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

NOTES.
Page 14. “ There is a very respectable man in
Longforgan (in Perthshire)^ of the name of Smith,
a weaver, and the farmer of a few acres of land, who
has in his possession a stone which is called Wallace’s
stone. It is what was formerly called in this coun¬
try a bear stone, hollow like a large mortar, and was
made use of to unhusk the bear or barley, as a pre¬
parative for the pot, with a large wooden mell, long
before barley-mills were known. Its station was on
one side of the door, and covered with a flat stone for
a seat when not otherwise employed. Upon this
stone Wallace sat on his way from Dundee, when
he fled after killing the governor’s son, and was fed
with bread and milk by the goodwife of the house,
from whom the man who now lives there, and is the
proprietor of the stone, is lineally descended; and
here his forbears (ancestors) have lived ever since,
in nearly the same station and circumstances for about
500 years.” Stat. Acc. xix. 561, 562.
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