70 FRESH FIELDS 



can jist pent the bog \vi' yer ashbaket feet, for ye '11 

 pit nane o' yer glaur on ma door." But the paint- 

 ers have had their revenge at last, and their "glaur" 

 now covers the old man's tombstone. 



One day I visited a little overgrown cemetery 

 about a mile below the village, toward Kirtlebridge, 

 and saw many of the graves of the old stock of Car- 

 lyles, among them some of Carlyle's uncles. This 

 name occurs very often in those old cemeteries; 

 they were evidently a prolific and hardy race. The 

 name Thomas is a favorite one among them, inso- 

 much that I saw the graves and headstones of eight 

 Thomas Carlyles in the two graveyards. The old- 

 est Carlyle tomb I savv was that of one John Car- 

 lyle, who died in 1692. The inscription upon his 

 stone is as follows : 



"Heir Lyes John Carlyle of Penerssaughs, who 

 departed this life ye 17 of May 1692, and of age 

 72, and His Spouse Jannet Davidson, who de- 

 parted this life Febr. ye 7, 1708, and of age 73. 

 Erected by John, his son." 



The old sexton, whom I frequently saw in the 

 churchyard, lives in the Carlyle house. He knew 

 the family well, and had some amusing and charac- 

 teristic anecdotes to relate of Carlyle's father, the 

 redoubtable James, mainly illustrative of his blunt- 

 ness and plainness of speech. The sexton pointed 

 out, with evident pride, the few noted graves the 

 churchyard held ; that of the elder Peel being among 

 them. He spoke of many of the oldest graves as 

 "extinct;" nobody owned or claimed them; the 



