CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
STORY OF THE FAIRBAIRNS.
THE LAST OF THE HADDONS.
THE STORY OF THE QUIGRICH OR STAFF OF ST FILLAN.
COUSIN DICK.
A TRIP ON LAKE NYASSA.
CURIOUS PICK-UPS.
RUSTY IRON.
ON A PET DOVE KILLED BY A DOG.
| No. 706. | SATURDAY, JULY 7, 1877. | Price 1½d. |
STORY OF THE FAIRBAIRNS.
Towards the end of last century, the family ofAndrew Fairbairn resided at the foot of the Woodmarket,Kelso. Andrew was a man in humblecircumstances, but was intelligent and industrious,and fond of reading. He had spent his early lifeas a ploughboy, and afterwards as a gardener; bywhich means, along with the perusal of books, hegained a good knowledge of agriculture. Havingin the course of pushing his fortunes gone toreside near a seaport in England, he was, duringthe exigences of the American war, pressed onboard a frigate, from which he was draughtedinto a ship of the line, and served under LordHowe at the destruction of the Spanish fleet offGibraltar. At the close of the war, he happenedto be present at Spithead, when the Royal Georgesank, August 29, 1782, and assisted in savingthe survivors. Receiving his discharge, he returnedto Scotland, and settling in Kelso, marriedMiss Henderson, daughter of a tradesman inJedburgh, and in due time had a family of sonsand daughters. That may be called the beginningof the Fairbairns.
Andrew did not return to sea-life. He had hadenough of naval adventure. Kelso, where hepitched his camp, is a pretty inland town on thenorth bank of the Tweed, once celebrated for anabbey, of which the ruins still exist, and having inits immediate neighbourhood the palatial mansionof Fleurs, the seat of the Dukes of Roxburghe.All around is a fine fertile country, where thereis abundant scope for agricultural pursuits. Tothese he addicted himself, though taking him sixdays a week from home, and obliging him todevolve the upbringing of his children in a greatmeasure to his wife, who was eminently suited forthis important duty. She was far from robust,and her poor state of health would have offered agood excuse for idleness; but possessing a spirit ofindefatigable industry, she toiled in a way thatreminds us of the singularly meritorious wifementioned in Scripture—'She seeketh wool andflax, and worketh willingly with her hands....She looketh well to the ways of her household,and eateth