UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 ristides, jurist, was 
 ic county, Ga., Dec. 7, 
 English and Scotch de- 
 lisbet, was a physician 
 o afterward resided in 
 emigrated to Georgia 
 icanie a man of promi- 
 jars represented Greene 
 bly. In 1819 he re- 
 rpose of educating his 
 When the sou Eugen- 
 ne was sent to Powell- 
 ty, and at the age of 
 lomore class in South 
 S. C. The following 
 iss in Franklin college, 
 jraduated in 1821 with 
 fter leaving college he 
 Sfice of A. S. Clayton, 
 een mouths. He "then 
 took a regular course 
 law school of Judge 
 being still under age, 
 5 passage of an act of 
 
 the bar, and at once 
 n, Ga. At the age of 
 
 d had hardly reached 
 Tied. A few years of 
 
 extensive and increas- 
 
 this time Mr. Nisbet 
 orgia, were especially 
 etween the Troup and 
 
 the former represent- 
 latter the Federalists' 
 
 of Governor Troup. 
 
 1 elected to the house 
 assembly, where he 
 
 was returned to the 
 only one term. His 
 to "have been some of 
 i that body. In 1837 
 srress as a whig, serv- 
 1843, having been 
 
 re-elected at tne end of his term ; the fact of such a 
 re-election when his fellow party candidates were 
 defeated, is evidence of the high esteem in which he 
 was held by the people of the state. In politics, 
 while he was a strict const ructionist, so-called, he in 
 1840 supported William H. Harrison, and in 1844 
 Henry Clay. On leaving congress he resumed his 
 law practice, refusing renomination. When the 
 supreme court was organized, he was elected one of 
 its judges and was subsequently re-elected, sitting 
 on the supreme bench of Georgia for eight years. 
 It is stated that Judge Xisbet. drew the original 
 resolutions dissolving the connection of the state of 
 Georgia with the American Union, at the time of the 
 outbreak of the civil war. He was a member of the 
 Confederate provisional congress. Of positive char- 
 acter, he was, nevertheless, most gentle and kindly 
 in his manners both as a citizen and socially. For 
 forty years he was an elder in the Presbyterian 
 church. Judge Nisbet died in Macon, Ga., March 
 18, 1871.
 
 NISBET, Charles, first president of Dickinson 
 College (1785-1804), was born in Heddington, 
 Scotland, Jan. 21, 1736. He took the theological 
 course at the University of Edinburgh, was grad- 
 uated in 1760, and began immediately to preach. 
 His first charge was a Presbyterian church at 
 Montrose, and his eloquence soon gained him a 
 more than local reputation. During the war of the 
 revolution his sympathies were with the colonists, 
 which caused dissatisfaction among his people, 
 and gained him some obloquy. When Dickin- 
 son College, Carlisle, Pa., was 
 established in 1783, Dr. Nis- 
 bet was called to the presi- 
 dency. He landed in this 
 country in June, and was in- 
 , augurated July 4,1785. Some 
 Hd lb^ XW difficulty arising with the 
 ^ 3k 9 faculty in the conduct of af- 
 fairs, particularly in the ar- 
 rangement of the studies, he 
 resigned in 1786, but a recon- 
 ciliation being effected, he was 
 re-elected the same year, and 
 held the position up to the time 
 of his death. Dr. Nisbet was 
 a profound scholar, and be- 
 sides administering the affairs 
 of the college, delivered lec- 
 tures on systematic theology, philosophy, logic, and 
 belles-lettres. His works were published after his 
 death, and a memoir, by Dr. Samuel Miller, in 1840. 
 His library of rare and valuable books was presented 
 to Princeton Theological Seminarv. He died at 
 Carlisle, Pa...Jan.-4S. 1804.
 
 WILLIAM NISBET 
 
 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
 
 PROVIDENCE,
 
 My Pilgrimage, or Journey, 
 
 from 
 Infancy to Old Age^ 
 
 with 
 Sketches of Scenes by the Way. 
 
 WILLIAM NISBET.
 
 1816-1830. 
 
 I WAS born at St. Mary's Isle, near the ancient town or 
 burgh of Kirkcudbright, Scotland, July 21, 1816. 
 
 St. Mary's Isle, an island by nature, but made a peninsular 
 by art, is located in Loch Dee, or Kirkcudbright Bay. It is 
 about a mile and a half in length, and nearly half a mile in 
 breadth. The centre of the peninsular is about one mile from 
 Kirkcudbright. It is one of the most beautiful and roman- 
 tic spots any where to be found being finely diversified 
 with green fields and woods, beautiful gardens and pleasure 
 ' grounds. It is the property and residence of the family of 
 the Earls of Selkirk, a family of great wealth, noted for liber- 
 al ality and good taste. The fields and groves abound with wild 
 
 flowers, and are vocal with the songs of innumerable birds, 
 ^ while its rocky shores are the favorite resort of numerous 
 
 sea-fowl. It contains the remains of an ancient monastery, 
 M dedicated to the Virgin Mary, hence its name, together with 
 ~ m other relics of a past age. Stretching away to the southward 
 > of the isle, a fine prospect is presented of the ocean, the 
 
 * shipping in the bay, with its rocky headlands and the Ross 
 Isle at its mouth, and the Isle of Man in the far distance. To 
 
 . the eastward, across the bay, which is here from one to two 
 J miles in breadth, are seen wooded hills, fertile fields, farm and 
 '") cottage houses ; the sites and ruins of ancient churches and 
 ] forts, and steep rocks washed by the restless ocean's waves. 
 ~J Conspicuous among these objects rises Drummore Hill, the 
 Z Caerbantorigum of Ptolemy, the Roman historian and geog- 
 < rapher, the site of an ancient British city and fort which 
 defied the conquering legions of Rome. Many remains of 
 Roman camps and forts as well as those of the ancient inhab- 
 itants are also found in this district. The view from Drum- 
 5 

 
 more Hill is one of the finest in Britain, affording, on a clear 
 day, an extensive view of portions of the three kingdoms 
 England, Scotland and Ireland. Away to the northeast Ben 
 Carron rears his oft mist and snow capped head. 
 
 Turning to the westward, the same varied scenery meets 
 the eye. The opposite shore is nearer, more rocky and steep. 
 The remains of the ancient monastery of Senwick are seen 
 on a cliff near the sea. This monastery was pillaged by pirates 
 in ancient times. The pirate-ship was wrecked the same 
 night, on a sunken rock near by, and all the crew perished. 
 More to the southward lies Balmungan Bay, a safe retreat for 
 the storm-tossed bark ; the Ross shore, with its frowning 
 precipices, "where the sea-fowl hath her nest," the scene 
 of many a marine disaster and sad tale ; the hills of Borgue 
 and Twynholm, with Cairnsmore's blue mountain, far to the 
 westward, close up the view. To the northward is seen the 
 ancient steeple of Kirkcudbright, the church spire, the old 
 castle walls, and the tops of some of the houses peering 
 through the trees. Still farther beyond, the lovely vales of 
 Dee and Tarf rise in many a varied shape and size ; the 
 heather-covered hills and moors of Galloway, fraught with 
 legend and story, where many a hard and bloody battle was 
 fought to stay the hand of the tyrant and invader. Among 
 these hills and glens, in many a lonely grave, sleep the saint 
 and martyr, awaiting the sound of the last trumpet to call 
 them forth to a glorious resurrection. 
 
 This is a brief sketch of the scenery around my childhood's 
 home, from which I never strayed more than twenty miles 
 away, until I was nearly fourteen years of age. Many years 
 have passed away since I bade it farewell. Far have I wan- 
 dered since, and much have I seen, yet I have seen no place 
 so fair, no place so dear to me as the spot where I was born. 
 Sweet St. Mary's Isle ! my dreams, my thoughts are oft of thee 
 and the loved ones that dwelt in thy peaceful shade, in that 
 dear old ivy-covered cottage, with its flower beds, amid the 
 trees by the shore of the sea ! Methinks I see thee arrayed 
 in thy summer robes of green ; thy daisy-decked meadows 
 with cowslips, lily and rich hawthorn ; thy groves and woods 
 of spreading oak, elm and sycamore, bold larch and tall ash
 
 and pine ! Thy ancient chestnut trees, too, with apple and 
 pear, planted by pious monks of old ! There, in silent and 
 umbrageous retreat dwell the sweet violet, the wood-sorrel, 
 the primrose and harebell, with virgin's bower, ivy and wood- 
 bine. There, " courting more the bright orb of day," on the 
 dry sunny banks and braes that skirt the woodland and the 
 shore, grow the yellow broom and furze, the sloe, the wild 
 rose, the eglantine, thyme, the bluebell and heather ; while 
 sea-pink and lavender fringe the beach and rocky shore. All 
 radiant in beauty, breathing fragrance, speaking peace and 
 telling of the hand divine that formed them all. 
 
 I think I tread again thy shady woodland paths, or stray 
 along thy pebbly shore, or walk through thy blooming gardens 
 decked with flowers from many a clime, and orchards ladened 
 with choicest fruits. I think I see thy green grassy banks, 
 and clear crystal fountains, thy arbors, bowers and summer 
 seats, sacred to meditation, friendship and love ! 
 
 And the birds ! Ah, I love to think of them, their nests, 
 their gleesome song and play, so bright, so free and gay. The 
 early lark, the mellow-songed mavis, or thrush, the clear- 
 toned blackbird, the warbling linnet and bullfinch, the little 
 wren, the sprightly goldfinch and sweet robin, the mournful 
 cooing dove and strange cuckoo, and all the other feathered 
 array that lit up the fields and groves with music and song. 
 And I love to think of the wilder denizens of the sandy beach, 
 the rocks, the islets and the sea, brave gull, the great diver, 
 the light-winged sea-mew, the kittywake and stormy petrel, 
 the wild duck, teal and gannet, the queer auk, the stately 
 heron, the light-tripping sandpiper, snipe and plover ; the cun- 
 ning lapwing and shy curlew, and all that scream and soar and 
 pipe and dance to the music of the dashing wave. 
 
 What a scene of beauty and song thou wert to me, O fair 
 isle, in those bright summer days and calm, peaceful soul- 
 soothing evenings ! If the mind can feel such real delight in 
 beholding and musing upon the works of nature in this world 
 of sin and sorrow, how great must be the happiness of those 
 who shall dwell in the paradise of God forever ? That new 
 heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
 
 In the scowling days of winter, when the wild winds were
 
 8 
 
 raving and the ocean had awoke in his majesty, what scenes 
 sublime and terrific have I viewed, when sheltered by some 
 rock, by the brink of the sea, listening to the thunder of the 
 waves as in anger they lashed the rocky and opposing shore, 
 strewing the beach, as if in triumph, with many a fragment 
 of doomed ships, and at times, too, with the ghastly bodies of 
 the hapless crews. 
 
 O, ocean ! do I not know that thou art unmerciful, treach- 
 erous and cruel? How many of those I have known and 
 loved hast thou not swallowed down thy remorseless jaws and 
 in thy caverns deep has sought to hide them away ! Thou 
 hast my brother, a brave and noble youth, and bosom com- 
 panions not a few. But, oh ! thou wasting, destroying sea, a 
 voice shall yet sound in thine ear, and the dead in thee thou 
 shalt give up, and thou thyself shalt pass away and be found 
 no more ! 
 
 Familiar to my ear were the sounds of the dashing wave 
 and the wild scream of the sea-fowl. It was music to my soul. 
 Would I could hear it again and feel the same emotions. Oft 
 with straining eye and anxious heart have I watched the dis- 
 tant storm-stressed bark, as the shades of the wintry evening 
 were closing in the day, midst howling winds, flying clouds 
 and dashing spray, toiling and striving to make the much- 
 desired haven ; approaching nearer and nearer, until I could 
 count her masts and the number of her reefed and torn sails 
 and see the movements of her gallant but wearied crew, until 
 at last in thickening darkness I could hear the rattling of her 
 chain cables and see her tall form swing to under the lee of 
 our sheltering isle, proclaiming the anchor was cast, the danger 
 over and that sound would be the sleep that night of these 
 wanderers of the briny deep. 
 
 What reminiscences of thee, loved isle, can I not still call 
 forth ! Long separated and far distant from thee though I 
 be, and from loved parents, kind brothers, gentle sisters, dear 
 friends and companions how oft I think of you ! you who 
 still sojourn on earth. "Do you now and then send a wish or 
 a thought after me ?" How bright our evening fire did burn ; 
 how happy the hearts and glad the faces that gathered around 
 that hearth and sat around our goodly table. There kind
 
 friends and neighbors often came ; music and song arose ; the 
 story and the tale of other years was told ; there, too, the 
 thrifty needle was plied, and often was read the sacred and 
 the historic page ; there, merry childhood's laugh was heard, 
 and bright youths' noisome glee, a mother's loving voice, and 
 a father's counsel wise and grave. Long ago he left that 
 house, I doubt not, for "one eternal and on high" My mother, 
 too, has joined him ; there, too, have gone brothers and sis- 
 ters, who like them "were obedient to the faith" and "fell 
 asleep in Jesus." 
 
 Goodly and fair wert thou, O home of childhood and youth. 
 Nought shall e'er efface thee from my memory, but thou 
 canst be my home no more. With all of earth thou shalt pass 
 away. Its Maker has declared, " The earth and the works 
 that are therein, shall be burnt up." Changed and purified, 
 but not annihilated, I believe. But He who can make all things 
 new, will rear instead a glorious fabric, where sin and pain, 
 sorrow and death shall never enter. There, "The tabernacle 
 of God shall be with men, and He will dwell with them, and 
 they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, 
 and be their God ; and God shall wipe away all tears from 
 their eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow 
 nor crying ; neither shall there be any more pain, for the for- 
 mer things are passed away." There death-divided friends 
 shall meet to part no more, but " shall be forever with the 
 Lord." Towards this better land, this abiding home, my hopes 
 arise, my desires cling and my efforts strive. 
 
 LINES* 
 
 COMPOSED UPON SEEING AN ENGRAVED VIEW OF KIRKCUDBRIGHT 
 AND VICINITY, PUBLISHED BY J. NICHOLSON. 
 
 Thou dearest spot on earth to me, 
 Thou sylvan islet of the Dee, 
 My native home Saint Mary's Isle 
 Where nature's beauties ever smile, 
 Methinks I see thy face once more, 
 I trace thy rocky winding shore, 
 And view thy fields and groves of song 
 I've loved so well and missed so long. 
 
 'Published in the Kirkcudbright Steiuartry Times, Scotland, Nov. az, 1861
 
 10 
 
 Ah ! there's the tree I loved to climb 
 With joyful heart and pliant limb, 
 My flag to wave, and take survey 
 Of hill and valley, sea and bay. 
 There is the beach where oft I've bathed 
 And launched my skiff, by fear unscathed, 
 To bait my lines with cunning care, 
 Or, sly, the wild sea fowl to snare. 
 Around that hill, amidst these trees, 
 Where softly blows the fresh sea breeze, 
 There stands the cot where I was born, 
 Fair shrubs and flowers the spot adorn, 
 The honey suckle drapes the door, 
 And ivy wraps its walls all o'er ; 
 The robin there finds safe retreat, 
 The thrush and linnet warble sweet; 
 Brothers and sisters there did play, 
 Our home it was for many a day ; 
 A full and happy band were we, 
 Alive with health and life and glee ; 
 Our parents, wise and good and kind, 
 Our duty taught us well to mind ; 
 While fostering and gentle lay 
 Our own loved chieftain's kindly sway. 
 (Thou house of Douglas noble line ! 
 May fortune's favors still be thine.) 
 Our home we loved but, ah ! its light 
 Went out one sad and doleful night ; 
 Our father, long our childhood's guide, 
 Left us and then we scattered wide, 
 In other lands found homes, found graves, 
 One sleeps beneath the ocean's waves ; 
 Their memory oft I still recall, 
 For dear to me were one and all. 
 
 Upon that farthest point of rocks, 
 That stoutly braves the sea's rude shocks, 
 I've often stood and fixed my eye 
 On gallant ships swift sailing by, 
 And longing, waited for the times 
 When I should visit distant climes. 
 The time did come. I mind the day 
 When first from home I sailed away. 
 Of many lands, much have I seen, 
 But happier never have I been 
 Than when I strolled by thy fair strand, 
 In thee, "my own, my native land."
 
 II 
 
 I've roamed all o'er these rugged shores 
 Wild Ross and Borgue, and rocky Torrs ; 
 I've climbed Drummore camp's lofty steep, 
 And Raeb'ry that o'erhangs the deep. 
 That lonesome island's beetling crags 
 I've searched them well for sea-bird's eggs. 
 Yes ! every hill and moor and vale, 
 For me, hath both a name and tale. 
 The martyr's lonely grave is there ; 
 The ancient towers with walls all bare ; 
 The battle-fields where heroes fought, 
 Oppression stayed and freedom bought, 
 For Roman, Saxon, Norman, Dane, 
 All strove these goodly hills to gain ; 
 But our bold sires maintained the place, 
 And brave and free yet is their race. 
 Full many a tale the aged tell 
 Of fates that lovers fond befell, 
 Of haunted glens, of shipwrecks dire, 
 As they sit round the evening fire. 
 
 Thou ancient town of worthy fame ! 
 I see thee as thou wert the same ! 
 Thy castle's wall, thy tall church spires, 
 The thoughts of these my bosom fires ; 
 Well known to me 's each pleasant street 
 Were I at thee, friends would I meet 
 Like mariners of thine who roam, 
 I still call thy dear site my home. 
 By river side at close of day, 
 I used to take my flute and play ; 
 When hours of school or toil were past 
 With kindred minds I felt quite blest. 
 The very school I can discern, 
 Where lessons I did daily learn ; 
 Where now 's the joyful company 
 That once met there in revelry ? 
 Dear comrades, ever brave and true, 
 What is the tale and fate of you? 
 O, that some kind one would me tell 
 Aught of the friends I loved so well. 
 
 The picture now I'll lay aside, 
 And from the vision I will hide ; 
 My heart with memories is so full, 
 My feelings I can scarce control. 
 Of early homes and friends bereft 
 Yet, for me one bright hope is left
 
 12 
 
 Of home and happy friends above, 
 
 Where reigns pure peace, with joy and love. 
 
 To that fair land beyond the skies, 
 
 I'll raise my hopes and lift my eyes, 
 
 For earthly scenes fast fade away, 
 
 Then night gives place to endless day. 
 
 WILLIAM NISBET. 
 MILLVILLE, MASS., 1861. 
 
 My parents were James Nisbet and Helen Nicol. My fa- 
 ther was bred to the business of gardening, in which, as well 
 as in a knowledge of botany, he attained great proficiency. In 
 the capacity of gardener, as well as that of forester and land 
 steward in connection with St. Mary's Isle, he was employed 
 by the proprietors. This respectable and comfortable situation 
 he held at the time of his death, having faithfully fulfilled it 
 during the long period of thirty-three years. His father was 
 a native of Haddingtonshire and died in the town of Hadding- 
 ton at a very advanced age, in which place he taught a school. 
 He was much respected and bore a very excellent Christian 
 character. My mother's father was John Nicol, gardener at 
 Raith, near Kirkcaldie. He was author of several religious 
 pamphlets, and pastor of a Berean church, a branch of ortho- 
 dox Congregationalists, and father of the well-known horti- 
 cultural author, Walter Nicol. Our family, by my father's 
 side, are of an ancient and honorable stock, the Nisbets of 
 Nisbet, or "Nisbet of that ilk." The name, like most ancient 
 ones, is local, from their lands of Nisbet in the county of Ber- 
 wick, where the site or ruins of the old family castle is still 
 said to be pointed out. These lands were possessed by one 
 Phillip, about the time when surnames were commonly 
 adopted. In the reign of King David the First, of Scotland, 
 he was a witness to a deed of land granted by that king to 
 the monks of Coldingham, in which he signs his name 
 "Phillip De Nesbyth." This grant of land was made about 
 the year 1124. His descendants afterwards signed their 
 names, as in the days of Wallace and Bruce, "De Nisbet," and 
 latterly, "Nisbet." This Phillip had four sons, who founded 
 four branches or houses of the name. Our family believe them-
 
 13 
 
 selves to be of the Dirleton branch, in Haddingtonshire. Many 
 of the name and family of Nisbet rendered good service to 
 their country in ancient times, for which, several of them re- 
 ceived public honors, rewards and knighthood. They joined 
 the standard of Wallace and Bruce and fought in the great 
 and decisive battle of Bannockburn. To this day they have 
 traditions of this, and pride themselves not a little upon the 
 fact as I well know. They fought also among the Crusaders 
 to recover Palestine from the Saracens. 
 
 Some of the name professed and suffered for "the faith 
 once delivered to the saints," before the advent of Luther 
 or Knox, and one of them, Murdock Nisbet, possessed a copy 
 of the New Testament, written by his own hand in a cave. 
 The original copy I believe belonged to some of the persecuted 
 Waldenses who settled in Scotland many centuries ago. Not 
 a few of them found martyrs' graves during the awful perse- 
 cution in the seventeenth century. I learn these facts from 
 "Nisbet's Book of Heraldry," the "Scot's Worthies," and 
 other written and traditional sources. 
 
 The people of Scotland have a considerable amount of pride of 
 ancestry. In some instances, doubtless, this is carried too far. I know 
 I have had a good deal of this myself ; indeed, too much. But as I grow 
 in years I view such matters in a very different light. I doubt not we 
 are descended from a good stock, but we need not make much account 
 of this farther than by way of a little historic interest. We cannot trace all 
 the connecting links very far back with unerring certainty. Let us ever 
 remember that the greatest honor, the highest privilege and blessing is to 
 be Children of God thro' faith in Christ Jesus ; compared to which, all 
 such matters are less than nothing and vanity. Had I to write this story 
 of my life, as well as other things I have written, over again, I would try 
 and do it in a better manner, although I have done the best I could, and 
 have written all truthfully and honestly, and with the best of motives. 
 
 WILLIAM NISBET, 
 
 May 9, 1881. 
 
 I know very little of the history of our family by my 
 mother's side, except that her relatives were very respectable 
 people. The well-known Professor William Nicol, of Edin- 
 burgh, was her cousin. I believe she was related to the 
 Warrender family of Lochend, in Haddingtonshire. I have
 
 14 
 
 been told her grandmother or great-grandmother was a 
 daughter of Sir George Warrender, and that having con- 
 tracted a marriage with a person of lower degree, although 
 of good character, she was, in a measure, discarded by her 
 relatives. 
 
 The following narrative is a copy of an account written by my eldest 
 brother, James, in 1843, and now in the possesson of his son John : 
 
 About the year 1718 a daughter of Sir George Warrender, Baronet of 
 Lochend, became enamored of a baker in Edinburgh, of the name of Sam- 
 uel, whom she subsequently married against the remonstrances of her 
 friends. Samuel was a remarkably handsome man, of good character, 
 and wealthy, and after some time the Warrenders became reconciled to 
 the marriage. After Mr. Samuel's death his widow married his foreman, 
 who proved a dissipated spendthrift. This marriage so displeased her 
 friends that they ceased to countenance her. She had two children by 
 Mr. Samuel, a boy and a girl. The boy took his mother's marriage and 
 the conduct of his stepfather so much to heart that he secretly left home 
 and was never again heard from. The daughter married a Mr. Nicol, 
 said to have been " in the farming line from the South country." Mr. 
 Nicol died before his wife, leaving two sons. The eldest was the father 
 of the late Professor William Nicol and his sister, Miss Nicol, of Edin- 
 burgh. The other was my grandfather, John Nicol. The boys might 
 have been educated at the well-known and ancient " Heriot's Hospital " 
 in Edinburgh, thus showing that their father must have been a respect- 
 able and reputable man. But their mother was too proud of her descent 
 to consent to this, and so educated them at her own expense. They were 
 both of them able and good men, my grandfather being notably so. 
 
 The present representative of the family is still (1878) a Sir George 
 Warrender, who possesses large landed estates in Haddingtonshire, or 
 East Lothian, as it is often called. Bruntsfield house in Bruntsfield Links, 
 Edinburgh, belongs to him, being his city residence. It was built in the 
 year 1605, and was doubtless the residence of the family at the time the 
 lady chose to ally herself with the handsome baker, as Mr. Samuel was 
 generally called.* My brother James says in his narrative : " I remem- 
 ber having heard a curious legend of a chamber in this house, which had 
 been shut up for a hundred years, having been opened up again some 
 twenty years ago. I recently visited it. The person who showed it to 
 me says it is still called the ' ghost room.' The history of it is detailed 
 in some of Sir Walter Scott's novels. My mother, who has seen her 
 grandmother, says she lived in the Cannongate, Edinburgh, and died at 
 a very advanced age, about the year 1793. She is described as a very 
 
 * Sir George Warrender was Lord Provost of Edinburgh during the troublous times of the 
 Stuarts, and rendered most valuable service to the government, the present Dynasty.
 
 15 
 
 lively, high-spirited old lady. Miss Nicol says her father resided upon 
 the property of Lochend, and she and her brother were born there. I 
 think it probable my grandfather must also have resided upon the prop- 
 erty, my mother being born, as she told me, in East Lothian. Whether 
 the Warrenders ever acknowledged the connection, I know not." From 
 this it would appear the Warrenders did not entirely ignore this branch 
 of their family. Mr. Nicol being an agriculturist, very probably was em- 
 ployed as some kind of manager on the estate, or may have held a farm 
 on it. The above-mentioned Miss Nicol and her brother were very inti- 
 mate with my brother and his wife, as well as acquainted with and on 
 good terms with all our family. She was well acquainted with her grand- 
 mother, from whom she learned the above particulars. The old lady made 
 her presents of various articles ; among others, a very remarkable pair of 
 sheets, nearly two hundred years old, which she said she would bequeath 
 to my brother James's wife. 
 
 From the above account it would appear that I am a lineal descendant 
 of the Sir George Warrender whose daughter married the " handsome 
 baker." I have been told that the above singular marriage, with its at- 
 tendant circumstances, forms, in some shape or other, the subject of one 
 of " Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland." I would not like to 
 vouch for the certainty of this. 
 
 When I lived in Edinburgh in 1835, I had some acquaintance with a 
 very respectable family of the name of Samuel, the head of which, a 
 venerable old gentleman, carried on, I think, an extensive business as a 
 candle-maker. As the name is very rare in Scotland, never having known 
 another family of the name, it is possible they were relatives of my ances- 
 tor of that name. 
 
 Lochend house and the adjoining landed estates of the ancient, honor- 
 able and wealthy family of Warrender in Haddingtonshire, in the south- 
 east of Scotland, I know very well, having lived two years in that neigh- 
 borhood. I also know Bruntsfield house. It is a large, antiquated, 
 gloomy-looking edifice, surrounded by a high wall with iron gates, the 
 house being nearly hidden by old trees. It stands near the Nunnery on 
 the verge of the " Links," and is well known to the people of Edinburgh. 
 The " Links," with the adjoining "meadows," form a very extensive and 
 ancient public park. Professor Nicol, who was never married, died in the 
 year 1851. Harper's Magazine of that year gave a lengthened account 
 of him, which I have cut out and elsewhere preserved. Independent of 
 every thing else, he is and will ever be known to the scientific world as 
 the "inventor of the single image prism of calcareous spar" known as 
 " Nicol's prism." He left quite a sum of money to my brother James's 
 family. His sister, too, Miss Nicol, has long since passed away. 
 She acted as her brother's housekeeper. In early life she was betrothed 
 to a young officer in the army, who was killed in battle. Although she 
 had subsequent offers of marriage, for his sake she lived and died single. 
 She was a very intelligent, kind, dignified, silent, sort of a lady. My 
 cousin, John Nicol, son of my mother's brother John, died during the
 
 i6 
 
 present year. He was formerly a well-known Edinburgh builder and 
 architect, who finished Sir Walter Scott's monument in that city. He 
 left no children. He lost the wife of his youth in early life, and for her 
 sake, it is said, never married again. With him have gone the last, I 
 believe, of the name of Nicol, who are relatives of mine. They were all 
 of them a good and talented race. 
 
 My maternal grandmother was Margaret Welsh, a most excellent 
 Christian woman, daughter of Robert A. Welsh, farmer of Ladykirk, in 
 Berwickshire. She, with her beloved consort by her side, and several of 
 my uncles and aunts are buried in Abbotshall churchyard, Kirkcaldy ; 
 my father and brother Robert, in the old churchyard of Kirkcudbright. 
 My mother and five sisters sleep in the Sight Cemetery at Glasgow. 
 The rest of that bright band " lie scattered now far and wide, by mount 
 and stream and sea." All but me alone, still lingering here, waiting, 
 patient, the sweet hour of rest. 
 
 " A few short hours of evil past, 
 
 We reach the happy shore 
 Where death-divided friends at last 
 Shall meet to part no more ! " 
 
 Brother James is buried in Calton Hill Cemetery, Edinburgh ; John, at 
 Caledon, Tyrone, Ireland; Henry, at Tobermory, Isle of Mull; Isabella, 
 in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh; Douglas, "midst forests of the 
 West," at Cheraw, South Carolina. Walter "lies where pearls lie 
 deep," in the bosom of the dark, blue sea. And I (shall I say it?) hope, 
 when my earthly race is run and my warfare over, to lay me down to rest 
 on the brow of the hill that greets the first rays of the rising sun, by the 
 brink of the placid waters of the fair Seekonk, where the flowers will 
 bloom, the pine trees wave, and the birds sing sweetly over my peaceful 
 bed. 
 
 WILLIAM NISBET, 
 
 December 9, 1878. 
 
 My parents were both religious people, very strict and 
 exemplary in all their conduct, and were members of the 
 Presbyterian church. They possessed a degree of intelligence 
 and mental culture seldom found in people of their humble 
 sphere of life. Their great aim was to bring their family up 
 in the fear of God and give them a good education. 
 
 There were seven sons and six daughters, all of whom 
 grew to maturity. There names were : James, an attorney, 
 who died in Edinburgh in 1849, leaving several children ; 
 John, who was gardener and land steward to the Earl of 
 Caledon, at Caledon, Ireland, where he died in 1831, leaving
 
 I? 
 
 a daughter, who is now in Ray County, in the State of Mis- 
 souri, with her mother, who married a Mr. Oliphant ; Marga- 
 ret, a dressmaker, who died in Glasgow in 1854; Walter, a 
 sailor, who perished with the ill-fated New York and Liver- 
 pool packet-ship Pennsylvania, along with about one hundred 
 of her passengers and crew, near Liverpool, in the terrific 
 January gale of 1839; Robert, a gardener, who died at Saint 
 Mary's Isle in 1830; Henry, an attorney and banker in 
 Tobermory, Isle of Mull ; Helen, now Mrs. Hamilton, of Glas- 
 gow ; Isabella, now Mrs. Wilson, of Edinburgh ; myself ; 
 Jane Wedderburn, a teacher, who died in Glasgow in 1855 ; 
 Elizabeth Catherine, a dressmaker, who died in Glasgow in 
 1855; Douglas, a book-keeper in Charleston, S. C. ; Mary 
 Anna, now Mrs. Fergusson, of Glasgow. All I shall say of 
 these, and I am happy to be able to say it, is, that none of 
 them have brought any reproach upon the good name of their 
 parents. 
 
 I was early taught to read by my mother, and when about 
 six years of age was sent to a " dame's school " in the town of 
 Kirkcudbright ; shortly after, like all my brothers and sisters, 
 I was sent to the excellent academy in that place, about a 
 mile and a half from my father's house. It was a most pleas- 
 ant walk, the way being partly along the seashore and through 
 green fields and woods. Here in common with all my broth- 
 ers, in addition to the ordinary branches of an English edu- 
 cation, I received some knowledge of Latin and Greek. I was 
 by no means a diligent scholar, being far too fond of play and 
 reading other books than those prescribed by my teachers. 
 In vacation times and before and after school hours, I was 
 wont to help my father in the gardens in gathering fruit and 
 other kinds of work. At this time, during the minority of 
 the Earl of Selkirk, my father had the produce of the gardens 
 instead of a fixed salary. I was fond of straying along the 
 shores of the isle, as well as those of the bay and beyond its 
 mouth, picking up fragments of wreck, watching the waves, 
 the sea-fowl and the ships ; or wandering through the woods 
 after flowers and birds' nests. In the early days of childhood 
 the isle seemed a world in itself to me. I used to wonder 
 what lay beyond the hills that surrounded each side of the
 
 i8 
 
 bay ; or far away out to sea where there was naught but water 
 and sky. As I grew older I became more venturesome and 
 built a rough boat and paddled along the shore, or farther out 
 among the isolated rocks, setting my lines for fish or traps for 
 sea-fowl, at which I became quite expert. I learned to pre- 
 serve and stuff the skins of birds, and securing a work on 
 Ornithology, I studied it eagerly and knew the names, the 
 classes and orders of birds very well, together with their 
 habits, places of nativity and resort. This was far more con- 
 genial to my taste than studying Latin and Greek lessons. 
 
 Twice I was boatwrecked and in danger of being drowned. 
 Often did I form one of a party of boys who for a whole day 
 would stroll many miles away along the rough shores of the 
 Solway Firth, visiting its resounding caves and scenes of 
 shipwreck, kindling our fire and cooking our potatoes and 
 shell-fish. There was one cave of frequent resort, I remem- 
 ber well, "The Torrs Cave," or "Dirk Hatteraick's Cave," 
 under which name it figures in Sir Walter Scott's tale of 
 "Guy Mannering." It was here "the bold smugglers fell," 
 fighting with the king's officers. When we heard of a ship- 
 wreck, no matter what the distance, we hurried to the scene, 
 and sad sights we sometimes saw. Other times we would 
 man a boat and go far outside the bay, on the open sea out- 
 side the Ross, as we termed it, and fished, or climbed the 
 steep crags on the island of that name or those of the big 
 Ross, the adjoining promontory, in search of eggs or young 
 sea-fowl, or shot the fowl from the boat as they perched on 
 the cliffs or flew high over our heads. Gathering the sam- 
 phire plant for pickling, which grew plentifully among these 
 precipices, was another of our feats. Such pursuits are not 
 unattended with danger in these places, life being occasion- 
 ally the forfeit of too much temerity and daring. Swimming 
 across the Dee at high water and back again, at the point of 
 Castle Dykes, a little below the town of Kirkcudbright, was 
 the great ambition of the boyish swimmer in those days. This 
 at last, I accomplished with ease. 
 
 The great yearly fair of Keltonhill, held in the month of 
 June, on the hill of that name, some eight or nine miles north 
 of Kirkcudbright, was another great scene of attraction,
 
 19 
 
 eagerly looked forward to and talked about for months before- 
 hand and sure to be duly and regularly attended by all the 
 ambitious and high-spirited youths of the whole neighbor- 
 hood. There, thousands of sheep, horses and cattle of all 
 kinds were brought and exposed for sale, together with all 
 manner of merchandise. There, caravans and shows of wild 
 beasts and all sorts of curiosities were to be seen for a few 
 pennies. Music, song and minstrelsy of every kind and de- 
 gree of excellency was to be heard ; the whole in striking 
 contrast to the usual still quietness and seclusion of the dis- 
 trict. 
 
 I remember, too, the times when a band of us boys would 
 wander far over the hills in every direction, visiting old ruined 
 castles and monasteries and churchyards (the Scottish boy 
 is taught to visit and revere the graves of his fathers), sites 
 and remains of Roman camps and forts, and the strange 
 mounds of earthwork, forts constructed by the ancient inhab- 
 itants, it is supposed, no one knows how many long ages ago ; 
 the martyrs' graves, the spirit-haunted glen, or ford or bridge, 
 the battle-field and other spots famed in legend and story, 
 such as Threaves castle, the ancient stronghold of the fierce 
 Douglases, Dundrennan Abbey, where Mary Queen of Scots 
 found refuge after the battle of Langside ; here she spent her 
 last night in Scotland before sailing from the little creek 
 near by, which still retains the name of Port Mary, for the 
 shores of her faithless and cruel cousin. 
 
 How we used to talk of the valor of our ancestors, and the 
 glorious deeds of Wallace, Douglas and Bruce, and wish we 
 were old enough to be soldiers ; and then we would form into 
 battle array and rush up some steep hill, such as Raeberry or 
 Kirkeoch, to capture some imaginary fort, or file off in two 
 parties and act the battle of Bannockburn or Chevy Chase, 
 or march through some little hamlet with our fife playing and 
 colors flying as pleased and as proud as warriors fresh from the 
 field of glory. Nearly all the boys who were of this roving 
 and enthusiastic disposition became either sailors or soldiers 
 as a consequence. Many of them have long since found a 
 watery or a bloody grave on the stormy ocean or deadly field 
 of strife. How probable at one time did it not appear that
 
 20 
 
 such might be my fate too. More than once when a sea-boy 
 I was on the brink of it, but God interposed, praised be his 
 Name ! Many of these dear companions who have met such 
 fates were noble boys indeed generous, kind, guileless and 
 unselfish, hardy and brave. Thus they perished far from 
 home and friends and the loved scenes of their youth. Al- 
 ready their names except in the memories of some few loving 
 ones are unknown and forgotten. O, how I should rejoice to 
 know their names were written in the "book of life." A few 
 years ago, when my brother Douglas was about to visit Kirk- 
 cudbright, I wrote down a list of my former friends and 
 companions, and requested him to enquire concerning their 
 fate. I was filled with astonishment and sorrow, when he 
 handed me the list, upon his return, with each one's brief 
 story noted down opposite the name I had written. I learned 
 that more than three-fourths of those of equal years with me, 
 were no more. Hardly any of them died in their native land, 
 and all under forty years of age. Truly, life is "a vapour that 
 appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away." 
 
 The first shipwreck I remember, made a vivid and lasting 
 impression upon my mind. It occurred in the year 1822, at 
 the close of a cold blustering day in March. The wind began 
 to blow a fearful hurricane great guns the sailors say. Five 
 strange vessels, the brigs Joshua, Mary Isabella, Falcon, Dido 
 and sloop Wellington, in running for shelter to the lake, the 
 anchorage ground on the eastern shore of the bay, were driven 
 upon the dangerous sandbar to the westward. The Joshua, a 
 large and fine vessel, went to pieces soon after she struck, 
 and with her perished the entire crew. The Mary Isabella 
 drove over the bar but sank in deep water. One man sought 
 refuge on the foremast, while Captain Ormsbee and the rest 
 of his crew, seven in number, took to the mainmast, which 
 was soon carried away, and all that clung to it sank to rise no 
 more with life. The man on the foremast was rescued by a 
 lifeboat, the next morning, in an almost lifeless condition. 
 The Falcon drifted to the western shore of the isle, where 
 she went down with several of the crew. The rest of them 
 fled to the rigging with the little cabin-boy, who had just 
 commenced his first voyage. He became delirious, calling
 
 21 
 
 continually for his mother, and had to be lashed to the 
 shrouds. In the morning they were taken off by the lifeboat. 
 The little boy was still alive, and was carried to my father's 
 house, and although his body was still warm, every effort 
 failed to revive him. The Dido went to pieces on the rocks, 
 off the Inch, a small wooded islet at the point of the isle. The 
 crew fortunately took to their boats in time and were all 
 saved. Attracted by the lights kept purposely burning in our 
 windows, they found shelter in our house. The Wellington 
 was driven upon the Queen of Sardinia's rock, on the east of 
 the isle, so called from a ship having a Queen of Sardinia on 
 board, being wrecked there long ago. My father sought the 
 nearest possible position to the sloop, and by his shouts and 
 signs induced the crew to take to their boat, and steering 
 through the proper channel among the rocks, they reached 
 the shore in safety. I have still a vivid recollection of the 
 scene. In the evening, about dusk, a workman came into my 
 father's house and reported that a number of vessels were on 
 the bar. We all hurried out to the shore a few hundred yards 
 off, where we stood holding on to the trees and bushes to 
 bear us up against the fierce wind, while we gazed in pity and 
 agony of mind at the doomed ships and thought of their hap- 
 less crews. Later in the evening we were gladdened by the 
 sight of the crew of the Wellington reaching the shore. After 
 this I was sent to bed, but was awakened by the shouts and 
 hoarse voices of the crew of the Dido seeking shelter. They 
 reached the house quite exhausted, having saved nothing ex- 
 cept the clothes they wore. Immediately every thing in the 
 house was at their service and every one ready to help them. 
 Food, clothes and beds were got ready for them. Loudly and 
 fervently they expressed their gratitude at their escape and 
 for our kindness, and their great sympathy and anxiety for the 
 crews of the other vessels. One of them, Tingley by name, 
 an Englishman, never forgot our kindness. Several times in 
 after years he visited us, always bringing some token of re- 
 membrance from distant parts, shells or other curiosities for 
 my mother and an orange-tree cane or something else for my 
 father. 
 
 A little after daylight, the crew of the lifeboat came with
 
 22 
 
 the little sailor-boy from the Falcon. One of the men had 
 stripped the clothes from off his own back and put them on 
 the boy, and secured by straps and covered with the coats of 
 the men, he was carried from the boat and brought into the 
 house. A surgeon from the town was in attendance, who had 
 him laid in warm woolen blankets. He was rubbed all over 
 with warm cloths. Bottles of hot water were applied to his 
 feet and other parts of his body and every thing done to re- 
 suscitate him, but it was all in vain. His spirit could no 
 longer stay ! I remember the anxiety of every one for the 
 boy, especially of my mother. He was a pretty boy with beau- 
 tiful flaxen hair in long curling ringlets. I remember my 
 mother cut off some of them to keep for his relatives and then 
 they laid him away in the old churchyard. Some weeks after- 
 wards, his widowed mother came all the way from England to 
 see his grave. I remember how sad she was. How every- 
 body pitied her and was kind to her and how highly she 
 prized the locks of hair my mother gave her. 
 
 I remember the scene of devastation the surrounding shores 
 presented the day after the wreck. Fragments of boards, 
 planks and timbers of every description, masts and yards, 
 sails and rigging, boxes and bales, provisions and clothing, 
 strewed everywhere, mixed and tangled together. I remember 
 how the people turned out to search for the bodies of the poor 
 seamen and secure the wrecked property from the further 
 ravages of the sea. Not an article was known to be stolen or 
 wrongfully appropriated. All was consigned to the custody 
 of the proper officers and magistrates for behoof of the law- 
 ful owners. I remember, too, how the poor sailor saved from 
 the Mary Isabella searched the shores for many a day for the 
 body of his kind captain, until it was found. And I recollect 
 some words of the mournful song which a local poet composed 
 upon the sad catastrophe. Truly, then, "there was sorrow 
 on the sea." There is something peculiarly sad and affecting 
 in the deaths of the cast-away at. sea. I often think of my 
 poor brother Walter, whose ship was several hundred miles 
 on her way across the Atlantic, when she encountered the 
 fearful gale that proved her destruction, driving her back to 
 the fatal shores of the Mersey.
 
 23 
 
 At the commencement of the storm he fell from aloft and 
 fell to the deck. All crushed and bruised he was carried be- 
 low, where he lay some twenty-four hours, no one having time 
 to attend to him. Soon after the doomed vessel struck the 
 deadly sand-bank, two of the sailors, fellow-townsmen, carried 
 him on deck in hopes of getting him on board the lifeboat 
 they were eagerly expecting. No sooner had they done so 
 when a tremendous wave swept him and others overboard. 
 He was seen on the crest of the wave to raise his hand to 
 heaven and heard to cry "Save me, that can." 
 
 I was always fond of reading, especially histories and books 
 of travel, tales of field and flood, old ballads, poetry and leg- 
 ends of Scottish history. The influence of my brother John 
 had a good effect in stimulating me to the acquisition of 
 knowledge. For several years he was head gardener to a Mr. 
 Murray, of Broughton at Cally, near the beautiful village, 
 Gatehouse of Fleet, some ten miles west of St. Mary's Isle. 
 Many a pleasant visit I paid him at that place. He was every 
 way a remarkable man. Very prepossessing in his manner and 
 appearance. Of rare natural ability and had educated him- 
 self to a high degree of intelligence. He had seen something 
 of the world, too, and had lived for some time in London, 
 which, as a boy, I thought was something to be proud of, as 
 well as the fact that he had been a trip to sea. In fact, I 
 looked up to him with some degree of awe. He had many 
 books to which I had ready access. He died at an early age of 
 consumption, brought on by a neglected cold caught by at- 
 tending upon his hothouses. His German flute was given to 
 me as a memorial, upon which I learned to play, being taught 
 by an old soldier. Music I have ever been fond of. With what 
 delight I used to play that flute in the long summer evenings, 
 along the seashore, or in the quiet woods of St. Mary's Isle, 
 as well as among the grand old hills and glens of Scotland, 
 in many places. 
 
 That same old flute has accompanied me in all my wander- 
 ings by sea and land, and has often ministered solace to my 
 mind in many a solitary hour when far from home or friends. 
 I have it yet, sole relic of boyhood days. These early pur- 
 suits and peculiar pastimes are so different from those of city
 
 24 
 
 boys and other localities. I have always pitied the children 
 and youth of cities. How bereft of pure and natural enjoy- 
 ment. How barren of pleasant memories of early days must 
 the after life of many such be. The beautiful and romantic 
 place I lived in and the surrounding scenery wrought in me 
 a kind of wild, wayward and romantic disposition, tinged with 
 melancholy, which I think has had some influence in hinder- 
 ing my advancement in the world. This I care but little about. 
 My chief regret is, that my life and its influences have tended 
 so little to the glory of God and the good of others. 
 
 Independent of other things, I believe the configuration of 
 the country in which a person is born and brought up in, and 
 the surrounding scenery, have a very great influence upon the 
 mind as well as the body of the individual. The harsh and 
 cruel usage I received at the hands of my Latin teacher, who 
 was a great tyrant, and eventually lost both his situation and 
 his reason through his ungovernable temper, was a great in- 
 jury to me. It broke and chafed my spirit and to some degree 
 made me reckless, indifferent and opposed to regular study. 
 How important and fraught with momentous results are our 
 youthful days, and every situation, engagement and circum- 
 stance attending them. 
 
 Kirkcudbright, where I went to school, and where my 
 youthful companions chiefly lived, is a very ancient place. It 
 is a royal burgh and the county town of the shire or stewartry 
 of the same name. It is pleasantly situated at the mouth of 
 the river Dee, the Dee immortalized by the poet Lowe in 
 his sweet poem of "Mary's dream." It has a good harbor, 
 and much shipping belonging to it, for its size. Many of its 
 people follow a sea-faring life. It is chiefly from its port and 
 from being the county town that it possesses any importance, 
 being a long way from the busy seats of commerce and manu- 
 factures. For a great length of time the population has been 
 nearly stationary. Nearly all the youth of both sexes, leave 
 and go to other parts of the British isles, the colonies and for- 
 eign countries, in quest of that employment which circum- 
 stances deny them at home. Being in general very well 
 educated for their circumstances in life, and having good prin- 
 ciples instilled into their young minds, they seldom fail to do
 
 25 
 
 well in life. Wherever they meet, all over the world, they act 
 like brothers and sisters to one another. Their kindness and 
 attachment to one another in this respect, is very striking and 
 remarkable, as well as their abiding affection for the place 
 and land of their birth, to which many of them upon whom 
 fortune has smiled, return and spend the remainder of their 
 days. These characteristics are, indeed, common to the Scot- 
 tish people in general. 
 
 The population of the town is about three thousand. There 
 is reason to believe that in ancient times it was much greater. 
 When the Romans invaded Britain, it is said, there was a 
 town on or near the same spot, called Benutium, belonging to 
 the Selgovi, a tribe living on the shores of the Solway Firth, 
 which likely has derived its name from them. Bede, the most 
 ancient British historian, speaks of it as a place of importance 
 in his day. It was such in the times of Wallace and Bruce. 
 During the wars of the Scots and English, it was the scene 
 of many a conflict. It was then surrounded by a wall and 
 deep ditch, the remains of which are still visible. It was once 
 besieged and taken by the English. At another time it was 
 pillaged by the Manxmen, or Isle-of-Man people. It is said to 
 have been once laid under contribution by the Moors or Rov- 
 ers of Salee. 
 
 Paul Jones, who was a native of the district, and at one 
 time sailed from the port, during the American Revolutionary 
 War, anchored in the bay and landed on St. Mary's Isle, and 
 carried off the silver-plate belonging to the Selkirk family, 
 being constrained to do so by a discontented and partially 
 disorganized crew, which, much to his honor, he ultimately 
 bought from them, and returned to the owners. The scenery 
 around Kirkcudbright is very fine. The town is well and regu- 
 larly built and kept very clean and in good order. The inhabi- 
 tants have fine, large gardens, public walks and commons, 
 privileges conferred upon the inhabitants in olden times. In 
 the town itself, and especially in the surrounding country, 
 there are many interesting remains of antiquity, as old 
 churches, castles, forts, mounds, roads and bridges. From 
 some of the heights near the town, there is a magnificent 
 view of the adjacent country, the English shores, the Isle of
 
 26 
 
 Man, and at times the mountains of Mourne in Ireland, and I 
 have heard say, even a portion of the north of Wales, together 
 with many conspicuous hills and mountains in Scotland. Chal- 
 mers, in his "Descriptive Gazetteer of Scotland," says : "Kirk- 
 cudbright, with its environs, is among the six prettiest towns 
 in Scotland. The country around is well wooded. The Dee, 
 the bay, and the Solway Firth abound in excellent fish, while 
 the woods, hills and moors afford plenty of game, such as 
 hares, rabbits, pheasants, partridges and many varieties of 
 moor and waterfowl. Much of the district is of a pastural 
 nature, being well suited to the rearing of sheep and cattle, 
 although there are many fine farms of arable land around." 
 
 Kirkcudbright is the most southerly town in Scotland, and 
 is one hundred miles southwest of Edinburgh, and the same 
 distance south of Glasgow ; east of Belfast in Ireland, and 
 northwest of Liverpool. The Isle of Man, and Whitehaven 
 in England, are each about thirty miles distant. Dumfries is 
 about twenty-five miles to the eastward, and Ayr about sixty 
 miles to the northward. The name is pronounced " Kirk-cu- 
 brie" which, I believe, it derives from St. Cuthbert, who 
 established a church or kirk here, many centuries before the 
 Reformation. The people of this part of Scotland, although 
 perhaps in some degree deficient in a certain outward polish 
 or grace of manner and speech, will compare very favorably 
 with any people in the world in real intelligence and morality. 
 Drunkenness is or was their great besetting sin. The same 
 may be said of any other locality in Britain. In early life they 
 are taught to be economical, frugal, self-denied and hardy. 
 From principle, even the wealthy deny themselves many lux- 
 uries and effeminate habits. They are kind to one another in 
 distress and have always been noted for hospitality to stran- 
 gers. They are in general, very proficient in a knowledge of 
 the Bible, which indeed accounts for the amount of good there 
 is among them. I never saw the Sabbath-day better kept, 
 perhaps I should say, so well kept, as in this quarter. I never 
 recollect of hearing even an idle boy whistle on that day. 
 There is a great amount of true piety and religion among the 
 people. I never have lived where there was more, or perhaps 
 as much in proportion to the number of people. In olden times
 
 27 
 
 this part of the country was blessed with the labors of a num- 
 ber of most faithful and devoted ministers and preachers of 
 the gospel. This was the chosen home and stronghold of the 
 pious and persecuted Covenanters. Here the sainted Ruth- 
 erford, the godly Peden, the fervent Cameron, and many more 
 like them, lived, labored and suffered. Here, "cruel Lagg," 
 and "bloody Clavers," with his savage dragoons, spread deso- 
 lation and death over a weeping land, dotting the hills and 
 glens with martyrs' graves. But in spite of all, God has crowned 
 and blessed the labors, heard and answered the prayers of a 
 sainted and martyred ancestry, and has caused a goodly meas- 
 ure of the same faith and devotion that actuated the fathers, to 
 descend upon and abide with their children. The memory of 
 the martyred Covenanters is here held and cherished with in- 
 tense veneration as well it may. Scotland owes a lasting debt 
 of gratitude to these noble and devoted men. Her Bible, her 
 civil and ecclesiastical liberty, her education, peace and purity 
 of morals she owes, in large measure, under God, to her Pres- 
 byterian and Covenanting forefathers. They had their faults, 
 for they were but men, and lived in an age just emerging from 
 popish and mediaeval darkness, when the principles of reli- 
 gious toleration were nowhere well understood in the world. 
 But they acted up to the full measure of the light and knowl- 
 edge they possessed. More than this cannot be said of any 
 man or class of men. In short, " they feared God and wrought 
 righteousness ; " and if they were not the salt of the earth, I 
 know not where then in the wide world it was to be found. It 
 was with bated breath and tearful eyes I first heard and 
 learned to talk of their sacrifices and sufferings. Nor has 
 time effaced these impressions from my heart and I trust it 
 never will. 
 
 In my early days, many of the people were a plain old- 
 fashioned primitive race. There was no great or general de- 
 sire to make a display of wealth, or stand upon the dignity of 
 rank and profession in life, to the contempt of persons of 
 lower degree. Many a time have I seen our worthy provost 
 (mayor), who was quite a wealthy man, with his white apron on, 
 and coat off, wheeling his barrow along the public street from 
 the storehouse, where he kept on hand an extra supply of
 
 28 
 
 goods for his retail grocery-shop. Many of the well-to-do 
 farmers used to eat at the same table with their hired serv- 
 ants, while on Sundays the farmer with his wife and family, 
 together with his work people or their families, might be seen 
 walking, or riding together in the same vehicle, on their way 
 to or from the church. If a person was intelligent and of good 
 character, and especially if he had travelled abroad in the 
 world, his poverty did not prove an impassable barrier to his 
 being invited as guest to the house and table of the more 
 wealthy. When Sir Samuel Douglas used to send for my 
 father to consult him about gardening, he always insisted 
 upon his eating at the same table with himself. Colonel 
 Irving, when gentlemen fond of gardening visited his gardens, 
 if it happened to be about the dinner hour, has been known 
 to take them, and his gardener also, into his house to dine 
 with him. He was a widower without children, and of course 
 could do so without offending any one. In the neighboring 
 burgh of New Galloway, Lord Kenmure was the provost, and 
 his gardener one of the bailies, and, according to the custom 
 in such cases, they sat together in the same pew at church. I 
 remember the young Earl of Selkirk calling to see my brother 
 John, when he was gardener at Cally, and taking dinner with 
 him. 
 
 The Countess of Selkirk often came into our house and 
 would sit down and talk with my mother in the most familiar 
 way. At the annual New Year's supper and ball, given to 
 the work people and dependents of the Selkirk family, she 
 was always present and was kind and courteous to every one ; 
 while her son, the Earl, and her two daughters, the Lady Isa- 
 bella and the Lady Catherine, joined with zest in the same 
 reel with the dairymaid and plowman. 
 
 Among no people in the world is the proper relation of 
 master and servant better understood, and more pleasant, 
 than among the Scottish people, and nowhere is there less 
 envy of the rich and less illwill towards the landholders than 
 there is in Scotland. One reason, doubtless is in the fact that 
 the aristocracy of the country are of the same stock, the same 
 race with the people themselves, not descendants of a race 
 of conquerors, who in a past age came and possessed them-
 
 29 
 
 selves of the lands of the original inhabitants, as has been 
 the case with England, Ireland and other countries. 
 
 In fact, in Scotland, I have often thought the people are 
 not only attached to, but rather proud of their chiefs and 
 landed aristocracy. To this day, I cherish much regard for, 
 and feel under many obligations to, the Countess of Selkirk 
 and her family. 
 
 The Scottish people are sometimes charged with being su- 
 perstitious and given to believe in the supernatural. No doubt 
 there is some ground for such a charge, but from all I have 
 learned and seen, I do not think they are more so than the 
 people of other countries ; while they are more free from cer- 
 tain credulous notions and delusions than many other nations, 
 arising from the more general diffusion and knowledge of the 
 Bible. In my native place, as well as in many other parts of 
 Scotland, I have heard a great many stories of apparitions, 
 visions, dreams and warning noises, in the majority of which 
 cases no sensible person had the least faith. Nor do I think 
 these stories had the effect of making the people cowardly or 
 afraid to travel in the dark ; and none, certainly, ever pre- 
 tended that any one was ever bodily injured in any way by 
 such things. But I confess, I have heard of some singular 
 circumstances of this nature, which I believe it is impossible 
 to account for or explain upon any present known princi- 
 ples. There is a danger of people being too materialistic in 
 their attempts to overthrow and eradicate all superstition. It 
 does no good to deny and ridicule every thing of this nature 
 we cannot explain. It is but really very little we do know, 
 while we are surrounded by mysteries on every hand if we 
 only stop to realize the fact. There is certainly nothing in the 
 Bible that condemns all such ideas and belief. The Saviour 
 upon the occasion of his walking upon the sea, when his dis- 
 ciples cried out for fear, supposing him to be a spirit, did not 
 rebuke them for their superstition and declare there were no 
 such appearances. Neither did the apostle Peter, when the 
 disciples declared his knocking at the door and his voice to 
 be that of his angel or spirit. It is not for me to decide 
 whether or not there are such supernatural appearances 
 and noises. I shall only relate the particulars of one phe-
 
 30 
 
 nomenon I saw, and which has ever remained a mystery 
 to me. 
 
 One morning in the beginning of the year 1838, I set out 
 from my mother's house, a little before daylight, to go to my 
 work in the gardens at Balmae, some five miles south of Kirk- 
 cudbright. It was a beautiful, calm, star-light morning. There 
 was a hard frost but no snow of any account on the ground. 
 I was walking along briskly, being in excellent health and 
 spirits, having no particular subject of thought upon my mind, 
 and entirely devoid of any fear. I had got some half mile or 
 more from the town, on the sand side or shore road, and was 
 passing through the Black Murray woods. I was walking in 
 the midde of the road, a wide macadamized public road, when 
 I saw at a considerable distance on the left hand of the road, 
 what I had no doubt was a man coming towards me. I paid 
 no special heed, looking at times towards the object and then 
 turning my eyes from it. As it drew nearer, I remarked I 
 heard no sound of footsteps. At length when it came within 
 a few yards, I saw that it did not possess the usual and proper 
 lineaments of a man. I stood still. It came still nearer, and 
 slowly crossed the road within a few feet of me and disap- 
 peared on the right-hand side of the road, where there was a 
 stone wall and thorn hedge. My eyes rested full upon the 
 object during the time it came up close to me, and while it 
 crossed the road. Instinctively I followed and looked over the 
 fence. There was no gap whatever in the wall or hedge, next 
 to which there was a narrow belt of bushes and trees and then 
 the seashore within a hundred feet of the road. It was about 
 the height and dimensions of a rather large-sized man, wrapt 
 as it were in a thick, black envelope of dense vapor or smoke. 
 I neither was afraid nor lost my presence of mind for a mo- 
 ment, but was beyond measure amazed and puzzled to account 
 for the phenomenon. I resumed my journey and when I 
 reached my lodgings I told the old lady with whom I boarded, 
 an excellent Christian woman, what I had seen. She informed 
 me that for a great length of time back, people had occason- 
 ally seen the same object in that same place ; among whom 
 she named her husband, a Very worthy and sensible man, 
 then dead ; and two other good and reliable men then living
 
 in the neighborhood, of whom one was the schoolmaster of 
 the district. Indeed, I found out afterwards, that such stories 
 were quite current in the neighborhood. 
 
 A few years ago, upon mentioning this circumstance to a 
 respectable person who had been born and brought up in the 
 vicinity, and who had just come out to this country, I was 
 informed that the same sort of appearance had been frequently 
 seen since that time by various reliable people. Tradition 
 says, that the adjoining forest was the haunt of a noted robber 
 and murderer, a blackamoor or black man (it is generally 
 supposed he was a gypsy). He was eventually killed, by the 
 side of a well or spring, close by the wayside, which is still 
 called the "blackamoor's well ;" and the forest, the "blacka- 
 moor or black murray planting" or wood. The popular mind 
 associates this singular appearance or phenomenon with this 
 tradition. 
 
 We ought to have nothing to do with fortune-tellers, spirit- 
 ual mediums, table-tipping or rappings, and such like things. 
 Reason and Scripture alike declare it to be forbidden ground. 
 And as to sights and sounds, the occurrence of which we can 
 neither deny nor explain their cause, which cases are indeed 
 exceedingly rare, while we do not affirm we ought neither 
 entirely to ignore, nor ridicule as the mere vagaries of a timid, 
 disordered and deceived mind and imagination. It does no 
 good to do so ; but often, harm ; nor should we in the least 
 fear such things or trouble ourselves about them ; they cer- 
 tainly can do us no harm. It takes the greatest wisdom and 
 caution in parents to answer the questions of children as to 
 these things. Let them be taught to know, and let all, whether 
 young or old, ever remember, that they who trust in the Lord 
 need fear none of these things, nor any other evil, by night 
 nor by day. Yea, though called to "walk through the valley 
 of the shadow of death," He is ever with them to care for and 
 protect them. That through life He causes all things to work 
 together for good ; and that death itself is but His messenger 
 to call them home to Himself and to eternal happiness and 
 glory.
 
 1830-1833- 
 
 WHEN I had nearly completed my fourteenth year, I left home 
 and went to live with James, my eldest brother, a lawyer, 
 procurator fiscal for the northern district of Argyleshire and 
 factor for several highland estates at Tobermory, in the Isle 
 of Mull, one of the Hebrides. I remember how sad I was to 
 leave my home and my parents, brothers and sisters and com- 
 panions, and how home-sick I was for many a day. I had to 
 taste of seasickness, too, as I took passage in a vessel named 
 the Amelia of Kirkcudbright and had a voyage of several hun- 
 dred miles around the many headlands and through the intri- 
 cate channels of the many islands of the west coast of Scotland. 
 Among many other objects of interest, I saw the famous 
 whirlpool of Coryvrecken, which tradition says, sucked down 
 one of the ships of the formidable Spanish Armada. We nar- 
 rowly escaped being driven ashore on the wild promontory, 
 the Mull of Galloway, where we had to put about and run 
 for Drummore Bay, where we lay at anchor, for several days, 
 until the storm abated. At another time, we narrowly escaped 
 going ashore on the rocks off the " Black head of Mull," during 
 a fog. I thought I saw enough, even during that short pas- 
 sage, to satisfy me that a sailor's life is one of hardship and 
 danger ; but, after it was over I soon forgot it. 
 
 I remained in Tobermory about a year, writing and perform- 
 ing other duties for my brother in his office. Whenever I 
 could find time, I enjoyed myself much in wandering along 
 the shores and climbing the steep mountains of that lonely 
 and rugged isle. From the top of one of these mountains I 
 had a view of nearly a hundred miles expanse all around, in- 
 cluding much of the mainland of Scotland, and almost all the 
 many islands of the Hebrides. Shortly after I went to Tober- 
 32
 
 33 
 
 mory, my heart was saddened by tidings of the death of my 
 brother Robert, who died of dropsy at St. Mary's Isle. I 
 remember well when I went to take leave of him, upon his bed 
 of sickness, how earnestly and affectionately he commended 
 me to God, and besought me to seek salvation through the 
 merits of a crucified Saviour ; and how he told me I should 
 see him no more. He was a most amiable and pious youth ; 
 never yet have I seen any one more so ; so patient, humble 
 and wise, far beyond his years. He had been an invalid for 
 some years. He was a very stout, hardy boy, but got over- 
 heated while playing with some other young men on the sea- 
 shore, one evening after work, from the effects of which he 
 never recovered. He left a manuscript account of his re- 
 ligious views and experience, which was ultimately printed ; 
 a copy of which I possess. While living at Tobermory, I 
 learned to speak some Gaelic, the language of the people, and 
 became acquainted with many of the peculiarities, history and 
 traditions of that truly primitive, brave and hospitable race. 
 That part of the world seemed at times to me to be very bleak 
 and dreary, especially in winter, when in a great measure we 
 were cut off from the rest of the world. At that time, there 
 were scarcely any trees of any size on the island ; very few 
 singing birds, and scarcely any fruit. I had very few com- 
 panions, and those of them that could did not seem to care 
 to converse much in English. Not one of them could talk to 
 me in my own sweet and expressive dialect, the dialect of 
 Galloway, Ayrshire and the Lowlands, the mother tongue 
 of Ramsay and Burns and Scott, and many of the sweetest 
 singers that ever touched the poetic lyre ; not a mere cor- 
 rupted dialect of English, as some ignorantly suppose, but an 
 ancient language "anglicized" ancient Danish, the language 
 brought from Scandinavia by the old Caledonians, who came 
 from thence and peopled a great portion of Scotland some 
 centuries before the Christian era. The Saxons, who were a 
 branch of the same people, settled in England some six or 
 seven centuries afterwards ; hence, the affinity of the lan- 
 guages of the two countries, although changed and modified 
 by the admixture of other tongues. 
 
 The constraint of passing many long hours in an office, I
 
 34 
 
 felt very irksome. My brother was a man of some note and 
 influence in that quarter, and lived in a higher style of life 
 than I had been accustomed to. Although I was well treated 
 by both himself and his wife, who had a growing family of 
 their own to provide for, yet I never felt very much at home. 
 Upon the whole, however, I spent some happy days in that 
 land of Fingal and Ossian, and listened oft, with enkindled 
 enthusiasm to the music of the warlike bagpipe of the kilted 
 and plaided Highlanders ; and heard with interest and with 
 awe their strange old traditionary stories of ages long past 
 away, and received much of their hospitality and kindness of 
 heart. 
 
 There, mountain seemed piled upon mountain in sublime 
 and awful grandeur, embosoming deep, clear, slumbering 
 lakes, margined with wild woods of hazel, birch, dwarf -oak and 
 pine ; among which range the wild deer and roebuck. There, 
 too, shut out from the world by almost inaccessible passes, 
 are lone, peaceful, awe-inspiring glens, wrapt as it were, oft in 
 mourning and gloom by the overshrouding mist or storm- 
 cloud ; there, too, down the steep sides of the dark and stu- 
 pendous heights, the wild foaming cataract rushes to the 
 ever heaving and restless sea scenes that fill the mind with 
 a strange mixture of enthusiasm, awe and peaceful sadness. 
 
 At length I bade these highland scenes adieu, and turned 
 my face homeward, going by steamer to Glasgow, passing 
 through the Crinan Canal, and from thence by land, through 
 Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, crossing the "Bonnie Doon," and 
 passing near by the cottage in which Burns was born, which 
 I saw, as well as much of the scenery he has immortalized by 
 his poetry. I traveled also, through a portion of Dumfrieshire, 
 stopping a few days in Dumfries, at the house of a friend. 
 While there, I visited the grave of Burns, and other famed 
 localities. From thence, I traveled home by coach to Kirk- 
 cudbright and the isle. 
 
 After returning home, I spent some time in needful recre- 
 ation ; being at that time rather weakly from a too rapid 
 growth of stature, and confinement in my brother's office, I 
 had got into a habit of leaning forward at my writing-desk, 
 which in some degree affected my chest and created a diffi-
 
 35 
 
 culty of breathing, which was the chief reason of my return 
 home, my brother feeling somewhat concerned, and the phy- 
 sician he consulted advising a change of occupation for a time, 
 at least. My parents were now desirous of finding me em- 
 ployment in a shop or store as a clerk or learner, with the 
 view of my eventually commencing business in Kirkcudbright. 
 No situation of the kind could then be obtained. I journeyed 
 once to Dumfries, and got a promise of a situation, but when 
 I came home and told my parents that the firm sold liquor, 
 they very properly refused to let me take it. As a means 
 therefore of occupying my time to some advantage, and im- 
 proving myself for whatever might transpire, at the desire of 
 my parents, I entered the office of the Messrs. Gordon, law- 
 yers and notaries public of Kirkcudbright, where I was em- 
 ployed about a year, as a copying clerk and in carrying around 
 and delivering messages, letters and documents of one kind 
 and another connected with the business of the office. I now 
 set about to improve my mind in good earnest, for which I 
 had an opportunity, having access to many valuable books. I 
 had considerable time for recreation, and spent many pleas- 
 ant hours and some holidays with kindred spirits in boating 
 on the Dee and around the shores of the Ross and Torrs, 
 as well as traversing the country far and near, over hill and 
 dale, as our fancy moved us. My fellow-clerks, of whom 
 there were several, were gentlemanly and intelligent ; like my 
 employers, they treated me with much kindness. One of 
 these clerks, a Mr. William Hope, now of Glasgow, had been 
 a classmate of mine at school. He was at this time a pious 
 youth and has ever since maintained a most excellent Chris- 
 tian character. He was a son of one of my old teachers, the 
 late worthy principal of the commercial department of Kirk- 
 cudbright Academy. Mr. Donaldson was teacher of languages, 
 and the excellent Rev. William McKenzie, teacher of the 
 English department. Mr. Hope is still a cherished friend 
 and correspondent of mine. Another of my fellow-clerks 
 was Mr. Eneas Gordon, who often formed one of our boating 
 and roaming parties. He went abroad at an early age. I have 
 been told he fell, fighting on the side of the Americans, dur- 
 ing the late Mexican War. Alexander McKinnell was another.
 
 36 
 
 He, too, poor fellow, found a bloody grave, being slain during 
 the Texan War. Samuel Rae and Robert Beck, went to sea 
 and were drowned. Robert Douglas also went to sea, and 
 died in Batavia. All of these, more than once, have formed a 
 boat's crew, together with myself, and have spent the hours 
 happy, merry, and free from care ; but I am left alone to tell 
 the tale ! 
 
 I have no doubt had I continued longer in the above situa- 
 tion, that it would have been better for me ; but I was then a 
 wayward youth, impulsive and almost entirely regardless of 
 the future. 
 
 Soon after I entered the office, I wished very much to learn 
 the gardening business with my father, a business I was ever 
 fond of, and became more fond of it as I grew older, but my 
 parents, especially my mother, did not think it was then best 
 for me to do so. I never liked confinement within doors. It 
 never agreed with either the constitution of my body or mind. 
 Nature, I believe, fitted and intended me to become a gardener 
 or a tiller of the ground in some shape or other. And this I 
 considered especially fortunate, and for which I thank God, 
 for it has been the means of much happiness, health and con- 
 tentment of mind, that I have had a congenial employment in 
 life allotted to me. How desirable it is that this should be the 
 case as much as possible, with every one. It would be a hap- 
 pier and a better world. During the time I remained in the 
 office, I received no pecuniary remuneration such a situa- 
 tion being regarded in much the same light as attending a 
 school for mental improvement. I often felt sorry I was doing 
 nothing to support myself, knowing well my father had a large 
 family to maintain, and that his means were quite limited. Sev- 
 eral times he attempted to get me a situation where I could 
 earn something, but in that part of Scotland, and in those 
 days at least, it was very hard to find employment, except at 
 the commonest manual labor, and, indeed, it was far from be- 
 ing an easy matter to obtain even that at all times. 
 
 At length, when most of my companions had left their 
 homes, I determined that I, too, would earn my own living 
 and see the world and therefore I resolved to go to sea. I 
 came to this resolution not without some despondency of
 
 37 
 
 heart, and unwillingness to leave my home. Accordingly, 
 having obtained the reluctant consent of my parents, early in 
 the spring of 1833, I bade farewell to desk and pen, and com- 
 menced my " cruise," which I finished the same year, arriving 
 safe home in the autumn after, having seen a little of the 
 world, the wonders of the great deep, and the manner of life 
 of those "who go down to the sea in ships." I visited sev- 
 eral large seaport towns in Britain and Ireland, and spent 
 some time in the ports of Genoa and Leghorn, in Italy. While 
 coasting along the shores of western and southern Europe, 
 and northern Africa, I got some fine views, which I highly 
 prized, and do still prize, of many celebrated places, cities, capes, 
 islands and mountains. I got good views of Gibraltar, Mt. Blanc, 
 the Pyrenees mountains in Spain, and the Atlas mountains in 
 Africa. During this time I served on board two vessels the 
 brigs Eliza Scotland of Kincardine and General Brock of Lon- 
 don. The latter was an old and ill-conditioned ship, on board 
 of which we had several casualities, such as loss of masts, 
 sails and rigging, and at one time we were pinched for pro- 
 visions and water. The captain, William Jones, was a good 
 sort of man, who took quite an interest in me, and asked me 
 to continue with him longer. This was in Belfast, Ireland ; 
 but being then near home and having no great relish for a 
 seafaring life, and having had for some months back a strong 
 impression upon my mind that my father would not live 
 long, and having gone to sea contrary to his wishes, which 
 grieved me not a little, I determined to return home, where 
 I soon afterwards arrived. A few months afterwards I read 
 in the newspapers an account of the captain's death and the 
 casting away of the vessel in the West Indies. 
 
 During the short time I was among sailors, I never received 
 any very bad usage. They are a class of men for whom I 
 have great sympathy and regard. They are true-hearted, un- 
 selfish and always kind to the helpless. On shore they seem 
 a jolly set of fellows, but at sea they enjoy very little comfort 
 in general, and have quite a different air and appearance. 
 They often look solemn, dejected and forlorn. There is ever 
 a certain something of a mysterious and melancholy nature 
 connected with the unchangeable, untamable ocean. I often 
 
 453403 :
 
 38 
 
 think of this period of my life. It has made a deep impres- 
 sion upon my mind. Among other things, I often think of the 
 sad, strange and marvellous stories I used to hear from these 
 wandering sons of the deep, during the lonely night-watches. 
 This adventure of my youth was in noway injurious, either to 
 my health or morals, but very beneficial to me in various 
 ways. The undertaking from the very first was unpropitious. 
 I worked my passage in a coasting vessel, to Liverpool, where 
 I expected a berth, a friend had got me, on board a West 
 Indiaman, but the vessel in which I embarked was so driven 
 about by contrary winds, that when I reached Liverpool, I 
 found the vessel I expected to join had sailed. Thus, having 
 no friend's house to go to, and hardly any money, I was obliged 
 to take the first berth that I could get, which was by no 
 means a very good one. I had a heavy heart and an anxious 
 mind at that time. Blessed be God ! He has long ago over- 
 ruled all these things for my good. Upon reaching home, I 
 found that my father's health was failing. He proposed that 
 I should now commence gardening, which was a welcome pro- 
 posal to me. No doubt, he was convinced that it was the best 
 thing for me, and was in hopes that I might aid him in his 
 business, and in the event of his death, if experienced enough, 
 might perhaps succeed him in his situation and thus keep the 
 family together, until able to provide for themselves.
 
 1833-1839- 
 
 I NOW commenced "heart and hand" to acquire a knowledge 
 of this healthful and delightful business. I worked hard all 
 day, and employed my evenings and every leisure moment in 
 studying books of horticulture and botany and in gathering 
 and preparing specimens for my herbarium. In the course of 
 six months I had learned the botanical names of some twelve 
 hundred plants, with much pertaining to their habits, use and 
 culture. I never enjoyed so much pleasure before. I hardly 
 ever felt tired, or wished the hours to pass, although my work 
 was quite laborious at times. I felt I was at length engaged 
 in the profession I was best adapted for. My father warmly 
 approved and aided me and I had the satisfaction of knowing 
 he was well pleased with me and had good hopes of my future 
 well-doing. I have often wished that he had lived until I be- 
 came a Christian. How it would have rejoiced his heart ! 
 Not long before he died, when no one was thinking about 
 such an event, he told my mother how well I was doing, allud- 
 ing also to my deceased brothers, both of whom were garden- 
 ers, in a very touching and feeling manner, and then added, 
 mournfully, with tears in his eyes, "Ah, poor Willie will soon 
 be left to follow the business all alone ! " This saying was 
 soon verified, for within ten months from the time I com- 
 menced gardening he was no more. He died suddenly and 
 unexpectedly after an hour or two severe attack of the dis- 
 ease with which he had been affected, for some time pre- 
 vious, which I believe was some form of heart or chest dis- 
 ease. This sad event plunged us all in the deepest grief. He 
 was a most worthy and exemplary Christian man. To this 
 day, his memory is revered by many in Kirkcudbright. The 
 following notice of his death appeared at the time in the 
 39
 
 40 
 
 Dumfries and Galloway Courier, the editor of which was one 
 of his personal friends. It was written by R. Malcolm- 
 son, the poet, another friend of my father's who also com- 
 posed a beautiful poem upon the same occasion, which was 
 published in the same paper and printed for circulation among 
 our friends : " Died at St. Mary's Isle, Kirkcudbright, on the 
 24th ult. (June, 1834), Mr. James Nisbet, gardener, aged 61 
 years, deeply regretted by his afflicted family and a large cir- 
 cle of friends and acquaintances. Shrewd, rational and intel- 
 ligent, he possessed in no ordinary degree, all the social and 
 all the domestic virtues, and it may be truly said of him that 
 a more exemplary character never existed. He creditably 
 filled his late situation, under the same noble family, during 
 the long period of thirty-three years, and gave numerous proofs 
 of his skilfullness in all the departments of horticulture. He 
 was also intimately acquainted with the science of botany, 
 and had long enjoyed the honor of being a corresponding 
 member of the Caledonian Horticultural Society." 
 
 Soon after my father's death, my mother and family moved 
 to Kirkcudbright, where she hired a house and kept a few 
 boarders. My father's successor, a Mr. Webster, was a fine 
 sort of man and treated me with much kindness. I remained 
 with him for several months, but it was a great change to me. 
 I could not help feeling sad at times and wishing to be away. 
 Thus, in the beginning of 1835, I went to Edinburgh, and 
 found employment in the nursery gardens of the Messrs. 
 Dickson & Co., Leith Walk. This change was of great bene- 
 fit to me. My residence in that beautiful and orderly city did 
 me much good in many respects. With a mixture of admira- 
 tion and national pride I used to look upon the fine edifices, 
 monuments, ancient castles and palaces of the fair capital of 
 my much-loved native land ; and gazed with rapture at the 
 scene that opened to my view from the battlements of the 
 old castle, the Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat, or the rugged sides 
 of Salisbury Craigs. These were my frequent resorts in the 
 quiet and repose of the Sabbath evening. But another, a 
 brighter, a more glorious and enchanting view was soon to 
 open to my admiring mental eyes and claim my heart's love 
 and adoration.
 
 Up to this period of my life, I never had any very serious 
 or abiding impression of a religious nature. I bore, I sup- 
 pose, a pretty good character and certainly never was consid- 
 ered a vicious youth. But no one could possibly have been 
 more thoughtless and regardless of the things of God and 
 eternity than I had been hitherto. Moreover, I had imbibed 
 from some books I had chanced to meet with, and from some 
 people whose conversation I could not well help hearing, no 
 small degree of doubt as to the truth of the Bible, and the 
 person and work of Jesus Christ. I was now full of life, 
 health, high hopes and good spirits. Proud to be able to do 
 the work of a man and earn my own living ; carried away with 
 the pleasures and hopes of this world. In the emphatic words 
 of Scripture, I was living, "without hope and without God, 
 in the world." 
 
 On the evening of Sunday, the twentieth day of Septem- 
 ber, 1835, having called at the house of my brother James, 
 who was now settled in Edinburgh, as a solicitor to the su- 
 preme courts, having left Tobermory soon after I did, I hap- 
 pened to read a few pages of " Baxter's Call to the Uncon- 
 verted," which so forcibly impressed my mind that I resolved 
 to study the Bible ; which I immediately set about in good 
 earnest, and eventually, through the grace of God, became 
 a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Great indeed was the 
 change that took place in my heart, views and manner of life. 
 I became, as the Scriptures fitly express it, "a new creature." 
 This change was manifest to, and remarked by all that knew 
 me. In the words of the sweet hymn, I can say 
 
 " E'er since by faith I saw that stream 
 
 Thy flowing wounds supply 
 Redeeming love has been my theme, 
 And shall be till I die." 
 
 In another paper I have written an account of my conver- 
 sion, religious views and feelings. 
 
 In November following, I went to Whittingham, in East 
 Lothian or Haddingtonshire, and for the next two years was 
 employed as an assistant in the fine gardens of James Balfour, 
 Esq., near the foot of the Lammermoor Hills, and a few miles
 
 4 2 
 
 from the old seaport town of Dunbar. This is a beautiful and 
 fertile district. My father's family belonged to the same 
 quarter, and I learned some interesting particulars concerning 
 them from people of the same name and race. Here, I im- 
 proved much in the knowledge of my business. The head- 
 gardener, a Mr. Rintoul, was very proficient in his business. 
 His foreman, Mr. John Webster, was a fine young man, smart 
 and intelligent. He is now gardner to the Duke of Richmond, 
 at Gordon castle. I made progress also in the knowledge of 
 spiritual things ; indeed, it was while here, some fifteen 
 months after I had read " Baxter's Call," that I came to a 
 "full knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus." I think I 
 spent as happy days in this place, as any one well could spend 
 in this world. While here, I became a member of the parish 
 church, kirk or church of Scotland, which I afterwards left, 
 and joined the United Secession Church, considering that 
 national churches were unscriptural, and deeming the seces- 
 sion church a more pure branch of Presbyterianism. In this 
 connection I was a member of Mr. Paterson's church in East 
 Linton, a faithful and devoted minister of Christ. I enter- 
 tained a great respect for Mr. Lumsden, also, the parish min- 
 ister. He was very aged, upwards of eighty, and spoke the 
 broadest Scotch. He was not what people call a good preacher, 
 being nearly superannuated, but he was sound in doctrine and 
 withal a kind, holy man. I doubt not he has long ago gone 
 home to heaven. I look back with feelings of much pleasure, 
 and gratitude to God, to the times I spent here. Shall I ever 
 see that place again ? 
 
 It was here my first experience of "bothy" life commenced. 
 In Scotland, gardening is much more of a profession than in 
 most countries. There are head-gardeners, foremen, journey- 
 men, apprentices, and garden laborers or those who have not 
 been bred to the business and perform the more common and 
 easy-to-be-executed work of the garden. It is customary for 
 the foreman, journeymen and apprentices to keep what may 
 be called, " batchelor's hall" together. The proprietor of 
 the gardens providing a domicile called "a bothy," consisting 
 most generally of two, and sometimes three apartments, ac- 
 cording to the number of occupants. It is generally located
 
 43 
 
 in the rear of the hothouses. Beds, bedding, with some plain 
 furniture, dishes and cooking utensils are also provided. The 
 washing of the sheets and towels is provided for, and a plen- 
 tiful supply of fuel is allowed, as well as a liberal allowance 
 of milk, potatoes and other vegetables. The "lads," as young 
 unmarried men, and especially young gardeners are always 
 called in Scotland, take week about in cooking and house- 
 keeping ; a portion of time from the daily hours of work being 
 allowed for this purpose. Ten hours a day, or from six to six 
 constitute a day's work in summer, an hour at nine in the 
 morning and another at one o'clock being allowed for break- 
 fast and dinner. When mowing is done, the men commence 
 very early in the morning while the dew is yet upon the grass, 
 generally at five at the latest, for which an allowance of either 
 money or holliday time is made. Matters in these bothies, 
 are in general conducted in an orderly manner, upon a well- 
 known and defined plan, under the supervision of the head- 
 gardener, the foreman, or oldest journeyman being considered 
 the head of the household. The system, doubtless, has its 
 faults, is open to some objections, and no doubt its liberties 
 are sometimes perverted to evil. But there is no denying the 
 fact, that it has been eminently conducible in raising up a 
 class of excellent gardeners. Living and spending their lei- 
 sure hours, especially the long winter evenings together, often 
 at a great distance from the attractions of cities, towns and 
 even villages, the very nature of their profession being both 
 conducible to and demanding the improvement of their minds, 
 a spirit of generous emulation in this respect is engendered 
 and kept up. There is a mutual interchange of books and 
 ideas and communication of knowledge and instruction of va- 
 rious kinds. They learn and practice drawing, writing, math- 
 ematics, reading and botany, occasionally the classical lan- 
 guages, and frequently singing and playing the flute and 
 violin. On a winter's evening, a bothy with its great blazing, 
 warmth-giving fire, and the engagements and appearances of 
 its youthful, happy and hardy occupants, is often a most pleas- 
 ing and interesting sight. No doubt there are exceptions, but 
 no one that knows them can deny, that the gardeners of Scot- 
 land are, in general, a remarkably intelligent, well-behaved,
 
 44 
 
 and also a well-dressed class of men, considering their means 
 and station in life. The business in which they are engaged, 
 their frequent removals from place to place, and their coming 
 of necessity so much in contact with well bred and educated 
 people, such as the proprietors of the gardens, their families, 
 friends and visitors, is conducible to this. After serving their 
 apprenticeship they seldom continue over one, or at the most, 
 two years, in one place. This is necessary in order to acquire 
 a perfect knowledge of the business in all its departments, 
 few gardens being complete in all these. It is seldom that 
 any one over twenty-five years of age is found living in a 
 bothy ; I never knew a married man in one ; after that age, 
 they either find head-gardeners' situations in Scotland, or 
 scatter all over the world, as the great majority of them do, 
 in quest of situations, which they are sure to find if capable 
 and worthy, as head-gardeners, managers of nursery and veg- 
 etable gardens, and not a few as land stewards, foresters and 
 kindred occupations. The wages of journeymen gardeners is 
 small. It is, or rather used to be, over and above the afore- 
 said perquisites, as they are called, only from eight to ten 
 shillings sterling per week. The average wages of head- 
 gardeners being about sixty pounds sterling a year, with a 
 free house and the same perquisites as to fuel, milk and veg- 
 etables, as the journeymen. Some few, however, have as high 
 as a hundred and fifty, and some even three hundred pounds 
 per year. They have in all cases, a right to an apprentice 
 fee from those they instruct in a knowledge of the business. 
 The bothy bill of fare is, or was, almost universally, oatmeal 
 pottage and milk, or as Burns calls it, " the halesome parritch 
 chief o' Scotia's food ;" potatoes with milk, brose of oatmeal, 
 or peasmeal ; wheat bread, generally, but sometimes of oatmeal, 
 with butter and cheese ; tea and coffee are seldom used, ex- 
 cept on Sunday, while animal food is seldom tasted. This to 
 an American would seem " hamely fare " indeed, but I know 
 not where to look for a more healthy, hardy, proficient, as well 
 as moral and intelligent, class of laborers and workmen than 
 what I have seen in Scotland subsisting on this fare. There 
 is one secret, however, about it, and that is the peculiar vir- 
 tue and strength of milk, especially when used with oatmeal,
 
 45 
 
 and indeed also with potatoes. If a person gets plenty of 
 good milk he can almost dispense with animal food. Indeed, 
 I believe the less animal food one uses, the better will it be. 
 Much animal food, I think, induces many diseases, and, I do 
 think it makes people ferocious and savage in their disposi- 
 tions. I have lived for months at a time without tasting ani- 
 mal food, upon the above fare, and hardly ever knew what it 
 was to be fatigued, or feel a pain or ache of either stomach 
 or head or any part of my body ; and working hard, too, often 
 with a spade or scythe. I do not pretend, however, to say that 
 such fare would do in every climate of the world ; I speak 
 only of Scotland where the climate exhausts the human sys- 
 tem as little or even perhaps less, than in any part of the 
 world. In this respect, Nature has been kind to her, as if to 
 make up her lack of fertile fields and bright skies. 
 
 As a class, Scotch gardeners are very friendly with and 
 kind to one another. Indeed, I have heard them spoken of 
 as being too clannish. They regard themselves as a brother- 
 hood, having regular lodges, something after the fashion of 
 freemasons, for mutual aid and instruction, to which most of 
 them belong ; having ways of recognizing one another known 
 only to themselves. St. David's Lodge of Free Gardeners, in 
 Edinburgh, is the principal one of these and has a regular 
 charter, with branch lodges in different parts of the country. 
 A great many men who are not operative gardeners, but 
 merely friends of gardeners and lovers of the profession, are 
 initiated into the mysteries of the brotherhood, which I be- 
 lieve is not confined to Scotland alone, something of the kind 
 being found on the continent of Europe. The order is very 
 ancient, but from what I learn appears to be losing ground, 
 although in itself it is entirely of an innocent and harmless 
 nature. Looking merely or primarily to the moral and pro- 
 fessional good of its members and relieving their wants in 
 times of sickness or adversity. In the cities and towns of 
 Scotland on gala days, no procession of tradesmen or artizans 
 make a better display than the gardeners, with their blue 
 aprons, profusion of flowers and other insignia. The blue 
 apron, one of which every brother is expected at least to pos- 
 sess, if he does not always wear it at his work, which many do,
 
 4 6 
 
 is the proper badge of brotherhood, and to wear which, with- 
 out being initiated is considered improper and by some even 
 illegal. Such can be easily detected by the way they wear, 
 tuck up, and put off or on their apron. A blue coat with brass 
 buttons used to be the favorite one with gardeners. These 
 customs and usages I suppose are fast becoming only the 
 things of the past. Indeed, in themselves I never felt inclined 
 to make much account of them farther than as a means of 
 keeping people in good humor, which is something. 
 
 Many a happy day have I spent in a gardener's bothy. Many 
 endearing friendships have I formed with my fellow inmates. 
 Many good and eminent men have graduated from them, 
 not the least of whom was the late Sir Joseph Paxton, the 
 designer of the Crystal Palace in London. In the bothy at 
 Whittingham there were five of us; foreman, three journey- 
 men and an apprentice. There were also six day-laborers 
 employed in the gardens and pleasure grounds ; mostly oldish 
 men, decent and intelligent, natives and residents of the 
 neighborhood. In the Gardeners Monthly, published in Phil- 
 adelphia, in the May number of 1866, page 130, is an article I 
 wrote on gardening, and the following poem : 
 
 THE SCOTTISH GARDENER'S SONG. 
 
 BY WILLIAM NISBET. 1866. 
 
 TUNE Auld Lang Syne. 
 
 The lang cauld days hae come again, 
 
 The ruefu' days o' March, 
 Wi' sleet an' snaw an' frost an' rain, 
 
 An' winds that keenly search. 
 
 At times, it tries a body sair, 
 Toiling the lang dreigh hours 
 
 At outside wark, to earn ane's fare ; 
 Exerting a' his powers. 
 
 Delving aft times, wi' aching back ; 
 
 The bushes an' the trees, 
 Their limbs to prune, or stems to hack 
 
 Wi' fingers like to freeze.
 
 47 
 
 But wi' it a' I like it weel, 
 Auld Adam's heartsome trade ; 
 
 Cheerfu' an' strang it makes me feel ; 
 An' aye, ensures my bread. 
 
 Midst a' the elemental strife, 
 Peace reigns within the mind ; 
 
 Syne, spring comes, aye, wi' joyfu' life ; 
 An' sun an' clouds prove kind. 
 
 The weaver snug, sits'at his loom, 
 
 An' tailor on his board 
 But health demands mair scope an' room, 
 
 Her blessings to afford. 
 
 The learned clerk an' merchant great, 
 
 Wi' fame an' riches rare, 
 I envy na their in-door fate, 
 
 Unblest wi' cauler air. 
 
 O, Nature's works ! O, Nature's ways ! 
 
 Hae mony chairms for me ; 
 I wadna pairt wi' what she pays, 
 
 For a' the world can gie. 
 
 There 's beauty fair in ilka scene, 
 
 Music in ilka soun' ; 
 Let fields be bare, or clad in green, 
 
 Still, Nature smiles aroun' ! 
 
 It's gude to be whar' birdies sing, 
 
 An' bree?es freely blaw ; 
 Whar' verdure waves, an' flowers spring ; 
 
 An' trace God's han' in a'. 
 
 There 's inspiration in the blast, 
 That leafless sweeps the tree ; 
 
 An' bends the tall top-gallant mast, 
 An' stirs the mighty sea. 
 
 To him o' meditative mood, 
 Wha ponders weel God's plan ; 
 
 His dealings a' seem wise an' gude, 
 An' fraucht wi' luve to man !
 
 4 8 
 
 At Martinmas, the usual term in Scotland when gardeners 
 and others leave or go to situations, November 11, 1837, I 
 bade a reluctant adieu to Whittingham, and traveled home 
 on foot to see my mother and friends in Kirkcudbright, a dis- 
 tance of 130 miles by the course I took, which was through 
 the counties of Haddington, Berwick, Roxburgh, Selkirk and 
 Dumfries. I traveled at my leisure, and found it a most inter 
 esting and delightful journey. 
 
 I shall never forget the wild, bleak scenery of the Lammer- 
 moor Hills, or rather mountains ; the romantic and truly en- 
 chanting scenery of St. Mary's Loch, and the loch of the 
 Lowes, the Tweed, the Galla, the Ettrick, and the Yarrow, 
 fair streams renowned in many a song and story. I was affec- 
 tionately welcomed by my mother and all my relatives, friends 
 and acquaintances. I had left them three years previous, a 
 raw-boned, beardless youth. Now I stood before them "a strap- 
 ping chiel of five feet eleven." So changed, they hardly knew 
 me ; and, blessed be God ! my heart and conduct were still 
 more changed, which gave much joy to many Christian 
 friends. Indeed, the chief object of my visit was to testify of 
 the goodness of God to me, in this respect. I eagerly sought 
 out and attended the various prayer and fellowship meetings, 
 held in the neighborhood, and took part in the exercises. I 
 united with the Secession church in Kirkcudbright, of which 
 Mr. Wood was, and I believe is still (1868), pastor; a man of 
 much piety, labor and self denial. During the three months 
 I remained in this quarter, I had charge of Colonel, afterwards 
 General, Irving's gardens, at Balmae, a pretty little place on 
 the shores of the Solway Firth, some five miles south of the 
 town. I spent a very happy winter here and a profitable one, 
 too, as to spiritual matters. I thought nothing of walking to 
 Kirkcudbright and back again in an evening to attend the 
 happy religious meetings of the Young Men's Christian So- 
 ciety, of which I was admitted a member. I esteemed it a 
 special favor from God, to be permitted to re-visit my native 
 place, and have my name enrolled as a member of that soci- 
 ety, which for a great many years has been the means of ac- 
 complishing so much good in that place, and there add my 
 testimony as a Christian to the unspeakable value and impor-
 
 49 
 
 tance of the religion of Christ Jesus. I am grateful to this 
 day that I was thus enabled personally to testify in the place 
 of my birth, the place above all others having the first and 
 best claim upon me in this thing. 
 
 I have many pleasant and cherished memories of the mem- 
 bers of this society, most of whom I had known from child- 
 hood. Some of them have long ago gone home to the Saviour, 
 others are scattered here and there over the world, several 
 of whom are faithful ministers of Jesus Christ. I remember 
 one young man, a meek, loving disciple of Jesus, my friend 
 and companion, John Douglas, a carpenter, who died in early 
 youth, just after he had completed his apprenticeship, and 
 was beginning to support his aged parents. I think oftentimes 
 of the last words he spoke on earth. In the evening of the 
 night on which he died, his mother went to his bedside to en- 
 quire how he was, and express her hope that he would have a 
 good night's rest. He answered, " Mother, this night I sleep 
 in Jesus ! " In sad contrast with these words, I have often 
 thought of the last words of another youth, who died about 
 the same time in Edinburgh. He was a young man of great 
 natural ability, and many amiable qualities, which procured 
 him many friends, but he fell into bad company and took up 
 with a class of young men of avowed infidel principles. He 
 eagerly imbibed the deadly poison and eventually became a 
 leader and oracle of an infidel club, whose aim was to confirm 
 one another in, and disseminate their soul-destroying errors. 
 At length he was laid upon a sick bed. He was visited by 
 Christian ministers and people who sought to convince him 
 of his sins and errors, but it was all in vain. He strenuously 
 refused all counsel and stoutly maintained his own opinions. 
 The night he died, the aged woman with whom he had 
 boarded for some time, and who had acted a mother's part 
 towards him, heard him moaning most piteously and calling, 
 " mother ! mother !" She went to his bedside and enquired, 
 "What's the matter Henry, my son?" He answered, "I'm 
 afraid ! I'm afraid !" " Of what are you afraid ?" she anx- 
 iously enquired. "Of God! of God!" he answered, and 
 expired ! 
 
 Fain would I have tarried longer midst the friends and
 
 50 
 
 scenes of youth, but my engagement at Balmae was merely 
 temporary, and as I could find no suitable employment in the 
 neighborhood, I concluded to go to England to look for em- 
 ployment. So I again bade old Kirkcudbright another, a long, 
 and I sometimes fear a last, farewell. I sailed for Liverpool, 
 and traveled about a great deal over the country in quest of 
 employment, but could find nothing desirable. I worked for 
 a short time in an inferior capacity at Theobald's Park, in 
 Herefordshire. I was considered too young and inexperienced 
 to take a head-gardener's or even foreman's situation. And 
 in England I found there was no distinct class of gardeners 
 such as the journeymen in Scotland. Gardens almost univer- 
 sally being managed and carried on, at least at that time, by 
 a head-gardener, a foreman and the common day-laborers of 
 the vicinity, among whom, as at Theobald's Park, I found I 
 would have to rank, at least for some time. The laborers and 
 working people of England, I found were far behind the same 
 class in Scotland, as to education and intelligence ; a great 
 proportion of them being unable to read or write, a case of 
 which I never knew in the lowlands of Scotland, nor in the 
 highlands either, except in the case of a few aged people, 
 who had been brought up in the Hebrides, or other out-of- 
 the-way districts. I had no cause to find fault with England 
 or its people. I was occasionally bantered and twitted a little 
 about my broad dialect and nationality, but that being always 
 done in good humor I received it in the same spirit. There 
 is one element of the English character I have always ad- 
 mired ; as a people they are very downright and straightfor- 
 ward in both their speech and dealings, and great advocates 
 for fair play. The very poorest of them display a neatness, 
 cleanliness and tidiness in their person and household mat- 
 ters very creditable and pleasing. 
 
 Among other places I visited London. To a certain extent 
 I may say, I traveled all through and around this wonderful 
 city, the metropolis of the world. Its size and extent is enor- 
 mous and perfectly bewildering to a stranger. I started one 
 morning and walked through it from suburb to suburb, in as 
 straight a line as I possibly could, and although I never rested 
 but once for a few moments to eat something and spent very
 
 little time in viewing objects, generally walking briskly all 
 the time, being on my way to an expected situation, yet it 
 took me nine hours to accomplish the journey. I was aston- 
 ished at the cleanliness of the streets and the order and regu- 
 larity every where manifest. I saw most of the great sights, 
 the palaces, Westminster Abbey, the Tower, the Coliseum, 
 the wonderful docks and the adjoining storage cellars for 
 wine and other merchandise, which run far under the busy 
 streets, and other famed objects and places. But withal I felt 
 lonely and homeless and discouraged at my lack of success. 
 I had very little money and few friends, and London is the 
 last place on earth to be without employment, money or 
 friends. 
 
 The country in that part of England, and, indeed, almost 
 every where else within its borders, although highly cultiva- 
 ted, rich and beautiful in the extreme, and perfectly garden- 
 like, yet its scenery to me seemed oppressively monotonous 
 and tiresome. There was an indescribable want or blank about 
 it. Perhaps it was wrong to feel so, but I could not well help 
 it. It was inborn in my nature and fostered by all my pre- 
 vious circumstances and associations. I thought of my native 
 land. I sighed for her blue mountains, her heathery hills and 
 peaceful glens and her kind, true-hearted people. I felt to 
 say,- 
 
 " England thy beauties are tame and domestic, 
 
 To him who has roamed on the mountains afar ; 
 O, for the crags that are grand and majestic 
 The steep frowning glories of dark Lochnagar !" 
 
 I knew were I only to return to Scotland again, especially 
 to Edinburgh, I would be almost sure to find employment. I 
 had just enough money left to procure a steerage passage 
 to Leith, the port of Edinburgh, where in due time I arrived 
 penniless, weary, and worn with care and fatigue. I went 
 straight to the nurseries of my former employers, the Messrs. 
 Dickson & Co., in Leith Walk. Just as I entered the gate, I 
 met Mr. Shanklie, the manager, who was always a good friend 
 to me, and who was also an old friend and fellow-workman 
 with my father in his early days. He very kindly enquired
 
 52 
 
 of my welfare, where I had been, and what I was engaged in, 
 and without waiting for me to ask it, he offered me immediate 
 employment, assigning me to the hothouse department, where 
 I had been formerly employed under the experienced florist, 
 Mr. James Ferguson, who was very glad to receive me back 
 again, being at the time in need of one who knew the names 
 and treatment of the plants, as he was suffering from an 
 affection of the eyes which prevented him from attending 
 to his work as usual. Here I remained several months. 
 My religious privileges were very great during that time, 
 in being privileged to hear so many able preachers of the 
 gospel, and mingling with so many good and intelligent 
 people. At this time I was very much bent upon becoming 
 a missionary to the heathen. I made some enquiries about 
 the matter, and found I would have to go for some years to a 
 theological institution, which was out of the question in 
 my case, as I could see no way of being supported during 
 that time. Finally I came to the rational conclusion that I 
 was neither entirely fit nor worthy of such a high calling, but 
 the idea was uppermost in my mind for a long time. I was 
 the more stimulated in this from the fact that an acquaint- 
 ance of mine, who lately had worked in the nursery and lived 
 in the bothy, was being educated for the work ; some wealthy 
 Christian people meanwhile supporting him. His name was 
 William Murphy, a very pious and talented youth. Subse- 
 quently he went abroad and became, I have learned, a suc- 
 cessful and devoted missionary to the heathen. But I lost 
 track of him in a few years after leaving Edinburgh. At this 
 time I was a member of Dr. John Brown's church, a grand- 
 son of the celebrated divine, John Brown, of Haddington, and 
 himself a most excellent man, preacher and commentator. I 
 remember many of the words he spoke to this day. I was also 
 much interested in, and edified by, the preaching of that ex- 
 cellent man, James Haldane, familiarly called Captain Hal- 
 dane. His praise, together with that of his brother Robert, 
 "is in all the churches." I believe I did not hear that good 
 and remarkable man, Dr. Chalmers, preach at this time, but 
 I had that privilege during my first residence in Edinburgh, 
 but, at that time, I was out of Christ.
 
 53 
 
 While employed in the nursery at this time, I lived in the 
 bothy. In 1835 I lodged in Shrub Place, near by. There 
 were four of us in the bothy, being all more or less connected 
 with the hothouses. We had family worship every evening, 
 which had a good effect upon ourselves and some of our 
 fellow-workmen, of whom there were some forty or more 
 during the busy season, all bred gardeners. The wages at 
 that time were very small: for transient hands only nine 
 shillings per week. Most of the men were merely working in 
 the nursery with the view and expectation of soon getting 
 situations through their being there, the proprietors being 
 applied to for gardeners from all parts of the British isles, 
 as well as occasionally from foreign countries. It was thus a 
 kind of rendezvous and intelligence office for gardeners out 
 of situations, they in the mean time being expected to work 
 for small wages. The foreman and stationary hands were of 
 course much better paid. Here were to be found many very 
 intelligent and capable men, some of whom had seen much 
 of the world. It was a good school for a young gardener to 
 be in for a time. In fact, throughout Scotland, those who 
 had worked in this, or any other of the many fine nurseries 
 and public gardens in Edinburgh, used to be called "college- 
 bred gardeners." 
 
 Induced by an offer of better wages, and expectations of 
 being enabled to obtain the means of further improvement in 
 my business, I left Edinburgh at the following Martinmas, 
 November n, 1838, and went as journeyman to Buchannan 
 House, the seat of the Duke of Montrose, near Loch Lomond, 
 in Stirlingshire, a very picturesque, wild and romantic dis- 
 trict on the verge of the western highlands of Scotland. My 
 situation here was not a very desirable one either as to work, 
 good treatment, or outward comfort. The head-gardener, 
 although not without some good qualities, was a proud, high- 
 minded man for his station in life ; irascible, and at times 
 very unreasonable and exacting at least, I found him so. He 
 had a great dislike to dissenters, and especially to those of 
 the Secession church, which I had some reason to know by his 
 demeanor towards me. At length my patience, together with 
 that of other two of his men gave out, and we all left to-
 
 54 
 
 gether ; the only place and only employer I ever left in what 
 might be called bad humor. I now heartily forgive him the 
 poor man was old and had, I believe, some family anxieties. I 
 had no fault, whatever, with either the locality or its people, 
 who seemed kind, intelligent and well behaved. 
 
 My minister, Mr. Blair, of the Secession church in Drymen, 
 was a very excellent man and minister of Christ. I shall never 
 forget his kindness, and that of his whole family to me. His 
 wife, I found, was a relative of Sir Samuel Douglas, of Castle 
 Douglas in Kirkcudbrightshire. 
 
 I recollect spending a very pleasant day while in this place, 
 in sailing on the loch, being sent one lovely May morning to 
 meet and help bring up the loch and river Enrick, a "gabbard" 
 laden with coal for the supply of the hothouses. During 
 the time she was waiting for a fair wind we took the small 
 boat and rowed about among, and landed on, some of the 
 many picturesque islands in which the loch abounds. It is the 
 largest fresh-water lake in the British islands, being about 
 twenty-four miles long and nine broad. The shores are in- 
 dented with many sinuosities and estuaries of streams, of 
 which the Enrick is the largest. It is almost everywhere sur- 
 rounded by lofty mountains, the chief of which is Ben Lomond, 
 "mount of the sun, or light of day." The wild woods, the 
 islands, the rugged, overhanging cliffs, the frowning precipices, 
 the rapid-rushing streams and white-foaming cataracts that 
 bespangle the steep mountain sides, as onward they sweep 
 and leap to meet and mingle with the deep and dark waters 
 of the lake, all these together make the scenery of Loch 
 Lomond one of stupendous and awful grandeur. 
 
 My residence at Buchannan, although thus seemingly un- 
 propitious, was the means of the conversion to God of two of 
 my fellow-workmen, who, I have reason to believe, have con- 
 tinued ever since to hold fast "the faith and the beginning of 
 their confidence towards God." One of them now holds a highly 
 respectable and very prominent position in life ; the other, I 
 have not heard of for several years. If alive, I have no doubt 
 he is still what he was, a useful and consistent Christian. He 
 strove hard by diligent, personal study to fit himself for the 
 regular ministry, but having no means of his own to support 
 himself meanwhile, I believe he never entered it for lack of a
 
 55 
 
 finished education. I have still in my possession, letters from 
 these friends, which I highly prize, in which I am the acknowl- 
 edged instrument under God, of their conversion. While 
 here, I was also the means, according to his own declaration, 
 of reclaiming another fellow-workman from infidelity. He had 
 several infidel books, which he then destroyed. I lost sight 
 of this young man soon afterwards. He then talked about 
 joining the church. I have often desired to know his subse- 
 quent history. I trust I have been the means of turning some 
 persons to God in other places besides this one, but I was led 
 to remark the above cases so much the more, as during my 
 residence there I was sometimes tempted to enquire, "Where- 
 fore am I here?" I had often heard of Buchannan. My father 
 in his youth worked in the gardens there, as well as in the 
 Messrs. Dickson's nurseries and other good places. My 
 brother John, too, visited it in a pedestrian journey he made 
 through portions of Scotland and Ireland. It was then a splen- 
 did place, indeed ; the gardens and hothouses were very ex- 
 tensive and good. I was sorry to leave it at the time, and in 
 the way I did, but I think I had good reasons for doing so, 
 and I have never, as yet, blamed myself for it. 
 
 After leaving the above place, I traveled around the coun- 
 try for about ten days in quest of work, which I then obtained 
 in the gardens of James Ewing, Esq., of Levenside, formerly 
 member of Parliament for Glasgow, in the beautiful vale of 
 Leven in Dumbartonshire, about two miles from the ancient 
 town and castle of Dumbarton. This was a change greatly for 
 the better. Mr. Ewing was laying out a fine new garden, which 
 afforded me a good opportunity for improvement. I remained 
 here six months, during which time I was a member of the 
 Secession church in Dumbarton, of which Mr. Andrew, now, 
 I believe, Dr. Andrew Somerville, was pastor ; a very learned 
 and faithful minister of Christ. I look back with much plea- 
 sure to my sojourn here. I loved to stray by the banks of the 
 crystal Leven, and, like the poet Smollett, who has immortal- 
 ized the fair stream in his beautiful " Ode to Leven Water," I 
 used to bathe my limbs in its pure waters. The river, or 
 water, as it is called, forms the outlet of Loch Lomond, by 
 which its surplus waters find their way through the firth of 
 Clyde to the ocean.
 
 56 
 
 The name Leven, from El Avon, in the ancient language of 
 the country, means the sun or sacred river. The ancient in- 
 habitants before their conversion to Christianity, like the 
 Canaanites and Phenicians of old, were worshippers of Bel, 
 Bal or Baal, the god of fire. Like them they worshipped the 
 "host of heaven ;" the sun, moon and stars ; especially the sun, 
 as the representative of the deity in dispensing light, heat, 
 fertility and life. Many rivers, mountains, glens and other 
 objects and places appear from the names they still possess 
 to have been dedicated to the worship of Bel, the sun, moon 
 and stars. Hence the frequency of the prefix Bel or Bal to the 
 names of so many places in Scotland. On many mountains 
 there are heaps of stones called Bel's cairns, where it is be- 
 lieved these ancient fire-worshippers kindled their sacrificial 
 fires. Thus we have the word "Bothwell" from Both-el or Both- 
 bel the house or temple of Bel, or the deity. How similar 
 this is to the Hebrew Bethel, "house of God." Indeed, in 
 the names of some places the word "beth" does occur, as in 
 Carbeth ; there is also a Beith and a Newbeath. The Scot- 
 tish word " bothie," or small house, comes from this word, and 
 doubtless the English word "booth." My own name being a 
 local name or name of a place in Scotland, I fancy is derived 
 from or composed of two ancient Celtic words, "Nish," from 
 whence Ness, a point or promontory, and "beth," a house. 
 Anciently the name had a terminal " h,"as in Macbeth. I have 
 derived much pleasure and recreation of mind from studying 
 somewhat into such seemingly trivial things as names of pla- 
 ces and persons and their meaning and derivation. 
 
 While living at Levenside, I learned that my brother Doug- 
 las had gone off to Charleston, South Carolina, as a clerk or 
 book-keeper. I felt very sorry I did not see him before he 
 left, and regretted much that he had gone to live in a hot 
 climate and in a land where human beings were held in bond- 
 age and slavery. Although a number of years my junior and 
 of a more feeble frame than I, yet he had mingled a good deal 
 in my boyish plays and rambles. I was always much attached 
 to him, he being always of a very kind and peaceable disposi- 
 tion. I feared at that time I should never see him more, but 
 I have had that pleasure several times since then.
 
 1839-1842. 
 
 HAVING an offer of a better situation, as flower gardener in 
 the gardens of Colonel Harvey, at Castle Semple, in Renfrew- 
 shire, I left Levenside and went to that place at Martinmas, 
 November 11, 1839. Castle Semple is a beautiful place, finely 
 situated on the shores of a picturesque loch, or lake, some two 
 miles in length and half a mile or so in breadth. The mansion- 
 house is about a mile and a half from the thriving village of 
 Loch Winnoch, so named from the adjoining loch. The gar- 
 dens were at this time among the finest in Scotland. I had 
 charge of the fine and large flower-garden and the extensive 
 plant-houses connected with it. The owner and his family were 
 excellent people. Mr. Hardie, the head-gardener was a fine old 
 man of religious principles. The foreman in the hothouse de- 
 partment, Mr. John Chapman, was a very capable, aimiable 
 and religious young man. About a year after I went to Cas- 
 tle Semple he went to the Earl of Lauderdale's gardens in 
 Berwickshire, as foreman. He and I continued firm friends and 
 constant correspondents. Some time after coming to America 
 I wondered why he had ceased to write to me. At length I 
 received a very touching letter from his sister giving a most 
 affecting account of his sickness and death. His memory is 
 still very pleasant and dear to me as of a friend " not lost but 
 gone before." Mr. Richmond, the forester on the estate, and 
 his family, showed me much kindness. He was an old friend 
 of my father's ; a school-fellow and fellow-workman in early 
 life. The family emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where he 
 died soon after landing. His son-in-law, Mr. James Middle- 
 ton, has ever since continued a good friend and correspond- 
 ent of mine. The inhabitants of this part of Scotland are 
 noted for their intelligence, education and good conduct. This 
 applies in a special manner to the people of Paisley, a large 
 and celebrated manufacturing town in the vicinity. Shortly 
 57
 
 58 
 
 after I went to this place I became a member, by baptism, of 
 the Scotch Baptist Church, in the neighboring village of Kil- 
 barchan, of which, Mr. James McGavin and Mr. David Bald- 
 neive were elders. Mr. Baldneive was a Christian of rare 
 excellence of character and abilities. I shall never forget the 
 kindness I received from the members of this church, as well 
 as of the sister-churches in Paisley, Glasgow, Dumbarton and 
 elsewhere in the west of Scotland. Never, yet, have I met 
 anything to exceed it. My humble station in life was no bar- 
 rier to my being entertained as an occasional guest in the 
 families of refined and wealthy merchants and manufacturers. 
 Nowhere have I ever seen such a true Christian spirit in 
 word and deed than what I saw manifested among the mem- 
 bers of these churches. They were friends and disciples of 
 Jesus, indeed ; sound in faith, deeds and doctrine. May God 
 bless every one of them who are still in the flesh ! In Scot- 
 land there are two classes of Baptists, who differ chiefly in 
 some points of church order. The party called English Bap- 
 tists, agree with those in England. The other party, being at 
 one time the only class of Baptists in Scotland, are therefore 
 called Scotch or original Baptists. The chief peculiarities of 
 the Scotch Baptists are these : they observe the Lord's sup- 
 per every first day of the week ; they believe in a plurality of 
 elders or pastors, as well as of deacons, in each individual 
 church, as being required of scripture, and essential to its 
 complete order and efficiency. Their pastors, like the dea- 
 cons, are generally chosen out from among themselves. The 
 mutual prayers, exhortations and teachings of the brethren are 
 allowed a prominent place in the full assemblies of the church 
 when met for worship. Their pastors and preachers of all 
 kinds, are of the class commonly termed lay preachers. Not 
 considering a collegiate education essentially necessary to 
 preaching the gospel or filling the pastoral office. At the 
 same time, they do not by any means, under-rate the value 
 and importance of education and learning. Nor do they deny 
 the right of those " who labor in the word and doctrine," to 
 be fairly remunerated whenever necessary. Nor in the forma- 
 tion of a new church, do they consider it necessary to have a 
 plurality of elders at the very first ; believing, however, that a
 
 59 
 
 church is not in full or New Testament order without a plu- 
 rality ; which, they say, was the case with the first churches, 
 as planted and set in order by the apostles, of whom it is said, 
 " And when they had ordained them elders in every church" 
 (Acts xiv. 23). Such also being the case with the churches 
 in Phillipi and Ephesus, who are expressly spoken of as hav- 
 ing a plurality of bishops or elders. (Phil. i. i., Acts xx. 17.) 
 
 I got a good deal into notice at this time from frequently 
 speaking in the assemblies of the church in Kilbarchan, and 
 other churches of like faith and order in that part of the 
 country, as well as from preaching the gospel in different 
 places around, in which I had the hearty approval of my 
 brethren. I spoke occasionally, also, at public meetings in 
 favor of the temperance cause. It was while I lived at Castle 
 Semple I became acquainted with Catherine Angus, my wife, 
 who was also a member of the said church. About this time, 
 summer of 1840, my mother and sisters left Kirkcudbright 
 and came to live in the city of Glasgow, about fifteen miles 
 distant, so that I had frequent opportunities of seeing them. 
 My time passed away very pleasantly. My duties were com- 
 paratively light, and I had many friends and good opportuni- 
 ties for mental improvement. The surrounding country was 
 highly picturesque and full of interesting historical associa- 
 tions. Wherever it has been my lot to sojourn, the configura- 
 tion, the aspect and scenery of the country has always had 
 much to do with the pleasure and happiness of my life. A 
 level country, however fertile and well cultivated, has a ten- 
 dency to make me somehow dissatisfied and even somewhat 
 low spirited. Whereas, when the country is hilly and moun- 
 tainous, however barren it may be, and especially if well 
 wooded and near the sea, I could feel comparatively happy, 
 even although my own circumstances were adverse. Although 
 satisfied to have remained longer, if necessary, at Castle 
 Semple, yet, having an offer of higher wages from John Hen- 
 derson, Esq., of Park, at his country seat of that name, on the 
 banks of the Clyde, near Paisley, I accepted it, having com- 
 pleted my second year's engagement at Castle Semple. I only 
 remained a few months at the Park, as I was disappointed 
 with the place. The garden I found to be a poor one, which
 
 6o 
 
 being left mainly to my care, I felt I could never do well by 
 it, either in gaining credit for myself or affording pleasure or 
 profit to the owner, who was a very fine Christian gentleman. 
 His head-gardener, Mr. Sleight, was a good Christian also. 
 His time was chiefly occupied in superintending the farming 
 department of the estate. 
 
 About this time, my future brother-in-law, Mr. James An- 
 gus, left Scotland for America. I accompanied him as far as 
 Liverpool and saw him sail for New York. In sailing up the 
 Mersey to that port, the fourth time I had done so, I was 
 much affected at sight of the locality where my poor brother 
 Walter was drowned. His body never was found. In Liver- 
 pool, I had the pleasure of spending a few days with my 
 sisters Isabella and Jane, who were here earning their living 
 as dressmakers. I had not seen either of them for several 
 years, and the occasion was a pleasant one for us all. After 
 visiting a few friends and some of the gardens in that locality, 
 I returned to Scotland and remained a short time with my 
 mother, in Glasgow.
 
 1842-1846. 
 
 I HAD often thought of emigrating to the United States, 
 having heard and read many favorable accounts of the great 
 privileges and advantages of the country "Chamber's Infor- 
 mation for the people," was the work, the reading of which 
 was the principle cause of my taking this course, the editor 
 having a very able article in it on the advantages of emigra- 
 tion. After duly consulting with my intended partner in life, 
 and my relatives and friends, I concluded to take this step. 
 
 We were married in Glasgow, March 7, 1842, by Mr. Archi- 
 bald Watson, one of the elders or pastors of the Portland, now 
 John-Street Baptist Church, in that city. On the I4th of 
 the same month we sailed in the brig Stillman, of 250 tons, 
 from Glasgow for New York, where we arrived, after a long 
 and boisterous passage, on the eleventh of May. The vessel 
 was small, overcrowded with passengers and poorly manned. 
 We had a time of much peril and hardship. Having been at 
 sea before, I was of no small use on board. I worked pretty 
 much as one of the seamen, which drove away the tedium 
 incident to the life of a passenger on a lengthened voyage. 
 My wife bore up with good courage and patience. Like my- 
 self, she was never seasick. There was much suffering among 
 the passengers, many having brought a too limited supply of 
 provisions. We were in the second cabin and fared a little 
 better, in some respects, than the steerage passengers, our 
 provisions being found us by the ship, which, however, were 
 neither very good in quality nor sufficient in quantity. Our 
 supply of water getting low, we were all put upon a very short 
 allowance of it, for a time. It was sad to hear the poor chil- 
 dren crying for water. I used to keep a bit of lead in my 
 mouth, which I fancied in some measure alleviated the thirst. 
 61
 
 62 
 
 At this time the law was very lax as to the fitting out and pro- 
 visioning of emigrant ships. It was a good place to try human 
 nature and to study it, and I think it was profitable to me. 
 There were some very good, respectable people on board, with 
 whom I could have wished to have kept up a friendly inter- 
 course and correspondence, but as soon as we landed we were 
 to be scattered all abroad, hardly any one being able to tell 
 another where to direct a letter. With the exception of two 
 or three, I never knew what became of them, which I have 
 often regretted. 
 
 It was a great trial to leave our native land. No one can 
 form any idea of it except from experience. The parting with 
 my mother and sisters as well as with the parents and rela- 
 tives of my wife was very affecting and trying. As the gallant 
 ship with outspread sails swiftly bore us onward, we gazed 
 wistfully on the receding shore, until the blue mountains of 
 dear old Scotia faded from our view behind the heaving bil- 
 lows, and then, in sadness, we turned our eyes away ! The 
 following verses from that plaintive song, " The Emigrant's 
 Farewell," by Pringle, came home to my heart with all their 
 sad meaning and power : 
 
 " Farewell ye hills of glorious deeds 
 
 And streams renowned in song. 
 Farewell ye braes and blossomed meads 
 
 Our hearts have loved so long. 
 Home of our love ! our father's home ! 
 
 Land of the brave and free ! 
 
 The sail is flapping on the foam, 
 
 That bears us far from thee ! 
 Our native land, our native vale 
 
 A long and last adieu ! 
 Farewell to bonny Teviotdale, 
 
 And Scotland's mountains blue ! " 
 
 Ah, who can conceive of the feelings of those who have 
 expatriated themselves ! Not really willingly not by reason 
 of any dislike to the land of their birth, but by stern necessity 
 and force of adverse circumstances. The words which poor 
 Falconer, the sailor-poet and author of the " Shipwreck," ap-
 
 63 
 
 plied to his going off to sea, may, in some measure, be applied 
 to many of such : 
 
 " Forlorn of heart and by severe decree, 
 Condemned reluctant to the faithless sea ! " 
 
 The command of the Lord to the Israelites of old was, 
 "Not to vex and oppress the strangers that came among 
 them, but to remember they themselves had been such in 
 the land of Egypt," and knew "the heart of a stranger." This 
 was indeed and still remains a most wise, beneficent and need- 
 ful command, " the heart of a stranger." Well I know 
 what that is. How often have I felt its sadness, its lone- 
 liness and dreary forebodings ! I trust I do, and ever shall 
 feel for all such. I am supremely thankful and grateful that 
 ever I have known this. It has humbled me, taught me to 
 trust in God and feel for others. 
 
 My wife is a native of the parish of New Kilpatrick, so 
 named after St. Patrick, who was born, it is said, in this part 
 of Scotland. It is in the county of Dumbarton, about six 
 miles from Glasgow. Her parents are John Angus and Janet 
 Gibson, who bear excellent Christian characters. Her father 
 and grandfather have had the charge of locks on the Forth 
 and Clyde canal, from their youth. Her parents and grand- 
 parents have all belonged to the Scotch Baptist denomination 
 in Glasgow. 
 
 Soon after arriving in New York, I found employment at 
 the country seat of James Lennox, Esq., of that city, at Neth- 
 erwood, near New Hamburgh, Dutchess County, N. Y., 
 where I immediately proceeded, leaving my wife for a fort- 
 night at the house of my cousin, Mr. David Sang, market- 
 gardener, near Bloomingdale. Poor fellow ; he died in a few 
 months aftewards of typhus fever, and his family returned to 
 Scotland, from which they had only been absent two years, 
 and having expended all their money in endeavoring to find a 
 home in the new world. He was a son of Mr. Edward Sang, 
 the well-known nurseryman and horticultural writer, of Kirk- 
 caldy. After making some arrangements about a tenement 
 and other matters, I returned to New York for my wife. We 
 bought a few necessary articles of furniture and provisions,
 
 6 4 
 
 which quite exhausted our little pecuniary store, and took up 
 house at Netherwood, June 3, 1842. 
 
 At first we felt every thing in this country new and strange. 
 We thought much of our native land and the many kind 
 friends we had left there, and at times felt homesick. But, 
 upon the whole, we felt satisfied that we had come to Amer- 
 ica, and soon began to get along very well and feel happy and 
 contented. We had a fine view from where we lived of the 
 Hudson River, the Catskill Mountains, the Highlands, and 
 the villages of New Hamburgh and Newburg, while the gen- 
 eral aspect of the country was pleasant and picturesque. With 
 the exception of our nearest neighbors, Mr. James Geddes, a 
 worthy Scotchman, and his wife, and one or two other fami- 
 lies, we had few associates. Our religious privileges were 
 not at all good. My wages were very small twenty-one 
 dollars per month and a tenement free of rent, and my work, 
 which was a mixture of garden, farm and common work, very 
 different from what I had been used to. 
 
 James, our first child, was born here, February 13, 1843. 
 We left Netherwood on the first of April, 1844, and went to 
 live at Yorkville, New York City, where I was employed in 
 the nursery of the Messrs. Hogg for the next five months. 
 I only went there to be on hand until a suitable situation 
 could be obtained. While here, we had fellowship with the 
 Scotch Baptist Church, in New York, of which my very wor- 
 thy employer, Mr. Thomas Hogg, Senr., was an elder. We 
 never liked living here very well, the locality was so noisy, 
 and at that time very subject to the fever and ague. 
 
 One day, Capt. B. W. Comstock, of Providence, R. I., came 
 to the nursery to enquire for a person to take charge of his 
 gardens and farm. Upon Mr. Hogg's recommendation he at 
 once hired me, and we proceeded straightway to Providence, 
 where we arrived August 21, 1844. 
 
 For several weeks we lived at India Point, in the city, and 
 then moved to the farm in Seekonk, now East Providence, 
 adjoining that of the late Hon. Tristam Burges. I had also 
 the charge of the captain's gardens and hothouses in the 
 city.
 
 65 
 
 The very first appearance of New England and its people 
 was highly pleasing and preposessing. With the city of 
 Providence and its inhabitants, we were both pleased and sur- 
 prised ; there seemed so much of cleanliness, good order, 
 civility and industry. Somehow, we felt we had found a home 
 and a place of rest on earth ; nor have our ideas in these re- 
 spects ever changed. My heartfelt sympathies and prayers 
 are for good New England. 
 
 While at Seekonk I was gladdened by a visit from my 
 brother Douglas, of Charleston, S. C. We had not seen one 
 another for some eight years. He would very willingly have 
 remained in New England, but failing to find suitable employ- 
 ment he went back again to Charleston. I have had the 
 pleasure of seeing him several times since then.
 
 1846-1858. 
 
 MY EMPLOYER'S affairs becoming somewhat involved, we left 
 Seekonk, April I, 1846, and went to live at Elm Grove, city 
 of Providence, on the beautiful farm of the late lamented 
 Mrs. Anna Jenkins, and formerly the residence of her grand- 
 father, the venerable and worthy Moses Brown. 
 
 At Elm Grove I laid out a fine new garden with hothouses 
 connected with it, of which I had the charge for twelve years, 
 together with the grounds around the family mansion on Ben- 
 efit Street, as well as those of Dr. Samuel B. Tobey, agent 
 and director for the Jenkins family. Here we had a good 
 home, good employers, and many kind friends. Our cottage 
 was near a wild wood, with a romantic glen and brook near 
 by, and within a few minutes' walk of the salt water at the 
 head of the Narragansett Bay. A half-hour's walk took us 
 into the heart of the city. Thus, we had all the advantages 
 of a town and country residence. Our cottage was self-con- 
 tained and stood all alone. My liberal employers allowed me 
 to plan it, and select its site, as if it had been my own. It was 
 a lovely spot ; the birds sang all day in the boughs of the 
 overshadowing trees that grew all around, and our children, 
 who were all born here with the exception of the two oldest, 
 James having been born at Netherwood, and John at Seekonk, 
 played about as free and as unmolested as if the place was our 
 own. Their educational advantages here were very good, as 
 well as our religious privileges. With the exception of my 
 native St. Mary's Isle, I never yet have loved or felt so much 
 attachment to any one place as Elm Grove. 
 
 In December, 1848, a few individuals, of whom were my 
 wife and I, of the same faith and order as the Scotch Baptist, 
 formed into order as a church of Christ, in Providence. In 
 66
 
 6 7 
 
 this capacity we were duly recognized by the church in New 
 York, as well as aided by the counsel and presence of one of 
 its elders, Mr. Hogg, who came to Providence for that pur- 
 pose. I was chosen leader or presiding brother of the little 
 band. In August, 1850, I was ordained elder ; which office I 
 held until I went to Canada, in the spring of 1858. This step 
 of the church was also recognized by the church in New York. 
 We never increased much in numbers, there never being over 
 twenty belonging to the body altogether, although for the num- 
 ber of membership we had quite a little company of hearers 
 in our meetings. At times, we had our troubles within and 
 without. We had to "contend for the faith once delivered to 
 the saints;" and had to bear the cross as all have to "who 
 will live godly in Christ Jesus." But we were enabled " to 
 build ourselves up in the most holy faith, and keep ourselves 
 in the love of God," and had reason to believe we were the 
 means of salvation and edification to some persons at least. 
 Many happy hours and blessed means of grace did our little 
 gatherings prove to me. Our peculiar views of church order 
 never were acceptable to any extent among those who had 
 not been previously acquainted with such churches. Our prin- 
 ciples altogether were so near akin to those of other Baptists, 
 that many seemingly judicious persons told us there was no 
 cause for our organization. 
 
 We were at least sincere in our views of such things, and 
 certainly had no other end in view than the glory of God; 
 and "we did what we could." Shortly after I left Providence 
 for Canada, several others also having left for various other 
 places, and one of our dear brethren, Mr. William McLeod, 
 having died, a most excellent and gifted young Christian, the 
 few who were left, deemed it best to discontinue the meet- 
 ings and join other churches. The records of the church 
 which I wrote out, I left with my worthy friend Mr. Daniel 
 Barr, who had been ordained co-elder with me, a little before I 
 left Providence. Mr. George Anderson, one of the brethren, 
 brother-in-law to my wife, is in Canada, where he labors as a 
 preacher of the gospel ; with him, as well as with Mr. James 
 McCulloch, Mr. Joseph Beynon, Mr. Alexander Forsyth, and
 
 68 
 
 others, who at one time were all connected with the church, 
 I am still enabled to keep up a friendly intercourse. 
 
 I wrote two small pamphlets, a number of years ago, advo- 
 cating "primitive principles," and giving an account of the 
 Scotch Baptists. These my brethren had printed. 
 
 Soon after I came to Providence, the Rhode Island Horti- 
 cultural Society was formed, of which, in consideration of my 
 being a practical gardener, I was constituted a member with- 
 out paying any fee. 
 
 My employer, Capt. B. W. Com stock, who was quite an 
 enthusiast in all such matters, was the first president of the 
 society. In the summer of 1845, while I was in his employ, 
 Capt. Comstock, with Stephen H. Smith, Esq., John J. Stimp- 
 son, Esq., and some other gentlemen, got up an exhibition of 
 fruits and flowers, which was held in the Captain's house on 
 Hope Street, to which all who had an interest in horticulture 
 were invited. I helped to arrange the articles, the dining and 
 drawing rooms being filled with tables on which the articles 
 were displayed. This may be considered the starting-place 
 of the society, which was formed shortly after this exhibi- 
 tion ; the next one being held in a public hall. For several 
 years after the commencement of the society, being one of 
 the few practical gardeners in the neighborhood, being also 
 the youngest and more recently from Europe, a good deal was 
 expected of me by the society, and my advice was frequently 
 asked by the owners of gardens and amateur horticulturists 
 around Providence. I was very glad of any opportunity to be 
 useful in promoting the interest and disseminating the knowl- 
 edge of this profession and science. I think I strived all I 
 could to do so. 
 
 I endeavored to teach a number of young men who worked 
 with me in the gardens at Elm Grove, from time to time, the 
 rudiments of gardening and botany, with the view of their 
 ultimately becoming good gardeners, which labor was not in 
 vain, as some of them have since excelled in a high degree in 
 this respect. In doing this, of course I neither sought nor 
 received any fee or personal benefit whatever. My aim being 
 the welfare of the young men and the interest of the profes- 
 sion, while I was amply repaid in the pleasure which it afforded
 
 6 9 
 
 me at the time and has ever since. It is a true proverb : " in 
 teaching we learn and in giving we receive." 
 
 When I came to Providence in 1844, the only gardeners in 
 the city or State who had been brought up to, or understood 
 the management of, hothouses, I believe, were Mr. Richard 
 Dalglish, gardener to Madame Ives ; the late Mr. Lancelot 
 Mitchell, and the late Mr. Peter Wood, jobbing-gardeners. 
 Mr. Mitchell came to Providence with Mr. Robert Bowser, 
 whom he instructed in the knowledge of the business. Mr. 
 Mitchell had, then, a little greenhouse on Angell Street. He 
 was a good gardener and a man whom every one liked for his 
 obliging and peaceable disposition. He died of cholera in 
 1849. Mr. Wood was also a good gardener and naturally a fine 
 sort of a man, but, unfortunately, was at times, rather intem- 
 perate. He set out for California about the time of Mr. 
 Mitchell's death, and died on the passage, at sea. The above 
 were all Scotchmen. The late Mr. John Hamilton was, at this 
 time, gardener to Alexander Duncan, Esq. He was a good 
 gardener, but I am not aware that he understood the manage- 
 ment of hothouses. 
 
 There were some small private graperies, such as that of 
 Captain Townsend's, on Brown Street, and one or two more ; 
 but there was neither in the city nor State, hardly any thing 
 that could be called a private greenhouse or plant-house. In 
 Madame Ives' garden there was a small pit greenhouse, which 
 was the only one in the city. There were several small green- 
 houses where plants and flowers were sold, which were : Mr. 
 Dalglish's, on Power Street ; Mr. Bowser's, on Hope Street ; 
 Mr. Mitchell's, on Angell Street ; and Mr. Potter's, in Cran- 
 ston. There was nothing of the kind that I knew of anywhere 
 else in the State. Tomatoes then were hardly known in the 
 market, neither was celery or cauliflower. There were also 
 comparatively few fine flowers in cultivation. I once grew and 
 exhibited a few good cockscombs in the hall of the Horticul- 
 tural Society. They were the first that had been seen, and 
 made quite a sensation. 
 
 The first impulse given to horticulture in Rhode Island, 
 and indeed throughout the country, was the publication and 
 circulation of the works of the late lamented Andrew J.
 
 70 
 
 Downing, Esq. The progress it has made of late years is 
 quite astonishing. Soon after I came to Providence, I was 
 frequently applied to, and asked to provide gardeners for 
 various families. Among others whom I was the means of 
 bringing from Scotland and different parts of this country, 
 were Mr. William Sturgeon, now a Baptist minister in the 
 West ; Mr. George Anderson, and Mr. Alexander Forsyth, 
 both now in Canada. These were all employed in the gardens 
 at St. Mary's Isle ; long, however, after I left it. They were 
 good gardeners and very intelligent, and respectable young 
 men. Mr. Anderson, in particular, gave many proofs of his 
 skill in horticulture, while in Providence, as gardener to Gen- 
 eral James and George W. Chapin, Esq. He has also attained 
 to a good degree as a preacher of Christ. He is one of the 
 best educated gardeners I ever knew, having been educated 
 at the celebrated "Dollar Institution," at Dollar, in Scotland, 
 an excellent academy, free to all natives of that place. 
 
 The year 1 849 was a time of trial to me and my family. The 
 summer was very hot and sickly. Dysentery, scarlet fever, 
 and Asiatic cholera prevailing extensively. In the month of 
 August my wife and three of the children were taken sick 
 with scarlet fever. Through the blessing and favor of God 
 they all recovered in due time with the exception of Henry, a 
 beautiful and intelligent boy of great promise. He was very 
 large for his age, with fair complexion, and curly hair and 
 large blue eyes. 
 
 After languishing and suffering extreme pain for nearly 
 three weeks, he breathed his last on Sabbath-day, the ninth 
 of September, aged three years and three days. At the time 
 of his death, his mother, little brother John, and sister Jessie 
 were very sick. A few minutes before he died he regained 
 consciousness and made signs, for he could not speak, of his 
 wish to be laid in bed beside his mother. She kissed him, 
 stroked back his hair and said, "Henry, can you say your 
 prayers ?" which he seemed to delight to do in days of health, 
 often reminding his mother, when putting him to bed, to hear 
 him repeat his prayers ; when he would say, " say p'ayers, 
 ma." The well-known words waked up all his dying energy. 
 He opened, and then shut his sunken eyes, clasped his feeble
 
 hands in the attitude of prayer, and muttering a few words, 
 immediately "fell asleep." Saved like myriads of little ones 
 through the merits of Him who declared "of such is the 
 kingdom of heaven." 
 
 I felt deeply the loss of this dear child. One night, feeling 
 deeply oppressed in spirit, I arose and wrote a few verses of 
 poetry to his memory, which had the effect of assuaging my 
 grief thenceforth. Often have I found much pleasure, solace 
 and comfort in thus giving vent to my feelings in homely 
 rhyme. 
 
 LINES ON THE DEATH OF LITTLE HENRY. 
 
 BY WILLIAM NISBET. 
 
 From pain and sickness all set free, 
 
 Thy spirit's gone above, 
 Nor aught of thee I hear or see, 
 
 Son of my hope and love. 
 
 Oh ! fondly loved, departed child ! 
 
 Thy mother's pride and joy; 
 How oft my care thou hast beguiled, 
 
 My own sweet, artless boy ! 
 
 And still I love to think and muse 
 
 On all you did and said, 
 I treasure all thy hands did use 
 
 Thy watering-pot and spade ! 
 
 The mimic tree thou used to plant 
 
 I love full well to see, 
 And every place thy feet did haunt 
 
 Each spot is dear to me. 
 
 O'er bank, on sandy brae, in brook, 
 With brothers thou wouldst play ; 
 
 What pleasures there thou didst enjoy, 
 From dawn to setting day ! 
 
 Or, watchful of thy mother's care, 
 With sister thou wouldst stand ; 
 
 Thy father's toil wouldst strive to share 
 With ready foot and hand.
 
 7 2 
 
 Methinks I hear thine evening prayer 
 
 Thy mother by thy bed, 
 With lisping tongue and serious air : 
 
 Now low thy form is laid. 
 
 Still, when by starlight forth I pace, 
 
 I feel thy spirit near ; 
 The thought my mind dare scarce efface, 
 
 To wipe away my tear. 
 
 So fair, so pure, so happy now 
 
 Praised be the Saviour's love 
 I dare not wish thee back below 
 
 From thy bright home above. 
 
 But, gladsome would the path pursue 
 
 That leads the way to heaven ; 
 There I shall meet again with you, 
 
 Where no fond ties are riven. 
 
 On October 19, 1849, James, my eldest brother, died in Ed- 
 inburgh. He was a good man in every sense of the word. 
 He acted as a father to our family after my father's death. On 
 the morning of November 20, 1849, my much respected em- 
 ployer and patron, Mrs. Anna Jenkins, and her amiable 
 daughter, Miss Sarah, perished by the burning up of their 
 dwelling-house. It was a sad event and a heart-rending scene. 
 I was on the spot early in the morning, and helped to get the 
 bodies out of the ruins. I can never forget that morning. Her 
 death was a great loss and deprivation to many. It was espe- 
 cially so to me, in many respects. Mrs. Jenkins was a pious, 
 humble-minded, kind-hearted, Christian lady, full of conde- 
 scension. I remember well when she was about to depart 
 for England the last time. She bade me farewell, shook hands 
 with me, and said, " remember me in the right way," meaning 
 in prayer. 
 
 In the end of September and beginning of October, 1856, I 
 took an extensive tour through the Canadas and a portion of 
 the States. I traveled by way of New York, Albany, Buffalo, 
 Niagara Falls, Hamilton, London, Woodstock, Huron County, 
 Toronto, Barre, Nottawasauga, Cobourg, Port Hope, Kingston, 
 Prescott, Kemptville, Ogdensburg, Montreal, Vermont, New
 
 73 
 
 Hampshire, the White Mountains, Maine, Portland to Boston. 
 This was quite an era in my life, full of interest, information 
 and enjoyment. I had traveled much before, but never upon 
 a lengthened pleasure tour. This was after the completion 
 of the new mansion-house, erected on the site of the one de- 
 stroyed by fire, now occupied by Thomas F. Hoppin, Esq., 
 who married Mrs. Jenkins' daughter Anna. I had just finished 
 the laying out of the grounds around it, on the corner of 
 Benefit and John Streets, which gave great satisfaction to 
 my employers. Their manager, Dr. Tobey, very kindly afforded 
 me the time and a portion of the expense necessary to make 
 the journey, which did not cost over sixty dollars altogether, 
 as I traveled as economically as I possibly could, not feeling 
 able to lay out much money upon such an unessential under- 
 taking ; the journey being taken solely with the desire of 
 seeing the country and a few friends living in different pla- 
 ces. I extract the following from a kind of journal I wrote of 
 the journey, the greater portion of which is now lost : " In 
 the evening, at New York, I took passage on board the Isaac 
 Newton, for Albany, the most splendid vessel I have ever 
 seen. The furniture and fitting up of every thing on board 
 was tasteful and gorgeous in the extreme. The sail up the 
 North River by moonlight, I shall never forget. I paid for a 
 berth but never used it. I never shut my eyes that night, nor 
 did I feel tired either then or during the next day, I was so 
 enchanted with the lovely scenery all around. In passing the 
 Highlands the scene was one of surpassing beauty. The river 
 lit up by the pale bright beams of the lovely harvest-moon, 
 seemed a stream of flowing silver. On each side were the 
 lofty hills in all their strength and grandeur of rock and prec- 
 ipice, their bases and more gently sloping sides beautifully 
 covered with wild woods ; and over all, the moon, like a queen, 
 presided in her loveliness and glory. Sweet scenes ! they re- 
 minded me of the dear land of my birth. They carried my 
 mind back to the days of my youth, when in admiration I 
 gazed on her mountains, glens and lochs. Then I thought of 
 Him who created all, and rules over all. Whose kingdom is 
 everlasting and glorious. I thought, too, of that blest abode 
 of beauty, peace and glory, that awaits all who love and obey
 
 74 
 
 Him. I thought, if such rapt delight as then pervaded my 
 soul could flow from seeing and contemplating his works in 
 this sin-disordered world, what must it be to behold his face 
 in glory who made them all, in that ' new heavens and new 
 earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.' 
 
 " I visited Niagara, and upon getting a glimpse of the rapids 
 and falls and hearing the thunderings of the mighty waters, I 
 was filled with emotion. Speak, I could not. I could only gaze, 
 wonder and adore. I descended the stairs to the river below 
 the falls and was almost blinded by the spray and deafened 
 by the ceaseless roar of the waters. I hurried down to the 
 little steamer, the Maid of the Mist, a befitting name, 
 which steams up within a few hundred feet of the falls and 
 lands passengers on the Canadian shore. I went on board, 
 but found the captain deemed it unsafe to venture into the 
 stream for fear the current, together with the high wind 
 which was then prevailing, might carry his little craft on the 
 rocks below the falls, or hurry her onwards to the whirlpool. 
 This was a great disappointment to me ; however, along with 
 two other passengers, I got into a rowboat, which sometimes 
 in such cases serves as a ferry-boat. So, dressed in water-proof 
 cloaks, drenched and dripping from the flying spray, we 
 crossed over to the Canada side. Leaving the boat I walked 
 leisurely up the steep bank from the river, by a narrow, wind- 
 ing path, ever and anon turning around to behold the glorious 
 scene. Although the wind blew high, there was an unclouded 
 sky and a bright sun. I felt all aglow with enthusiasm and 
 delight, but not satisfied, until I went to the adjoining hotel, 
 got dressed in a suit of water-proof, and with a guide, I de- 
 scended and stood for several minutes under the awful 
 cataract itself. And then, what a scene ! What thoughts 
 passed through my mind ! It was unspeakable, indiscribable, 
 all sublime, all glorious ! Fear, I had none. I ascended 
 the bank again and having divested myself of my water- 
 proof garments, I went out to the extremity of a large log, 
 laid there for the special behoof of the more venturesome 
 visitors. I sat astride of it, within six feet of the edge, gazing 
 into the yawning abyss ! Then I sat on the green grass by 
 the edge of the water ; I drank of it ; I washed my face and
 
 75 
 
 hands in it, again and again, and if I had been brought up an 
 Idolater instead of a Christian, I verily believe I would have 
 worshipped the awful and mysterious, the irresistable, over- 
 whelming flood. I wished that every friend, every person I 
 had ever known or spoken to yea, I may say, the whole 
 world could have seen it and partaken of my wonder and 
 delight. Doubtless I must be an enthusiast. After lingering 
 an hour or two thus, all alone, I crossed over again to the 
 American side, and, as the wind had gone down considerably, 
 we crossed over more comfortably, getting a little wetting by 
 the spray. In the middle of the river, I looked around and 
 beheld on one side the Suspension Bridge, and on the other, 
 the falls perhaps the two greatest wonders the world then 
 contained, one of nature the other of art. After landing I 
 went up and surveyed the American falls. I crossed the 
 bridge to Goat Island, and was shown the rock, where, on 
 a stranded log, a fellow-man clung for twenty-four hours, in 
 sight of agonized thousands who could afford him no relief. 
 At last he was hurried over the dread abyss. Oh, what a po- 
 sition was that to occupy ; and what an exit from this world ! 
 Alas ! poor, frail man ; how weak and feeble in his best estate. 
 I had now seen all, at least all I had time to see. While on the 
 Canadian side, I ascended the observatory and had a most 
 perfect and commanding view of the whole scene. As the cars 
 were about to start for Hamilton, I had to tear myself away 
 from this truly fascinating and enchanting scene. Well, I 
 have seen Niagara. One great dream and wish of my life has 
 been realized. I thank God for it. Could I afford the time 
 and the money, I would make a yearly pilgrimage to it, were 
 it a thousand miles distant from my abode. I cannot under- 
 take to describe its wonders ; that is far beyond my powers. 
 I can only in some faint degree describe my own feelings at 
 sight of it." 
 
 I paid a visit to my old school-fellow, Mr. William Payne, 
 farmer, near Egmondville, Huron County, Canada. I extract 
 the following account of my visit : " Mr. and Mrs. Payne, re- 
 ceived me most kindly and have been unremitting in their 
 attentions to me. It being too late, when I reached their 
 house, to go to church, I sat and talked with them, read a lit-
 
 7 6 
 
 tie, and then Mr. Payne and I took a walk into the forest. 
 I was enchanted with the scene. The tall, glorious trees, 
 planted by Nature's own hand, towering upwards, hiding sun 
 and clouds, some of them fallen and mouldering away. How 
 silent these dense, dark, primeval forests. No sound, even of 
 a bird, to break the death-like stillness. My spirit felt sub- 
 dued and awed. Mr. Payne showed me where they had shot 
 two bears the week before. Wolves, he said, were still nu- 
 merous. In the afternoon of the next day, we rode out 
 among the settlers. I found they were mostly all from my 
 native country ; the greater proportion of them belonging to 
 the neighborhood of Kirkcudbright, Gatehouse and Castle 
 Douglas. I never met with such kindness as I did from them, 
 it seemed as if they did not know what to do with me. Nearly 
 all of them knew our family. They seemed desirous for me 
 to settle among them. I had to drink tea in several different 
 houses, as I was afraid they would feel hurt if I refused. Not 
 one of them offered me strong drink. I was much pleased to 
 see that in every instance before partaking of food they 
 offered thanks to God. I was much pleased and interested in 
 the names they had bestowed upon their farms ; they were 
 the well-known names of places around my native home ; 
 such as Balmae, Balig, Torrs and Balgreddan. These names 
 alone awoke a host of pleasing memories. May God bless 
 these kind, noble people. They have little indeed of what the 
 world calls refinement of speech and manners, but they are 
 Nature's own noblemen. Frank and kind they are, virtuous 
 and intelligent, hardy and industrious, too. It was most cred- 
 itable to them that, when the settlement was formed, they 
 took care to bring the school-master and minister of religion 
 with them. I could be well content to live and die here, 
 but the land all around is either taken up, or far too high 
 in price for me to think of buying a portion of it." 
 
 Were I able, and did time and space permit, I could well 
 desire to allude to other places I visited, and sights that I saw 
 during this journey. The sail down the St. Lawrence, among 
 the Thousand Islands, was like a lovely passing panorama of 
 peaceful, yet wild beauty ; perfectly magical. The shooting 
 of the mad, foaming rapids, was grand and exciting in the ex-
 
 77 
 
 treme; almost fearfully so, it was really sublime. These 
 scenes time can never efface from my memory. The scenery 
 of the White Mountains seemed beautiful and grand. In one 
 sense, I had almost said fortunately, some of the railroad 
 bridges had been swept away by a freshet, and thus along 
 with other passengers, I had to travel a good many miles, 
 midst the fine scenery in wagons, which afforded me time and 
 opportunity to get many fine views and learn various particu- 
 lars concerning the localities. 
 
 On February 20, 1856, my ever dear and affectionate mo- 
 ther departed this life in Glasgow, full of years, good works, 
 and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She lived and died a 
 Christian. Oh ! how good it is to know and believe, that 
 
 " A few short years of evil past, 
 
 We reach the happy shore 
 Where death-divided friends at last 
 Shall meet to part no more !"
 
 I8J8-I86I. 
 
 THE TIME at length came when we had to bid farewell to dear 
 Elm Grove. Upon March 31, 1858, we left that place and re- 
 moved to Stratford, Canada West, where we expected to be 
 able to settle down on a farm. The cause of our leaving was 
 this : my employers had met with some reverses and con- 
 cluded to give up their gardens at Elm Grove, and dispense 
 with my services. We left the dear spot where we had lived 
 so long in peace, contentment and happiness, and where we 
 had brought up our family in quiet, though homely comfort, 
 with extreme regret. We felt sad, too, to part with our many 
 kind friends. Our journey to Canada was one of loneliness 
 and anxiety for the coming future. We knew no one where 
 we were going and my means were quite limited, being the 
 scanty savings and gleanings from the small wages of past 
 years of toil. 
 
 Had I been able at this time to have secured a good situa- 
 tion or seen any prospect of having a home about Providence, 
 I would not have taken this step. Times were very unpro- 
 pitious then, and there were many out of employment, and a 
 general monetary and commercial panic and stagnation of 
 business prevailing. I thought if I could only manage to own 
 and cultivate a piece of land, either as a farm, nursery, or gar- 
 den, it would be the best thing for myself and family, and 
 form a permanent home for us all. In Providence there 
 seemed no chance for me to succeed as a florist or market- 
 gardener. The ground was fully occupied, and even supposing 
 it had been otherwise, I felt I had not money enough to com- 
 mence any thing of the kind at that particular time. Before 
 going to Stratford, I wrote to a gentleman to whom I had 
 been recommended by a mutual friend, asking for information 
 78
 
 79 
 
 concerning various matters connected with my going there. I 
 told him my age and occupation in life, the number and ages 
 of my family, and the amount of money I possessed. He wrote 
 me in answer that I need not be afraid to come on with my 
 family, as he had no doubt we should get along very well. I 
 was afraid that I had too little money, which indeed I soon 
 found to be true, and which ultimately proved the cause of 
 the failure of the project. The gentleman alluded to meant 
 well, but, like myself, he was mistaken as to the amount of 
 money necessary to succeed in such an undertaking. We ar- 
 rived at Stratford on the evening of April 2, 1858. It was 
 then the terminus of the railroad into that part of the coun- 
 try, which was the chief reason of our going to, and stopping 
 at, that place. My family went to a boarding-house for a 
 fortnight, while I itinerated the country far and near, in quest 
 of a homestead. Many a desirable place I saw for sale, but the 
 price that was asked settled the matter against me. Next I 
 set out for the frontier settlements, then some sixty miles to 
 the north and west of Stratford. Many a weary mile I traveled 
 through that country, far from roads or habitations of man, 
 guided for many a long mile by the glazed trees, or trees 
 whose barks were chipped by the hatchet to point out the 
 dubious path to the emigrant and hunter. I had an aching 
 and anxious heart when I thought of my family and how I 
 was to find a home for them. The awful stillness and loneli- 
 ness of those dark forests I can never forget. Oh, how op- 
 pressive sometimes it was to me ! I returned to Stratford, 
 and we all concluded that instead of going to the frontier 
 settlements, it would be better to purchase a small farm then 
 for sale in the town of Ellice, some two miles from Stratford. 
 This we did, and were glad to move into our little log cabin, 
 midst the tall trees of the forest, where we could be together 
 and have a home of our own, homely though it was, instead 
 of living in a noisy and crowded boarding-house, which was 
 fast using up our little store of money. It was indeed a great 
 relief, and we commenced, heart and hand, to clear up and 
 prepare the ground of the part that was cleared of trees, for 
 the crop of wheat and potatoes which we soon got in, and then 
 we commenced to war, I and the two oldest boys, with the
 
 8o 
 
 giants of the forest, with our great, heavy backwoodsmen's 
 axes. We all would have soon come to like the life, but the 
 truth would flash across our minds that our money was nearly 
 expended in the purchase of the place and two cows, and, that 
 still the place was not fully paid for, a small mortgage being 
 upon it, and how were we to live meanwhile until we could 
 clear up the land and fence it all in. From the youngest to 
 the oldest we felt that our present circumstances were by no 
 means good. This we could have got over, but the future 
 seemed dark and uninviting. The children felt much discour- 
 aged about their school ; they had to walk several miles to it 
 through a thick forest, where bears and wolves prowled 
 around ; while the tuition given in that little log hut was none 
 of the best. Finally, we concluded to leave before our money 
 was all gone. I thought of going to New York or some other 
 part of the States, and taking a gardener's situation, leaving 
 my family on the place in Canada, until I could send for them. 
 Having received some encouraging letters from friends in 
 Providence, especially about a gardener's situation then open 
 in Dighton, it was deemed best for me to set out for that 
 place, which I did, leaving my family behind in the meantime. 
 When I got to Dighton I found I could get the place, which, 
 however, was only for the season, and not for the winter. I 
 concluded not to take it and went back to Providence, where 
 I found I could get work by the day as a gardener. My friends 
 advised me to take such work, hire a tenement, and send on 
 for my family, which I did ; so, at the end of a few months, 
 we were all safe together under one roof at number 100 Power 
 Street ; for which mercy and privilege I trust we were then, 
 and shall ever feel, grateful to the Father of mercies.
 
 8i 
 
 COMPOSED UPON SEEING MY FORMER COTTAGE-HOME 
 
 AT ELM GROVE, AFTER RETURNING 
 
 FROM CANADA. 
 
 BY WILLIAM NISBET. 
 
 O, could I feel the joys I've felt, 
 
 Thou bonnie cozie cot, 
 When 'neath thy sheltering roof I dwelt, 
 
 So favored was my lot. 
 
 It pains me now the change to see, 
 
 No wife with winsome smile, 
 Peers thro' the pane to welcome me ; 
 
 And all my cares beguile. 
 
 No blithesome bairns, with looks so bright, 
 
 Are playing on the green ; 
 Or hasten out in fond delight, 
 
 To lead their father in. 
 
 Their cabin now, is rude and lone, 
 
 An unpropitious home ; 
 Midst forests dark of wild Huron, 
 
 Where the lone glades they roam ! 
 
 My own kind mate there, mourns the day, 
 
 With care and toil opprest ; 
 While sad I wander far away, 
 
 A home, once more in quest. 
 
 Thou loved abode, thro' gladsome years ! 
 
 We ne'er had left thy shade ; 
 Nor wandered forth, afar, in tears, 
 
 But sternest fate forbade ! 
 
 No spot, save that where I was born 
 
 With thee can I compare ; 
 And long on earth should I sojourn, 
 
 There's none I'll deem more fair ! 
 
 Tho' homeless, yet I'll ne'er deplore, 
 Since God his word has given, 
 
 That all who ask Him and adore 
 Shall find a home in heaven !
 
 82 
 
 We would have been very well satisfied to remain in Can- 
 ada, provided we could have made our living in it with any 
 degree of comfort. The idea of going there was wise enough 
 and I have never thought it otherwise since, but it was a great 
 mistake to go with such a small sum of money as we then 
 had. I have a good opinion of, and a warm heart for, Canada. 
 During our short stay there, the people uniformly treated us 
 with great kindness and even respect. Our neighbors in 
 Ellice, the majority of whom were Irish Catholics, were ex- 
 ceedingly kind and attentive. Their larger children, on their 
 way to and from school, with our children, were in the habit 
 of carrying some of them on their backs when they got tired 
 by the way. I know of no kinder people in the world than 
 the Irish ; a kind word and a little kindly treatment, goes a 
 long way in securing their affections. We found some very 
 kind friends also in the village of Stratford, among whom was 
 Mr. Mackie, pastor of a small Baptist church there. He left 
 that part soon after we did, and is still a very faithful minister 
 of Jesus Christ, in the eastern portion of the province. 
 
 On October i, 1858, I took charge of the gardens and hot- 
 houses of General James, which situation I held for five 
 months. I liked this place very much. The General and his 
 family treated me with great kindness. I would gladly have 
 remained longer, but the General's means not admitting of 
 his carrying on the place, I accepted the offer of my present 
 employer, Henry S. Mansfield, Esq., 'to take charge of his 
 gardens and hothouses. 
 
 On March i, 1859, we left Providence, once more, and 
 moved to Millville, Mass., where we are now, in good health, 
 having a good home and many kind friends. When I review 
 the lengthened past and think of all the sins and temptations, 
 the perils and dangers, the trials and perplexities, the cares 
 and sorrows through which I have passed during my various 
 sojournings and wanderings through life, to the present hour ; 
 when I recall all these in order and think of the past and 
 present goodness of God towards me ; above all, when I think 
 of the great and unmerited goodness of God in calling me to 
 know and believe the gospel of his Son, I am amazed ! and
 
 83 
 
 feel constrained to say, and exclaim with the author of the 
 sweet hymn, 
 
 " When all thy mercies, O my God, 
 
 My rising soul surveys, 
 Transported with the view, I'm lost 
 In wonder, love, and praise ! " 
 
 I am conscious of the many defects of this imperfect sketch 
 and story of my life, the want of proper system and arrange- 
 ment, and imperfection of language, and regret much that I 
 have been unable to write it in a better style and manner. 
 
 I have written it in order to cultivate and recreate my own 
 mind, and to refresh and stir up my memory, and call forth 
 my gratitude to God for past benefits and mercies, which I 
 am too prone to forget. 
 
 Could I have reason to believe that hereafter it shall prove 
 really interesting and useful to any dear relative, or kind 
 friend, or any person whatever, whether I be still alive in this 
 world or entered upon that unseen and eternal one to which 
 all are fast hastening, that fact alone would have been induce- 
 ment enough for me to write it. 
 
 WILLIAM NISBET. 
 MILLVILLE, MASS., Jan. 5, 1861.
 
 1 862- 1 868. 
 
 HAVING engaged to take charge of the gardens of my present 
 employer, Mrs. Moses B. Ives, we left Millville and moved to 
 Providence, March I, 1862. The reasons which induced me to 
 do so, were the prospect of a better home, a more permanent 
 situation, and greater religious and educational privileges for 
 myself and family. In none of these prospects or hopes have 
 we been disappointed. My present situation, thus far, 
 through the goodness of God, both for myself and family, has 
 been the best I have ever had. My worthy employer, Mrs. Ives, 
 has always treated me with the utmost kindness and consider- 
 ation. I may say the same of her son-in-law and daughter, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Henry G. Russell. In some respects I scarcely 
 realize that I am a servant. Gratitude prompts me to say also, 
 that her lamented son, the late Captain Thomas P. Ives, uni- 
 formly acted towards me in a most kind, courteous and gen- 
 tlemanly manner. I have much respect for the memory of 
 that young man, cut off so early in life, and dying so far from 
 home. He was wise and thoughtful beyond his years, and bade 
 fair to become a most honored and useful member of society. 
 The untimely death, too, on the battle-field of Antietam, of 
 his pious cousin, Mr. Robert H. Ives, Jr., whom I had learned 
 to respect, was a very melancholy event. 
 
 Shortly after I came to Providence, Rev. William Douglas, 
 the chaplain of the State Prison, invited me to teach a bible 
 class composed of prisoners, which invitation I accepted and 
 continued to teach the class until the infirmity of years de- 
 prived me of this prvilege. It has been a profitable exercise 
 to my own soul, and I trust it has not been in vain as to its 
 good effects upon others. To Mr. Douglas also, he having 
 first introduced me, I was indebted for an opportunity of oc- 
 84
 
 85 
 
 casionally preaching in several of the smaller Baptist meeting- 
 houses in the city and surroundng country, as well as in the 
 State institutions, the Seamen's Bethel and other places. On 
 August 27, 1863, my wife and I became members of the First 
 Baptist Church, in this city, which connection has been 
 blessed to us in many respects. In the spring and summer 
 of 1863, I succeeded in remodeling the gardens of my em- 
 ployer to her entire satisfaction and that of her friends. The 
 following summer, the present fine range of hothouses were 
 completed, the plans for which it was my privilege to draw. 
 Since then, I have also remodeled the gardens of Mr. Henry 
 G. Russell, to his satisfaction. In the spring of 1866, Mrs. 
 Ives purchased the beautiful country-seat of the late Dr. Hall, 
 on Warwick Neck, which I was enabled also to improve and 
 lay out in a proper and satisfactory manner. Her acquisition 
 of this place has afforded me many pleasant opportunities for 
 an agreeable change of work and scene. I have likewise con- 
 siderably improved, and in some measure made my own little 
 garden profitable. So, that, although I have at times had to 
 work very hard, both bodily and mentally, yet I have had 
 much real pleasure withal and much reason to be thankful 
 that these matters have gone on so well. 
 
 In the autumn of 1864, I had a very pleasant journey to 
 New York and Philadelphia, after plants for the new green- 
 houses. I had some pleasant meetings with old friends, among 
 others, my brother-in-law, Mr. James Angus, of West Farms. 
 His collection of insects was worth while making the journey 
 alone to see. I also met with and communed with the Scotch 
 Baptist Church, in New York, of which my friend, Mr. James 
 Bannister, is elder, a son-in-law of the venerable Mr. Thomas 
 Hogg, the former senior elder. In Philadelphia I saw my old 
 friend, Mr. John Sheddan, at the Custom House. I had not 
 seen him since we were members of the same Baptist Church, 
 in the west of Scotland, twenty-three years previous. Our 
 meeting was a pleasant one indeed. 
 
 Again in the autumn of 1866, I had another very pleasant 
 journey. I went to the State of Maine in quest of a vessel- 
 load of wood ashes for Mr. Russell's farm. On this trip I 
 enjoyed seeing so much beautiful, wild and romantic scenery.
 
 86 
 
 I visited Portland, where I had spent a day and night in 1856, 
 Rockland, Augusta, and other cities and towns. I staid a day 
 and night with my old friend Mr. Alexander Forsyth, gar- 
 dener for Mr. Lang, the celebrated stock breeder at Vassal- 
 boro. We spent a very agreeable time. Mr. Forsyth took me 
 around the country to see several interesting scenes, among 
 which was China Lake and the wild woods about it, which I 
 found rich in botany. I wrote out a journal or little sketch of 
 this journey at the time. 
 
 In August, 1868, I was enabled to take a very pleasant 
 journey, accompanied by my wife and daughter Jessie, to New 
 York, Poughkeepsie, Morristown, and various other places in 
 the neighborhood of New York. This was a very pleasant 
 occasion. We had a fine sail up the Hudson River to Pough- 
 keepsie, and admired the fine scenery very much. On our way 
 back to New York we visited Netherwood, where we first set- 
 tled in America, and which we had not seen for over twenty- 
 four years. It recalled many memories of past days. The 
 woods, the fields, the houses, the roads and fences, were much 
 as we left them, with the noble river still slowly sweeping 
 along. But the people, where were they ? Few we found that 
 remembered us in those bye-gone days. Nearly all were either 
 in the " house appointed for all living," or had moved away to 
 other parts ; while those that remained were so changed they 
 did not seem like the same persons we formerly knew. The 
 house we lived in had been removed into the village of New 
 Hamburgh, a mile distant, which I went and visited ; except- 
 ing its position it seemed unchanged. The cherry-trees, the 
 tall cedar, the pear and quince trees that grew around the 
 house were still undisturbed ; and there, too, was the grape- 
 vine, but the arbor which it once adorned had been broken 
 down and gone to decay. The old cellar walls remained and 
 were overgrown with weeds, and the little wicket gate, now 
 never used, was still in its place, but hanging on rusty hinges. 
 We looked all around with mingled feelings of pleasure, inter- 
 est and sadness. It seemed but yesterday that we had lived, 
 worked and walked around there. Now, how changed ! Fit 
 emblem of life, the world, and all sublunary things. 
 
 We thanked God that although "Here we have no continu-
 
 87 
 
 ing city, yet we seek one to come, whose builder and maker is 
 God," and for the hope of having there, "An house not made 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens." We felt grateful, too, 
 to Him for protecting, providing for, and blessing us during 
 the many years that had passed away since we went out from 
 that place to seek another home. During this journey, we 
 visited several relatives of my wife and many kind friends. I 
 ever feel that "auld acquaintance should ne'er be forgot." 
 
 Amid all the many mercies and pleasures we have enjoyed 
 since we came to America, and since I wrote the story of my 
 life, at Millville, we have been frequently called upon to mourn 
 the loss of dear relatives and friends. My dear sisters, Mary 
 Anna, Helen and Isabella, have all passed away from earth, 
 as also my dear brother Henry. My brother Douglas and my- 
 self being now the sole survivors of a family of thirteen 
 children. 
 
 In the land of my birth I have no near relatives with the 
 exception of three nieces, one nephew, and one grand-nephew. 
 Two of these nieces are children of my sister Mary Anna. 
 Their father, Mr. Ferguson, is also dead. It is pleasing to me 
 to know that these little orphans are well cared for and have 
 a small competence of their own. The other niece and nephew 
 are children of my brother James. This nephew, John, is sel- 
 dom at home, being a sailor. My grand-nephew is grandson 
 of my brother Henry. 
 
 It would afford me unspeakable pleasure to go to Scotland 
 and see these dear young people, none of whom I have seen 
 excepting the children of my brother James ; but, alas ! the 
 time and expense it would take to visit the land of my birth 
 is more than I can yet afford. 
 
 There is one who died in this city, some time ago, whom it 
 is no presumption, even in me, to call my friend, for such he 
 was indeed, one whose memory I shall ever revere, Dr. 
 Francis Wayland ! The most humble-minded man I ever 
 knew. I speak not of his piety, his labors, his learning and 
 ability ; others can and have done that. He was all that his 
 warmest friends and admirers have ever claimed for him in 
 these respects. 
 
 It was through his ardent love of horticulture, that I be-
 
 88 
 
 came acquainted with him soon after my coming to Provi- 
 dence. It was my privilege to advise and even direct him in 
 many of his garden operations, as well as to draw the plans 
 for his gardens and grounds on Angell Street, and superin- 
 tend their execution. I remember the many interesting and 
 profitable conversations I had with him, and the prayer meet- 
 ings I attended in his house, when he always called upon me 
 to take a part. To him I am indebted for the loan and gift of 
 many a useful book. It was pleasing to me to find that his 
 sentiments as to church order and the preaching of the gos- 
 pel were so much akin to those of the Scotch Baptists. He 
 asked to see the account I had written and which was then 
 printed, of that denomination, which seemed to please and 
 interest him very much. The conversation I had with him on 
 that subject I wrote down at the time and still retain. Well 
 do I remember that hot and sultry day in August, 1849, when 
 he walked all the way from his house on College Street to Elm 
 Grove, to enquire concerning the family of Mr. Mitchell, the 
 jobbing gardener, who had just died of cholera, and how he 
 placed a sum of money in my hands for their assistance, " in 
 case," said he, "they may not be very well off!" Nor do I 
 forget that cold winter evening, upon his learning I had to 
 leave Elm Grove, and was about to go to Canada, when he 
 walked down to our house to enquire about it and express his 
 regret. "My poor, dear brother," said he, " I am sorry, sorry 
 you have got to leave." He seemed really sad and full of con- 
 cern ; and then we all knelt down with him while he offered 
 up a most fervent and affecting prayer, commending us to 
 the God of Abraham, who went out to a land he knew not. A 
 beautiful simile, from which, he drew and applied to our case 
 in his prayer. The evening before we left for Canada, my wife 
 and I took tea with him and his family. Such condescension 
 and kindness I never met from any man of his learning and 
 station in society. At another time, too, he sent for me to take 
 dinner with the celebrated German preacher, Mr. Oncken, at 
 his house, which invitation I accepted. I have still a letter 
 written by him recommending me as a good gardener and con- 
 sistent Christian. I delight to think of and pay honor to 
 such a man. But why should I attempt to speak his praise ?
 
 8 9 
 
 His memory is blessed. "His praise is in all the churches." 
 He rests from his labors, and enjoys his bright reward in 
 heaven. I thank God for raising up such a man and for the 
 grace bestowed upon him. 
 
 And there is another who although of lowly walk in life, 
 "and toils obscure," yet his memory shall ever be dear to me 
 my worthy predecessor in my present situation, the late 
 Mr. Richard Dalglish. "An honest man," and one of the 
 kindest and best friends I ever knew. I found him a friend 
 when I first came to Providence an entire stranger, and as 
 such, firm, kind and true, he ever remained. I often think of 
 him while I am working around in these beautiful gardens. 
 The trees, shrubs and vines he planted and tended so long 
 and so well, are pleasing mementos to me of the dear, good, 
 old man. Thus we pass away ; "friend after friend departs." 
 
 Lo ! thousands to their endless home, 
 
 Are swiftly borne away ; 
 And we are to the margin come, 
 
 And soon must launch as they ! 
 
 I realize that my time flies on apace. I have now fully en- 
 tered upon the confines of old age, although I scarcely feel it, 
 being in my fifty-third year. Far am I from believing that as 
 youth and middle age fade and pass away, that man's hopes 
 and happiness must of necessity fade and pass away too. No, 
 old age can have, and has, its joys, as well as youth. God 
 does not leave nor cast away his people in their old age. He 
 has declared he never will leave nor forsake them ; that even 
 to hoary hairs he will be with them. "They that wait upon 
 the Lord shall renew their strength." Of course I know not 
 how it may be with me if I am spared to feel the full burden 
 of old age. But this is my present testimony. I give it humbly 
 and with gratitude to God. I think I grow happier as I grow 
 older. I am not at all tired of life. Why should I be ? Yet I do 
 not regret that my days are passing away. As they pass I can 
 say: "Nearer my God to thee, nearer to thee !" At no period 
 of my life have I enjoyed more, or even as much, of true and 
 settled peace, contentment and happiness of mind than I do
 
 90 
 
 now. Matters which at one time would have greatly annoyed 
 me, now scarcely trouble me at all ; I trust God is teaching me 
 to cast all my care, and stay my mind upon Him. 
 
 As to bodily health, I believe I am, and have been, one of 
 the most fortunate of men, having never had any very seri- 
 ous or prolonged illness, or having been confined over one day 
 at a time to my bed. I have been exempt from rheumatism 
 and many other diseases to which hard-working people are 
 subject ; and being still free from any bodily ailment or dis- 
 ease as far as I know. Under God I attribute this to temper- 
 ance, regularity and due carefulness. I joined the temperance 
 movement when I was twenty-one years of age, and used very 
 little intoxicating liquor before that time, and I never have 
 used it as a beverage since, but merely as a medicine, and 
 that very seldom. I have also endeavored to beware of sur- 
 feiting as well as drunkenness. I never have allowed myself 
 to be intemperate in eating or to long after dainty fare. I have 
 eaten comparatively very little animal food. I know, however, 
 that I cannot claim much credit for this, as my circumstances 
 have generally been such as not to permit of much excess in 
 this particular ; but, indeed, I never cared a very great deal 
 about it, probably because I was not much used to it in my 
 younger days. The use of tobacco I have ignored from my 
 youth. I have been in the habit of going regularly to bed at 
 an early hour, and before lying down I have always made it 
 a practice, if at all possible, to divest my mind of all anxious 
 thoughts and cares. As to early rising I have had to practice 
 that through life, willing or unwilling. I dare not boast of 
 these things. God alone has enabled me to attend to them, 
 and has blessed them as means of bodily health and strength. 
 "He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord." 
 
 There is another matter for which I must thank and glorify 
 Him, as one who has "obtained favor from the Lord," I have 
 found a wife " Who f eareth the Lord ; and looketh well to 
 the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idle- 
 ness." Another great favor from the Lord is this : our chil- 
 dren, thus far, continue very healthy, dutiful, industrious and 
 well behaved. I trust they fear the Lord. " May He deliver
 
 them from every evil work and preserve them unto his heav- 
 enly kingdom." 
 
 On my own behalf I thank Him that he still enables me to 
 put my trust in him, and to love the Lord Jesus Christ and 
 to esteem him increasingly precious the longer I live. Oh, to 
 be able to love Him more fervently and serve him more 
 faithfully. 
 
 This day, the last of the year, reminds me of the rapid 
 flight of time. My story, too, like the year itself, draws to a 
 close. Yet a little while and my life's full story will be told. 
 Of the residue of the life I shall live in the flesh, may it be 
 recorded on high that " I lived by the faith of the Son of God, 
 who loved me, and gave himself for me." Thus shall my name, 
 even my worthless name, be written in the book of life. It is 
 not for me to know whether I shall ever make another entry 
 on these pages, or if I am permitted to do so, in what circum- 
 stances or condition of body or mind I shall do it. But this 
 I do, I thank God for the mercies of the past, and humbly 
 trust him for a future store. 
 
 " Here I raise mine Ebenezer, 
 
 Hither by thy help I've come ; 
 Trusting, Lord, by thy good pleasure, 
 Safely to arrive at home ! " 
 
 WILLIAM NISBET, 
 50 Power Street, Providence, R. I. 
 DECEMBER 31, 1868.
 
 1869-187^. 
 
 AFTER seven years have stealthily slipped away, I resume my 
 story. I can scarcely realize that it is seven years since I 
 wrote the foregoing lines. As I grow older the time seems 
 to grow shorter. A year to a youth of fifteen or twenty years 
 of age, seems a much longer space of time than to a man of 
 sixty. Seven years are indeed but a brief space of time ; com- 
 pared to eternity, as nothing. And yet it comprises the tenth 
 part of a long lifetime ; the tenth part of man's allotted span. 
 Mighty changes in many ways, have taken place during this 
 time and momentous in their results. How many have passed 
 away as the grass, as the flowers of the field and entered upon 
 their eternal and unchangeable state. How apt we are to fail 
 to note the rapid flight of time, and leave undone much that 
 should be done. Well may we join in the prayer of the psalm- 
 ist : "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our 
 hearts to wisdom." And the more so in view of the uncer- 
 tainty as well as the shortness of life. The divine word de- 
 clares, " The days of our years are three score years and 
 ten." How just and plain, and how solemn and necessary the 
 injunction, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
 thy might ; for there is no work nor device nor knowledge 
 nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." 
 
 These years have passed away smoothly and peacefully, 
 being fraught with fewer changes and vicissitudes to me per- 
 sonally, and during which, perhaps, I have enjoyed more real 
 happiness than in any other like period of my life. Not but 
 what these years like all others have brought troubles and 
 perplexities, for such things are inseparable from the life of 
 man in this world. And the divine assertion will ever hold 
 true, " Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full 
 92
 
 93 
 
 of trouble." But why recall their memory and brood over 
 them ? Let me rather remember my mercies and blessings. 
 Not failing to realize that afflictions are necessary and can 
 and will be overruled by the Father of mercies, for good to all 
 who are rightly exercised by them. Viewed in this light, 
 troubles appear mercies too. "All things work together for 
 good to them that love God." I have been enabled to retain 
 the same situation and dwell in the same house, and have 
 been blessed with general good health, a most amiable and 
 affectionate wife, dutiful children, and a great many kind 
 friends, together with a good situation and considerate em- 
 ployers. My church relationship, too, has been pleasant and 
 spiritually profitable, and highly privileged with a good min- 
 istry and the society of many Christian friends and opportu- 
 nities for personal usefulness in the cause of Christ. I have 
 been enabled still, I trust, to hold fast the faith, in word and 
 deed, and to continue to esteem Christ increasingly precious. 
 
 " Streams of mercies never ceasing, 
 Call for songs of loudest praise." 
 
 My attendance as a teacher in the Sunday School at the 
 State Prison, has been a work of much interest and profit to 
 me ; helping in no small measure to keep alive my interest in 
 the welfare and salvation of others, without which, personal 
 religion never thrives. My frequent visits to Warwick Neck, 
 in the oversight of the beautiful summer residence of my em- 
 ployers, has been a source of much pleasure to me, in breaking 
 up the monotony of the care of a city garden, and affording 
 me from time to time sweet glimpses of rural scenes. Re- 
 freshing my eye and heart at sight of the sea, the hills, the 
 woods, the birds and wild flowers. Inhaling and smelling the 
 invigorating odor and breath of kind nature ; adding withal, I 
 doubt not, to health, both of body and mind. I cannot tell 
 how much I have been soothed, refreshed and instructed by 
 an occasional solitary walk into the woods, or along the shore 
 of that most beautiful locality, and listening to the sound of 
 the waves on the shore, the songs of birds, the humming of 
 bees and the music of the winds softly sighing through the
 
 94 
 
 trees, while my eyes have been satisfied with the surround- 
 ing scenes of peace and beauty. Such privileges I desire to 
 be truly grateful for. For to me to see and mingle amid the 
 scenes of nature has ever been essential to my happiness ; 
 and in this respect, old age has wrought no change in me. It 
 saddens me to think how many of the children of poverty and 
 toil are debarred from such blessings and privileges. The pale 
 artist who plies the sickly trade, the tiny "weans," the care- 
 worn housewife and mother, and the wan and weary toiling 
 maiden, denizens of the dark alleys and narrow streets and 
 unwholesome tenements, stores and workshops of the noisy 
 and feverish city. How highly favored may I not consider 
 my condition, while with Beattie I exclaim : 
 
 " O Nature how in every charm supreme ! 
 Whose votaries feast on raptures ever new ! 
 O for the voice and fire of Seraphim, 
 To sing thy glories with devotion due ! " 
 
 Occasional visits, too, to Newport and its ocean cliffs and 
 waves, with my family, and at times to New York and Boston, 
 as well as to Lowell and Nashua, I have felt very pleasant and 
 beneficial. Meeting with old friends and acquaintances upon 
 such occasions, have formed green spots indeed in my life 
 and memory. I have been favored also with visits from my 
 brother Douglas and his wife, of Charleston, S. C., and also 
 of my two nieces from Edinburgh, now of Charleston. 
 
 Early in the year 1870, I bought a piece of land for a home- 
 stead, on Pitman Street, on what was formerly the Moses 
 Brown farm, or Elm Grove, where I had lived previously, so 
 many years, and where most of our children were born and 
 brought up. In the summer of 1872, I had a goodly house 
 built upon this land. In this I was aided by a legacy kindly 
 bequeathed me by my late dear brother Henry. The acqui- 
 sition and improvement of this little property, together with 
 the hope that it may yet be a quiet retreat for me in old age, 
 or for my dear wife or children when I am gone, has afforded 
 me much pleasure and comfort, and I can truly say that it has 
 not made me worldly or high minded as yet, and I trust never 
 will. It has simply made me grateful to God and more con-
 
 95 
 
 tented. Many times it has afforded me great pleasure to walk 
 to this sweet spot, for it is indeed all of that in itself and sur- 
 rounding scenery of wood and water, and see my daughter 
 with her husband and child living comfortable and happy 
 under that roof. When I was leaving Elm Grove, through 
 no fault of mine, many years ago, to go to Canada, or when 
 we were dwelling in our homely little log house in the wilds 
 of that country, and for years afterwards, I never could have 
 dreamed I should ever own a homestead on the place where 
 I had lived so long and so happy. It would have seemed of 
 all earthly things the most unlikely, and yet almost the most 
 desirable. It is a matter of continual astonishment to me, 
 that I should be enabled to return to this city and own that 
 place. I do feel abundantly grateful to God for it, and recog- 
 nize his special interposition in the matter. But above all I 
 praise Him for the hope and promise of eternal life: "An 
 house not made with hands, eternalin the heavens." "An inheri- 
 tance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away." 
 
 I have always had a great desire to revisit the land of my 
 birth, and see the spot where I was born, and the few dear 
 relatives and friends of childhood and youth yet alive ; but 
 hitherto, I have never been able to afford the time and the 
 money. I should like so well, after my return, to record what 
 I had seen and thought and felt during such a visit. Whether 
 I shall ever have that privilege, of course I know not. I fear 
 the time for that has now gone past. But it is a matter by 
 no means of vital importance. Viewed in the light of eternity, 
 what matters it? "The things seen are but temporal, the 
 things unseen eternal." 
 
 I desire to thank God that matters are so well with me and 
 mine as they are. Our household now consists of but few 
 members. The noisy glee of happy children is hushed and 
 stilled. I sometimes almost think the house is too quiet. Our 
 children have all grown to be men and women, and, excepting 
 the two who still abide with us, have homes of their own. We 
 oft miss them, especially when the evening shades prevail. 
 But it is all well. It is as it should be. These and many other 
 things remind me that life is far spent, that I am now old ; 
 and yet in some respects I do not feel so. But I am in my
 
 9 6 
 
 sixtieth year, and realize that the time of my sojourning here 
 cannot be long now. 
 
 I am by no means tired of life, and yet 
 
 " I would not live alway, 
 
 I ask not to stay, 
 Where storm after storm 
 Rises dark o'er the way." 
 
 But one thing I ask, that while I live, I may live to the 
 Lord. And that when I die, I may die to the Lord. And this 
 I wish to record, that " Goodness and mercy have followed me 
 all my life," and that through grace I have a good hope of 
 eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom, with 
 the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory for ever and ever. 
 Amen, 
 
 WILLIAM NISBET, 
 
 January I, 1876.
 
 1876. 
 
 THIS memorable centennial year of the Nation's birth, has 
 also been a memorable year in my life. In it I have completed 
 my sixtieth year. Quite an epoch in any one's life. And in 
 it I have been privileged to live in my own house. For many 
 years I have longed for and strived to attain this privilege. I 
 ever ardently loved my early home, but ever since I left it, 
 have had but faint hopes, indeed, of returning to it. With 
 Goldsmith, I can in a measure say, 
 
 "In all my wanderings 'round this world of care, 
 In all my griefs, and God has given my share, 
 I still had hopes my latest years to crown, 
 Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down." 
 
 In some respects it was indeed providential for me and mine 
 that we had a home of our own to go to, as the good old cot- 
 tage, No. 8 1 Power Street, formerly No. 50, in which we had 
 lived so long and happily, having become worn out by reason 
 of age, and being beyond repair, it was taken down in the 
 march of improvements. On June 28, 1876, we left it and 
 moved to No. 80 Pitman Street, still continuing to hold my 
 situation in other respects, as usual, under my kind and wor- 
 thy employers. 
 
 This home is indeed in every way most satisfactory and 
 agreeable to me, being really all I could reasonably expect 
 or desire. A good two-and-a-half -story house, suitable either 
 for one or two families, with a well-enclosed garden of upwards 
 of one-third of an acre, rilled with choice trees, shrubs and 
 plants, and thanks to God, obtained honestly and paid for. It 
 is situated in a very good neighborhood and in a most beau- 
 97
 
 9 8 
 
 tif ul spot, well known and much endeared to us, as being a part 
 of the old Elm Grove, or Moses Brown farm. It has all the 
 advantages also of both a town and country abode. Like my 
 early home, it is fast by the wild wood, and near the water 
 brink, where the Seekonk mingles its waters with those of the 
 salt sea, on whose placid bosom barks of the ocean may now and 
 then be seen gliding along. In their season, the song of the 
 bluebird, the song sparrow, the robin and the oriole, with other 
 sweet choristers may be heard from early dawn to dewy eve. 
 While now and then the wary crow may be seen flying around. 
 The woodpecker, seen and heard, "pecking at the hollow 
 beech-tree ; " and the bold sea-gull and soaring osprey sailing 
 above the tide. At times, too, the eerie screech of the lonely 
 night-heron may be heard in the gloaming, or further into the 
 mirky night. 
 
 The woods, the river shores and salt marshes, the glens, the 
 banks and braes around at no great distance abound in all 
 manner of plants, trees, shrubs and wild flowers. The sturdy 
 oak, the hardy pine, the stout, graceful hemlock, the fruitful 
 chestnut, the massive sycamore, the spreading elm, the useful 
 ash and maple, the walnut and red cedar, the twining wild 
 grape vine, the graceful virgin' s-bower, the sweet-brier or 
 eglantine, the honey-suckle, the wild rose, the sweet-fern, the 
 fragrant candleberry, myrtle, the beautiful kalmia laurel, the 
 trailing arbutus, "sweet harbinger of spring," the sea lavender, 
 and golden-rods, starworts and; Michaelmas daisy, and many 
 more of the gay floral band, unfold their cheering petals and 
 shed their reviving fragrance around, from opening April to 
 chilly November. 
 
 The view from the windows of our house is at all times 
 most pleasing and interesting, at least, to me. 
 
 Oft, in the stillness of the early night, I have sat at our lit- 
 tle bay window, looking through a most picturesque bower, 
 formed by the overhanging and pendant branches of the trees 
 in the adjoining grove, gazing spell-bound at the peaceful lake 
 or expanded river near by, all illuminated, sparkling and glow- 
 ing in the bright, silvery rays of the silent, lovely moon. The
 
 99 
 
 sweet vision, so insensibly calming and stilling the mind, so 
 filling it with peace and hope and joy, that I could truly say : 
 
 " I was for that time lifted above earth, 
 And possessed joys not promised in my birth." 
 
 Who that has any poetry or piety in their soul, any love 
 for nature or nature's God, could fail to be thankful for, and 
 happy in, such a home ? so far as happiness is to be expected 
 or found in a sinful and transitory world. At the same time 
 realizing there is still infinitely greater cause for gratitude 
 and joy, at the thought that while the merciful and ever 
 blessed God gives us sinful creatures so much happiness in 
 this troubled world, in various ways, and much in particular 
 in viewing and contemplating the glorious works and scenes 
 of nature he has made, that all is not worthy to be compared 
 to the glorious scenes of heaven, and the things He hath 
 prepared there for those that love Him. 
 
 I often think, what would the mere possession of such a 
 home, and the view of its beautiful surroundings avail, if there 
 was no peace, if there were tumults and broils in the family. 
 God be praised, we know nothing of this. By His grace, we 
 have tried to serve Him, and he has delivered us from such 
 things. 
 
 Although our children have mostly left us, and we thus at 
 times are apt to feel a little lonely, yet, we are cheered from 
 time to time by their visits ; and from having the pleasure of 
 our daughter Jessie, with her kind husband, and their daugh- 
 ter, dear little Katie, occupying a portion of the house with 
 us. And we have many kind friends and good neighbors. 
 
 I realize now, that my time is far spent. That " my days 
 are gliding swiftly by." But blessed be God, they are, thus 
 far, gliding by in peace and hope, and although I know I am 
 indeed " a pilgrim stranger" "Having here no continuing 
 city," yet, through Divine help, I can and do, " Seek one to 
 come, whose builder and maker is God." There, in that build- 
 ing of God, that eternal, heavenly house not made with hands, 
 there are many mansions. Mansions of never-ending peace 
 and rest and joy for all that will enter. For all that believe
 
 100 
 
 in, love and obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Long ago, " He 
 sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of 
 God." I have known Him in youth, in middle age, and in old 
 age. And now, when I am old and gray headed, I believe He 
 will not forsake me, but will deliver me from every evil work, 
 and preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom. I thank Him 
 for such a glorious hope and for every blessing of every kind. 
 To Him be praise and honor, dominion and glory, for ever 
 and ever. Amen. 
 
 WILLIAM NISBET, 
 
 November 23, 1876.
 
 1877-188^. 
 
 YEARS have passed away since I wrote the above, years of 
 goodness and mercy. Blessed be God. He still sustains, 
 strengthens and comforts me. Through grace I can truly say, 
 I have fellowship with the Father and with his son Jesus 
 Christ. Christ is still precious to me. Yes ; more precious 
 than ever. God has enabled me to grow in grace and taught 
 and inclined me to cheerfully submit to His will in all things ; 
 to trust him for every thing ; to commit all my ways unto 
 Him ; casting all my care upon Him. Oh, what peace, what 
 serene joy has he not often filled my soul with ! What fore- 
 tastes of the coming glory ! Oh, that all could feel what I have 
 felt and do feel. How they would love the Saviour and rejoice 
 in the hope of the rest that remaineth for the people of God. 
 I have known something of late years of real bodily sickness, 
 and was at one time brought indeed low. Oh, I bless God for 
 that. It drew me nearer than ever to himself. Oh, I trust I 
 am more humble than ever, and I know I now see things in a 
 different light than formerly. 
 
 My worthy employer is deceased, and the hothouses about 
 to be taken down, and the gardens and my situation entirely 
 changed. I am fast growing old. The time of my departure 
 cannot be far off, and "change and decay in all around I see." 
 I have, indeed, to fight and contend with an evil nature, to 
 resist and overcome temptations and trials, and am often led 
 "to groan, being burdened." But withal I do rejoice in the 
 Lord. I, too, can say, through grace I know Him whom I 
 have believed. Yes ; all, all on earth whom I knew and loved 
 in my youth, as far as I know, are dead and gone, but still I 
 know Him, yes, better than any or all besides. For He has 
 been with me through these many years. Knows all about 
 101
 
 102 
 
 my secret thoughts. To Him I have come in all my sorrows 
 and trials, and He has sustained, comforted and relieved me, 
 and I know and believe he will deliver me from every evil 
 work, and preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. 
 
 At present he blesses me with health, and many temporal 
 comforts and blessings, for which I praise Him much. For I 
 know now the value of health at least, more than ever. It is 
 my great desire and earnest prayer, " To finish my course with 
 joy." More and more to have that mind in me which was in 
 Christ Jesus. To be meek and lowly in heart. Ah, how far 
 short I ever have been in this ! To be pure in heart. Holy in 
 thought, word and deed, the only way to be truly happy and 
 the only state to be in, so that the Spirit of God may abide 
 with us. Well, the time will come when we shall be freed from 
 this body of sin and death. To sin, to sorrow, to suffer no 
 more ! To see, to be with, and to be like Him for ever more. 
 Who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. 
 To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 WILLIAM NISBET, 
 
 April 4, 1885. 
 
 80 Pitman Street, Providence, R. I.
 
 io 3 
 
 The author of this narrative died at his residence in the 
 city of Providence, Monday evening, June 7, 1886, and was 
 laid at rest on the following Thursday, in the family burial 
 lot in Swan Point Cemetery. 
 
 The last year of his life was passed quietly in attending 
 to his usual duties. His books were constant companions, 
 especially his Bible. He was unusually calm and happy in 
 mind, taking a loving interest in his family and grandchildren 
 and all of his friends. 
 
 Thus ended, in the seventieth year of his age, the long and 
 useful life of a sincere and devoted Christian, and a man hon- 
 ored and beloved by all who knew him. 
 
 " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 25m -2, '43(3205) 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CAL1FOKWU 
 
 AT 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 LIBRARY
 
 SB63 
 
 Autobiography. 
 
 SB63 
 N6A2