od old
times, when George the First was King;" or, perhaps, long anterior to
that much vaunted period. The isolated condition of the peasantry and
agricultural classes generally in those days prevented the free and
constant intercourse which may now be found all over Scotland. Railways
had not yet been evolved from the matrix of the future, newspapers were
scarce and dear, books were few, the means of education and mental
improvement were limited, and thus in the rural districts the
reminiscences of the past were handed down in the form of traditions,
communicated orally from generation to generation, or assuming the less
perishable shape of ballad literature. Young Ker's mind, which was ever
ready to receive and retain impressions, became the conservatory of a
vast selection of ancient lore, written and unwritten, which he has
never forgotten. His memory is quite an encylopaedia of ballads and
stories, which it would probably be difficult, if not impossible, to
find elsewhere, and upon this rich storehouse he can and does draw _ad
libitum_ "for doctrine, for instruction, for reproof," or for the
entertainment of his friends. Dr. Ker's ancestors of five generations lie
buried in the little rural churchyard at Tweedsmuir, a spot, of which
Lord Cockburn says, "It is the most romantic in Scotland." Many are the
stories that are still told by the "ingle cheek" of farmers' houses in
that deeply interesting locality, relative to the Covenanters who lived
in the glens around, and the soldiers who went up there in the '45.

After completing his studies as a Divinity student at Edinburgh--where
he was a most distinguished student, and was universally regarded as a
young man of excellent promise--Dr. Ker was licensed as a minister of
the United Presbyterian Church. He was ordained in the year 1845, his
first charge being in Alnwick, Northumberland, where he continued to
minister until the year 1851. During the interval he received several
calls from Glasgow and elsewhere. Twice he was called to preside over
the United Presbyterian Church in East Campbell Street of this city. The
first call he decidedly refused; but upon representations being made to
him that the church was in anything but a satisfactory condition, so far
as its pastorate was concerned--both Dr. Kidston and Dr. Brash, who then
presided over it, being in infirm health and disqualified for the active
discharge of ministerial duties--Dr. Ker, foreseeing no doubt that