Nor does
Claverhouse mention any kinsman of his, or any one of his name, as
having fallen that day: the only two officers he specifies are Captain
Blyth and Cornet Crafford, or Crawford, both of whom were killed by
Hamilton's first fire. But though Claverhouse mentions no one of his own
name, others do. By more than one contemporary writer one Robert Graham
is included among the slain. It is said that while at breakfast that
morning in Strathavon he had refused his dog meat, promising it a full
meal off the Whigs' bodies before night; "but instead of that," runs the
tale, "his dog was seen eating his own thrapple (for he was killed) by
several." Another version is, that the Covenanters, finding the name of
Graham wrought in the neck of the shirt, savagely mangled the dead body,
supposing it to be that of Claverhouse himself.[26]
But to come from tradition to fact. The affair began with a sharp
skirmish of musketry on both sides. To every regiment of cavalry there
were then joined a certain proportion of dragoons who seem to have held
much the position of our mounted infantry, men skilled in the use of
firearms and accustomed to fight as well on foot as in the saddle. A
party of these advanced in open order down the hill to the brink of the
dyke and opened a smart fire on the Covenanters, who answered with
spirit, but both in their weapons and skill were naturally far inferior
to the royal soldiers.
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