58 



To the late Dr. Barnes, who took great interest in his case, he 

 gave a different account of the length of his stay with the militia ; 

 for "laughing heartily he confessed that he remained among the 

 soldiers only one night, and ran away as soon as he could" {All 

 the Year Round, vol. x, p. 212). Yet, amongst other reasons 

 advanced for admitting his claim to extreme longevity, great stress 

 has always been laid on the alleged accuracy of his memory ; 

 which, says Mr. Bell, was "excellent even up to the time of his 

 death". It may be thought that a discrepancy of a day or two 

 between his accounts to Mr. Bell and Dr. Barnes of the length 

 of his stay at Carlisle is no great matter. Perhaps so ; but what 

 are we to think of his "cannon balls rattling into the town like 

 hail" when we read the following statement of one of the besiegers, 

 and find it confirmed by history ? — 



We did not discharge a single shot, lest the garrison should become acquainted 

 with the smallness of their calibre, which might have encouraged them to defend 

 themselves (Chevalier de Johnstone, p. 58). 



Either, then, Mr. Bowman's memory was not as good as has been 

 thought, or he was somewhat given to romancing.* 



The following story of another reputed centenarian, whom it 

 needs not an old inhabitant of Brampton to remember, I record 

 as told to me by the late Mr. Robert Campbell, locksmith, of 

 Brampton, who died in 1881, aged eighty three. He said that his 

 father, also named Robert, a native of Argyllshire, when but a lad, 

 joined the prince's army in Scotland ; accompanied it to Brampton 

 and Carlisle ; but left it at Penrith ; then went and lived several 

 years at Newcastle ; was there pressed into the Marines ; was 

 present at the taking of Quebec (1759); lived afterwards some 

 time at Annan ; and then took up his abode at Brampton, 



* I dont know whether it is owing to what I wrote some years ago, in our 

 "Archaeological Transactions" (vol. v, pp. 33-8), on "Robert Bowman's 

 supposed baptismal register", that to this day I receive letters bearing the 

 Carlisle postmark, and containing paragraphs, cut from newspapers, about 

 persons alleged to have died, or to be still living, over the age of a hundred 

 years. But, as I have never said, and do not believe, that no one ever reaches 

 that age, I am at a loss to conceive what purpose is sewed by sending me such 

 paragraphs ; for surely every case of alleged centenarianism must stand or fall 

 on its own ground, and can derive no support from any number of other cases. 



