Principal Cairns | Page 2

own, had to earn his living as a shepherd. He died
in 1799, worn out before he had passed his prime, and his widow was
left to bring up her young fatherless family of three girls and two boys
as best she could. After several migrations, which gradually brought
them down from the hills to the seaboard, they settled for some years at
Ayton Hill. The farm was at the time under some kind of trust, and
there was no resident farmer. The widowed mother was engaged to
look after the pigs and the poultry; the daughters also found
employment; and James, the elder son, became the shepherd. He was of
an adventurous and somewhat restless disposition, and, at the time of
the threatened invasion by Napoleon, joined a local Volunteer corps.
Then the war fever laid hold of him, and he enlisted in the regular army,
serving in the Rifle Brigade all through the Peninsular War, from
Vimiera to Toulouse, and earning a medal with twelve clasps. He
afterwards returned, bringing with him a Portuguese wife, and settled
as shepherd on the home-farm of Ayton Castle.
The younger son, John, as yet little more than a child, was hired out as
herd-boy on the neighbouring farm of Greystonelees, between Ayton
and Berwick. His wages were a pair of shoes in the half-year, with his
food in the farm kitchen and his bed in the stable loft. His schooldays
had begun early. He used afterwards to tell how his mother, when he
was not more than five years old, carried him every day on her back on
his way to school across a little stream that flowed near their cottage.

But this early education was often interrupted, and came very soon to a
close; not, however, before he was well able to read. Writing he taught
himself later; and, later still, he picked up a good working knowledge
of arithmetic at a night-school. He was a quiet, thoughtful boy,
specially fond of reading, but, from lack of books, reading was almost
out of his reach. He had not even a Bible of his own, for Bibles were
then so dear that it was not possible for parents in humble life to
provide those of their children who went out into the world with copies
even of the cheapest sort. In place of a Bible, however, his mother had
given him a copy of the Scottish Metre Version of the Psalms, with a
"Preface" to each Psalm and notes by John Brown of Haddington. This
was all the boy had to feed his soul on, but it was enough, for it was
strong meat; and he valued and carefully kept that old, brown,
leather-bound Psalm-book to the end of his days.
When James left home, the shepherding at Ayton Hill was taken up by
his brother John. Though only a lad in his teens, he was in every
respect, except in physical strength, already a man. He was steady and
thoughtful, handy and capable in farm work, especially in all that
concerned the care of sheep, for which he had a natural and probably an
inherited instinct. He was also held in great regard by the Rev. David
Ure, the earnest and kindly minister of the Burgher Meeting-house,
which stood behind the Castle woods at the lower end of Ayton village.
The family were of that "strict, not strictest species of Presbyterian
Dissenter," and John attended also the Bible-class and Fellowship
Meeting. The family of John Murray, a ploughman or "hind" from the
Duns district, and now settled at Bastleridge, the next farm to Ayton
Hill, also attended Mr. Ure's church. An intimacy sprang up between
the two families. It ripened into affection between John Cairns and
Alison, John Murray's only daughter, and in June 1814 they were
united in marriage. The two eldest daughters of the Cairns family had
already gone to situations, and were soon to have homes of their own.
The grand old mother, who had been for so many years both father and
mother to her children, was beginning to feel the infirmities of age.
When, therefore, the young couple took up housekeeping, she left the
home and the work at Ayton Hill to them, and with her youngest
daughter went over to live in Ayton.

John Cairns and his wife were in many respects very unlike one another.
He was of a grave, quiet, and somewhat anxious temperament, almost
morbidly scrupulous where matters of conscience and responsibility
were concerned. She, on the other hand, was always hopeful, making
light of practical difficulties, and by her untiring energy largely helping
to make these disappear. She had a great command of vigorous Scotch,
and a large stock of homely proverbs, of which she made frequent and
apposite use. Both husband