livia Transactions. 
which he was strong in recommending, was “that he should make 
a rode yn to overthrow and caste downe a certen churche and 
steple called the Steple of Annande.” 
Nevertheless the first of these exploits taken in hand was that 
which he discountenanced. <A raid was, early in 1547, made on 
Dumfries by Sir Thomas Carleton. Owing to the disunion 
amongst the lands of Dumfriesshire, mainly due to the corrupt 
and violent influences brought to bear by Henry VIII., Carleton 
accomplished his task with no less success than dexterity and 
carried off a heavy plunder, if we may fully trust his swaggering 
report of his own performances given by the “ miniature Cesar,” 
as M‘Dowall,* the Dumfries historian, dubs him. 
XX. Wharton's Inroad (1547). 
Although the townj itself was harried, and ‘“ with the corne in 
the same towne burnt” in 1544 by his son, it was not until 1547 
that Wharton’s plan for the overthrow of Annan Steeple was 
seriously undertaken. Whilst the Protector Somerset was 
marching northward, with Pinkie ahead, Wharton was leading 
an expedition across the border, directed chiefly against the 
Steeple which had so long been an eyesore to himself, and a thorn 
in the sides of his countrymen. When Scotland was constrained 
to concentrate all her force to meet Somerset on the east March, 
when many of the men of Annandale had yielded to the pressure 
of the time and become ‘‘assured Scots” lLegemen of England, now 
it was that Wharton’s darling scheme was entrusted to himself 
to execute. 
With 5000 foot and 500 horse he crossed the frontier on 9th 
September. On Saturday the 10th, that rueful date in the 
Scottish calendar, when Somerset was fighting Pinkie battle, 
Wharton’s force reached Castlemilk. The renegade Scot, the 
Earl of Lennox, was the ally and comrade of the English leader. 
Castlemilk made only a feint of resistance. Its commandant 
only waited to have the glove of Lennox sent him, and then 
surrendered the castle keys. 
Next day Wharton proceeded to Annan, where a sterner 
reception awaited him. He found Annan Steeple with pennon 
flying, manned to resist. 
*M‘Dowall’s History of Dumfries, pp. 195-199. 
+Bruce Armstrong's Liddesdale, appx. lv. 
