In the year 1745 he came
down from the Highlands of Scotland, which had long been a focus of
rebellion. He was attended by certain clans of the Highlands,
desperadoes used to free-bootery from their infancy, and,
consequently, to the use of arms, and possessed of a certain
species of discipline; with these he defeated at Prestonpans a body
of men called soldiers, but who were in reality peasants and
artizans, levied about a month before, without discipline or
confidence in each other, and who were miserably massacred by the
Highland army; he subsequently invaded England, nearly destitute of
regular soldiers, and penetrated as far as Derby, from which place
he retreated on learning that regular forces which had been hastily
recalled from Flanders were coming against him, with the Duke of
Cumberland at their head; he was pursued, and his rearguard
overtaken and defeated by the dragoons of the duke at Clifton, from
which place the rebels retreated in great confusion across the Eden
into Scotland, where they commenced dancing Highland reels and
strathspeys on the bank of the river, for joy at their escape,
whilst a number of wretched girls, paramours of some of them, were
perishing in the waters of the swollen river in an attempt to
follow them; they themselves passed over by eighties and by
hundreds, arm in arm, for mutual safety, without the loss of a man,
but they left the poor paramours to shift for themselves, nor did
any of these canny people after passing the stream dash back to
rescue a single female life,--no, they were too well employed upon
the bank in dancing strathspeys to the tune of "Charlie o'er the
water.
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