Or the following Sermons, the 7th was published in the "Free Church Pulpit" in May 1845; and the 12th in May 1843, being the sermon preached by Dr. Welsh, on the occasion of the General Assembly being convened. The first five Parts of the 11th sermon have been selected from his manuscripts, on account of their connexion with the sixth Part of that sermon, which, along with all the other discourses in this volume, was selected for publication by the author himself, before his death. The sermons are divided into Parts as they were found in his manuscript, and as they were preached in his own pulpit; although, on other occasions, two or more of these Parts were combined as one discourse.

EDINBURGH, May, 1846.

MEMOIR OF DR. WELSH.

DAVID WELSH was born on the 11th December 1793, at Braefoot, in the parish of Moffat and county of Dumfries. The place is somewhat remarkable, both from traditional associations and from its local character. The district in which it is situated, forming the high land where the Clyde, the Tweed, and the Annan, severally take their rise, was the scene of much oppression and suffering during the persecuting times of the later Stuarts. Its inhabitants were generally God-fearing men, who adhered to the Covenant; and its solitudes and fastnesses made it a favourite place of refuge to the hunted people of God. Dr. Welsh's forefathers, who were an eminently pious race, and had a large share of the sufferings of which all who clung to Christ's cause in these dark days partook, dwelt in the moorlands out of which the numerous sources of the Tweed spring, and there, from father to son, earned their livelihood as sheep-farmers of respectable station. Through these moorlands, which constitute in great measure the parish of Tweedsmuir, the traveller from Edinburgh to Dumfries passes. The road, shortly after leaving them

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and crossing the water-shed, comes upon a strikingly deep hollow or basin, precipitous on all sides, and open only where the Annan, formed by the streamlets that pour down the steep though nearly unbroken declivities, makes its escape southwards. For some way, the road skirts the edge of the basin, on the opposite side of which rises Hartfell mountain; and then, by a circuitous descent, it gains the level of the stream. In former times, however, it was carried right down, at a spot called Ericstanebrae, into nearly the middle of the hollow, by zig-zag stretches, which still exist, though not used as the public road; and at the bottom of this descent, and named from it, stand the house and steading of "Braefoot," where Dr. Welsh's father, leaving the neighbouring parish of Tweedsmuir, in which his predecessors lived, took up his abode, and where the only surviving son of the family, James Welsh, Esq., an extensive and most intelligent farmer, still resides.

Many stories have been handed down of hair-breadth escapes on the one hand, and cruel murders on the other, which the persecution witnessed in this hollow, and the surrounding dells and moors; and these traditions add an interest to scenery sufficiently striking in itself. Its character is massive and solitary. The hills are high and swelling; smooth in their general outline, but traversed by deep narrow glens of "grave beauty," at the bottom of each of which rushes a rapid torrent, and again stretching away into extensive moors, which are frequently cut up by deep moss bogs, affording peculiar means of concealment from pursuit. Dr. Welsh ever retained a great affection for his native district, and stood up for the superiority of its scenery in the friendly contests I used to wage with him on behalf of that of the Firth of Clyde, which, from a similar feeling, I preferred. I find in one of his letters, written about thirty years since, after a visit to the banks of that river, and pressing a return visit to Braefoot, the contrast thus playfully stated:" And then, as to fine scenery, I assure

you we have abundance of it. You had almost laughed. me out of my respect for our hills, but when I returned home, I was quite glad to find that I had no reason to be ashamed of them. Hartfell, in the first place, is to any of your hills, Ossa to a wart. She does not indeed throw herself into the same contortions, but, conscious of her real superiority, she reposes in lofty though unassuming majesty. And waterfalls you have none. Now, we have one of the highest in Scotland, with the descriptive appellation of the 'Grey Mare's Tail!' only in summer, I believe, there is no water in it," &c. So strong, indeed, was his attachment, that until after the death of a very dear child—his youngest boy-which led to his acquiring the burying-place in St. Cuthbert's churchyard, in which his own remains now lie beside those of his infant, he had always expressed a wish to be buried in the resting-place of his pious forefathers— the churchyard of the parish of Tweedsmuir; which parish, though born in that of Moffat adjoining, he naturally looked to as that of the original home of his family. His father had, indeed, moved across the boundary into the county of Dumfries-Tweedsmuir is in the county of Peebles—but he had added a new tie of connexion with Tweedsmuir, by the purchase of a small property, called Earlshaugh and Tweedshaws, situated in the upper part of it, and marching with lands in Moffat parish, of which he became tenant; and, residing at Braefoot, on the lands which he possessed as tenant, he prosecuted on them, and his own neighbouring property, the same calling with his progenitors.

This most worthy and excellent man, named David by his parents after the sweet singer of Israel, was an exemplary Christian; and his wife, whose name also was Welsh, and by whom he had twelve children, was of a like character. Several years before his death, and while his powers were quite vigorous, he gave his concerns over entirely to his sons, and went to reside at Moffat; that, freed from the cares of earth, he might devote himself more exclusively