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

THE BATTLE OF PENTLAND HILLS.
ish Armada. A stronger position could not have been selected. Almost
immediately on the arrival of Colonel Wallace, the resolution was adopted
of moving eastwards towards the capital. From the prostrate and dispirited
state of the country at the time, and the hurried and inconsiderate
nature of the movement, the friends of the cause did not rally round the
standard of the Covenant in such numbers, and with the alacrity expected.
A vast accession of strength, however, was calculated upon in their
progress eastward. The march was accordingly commenced on Wednesday,
the 21st November. Aware that Dalziel, at the head of a considerable
body of cavalry, had come as far as Glasgow to oppose them, the
Covenanters proceeded slowly notwithstanding, with the view of affording
their friends ample opportunity to join them. The first night they halted
not far from Gadgirth House, on the water of Ayr. Next day they moved
on towards Ochiltree, on the road to which a rendezvous had been ap-
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pointed, where they met a party of friends from Cuninghame.* While I
assembling in the field appropriated for the purpose, they had sermon from
Mr Gabriel Semple. The principal body thereafter marched into Ochiltree—a
portion of the cavalry keeping guard without the town. The
officers were quartered in the house of Sir John Cochrane, who was friendly \
to the cause. Their welcome, however, was somewhat cold, Sir John not
being at home—and the lady, as stated by Colonel Wallace, professed not
to " see their call." From thence the Covenanters directed their course
by Cumnock, Muirkirk, Douglas, Lanark—their numbers increasing so
slowly that it was deliberated whether the enterprise should not be abandoned.
They resolved, however, still to persevere, in defiance of every
discouragement. Between Lanark and Collinton, which village is within
a few miles of Edinburgh, the little army of Colonel Wallace, from the
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severity of the weather and the privations to
which they were subjected,
had diminished almost to a third. Disheartened—for their friends did
not turn out as they were led to hope—and suffering from fatigue, they
were by no means in a fit condition to face an enemy. They were not
* Wodrow gives a curious account of a meeting of certain gentlemen of Cuninghame
and Renfi-ewshire, who intended to have joined Wallace. They were, however,
taken prisoners, and had their estates confiscated. The place of meeting was at
Chitterflat, in the parish of Beith.
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