12 Transactions. 
When I visited the graveyard about five years ago, in the com- 
pany of the Rev. James Hutton, of Closeburn, I was taken to the 
stone, but was told that for some reason or other Mathieson’s 
representatives had put another stone upon the top of it, so that 
while I could see the sides of the stone, the inscription itself was 
no longer visible. Mathieson was seized by a party of dragoons 
and banished to New Carolina. Shortly after his arrival he 
managed to escape, but he had many adventures and much 
suffering to pass through before he got back to Closeburn, in the 
autumn of 1687. He survived his wanderings for many years 
and died October 1, 1709. Dr Simpson, of Sanquhar, says 
“there is a pretty large account of his sufferings and wanderings 
written by himself in the possession of a family in Galloway, but 
it is questionable if it can be recovered.” Dr Simpson does not 
seem to have known of the existence of a rare 18mo.. volume 
printed in Kilmarnock in 1806, for the non-hearer, John Calder- 
wood of Clanfin, entitled—‘ A Collection of Dying Testimonies 
of some Holy and Pious Christians, who lived in Scotland before, 
and since the Revolution.” It contains a Testimony by Mathie- 
son extending to eleven pages. It is very possible that this 
Testimony is the account to which Dr Simpson refers. Along 
with a great deal of testifying against what he regarded as evils 
of his time it gives a brief but vivid narrative of his sufferings. 
This rare volume did not escape the wide research of Lord 
Macaulay. In a note to the sixteenth chapter of his history he 
calls Mathieson’s Testimony ‘‘one of the most curious of the 
many curious papers written by the Covenanters.” 
In Dalgarnock Churchyard there is a stone to the memory of 
James Harkness, farmer in the east end of Closeburn. James 
Harkness was a man of unusual daring, and took a leading part 
in the deliberations of the Presbyterians of his district. He 
became a marked man, and found it prudent to retire to Ireland, 
then a place of refuge to Scotsmen, but after a short stay he 
returned to Scotland. Here he and some friends were captured 
by Claverhouse, and sent to Edinburgh for trial. They were 
imprisoned in Canongate jail, but on September 16, 1683, he and 
twenty-five others managed to escape. In reading the story of 
the escape as given by Wodrow [Book III., chapter vii., section 
2] it seems exceedingly like the work of a skilful and fearless 
man, suchas Harkness was. He afterwards planned and success- 
