Neither will I take the traveller's privilege of inflicting upon you the whole history of Bruce poniarding the Red Comyn in the Church of the Dominicans at this place, and becoming a king and patriot because he had been a church-breaker and a murderer.

The present Dumfriezers remember and justify the deed, observing it was only a papist church--in evidence whereof, its walls have been so completely demolished that no vestiges of them remain.

They are a sturdy set of true-blue Presbyterians, these burghers of Dumfries; men after your father's own heart, zealous for the Protestant succession--the rather that many of the great families around are suspected to be of a different way of thinking, and shared, a great many of them, in the insurrection of the Fifteen, and some in the more recent business of the Forty-five.

The town itself suffered in the latter era; for Lord Elcho, with a large party of the rebels, levied a severe contribution upon Dumfries, on account of the citizens having annoyed the rear of the Chevalier during his march into England.
Many of these particulars I learned from Provost C--, who, happening to see me in the market-place, remembered that I was an intimate of your father's, and very kindly asked me to dinner.

Pray tell your father that the effects of his kindness to me follow me everywhere.