[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

PETEE GALBRAITH.
And there for a memorial, ,
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When Peter's dead and gone,
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They've laid before his palace door,
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The heavy granite stone.
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Among the many eccentric characters with whom Ayrshire abounded \
during the last, and the beginning of the present century, there are few,
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perhaps, more worthy of a passing notice than Peter Galbi'aith, a native
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of the parish of Dalrymple. " Merry Peter," as he was usually desig- i
nated, from his constitutional equanimity of disposition, and proneness to
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humour, possessed many good qualities ; and was far from being what is
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commonly termed " a fool." His wits seemed to hover half-way between \
sanity and confirmed aberrance. In sundry matters his shrewdness \
greatly excelled ; whilst in others, his simplicity and credulity were con- \
spicious. Besides learning the trade of a carpenter, he had acquired
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some notion of mason work, and became rather famous as a builder with
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mud in lieu of lime. He was, in consequence, much employed in erecting
stone fences throughout the country ; and one way or other continued
to eke out life in a pretty comfortable manner. Peter lived all his days
a bachelor. He, at one period, however, seriously contemplated taking
unto himself a wife ; and, with this object in view, he resolved first, like
a prudent man, to build a house for her reception. This was a work |
of no little time and labour ; for, like the Black Dwarf, not a hand save
his own aided in the structure. A more remarkable instance of individual
perseverance is perhaps not on record. His house, which originally consisted
of
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two stories, still exists at Perclewan, and is one of the best looking,
though upwards of half a century old, in the locality.
The tenant of
the land gave Peter liberty to build, conceiving that the whim, as he considered
it, would never be carried into execution. Peter, however, set
resolutely to work, when an idle day or hour permitted, and gradually the
walls began to assume a tangible shape. The stones were chiefly procured
from Patterton-hill, about a quarter of a mile distant.
The small ones he
gathered and carried in his apron ; the larger he rolled down the inclined
plane to Perclewan. Some of them, from their size, seem far above the
strength of a single individual, yet not a sinew but his own was appHed
in conveying them either from the hill, or in elevating them upon the