SANQUHAR

"And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark on their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Revelation 20:4b

We left Keswick, Cumbria, England around 9:30am and drove out of the northern Lake District, through Carlisle and into Scotland. The land of Bonnie Caledonia was greeted with a barrage of hurrahs, salutes and picture taking.

We gathered some information in Dumfries and we scoured the countryside for location of John G. Paton's croft. Stopping at a flower nursery out in the country above Kirkton I asked the owners if they knew where markers were for house of the missionary John Paton. "I dinnae ken any Paton around here" -- pronouncing "Paton" as "Dayton".

"No Paton's at all?" I inquired.

"Aye."

We drove on. I happened to notice a sign to the right of the road that read "Braehead Farm" but paid little attention to it. Only much later did I realize that I had just driven by the spot where John G. Paton once lived. Hopefully, we'll get back by.

We eventually came to the town of Sanquhar (lots of vowels and consonants dropped here rendering the town as "Sanka" like the coffee brand). We stopped at the museum and asked if the gentleman -- Robert Martin -- had any Covenanter information. He very excitedly brought us in and showed us an old book, The History of Sanquhar. He pointed out the proudly worn section of the book describing the Sanquhar declaration by Richard Cameron, Lion of the Covenant. Sensing my excitement he offered to let me take it downtown make copies of the Cameron pages.

"I couldn't take your book", I protested.

"Of course you can. I'll just watch over your family until you get back." He loaned the book; I went to about the only business in town still open: the UK's oldest post office. I made copies at 7p per page which I thought was a deal and brought back the book. I thanked him, we made pictures, he suggested we watch a short film and we did, and then went to the town monument. A number of towns in southwestern Scotland tend to have town monuments -- kind of like the south, only Covenanter monuments instead of Confederate monuments.

We took pictures by the monument which was the site where the Sanquhar Declaration was signed by Cameron and others. It was the "Declaration and Testimony of the True Presbyterian, Anti-prelatic, Anti-erastian, persecuted party in Scotland." - Sanquhar, June 22, 1680. We also took pictures of the old castle ruins which dates back to medieval times.

- David