It may be worth while to mention that the incident of the supposed Pr<ae>torium actually happened to an antiquary of great learning and acuteness, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, one of the Barons of the Scottish Court of Exchequer, and a parliamentary commissioner for arrangement of the Union between England and Scotland.As many of his writings show, Sir John was much attached to the study of Scottish antiquities.He had a small property in Dumfriesshire, near the Roman station on the hill called Burrenswark.Here he received the distinguished English antiquarian Roger Gale, and of course conducted him to see this remarkable spot, where the lords of the world have left such decisive marks of their martial labours.
An aged shepherd whom they had used as a guide, or who had approached them from curiosity, listened with mouth agape to the dissertations on foss and vellum, ports _dextra, sinistra,_ and _decumana,_ which Sir John Clerk delivered _ex cathedra,_ and his learned visitor listened with the deference to the dignity of a connoisseur on his own ground.But when the cicerone proceeded to point out a small hillock near the centre of the enclosure as the Pr<ae>torium, Corydon's patience could hold no longer, and, like Edie Ochiltree, he forgot all reverence, and broke in with nearly the same words--``Pr<ae>torium here, Pr<ae>torium there, I made the bourock mysell with a flaughter-spade.'' The effect of this undeniable evidence on the two lettered sages may be left to the reader's imagination.
The late excellent and venerable John Clerk of Eldin, the celebrated author of _Naval Tactics,_ used to tell this story with glee, and being a younger son of Sir John's was perhaps present on the occasion.
Note D, p.<#>.--Mr.Rutherfurd's Dream The legend of Mrs.Grizel Oldbuck was partly taken from an extraordinary story which happened about seventy years since, in the South of Scotland, so peculiar in its circumstances that it merits being mentioned in this place.Mr.Rutherfurd of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the vale of Gala, was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the accumulated arrears of teind (or tithe) for which he was said to be indebted to a noble family, the titulars (lay impropriators of the tithes).Mr.Rutherfurd was strongly impressed with the belief that his father had, by a form of process peculiar to the law of Scotland, purchased these lands from the titular, and therefore that the present prosecution was groundless.But, after an industrious search among his father's papers, an investigation of the public records, and a careful inquiry among all persons who had transacted law business for his father, no evidence could be recovered to support his defence.The period was now near at hand when he conceived the loss of his lawsuit to be inevitable, and he had formed his determination to ride to Edinburgh next day, and make the best bargain he could in the way of compromise.He went to bed with this resolution and, with all the circumstances of the case floating upon his mind, had a dream to the following purpose:--His father, who had been many years dead, appeared to him, he thought, and asked him why he was disturbed in his mind.In dreams men are not surprised at such apparitions.Mr.Rutherfurd thought that he informed his father of the cause of his distress, adding that the payment of a considerable sum of money was the more unpleasant to him, because he had a strong consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to recover any evidence in support of his belief, ``You are right, my son,''
replied the paternal shade; ``I did acquire right to these teinds, for payment of which you are now prosecuted.The papers relating to the transaction are in the hands of Mr.--, a writer (or attorney), who is now retired from professional business, and resides at Inveresk, near Edinburgh.
He was a person whom I employed on that occasion for a particular reason, but who never on any other occasion transacted business on my account.
It is very possible,'' pursued the vision, ``that Mr.-- may have forgotten a matter which is now of a very old date; but you may call it to his recollection by this token, that when I came to pay his account, there was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of gold, and that we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern.''
Mr.Rutherfurd awakened in the morning with all the words of the vision imprinted on his mind, and thought it worth while to ride across the country to Inveresk, instead of going straight to Edinburgh.When he came there he waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream, a very old man;without saying anything of the vision, he inquired whether he remembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased father.The old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance to his recollection, but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold, the whole returned upon his memory; he made an immediate search for the papers, and recovered them,--so that Mr.Rutherfurd carried to Edinburgh the documents necessary to gain the cause which he was on the verge of losing.
The author has often heard this story told by persons who had the best access to know the facts, who were not likely themselves to be deceived, and were certainly incapable of deception.He cannot therefore refuse to give it credit, however extraordinary the circumstances may appear.The circumstantial character of the information given in the dream, takes it out of the general class of impressions of the kind which are occasioned by the fortuitous coincidence of actual events with our sleeping thoughts.On the other hand, few will suppose that the laws of nature were suspended, and a special communication from the dead to the living permitted, for the purpose of saving Mr.Rutherfurd a certain number of hundred pounds.