gs
of the world beyond the valley.

The people of the Knocknalling district were very poor. The greater
part of them were unable to support the younger members, whose custom
it was to move off elsewhere in search of a living when they arrived at
working years,--some to America, some to the West Indies, and some to
the manufacturing districts of the south. Whole families took their
departure in this way, and the few friendships which Kennedy formed
amongst those of his own age were thus suddenly snapped, and only a
great blank remained. But he too could follow their example, and enter
upon that wider world in which so many others had ventured and
succeeded. As early as eight years of age, his mother still impressing
upon her boys the necessity of learning to work, John gathered courage
to say to her that he wished to leave home and apprentice himself to
some handicraft business. Having seen some carpenters working in the
neighbourhood, with good clothes on their backs, and hearing the men's
characters well spoken of, he thought it would be a fine thing to be a
carpenter too, particularly as the occupation would enable him to move
from place to place and see the world. He was as yet, however, of too
tender an age to set out on the journey of life; but when he was about
eleven years old, Adam Murray, one of his most intimate acquaintances,
having gone off to serve an apprenticeship in Lancashire with Mr.
Cannan of Chowbent, himself a native of the district, the event again
awakened in him a strong desire to migrate from Knocknalling. Others
had gone after Murray, James MacConnel and two or three more; and at
length, at about fourteen years of age, Kennedy himself left his native
home for Lancashire. About the time that he set out, Paul Jones was
ravaging the coasts of Galloway, and producing general consternation
throughout the district. Great excitement also prevailed through the
occurrence of the Gordon riots in London, which extended into remote
country places; and Kennedy remembered being nearly frightened out of
his wits on one occasion by a poor dominie whose school he attended,
who preached to his boys about the horrors that were coming upon the
land through the introduction of Popery. The boy set out for England
on the 2nd of February, 1784, mounted upon a Galloway, his little
package of clothes and necessaries strapped behind him. As he passed
along the glen, recognising each familiar spot, his heart wa