Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 439
Lite of Alexander Peden, one of the wandering and per-
secuted teachers of the sect of Cameronians, during the
reign of Charles 1 1, and his successor, James. This per-
son was supposed by his followers, and, perhaps, really
believed himself, to be possessed of supernatural gifts
for the wild scenes which they frequented, and the
constant dangers which were incurred through their
proscription, deepened upon their minds the gloom of
superstition, so general in that age.
" About the same time he (Peden) came to Andrew
" Normand's house, in the parish of Alloway, in the
" shire of Ayr, being to preach at night in his barn.
" After he came in, he halted a little, leaning upon a
" chair-back, with his face covered ; when he lifted up
" his head, he said, * There are in this house that I
" have not one word of salvation unto ;' he halted a
" little again, saying, ' This is strange, that the devil
" will not go out, that we may begin our work !'
" Then there was a woman went out, ill-looked upon
" almost all her life, and to her dying hour, for a witch,
" with many presumptions of the same. It escaped me,
" in the former passages, that John Muirhead (whom I
" have often mentioned) told me, that when he came
" from Ireland to Galloway, he was at family-worship,
" and giving some notes upon the Scripture, when a
" very ill-looking man came, and sate down within the
" door, at the back of the hallan (partition oi'the cottage:)
" immediately he halted, and said, ' fhcre is some un-
;