From Rob Roy

One indicator of how much influence a person has is when one's words are repeated, especially when they come into common use in a society.  Such an indicator is found in a letter which Jane Welsh Carlyle wrote to her husband Thomas on August 18, 1831.  Jane begins her letter with words right out of "Rob Roy".
 

‘My foot is on my native heath, and my name's Magregor [sic]!’ And now dear Love I can breath[e] again, and think, and feel, and write. Well, it is an invaluable privilege to have a house of ones own,—to be entitled to take a rank in society—tho' it were even below the craziest sort of gig. Robert Barker said one day, naively enough, when I had been skipping all his remarks and sparing myself the fatigue of answering: “What does ail you? At Craigenputtoch she is the brightest, most delightful creature in the world—and here always sullen and miserable looking!” “It is a pity it should be so,” said my Mother with much emphasis and tossing— “Fortunate rather” I coolly replied—“it is surely fortunate that I produce the pleasantest impression in the place where I oftenest am and where it is my duty to be”—...'

Battle of Preston

The Battle of Preston began August 17, 1648, lasting until the 19^th .  Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell won the battle, over Royalist forces, in lopsided fashion. 

Main sources of information on this battle are Oliver Cromwell himself, and a memoir written by Captain Hodgson, who was on the field of battle with Cromwell.  Thomas Carlyle, in a letter written on August 14, 1844, lists Cromwell’s fields of battle, including Preston.  In his description, Carlyle includes a reference to “Original Memoirs: being written during the Civil War".  This book contains the "Memoirs of Capt. Hodgson”, which Sir Walter Scott was involved in publishing.  From Carlyle’s letter:

Preston.
Moor near Preston, between that Town and Stonyhirst, on the north bank of the Ribble, in Lancashire: 17 August 1648; the chase, over Darwen Bridge, by Wigan to Warrington, lasts two days more, with a hot skirmish by the road, at ‘Redbank’ (a place near Winwick I should suppose). Cromwell's long Letter on the subject is abridged in Rushworth; can be found entire in the King's Pamphlets for the month in question;—it and all other details have been republished last year, in a convenient manner, by the ‘Chatham Society’ at Manchester, and are procurable with little difficulty. In Sir Walter Scott's Memoirs of the Civil War (Edinburgh, 1806) are some hints and notices by one Hodgson a Yorkshire captain, who was in the Fight;—very obscure and rude, but yielding light if well meditated and compared with others. An outline of the ground, the Moor, Ribble Bridge, Darwen Bridge &c would be very useful here.

And, from Captain Hodgson’s eyewitness memoir:

‘…The bullets flew freely; then was the heat of the battle that day.  I came down to the muir, where I met with Major Jackson, that belonged to Ashton's regiment, and about three hundred men were come up; and I ordered him to march, but he said he would not, till his men were come up. A serjeant, belonging to them, asked me, where they should march? I shewed him the party he was to fight; and he, like a true bred Englishman, marched, and I caused the soldiers to follow him; which presently fell upon the enemy, and, losing that wing, the whole army gave ground, and fled. Such valiant acts were done by contemptible instruments! The major had been called to a council of war, but that he cried peccavi. The Lancashire foot were as stout men as were in the world, and as brave firemen. I have often told them, they were as good fighters, and as great plunderers, as ever went to a field. This battle was about the 20th August 1648. It was to admiration to see what a spirit of courage and resolution there was 'amongst us, and how God hid from us the fears and dangers we were exposed to; what posture the enemy were in; their numbers (46,000 men, as reported); their threatenings, what they would do; how they were accoutered, and encouraged through the nation: They had cast lots for the spoil of us…’