s referred to in the following
anecdote. In the reign of Kenneth the Second, a kinsman of the King
having been taken and hung by the Picts, a great reward was offered by
Kenneth, if any one would rescue and restore the corpse of his relation.
The enterprise was so hazardous, that no one would venture on so great a
risk. "At last," so runs the tale, "a certain gentleman came to the
King, and said, 'Dalziel,' which is the old Scottish word for 'I dare.'
He performed his engagement, and won for himself and his posterity the
name which he had verified, and an armorial bearing corresponding to the
action."

To James the First and to Charles the First the Dalziels owed their
honours, and had the usual fortune of paying dearly for them, during the
Great Rebellion, by sequestration, and by the imprisonment of Robert,
first Earl of Carnwath, after the battle of Worcester, whither he
attended Charles the Second. Undaunted by the adversities which his
house had formerly endured, Robert Dalzell, of Glenae, sixth Earl of
Carnwath, again came forward in 1715 to maintain the principles in which
he had been nurtured, and to assist the family for whom his ancestors
had suffered. During his childhood, the tutor of this nobleman had made
it his chief care to instil into his mind the doctrine of hereditary
right, and its consequent, passive obedience and non-resistance. At the
University of Cambridge, young Dalzell had imbibed an affection for the
liturgy and discipline of the Church of England; whilst his attainments
had kept pace with the qualities of his heart, and the graces of his
deportment. He was, in truth, a young man of fair promise, and one whose
fate excited great interest, when a sombre tranquillity had succeeded to
the turbulence of rebellion. Gentle in his address, affable,
kind-hearted, Lord Carnwath had a natural and ready wit, and a great
command of language, to which his English education had doubtless
contributed. He was related by a former marriage between the families to
the Earl of Wintoun, whose troop was commanded by Captain James Dalzell,
the brother of Lord Carnwath. This young officer had served in the army
of George the First, but he threw up his commission at the beginning of
the Rebellion,--a circumstance which saved him from being shot at
Preston as a deserter.[9]

Robert Balfour, fifth Earl of Burleigh, was among the chiefs who,
shortly after the outbreak, avowed their adherence to the Pretender's
party.