To find out more about this unique and often overlooked Scots writer, our best recommendation is the ebook edition by Delphi Classics. Buy the parts edition as it’s easier to navigate the huge collection. For paperbacks your best online bet is probably Amazon.
Below is an excerpt from one of his works:
Below is an excerpt from one of his works:
FROM: THERE AND BACK
She did not slacken her pace till she had walked five miles more. Then she stood a moment and gazed about her. The great heath was all around, solitary as the heaven out of which the solitary moon, with no child to comfort her, was enviously watching them. But she would not stop to rest, save for the briefest breathing space! On and on she went until moorland miles five more, as near as she could judge, were behind her. Then at length she sat down upon a stone, and a timid flutter of safety stirred in her bosom, followed by a gush of love victorious. Her treasure! Her treasure! Not once on the long way had she looked at him. Now she folded back the shawl, and gazed, as not even a lover could have gazed on the sleeping countenance of his rescued bride. The passion of no other possession could have equalled the intensity of her conscious having. Not one created being has a right to the child but herself! Yet any moment he might be taken from her by a cold-hearted, cruel stepmother, and given to a hired woman! The boy was no light weight, and she had things to carry besides, which he love said he could not do without; yet before seven o’clock she had cleared some sixteen miles, in a line from Mortgrange as stragith as she could keep.
She thought she must now be near a village whose name she knew; but she dared not show herself lest some advertisement might reach it after she was gone, and lead to the discovery of the route she had taken. She turned aside, therefore into an old quarry, there to spend the say, unvisited of human soul. The child was now awake, but still drowsy. She gave him a little food, and ate the crust she had saved from her tea the night before. During the long hours she slept a good deal by fits, and when the evening came, was quite fit to resume her tramp.
To her joy it came cloudy, giving her courage to enter a little shop she saw on the outskirts of the village, and buy some milk and some bread. From this point she kept the road: she might now avail herself of help from cart or wagon. She was not without money, but feared the railway
She thought she must now be near a village whose name she knew; but she dared not show herself lest some advertisement might reach it after she was gone, and lead to the discovery of the route she had taken. She turned aside, therefore into an old quarry, there to spend the say, unvisited of human soul. The child was now awake, but still drowsy. She gave him a little food, and ate the crust she had saved from her tea the night before. During the long hours she slept a good deal by fits, and when the evening came, was quite fit to resume her tramp.
To her joy it came cloudy, giving her courage to enter a little shop she saw on the outskirts of the village, and buy some milk and some bread. From this point she kept the road: she might now avail herself of help from cart or wagon. She was not without money, but feared the railway
