228 Field Meetings. 



levied in the Jacobite interest in the south of Scotland. Twice 

 was Dumfries threatened by his troop.s — once when they marched 

 towards it from Moffat; again when they approached it from the 

 eastern border; but the town repaired her fortifications (for the 

 last time, as it proved), and was on each occasion reported to be 

 in such good condition for defence that the enemy saw prudence 

 to be the better part of valour and turned their attention else- 

 where. Coalescing with the north of England force raised by the 

 Earl of Derwentwater, the Scottish levies marched as far as 

 Preston, and there disaster overtook them. The chiefs were 

 taken prisoners to London, and there sentence of death was 

 passed on Lord Kenmure, his brother-in-law, the Earl of Carn- 

 wath; the Earl of Nithsdale, and Lord Nairn, of the Scottish 

 peers; and on the Earl of Derwentwater and Lord Widdrington 

 from Northumberland. The story of Lord Nithsdale 's rescue by 

 his Countess is well-known. With two exceptions, the others 

 w^ere pardoned. These were Kenmure and Derwentwater, the 

 Scottish and the English leaders. They were beheaded on Tower 

 Hill, the barbarities attaching to a sentence for high treason being 

 remitted. 



It is a singular circumstance that tradition represents both 

 of these lords as having been persuaded into rebellion by their 

 wives. Lady Kenmure was Mary Dalziel, only sister of another 

 of the attainted nobles, the Earl of Carnwath. It is said that 

 the Earl of Nithsdale had visited Kenmure, and there had been a 

 consultation which resulted in a rather reluctant assent of Lord 

 Kenmure to take the field. As he was mounting his horse to set 

 out, the usuallv docile animal became intractable, reared, and 

 cut its master's lip or that of a groom. The Viscount regarded 

 the circumstance as of e\il omen, and would even then have 

 drawn back; but the lady would not hear of it. "Go on, my 

 lord; you're in a good cause; go on with my Lord Nithsdale." 

 So off they rode to their doom. Tradition has further endowed 

 the castle with three ghosts. One of them is the shade of the 

 remorseful Countess, who with a sheaf of papers in her hands flits 

 o' nights between the castle gate and the bowling green, w^here her 

 husband and Lord Nithsdale had disported themselves on that 

 fateful day. 



The legend with regard to the English Earl has been drama- 

 tised, in the tragedv entitled "Derwentwater," by the late Mr 



