The Pike as a Scottish Weapon. By James Hardy. 499 



A leader had appeared on the scene, Field-Marshal Leslie, 

 " who was both wys and stout." 



" First he devysis camion to be caseen in the Potterraw by one Capitane 

 Hamniiltoune ; he began to drill the -Erllis [HothassJ men in Fyf ; he 

 causit to send to Holland for ammunition, pulder and ball, in gryte abound- 

 ance for muscat, carrabiu, pistoll, pile, sword, cannon, cartow, and all other 

 sort of necessar armes fit for old and young soklieris." (Spalding's 

 Memorialls, I., p. 130). 



[Thousands of pikes and fire-arms were received from Holland.] 



In the same year 1639, the general committee of the kingdom 

 ordered — 



"Every company should consist of 100 men, whereof -40 to be pike-men, 

 and the rest musqueteers." " That all expert smiths be set to making 

 muskets, carrabins, pole-axes, Lochaber axes and halbcrts." "That boroughs 

 provide abundance of iron." (Stevenson's Hist. p. 362). Subsequently in 

 the same year the committee ordered, " that each parish should provide 

 such a certain number of jacks, lances, pikes, swine feathers, and other 

 weapons fitting for the service." (,1b. p. 371). 



A well-known authority, Ritt-Master Dugald Dalgetty, who 

 had " trailed a pike as a private gentleman under old Sir 

 Ludovick Leslie," has given us a commentar} 7 on the pike and 

 the strange term " swine feathers" or "suens feathers." 



" I was often obliged to run my head against my old acquaintances, the 

 Swedish feathers, whilk your honour must conceive to be double-pointed 

 stakes, shod with iron at each end, and planted before the squad of pikes 

 to prevent an on-fall of the cavalry. The whilk Swedish feathers, although 

 they look gay to the eye, resembling the shrubs or lesser trees of ane forest, 

 as the puissant pikes, arranged in battalia behind them, correspond to the 

 tall pines thereof, yet, nevertheless, are not altogether so soft to encounter 

 as the plumage of a goose." From him also we learn that the " sword and 

 pike" were combined. Moreover "respecting arms," said Captain Dalgetty, 

 " if your lordship will permit an old cavalier to speak his mind, so that one 

 third have muskets, my darling weapon would be the pike for the remainder, 

 whether for resisting a charge of horse, or for breaking the infantry. A 

 common smith will make a hundred pikes in a day ; here is plenty of wood 

 for shafts ; and I will uphold, that according to the best usages of war, a 

 strong battalion of pikes drawn up in the fashion of the Lion of the North, 

 the martial Gustavus, would beat the Macedonian phalanx," (Legend of 

 Montrose). 



Early in 1639, the Marquis of Huntly stirs up the north on the 

 side of Charles, and the king forwards him by Sir Alexander 

 Gordon of Cluny, convoyed by a royal pinnace, a merchant ship 

 to the port of Aberdeen, 



" Whairin thair wes 2000 muscatis, bandilieris, and muscat staves, 1000 

 pikis with harness and armour, both to foot men and horss men, cairabins, 



