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

—
THE BATTLE OF LOUDOUN HILL.
diers " in front of Dunkeld House, two bullets pierced his head, and one
his liver, simultaneously. He turned about, and endeavoured to get back
into the house, in order that his death might not discourage his men ; but
he fell before reaching the threslihold." This occurred on the 21st of
August, 1689. Clealand was a poet as well as a soldier. When at college
he wrote a continuation of " Holloa, my Fancy," which is described
in a note to the "Minstrelsy" as " a wild raphsody," but which, nevertheless,
displays much talent in so young a writer.
In the lines
" Fain would I know if beasts have any reason !
I/falcons, killing eagles, do commit a treason,"
Sir Walter Scott discovered the anti-monarchial principles of the youthful
hero. But, taking the whole scope of the poem into consideration, we \
think no such inference can be justly drawn. Besides, the principles of the \
Cameronians or Covenanters were not anti-monarchial. Colonel Clealand )
was the author of several other poems—one in particular on the descent
of the " Highland Host" in 1768—written in the Hudibrastic style. His
poems were published in 1697—nine years after his death. In connection
with the battle of Drumclog, it is mentioned in the Statistical Account of
Loudoun Parish, that "B'hen Captain Nisbet of Hardhill, who commanded
the Loudoun troops at Bothwell, was on his way to Drumclog on the
morning of the battle, he, in passing Darvel, induced John Morton, smith,
to " accompany him to the field, where his brawny arm would find sufiicient
occupation. John followed Nisbet in the charge. A royal dragoon,
who was on the ground, entangled in the trappings of his wounded \
horse, begged quarter from John, whose arm was uplifted to cut him \
down. The dragoon's life was spared, and he was led by the smith as a
^
prisoner to the camp of the Covenanters.
But the life which was spared
on the field of battle was demanded by those who saw, in the royal party, ;
not merely cruel pers ecutors but idolatrous Amalekites, whom they were
bound in duty to execute. The smith declared, that, sooner than give up \
his prisoner's life, he would forfeit his own ! The dragoon's life, thus ^
defended, by the powerful smith, was spared, but the smith was banished
\
from the army as a disobedient soldier. The dragoon's sword is now in )
the possession of John Morton's representative, Andrew Gebbie in Dar-
|
vel."
The vicinity of Loudoun Hill was the scene of various warlike ex-