Volume III Part 4 (1/2)

On the twenty-fourth of November the Prince marched from Carlisle to Penrith, and thence to Lancaster, which he reached on the twenty-fifth, at the head of the vanguard of his arht plaid belt, with a blue sash, a blue bonnet on his head, decorated with a white rose, the sound of the bagpipes, and the druain;” the banners, on which were inscribed the words ”Liberty and Property, Church and King,” failed, nevertheless, to inspire the cold spectators who beheld the enthusiase Murray co the van; and on the twenty-sixth of November, the whole force assembled before that town, the very name of which struck terror into Scottish breasts Nor were the English Jacobites without their fears, nor devoid of associations with the nahted in 1715, and their banners steeped in blood

The walls of Preston recalled to many of the volunteers of Lancashi+re the prison in which their fathers had died of fever, or starvation, or of broken hearts It is remarkable, as one of the newspapers of the day observes, that many of those who joined the Chevalier's ranks were the sons of for,” adds the coarse party writer, ”is hereditary in soe Murray, in order to avoid the ”freit,” or, in other words, to huhlanders, who had a notion that they never should get beyond Preston, crossed the Ribble bridge, and landed a great many of his men on the other side of the water, about afor soence, of which it is presumed, says Lockhart, ”they were disappointed” Here it was necessary to divide even this little army for the convenience of quarters[93] At Preston the Prince was received with enthusiastic cheers, but when officers were ordered to beat up for recruits, no one enlisted The tents which had been provided had been left on the road froh; and the season was so severe, that it was ihlanders to sleep in theeun at Carlisle was still pursued, and the arh with scarcely a day's e Murray coreater part of these was, observes Mr

Maxwell, ”Highlanders by their language, and all were in their dress, for the Highland garb was the uniform of the whole army”

One can easily conceive what allant force, unbroken by fatigue or privation, and glorying in their enterprise, as they entered into the friendly county of Lancaster, filled with Roathered around the standard of the Prince The colours of the Tartan, which orn, as we have seen, by the whole of the arh denolare,”

never offend the eye, but are, according to a high authority, ”beautifully blended and arranged” ”Great art,” observed the celebrated Mr West, ”(that is to say,effect,) has been displayed in the coeneral as specious to the affecting but artless strains of the native arb, which excited the attention and admiration of Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo, consisted of the truis, the kilted plaid, and philibeg The truis, be it observed, for the benefit of the dwellers in the south, were used by gentle to their choice; but the coarb of the people was the plaid and kilt; and this was the usual dress down to the passing of the act for suppressing the garb The tartan is said to have been known in Flanders; and the tartan and kilt to have been adopted in the Lowlands before their adoption a to erous and intricate question of antiquity, it hland dress is well adapted to the habits of a pastoral people, as well as being extreraceful and picturesque It is also adions in which, a the other habits which characterise the peculiar people ear it, it is still regarded as a loved and revered badge of national distinction In the various cahlanders suffered far less than other nations in that damp and chilly climate; in the retreat to Corunna, under the hero Sir John Moore, their plaids bound lightly round their bodies, they experienced the convenience of that siht and free, the mountaineer could pursue, without restraint, the lens, or ascend mountains which offer a hopeless aspect to the inhabitants of more civilized spheres But it was not only as a convenient and durable eous The Highland costuiments, cemented a spirit which was felt and feared by foes It bound those ore it in a coarb which their chiefs and their forefathers had worn, by an act of cowardice, or by deeds of cruelty[95]

Little did the English Government, or the inhabitants of the eneral, know the character of the brave, ill-fated band of Highlanders, ere now advancing into the very heart of the country It was the custoain preferment at Court, or who affected to be fashi+onable, to speak of the Highlanders as low, ignorant savages; see and hardihood ers, nor refined notions of honour The word ”rebel,” was aPrince Charles's standard as it was borne southwards The hardened villains, ”the desperadoes, rabble, thieves, banditti!”[96] are the tern conteious, and priht only necessary for the Duke of cugarly handful of undisciplined ht credit certain passages in the Magazines of the day, was as low as their military acquirements By other nations besides their own sister country, the sahlanders prevailed In Gerood and useful subjects when converted from heathenism” The French, too, presumed to look upon the as auxiliaries to other powers, so often in battle, and beheld theenerally in the front, that they verily believed at last, there were twelve battalions in the arlio, in after times reh, but that he became reconciled to his size after he saw the wonders performed by the little mountaineers”[97]

It is scarcely now necessary to allude to these errors at that ti the valour of the Scottish host Tributes fro elevated this brave and oppressed people into a proud and honourable position Instead, however, of the undisciplined savages ere supposed to be traversing the country, it was sooner found than acknowledged, that the intrepidity of the Highlanders was united to huht principles To their noble qualities was added a deep sense of religion In after-tihlanders was more reiments which were eventually employed in the British service, to their chaplains The ot into any little scrape were far more anxious, writes General Stuart, ”to conceal it fro officer”

But, however the public prints ht revile, and the polite society at St Jahlanders, the General whose lot it was to conquer the unfortunate Jacobites kneell of what materials their forces were composed The Duke of cumberland, at the battle of Fontenoy, had been so much pleased with the conduct of the famous Black Watch, that he had offered therant, to mark his approbation The answer to this proof of approbation orthy of those valiant auxiliaries, who are described by the French as ”Highland furies, who rushed in upon us with hlanders replied, after thanking the Royal Duke for his courtesy, ”that no favour he could bestow on theratify theiment, who lay under a sentence of court martial, by which he was decreed to incur a heavy corporal punish dishonour on theranted It was, nevertheless, the countryhlanders, men as heroic as true, as nice in their sense of honour as the Black Watch, upon whoeance after Culloden, whom he hunted with bloodhounds,--whose honest hearts he broke by every possible indignity, though their gallant spirits could never be subdued

As the araze upon the singular spectacle The very arhlanders were objects of curiosity and surprise, no less than of alar their good-will to the expedition, but hen asked to join the insurgents, declined, saying, ”they did not understand fighting”[98] The forhlanders contrived to make themselves terrible to their eneirded on the left side, and a dirk or short thick dagger on the right, used only when the combat was so close as to render the broadsword useless In ancient times, these fierce warriors brandished a small short-handled hatchet or axe, for the purpose of a close fight A gun, a pair of pistols, and a target, completed their armour, except when aun, the lochaber axe; this was a species of long lance, or pike, with a for or stabbing The lochaber axe had fallen into disuse since the introduction of the musket; but a rude, yet ready substitute had been found for it, by fixing scythes at the end of a pole, hich the Highlanders resisted the attacks of cavalry Such had been their arms in the early part of the Insurrection of 1745, and such they continued until, at the battles of Falkirk and Preston Pans, they had collected muskets from the slain on the battle-field In addition to these weapons, the gentlemen sometimes wore suits of armour and coats of mail; in which, indeed, some of the principal Jacobites have been depicted; but, with these, the common men never incumbered theht, which was ill-adapted to their longe This was frequently a piece of evergreen, worn on the bonnet, and placed, during the insurrection of 1745, beside the white cockade

When Lord Lovat'sto the evidence given on the State Trials, sprigs of yew in their bonnets[100] These badges, although generally considered to have been peculiar to the clans, were, observes a s, coes; and shared by the Highlanders aeneral distinctions of chivalry, were only peculiar to them when disused by others” Thus, the brooenet, Count D'Anjou;--and the raspberry by Francis the First of France, were only discontinued as an ornas; but the Highland Clans, tenacious of their customs, wore the plant not only upon their caps, but placed them on the head of the Clan standard The white cockade was now regarded as the peculiar badge of the party; yet it see the Clan Fraser, to have superseded the evergreen Some few traces are left, in the present day, to certify, nevertheless, that they orn during the contest of 1745 ”Lord Hardwicke's Act, and continual eration,” remarks John Sobieski Stuart, ”have extirpated the memory of these distinctions once as familiar as the names of those who bore them; and all of whom I have been able to collect any evidence are, the Macdonalds, the Macphersons, the Grants, the Frasers, the Stuarts, and the Campbells” ”The memory of most,”the people; but, within a recent period, various lists have been composed--some by zealous enthusiasts, who preferred substitution to loss, and sohlanders, who once a-year illuminate the splendour of a ball-room with the untarnished broadswords and silken hose, never dimmed in the mist of a hill, or sullied in the dew of the heather”[102]

The Macdonalds, until a very short period before the rebellion of 1715, were known by the heather bow ”Let everyround on a field of bloo heather, ”put over his head that which is under his feet” The destined sufferers of Glenco werea fair busk of heather, well spread and displayed over the head of a staff” The Clan Macgregor wore the fir; and the Clan Grant assue of the Frasers is said to have been supplied for ages by a yew of vast size, in Glen-dubh, at the head of Strath Fearg The badge assigned to the Macphersons was the water lily, which abounds in the Lochs of Ha place of the Clan Chattan

So the year 1745, as we see in the case of the Frasers, but all to have eeneral distinction of the Jacobites, the white rose, first worn by David the Second, at the tournaent_” This badge had been alotten in Scotland, until the year 1715, when it orn by the adherents of James Stuart, on his birthday, the tenth of June ”By the Irish Catholics,” observes the Editor of the ”Vestiarium Scoticum,” ”it is still worn on the same day; but in Scotland its memory is only retained in the ballads of '15, and '45”

The Muses, who, as Burns has ree in these terms:--

”O' a' the days are in the year, The tenth o' June I lo' maist dear, When our _white roses_ a' appear, For the sake o' Ja through Preston, to the sounds of the bagpipes, which played ”The King shall have his own again,” took the road through Wigan, towards Manchester The Prince was infore at Warrington; and that circuan, souine te thisman went on foot, except occasionally, e find notice of his riding a fine horse in the public prints of the day He usually, however, gave up his carriage to the venerable Lord Pitsligo, and marched at the head of one of the columns He never took dinner, but ate a hearty supper; and then, throwing hi, when he arose, to prosecute the fatigues of another day, fatigues which youth, a sound constitution, and, above all, a great degree of an, which the Chevalier's forces now approached, had been, in the tiious differences; and the Queen's Co the ordinances of the Refororous resistance During the civil wars, this town, both from its vicinity to Latham House, and frouished part, and obtained the characteristic designation of the ”faithful and loyal town of Wigan” After the insurrection of 1715, the oaths of supre faed upon the inhabitants of Lancashi+re, and a large mass of landed estates were, in consequence, put in jeopardy; although it does not appear that the owners were dispossessed of their estates, or that any other use was ister taken of all the landed properties in the county, except to assist the istrates in the suppression of the insurrection in the north Nevertheless, the expectation which Charlesin Lancashi+re was not realized

”Nothing,” observes Mr Maxwell, ”looked like a general concurrence until he came to Manchester”[104] This was remarkable, for Manchester had been the head-quarters ofthe civil wars; whilst Preston and Wigan had both been royalist boroughs But a singular alteration had taken place in the people of Manchester, who had changed fro the whole of the preceding reat accuracy; but no extortion, nor any atteraced their cause, nor reflected on Lord George Murray as their General[106]

At Manchester, the first organized force raised in England for the Chevalier joined Charles Edward It was a regientleman who had been in the French service; and was called the Manchester Regi men of the most reputable families in the town, of several substantial farmers and tradesmen, and of about one hundred coreat encourageht very badly of the enterprise, and the advice afterwards given by Lord George Murray at Derby, to retreat, was also whispered at Manchester, Lord George being resolved to retreat, should there be no insurrection in England, nor landing froe,” relates Maxwell, ”that he thought they had entered far enough into England, since neither of these events had happened” To this Lord George replied that they ht make a farther trial, and proceed to Derby; where, if there should be no greater encourageo on, he should propose a retreat to the Prince[107]

The reception of Prince Charles at Manchester, was celebrated with demonstrations of enthusiastic joy As he marched on foot into the town, at the head of the clans, halting to proclai, and preparations wereThe Prince was attended by twelve Scottish and English noble the white cockade on the top of his cap, in the centre, instead of on the side, as did his general officers Peculiarly forrace such occasions as a triumphal entry into an iood will of the ferace of the kingdom were soon, to use a phrase of a contemporary writer, enlisted in his behalf

To the personal attributes of the Prince, ”joining the good nature of the Stuarts with the spirit of the Sobieski,” Charles Edward added one accoland did not possess: he spoke English well, although with a foreign accent: in this last respect, he resembled some of those around hi abroad, in vain endeavoured to conceal the French idio a broad Scottish dialect[108]

Still, in spite of these advantages, and notwithstanding the known predilection of the Lancastrians for the cause of the Stuarts, the lowest populace alone joined the standard of Charles One h admirable exception has been already referred to in the person of Colonel Francis Townley This gentleman was a member of an ancient family, and the nephew of Mr Townley, whose seat in Townley Hall, Lancashi+re, lays claih antiquity; and yet, is modern in comparison with a former residence, once seated on what is still called the Castle Hill Francis Townley was a uished his relative, the celebrated Charles Townley, who forht to London, the well-known collection of ht by the Trustees of the British Museum for twenty thousand pounds; (supposed to be a suraces that national structure

The family of Townley had been re before Colonel Francis Townley raised a troop for the Chevalier The grandfather of this unfortunate man, had been tried for rebellion, in 1715, but acquitted; it was therefore very unlikely that when his accomplished descendant espoused the same ill-starred cause, there would be any mercy shown to a family so deeply implicated in Jacobitism Francis Townley was afterwards taken prisoner, and tried with other persons, chiefly captains in the Manchester regiton Common The head of Colonel Townley was severed fro to sentence, after death, and was placed upon Temple Bar; but those of most of his brothers in arms were preserved in spirits, and sent into the country, to be placed in public situations in Manchester and Carlisle[109]

Prince Charles now prepared to proceed on his e Murray was sent with his division to Congleton The accompaniments of the Jacobite army, if we can venture to believe a letter inserted in the Gentle to be written by a lady in Preston to her friend in London, forular spectacle Four ladies of some distinction are stated in this letter to have ilvie, Mrs

Murray of Broughton, a lady of great beauty and spirit, the celebrated Jenny Cameron, and another female, unknown, but who is supposed to have been the mistress of Sir Thomas Sheridan The populace, nevertheless, ned to him the nick-name of the ”Archbishop of Canterbury” The first two ladies went in a chariot by the Chevalier, to whose dejection and weariness as he passed through Preston, Jenny Cameron is said to have administered cordials By the sa like ”hunted hares” Such is a specimen of one of the ephemeral slanders of the day; and the circumstance of the coach and six tends to disprove the whole letter

The Prince, it is evident from every isolated account, marched on foot until he entered Derby[110] It was, however, perfectly true that Mrs