In October 1681, also, Claverhouse was in London; and though there is nothing to show whether his stay there had been continuous, the fact that there is no record of his doings in Scotland during the interval, may be taken as negative, yet strong, evidence of his absence from the country. There is a curious document to prove that, on the 26th of the next month he crossed the Firth of Forth from Burntisland to Leith. It is a poem entitled ‘The Tempest,’ and written by Alexander Tyler, the minister of Kinnettles, who describes it as ‘being an account of a dangerous passage from Burntisland to Leith in a boat called the _Blessing_, in company of Claverhouse, several gentlewomen, ministers and a whole throng of common passengers upon the 26th of November 1681.’ On the 11th of the following month, Claverhouse dates a letter from Edinburgh; and, from that time, his activity and his influence again begin to be felt. The Earl of Queensberry, writing from Sanquhar to Lord Haddo on the 2nd of January 1682, reports that in his part of the country all is peaceable, ‘save only that in the heads of Galloway some rebels meet.’ Their numbers being inconsiderable, and their business ‘only to drink and quarrel,’ neither Church nor State need, in his judgment, fear them; still, he is of opinion that ‘the sooner garrisons be placed, and a competent party sent with Claverhouse for scouring that part of the country, the better.’ ‘Besides,’ he adds, ‘I’m told field-conventicles continue in Annandale and Galloway, but all will certainly evanish upon Claverhouse’s arrival, as I have often told.’ It would appear from this, that Captain Graham had returned to Scotland for a special and definite purpose; and this view is borne out by his appointment on the 31st of January to be heritable sheriff of Wigtownshire, in the place of Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw, and heritable bailie of the regality of Tongland, instead of Viscount Kenmure, both the former possessors having been deprived of their commissions in consequence of their refusal to take the prescribed test. In terms of his appointment, Claverhouse was to have jurisdiction within the shire of Dumfries and stewartries of Kirkcudbright and Annandale; but, with regard to these districts, it was specially provided that the powers conferred upon him were in no way to be prejudicial to the rights of the heritable sheriff or steward, and that he was ‘only to proceed and do justice,’ when he was ‘the first attacher,’ that is to say, only in cases with regard to which no legal proceedings had already been taken.