Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular WarAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular War
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
In London, notwithstanding, there was considerable alarm, but rather
from fear of the Papists and Jacobites at home than of any danger
from abroad. Every endeavour had been used, in fact, to revive the
old Popery scare. There were rumours circulated that the Papists
meant to rise, cut everybody's throats, and burn the City. There
was fear of a run on the Bank of England, but the merchants met at
Garraway's Coffee-house, and entered into engagements to support the
Bank. They also opened a subscription to raise two hundred and fifty
thousand pounds to enlist troops, and many of them gave as much as two
thousand pounds apiece. A camp was formed in Hyde Park of the Household
Troops, horse and foot, a regiment of horse grenadiers, and some of
the battalions that came over from Flanders. In the provinces many of
the great nobility proposed to raise regiments at their own expense,
and this act of patriotism was loudly applauded. In some instances
the patriotism was real. But the main body of the Whig nobility and
some others cut a very different figure. No sooner did Parliament
meet on the 18th of October, and whilst the Jacobites were in the
highest spirits, and opposing both the Address and the suspension of
the Habeas Corpus, than the Dukes of Devonshire, Bedford, Rutland,
Montague, the Lords Herbert, Halifax, Cholmondeley, Falmouth, Malton,
Derby, and others, moved, contrary to their splendid promises, that
their regiments should be paid by the king, and should be put upon
the regular establishment. The king was as much disgusted as the most
independent of his subjects, but he found himself unable to prevent the
measure.
At length the Duke of Cumberland arrived from Flanders, and foreign and
English troops were assembled in the Midland counties; Marshal Wade
had also ten thousand men collected at Newcastle-on-Tyne. The Duke of
Cumberland was appointed Commander-in-Chief, and the brave soldiers
who had fought under him at Fontenoy were ready to follow him, in the
highest confidence of making short work with the Highlanders.
Those Highlanders commenced their march into England with no
predilection for the adventure. The warfare of Scotland was familiar
to them; in all ages they had been accustomed to descend from their
mountains and make raids in the Lowlands. But England was to them
an unknown region; they knew little of the dangers or the perils
before them; they knew that in the Whiggish clans of the West they
left powerful enemies behind them. No sooner did they lose sight of
Edinburgh than they began to desert. Charles led his division of the
army across the Tweed at Kelso, and sent on orders to Wooler to
prepare for his reception, thus keeping up the feint of marching
eastward; instead of which, he took his way down Liddesdale, and on the
8th of November crossed the Esk, and encamped that night at a place
called Reddings, on the Cumberland side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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