[379] Baillie’s Letters, vol. ii., p. 286. See Documents.
[380] Acts of Parliament, vol. vi., p. 331.
[381] Acts of Parliament, vol. vi., p. 332.
[382] Burnet, p. 341, et seq.
[383] Turner’s Memoirs, p. 53.
[384] Turner’s Memoirs, p. 56.
[385] Burnet, p. 355.
[386] Burnet, p. 348, et seq. Rushworth, part iv., vol. ii., p. 1193-1242. Turner, p.63.
[387] The party appellation of “Whigamores,” or, briefly, “Whigs,” had its origin at this period; and the insurrection referred to was called the “Whigamores’ Raid” or incursion, that term being the common one for the predatory expeditions of the Borderers. This nickname being still preserved in the vocabulary of party, although there is truly none now existing that can be in any degree assimilated to the original sect, it seems proper to explain how the distinction originated. Mr Laing, in his history, (vol. i., p. 381, 2d ed. 1804,) informs us that “the expedition was termed the Whigamores’ inroad, from a word employed by these western peasants in driving horses; and the name transferred, in the succeeding reign, to the opponents of the court, in still preserved and cherished by the Whigs as the genuine descendants of the covenanting Scots.” And, in a foot-note, he adds—“According to others, from whig or whey, the customary food of those peasants.”
Sir Walter Scott, in his “Tales of a Grandfather,” (Prose Works, vol. xxiv.,) says:—“This insurrection was called the Whigamores’ Raid, from the word whig-whig—that is, get on, get on, which is used by the western peasants in driving their horses—a name destined to become the distinction of a powerful party in British history.”