John Leech and other papers

94 Horcz Subsecivcz.
ing and flyting, praised them as a set of strapping
fellows ; told them they would soon come back again
with their pockets full of gold. They went and never
returned, finding better quarters abroad, and thus John
got rid of some of his secret confederates that were
getting troublesome.
Another of John's exploits was in a different line.
Mr. Moir had occasion to go to London, taking John
with him of course. He visited his friend the Earl
of Winton, then under sentence of death in the
Tower for his concern in the rebellion of 17 15. The
Earl was arranging his affairs, and the family books
and papers had been allowed to be carried into his cell
in a large hamper, which went and came as occasion
needed. John, who was a man of immense size and
strength, undertook, if the Earl put himself, instead
of his charters, into the hamper, to take it under his
arm as usual, and so he did, walking lightly out. Lord
Winton retired to Rome, where he died in 1749.
On ' the rising' in the '45 John joined young Stoney-
wood, his master's son, but before telling his adventures
in that unhappy time, we must go back a bit.
The grandson of old Stoneywood, James, born in
1 7 10, was now a handsome young man, six feet two
in height, and of a great spirit. As his grandfather
and father were still alive, he entered into foreign
trade ; his mother, our keen friend of the green purse,
meantime looking out for a rich marriage for her son,