Battle of Sakk. 127 



The Scottish force under Hugh Doug'las, Earl of Ormond, 

 uumbered 4000 in liorse and foot, which can by no means be 

 considered a large muster. The presence of Sir John Wallace of 

 Graigie, the Master of Somerville, and the Sheriff of Ayr, 

 however, is a probable indication that some hint had g-ot abroad 

 of the intended expedition, and that there had been at least time 

 for some hasty preparation. " Sundry gentles of the westland" 

 are mentioned by the Asloan MS. ; Boece is more express in his 

 allusion to " Maxwell and Johnstone with a choice body of Scottish 

 youth," words rendered by Buchanan as "Maxwell and Johnstone 

 with their clansmen." There seems, therefore, no good ground for 

 Hume of Godscroft's aspersion upon the county, that Maxwell and 

 Johnstone's company consisted of "many inland gentlemen saith 

 the manuscript, because they had no great confidence in their own 

 Annandale men, who were more set upon spoil than victory." 

 (House of Douglas [1743], p. 329.) Stewart of Castlemilk is the 

 only other local chief named. 



Ormond learned from his scouts, as Pitscottie — here as else- 

 where faithfully if freely Scotticising Boece — words it with 

 accustomed vigour, '• that the Inglismen war cum in Annerdaill 

 and had transported their armie over the water of Sulway and 

 had stented their palliones on the water of Sark." Still more 

 definite was the localisation in the Asloan MS., which dubs the 

 engagement the battle of Lochmabenstane. They had thus 

 encamped close to the Scottish end of the ancient ford of Sol way, 

 from which the estuary took its name. They lay there over 

 night, and early next morning set out to foray and plunder. 

 They "harried and slew quhom evir they fand." On the approach 

 of the Scots, who probably came upon them somewhat un- 

 expectedly, they were recalled by trumpet, falling back upon 

 their camp, where they were marshalled in battle order. 



The Lochmabenstane — in Gretna parish, which includes the 

 ancient parish of Rainpatrick, misnamed St. Patrick in the Asloan 

 MS. — still stands wind swept on the Solway shore where the 

 waters of Kirtle and Sark unite, a solitary granite boulder, the 

 last survivor of a great stone circle. For several centuries it was 

 a famed place for border meetings, warden courts, and the like. 

 Amongst the least known of all the ancient monuments of Dum- 

 friesshire, it is perhaps without a parallel in the multiplicity of its 

 historic memories. It is a standing memorial of the old days of 



