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 sect; and shortly after, in August 1680, he was killed at the head of this corps, while they manfully and successfully defended the church-yard of Dunkeld against a superior force of Highlanders. Of this well-fought and desperate conflict, a minute and accurate account is given in the subjoined Narrative, with which we have been furnished from a private repository, and which seems to have been the authentic official account of the affair then issued to the public. In a MS. account of this fight, written by one of the of ficers engaged in it, (which we have seen in another private collection, and which agrees in every material point with that subjoined) the force which came down under the Jacobite general, Cannan, to attack the Cameronians in the church-yard, is described as consisting of " 3 troops of horse-a battalion of foot armed wt helmit and brese, sword and targe-then a battalion of firelocks-then a 3d battalion with 4 ledder cannons ;" which, with some other troops also brought down, are said to have amounted altogether to about 4000 men.

Of Cleland's personal character it is not possible to form any very accurate estimate, from the little we know of his history, or even from his works, which almost entirely consist of scoffing or indignant satires against the sycophantish prelates and savage persecutors who had proscribed his friends and ruined his country. The late Dr Leyden had a great-grandfather, who was a soldier, or non-commissioned officer, in the Cameronian regimentand he used to mention a tradition, that Cleland's gayety of manners was rather offensive to the more austere part of his followers. He appears to have been a man of a strong mind and steady principles, with perhaps no small portion of the acrimony and coarseness of those evil times infused

into a disposition naturally generous and liberal. He was, what perhaps Some may suppose extraordinary for the times and transactions in which he lived and acted-heroic, without intolerance; and a staunch Covenanter, without being fanatical.

VOL. I.

Colonel Cleland was the father of William Cleland, Esq. one of the Commissioners of the Customs in Scotland, and author of the Prefatory Letter to the Dunciad. This person is also mentioned by some of the annotators on Pope, as having been the supposed original of Will Honeycomb. He died in 1741, leaving a son, who, falling into utter licentiousness and extreme poverty, prostituted his pen to the composi tion of indecent and infamous works. There is a story of some English peer having allowed this wretched man a pension, on the express condition that he should never more prostitute his talents to such purposes-Cleland having alleged that want had reduced him to this deplorable resource. It is said to have been a law-lord who thus bought him off from the service of immorality, and that his attention was excited towards him by a prosecution on the above account.

-Colonel Cleland's Poetical Works were published in 1697, a few years after his death. They are comprised in a small duodecimo volume, which is very scarce, and has never been reprinted. It commences with a wild rhapsody, entitled, Hollo, my Fancie,' which, in the opinion of a very competent judge, displays considerable imagination.* This is followed by 'A Mock Poem upon the Expedition of the Highland Host, who came to destroy the Western Shires in Winter 1678. It seems to be a rough, and probably a juvenile, imitation of Hudibras. It is of considerable length, and begins as follows:

"When Saturn shakes his frostie feathers;
When Russia garments are rough leathers;
When Dutch Dames over Stoves do chatter;
When men dry-shoo'd traverse the water;
When Popish partie invocats
Both Saints and Angels; when their pats,
While they want weights of Air and Earth,
May be repay'd with Water's birth:
It was not long from that time when
The chas'd and tossed Western men
Were dissipat at Pictland fells
By Devils, Drummonds, and Dalzells:

When veals for rarities are sold,
And when young Ladies catcheth cold;
This season sure works strange effects

Upon their naked breasts and necks :

To touch the modes of ladies' cleeding,
But pardon me, it is ill breeding
Tho' they wear nothing but their skin.
Hence I'll not do the like again,

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol.

ii. p. 69.

4 I

Comets raign'd above the city,
Preachers prison'd without pity;
Some knut up for wearing gunes:
Wine was drunken out in tunes.
Next with blasphemie and rude speeches,
New coin'd scurvie's vex the leidges:
Ladies heckl'd, and Lords horn'd,
Some for lending money scorn'd:
Men fin'd for preventing murders;
Princes owning Bishops' orders;
Curats swearing by their gowns ;
Old French taylours ruling towns.
Self-Defenders termed Rebels,
Proclamations, grievous libels:
Majors turning hang-men's mates;
Sentries watching Bishops' gates.
Gentlemen of good account
Might not think it an affront
To sit with lousie rogues together,
Yea stand and serve their foot-men's brother.
New-made Earls, and some that
Are judged, nihil significat,
With a pack of Redshank Squires,
Eating up the Western Shires
Clergie's acts and Canon Law,
Put on cartes for horse to draw;
Cables, towes, ligure chists,"
Manackles for thumbs and fists-
Cords for wreaking people's throats,
Germans for contriving plots;
Durks to stop in musquets end,
Pray, what may all this portend ?"

#

He afterwards proceeds to describe this famous Host' with very considerable force and humour; and lashes the savage Highlanders, and their more detestable employers, with much well-merited and well-directed satire ; though it must be allowed that the style of this and his other mock poems' too frequently descends to the low scurrility and vulgar doggerel so freely indulged in by the writers of that age. The following passages will serve to convey some idea of his powers of observation and characteristic description:

"Some might have judg'd they were the

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,
And then she'll flee like fire from flint,
She'll scarcely ward the second dint:
If any ask her of her thrift,
Foresooth her Nainsell lives by thift."

He then details (and illustrates with a few anecdotes, much in the manner of the prose article on the same subject, inserted in the first Number of our Miscellany) the intolerable oppression and wanton mischief inflicted upon the defenceless inhabitants by these redshank squires.'

66

'

They're charg'd to march into the West; How they behaved when come there, How neither friend nor foe did spare, What plunder they away did bear, Ye partly afterwards shall hear; How each rank was by them abused, What beastly shamles tricks they used. For truly they more cruel carrie Than even Frenchmen under Marie, Yea, they more savage far than those were Who with Kollkittock and Montrose were, And sixtie times they're worse than they Whom Turner led in Galloway.

They durk our tenants, shames our wives

The next poem of any length, and the one indeed which occupies by far the greater part of this volume, is entitled, " Effigies Clericorum; or, a Mock Poem on the Clergy, when they met to consult about taking the Test, in the year 1681." Of this, as of the one we have just quoted, it would be equally difficult and unprofitable to attempt any analysis: Many of the political allusions have now become doubtful or unintelligible; and though the writer's sentiments are often strongly and pointedly expressed, yet we must own that his two principal poems appear to be altogether extremely desultory and confused, and exhibit little appearance of having ever undergone much correction, or of having been intended for any other than mere temporary purposes. The following curious passage seems to indicate the place of the author's nativity, and also refers to the opinion still commonly entertained by the Scottish peasantry, respecting the disappearance of their old visitors, the Fairies.

"No Muse's help I will implore,
For I was ne'er at Lesbos shore,
Neither did haunt Arcadian glens,
Groves, mountains, watersides, and fens.

"I am very apt to think
There's als much vertue, sonce, and pith,
In Annan, or the water of Nith,
Which quietly slips by Dumfries,
Als any water in all Greece.

For there and several other places,
About mill-dams and green brae faces,
Both elrich Elfs and Brownies stayed,
And green-gown'd Fairies daunc'd and
play'd:

When old John Knox and other some
Began to plott the Baggs of Rome,
They suddenly took to their heels
And did no more frequent those fields.
But if Rome's pipes perchance they hear,
Sure for their interest they'll compear
Again, and play their old Hell's tricks," &c.
Mr Scott, quoting another poem of
Cleland's, observes," His anti-mo-
narchical principles seem to break out
in the following lines:

"Fain would I know (if beasts have any reason)

Iffalcons killing eagles do commit a treason."

We do not understand, however, that his political opinions were by any means those of a republican, or that he went beyond the principles maintained by all the staunch and true Whigs of his time; and indeed to us (who account ourselves quite moderate in politics) the sentiment contained in the following lines appears perfectly sound, though strongly, and perhaps rather roughly, expressed :

To liberat the persecuted,
"Since it a good work is reputed
And to defend poor sackeless wights
Who may be robbed of their rights,
As well by King's their malversation
As by a Cromwel's usurpation;
Your logick, Sir, 's not worth a spittle
Twixt Rogues that have and want a Title."

Among the smaller poems there is one which reminds us successfully (and that is saying a great deal) of some of the more broad and careless effusions of Swift. It is introduced by the following notice :

"The Popish party, after the defeat of Monmouth and Argyle, published_an insulting ballad, to the tune of Hey Boyes up go we; which coming to the hands of Lieutenant-Col. Cleland, he made the second part to the same tune and strain, holding forth the language of their wayes. Anno 1685.

"Now down with the confounded Whiggs, Let Loyaltie take place;

Let Hell possess their damn'd intrigues,
And all that cursed race;

Let oaths abound, and cups go round,
And whoores and rogues go free,
And Heaven itself stoop to the Crown,
For Hey Boyes up go we.
Come, let us drink a health about

Unto our Holy Father,

His sacred maxims without doubt
We will embrace the rather,
Because they're fram'd with wit and sense,
And favours Monarchie,

And can with all our sins dispense;

So Hey Boyes up go we.

There we shall ramble at our ease,
And still enjoy the best,

And all our wild affections please
In a religious vest;
And yet keep Heaven at our dispose,
If such a thing there be;
And drag the people by the nose-
So Hey Boyes up go we,

Assert we serve a Parricide

Or an Incendiarie

But we will murder, sham, and trick,
Of such to make us free;
We'll burn alive, and quarter quick-
So Hey Boyes up go we.
The Parliament, those poor sham sots,
We'll make them well content
To give supplies to cut their throats;

And when they do consent,

We'll kick these villains on the breech,

No more of them will we,
But Britain better manners teach-
For Hey Boyes up go we.
But if they chance to temporize,
And foster fond suspicions,

And tell King James of their franchise,
Their charters and conditions,
He'll pupon them and their Laws-
They're blind that cannot see
The longest Sword decides the Cause-
Thus Hey Boyes up go we.
The sins of the Long Parliament

He'll visite them upon,
Their other crimes and henious faults,
Which since are come and gone.
Of Westminster and Oxford too
The damned memorie;
He hath an Irish job to do-
So Hey Boyes up go we.
And, that he may facilitat

His work, he'll work a while
By Tolerationlull asleep

The rogues, and them beguile;
Some subtile potions he'll compose
Of grace and clemencie,

To blunt all those who him oppose-
So Hey Boyes up go wc.

This is in our author's best manner: but he is also capable of a more lofty and dignified strain, though his temperament perhaps, and probably still more the circumstances in which he was placed, habitually inclined him to "crack the satiric thong." The following stanzas well become the intrepid warrior who fought and died for the cause of Religion and of Liberty: they form part of a short poem, entitled, "Some few Lines composed by him for divertisement from melancholie thoughts, when travelling abroad. To the tune of Fancy free."

"Through razing rage of cursed kings, Whom vicious souls admire ; Through unjust sentences which springs From avarice or ire;

Or some such like infernall cause,

Whence guiltless people quake Before his face, whose sword, whose laws, Should their oppressors shake; Through firie fevers, wasting wounds, Through melancholious want,

Through sad distastures which abounds
To such as long and pant

Through calumnies, through frauds and slights,

That moveth mortals' mind, Through slandering tongues of brutish wights,

To baser wayes inclined:
They must adventure who intends
In Vertue's camp to warr,
Abhorring mean penurious ends
That brave exploits do marr.

If, when travers'd by all such fates,
Honour and Vertue be
Both proof against enchanting baits,
And frowning destiny,-

A soul may have a sure solace,
When stormed on every side,
And look proud tyrants in the face
With scorn to be dismay'd." &c.

Upon the whole, though William Cleland, compared with the great English poets of the preceding age,with Dryden, or even with his more direct prototype, the author of Hudibras, sinks into a rude and unskilful versifier; yet his poetical talents were unquestionably superior to any that the Tory party could then oppose to them; and if his genius be estimated (as it ought to be) rather from what it promised than performed,-and with due consideration of the lamentable state of poetry at that time in Scotland, and of all the peculiar disadvantages under which Cleland wrote,-the reader, we think, will be inclined to assign him a very honourable niche in our national Temple of Fame, not only as a Scots Worthy,' but like wise as a Scottish Poet.

THE EXACT NARRATIVE OF THE CONFLICT AT DUNKELD, BETWIXT THE EARL OF ANGUS'S REGIMENT AND THE REBELS.

Collected from several Officers of that Regi ment, who were Actors in, or Eye-witnesses to, all that's here Narrated, in reference to these Actions.

THE said regiment being then betwixt seven and eight hundred men, arrived at Dunkeld Saturndays night, the 17 of August, 1689, under the command of Lieutenant-Collonel William Cleland, a brave and singularly well accomplished gentleman, within 28 years of age. Immediately they found themselves obliged to lie at their arms, as being in the midst of their enemies.Sunday at nine in the morning, they began some retrenchments within the Marquess of Athol's yard-dykes; the old breaches whereof they made up with loose stones, and scaffolded the dykes about. In the after