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in procession, each assuming one of Shakspeare's characters; it was, in most other respects, similar to the preceding.

The third and last day unfortunately turned out rainy, which very naturally damped the expectations of the company.

WILLIAM CLELAND.

IT is somewhat remarkable, that Cleland, though one of the most gallant leaders of the oppressed Covenanters, and highly distinguished in his own time for attachment to the patriotic cause, which he zealously and daringly defended both by his sword and his pen,-should only be now known to the public by a few brief and casual notices. Most of the other Whig champions of that period, whether clerical or military -from the devout and enthusiastic Cameron himself, to the dark and desperate Balfour of Burley, have found some friendly historian to record their achievements and their sufferings. But of Cleland's biography, the few scattered vestiges still existing may be comprised in a few sentences.

He first distinguished himself at the conflict

of Drumclog or Loudon Hill, where he acted as an officer of foot. It seems probable, that he had previously acquired some degree of influence among the non-conformists, either from rank, ability, or enthusiasm, since he was chosen, at so early an age, to act as one of their commanders in that desperate emergency; for he had then scarcely reached his eighteenth year.

In his volume of "Poems, composed upon Various Occasions," the lines, entitled 'Hollo my Fancie,' are said to have been " written by him the last year he was at the College, not then fully eighteen years of age." His "Mock Poem upon the Expedition of the Highland Host," was, probably, written about the same period, namely, in the interval between the winter of 1678, when the Highlanders were brought down upon the country, and the insurrection of the Whigs in May, 1679. Perhaps the spirit and zeal displayed in these effusions might recommend the author to the respect and confidence of the Cameronian leaders, many of whom were certainly neither deficient in learning nor polite accomplishments, though it has been but too much the fashion since to speak of them as mere illiterate, vulgar, and ferocious enthusiasts. On

the unfortunate day of Bothwell-Bridge, Cleland held the rank of Captain.

Whether he made his escape beyond seas after being denounced for his appearance at Drumclog and Bothwell, or continued to lurk, with others of the proscribed and "intercommuned" Covenanters, among the fastnesses of his native country, is not clear; but it appears, from a passage in Wodrow, that he was in Scotland in 1685, "being then under hiding" among the wilds of Lanark and Ayr shires. Captain John Campbell, of Over Welwood, who had some time before escaped from the "iron-house in the Canongate," after skulking for a while among the hills and moors of that wild district, accidentally met with Cleland, about the time "when Argyle was coming in,” and “ spent most of the summer with him and his companions, John Fullerton, Robert Langlands, George Barclay, and Alexander Peden, and met with many wonderful deliverances." As we hear nothing more of Cleland till after the Revolution, it seems likely that he effected his escape to the Continent, after the failure of Argyle's ill-conducted enterprise, when the only hopes of the oppressed reverted to Holland.

After the Revolution, he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Earl of Angus' regiment, called the Cameronian Regiment, from being chiefly composed of levies raised among that staunch and zealous clan; and shortly after, in August, 1689, he was killed at the head of this corps, while they manfully and successfully defended the Churchyard of Dunkeld against a superior force of Highlanders. At this period, he is stated to have been " within twenty-eight years of age."

Of his personal character it is not possible to form any very accurate estimate, from the little that is known of his history, or even from his Works, which were collected and published, in 1697, in a small 12mo. volume, which is now very scarce. They consist almost entirely of scoffing and indignant satires against the sycophantish prelates and savage persecutors who had proscribed his friends and ruined his country. An extract from "A Mock Poem upon the Expedition of the Highland Host, who came to destroy the Western Shires, in Winter, 1678," will serve to give an idea of his acuteness and powers of description, at that early age.

"But those who were their chief commanders,
As such who bore the pirnie standarts;
Who led the van and drove the rear,
Were right well mounted of their gear;
With brogues, trues, and pirnie plaides,
And good blew bonnets on their heads,
Which on the one side had a flipe,
Adorn'd with a tobacco-pipe.

With durk, and snap-work, and snuff-mill,
A bagg which they with onions fill,
And as their strick observers say,
A tupe-horn fill'd with usquebay.
A slasht-out coat beneath their plaides,
A targe of timber, nails, and hides;
With a long two-handed sword,
As good's the countrey can affoord-
Had they not need of bulk and bones,
Who fights with all these arms at once?
It's marvellous how in such weather
O'er hill and hop they came together;
How in such stormes they came so farr;
The reason is, they're smear'd with tar,
Which doth defend them heel and neck,
Just as it doth their sheep protect- * *
Nought like religion they retain,

Of moral honestie they're clean.

In nothing they're accounted sharp,
Except in bag-pipe and in harpe.

For a misobliging word,

She'll durk her neighbour o'er the boord,

*

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