Scotland/Scots > Life of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Ellerslie, and Guardian of Scotland

SIR WILLIAM WALLACE.
“ Hys Fadyere was a manly knycht
Hys Modyere was a lady bricht
He gottyne and born in Mariage
Hys eldare brodyere the herytage
Had and enjoyed in his dayis ”
By this it would seem that the “ eldare brod¬
yere ” outlived the father, since he succeeded to
the “ herytage; ” and though the father may
have been slain by the English, yet we are here
furnished with good grounds for believing, that
it must have been previous to the affair at
Lochmaben.
Sir William, the subject of our narrative, was
born in the reign of Alexander III. Under his
uncle, a wealthy ecclesiastic at Dunipace, in
Stirlingshire, he received the first rudiments of
his education. This worthy man was at great
pains in storing his mind with the choicest
maxims to be found in the ancient classics, par¬
ticularly those passages where the love of liberty
is most strongly recommended ; and the efforts
of the tutor were amply rewarded by the amor
patrice excited in the breast of the pupil. How
long he remained in Dunipace is uncertain; but,
on being removed from thence, he was sent to
a public seminary at Dundee, to receive what
further education the age afforded. Here he
contracted a sincere and lasting friendship with
John Blair, a young man, at that time of great