Lord George Murray with his division of the
army marched by Leek to Ashbourn; and the Prince, with the rest of the
forces, came from Macclesfield to Leek, where, considering the distance
of the two columns of his army, and the neighbourhood of the enemy, he
naturally considered his situation as somewhat precarious. It was
possible for the enemy, by a night-march, to get betwixt the two
columns; and, contemplating this danger, the Prince set out at midnight
to Ashbourn, where it was conceived that the forces should proceed in
one body towards Derby. "Thus," remarks a modern historian, "two armies
in succession had been eluded by the Highlanders; that of Wade at
Newcastle, in consequence of the weather or the old Marshal's
inactivity, and that of Cumberland through the ingenuity of their own
leaders."[117]

Charles Edward and his officers slept at Ashbourn Hall, now in the
possession of Sir William Boothby, Baronet; into whose family the estate
passed in the time of Charles the Second.[118]

The young Prince had now advanced far into that county which has no
rival in this Island in the beauty and diversity of its scenery, in the
simple, honest character of its fine peasantry, or in the rank and
influence of its landed proprietors. The history of these families is
connected with the civil, and foreign wars of the kingdom; and already
had the moors and valleys of Derbyshire been the scene of contest which
had the Restoration of the Stuarts for their aim and end. In 1644, a
battle was fought near Ashbourn, in which the Royalists were defeated;
in 1645, just a century before Charles Edward entered Ashbourn, Charles
the First had attended service in the beautiful gothic church of
Ashbourn, as he marched his army through the Peak towards Doncaster.

The inhabitants of the district retained some portion of their ancient
loyalty to the Stuarts. As Prince Charles ascended the height, from
which, leading towards Derby, a view of the town of Ashbourn, seated in
a deep valley, and of the adjacent and romantic country, may be seen,
the roads were lined with peasantry, decorated with white cockades, and
showing their sentiments by loud acclamations, bonfires, and other
similar demonstrations. "One would have thought," remarks Mr.
Maxwell,[119] "that the Prince was now at the crisis of his adventure;
that his fate, and the fate of the three kingdoms, must be decided in a
few days. The Duke of Cumberland was at Lichfield; General Wade,