give it him." When the races were ended, Lord Burleigh, then
Master of Burleigh, led the way to the Cross of Lochmaben, where, with
great solemnity, drums beating, and colours displayed, those there
colected drank to "_their King's health;_" the Master of Burleigh
giving the toast, and uttering an imprecation on all such as should
refuse to pledge it. These meetings had been continued for several
years, and, during the reign of Queen Anne, without any molestation from
Government.[10] Lord Nithisdale took a decided part in all these
measures, and was one of those who were considered as entirely to be
trusted by the Earl of Mar, with regard to the projected arrival of the
Pretender in Scotland. On the sixth of August, 1715, that project was
communicated by Mar to the Earl of Nithisdale, through the medium of
Captain Dalzell, who was despatched likewise to Lord Kenmure, and to the
Earl of Carnwath. Lord Nithisdale obeyed the summons, and met the great
council of the Jacobite nobles at Braemar, where the decisive and
irrevocable step was taken.

Lord Nithisdale, in common with the other members of what was now termed
the Jacobite Association, had been diligently preparing the contest.
Meetings of the Association had been frequent, and even public. The
finest horses had been bought up at any cost, with saddles and
accoutrements, and numbers of horse-shoes. Many country gentlemen, who
were in the habit of keeping only two or three saddle-horses at a time,
now collected double the number; and a suspicion prevailed that it was
the intention of some, who were Jacobites, to mount a troop. But no
seizure had been made of their property in the last reign, there being
few justices of the peace in Dumfriesshire, nominated by Queen Anne, who
were not in the service of the Chevalier.[11] Trained bands were,
however, soon raised by the well-affected gentry of the county for the
protection of the neighbourhood; and Nithisdale was traversed by armed
bands,--Closeburn House, then the residence of Sir Thomas
Kirkpatrick,[12] being a frequent point of union for the friends of the
Hanoverian interests to assemble.[13] At Trepons, in the upper part of
Nithisdale, was the first blood drawn that was shed in this disastrous
quarrel, Mr. Bell of Nimsea, a Jacobite gentleman, being there shot
through the leg by one of the guards, on his refusing to obey
orders.[14] The occurrence was typical of the remorseless cruelty which
was afterwards exhibite