they prepared to march, having first proclaimed the
Chevalier,--Mr. Buxton taking upon himself the office of herald.
Newcastle was, however, on her defence: the city gates were closed
against the troops, and they turned towards Hexham, and thence marched
to a moor near Dilstone Castle, and here they halted for some days. This
was a feint, as they intended, it is thought, to have surprised the town
of Newcastle. But the news they received from that place were far from
encouraging. The gentry in the neighbourhood had rallied for its
defence; and Lord Scarborough, the lord-lieutenant of the county, had
entered the town with a body of men. Still there was a powerful High
Church party, who, as the Jacobites hoped, would declare for the
Chevalier. It was from Newcastle that Lord Derwentwater had been
apprised, in the first instance, that there were messengers sent to
apprehend him. The insurgents therefore, continued near Hexham, where
they seized on all the horses and arms they could, read prayers in the
churches for King James, and proclaimed him in the market-place.

The Earl of Derwentwater had appointed his brother to the command of his
troop, whilst Captain Shaftoe was under Mr. Radcliffe. This, in some
respects, was an unfortunate step: the young and brave commander had
never even seen an army before: he was inexperienced, and ignorant of
all military discipline: what he wanted in knowledge, he is said,
however, to have made up for by the influence he acquired over his men,
and by the power he had of inciting them to great exploits.[191]

Whilst the rebel forces lay at Hexham, they received the intelligence
that Lord Kenmure, the Earls of Nithisdale, of Carnwath, and Wintoun,
had risen in Nithisdale, and had marched thence to England to join the
troops in Northumberland, and had even advanced as far as Rothbury. On
the nineteenth of October, Mr. Forster joined the Scottish army at
Rothbury, and afterwards marched with an increasing force to Kelso. Here
prayers were read in the great kirk by Mr. Buxton; "and I," relates Mr.
Patten, "preached on these words, Deut. xxi. 17,--the latter part of the
verse: 'The right of the first-born is his.'" The service of the Church
of England was then read for the first time on that side of the
Tweed.[192]

William Gordon, Viscount Kenmure, had the command of the Jacobite army
until they had crossed the Tweed. Like the Earl of Derwentwater, this
unfortunate nobleman is declared to ha