
has happened."

Mrs. Stewart Sandeman was much occupied during
the summer in attendance on the surviving members
of that family, accompanying her son-in-law and
daughter, with their infant, to Harrogate, and
bringing them home to the Grange. Her son
David had now begun mission-work among the
colliers at Hillhead, which had already proved a
remarkably prosperous field of labour. In 1854, after
the visit of the Kev. William Bums of China
to Scotland, David obtained his parents' consent to
offer himself as a missionary of the English Presby-
terian Church to China. A small but beautiful
link between his parents and that land had already
been formed, their two grandsdns having each saved
half-a-crown, and given it to a missionary to buy Bibles
for the Chinese children. Their strange death a fortnight
after caused that missionary, the Kev. James Johnston
from Amoy, to name the last gift of the brothers where-

* " The Way Home ; and how the Children reached it by a Railway
Accident.'' Nisbet & Co., Bernera Street, London.

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166 BEREAVEMENTS.

ever he went Their grandmamma interested herself in
the scheme, for which £500 was gathered for Bibles,
through this incident.

Among her papers of this date this meditation is
found : —

** Saturday JEvming, — Hour of prayer for David. Have been
enabled to give him quite up to the Lord to go anywhere all over
the world. To-night, praying for the outpouring of the Spirit
over the world, over His ministers in Scotland, and missionaries
in China. I return to Him Samuel, whom He gave me. Only
the Lord establish His word, and make him a blessed minister.
A dear, dear boy he is to me. At the end of prayer, felt much
hope, and indeed an answer that a plentiful shower will descend
on this parched earth ; but faith must wait His time. To-day
David begins his Hillhead station. Lord God of Elijah be with
him, stand at his right hand, bend souls before the power of Thy
Spirit, and show him clearly whether his work is in Scotland,
or whether Thou wilt send him far hence unto the Gentiles ;
whether Thou wilt have him learn that most difficult language,
and spend much time at his age in this, or whether Thou hast
work anywhere else by his own or already acquired languages.
O Lord, show his path clear as noon-day, let there be no doubt-
ing or darkness ; and, when once Thy holy Will is clearly shown,
let us all with alacrity welcome it and follow it. I thank Thee,
that he has a single eye given him to see that Will by."

Just after David's offer was accepted, intelligence
reached Springland that Alexander was very ilL For
three y^ars he had acted as assistant magistrate to Mr.
V. ConoUy, Collector in Malabar. There was a rising
of the fanatical Moplahs. Though a civilian, he went
into the jungle to assist the Officers of the Station in
putting them down. He caught jungle fever and died
at Cannanore.

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BEREAVEMENTS. 167

Before next mail brought the announcement of his
death to his parents, similar news arrive'd from Buenos
Ayres of the death of their fourth son, Hugh. On the
night of the railway accident, 4th March, 1853, he had
been for hours exposed in sleet and cold winds, while
searching for the missing infant of seven months old,
Margaret Stewart, Mrs. Stewart Sandeman's name-child.
Heedless of himself, he also was present at the inquest
on her little brothers, brought their bodies to Manchester,
and arranged for the funeral. A neglected cold never
passed away, though he still was unremitting at ware-
house work, his Sabbath-class, and choir-practising. A
sea-voyage was ordered too late, and he sank in one
week after reaching South America, 24th December,
1854. A pencil jotting told that he often wished that
he had his old nurse, Peggy, with him — Peggy, who
had packed the boxes, and was to receive them back
again to her now forsaken nursery.

His desk contained a journal, and at the end of it a
register with a nightly entry of the houp at which he
reached his lodging. Left for the first time alone in a
large town, with no eye upon him, he took this way
of protecting himself from late hours, and of saving
time for his nightly reading. He was reserved as
to the progress of his own mind in Divine truth, even
while successfully using its precepts among others, but a
paper in the desk told his mother that he first appre-
hended the freeness of Divine grace, when at Ben
Rhydding he took from the shelves a volume of Dr.
Cumming's sermons and read ona The poor families in

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168 BEREAVEMENTS.

his district and connected with his class had cause to
miss and mourn him.

We find the following lines written by his mother in
June, 1855, when walking in her garden the first time
the lilies bloomed after these successive bereavements: —

■ " The valley's sweet lilies that grew in the shade,
All fragrant and fresh in my bosom 1 laid ;

But their bloom and their sweetness are o'er ;
The Beloved to gather His lilies has come,
Has laid in His bosom and carried them home

To bloom in His light evermore."

In August, 1865, Alexander s widow, with her three
fatherless children, came to Springland. The little
Elizabeth, born at Lyons after her mother's return,
was baptised in the drawing-room by the Rev. Thomas^
Dymock. Mr. Sandeman, unwilling to trust them with
any other escort, resolved to accompany his daughter-
in-law to Cannes, where she was to winter with her
mother. His son, David, now about to proceed to
China, left to spend the last month with his mother.
The missionary's outfit was packed, his fitrewell
sermons delivered, and there only remained a visit
to Manchester, on which he set out. Mra Stewart
Sandeman was alone. Her husband, accustomed to
long journeys, had bid them leave the outer gate open,
so that he might slip in late any night, as the time of
his arrival was uncertain. It was October; a rough
crossing of the Channel he always avoided, but having
crossed, he made one run of it to his fireside. On

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BEREAVEMENTS. 169

the morning of the 1st inst. she had the longest
and most interesting letter from him she ever received.
It went back to the days of their early love, and
reviewed the long prosperous, if now clouded, his-
tory. It told that, having found it would take only
three days to visit their old friend, Mrs. Stuart of
Annat, at Montpellier, he thought he ought to give up
the time to that, as the health of her youngest daughter
was causing her anxiety. He might be home on the same
day as his letter. He had written out his full heart
to her, and wished the letter to be destroyed. Thrice
she perused it, and as the day ran on, unwillingly threw
it into the fire. She kept placing all his things as
he liked to find them, and at last gave up expecting
him and retired. At ten p.m. a telegram, with the
tidings that Mr. Sandeman was laid up at Montpellier
with Asiatic cholera^ came to Mr. Marshall, Kosemount,
Mr. Sandeman's partner in Luncarty Bleachfield, who
carried it round to the kitchen door to break the
sad contents first to Peggy, and then to the other
servants.

It was decided by Frank, who came in later, not to
tell his mother till the morning; and he rode off
during the night to Bonskeid with the tidings. His
brother-in-law went to Perth with him, to proceed to
Montpellier; but news of the death met them there in
the forenoon. Peggy had gone down at midnight to
the river-side, where she could weep aloud. Her mas-
ter had been throughout life her revered idol, and grief
for the moment almost shook her reason. Next morn-

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170 BEBEAVEMENTS.

iog she was quiet enough to break the first news to her
mistress, who met it calmly, and prepared to go to him ;
but when she heard the whole truth, her strength gave
way. Faith remained unshaken, and her gathered
children looked on their mother, wondering to see
what the widow's God is able to do. A day later, Mr.
Mason, the legal adviser, and one of the warmest
friends of Mr. Sandeman, came from EdinburgL He
knew that from the nature of the settlements, the
transfer of Bonskeid to his son-in-law could not now
take place, as the latter was appointed guardian
of his brothers-in-law. But on the second morning,
written as in copperplate, came a letter by the
post addressed to Mrs. Stewart Sandeman by her
husband. He had arrived at the Hotel Nevet ;
among the crowd of visitors he failed, the first even-
ing, to find Mrs. Stuart Next day he felt ill; but
having discovered at the post-office the number of her
rooms, he spent that evening with her. The following
morning he was unable to take nourishment, but wrote
a letter, removing his son-in-law from his place as
guardian and trustee of his children^ so that nothing
might hinder him and his wife from possessing Bonskeid.
On his bed lay a French New Testament in large print,
with the name of a Montpellier bookseller; all through
it were marks showing that he had read the whole in
the three days, and that God's word had been his stay
when parted from all beside. He would not permit
Mrs. Stuart or her daughter to approach his room.
He knew the malady well, even before the doctor

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BEREAVEMENTS. l7l

came; he had seen cases of it in Perth during
both visitations, and was not mistaken now. Mrs.
Stuart's maid was able to sit with him at times and
read from her English Bible — ^his own had been left at
Cannes; and he sent by her the following letter,
written in pencil to her mistress. Its careful thought
for another is only in keeping with that forgetfulness
of self in the desire for the well-being of others, which
distinguished him from first to last. Not long before
his friends at home had admired a proof of this in him.
He had accompanied Miss Marshall of Rosemount, on
a drive from Luncarty. The horses ran oflf and
approached a steep embankment; the coachman leaped
from the box for his life. Mr. Sandeman whispered
to his aged compaoion, " I shall not leave you." With
ease he could have done so, and for a few instants both
thought they were approaching death together. But
one of the horses entangled its foot in a low hedge and
stopped for a moment, when Mr. Sandeman quickly
secured both.

His letter to Mrs. Stuart at Montpellier, written
within eight hours of his death, ran as follows : —

« jVo. 96, Hotd Nevetf Monday.

" My Dear Mrs. Stuart,— I don't think it would be good
for you to have more conversation to-day ; and seeing also that
the weather continues inclement, I would beg to suggest that we
do not meet again. Had I known that you, as well as Miss
Eliza, had suffered when at Lyons, and likewise that Mr. Kenneth
had come on to this place, and had only left you a few days ago
imder the care iof a medical man, I think I should have passed
on to Paris, however much it has gratified me to see you.

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172 BEREAVEMENTS.

" The great risk to all invalids is that of doing too much, and
I take up the impression that from this to Marseilles is all of a
treacherous climate, liable to sudden alterations. If you s^ree
with me, I should now wish that God may bless you, watch over
you, keep you, and restore you all to us again, tempering the
wind, and smoothing the path of the widow and fatherless. —
Ever your own and your daughter's attached friend, Q. S.

" F,S, — You will see I intend this to relieve you of all feeling
of ceremony that because I have come on purpose to see you
therefore you ought to see more of me ; but seeing that I can be
of no service, I now leave Montpellier quite satisfied. I only
regret that your son was obliged to leave you before your winter
place should be settled. Still, of course, I am in your hands to
do whatever you may prefer.

" Of course, I could never presume to make any suggestions as
to winter quarters ; but you asked me about Cannes and Nice,
their localities, &c. It strikes me that any comfortable house you
could expect at Cannes would be too near the sea, and that it
would be a dull place for the young ladies, unless the Duchess of
Gordon might make up for the deficiency. I can say nothing of
the climate either of Cannes or Nice, but merely comparing the
two as residences, I should much prefer Nice as a cheerful one,
where, you know, there is a regular English quarter, and where
most people find a few who are more or less known to them ; and
at Nice there must be either a regular English medical man, or
French one who can communicate freely with the English.
There is also an English druggist's shop. I supposed you had con-
sulted Sir James Clark or some other celebrated man as to climate
when in London. I am fitting myself as well as I can for a night
journey, but rather doubt if I can move until the morning. At
my time of life repair does not proceed so fast as one might
wish."

The good Pierre, the waiter of the table-d*h6te, had
been told off to be his constant watcher. The invalid
had always loved France with her warm climate
better than Scotland with its wind and mist. He

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BEREAVEMENTS. 1 7 3

had often said ofifhand that he should prefer to die
in a hotel, like a real wayfarer, ready to depart on the
morrow. He had his desire. Before midnight he sent
his watch to Mrs. Stuart,and remembering it was unwound
he sent for it back again, returning with it the letter
to his wife to be posted if he died. By Dr. Vaillh^*s
last visit suffering was over, and he said he really felt
better. Knowing the doctor intended before long to
visit Scotland he invited him to be his guest, when he
would show him the most beautiful place in the High-
lands, with its roaring waterfall. He slept away.
Before daylight his remains had been carried to a
mortuary at the cemetery, there embalmed, by his own
order, as his stepmother's had been at Bordeaux twenty
years before. The bedding had been burnt, the furni-
ture carried out, and the room re-papered, swiftly and
noiselessly. Any of the guests who asked for the Scotch
gentleman said to be suffering from a bad cold, were told
that he had got well and had started for home, so
dreaded was the first case of cholera at Montpellier ; it
was raging at Marseilles, where he had slept a night.

It was at Montpellier that the prayers of his own
young mother (his father's first cousin), Hannah Sande-
man, were fully answered for him. She had died
sixty-two years before, having named him Glas, after
her maternal grandfather, Mr. John Glas. John Glas
had resigned his living at Tealing in the dark days
of the Church of Scotland, and founded the denom-
ination known as Glassites. His son-in-law, Eobert
Sandeman, author of "Letters on Harvey's Theron

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174 BEREAVEMENTS.

and Aspasia," with other theological works, pungent
and powerful, spread the same principles in England
and America, where the sect took the name of Sande-
manians from him, but were bound together closely
in doctrine and discipline. Down to our own day,
Faraday and others of less note, have held the same
tenets. Mr. Glas Sandeman's own mother had been a
most loving disciple. Her portraits preserve her beauti-
ful features ; she was so gentle that even her pony could
take his own way. She rode him slowly, often reading
while she rode. One hot summer's day, she parted with
one of her cousins at Perth, saying they would meet,
some hours hence at Luncarty. He followed her some
time after on foot. To his surprise, he found pony
and rider at a stand still in the green field into which
it had walked, as there was no fence ; the trees shaded
them from the sun, the pony grazed, his mistress
unaware, it seemed, of where she sat, or how time ran, was
deep in the last pages of the absorbing volume. During
the lifetime of Mr. Sandeman's stepmother whom he,
as an elder brother, constantly and aflfectionately assisted
in the upbringing of the young family, the name of his
own mother was not mentioned. Four of her children
had died before her, she herself died at twenty-eight.
On his father's side Mr. Sandeman could not count
further back, in- Scottish dialect at least, than his
great-grandfather. Captain Sandman, who had annually
brought his fleet of five ships with timber from the
Norwegian forest, and married in 1717, Margaret
Ramsay of Baldinnie. George Sandeman, the oldest of

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BEREAVEMENTS. 175

his five sons, bought Springland and married Jean
Duncan of Seaside, grand-daughter of Elizabeth Bruce
of Clackmannan ; Andrew Duncan, one of the Scots
Worthies, was her great-great-grandfather.

For ten years before he died, Mr. Glas Sandeman's
mind had become imbued with the love of Scripture.
It took the type of his mother's teaching; he sought for
the books she had studied, revered especially the name
of the man after whom she had called him, and some-
times far into the night took from the shelves the old
volumes of Glas and Sandeman. He read them, and
above all the Scripture, with his two younger boys, who
only now were at Springland. In the afternoon the three
might be seen together entering the Glassite meeting-
house to listen to the expositions of Mr. James Morison,
who had been closely engaged with him in winding
up the Bonskeid trust more than twenty years before.
Mr. Sandeman's remarks to the younger servants and to
his own boys at family worship showed how deep his
researches into Scripture had been.

The glass pane placed by the embalmer in the coffin was
uncovered during the half-hour it lay in the drawing-
room at Springland on the funeral-day. The widow's
dress was thrown over her quickly, as for the first time
she rose from her bed to go down into the drawing-
room for a moment alone. She took her son David's
arm and said, " WitK a hold of this I can do anything."
As she kissed the pane of the coffin she said, " You are
there, but not all there ; you are in the white robes,"
and returned to her chamber.

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176 BEREAVEMENTS.

About this date we find in her book the notice of her
daughter-in-law's first and second visits— ai9 a bride and
after her return from India — and of her husband's death.

" The Voice of the Sprinqland Flowers.

"A lady came from a foreign shore,

We showered gay blossoms round her ;
The bridegroom's gone ; all shivered lie
The links of bliss that bound her.

" Under a glowing eastern sky
Softly he sank to rest ;
While o'er his brother's grave there streamed
The sunset of the west.

" Our valley's lily hung its head,
The news it could divine ;
The mother gathered it and said,
' So Jesus gathered mine.'

" Sadly the young widow came,

White blossoms round we showered ;
And o'er her drooping head like rain
The dewy tears we poured.

" But when on fair Eliza's face
Baptismal waters fell.
We heard her grandsire's earnest voice
Wish the sweet baby welL

" That fervent blessing, 'twas his last,
Who left, but came no more ;
He breathed that faithful spirit out
On the loVd, friendly shore.

" Ah ! then we faded, laid our head
Low on the earth with him ;
And under death's cold, icy tread.
Each brilliant tint grew dim,' "

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BEREAVEMENTS. 177

The Committee of Foreign Missions of the English

Presbyterian Church at once wrote protesting against

David going to China for a year. To her and to him

it was a year of near communion with Christ and each

other. Always ready to preach and work around

Perth, he made Springland his homa Bitter was the

parting when it did come ; but she would hear of no- .

thing else. He was ordained at Liverpool in 1856. Her

youngest son, Frank, alone remained with her.

" Sabbathy 2Sth December^ 1856. — ^Alone. Mr. Bums was safely
kept through his arrest and imprisonment in China. Comparing
the dates, I find that we were met in prayer for him during his
dangerous journey under guard of the Chinese officials. He has
been brought before rulers for the testimony of Jesus. In lone-
liness, in sadness, may I be enabled to hold on in prayer while
undergoing the process of creature alienation, that Jesus may
have His own place in the soul. May the Spirit of God blow
over the frozen surface which Scotland now seems to present
May the breath of life pass over this city— rOver the young people
in it May China be given to Christ for His inheritance, the
uttermost part of the earth for His possession — Africa, slavery-
ridden America, the world I Once in these rooms where I am
thus alone,

" The hymn rose sweetly on my ear.

It sounds not as before ;
And his sweet notes I cannot hear

Who sings on China's shore.

" There was a chorus full and strong
On every Sabbath even ;
'Tis louder now the bless'd among —
These voices are in heaven.

" And those who still the psalm upraise
Are scattered far around ;
Though true they sing the Saviour^s praise,
I may not catch the sound.

N

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178 BEREAVEMENTS.

" And oh ! how shall I sing alone
This sad and silent even ]
I think I too must soon be gone,
And join the song in heaven."

" Let mothers trust to the last for their children. Mrs, C-

had lost six, with good hope of each ; the seventh, a young man
of eighteen, died last week. Daily she had in some form asked
him if he had placed his trust in the Saviour, but no reply was
given. His minister told me how taciturn he was, and I said his
mother may hear him speak yet. The next day he died. Just
before he fell into a swoon, and his father said all was over. The
mother exclaimed, *I have not got an answer to my prayer.'
After a pause the father said, * He is breathing.' The boy awoke,
beckoned to her, and whispered, * Mother, mother.' She came
near ; for the last time softly put her question : * Can you rest on
Christ?' With a loud voice the dying boy cried *Ye8,' and
expired. Prayer, prayer ; Lord, teach us to pray !"

" Zlst December, 1856. — This year how many have gone ! ' And
the latest shaft of its broken wing hath smitten one watchman
more 1 ' Hugh MiUer is laid low. War with China is spoken of ;
and God of Thy people ! God of missionaries ! let Thy right
arm be round William Bums, David Sandeman, and Carstairs
Douglas."

" Sahhath, leth February, 1857.— From my husband's Qlassite
hymn-book I read —

" * From yonder dunghill, lo, He picks
A topaz for His crown ;
Sapphires and amethysts most rare,
Amid the rubbish thrown.'

" To-day I have been thinking of the preached word, trial,
persecution, the still small voice seeking out and gathering to
Christ the souls of men in Europe, in Asia, in Ajnerica, in new-
found Africa. Africa, with her open doors ; let men be sent
thither ; the elect are there it may be in countless thousands."

*^ Ibth March, — ^EcHpse of the sim is nearly total this Sabbath
afternoon.

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BEREAYEHENTS. 170

** Eise in thy brightness,

Shine on thy way,
Break forth in splendour.

Monarch of day !
Full orbM in glory,

How fair thou dost seem ;
Creation rejoices

And lives in thy beam.

" Short is thy journey

Of glory to-day,
Darkness as sackcloth

Must shroud each bright ray.
'Tis on thee. Invaded

And shorn of thy beams.
The glory is shaded

And sickly it gleams.

" The sear tints of autumn,

They hang on the plain ;
The cold chill of winter

Has reached us again.
Our sweet feathered songsters -

On each laurel bough —
Ail silent the concert

They gave us but now.

" It darkens, it darkens,

The clouds have come down,
And closer enshroud us

With mantle of brown.
Jehovah, that mad'st them.

This earth, and that sun,
Lo ! prostrate the nation.

The worship begun ! "

*^20th June.— This has been a sweet Sabbath-day to me.
Twice at church, as for a month past I have been. Our former
minister, the Bev. John Milne, is restored to us after being for
yeaw settled in Calcutta. I seem to be once more replanted in
this house of God, which has been so often closed to me."

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180 BEBEAVEliENTS.

She spent part of the next year with her daughter and
her husband at the Grange House, Edinburgh, and on
her return to Springland had recommenced her class,
and gradually been able to interest herself in kindred
work.

Her niece, Anna (Mrs. Parker), only daughter of her
earliest friend and sister-in-law, had been an inmate of
Springland from time to time for many years, and now
for a time made it more her home.

In June, 1858, her son Charles was married, and she
writes to his bride on the day before the wedding : —

"... In your liappiness, acknowledge the Lord, who changeth
not. Ask His Spirit now, that casting all your sins on Jesus,
you may get from Him the robe of righteousness, to be adorned
with it as a bride adometh hersel£ So may you be united that
' death shall not divide you. Thus shall you be a crown to your
husband, and you will begin to-day a union that will yield only
blessing. May such blessings rest on you both. I can leaVe
all earthly things truly in His hand. I give ye my own motto,
* Seek je first the kingdom of Qod, and dl these things shall be
added.' Be cabn and rest on His strength, and He can keep you
both through the solemn service looking unto Jesus. — Believe
me, after twelve to-morrow, your attached Mother. M. S. S.

"A little box with flowers, such as we have, goes by this
train."

In a letter written some days later she describes how
the wedding-day was kept at Springland. It shows her
constant habit of uniting all the household in every joy-
ful family event : —

" In the evening Charlie's old nurse and twenty of the old ser-
vants and people had tea in the library. I gave the health when
we went in to see them after tea. Janet^s husband addressed the
young ones, then prayed, and we sang the three last verses of

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BEREAVEMENTS. 181

Psalm Ixxx. Mr. and Mrs. Milne called, and he remembered you
both earnestly in prayer."

When a child came to brighten the new home, she

wrote to the same daughter-in-law : —

" Not only you but yours shall now be within the covenant.
I would not give up an interest in it for my children for a thou-
sand worlds, and for ever I shall bless Him who made me choose
for them all the kingdom of God and His righteousness alone.
Do so now in His strength, my own dear M."

Throughout these letters, and by a thousand other
noticeable indications all through her life, it is strik-
ing to observe how completely she had learned the
lesson which her mother, so many years before, had
earnestly prayed might be taught her. She had made
the choice, and determined that she and her house
should serve the Lord. Now, she in turn hands on the
lesson to her children, and prays through lonely hours
in the old home at Springland that in each of their
households, scattered as they now were in many quar-
ters at home and abroad, the same principle might be
faithfully adhered to. It is no small gift for a mother
to give her children when they go forth from under the
shelter of the old roof to build nests of their own, if she
can point to the consistent example of her own life in
such a matter as this.

In September, 1858, the China mail brought a
letter addressed in a strange hand to her son-in-law.
There was none from David himself, and so she opened
this one. Her beloved son had been called away to
his Divine Master's presence at Amoy, 31st July.*

* See " Memoirs of David Sandeman," by Bev. Andrew Bonar, D.D.

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182 BEBEAVEMENTS.

Now it was that those who were left of her family
could really measure the strength of grace in its sus-
taining power. David had always been the most like
herself; everything seemed gone from her; but God's
work remained.

We take one of the last from the small packet of
letters on thin foreign paper, which his mother received
during his less than two years' absence from her, and
which has not been printed befora His devotion to
her was deep, and to him her love was priceless and
peerless ; her recent loss of two sons abroad, and of her
husband, had deepened the love on both sides. He had
been hearing from the [^ American missionaries of the
vast work of God's Spirit which had begun in the New
World, and wrote as follows : —

'^ The American state of things will surely be the means of
stirring up to expectation from God for Scotland and England.
What a true use of the telegraph was that, commimicating the
number of souls hopefully converted to God, from city to city.
And then so little outward meaus in the way of preaching, almost
all prayer.

" The news of so many friends dining with you was pleasant,
my dear mother. There is need by all means to keep the whole
heart open for Jesus and His service. ' It is more blessed to give
than to receive,* is a precious and weighty saying of Him who
spake as never man spake. It is one of those comparisons of
greater good and greater blessing which are eminently for the
children of the kingdom, and missing the spirit of which, they
lose untold treasures of blessing, both in this worid and in that
which is to come.

" Avoiding aU enthusiasm, it is a most precious blessing that
we are called to a complete giving over and handing up, as it
were, unto Jesus, that He may (to speak with reverence) put His

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BEREAVEMENTS. 183

hand upon all, whatsoever we have, and use it for His own
gracious purposes, — taking and making what use He chooses of
anything that is ours. True love should conduct to this, knowing
as we do, that infinite wisdom guides all that He does ; and,
again, remembering that, as Paul writes to Philemon, so Jesus to
us, 'Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even
thine own self besides. Yea, let me have joy of thee.'

"Who knows how short a time we may have to be as the
bride of Jesus, down here in the wilderness ? What U the us$
of the things of this world, but to lay them out so as most to
serve Him ]

^' I cannot tell how sweet is the love of Jesus away in these
parts, it seems as if it were all doubled by the distance come in His
sweet name. What used to be in some sort as a common vintage,
is now as the most precious of sweet wines. Is it not even so,
my dear, honoured, and at last, deeply afflicted mother 1 ^ And
the roof of Thy mouth (0 Emmanuel) like the best wine for my
beloved that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are
asleep to speak.' 'Many waters cannot quench love, neither can
the floods drown it.'

" It is the best news to hear of dear M serving the Lord

with all her heart. Do not be afraid of the opium question
troubling me in the way you speak of. There have been too
many warnings as to that, that such burdens are eminently to be
taken to Him upon whose shoulders is the government. But this
is consistent with a true and continuing sense of the guilt of our
country and countrymen in the matter.

^ Adieu — may the Lord Jesus be near you at all times, and hear
all your petitions. — ^Your ever affectionate son,

" David Sandbman."

In David's journal, the last words found written were
" love and liberty." A missionary and his family had
to move for change of air, and David had come to take
charge of their beautiful dwelling. Among the last
entries in his journal are : " 24ith July, — Gracious
Saviour, my Lord and sole abiding Friend, be Thou

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184 BEREAVEMENTS.

neax to keep and sanctify. Deeply hast Thou been
pleased to satisfy my heart with Thine own love ; nor
hast Thou withheld all those human founts for which
man naturally yearns. Come Thou near now on this
day of preparation for preaching the holy and blessed,
though searching trutL Thy service, my Saviour, is
sweet beyond all thought, to preach in the name of
Jesus.

^ Living in this large, high-roofed dwelling, with its
broad verandahs, the evenings especially I much enjoy.
A touch of sickness, with health restored; dwelling
near kind friends, so that I have society and solitude
combined ; an instrument of sacred music ; moonlights
of surpassing yet mild brightness, with now and then a
passing sail, the notes of two snow-white turtle doves,
crying gently morning, noon, and night, re-echo to my
heart the sounds and scenes of my far-distant native
land." " 26th July, — Hundreds said to be dying daily
from cholera. *Be ye also ready,' at midnight, cock-
crowing, or in the morning." Next day, 27th, — " Day
somewhat darkened by the flesh." Afternoon, — ^" Bead-
ing in the Lamentations, found it good."

Two little girls, a missionary's daughter and that of
an American captain, away on a voyage with his ship,
dined with him. Next night the latter sickened; the
native servants ran away before she died. David did
everything for mother as for child. Flowers were sent,
and he plaited the white wreath. The mother refused
to leave the body till they came to bury it. The Rev.
Mr. Doty only got her to her room by promising to sit

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BEBEAVEMENTS. 185

up half the r^ght with the remaimi, caUing David from
his last sleep to take his post when he lay dowxL
When the bearers came for the body David could only
walk as far as the boat which was to row her to
Eo-long-800, and returned ilL When the missionaries
came to his bed-side asking what gave him confidence,
he replied, " From head to foot, righteousness ! " " Any
messages to friends ? " they asked ; " Tell my mother I
thought of her, because she taught me the way to
Jesus." " Is the High Priest precious ? " " He always
has been, He always has been, exceedingly precious,
exceedingly precious, from the moment I knew Him
till now. The love of Jesus has ever been to me as a
cloudless sky; the one dark spot in it has been my sin.
May grace be given you to pray earnestly for China
and its perishing millions." Asked if he felt pain, he
answered, "The only pain I have known since I knew
Christ has been sin. The love of Jesus is like the sea
around you! It was only last night, when I had a
little more strength, that the love of Jesus came rush-
ing into my soul like the waves of the sea — as if it
would rend me — so that I had to cry, * stop, Lord, it is
enough ! ' Oh the height, and depth, and length, and
breadth, of the love of Jesus ! And I was constrained
to cry out : —

" * I would go where Jesus waits me,
I would be where Jesus is ;
All too long have we been parted !
Let my spirit speed to His.' "

The very evening his mother heard of her son's

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186 BEREAVEMENTS.

death, after we had laid her on her couch, she recol--
lected that Mr. Grattan Guinness was to preach in Perth
City HalL She sent for her maid and desired her to
tell any one of the gentlemen who might go with the
evangelist to the platform, of a message to the people
of Perth in her son's last letter, that they should labour
on, assured of a rich blessing at hand As we watched
her in these days, we saw the power to sustain
which God's great work on earth possesses. She had
given herself to it unreservedly. It gave itself to
her ; it bore her through. All, in a sense, was taken,
from her; what she cared for most was left — ^the
paradox of the tried Christian : ^ Formerly, I possessed
Grod in all things, now I possess all things in God.''
Fenelon was gazing on the features of his pupil the
Dauphin as he lay in state, the idol of himself and
France ; yet he said, as one bemoaned the loss he had
sustained, " If the turning of a straw would put me
again in possession of what I most love, I would not
turn that straw unless He bade me." For the rest of
her life she was to subsist upon the work He had given
her to finish, and on Himself the Finisher. "Heaven
is nearer than China," were the first words that escaped
'her with the letter, one page half-read, in her hand.
When her own minister, the Rev. John Milne of
St. Leonard's, came to visit her, he said, "It seems,
my friend, as though our Lord would have you in a
sense possess the earth ; India has one. South America
another, and now China; they shall come firom the
east and the west to sit down in the kingdom." The

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BEREAVEMENTS. 187

Rev. Andrew Gray, whose pulpit David had supplied
for three months in the afternoon three years before,
was the first to see her. He reached the foot of her
bed, and standing there, repeated 1 Peter i, prayed,
and left the apartment, unable to trust himself to utter
a word of his own. Her niece, Georgina Sandeman,
from London, remained with her for two years, became
of one mind with her aunt, and by loving sympathy
helped her to begin the course of lonely widowed life.
Georgina pursued a bright course of usefulness wherever
she went, and having guided others into God's grace
was taken before her aunt into the life beyond.

The Rev. W. C. Bums wrote to her from China : —

"Amot, 2nd August^ 1858. — I was surprised ten days ago in
coming to Amoy to be told by Mr. Douglas that the committee on
Mr. Sandeman's affairs, at their final meeting, had decided on giv-
ing to me. his small Geneva watch. I value this legacy exceedingly,
and from the very small size of the watch I may be able to carry
it where I could not use my own. It has already measured off
the short span of his life on earth, and may perhaps do the same
for me."

We find the following entry in her Journal : —

'* 17^^ October, — Alone here, but ah ! not alone in communion ;
Jesus in the midst of the throne, and the spirits of redeemed
ones around Him. My husband, saved by the blood of atone-
ment The three brothers there, lovely in life, now undivided.
How much more a home for me in heaven than here 1 The
spirit's communion with Jesus, how satisfying even here ! Holy
Spirit visit thy heritage everywhere. May souls be won for
Jesus to-day, this is my prayer^a diadem for His brow. Father,
remember the travail of His holy soul under the sin of a whole
world."

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188 BEBEAYEMENTS.

" 28th A(wem6er.— Alone ! Wave on wave I Three sons (after
my two grandchildren killed) and my husband, and there looms
in the futare a cloud of loneliness^ of complete desertion. Still
the Lord rises high above it all. Still the glorious Sun shines
pervading it all ; his faithfulness set in the very heavens. Few
ever had such a constellation of blessings as I had; so many
lovely stars composing it Who made them shine ? By whose
light did they beam so brightly ] Jesus."

On the first night of frost, she went alone among
the flower-beds to gather dahlias and fuchsias. On her
return with the basketful she wrote : —

" October's cold bleak frost had come,
And, with its chilly breath,
Each flower must droop ere night be done.
And bow its head in death.

" I culled them from their slender stem,
I hid them in my breast ;
Oh I emblems sweet and fair of them
Who safe in Jesus rest

" Fair in the garden of His grace

They budded, bloomed, and then
With His own hand He gathered them
To bloom in heaven again."

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CHAPTER XL

ALONK

THE present chapter covers a period of twenty
years. The members of Mrs. Stewart Sande-
man's family paid her occasional visits ; but as
she always refused any proposal to have a resident
companion, she lived much alone. On New Year's
Day, 1859, she wrote in her journal : —

'* Though all of earth be taken away or shaken to the centre,
His purpose stands.

" * O bnt the ooimsel of the Lord
Doth stand for ever sure.
And of His heart the pnrposeB
From age to age endure.'

"Blessed purposes are they ! He took my beloved ones ; His
saving purpose of love awakened them, then united them to
Jesus, made their light shine, and stamped their brow with His
image. He said to each, ' Come up hither,' and was with them in
the valley. They are, by His love, with Him in glory. All is
welL Now, in the shakings of earth, be Thou with me. I
renounce all strength, all of self ; but I ask full strength, and all
of Thy self in the stead thereof. Alone, but desiring to be
led to-morrow to Thy table. Let my prayer come up before Thee
for my loved ones yet left. Oh claim every soul as Thine own.
This is my petition ; this is my request this New Year's Day. I
leave it in full futh with Thee, even to the whole of Thy King-
dom."

189

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190 ALONE.

Two days later she writes : —

** Deabest M., — I hope you are better. I ventured to chnrcli,
and at first felt overwhelmed as I sat down at the Table and they

sang—

** * While kindness in His bosom glowed,
And from His lips salvation flowed.'

It seemed to me as if our David, when he was dying, had in this
been made, though at an infinite distance, somewhat to resemble his
Lord. By-and-by I could rejoice as receiving the emblem and
feeling that my Lord was at that moment the Living One above,
and it seemed as if David and the rest were with Him, while we
are left to struggle here. He sustains us, and is intimately near.
Mr. Milne spoke from the Song of Solomon. After we returned
to the pew Andrew Bonar was like

" < Rutherford, with look inspired,
As if his Master spake.'

His addresses at the table were on the Altar and the Sacrifice."

The missionary work abroad and at home had now
received her to abide henceforward in its grand, wide
chamber, heaven s vestibula To lead as many as she
could into Christ's presence, to bring the ear of her
companion as close as her own to the open chink, the
hand to the lock, so that the Song of the Kedeemed
within might be overheard, the chorus joined in — this
was her chief occupation, whether she found herself
among her friends, alone with her maid, or in the
corridor with the telegraph-boy or other message-bearer.
The outcast had free access to her. The weary
labourer collecting money, scattering tracts, or carrying
Bibles, left her presence encouraged and refreshed.
The beginner in the Master's service, when in hesita-

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ALONE. 191

tion as to duty, would come to her, and never left her
without faith being strengthened.

An extract from her journal, 2nd September, 1858,
shows how her heart was prepared for a higher place in
this work. It was written while the Chinese converts
at Amoy and Swatow were meeting daily to pray that
she might be strengthened to receive the news then on
its way to her, of her son's death.

"Alone, reading * Pressing into the Kingdom' (by M, F. B.).
Yes ! Christ is enough, Christ is all ; and is it no theme for praise
that He is become so to me ? How enduring is the believer's
portion ! How steady the brightness that flashes forth from the
jewel that is ours ! The heavenly inheritance, Christ yonder, and
all that He makes heaven to be, we have not got possession of yet.
We have Him by His Spirit in the soul, and the bright hope of
seeing Him as He is. Lord, keep it unclouded. Bemove the
veiL Increase the attracting influence. Bring us near unto the
unseen glory. Give days of such nearness as we have known
both as a church and as a city ; for unbelievers were then over-
powered and confessed an awe was on their spirits. But why
comest Thou not yet 1 Why appear so deaf to Thy people's cry 1
Working everywhere else over this globe — America and Europe
made one — China open to the GospeL Britain Hes before Thee
— Thy people in Britain wait, asking ' Come, breath,' watch-
ing, Elijah-like, for the little cloud, pointing to the dead bones,
the silent lips, the deaf ears, the powerless hands of thousands
and tens of thousands of her unconverted children lying as in the
shroud and the coffin. How easily do Thine own children
endure the sight ! Awaken them. They need the same spirit to
arouse them that the dead ones need to bid them live. Dost
Thou not see that Satan has administered to Thine own people a
sleeping-draught) so that all appears to us in our dreaminess in
false colours 1 Speak Thou first to our souls, and touch our hps
with a live coal from off Thine altar, and inspire all Thine own
to say, • Send me.' "

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192 ALONK

The following lines are found in her Journal,

addressed to two young men on whom she had

expended for years her heart's love and constant
endeavour: —

*' I must pass on, so a brief farewell,
Since ye will not come with me.
The sun is low, and I cannot tell
How near death's flood may be.

At every step shall rise a prayer

That ye may outrun me yet
But I see my loved ones shining there,

And earth's sun has nearly set

Oh ! love has lingered and wept and strove,

That together we might go on —
But swiftly drawn by my Saviour's love

I gird me alone to run."

The year 1860 was to usher in rich spiritual blessing
to many hi Perth, and to find her among the foremost
in gathering the harvest. She writes : —

^^Sahhaih, I9th January, I860.— A day of thanksgiving at
the close of the world's week of united prayer. Let us
not be satisfied till triumph after triumph, and crown on
crown, be awarded to Emmanuel. Faith expands, our prayer
grows more comprehensive, our hope brightens, our love glows
and the object of it all is to get souls united to the Lamb of God.

"Let the prayer of Jesus be fulfilled, * that they all may be (me,
not merely near each other, not only friendly, loving, forbearing,
but one. How condemning to the past of the Church is that
prayer !

Heaven's fire to earth came down,

Earth caught heaven's song of praise,
And brought another crown

Emmanners fame to raise.

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ALONE. 193

One shout ascends in greeting
To Him— our crowned King,

And heaven and earth seem meeting
The one new song to sing.

It was on the 28th of August that Mr. Reginald Rad-
cliffe, invited to Perth by a committee of ministers and
laymen, came to stay at Springland, and commenced
his work at an immense open-air meeting on the
South IncL His hostess, with all under her roof, was
deeply impressed by his words and prayer at family
worship that morning. There was nothing outwardly
to give rise to expectation of great results. Yet Perth
had been laid on the heart of the evangelist so much
and so long that he could appeal with certainty to
Christ's promised guidance and power to be exercised
then and there : *' Thou Thyself shalt work, and we
shall see the signs thereof. Thou shalt make the
breach in the walls of this city, and we worms of clay
shall creep in after Thee, to see Thy victory." Even so
it was. So great was the power of God on the multi-
tude before him, that, after prayer, singing and speak-
ing for half-an-hour in calm but heart-piercing words,
he at once invited inquirers among the men present to
go into the neighbouring church of Free St. Leonard's.
Scores of hitherto careless persons flocked thither, while
women went into a tent erected near. During four
hours ministers and ladies of experience conversed with
them,amazed at the evident tokens of a deep and genuine
work of grace. From that day for seventy nights in

succession, Saturdays excepted, crowded assemblies

o

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194 ALONE.

overflowed the City Hall. Ministers of every deno-
mination, jfrom all parts of Scotland, from England, and
Ireland, came to share in the descending blessing, and
remained to help. The evening trains brought in
listeners from the country parishes, and carried back
witnesses to God's goodness. Mrs. Stewart Sandeman
took charge of the side-room for women on fifty-seven
nights out of the seventy. The City Hall having after
that time been let for another purpose, she told the
young people "of her side-room that they would be wel-
come at Springland on Saturday afternoons. From
this date the numbers of her class increased, until, at
the close of her work, the list which was kept by her
contained two thousand and thirteen names.

Services of the same nature were tarried on in
August, 1861. Her house was the home for, almost
every evangelist who visited Perth. The following list,
copied from her Journal, was kept by her, that she
might follow each in his work elsewhere : —

Messrs. Grant, of Amdilly, Brownlow North, Keginald
Eadcliife, Richard Weaver, Albert Boswell, Harrison Ord, James
Sillars, W. P. Lockhart, J. S. Hendry, Dr. W. P. Mackay,
David, Alexander, John, and Robert Simpson ; Messrs. Grattan
Guinness, Jobn Fraser, James Tinling, Steele, Tytler, Stone,
and Collie ; Dr. Craig, Major Ross, Captain Hull, Messrs. Jenkin-
flon, Donaldson, Colville, Duncan Matheson, Gullane, R. C.
Morgan, Beaken, Fullarton, Horatio Gilmore, and Professor
Martin ; Revs. F. G. Littlecot, J. M*Nab, J. H. Wilson, R Cowan,
W. Davidson, Horatius Bonar, Andrew A. Bonar, William Milne;
James Wilson, Wm. Reid, John Tait, James Stalker, Simeon
Macpbail, John Coventry, Jaiaes Gall, David Brown, Donald
Fraser of Inverness, A, Moody Stuart, A. Macmurchy, A. N.

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ALONE. 195

Somerville, H. Williamson of Huntly, Brock of Clifton, Wm.
Pennefather, and James Wells; Admiral Otter, Dr. Graham,
Messrs. James Adam, Ledbitter, Hargrove, Drysdale, Reed from
Australia, Daniel, and Smith, with many others.

To preparation for her class, now open to all, her
strength was devoted for twenty years. The Saturday
was wholly given to it. A paper published on Satur-
day was recommended to her, but she said, "I could
not take that paper, it would break in on my
Saturday." She would spend the forenoon in the
garden, and be alone after an early dinner till five,
the hour of meeting. She then came down to the
dining-room, seated in front with low forms for the little
boys and girls, higher forms behind for the older
children, and chairs round the sides for the friends
whom she invited, or who asked leave to come. The
frequent singing of hymns kept the little ones from
becoming tired. The hymn-book was often changed
during these twenty years. She knew how young
people liked variety, and invited any friend who might
be staying with her or passing through Perth to give the
address. Yet the service was always most interesting
when conducted by herself From frequent intercourse
with the young people she had read their hearts
and taken possession of them. It was often on the
first night of a stranger's attendance that the impression
was made which was to be life long.

Arriving in Perth on a Saturday to conduct a series
of services, the evangelist generally began his mission in
her house at that meeting, thus causing a great interest

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196 ALONE.

to hang around it She held the young hearts for
Christ, and knew how to throw in a passing remark
when she noticed anything wanting in the address for
the special need of her young people at the time. One
Saturday a worthy man had delivered a somewhat
formal address, omitting the one truth which her
own soul lived on, and which had been pressed home in
the case of every one blest through her — substitu-
tion: One dying in room of all, with instantaneous
cleansing through His blood. Had the speaker been
quite inexperienced or young, she would have added a
few words, but she was most considerate, especially in
the presence of children, both in word and look. On
this occasion there was a pausa She left the room,
saying, "I am going to show you some flowers." She
returned with a large flat plate of red and white
camellias, and, placing them on the table, turned to the
children, saying, " Little ones, you know it 's just like
this. Our sins are that colour; we wash, and are as
white as these"

A linen cover was spread on the floor of the adjoining
library; an illuminated text stood against the mirror
over the black marble mantelpiece, with the words,
"Forgive us our sins." Round the room were the
closely-packed shelves containing many old books —
Latin, French, and Spanish. The globes, with ancient
stamped leather covers, stood in the comers of the
room. To this room those whom she wished to
converse with alone, retired. Once a-week the order of
the drawing-room was disturbed for the tea-party of the

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ALONK 197

missionaries and friends who had been helping at the
meeting. "The little grandchildren," writes one of
themselves, " who crept in, thought this the pleasantest
part of the evening. Their grandmother allowed one to
pour out tea, and another to hand round the buna on
the white-and-gilt plate, or cake in the silver basket.
There was no constraint. She knew well how to
glean from each of the workers stories helpful to the
young, or gain for the labourers themselves counsel
from the riper experience of minister or evangelist
In the long summer evenings the meeting was often
held on the lawn; from it the children helped to
carry away the forms. Some could scarcely tear them-
selves away from the brightness of the group in the
drawing-room, where the setting sun streamed in on
the workers as they knelt in prayer or tried some new
hymn on the piano, before they took leave of her whose
beaming smile and devoted life were a stimulu? and
strength in their own labour."

She lived so much by herself that the young members
of her class who desired to speak with her knew that
they would find her evenings free. Important inter-
views were held alone with the person who sought her
counsel, and the frankness and abandon with which
she threw herself into the special circumstances of every
one, gaining the confidence and meeting the many
difficulties of young people, were wonderiuL The
shortcomings of those under her charge were never
lightly passed over, yet reproof came like a thorn
among roses. Love went before and love came behind;

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198 ALONE.

the fault, pressed sharply home, drew forth repentance,
and the assurance of forgiveness followed. A light
book read, a foolish song sung, an unbecoming garment
worn, close intimacy with an unbeliever, untruthfulness,
never escaped her censure.

There were instances of deep anxiety regarding
young persons, for whom she had hoped the best.
These brought out the depth of her affection and
interest. The following letter — one of many such —
was written by her to one who had gone for a time into
a strict sisterhood : —

" Dearest Agkes, — Yesterday, when looking over the pages
of my book, I saw your name. A young woman had called to
tell me that, at my meeting years ago, Jesus took her for His own
while I prayed and spoke ; so I looked in my book for her name.
There was only the bare mention of her name ; but of you, sweet
Agnes, there was much. I found your lines about Springland
and of the love of Jesus, and more. In the evening I heard that
you intend going to the Nuns ! Did not I warn you of this last,
time I saw you ? Did I not say it would be a heart-break to see
you in a nunnery ? but you put away and scouted such a
thought 1 Agnes, to lose the liberty of your Bible, your
liberty of speech, your liberty of action, and your liberty of soul
— ^that liberty, best of all, with which Christ maketh His people
free I You would go and lock the door on yourself, and bar
these cruel bars of Antichrist behind you! Just when the
apostasy is sinking, sinking never to rise again, God's Word has
pronounced her doom. To the Lord Jesus I go for you ; to Him
I appeal. In Him I trust yet to deliver you. You were and are
still very dear to me ; but I trust you are dear to Him who ful-
filled all, bore the penalty, worked out a fall and free salvation,
not that His own should go to shut themselves up in supersti-
tion, and will- worship, but that they should follow His footsteps
and be a blessing to this poor world, seeking to win souls to Him,
and glorying in His finished work. You will bitterly repent

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ALONE. 199

this yet, when too late. *Too late' may sound throngli the
deep dark recesses of yonr poor heart, *too late' to recover
liberty and usefulness, * too late ' to wod: for Him as He would
have you work. Gk)d grant that it may not be the forerunner of
the blackness of darkness for ever. My poor Agnes, greatly you
are dishonouring Him. Oh that He may yet see the blood upon
the threshold of your heart, and * when I see the blood I will pass
over? You have sadly wounded my heart. Alas ! you wound
His far far more ! I would like to hear from you your own
thoughts, and I remain as ever, your affectionate sorrowing
friend, M. Stewabt Sandbman."

All these wishes were fiilly realised in the end for her
young friend.

The Dundee holidays brought back mill-girls, who
had belonged to her class. The " day out/' were it but
once in the year, found at her side many a young girl
in service. We quote from one of the many letters
received by her from the girls who had been in her
class and whom she had tried never to lose sight of: —

" Glasgow, 2nd June, 1868.

"Dear Madam, — I cannot find words to express the pleasure
I felt on receiving your kind letter. It brought back the happy
time when I sat in your meeting, and listened to the words of
eternal life from your lips. Though years have passed since then,
yet, while I write, scene after scene passes through my mind, and
methinks I hear you now entreating us to fiee from the wrath to
come. Oh ! that all had accepted the blessed Jesus then.

" My dear mother was brought to Jesus early in 1866, and my
father soon after, and our home has been made a heaven on earth.
Praise the Lord for His grace to us. It has grieved me often
since I came to Jesus to think that, after all I heard you say about
Him and His love, I was all the time, as you knew, a stranger to God,
but He found me after many years wandering far from Him. It is
now twelve months since the Lord made me a new creature in Christ

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Jesus. Afterwards I joined the Churcli with the Eev. A. A. Bonar.
You said in your note that Glasgow had been visited by faithful
evangelists, namely, Eev. E. P. Hammond and Bichard Weaver.
Many will have to bless God throughout eternity for the visit of
the above named. Many giddy, thoughtless girls have been led to
think seriously about Divine things. There is a very interesting
meeting in our own house held every Thursday night, conducted
by some of the members of the Rev. A. A. Bonai^s church, and
many souls have been led to Christ there. — I remain, ever
yours gratefully, Helen."

The following are notes written regarding her class
work to a grand-daughter who frequently helped her
with it

'^This week it has seemed as if I could not separate the seen
from the unseen. Well, it will not be strange after all, except in
degree of joy, to be with Jesus. One feels drawn to His heart,
and that at last He will draw so tenderly and so powerfully that
the^oul shall not resist, but leave aU and follow Him to glory.
He is very gracious in making known to me by so many mes-
sengers what He is now doing by His own right hand and by His
holy arm. Much blessing rested on my last meeting. Near me
sat a stranger girl, with black eyes and a pale face that would be
lovely if she were in Christ She was quite unaccustomed to
such a scene, and smiled carelessly during the address. I took
her aside and spoke to her afterwards, and she seemed subdued.
Truly, I thought, if the Master wiU give me to see meetings like
this, I can ask nothing more.

" In my list of the girls' names I do still, sometimes with fear
and trembling, put a stroke opposite the name of one who has
been deeply impressed by the word spoken. Some time after,
when this has continued, I put a double mark. What joy fills
my soul when I hear the judgment confirmed by such as know
their life at home. Two of these private marks I have had to
erase, though I yet hope for the girls. The Lord Himself knows*
He makes no mistakes. His eyes are as a flame of fire. He will
not blot out of His book —

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i< t -^j name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase,
Impressed on His heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace ! '

He will confess our worthless names, our little strength, our per-
fect weakness. His strength is made perfect in that weakness.
He will turn the hearts of the very careless parents, brothers, and
sisters in the homes from which my girls are gathered, and who
turn to ridicule their coming here. * Why persecutest thou Me 1 *
He and His are one. My Hugh's favourite verse ere he died was,
* Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.'
He gives no trifling thing to us to care for — a crown, yet it will
only be valued to cast at His feet —

" * Not at the crown He gifteth.
But at His pierced hand,
The Lamb is all the glory.
In Immanuel's land.'

" Isa Scott was at the meeting to take leave, about to go away
to the nursery of Mrs. Wallace. We commended her to God's
care. Two sweet sisters were in the library ; their brother was
killed in an accident. F. seems very satisfactory and happy.
The chapter read was blessed to G. I sent her and other new
girls, with whom I had been speaking, to their homes imder the
care of Isa and Christina. ... I don't know that I should write
it all even to you, dearest M. But ask your friends to pray for
blessing on my life here, lonely as, after Edinburgh, it seems."

To the same —

" He was with me on Saturday when I saw seventy, including
my helpers, come in. You may know how I inwardly realised it
to be His work and not mine at alL Subject : ' They called His
name Jesus.' The promise was given to Eve. Then the flood,
the cities of the plain destroyed, the dispersion of Israel ; all
happened as judgments upon sin. At last He came, the babe
in Bethlehem, Emmanuel, God with us. He looked down all the
ages. He saw all He should save, He saw you in this room to-
night See Him, the same Jesus as when He called the children.

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and said, ' Suffer them to come tmto me.' He bids ns bring you
to Him. In concluding I supposed a case in speaking to the
older girls. You refuse Him to-night, you go away without Him,
your life henceforward will be observed — after I shall be gone —
by others. They will see the head of a family without Jesus,
then growing old, the dying day comes— no Jesus, no peace — the
remembrance of such an one going back, it may be to this night
I cannot follow her further or hear how Satan mocks and torments
to all eternity. You know my only wish in so speaking is to lead
you to take Jesus as a Saviour. Then shall we together join the
white-robed company, bear the palm and cast the crown at His
feet."

And again —

" Last Saturday it rained heavily and on leaving this the poor
wee things who were wet when they came, had, I fear, to walk
home in a thunder-shower. Mr. Taylor <5ame and spoke well. The
same address given here before had been useful to C. M. who was
still here to hear it again. We sang * Come to my heart. Lord
Jesus!'"

Again —

"The great weakness from which I have been suffering is
wearing off: surely the Lord has wondrous restoring power both
for body and soul. He the source and the spring of health,
nothing is worth the having when He is not felt to be the main-
spring of the joy. The moment we look to the creature for that,
it shrivels into nothing. Often if weak and oppressed the
enemy seizes the opportimity to distress the soul, casting in
doubts of Jesus and His love— a love that cannot falter, a love
that is indestructible. Well, the enemy only lays us to our rest on
Jesus' bosom, helpless as a child, helpless as when first we lisped
His name as our salvation.

** On Saturday last I had to remain in my room till near the
time of my meeting, and awoke from a short sleep so faint. I
looked up at my text over the mantelpiece, my eye fell on these
words : * I will not fail thee nor forsake thee ' (Josh. i. 5), I
got new life and went down. Had thirty-five girls. E. Balmaui,

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Agnes, and myself. I was able to speak &om Josh, i.^ especially
on the departure of Moses."

Again, on Christmas day : —

** Preparing for my annual party for eighty-five girls. Besides
my other preparations for their recreation, the ' Old, Old Story * is

printed on card-board foi? each, with a copy of 's little book.

I have diligently spread it abroad, and have still a hundred.
Love to Hugh, who will not be loved the less for his name, among
his Manchester friends. I see an awful hurricane at Buenos
Ayres, but I daresay that tomb * will be undisturbed amid the
waste of waters which prevail over the country, I felt your
letter to be doubly kind coming this morning. Many, many
happy days to you in Him whose name has been given to this
day; many know but the name, I fear. Many blessings you
have received since you were saved fix)m death, near where you
now are, that night on the railway : best of all to be made a soul-
gatherer. I did feel it desolate last night when, alone here,
I thought of you being so far away. But you know it becomes
natural to me to be alone, and to rejoice in being not alone, but
with Jesus. How precious He is to me ! I got a great blessing
on Saturday at my meeting ; a deepened feeling of sin, I trust.
There seemed to be an awful realisation of our vileness in the
prayer of Mr. Moir after all were gone, Jesus is sufficient to bear
one up imder this conviction of sin. Though to be alone with
God is what I need for my work, yet sometimes the spirit faints."

^'Spbinglavd, /anuary 4.

" Dear Dr. — I will seek to remember you to-morrow, and on

the other dates. I intended to write and tell you about your

books being given to the children, but waited to speak of the

following Saturday, eighty-two in the room. My own four lovely

grand-children stood at the door to receive them. was in my

arms, and handed, from trays ornamented with evergreen, your

pink, and green, and gilt, gorgeous-looking books. Then ^'s

little books in green bands of my children's making, and each
hynm tied with a knot of ribbon in four colours. The two eldest

* Her 8on*8 (prave.

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gave the bags with fruit; and what seems to have most struck the

children was little ^*s earnest *Come to Jesus.' I spoke on part

of Luke xii., ' Bags that wax not old* — on the comparative worth-
lessness of the best we can provide here to what we shall have at
His coming, when he shall come forth to serve His people. Miss
W. spoke on entering the Ark, and how to reach it by Christ, the
Bridge. I got to Perth for the first time since June, to visit the
young widow. A fortnight before he died he asked her to play
and sing —

' How sweet the name of Jesus sounds/

and the last day she repeated —

'How bright these glorious spirits shine.'"

She began the New Year's volume of her journal, —

" Above the stars that shine in golden glory,

Above the cahn sweet moon ;
Up the bright ladder saints have trod before thee —

Soul, thou shalt venture soon !
Secure with Him who sees thy heart-sick yearning ;

Safe in His arms of love ;
Thou shalt exchange the midnight for the morning.

In thy fair home above."

Young ladies sought her company; one of them
writing under the impulse of first grief after the
announcement of her death, says : —

. " The dearly loved one, now in glory with her Lord, was no
common friend. The intercourse I was allowed to have with her
I shall look back on with a hallowed, chastened joy. The bright
smile which lit up that lovely countenance told fully of the holy
peace within. The tender, loving words of counsel spoken to the
young disciple treading the same path, though so far behind —
their comfort and their strength shall be long remembered. The
holy breathings of soul were wafted straight to His throne as we
knelt lowly at His feet The lovely and sainted mother who
had so long and closely walked with Him, besought powerfully
the needed grace for us, still young in the Christian life. These

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are holy memories now* May that long life of shining faith and
bright consistency, crowned by the triumphant death, stimulate
each of us to follow her in so far as she followed Christ, leaving
such glory-streaks behind.*

The almost involuntary prayer united in with every
individual with whom she was left for any length of
time alone, was one great charm of intercourse with
her. She literally believed the promise of Christ,
"Where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them." She had
learned from past experience of the omission of such
social prayer, and from the present blessedness of its
enjoyment, what loss is sustained by all who resolve to
forego it, and restrict prayer to morning and evening
family worship. An hour had to be spent with one or two
Christian people — ^their anxieties, their joys, their needs,
the same. Must the time be all spent in conversation,
in laying plans, in discussing difficulties, in talking about
other friends ? Ought not the invisible almighty
Promiser of His special presence to the two or three
seated together, gathered in His name, to be permitted
to speak one sentence of His Word, and be spoken to
in prayer ? She believed it ought to be so, and acted
on the belief.

When unable to walk farther from home than her
gardens, she still went on market-days to the road
outside the grounds with little books or coloured slijs
printed with hymna None were given away without
a word spoken that could not be forgotten. Her striking
appearance in her mourning dress and her sweet smile.

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arrested attention and won the heart. The following is
one of many proofs of the permanence of impressions
made by a casual meeting on the road : — One day she
met a young man to whom she had spoken before but
did not now recognise, and asked if he knew he was a
sinner, and whether the burden was removed. To a
further question: "How long since?" he replied,
" Here on this road, that day you spoke to me, two
years ago."

The groimds of Springland descend in terraces to
the broad river ; on the opposite bank lies the extensive
green meadow of the North Inch, which formed for
many years the favourite resort of the town children
on Saturday afternoons. In summer time the river
tempted them to bathe, although the eddies and uneven
bottom made this unsafe, and bathing accidents were
not unfrequent. A shrill cry,''followed by shouts from
the bank, " A boat, a boat !" told that life was in danger.
In a few seconds the Springland boat was in the river,
and in a few minutes more the body, dripping and
senseless, would be carried up the steps to the Tower.
In July, 1867, one of the most painful of these sights
was witnessed. The body of a young man from Dundee
was carried up from the river, water dropping from
his dark hair. The boat returned, bringing his father
and little brother. Mrs. Sandeman was there. More
than once she had stood by to see personally that every
possible remedy was used, and had sometimes had the
satisfaction of seeing life restored ; but in this case Dr.
Bower, who lived near, said there was no hope. Those

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on the bank had been admiring the young man's
prowess as a swimmer; but, coming from shallow, half-
tepid water into deep water, the sudden cold had over-
come him. Mrs. Sandeman cut a lock of hair for his
mother; his father withdrew with it, leading away the
little brother by the hand, as he sobbed, " I cannot go
to my mother without Willie." The coffin-bearers, the
father and his friends, came next noon. Mrs. Sande-
man joined them and offered prayer before the com-
pany wound along the path by the Tay and left the
grounds. She afterwards learned that two persons had
been lastingly impressed as the result of her interview
with the mourners that day. Lives were still saved by
that boat, till the bathing ground was moved farther up
the river, and life-preservers hung not far apart.

One of the most interesting events in this period of
her life was the annual recurrence of the Perth Con-
ferences from 1862 onwards. The idea of these con-
ferences was taken from the meetings held under that
name at Mildmay. Those at Perth were begun by
Colonel Macdonald Macdonald of St. Martin's, the Rev.
W. Pennefather, and the Rev. John Milne. As time
passed the work extended, and is now in the hands of
a large committee.

Mrs. Stewart Sandeman succeeded in interesting her
class to its youngest member, as well as her grand-
children, in the return of the first Tuesday of September,
on which day the Conference began, until recently
changed to the second Tuesday of that month. When

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the older members of a family are engrossed by
the labour devolving on them at such a time, young
children are apt to be set aside or sent out of the way.
The elasticity and love of her nature led her to the
opposite of this. The following notes, supplied by one
of her grand-daughters, who as a child was always with
her on such occasions, describes these conferences as
they were shared in by the children at Springland : —

" Grandmanmia used to measure her years by
these bright seasons, which she called her New Year
time. While strength was equal to it, early summer
found her planning how to accommodate the largest
number of guests. To her grandchildren in the country
the Conference was the great event of the summer. The
younger ones generally went down only for the day.
They had by that time saved up some money to spend
on toys for themselves, and on little presents for their
Sabbath classes or the poor. There was something
delightful about the six o'clock breakfast, the drive
through the birch woods in the crisp September air, with
just a hint of coming autumn visible among the leaves,
and the morning sun streaming into the coupe of the
Highland train, while the meeting with young friends
at each station from other country homes, added to the
gaiety of bright young hearts on the way to Springland,
Grandmamma was found presiding over the second
breakfast, gliding queen-like from room to room, helping
the little ones, and interested in all their work and play.

Before eleven o'clock we were all seated in the City
HalL To get there, there was first the run down the

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newly-shom terraces and over the grassy bank to the
Tower by the river-side, where the boat lay moored.
It had to come and go once and again, rowed by James,
the gardener, or by some of the Conference visitors,
till all were on the opposite bank. After this we
crossed the North Inch, and soon were among the little
groups which kept gradually swelling as we passed
through George Street, St. John Street, and then
turned in by the fine old church of St. John's, to the
City Hall. It was an interesting moment when the line
of speakers was seen emerging from the side-room
and slowly ascending the platform stair.- Grand-
mamma only came to the evening evangelistic meeting,
bringing there many of the girls of her class, and
hoping to train them to the same work among girls
of their own age, in which she had been so successful
in the autumn of 1860. In later years when she
was unable to be present, the children hurried home
with notes of the addresses, which they knew she
would specially prize. Sometimes they found her
on the garden-seat, before the ivied wall among
beds of fuschia, heliotrope, and geranium; some-
times in the drawing-room receiving visitors; if the
blind of her room were drawn down, we knew she
was resting for the afternoon party. Only three years
ago we remember her in her black satin dress and
mauve cap welcoming us to the drawing-room sofe, and
eagerly listening while we read to her Mr. Stevenson
Blackwood's stirring address on the Rent Veil.

For three days the long dining-table stood stretched

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to its last leaf, with a side-table for the children, and
spread from noon till supper-time for all who chanced
to come in. The best flowers from the garden and
heather from Bonskeid, came in to garnish the heavily-
laden table.

To many these Conference dinners at Springland
were the happiest hours of three happy days. Strangers
from all parts, invited often at a moment's notice, soon
felt themselves among friends. The very shortness of
the two hours of interval stimulated the enjoyment, and
forbade formality. But if we began to think that she
herself was the happy centre round whom we all
gathered, a look, or sign, or word, asking for prayer or
hymn, made us feel that she was only a steward receiv-
ing in His name, and that the Unseen was the One
whose presence was most realised and counted upon.
Next her, at the head of the table, for many years sat
Lord Kintore ; and near her were sometimes Lord Cavan
or Lord Radstock, Rev. Sir Henry W. MoncreiflF, Rev.
W. Haslam, Admiral Otter, Messrs. Grant of Amdilly,
Brownlow North, or Gordon of ParkhilL In her pre-
sence the conversation could never for very long diverge
from the great centre. At the close of dessert, the
children carried round the hymn-books ; and after we
had sung, she asked one and another to pray, some-
times adding herself a special petition. The singing
would have been nothing without her; her voice
always rose above the rest. Music charmed her
to the end. The parties continued when she was no
longer equal to the fatigue. But when, three years

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ago, the sweet tones of Mr. and Mrs. M'Granahan,
from America, reached her room through the open
window, she rose at once from her so&, and her stately
figure glided in to her own old place in the dining-
room. To us, a Conference can never be the same
without her. But could she now open the door above,
and let us hear the songs which satisfy her ear in these
halls of Sion, should not we, too, be eager to leave our
places here and worship yonder ?

After tea and coflFee in the drawing-room, there was
the rapid scattering, and then the hurried footsteps
heard on the gravel, of the friends hastening to be in
time for the evening evangelistic meeting. Some dis-
appeared by the winding path down to the river, others
by the short avenue, past the large holly-tree, through
the little brown gate, to go round by the bridge. Hap-
piest, perhaps, the one who kept watch at home with
Grandmamma These evangelistic meetings, addressed
by Mr. Haslam, Dr. Mackay, Harrison Ord, and others,
were her special interest. When no longer able to
attend them, her eye would be on the ormolu clock
with the blue figures on the white dial, which slowly
ticked upon the Sienna marble mantelpiece, keeping
her in mind of the different stages of the meeting ; or
she would rise to sit in the bow-window, and look out
to the west with its wealth of beauty. How often, by
land and sea, have pilgrims travelled by that pathway
•of the setting sun, to find, as it were, their heavenly
fatherland half-way 1 As we together looked on the
fiky of molten gold, mirrored in the gleaming water, and

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away beyond those purple Highland hills appearing
through the gaps in the waving branches^ it seemed a
fitting gateway to the * transparent glass ' of the street
of the city with the jewelled foundations. A hymn,
accompanied by herself at the piano in the gloaming,
often broke the stillness of the time, until at length
returning footsteps and voices in the porch were heard.
At the supper-table, her keen desire was to hear firom
those who had come from the hall, if there were any
fresh instances of impression.

All too soon the morning of Friday, the day of part-
ing, arrived We were glad to think that Grandmamma
would not at once be left quite alone, as some friends
lingered in Perth to attend the various conferences
on evangelistic work held on that day, and to prepare
the tea-meeting for the poor at night. Also until
quite lately there was the interest of arranging for the
Saturday class. For her these special occasions were
only conspicuous links in an unbroken chain of the
same happy activity. One by one each took leave of
her in her own room, and in the corridor we still
heard some loving message sounding from her voica
From the carriage our eyes once more met hers as she
stood at the window waving good-bye ; and though we
could not hear her voice, the heavenly expression on
her face, and the finger pointing upward, were more
than any words. We treasured them up as the fitting
close to these happy gatherings."

In the course of this Memoir frequent extracts are

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made from the journal kept for forty yeara It may not
be without interest to describe what was so well known a
feature to all her friends. As we write, there stand before
us forty-three portly quarto volumes, with broad, massive
backs, half-bound, some in brown, some in black leather,
altogether containing about fifteen thousand pages of
manuscript and printed matter. In the stirring years
which preceded 1843, stirring in the ecclesiastical world
both of England and Scotland, the manuscript and ex-
cerpt record was begun. In it she preserved from day to
day the things that chiefly interested her^ making large
contributions from newspapers or journals, and often
letters from friends. The first volumes were almost
entirely devoted to the rise and growth of the Free
Church, and the brave struggle of ministers and people
in its early years. Full accounts also were kept of
evangelistic work throughout the country, and every-
thing that reached her relating to the advance of
ritualism and popery was embodied. For some time
one side of the open page was headed Pro, the opposite
Contra, which meant to her the forwarding or the
hindering of the truth.

In the beginning of 1859 she seems to have been led
to pray constantly for the revival of religion throughout
Scotland, and on nearly every page of the book we find
the record of hours spent in such prayer. In the years
that follow, it is almost entirely filled with accounts of
the work of grace, either written by herself, describing
the work she saw going on in Perth, or taken from
newspaper reports of meetings, or from letters of friends

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having the same interests. The names of Rev. J.
Mibie, Messrs. Radcliffe, Brownlow North, Grant of
Amdilly, Matheson, and Weaver occur continually.
With untiring perseverance she preserved, morning by
morning, every incident and conversation which came
within her knowledge. Very often when any event,
private or public, interested her deeply, she would
write down in verse the thoughts which filled her
mind. Upwards of four hundred such fugitive pieces
are scattered through these volumes.

As years went on, her "Book," as it was always called,
became more comprehensive in its contents. Turning
over its pages, we find newspaper extracts, speeches in
Parliament, striking events, news from the seat of war,
royal visits, anecdotes of personal courage or daring,
with here and there a cartoon from Punch, Everything
that interested her was put in ; anything with life and
movement in it, anything with a touch of earthly love or
zeal or energy, but above all, anything in which she felt
the direct breath of the Spirit of God, and recognised
His special working, whether in public event or private
life, in great national disaster or in the simple faith of
some little child. On nearly every Sabbath, after the
time when she ceased to be able to go to church, we
find a prayer, chiefly of intercession, for those who were
able to go out to work, whether in church or class or
meeting, at home or abroad. If any clipping were made
from the Christian or other Sunday paper, it was
always kept to be gummed in on Monday morning.
How well-known to her children, and still more to the

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grandchildren, who came on eagerly-anticipated visits
to Springland, was the straw-twisted basket which con-
tained the needful implements for this morning work.
All neatly placed together lay the pen, the pencil, the
scissors, the paper-cutter, and the thick pad to keep the
newly-gummed pages from sticking together. Every
morning at 7.30 the early letter's were brought to
her bedroom, along with the Dundee paper^ the first to
reach Perth, Before that hour she had read from out
of her Bible wherever it opened, in the fresh morning
air from her window, which was kept open through the
night, unless the weather was severe. In a very short
time, sitting up in bed, she had skimmed the paper,
rapidly run over the chief contents to any one who
chanced to be there, breaking in with her own commen-
tary. If prayer had not preceded, it followed this bird's-
eye view of the past day, or the forecast of the present
one. Noteworthy events were sometimes transferred
to the quarto volume even before eleven, when, with the
second post, she had the Edinburgh paper. In youth
a Conservative with all who then surrounded her, she
became, before the Disruption of the Scottish Church,
strongly attached to those who favoured it in the State,
and indignant at the treatment experienced from the
Conservative Government of the day by the Church
whose claim was supported by the ablest Scottish judges.
Lords Cockbum, Jeffrey, and Moncrieff. During the
last years of her life she returned to the political
predilections of early days.

In 1863 she wrote to her son Frederick: "Frank

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216 ALONK

advised me to make an index for my book ; so, though
you feared I could not, I have got five volumes done.
It is a labour first paging it and then arranging the
hay-stack, and getting the needles put under pages in
the list ' Shure an' it wad be in the Index Expurga-
torius' if the Pope had it, and me in the fire, for it is
all anti-popery together, enlivened by anecdotes of
work and death-beds of believers. How it brings up
the past ! The next volumes will be trying, as I have
only reached 1853."

The book was continued for over forty years, and the
last entry was made in her own writing— no eye-glass
needed — not fifteen hours before her death. The long
array of massive quartos are so many witnesses to her
tireless desire to preserve for use in the future the daily
ongoings in Church and State, and her wish to chronicle
the progress of God's kingdom on earth. They have
been repeatedly ransacked, and have yielded material
in letters and other records, otherwise unattainable, for
more than ten memoirs of eminent Christians. Miss
Anne Whittet,* whose labours among the colliers
at Hillhead, near Glasgow, are well known, was a fire-
quent visitor and fellow-labourer. David and Frederick
Sandeman had for months been successively missionaries
to these colliers ; while resident there. Miss Whittet,
who knew the people, and never worked anywhere
without leaving indelible marks behind her, was the
coimsellor of both. Miss Marsh, Miss Bonnycastle, and

* For a short memoir of Miss Whittet, see " A Pitcher Broken at
the Fountain." Messrs. Nisbet & Co.

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Miss Armstrong were also helpful to Mrs. Sandeman in
her work.

The following gleanings are from her Journal : —

"10*^ Aprilj 1863. — On the Prince of Wales' marriage she
wrote verses beginning : —

" England keepeth holiday,

England in its pride
Goeth forth in fair array,

Forth to meet the Bride,
And the Prince, whom, all her own,
She loves more than crown or throne."

" IQth April, 1863. — ^A party meets here to celebrate Frederick'fi
marriage to Katherine Charlotte Wollaston. Most of our family,
young and old, are at Shirley. The telegram has come. All
I have asked for Frederick has now been given him. Yet it were
unnatural to say there is no wound ; I may have made an idol, in
my desolate years» of the one devoted to me, so long my companion
through the great revival work of the City Hall, when we were so
much together. To-night we shall use the same sheet of hymns
they used at Tremona at the wedding. The party are now meet-
ing downfltairs."

"Edinburgh, January, 1868. — ^Have heard Sir James Simpson
in the Assembly HalL Many gentlemen came in with him ; the
haU was crowded an hour before the time. He spoke nearly an
hout ; his words were at first very sweet, persuasive, and telling.
Then he showed how the course of men, in spite of God's displayed
love, was hell-ward, Satan-ward. * How the devils must marvel
at their own success as the lost, one by one, or in crowds come
down. How they will wonder as they look on fools who have
lost such an offer of mercy and pressed past the last barrier set
on the precipice brink. What a terrible stake you are playing
for, thoughtless sinner ! The game will be played out soon.'
His voice came down to a wtisper for lowness, but was distinctly
heard from a distant comer. To encourage those who work with-
out seeing result, he said : * Not long since I got to a railway

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218 ALONE.

Btation, in Yorkshire, at midnight The station-master was there ;
I did not expect him to know me, but he came up and shook hands,
saying he could not forget an address he had heard in this hall,
since it was for him the turning-point.' "

" 26th, — ^The ladies' prayer meeting was resumed here on the

sixteenth, at twelve. was helped to speak from * My thoughts

are not your thoughts.' We felt the reality of Jesus to help, of
Satan to attack and to be overcome. Ladies came from aU parts
of the town, walking on the ice, for they could not drive in such
weather."

** 2nd February, — I had to take the first part of to-day's meeting.
We remembered the China Mission, and asked blessing on
parcels of Bobert Annan's Memoir to be sent to bands of masons,
plasterers, and plumbers. One of the most soothing occupations
of mind is to dwell on the memoirs of those who have passed
away, whose labours are ended, but who may thus still be used,
and in getting material for which I have done something. I would
give praise that ever they lived to labour in Scotland and elsewhere,
and that I was permitted to join with them so much in prayer
and get the answer and somewhat to soften the rough path
for them. I am ready to lose heart in Edinburgh, everybody
else blest, and I without my home-work ; I can find nothing to
do."

"Springland, 21st March, — Took the meeting all mysell
Seven new girls ; I asked one little stranger : * Why do girls come
here V * To love Jesus,' was the answer. Subject — the thrice-
asked question : *Lovest thou Mel' I read to them part of Mr.
Hammond's book, * The Child's Guide to the Happy Land.' Some
seemed very careless. I took them to the library."

" 3rd Jfay.— Much encouraged at my meeting. At a loss for a
subject ; in the morning I mislaid ^1, seeing the servants on
their knees searching for it, I resolved to take this as a subject —
the woman sweeping the house for the lost piece. Destined the
£1 for an object, and just after espied it on the floor, so it has
been twice useful. We are preparing for Mr. Hammond's visit."

Again : —

" While conversing with some girls in the library, I heard a

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ALONE. 219

low knock at the side door and wondered what it could be. A
little girl stood there. I thought she waited for a sister. ' Who
do you want 1 ' I said. * I am wanting Jesus.' "

Again, she writes paxt of the address given to her
class one evening : —

"God's eye of fire is looking in on each heart at the easily
besetting sin. When a girl, my mother wrote to me that already
she thought I must know what root of bitterness was in my heart ;
I did not like her saying this. Away with it to Jesus, whatever it -
be ; He by His Spirit can take it away. Then run — not 'stand
still,' and yet He bid us 'stand ;' it is not walk, and yet He
bids us walk with God ; but here is something that will suit
you children better — run. To run the race — the narrow way —
with patience. Ah ! that is not soon learned ; I think it is some-
times not learned until near the last. That race is run in a
difficult and narrow way ; sometimes imder clouds of trial, some-
times in bright sunshine of Jesus' love, and now again in shady
places and with footsteps sinking in the mire. Still, are we not
coming up out of the wilderness leaning on the Beloved ? At
other times the road is very solitary, but the footprints of Jesus
are all the way along, we are looking all the while unto Jesus."

" IQthAugtLst, — ^We have been praying for poor J , the nun,

that the cruel bond may be broken. To obtain greater nearness
to God and power with Him in behalf of others, may we press on
past our acquaintance, companionship, unto Him alone who can
grant our requests. Let us overcome by the blood of the Lamb.
Let me live as one who bears a blood-bought name, and who in
Christ lays claim to the glory prepared. May my children and
grandchildren be all blest in their work. Since our Lord comes
not yet to the admiring gaze of His poor Church in this wilder-
ness, exiled, alone, let Him be revealed to faith in greater near-
ness. May we become exclusively His. The desolation and the
solitude of life assigned us should lead to this, to be satisfied if
I have the King himself alone in house and heart Other links
have to be severed that the one glorious chain which unites unto
Thee may be felt ail-powerfully drawing us. The night-watch
does seem long and weary ; those loved ones I began it with are

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220 ALONE.

nearly all gone. Jesus HimseK consoles me even now as I j>ass
througli the vigils of a midnight watch. — Amen."

"23rd. — Messrs. Clesham and M'Gee, who have worked so
faithfully among the Roman Catholics here, spoke in my church
at Bonskeid. The views of the glorious works of God, but far
more of His work in redemption among some men working there,
have cheered them."

" 20^^ October. — ^Yesterday I had a call from Mr. of .

How gracious to send him, my Lord. He knew long ago that
I used to pray for his conversion. I told him to-day that when
we drove to the open-air meetings, 28th August, 1860, past the
old post-ofl&ce, he was standing reading his letters, and it was laid
on me to pray more earnestly for him. That very week, I believe,

visitors were at attending the meetings, one of whom was

blest to awaken an interest in his mind. Speaking of how many
are going home, he said, * There is room for us alL' I prayed.
I spoke to an old Roman Catholic vendor of wares, among the
rest, strings of beads with huge crosses attached, of which he said
downstairs, * If ye have these on yer neck ye can live as you like.'
I told him of Jesus' sacrifice as the only way of salvation, and
asked if he was saved and rested on Him 1 ' I hope so.' I said,
' But I'm sure,' and striking the rosaries, I said, ' Thaf s the devil's
work,' and left him. He looked at me with a strange mixture of
surprise and humour, exclaiming *Eh !' I returned, and solemnly
spoke about the priests and Jesus only. As he went downstairs
he said, * The lady is right ; it is Jesus only can pardon sin.'
Spoke to a sweet boy of fifteen, who seemed joyfully to receive
the tidings. I saw another selling artificial flowers, and a third
poor boy wandering about selling laces and acorns also. I have
been tried by having had to distribute my poor Peggy's little pro-
perty and the articles in her house. Letters to her from all my
children found in her desk and box, with pretty lines on Mr.
Sandeman's death, which, I believe, she must herself have
composed."

The Rev. Edward Payson Hammond and Mrs. Ham-
mond were guests at Springland during two months in
1868. The results of the work then done among the

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ALONK 221

young in Perth and the country around it were per-
manent. It was a time of deep enjoyment to ministers,
elders, and people, who united in welcoming and for-
warding the work of this eminent evangelist. The
lawn at Springland was repeatedly the scene of his
work. Mrs. Sandeman afterwards sufiFered from over-
exertion, and from that time was unable to receive many
guests to reside at Springland. Mr. and Mrs. Sankey
were the last whom she welcomed there.

The thought of the Lord's second coming was often
before her mind She longed and watched for the
breaking of the day; and sometimes when ill, she
would gaze out on the dark sky which should be lighted
up one day by Christ's appearing in the clouds. She
studied prayerfully each volume written on fulfilled und
unfulfilled prophecy as it appeared ; Faber, Elliott, and
Bonar she could quote from. Every token of God's
care over Israel she rejoiced in as though the nation
were her own ; Palestine waiting for a people, and the
people waiting for a country, seemed always before her
thoughts. When a child she used to see her mother
go out with a collecting-card for the Jewish Mission,
and her wonted remark, " When Russia takes Turkey,
they, the Jews, will return," left a life-long impress
.on her daughter's mind; as did a visit paid by Sir
Moses Montefiore to her father-in-law. The probable
date of the rise and the predicted doom of the Church
of Rome were also much dwelt on by her. Very dear to
her were the names of the Scottish martyrs, especially

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222 ALONE.

that of Resby, the real proto-martyr of Scotland, a
follower of Wycliflfe, who was found teaching the doc-
trines of the Bible, and was burnt at Perth in 1407 ;
and also that of Helen Stark, who was drowned on the
25th January, 1 545, in a sack in the Tay. She envied
them their privilege of thus testifying to Christ

The singing of hymns was at all times a cordial to
her; never can we forget the radiant expression her
coimtenance wore when Mr. Sankey first sung to her
" The Ninety and Nine." She was unable to attend
the services in the City Hall in 1874, but Mr. Moody
came to see her ; the distance of Springland from Perth
made it impossible for him to be under her roof, but
she perseveringly followed his course with prayer, and
chronicled it minutely in her book.

She wrote to Mrs. Omond : —

" Springland, lOth June, 1874.
"My dear old Friend, — Yours just come this morning.
Mr. and Mrs. Sankey left me yesterday, after spending nearly a
fortnight. All I have heard, and the little I have seen of the
work in Perth, since Professor Martin j&rst came and began among
the young with the city missionaries, tends to make me believe
that a great blessing has descended among the young. At noiy
own meetings during the past month, new, bright faces — ^big boys,
fourteen to sixteen or so — ^have appeared. Then came girls from
Sharpens School ; one of these, srfter going to Glasgow, and con-
verted there, sent in a petition for a school-fellow, which was
answered. The first-mentioned of these has. Miss Kippen tells
me, been the means of leading thirty of the girls. Last Saturday
Frederick, who rejoices so much to be with us, spoke. I held
the second meeting, and conversed with twelve or thereabouts

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ALONK 223

who came from Perth, impressed at the meetings of Moody and
Sankey. Many of those seemed to rest on Christ. One of the
elder girls, speaking of Mr. Moody, said : — * He bade me trust
Jesus ; I prayed and believed He would hear me, and He did.'
Each night in Mr. Gibson's church there was a great congregation.
Mr. Moir, who so often helps me here all through the winter,
sacrificed hearing Mr. Moody (except twice), and stayed to speak
to the hundreds in the City Hall with Mr. Sankey. I sent my
helper and my own elder girls of my class to assist with the
young. The last night, when tickets were given to gather in the
careless, many were deeply moved, and Mr. Sankey and Frederick

remained till eleven ; is blessed exceedingly. The rest you

will find in the Christian and the Times of Blessing,

" Miss Whittet has been spending some weeks near Grandtully,
and my long, lonely cry for that place, Murthly and Stratlibraan,
has been answered. It was in that district that William Bums
saw the fathers brought in in 1840 ; now may the faithful minis-
ters see the children. Miss W. had addressed a meeting of women
from Revelation vi. 16. All were weeping. At the close an old
woman said : — * I cannot bear His wrath.' Miss W. replied,
* You will have to bear it to all eternity unless you take refuge
in Him who is the hiding-place.' After long thought, the old
woman said : — * I will take Him, — I have taken Him, — I am in
the hiding-place.' She it was who came afterwards to her son,
who was in the next room with four companions, and said : — ' O
Willie ! take the Man that is the hiding-place ; I have taken Him
and I am safe.' That night the grand old strath resounded with —

" * Safe in the arms of Jesus,

Safe on His gentle breast.' "

Far many years she had not been able to take any
journey by rail or carriage ; but in the summer of 1872
she was persuaded to visit Bonskeid once more, making
the journey back by carriage. In October she felt well
enough to proceed to Edinburgh in order to be present
at the marriage of her eldest grandchild and name-
sake, Margaret Stewart Barbour, to Professor Simpson.

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224 ALONE.

" Edinbuboh, Sunday, lOth November, 1872

"... I can and do praise Thee for the flowers Thou hast this
season strewn along my path ; for enabling me to see my loved Bon-
skeid ; for being once more in my own little church, realising Thee
and those gone home ; for my journey down by the lovely Pass of
Eilliecrankie ; for the short rest at Bimam Institute, where Sir
Douglas Stewart, who accompanied me when I travelled north
in July, showed me the hall, and we drove on the velvet turf
by the noble river through the varied foliage of scarlet oaks,
yellow-tinged birch, and tall firs, reaching at last the old castle,
and alighting to walk along the avenue of auricarias, looking in
their height like giant sentinels guarding the chapeL"

The following year she wrote : —

"28<A September, 1873. — This day last year I was in my little
Church at Bonskeid, and now I am thinking of the baptism of
my first great-grandson there. I have been reading the passage
Luke i. 66 — * What manner of child shall this be 1 and the hand
of the Lord was with hiiaJ Even so be it with your darling.
Last night he was prayed for at my meeting. I told the children
about the baptism. It was asked that very soon it might be seen
he is the Lord's. God can work in the youngest. The weather is
lovely ; may the rays of our bright Sun beam ever on his souL My
mother's written desire was that no descendant might reside there
without a chapel being built on the groimds, and now her great-
great-grandson is to be baptised in it, receiving the honoured name
of James Yoimg Simpson. The text my husband intended to be
put inside the chapel for me was, * Fear not, for I am with thee.'

"Monday, — Much was baby prayed for yesterday, I called
Kitty and Mary up for this just before the hour of baptism. The
wishes expressed are contained in these lines written five years
ago, when two of my grand-children were Jmptised on the same
day, far from each otiier.

" For children's children, oh, how sweet !
My faith and Thy sure covenant meet.
Thy word of promise makes me bold.
Firm hold I take and firmer hold.

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ALONE. 225

As * and * * * repair
Unto Thy house each bringing there
A little babe, Lord, present be.
Lord suffer them to come to Thee !
Yes, we believe that promise sure
To children's children shall endure.
We lay the little ones to rest,
Our loving Jesus, on Thy breast.
That sacrifice on Calvary
Adam's deep stain can take away.
Oh ! let them live to know Thy love,
The Spirif s cleansing power to prove.
In heaven a family complete
We do believe we yet shall meet,
And with unending praises hail
Thy faithfulness that cannot fail."

Two years later, accompanying an oil painting, she
sent the following letter to her grandson : —

<' ^9th November, 1875, 7.25 P.M.

"My Dearest R., — I came this day twenty-one years, and
I saw you a little baby at the Grange House. The Lord has given
me to see you of age, and now may you abide under the shadow
of His wings, upholding His banner by His own strength. Many
standard-bearers have crossed to the promised land. Like William
Bums, like your uncle David, may you be upheld. With them,
with our evangelists, and a father and mother working for Christ,
may we meet with all the other members of our families, yonder.
May we meet, the battle over, the victory won, no narrow bounds
to separate from all tribes and kindreds and tongues and nations,
the restored Jew gazing on the Crucified One, and Jesus' joy fulL
He shall give the kingdom unto the Father, and the full tide of
the Spirits infl.uence shall be the atmosphere we shall breathe for
ever.

" Receive the likeness of Grandmamma at nineteen years old.

" Never doubt one promise of Him whom she has found faith-
ful and true. — Your loving, M. Stewart Sandeman.

Q

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i26 ALONE.

And again :—

«27tfc June, 1877.
" Dearest B., — So you are oflf to Norway. ^ Many shall run to
and fro.' The old distich, transcribed in my Book, —

' Type of the wise, who soar but never roam,
True to the kindred points of heaven and home,*

will soon be left to myself, I think. Uncle Hugh is. Mamma
says, the possessor of earliest data about Captain David Sandeman
who brought shiploads of Norwegian timber to Perth, and Miss
Ferrier (the cousin) says he had five sons. I have had too much
to do with my side of the house, and the double genealogy — ^viz.,
from Robert Bruce (my Mother's ancestor) and that wicked
Wolf (my Father's), to have time for more.

" Oh ! dear R., grander far to look at our relation with the
Second Adam. Yesterday, alone all day (servants were busy),
I sat with Peden's * Sermons,* Rutherford, Dyer, * Titles of
Christ,' and what joy in singing the triumphant verse of * I 've
entered the valley of blessing,* *When heaven comes down,
redeemed spirits to meet. And] Christ sets His Covenant secUJ
Verily He set it on me by His Spirit's sealing.— Your praying
and loving Grandmamma, M. S. S."

And again, alluding to a recent Conference

address : —

«/8^tem6er, 187a
"... Ever since the address on the *Four Suppers,' I, who
am cut oflf from the Second (the Lord's Table), have just felt
more and more as if abeady at the Third (the Marriage Supper).
I told Miss Jessie we should just take our seats there by faith, and
wait there till all have gathered in. — Yours there, M. S. S."

And again : —

"You asked if my Mother^s cheerfulness continued to the
last illness. When dying she said, * I could shout for joy 1 * That
was when Aunt Naime knelt by her side, and seemed to see a
radiance around her dying sister. — Springland, 10^ May, 1878,
4 o'clock A.M. — ^For R'

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On Sabbath afternoons, after her simple and often
solitary dinner, she took her Bible to the sofa in the
comer of the drawing-room. Before night came, the
particular promise she had been led to accept and draw
from, as made to her and hers, was marked with an
initial, perhaps a name, perhaps a date. The quarto
book corresponding to that date contains the names
of those who in the week previous had asked a special
remembrance in prayer, for grace to bear some loss sus-
tained, for help in a Sabbath's work in prospect, or in some
diflScult task undertaken. They knew that at that hour
they were remembered before God. Her grandchildren
or great-grandchildren might be there, and even the
youngest was taken into the circle. If they were only
two or three years old, she would point them upwards,
and say, "Jesus," and then smile on the open page
and call it His letter or His word.

One page written on such a silent Sabbath (jpntains
a retrospect. 17th September, 1865, had brought round
with the day of the year the day of the week also,
which reminded her of that which preceded her wed-
ding forty-five years ago. Across the Tay came the
peal of St. John's, ringing out to summon and ringing
in to enclose the worshippers as of old. She wrote : —

Forty-five years have passed away
Since the bells rang out for church, as now.

I sat alone, as I sit to-day,
To take on the morrow the marriage vow.

This very hour they proclaimed me bride,

And his heart was full of joy and pride :

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228 ALONE.

There was love, there was joy, in the bride's heart tooi
Yet clouds were floating across her sky ;

For an earthly love was a light, 'tis true,
But the other Sun she could scarce descry.

And fears vh/uM rise, and a tear would fall —

'Twas an earthly portion after all.

The morrow came, the loved were there.
The bride and bridegroom's troth was plighted.

Loud accle^nations rent the air,
The gathered townsfolk cheered delighted.

A long, a prosperous wedded life

Was waiting for the new-made wife.

The scene is changed. For that bride to-day
The bells ring out to church e'en now.

I sit alone, with changed array.
In his house who received my marriage vow ;

But father and mother, and bridesmaids too,

And bridegroom, death hath hid from view ;

Brothers and friends who formed the train,
The patriarch who joined our hand,

Three noble sons and infants twain,
Have followed them into the silent land.

I gaze on the flood whose ruthless sweep

Earth's hopes has buried in the deep.

But my hand is striking triumphal chords.
And my voice is tuned to a deathless strain.

For the King of kings and Lord of lords
Hath bidden my soul be glad again.

At this very hour He calls me bride

By a union that ever shall abide.

No clouds are floating before me now ;
Yon glorious Sun drives all away.

No sad foreboding shades my brow
As I sit me down alone to-day.

li^t joy's full tide my bosom swell,

With "Jesus only" all is well.

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ALONE. 229

A morrow comes. All loved are there ;

Bride and Bridegroom are on the throne.
Loud acclamations rend the air :

An angel- voice cries, ** It ia done ! "
Eternal bliss is ours to share :
The Lamb is all the glory there.

Two little foundlings, Frances and Christina, with
Maggie, Agnes, Fanny, Jessie, Johnnie, and Jacob,
formed an irregular class on the Sabbath afternoon.
They were too young to go a second time to church, but
old enough to bring her the texts, and even words of the
sermons preached in the churches they were taken to.
She took much trouble with these infants, even if only
three were present, to make the hour interesting, her-
self leading the hymns, which each child chose in turn.
Of the petitions it might truly be said-—

** Prayer is the simplest form of speech
Which infant lips can try,
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high."

One Bible lasted her only a few years for constant use;
it soon became covered with the underlining of verses
made precious to her on certain occasions. Initial
letters and dates were written on the sides. In each
house connected with her family where one of these
Bibles now lie, the proof is found of her having built
here and here and here an altar to the Lord. She
put into verse the song of Solomon, and was jealously
on the watch against any criticism which would take it
from believers' use as showing forth the love of Christ

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230 ALOKK

to them. The inroads of Rationalism were as much
dreaded by her as those of Ritualism. Her fervency
in spirit was equalled by her diligence in business.
Previous to her husband's death she had done little
more than sum up 'the weekly or yearly accounts.
Now she took the charge of all he had left, and made
herself mistress of the value of stocks and everything
belonging to him. The trust was ably executed to the
end. She was ever ready to give advice in such matters
to those who sought it.

Her poor were her constant care. In later years, a
diligent use of knitting pins was substituted, for the
embroidery needle, and the household seam of earlier
years — ^which were often then plied with a book before
her. She chose her colours with great interest. For
an old friend, returning to take possession of his ancient
family castle, she knitted a large quilt in the colours
of his house, to await his arrival.

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CHAPTER XII.

LAST WORK.

WE give the following extracts from Mrs. Stewart
Sandeman's journals, not so much for their
individual interest, but as specimens of what
her work continued to be to the end of life. Her
journals, as well as her letters, are usually of too personal
a character to be printed ; indeed this feature of her cor-
respondence led to much of it being destroyed at the
time. She wrote to her daughter twice or thrice every
week, often narrating an entire conversation between
herself and the visitor who had dropped in on her
solitude, and ending with such words as these : " This
is only for you, bum it ;" " I write it that you may

know how to pray for ;*' " I am sure if that soul

has not already closed with Christ, it will do so soon."

" 28*^ Jurw, 1879. — ^A. R., from Upper Springland, came. I
prayed with him and gave him * M^Cheyne's Life ;' he sails on the
5th July for Otago.

" Sth July, — My son F. and his family came. The five children
got each a copy of my lines by their mother's request, their
names — Susie, Katie, George, Charlie, and Louie— being put on
the back.

"I7*ii July, — ^C. M. came from Normal School. She reads

231

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232 LAST WORK.

well and preaerveB the meaning. I walked, and rested here and
there, while she read to me from R.'s Poems and Rutherford's
Letters. The house has to be reformed, both chimneys pulled
down, back of house painted, and pipes mended. They found
four vents in one ; mercy no fire took place. Changed my room,
but the awful knocking sent me for the afternoon to my friend
Dr. Bower's.

** 31«« August. — The masons who have worked in the house,
fourteen men, are leaving. They are most civil, nice men, long
with their master, I went and spoke to four during the dinner-
hour in the coach-house, sitting as they were on the forms used for
my girls* class. The Lord helped me. There were two R. C's ; one,
Barney, not strict He came and told that he heard Duckingworth
preach on the street two days, and tell of his conversion, showing
the wig in which he acted ten years ago in the penny-gaff at the
old Shore of the Tay ! I had much to do with the stopping of
that penny-gaff. In the volume for 1870 all is told. Rowland
HilFs bills were sent by me. Duckingworth then was furious ;
now he is preaching the faith that once he destroyed. I asked
Barney : * Do you think he loves Jesus V * Yes, but he does not
hide what he was.* I added, * I, like him, am a poor lost sinner.*
He, deprecatingly, would have disagreed. 'Without Him,* I
added. * Ah !* he said, satisfied, 'without Him.* I forbade the
giving tracts or periodicals to him ; but he seized one, ' Herald of
Mercy,* and read it during dinner-hour at the water-side ; so on
Saturday I ventured to give him 'Called to the Marriage*
(M. F. B.) ; then Joe, the other R, C, called out as the distribu-
tion went on, ' Don't ye be giving all the books and hymns to
Barney,* I met the latter at the drawing-room door, and said, * Do
you love Jesus better than your Church V * Yes.* * Then He will
take care of you,* They told me that Joe was to sail next day,
so I got from my lending-library books — the militia had returned
them— a small edition of M^Cheyne, with portrait, and said, 'Will
you take this book V ' Very well, mistress ;' and I added a small
volume with twelve sermons by Moody. I prayed with him,
asking that we might meet at the marriage-supper of the Lamb.
He is a tall fellow in his Tyrol-shaped high cap. He seemed
touched, and insisted on working here till within a few hours of

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leaving liome. WMle the masons and plasterers were at the
porch, I opened the piano and left the door of the drawing-room
ajar, and sang, * Jesus the Water of Life will give, freely, freely,
freely,' followed by * Hold the Fort.' The men listened. Ere
they finally took leave of Springland I sent a copy of * The Soul-
gatherer ' to six of them, and told them about the authoress and
the subject of engraving. They said, ' Thank the lady.' I miss
them, though thankful the noise is at an end."

'* October, — A young Jewish boy of thirteen came selling shoes,
and told the servants, ' I am a Jew, I won't believe in Jesus.'
I sent for him, and asked, * Do you believe in the Messiah? ' * Yes,'
he said, but repeated the above sad declaration. * Well,' I said,
'Jesus was more like the Messiah than any other ever was.
I believe in Jesus ; and, if you are wrong. He is coming in the
clouds, and eternity is very long.' He spoke of the three
synagogues in London, Edinburgh, and Manchester, where he had
been. I, too, told of my visit to that in London, described the
gallery where I sat and saw next pew the young Jewesses with
the Hebrew on one side of the prayer-book and English on the
other. A green silk curtain was drawn aside, while jubilant
Hebrew psalms were sung and the insignia of the Lion of the
Tribe of Judah revealed. He was enchanted— he had of course
often seen it I told him of my comfort in my severe illness
from words spoken to me on the crucifixion. I asked his name.
* Joseph.' I repeated part of Joseph's blessing. He enjoyed that.
I told him that when Jesus was baptised, He came out of the
water, and the Spirit, as a dove, lighted upon Him, and a voice
came from heaven from the Father, saying : * This is my beloved
Son, hear ye Him.' * He was crucified,' I said, * for Jew and Gentile.'
The boy asked, had I a German Bible, as he could not read
English? I asked him, 'Will you pray God and the Holy
Spirit to make you to know who is the true Messiah 1 ' He said he
would, and I prayed with him. Lord, give light, and let the veil
fall from his heart. I have also had a most interesting fore-
noon with an Italian of superior rank to him, and who fought
under Garibaldi, and am very hopeful of him."

The substance of her conversation with many indi-

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234 U8T WOBE.

viduals is found in the following lines written for her
friend, Rev. Dr. W. P. Mackay of Hull :—

Have yon gotten one look of your heart within.

Its deep-dyed coimption and blood-red sin ?

QodCs eye of fire has searched it through,

Has He given a sight (^ its guilt to you ?

For the countless sins that you have done

He bnugeth to judgment for every one !

Know you, unsaved one, that you must dwell

In the quenchless flames of an endless heU 1

Does the Spirit convince you, condemned and lost,

Hath hope from sdf given up the ghost ?

And turns your eye-ball, confused and dim,

To that Cross where the curse was borne by Him ?

Oh, never withdraw it ! Look on ! look on !

Till the load falls oflF, till the gmlt be gone !

Then lift the Spirit-strengthened eye

To yon throne where He pleads for you on high ;

Till fuller powers of sight possest

Show your name engraven on His breast !

Joy to thee ! joy to thee, ransomed one.

For a life in Jesus just begun 1

We give thee one hour, 'tis passing sweet,

With pardoned Mary, at His fee*,

To hear His voice, like opening heaven,

Tell thee of sin— 7but sin forgiven,

And then arise- from the feast of love.

Its newly kindled flame to prove.

Christians to wake from slumbers dire.

Poor dying embers set on fire

(Which by its smile, or by its frown.

The world is seeking quite to drown),

'TwiU move them sure to jealousy

Thy glowing, strong first love to see.

Then away, away to the lost, and cry

A Saviour for you / Oh, why will you die 1

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JFpr none can to sinners speak so well
As the newly saved from death and hell ;
And the one whom grace has last set free,
Can sing the loudest " Christ for me."

To her daughter, who had been absent, she wrote : —

Ut Odoher, ISVQ.
"My own only beloved Daughter, — ^Welcome with your
husband back to Scotland. I have to exercise faith instead of
sight so many a time, when I would fain have earthly friends
near me, I trust it is to be sight to-morrow, and that I shall
have you to myself again. — Your own, M. S. S."

The society of her grandsons from Stanley, two or
three of whom stayed with her from Monday to Friday
during the session of the Perth seminaries, cheered
these last years of her life. It reminded her of former
days with her own boys. She was keenly interested in
their amusements as well as in their studies, and had
them in her room each morning just before they left
for school to read her a chapter of the Bible, after which
she prayed.

The winter of 187&-80 was exceedingly severe, and

she, writes thus to one of the many young men in whose

University work she interested herself: —

*' From the bank of the still Tay, frozen over, as last year, with
the hoar-frost — which always pierces and tries me — all around,
I write to-day thankfully for the measure of health granted ; the
cold may yet become so keen that for me, as for very many old
people, the life-strings may snap ; as yet it only intensifies the
prayer for those who suffer so much more than we do.

" * We lift the tearful eyes

From the hills our fathers trod.
To the quiet of the skies,
To the Sikbbath of oor God.'— Hbmans."

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236 ULST WOBK.

The evening of Sabbath, 29th December, 1879, will
long be remembered throughout Scotland from the
terrible disaster of the Tay Bridge. Springland bore
traces of that dreadful night's work Her own lines
tell the story of the fall of a favourite tree, the largest
of the cedars of Lebanon at the foot of the lawn : —

She who came the news to tell
Said : No human hands so well.
Or so fitly, on earth's breast
Could have laid it down to rest

As girls we oft had played

Beneath thy shade.

The day when first I knew

Their brother loved me true,

Twas under thee,

6 Cedar Tree !

'^ Soon he brought me as his bride,
Ever clinging to his side,
Who had seventeen summers seen ;
And these summers oft, I ween,
Saw three sisters fair with me.
Underneath the Cedar Tree.

Came there then with after years
Mother's cares and joys and tears.
One upon the Indian shore.
One deciphering China's lore.
One beyond the Western sea.
Sought no more the Cedar Tree.
Notes of triumph borne to me
Told in * death' of * victory.'*

♦ The Stewart motto, "Victory op death."

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LAST WOBK. 237

Ever since, through lonely days,

Now that all have left my side.

In silence and in prayer I've sat, /

Beneath thy branches, my pride I

Evangelists have shared
The care and the reward ;
So many souls were won
For jewels in Christ's crown.

And still through every year

The words of earnest cheer
Beneath thy spreading shadow have been spoken ;

And children's children played

And grew up while thy shade
Kept a sweet summer's coolness all unbroken.

It was but yesterday,
I looked forth, and, as aye,
Still saw thee stand, old Springland's pride,
With overarching bough —
How shall I see thee now 1

For that tempest-Sabbath came
That overwhelmed the fated train

In Ta/s deep waters.
And by the selfsame blow
Our Cedar was laid low,

The fairest of Tay's daughters I

The verdure, like a veil,

Shrouded from view
The shattered giant trunk

On which it grew.
But, the fair branches lopped.

From every pore
The wounded tnmk gave forth

Its treasured store ;
Aroma was exhaled from every wound
Of the great giant prostrate on the ground

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238 LAST WOBK.

We guessed not what a wealth of sweetness lay
All through the decades of thy long, long day
Unfelt, until the pierced heart laid bare
The overwhelming perfcune that was there.

Poor crushed and fallen tree,

Low at our feet,
Thou fill'st the very air
With incense sweet.
" The scent is as the wine of Lebanon,"
Say passengers in going on their way,
Oh ! thus bereaved Heart,

Let all around
Find sweetness from the smart
Of thy deep wound.

Build ye on no tree here,

So spake the Scottish seer ;

They all must fall at last,

Till time be overpast.

Oh, hush thy grief to rest

Upon His faithful breast.

And come up through the wilderness.

Still blessing, and still blest.

To her grand-daughter she wrote, alluding to her
secluded life : —

** You know I must now take any little work I can get and be
thankful for it.* Yesterday I was being measured for a velvet
jacket — ^patterns sent ta choose from. I spoke to the dressmaker,
till both she and I fairly forgot the velvet, and she carried it
away unchosen. I was telling her I hoped that by Monday when
she came to fit it on she would have on a robe of righteousness. You
remember the story of Lady Lucy Smith, who wished to know if

* Her physician forbade the continuance of her class after an illneia
in the autumn of 1878. To the end of her life, any one sitting by her
on a quiet Saturday afternoon when the clock struck five, might observe
a tear escape at the remembrance of her life's work being over.

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LAST WORK. 239

her little daughter really understood about imputed righteousness,
and asked her to explain her own idea of it The chHd said, ' If
I were to put on one of your gowns and lie down in it, your maid
would come in and say, ** There's her ladyship;" so I must put
on Jesus.' I told her this story. I had to send again about the
velvet She was charmed with the hymn I sang to her, and had
tears in her eyes."

Begarding a gift of garnets she wrote to the same : —

" The garnets now possessed by you, my Marga, were worn by
my grandmother, Mrs. Oliphant of Gask, daughter of Kobertson
of Struao. She was very lovely, so that when in Paris with her
husband, holding her baby-boy in her arms on the threshold of
the court of their house, peopk turned round to gaze on her.
That little Laurence died. So my mother became the eldest of
the family, and accompanied her parents to Spain. My mother's
conversion took place about the time of the death of her sister —
Mrs. Steuart of Dalguise,— an event she sadly mourned for.
She wished to present to my father a copy of Scott's * Conmientary *
in five volumes ; but not having money enough to lay out in that
way, she sent the garnet necklet of their mother to her sister,
Mrs. Keith, and requested her to sell it in Edinburgh, This gift
took place in 1815. Mr. Keith was much attached to us all ; so
instead of selling it he valued it at the jeweller's, and his wife
remitted the price to Mrs. Stewart, not explaining his interest in
the transaction. On the Bible is written, ' A gift from M. Stewart,
1815, to her dear husband, and after him to their daughter,
Margaret Stewart' When I was visiting my aunt, Mrs. Keith,
Edinburgh, about the year 1826, she took out a jeweller's box con-
taining this garnet necklet, and revealed her husband's part in it,
saying she thought that instead of leaving it to me she would now
give it to me. I am glad it is now in the possession of the great-
great-grandchild of the lovely daughter of Struan Bobertson,
from whom I derive my Christian name."

Passing over two years, daring which her Journal
contains many extracts similar to those quoted above

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240 LAST WOBK.

we come upon the following interesting reference to the
authorship of the " Land o' the LeaL"

" 29th December, 1881. — A young friend came to-day, and men-
tioned that a minister had quoted in his sermon the * Land o' the
Leal ' as having been written by Bums. But I told him that Lady
Naime, who wrote the song, was on a visit to my parents, when
I, her niece, was a young girl. I said to her, * Aunt Naime, you
wrote the " Land o' the Leal," ' — having picked up words of Mrs.
M'Gregor, of Balhaldie, to my mother to that effect* ' Maggy,'
said my aunt with strong emphasis, * that was treachery. Some
one stole from the table of rdy friend, Mrs. Colquhoun, of Killer-
mont, the MS. of the song, addressed in her name to her husband

JohnJ So I recited to-day, at Mr. ^'s request, the right

version.

" Lady Naime never told her husband of the authorship, lest
he should own it to be her composition. She said, * I have sat
at the head of the table with a gentleman on my right, and another
on my left, declaring Bums the author.' Now the authorship is
well known. She added a stanza to the song, years after, begin-
ning—

'Sae dear^s that joy was bought, John,' kc

The songs were corrected by herself, and published after her
death under the title of * Lays from Strathearn.'

"10*^ June, 1882. — This volume was begun Ist March. It
ends with praise and prayer ; — upraise for God's presence with me,
and for being enabled to speak to many persons, and point them
to His Son. ' I was able to write lines on the birth of the baby

at C , and to correct and print for private circulation, at the

request of my family, lines written in 1866, entitled * Marriage
Bells.' I am thankful for the comfort it has brought to the
afflicted both in soul and body. Lam grateful for the arrival of
my beloved cousin, M. H. Steuart, from the Cape of Good Hope.
Let us have Thy presence all the days of her visit, and Thy bless-
ing resting on the circle gathered to welcome her. Mrs. Oliphantj
from Gask, and the children of Charles and Frank, are coming
with their parents. She lost last year, 29th December, her only
brother — my dear cousin John Steuart^ of Dalguise. This has left

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LAST WORK: 241

her free to visit us once moie, — k long hoped-for, yet scarcely
expected joy to me. When her brother heard a sermon without
Christ in it, he said as he left the Church — * They have taken
away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.'
Soon after that he died and went to that Lord. I must ask her
to play me the ' Spanish Chaunt,' — she used to play it; the nuns
in Spain played it long ago. Also I so love * For the strength of
hills we bless Thee, God, our father's Qod ' (Mrs. Hemans).
It is set to beautiful music.

^^ Afternoon, — Cousin has played variations on the piano with
execution, and composed at the moment She played the ^ Spanish
Chaunt' On Sabbath, she had service for the servants in her
room, reading Matthew iii, with comment on each verse.

'^ I do also record my thankfulness that it has been given me
to believe for many, and for the fulfilment of my mother's daily
prayer, that all my prayers for all my descendants be heard, and
even this request of hers, that all in whose spiritual welfare Qod
should lead me to take an interest may be saved. A far-reaching
prayer ! Go on to answer it, and though some may for a time
seem to go back, they may be turned again. I have seen two or
three do so. Let cdl my descendants look to Thee for counsel in
all their ways, and let them be imited to Thee in Covenant bonds.
So shall they be ready to testify unto Thee in life and in death,
or to Thy coming again."

The annual review of the Militia on the North Inch
interested her. She remembered when it was first
called out during the Peninsular War. Her cousins
and young friends were then either engaged abroad or
lending their services for defence at home, while her
husband had served in the yeomanry. In the Volunteer
movement she took more interest; her youngest son
being Lieutenant-Colonel of the 1st Forfarshire Artil-
lery.

** 9th July, 1882.— Yesterday Frank brought officers, who had

R

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242 LAST WORK.

been camping out at Bairj to get the guns' places fixed for Satur-
day next, and they got tea in the boat at their request Then he
brought them to see the house and the old lady of it. He had
read to them the ' Marriage Bells/ ^ The Cedar,' and now the lines
to my grandson C. on getting my husband's 'Sandeman' medaL
They were crying, it seems, and his own voice was faltering as he
read. I told them before they left that Jesus is my all, and they
heard with interest of the quiet little work still given me to do
for Him. On leaving, they said they would remember me. We
are to have the Commissariat on Saturday next, when 500
men, with the officers and their friends, are to be my guests for.
luncheon."

But these arraDgements having been made, and
repairs and painting being necessary at Springland, she
was prevailed on to leave her house and grounds free
for the use of the officers and men, and come to
Bonskeid. She had not been absent from home for
ten years, and thus the happiness was afforded to her
Highland friends of seeing her once more in the
North.

" Bonskeid, 10^ August, 1882. — I am here for my third visit
during thirty years. I have "been sitting on the old iron seat
under the sycamore tree, planted for me by my father when I
was six years old. One of these larches I lifted when it was
a seedling from the Hill Park at Perth, and carried it home to
the Watergate garden. There I kept it as long as my father
would allow, till he brought it north with him to the spot
appointed. Forgan wishes to know how long it is since the oldest
larches were planted ; it must be nearly ninety years. The first
were brought over by Menzies of Culdares, from the Tyrol,
in 1738. Mr. Lumsden, of Fincastle, has just been here, and
wishes me much to drive up there. I told him about Fincastle
as it was when my father's cousin. Colonel Stewart, had it ; and
how, when in London, the Guards saluted him, from his likeness
to George HI."

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LAST WOBK. 243

Again: —

"This morning Mr. Barclay, of Formosa, Cldna, came to say fare-
well. He presided last night at a Missionary meeting at Pitlochry.
Mr. and Mrs. William Milne, from Calcutta, paid a delightful
visit She has forty British sailor boys, to whom she gives a
tea every Friday night, presided over by one of themselves.
Miss Marsh called, I was much interested in what she told me
of her work among the soldiers and sailors. We could scarce
part, but there is no separation to believers."

Regarding this visit, Mr. Milne wrote six months
later from Calcutta : — " I am so glad that we saw her
twice last summer. First, it was at Springland, where,
in her own quiet waiting-room, she spoke with ecstacy
of one who had recently trusted Christ in that chamber,
and of her own desire to see Him very soon. Nothing
in the Psalms of David or in the Letters of Rutherford
could exceed the impassioned earnestness with which
she spoke of the joy of seeing a wicked woman come to
Jesus, and her own vehement desire to see Him in
glory. She looked to us then to be literally burning
through the earthly tabernacle, and it seemed as if her
escape could not be long delayed. But when we saw
her again, in your absence, at Bonskeid, in the drawing-
room, on that brilliant afternoon, waiting to receive a
visit from Miss Marsh, she appeared moving about with
healthful grace, just as if she had received a secret
intimation from the heavenly Bridegroom that she was
to tarry till He come. We should like so much to hear
how the summons came. Another cedar than that of
which she wrote so touchingly has fiiUen on the banks
of the Tay ; but who may tell the fruit that has yet to

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244 LAST WOBE.

be gathered in firom it to the praise and honour of
God!"

"31«« August, 1882.— To-day I have heard of the death of my
friend, Anne Clark. She and her sister Catherine were at Miss
Kemp's school at Newcastle, having gone there on my mother's
recommendation. They have visited me almost yearly since.''

She wrote : —

"My Beloved Catherine,— What a shock I got when

told me that our darling's going home was in the newspaper. It
was truly a blow to me, and sore to me on your account, after
your other bereavement, and in your delicate health But, oh !
how blessed, blessed for her ! I came here six weeks ago to
avoid the roar of artillery on, and above, and opposite Springland.
In spring I was confined to bed from the easterly winds affecting
the throat much. But I had wonderful cases, as I do believe, of
conversion, or of hopeful impressions in almost every one who
came to my bedside, one of them a poor girl who had gone astray.
Praise the Lord with me for each one awakened, and for each
one brought to the point. Oh ! my Catherine, what a rush of
memories towards the past does this loss of yours and mine bring!
May I hear that you are borne up. Some one will kindly write a
note, if it be but your maid."

The Journal continues : —

"4i^ September, — Yesterday the communion was dispensed in
my little church It was north wind and stormy, so I was unable
to go. Mr. G. Barclay has had several temperance meetings in Pit-
lochry, at which an Episcopalian clergyman, passing through) and
a CongregationaUst, along with others, took the blue ribbon. The
Bishop of Liverpool and Mrs. Ryle called here; a delightful
visit and prayer before he left. Sir Robert and Lady Sandeman
called ; with few have I the same tie as to him, revering the
memory of my dear husband as he does ; may his course in India
continue to be as useful as heretofore. Very sorry to hear of the
death of Andrew M*Donald, surfaceman during fifty-five years on
our turnpike-roads. He was so well that day he died ; he wondered

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LAST WORK. 245

often who should go first, he or I. He thought he should. He was
glad of my message last week. He bade Jeanie go to bed lest sh
take cold. When she looked in to see him next, he was gone.
Mr. Bannerman, my minister, had the service at the house, and
gave thanks for his translation, improving it to those present"

Many of her visitors were received under the shadow
of the sycamore, beneath which the Tummel flows
rapidly. She divided her out-door hours between
it and her other old friends of the forest during the
nine weeks she remained. Her love, always intense
for the scenery around Bonskeid, made her greatly
enjoy the following lines by Dr. John Brown, " On the
Tummel at Moulineam." They were new to her
having been published within a few months of the
author's death : —

" Past runs the sunlit Tummel,

Strong from his wilds above,
Blue as * the body of heaven,'

Shot like the neck of a dove ;
He is fresh from the moor of Rannoch,

He has drained Loch Ericht dread,
And mirrored on Carie's waters

Ben-y-Houlach's stately head ;
He has mourned round the graves of the Struans,

Hid in the night of the wood.
He glides by the pleasant slope

Where our old Dunalister stood.
Shiehallion has heard him chafing

Down by his sunless steep.
And has watched the child of the mountains.

Deep in his loch asleep.
He's awake ! and off by Bonskeid,

He has leapt his falls with glee.
He has married the swirling Qarry,

And they linger in Faskally."

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246 LAST WORK.

On the day of the annual tea-party for the people, and
giving of prizes to the school children taught in her own
chapel (which she kept in her possession when the rest
of the property was transferred), she sat in the drawing-
room on one side of the archway for the folding doors.
On the other side sat Miss Steuart of Dalguise. As
each child passed, a greeting was received from both.
Mrs. Sandeman, in putting the reward assigned to each
into his or her hand, added a striking sentence, such
as, " Be Christ's good soldier ; " " You have a mother in
heaven, follow her;" "Make sure of an interest in
Christ Jesus now, or no heaven hereafter;" "Take
Him for your own — is it to be now ? " To those who
received a copy of the " Scots Worthies " for the per-
fect repetition of the Shorter Catechism she said,
"Remember the prize of the high calling;" "Run
hard for the reward ; " " Make for the Golden Gate."

While at Bonskeid, as at home, she delighted all in
the evenings with her music. When asked to do so,
she was ready to play, without notes, reel, pibroch, or
lament, and any of the Scotch airs to which Lady
Naime had composed songs. These were always fol-
lowed by hymns, of which [her stock seemed inexhaust-
ible. If any one present did not know of the sacred
associations which these hymns had for her, she would
stop and describe them. For instance, she would tell
that, during Mr. Moody's visit to Perth in 1874, there
was found among the inquirers in the City Hall a poor
girl from the country. She was in anxiety and distress,
and a minister set the way of life before her, and

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LAST WORK. 247

advised her to go home and read the 63rd of Isaiah,
and pray ; " I canna read, and I canna pray," she said,
"Would He not take me as I am?" From this
incident the well-known hymn waa written —

" Jesus, my Lord, to Thee I cry ;
Unless Thou help me, I must die :
Oh, bring Thy free salvation nigh,
And take me as I am !
And take me as I am !
And take me as I am !
My only plea, — Christ died for me !
Oh, take me as I am !"

Her first great-granddaughter waa bom, 13th July,
the morning after her arrival, and named after her.
She wrote lines at the hour of the baptism in Edin-
burgh of this first name-child in a new generation. She
received the little Margaret Stewart in her arms next
afternoon when her parents brought her to Bonskeid.
The school children spent the evening in the grounds,
to be present at the first meeting of four generations.

But for the anxiety of friends hastening her return
to Springland on the first morning of frost, she might
have lingered on to the end in that dearer home. She
could scarcely tear herself away fi:om the beloved soil.
The aged people from the Glen came down to say good-
bye. For all there was the one greeting and the one
benediction as they parted.

We have hitherto avoided quoting at any length
from her voluminous quarto Book ; yet it seems right

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24f8 LAST WORK.

to give one specimen of the minute, clear register of
persons seen, news heard, and sustained eflfort to make
her house a happy one to all who entered it These
notices of two days are considerably abridged : —

" Springland, I4th iSfeptemften— Enjoyed the drive to Pitlochry,
Left for some time alone in the ladies' waiting-room* A young lady
sat near me, kind and sweet looking. I found she was one of the
friends of Jesus. Asked if she had" sisters and b^ged her to be
sure to speak with them often of Him, offering a short prayer for
blessing on us both. A gentleman came for her and said, * Your
train is starting. How I wished I could have spoken to many of
the people with their unhappy faces. The station-master assisted
us into our saloon carriage, speaking kindly. For a moment
I saw Dalguise and Murthly Castle, old and new. At Dunkeld
heard of the victory of Tel-el-Kebir — excitement and a fight for
newspapers. Solemnly we gathered to listen to the telegrams with
indescribable interest No one waiting at Stanley; they did not
know we were passing. A peep of Scone Palace, then Springland.
Drove round by Tay Street, my first sight of it My husband
and I offered the Watergate ground free, and two hundred pounds
to begin that street, but for years and years the magistrates
would not entertain it, till we lost hope. Observed Mechi's blinds
down — my name-child Stewart is to be to-morrow laid in the
grave so lately closed over his grandfather. Passed Mr. P.'s beauti-
ful place, the old toll, and now we were out of Kinnoull parish and
in Scone. Drove up to my own gate. A welcome from all.
I asked the gardener's little grandson, ' Have you minded what
I said to you about Jesus when I left]' *Yes.' Found Dr.
Somerville's card, very sorry to have missed him. He said in
leaving it, ' I do not see the one face I used to know ; I want her
prayers for me ; I am going to Africa.' Two friends from Mr.
M'All's Mission at Paris came yesterday hoping to stay here, M.
showed them the place and told them where they would get
lodgings, not so easy during the Conference. My daughter has
gone to the Ladies' Breakfast to say a word. 1 wept with joy
when Condie and Fred met me at the door, so glad to see them

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again. We had all supper together, with delicious pancakes.
Very sorry to have missed Mrs. Oliphant, Gask. Miss Steuart,
Dalguise, is in Yorkshire at Tong with Tristram and May Eicketts,
and comes to me next month. This glorious victory has cost us
some of our bravest, each regiment striving to be in the front.
Bravery has characterised our troops. Alas, the Egyptians have
lost two thousand men. When shall war cease ? Mr. B. has been
constant in prayer for the troops in the East, for the widows and
fatherless weeping while the rejoicings go on.

"16^ — ^Last night saw Messrs. Donaldson and B from

Paris. The latter is a Frenchman by birth ; he goes north to-day
to speak in my little church. Inquired of his history.- His
mother was an earnest Christian. In youth he had been thinking
for three months about her prayers for him, but always expected
some light to shine, some miracle to be wrought None came, and
he got discouraged. One night he resolved to seek Christ, the
enemy of souls said, ' Qo to bed or you cannot be up to look after
the working men.' Then he resolved he would not go to bed till
he had hold of Christ. Peace so deep and real came that he could
not sleep for joy. Miss Bower has sent me splendid grapes and
melons, with kind inquiries for me on my return. Dear Miss
Mackenzie came to see me ; her sister Miss Penuel used to be
always here at the Conference. We spoke of one very dear to her
buried near my sister-in-law, Margaret, at Rome. Permission
was asked in old Pope Pius' time to have a text put on the grave,
' I am the Resurrection and the Life.' The answer came, * Never
should words from a Protestant Bible be put on a Protestant's
grave even in their own burying-ground.' At last he said this
text might be put on her grave, because they were so good to the
poor, 'Blessed is he that considereth the poor, the Lord shall
deliver him in the time of trouble.' And they left it so. When
she returned to Rome, she went to see the grave ; it had been
beautifully kept She asked the Roman Catholic who kept it,
* Could that text, " I am the Resurrection and the Life," be put
on it now.' Said he, * There is nothing to hinder. Rome is free,
and our King could say nothing against it' So it was done. She
observed my David's picture and thinks it very like him. I told
her how he and Frederick stood before that old Pope Pius while

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250 ' LAST WORK.

he blessed the kneeling people in the Basilica, St Peter^s. The
Pope was arrayed in white. David opened his little Greek Testa-
ment, and showed Frederick the words, * He as God sitteth in the
temple of God showing himself that he is God.' When Miss M.
sat with me Susie and Anna came ; Susie came for a dinner
dress she had left here ; I sent with it the grapes and melons.
Mr. Cowan was here ; we talked over old days of the great
revival work of 1860, and the durableness of the work then
done ; his entire staff of teachers in the Sabbath Schools of
Pomarium Mission were fruits of it Testimonies to the abiding

nature of the work in 1840 reach me stiU. Mr. said, after

returning from years in the Colonies, he never was for weeks
in any town but some Perth convert of 1840 found him
out Mr. Cowan asked me what I had given him to preach on
when I die ; he had forgotten it I said, * He hath abolished
death.' He was charmed with all the news from Bonskeid.
I gave him the printed pieces of poetry, and he gave me a
magazine with one of his on ^ Mary at the grave of Jesus.' Julia
S. and her father came. I read them my notes of the Bishop of
Liverpool's sermons."

The Rev. Robert Cowan of Elgin, alluded to above,
wrote thus of the visit referred to in the Journal : —

"I found the old sprightliness, vivacity, and buoyancy
still shining in her noble and beautiful countenance as she
spoke of the faithful, uncompromising sermon preached by
Dr. Ryle in the Parish Church at Blair, and of opportunity
found by herseK of seeing souls won to Christ It was the
day I took leave of her to go to Elgin that she said 'she thought
I would have remained in St Leonard's to preach her funeral
sermon.' Nor did I feel any hesitation in asking her at our last
interview to remind me of the text, which had escaped my
memory. She at once replied with ready energy, *He hath
abolished death ;' but perhaps you will not need to preach it,
perhaps He will have come Himself before then."

In October, Miss Jane Lindsay, of Edinburgh, a friend

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of her youth, spent an afternoon with her. They went
over the long past together. Mrs. Stewart Sandeman
began with her first recollection, unrolling the whole
panorama of her life thereafter up to their meeting on
that day. While Miss Steuart, Dalguise, and Mr. R
N. Fowler, M.P., were at Springland, she read, in a
newspaper paragraph, the agitating news of the coach
accident to her grandson-in-law, at Braemar. Fol-
lowing her anxiety regarding the issue of this, came
the death of Miss Eamer Sandeman, her first cousin
and exactly of her own age, 19th October, and that
of Miss Ferrier, who stood in the same relationship,
aflTecting her much, bringing the unseen world, into
which they had entered with joy, very near.

A birthday letter to her youngest son, dated 20th
October, was as follows : —

"Beloved F.,— Words are quite powerless to express what
your mother feels on this anniversary. I have been reading over
some little poetic effusions written for it in former days. All my
love to you and yours shall ascend for each in prayer, and dwell
in my heart unto my last breath. And the certainty that by His
covenant faithfulness we shall all spend eternity together, shall
gild the entrance into the dark valley, unless He shall come
suddenly ere then. I finish now with these words about a love
which He gives as an emblem of His own to us :' As one whom
his mother comforteth, so wiU I comfort you.*

" M. Stewart Sandeman."

From the close of this, her last year of work, the
following list of individuals, in whom she had taken a
deep interest during 1882, besides those already alluded

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252 LAST WORK.

to in her Journal, is extracted under different dates,
summing up her impressions of the good work she
had seen in them is taken : —

^ (1.) Spoke to him. After that, providences and an address by
Dr. W. had impressed him more. Afterwards I saw him accept of
Christ Saw him again lately, grown in grace and happy. (2.)
I have also to give thanks for him ; often spoke with him ; after
he was at rest doubts returned, but I hope his soul is at peace.
(3.) Also would give thanks for him, whose terrible failing may
yet overcome him ; but I am sure the Lord has a grasp of him and

will not let him finally go. (4.) Young Mr. was staying

under the roof ; a friend of his, whom he meant me to speak to,
called on him at the house, but went away before I came down-
stairs. He sent for him to come afterwards, and he came back
with his friend late at night Next morning I rose at nine, after
much prayer for him. After ordinary conversation, being left
alone with him, I asked, * Have you got Christ ]* He replied,
* No.' * There is no time to be lost* I have been privileged to
see many brought to the point as I spoke of the substitution
Christ has wrought * Are you willing that He shall be made for
you righteousness, and your sins laid on Him V Silent. * What
stands in the way V Silent I named cases I had seen, and he
gazed in deepest interest, his eyes all the while red with com-
ing tears. I said ' He has begun the work in you by His Spirit.
He will work in you and He will finish it, but refusing you may
die. Will you now receive Him ? The Father's face was hidden
from Him on Calvary because He bore the sins of sinners. Will
you trust Him 1 and trust Him instead of yourself ; in your
place V I had prayed for power to be given him, I said, * He
bears the marks of these wounds up yonder, and you and I shall
meet Him there.' He said, * Yes, I will.* I then gave thanks.
What a happy face he had. He went out with his friend and
came back to say farewell. I remarked on the saying of an old
writer, * We may shake on the Eock, but the Rock cannot move
under us.* (6.) Spoke to her in my own room ; asked her if she
had any of that heavenliness of character which she has seen in
— . She said she did not know. I said, * But we must know.

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LAST WOBE. 253

You respectable people -are the worst to deal witL If you do not
give up your own righteousness, and trust in His righteousness,
who hung on that cross, you cannot be saved.' Spoke long to
her, but I fear only enmity may be there as yet. I truly love her ;
I regretted much that a third person came into the room as we
spoke, which hinders mucL I hear of nothing encouraging yet,
but will hope on. (6.) These thirty children, whom I had the
opportunity of closely speaking to, seem still around me. I com-
mit them to Thee, but bring them in Thine own way. (7.) He
was brought to my bedside, well taught at home, and long prayed
for by me. He came to the point at once. * Have you received
Christ as yours ]' ' No.* * Then you cannot see your grandfather
again if you remain thus, for he has gone to Christ ; do you not
wish to see him again V He burst into tears. At the end of our
interview I said, * WiU you take Him now V He said, * I will.' "

Her son Charles and his family spent the Christmas
week with her, and several of her grandchildren paid
visits to her afterwards. Each one remarked the
softening and heavenly mellowness which tinged all
she said and did. She wrote for the birthday of one of
them : —

" For 2nd January, 1883. — ^Beloved pet QRANDomLD, Many
many happy returns of your birthday. Every blessing rest on
your head, for time and for eternity, is the prayer of your very
loving grandmother, M. Stewart Sandeiian.

" The Lord is my portion."

During the winter months cold weather had confined
her much to her room, to which only intimate friends
were admitted. While she slept one forenoon early in
February, a young man called, saying he had come to
bear her the news of his mother's happy death ten days
before. He had been long abroad, said he must see her,

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264 LAST WOEK.

and would wait till she awoke. Mrs. Sandeman, who
had known the lady well in bygone days, sent for hinL
During the interview he informed her his mother had
died, as she had for some years lived, in communion with
the Church of Rome. He began to sympathise with the
solitude and illness in which he found Mrs. Sandeman.
" I am never alone," she replied ; " Jesus is always with
me." He urged that there was a closer fellowship with
Christ than any she had known. On her asking what he
referred to, he explained that it was the holy wafer of
which he wished her to partake ; a nearness to Christ
would follow of which she could otherwise have no con-
ception ; the body of Christ would become a part of her.
The maid noticing her mistress's extreme agitation,
and anxious to have the interview brought to an end,
observed that any bread from the baker would be just
as good, but the speaker persevered. Mrs. Sandeman
interrupted him with deep emotion : " Christ could not
come nearer her than He had done, nor could she be
happier out of heaven." He raised his hands, saying,
" Anyhow, I have delivered my message." Only when
she said indignantly, " Who sent you here ? Begone,
Satan, begone," did he disappear, words of prayer
and praise to her ever-present Redeemer accompanying
him out of the door and along the passages. Only
those who knew her life-long and determined aversion
to the tenets of the Church of Rome can understand
how startling and repugnant this proposal must have
been to her. By a strange incident she was thus
permitted to testify, as with her latest breath, for the

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LAST WORK. 255

truth which waa her life — Christ's real presence, apart
from Church, priest, ordinance, sacrament, saint, or
Virgin.

As her eightieth birthday, 26th February, approached,
all her family gathered round her. Little did any of
them suppose that she was so soon to pass from their
presence into that of all she most loved and strove after.
The trinkets she had not already given away lay in a
little case, now nearly empty, which was brought to
each on arrival to choose from. She had given the
order of St. Louis (conferred by Prince Charles on
Mr. Henry Naime, and presented by him to her when
a child) to her youngest son. Prince Charles' ring (a
gift to his aide-de-camp, Laurence Oliphant) she gave to
her grandson. When her daughter arrived, the maid
was bid to bring the box. " Show her the one with my
Other's and mother's hair," she said. This one was
quickly chosen. On the evening of her birthday she
was asked the history of the ring. She replied : " When
my father arrived with me at Holyrood on my way
back to school at Newcastle, after my mother's death,
he was so ill with a threatening of apoplexy as to alarm
Uncle Naime. The latter was about to send the
carriage back to town to call in physicians for a con-
sultation. My father, wishing to have me out of the
way, said: *Marget, you must not waste your time.
Go to Howden's on the North Bridge and choose a
mouming-ring for your mother ; there is her hair and
ipine/ Before I returned Dr. Abercrombie and Dr

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256 LAST WOBE.

Hamilton had bled him profusely. I remember his bed
was in the largest arras room, which the Naimes had
for their visitors, and which Watson Gordon had par-
titioned oflf with screens. He sat there propped up
with pillows, very pale, but said: 'I'll be ready to
start with you this day week, never fear/ "

Her last purchases were made from the colporteur ;
two copies of MacduflTs " Forget-me-not " text book, and
a volume of Temperance^ songs and ballads, on which
she wrote her daughter's nama She took wine only
as a medicine, but for years had scarcely ever required
it, until near the close.

She wrote a note to her Bonskeid people, to be read
at the service in the chapel of the Glen on the 25th : —

" I am now eighty years of age, and I send you my love and
prayers and kindest wishes that we may all meet in glory. I am
glad you meet and conduct the service yourselves in the little
chapel every Sabbath evening. I have always prayed for your
meetings there since it was built. I send you the lines I wrote
when it was built, to be read in the chapel on the eve of my
birthday.— Your ever true friend,

" M. StEWAET SANDjaiAN."

HAGGAI i 8.

On the Commencbment of oub PBEAcmNO Station in
THE Glen.

** We have gone to the mountain, and wood we have brought,
From yon cliffs rocky bosom rude stones we have broken.
To build us an house for His praise have we sought.
As our Lord's gracious word unto us hath been spoken.

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LAST WORK. 257

" ' For I have commanded your hearts to be strong,
And quickly a dwelling-place for me prepare ;
My Spirit remaineth my people among,
And I will rejoice and be glorified there.'

" And now in the dust of contrition we bow.
Poor sinners before Thee a blessing implore.
That promise fulfil, and Thy presence even now
Descend and remain on this house evermore.

" We ask for the souls that shall congregate here
A finished salvation, eternal and free,
Let Thy majesty. Lord, to their spirits appear,
And lead them to Jesus, to heaven, and to Thee.

" With Thee, Thou Shepherd of souls, do we leave
These sheep in the wilderness under Thine eye ;
These lambs of Thy flock to Thy bosom receive,
When trials assail and temptations are nigh.

" The vow has been paid and the building is Thine,
To do with it. Lord, as seems good imto Thee,
But oh! that Thy work in conversion may shine,
That ourselves and our children Thy glory may see."

She handed the note for the people to the overseer
from Bonskeid, to be read by him to them. He had
brought down to Springland a box of camellias to be
ready for her birthday, and she sent for him to her
room, and prayed with him as she gave the note and
lines. Her granddaughter from Stanley had just left ;
she had been telling her of a party there in the
evening. She sent some of the camellias after her to
the station, remarking to her daughter, " I hope you
don't mind my giving your flowers away, but that child
is so much to me, I wish I could cover her with
flowers."

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258 LAST WORK.

On Sabbath, the 25th, her daughter went, as usual,
to her room for an hour early in the morning, and
returned to it before ten to spend half-an-hour there
till church time. But her mother lifted down her watch,
saying, " I promised always to keep this hour to pray for
Dr. Whyte before he goes into the pulpit." She then
turned aside, a shadow of intense earnestness came on
her forehead, and she took no more notice of any one
being in the room.

On her birthday morning (26th) letters were received
from all who remembered the day. We publish but one
of them, because she valued it much : —

" 24th February, 1883.

"Dear Madam,— May I add my congratulation to the multi-
tude pouring in upon you on your birthday morning ] It comes
from the heart. I think you may be called the happiest person
in Scotland ; indeed, as. I think of the fulness of interest and
usefulness God has packed into your life, I am filled with a kind
of awe and wonder that so much should have been given to one.
When I think only of one generation and of those in it best
known to me, it seems to me that Scotland has got no legacy
in this centiuy more valuable than that which you will leave
to it

" But, after all, this is the best— the one unapproachable happi-
ness — to be a sinner saved by grace.

" That God may yet spare you long to your great family, and
make the last bit of the road the smoothest and the best, is the
prayerfuljwish of yours most truly, J. S."

The cards and presents lay spread out on trays
around her. Her sons, Charles and Frank, with Laura
and their children, arrived. Each of the servants came
in to see her. She said she intended to have given
presents to every One ; that she was much too old to be

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LAST WORK, 269

receiving them. At night she listened to Forster's
great speech on the state of Ireland, and then the last
post brought a letter from another grandchild, written
in the form of lines for the day : —

" blest with the best bliss of eaxth,
Noble by ancestry and birth,
Our Chief's one child, to whose proud sire
Each loyal Stewart stood page or squire,
To whom, through either parent's veins,
The life-blood of King Robert drains,
And worthy such, in mood and mien.
Whose every step betrays the queen !

".0 fired with a far worthier blood.
Child of the gifted and the good,
Mistress of verse, most skilled to leam
Song from our Lady of Stratheam,*
And dowered beyond earth's richest heirs.
The child of Margaret Stewart's prayers !

** blest with the best bliss of heaven
To whom the gift of gifts is given.
To tell the praise of Christ abroad.
To call the wanderer home to God 1
Long may thy life a beacon shine.
Kindling in others faith like thine !
Long may thy home its title keep,
A Spring-land to the thirsty lip !
For this to-day thy children call
For thee, the mother of them all I •'

On hearing it, she whispered softly, " What does the
laddie mean ? Too much praise/' Yet she did not
cast it from her, as formerly she would have done. It
seemed like a laurel wreath crowning her beforehand.

* Gask, Lady Nome's birthplace, being in Strathearn, the Tolume
of her songs took its title from thence.

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260 LAST WORK.

When her son-in-law and her daughter took leave of
her, the latter said how sorry she was not to be able to
stay. "Oh," she answered, "it may be better so.
You and I always talk so much, you have duty at
home, and I have Kitty. One thing I don't under-
stand : I asked Christ to take me that night before
you came, when I had the faint. Tell me, why has He
not done it V* " Because we need you still," was the
reply, "I am leaving you here in faith and trust."
"Don't say trust," she cried, 'it's victorious peace!"
These were the last words heard spoken, with the
curtain drawn between us.

In the following days she suflFered considerably, and
slept a good deal through the day. Mr. and Mrs. Banner-
man came on Friday, bringing a pot of lily of the valley.
On Sabbath afternoon, the 4th, she told her maid that
she must not on any account leave her to go to church.
Standing by" her dressing-table she made the last entry
in the Book, without the help of an eye-glass, saying
that she had given MacduflTs "Forget-me-not" text-
book to her kind physician. Dr. Stirling. The last
thing she had in her hand was the March number of
the Bulwark; pointing to an extract in it from Dr.
Wylie's book, " Egypt and its Future," she said, " Read
that ; " his book had been read and re-read aloud to
her.

Her house-keeper, thirty-seven years in her service,
came up as usual on her return from church, to tell her
about the sermons, and to bring her a favourite refresh-
ment the juice of pressed grapes. Her maid was

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LAST WORK. 261

bidden bring out the birthday letters of the Monday
previous, and read them over to her sister. She was
also told to read the birthday lines received from her
grandson on the evening of the day. Again she said
sweetly, "What does the laddie mean? Too much
praise 1 " She asked for toast and water. The doctor
had said that much liquid was not good. Kitty was
handing it her in a small quantity. Margaret said,
" Give the mistress the tumbler in her own hand." She
was thirsty, and drank the whole, saying, " Thank you,
Margaret, for this nice tumbler of water, and for all your
goodness. Good-bye." For three hours she continued
speaking of old stories, as her manner was. Once more
she was tripping at her mother's side through the Grey-
fiiars burying-ground, not far from the old house by the
Tay. There she often went with her little basket to gather
flowers on bright summer mornings, flitting merrily
from stone to stone deciphering the quaint couplets of
an older time, indulging her love of rhymes and losing
all dread of the grave. She went over that night the
particulars of each death that had happened in the
family in former and in more recent years, saying in
what way she should wish things to be done differently
in her case, and ending with : " Remember, not a sign
of death mast be in my room when I am gone. Let
them not bind my hands ; I wish to be ready to rise at
once. But I think I shall be like my father and live two
years more yet."

Later on she bade her maid kneel down beside
her, and in prayer she asked forgiveness for having

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262 LAST WORK.

in the afternoon spoken sharply. Kitty, interrupting
her, said, "You didn't" "I did," replied the peti-
tioner, and continued. It was her last audible and
most characteristic request.

She bade her little basket of work-things for the
moroing be brought ; there were spectacles and scissors,
and paper-cutter, which she used in cutting up the
newspapers for her Book. Her attendant said she
would bring them out in good time in the morning.
The reply was "Bring them at once." At midnight
she had a biscuit. At five she got up, giving a faint
cry. The heart had ceased its beating. With one
glance upward she laid her head on the bed, shut her
eyes, firmly, and breathed no more.

Sixteen years before, she had closed her nineteenth
volume with these lines. They were her motto ; they
may be her epitaph : —

" Lord Jesus, I will watch for Thee,
Whoever say me nay ;
Thou mayest not come for centuries,
Thou mayest come To-day.

M. S. S."

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APPENDIX.

From the " Perthshire Advertiser^ of mh March, 1S83,

YESTERDAY forenoon a Funeral Sermon on the
death of Mrs. Stewart Sandeman of Bonskeid
and Springland, Widow of Mr. Glas Sandeman of
Bonskeid, Perthshire, was preached by the Rev. D, D.
Bannerman, M.A., of St. Leonard's Free Church, Perth, of
which congregation the deceased had been a member for
many years. The text was from 2 Cor. iv. 16-18 — "For
which cause we faint not . . . while we look not at the
things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen :
for the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things
which are not seen are eternal." At the close, he made the
following reference to the late Mrs. Stewart Sandeman : —

** Since last Sabbath, as all here know, another of Christ's
witnesses has passed away from us. When I think of her,
I feel as if I had been wrong to dwell, so much as I have
been led to do, on some of the sadder aspects of the truth
in our text ; there was so much of the brightness of heaven
about her; she lived so constantly, even here, in the light
and joy of the Lord, witnessing for what He was to her, and
would be to others, would they but receive and follow Him.
To myself it has been a great privilege to know her.
I knew her to some slight extent before I came to this

congregation, but of course much more closely for these last

263

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264 APPENDIX.

three years. She was one of whom it was not easy either to
form a true estimate, or to express it in words when formed.
She was sometimes misunderstood, sometimes greatly under-
estimated, as regards her real power and weight of character,
by those who came in contact with her but slightly and in
an external way, or who heard by report of some impulsive
word or action, not knowing how it had been spoken or done.
Her influence was a thing to be felt rather than described ;
but it was a singularly powerful one, especially over certain
temperaments, and in some of its elements, so far as my
experience goes, quite unique.

" This is not the place to speak of her natural gifts, very
high and rare as these were ; nor of what she was to near
friends, and to that wide circle of her children and children's
children to the third generation, in all whose interests she
took part with such warm love, such vivid, untiring
sympathy. As to the work which God honoured her to do
for His cause, the day alone will declare it. In active
labours, while strength lasted, by her classes for the
young, by personal words of love and eager pleading, by a
wide and varied Christian correspondence, by prayers night
and day, she served her own generation according to the wiD
of God ere she fell asleep. Those pleasant rooms at Spring-
land, those sunny walks by the broad river, are consecrated
ground to many a one, and will be while life lasts. She was
*a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men.' From the days
of William Burns and Robert M*Cheyne, the days of revival
at Kilsyth, and Dundee, and Perth, and up Strath Tay,
through Disruption times, on to the great spiritual movement
of 1859-61, and the beginning of the Perth Conferences,
under Mr. John Milne, her house was a centre of evangelical
life and blessing, the fruits of which remain, and will remain
through the days of heaven.

"Many striking features of Christian character met in

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AI>PfiNDIX. 265

ker. One was a great naturalness. She spoke because she
believed, and as she believed and felt. She had a remark-
able fulness and vividness of Christian experience; but
there was a marked absence of conventional religious
phrases. No one could ever suppose for a moment that she
was saying anything because people expected her to say it.
She was always herself. To the very end there was much
about her of the simplicity and natural gaiety of a little
child. I remember, in one of my visits to her this last
winter, I happened to say something about the foot-prints
of a roe-deer in the snow, and she broke out with a verse of
an old Scottish song, just as a young girl might have sung
it. And yet with it all there was a natural dignity, a
purity and elevation of character and spirit, which few
could fail to recognise.

" She had, in very full measure, the ' love that hopeth all
things, believeth all things.' Even to a fault, she leant to
the side of thinking the best of every one. And yet this
was by no means a mere indiscriminating impulse with her.
You might think she came too hastily to her conclusion.
No doubt she was mistaken once and again — she owned
herself to have been so— in her hopeful belief that this one
and that had been truly brought to the Saviour. But it
was always on certain grounds of evidence which were so
far satisfactory in kind, if not in degree. And there were
other persons, as I know well, in whom she had the warmest
interest but over whom she never thought that a real
spiritual change had passed. There was much true
Christian delicacy in the way in which she would allude to
this, doing it rarely, and with a grave and tender concern.
But she went on praying for them in secret year after year,
in strong faith that the answer would surely come^ and not
be too late.

"There was in her that mark of true holiness, a great

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266 APPENDIX.

and genuine humility. Many a one has gone from Spring-
land humbledy because she took it so for granted that you
were on the same level of Christian experience with herself,
or even a higher one. She did not count hers high — * In
lowliness of mind, she esteemed others better than herself.'
To the very end, when she seemed to us living so near the
gate of heaven, she would have been the first to say that
she * had not already attained, neither was already perfect.'
On the last day of her life — although none thought the close
was so near — she had been suffering not a little bodily dis-
comfort ; and she prayed at night, with all her own tmthf ul
simplicity, * that the Lord would forgive her if she had been
impatient.'

'' I need not say to any one who knew her at all that she
lived in an atmosphere of constant prayer. There never
was one perhaps in whom the three clauses of the apostolic
precept met more perfectly — * Rejoice evermore ; pray with-
out ceasing ; in everything give thanks.' How many souls
have been given to her prayers already — some who have
now welcomed her above to everlasting habitations, others
serving still here below ! How many may yet be brought
into the fold, in answer to those effectual, fervent pleadings
offered for them; who can telll This spirit of believing
prayer was no doubt the main secret of the Christian glad-
ness and happiness that so characterised her — of the spring
and freshness as of young life, which were hers to the end,
and which made it so hard for us to feel as if the end could
be near. Something of natural temperament might aid in
this. That strong vein of true poetic feeling and romance,
which showed itself in her little snatches of poetry written on
some occasion that interested her, came out still more strik-
ingly at times in conversation, in lett^^rs, and, above all, in
her prayers, which were often just hymns of praise, very
beautiful both in thought and words. But, however

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APPENDIX. 267

natural temperament and constitution might aid, the joy
was essentially and unmistakably 'joy in the Lord.' It did
much to commend Christ. There was something singularly
attractive about it. Even children felt it. Last summer a
little girl, the great-granddaughter of an old friend, was
taken to see her, *0h, I would like to stay with
Mr& Sandeman,' she said as she came away, ' she looks so
happy.'

" She gives the key to it herself in some touching lines
on the 45th anniversary of her wedding-day. In them she
contrasts the earthly gladness of that day long gone by with
the sad changes since. Father, mother, and husband — all
are gone. Brothers and friends, three sons and two little
babes, have followed them into the silent land. And she
sits alone now, in his empty house, in her changed array,
hearing the church bells ring out over the river, as they did
on that Sabbath, long ago, when they proclaimed her a
bride. It ends thus : —

' With "Jesus only ** all is well.'

Yes, * Jesus only,' that is the secret.

" And the Lord, in whose service she found such freedom
and gladness, took her very gently home. There was no
long suffering, no painful clouding of faculty. Her eight-
ieth birthday, last Monday week, gathered almost all her
dearest ones round her, with tokens of love from those not
there. She was clear and joyous as ever. And then, after
one more Sabbath on earth, she fell asleep, with scarce a
struggle or a sigh, closing her eyes herself as for rest.
None who saw her in her last sleep, that calm noble face,
with its finely chiselled features, wearing such a look of
* victorious peace,' — to use a word of her own — can ever
forget it. She * was not ; for God took her.' So she passed
from 'the things which are seen and temporal' to Hhe

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268 APPENDIX.

things which are unseen and eternal.' * But the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.' * The Lord
God is a sun and shield; He will give grace and glory j
no good thing will He withhold from them that walk
uprightly.' His servants are taken home when their work
and witnessing time on earth are over. But* He remains.
Their faith let us follow, remembering the end of their
conversation, * Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day,
and for ever.' Amen."

By the death of Mrs. Stewart Sandeman, of Bonskeid,
which took place at her residence at Springland, Perth, last
week, one of the few remaining links between the
commencement of the century and the present day has been
severed, while Perth and Perthshire have lost a daughter
highly esteemed in her family and social life, and respected for
her literary abilities and philanthropy. Her remains were
interred in the family burying-ground, Greyfriars, Perth, on
Friday. In addition to the usual service conducted by the
Rev. D. D. Bannerman at the house, a short and impressive
prayer was offered at the grave by the Rev. Dr. Whyte, of
Free St. George's, Edinburgh (who lately married the grand-
daughter of the deceased), and a number of Sabbath-school
children sang her favourite hymn, "There is a happy Land,"
which was joined in by many friends who had gathered
spontaneously. The funeral was of a strictly private
character, so far as invitations were concerned. The chief
mourners were Mr. Charles and Colonel Stewart Sandeman,
her sons; Professor Simpson and the Rev. Dr. Whyte,
Edinburgh, grand-sons-in-law, and the grandchildren and
great-grandchildren of the deceased. The Rev. Frederick
Stewart Sandeman, Shirley Warren, Southampton, and her
son-in-law, George F. Barbour, Esq. of feonskeid, were both

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APPENDIX. 269

unavoidably absent in consequence of illness. A number
of the ladies of the family took part in the services at the
tomb, and covered the coffin with flowers and wreaths sent
by Sir Douglas and Lady Stewart, of Grand tully and others.
The interior of the grave was lined with ivy, intertwined
with snow-drops, and into this last resting-place the body
was laid by loving hands, representing three generations, a
good many of whom had gathered at Springland the
previous week, on the occasion of the celebration of her
eightieth birthday. Mrs. Stewart Sandeman was the
daughter of Dr. Alexander Stewart, of Bonskeid, and suc-
ceeded him in possession of the estates, and as representing
an old line of the *' Stewarts," which, for five hundred years,
had passed from father to son* Her mother Marjory Anne
Mary Oliphant, of Gask (Mrs. Stewart), was the eldest sister
of Caroline, afterwards Baroness Naime. At the age of
seventeen the deceased married Mr. Glas Sandeman (a great-
grandson of John Glas, who founded the Glassites), by
whom she had a family of six sons and three daughters.
Mr. Sandeman died twenty-seven years ago at Montpelier,
France, and was interred at Greyfriars, Perth. The three
sons already mentioned survive her, also Mrs. Barbour, of
Bonskeid, the authoress of the *Way Home,' and other
works. Her eldest son, Alexander, died, a judge, in
India, while her second son, the Rev. David Sandeman,
missionary and associate of the late Rev. W. C. Bums, died
in the midst of his duties in China. In the deceased were
displayed many of the characteristics of the old Jacobite
family she represented, and her mind was richly stored with
traditions and memories of a bygone age contrasting and
connecting them with those of the present day.

Of great literary taste, she was gifted with true poetical
genius, inherited, as it were, from her aunt who wrote " The
Land o' the Leal,'' and many other national songs of pathos.

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270 APPENDIX.

Few, however, lived an intenser life than she in the present.
Having at an early age been powerfully impressed with
spiritual religion, she was intimately associated with many
of the foremost promoters of the evangelical revival in the
first half of the century, and entered with keen interest into
the various evangelistic enterprises of more recent times.
Her beautiful grounds on the banks of the Tay, marching
with those of Scone, were for many years a resort of those
who came to Pei'th in connection with such work, and the
religious conferences with which the name of the city is
widely associated owed much to her enthusiasm and energy.
Her very original character and singularly striking personal
appearance, made her a unique figure in the minds of her
friends, to whom her removal will make a great blank.
During the last forty years of her life Mrs. Sandeman kept
a diary, entitled " Pro and Con,'* in which passing events of
public or religious interest were chronicled, with the opinions
of the day noted side by side with her own criticism and
remarks, often in verse. The last entry was made by herself
a few hours before her death. Mrs. Sandeman was a
frequent contributor to magazines of a religious character,
and all through her writings, whether poetical or otherwise,
there could be distinctly seen and felt the motto which she
always bore to the fore-front in everything, " Jesus only."

For many years, weekly " Meetings for the Young " were
held in Springland Tower, and during later yeai's within the
House. Mrs. Sandeman conducted such herself, but often
enlisted the services of friends who happened to be visiting
her. When it is mentioned that the register of attendance
included above two thousand, and that she never forgot her
" boys* and girls' " welfare in after-life, some idea may be
formed of the extent of the labour of love continually beiag

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APPENDIX. 271

carried on for her Master, and how many must truly mourn
her loss.

In the Free Church, Blair-Athole, on Sabbath forenoon,
towards the close of an earnest and eloquent discourse from
the words — " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of
the hidden manna" (Rev. ii. 17), the Rev. A. Bain, M.A.,
pastor of the congregation, made the following appropriate
reference to the death of the late Mrs. Stewart Sandeman, to
whom, and to the Bonskeid family, both pastor and people
feel deeply indebted for many tokens of their warm interest
and Christian liberality : —

"Dear friends, this text was suggested to me by the
solemn and touching services in which some of us were
sadly privileged to take part within the past few days. On
Friday, in the city of Perth, the grave closed over the
mortal remains of one of God's hidden ones. On Monday
last Mrs. Stewart Sandeman fell asleep in Jesus. She was
a lady whose piety was far above that of the ordinary rank
and file of God's children. It was singularly profound and
practical, finding for its operations channels which will only
be fully known on the great day of reckoning. Her love to
the Saviour was one of the most striking features in her
character, and her interest in the cause of Christ in this
district and the Church increased with her years. She was
one whose holy influence has moulded many a heart and life,
whose memory, consequently, will long be green and
fragrant in many a bosom, and the remembrance of whose
peaceful but triumphant death will not soon fade from the
minds of those who witnessed it. Full of years, and full of
honours, she departed hence, to receive the welcome that
the redeemed host around the throne have received when
they had overcome through the blood of the Lamb. Our
world is poorer and darker by the loss of such believers ;
but our loss is their^gain, and the grace that made them

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272 iU?PENDIX.

what they were is as free to us as it was to them. Be it
ours, friends, to walk in the footsteps of those who followed
Christ; to live near Him as they did; to work for Him, and
wait for Him as they did ; to long for, and rejoice at his
coming as they did; and at last, haying overcome, to sit
down around the Father's tahle amid the glories of the
Father's house.

<' * Jaat when Thou wilt, O Master, call.
Or at the noon, or evening fall ;
Or in the dark, or in the light,
Just when Thou wilt, it must be right.' "

" ' Just, when Thou wilt, Thy time is best,
Thou shalt appoint my hour of rest ;
Marked by the sun of perfect love,
bliining unchangeably above.' "

LORIMBR AND GILLIES, PRINTBR& 31 ST. ANDREW SQUARE, EDINBURGH.

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WORKS BY THE SAME AUTIOR.

TH E WAY HOME;
And how the Little Children reached it by a Railway Accident.

Eighteenth Thousand.
Square i6mo, is. 6d. cloth limp ; as. 6d. boards.

II.

THE IRISH ORPHAN IN A SCOTTISH HOME.
A Sequel to " The Way Home."

Square i6mo, is. cloth limp ; as. 6d. boards.
III.

THE CHILD OF THE KINGDOM.

Twentv-fifth Thousand.
Square i6mo, is. cloth limp ; 2s. 6d. boards.

IV.

THE SOUL-GATHERER.

Twf.nty-fifth Thousand.

Square i6mo, is. cloth limp ; as. 6d. boards.

LONDON : JAMES NISBET & CO., ai BERNERS STREET.

Also, NABEATIVE TEACTS, Id. each.

I.

THE BOTTLES BROKEN;
Or, The Mischief Undone.

II.
THE THREE BURDENS LAID DOWN.

III.

BAPTISED FOR SUFFERING;
Or, The Manuel Collision.

LONDON : MORCiAN & SCOIT.

1

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* A.*

WORKS BT IRS. SIMPSOR ' v i

I. ^ •

Eighth Thousahd. i6mo, is. cloth.

STEPS THROUGH THE STREAM;
Or, Dally Beadlnffs for a Montli.

With an Introduction by Mrs. Barbour, Author of" The Way Home," &c.

"Its sweetness of tone and beneficence of spirit will make the book a favourite
with ToaxTf."— Christian,

'*We trust that the work may secure an extended sale, and be of much
spiritual blessing to God's believing people." — Sivordand Trowel.

II.
Sixth Thousand. i6mo, is. cloth.

BEAUTIFUL UPON THE MOUNTAINS.

" The quiet, earnest tone displayed throughout these meditations, and the aptitude
with which illustrations drawn from passing events are introduced, render the work
peculiarly acceptable." — Rock,

" Thoroughly devotional, earnest, and simple, full of true thought, and exceedingly
interesting." — Guardian.

III.
Sixth Thousand. Square z6mo, is. cloth.

THE WELLS OF THE BIBLE.

" Full of spiritual refreshment. As a gift book it is fitted to exercise a brightening
and sweetening influence on life."— Z>a»/y Knnew.

" Mrs. Simpson has given us another of her fresh and attractive little books. We
are strengthened by the cooling draughts drawn for u-s and we are sent to the
fountain for more." — Christian.

IV.
Foi'RTH Tholsand. Roj'al 32mo, 3d.

A PITCHER BROKEN AT THE FOUNTAIN.

"A memorial, written with much pathos and power, of an earnest worker recently
CK\\tdsLw^y."— Woman's Work.

■^

LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.

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