[Footnote A: Upon the breaking out of the insurrection, in the year
1715, the earl of Rothes, sheriff and lord-lieutenant of the county of
Fife, issued out an order for "all the fencible men of the countie to
meet him, at a place called Cashmoor. The gentlemen took no notice of
his orders, nor did the commons, except those whom the ministers forced
to goe to the place of rendezvouse, to the number of fifteen hundred
men, being all that their utmost diligence could perform. But those of
that countie, having been taught by their experience, that it is not
good meddling with edge tools, especiallie in the hands of Highlandmen,
were very averse from taking armes. No sooner they reflected on the name
of the place of rendezvouse, Cashmoor, than Tippermoor was called to
mind; a place not far from thence, where Montrose had routed them, when
under the command of my great-grand-uncle the earl of Wemyss, then
generall of God's armie. In a word, the unlucky choice of a place,
called _Moo_, appeared ominous; and that, with the flying report of the
Highlandmen having made themselves masters of Perth, made them throw
down their armes, and run, notwithstanding the trouble that Rothes and
the ministers gave themselves to stop them."--M.S. _Memoirs of Lord St
Clair._]

This victory opened the whole of Scotland to Montrose He occupied the
capital, and marched forward to the border; not merely to complete the
subjection of the southern provinces, but with the flattering hope of
pouring his victorious army into England, and bringing to the support of
Charles the sword of his paternal tribes.

Half a century before Montrose's career, the state of the borders was
such as might have enabled him easily to have accomplished his daring
plan. The marquis of Douglas, the earls of Hume, Roxburgh, Traquair, and