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through the county of Peebles, my grandfather raised his tenants, vassals, and dependants, to retard the progress of the Highlanders in their pursuit of the Royalists. It was said that the Earl of Tranquair raised men for the opposite purpose. After the rebels were defeated at Culloden, their chiefs were ordered to be sent to the Tower of London to take their trial for high treason. The above-mentioned nobleman was one of this number, and my grandfather interceded for him to the Lord Justice Clerk. When he called upon him for that purpose, his Lordship refused to give him audience on such an errand, and in the course of a few days he again called, when he still refused and when he was a considerable distance on his way home, a footman belonging to his Lordship overtook him, and said, "Mr: Dickson come back and speak to my Lord," and he accordingly returned along with him. When he was introduced to his Lordship, the latter expressed himself in a condescending manner, and said, "for your sake I will not send him." My grandmother died about this time.
My grandfather married a second time, a widow lady with a large family, and she did every thing she could think of for their advantage, and it is to be regretted that she succeeded too well, for the first family were left minus of every thing that he possessed. He was rather reduced in finances at the latter part of his life, in consequence of his second wife looking too much to her own family, and he died at the advanced age of eighty years.
