A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



own. The governor endeavoured to check the lawlessness against his 

 authority by seizing the parents of the offenders, as if the punishment of 

 the fathers would atone for the faults of their sons. As the hostility of 

 the inhabitants began to be more clearly displayed, Hamilton resorted to 

 menaces by threatening martial law. This was the state of affairs in the 

 middle of December, when the governor was informed of the retreat of 

 the pretender's forces towards Carlisle. He then seized on the market 

 and fixed his own price on the commodities, ransacking the country 

 people and impressing beds for the use of the garrison. 1 Notwithstand- 

 ing many complaints it was maintained by impartial observers that the 

 rebel forces were under excellent discipline and did less mischief than 

 had been feared." Some of the clergy of Carlisle became so friendly 

 with the Highland officers that they came under the suspicions of the 

 Duke of Cumberland, and were but coldly received by the bishop when 

 the trouble was over. 



The retreat of the pretender's army threw the county into con- 

 sternation, as it was feared that ' a mob of exasperated ruffians, dis- 

 appointed of their grand project and in want of all things,' would devote 

 itself to plunder. The Duke of Cumberland, who was in close pursuit, 

 sent expresses, warning the inhabitants to arm and intercept the flight 

 or to cut off straggling parties before they regained Carlisle. Penrith 

 beacon was fired as a signal of distress, and the whole county flocked 

 to its relief, but as the rebels kept in a compact body an attempt to 

 engage them was considered impracticable. The rearguard action at 

 Clifton in Westmorland, in which Lord George Murray checked the 

 advance of his pursuers and secured the safe retreat of his army, was 

 fought on 19 December, and on the following day the whole force 

 reached Carlisle. Little time was spent in the city. Prince Charles, 

 before taking his leave, left a garrison of some four hundred men to 

 hold the city with the view of retarding the pursuit. The High- 

 landers crossed the flooded Esk at Longtown, nothing being seen of 

 them but their heads and shoulders as they crossed. On reaching the 

 opposite side it is said that the pipers at once struck up and the men 

 danced to the music till their clothes were dry. On the same day the 

 Duke of Cumberland arrived before Carlisle and commenced the siege. 

 He took up his quarters at Blackball in the same house in which 

 the pretender's son had stayed about a month before. Six guns from 

 Whitehaven were brought to Rocliffe and conveyed to the batteries 

 erected on Primrose Bank. 3 Dispositions ot the royal troops were so 

 made that it was impossible for any of the garrison to escape. Colonel 

 Townley, the governor of the city, was determined to defend it to the 

 last extremity, resolving that ' it was better to die by the sword than 

 fall into the hands of those damned Hanoverians.' Gallant attempts 

 had been made to repair the breaches of the castle walls against which 



1 Gentleman's Magazine (1746), xvi. 234-5, 302. 



Gilpin, Memoirs of the Gilpin Family (ed. W. Jackson), p. 69. 



3 Gentleman's Magazine (1746), xvi. 301-2. 



306 



