James Nasmyth: Engineer | Page 8

and
confiscation of property." ...] and they accordingly met on the moors, or
in unfrequented places for worship. The dissenting Presbyterians
assumed the name of Covenanters. Hamilton was almost the centre of
the movement. The Covenanters met, and the King's forces were
ordered to disperse them. Hence the internecine war that followed.
There were Naesmyths on both sides-- Naesmyths for the King, and
Naesmyths for the Covenant.
In an early engagement at Drumclog, the Covenanters were victorious.
They beat back Claverhouse and his dragoons. A general rising took
place in the West Country. About 6000 men assembled at Hamilton,
mostly raw and undisciplined countrymen. The King's forces
assembled to meet them, -- 10,000 well-disciplined troops, with a
complete train of field artillery. What chance had the Covenanters
against such a force? Nevertheless, they met at Bothwell Bridge, a few
miles west of Hamilton. It is unnecessary to describe the action.*
[footnote... See the account of a Covenanting Officer in the Appendix
to the Scots Worthies. See also Sir Waiter Scott's Old Mortality, where
the battle of Bothwell Brig is described. ...]
The Covenanters, notwithstanding their inferior force, resisted the
cannonade and musketry of the enemy with great courage. They

defended the bridge until their ammunition failed. When the English
Guards and the artillery crossed the bridge, the battle was lost. The
Covenanters gave way, and fled in all directions; Claverhouse, burning
with revenge for his defeat at Drumclog, made a terrible slaughter of
the unresisting fugitives. One of my ancestors brought from the
battlefield the remnant of the standard; a formidable musquet-- "Gun
Bothwell" we afterwards called it; an Andrea Ferrara; and a
powder-horn. I still preserve these remnants of the civil war.
My ancestor was condemned to death in his absence, and his property
at Netherton was confiscated. What became of him during the
remainder of Charles II.'s reign, and the reign of that still greater
tormentor, James II., I do not know. He was probably, like many others,
wandering about from place to place, hiding "in wildernesses or caves,
destitute, afflicted, and tormented." The arrival of William III. restored
religious liberty to the country, and Scotland was again left in
comparative peace.
My ancestor took refuge in Edinburgh, but he never recovered his
property at Netherton. The Duke of Hamilton, one of the trimmers of
the time, had long coveted the possession of the lands, as Ahab had
coveted Naboth's vineyard. He took advantage of the conscription of
the men engaged in the Bothwell Brig conflict, and had the lands
forfeited in his favour. I remember my father telling me that, on one
occasion when he visited the Duke of Hamilton in reference to some
improvement of the grounds adjoining the palace, he pointed out to the
Duke the ruined remains of the old residence of the Naesmyths. As the
first French Revolution was then in full progress, when ideas of society
and property seemed to have lost their bearings, the Duke
good-humouredly observed, "Well, well, Naesmyth, there's no saying
but what, some of these days, your ancestors' lands may come into your
possession again!"
Before I quit the persecutions of "the good old times," I must refer to
the burning of witches. One of my ancient kinswomen, Elspeth
Naesmyth, who lived at Hamilton, was denounced as a witch. The chief
evidence brought against her was that she kept four black cats, and read

her Bible with two pairs of spectacles! a practice which shows that she
possessed the spirit of an experimental philosopher.
In doing this she adopted a mode of supplementing the power of
spectacles in restoring the receding power of the eyes. She was in all
respects scientifically correct. She increased the magnifying power of
the glasses; a practice which is preferable to using single glasses of the
same power, and which I myself often follow. Notwithstanding this
improved method of reading her Bible, and her four black cats, she was
condemned to be burned alive! She was about the last victim in
Scotland to the disgraceful superstition of witchcraft.
The Naesmyths of Netherton having lost their ancestral property, had to
begin the world again. They had to begin at the beginning. But they had
plenty of pluck and energy. I go back to my great-great-grandfather,
Michael Naesmyth, who was born in 1652. He occupied a house in the
Grassmarket, Edinburgh, which was afterwards rebuilt, in 1696. His
business was that of a builder and architect. His chief employment was
in designing and erecting new mansions, principally for the landed
gentry and nobility. Their old castellated houses or towers were found
too dark and dreary for modern uses. The drawbridges were taken
down, and the moats were filled up. Sometimes they built the new
mansions as an addition to the old. But oftener they left the old