[45] Incompetent.
[46] Loose straw rubbish.
[47] Chafing.
[48] Buttocks.
[49] Suchlike.
THE RISING OF 1715.
A. Gathering of the Clans (September).
Source.—The History of the Rebellion rais'd against His Majesty King George I. by the Friends of the Popish Pretender, p. 187, by the Reverend Mr. Peter Rae. Second edition. (London: 1746.)
The Earl of Mar, then at London, not finding how to form his own interest at court, had resolved on those wicked and traitorous measures he afterwards followed; and in order to raise and carry on the rebellion, had, by some means or other, received from abroad, no less than the sum of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, together with letters and instructions under the Pretender's own hand, and a commission appointing him Lieutenant-General and Commander in Chief of his forces, as he called them, in Scotland: And fearing lest his traitorous designs against his lawful sovereign prince,[50] to whom he had so early and solemnly promised fidelity, might possibly be discovered, and he himself secured by the government, he resolved to make a sudden tour into Scotland, as the likeliest mean to prevent this fate, and in order to make some speedy advances in this his pernicious and bloody undertaking. Wherefore on the 2nd of August, or as some say, the 1st, in the evening, his lordship, in the dress of a private person, embark'd with Major-General Hamilton, Colonel Hay, and two servants on board of a collier in the Thames, and arriving in two or three days at Newcastle, hired there a vessel belonging to one Spence, which set him and his company on shore in the Ely, from whence he got over to Creil[51] in the shire of Fife. Soon after his landing he was attended by Sir Alexander Areskine, Lord Lyon, and others of his friends in Fife, to whom he made known the design of his coming, and then went forward to Kinoul, where he staid on Wednesday the 17th, and on the 18th he passed the river Tay, about two miles from Perth, with 40 horse on his way to the north. Next day he sent letters to all the Jacobites round the country, inviting them to meet him in haste at Brae-Mar, where he arrived on Saturday the 20th of August.