The book Arran; - Cook Clan

28 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
This commission seems to have been the last of the Bysset
connection with Arran, which, oddly enough, by another
timely political change, was in time secured by the house of
Bysset's cleverer comrade Menteith, whose name is for ever
associated with the capture of Wallace,
But Arran, from its position as an intermediate base from
Ireland, could be put to more definite use in a struggle which
involved that country also from time to time, and which had
in Scotland the difficult west as its ultimate holding-ground.
This latter fact brought English columns to that side on
several important occasions, of which one has already been
noticed. In the spring of 1301, during the Comyn or baronial
phase of Scottish resistance, Edward i. found himself in a
position not to have to renew a truce with his enemies, and
so prepared for a comprehensive campaign, in which his son
was to advance from Carlisle on the Avest side to ' Newcastleof-Ayr,'
and he himself was to cross country from Berwick
to Glasgow. His son's share was a fiasco, though Edward
duly carried out his own part of the programme, finally going
as far as Linlithgow. The feeding of the armies was always
a serious problem, and, as the west was included in this
campaign, provisions had to be brought to that quarter.
Ireland, under English control, was a constant resource
as a food-producing country, and Edward accordingly
arranged for a goodly importation of wheat, oats, malt,
beans, peas, new wine, salt pork, and herrings to supply his
men ; of which one half was to be consigned to a port near
the western base at Carlisle, the other half to a port on the
island of Arran, whence, presumably, it could be shipped or
otherwise transferred to Glasgow. Arran was probably as
little proud of such a service as ever restive Ireland.
Six years later the island was playing a very different
part in the national drama, as Ireland in time also was to do.
And here let us praise famous men and the island and
people that were to give them shelter and encouragement