CUflon College Scientific Society. Q5 



soldiers as long as possible. Danger sharpened Sir Patrick's 

 wits, and lie understood the hint to fly. The only safe hiding- 

 place he could think of was the family vault under Polwarth 

 Church, and there he remained secure for some weeks, sj^ending 

 the days underground, and sleeping at night in a little room in 

 the tower. At midnight, food was brought him by his daughter 

 Grizell, who, though possessed of all the superstitious fears com- 

 mon in tliat age, braved even the ghosts of the churchyard to 

 assist her father. The dogs at the manse, which stands near the 

 church, seemed likely to betray her by their barking, and the 

 minister was therefore persuaded to put them out of the way by 

 an alarm about mad dogs. The servants could not be let into the 

 secret, and Grizell was accustomed to abstract food at the family 

 dinner in order to get it without their knowledge. One day there 

 was a sheep's head put upon the table, and she, with her usual 

 dexterity, managed to get it all into her lap, and safely concealed. 

 But suddenly her youngest brother, astonished at her appetite, 

 shouted out, ' Mamma, look at Grizzy, while we were supping the 

 broth she has eaten up all the sheep's head !' 



One day Sir Patrick Hume saw a skull move, a mouse having 

 got into it. This he considered as a sign to leave the vault, 

 though why, I know not. He may have supposed that the spirit 

 of his ancestor was uneasy because of some impending danger, 

 but I am more inclined to think that he was getting heartily tired 

 of his confinement, and glad of any pretext to get out of it. At 

 all events he left the vault and escaped safely to Holland, while 

 the very next day a party of soldiers came to Marchmout to search 

 the country for him. Sir Patrick Hume was afterwards con- 

 cerned in Argyll's rebellion, and eventually came across with the 

 Piince of Orange. 



When the vault outside has been seen, it is quite worth while 

 to get into the church itself. Everything there is so old and 

 so plain, that the very simplicity of it constitutes its charm. The 

 ivy, with which the outside is covered, has found its way between 

 the top of the walls and the beginning of the tiles, and until a 

 year ago clothed in one mass of green all the roof of the interior. 

 It was during the last summer holidays that I saw Polwarth, and 

 I am sorry to say that just before that time the ivy growing 

 inside had been removed, as fears were entertained of its com- 

 pletely destroying the woodwork. But perhaps nothing can give 

 you so good an idea of the primitive simplicity of this little parish 

 church as the fact that, about thirty years ago, rabbits, which are 

 still plentiful in the graveyard, used to make entrances to their holes 

 in the hard ground which constitutes the only floor. The shepherds 

 were in the habit of bringing their dogs to church with them, and 



