trial, 1661. These are two of our black
sheep.[2] Under the Restoration, one Stevenson was a bailie in
Edinburgh, and another the lessee of the Canonmills. There were at the
same period two physicians of the name in Edinburgh, one of whom, Dr.
Archibald, appears to have been a famous man in his day and generation.
The Court had continual need of him; it was he who reported, for
instance, on the state of Rumbold; and he was for some time in the
enjoyment of a pension of a thousand pounds Scots (about eighty pounds
sterling) at a time when five hundred pounds is described as "an opulent
future." I do not know if I should be glad or sorry that he failed to
keep favour; but on 6th January 1682 (rather a cheerless New Year's
present) his pension was expunged.[3] There need be no doubt, at least,
of my exultation at the fact that he was knighted and recorded arms. Not
quite so genteel, but still in public life, Hugh was Under-Clerk to the
Privy Council, and liked being so extremely. I gather this from his
conduct in September 1681, when, with all the lords and their servants,
he took the woful and soul-destroying Test, swearing it "word by word
upon his knees." And, behold! it was in vain, for Hugh was turned out of
his small post in 1684.[4] Sir Archibald and Hugh were both plainly
inclined to be trimmers; but there was one witness of the name of
Stevenson who held high the banner of the Covenant--John,
"Land-Labourer,[5] in the parish of Daily, in Carrick," that "eminently
pious man." He seems to have been a poor sickly soul, and shows himself
disabled with scrofula, and prostrate and groaning aloud with fever; but
the enthusiasm of the martyr burned high within him.

"I was made to take joyfully the spoiling of my goods, and with pleasure
for His name's sake wandered in deserts and in mountains, in dens and
caves of the earth. I lay four months in the coldest season of the year
in a haystack in my father's garden, and a whole February in the open
fields not far from Camragen, and this I did without the least prejudice
from the night air; one night, when lying in the fields near to the
Carrick-Miln, I was all covered with snow in the morning. Many nights
have I lain with pleasure in the churchyard of Old Daily, and made a
grave my pillow; frequently have I resorted to the old walls about the
glen, near to Camragen, and there sweetly rested." The visible hand of
God protected and directed him. Dragoons were turned aside from