good that was within him to a disposition naturally humane, placable,
and just, as well as to the communion with a mother, the fidelity of
whose attachment to her exiled consort bespoke a finer quality of mind
than that which Nature had bestowed on the object of her devotion. By
this mother James must doubtless have been embued with a desire for
recovering those dominions and that power for which Mary of Modena, like
Henrietta Maria, sighed in vain, as the inheritance of her son; but the
stimulus was applied to a disposition with which a private life was far
more consonant than the cares of sovereignty. Rising as he does to
respectability, when we contrast the good nature and mild good sense of
the Chevalier with the bigotry of James the Second,--or view his career,
blameless with some exceptions, in contrast with the licentiousness of
Charles the Second, there were still no high hopes to be entertained of
the young Prince; his character had little energy, and consequently
little interest: he was affable, just, free from bigotry although firm
in his faith, and capable of great application to business; but he
wanted ardour. From his negative qualities, the pitying world were
disposed to judge him favourably. "He began the world," says Lockhart,
"with the general esteem of mankind; but he sank year by year in public
estimation: his Court subsequently displayed the worst features of the
Stuart propensities, an intense love of prerogative; and his mind, never
strong, became weaker and weaker under the dominion of favourites."
The ship in which James had sailed returned to France immediately to
give the news of his safe arrival, and at the same time Lieutenant
Cameron, the son of Cameron of Lochiel, was dispatched to Perth to
apprise the Earl of Mar of the event. Upon the spur of the moment the
Earl, accompanied by the Earl Marischal and General Hamilton, and
attended by twenty or thirty persons of quality, on horseback, set out
with a guard of horse to attend him whom they considered as their
rightful Sovereign. The cavalcade met the Chevalier at Fetteresso, the
principal seat of the Earl Marischal. "Here," says Reay, "the Chevalier
dressed, and discovered himself," and they all kissed his hand, and
owned him as their King, causing him to be proclaimed at the gates of
the house. At Fetteresso the Prince was detained during some days by
that inconvenient malady the ague. Meantime, the declaration which he
had prepared, and which was dated from Commercy, was disseminated, and
was dropped in some loyal towns by his adherents in the night-time,
there being danger in promulgating it openly.[130]
On the second of January, 1715-16, the Chevalier proceeded to Brechin,
and thence to Kinnaird; and on Thursday to Glammis Castle, the seat of
the Earl of Strathmore. On the sixth of January he made his public entry
into Dundee on horseback, at an early hour. Three hundred followers
attended him, and the Earl of Mar rode on his right hand, the Earl
Marischal on his left. At the suggestion of his friends, the Prince
shewed himself in the market-place of Dundee for nearly an hour and a
half, the people kissing his hands. The following extract from a letter
among the Mar Papers affords a more minute and graphic account of the
Chevalier's demeanour than is to be found in the usual histories of the
day.
"I hear the Pretender went this day from Glams to Dundee, and comes
to Scoon to-morrow; and I am shourly informed that your old friend
Willie Callender went to Glams on Wensday and kissed the Pretender's
hand, of whom he makes great speeches, and says he is one of the
finest gentlemen ever he saw in his life. Its weell that his landing
is keept up from the army, for he has gained so much the good will
of all ranks of people in this country that have seen him, that if
it was made publick it's thought it might have ill effects among
them. He is very affable and oblidging to all, and great crowds of
the common people flok to him. When he toke horse this morning from
Glams, there was about a thousand country people at the gate, who
they say, gave him many blessings: he has tuched several of the
ivil, as he did some this morning. He is of a very pleasant temper,
and has intirely gained the hearts of all thro' the places he has
passed. He aplyes himself very closs to business, and they say might
very weell be a Secretarie of State. He has declared Lord Marischall
one of his bedchamber. The toun of Aberdeen made him ane address, as
did all the other touns as he passed; and I hear he is, at the
request of the episcopal clergy in this country, to apoint a day of
thanksgiving for his safe arival, and likeways a proclamation, to
which will be referred his declaration, with something new, which
shall be sent to you with first ocasion. There came a battalion of
Bredalbins men to Perth on Tuesday, and ane other of Sir Donald
M^{c}Donalds this day; and they are now daily getting in more men.
"This is all the intelligence I can give you, and I hope to hear
from you again soon, and lett me know what certain number are now
come over, and what more designed. Deliver the enclosed and tell him
these papers could not be gott him just now, but shall per next. I
ame affraid poor W. Maxewell wild be dead before you get this, of a
fever and a flux: he is given over this two days. Write soon."
After the display at Dundee, the Chevalier rode to the house of Stewart
of Grandutly, in the neighbourhood, where he dined and passed the day.
On the following day he proceeded along the Carse of Gowrie to Castle
Lyon, a seat of the Earl of Strathmore, where he dined, and went thence
to Fingask, the seat of Sir David Threipland. On the eighth of January
he took up his abode in the royal palace of Scoon, where he intended to
remain until after his coronation.
For this event preparations were actually made by the Earl of Mar, whose
sanguine spirit appears to have been somewhat revived by the presence of
the Chevalier. The addition of a new dignity to his own ancestral
honours had marked the favour and confidence of James. Before the
arrival of the Chevalier in Scotland, the Earl of Mar had been informed
that a patent of dukedom was made out for him; on which he thus
expressed himself in a letter, written before the Chevalier's landing,
full of gratitude and professions.[131]
"Your Majesty has done me more honour than I deserve. The new dignity
you have been pleased to confer on me is what I was not looking for; and
coming from your Majesty's hands is what gives it the value. The patent
is not yet come, but tho' it had, I think I ought not to make use of it
till your Majesty's arrival."
The Earl of Mar had now had an opportunity of throwing himself at the
feet of the King, which, as he expressed, "is the thing in the world he
had longed most for." But still, the difficulties in his path seemed to
be rendered more insurmountable than ever by the arrival of James.
In the first place, the landing of the Chevalier evidently sealed the
doom of those gallant and unfortunate noblemen who had been taken
prisoners at Preston; and rendered all hopes of mercy futile. The
sixteenth of January, which witnessed the forming of the Chevalier's
council at Perth, was the day on which the unfortunate Derwentwater,
Nithisdale, Kenmure, Wintoun, and Widdrington, petitioned for two days'
delay to prepare for their trials. Their doom was hurried on in the
general panic; and in the addresses from both Houses of Parliament to
King George, it was declared by the members of those assemblies "that
the landing of the Pretender in this kingdom had greatly encreased
their indignation against him and his adherents."
It is impossible that the Earl of Mar could have heard, without deep
commiseration, and perhaps remorse, of the peril in which those
ill-fated adherents of James were placed, although he may not have
anticipated the full severity of the law. In one of his subsequent
letters he remarks: "By the news I see the Parliament is to have no
mercie on our Preston folks: but I hope God will send them salvation in
time." One of his greatest sources of anxiety had been respecting the
movements of the Duke of Ormond, upon whose making a diversion in favour
of James, in England, Mar had counted. The news that Ormond, after
having been seen on the coast of England, had returned, disheartened,
was brought by the Chevalier, who heard of it at St. Maloes. The only
chance of success, the last hope, were centered in this resource. The
failure of this expectation was fatal, as Lord Mar conceived, to the
cause, and on it he grounded his own subsequent withdrawal from England.
The entrance of the Chevalier into Perth, on the ninth of January, was
attended with far less enthusiasm than the previous portion of his
progress. His reception was comparatively cold. On asking to see their
"little kings" (the chieftains) with their armies, the Highlanders,
diminished in numbers by the secession of the Marquis of Huntley and the
absence of Lord Seaforth and others, were marched before him. James
could not help admiring their bearing; but the small amount of troops in
the camp filled him with a dejection which he could not conceal. When, a
few days afterwards, the unfortunate Prince addressed his council for
the first time, he said, with mournful truth, these words. "For me it
will be no new thing if I am unfortunate: my whole life, even from my
cradle, has been a constant series of misfortunes." This sentiment of
ill-presage was re-echoed in the address of the Episcopal clergymen.
"Your Majesty has been trained up," said these divines, at Fetteresso,
"in the School of the Cross, in which the Divine grace inspires the mind
with true wisdom and virtue, and guards it against those false
blandishments by which prosperity corrupts the heart." And as this
school has sent forth the most illustrious princes,--Moses, Joseph, and
David, it was hoped that a similar benefit would accrue to the character
of the Prince whom the Episcopal Clergy thus welcomed to their country.
Meantime the project of crowning the Chevalier at Scone amused the minds
of the people, and continued to be the subject of diligent preparation
by the Earl of Mar. Unhappily a ship laden with money and other aids,
had been lost on its passage from France, close to the Tay, for want of
a pilot.[132] The difficulties which were augmented by this misfortune,
are alluded to in the following extract from one of Lord Mar's letters.
"January 15th, 1715-16.
"Sir,
"I wrote to you yesterday by one that used to come here from Mr.
Hall, which I hope will come safe to your hands. At night I had
yours of the fourteenth, and this night that of the tenth. The caps
do pritty well, and I have orders to thank you for them. I send you
one of his own; if you can get such paper t'is well, and if not, the
other is what he likes best of any that you sent; so let some of
either one or other come when you have an occasion.
"I am sorry Mr. Brewer[133] is ill, for his presence here wou'd be
of great use; and as soon as he is able I wish he wou'd come, which
I am ordered to tel you, and also that you may endeavour to get a
copie of the coronation of King Charles the First and Second, which
certainly are to be had in Edinburgh. Willie Wilson had them, and
perhaps some of his friends may have got copies of them from him,
which may be had.
"I spoke to one some time ago about makeing a crown in pices at
Edinburgh and bringing it over here to be put togither, who, I
believe, talkt to you of it. That man was here some days ago, but
went away before I knew it is wisht that such a thing could yet be
done, which is left to your care.
"In case there be occasion for it here, as I wish there may, bulion
gold is what I'm afraid will be wanting, but it will not take much.
Had not the misfortune I wrote to you of hapn'd to Sir J.
Erskine[134] there had been no want of that. We have got no farther
account of that affair, tho' we have people about it; but if they do
not succeed this night or to-morrow when the spring tide is, it is
lost for ever. There is more by the way tho', and I hope will have
better fate. I have ordered more papers to be sent you, and
certainly you have more of them before now. It is mighty well taken
what that lady (the letters from London say) has ordered, as to
those you sent her, which you are desired to let her have; and I do
not doubt she will do the same as to those concerning E----d.
Adieu."
By the next letter it appears that the good opinion entertained by Lord
Mar of the Chevalier was real; since the whole of the epistle has the
tone of being a natural effusion of feeling, and is a simple statement
of what actually took place, and not the letter of a diplomatist.
"Sir,
"I have seen a letter from Mr. S----g, who had spoke with you on the
subject I formerly wrote to you of, concerning that fo--f--y of the
D----h to a gentleman with us, Mr. S----q's friend, and upon it our
master has thought fit to write the enclosed to him, and orders me
to tell you that you must cause give him an hundred guineas at the
delivery of the letter. The letter is left open for your perusal,
and I wish it may have effect, as perhaps it may. There's no time
to be lost in it, and I'll long to know what passes in it, and what
hopes you have of him. I sent you credit for five hundred pounds,
which I hope you got safe; but if by any accident it should not come
to your hands, Mr. S----q there, is a certain goldsmith that will
advance what there is occasion for this way. I send you enclosed a
letter, which may be of use in an affair I wrote of in my last.
"We have got severall deserters since the K. came and last night
nine came in with their clothes and arms, and says many more will
follow soon, which I wish we may see. They say, too, that the two
regiments of dragoons are marcht from Glasgow for England, and that
two are to go from Stirling to replace them. Were they designing to
march against Scoon, sure they would not do this, nor is it possible
they can do anything in this weather; but if they, notwithstanding,
attempt it, perhaps they may find frost in it.
"As I am writing I have received yours of the thirteenth. I read it
to the K----g, and delivered him the enclosed letter from Mr.
Holmes, which was very well taken, as you will see by the enclosed
return, which you'll take care to forward safely; and pray do me the
favour to make my compliments there.
"Perhaps you'll hear things of the two northern powers[135] that
will look odd to your other friends, as no wonder; but all will come
right again--the time they had taken being out in a few days.
There's one sent some days ago to assist them, so I hope things will
be soon right there, tho' they have done much to spoil them, and
each of them makes an excuse of one another as they have done from
the begining. The K----, you will see by all the enclosed, is not
spareing of his pains. You must fall on the right way of having them
all delivered.
"That to Seaforth he writes upon the great professions he made when
in France; he is such a fellow that I'm afraid it will do little
good.
"I have nothing else material to say just now, but I cannot give
over without telling a thing which I'm sure will please you--that
the longer one knows the King the better he's liked, and the more
good qualities are found in him; that of good-nature is very
eminent, and so much good sense that he might be a first minister to
any king in Europe, had he not been born a king himself. He has
allowed Neil Campbell to go to Edinburgh t'other day on his parole,
he being ill, and it was with so much good nature that was evident
in his doing of it, that it charmed me. I wish you could get notice
how Neil represents it or expresses himself when he gets there; for
I wrote it at length to the gentleman who wrote to me about him.
Adieu.
"If people from S----q be designing to come to us, they should
either do it soon or give us assurances of doing it soon as we are
in view of each other; and these assurances must be such that we can
depend on, for our conduct must in a great measure be regulated by
what we expect that way.
"It were highly necessary that methods and measures were concerted
for the right way of doing this, which you should let such of them
as you know are so trusted know, and it is absolutely necessary that
they either send one to me about this, or let me know it certainly
some other way, that we may not be drawing different ways when we
are designing the same thing.
"We have no return of the last message which was sent to the good
man of the house you wrote of, and t'is above eight days ago. I
believe he designs right, tho' t'is odd."
The enthusiasm which was at first displayed towards the Chevalier was
soon cooled, not only by his grave and discouraging aspect, but by his
fearless and impolitic display of his religious faith. He never allowed
any Protestant even to say grace for him, but employed his own confessor
"to repeat the Pater nosters and Ave Marias:" and he also shewed an
invincible objection to the usual coronation oath,--a circumstance which
deferred the ceremony of coronation,--Bishop Mosse declaring that he
would not consent to crown him unless that oath were taken. This
sincerity of disposition--for it cannot be called by a more severe
name--especially diminished the affections of the Chevalier's female
episcopal friends, who had excited their male relations to bear arms in
his favour. But the circumstance which weighed the most heavily against
James, was the order which he published, on hearing that the Duke of
Argyle was making preparations to march against him, for burning the
towns and villages, and destroying the corn and forage, between Dumblane
and Perth. This act of destruction, from the effects of which the
desolate village of Auchterarder has never recovered, was determined on,
in order that the enemy might be incommoded as much as possible upon
their march; it added to the miseries of a people already impoverished
by the taxes and contributions which the Jacobites had levied. It
appears, however, from a letter of James's, since discovered, or
perhaps, only suppressed at the time, to have been an act which he
bitterly regretted, and the order for which he signed most unwillingly.
He was desirous of making every reparation in his power for the ravages
which were committed in his name.[136]
On the ninth of January a council of war was held by the Duke of Argyle
at Stirling, where, by a singular coincidence, the council sat in the
same room in which James the Second, then Duke of York, had, in 1680,
been entertained by the Earl of Argyle, to whom he had proposed the
repeal of the sanguinary laws against Papists. The refusal of Argyle to
concur in that measure, the consequences of his conduct, and his
subsequent death, are circumstances which, doubtless, arose to the
remembrance of his descendant, as he discussed, in that apartment, the
march towards Perth.
The country between Stirling and Perth was covered with a deep snow; the
weather was one continual storm; it was therefore impossible for the
army of Argyle to proceed until the roads were cleared,--a process which
required some time to effect. It is asserted, nevertheless, by an
historian, that upon Colonel Ghest being sent with two hundred dragoons
to reconnoitre the road leading to Perth, that the greatest panic
prevailed in that town: immediate preparations were made for defence,
and nothing was to be seen except planting of guns, marking out
breastworks and trenches, and digging up stones, and laying them with
sand to prevent the effects of a bombardment.[137] The Earl of Mar,
nevertheless, does not appear, if we may accredit his own words, to have
even then despaired of a favourable issue. The following letter betrays
no fear, but speaks of some minor inconvenience, which is far from being
of a melancholy description. The difficulty of procuring the right sort
of ribbon for the decoration of the Garter, is altogether a new feature
among the adversities of royal personages. It seems strange that James
should not have provided himself, before quitting France, with all that
was necessary to preserve the external semblance of majesty.
"January 20th, 1715-16.
"Sir,
"I wrote to you the eighteenth, and sent severall others enclosed,
which I hope will come safe to you. The inclosed, markt D. F., is
from the King to Davie Floid at London, which he desires you may
take care to gett conveid to him safly and soon, it being of
consequence. The other is for my wife, which I beg you may forward
as usewall.
"We are told that ther's some foot come to Dumblain, and that ther's
more expected there. And they still talk as if they designed to
march their whole armie against us nixt week. Perhaps they intend
it, but with this weather I see not how 'tis in their power. If they
do tho', upon their expecting we are to abandon Perth upon their
aproach, as I'm told they believe, they will find themselves
mistaken, for all here are resolved to stand it to the last, and
perhaps we will not wait their comeing the lenth, but meet them by
the way. We might have left it indeed, some time ago; but that time
is past, and the King's being with us alters the case in every
respect. After all, I cannot get myself to belive that they will
actually come to us in haste, and if they do they may mistake their
reckning. Sure I am, it were impossible for us to march to them in
this snow, and our folks are as good at that as they. The snow puts
me in mind of the children of Israel's pillar of smoke and pillar of
fire; and to say truth, ther's something in the weather very odd
and singular; I never saw such.
"My cloathes are almost all worn out, haveing left some at the
battle: I know not if you could get me any made and sent from
Edinburgh; but if you could, I should be glad of it. Ther's one Bird
was my tayler and I belive has my measur, or some old cloathes of
mine, that he could make them by. Perhaps he's a whig tho', and will
not do it. I would have them deep blew, laced with gold, but not on
the seams. I have but one starr and no riban, but 'tis no great
matter for that, a better man than I is in the same case; he has
only one scrub, one which he got made since he came, and no right
riban. I believe ther's neither of that kind of blew nor green riban
to be got at Edinburgh; but if you could get some tolorablie like
it, you send some of both. Wine is like to be a more sensible want.
We got a little Burgundy for the King, but it is out; and tho' we
know of a little more, I'm affraid we shall scarce get it brought
here; and he does not like clarit, but what you'l think odd, he
likes ale tolorably well. I hope they will send us some from France,
but with this wind nothing can come from thence. George Hamilton
saild on Saturday last, and I belive is there long e'er now, which I
heartily wish he may, and I hope you shall soon see the effects of
his going with what he caried with him.
"I am affraid Macintosh's men in England may be in hard
circumstances for want of money. The King has ordred some for them,
which is this daye given to a friend of theirs who was sent to me
from the North, who sayes he knows how to get it remitted to them.
"By the news I see the Parliament is to have no mercie on our
Preston folks, but I hope God will send them salvation in time.
"I wish you would send us the newspapers oftner for we get them but
seldome; the soonest way of sending them is by A. W. at Kirkaldy,
who will find some way of sending them to us, notwithstanding of
their garisons in Fife.
"I'm affraid what I wrote to you of formerly to be in danger will
never be recovered, for it could not at this time, tho' it was
try'd; and I fear shall not the next either, tho' we are to do all
we can about it, and it was too much to go that way.
"We have heard nothing further as yet from the goodman of the house,
as you call him, which I am surprized at. I can say no more now, so
Adieu."
If we may believe the public prints of the day, dissensions now arose
between the Chevalier and the Earl of Mar: the former blaming his
general for having urged him to come over, when he had so small a force
to appear in his favour; the latter, recriminating that the failure of
aid from the Continent had discouraged the Chevalier's friends. The Earl
of Mar was severely blamed, to quote from the same source, for having
deceived the Chevalier in making him believe that the forces in
Scotland were more considerable than they really were, and for giving
his Scottish friends reason to suppose that the Chevalier would bring
over foreign auxiliaries. That the former part of these allegations
against Mar was untrue, is shewn by the letter which has been given,
explaining to the Prince the state of affairs; and rather discouraging
him from his attempt.[138] That the whole report was groundless, was
manifested by the favour and confidence which James long continued to
extend to the Earl after his exile abroad.
For some time, the Earl of Mar and his party contrived to keep up their
hopes. The season was indeed in some respects their friend, since it
necessarily impeded the movements of Argyle's army against them. The
winter of 1715-16 was one of the most severe that had been felt for many
years, not only in Scotland, but abroad. In France and Spain the cold
was so excessive, and the snow so deep, that the country people could
not go to the market towns to buy provisions, whilst the plains were
infested with bears and wolves, emboldened by the desolation, and
ranging over the country in great numbers.[139]