323 *la.] ADV.4NCE OF THE * HIGHLANDERS, -__
appointed thereto in 1716), mustered the outpensioners
of Chelsea, and officered them, locally,
from the half-pay list.
Doubtful of the faith of Preston, as a Scotsman,
the Government superseded him in command, and
sent in his place Lieutenant-General Joshua Guest,
an Englishman, who proved a staunch Jacobite,
and on the approach of the Highlanders he was
the first to propose a capitulation, a measure
vigorously opposed by Preston, a resolute Whig 01
the old King William school, who thereupon undertook
the defence, with a gamson which consisted
only of the old Castle company, the two companies
of the 47th, each mustering about seventy bayonets,
under Major Robertson, the Chelsea Pensioners,
and Lieutenant Brydone?s artillery company, which
had landed at Leith on the 4th of September, and
marched in with a great quantity of the munitions
of war.
The other troops in Scotland at this time consisted
only of the 13th and 14th Light Dragoons
at Edinburgh, the company of the Royals captured
at Spean Bridge, the 6th Foot at Aberdeen, two
companies of the 21st Scots Fusiliers at Glasgow,
the 25th Edinburgh regiment in Fifeshire, two
companies of the 4znd at Crieff, five of the 44th
in the West, and another five at Berwick, the 46th
(known as ?? Murray?s Bucks ?) scattered over the
Highlands, Loudon?s Highlanders (disbanded in
1749) stationed in the north ; in all not quite 4,ooc
men ; but, collecting these, Sir John Cope prepared
to bar the Prince?s way into the Lowlands.
Quitting Perth at the head of little more than
2,000 men,* only the half of whom had arms, the
latter, on the 11th September, resumed his adventurous
march southward, and crossing the Forth
by the perilous fords of Frew, to avoid the guns
of Stirling, he held on his way by the Scottish
Marathon, by the Torwood and Linlithgow, traversing
scenes that he, the heir of the ancient regal
line, could not have beheld without emotion, engaged,
as he was, on an enterprise more daring
and more desperate than had ever been undertaken
by any of his ancestors since Bruce fought
the battle of Dalry.
On the 1,gth he was at Corstorphine, less than
A true account of thestrengthof the Highland army, aph August, 1745.
Lochiel ........................... 700
Clanmnald, having men of his Islands ...... 050
The Stewarts of Appin under Ardsheil ...... a50
Keppoch ........................... 260
and the Grants of Glenmorriston ...... 600
, Glengawy?s men, induding Knoydart, Glencoe.
2 . h
(? Culloden Papers. ?3
?The Highlanders were not more than 1,800, and the half of them only
Were armed.? (?Autobiography of Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk?)
lour miles distant from the capital, and to avoid
exposing his troops to the Castle guns in advancing,
he wheeled southward towards Slateford, and fixed
his quarters at Gray?s Mill, two miles from the
city.
Great was now the excitement within the walls.
The militia, called the trained bands, consisted of
sixteen companies, or 1,000 men, entirely undisciplined,
and many of them entirely disloyal to the
Hanoverian cause. In their own armoury the
citizens had 1,259 muskets and zoo bayonets, 300
sets of accoutrements, a considerable quantity of
ammunition, with seventy-five stand of arms and
Lochaber axes belonging to the City Guard. On
Sunday, 16th September, Hislop, keeper of this
arsenal, issued 500 rounds of ball ammunition and
sixty firelocks to each company of the trained
bands, thirty-nine firelocks to the additional
company of the City Guard, and twenty-four to the
company of the Canongate-head, 500 rounds of
ball to the Seceders, whose muster-place was the
Infirmary, and 450 Ibs. of powder for the cannon on
the walls. All the rest he sent to the Castle. The
banner borne by the Seceders is now in the Museum
3f Antiquities, and was once used at Bothwell
Brig. It is blue, with a white St. Andrew?s saltire,
charged with five roses, and the motto, Cmenanfs,
Ueligion, Kin& and Kingdoms.
Towards the end of the preceding month the
nore zealous citizens had proposed to raise a
regiment 1,000 strong for the defence of the town ;
but the royal permission therefor was not accorded
till the 9th of September, and by the time that
the Prince drew near only zoo men had been
enrolled, all of the most dissolute character, and
tempted by the proffered pay alone. In addition
to these was the regiment of Edinburgh Volunteers,
400 strong, divided into six companies, and drilled
regularly twice daily. Cannon from the ships at
Leith were mounted on the walls together with
swivels or pateraroes (i.e., small cannon). The ports
were barricaded ; there was much military bluster,
with much Singing of psalms ; but as the Highlanders
drew nearer all this show of valour died away.
When the Prince?s vanguard was at Kirkliston, it
was proposed by General Guest that the two Light
Dragoon regiments, supported by the City Guard,
the so-called Edinburgh Regiment, and 250 volunteers,
should march out and give battle to the
insurgents !
The signal was given ; on the forenoon of Sunday
the 15th of September the clang of the alarm
bells came during sermon, and the people rushed
rorth from the churches to find the detailed force
&-awn up under arms ia the High Street; but the
