Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

ANKANDAI.i; TAKKS MEASUKES TO DEFEND DUMFUIES, 1715. CCCWJi
j)arlly cunvhial iiicctiug \*ilh LurJ Lovat. TIio insui'gonl?, liowcvcr, being
detVated in llieir iirst object, and now desiring to obtain possession of JJum-
fiius, came close to the town, and created no small alarm. JNIajor Eraser
describes what took place. He says :
—
" No sooner the cloth was laid on the tublc, a cry came to the door tliat the
enemy was enteiing the town— namely, Keunuire and his party. My LopI Lovat
left dinner, and came up with the Marquis of Annandale, who stood witli his
whole part)' upon a rising ground at the end of the town. The marquis told
the Lord Lovat that he was very glad of his coming, seeing he had more skill
to model his horse and foot, having been iu the army. Lord Lovat and the major
were putting them in the best order they could. Countrymen were coming in
from all parts, telling the enemy was coming in this way and that way. The
marquis ordered so many men, with axes, to hew down a good many trees by way
of barricade. In end they were wearied standing there, and no encm)' appearing."^
On IStli October the rebels, with increased numbers, again approached
Dumfries and came within a mile of it. But bj' this time the people of the
adjacent parishes and the well-affected gentlemen of Galloway were come in
considerable numbers to tlie defence of the place, although tliey were lacking
in arms, ammunition, and officers. These, with the inhabitants of Dumfries,
finding the Jacobites afiaid to attack them, insisted on making an attack on
their headquarters at Lochnip.ben. This the lord-lieutenant deprecated, and,
calling a meeting of the clergy, then assembled iu synod, he delivered an
address to them and to the people, praising the zeal that had brought them
together, but pointing out that they were yet wiihont oflirers and discipline.
He added, that iu the contest the first success or failure told upon the spirits
of the party greatly beyond its real value; that their enemy, engaged in a
desperate cause and better horsed and armed than themselves, should not be
despised ; they might yet get possession of Dumfries, become ma.sters of the
south of Scotland, and obtain a formidable- impulse to theii' bad cause. These
sentiments were subsequently addressed to the trorips,and received wiih huzzas.
' JIajor Fraser's narrative, ijuoted in Burton's History of ScotUuul, vol. ii. j) 1.T4.