“The Covenanters came up with some of the dragoons near Hillhead. The troopers offered to surrender, and asked quarter, which some of the Covenanters were disposed to grant; but, when their leaders came up, they actually killed these men, in spite of every remonstrance. The men so killed were buried like felons, on the marsh between the farms of Hillhead and Hookhead, and their graves remained visible till the year 1750, when they were sunk in a march dyke, drawn in that direction. The late Mr. Dykes of Fieldhead declared to the writer of this narrative, that his grandfather, Thomas Leiper, of Fieldhead, had often told him that he was present when these soldiers were killed, and did what he could to save their lives, but without effect.
* * * * * * *
“When the discomfited dragoons returned through Strathaven, they were insulted and pursued by the inhabitants, down a lane called the Hole-close, till one of the soldiers fired upon the crowd, and killed a man, about 50 yards east from where the relief meeting-house at Strathaven now stands.
“Captain Grahame retreated to Glasgow, and he is said to have met at Cathkin some troops sent out to his aid; but he refused to return to the charge, observing to his brother officer, that he had been at a Whig meeting that day, but that he liked the lecture so ill that he would not return to the afternoon’s service. Another account says, that when Captain Grahame rode off the field, Mr. King, the preacher, then a prisoner, called after him, by way of derision, to stop to the afternoon’s preaching.[28]
“The relations of the two officers that were killed went to Drumclog next day after the skirmish, to bury them; but the country people had cut and mangled the bodies of the slain in such a manner that only one of the officers could be recognised. The coffin intended for the other was left at High Drumclog, where it remained many years in a cart-shed, till it was used in burying a vagrant beggar that died at the Mount, in that neighbourhood. This fact has been well attested to the writer of this account from sources of information on which he can rely.”
CHAPTER VII.
Heart of Mid-Lothian.
THE PORTEOUS MOB.
e shall mention a few inaccuracies in the account given of the Porteous mob in “The Heart of Midlothian,” assigning, at the same time, precise dates to all the incidents.