Submission and cheerfulness in distress; letters. Addresses to his people during his illness. Resignation under increas- ing infirmities and bereavements. Anticipations of approach- ing dissolution; letters. Last public services. Last illness. Death-bed scenes. His decease. Resolution of Directors MEMOIR OF THE REV. ALEXANDER WAUGH, D.D. CHAPTER I. Parentage of Alexander Waugh. Character and mode of life of Scottish husbandmen of olden times. Change of manners. His parents and their family. Education of Alexander for the ministry. His early days. Earlstoun. Parochial Schools. Stitchell. Rev. George Coventry. Course of University education prescribed by the Secession Church. Prosecution of his studies at Edinburghat Haddington, under the Rev. John Brown-and at Aberdeen, under Doctors Campbell and Beattie. Misgivings respecting his fitness for the ministry. Receives license, and proves highly acceptable as a preacher. Rise of Wells Street congregation, London. Rev. Arch. Hall. Ordination and settlement of Mr Waugh at Newtown. Competing calls from London and Edinburgh, and his final appointment to the charge of the Wells Street congregation. ALEXANDER WAUGH was born on the 16th of August, 1754, at East Gordon, a small village in the parish of Gordon, Berwickshire. Thomas Waugh and Margaret Johnstone, his parents, belonged to the class of small farmers, who for some centuries were the cultivators of the soil throughout every part of Scotland; and who, being generally considered by their landlords as the hereditary feudatories of their families, were accustomed to succeed each other from father to son, with nearly as little variation as the proprietors themselves. This valuable order of husbandmen, who constituted a very considerable proportion of the population, was, at this period, of the third generation in descent from the Covenanters, who A lived towards the latter end of the seventeenth century; to whom their country owes a deep debt of gratitude, for their pious zeal, their patient sufferings, and their severe, long-protracted, and ultimately successful struggle with a despotic and persecuting government. Like their ancestors, whose memory they warmly cherished and venerated, besides being zealous Presbyterians, they were distinguished by frugal habits, simple manners, and an ardent regard for evangelical doctrines. In addition to a regular and exemplary attendance on the public ordinances of divine worship, they faithfully performed the exercises of devotion in their families, and laboured, with patriarchal diligence, to instil into the minds of their children and domestics the principles of sound doctrine and a holy life. The strict and regular observance of the duties of family religion, appears to have been one chief cause of the high eminence in scriptural knowledge, in sobriety of manners, as well as in every domestic virtue, for which the northern part of Great Britain was then justly celebrated. The patriarchal simplicity of manners which, about the middle of last century, so especially characterized Scottish husbandmen, was calculated, in a high degree, to foster deep affections, and a sober but manly earnestness both of principle. and deportment; and it may be fairly stated as one of the happy privileges of the Secession Church, that so large a number of its ministers have sprung from this virtuous and valuable order of men. On this latter account, as well as with a more immediate reference to the subject of the present memoir, we shall endeavour to give a brief description of the mode of life and household discipline of a Scottish farmer of former days. It is a sketch from early recollections of scenes long gone by"When old simplicity was yet in prime; For now among our glens the faithful fail, And shakes the shuddering woods with solemn voice severe." The habitation of a Scottish husbandman in the southern counties, sixty or seventy years ago, was generally a plain, substantial building, holding a middle rank between the residences of the inferior gentry and the humble cottages of the labouring peasantry, The farm-house, with the small windows of its second story often projecting through the thatched roof, occupied, for the most part, the one side of a quadrangle, in which the young cattle were folded; the other three sides being enclosed and sheltered by the barns, stables, and other farm offices. A kitchen-garden, stocked with the common potherbs then in use, and sometimes with a few fruit-trees, extended on one side, sheltered perhaps by a hedge of boortree or elder, and often skirted by a few aged forest-trees; while the low, thatched dwellings of the hinds and cottars stood at a little distance, each with its small cabbage-garden, or kail-yard, behind, and its stack of peat, or turf fuel, in front. An upland farm, of the common average size, extended to about four or five hundred acres, partly arable and partly pastoral, and usually employed three or four ploughs; and the master's household, exclusive of his own family, consisted of six or seven unmarried servants, male and female. The married servants, namely, a head shepherd, and a hind or two (as the married ploughmen were termed),-occupied cottages apart; as likewise did the cottars, who were rather a sort of farm retainers than servants, being bound only to give the master, in lieu of rent, their services in hay-time and harvest, and at other stated periods. The whole, however, especially in remote situations, formed a sort of little independent community in themselves, deriving their subsistence almost exclusively from the produce of the farm. The master's household alone usually amounted to fifteen or twenty souls; and the whole population of the farm, or onstead, to double or treble that number;-a number considerably greater, perhaps, than will now be commonly found on a farm of the same extent,—but maintained with much frugality, and always industriously occupied, though not oppressed with labour. Little of the jealous distinction of ranks which now sub sists between the farming class and their hired servants, was then known. The connexion between master and servant had less of a commercial, and more of a patriarchal character. Every household formed but one society. The masters (at that time generally a sober, virtuous, and religious class,) extended a parental care over their servants, and the servants cherished a filial affection for their masters. They sat toge ther, they ate together, they often wrought together; and after the labours of the day were finished, they assembled together around the blazing fire, in the "farmer's ha'," conversing over the occurrences of the day, the floating rumours of the country, or "auld warld stories ;" and not unfrequently religious subjects were introduced, or the memory of godly men, and of those who, in evil times, had battled or suffered for the right, was affectionately commemorated. This familiar intercourse was equally decorous as it was kindly,-for decent order and due subordination were strictly maintained. It was the great concern of masters and mistresses, when new servants were required, to obtain such as were of sober and religious habits: if any one of a different character got in, his dismissal, at the first term, was certain. Servants in those days never thought of changing masters, unless something occurred which rendered the change indispensable. At ordinary meals, the master (or good-man, as he was termed), took his scat at the head of the large hall table, the mistress sitting on his right hand, the children on his left, the men-servants next in station, and the maid-servants at the bottom, one of the latter serving. The use of tea was then unknown, except in the houses of the gentry. Porridge was the constant dish at breakfast and supper; at dinner broth and meat, milk, cheese, and butter. Twice in the year, exclusive of extraordinary occasions, there was a farm festival, in which every inhabitant of the place partook; namely, the kirn, or harvest home, at the close of autumn, and the celebration of the new year. On these occasions, an abundant feast of baked and boiled cheered the heart of the humblest |