Lieutenant Lang and Storie Bauld

DESCRIPTION: John Arinthrow was a coward: "as soon's the shot began to crack He in the ground the colour stack ... And syne he run awa"/"he turned his back And on the ground he tumbled doun and fyled his Bum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: cowardice battle scatological
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 17, 1746 - Battle of Falkirk won by Jacobite forces (see "The Battle of Falkirk 1746" at the BritishBattles site).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 155, "Lieutenant Lang and Storie Bauld"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, p. xliv, "The Earl o Hume" (2 fragments)
Roud #15111
NOTES [186 words]: For more on the Jacobite rising and defeat see notes to "The Muir of Culloden."
The fragment Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 p. xliv is from "Motherwell's manuscript Ballad Book ... Motherwell comments on it: '... It relates to the battle of Falkirk & the behaviour of the Paisley Militia on that day. It is quite a local song. John Arinthrow i.e. Renfrew was the Colour-bearer....'" The verse quoted from Motherwell is 'the equivalent stanza' to Crawfurd's. - BS
According to Stuart Reid, 1745: A Military History of the Last Jacobite Rising, Sarpedon, 1966, p. 84, "A small but enthusiastic battalion of about 180 men was raised in Paisley and Renfrew by another regular officer, Major William Cunningham the Earl of Glencairn"; this was a loyalist formation recruited in November 1745. At Falkirk, the Paisley unit was part of a tiny "brigade" of some 650 men led by the Earl of Home (Reid, p. 100). In the course of the battle, the Jacobites beat off a loyalist attack, then counter-charged and slammed into Home's brigade (Reid, pp. 100-101); not surprisingly, the Jacobites shattered and fled. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LyCr2155

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