Part 1 (1/2)

Principal Cairns

by John Cairns

PREFACE

In preparing the following pages I have been chiefly indebted for the materials of the earlier chapters to some MS notes by inally written for Professor MacEhen he was preparing his admirable _Life and Letters of John Cairns, DD LLD_ They are very full and very interesting, and I have made free use of them

To Dr MacEwen's book I cannot sufficiently expressto Principal Cairns into an absolutely final form, that he seems to have left no alternative to those who co over in silence what he has so well said and reproducing it almost in his words It is probable, therefore, that students of the _Life and Letters_--and there arewith Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, ”make it their breviary ”--will detect some echoes of its sentences in this little book Still, I have tried to look at the subject from my own point of view, and to work it out indirectly, I trust that I havethose whom I have to thank for kind assistance, I desire specially tolass, who has taken a constant interest in the progress of the book, and has supplied estions To my brother the Rev DS Cairns, Ayton, I aard to many points, especially that dealt with at the close of Chapter VI; and I also owe estions of my friends the Rev P Wilson and the Rev R Glaister For help in revising the proofs I have to thank the Rev JM Connor and my brother the Rev WT Cairns

JC

DUMFRIES, _20th March_ 1903

CHAPTER I

ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD

John Cairns was born at Ayton Hill, in the parish of Ayton, in the east of Berwickshi+re, on the 23rd of August 1818

The far is left of it but the trees which once overshadowed its buildings, and the rank growth of nettles which marks the site of a vanished habitation ofone, perched as it was just on the edge of the high ground which separates the valley of the little river Eye fro in almost the whole course of the Eye, fro the Lammermoors to where it falls into the sea at Eyeht Down in the valley, directly opposite, were the woods and e of Ayton lay extended along the farther bank of the streaentle undulations to the uplands of Coldingha the coast, lay Berwick-on-Tweed, the scene of John Cairns's future labours as a minister; while away in the opposite direction, in the heart of the Lammermoors, near the headwaters of the Whitadder and the Dye, was the home of his ie sheep-farrandfather, Thomas Cairns, unable to take a far as a shepherd He died in 1799, worn out before he had passed his pri fatherless fairls and two boys as best she could

After several ht them down from the hills to the seaboard, they settled for some years at Ayton Hill The farm was at the time under some kind of trust, and there was no resident fars and the poultry; the daughters also found employment; and James, the elder son, became the shepherd He was of an adventurous and somewhat restless disposition, and, at the time of the threatened invasion by Napoleon, joined a local Volunteer corps Then the war fever laid hold of hi in the Rifle Brigade all through the Peninsular War, fro awith hiuese wife, and settled as shepherd on the hoer son, John, as yet little hbouring fares were a pair of shoes in the half-year, with his food in the farm kitchen and his bed in the stable loft His schooldays had begun early He used afterwards to tell how his mother, when he was not more than five years old, carried him every day on her back on his way to school across a little streae

But this early education was often interrupted, and came very soon to a close; not, however, before he ell able to read Writing he taught hi knowledge of arithhtful boy, specially fond of reading, but, fro was almost out of his reach He had not even a Bible of his own, for Bibles were then so dear that it was not possible for parents in humble life to provide those of their children ent out into the world with copies even of the cheapest sort In place of a Bible, however, his iven him a copy of the Scottish Metre Version of the Psalms, with a ”Preface” to each Psalton This was all the boy had to feed his soul on, but it was enough, for it was strong meat; and he valued and carefully kept that old, brown, leather-bound Psalm-book to the end of his days

When Ja at Ayton Hill was taken up by his brother John Though only a lad in his teens, he was in every respect, except in physical strength, already a htful, handy and capable in farm work, especially in all that concerned the care of sheep, for which he had a natural and probably an inherited instinct He was also held in great regard by the Rev David Ure, the earnest and kindly -house, which stood behind the Castle woods at the lower end of Ayton village The family were of that ”strict, not strictest species of Presbyterian Dissenter,” and John attended also the Bible-class and Fellowshi+p Meeting The fahman or ”hind”

froe, the next farm to Ayton Hill, also attended Mr Ure's church An inti up between the two families It ripened into affection between John Cairns and Alison, John Murray's only daughter, and in June 1814 they were united in hters of the Cairns faone to situations, and were soon to have horand old mother, who had been for so inning to feel the infir couple took up housekeeping, she left the hoest daughter went over to live in Ayton

John Cairns and his ere in rave, quiet, and somewhat anxious temperament, almost morbidly scrupulous where matters of conscience and responsibility were concerned She, on the other hand, was always hopeful,energy largely helping to orous Scotch, and a large stock of homely proverbs, of which she made frequent and apposite use Both husband and ere excellently well read in their Bibles, and both were united in the fear of God Built on this firularly happy one, and their different temperaments contributed to the common stock what each of them separately lacked Ayton Hill ree, and here were born their three eldest children, of whoest, John, is the subject of the present sketch

In the spring of 1820 the trust under which Ayton Hill had been worked for so many years ound up, and a new tenant took the farm It became necessary, therefore, for the shepherd to seek a new situation, and this brought about the first ”flitting” in the family history The Berwickshi+re hinds are soratory habits, in which some observers have found a survival of the restlessness which characterised their ancestors in former times, and was alike the result and the cause of the old Border Forays Be that as it ed with carts conveying furniture and bedding from one farm to another In front of the pile sits the hind's ith her younger children, while the hind hiirls walks beside the horse, or brings up the rear, driving the fa every year, and instances have even been known in which anxiety to preserve an unbroken tradition of annual re from one house to another on the same farration of this kind, and in the course of eleven years they flitted no less than six times

Their first removal was from Ayton Hill to Oldcambus Mains, in the parish of cockburnspath, where they cae Church, with both of which they were in after-years to have so close a connection The father had been engaged by the Dunglass factor to act, in the absence of a regular tenant, as joint steward and shepherd at Oldcambus, and the family lived in the otherwise unoccupied farmhouse The two elder children attended a school less than a est, as now in his fourth year, used to cause no little anxiety to his careful e of the high sea-cliffs behind the farth, in a happy o to school hi for lessons, the schoolmaster allowed him to sit beside his brother and sister When he was tired of sitting, tradition has it that the little fellow used to a in the corner to which the school culprits were sent Here he duly put on the dunce's cap which he had seen them wear, and which bore the inscription, ”Forbeen at length found for Oldcambus Mains, the family, which had been increased by the birth of three more children, re, two e The house which they occupied here is still pointed out, but it has been enlarged and improved since those days At that tis in the district, it consisted of a single room with an earthen floor, an open unlined roof of red tiles, and rafters running across and resting on the wall at each side There was a fireplace at one end and a , and then a door at right angles to the fireplace When the furniture ca panels were set up facing the fireplace; they touched the back wall at one end, and left a small space free opposite to the door at the other The beds came almost, if not quite, up to the level of the rafters, and screened off behind them perhaps a third of the entire space, which was used as a lumber closet or store Above the rafters, well furnished with _cleeks_ for the fa, a large sheet of canvas or coarse unbleached cotton There was a table under the , a _dresser_ with racks for plates, etc, set up against the opposite wall, and an eight-day clock between theand the fireplace ”Fixtures” were in such houses practically non-existent; the grate, which consisted merely of two or three bars or _ribs_, the iron _swey_ froe pot with its rudimentary feet, and, in sorants, and were carried about by thes

When at Whiterigg, the children attended school at Ayton, and here young John learned his letters andAfter two years, the death of the Whiterigg fare necessary, and the falass estate and settled at Aikieside, a forester's cottage quite near to their former home at Oldcambus Mains, and within easy reach of Oldcanificent wooded glen, crossed a little lower down by a fah to Berwick over the Pease Burn at a height of nearly one hundred and thirty feet A still older road crosses the streae The descent here is very steep on both sides, but it seems to have been even steeper in former times than it is now This point in the old road is ”the strait Pass at Copperspath,” where Oliver Cromwell before the battle of Dunbar found the way to Berwick blocked by the troops of General Leslie, and of which he said that here ”ten men to hinder are better than forty to make their way”

Beautiful as the Pease Dean is, it has this drawback for those who live in the vicinity--especially if they happen to be anxious ing reptiles were specially nuressive in the ”dry year” 1826, it is not surprising that when, owing to the cottage at Aikieside being otherwise required, John Cairns was offered a house in the village of cockburnspath, he and his wife gladly availed themselves of that offer Fro year to Dunglass Mill; and at last, in 1831, the ht, found rest in a house within the Dunglass grounds, after the father had received the appoint the rest of his life

CHAPTER II

DUNGLass