294 THE UNBLAMEABLE SHEPHERD, PART VIII. 



bottom of the dale, all above being sheep-pasture, moors, 

 and rocks. At Grlendinning you seem to have got almost 

 to the world's end. There the road ceases, and above it 

 stretch trackless moors, the solitude of which is only 

 broken by the wimpling sound of the burns on their way 

 to the valley below, the hum of bees gathering honey 

 among the heather, the whirr of a blackcock on the 

 wing, the plaintive cry of the ewes at lambing-time, or 

 the sharp bark of the shepherd's dog gathering the flock 

 together for the fauld. 



In this cottage on the knoll Thomas Telford was born 

 on the 9th of August, 1757, and before the year was 

 out he was already an orphan. The shepherd, his 

 father, died in the month of November, and was buried 

 in Westerkirk churchyard, leaving behind him his widow 

 and her only child altogether unprovided for. We may 

 here mention that one of the first things which that 

 child did, when he had grown up to manhood and could 

 " cut a headstone," was to erect one with the following 

 inscription, hewn and lettered by himself, over his 

 father's grave : 



" IN MEMOKY OF JOHN TELFORD, WHO, AFTER LIVING 33 YEARS AN 

 UNBLAMEABLE SHEPHERD, DIED AT GLENDINNING, NOVEMBER, 1757", 



a simple but poetical epitaph, which Wordsworth himself 

 might have written. 



The widow had a long and hard struggle with the 

 world before her ; but she encountered it bravely. She 

 had her boy to work for, and, destitute though she was, 

 she had him to educate. She was helped, as the poor so 

 often are, by those of her own condition, and there is no 

 sense of degradation in receiving such help. One of the 

 risks of benevolence is its tendency to lower the recipient 

 to the condition of an alms-taker. Doles from poors'- 

 boxes have this enfeebling effect ; but a poor neigh- 

 bour giving a destitute widow a help in her time of 

 need is felt to be a friendly act, and is alike elevating to 

 the character of both. Though misery such as is wit- 



