206 Lag's Elegy and Othek Chap Books. 



is doubtful whether he ever carried a pack. (2) "Walker was 

 born in or about 1666, but the place of his nativity is unknown. 

 Boldly declaring himself a follower of Cargill and Cameron, he 

 was arrested when a mere boy and flung- into the ' thieves' hole ' 

 of Linlithgow. Taken to Edinburgh he was examined by the 

 Privy Council and sentenced to banishment for life. It afterwards 

 leaked out that Patrick had been present at the death of a trooper 

 who had been slain by some Covenanters in self-defence. He 

 was therefore brought before the Council again, and this time the 

 thumbscrews and the boot were applied to him. F'inding that 

 torture could not extract a word from the biave youth his judges 

 sent him back to prison, where he lay for many months. Trans- 

 ferred from one place of confinement to another he at length 

 managed to escape from the clutches of his foes. Walker's first 

 book, ' The Life and Prophecies of Mr Alexander Peden,' pub- 

 lished in 1724, at once secured the favour of the intelligent and 

 religious cottars of Southern and Western Scotland. His later 

 works — ' Semple Wei wood and Cameron,' 1727, and ' Cargill and 

 Smith,' 1732 — though well received, did not make so deep an 

 impression on the popular mind. The stalwart Cameronian sur- 

 vived till 174.'?, witnessiiig daily against ' the foul mismanage- 

 ments of backslidden, upsitten, lukewarm ministers, elders, and 

 professors." (3). 



" More popular in Southern Scotland than even Walker's 

 ' Peden ' was a coarse and vigorous pasquil entitled ' Lag's Elegy.' 

 As this work is of local interest, and as I have made a special 

 study of it for a book on Dumfriesshire Poetry, ancient and 

 modern, on which I am eiTgaged, you will perhaps allow me to 

 devote to it a large portion of my space. The plan of the poem 

 is well indicated by its full title : ' An Elegy in Memory of 

 that Valiant Champion, SiR EGBERT Griekson of Lag, or the 

 Prince of Darkness, his Lamentation for, and Commendation of 

 his trusty and well-beloved Friend, the Laird of Lag, who died 

 Dec. 23rd, 1733. Wherein the Prince of Darkness sets forth the 

 commendation of many of his best Friends, who were chief Pro- 

 moters of his Literest, and Upholders of his Kingdom in the time 

 of the Persecution. Very useful and necessary to be read by all 



2. Six Saints of the Covenant (190-2). Vol. I., p. 37. 



3. Peden's Life : Author's Preface. 



