BORLUM.
HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.
CHINA AND MAJOLICA.
MR ASLATT’S WARD.
SELLS.
ELEPHANT GOSSIP FROM RANGOON.
TO A LITTLE CHILD,
No. 745.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1878.
Long ago—you may say in 1808—when I was aboy at Peebles, the school-children, as a varietyin their boisterous amusements, occasionally bombardedwith stones a grievously defaced effigybuilt into the walls of a ruinous old church in theneighbourhood. With savage significance, the unfortunatepiece of sculpture was called Borlum,and as Borlum it had been pelted by several successivegenerations. From the dearth of historicalknowledge at the spot, no one could explain whoor what was meant by Borlum; and not till someyears afterwards, in the course of reading, did Ifind out that by Borlum was meant BrigadierMackintosh of Borlum, who commanded a resoluteparty of Highlanders in Mar’s rebellion of 1715,and who, by their masterly audacity in marchingtowards the Border, threw the southern countiesof Scotland into a state of indescribable alarm.To Borlum, as he was familiarly termed, was thusassigned the character of a bugbear along thewhole course of the Tweed; and long after he hadpassed away, and when the political events inwhich he was concerned were forgotten, the originalterror of his name survived in the vengefullydestructive recreations of school-children. In avicarious capacity, a harmless piece of sculpture,which had nothing at all to do with Borlum, wasdoomed to suffer for a popular scare nearly ahundred years previously.
In the history of that miserably managed affair,Mar’s Jacobite rebellion, Mackintosh of Borlum—ormore properly younger of Borlum, for his fatherwas still living—stands conspicuously out as amilitary hero, who threw into the shade manyof higher title and pretensions. How with fivehundred of his clan, with banners flying, hemarched to Inverness, and seized that importantpost. How he hastened on to the Lowlands,eluded the troops designed to intercept him;crossed the Firth of Forth with a large force inopen boats, and captured Leith. How, carryingeverything before him, he marched onwards tothe Border, in order to join the rebel forces ofGeneral Forster in Northumberland—are all factsbelonging to history. His sagacity, foresight, intrepidity,and daring courage were worthy of a bettercause. Getting into England, and mixed up withhalf-hearted movements, Borlum is very much lostsight of. The enterprise, owing to Mar’s indiscretio