46"S 



Here Holibie Hall boldly maintained his 



right, [jnight. 



'Gainst reif, plain force, armed wi' lawless 



Full thirty pleughs, harness'd in all their 



gear. 

 Could not his valiant noble heart make f tar ! 

 But wi' his sword he cut the foremost's 

 soam* [inen home A 



In two, and drove huith pleughs and pleugh- 

 — At a later period Henry Hall, of 

 Haiigh-liead, the lineal descendant of this 

 intrepid Moss-trooper, and the great 

 grandfatlier of the subject of our present 

 brief notice, performed as distinguished a 

 part in the stormy period in which he 

 lived, as had been done by liis heroic but 

 rude ancestor in earlier times. He took 

 an active and leading part in those strug- 

 gles for liberty of conscience which pre- 

 ceded and followed the restoration of 

 Charles II. After suffering great perse- 

 cution for his non-conformity, he retired 

 for a short time to the English border. 

 Returning to Scotland, when he deemed 

 the posture of affairs fitting for affording 

 aid to his covenanted brethren, he was 

 taken prisoner in his way to Pentland; 

 and, with some others of his party, con- 

 fined in Cessford-castle; from whence he 

 escaped by the connivance of his relative, 

 the Earl of Roxburgh, to whom this 

 strong-hold belonged, and once more 

 sought refuge in England. Here he 

 remained peaceably for three years, but 

 the unabated persecution in Scotland 

 Laving compelled many of his countrymen 

 to become refugees in Northumberland, 

 he engaged in an encounter with a Col. 

 Struthers, in defence of his friend Thomas 

 Ker, of Hayhope, whom that officer en- 

 deavoured to entrap as a non-conformist. 

 Compelled by this event to return to 

 Scotland, he signalized himself with the 

 ■warmest zeal in delence of the persecuted 

 cause, exhibiting, in every encounter 

 ■with the royal forces, the most undaunted 

 and persevering courage. At Ruther- 

 glen, Druniciog, Glascow, and Bothweil 

 Bridge, he performed prodigies of 

 valour. In this last action, which proved 

 so fatal to the covenanted cause, the im- 

 portant pass in the middle of the bridge 

 ■was defended by him and Hackston of 

 Rathillet, at the head of three hundred of 

 their chosen troops, to the last extremity. 

 Dissentions having, however, by that 

 time crept into the army of the Covenant, 

 these two intrepid leaders, denied re-in- 

 forcements, were compelled, in the end, 

 to yield to superior numbers, and to 

 * The iron links which fasten a yoke of 

 oxen to the plough. 



+ This inscription is given by Scott in 

 his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, with 

 the remark, that the stone is broken and 

 much defaced. Since he wrote, however, 

 a new one has been erected in its stead, 

 by one of Hobbie Hall's descendants, an 

 officer in the British navy. 



Dr. Robert Hall. [June 1, 



draw off" the shattered remains of their 

 force. After this defeat, so indefatigable 

 was the pursuit after Henry Hall, that he 

 was compelled to seek refuge in Holland, 

 where, however, he remained only a 

 short time, preferring rather to encounter 

 perils and hardships of every kind, in 

 what he deemed a righteous cause, than 

 supinely to sit down in the enjoyment of 

 case and tranquillity in a foreign land. 

 A few months after his return to Scot- 

 land, he was basely betrayed into the 

 hands of Governor Middleton, of Black- 

 ness-castle, by two of the reverend 

 blood-hounds of that day, the curates of 

 Borrowstounness and Carridden; and, 

 when attempting to make his escape, was 

 struck down by a miscreant of the name 

 of George, a waiter at the inn where he 

 was made prisoner. He never afterwards 

 recovered the power of speech, and died 

 on his way to Edinburgh, whence General 

 Dalziel, and a party of his troops, were 

 sent to conduct him. It should seem, 

 however, his estate was not forfeited, as 

 his descendants were suffered to remain 

 in undisturbed possession of the property. 

 It is the custom of some modern authors, 

 and especially of a popular novelist of 

 our own day, to sneer at the exertions 

 made by the covenanters in defence of 

 civil and religious liberty, and to take 

 advantage of some of their unimportant 

 or individual peculiarities, to represent 

 the whole sect as a baud of religious and 

 blood-thirsty fanatics. Even many sincere 

 protestants are not sufficiently thankful 

 for the blessings they now enjoy. The 

 greatest number of them do not seem 

 fully aware from what tyranny, from what 

 mental slavery, they have been rescued by 

 the firmness, the courage, and the blood, 

 of their ancestors. They enjoy the pre- 

 sent calm of religious toleration, unknow- 

 ing or regardless of the tempest which 

 dissipated the frightful and lowering 

 clouds of bigotry and superstition that 

 threatened to overwhelm the land; they 

 cherish not with sufficient reverence and 

 gratitude the memory of those daring and 

 magnanimous spirits who withstood the 

 buffettings of the storm ; and purchased, 

 at the expense of their ease, their pro- 

 perty, and even life itself, the peace and 

 security of their descendants. But, led 

 away by the subject, we have too long 

 deviated from the object of this notice. 

 It is a trite remark, that the lives of 

 literary or professional men afford but 

 few incidents worthy to be recorded by 

 the biographer. But surely, to trace the 

 means by which any individual has ac- 

 quired superior intellectual attainments, 

 must afford a far more pleasing and in- 

 structive lesson to mankind, than to fol- 

 low the statesman through the crooked 

 mazes of political intrigue, or to contem- 

 plate the warrior carrying death and 

 deA'astation among his fellow-meu. Dr. 



Hall 



