Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/70

416 would be there. A good deal of raillery passed at dinner, to which the major made very little answer. But when the cloth was taken away, and the servants retired, he begged their patience for a- few minutes, and then plainly and seriously told them what notions he entertained of virtue and religion, and on what considerations he had absolutely determined, that by the grace of God he would make it the care and business of life, whatever he might lose by it, and whatever censure and contempt he might incur. He well knew how improper it was in such company to relate the extraordinary manner he was awakened; which they would probably have interpreted as a demonstration of lunacy, against all the gravity and solidity of his discourse; but he contented himself with such a rational defence of a righteous, sober, and godly life, as he knew none of them could with any shadow of reason contest. He then challenged them to propose any thing they could urge, to prove that a life of irreligion and debauchery was preferable to the fear, love, and worship of the eternal God, and a conduct agreeable to the precepts of his gospel. And he failed not to bear his testimony from his own experience, that after having run the widest round of sensual pleasures, with all the advantages the best constitution and spirits could give him, he had never tasted any thing that deserved to be called happiness, till he had made religion his refuge and his delight. He testified calmly and boldly, the habitual serenity and peace that he now felt in his own breast, and the composure and pleasure with which he looked forward to objects, which the gayest sinner must acknowledge to be equally unavoidable and dreadful. I know not what might be attempted by some of the company in answer to this; but I well remember he told me, the master of the table, a person of a very frank and candid disposition, cut short the debate, and said, 'Come, let us call another cause: we thought this man mad, and he is in good earnest proving that we are so.' On the whole, this well-judged circumstance saved him a great deal of future trouble. When his former acquaintance observed that he was still conversable and innocently cheerful, and that he was immoveable in his resolutions, they desisted from farther importunity. And he has assured me, that instead of losing any one valuable friend by this change in his character, he found himself much more esteemed and regarded by many who could not persuade themselves to imitate his example.

I meet not with any other remarkable event relating to major Gardiner, which can properly be introduced here, till the year 1726; when, on the 11th of July, he was married to the right honourable lady Frances Erskine, daughter to the fourth earl of Buchan, by whom he had thirteen children, five only of which survived their father, two sons and three daughters. From this period till the commencement of the French war, he lived either at his villa of Bankton in East Lothian, or moved about through the country with his regiment. Towards the latter end of 1742, he embarked for Flanders, and spent some considerable time with the regiment at Ghent ; where he much regretted the want of those religious ordinances and opportunities which had made his other abodes delightful. As he had the promise of a regiment before he quitted England, his friends were continually expecting an occasion of congratulating him on having received the command of one. But still they were disappointed; and on some of them the disappointment seemed to sit heavy. As for the colonel himself, he seemed quite easy about it; and appeared much greater in that easy situation of mind, than the highest military honours and preferments could have made him. His majesty was at length pleased to give him a regiment of dragoons, which was then quartered just in the neighbourhood of his own house in Scotland. It appeared to him, that by this remarkable event providence called him home. Accordingly, though lie had other preferments