This “Patrick Walker” was a person who had suffered for the good cause in his youth, along with many others of the “singular worthies” of the times. After the Revolution, it appears that he exercised the profession of a pedlar. He probably dealed much in those pamphlets concerning the sufferings and the doctrines of the “_Martyrs_,” which were so widely diffused throughout Scotland, in the years subsequent to the Revolution. In the process of time he set up his staff of rest in a small shop at the head of Bristo Street, opposite to the entrance of a court entitled “Society.” Here Patrick flourished about a century ago, and published several works, now very scarce and curious, of “Remarkable Passages in the Lives and Deaths of those famous worthies, signal for piety and zeal, _viz._ Mr. John Semple, Mr. Wellwood, Mr. Cameron, Mr. Peden, etc.; who were all shining lights in the Land, and gave light to many, in which they rejoiced for a season.” For this sort of biography Patrick seems to have been excellently adapted; for he had not only been witness to many of the incidents which he describes, but, from his intimate personal friendship with the subjects of his narratives, he was also a complete adept in all their intricate polemics and narrow superstitions. These he accordingly gives in such a style of length, strength, and volubility, as leaves us weltering in astonishment at the extensive range of expression of which Cant was susceptible. Take the following, for instance, from the rhapsodies of Peden. “A bloody sword, a bloody sword, a bloody sword for thee, O Scotland! Many miles shall ye travel and shall see nothing but desolation and ruinous wastes in thee, O Scotland! The fertilest places shall be desert as the mountains in thee, O Scotland! Oh the Monzies, the Monzies, see how they run! how long will they run? Lord, cut their houghs and stay their running. The women with child shall be ript up and dashed in pieces. Many a preaching has God waired (_spent_) on thee, O Scotland! But now He will come forth with the fiery brand of His wrath, and then He will preach to thee by conflagration, since words winna do! O Lord, Thou hast been baith good and kind to auld Sandy, thorow a long tract of time, and given him many years in Thy Service which have been but like as many months. But now he is tired of the warld, and sae let him away with the honesty he has, for he will gather no more!” We will also extract Patrick’s own account of an incident which is related upon his authority in the “Heart of Midlothian,” at the 54th page of the second volume. It is a good specimen of his style:—