“Many a banner spread, flutters above your head,
Many a crest that is famous in story;
Mount and make ready, then, sons of the mountain glen,
Fight for your king and the old Scottish glory.
March, march, forward in order,
A’ the blue bonnets are over the border.”
ORIGIN—KILLIECRANKIE—IRELAND—NETHERLANDS—SHERIFFMUIR—NETHERLANDS—CULLODEN—1688–1755.
It is recorded of Sir Walter Scott that he claimed descent from one of
the most distinguished families of “the land-louping gentry” of the
Scottish border. The title, “King’s Own Borderers,” borne by the
Twenty-fifth, would induce the belief that the regiment had sprung from
the same source; and however much we may excuse the military license of
the times, or the marauding propensities of our border countrymen, and
extol their martial achievements, so prolific with romantic incident and
chivalric feats of daring, we cannot but question the respectability of
such a parentage.
“She’s o’er the border, and awa’ wi’ Jock o’ Hazeldean.”
Happily the Twenty-fifth owns a much more recent connection with the
Scottish border, when the feuds which had disgraced earlier years, by
the wrongs and cruelties they occasioned, were healed, and the failings
of the past are forgotten amid the excellencies and the glories of the
present. The regiment was raised in the City of Edinburgh by the Earl of
Leven, in 1688, from among the noblemen and gentlemen who had come over
from the Continent as the adherents of William, Prince of Orange. The
advent of the House of Orange, apart from the religious and political
liberty it conferred and assumed to guarantee, had been further hailed
by an emancipated people as restoring to the bosom of their dear native
land, and to the home of their fathers, those “lost and brave,” who, for
conscience’ sake, had endured a long and painful exile. Consistent with
that fidelity which has ever been a conspicuous jewel in Scottish
character, once that the Reformed faith found an entrance and an
abiding-place in the heart of the Scotsman, nor priest, nor king, nor
pope could drive it out, quench the light of truth, or shake the
steadfastness of the Covenanter. Hence the number of Scottish exiles was
very many, and, in consequence, the return of the refugees was an event
of no common interest in the Scottish metropolis, diffusing a very
general joy throughout the land. Their first duty fulfilled of thanks
and gratitude to God for their deliverance, their next duty to their
country impelled them to tender the service of their swords to the king.
Accordingly, their offer being accepted, the embodiment of the
Twenty-fifth King’s Own Borderers was the result, which in four hours
attained a strength of near a thousand men. Whilst the Scottish estates
hesitated to acknowledge the sovereignty of William and Mary, and the
Duke of Gordon held possession of the Castle of Edinburgh for King
James, the Twenty-fifth was quartered in the Parliament House. But it
was not until Viscount Dundee, descending into the Lowlands at the head
of the disaffected clans, seriously disturbing the peace of the land,
that the regiment was called into action. Advancing with the royal army
to Killiecrankie, the Borderers bore a conspicuous and honourable part
in the contest which ensued. Major-General Mackay, in his despatch to
the Duke of Hamilton, stated, “There was no regiment or troop with me
but behaved like the vilest cowards in nature, except Hastings’ and Lord
Leven’s, whom I must praise at such a degree, as I cannot but blame
others.” The regiments thus commended were the present Thirteenth and
Twenty-fifth Foot. Although borne back by the impetuosity of the
Highlanders, and although the day was lost to the king, still the
result—especially the death of Dundee—proved the ruin of the
Jacobites—the beginning of the end, each successive struggle which
convulsed the nation more effectually serving to destroy the hopes of
the House of Stuart.
[Illustration: PASS OF KILLIECRANKIE]
In 1691 the regiment embarked for Ireland, and was present, with much
credit, at the sieges of Ballymore, Athlone, Galway, and Limerick, and
at the battle of Aughrim. These several successes having accomplished
the deliverance of that island from the yoke of James, the regiment with
other troops was sent to England, whence it embarked with the British
army for the Netherlands, to check the progress of the French. Under the
command of King William, the allies made a determined stand at Steenkirk
and again at Landen, but on both occasions failed to make any decided
impression upon the masses of the enemy commanded by Marshal de
Luxembourg, who continued to advance in spite of the most gallant
opposition. At the siege of Namur, by the explosion of a mine, the
regiment lost twenty officers and 500 men. The gallant conduct of the
allies at this celebrated siege is thus eulogised:
The British were esteemed most bold; The Bavarians most
firm; and The Brandenburghers most successful;
whilst the French, out of a garrison originally 15,000 strong, had lost
in the defence about two-thirds of their number. The engineering skill
of these great masters of the art—Coehorn and Vauban, exerted to the
utmost on their respective sides—has preserved no more magnificent
testimony to their several abilities than is found recorded in the
assault and defence. The resolution and ability of Marshal Boufflers,
the French Governor, in so gloriously maintaining the defence, is not to
be overlooked, but merited a better success. Sterne’s facetious story of
“Tristram Shandy”—how questionable so-ever its discretion in our times,
yet replete with much that is beautiful, quaint, and true—has borrowed
from the ranks of our Borderers its most noted and popular characters,
“Uncle Toby,” who was wounded in the groin at this siege of Namur, and
his faithful body-servant, “Corporal Trim,” who, two years previously,
had been wounded at the battle of Landen; both, by the pen of the
author, being life pictures of the veterans of Chelsea. It was during
this war that the bayonet, which had been invented by the French,
instead of being fixed _inside_ the muzzle of the musket, was first used
by the French fixed round the _outside_ of the muzzle, thus enabling the
soldier to charge and deliver fire promptly. Grose, in his “Military
Antiquities,” thus records the introduction of this improvement:—
“In an engagement, during one of the campaigns of King William III. in
Flanders, there were three French regiments whose bayonets were made to
fix after the present fashion (1690), a contrivance then unknown in the
British army; one of them advanced with fixed bayonets against Leven’s
(now the Twenty-fifth) regiment, when Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell, who
commanded it, ordered his men to ‘screw bayonets’ into their muzzles,
thinking the enemy meant to decide the affair point to point; but to his
great surprise, when they came within a proper distance, the French
threw in a heavy fire, which for a moment staggered his men, who
nevertheless recovered themselves, charged, and drove the enemy out of
the line.”
On the peace of Ryswick being concluded in 1697, our Borderers,
returning home, were quartered in the disturbed districts of the North
of Scotland. Nothing of importance falls to be narrated of the regiment
until the Rebellion of the Earl of Mar, in 1715, called it to take the
field. It was present at the unfortunate battle of Sheriffmuir. The
desertion of the Hon. Captain Arthur Elphinstone to the rebel army,
however it might have been regretted as casting a shadow over the
loyalty of the Twenty-fifth, that doubt has been dispelled, and the lie
contradicted, by the exemplary fidelity of the regiment on all
occasions. Captain Elphinstone, as Lord Balmarino, in 1746, paid the
penalty of his error by his execution on Tower Hill.
During the Spanish War of 1719, the regiment was engaged in a successful
expedition against various towns on the north-western sea-board of the
Peninsula. For several years thereafter it was variously stationed in
Ireland, and, in 1727, removed to Gibraltar, where, with other corps, it
successfully defended that important fortress against every attempt of
the Spaniards to reduce and regain it. The war of the Austrian
Succession, which began in 1742, occasioning the assembling of a British
and allied army in the Netherlands, our Borderers were sent thither to
reinforce the troops which had already won the bloody victory of
Dettingen. The regiment shared the glories and sustained the dangers of
Fontenoy, which elicited from Marshal Saxe, the conquering general, the
following graphic and generous testimony to the worth of the foe he had
overthrown:—
“I question much whether there are many of our generals who dare
undertake to pass a plain with a body of infantry before a numerous
cavalry, and flatter himself that he could hold his ground for several
hours, with fifteen or twenty battalions in the middle of an army, as
did the English at Fontenoy, without any change being made to shake
them, or make them throw away their fire. This is what we have all seen,
but self-love makes us unwilling to speak of it, because we are well
aware of its being beyond our imitation.”
Taking advantage of the disasters which had crowded upon the allied arms
in the Netherlands, Prince Charles Edward had stirred up a formidable
Rebellion in Scotland, chiefly among the Highland clans, in favour of
his pretensions, as the representative of the House of Stuart, to the
British throne. This untoward event occasioned the recall of many
regiments from the Continent, and required those left behind to confine
themselves to the defence of strongly-fortified lines. The Twenty-fifth
was one of those that returned. With the Twenty-first Royal North
British Fusiliers, it formed the rear guard of the Royal army, advancing
in pursuit of the rebels into Scotland. Too late to take any part in the
battle of Falkirk, the regiment was stationed in Edinburgh, until the
Duke of Cumberland arriving, gave the signal for an immediate advance
upon the enemy, then prosecuting the siege of Stirling. Interrupted in
their enterprise by the near approach of the Royal army, the rebels
retreated precipitately, until, hemmed in, they made a last and fatal
stand on Culloden Moor, where they were utterly routed with great
slaughter. The most distinguished service performed by a detachment of
300 men of the Twenty-fifth is thus graphically described in the
biography of General Melville:—
“The second detachment, consisting of 300 men, commanded by Sir Andrew
Agnew, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal North British Fusiliers, was sent
by the route of Dunkeld, through the Pass of Killiecrankie, to take post
in Blair Castle, the seat of James, Duke of Athole—a very faithful
subject of his Majesty. The garrison was frittered away in small
detachments, for the purpose of intercepting traitorous correspondence.
Early on the morning of the 17th March, the rebels, in a considerable
body, surprised and made prisoners of several of the outposts, and by
break of day closely invested the castle on all sides, firing upon the
out-picquet, which retired with some difficulty, bringing with it some
horses belonging to the officers, and a small quantity of provisions.
Blair Castle was a very high, irregular building, the walls of great
thickness—having what was called _Cumming’s Tower_ projecting from the
west end of the front of the house, which faces the north. Adjoining the
east gable of the old castle, a square new building had been begun, but
only carried up a few feet above the beams fixed for the first floor.
The great door in the staircase having been barricaded, and a small
guard placed at it, the garrison was mustered and found to consist of
about 270 rank and file, having only nineteen rounds of ammunition per
man. The men were immediately posted throughout the castle in the manner
best adapted for its defence, with instructions not to fire unless
actually attacked. For the protection of the new, unfinished building
before mentioned, to which the only communication from the castle was by
ten or twelve steps of a ladder, from a door in the east end; a platform
of loose boards was hastily laid on the joists, and Ensign Robert
Melville (afterwards General Melville) of the Twenty-fifth regiment,
with 25 men, was posted on it, who was not relieved during the whole of
the blockade, which ended 1st April. On the 17th March, a little after
noon, Lord George Murray, a general to the Pretender, wrote a summons of
surrender to Sir Andrew Agnew, which he could not find a Highlander to
deliver, on account of the well-known outrageousness of Sir Andrew’s
temper, but a pretty girl, who was acquainted with the garrison,
undertook the task, but could hardly find an officer to receive it, for
the reason before mentioned; however, after much entreaty, one was bold
enough to convey the summons, when Sir Andrew, in so loud a voice, that
he was heard distinctly by the girl outside the castle, desired him to
be gone, and tell Lord George that the ground would, before long, be too
hot for him to stand upon, and any future messenger would be hanged or
shot if sent upon such an errand. Lord George took the hint, sent no
other messenger, but endeavoured to reduce the castle by famine, knowing
it was short of provisions. The rebels had two field-pieces, from which
they fired hot shot upon the castle, with so little effect that, though
some stuck in the roof, they fell out before the house took fire, and
were lifted off the floors by an iron ladle, which was found in the
Duke’s kitchen, and deposited in the cellars in tubs of wine, as water
could not be spared. The King’s troops, in dread of being starved,
endeavoured to apprise the Earl of Craufurd at Dunkeld of the state in
which they were placed, but they were so closely hemmed in, that, with
great difficulty, the Duke’s gardener, a loyal man, stole out during the
ninth night of the blockade and rode off through the enemy, fired at
from several places by the Highlanders, from whom he escaped, having
fallen from his horse, and gone on foot to Dunkeld and apprised the
Earl, which was not known for some time; in the meantime, the garrison
had great faith in the good luck of Sir Andrew, concerning whom many
strange stories were told—such as, that he never was wounded nor sick,
nor in any battle wherein the English were not victorious; therefore,
they were the less surprised when, at break of day on the 1st of April,
not a single Highlander could be seen—Lord George having taken the alarm
and decamped, to avoid encountering the Earl of Craufurd from Dunkeld.
On the morning of the 2d, an officer arrived and announced that the Earl
was within an hour’s march of the castle with a force of cavalry, when
Sir Andrew drew up his men to receive his Lordship, and after the usual
compliments, thus addressed him—‘My Lord, I am glad to see you; but, by
all that is good, you have been very dilatory, and we can give you
nothing to eat.’ To which his Lordship jocosely replied, with his usual
good humour, ‘I assure you, Sir Andrew, I made all the haste I could,
and I hope you and your officers will dine with me to-day;’ which they
accordingly did, in the summer-house of the Duke’s garden, where they
had a plentiful meal and good wines. The Earl made so favourable a
report of the conduct of Sir Andrew and the garrison of Blair Castle,
that the Duke of Cumberland thanked them, in public orders, for their
_steady and gallant_ _defence_, and the gallant commandant was promoted
to the command of a regiment of marines (late Jeffries’). A Highland
pony, belonging to Captain Wentworth of the Fourth foot, which had been
seventeen days (without food) in a dungeon of the castle, being still
alive, was recovered by care and proper treatment, and became in
excellent condition.”
Having thus effectually suppressed the Rebellion, the Twenty-fifth, and
most of the other regiments, returned to the Netherlands. Defeated at
the battle of Roucoux, the allies were on the point of falling into
confusion, when Houghton’s British brigade, composed of the Eighth,
Thirteenth, and Twenty-fifth, arriving from Maestricht, immediately
formed as the rear guard, their steady valour effectually withstanding
every attempt of the enemy to break in upon our line of retreat. In the
sanguinary battle of Val, our Borderers bore a more prominent part with
equal credit. This disastrous war terminated in 1747, with the
unsuccessful defence of Bergen-op-Zoom, which was ultimately taken by
the French. The regiment encountered a variety of misadventures on its
passage home. One transport, containing six and a-half companies, being
shipwrecked on the French coast, yet all escaping to land, were kindly
treated by their recent foes. The regiment, at length reaching England,
was removed to and variously quartered throughout Ireland.
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