The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

  Then he set up the flag of red,
    A’ set about wi’ bonnie blue.—­P. 91. v. 1.

Blue was the favourite colour of the Covenanters; hence the vulgar phrase of a true blue whig.  Spalding informs us, that when the first army of Covenanters entered Aberdeen, few or none “wanted a blue ribband; the lord Gordon, and some others of the marquis (of Huntley’s) family had a ribband, when they were dwelling in the town, of a red fresh colour, which they wore in their hats, and called it the royal ribband, as a sign of their love and loyalty to the king.  In despite and derision thereof, this blue ribband was worn, and called the Covenanter’s ribband, by the hail soldiers of the army, who would not hear of the royal ribband, such was their pride and malice.”—­Vol.  I. p. 123.  After the departure of this first army, the town was occupied by the barons of the royal party, till they were once more expelled by the Covenanters, who plundered the burgh and country adjacent; “no fowl, cock, or hen, left unkilled, the hail house-dogs, messens (i.e. lap-dogs), and whelps, within Aberdeen, killed upon the streets; so that neither hound, messen, nor other dog, was left alive that they could see:  the reason was this,—­when the first army came here, ilk captain and soldier had a blue ribband about his craig (i.e. neck); in despite and derision whereof, when they removed from Aberdeen, some women of Aberdeen, as was alleged, knit blue ribbands about their messens’ craigs, whereat their soldiers took offence, and killed all their dogs for this very cause.”—­P. 160.

I have seen one of the ancient banners of the Covenanters:  it was divided into four copartments, inscribed with the words, Christ—­Covenant—­King—­Kingdom.  Similar standards are mentioned in Spalding’s curious and minute narrative, Vol.  II. pp. 182, 245.

  Hold up your hand, ye cursed Graeme,
    Else a rebel to our king ye’ll be.—­P, 91. v. 5.

It is very extraordinary, that, in April, 1685, Claverhouse was left out of the new commission of privy council, as being too favourable to the fanatics.  The pretence was his having married into the presbyterian family of lord Dundonald.  An act of council was also past, regulating the payment of quarters, which is stated by Fountainhall to have been done in odium of Claverhouse, and in order to excite complaints against him.  This charge, so inconsistent with the nature and conduct of Claverhouse, seems to have been the fruit of a quarrel betwixt him and the lord high treasurer.  FOUNTAINHALL, Vol.  I. p. 360.

That Claverhouse was most unworthily accused of mitigating the persecution of the Covenanters, will appear from the following simple, but very affecting narrative, extracted from one of the little publications which appeared soon after the Revolution, while the facts were fresh in the memory of the sufferers.  The imitation of the scriptural stile produces, in some passages of these works, an effect not unlike what we feel in reading the beautiful book of Ruth.  It is taken from the life of Mr Alexander Peden,[A] printed about 1720.

“In the beginning of May, 1685, he came to the house of John Brown and Marion Weir, whom he married before he went to Ireland, where he stayed all night; and, in the morning when he took farewell, he came out of the door, saying to himself, “Poor woman, a fearful morning,” twice over.  “A dark misty morning!” The next morning, between five and six hours, the said John Brown having performed the worship of God in his family, was going, with a spade in his hand, to make ready some peat ground:  the mist being very dark, he knew not until cruel and bloody Claverhouse compassed him with three troops of horse, brought him to his house, and there examined him; who, though he was a man of a stammering speech, yet answered him distinctly and solidly; which made Claverhouse to examine those whom he had taken to be his guides through the muirs, if ever they heard him preach?  They answered, “No, no, he was never a preacher.”  He said, “If he has never preached, meikle he has prayed in his time;” he said to John, “Go to your prayers, for you shall immediately die!” When he was praying, Claverhouse interrupted him three times; one time, that he stopt him, he was pleading that the Lord would spare a remnant, and not make a full end in the day of his anger.  Claverhouse said, “I gave you time to pray, and ye are begun to preach;” he turned about upon his knees, and said, “Sir, you know neither the nature of preaching or praying, that calls this preaching.”  Then continued without confusion.  When ended, Claverhouse said, “Take goodnight of your wife and children.”  His wife, standing by with her child in her arms that she had brought forth to him, and another child of his first wife’s, he came to her, and said, “Now, Marion, the day is come, that I told you would come, when I spake first to you of marrying me.”  She said, “Indeed, John, I can willingly part with you.”—­“Then,” he said, “this is all I desire, I have no more to do but die.”  He kissed his wife and bairns, and wished purchased and promised blessings to be multiplied upon them, and his blessing.  Clavers ordered six soldiers to shoot him; the most part of the bullets came upon his head, which scattered his brains upon the ground.  Claverhouse said to his wife, “What thinkest thou of thy husband now, woman?” She said, “I thought ever much of him, and now as much as ever.”  He said, “It were justice to lay thee beside him.”  She said, “If ye were permitted, I doubt not but your cruelty would go that length; but how will ye make answer for this morning’s work?” He said, “To man I can be answerable; and for God, I will take him in my own hand.”  Claverhouse mounted his horse, and marched, and left her with the corpse of her dead husband lying there; she set the bairn on the ground, and gathered his brains, and tied up his head, and straighted his body, and covered him in her plaid, and sat down, and wept over him.  It being a very desart place, where never victual grew, and far from neighbours, it was some time before any friends came to her; the first that came was a very fit hand, that old singular Christian woman, in the Cummerhead, named Elizabeth Menzies, three miles distant, who had been tried with the violent death of her husband at Pentland, afterwards of two worthy sons, Thomas Weir, who was killed at Drumclog, and David Steel, who was suddenly shot afterwards when taken.  The said Marion Weir, sitting upon her husband’s grave, told me, that before that, she could see no blood but she was in danger to faint; and yet she was helped to be a witness to all this, without either fainting or confusion, except when the shots were let off her eyes dazzled.  His corpse were buried at the end of his house, where he was slain, with this inscription on his grave-stone:—­

  In earth’s cold bed, the dusty part here lies,
  Of one who did the earth as dust despise! 
  Here, in this place, from earth he took departure;
  Now, he has got the garland of the martyrs.

[Footnote A:  The enthusiasm of this personage, and of his followers, invested him, as has been already noticed, with prophetic powers; but hardly any of the stories told of him exceeds that sort of gloomy conjecture of misfortune, which the precarious situation of his sect so greatly fostered.  The following passage relates to the battle of Bothwell-bridge:—­“That dismal day, 22d of June, 1679, at Bothwell-bridge, when the Lord’s people fell and fled before the enemy, he was forty miles distant, near the border, and kept himself retired until the middle of the day, when some friends said to him, ’Sir, the people are waiting for sermon,’ He answered, ’Let them go to their prayers; for me, I neither can nor will preach any this day, for our friends are fallen and fled before the enemy, at Hamilton, and they are hacking and hewing them down, and their blood is running like water.”  The feats of Peden are thus commemorated by Fountainhall, 27th of March, 1650:  “News came to the privy council, that about one hundred men, well armed and appointed, had left Ireland, because of a search there for such malcontents, and landed in the west of Scotland, and joined with the wild fanatics.  The council, finding that they disappointed the forces, by skulking from hole to hole, were of opinion, it were better to let them gather into a body, and draw to a head, and so they would get them altogether in a snare.  They had one Mr Peden, a minister, with them, and one Isaac, who commanded them.  They had frighted most part of all the country ministers, so that they durst not stay at their churches, but retired to Edinburgh, or to garrison towns; and it was sad to see whole shires destitute of preaching, except in burghs.  Wherever they came they plundered arms, and particularly at my Lord Dumfries’s house.”—­FOUNTAINHALL, Vol.  I. p. 359.]

“This murder was committed betwixt six and seven in the morning:  Mr Peden was about ten or eleven miles distant, having been in the fields all night:  he came to the house betwixt seven and eight, and desired to call in the family, that he might pray amongst them; when praying, he said, “Lord, when wilt thou avenge Brown’s blood?  Oh, let Brown’s blood be precious in thy sight! and hasten the day when thou wilt avenge it, with Cameron’s, Cargil’s, and many others of our martyrs’ names; and oh! for that day, when the Lord would avenge all their bloods!” When ended, John Muirhead enquired what he meant by Brown’s blood?  He said twice over, “What do I mean?  Claverhouse has been at the Preshil this morning, and has cruelly murdered John Brown; his corpse are lying at the end of his house, and his poor wife sitting weeping by his corpse, and not a soul to speak a word comfortably to her.”

While we read this dismal story, we must remember Brown’s situation was that of an avowed and determined rebel, liable as such to military execution; so that the atrocity was more that of the times than of Claverhouse.  That general’s gallant adherence to his master, the misguided James VII., and his glorious death on the field of victory, at Killicrankie, have tended to preserve and gild his memory.  He is still remembered in the Highlands as the most successful leader of their clans.  An ancient gentleman, who had borne arms for the cause of Stuart, in 1715, told the editor, that, when the armies met on the field of battle, at Sheriff-muir, a veteran chief (I think he named Gordon of Glenbucket), covered with scars, came up to the earl of Mar, and earnestly pressed him to order the Highlanders to charge, before the regular army of Argyle had completely formed their line, and at a moment when the rapid and furious onset of the clans might have thrown them into total disorder.  Mar repeatedly answered, it was not yet time; till the chieftain turned from him in disdain and despair, and, stamping with rage, exclaimed aloud, “O for one hour of Dundee!”

Claverhouse’s sword (a strait cut-and-thrust blade) is in the possession of Lord Woodhouselee.  In Pennycuik-house is preserved the buff-coat, which he wore at the battle of Killicrankie.  The fatal shot-hole is under the arm-pit, so that the ball must have been received while his arm was raised to direct the pursuit However he came by his charm of proof, he certainly had not worn the garment usually supposed to confer that privelage, and which is called the waistcoat of proof, or of necessity.  It was thus made:  “On Christmas daie, at night, a thread must be sponne of flax, by a little virgine girle, in the name of the divell:  and it must be by her woven, and also wrought with the needle.  In the breast, or forepart thereof, must be made with needle work, two heads; on the head, at the right side, must be a hat and a long beard; the left head must have on a crown, and it must be so horrible that it maie resemble Belzebub; and on each side of the wastcote must be made a crosse.”—­SCOTT’S Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 231.

It would be now no difficult matter to bring down our popular poetry, connected with history, to the year 1745.  But almost all the party ballads of that period have been already printed, and ably illustrated by Mr Ritson.