108 CLAVERHOUSE IN DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY. 
The Earl of Queensberry was then Sheriff of Dumfries and 
Annandale, and the Earl of Nithsdale of Galloway. Conse- 
quently, on 27th February, 1679, Claverhouse and Bruce were 
commissioned depute sheriffs for the three south-west counties, 
Robert Grierson of Lag, then a young man, being also appointed 
for Wigtown, and Captain John Paterson for Kirkcudbright. 
Some of the letters of Claverhouse at this period are extant, 
and from them we learn that he had his headquarters in Dum- 
fries in January and February, from which he was wont to sally 
out, in order to undertake even forty mile rides by night to 
arrest the suspects. The want of spies—rather a creditable 
aspect of the case—made his raids often unsuccessful. These 
deputes, by instruction of the Privy Council, met at least once 
a week to try conventiclers and withdrawers from worship. In 
John Welsh, the ousted minister of Irongray, Claverhouse had 
one of those elusive preachers who were as intangible as the 
mists through which they escaped, leaving the troopers bogged 
in the mosses and hills where Claverhouse was active in March 
and April. He reported that Welsh was the ringleader of people 
about to break “ into open rebellion.’’ The Sheriff-Depute was 
in Dumfries on 21st April, and left on the 5th May to join head- 
quarters. <A terrible tragedy had occurred on 3d May when 
James Sharp, the Primate of Scotland, was slain in cold blood 
on Magus Moor. We next find Claverhouse at Falkirk on 29th 
May on the track of a great assembly of Covenanters, who were 
soon to gather in front of Loudoun Hill. He was at Mugdock 
Castle on the 30th, and at Glasgow on the 3lst May. Passing 
through to Hamilton, he was in the saddle early on Sabbath 
morning, Ist June, and by 6 a.m. he reached Strathaven. A few 
hours later he was facing the foe at Drumclog—with the result 
all know—that that night he was in Glasgow again without many 
of his bold troopers, whom he ignominiously left to their fate. 
It was no wonder that he wrote, “ Bot I am swre thes was the 
warmest day I saw the yeare,’’ by no means classical termino- 
logy for a ’Varsity man. He rode to Edinburgh and waited the 
arrival of the new Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Buccleuch 
and Monmouth, with whose force he marched to Bothwell 
Bridge, where on 22nd June, another Sabbath, he slaked his 
thirsty and vindictive sword, obtaining that opportunity of ful- 
filling what he considered to be his heaven appointed function 
