"
During his search for the Rutherglen men he had heard more of the plans
for Sunday. It was clear something was in the air, and report named
Loudon Hill as the place of business, a steep and rocky eminence marking
the spot where the shires of Ayr, Lanark, and Renfrew meet. To Loudon
Hill accordingly Claverhouse turned his march, and soon found that
rumour had for once not exaggerated.
Two miles to the east of the hill lies the little hamlet and farm of
Drumclog, even now but sparsely covered with coarse meadow-grass, and
then no more than a barren stretch of swampy moorland. South and north
the ground sloped gently down towards a marshy bottom through which ran
a stream, or dyke, fringed with stunted alder-bushes. On the foot of the
southern slope, across the dyke, the Covenanters were drawn up; and the
practised eye of Claverhouse saw at a glance that they had gathered
there not to pray but to fight. "When we came in sight of them," he
wrote to Linlithgow, "we found them drawn up in battle upon a most
advantageous ground, to which there was no coming but through mosses and
lakes. They were not preaching, and had got away all their women and
children."[24] They were ranged in three lines: those who had firearms
being placed nearest to the dyke, behind them a body of pikemen, and in
the rear the rest, armed with scythes set on poles, pitchforks, goads
and other such rustic weapons.
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