66 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



when an old woman observed very opportunely, that " the man the king's 

 gentlemen had spied that morning, was only the shepherd." " Shepherd !" 

 rejoined the officer, " why then did he not answer when challenged by the 

 sentinel?" " Waes me! poor man," said the woman, " he's as deaf as Ailsa- 

 craig!" " Let him be summoned instantly," resumed the officer; "we \vill 

 investigate the question." The shepherd was accordingly produced, and having 

 received his cue by the way, personated the deaf man to the satisfaction of 

 all present, and lulled suspicion. 



We have only to add, that the laird of Invemayhle was soon after restored 

 to liberty, pardoned under the act of indemnity, and died, as he had lived, one 

 of the finest specimens of Highland chivalry that ever drew a claymore in the 

 Stuart cause. — But returning from this digression, we proceed to notice a few 

 of those locaHties celebrated as the birth-place or residence of men of genius. 

 Among the latter,* Athelstaneford is one of those rural pilgrimages which all 

 who admire the poetic genius of Robert Blair and John Home — authors of 

 " the Grave," and " Douglas," and successively ministers of the parish — con- 

 sider as indispensable. 



The manse in which these distinguished individuals spent their incumbency 

 has given place to a new structure ; but, in the garden, an apple tree is still 

 pointed out as having shaded the parlour window where Blair — the gifted min- 

 strel, and no less gifted minister — pursued liis studies. Here, while his mind was 

 stored with the inspired writings of the prophets, and his time occupied in 

 dispensing the important duties of his office, he composed that deep, vigorous, 

 and thrUling poem, which has placed his name among the first and most success- 

 ful masters of the art. As a poem, the " Grave" is unique : there is a startling 

 ti-uth in the pictures which wakens reflection in the most thoughtless, excites 

 the callous, and compels the most cursory observer to pause, meditate, and 

 admire. The picture of the schoolboy, " tripping o'er the long flat stones," 

 and drawn from the window of his study, which opened upon the chiirch-yard, 

 has been so often transferred to the pencil and burin, as to have become familiar 

 to every one. But that of the " Widow" is given with no less force and tender- 

 ness of feeling.f 



• See Supplement, and Table of References, annexed to the present work. 



t " The new-made widow, too, I've eometimes spied. 

 Sad sight ! slow moving o'er the prostrate dead : 

 Listless she crawls along in doleful black. 

 While bursts of sorrow gush from either eye. 

 Fast falling down her now untasted cheek. . . . 



