out of mere curiosity, to see a minister
preach in a tent, and people sit on the ground." _Life of Richard
Cameron_[47].

[Footnote 47: This man was chaplain in the family of Sir Walter Scott
of Harden, who attended the meetings of the indulged presbyterians;
but Cameron, considering this conduct as a compromise with the foul
fiend Episcopacy, was dismissed from the family. He was slain in a
skirmish at Airdsmoss, bequeathing his name to the sect of fanatics,
still called Cameronians.]

Cleland, an enthusiastic Cameronian, lieutenant-colonel of the
regiment levied after the Revolution from among that wild and
fanatical sect, claims to the wandering preachers of his tribe
the merit of converting the borderers. He introduces a cavalier,
haranguing the Highlanders, and ironically thus guarding them against
the fanatic divines:

If their doctrine there get rooting,
Then, farewell theift, the best of booting,
And this ye see is very clear,
Dayly experience makes it appear;
For instance, lately on the borders,
Where there was nought but theft and murders,
Rapine, cheating, and resetting,
Slight of hand, fortunes getting,
Their designation, as ye ken,
Was all along the _Tacking Men_.
Now, rebels more prevails with words,
Then drawgoons does with guns and swords,
So that their bare preaching now
Makes the rush-bush keep the cow;
Better than Scots or English kings,
Could do by kilting them with strings.
Yea, those that were the greatest rogues,
Follows them over hills and bogues,
Crying for mercy and for preaching,
For they'll now hear no others teaching."

_Cleland's Poems_, 1697, p. 30.

The poet of the whigs might exaggerate the success of their teachers;
yet, it must be owned, that their doctrine of insubordination, joined
to their vagrant and lawless habits, was calculated strongly to
conciliate their border hearers.

But, though the church, in the border counties, attracted little
veneration, no part of Scotland teemed with superstitious fears and
observances more than they did. "The Dalesmen[48]," says Lesley,
"never count their beads with such earnestness as when they set out
upon a predatory expedition." Penances, the composition betwixt guilt
and conscience, were also frequent upon the borders. Of this we have
a record in many bequests to the church, and in some more lasting
monuments; such as the Tower of Repentance in Dumfries-shire,
and, according to vulgar tr