No. 205: Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog
[There are no known US or Canadian versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 205. Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog
A. Roud No. 4018: Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog (7 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: 205. Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog (Bronson has comments; no music examples)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative: 205. Loudon Hill, or Dromclog
A. 'The Battle of Loudoun Hill,' Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, III, 188, 1803; II, 206, 1833.
The "gospel-lads," otherwise self-styled the true Presbyterian party, had in 1679, May 29 (observed both as the king's birth day and the anniversary of the Restoration), begun their testimony against the iniquity of the times by publishing a Declaration, put ting out loyal bonfires, and burning all acts of Parliament obnoxious to Covenanters, in retaliation for the burning of the Covenant at London seventeen years before. They had intended to do this at Glasgow, but as Claverhouse had established himself there, the demonstration was made at Rutherglen, a little place two miles off. On the 31st Claverhouse laid hands on three of the rioters and an outlawed minister. The Covenanters had appointed a great meeting, an armed conventicle, for the next day, Sunday, June 1, at Loudon Hill, on the borders of the shires of Ayr and Lanark. Not so many came as were expected, for Claverhouse had been heard of, but there were at least two hundred and fifty armed men; and these numbers were subsequently increased.[1] It was resolved to rescue the prisoners taken the day before, if the Lord should enable them, and in prosecution of this object they moved on to Drumclog, a swampy farm two miles east of Loudon HilL The chief of command was Robert Hamilton, and with him were as sociated John Balfour of Kinloch, called Burly, Hackston of Rathillet, and others. What ensued is told in a frank letter of Claverhouse, written the night of the same Sunday.
The prisoners were to be conveyed to Glasgow. "I thought," says Claverhouse, "that we might make a little tour, to see if we could fall upon a conventicle; which we did, little to our advantage. For, when we came in sight of them, we found them drawn up in battle, upon a most* advantageous ground, to which there was no coming but through mosses and lakes. They were not preaching, and had got away all their women and children. They consisted of four battalions of foot, and all well armed with fusils and pitchforks, and three squadrons of horse. We sent, both, parties to skirmish, they of foot and we of dragoons; they run for it, and sent down a battalion of foot against them (the dragoons). We sent threescore of dragoons, who made them run again shamefully. But in the end (they perceiving that we had the better of them in skirmish), they resolved a general engagement, and immediately advanced with their foot, the horse following. They came through the loch, and the greatest body of all made up against my troop. We kept our fire till they were within ten pace of us. They received our fire and advanced to shock. The first they gave us brought down the cornet, Mr. Crafford, and Captain Bleith. Besides that, with a pitchfork, they made such an opening in my sorrel horse's belly that his guts hung out half an ell, and yet he cabled me off a mile; which so discouraged our men that they sustained not the shock, but fell into disorder. Their horse took the occasion' of this, and pursued us so hotly that we got no time to rally. I saved the standards, but lost on the place about eight or ten men, "besides wounded. But the dragoons lost many more. They are not come easily off on the other side, for I saw several of them fall before we came to the shock. I made the best retreat the confusion of our people would suffer."[2]
The cornet killed was Robert Graham, the "nephew" of Claverhouse, of whom so much is made in "Old Mortality." There is no evidence beyond the name to show that he was a near kinsman of his captain. The Covenanters thought they had killed Claverhouse himself, because of the name Graham being wrought into the cornet's shirt, and treated the body with much brutality. In 'Bothwell Bridge,' st. 12, Claverhouse is represented as refusing quarter to the Covenanters in revenge for his cornet's death.[3]
Footnotes:
1. "Public worship was begun by Mr. Douglas, when the accounts came to them that Claverhouse and his men were coming upon them, and had Mr. King and others their friends prisoners. Upon this, finding evil was determined against them, all who had arms drew out from the rest of the meeting, and resolved to go and meet the soldiers and prevent their dismissing the met ting, and, if possible, relieve Mr. King and the other prisoners." Wodrow's History, 1722, II, 46.
2. (Postscript: "My lord, I am so wearied and so sleepy that I have written this very confusedly.") See Russell, in the Appendix to C.K. Sharpe's edition of Kirkton's Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland, p. 438 ff.; Napier's Memorials and Letters of John Graham of Claverhouse, II, 219-223. There is a good account of the affair in Mowbray Morris's " Claverhouse," ch. iv.
3. Napier interprets the cornet to be Mr. Crafford (Crawford), who, in the preceding February, was a corporal in the troop: Memorials, II, 191. But Creichton, in his Memoirs, mentions "the loss of Cornet Robert Graham" at Drumclog. Russell speaks of a Graham killed at Drumclog, and, like Creichton, tells a story of the disfigurement of his face (which he attributes to the cornet's own dog). Lawrie of Blackwood, Lord Jamie Douglas's lago, was indicted and tried, Nov. 24, 1682- Feb. 7, 1683, for (among other things) countenancing John Aulston, who "in the late rebellion" murdered Cornet Graham: Wodrow, II, 293, 295. Guild, in his Bellum Bothuellianum, cited by Scott, has "signifer, trajectus globulo, Gramas."
Napier will know only of a William Graham as cornet to Claverhouse, "and certainly not killed at Drumclog." William Graham is referred to in a dispatch of Claverhouse's, March (?) 1679, as commanding a small garrison: Napier II, 201. A Cornet Graham in Claverhouse's troop captured a rebel in March, 1682: E. Law's Memorials, ed. Sharpe, p. 222. A William Graham was "cornet to Claverhouse," January 3, 1684: Wodrow, II, 338. (See "Clavers, The Despot's Champion, by a Southern," London, 1889, p. 48 f., a careful and impartial book, to which I owe a couple of points that I had not myself noticed.)
C. K. Sharpe calls Robert Graham Claverhouse's cousin, Napier, I, 271, but probably would not wish the title to be taken strictly.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
This ballad gives an account of the fight at Drumclog, near Loudon Hill on the borders of the shires of Ayr and Lanark, June 1, 1679, between the "Gospel-lads" or Covenanters and Claverhouse. The Covenanters were commanded by Robert Hamilton, with whom were associated John Balfour of Kinloch, called Burly, and others.
Child's Ballad Text
'The Battle of Loudoun Hill'- Version A; Child 205 Loudon Hill, or Dromclog
'The Battle of Loudoun Hill,' Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, III, 188, 1803; II, 206, 1833.
1 You'll marvel when I tell ye o
Our noble Burly and his train,
When last he marchd up through the land,
Wi sax-and-twenty westland men.
2 Than they I neer o braver heard,
For they had a' baith wit and skill;
They proved right well, as I heard tell,
As they cam up oer Loudoun Hill.
3 Weel prosper a' the gospel-lads
That are into the west countrie
Ay wicked Claverse to demean,
And ay an ill dead may he die!
4 For he's drawn up i battle rank,
An that baith soon an hastilie;
But they wha live till simmer come,
Some bludie days for this will see.
5 But up spak cruel Claverse then,
Wi hastie wit an wicked skill,
'Gae fire on yon westlan men;
I think it is my sovreign's will.'
6 But up bespake his cornet then,
'It's be wi nae consent o me;
I ken I'll neer come back again,
An mony mae as weel as me.
7 'There is not ane of a' yon men
But wha is worthy other three;
There is na ane amang them a'
That in his cause will stap to die.
8 'An as for Burly, him I knaw;
He's a man of honour, birth, an fame;
Gie him a sword into his hand,
He'll fight thysel an other ten.'
9 But up spake wicked Claverse then —
I wat his heart it raise fu hie —
And he has cry'd, that a' might hear,
'Man, ye hae sair deceived me.
10 'I never kend the like afore,
Na, never since I came frae hame,
That you sae cowardly here suld prove,
An yet come of a noble Graeme.'
11 But up bespake his cornet then,
'Since that it is your honour's will,
Mysel shall be the foremost man
That shall gie fire on Loudoun Hill.
12 'Your command I'll lead them on,
But yet wi nae consent o me;
For weel I ken I'll neer return,
And mony mae as weel as me.'
13 Then up he drew in battle rank —
I wat he had a bonny train —
But the first time that bullets flew
Ay he lost twenty o his men.
14 Then back he came the way he gaed,
I wat right soon an suddenly;
He gave command amang his men,
And sent them back, and bade them flee.
15 Then up came Burly, bauld an stout,
Wi 's little train o westland men,
Wha mair than either aince or twice
In Edinburgh confind had been.
16 They hae been up to London sent,
An yet they're a' come safely down;
Sax troop o horsemen they hae beat,
And chased them into Glasgow town.