Covenanters Memorial, Dreghorn

Image: © kim traynor Taken: 8 Jul 2009

The Covenanters were a religious minority within the Church of Scotland in the second half of the 17th century who were persecuted for adhering strictly to the presbyterian principle of resisting control of the Kirk by the Crown, acting through Bishops. Viewed by royalists, episcopalians and moderate presbyterians as narrow-minded zealots, they saw themselves as emulating the early Christian martyrs and stuck stubbornly to their beliefs in the face of their enemies’ horrible cruelties and contraptions of torture and execution. Their ‘blood sacrifice’ exerted a strong influence on later generations and still resonates with many Protestant Scots to this day. A flavour of their religious fervour can be gauged from the symbolism and language of a remarkable poem, ‘The Cameronian’s Dream’. Its author, James Hyslop, was a self-taught shepherd from the Cumnock-Sanquhar area in the South West of Scotland which was the seedbed of the two Covenanter Risings of 1666 and 1679. Written by Hyslop between the ages of fourteen and eighteen and published in 1821, it describes a vision of the battlefield at Ayrsmoss where the militant Covenanted minister Richard Cameron and his followers were cut down in 1680. The poem ends: "When the righteous had fallen, and the combat had ended, A chariot of fire through the dark cloud descended; Its drivers were angels, on horses of whiteness, And its burning wheels turned upon axles of brightness; A seraph unfolded its doors bright and shining, All dazzling like gold of the seventh refining, And the souls that came forth out of great tribulation, Have mounted the chariots and steeds of salvation. On the arch of the rainbow the chariot is gliding, Through the paths of the thunder the horsemen are riding. Glide swiftly, bright spirits, the prize is before ye A crown never-fading, - a kingdom of glory! For the full text of the poem, see http://www.covenanter.org/Poems/cameroniandream.htm Image

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