[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

—
:
THE BATTLE OF PENTLAND HILLS.
He then gave a sign unto his lads,
And they drew up in their brigades.
The trumpets blew, and the colours flew,
And every man to his armour drew ;
The whigs were never so much aghast,
As to see then- saddles toom so fast.
The cleverest men stood in the van.
The whigs they took their heels and ran
But such a raking was never seen,
As the raking o' the RuUien Green.
Episcopacy was proclaimed in 1 662—the Earl of Glencairn taking an
active part in its establishment.
The burghs, at the same time, were ordered
to elect none as magistrates who were of fanatical principles, or suspected
of disloyalty—a command which was pretty generally obeyed.
Ayr and Irvine, however, became obnoxious from their opposition. In
1664 they were directed to choose quite different magistrates from those
who had refused to make the declaration exacted from all who held public
trust. During the spring of 1663, about two-thirds of the churches in
the west had been deprived of their ministers, under the operation of
what was called the Glasgow act.* The difficulty experienced in supplying
the churches, and the distm-bances occasioned thereby, are matters of
history. A series of letters between Alexander Burnet, Archbishop of
Glasgow, and the Earl of Eglinton, at this period,'!" show the extreme
anxiety of that ecclesiastic, amidst the opposition against which he had to
contend, in the performance of his duty. We shall quote one or two of
the more interesting. The following is the first which has fallen into our
hands :
" My deare Lord,
" Since I had the honour to get you'r Lo. last, I have had a
very bad account of your friends and vassalls at Draighorne ; and must
* According to Wodrow, of the fifty-seven ministers in the Presbyteries of Ayr
and Irvine, thirty were " outed " in 1663. More, however, were expelled in 1666-7,
and in 1671.
f Pound amongst the Family Papers at Auchans.
42