Lag's Elegy akd Othek Crap Books. 207 



who desire to be well-informed concerning the chief Managers 

 and jNIanagemeut of the late Persecuting Period.' (4). 



" Among the numerous champions of evil who are passed in 

 review is Claverhouse, who receives the devil's thanks for his 

 services, but is somewhat cruelly reminded of his flight from the 

 field of Drumclog. Due honour is accorded to another famous 

 soldier, the blood-thirsty Dalyell, and also to several eminent 

 lawyers and statesmen, including Mackenzie, Rothes, and Lauder- 

 dale. Nor is Satan slow to acknowledge his indebtedness to the 

 last two Stuart Kings for their strenuous efforts to root out 

 Presbyterianism and advance the cause of Rome. But his warmest 

 praise is reserved for Sir Robert Grierson, the laird of Lag, of 

 whom he can say : 



' Through all the large track of his time, 

 He never did my ways decline.' 



" Instances are given of the services which had been rendered 

 by Sir Robert in killing defenceless peasants ; and, of course, the 

 "Wigtown affair is referred to. Having surveyed the private life, 

 as well as the public career, of his favourite with profound satis- 

 faction, the Prince of Evil remarks significantly : 

 ' Xow Lag lives hot and bien with me !' 



" Sir Roliert Grierson seems to have been a man of courage 

 and capacity ; but it may well be doubted whether even Dalyell 

 pursued the infamous work of hunting down and shooting recu- 

 sants with more manifest zest. It is not surprising, therefore, 

 that a poem attacking his memory with peculiar force and malig- 

 nancy was heartily welcomed b}' the peasantiy of southern 

 Scotland. The popularity of the ' Elegy,' which was published in 

 Glasgow in the form of a chap-book of 24 pages, did not soon 

 decline. Forty years after Sir Robert's death the tenth edition 

 was reached, and four years later the eleventh appeared. Even 

 in the first quarter of the nineteenth century the poem was 

 reprinted and found many appreciative readers in rural parts. 



"The interest with which we peruse 'Lag's Elegy' is en- 

 hanced by our knowledge that the piece [was familiar to two 

 Scottish writers of the first rank. Sir Walter Scott possessed a 

 copy of the chap-book (5), which may have supplied him with 



4. Sixth edition, Glasgow, 1757. 



5. See " Letters from and to Chas. Kirkpatrick Sharpe Vol. I., 147. 



