54 



tliem at such a time than any amount of lace, viz., a halbert, pike, 

 and javehn; on one of which weapons is the date 1745. 



They seem to have had a way of leaving such things behind ; 

 for at the Half-Moon in Brampton, then kept by the great-great- 

 grandfather of the present landlord, Mr. Thomas Thompson, 

 where according to tradition in Mr. Thompson's family eight 

 troopers were quartered, one of them on the departure of the army 

 left behind a sword, which has ever since remained at the Half- 

 Moon* It is what is called a "dress sword", one worn by officers 

 at balls or on state occasions, and may therefore have belonged to 

 some one of distinction. 



Of persons of distinction there was no lack in that army. Indeed 

 there were too many of them for the good of the cause they had at 

 heart ; which their mutual jealousy did much to weaken. Nor was 

 the prince as discreet as he should have been in his mode of 

 dealing with this jealousy; as is indicated by the exclusive reference 

 in his household book to the "Duke of Perth and his regiment", 

 as if they alone were engaged in the siege of Carlisle. No doubt 

 they did the chief part of the work, such as it was, during the 

 siege. Nor did they join in a demand, made by some of the 

 besiegers, that the men remaining in Brampton should take their 

 turn in the trenches ; which explains the note in the household 



* Doubts having been expressed in some quarters as to the genuineness of 

 weapons said to have been left behind by the Highlanders in I74'5, it may be as 

 well to state that the five generations through which the story of the sword at 

 the Half Moon has been handed down may be practically reduced to three, as 

 shewn by the following pedigree, the dates in which are taken from Brampton 

 parish register : 



John Thompson ... born ... died 1774 



Joseph Thompson ... ,, 1738 .. ,, 1812 



Joseph Thompson ... ,, 1764 ... ,, 1838 



Joseph Thompson ... ,, 1793 .. j, 1859 



Thomas Thompson ... ,, 1818 ... ,, 



Now Joseph the second, who died when Thomas, who is still living, was twenty 

 years old, always said that the sword had been in the house ever since he could 

 remember anything, and that his father (Joseph the first) and grandfather (John), 

 the former of whom died when he (Joseph the second) was forty-eight, and the 

 latter when lie was ten, both of whom were eye-wilnesses of the stay of the 

 eight troopers at the Half INIoon, always spoke of it as having been left behind 

 when the army (luilted Brampton to resume the siege of Carlisle. The Half 

 Moon, 1 may here state, as a fact having an interest of its own, is the only 

 house in the town of Brampton, as far as I know, now inhabited by a member 

 of the family which occupied it in 1745. 



