In the kirkyard of Penpont, at the west end of the church, there is a monument (at least there was, in my young days, some fifty years ago) with the following inscription:—
Here lies the worthy and godly
SAMUEL AUSTIN;
Forty-five years Minister of this Parish,
Nineteen of which years he was banished by ungodly men
from his dear Flock, and sorely persecuted for the
Truth, and for
Presbytery’s Sake.
God was pleased to restore him again at the period
of the
Glorious Revolution,
and he continued to the day of his death,
25th April, 1694,
faithfully, though in much bodily weakness, to administer
to his loved and loving
Flock.
“The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.”
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Of the times to which reference is here made, as well as of the character here introduced to the reader’s notice, Blackwood, in the “Sketches of Scottish Character,” thus expresses himself, vol. viii., p. 12:—
“Sad time indeed, oh most detested time,
When vice was fealty, and religion crime;
When counsellors were traitors to the state;
A chancellor’s authority was fate
And Scotland felt the grasp, o’er muir and dale,
Of cruel, beastly, turncoat Lauderdale;
When Grierson stepped abroad in human gore,
The peaceful peasant butchered at his door;
And cruel Graham, and merciless Dalziell,
In nightly rendezvous enacted hell.”
A very striking engraving of this well-known person, is given by Burns of Paisley, in his admirable edition of Woodrow.
[2] Dalziell never wore boots.