These fragmentary verses are from _The Thistle of Scotland_, p. 68.
The Graham[s and] Gordons of Aboyne Camp'd at Drumminor bog; At the castle there they lay all night, And left them scarce a hog.
The black Baillie, that auld dog, 5 Appeared on our right; We quickly raise up frae the bog, To Alford march'd that night.
We lay at Lesly all night, They camped at Asloun; 10 And up we raise afore daylight, To ding the beggars doun.
Before we was in battle rank, We was anent Mill Hill; I wat full weel they gar'd us rue,[L15] 15 We gat fighting our fill.
They hunted us and dunted us, They drave us here and there, Untill three hundred of our men Lay gasping in their lair. 20
The Earl of Mar the right wing guided, The colours stood him by; Lord George Gordon the left wing guided, Who well the sword could ply.
There came a ball shot frae the west 25 That shot him through the back; Although he was our enemy, We grieved for his wreck.
We cannot say 'twas his own men, But yet it came that way; 30 In Scotland there was not a match To that man where he lay.
_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, ii. 203
"The insurrection commemorated and magnified in the following ballad, as indeed it has been in some histories, was, in itself, no very important affair. It began in Dumfries-shire, where Sir James Turner, a soldier of fortune, was employed to levy the arbitrary fines imposed for not attending the Episcopal churches. The people rose, seized his person, disarmed his soldiers, and, having continued together, resolved to march towards Edinburgh, expecting to be joined by their friends in that quarter. In this they were disappointed; and, being now diminished to half their numbers, they drew up on the Pentland Hills, at a place called Rullien Green. They were commanded by one Wallace; and here they awaited the approach of General Dalziel, of Binns; who, having marched to Calder, to meet them on the Lanark road, and finding, that, by passing through Collington, they had got to the other side of the hills, cut through the mountains and approached them. Wallace showed both spirit and judgment: he drew up his men in a very strong situation, and withstood two charges of Dalziel's cavalry; but, upon the third shock, the insurgents were broken and utterly dispersed. There was very little slaughter, as the cavalry of Dalziel were chiefly gentlemen, who pitied their oppressed and misguided countrymen. There were about fifty killed, and as many made prisoners. The battle was fought on the 28th November, 1666; a day still observed by the scattered remnant of the Cameronian sect, who regularly hear a field-preaching upon the field of battle.