Manners, customs and history of the Highlanders of Scotland ; Historical account of the clan MacGregor

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND HISTORY

OF THE

HIGHLANDERS or SCOTLAND.

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND HISTORY

OP THE

HlGHLANDEES OF SCOTLAND

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

CLAN MACGREGOE,

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND HISTORY

OF THE

HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

CLAN MACGREGOR

BOTH BY

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

GLASGOW: THOMAS D. MORISON

LONDON :
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO.

1893

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND HISTORY OF
THE HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

CONTENTS

PAGE.

CHAPTER I.,- 13

Ignorance regarding the Highlands — The Pretender and the
Highlanders — Battle of Prestonpans — Advance into
England — Retreat — Battle of Culloden.

CHAPTER II., - 22

Peculiarities of Clan government and Highland habits —
Revengeful Disposition — The Muat and Cameron Feud
— The Lesley and Leith fight — Characteristics of High-
land Chiefs — Nature of the customs as conducive of
tribal divisions — Distinctive Appelatives of the Chiefs.

VI.

Contents.

PAGE.

CHAPTER III., 31

Obedience to the Chiefs— Three Classes— Chiefs Tacksmen,
etc, and Common People — Succession and Inheritance
— The difference between Chiefs and Chieftains — Pride
of Lineage — Characteristics and Duties of the Tacks
men — The Common Dependence — Over Population and
its Consequences —The Younger Sons — Military Spirit
and Eternal Feuds Among the Clans.

CHAPTER IV., - 43

Highland artisans — Great hardihood among all classes —
Over-population, want, and starvation — Disposition of
the people — Story of MacDonald of Keppoch — Story
of the Chief of Clanronald— Relationship of chiefs and
commoners — The merging of clans and individuals with
other clans — Highland independence of Parliamentary
law.

CHAPTER V., 52

The Great Ruling Families — Historical Account of the
Highlands — King James I. — The Lords of the Isles —
Feuds in the Clan Colla— Numerous clans and their
history and location — Early Statutes relating to High-
land feuds— The Clan MacGregor — Their remarkable
History and Career — Tragic occurrences.

Contents. vii.

PAGE.

CHAPTER VI., - 66

The Campbells in the West Highlands — Conflicts between
Highlanders and Lowlanders — The wars of Montrose —
Cromwell and the Highlanders— The Highlanders at the
Restoration — The MacDonalds of Keppoch and the Mac-
Intoshs — The House of Hanover and the Highlanders.

CHAPTER VII., - 76

Lord President Forbes— The Story of Lord Lovat's Life —
The Tragic Story of his Marriage — Lord Lovat's Intri-
gues—Lord President Forbes' Exertions on behalf of
his Countrymen.

CHAPTER VIII., - 89

The Highlands in 1715 and 1745— The forming of the Black
Watch— Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope— Rob Roy's
Haunts— The Craftiness of Lord Lovat— A Singular
Story— Lady Lovat— Lord President Forbes labouring
to dissuade the Highland Chiefs.

CHAPTER IX., - 101

Prince Charles at Dounie Castle— Lord Lovat's last days-
Endeared Memory of President Forbes— Severities on
the Highlanders after the 1745 Rising— The good and
bad points in Clanship— Highland Romance.

viii. Contents.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE CLAN
MACGREGOR.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

CHAPTER I., - 115

Rob Roy compared to Robin Hood — Peculiar History of the
Clan MacGregor — Their descent and wrongs — Especial
Statutes against the Clan— Fend between the Mac-
Gregors and the Colquhouns — The Battle of Glenfruin.

CHAPTER II., - - 126

Results of the Battle of Glenfrnin — The Chief surrenders to
the Duke of Argyle — The Duke betrays him — Trial and
Execution at Edinburgh— The MacGregors under King
James I. and Charles I.— Later Times — Genealogy of
Rob Roy.

CHAPTER III., - - . 135

Rob Roy's Birth and Early Years— His property of Craig
Royston— Ruined by hia partner— His wife— Predatory
war against the Duke of Montrose — His general appear-
ance and character.

Contents. ix.

PAGK.

CHAPTER IV., - - H5

Wordsworth on Rob Roy— Rob Roy at Donne — Combat at
Shilling Hill — Rob Roy's lieutenant — A narrow escape —
Rob Roy's depredations — The MacGregors in the 1715
Rising— The affair of the Boats.

CHAPTER V., 156

Rob Roy and the Professor — The MacGregors at the Battle
of Sheriffmuir — Rob turns the Battle to personal advan-
tage— Resumes his warfare with Montrose — The Duke's
Factor — Rob lifts the rents.

CHAPTER VI, - - 166

The Garrison at Inversnaid — Rob Roy as a Black- Mailer —
Description of Black-Mail — A Cattle-stealing story —
Rob captured by the Duke — And his escape.

CHAPTER VIL, - - 175

Rob Roy's declaration to General Wade — Becomes more
peaceable in his habits — Gives some attention to re-
ligious matters — Dispute with the Stewarts of Appin —
Rob's combat with Alaster Stewart— Rob Roy's death
—Estimate of his life and character— Rob's five sons-
Renewal of quarrel with MacLarens and Stewarts.

x. Contents.

PAGK.

CHAPTER VIII., - - 187

The MacGregors in the Rising of 1845— At the Battle of
Prestonpans — At the Battle of Culloden — Return home
—The Matrimonial Tragedy — The Story of the Abduc-
tion—Liberation of Jean Keay — Her Decease.

CHAPTER IX., - . 198

The Trial — James Mohr MacGregor's imprisonment and
romantic escape— Outlawed— A remarkable Highland
Story— James's later days and death— Robert Oig Mac-
Gregor's Trial and Execution.

APPENDIX, - 211

Advertisement for Apprehension of Rob Roy.

Letters from and to the Duke of Montrose.

Copy of Grahame of Killearn's letter.

The Duke of Montrose.

Killearn's release.

Challenge by Rob Roy.

From Robert Campbell to Field-Marshal Wade.

On Highland Wooing— Ghlune Dhu.

of Sir

were originally published in the Quarterly
and have seldom been re-published.

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND HISTORY

OF THE

HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

CHAPTER I.

Ignorance regarding the Highlands— The Pretender and the High-
landers—Battle of Prestonpans— Advance into England— Retreat
—Battle of Culloden,

EVERYTHING belonging to the Highlands of Scotland
has of late become peculiarly interesting. It is not
much above a half a century since it was otherwise.
The inhabitants of the lowlands of Scotland were, in-
deed, aware that there existed, in the extremity of the
island, amid wilder mountains and broader lakes than
their own, tribes of men called clans, living each under
the rule of their own chief, wearing a peculiar dress,
speaking an unknown language, and going armed even
in the most ordinary and peaceful vocation.

The more southern counties saw specimens of these
men, following the droves of cattle which were the
sole exportable commodity of their country, plaided,
bonneted, belted and brogued, and driving their
bullocks, as Virgil is said to have spread his manure,

14 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

with an air of great dignity and consequence. To
their nearer Lowland neighbours, they were known by
more fierce and frequent causes of acquaintance ; by
the forays which they made upon the inhabitants of
the plains, and the tribute, or protection-money, which
they exacted from those whose possessions they spared.

But in England, the knowledge of the very existence
of the Highlanders was, prior to 1745, faint and for-
gotten ; and not even the recollection of those civil
wars which they had maintained in the years 1689,
1715, and 1719, had made much impression on the
British public. The more intelligent, when they
thought of them by any chance, considered them as
complete barbarians; and the mass of the people cared
no more about them than the merchants of New York
about the Indians who dwell beyond the Alleghany
mountains. Swift, in his Journal to Stella, mentions
having dined in company with two gentlemen from the
Highlands of Scotland, and expresses his surprise at
finding them persons of ordinary decorum and civility.

Such was the universal ignorance of the rest of the
island respecting the inhabitants of this remote corner
of Britain, when the events of the remarkable years
1745-6 roused them, " like a rattling peal of thunder."
On the 25th of July, 1745, the eldest son of the
Chevalier Saint George, usually called from that cir-
cumstance the young Chevalier, landed in Moidart, in
the West Highlands, with seven attendants only ; and
his presence was sufficient to summon about eighteen

ADVANCE INTO ENGLAND. 15

hundred men to his standard, even before the news of
his arrival could reach London. This little army was
composed of a few country gentlemen, acting as com-
manders of battalions raised from the peasants or
commoners of their estates, and officered by the princi-
pal farmers, or tacksmen. None of them pretended to
knowledge of military affairs, and very few had ever
seen an action.

With such adequate forces, the adventurer marched
forward, like the hero of romance, to prove his fortune.
The most considerable part of the regular army moved
to meet him at the pass of Corry-arrack ; and, as we
learn from the Culloden papers, the Chevalier called
for his Highland dress, and, tying the latchet of a pair
of Highland brogues, swore he would fight the army of
the government before he unloosed them. But Sir
John Cope, avoiding an action, marched to Inverness,
leaving the low countries open to the Chevalier, who
instantly rushed down on them ; and while one part
of the government army retreated northward to avoid
him, he chased before him the remainder, which fled to
the south. He crossed the Forth on the 13th September,
and in two days afterwards was master of the metro-
polis of Scotland.

The king's forces having again united at Dunbar,
and being about to advance upon Edinburgh, sustained
at Prestonpans one of the most complete defeats re-
corded in history, their cavalry flying in irretrievable
confusion, and all their infantry being killed or made
prisoners.

16 HIGHLANDERS OP SCOTLAND.

Under these auspices, the Highland army, now about
five or six thousand strong, advanced into England
although Marshal Wade lay at Newcastle with one
army and the Duke of Cumberland was at the head of
another in the centre of the kingdom. They took
Carlisle, a walled town, with a castle of considerable
strength, and struck a degree of confusion and terror
into the public mind, at which those who witnessed and
shared it were afterwards surprised and ashamed.
London, says a contemporary, writing on the spur of
the moment, lies open as a prize to the first comers,
whether Scotch or Dutch ; and a letter from Gray to
Horace Walpole, paints an indifference yet more
ominous to the public cause than the general panic : —
" the common people in town at least know how to be
afraid ; but we are such uncommon people here (at
Cambridge) as to have no more sense of danger than if
the battle had been fought where and when the battle
of Cannae was. — I heard three sensible middle-aged
men, when the Scotch were said to be at Stamford, and
actually were at Derby, talking of hiring a chaise to go
to Caxton (a place in the high-road) to see the Pre-
tender and Highlanders as they passed."

A further evidence of the feelings under which the
public laboured during this crisis, is to be found in a
letter from the well-known Sir Andrew Mitchell to the
Lord President.

" If I had not lived long enough in England to know
the natural bravery of the people, particularly of the

ALARM IN ENGLAND. 17

better sort, I should, from their behaviour of late, have
had a very false opinion of them ; for the least scrap of
good news exalts them most absurdly ; and the smallest
reverse of fortune depresses them meanly."

In fact the alarm was not groundless ; — not that the
number of the Chevalier's individual followers ought to
have been an object of serious, at least of permanent
alarm to so great a kingdom, — but because, in many
counties, a great proportion of the landed interest were
Jacobitically disposed, although, with the prudence
which distinguished the opposite party in 1688, they
declined joining the invaders until it should appear
whether they could maintain their ground without
them. If it had rested with the unfortunate but daring
leader of this strange adventure, his courage, though
far less supported either by actual strength of numbers
or by military experience, was as much " screwed to
the sticking-place " as that of the Prince of Orange.

The history of the council of war, at Derby, in which
Charles Edward's retreat was determined, has never yet
been fully explained ; it will, however, be one day
made known ; — in the meantime, it is proved that no
cowardice on his part, no wish to retreat from the
desperate adventure in which he was engaged, and to
shelter himself from its consequences, dictated the
movement which was then adopted. Vestigia nulla
retrorsum had been his motto from the beginning.
When retreat was determined upon, contrary to his
arguments, entreaties, and tears, he evidently con-

18 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

sidered his cause as desperate : he seemed, in many
respects, an altered man ; and from being the leader of
his little host, became in appearance, as he was in
reality, their reluctant follower. While the Highland
army advanced, Charles was always in the van by the
break of day ; — in retreat, his alacrity was gone, and
often they were compelled to wait for him ; — he lost
his spirit, his gaiety, his hardihood, and he never re-
gained them but when battle was spoken of. In later
life, when all hopes of re-establishment were ended,
Charles Edward sunk into frailties by which he was
debased and dishonoured.

But let us be just to the memory of the unfortunate.
Without courage, he had never made the attempt —
without address and military talent, he had never kept
together his own desultory bands, or discomfited the
more experienced soldiers of his enemy; — and finally,
without patience, resolution, and fortitude, he could
never have supported his cause so long, under successive
disappointments, or fallen at last with honour, by an
accumulated and overwhelming pressure.

When the resolution of retreat was adopted, it was
accomplished with a dexterous celerity, as remarkable
as the audacity of the advance. With Ligonier's army
on one flank, and Cumberland's in the rear — surrounded
by hostile forces, — and without one hope remaining of
countenance or assistance from the Jacobites of Eng-
land, the Highlanders made their retrograde movement
without either fear or loss, and had the advantage at

RETREAT INTO SCOTLAND. 19

Clifton, near Penrith, in the only skirmish which took
place between them and their numerous pursuers. The
same good fortune seemed for a time to attend the
continuation of the war, when removed once more to
Scotland. The Chevalier, at the head of his little army,
returned to the north more like a victor than a retreating
adventurer. He laid Glasgow under ample contribu-
tion, refreshed and collected his scattered troops, and
laid siege to Stirling, whose castle guards the principal
passage between the Highlands and Lowlands.

In the meanwhile, General Hawley was sent against
him ; an officer so confident of success, that he declared
he would trample the Highland insurgents into dust
with only two regiments of dragoons ; and whose first
order, on entering Edinburgh, was to set up a gibbet
in the Grass Market, and another between Leith and
Edinburgh. But this commander received from his
despised opponents so sharp a defeat, at Falkirk, that,
notwithstanding all the colours which could be put
upon it, the affair appeared not much more creditable
than that of Prestonpans. How Hawley looked upon
this occasion, we learn by a letter from General Wight-
man.

" General H y is in much the same situation as

General C — e : he was never seen in the field during
the battle ; and everything would have gone to wreck,
in a worse manner than at Preston, if General Huske
had not acted with judgment and courage, and
appeared everywhere. H y seems to be sensible of

20 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

his misconduct ; for when I was with him on Saturday
morning at Linlithgow, he looked most wretchedly ;
even worse than C — e did a few hours after his scuffle,
when I saw him at Fala."

Even when the approach of the Duke of Cumberland,
with a predominant force, compelled these adventurers
to retreat towards their northern recesses, they were so
far from being disheartened that they generally had
the advantage in the sort of skirmishing warfare which
preceded their final defeat at Culloden. On this
occasion, they seem, for the first time, to have laboured
under a kind of judicial infatuation. They did not
defend the passage of Spey, though broad, deep, rapid,
and dangerous ; they did not retreat before the Duke
into the defiles of their own mountains, where regular
troops pursuing them could not long have subsisted ;
they did not even withdraw two leagues, which would
have placed them in a position inaccessible to horse
and favourable to their own mode of fighting : they
did not await their own reinforcements, although three
thousand men, a number equal to one half of their
army, were within a day's march. But, on the contrary,
they wasted the spirits of their people, already ex-
hausted by hunger and dispirited by retreat, in a forced
march, with the purpose of a night attack, which was
hastily and rashly adopted, and as inconsiderately
abandoned ; and at length drew up in an open plain,
exposed to the fire of artillery, and protected from the
charge of cavalry only by a park wall, which was soon

BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 21

pulled down. This they did, though they themselves
had no efficient force of either description: and in such
a hopeless position they awaited the encounter of an
enemy more than double their numbers, fully equipped,
and in a complete state for battle. The result was
what might have been expected — the loss, namely, of
all but their honour, which was well maintained, since
they left nearly the half of their army upon the field.

What causes, at this critical period, distracted those
councils which had hitherto exhibited sagacity and
military talent, it would be difficult now to ascertain.
An officer, deep in their counsels, offers no better
reason than that they must have expected a continua-
tion of the same miraculous success which had hitherto
befriended them against all probable calculation and
chance of war — a sort of crowning mercy, as Cromwell
might have called it, granted to the supposed goodness
of their cause, and their acknowledged courage, in
defiance of all the odds against them. But we believe
the truth to be, that the French advisers who were
around the Chevalier had, by this time, the majority in
his councils. They were alarmed at the prospect of a
mountain war, which presented a long perspective of
severe hardship and privation ; and being, at the worst,
confident of their own safety as prisoners of war, they
urged the adventurer to stand this fearful hazard,
which, as we all know, terminated in utter and
irremediable defeat.

22 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.
CHAPTER II.

Peculiarities of Clan government and Highland habita— Revengeful
Disposition — The Muat and Cameron Feud — The Lesley and Leith
fight — Characteristics of Highland Chiefs— Nature of the customs
as conducive of tribal divisions — Distinctive Appelatives of the
Chiefs.

IT was not till after these events, which we have
hastily retraced, that the Highlanders, with the pe-
culiarity of their government and habits, became a
general object of attention and investigation. And
evidently it must have been matter of astonishment to
the subjects of the complicated and combined con-
stitution of Great Britain, to find they were living at
the next door to tribes whose government and manners
were simply and purely patriarchal, and who, in the
structure of their social system, much more resembled
the inhabitants of the mountains of India than those of
the plains of England. Indeed, when we took up the
account of Cabul, lately published by the Honourable
Mr. Elphinstone, we were forcibly struck with the
curious points of parallelism between the manners of
the Afghan tribes and those of the ancient Highland
clans.

They resembled these Oriental mountaineers in their
feuds, in their adoption of auxiliary tribes, in their laws,
in their modes of conducting war, in their arms, and,
in some respects, even in their dress. A Highlander
who made the amende honorable to an enemy, came to
his dwelling, laid his head upon the block, or offered
him his sword held by the point ; an Afghan does the

HIGHLAND VENGEANCE. 23

same. It was deemed unworthy, in either case, to re-
fuse the clemency implored, but it might be legally
done. We recollect an instance in Highland history : —
William Macintosh, a leader, if not the chief, of that
ancient clan, upon some quarrel with the Gordons,
burnt the castle of Auchindown, belonging to this
powerful family ; and was, in the feud which followed,
reduced to such extremities by the persevering ven-
geance of the Earl of Huntly, that he was at length
compelled to surrender himself at discretion. He came
to the castle of Strathbogie, choosing his time when
the earl was absent, and yielded himself up to the
countess. She informed him that Huntly had sworn
never to forgive him the offence he had committed,
until he should see his head upon the block. The
humbled chieftain kneeled down, and laid his head
upon the kitchen dresser, where the oxen were cut up
for the baron's feast. No sooner had he made this
humiliation, than the cook, who stood behind him with
his cleaver uplifted, at a sign from the inexorable
countess, severed Macintosh's head from his body at a
stroke.

So deep was this thirst of vengeance impressed on
the minds of the Highlanders, that when a clergyman
informed a dying chief of the unlawfulness of the
sentiment, urged the necessity of his forgiving an
inveterate enemy, and quoted the scriptural expression,
" Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," the acquiescing
penitent said, with a deep sigh,

24 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

" To be sure, it is too sweet a morsel for a mortal."
Then added, " Well, I forgive him ; but the deil take
you, Donald " (turning to his son), " if you forgive
him."

Another extraordinary instance occurred in Aber-
deenshire. In the sixteenth century, Muat of Aber-
geldie, then a powerful baron, made an agreement to
meet with Cameron of Brux, with whom he was at feud,
each being attended with twelve horse only. But
Muat, treacherously taking advantage of the literal
meaning of the words, came with two riders on each
horse. They met at Drumgaudrum, a hill near the
river Don ; and in the unequal conflict which ensued,
Brux fell, with most of his friends. The estate de-
scended to an only daughter, Katherine ; whose hand
the widowed Lady Brux, with a spirit well suited to
the times, offered as a reward to any one who would
avenge her husband's death. Robert Forbes, a
younger son of the chief of that family, undertook the
adventure ; and having challenged Muat to single com-
bat, fought with and slew him at a place called
Badenyon, near the head of Glenbucket. A stone
called Clachmuat (i.e., Muat's stone) still marks the
place of combat. When the victor presented himself
to claim the reward of his valour, and to deprecate any
delay of his happiness, Lady Brux at once cut short all
ceremonial, by declaring that " Kate Cameron should
go to Robert Forbes's bed while Muat's blood was yet
reeking upon his gully " (i.e., knife). The victor ex-

LESLIE AND LEITH FIGHT. 25

pressed no disapprobation of this arrangement, nor did
the maiden scruples of the bride impede her filial
obedience.*

One more example (and we could add an hun-
dred) of that insatiable thirst for revenge, which
attended northern feuds. One of the Leslies, a
strong and active young man, chanced to be in
company with a number of the clan of Leith, the
feudal enemies of his own. The place where they
met being the hall of a powerful and neutral neigh-
bour, Leslie was, like Shakespeare's Tybalt in a similar
situation, compelled to endure their presence. Still he
held the opinion of the angry Capulet, even in the
midst of the entertainment,

" Now by the stock and honour of my kin,
To strike him dead I hold it not a sin."

Accordingly, when they stood up to dance, and he
found himself compelled to touch the hands and
approach the persons of his detested enemies, the
deadly feud broke forth. He unsheathed his dagger
as he went down the dance — struck on the right and
left — laid some dead and many wounded on the floor —
threw up the window, leaped into the castle-court, and
escaped in the general confusion. Such were the
unsettled principles of the time, that the perfidy of the
action was lost in its boldness ; it was applauded by

* Vide note to " Don," a poem, reprinted by Moir, Edinburgh,
1816, from an edition in 1742.

26 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

his kinsmen, who united themselves to defend what
he had done : and the fact is commemorated in the
well-known tune of triumph called Lesly among the
Leiths.

The genealogies of the Afghan tribes may be
paralleled with those of the clans ; the nature of their
favourite sports, their love of their native land, their
hospitality, their address, their simplicity of manners
exactly correspond. Their superstitions are the same,
or nearly so. The GhoUe Beabaun (demons of the
desert) resemble the Boddach of the Highlanders, who
" walked the heath at midnight and at noon." The
Afghan's most ordinary mode of divination is by ex-
amining the marks in the blade-bone of a sheep, held
up to the light ; and even so the Rev. Mr. Robert Kirk
assures us, that in his time, the end of the sixteenth
century, " the seers prognosticate many future events
(only for a month's space) from the shoulder-bone of a
sheep on which a knife never came. By looking into
the bone, they will tell if whoredom be committed in
the owner's house ; what money the master of the sheep
had ; if any will die out of that house for a month, and
if any cattle there will take a trake (i.e. a disease), as
if planet-struck.*

The Afghan, who, in his weary travels, had seen
no vale equal to his own native valley of Speiger, may

* Essay on the Nature and Actions of the subterranean invisible
people, going under the names of Elves, Fairies, and the like. London,
1815.

INDEPENDENCE OF HIGHLANDERS. 27

find a parallel in many an exile from the braes of Loch-
aber ; and whoever had remonstrated with an ancient
Highland chief, on the superior advantages of a
civilized life regulated by the authority of equal laws,
would have received an answer something similar to
the indignant reply of the old Afghan ; « We are
content with discord, we are content with alarms, we
are content with blood, but we will never be content
with a master." * The Highland chiefs, otherwise very
frequently men of sense and education, and only dis-
tinguished in Lowland society by an affectation of rank
and stateliness, somewhat above their means, were, in
their own country, from the absolute submission paid
to them by their clans, and the want of frequent inter-
course with persons of the same rank with themselves,
nursed in a high and daring spirit of independent
sovereignty which would not brook or receive pro-
tection or control from the public law or government ;
and disdained to owe their possessions and the preser-
vation of their rights to any thing but their own broad-
swords.

Similar examples may be derived from the history of
Persia by Sir John Malcolm. But our limits do not
permit us further to pursue a parallel which serves
strikingly to show how the same state of society and
civilisation produces similar manners, laws, and customs,
even at the most remote periods of time, and in the

* Account of Cabul, 174, Note.

28 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

most distant quarters of the world. In two respects
the manners of the Cabul tribes differ materially from
those of the Highlanders ; first, in the influence of their
Jeergas, or patriarchal senates, which diminishes the
power of their chiefs, and gives a democratic turn to
each separate tribe. This appears to have been a per-
petual and radical difference ; for at no time do the
Highland chiefs appear to have taken counsel with
their elders, as an authorized and independent body,
although, no doubt, they availed themselves of their
advice and experience, upon the principle of a general
who summons a council of war. This is to be under-
stood generally ; for there were circumstances in which
the subordinate chieftains of the clan took upon them
to control the chief, as when the Mackenzies forcibly
compelled the Earl of Seaforth to desist from his pur-
pose of pulling down his family-seat of castle Brahan.
The second point of distinction respects the consolida-
tion of those detached tribes under one head, or
king, who, with a degree of authority greater or
less according to his talents, popularity, and other
circumstances, is the acknowledged head of the
associated communities. In this point, however, the
Highlanders anciently resembled the Afghans, as will
appear when we give a brief sketch of their general
history. But this, to be intelligible, must be preceded
by some account of their social system, of which the
original and primitive basis differed very little from the

FEATURES OF COUNTRY. 29

first time that we hear of them in history until the de-
struction of clanship in 1748.

The Scottish Highlanders were, like the Welsh, the
unmixed aboriginal natives of the island, speaking a
dialect of the ancient Celtic, once the language of all
Britain, and being the descendants of ihose tribes which
had been driven by the successive invasions of nations
more politic than themselves, and better skilled in the
regular arts of war, into the extensive mountainous
tract which, divided by an imaginary line, drawn from
Dunbarton, includes both sides of Loch Lomond, and
the higher and more mountainous parts of Stirling and
Perthshire, Angus, Mearns, and Aberdeenshire. Beyond
this line all the people speak Gaelic, and wear, or did
wear, the Highland dress. The Western Islands are
comprehended within this wild and extensive territory,
which includes upwards of two hundred parishes, and
a population of about two hundred thousand souls.

The country, though in many places so wild and
savage as to be almost uninhabitable, contains on the
sea-coasts, on the sides of the lakes, in the vales of the
small streams, and in the more extensive straths
through which larger rivers discharge themselves,
much arable ground ; and the mountains which sur-
round these favoured spots afford ample pasture walks,
and great abundance of game. Natural forests of oak,
fir, and birch, are found in most places of the country,
and were anciently yet more extensive. These glens,
or valleys, were each the domain of a separate tribe,

2

30 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

who lived for each other, laboured in common, married
usually within the clan, and, the passages from one
vale to another being dangerous in most seasons, and
toilsome in all, had very little communication with the
world beyond their own range of mountains.

This circumstance doubtless tended to prolong
among these separate tribes a species of government,
the first that is known in the infancy of society, and
which, in most instances, is altered or modified during
an early period of its progress. The chief himself had
a separate appellative, formed on the same principle :
thus the chief of the Campbells was called MacCallam-
more (i.e. the son of the great Colin) ; Glengarry is
called MacAllister-more, and so forth. Their language
has no higher expression of rank; and when the family
of Slate were ennobled, their clansmen could only dis-
tinguish Lord MacDonald as MacDhonuil-more (i.e. the
great MacDonald). To this was often added some
special epithet distinguishing the individual or reigning
chief. Thus, John Duke of Argyle was called Jan Roy
nan Cath, as the celebrated Viscount of Dundee was
termed Jan Dim nan Cath, namely, Red or Black John
of the Battles. Such epithets distinguished one chief
from another, but the patronymic of the dynasty was
common to all.

OBEDIENCE TO CHIEFS. 31

CHAPTER III.

Obedience to the Chiefs— Three Classes— Chiefs Tacksmen, etc, and
Common People — Succession and Inheritance— The difference be-
tween Chiefs and Chieftains — Pride of Lineage — Characteristics
and Duties of the Tacksmen — The Common Dependence — Over
Population and its Consequences— The Younger Sons — Military
Spirit and Eternal Feuds Among the Clans.

THE obedience of the Highlander was paid to the chief
of his clan, as representing some remote ancestor from
whom it was supposed the whole tribe was originally-
descended, and whose name, compounded into a patro-
nymic, as we have already mentioned, was the distin-
guishing appellation of the sept. Each clan, acting
upon this principle, bore to its chief all the zeal, all the
affectionate deference, all the blind devotion, of chil-
dren to a father. Their obedience was grounded on
the same law of nature, and a breach of it was regarded
as equally heinous. The clansmen who scrupled to
save his chief's life at the expense of his own, was re-
garded as a coward who fled from his father's side in
the hour of peril. Upon this simple principle rests the
whole doctrine of clanship; and although the authority
of the chief sometimes assumed a more legal aspect,
as the general law of the country then stood, by his
being possessed of feudal influence, or territorial juris-
diction— yet, with his clan, no feudal rights, or magis-
terial authority, could enhance or render more ample
that power which he possessed, jure sanguinis, by the
right of primogeniture. The duty of the clansman was

32 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

indelible; and no feudal grant which he might acquire,
or other engagement whatever, was to be preferred to
his service to the chief. In the following letter Mac-
Intoshe summons, as his rightful followers, those of his
people who were resident on the estate of Culloden,
who, according to low country law, ought to have fol-
lowed their landlord.

" MADAM,

" You can'nt be a Stranger to the Circumstances I
have put myself in at the tyme, and the great need I
have of my own men & followers wherever they may be
found. Wherfor I thought fitt, seeing Cullodin is not
at home, by this line to intreat you to put no stopp in
the way of these Men that are & have been my fol-
lowers upon your Ground.

" Madam, your compliance in this will very much
oblige,

" Your most humble Servant,

"L. MACINTOSHE.
" 14th Sept. 1715.

" Madam,

" P.S. If what I demand will not be granted, I hope
I'll be excused to be in my duty."

Such was the very simple theory of clan-govern-
ment. In practice, it extended farther. Each clan
was divided into three orders. The head of all was
the CHIEF, who was usually, though not uniformly, the
proprietor of all, or the greater part of the territories of
the clan ; not, it must be supposed, in absolute pro-
perty, but as the head and grand steward of the
community. He administered them, however, in all

DIVISION OF LAND. 33

respects, at his own will and pleasure. A certain por-
tion of the best of the land he retained as his own ap-
panage, and it was cultivated for his sole profit. The
rest was divided by grants, of a nature more or less
temporary, among the second class of the clan, who
are called TENANTS, TACKSMEN, or GOODMEN. These
were the near relations of the chief, or were descended
from those who bore such near relation to some of his
ancestors. To each of these, brothers, nephews,
cousins, and so forth, the chief assigned a portion of
land, either during pleasure, or upon short lease, or fre-
quently in the form of a wadset (mortgage), redeemable
for a certain sum of money.

These small portions of land, assisted by the liber-
ality of their relations, the tacksmen contrived to stock,
and on these they subsisted, until in a generation or
two the lands were resumed for portioning out some
nearer relative, and the descendants of the original
tacksman sunk into the situation of commoners. This
was such an ordinary transition, that the third class,
consisting of the common people, was strengthened in
the principle on which their clannish obedience de-
pended, namely, their belief in their original connexion
of the genealogy of the chief, since each generation
saw a certain number of families merge among the
commoners whom their fathers had ranked among the
tacksmen or nobility of the clan.

This change, though frequent, did not uniformly
take place. In the case of a very powerful chief, or of

34 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

one who had an especial affection for a son or brother,
a portion of land was assigned to a cadet in perpetuity,
or he was perhaps settled in an appanage conquered
from some other clan, or the tacksman acquired
wealth and property by marriage, or by some exer-
tion of his own. In all these cases he kept his
rank in society, and usually had under his govern-
ment a branch or subdivision of the tribe, who looked
up to him as their immediate leader, and whom he
governed with the same authority and in the same
manner, in all respects, as the chief, who was patriar-
chal head of the whole sept. Such head of a subordi-
nate branch of a clan was called a chieftain (a word of
distinct and limited meaning), but remained dependent
and usually tributary to the chief, and bound to sup-
port, follow, and obey him in all lawful and unlawful
service.

The larger clans often comprehended several of these
subdivisions, each of which had its own chieftain ; and
it sometimes happened when the original family be-
came extinct, that it was difficult to determine the
right of succession. This was a calamitous event, for
it usually occasioned a civil war; and it was accounted
a dishonourable one, since a clan without an acknow-
ledged head was considered an anomaly among them.
To use to any member of a clan which chanced to be
in this situation the expression, " Name your chief" was
an insult which nothing but blood could avenge. See
Letters from the North of Scotland, a work containing

HIGHLAND SUCCESSION. 35

much curious information on the former state of the
Highlands. The author was Mr. Burt, an engineer,
and the work was first published in 1754, thirty years
after most of the letters were written. The book has
been lately reprinted ; and as it contains the observa-
tions of an impartial, and, on the whole, an unpreju-
diced stranger, it is a good record of Highland man-
ners at the commencement of the 18th century. This
peculiarity, which, in the course of ages, often took
place, was one great source of war among the Highland
clans.

When the direct lineage of a chief of an extended
lineage became extinct, there arose disputes among the
subordinate branches concerning the right of succes-
sion to this high dignity. Of these rival chieftains (we
use the word in its limited signification), each had his
separate band of devoted followers, and, like princes
in the same situation, none lacked his seannachies, or
genealogists to vouch for his title. It is a complete
proof of the uncertainty of Highland succession that
when a clan regiment was raised, there was a great
diversity of opinion who was entitled to the post of
honour after the chief, whether the representative of
the eldest or of the youngest branch ; and as this was
a point undecided in the year 1745 (see Home's History
of the Rebellion, p. 9), it cannot be doubted that so im-
portant a difference must repeatedly have drawn blood
during the frequent quarrels of ambitious chieftains.

To return to the more simple state of the Highland

36 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

clan, in which we suppose the chief to have had no
subordinate leaders approaching to him in degree : his
immediate dependents were the tacksmen, a race of
men upon whose peculiar manners, much rather than
on those of the chief who usually had the advantage
either of an English or French education, or upon the
commons, whose manners, as in all other countries, re-
flected imperfectly, like a coarse mirror, the habits of
their superiors, the distinct character of the High-
landers rested. These tacksmen were, by profession,
gentlemen, or, as they termed it in their language,
Duinlie Wassal. Of this distinction, usually marked
by a feather in the bonnet, for in all other particulars
their dress and that of the chief himself differed little
from that of the commoners, they were especially tena-
cious ; and the danger of contesting it was the greater,
the nearer the duinhe wassal approached to the state
of the commoner, which was the grave of all the
Capulets.

Wo betide the Lowlander who scrupled to pay the
homage due to the genealogy of a Highland gentle-
man, even when he condescended to drive his own
cows to market ! When the low country drovers and
graziers met their Highland customers at the trysts of
Donne, and elsewhere on the borders, affronts were
sometimes offered on the one hand, and on the other
the claymore made its instant appearance. The Low-
landers (we have been assured from those concerned
in such affrays) were less abashed at the display of

HIGHLAND FEUDS. 37

steel than might be supposed ; for at the first signal of
quarrel they were wont to dip their bonnets in the
next rivulet, which, twisted round a stout cudgel, made
a tough guard for the hand ; and with this precaution
both parties were ready to engage —

" One arm'd with metal, t'other with wood,
This fit for bruise, and that for blood ;
With many a stiff thwack, many a bang,
Hard crab-tree and old iron rang."

The Highlanders had, indeed, the advantage of fire-
arms, but rarely used them on such occasions, where a
few slashes and broken heads usually decided the com-
bat. Sterner consequences, however, sometimes en-
sued— these Highland gentlemen were proud in pro-
portion to their poverty, and the quarrels between
them and the similar dependants of other families, when
they met at the aqua-vitae houses, which were common
in this country, gave rise to frequent bloodshed, and
often to deadly feuds, between the clans to which the
contending parties belonged.

In their intercourse with their respective chiefs, and
with the commons, or bulk of the clan, the tacksmen
had a double part to play, which demanded all the
capacity of skilful courtiers. It was their business to
get from both sides as much as they could — from the
chief they gained their ends, by means of acting the
part of counsellors, assistants, flatterers, — in short, by
going through the whole routine of court-intrigue.
The exercise of their talents in this, as well as in the

38 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

exterior relations of the clan, and its public business, as
it might be called, arising from alliances, jealousies,
feuds, predatory aggressions, and retaliations, was ac-
companied by the usual effect of sharpening the intel-
lect. The tacksmen accordingly were remarkable for
a ready and versatile politeness in common conversa-
tion, and for a somewhat ostentatious display of the
virtue of hospitality, which was balanced by their art
and address in making bargains, by audacity to de-
mand, eloquence to support their request, and address
to take advantage even of the slightest appearance of
concession. As they had on the one hand to act as a
kind of ministry to the chief, so, on the other, it was
their business to make as much as they could of the
commoners subjected to their immediate jurisdiction ;
whom they repaid for their own exactions by protect-
ing them against those which were offered from any
other quarter.

The commons, from hard and scanty fare probably,
were usually inferior in stature to the chiefs, chieftains,
and tacksmen, but extremely hardy and active. They
were supported thus : each tacksman, individually,
leased out his part of the clan territory, in small por-
tions and for moderate rents, to the commoners of the
clan ; or by a mode of cultivation often practised on
the continent, and known in Scottish law by the name
of Steel-bow, he furnished such a portion of the ground
with stock and seed-corn, on condition of receiving
from the tenant or actual labourer a moiety of the

OVER POPULATION. 39

profits. In either case, the dependence of the cottager
or commoner on the tacksman was as absolute as that
of the tacksman upon the chief, and the general opinion
inculcated upon all was implicit duty to their patri-
archal head and his constituted authorities.

This system, in an early state of society, and in a
fertile and uninhabited country, as it is the most obvious,
is also the best which could be adopted. In such a
case, when the flocks and herds of two tribes, like those
of Abraham and Lot, become too numerous for the land
in which they dwell, one kinsman can say to another,
" Why should there be strife between us ? Is not the
whole land before thee — separate thyself." But the
most remarkable part of the Highland system, was the
rapid increase of population, which, pent up within
narrow and unfertile valleys, could neither extend itself
towards the mountains, on account of hostile clans, nor
towards the Lowlands, because the civilized country,
though unable to prevent occasional depredations, was
always too powerful to admit of any permanent settle-
ment being gained upon the plains by the mountaineers.
Thus, limited to its own valley, each clan increased in
numbers in a degree far beyond proportion to the means
of supporting them. Each little farm was, by the tenant
who cultivated it, divided and subdivided among his
children and grand-children until the number of human
beings to be maintained far exceeded that for whom,
by any mode of culture, the space of ground could
supply nourishment. We have evidence before us,

40 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

that in the rugged district between Loch Katrine and
Loch Lomond, in the neighbourhood of Inversnaid,
there were one hundred and fifty families living upon
ground which did not pay ninety pounds a-year of rent,
or, in other words, each family, at a medium, rented lands
at twelve shillings a-year ', as their sole mode of livelihood.
The consequence of this over-population, in any case,
must have been laziness, because, where there were so
many hands for such light work, none would work hard ;
and those who could set up the slightest claim of exemp-
tion, would not work at all. This was particularly the
case with the tacksmen's younger sons, — a race destined
to sink into the insignificance of commoners, unless they
could keep themselves afloat by some deed of gallant
distinction. These, therefore, were most afraid of being
confounded with the class to which they were provision-
ally liable to be reduced ; and as a serjeant is prouder
of his cheveron than an officer of his epaulet, they were
eager to maintain their dignity by evincing a contempt
of all the duties of peaceful industry, and manifesting
their adroitness in the chase and in military exercises.
They naturally associated to themselves the stoutest
and most active of the youthful commoners, all of whom
reckoned their pedigree up to that of the chief, and
therefore were entitled to " disdain the shepherd's
slothful life." Under such leaders they often committed
creaghs, or depredations, on the Lowlands, or on hostile
clans, and sometimes constituted themselves into regular
bands of robbers, whom the chief connived at, though

MILITARY SPIRIT. 41

he dared not openly avow their depredations. They
usually found shelter in some remote glen, from which
he could, as occasion demanded, let them slip against
his enemies. If they were made prisoners, they seldom
betrayed the countenance which they had from their
protector. On the other hand, he was conscientious
in affording them his protection against the law, as
far as could be done, without absolutely committing
himself.

There yet remained for the younger sons, both of
chiefs and tacksmen, another resource, and that was
foreign service. From an early period, many of these
adventurers sought employment in the continental
wars, and after the exile of the House of Stuart, the
practice became general. They used also to carry with
them some of the most courageous and active of the
commoners ; thus their acquaintance with actual war,
its dangers and its duties, was familiarly maintained,
and the report of their adventures and success served
to keep up the love of warfare which characterised the
Highland clans.

The same military spirit and contempt of labour dis-
tinguished even the very lowest of the commoners,
upon whom necessarily devolved the operations of
agriculture, which were summed up in the arts of
ploughing or digging their ground for crops of oats or
barley, making hay, rearing cattle, and manufacturing
cheese and butter. The labour of the spade and plough
was thrown as much as possible on the aged, or females

42 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

of the clan, while those who were in full vigour of body
abandoned themselves alternately to the indulgence of
indolence, and to the excitation of violent exercise.
And as the tacksmen endeavoured to secure to them-
selves as large a portion as possible of the produce of
the commoner's labour, the latter, to secure his attach-
ment, was indulged and protected in occasional acts
of military depredation and license; for which the
eternal feuds among the Highlanders themselves, as
well as the grand subsisting distinction between them
and the Lowlanders, never failed to afford sufficient
pretexts.

The last were indeed, on all hands, regarded as the
common enemy and general prey, as appears from a
letter of apology written by Allan Cameron of Lochiel,
to Sir James Grant, chieftain of that name, dated 18th
October, 1645. It would seem that a party of Camerons
had plundered, or attempted to plunder, the lands of
Grant of Moynes, lying on the border of the lowland
county of Murray. The Grants had overpowered and
worsted the invaders, which did not prevent their chief
from remonstrating with Lochiel. Lochiel's answer is
in the note, in which it will be observed that the in-
tended robbery of the Murray-man is treated as a
matter of course. The only thing requiring apology
was the aggression on an allied and friendly clan.

"RIGHT LOVING COUSIN,— My hearty recommenda-
tions being remembered to your honour, I have re-
ceived your honour's letter concerning this misfor-

HIGHLAND ARTISANS. 43

tunate accident that never fell out, betwixt our houses,
the like before, in no man's days; but, praised be God,
I am innocent of the same, and my friends both in
respect that they gi't (went) not within your honour's
bounds, but (only) to Murray-land, where all men take
their prey; nor knew not that Moynes was a grant, but
thought that he was a Murray-man ; and if they knew
him, they would not stir his land more than the rest of
your honour's bounds in Strathspey. — Sir, I have gotten
such a loss of my friends, which I hope your honour
will consider, for I have eight dead already, and I have
twelve or thirteen under cure, whilk I know not who
shall live, or who shall die, of the same. So, sir, who-
soever has gotten the greatest loss, I am content that
the same be repaired, to (at) the sight of friends that
loveth us both alike — and there is such a trouble here
among us, that we cannot look to the same, for the
present time, while (until) I wit who shall live of my
men that is under cure. So not further troubling your
honour at this time, for your honour shall not be
offended at my friend's innocence, — Sir, I rest yours,
" ALLAN CAMERON of Lochiel."

CHAPTER IV.

Highland artisans— Great hardihood among all classes— Over-popula-
tion, want, and starvation— Disposition of the people— Story of
MacDonald of Keppoch— Story of the Chief of Clanronald—
Relationship of chiefs and commoners— The merging of clans and
individuals with other clans— Highland independence of Parlia-
mentary law.

THE artisans in a Highland tribe were few, but rose in
rank above the mere labourers of the ground— the

44 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

women were the principal weavers, but the tailor's was
a masculine employment, and as much skill was sup-
posed to be necessary to his craft, he held some import-
ance in society. Every man made his own brogues
out of raw hides, and was therefore his own shoemaker.
Every Highlander also understood the use of the
hatchet, and for all ordinary purposes was his own
joiner and mason; but the smith held a distinct profes-
sion, and as he could make and repair arms, was a
personage of first-rate importance. Like the piper, he
was an officer of the household in the Highland estab-
lishment, and generally a favourite with the chief. The
arms used in the Highlands were, however, usually
forged in the low country. Doune, particularly, was
long remarkable for its manufacture of steel-pistols,
which perhaps yet subsists. Latterly most of their
fire-arms were sent from Spain or France.

The commoners, whether occasional artisans or mere
peasants, had all the same character of agility and
hardihood. Exposed continually to a rough climate,
by the imperfect shelter afforded by their dwellings,
they became indifferent to its vicissitudes ; and being
in the constant use of hunting and fowling, and follow-
ing their cattle through morasses and over mountains,
they could endure, without inconvenience, extremities
of hunger and fatigue, which would destroy any other
people ; and hence, even in their most peaceable state,
they were enured to those hardships, which, in regular
armies, often destroy more than the sword. They

GREAT ENDURANCE. 45

were enthusiastic in their religion, as well as in their
political principles, but were often content to take both
upon trust at the recommendation, and upon the peril,
of the chief. Their manners approached nearly to those
of the tacksmen, being influenced by the same causes.
From the self-respect, arising out of a consciousness of
high descent, they displayed unusual refinement and
even elegance in their ordinary address, and on impor-
tant occasions possessed and exhibited a command of
eloquent and figurative expressions. They were civil,
brave, and hospitable; but indolent, interested, and
rapacious. The arts and pretexts under which they
were deprived of the produce of their labour, they
combated by other arts and pretexts, by means of
which they extorted from their superiors enough to
support them, according to their frugal wants.

So much was the country over-peopled by the
system of clanship, that in the islands, whole tribes
were occasionally destroyed by famine ; and even upon
the continent, it was usual to bleed the cattle once a-
year, that the blood thickened by oatmeal, and fried
into a sort of cake, might nourish the people. But this
was the last evil which the chief thought of curing.
The number and military qualities of his followers
were his pride and ornament, his wealth and his pro-
tection. MacDonald of Keppoch, having been called
upon by an English gentleman to admire two massive
silver chandeliers of uncommon beauty and workman-
ship, undertook a bet that when the owner should visit

3

46 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

him in the Highlands he would show him a pair of
superior value. When summoned to keep his word, he
exhibited two tall Highlanders, completely equipped
and armed, each holding in his right hand a blazing
torch made of bog-fir. The same chief, being asked by
some strangers, before whom he had placed a very
handsome entertainment, what might be the rent of
the estate which furnished such expenditure, answered
the blunt question with equal bluntness, " I can raise
five hundred men." Such was the ancient mode of
computing the value of a Highland estate. " I have
lived to woful days," said an Argyleshire chieftain to
us in 1788 ; " When I was young, the only question
asked concerning a man's rank, was how many men
lived on his estate — then it came to be how many
black cattle it could keep — but now they only ask how
many sheep the lands will carry."

Such is the general view of a Highland tribe, living
and governed according to the patriarchal system.
But many principles, accounted fixed in theory, were
occasionally departed from in practice. It might, for
example, have been supposed that hereditary right was
inviolably observed in a system which appeared en-
tirely to hinge upon it. Nevertheless, in pressing cir-
cumstances, this rule was sometimes overlooked.
Usurpations and revolutions also occasionally took
place, as in larger principalities ; and sometimes the
will of the clan, excited by circumstances which dis-
pleased them in the character of the heir, set him aside

THE "HEN-CHIEF." 47

upon slender grounds from the high office to which he
was destined by birth. The following is an example
in a clan of great note : —

When the chief of Clanronald died, his eldest son
was residing, according to the Highland custom, as a
foster-son in the family of Lord Lovat, chief of the
Erasers. When the young man arrived at Castle
Tyrim, to take possession of his estate, his attention
was caught by a very profuse quantity of slaughtered
cattle. He asked the meaning of this preparation, and
was informed that these provisions had been made to
solemnize a festival on his being first produced to his
people in the character of their chief.

" I think," answered the youth, who had apparently
contracted some economical ideas by residing so near
the Lowlands, " I think a few hens would have made
an adequate entertainment for the occasion."

This unhappy expression flew through the clan like
wildfire, and excited a general sentiment of indignation.

" We will have nothing to do," they said, " with a
hen-chief" and, dismissing the rightful heir with scorn,
they called one of his brother's sons to the office and
estate of the departed chief.

The Frasers, according to custom, took arms to com-
pel the MacDonalds to do justice to their foster-child.
A battle ensued — the Frasers were defeated with much
slaughter, and the unlucky hen-chief being killed, as a
miserable warning to all untimely economists, his
nephew was established in the rights and power of the

48 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

family. But a veil was thrown over these deviations
as soon as possible ; and the existing chief was always
held up and maintained to be the lineal representative
of the founder of the family and common father of the
clan.

In like manner it was a leading principle that the
clan, from the highest to the lowest, were all members
of one family, bearing the same name, and connected
in blood with the chief. He was expected, therefore,
even in the height of his authority, to acknowledge the
meanest of them as his relation, and to shake hands
with him wherever they might happen to meet. There
were, nevertheless, exceptions also to this rule. Small
clans were sometimes totally broken up, their chiefs
slain, and their independence destroyed. In this situa-
tion they became a sort of clients to some clan of
greater importance, and bore to those under whom
they lived very nearly the same relation which the
Humsauyas, described by Mr. Elphinstone, bear to the
Ooloss, or Afghan tribe, with whom they reside.
Several of the most ancient of the Highland names and
tribes are to be found in this state of depression.

Sometimes whole clans, without renouncing their
dependence upon their own chief, subjected themselves
to a tribe of predominating influence, whose name they
assumed. In this cause they continued to subsist as a
dependent but distinct branch of the general com-
munity; and their chief, now sunk to the rank of a
chieftain, exercised his authority in subordination to

CHANGING NAMES. 49

that of the chief whose name he had adopted. The
Campbells are said to have received numerous addi-
tions in this manner. Beside these accessions, each
clan, especially when headed by a chief who stood high
in the public estimation, was strengthened by indivi-
duals who came to associate themselves with the com-
munity, and who never scrupled to assume the name of
the tribe. Even to this day a Highlander sometimes
considers, that, upon changing his residence, a change
of his name to that of his new landlord is at once a
point of civility, and a means of obtaining favour. A
friend of ours was shooting in the North, and as the
face of the Highlander, who acted as his guide, was
familiar to him, he asked if his name was not Mac-
Pherson.

" No ; Gordon is my name," replied the guide.

" I was shooting a few years ago at some distance
from this place ; you then guided me, and I remember
you called yourself MacPherson."

" Yes," answerd the Highlander composedly ; " but
that was when I lived on the other side of the hill."

There yet remained another source of accession. In
ancient times, the Highlanders, like the Indians,
adopted prisoners of war into their tribes. Thus when
the Marquis of Huntly and the Laird of Grant made a
tremendous foray along Dee side, laying waste the
whole dale, they carried off a great number of children
•whose parents they had put to death. About a year
afterwards the Laird of Grant, being on a visit to Castle

50 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

Huntly, saw these children receive their food : — a
kitchen trough was filled with the relics of the provi-
sions on which the servants had dined, and at the sum-
mons of a whistle from the master cook, this mob of
half naked orphans rushed in to scramble for the frag-
ments. Shocked at the sight, Grant obtained permis-
sion to carry them into his country, where he adopted
them into his own tribe, and gave them his name,
which they still bear ; but their descendants are dis-
tinguished from other Grants, being called " Children
of the trough."

The most powerful of the Highland chiefs became in
latter times frequenters of the Scottish court, and often
obtained from the monarchs grants of lands and juris-
dictions, which, at convenient times, they failed not to
use in aid of their patriarchal authority over their own
sept, and as a pretext for subjugating others. They
did not, indeed, need the excuse of such authority to-
wards the oppressed party, who lived in a state of
society in which superior force necessarily constituted
right.

" For why ? — because the good old rule

Sufficed them ; the simple plan
That they should take who had the power,
And they should keep who can." — Wordsworth.

But the more prudent chiefs had now learned that
there was a world beyond the mountains, and that
there were laws of the kingdom which Scottish kings
sometimes strove to make effectual, even among their

RESISTANCE TO LAW. 51

fastnesses. And although these efforts, owing to the
weakness of the government, were but transient and
desultory ; yet the great houses of Argyle, Huntley,
Athole, and others, whose rank placed them often at
court, and within the grasp of authority, found advan-
tage in keeping o the windy side of the law, and in
qualifying their aggressions of their Highland neigh-
bours by such plausible forms as might pass current in
case of enquiry at the seat of government. Nothing
was more hateful to their ruder neighbours than claims
of this kind, which they neither understood nor acknow-
ledged. The mode in which the rights of jurisdiction
obtained by the higher families were exercised, had
little tendency to reconcile the less powerful chiefs to
what they considered as legalized modes of oppression.

" Take care of yourselves in Sutherland," said an old
Highlander as he communicated the alarming news
which he had just learned, " the law is come as far as
Tain."

Accordingly, the execution of the laws, to the last,
was resisted in the Highlands : nor was the authority
of the magistrates respected, nor durst any inferior
officer of the law execute his duty. The traces of this
state of manners were long visible : and so late as
thirty years since, and within twenty miles of Stirling
Castle, it was found necessary to obtain a military
escort, to protect the officer who was to serve a civil
process giving a Highland tenant warning to remove.

52 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

CHAPTER V.

The Great Ruling Families — Historical Account of the Highlands —
King James I. — The Lords of the Isles — Feuds in the Clan Colla
— Numerous clans and their history and location — Early Statutes
relating to Highland feuds — The Clan MacGregor — Their remark-
able History and Career — Tragic occurrences.

THIS state of disorder cannot be imputed to the
neglect of the Scottish parliament, who frequently
exercised their sagacity in framing laws for the regula-
tions of the Highlands and Borders : the high grounds
of which last were, until the union of the crowns, in
the same, or in a more lawless condition than the High-
lands themselves. But previously to any notice of these
laws, it will be necessary to give a biief retrospect of
the state of the Highlands before they were so united
with the rest of the kingdom as to be proper subjects
for its legislature. We have already observed that, in
former times, the Highland chiefs paid allegiance to
princes of their own, altogether distinct from the King
of Scotland, with whom they were sometimes at war,
sometimes at peace, or, at the utmost, acknowledged
only a slight and nominal dependence upon him; —
this was that powerful dynasty of the Lords of the
Isles, who flourished, from a dark and remote period,
down to the reign of James V. Their authority ex-
tended over all the western islands, from Islay north-
ward, over Kintyre, Knapdale, and the western parts
of Inverness-shire ; and they exercised the influence of
powerful allies, if not of lords paramount, over the

THE EULING FAMILIES. 53

M'Dougals, Lords of Lorn. Their claim to the earldom
of Ross often laid that northern county at their disposal;
and their supremacy was disputed in that district by
the Earls of Sutherland alone. These districts make
up the bulk of the Highlands.

The rest was swayed by the Strathbogies, Earls of
Athol, who had under their authority, Athole, Strath-
bogie, and Lochaber ; by the Cumings, in Badenoch ;
by the Earls of Mar, in the Highlands of Aberdeen-
shire ; the Earl of Lennox, in Dumbartonshire ; and the
Knight of Lochowe, in Argyleshire. Many of the High-
land lords, having taken part against Bruce in his
struggles for the crown, were involved in ruin by his
success : among those were the families of Cuming of
Strathbogie, and of MacDougal, whose power passed
over to the Stuarts, Campbells, Gordons, Murrays, and
other favourers of the Bruce interests, to whom were
granted their forfeited domains. It was said of the
English who settled in Ireland, that they became ipsis
Hibernis Hiberniores ; and therefore we cannot be sur-
prised that the new Highland lords conformed them-
selves to the fashion of their new subjects, and assumed
the part and character of chiefs, which had so much to
flatter ambition and the love of power. But though
these changes of possession contributed greatly to
limit the power of the Lords of the Isles, it remained
sufficiently exorbitant to alarm and disturb the rest of
Scotland ; and it was not until the battle of the Har-
law, fought in 1410, in which the power of that insular

54 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

kingdom received a severe check, that it could be con-
sidered as an actual dependence of the Scottish crown.

Upon the accession of James I. the power of the
northern chiefs was somewhat restricted, and many
royal castles, particularly that of Inverness, were re-
built and garrisoned. The King himself took a journey
to the Highlands ; and, having had his education in
England, was not a little surprised at the state of
anarchy which pervaded this part of his dominions.
He learned that, within a few miles of his present resi-
dence, were heads of a banditti, who had each from
one to two thousand men at their call ; who lived en-
tirely by plunder, and acknowledged no limit of their
actions but their own will. James I. was an active
and intelligent monarch, and so far exerted himself as
to compel the Lord of the Isles to submission, and
utterly to destroy a large force of Highlanders and
Islesmen who rose in his favour, under the leading of
his cousin, Donald Balloch. Balloch himself was put
to death by an Irish chief, to whom he had fled for
protection, and three hundred of his followers were
condemned to the gibbet.

During the troubles occasioned by the rebellion of
the Douglasses, the Lords of the Isles once more
gained ground. But about the year 1476, the King
was able to reduce them again to nominal subjection,
and what was more material, to diminish their actual
power, by the resumption of the earldom of Ross, with
the large districts of Knapdale and Kintyre, which, in

RESQLT OF AN ACCIDENT. 55

a great measure, excluded the Lords of the Isles from
interference with the continent. The uncertainty of
Highland succession had already raised up rivals to
the Lords of the Isles, in the pretensions of their kins-
men ; and about the reign of James V., the last Mac-
Donald who asssumed that title died without male
heirs ; and a family whose power had so long rivalled
and excelled that of the Kings of Scotland, in the
northern part of their dominions, became extinct as a
dynasty.

The main stock of the Lords of the Isles being thus
decayed, there arose many shoots from the trunk But
these branches of Clan Colla, for such is the general
name of that powerful sept, prevented each other's
growth by mutual rivalry; and though strong and
powerful, neither approached in consequence nor
strength to the parent tree. These were the families
of Slate, Clanronald, Glengarry, Keppoch, Ardna-
murchan, Glencoe, and Largo, all, especially those
first named, independent tribes of great importance
and consequence. But debates amongst themselves
prevented the name of MacDonald from ever attaining
its original pitch of power. Their feuds were rendered
more bitter by their propinquity, and, even in the last
days of chieftainship, tended to weaken the cause
which most of them had espoused. After the battle of
Falkirk, in 1746, the musket of a MacDonald, of the
tribe of Clanronald, chanced unhappily to go off while
he was cleaning it, and killed a hopeful young gentle-

56 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

man, a son of Glengarry, who commanded the men of
his father's clan. So sacred was the claim of blood for
blood, that the execution of the poor fellow through
whose negligence this mischance had happened was
judged indispensable by the council of chiefs. The ac-
cident was of the worst consequence to the Chevalier's
cause both ways ; for most of the Glengarry men went
home, disheartened by the fate of their leader, and re-
leased from the restraint of his authority : and many of
Clanronald's people did the same, from a natural dis-
gust at the severity exercised on their clansman for an
involuntary fault.

Besides these leading branches, there were many
tribes distinguished by other patronymics, who claimed
their descent from the same stock ; but who remained
separate and independent. Among these, if we mis-
take not (for heaven forbid we should speak with un-
becoming confidence !) are the MacAlisters, MacKeans,
MacNabs,* Maclntyres, MacKeachans, MacKechnies,
and MacAphies — a list which involuntarily reminds us
of the sonorous names of the Brazilian tribes, Tupini-
kins, Tupigais, Tupinayes, and Tupinambas. But ex-
clusive of these descendants of MacDonald, and, indeed,
in a degree of public importance far superior to many
of them, were the clans whose chiefs had held offices of
trust under the Lords of the Isles, and who now at-
tained a formidable independence, augmented by the

* In some genealogies the MacNabs are claimed by the MacAlpines
and MacGregors as descended from the same root with them.

INTERNAL FEUDS. 57

shares which they had been able to secure in the wreck
of the principal family.

Such were the MacLeans, long lieutenants of the
Lords of the Isles ; the MacKenzies, who had already
obtained many grants from regal favour; the Camerons,
the MacNeils, the Macintoshes, and many other clans
which had hitherto been subjected to the regal tribe
of Clan Colla. The Kings of Scotland favoured this
division of power, upon the grand political maxim of
dividing in order to command; but although the separ-
ation of the tribes was very complete, it by no means
appears that the authority of the sovereign was in-
creased in proportion. It was true, indeed, that, being
no longer under one common head, the Highland clans
were not so capable of disturbing the general peace of
the kingdom : but when political circumstances con-
curred to unite any number of chiefs in a common cause,
the mountain eruption broke out with as much violence
as under the Lords of the Isles. Meanwhile, the
internal feuds of the tribes became, if possible, more
deadly than before; and though those who were of
Lowland origin, and connected with the crown, gradu-
ally gained ground upon the others, it was not without
the most desperate struggles.

In the preamble of an act of James IV. it is declared
that for want of justice-airs, justices, and sheriffs, the
Islesmen and the Highlanders had almost become
savage ; and some steps are taken for establishing legal
jurisdictions among them. But the evil was too power-

58 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

fill for the remedy. In the vigorous reign of James V.
further measures were adopted — the King in person
undertook a voyage around the northern part of
Britain, and impressed the inhabitants of these wild
isles and mountains with some sense of the existence
of a power paramount to that of their chiefs. But this
also soon passed away, and the civil wars of Queen
Mary's time set every independent chief at liberty to
work his own pleasure, under pretext of espousing one
or other of the contending factions.

A statute, in the year 1581, declares " that one great
cause of the oppressions and cruelties daily practised
in the realm is, that clans of thieves were associated
together by a common surname, not subject to any
landlord (that is, feudal superior), nor amenable to the
common laws of justice : and holding inveterate and
deadly feud against all true men who had been con-
cerned in repressing by violence, any of their enormi-
ties ; " it therefore enacts, that all men sustaining injury
by them should be at liberty to make reprisals, not only
on the individual perpetrators, but also to slay or arrest
any person whatever, being of the same clan with those
from which they received the injury. This tended only
to give a legal and colourable pretext for private wars
and deadly feuds, already too prevalent ; another regu-
lation therefore, was adopted in the year 1587.

This remarkable statute, after setting forth that " the
inhabitants of the Borders, Highlands, and Isles, de-
lighted in all mischiefs, taking advantage of each

A REMARKABLE STATUTE. 59

intestine state-commotion which relaxed the hands of
ordinary justice, most unnaturally and cruelly to waste,
harry, slay, and destroy their own neighbours and native
country-people," proceeds to promulgate a roll of their
captains, chiefs, and chieftains, as well of the principal
branches of each tribe as of the tribe in general ; and
to declare that these leaders should be obliged to find
security, rendering themselves personally responsible
for whatever damage should be committed by their
clansmen or dependents. This, while it seemed to
legalize the authority of the chiefs, hitherto unacknow-
ledged by any positive statute, had, after the union of
the crowns, very great influence upon the Borders, and
might also have produced some good consequences on
the Highlands, had it been as strictly administered.
One effect, however, was, that several clans which, by
the encroachment of their neighbours, or the miscarriage
of their own schemes of ambition, had been driven out
of the lands, were in no condition to find the security
required by law, and were, therefore, denounced as
outlaws and broken men. The most remarkable of
these was the clan Gregor, or MacGregors, of which
most of our readers must have heard.

This family, or sept, is of genuine Celtic origin, great
antiquity, and in Churchhill's phrase,

-' ' doubtless springs

From great and glorious, but forgotten kings."

They were once possessed of Glenurchy, of the castle

60 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

at the head of Lochowe, of Glendochart, Glenlyon,
Finlarig, Balloch, now called Taymouth, and of the
greater part of Breadalbane. From these territories
they were gradually expelled by the increasing strength
of the Campbells, who, taking advantage of a bloody
feud between the MacGregors and MacNabs, obtained
letters of fire and sword against the former, and about
the reign of James III. and IV. dispossessed them of
much of their property. The celebrated MacGregor a
Rua, Rua, the heir-male of the chief, and a very gallant
young man, was surprised and slain by Colin Campbell,
the knight of Lochowe, and with him fell the fortunes
of his family. From this time, the few lands which
remained in their possession being utterly inadequate
to maintain so numerous a clan,^the MacGregors became
desperate, wild and lawless, supporting themselves
either by actual depredation, or by the money which
they levied as the price of their forbearance, and retali-
ating upon the more powerful clans, as well as upon the
Lowlands, the severity with which they were frequently
pursued and slaughtered. A single trait of their history
will show what was the ferocity of feud among the
Scottish clans.

The remaining settlements of the MacGregor tribe
were chiefly in Balquhidder, around Loch Katrine, and
as far as the borders of Loch Lomond. Even these
lands they did not possess in property, but by some
transaction with the family of Buchanan, who were the
real landholders ; but the terrors of the MacGregors

A BARBAROUS REVENGE. 61

extended far and wide, for they were at feud with
almost all their neighbours.

In the year 1589, a party of MacGregors, belonging
to a tribe called Clan Diiil a Cheach, i.e. the Children
of Dugald of the Mist (an appropriate term for such a
character), met with John Drummond of Drummon-
dernoch, a ranger of the royal forest of Glenartney, as
he was seeking venison for the King's use. It chanced
that Drummondernoch had, in his capacity of steward-
depute, or provincial magistrate, of Strathearn, tried
and executed two or three of these MacGregors for
depredations committed on his chief Lord Drummond's
lands. The Children of the Mist seized the opportunity
of vengeance, slew the unfortunate huntsman, and cut
off his head : they then went to the house of Stuart of
Ardvoirlich, whose wife was a sister of the murdered
Drummonderuoch. The laird was absent, but the lady
received the unbidden, and probably unwelcome guests
with hospitality, and, according to the Highland custom
and phrase, placed before them bread and cheese till
better food could be made ready.

She left the room to superintend the preparations,
and when she returned, beheld, displayed upon the
table, the ghastly head of her brother, with a morsel of
bread and cheese in its mouth. The terrified lady
rushed out of the house with a fearful shriek, and could
not be found, though her distracted husband caused all
the woods and wildernesses around to be diligently
searched. To augment the misery of Ardvoirlich, his

62 HIGHLANDERS OF {SCOTLAND.

unfortunate wife was with child when she disappeared.
She did not, however, perish. It was the harvest
season, and in the woods and moors the maniac
wanderer probably found berries, and other substances
capable of sustaining life ; though the vulgar, fond of
the marvellous, suppose that the wild-deer had pity on
her misery and submitted to be milked by her. At
length some train of former ideas and habits began to
revive in her mind. She had formerly been very
attentive to her domestic duties, and used commonly
to oversee the milking of the cows — and now the
women employed in that office, in the remote upland
graziogs, observed with terror, that they were regularly
watched, during the milking, by an emaciated miser-
able-looking female figure, who appeared from among
the bushes, but retired with great swiftness when any
one approached her.

The story was told to Ardvoirlich, who, conjecturing
the truth, took measures for intercepting and recovering
the unfortunate fugitive. She regained her senses
after the birth of her child ; but it was remarkable that
the son whom she bore seemed affected by the con-
sequence of her terror. He was of great strength, but
of violent passions, under the influence of which he
killed his friend and commander, Lord Kilpont, in a
manner which the reader will find detailed in Wishart's
Memoirs of Montrose.

The tragedy of Drummondernoch did not conclude
with the effects of the murder on the Lady Ardvoirlich.

THE MACGREGORS' VOW. 63

The clan of the MacGregors being convoked in the
church of Balquhidder, upon the Sunday after the act,
the bloody head was produced on the altar, when each
clansman avowed the murder to have been perpetrated
by his own consent, and laying successively his hands
on the scalp, swore to protect and defend the authors
of the deed ; — " in ethnic and barbarous manner," says
an order of the lords of the privy council, dated 4th
February 1589, "in most proud contempt of our
sovereign lord and his authority and in evil example to
other wicked limmers to do the like, if this shall be
suffered to remain unpunished." Then follows a com-
mission— " to seek for and pursue Alaster MacGregor,
of Glenstrae, and all others of his name, with fire and
sword."

We have seen a letter upon this subject, from Patrick
Lord Drummond, who was naturally most anxious to
revenge his kinsman's death, to the Earl of Montrose,
appointing a day in which the one shall be " at the
bottom of the valley of Balquhidder with his forces,
and advance upward, and the other with his powers
shall occupy the higher outlet, and move down-
wards for the express purpose of taking sweet
revenge for the death of their cousin." Ardvoirlich
assisted them with a party, and it is said they
killed thirty-seven of the clan of Dugald of the
Mist upon the single farm of Invernenty. The death
of Drummondernoch is the subject of a beautiful poem
by Alexander Boswell, of Auchinleck, entitled " Clan-

64 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

Alpine's Vow." The King himself entered keenly into
the success of the feud, as appears from a letter to the
Laird of M'Intosh still preserved in Sir ^Eneas M'ln-
tosh's charter-chest at Moyhall. The letter is as
follows : and it will show that the taste for heads
was not confined to the Children of the Mist, since the
King requests one to be sent to him.

Right traist Freynd, We greet you hairtlie well. Hav-
ing heard be report of the laite preeife given be you, of
your willing disposition to our service, in prosequiteing
of that wicked race of M'Gregor, we haif e thought meit
hereby to signifie unto you, that we accompt the same
as maist acceptable pleasure and service done unto us,
and will not omitt to regard the same as it deserves ;
and because we ar to give you out of our aein mouthe
sum furder directionn thair anent, — it is our will, that
upon the sight hereof ye repaire hither in all haist, and
at yr arriving we sail impairt or full mynde, and heir
wt all we haif thought expedient, that ye, befoir yor
arriving hither, sail caus execut to the death Duncane
M'Can Cairn, latelie tane be you in yor last (expedition}
agains the clan Gregor, and caus his heid to be trans-
portit hither, to the effect the same may be affixt in
sum public place, to the terror of other malefactors,
and so comitt you to God. From Haly rud hous, the
penult day of *
in the year 1596. (Signed) JAMES K.

On the back — Lre be King James to M'Intosh about
the year 1596.

The "revenge" was doubtless ample; but Alaster
* The month was interlined and illegible.

A HIGHLANDER'S PROMISE. 65

MacGregor's power was so little impaired, that, in 1602,
he was able to sustain the desperate battle of Glenfruin,
in which he defeated the Laird of Luss, and almost
extirpated the name of Colquhoun. For this battle
and the outrages which preceded and followed it, the
clan were formally outlawed by act of Parliament, and
it was made an offence equal to felony, to take or bear
that proscribed surname : thus held up as a prey to
destruction, they were attacked on all sides, pursued
with blood-hounds, and when seized, put to death
without even the formalities of a trial. The chief him-
self, Alaster of Glenstrae, surrendered with eighteen of
his most faithful followers to the Earl of Argyle, on
condition that he should conduct him safe out of Scot-
land. But, says old Birrel, the Earl kept a Highlander's
promise, for he sent him under a guard as far as Ber-
wick, but with instructions not to set him at liberty.
So after this airing upon English ground for the ac-
quittal of Argyle's word, the unfortunate chief was
brought back to Edinburgh, and hanged at the cross
of that city, a man's height higher than his companions,
who were executed at the same time. Yet such was
the vivifying principle inherent in clanship, that the
MacGregors, though proscribed and persecuted, under
the authority of repeated statutes, continued to exist
as a numerous and separate clan, until their name was
restored to them in our own days.

66 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.
CHAPTER VI.

TheJCampbells in the West Highlands— Conflicts between Highlanders
and Lowlanders — The wars of Montrose — Cromwell and the High-
landers— The Highlanders at the Restoration — The MacDonalds
of Keppoch and the Maclntoshs — The House of Hanover and the
Highlanders.

THE Earl of Argyle had now acquired very great
authority in the West Highlands and Isles, which he
augmented by suppressing some troubles which arose
among the MacDonalds ; in consideration of which, his
family got a grant of the district of Kintyre. But
excepting that this great family in the west, and those
of Huntley and Athole in the north, had succeeded both
to direct authority over many clans, and to great influ-
ence over others, the state of the Highlands remained
the same in Charles First's as in his father's time.

With the civil wars the Highlanders assumed a new
and more distinguished character; and for the first
time in our history showed a marked and distinguished
superiority in the use of arms over their Lowland
fellow-subjects. The cause of this is abundantly obvious.
In former times, when the Highlanders descended from
their mountains, they encountered in the Lowlands, a
race of men as hardy, brave, and skilful in the use of
weapons as themselves, and far superior to them in arms
and military discipline. In the battle of Harlaw, Donald
of the Isles, with the largest army that ever left the
Highlands, was checked by an inferior number of Low-
landers ; and in the fields of Corichie, Glenlivat, and
others, the Highlanders were routed with great loss, by

HIGHLANDERS AND LOWLANDERS. 67

fewer but better appointed numbers of their Lowland
countrymen.

But the lapse of more than half a century had placed
the Lowlanders in a different situation. During the
reign of Charles I. they had remained quiet under the
protection of the laws; neither doing nor suffering
violence; and the martial spirit had much decayed
among them. The success, therefore, of the High-
landers in Montrose's wars is not wonderful. They
were not only bred to arms and active exercises from
their infancies, but were in a manner regimented under
their several chiefs and tacksmen ; so that, being always
in order for war, they wanted but a general and a cause.
Their advantage in encountering the tumultary forces
of the covenanting Lowlanders, who had detached to
England all their regular troops, and brought to the
field only a disorderly militia, had all the success which
could have been anticipated. It will be best accounted
for by the expressions of a contemporary, the Rev.
Robert Baillie, who writes to his correspondent, Mr.
William Spang, minister of Campvere, in Zealand, 25th
April, 1645.

" The country forces of Fife and Stratherne were
three to one — well armed — had horse and cannon ; —
but the treachery of Kilpont, and especially Sir John
Drummond, together with Elcho's rashness, delivered
all that tumultous people and their arms into the
enemy's hands without a stroke. A great number of
burgesses were killed ; — twenty-five householders in St

68 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

Andrew's only ; — many were bursten in the flight^ and
died without stroke." It is obvious that men who died
of the exertion of running away, could be no match,
either in onset or retreat, for the hardy, agile, and long-
breathed Highlanders. After gaining many battles,
however, and overrunning all Scotland, Montrose was
finally defeated by a body of regular forces commanded
by David Lesley. But from the time of his wars the
Highlanders asserted and maintained, in all the civil
dissensions of Scotland, a marked and decided superi-
ority over their Lowland fellow-subjects, which tended
not a little to exalt their opinion of their own import-
ance, and to render them tenacious of the customs and
usages of their country. The same period, however,
which witnessed their first brilliant display of victories
beyond the bounds of their own mountains, also saw
the Highland clans receive, even within their strongest
fastnesses, a chastisement which the hands of their own
monarchs had never been powerful enough to inflict.

The stern policy of Cromwell established garrisons
at Inverness, Inverlochy, and other places in the High-
lands— he set on foot movable columns, who constantly
patrolled the country, and became acquainted with its
most hidden recesses ; — the castles of the chiefs were
destroyed, the woods that sheltered them were cut down,
and, finally, in spite of the valour of the clans, and the
enthusiasm of their chiefs, he compelled them to sur-
render their arms, and to give pledges of their peace-
able conduct. And it is generally allowed that, as the

STUART GRATITUDE. 69

Highlands had never been in such quiet subjection
until this period, so their neighbours never enjoyed such
an interval of rest from their incursions until after the
year 1745. The rigorous discipline of Cromwell was
equally successful in crushing the spirit of chivalry
among the rude mountain-chiefs as among the cavaliers
of England ; and so strong was the impression which
his arms made on their imagination, that, in 1726, au
aged Highland laird told Mr. Burt, that Oliver's colours
were so strongly fixed in his memory, that he still
thought he saw them spread out by the wind, and bear-
ing the word EMANUEL upon them, in very large golden
characters.*

Upon the Restoration, the Stuarts, who owed so much
to the Highland clans, for what they had done and
suffered in the royal cause, under Montrose, Glencairn
and Middleton, rewarded the chiefs by relaxing the
discipline under which Cromwell had placed them. The
forts established at Inverness, and elsewhere, for brid-
ling the mountaineers, were dismantled or abandoned.
The Marquis of Argyle (in Highland phrase Gillespie
Gruomach) had acquired a prodigious ascendancy in
the Western Highlands and Isles during the civil wars,
and received from Parliament many large grants both
of lands and jurisdiction. It is well known by what
means and for what causes Charles II. and his brother
prosecuted the ruin of this nobleman and his son, in

* Letters from the North of Scotland.— Letter XI.

70 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

consequence of which, the MacDonalds, MacLeans, and
other clans, who had been overpowered by the weight
of the marquis's authority, were restored to indepen-
dence.

The Duke of York, during his residence at Edin-
burgh, had frequent opportunities of becoming ac-
quainted with the principal northern chieftains, whose
stately fiertt well suited his own reserved and haughty
temper : they were, besides, either Catholics, or bigoted
to the prelatic establishment ; and, in either case, were
deemed fit persons to countenance, in opposition to the
Presbyterian interest, so odious to the reigning family.
The laws against their excesses were therefore greatly
relaxed; and it was even thought politic to employ the
clans in overawing the western shires, where the pro-
hibited conventicles of the Presbyterians were most
numerous. Six thousand Highlanders were invited from
their mountains to pillage these devoted counties; a
task which they performed with the rapacity of an in-
digent people attracted by objects of luxury to which
they were strangers, but with less cruelty than had
perhaps been expected from them. In the meanwhile,
encouraged by these marks of favour and indulgence,
they had again established their own exemptions from
the general law of Scotland, both in civil and criminal
concerns, as will appear from the curious case of Mac-
Donald of Keppoch.

This chief and the laird of Macintosh had long dis-
puted a territory called Glenroy, in the central High-

MACDONALD OF KEPPOCH. 71

lands. Macintosh had obtained a crown charter, com-
prehending a grant of these lands. Keppoch, disdain-
ing, as he said, to hold his lands in a sheepskin, took
forcible possession of Glenroy, and there maintained
himself. Macintosh, in 1687, with the assistance of a
body of regular forces, commanded by MacKenzie of
Suddy, summoned his clan, and marched against
Keppoch, but received a severe defeat at Milroy, where
Suddy was slain, he himself made prisoner, and com-
pelled to renounce his right to the lands in dispute. A
strong body of military was next marched into the
Highlands to revenge this insult, and under the
authority of letters of fire and sword, Keppoch's lands
were laid waste with great severity.* Yet this did not
break the strength, or diminish the spirit of Keppoch,
for in 1689 he was able to lay siege to Inverness ; and,
what is still more extraordinary, the severe usage
which he had received did not diminish his zeal for the
Stuart family, for he was the first to join the standard
which the Viscount of Dundee raised against King
William.

Dundee, a man at once of genius and of military ex-
perience, knew how to avail himself of the enthusiastic
energy of a Highland army, and to conciliate and
direct the discordant councils of their independent
chiefs. He fell in the battle of Killiecrankie, one of the
greatest victories ever gained by an Highland army ;

* See Crichton's Memoirs in Swift's works : Captain Crichton was
himself employed on this occasion.

72 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

and those who succeeded in the command, being men
of routine, and of limited views, the war dwindled
away into a succession of inroads and skirmishes, in
the course of which the bordering Highlanders plun-
dered the low country so severely, that in many dis-
tricts the year of the hership (plunder) was long after-
wards mentioned as an era. King William, just arrived
at the possession of a crown which seemed still pre-
carious, and having his attention engaged by the con-
tinental war, and that of Ireland, thought it best to
purchase peace in this remote corner of his new king-
dom, and the Earl of Bredalbane was intrusted with
£20,000 sterling, to be distributed among the Highland
chiefs. Bredalbane was artful, daring, and rapacious.
Some chiefs he gratified with a share of the money ;
others with good words; others he kept quiet by threats;
and it has always been supposed that the atrocity well
known by the name of the massacre of Glencoe, was
devised and executed to gratify at once an ancient
quarrel, to silence an intractable chief, who had
become clamorous about the division of the peace-
offering, and to serve as a measure of intimidation to
all others. It is said that when Bredalbane was
required by the English minister to account for the
sum of money put into his hands for the above pur-
pose, he returned this laconic answer —

" My Lord, the money is spent — the Highlands are
quiet — and this is the only way of accounting among
friends."

ADDRESS TO THE KING. 73

This termination of a war, by a subsidy grant to the
insurgents, was by no means calculated to lower that
idea of their own consequence, which the Highland
chiefs most readily entertained at all times. Each set
about augmenting his followers by every means in his
power, regarding military strength as the road to
wealth and importance in the national convulsions
which seemed approaching.

Contrary, however, to what might have been ex-
pected, the crisis of the accession of the Hanover
family did not at first make a strong impression on the
Highland chiefs. After much consultation among
themselves, an address was drawn up to congratulate
George I. on his accession to the throne, and to im-
plore his favour. We give this curious document. We
are ignorant whether it has ever appeared in any col-
lection of state papers. Ours is given to us as copied
from a manuscript of the period ; and though this re-
markable paper is unnoticed in history, we believe it to
be genuine. It is entitled —

" Address of one hundred and two Chief Heritors and
Heads [of Clans in the Highlands of Scotland, to King
George the First, on his Accession to the Throne, which
by Court Intrigue was prevented from being delivered to
his Majesty: the consequence was, their joining in the
Rebellion in the year 1715.

" May it please your Majesty,

" We of the chief heritors and others, in the High-
lands of Scotland, under subscribing, beg leave to ex-

74 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

press the joy of our hearts at your Majesty's happy
accession to the crown of Great Britain. Your Majesty
has the blood of our ancient monarchs in your veins
and in your family ; may that royal race ever continue
to reign over us! Your Majesty's princely virtues, and
the happy prospect we have in your royal family of an
uninterrupted succession of kings to sway the British
sceptre, must extinguish those divisions and contests
which in former times too much prevailed, and unite
all who have the happiness to live under your Majesty
into a firm obedience and loyalty to your Majesty's
person, family, and government ; and as our prede-
cessors have for many ages had the honour to distin-
guish themselves by their loyalty, so we do most
humbly assure your Majesty, that we will reckon it our
honour steadfastly to adhere to you, and with our
lives and fortunes to support your crown and dignity
against all oppressors. Pardon us, great Sir, to implore
your royal protection against any who labour to misre-
present us, and who rather use their endeavours to
create misunderstandings than to engage the hearts of
subjects to that loyalty and cheerful obedience which
we owe, and are happy to testify towards your Majesty.
Under so excellent a king, we are persuaded that we,
and all our other peaceable and faithful subjects, shall
enjoy their just rights and liberties, and that our
enemies shall not be able to hurt us with your Majesty,
for whose royal favour we presume humbly to hope, as
our forefathers were honoured with that of your
Majesty's ancestors. Our mountains, though under-
valued by some, are nevertheless acknowledged to
have at all times been fruitful in providing hardy and
gallant men, and such, we hope, shall never be want-
ing amongst us, who shall be ready to undergo all

CLANS IN REBELLION. 75

dangers in defence of your Majesty, and your royal
posterity's only rightful title to the crown of Great
Britain. Our behaviour shall always witness for us,
that with unalterable firmness and zeal we are,
" May it please your Majesty,

" Your Majesty's most loyal, most obedient

" And most dutiful subjects and servants,
" ALEX. MAODONALD, of Glengarry,
" MACINTOSH, of that Ilk,
" J. CAMERON, of Lochiele,
" J. STEWART, of Ardsheall,
" NORMAN MACLEOD, of Drynach,"
&c. &c.

It is said to have been delivered to Archibald Duke
of Argyle, to be presented by him to the new sovereign:
but that nobleman, being a politician as well as a sol-
dier, is alleged to have seen more prospect of personal
aggrandisement in an insurrection, which would render
his services indispensable, than in a peaceful submis-
sion of the Highlands to the House of Hanover. Ac-
cordingly, the Earl of Marr came over to Scotland ;
the standard of the Chevalier St. George was raised ;
and almost all the Highland chiefs of name and emin-
ence assembled their forces at Perth. But Marr, by
whom they were commanded, was better fitted for the
intrigues of a court, than for leading an army and
directing a campaign ; and a force of Highlanders, the
greatest ever assembled, and which, under Montrose,
Dundee, or even Charles Edward, would have made
itself master of all Scotland, was (with the exception

76 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

of the forlorn hope under Mackintosh of Borlum, which
shared the fate of the Northumbrian insurgents) com-
pletely neutralized, and pent up within the friths of
Clyde and Forth, by the Duke of Argyle at the head
of a force not exceeding two or three thousand men.

The indecisive battle of Sheriffmuir only served to
show the incapacity of the Jacobite general, and the
valour of the troops he commanded. It was upon this
memorable day that young Clanronald fell, leading on
the Highlanders of the right wing. His death dispirited
the assailants, who began to waver. But Glengarry,
chief of a rival branch of the Clan Colla, started from
the ranks, and waving his bonnet round his head, cried
out:

" To-day for revenge, and to-morrow for mourning !"
" The Highlanders received a new impulse from his
words, and, charging with redoubled fury, bore down
all before them. But their left wing was less fortunate,
being completely routed, and pushed as far as the river
Allan, two miles from the field of battle. Both parties
retreated after this doubtful action, the Highlanders to
Perth, the Duke of Argyll to Stirling: but the ultimate
advantage rested with the former.

CHAPTER VII.

Lord President Forbes— The Story of Lord Lovat's Life— The Tragic
Story of his Marriage — Lord Lovat's Intrigues — Lord President
Forbes' Exertions on behalf of his Countrymen.

AT this period of Highland history, Duncan Forbes,

LORD PRESIDENT FORBES. 77

afterwards President of the Court of Session, and whose
original papers and correspondence are here given to
the world, made a considerable figure in public affairs.
He was a younger son of the family of Culloden, which
had a considerable estate in the neighbourhood of
Inverness, and was thus connected by blood and friend-
ship with almost all the respectable families in that dis-
trict, and with many of the Highland chiefs. Mr.
Forbes was educated to the law, in which he was early
distinguished, not more by eloquence than by sound
sense and depth of knowledge. At the time of the in-
surrection in 1715, his elder brother, John Forbes, of
Culloden, as well as himself, engaged with heart and
hand in the service of the government, to which they
•were enabled to render important services, partly
through their own influence and exertions, partly by
means of a chief, whose history forms a strange illustra-
tion of the effect of power and ambition upon a mind
naturally shrewd, crafty and resolute, but wild, tame-
less, and unprincipled : this was the celebrated Simon
Fraser, of Lovat, of whose previous history we must
give the outlines.

Simon was the son of Thomas Fraser of Beaufort,
next male heir to the house of Lovat after the death of
Hugh Lord Lovat, without issue male. Being regarded
as the heir apparent of the chieftainship as well as of
the estate of Lovat, he attempted to unite by marriage
his own claim with that of the eldest daughter of the
deceased Lord Hugh. The dowager Lady Lovat was

5

78 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

a daughter of the Marquis of Athole ; and that power-
ful family was therefore induced to take great interest
in disposing of the young lady in marriage. Various
quarrels, during the time that Simon of Beaufort held
a commission in his regiment, had made him particu-
larly unacceptable to the Marquis of Athole and his
family, who viewed his assuming the title of Master of
Lovat, and [proposing himself as a husband for their
kinswoman, with a very evil eye : they therefore re-
moved the young lady to Dunkeld, and set on foot a
match between her and Lord Saltoun, a Lowland
family bearing the name of Fraser.

When Lord Saltoun, accompanied by Athole's
brother, Lord Mungo Murray, and other connexions of
the family, entered upon the territories of the Frasers,
with the purpose of paying his respects to the mother
of his intended bride, they were surprised, seized, and
disarmed, by Simon, to whom the greater part of the
clan adhered, as representing his father, their true
chief. Having gained this advantage, he attempted to
improve it by an act of depravity, which can hardly be
accounted for, except by irregularity of intellect, and
an eager desire to put a deep dishonour and mortal
displeasure upon the family of Athole. As the heiress,
the original object of his suit, made no part of his
prisoners, but remained secure in the castle of Dunkeld,
he abandoned all thoughts of that alliance, and formed
the strange and apparently sudden resolution of marry-
ing her mother, the Dowager Lady Lovat.

LORD LOVAT'S MARRIAGE. 79

Having raised a gallows on the green before Castle-
Downie, where she then resided, to intimidate all who
might protect the object of his violence, — a lady ad-
vanced in life, and whose person is said to have been
as little inviting as her character was respectable — he
went through the mock ceremony of a wedding, and
had her dress cut from her person with a dirk, and sub-
jected her to the last extremity of brutal violence,
while the pipes played in the next apartment to drown
her screams. This outra0o Lovat has positively denied,
in the Memoirs of his own Life, where he terms the
accusation a chimera raised up to blacken his char-
acter : but we shall soon see reason to believe that his
assertions were not always squared by matter of fact.
Besides, he denies the marriage as well as the force
with which it was perpetrated, and declares that he
never even approached her person ; assigning many
reasons why she could neither be an object to him of
desire nor of ambition.* Now, in a letter from his
father to the Earl of Argyle, subscribed by himself and
other gentleman of his clan, he says :

" Also they'll have my son and complices guilty ot a
rape, though his wife was married to him by a minister,
and they have always lived since as man and wife." f

It may be more difficult to conceive how Lovat,
blackened with such an unmanly crime, was at any

* Memoirs of the Life of Simon Lord Lovat. London, 1797. 8vo.,
p. 60.
t Carstairs' State Papers, p. 434.

80 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

time afterwards considered as fit society for men of
honour, and particularly how he could become the
friend of such a man as Duncan Forbes. This might
partly arise from the practice in the Highlands. Even
in ordinary cases, the <bride was expected to afiect some
reluctance ; and the greater or less degree of violence
did not, in these wild times, appear a matter of much
consequence. The Scottish law-books are crowded
with instances of this sort of raptus, or, as it is called in
their law, "forcible abduction of women." The inference
seems to be, that, in some circumstances, no absolute
infamy was attached even to those acts of violence,
from which it seems impossible to divide it : and we re-
member a woman on the banks of Loch Lomond, her-
self the daughter of such a marriage, who repelled,
with great contempt, the idea of its being a real
grievance on the bride, and said that, in her time, the
happiest matches were always so made. These particu-
lars are only quoted to mark public opinion ; but it
may be a better answer that, as Duncan Forbes was
not so squeamish as to quarrel with the society of
Colonel Charteris, there is less wonder that he endured
that of Lovat.

He had defended Charteris in a trial for a rape, and
obtained from his gratitude the gratuitous use of a little
villa near Musselburgh, called Stoney-hill. We ought
to add that, in spite of poets and satirists, or whatever
might be Charteris's general character, the charge of
rape was an atrocious attempt to levy money from him

LORD LOVAT OUTLAWED. 81

by terror. Still there is something ludicrous in the
coincidence, that two special friends of so respectable a
man should have both been in trouble on so infamous
an accusation.

In 1698, Simon Fraser was summoned to answer be-
fore the Privy Council, for the crimes of unlawfully
assembling the lieges in arms, and for the violence
offered to the Lady Dowager Lovat Against the first
(which was no great crime in a Highland chief), he
offered no defence ; but the Earl of Argyle stated, that
he was willing to refer the circumstances of the mar-
riage to his wife's oath. He did not, however, appear ;
and a variety of witnesses being examined, tending to
establish the crime in its fullest extent, sentence of out-
lawry went forth against the delinquent. He skulked
for some time in the Highlands, and displayed both
address and courage in defeating many attempts made
by the Athole men to seize his person ; but at length
he was compelled to fly to the continent. Meanwhile
the young heiress, at whose hand he had originally
aimed, was wedded to Alexander Mackenzie, son of
one of the Judges of Session, called Lord Prestonhall,
who assumed, upon this marriage, the title of Fraser-
dale.

The earnest solicitations of the Duke of Argyle
(hereditary enemy to the family of Athole) had,
through the medium of Mr. Carstairs, obtained from
King William a remission of the crime of high treason,
of which Simon Fraser had been declared guilty ; but

82 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

the rape being one of a more private and atrocious
complexion, his pardon did not extend to it ; and thus
he still remained an exile from Scotland. His daring
and intriguing spirit carried him now to the court of
Saint Germain's, where he proposed a plan of invasion,
if men and money could be furnished by the French
king, and pledged himself that the invading forces
should be joined by the principal chiefs of the High-
lands, with ten thousand men. Louis did not approve
of the personal security on which he was required to
hazard his subjects and treasures, although Fraser, to
give more weight to it, had publicly adopted the
Catholic religion.

He was sent over, however, to intrigue in Scotland,
with the friends of the exiled family, accompanied by
Captain James Murray, who was to act as a spy, or
check, upon him. But finding a slackness in the Tory
party, to whom he applied himself, for most of them
were contented with the government of Queen Anne,
now upon the throne, Fraser began to try what could
be gained on the other side. He opened, accordingly,
an intercourse with Queensberry and Leven, heads of
the opposite party, who instantly saw the advantage
they might derive from involving the Dukes of Hamil-
ton, Athole, and other rivals of their power, in a Jaco-
bitical plot ; and that it might ripen into something
more decisive, they granted a passport for Fraser to
return to France, under a feigned name. But this
emissary's purposes of hatching up a conspiracy, which

ERASER'S CONSPIRACY. 83

he might forward or betray, as best suited his interest,
proved too weighty for his means of executing them.
The Tory party got scent of his intrigues with Queens-
berry and Leven ; and as there was every prospect of
his hand-grenade exploding while it was yet in his
grasp, he fled, in great haste, to France, where he was
immediately committed to the state prison of Angou-
leme. He regained his liberty, but, distrusted as he
now was on all sides, he had no opportunity to engage
in any new intrigues, until the memorable year 1715.

At the time when all the Jacobite clans were in
arms, and drawn towards the midland counties, it ap-
peared to the Duke of Argyle and to Mr. Forbes of
Culloden, of great consequence to excite such opposi-
tion in their rear as might check them in their plan of
moving southward. Inverness was occupied by a
party of the insurgent forces, under Sir John Mac-
kenzie ; and Alexander Mackenzie, of Fraserdale, who
assumed the authority of chief of the Frasers, in right
of his lady, had marched with about four hundred of
that clan to join the Earl of Marr at Perth. But the
Frasers of Struy, Foyers, Culduthel, and other gentle-
men of the name, refused to follow him, and maintained
a sort of neutrality until the pleasure of Simon, whom
they regarded as their proper chief, should be known.
As this clan was powerful, both from numbers and
situation, — occupying both sides of Loch Ness, and
being thus masters of the communication between the
north and central Highlands, — it became of the utmost

84 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

consequence to detach, from the Stuarts' standard, those
Erasers "who had already joined Marr, and to determine
the others who remained doubtful.

Fraser of Castle-Lauder was therefore despatched to
invite Simon to return to Scotland, for the purpose of
heading his clan in behalf of King George and the
government. The summons was joyfully obeyed, and,
indeed, had been already solicited ; for, on the 24th
November, 1714, Simon had written to Culloden to in-
tercede with Argyle and Isla in his favour, adding,
" that it was the interest of all between Spey and Nesse,
who loved the government, to see him at the head of the
clan ready to join them : " — so that the reluctance
which he has affected in his Memoirs to quitting the
Jacobite interest, is only a piece of double-dyed hypo-
crisy. He returned, however, to Great Britain ; and
here the reader may remark the strength of the clan-
nish principle. This chief had not been formally ac-
knowledged as such — he had never been master of his
inheritance, and his rival had enjoyed for years all the
means of acquiring and securing attachment which
possession could give ; — there was nothing in his per-
sonal character to admire; it was stained, on the
contrary, with much guilt and with dark suspicion ; —
and lastly, the cause which he now espoused was not
that to which his followers would have inclined had
they consulted their own feelings and partialities. But
he was their rightful CHIEF ; and such was the strength
of authority which that word implied, that those Frasers

FRASERDALE'S PLATE. 85

who had stood neuter, at once declared for Simon and
his cause ; and those who had marched with Fraser-
dale, deserted him to a man, and returned northward
to join his standard. The body of the clan thus assem-
bled, amounted to five or six hundred. They blockaded
Inverness on one side, while the men- of Culloden and
of Ross of Kilravock, who were also in arms for the
government, assailed it upon the other; so that Sir John
Mackenzie was compelled to evacuate the place under
favour of a spring tide.

Lovat lost no time in improving the advantage
which circumstances now afforded him. He had his
eye upon his rival Fraserdale's plate ; but it appears
that he was anticipated by General Wrightman, who
got possession of the treasure from the person with
whom it was deposited, and who, certainly, says Mr.
Forbes's correspondent, " did not make the prize for
Lovat." Simon Fraser, however, obtained, as a reward
for his opportune services, a gift of the liferent right of
Fraserdale, in right of his wife to the Barony of Lovat,
forfeited for his share in the rebellion, and vested in the
crown. To finish the history of his law-matters, we will
here add that, having obtained this temporary right to
the estate of his ancestors, and being recognised as
Lord Lovat, he entered into a law-suit with the Mac-
kenzies, about the right of reversion to that estate,
which lingered on till the year 1736, when it was
agreed that, in consideration of a sum of money paid
by Lord Lovat, the Mackenzies should convey to him

86 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

their reversionary interest in the barony of Lovat ; and
thus he had it, thanedome and all, however foully he
had played for it.

Duncan Forbes, in the meanwhile, was labouring in
a more honourable but far less advantageous course.
Attached, by religion, by principle, by love of liberty,
to the government of George I, he refused to justify
the faults even of the administration which he sup-
ported. When, in 1715, the jails of England were
crowded with Scottish prisoners, despoiled, and unable
to procure the means of defending themselves, Forbes,
to his immortal honour, set on foot a subscription to
supply the unfortunate Jacobites, against whom he and
his brother had borne arms so lately, with the means of
making a defence. He remonstrated boldly against the
arbitrary measure by which it was proposed to remove
the criminals from their native country, and from the
protection of their native laws, to try them in England,
to them a foreign realm ; and it was owing to his sturdy
interference, and to that of many Scotchmen who, like
him, preferred their country's rights to any party in the
state, that this abuse of the constitution was prevented.
The upright and patriotic conduct of Forbes was, in the
first place, followed by suspicion and obliquy, but
finally, by those honours and that respect which truth
and fortitude seldom fail to acquire.

He was promoted to the office of Advocate-Depute,
and in 1725 to that of Lord Advocate ; always a situa-
tion of high power and importance, but particularly so

MALT TAX RIOTS. 87

in times of a disputed title and repeated insurrections.
We find nothing in his papers to throw light upon the
brief invasion of 1719, by a few Spanish troops landing
in the country of the Earl of Seaforth, and joined by
his clan. They were defeated at Glenshiel, with little
loss on either side, and in a great measure by the
Munros, Rosses, and other Whig clans, whom the influ-
ence of Duncan Forbes put into motion. Placed, as it
were, on the very edge of the discontented districts, he
had a difficult and even dangerous game to play. It
was, says the editor of the Culloden papers, "more
congenial to his nature to reclaim than to punish ; " and
his life was spent in keeping quiet, by means of influ-
ence, persuasion, and the interposition of friends, those
warlike and independent chiefs whom presumption and
political prejudice were perpetually urging to take up
arms.

Lord Advocate Forbes suppressed, by his personal
exertions, the desperate and alarming riots concerning
the Malt tax, in 1725, and was among the patriots
who saved the city of Edinburgh from the vindictive
measures meditated against the metropolis, on account
of the singular insurrection, called the Porteous mob.
It was, indeed, one of the brightest points of this great
man's character, that though the steady friend of
government and good order, he was the boldest and
most active mediator for his misguided fellow-subjects,
when it was proposed to urge punishment beyond the
bounds of correction into those of vengeance. Many

88 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

other patriotic labours occupied his attention, concern-
ing which information will be found in these papers.
He was the first to give the example (since so well fol-
lowed) of those efiects which careful agriculture can
produce, even when contending with the disadvan-
tages of soil and climate. It was he who first proposed
encouragement to the linen trade and other manufac-
tures in Scotland.

It was he also, who first took measures for preserving
and arranging the records of the kingdom of Scotland,
a work which has been so actively forwarded in our
own time by Lord Frederick Campbell, the Clerk
Register, seconded by the deep historical and legal
knowledge of the Deputy Register, Mr. Thomson. The
promotion of Forbes to the high office of President of
the Court of Session took place in 1737 : when called,
as Lord Hardwicke expressed it, by the voice of the
country, to fill the vacant chair, his appointment was
hailed by all ranks as a guarantee for the impartial ad-
ministration of justice, and the gradual and sound elu-
cidation of law. It is, however, less of this great man's
character, than of the Highlands of Scotland, which our
review proposes to treat.

HIGHLANDERS DISARMED. 89
CHAPTER VIII.

The Highlands in 1715 and 1745— The forming of the Black Watch-
Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope— Rob Roy's Haunts— The
Craftiness of Lord Lovat— A Singular Story— Lady Lovat— Lord
President Forbes labouring to dissuade the Highland Chiefs.

THE dangers of the year 1715 occasioned several steps
towards breaking the spirit of clanship, and crushing
the power of the Highland chiefs. The first of these
was called the clan-act, which, if a vassal took arms in
any rebellion, bestowed the property of his lands upon
his superior or liege-lord, supposing him to have re-
mained loyal, and, vice versa, gave the loyal vassal the
superiority or freehold right of his own lands, if he re-
mained quiet, when his liege-lord (to use the estab-
lished phrase) went out. Another act discharged the
personal attendances of vassals upon the summons of
the chief for sharing his sports, fighting his battles,
and garrisoning his mansion, or, in the phrase of law,
for the purposes of hunting, hosting, watching, and
warding. These badges of dependence were ordered
to be commuted for a money rent : but as the idea of
the duty remained imprinted in the minds of the clans,
it continued to be rendered regularly upon demand.

Another act was passed for disarming the High-
landers. But this measure, which would have been
otherwise effectual, was carried into execution so im-
perfectly, that while the Whig clans surrendered all
their arms, to show obedience to government, the

90 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

Jacobites contrived to conceal great part of theirs, to
secure, when an opportunity should offer, the means of
resisting it.* So that in 1745, the friends of govern-
ment were found disarmed, while their enemies were in
a state of preparation. The last, and by far the most
effectual precaution, taken between 1715 and 1745, was
the establishment of military roads through the High-
lands, a work of great time and labour; but of all
others the most certainly tending to civilisation. The
effect of these measures was considerable upon the
Highlands; and there can be little doubt, that their
gradual operation would, in the course of years, or
ages, perhaps, have tended to unite their inhabitants
with those of the Lowlands of Scotland, as the tribes
of Wales, of Ireland, and of the Borders, have gradually
been blended with the rest of socity. But the system
of clanship was destined to a more sudden and violent
dissolution.

The steps taken by government, and the exhortations
from France and Kome, kept the Highland chiefs on
the alert to support the patriarchial power, which they
saw was aimed at by those who governed at home,
while they received encouragement from abroad to
assist and defend it. Money and arms were occasion-
ally supplied to them, and every chief and chieftain
exerted himself to maintain his influence, to discourage
innovation, and to banish all strangers who attempted
to settle amongst them.

* See Letter from President Forbes in the Culloden Papers.

HATRED OF LOWLANDERS. 91

A singular instance occurred in the case of Sir
Alexander Murray of Stanhope, who, encouraged by a
very favourable prospect of lead-mines which might be
wrought to advantage, purchased a large district in the
West Highlands, called Ardnamurchan. He laid open
rich mines at Strontian, and attempted agricultural im-
provements, which could not have failed at once to
improve the country, and reward the undertaker. But
such was the hatred of the natives to a Lowland land-
lord, that his cattle and effects were stolen, his houses
burned, his servants wounded and killed, his own life,
and that of his family threatened, while, either from
want of evidence, or want of inclination on the part of
the constituted jurisdictions, justice was in every case
delayed or refused, until, broken in spirit and fortune,
he was compelled to relinquish this hopeful undertaking,
and to carry his unavailing complaints to the British
Parliament. In milder times and with better auspices,
the present proprietor of that extensive tract has
carried into effect many of the proposed improvements ;
yet, to his honour be it spoken, he has made the comfort
and happiness of his numerous tenantry keep pace with
the rise of his property in value.

In other places of the Highlands similar scenes were
acted ; and in general, either from the facility of
finding prey, or encouraged by the policy of the High-
land chiefs, the fiercest and most lawless of the clans
and associated freebooters inhabited the mountains
nearer to the Lowlands. Such was the information

92 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

given to Dr. Johnson by the Reverend Dr. MacQueen;
which, ignorant of the circumstances, the English
moralist seems to have considered as an ebullition of
Highland vanity. Nothing, however, is more certain.

The famous Rob Roy, for example, haunted the head
of Loch Lomond, from which he carried on a war of
plunder against the estate of the Duke of Montrose, re-
treating when hard pressed into the mountains to the
north-west, where the Duke of Argyle, out of ancient
hatred to the Montrose family, connived at his finding
refuge. He blended in his own character the capacity
of a police officer and of a freebooter — that is to say, he
ensured against depredation the cattle of those Low-
landers who paid him black-mail, and recovered them
if stolen ; and, on the other hand, he laid waste and
pillaged the property of those who refused their
tribute. In virtue of his assumed character of pro-
tector, he summoned the people of Lennox to pay the
black-mail with as much gravity as if it had been a
legal demand ; and he that demurred, generally had
good cause, before a week went by, to wish that he
had complied.

To repress these disturbances, government adopted
a remedy of a doubtful and dangerous character. This
was the raising of a number of independent companies
among the Highlanders themselves, officered by the
sons of chieftains, tacksmen, and such duihne wassals as
we formerly described, and commanded by chiefs, or
chieftains, to whom the pay, small as it may now seem,

THE BLACK WATCH. 93

of a company of foot, was in those days no incon-
siderable object. This black-watch, as it was called,
traversed the country in arms day and night, became
acquainted with all its recesses, and with the most
desperate characters whom it contained. It must be
supposed that they had the same vague opinion with
other Highlanders as to the morality of the practices
which they were employed to suppress ; and as they
often took upon them to treat with the thieves about
the restoration of their booty, they were much belied if,
in some instance, they did not share it with them.

At any rate, these companies were the means of
fostering in the Highlanders the restless military spirit
which the Clan and Disarming Acts had been intended
to subdue ; and as such they were used by the chiefs,
who, either from attachment to the exiled family, or to
their own clanish authority, did all they could to sup-
port what it was most the interest of a peaceful
government to eradicate. Still, with all the dangers
attending them, the independent companies were
essential to the peace of the country ; and when they
were embodied into one regiment (the celebrated 42nd,
still called the Black-Watch), and sent to Flanders
without the substitution of any force of the same
active description in their stead, the disaffected chiefs,
rendered still more so by the loss of their companies
thus withdrawn from them, had full scope for their
machinations.

No man played this game more deeply than Lord

6

94 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

Lovat, to whom one of these independent companies
had been given. He made it a main argument, to
prevent the Erasers from relapsing into any habits of
industry unbecoming then: military character and high
descent, that it was their duty to enter into his com-
pany by rotation ; and as he thus procured the means,
without suspicion, of training to military discipline his
whole clan by turns, it soon became plain that govern-
ment could not have put a more dangerous weapon
into the hands of a more dangerous man.

He was, indeed, a most singular person ; such as
could only have arisen in a time and situation where
there was a mixture of savage and civilized habits.
The wild and desperate passions of his youth were now
matured into a character at once bold, cautious, and
crafty ; loving command, yet full of flattery and dis-
simulation, and accomplished in all points of policy
excepting that which is proverbially considered the
best He was at all times profuse of oaths and protes-
tations, but chiefly, as was observed of Charles IX. of
France, when he had determined in his own mind to
infringe them. Like many cunning people, he often
seems to have overshot his mark ; while the indulgence
of a temper so fierce and capricious as to infer some
slight irregularity of intellect, frequently occasioned
the shipwreck of his fairest schemes of self-interest.
To maintain and extend his authority over a Highland
clan, he showed, in miniature, alternately the arts of a
Machiavel, and the tyranny of a Csesar Borgia. He

LORD LOVAT. 95

spared no means of enhancing the rents of his Lowland
estate, which he bestowed liberally in maintaining the
hospitality of a chief towards his Highland tenants.

Those who withstood his designs, or resisted his
authority, were either worried by long and vexatious
law-suits, or experienced nocturnal inroads from the
banditti supposed to act under his secret direction, who
houghed their cattle, burned their barn-yards, and
often injured them personally. When the freebooters
concerned in such outrages were arrested, the jail of
Inverness was never found strong enough to hold them.
And though all men well knew how this happened
none dared to mention Lovat as the cause.* On the
other hand, persons of the inferior order, belonging to
hostile clans, who had incurred his displeasure, never
found any such facilities of escape, but were indentured
for the plantations, or sent to Holland as soldiers. Mr.
Burt tells a very extraordinary story, which the reader
may take in his own words.

" As this chief (Lovat) was walking alone, in his
garden, with his dirk and pistol by his side, and a gun
in his hand (as if he feared to be assassinated), and, as
I was reading in his parlour, there came to me by
stealth (as I soon perceived), a young fellow, who

*See Letters from the North of Scotland, vol. i., Letter III., and vol.
ii., Letter XXIV. Burt gives many anecdotes of Lord Lovat, though
without naming him. The gentleman whose cattle were houghed for
giving sentence as an arbiter against Lord Lovat, was Cuthbert of
Castlehill, and he whose house was broken into with the purpose of
assassination, was Fraser of Phopachy.

96 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

accosted me with such an accent, as made me conclude
he was a native of Middlesex ; and every now and
then he turned about, as if he feared to be observed by
any of the family.

" He told me, that when his master was in London,
he had made him promises of great advantage, if he
would serve him as his gentleman ; but though he had
been there two years, he could not obtain either his
wages or discharge.

" ' And,' says he, * when I ask for either of them, he
tells me I know I have robbed him, and nothing is
more easy for him than to find, among these High-
landers, abundant evidence against me (innocent as I
am) ; and then my fate must be a perpetual jail, or
transportation : and there is no means for me to make
my escape, being here in the midst of his clan and
never suffered to go far from home.'

" You will believe I was much affected with the
melancholy circumstance of the poor young man ; but
told him, that my speaking for him would discover his
complaint to me, which might enrage his master ; and,
in that case, I did not know what might be the conse-
quence to him.

" Then, with a sorrowful look, he left me, and (as it
happened) in very good time." — Letter x.

In his family, Lord Lovat exercised similar tyranny.
The eldest son, a hopeful and excellent young man,
was the constant object of his jealousy ; and his last
wife, though nearly related to the family of Argyle,

CRUELTY OF LORD LOVAT. 97

was treated by him with so much cruelty, that the in-
terference of her relations became necessary. We
have heard that a lady, the intimate friend of her youth,
was instructed to visit Lady Lovat, as if by accident,
to ascertain the truth of those rumours concerning her
husband's conduct, which had reached her family.
She was received by Lord Lovat with an extravagant
affectation of welcome, and with many assurances of
the happiness which his lady would receive from seeing
her. The chief then went to the lonely tower in
which Lady Lovat was secluded without decent
clothes, and even without sufficient nourishment. He
laid a dress before her becoming her rank, commanded
her to put it on, to appear, and to receive her friend as
if she were the mistress of the house, in which she
was, in fact, a naked and half-starved prisoner. And
such was the strict watch he maintained, and the
terror his character inspired, that the visitor durst not
ask, nor Lady Lovat communicate, any thing respecting
her real situation. It was, however, ascertained by
other means, and a separation took place.

We have seen the versatility of Lord Lovat in
earlier life ; the services which he rendered George I.
during the year 1715 ; the advantages of his indepen-
dent company ; his rank as Lord-lieutenant of Inver-
ness-shire, besides the gratuity of a pension, were
boons granted to secure his allegiance to the house of
Brunswick ; but it was quickly found that with
ambitious turbulence, which was even too great for his

98 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

sense of self-interest, he was still engaged in obscure
and secret negotiations with the exiled family. In
1737, he received a visit from Colonel Roy Stuart, an
emissary of the Chevalier, and gave great cause of
suspicion, both by that circumstance and by the
quantity of swords, targets, and other arms, which he
was observed to import from abroad. Yet it seems in-
consistent with his character to have joined irretrievably
in a cause so desperate, had he not fallen into a sort of
open disgrace with the government.

About 1739, his independent company and pension
were both withdrawn, contrary to the advice of Presi-
dent Forbes, who foresaw the effects of the pecuniary
loss and public disgrace upon a spirit so interested, so
haughty, and so dangerous. The crisis of civil conten-
tion accordingly approached ; and the tempting offer
of a dukedom and the lieutenancy of all the counties
north of the Spey, overcame Lovat's worldly wisdom,
although few men had more. He paused, indeed,
upon finding that Charles had landed with such a
slender force ; and his letters to President Forbes, prior
to the battle of Prestonpans, indicate an intention of
supporting the established government. The victory
obtained by the Chevalier determined his sentiments ;
and in presence of many of his vassals, being urged by
an emissary of the Prince to " throw off the mask," he
flung down his hat and drank success to the young
adventurer by the title which he claimed, and con-
fusion to the White Horse and all his adherents. But

DUPLICITY OF LOVAT. 99

with the Machiavelism inherent in his nature, he
resolved that his own personal interest in the insurrec-
tion should be as little evident as possible, and
determined that his son, whose safety he was bound,
by the laws of God and man, to prefer to his own,
should be his stalking-horse, and, in case of need, his
ecape-goat.

Meanwhile, his friend and neighbour, President
Forbes, was labouring to dissuade the Highland chiefs
from joining in this rash expedition. With many of
the most powerful he found means to prevail, particu-
larly with the laird of Macleod, and Sir Alexander
MacDonald of Sleat, whose numerous tribes would
have made a formidable addition to the Chevalier's
army. With Lovat he used his utmost influence ; and
the letters between them are among the most enter-
taining in this volume. Lovat is, at first, vehement in
his demand for arms to protect his vassals and put his
country into a state of defence. By-and-by he is
compelled to admit that many of his followers were
eager to enter into the rebellion ; and lastly, that his
eldest son had been seduced to put himself at their
head, and had actually mustered four hundred Frasers,
and marched off with them to join the Chevalier. It
appears, from the evidence of Fraser of Dunballoch
and others, upon Lord Lovat's trial, that all this while
the threats and arguments of the father were urging
the son (afterwards the highly esteemed General
Fraser) to a step of which he disapproved, and that he

100 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

was still more disgusted by the duplicity and versatility
with which his father qualified it.

Meanwhile, between this wily and unprincipled chief,
and others of a more violent and open character, the
President was placed in a condition of difficulty and
danger, which shall be described in his own words.

" The prospect (of dissuading the chiefs) was at
first very flattering, and the errand I came on had no
appearance of difficulty ; but the rebell's successes at
Edr. and Preston-pans soon changed the scene. All
Jacobites, how prudent soever, became mad ; all
doubtfull people became Jacobites : and all bankrupts
became heroes, and talk'd nothing but hereditary rights
and victory ; and, what was more grievious to men of
gallantry, and if you will believe me much mor mis-
chievous to the publick, all the fine ladys, if you will
except one or two, became passionately fond of the
young adventurer, and used all their arts and industry
for him in the most intemperate manner. Under these
circumstances, I found myself almost alone, without
troops, without arms, without money or credite ; pro-
vided without no means to prevent extream folly,
except pen and ink, a tongue, and some reputation ;
and if you will except MacLeod, whom I sent for from
the isle of Sky, supported by nobody of common sense
or courage."— P. 250.

Yet, in these circumstances, by indefatigable exer-
tion, and by liberally contributing both money and
credit to the cause, he was enabled to assemble such a

PRINCE CHARLES'S FLIGHT. 101

force at Inverness, as served to distract the councils,
and interrupt the supplies of the Chevalier, and to pave
the way for the downfall of his cause. Lovat, in the
meanwhile, after exhausting every subterfuge, fled
from Inverness, where he had surrendered himself on a
kind of parole, and did not return to his house until, by
the northward march of the Chevalier's army, and
other events, the friends of government were for a time
forced to abandon Inverness.

CHAPTER IX.

Prince Charles at Dounie Castle— Lord Lovat's last days— Endeared
Memory of President Forbes — Severities on the Highlanders after
the 1745 Rising — The good and bad points in Clanship — Highland
Romance.

IT was not till after the battle of Culloden, that Lovat
beheld the unfortunate prince in whose cause he had
sacrified himself. A lady, who then a girl, was residing
in Lord Lovat's family, described to us the unexpected
appearance of Prince Charles and his flying attendants,
at Castle Dounie. The wild and desolate vale, on
which she was gazing with indolent composure, was
at once so suddenly filled with horsemen riding
furiously towards the castle, that, impressed with the
belief that they were fairies, who, according to High-
land tradition, are visible to men only from one twinkle
of the eye-lid to another, she strove to refrain from the
vibration, which she believed would occasion the
strange and magnificent apparition to become invisible.

102 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

To Lord Lovat it brought a certainty more dread-
ful than the presence of fairies, or even demons. The
tower on which he had depended had fallen to crush
him, and he only met the Chevalier to exchange mutual
condolences. Yet Lovat lost neither heart nor judg-
ment. Obliged to fly, though now so old and infirm
that he was transported on the shoulders of his
followers, he still advised the chiefs to keep together
their men, and either to prosecute a mountain war, or
show so bold a countenance as might obtain honour-
able terms of peace. But this design miscarried ; and
after skulking from isle to isle, he was at length
discovered within the trunk of a hollow tree, and
carried on board the Furnace ship of war.

Lord Lovat maintained, to the last, his character of
versatility and hardihood. In a letter to the Duke of
Cumberland, he endeavoured to excite his compassion,
by telling him how often he had carried him in his
arms when a child, offered to make such discoveries as
would be of an hundred times more advantage to
government than the sacrifice of an old grey-head, but
concluded — he was

" in utrumque paratus,

Sen versare dolos, seu certae incumbere morti."

During his previous confinement, during the course
of his trial, and even till the last hour of his life, his bold
and firm demeanour, the satirical causticity of his
vein of humour, and the respect commanded by energy

LOVAT'S LAST WORDS. 103

of character, even when they abused, secured him a
degree of interest, of a very different nature, but not
much inferior to that which Balmerino gained by his
undaunted steadiness, and Kilmarnock by his affecting
penitence. At his execution, two expressions marked
that he was Lovat still — when the scaffold fell and
killed several persons.

" Ay, ay " (exclaimed he, just about to die), " the
mair mischief the better sport."

And he chose for his last words the " Dulce et de-
corum " of Horace. Such sentiments in the mouth of
such a character, and at such a moment, seem prepos-
terous almost to incredibility; but Lovat is not the
only criminal whose conduct was guided by self-
interest during life, and who has yet assumed at his
death, the manners and language of a patriot.

The reader will naturally expect to hear of the re-
wards and honours which were showered on President
Forbes for his admirable conduct during a period so
difficult and dangerous. Of these we learn nothing.
But we suspect that the memory of his services was
cancelled by the zeal with which, after the victory, he
pressed the cause of clemency. We have heard that
when this venerable judge, as well became his station,
mentioned the laws of the country, he was answered,
not, as the editor supposes, by the Duke of Albemarle,
but by a personage greater still :

" What laws ? — I'll make a brigade give laws ! "

That his repeated intercessions in favour of those

104 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

who, from prejudice of education, or a false sense of
honour, had joined the Chevalier, were taken in bad
part ; and his desire to preserve to the Highlanders a
dress fitted to their occupations, was almost construed
into disaffection ; — in fine, that he died broken in spirit
by witnessing the calamities of his country, and im-
poverished in estate, by the want of that very money
which he had, in the hour of need, frankly advanced
to levy troops for the service of government. But he
left behind him a name endeared, even in these days
of strife and bitterness, to enemies as to friends, and
doubly to be honoured by posterity, for that impar-
tiality which uniformly distinguished between the
cause of the country and political party. By a sort of
posthumous ingratitude, - the privilege of distilling,
without payment of duty, upon his barony of Ferrin-
tosh, an immunity conferred to compensate his father's
losses and reward his services at the revolution, and
hence termed by Burns, " Loyal Forbes's chartered
boast," was wrenched from the family by government,
in 1785, for a most inadequate recompense.

[An eminent antiquary, to whom the publisher ap-
plied for a copy of the view of Old Culloden House as
it stood in 1746, and for the purpose of illustrating this
volume, has kindly supplied the following particulars :
" The original proprietors of Culloden, were Strachans,
a family from Aberdeenshire : the last of whom was
succeeded by his three daughters, as heiresses por-
tioners, who divided his estates among them ; so that

DUNCAN FORBES. 105

the barony split into three thirds, and thus it is de-
scribed to this day. The era of this event must have
been circiter A.D. 1520. Fifty years subsequently
thereto, Mackintosh of Dunachtoun (now of Mackin-
tosh), purchased the entire barony from these ladies
and their husbands. In 1630, or thereabouts, Mackin-
tosh sold the barony to Duncan Forbes, merchant in
Inverness, a younger son of a respectable family in
Aberdeenshire ; I incline to think, of Brux, or Craigie-
var. Duncan became member of Parliament for the
burgh of Inverness, and acquired much property in its
neighbourhood. He continued to reside in the old
chateau of the Strachans, and he also built a handsome
residence in the Castle Wynd of the town, over the
lintel of which his own and his wife's initials may yet
be seen. It adjoined the ' great slated house,' origin-
ally sold by Henry Duvar, prior of the monastery of
Inverness, in 1517, to Laurence Robertson of Inches,
and subsequently the property of the Lovat family ;
perhaps the first slated house in the capital of the
Highlands, for even till 15 71 the churches were thatched.
To Duncan Forbes succeeded John of Culloden, who
likewise represented the burgh for many years in Par-
liament, and, like his father, was its provost. Duncan
his son again succeeded him, and obtained the privi-
lege of distilling whisky in his barony of Ferrintosh
from William and Mary. ' Bumper John,' as his soubri-
quet went, from his excessive hospitality, was his heir ;
to him followed the justly esteemed patriot, Duncan

106 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

Forbes, his younger brother, afterwards Lord President
of the Court of Session. Burt, in his Letters from the
North, commemorates the joyous hilarity of the 'castle'
of Culloden when tenanted by the elder brother. ' It
is the custom of that house, at the first visit or intro-
duction, to take up your freedom by cracking his nut
(as he terms it) — that is, a cocoa shell, which holds a
pint, filled with champaigne, or such other sort of wine
as you shall choose. You may guess from the intro-
duction^ at the contents of the volume. Few go away
sober at any time ; and for the greatest part of his
guests, in the conclusion, they cannot go at all.'
Though less hilariously disposed than his merry kins-
man, the good President also could relax from the
sterner cares of life, and in the classic shades of his
beloved ' Bunchrew ' — (a small property on the op-
posite line of the Murray Frith, which he acquired
before his accession to the paternal domain) — many a
happy hour fled with those he esteemed."]

If we touch upon the severities exercised with a
most unsparing hand, after the insurrection of 1745,
during the course of which the Highlanders had con-
ducted themselves with humanity and moderation, it
is but to repel an expression of the editor of the Cul-
loden papers, who, after admitting the existence of
these " acts of atrocity," strangely subjoins, that " no
blame can attach to the Duke of Cumberland for them."

We, on the contrary, maintain that to the general of
the victorious army, and to no other, is imputable every

LOYALTY OF A LADY. 107

consequence of the orders which he issues ; and if a
veil is drawn over the conduct of the Duke of Cumber-
land, it is out of no respect or tenderness to the memory
of that prince, but in justice to the far different senti-
ments of many members of his illustrious family, who
knew how to prize faith and honour even in the
enemies of their house, and who have often testified
respect for the memory of those who risked their all
because their mistaken loyalty demanded the sacrifice,
and who, in prosecuting their enterprise, did nothing
in hate, but all in honour.

When the Princess of Wales, mother of his present
Majesty, mentioned, with some appearance of censure,
the conduct of Lady Margaret Macdonald of Sleat, who
harboured and concealed the Prince when, in the ex-
tremity of peril, he threw himself on her protection.

" And would not you, madam," answered Prince
Frederick, " have done the same in the like circum-
stances ? — I hope — I am sure you would."

Besides the great measure of restoring the forfeited
estates of the chiefs, our venerable sovereign* showed,
on many occasions, how little his heart was capable of
nourishing dislike against those who had acted upon
principle against the authority of his family. The sup-
port which he afforded to the exiled branch of the
Stuarts will form a bright trait in his history; and
secluded as he now is from his government and people,

* [King George III]

108 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

we may, as of a deceased monarch, relate one of those
trifling traits which marked the generous kindness of
his disposition. His Majesty was told of a gentleman

of family and fortune, in shire, that, far from

taking the oath of allegiance to him, he had never been
known to name or permit him to be named as king in
his presence,

" Carry my compliments to him," said the King,
" and say that I respect his steadiness of principle ; or,
as he may not receive my compliments as King of
England, present them as those of the Elector of
Hanover."

And he never afterwards saw the gentleman from
whom the anecdote is derived, without inquiring after
the health of the venerable recusant, and reiterating
his wish to be remembered to him. The same kind-
ness to the memory of those who hazarded themselves
for the Stuart cause has been inherited by the present
administrator of royal authority, and to him, as to his
father, their descendants have been and are prompt to
repay it.

We now draw to a conclusion. We have shown the
power of clanship in its most unamiable form, as
devolving on a man whom neither faith nor gratitude
could bind, — a tyrant to his family, a terror to his
vassals ; — selfish enough to shelter his own safety by
imputing to his son the crime to which he compelled
him, and a traitor to the political interests which he
embraced and abandoned alternatelv. Such a char-

CAMERON OF LOCHIEL. 109

acter ranks with the Ras Michael and Fasil of Bruce,
and rather belongs to the Galla, or the Agows, than to
the Scottish Highlands. It might have been our lot to
present patriarchal authority in a very different light,
as exercised by Allan Cameron of Lochiel, who, to the
high spirit, courage, and loyalty of a Highland chief,
added the manners of an accomplished gentleman and
the morals of a good Christian. Beloved by his neigh-
bours, he was the terror of the oppressor and the
refuge of the oppressed ; he suppressed in his clan
every license which could disturb the public, while his
bounty and encouragement rendered peaceful industry
more profitable to them than the hostile and predatory
habits of their ancestors. And when he took his last
and fatal step it was with no view of self-interest — no
desire of individual fame or honour — but in the pure
spirit of one who devoted himself to a cause which he
well knew to be desperate, because he deemed himself
called upon, by his honour and allegiance, to obey the
summons of the prince who threw himself upon so rash
a hazard.

Clanship, therefore, like other modes of government,
differed in complexion, according to the character by
whom the authority was exercised ; but it may be
observed in general, that though despotic in principle,
its duties were reciprocal ; and that the chief who
neglected to protect and maintain his people, was in
danger of being disowned and deserted by them.
Clanship, however, with its good, and evil, is now no

7

110 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

more. Its harsher features disappeared, after the pro-
mulgation of the laws in 1748, which struck at the
root of the chiefs' authority, both patriarchal and
feudal.

The execution of young Robert Roy, Sergeant More
Cameron, and other leaders of predatory bands of
Highlanders, with the banishment of the yet more dis-
tinguished Barrisdale, checked their habits of violence.
A milder race arose ; — the Highlanders with whom our
youth was conversant, cultivating sedulously the
means of subsistence which their country afforded, and
converting the broadsword into the ploughshare, and
the spear into the herdsman's crook, yet preserving an
aptitude to military habits, and an enthusiastic energy
of character derived from the recollections of former
days, and fostered by the tales of the grey-headed
veterans, who looked back with regret to the days
when each man's arms clattered round him when he
walked the hills. Among these men, the spirit of clan-
ship subsisted no longer indeed as a law of violence,
but still as a law of love. They maintained, in many
instances, their chiefs at their own expense ; and they
embodied themselves in regiments, that the head of the
family might obtain military preferment. Whether
and how these marks of affection have been rewarded,
is a matter of deep and painful enquiry. But while it
subsisted, this voluntary attachment to the chief was,
like the ruins of his feudal castle, more interesting than

HIGHLAND CLEARANCES. Ill

when clanship subsisted in its entire vigour, and re-
minded us of the expression of the poet : —

'Time

Has mouldered into beauty many a tower
Which, when it frown'd with all its battlements, .
Was only terrible."

Some such distinction between Highlanders and
Lowlanders in this respect, would long have subsisted,
had it been fostered by those who, we think, were most
interested in maintaining it. The dawn of civilisation
would have risen slowly on the system of Highland
Society ; and as the darker and harsher shades were
already dispelled, the romantic contrast and variety
reflected upon ancient and patriarchal usages, by the
general diffusion of knowledge, would, like the brilliant
colours of the morning clouds, have survived for some-
time, ere blended with the general mass of ordinary
manners. In many instances, Highland proprietors
have laboured with laudable and humane precaution to
render the change introduced by a new mode of
cultivation gentle and gradual, and to provide, as far
as possible, employment and protection for those
families who were thereby dispossessed of their ancient
habitations. But in other, and in but too many in-
stances, the glens of the Highlands have been drained,
not of their superfluity of population, but of the whole
mass of the inhabitants, dispossessed by an unrelenting
avarice, which will be one day found to have been as
shortsighted as it is unjust and selfish.

112 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND.

Meanwhile the Highlands may become the fairy
ground for romance and poetry, or subject of experi-
ment for the professors of speculation, political and
economical. — But if the hour of need should come — and
it may not, perhaps, be far distant — the pibroch may
sound through the deserted region, but the summons
will remain unanswered. The children who have left
her will re-echo from a distant shore the sounds with
which they took leave of their own — Ha til, ha til, ha
til, mi tulidh ! — " We return — we return — we return —
no more / "

LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF ROB ROY

AND

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE
CLAN MACGREGOR.

OF

ROB ROY

AND

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

CLAN MACGREGOR

CHAPTER I.

Rob Roy compared to Robin Hood — Peculiar History of the Clan
MacGregor — Their descent and wrongs — Especial Statutes against
the Clan — Feud between the MacGregors and the Colquhouns —
The Battle of Glenfruin.

THE singular character whose name is given above,
maintained, through good report and bad report, a
wonderful degree of importance in popular recollection.
This cannot be ascribed to the distinction of his birth,
which, though that of a gentleman, had in it nothing of
high destination, and gave him little right to command
in his clan. Neither, though he lived a busy, restless,
and enterprising life, were his feats equal to those of

116 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOB.

other freebooters who have been less distinguished.
He owed his fame in a great measure to his residing
on the very verge of the Highlands, and playing such
pranks in the beginning of the 18th century, as are
usually ascribed to Robin Hood in the middle ages, —
and that within forty miles of Glasgow, a great com-
mercial city, the seat of a learned university. Thus a
character like his, blending the wild virtues, the subtle
policy, and unrestrained license of an American Indian,
was flourishing in Scotland during the Augustan age
of Queen Anne and George I. Addison, it is probable,
or Pope, would have been considerably surprised if
they had known that there existed in the same island
with them a personage of Rob Roy's peculiar habits
and profession. It is this strong contrast betwixt the
civilized and cultivated mode of life on the one side of
the Highland line, and the wild and lawless adventures
which were habitually undertaken and achieved by
one who dwelt on the opposite side of that ideal
boundary, which creates the interest attached to his
name. Hence it is that even yet,

" Far and near, through vale and hill,

Are faces that attest the same,
And kindle like a fire new stirr'd,

At sound of Rob Roy's name."

There were several advantages which Rob Roy
enjoyed, for sustaining to advantage the character
which he assumed.

The most prominent of these was his descent from,

THE MACGREGORS. 117

and connexion with, the Clan MacGregor, so famous
for their misfortunes, and the indomitable spirit with
which they maintained themselves as a clan, linked and
banded together in spite of the most severe laws,
executed with unheard-of rigour against those who
bore this forbidden surname. Their history was that
of several others of the original Highland clans, who
were suppressed by more powerful neighbours, and
either extirpated, or forced to secure themselves by
renouncing their own family appellation, and assuming
that of the conquerors. The peculiarity in the story
of the MacGregors, is their retaining, with such tena-
city, their separate existence and union as a clan under
circumstances of the utmost urgency. The history of
the tribe is briefly as follows : But we must premise
that the tale depends in some degree on tradition,
therefore, excepting when written documents are
quoted, it must be considered as in some degree
dubious.

The sept of MacGregor claimed a descent from
Gregor, or Gregorius, third son, it is said, of Alpin
King of Scots, who flourished about 787. Hence their
original patronymic is MacAlpine, and they are usually
termed the Clan Alpine. An individual tribe of them
retains the same name. They are accounted one of
the most ancient clans in the Highlands, and it is
certain they were a people of original Celtic descent,
and occupied at one period very extensive possessions
in Perthshire and Argyleshire, which they imprudently

118 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

continued to hold by the coir a glaive, that is, the right
of the sword. Their neighbours, the Earls of Argyle
and Breadalbane, in the meanwhile, managed to have
the lands occupied by the MacGregors engrossed in
those charters which they easily obtained from the
Crown ; and thus constituted a legal right in their
own favour, without much regard to its justice. As
opportunity occurred of annoying or extirpating their
neighbours, they gradually extended their own domains,
by usurping, under the pretext of such royal grants,
those of their more uncivilized neighbours. A Sir
Duncan Campbell of Lochow, known in the Highlands
by the name of Donacha Dhu nan Churraichd, that is,
Black Duncan with the Cowl, it being his pleasure to
wear such a head-gear, is said to have been peculiarly
successful in those acts of spoliation upon the clan
MacGregor.

The devoted sept, ever finding themselves iniquit-
ously driven from their possessions, defended themselves
by force, and occasionally gained advantages, which
they used cruelly enough. This conduct, though
natural, considering the country and time, was studi-
ously represented at the capital as arising from an
untamable and innate ferocity, which nothing, it was
said, could remedy, save cutting off the tribe of Mac-
Gregor root and branch.

In an act of Privy Council at Stirling, 22nd Septem-
ber, 1563, in the reign of Queen Mary, commission is
granted to the most powerful nobles, and chiefs of the

CRUSADE AGAINST THE MACGREGORS. 119

clans, to pursue the clan Gregor with fire and sword.
A similar warrant in 1562, not only grants the like
powers to Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy, the
descendant of Duncan with the Cowl, but discharges
the lieges to receive or assist any of the clan Gregor,
or afford them, under any colour whatever, meat, drink,
or clothes.

An atrocity which the clan Gregor committed in
1589, by the murder of John Drummond of Drummond-
ernoch, a forester of the royal forest of Glenartney, is
elsewhere given, with all its horrid circumstances.
The clan swore upon the severed head of the murdered
man, that they would make common cause in avowing
the deed. This led to an act of the Privy Council,
directing another crusade against the "wicked clan
Gregor, so long continuing in blood, slaughter, theft,
and robbery," in which letters of fire and sword are de-
nounced against them for the space of three years.
The reader will find this particular fact illustrated in
the Introduction to the novel of the Legend of Montrose.

Other occasions frequently occurred, in which the
MacGregors testified contempt for the laws, from
which they had often experienced severity, but never
protection. Though they were gradually deprived of
their possessions, and of all ordinary means of procur-
ing subsistence, they could not, nevertheless, be
supposed likely to starve for famine, while they had
the means of taking from strangers what they con-
sidered as rightfully their own. Hence they became

120 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

versed in predatory forays, and accustomed to blood-
shed. Their passions were eager, and, with a little
management on the part of some of their most power-
ful neighbours, they could easily be hounded out, to use
an expressive Scottish phrase, to commit violence, of
which the wily instigators took the advantage, and
left the ignorant MacGregors an undivided portion of
blame and punishment. This policy of pushing on the
fierce clans of the Highlands and Borders to break the
peace of the country, is accounted by the historian one
of the most dangerous practices of his own period, in
which the MacGregors were considered as ready agents.

Notwithstanding these severe denunciations, which
were acted upon in the same spirit in which they were
conceived, some of the clan still possessed property,
and the chief of the name in 1592 is designed Allaster
MacGregor of Glenstrae. He is said to have been a
brave and active man ; but, from the tenor of his con-
fession at his death, appears to have been engaged in
many and desperate feuds, one of which finally proved
fatal to himself and many of his followers. This was
the celebrated conflict at Glenfruin, near the south-
western extremity of Loch Lomond, in the vicinity of
which the MacGregors continued to exercise much
authority by the coir a glaive, or right of the strongest,
which we have already mentioned.

There had been a long and bloody feud betwixt the
MacGregors and the Laird of Luss, head of the family
of Colquhoun, a powerful race on the lower part of

BATTLE OF GLENFRUIN. 121

Loch Lomond. The MacGregors' tradition affirms that
the quarrel began on a very trifling subject. Two of
the MacGregors being benighted, asked shelter in a
house belonging to a dependent of the Colquhouns,
and were refused. They then retreated to an out-
house, took a wedder from the fold, killed it, and supped
off the carcase, for which (it is said) they offered pay-
ment to the proprietor. The Laird of Luss seized on
the offenders, and, by the summary process which
feudal barons had at their command, had them both
condemned and executed. The MacGregors verify
this account of the feud by appealing to a proverb
current amongst them, execrating the hour (Mult dhu
an Carbail ghil) that the black wedder with the white
tail was ever lambed. To avenge this quarrel, the
Laird of MacGregor assembled his clan, to the number
of three or four hundred men, and marched towards
Luss from the banks of Loch Long, by a pass called
Raid na Gael, or the Highlandman's Pass.

Sir Humphrey Colquhoun received early notice of
this incursion, and collected a strong force, more than
twice the number of that of the invaders. He had
with him the gentlemen of the name of Buchanan, with
the Grahams, and other gentry of the Lennox, and a
party of the citizens of Dunbarton, under command of
Tobias Smollett, a magistrate, or bailie, of that town,
and ancestor of the celebrated author.

The parties met in the valley of Glenfruin, which
signifies the Glen of Sorrow, a name that seemed to

122 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

anticipate the event of the day, which, fatal to the
conquered party, was at least equally so to the victors,
the " babe unborn " of clan Alpine having reason to
repent it. The MacGregors, somewhat discouraged by
the appearance of a force much superior to their own,
were cheered on to the attack by a Seer, or second-
sighted person, who professed that he saw the shrouds
of the dead wrapt around their principal opponents.
The clan charged with great fury on the front of the
enemy, while John MacGregor, with a strong party,
made an unexpected attack on the flank. A great part
of the Colquhouns' force consisted in cavalry, which
could not act in the boggy ground. They were said
to have disputed the field manfully, but were at length
completely routed, and a merciless slaughter was
exercised on the fugitives, of whom betwixt two and
three hundred fell on the field, and in the pursuit. If
the MacGregors lost, as is averred, only two men slain
in the action, they had slight provocation for an
indiscriminate massacre.

It is said that their fury extended itself to a party of
students for clerical orders, who had imprudently come
to see the battle. Some doubt is thrown on this fact,
from the indictment against the chief of the clan Gregor
being silent on the subject, as is the historian Johnston,
and a Professor Ross, who wrote an account of the
battle twenty-nine years after it was fought. It is,
however, constantly averred by the tradition of the
country, and a stone where the deed was done is called

A DEED OF BLOOD. 123

Leck-a-Mhinisteir, the Minister or Clerk's Flag-stone.
The MacGregors impute this cruel action to the fero-
city of a single man of their tribe, renowned for size
and strength, called Dugald, Ciar Mhor, or the great
Mouse-coloured Man. He was MacGregor's foster-
brother, and the chief committed the youths to his
charge, with directions to keep them safely till the
affray was over. Whether fearful of their escape, or
incensed by some sarcasms which they threw on his
tribe, or whether out of mere thirst for blood, this
savage, while the other MacGregors were engaged in
the pursuit, poniarded his helpless and defenceless
prisoners. When the chieftain, on his return, demanded
where the youths were, the Ciar (pronounced Kiar)
Mhor drew out his bloody dirk, saying in Gaelic,

"- Ask that, and God save me ! "

The latter words allude to the exclamation which
his victims used when he was murdering them. It
would seem, therefore, that this horrible part of the
story is founded on fact, though the number of youths
so slain is probably exaggerated in the Lowland
accounts. The common people say that the blood of
the Ciar Mhor's victims can never be washed off the
stone. When MacGregor learnt their fate he expressed
the utmost horror at the deed, and upbraided his foster-
brother with having done that which would occasion
the destruction of him and his clan. This homicide
was the ancestor of Rob Roy, and the tribe from which
he was descended. He lies buried at the church of

124 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

Fortingal, where his sepulchre, covered with a large
stone, is still shown, and where his great strength and
courage are the theme of many traditions.

I have been informed, that, at no very remote period,
it was proposed to take this large stone, which marks
the grave of Dugald Ciar Mohr, and convert it to the
purpose of the lintel of a window, the threshold of a
door, or some such mean use. A man of the clan Mac-
Gregor, who was somewhat deranged, took fire at this
insult ; and when the workmen came to remove the
stone, planted himself upon it, with a broad axe in his
hand, swearing he would dash out the brains of any
one who should disturb the monument. Athletic in
person, and insane enough to be totally regardless of
consequences, it was thought best to give way to his
humour ; and the poor madman kept sentinel on the
stone day and night, till the proposal of removing it
was entirely dropped.

The above is the account which I find in a manu-
script history of the clan MacGregor, of which I was
indulged with a perusal by Donald MacGregor, Esq.,
late Major of the 33rd regiment, where great pains
have been taken to collect traditions and written docu-
ments concerning the family. But an ancient and
constant tradition, preserved among the inhabitants of
the country, and particularly those of the clan Mac-
Farlane, relieves Dugal Ciar Mohr of the guilt of
murdering the youths, and lays the blame on a certain
Donald or Duncan Lean, who performed the act of

A BRUTAL ACT. 125

cruelty, with the assistance of a gillie who attended
him, named Charlioch, or Charlie. They say that the
homicides dared not again join their clan, but that they
resided in a wild and solitary state as outlaws, in an
unfrequented part of the MacFarlanes' territory. Here
they lived for some time undisturbed, till they committed
an act of brutal violence on two defenceless women, a
mother and a daughter of the MacFarlane clan. In
revenge for this atrocity, the MacFarlanes hunted them
down and shot them. It is said the young ruffian,
Charlioch, might have escaped, being remarkably swift
of foot. But his crime became his punishment, for the
female whom he had outraged had defended herself
desperately, and had stabbed him with his own dirk on
the thigh. He was lame from the wound, and was the
more easily overtaken and killed. I incline to think
that this last is the true edition of the story, and that
the guilt was transferred to Dugald Ciar Mohr, as a
man of higher name. Or it is possible these subordinate
persons had only executed his orders.

MacGregor's brother was one of the very few of the
tribe who was slain. He was buried near the field of
battle, and the place is marked by a rude stone, called
the Grey Stone of MacGregor.

Sir Humphrey Colquhoun, being well mounted,
escaped for the time to the castle of Banochar, or
Benechra. It proved no sure defence, however, for he
was shortly after murdered in a vault of the castle, the
family annals say by the MacGregors, though other
accounts charge the deed upon the MacFarlanes.

126 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOB.
CHAPTER II.

Results of the Battle of Glenfruin — The Chief surrenders to the Duke
of Argyle — The Duke betrays him — Trial and Execution at Edin-
burgh— The MacGregors under King James I. and Charles I. —
Later Times — Genealogy of Rob Roy.

THIS battle of Glenfruin, and the severity which the
victors exercised in the pursuit, was reported to King
Jame VI. in a manner the most unfavourable to the
clan Gregor, whose general character, being that of
lawless though brave men, could not much avail them
in such a case. That James might fully understand
the extent of the slaughter, the widows of the slain to
the number of eleven score, in deep mourning, riding
upon white palfreys, and each bearing her hus-
band's bloody shirt on a spear, appeared at Stirling,
in presence of a monarch peculiarly accessible to such
sights of fear and sorrow, to demand vengeance for the
death of their husbands, upon those by whom they had
been made desolate.

The remedy resorted to was at least as severe as the
cruelties which it was designed to punish. By an act
of the Privy Council, dated 3rd April, 1603, the name
of MacGregor was expressly abolished, and those who
had hitherto borne it were commanded to change it for
other surnames, the pain of death being denounced
against those who should call themselves Gregor or
MacGregor, the names of their fathers. Under the
same penalty, all who had been at the conflict of Glen-

MACGREGOR SURRENDERS. 127

fruin, or accessory to marauding parties charged in the
act, were prohibited from carrying weapons, except a
pointless knife to eat their victuals. By a subsequent
act of Council, 24th June, 1613, death was denounced
against any persons of the tribe formerly called Mac-
Gregor, who should presume to assemble in greater
numbers than four. Again, by an act of Parliament,
1617, chap. 26, these laws were continued, and ex-
tended to the rising generation, in respect that great
numbers of the children of those against whom the acts
of Privy Council had been directed, were stated to be
then approaching to maturity, who, if permitted to
resume the name of their parents, would render the
clan as strong as it was before.

The execution of those severe acts was chiefly in-
trusted in the west to the Earl of Argyle, and the
powerful clan of Campbell, and to the Earl of Atbole
and his followers, in the more eastern Highlands of
Perthshire. The MacGregors failed not to resist with
the most determined courage ; and many a valley in
the West and North Highlands retains memory of the
severe conflicts, in which the prescribed clan sometimes
obtained transient advantages, and always sold their
lives dearly. At length the pride of Allaster MacGregor,
the chief of the clan, was so much lowered by the
sufferings of his people, that he resolved to surrender
himself to the Earl of Argyle, with his principal
followers, on condition that they should be sent out of
Scotland. If the unfortunate chief's own account be

128 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

true, he had more reasons than one for expecting some
favour from the Earl, who had in secret advised and
encouraged him to many of the desperate actions for
which he was now called to so severe a reckoning.
But Argyle, as an old Birrell expresses himself, kept a
Highlandmau's promise with them, fulfilling it to the
ear, and breaking it to the sense. MacGregor was sent
under a strong guard to the frontier of England, and
being thus, in the literal sense, sent out of Scotland,
Argyle was judged to have kept faith with him, though
the same party which took him there brought him
back to Edinburgh in custody.

MacGregor of Glenstrae was tried before the Court
of Justiciary, 20th January, 1604, and found guilty
He appears to have been instantly conveyed from the
bar to the gallows ; for Birrell, of the same date,
reports that he was hanged at the Cross, and, for dis-
tinction's sake, was suspended higher by his own
height than two of his kindred and friends. On the
18th of February following, more men of the Mac-
Gregors were executed, after a long imprisonment,
and several others in the beginning of March.

The Earl of Argyle's service, in conducing to the sur-
render of the insolent and wicked race and name of
MacGregor, notorious common malefactors, and in the
in-bringing of MacGregor, with a great many of the
leading men of the clan, worthily executed to death for
their offences, is thankfully acknowledged by act of
Parliament, 1607, chap. 16, and rewarded with a grant

MACGREGORS UNDER JAMES I. 129

of twenty chalders of victual out of the lands of Kintire.

The MacGregors, notwithstanding the letters of fire
and sword, and orders for military execution repeatedly
directed against them by the Scottish legislature, who
apparently lost all the calmness of conscious dignity
and security, and could not even name the outlawed
clan without vituperation, showed no inclination to be
blotted out of the roll of clanship. They submitted to
the law, indeed, so far as to take the names of the
neighbouring families amongst whom they happened to
live, nominally becoming, as the case might render it
most convenient, Drummonds, Campbells, Grahams,
Buchanans, Stewarts, and the like ; but to all intents
and purposes of combination and mutual attachment,
they remained the clan Gregor, united together for
right or wrong, and menacing with the general ven-
geance of their race, whomsoever committed aggres-
sions against any individual of their number.

They continued to take and give offence with as
little hesitation as before the legislative dispersion
which had been attempted, as appears from the pre-
amble to statute 1633, chapter 30, setting forth, that
the clan Gregor, which had been suppressed and
reduced to quietness by the great care of the late King
James of eternal memory, had nevertheless broken out
again, in the counties of Perth, Stirling, Clackmannan,
Monteith, Lennox, Angus, and Mearns ; for which
reason the statute re-establishes the disabilities attached

130 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

to the clan, and grants a new commission for enforcing
the laws against that wicked and rebellious race.

Notwithstanding the extreme severities of King
James I. and Charles I. against this unfortunate people,
who were rendered furious by proscription, and then
punished for yielding to the passions which had been
wilfully irritated, the MacGregors to a man attached
themselves during the civil war to the cause of the
-latter monarch. Their bards have ascribed this to the
native respect of the MacGregors for the crown of
Scotland, which their ancestors once wore, and have
appealed to their armorial bearings, which display a
pine-tree, crossed satire wise with a naked sword, the
point of which supports a royal crown. But, without
denying that such motives may have had their weight,
we are disposed to think, that a war which opened the
low country to the raids of the clan Gregor would have
more charms for them than any inducement to espouse
the cause of the Covenanters, which would have
brought them into contact with Highlanders as fierce
as themselves, and having as little to lose. Patrick
MacGregor, their leader, was the son of a distinguished
chief, named Duncan Abbarach, to whom Montrose
wrote letters as to his trusty and special friend, ex-
pressing his reliance on his devoted loyalty, with an
assurance, that when once his Majesty's affairs were
placed upon a permanent footing, the grievances of
the clan MacGregor should be redressed.

At a subsequent period of these melancholy times,

SUPPLICATION TO PARLIAMENT. 131

we find the clan Gregor claiming the immunities of
other tribes, when summoned by the Scottish Parlia-
ment to resist the invasion of the Commonwealth's
army, in 1651. On the last day of March in that year,
a supplication to the King and Parliament, from Calum
MacCondachie Vich Euen, and Euen MacCondachie
Euen, in their own name, and that of the whole name
of MacGregor, set forth, that while, in obedience to the
orders of Parliament, enjoining all clans to come out in
the present service under their chieftains, for the
defence of religion, king, and kingdoms, the petitioners
were drawing their men to guard the passes at the head
of the river Forth, they were interfered with by the
Earl of Athole and the Laird of Buchanan, who had
required the attendance of many of the clan Gregor
upon their arrays. This interference was, doubtless,
owing to the change of name, which seems to have
given rise to the claim of the Earl of Athole and the
Laird of Buchanan to muster the MacGregors under
their banners, as Murrays or Buchanans. It does not
appear that the petition of the MacGregors, to be per-
mitted to come out in a body as other clans, received
any answer. But upon the Restoration, King Charles,
in the first Scottish Parliament of his reign, (statute
164, chap. 195,) annulled the various acts against the
clan Gregor, and restored them to the tull use of their
family name, and the other privileges of liege subjects,
setting forth, as a reason for this lenity, that those who
were formerly designed MacGregors, had, during the

132 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

late troubles, conducted themselves with such loyalty
and affection to his Majesty, as might justly wipe off all
memory of former miscarriages, and take away all
marks of reproach for the same.

It is singular enough, that it seems to have aggra-
vated the feelings of the non-conforming Presbyterians,
when the penalties which were most unjustly imposed
upon themselves were relaxed towards the poor
MacGregors ; so little are the best men, any more than
the worst, able to judge with impartiality of the same
measures, as applied to themselves, or to others.
Upon the Restoration, an influence inimical to this un-
fortunate clan, said to be the same with that which
afterwards dictated the massacre of Glencoe, occasioned
the re-enaction of the penal statutes against the Mac-
Gregors. There are no reasons given why these
highly penal acts should have been renewed ; nor is it
alleged that the clan had been guilty of late irregulari-
ties. Indeed, there is some reason to think that the
clause was formed of set purpose, in a shape which
should elude observation ; for, though containing con-
clusions fatal to the rights of so many Scottish subjects,
it is neither mentioned in the title nor the rubric of the
Act of Parliament in which it occurs, and is thrown
briefly in at the close of the statute 1693, chap. 61,
entitled an Act for the Justiciary in the Highlands.

It does not, however, appear that after the Revolu-
tion the acts against the clans were severely enforced ;
and in the latter half of the eighteenth century, they

SIR JOHN MACGREGOR. 133

•were not enforced at all. Commissioners of supply
were named in Parliament by the prescribed title of
MacGregor, and decrees of courts of justice were
pronounced, and legal deeds entered into, under the
same appellative. The MacGregors, however, while
the laws continued in the statute book, still suffered
under the deprivation of the name which was their
birth-right, and some attempts were made for the
purpose of adopting another, MacAlpine or Grant being
proposed as the title of the whole clan in future. No
agreement, however, could be entered into ; and the
evil was submitted to as a matter of necessity, until
full redress was obtained from the British Parliament,
by an act abolishing for ever the penal statutes which
had been so long imposed upon this ancient race.
This statute, well merited by the services of many a
gentleman of the clan in behalf of their King and
country was passed, and the clan proceeded to act upon
it with the same spirit of ancient times, which had
made them suffer severely under a deprivation that
would have been deemed of little consequence by a
great part of their fellow subjects.

They entered into a deed recognising John Murray
of Lanrick, Esq., (afterwards Sir John MacGregor,
Baronet), representative of the family of Glencarnock,
as lawfully descended from the ancient stock and
blood of the Lairds and Lords of MacGregor, and
therefore acknowledged him as their chief on all law-
ful occasions and causes whatsoever. This deed was

134 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

subscribed by eight hundred and twenty-six persons
of the name of MacGregor, capable of bearing arms. A
great many of the clan during the last war formed
themselves into what was called the Clan Alpine
regiment, raised in 1799, under the command of their
Chief, and his brother Colonel MacGregor.

Having briefly noticed the history of this clan, which
presents a rare and interesting example of the indelible
character of the patriarchal system, the author must
now offer some notices of the individual who gives
name to these volumes.

In giving an account of a Highlander, his pedigree is
first to be considered. That of Rob Roy was deduced
from Ciar Mohr, the great mouse-coloured man, who is
accused by tradition of having slain the young students
at the battle of Glenfruin.

Without puzzling ourselves and our readers with the
intricacies of Highland genealogy, it is enough to say,
that after the death of Allaster MacGregor of Gleustrae,
the clan, discouraged by the unremitting persecution
of their enemies, seem not to have had the means of
placing themselves under the command of a single
CHIEF. According to their places of residence and
immediate descent, the several families were led and
directed by Chieftains, which, in the Highland accepta-
tion, signifies the head of a particular branch of a tribe,
in opposition to Chief, who is the leader and commander
of the whole name.

The family and descendants of Dugald Ciar Mohr

GENEALOGY OF ROB ROY. 135

lived chiefly in the mountains between Loch Lomond
and Loch Katrine, and occupied a good deal of
property there, whether by sufferance, by the right of
the sword, which it was never safe to dispute with
them, or by legal titles of various kinds, it would be
useless to enquire and unnecessary to detail. Enough,
there they certainly were ; a people whom their most
powerful neighbours were desirous to conciliate, their
friendship in peace being very necessary to the quiet
of the vicinage, and their assistance in war equally
prompt and effectual.

CHAPTER III.

Rob Roy's Birth and Early Years — His property of Craig Royston —
Ruined by his partner — His wife — Predatory war against the
Duke of Montrose — His general appearance and character.

ROB ROY MACGREGOR CAMPBELL, which last name he
bore in consequence of the Acts of Parliament abolish-
ing his own, was the younger son of Donald MacGregor
of Glengyle, said to have been a Lieutenant-Colonel,
(probably in the service of James II.) by his wife, a
daughter of Campbell of Glenfalloch. Rob's own
designation was of Inversnaid ; but he appears to have
acquired a right of some kind or other to the property
or possession of Craig Royston, a domain of rock and
forest, lying on the east side of Loch Lomond, where

136 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

that beautiful lake stretches into the dusky mountains
of Glenfalloch.

The time of his birth is uncertain. But he is said to
have been active in the scences of war and plunder
which succeeded the Revolution ; and tradition affirms
him to have been the leader in a predatory incursion
into the parish of Kippen, in the Lennox, which took
place in the year 1691. It was of almost a bloodless
character, only one person losing his life ; but from the
extent of the depredation, it was long distinguished by
the name of the Her'-ship, or devastation, of Kippen.*
The time of his death is also uncertain, but as he is
said to have survived the year 1733, and died an aged
man, it is probable he may have been twenty-five
about the time of the Her'-ship of Kippen, which would
assign his birth to the middle of the 17th century.

In the more quiet times which succeeded the Revolu-
tion, Rob Roy, or Red Robert, seems to have exerted
his active talents, which were of no mean order, as a
drover or trader in cattle to a great [extent. It may
well be supposed that in those days no Lowland, much
less English drovers, ventured to enter the Highlands.
The cattle, which were the staple commodity of the
mountains, were escorted down to fairs, on the borders
of the Lowlands, by a party of Highlanders, with their
arms rattling around them ; and who dealt, however,
in all honour and good faith with their Southern

* See Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xviii. page 332. Parish of
Kippen.

CUDGELS VERSUS BROADSWORDS. 137

customers. A fray, indeed, would sometimes arise,
when the Lowlandmen, chiefly Borderers, who had to
supply the English market, used to dip their bonnets
in the next brook, and wrapping them round their
hands, oppose their cudgels to the naked broadswords,
which had not always the superiority. I have heard
from aged persons, who had been engaged in such
affrays, that the Highlanders used remarkably fair play,
never using the point of the sword, far less their pistols
or daggers ; so that

With many a stiff thwack and many a bang,
Hard crabtree and cold iron rang.

A slash or two, or a broken head, was easily accom-
modated, and as the trade was of benefit to both
parties, trifling skirmishes were not allowed to interrupt
its harmony. Indeed it was of vital interest to the
Highlanders, whose income, so far as derived from their
estates, depended entirely on the sale of black cattle ;
and a sagacious and experienced dealer benefited not
only himself, but his friends and neighbours, by his
speculations. Those of Rob Roy were for several years
so successful, as to inspire general confidence, and raise
him in the estimation of the country in which he
resided.

His importance was increased by the death of his
father, in consequence of which he succeeded to the
management of his nephew Gregor MacGregor of
Glengyle's property, and, as his tutor, to such influence

138 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

with the clan and following as was due to the repre-
sentative of Dougal Ciar. Snch influence was the
more uncontrolled, that this family of the MacGregors
seem to have refused adherence to MacGregor of Glen-
carnock, the ancestor of the present Sir Ewan Mac-
Gregor, and asserted a kind of independence.

It was at this time that Rob Roy acquired an
interest by purchase, wadset, or otherwise, to the
property of Craig Royston already mentioned. He
was in particular favour, during this prosperous period
of his life, with his nearest and most powerful neigh-
bour, James first Duke of Montrose, from whom he
received many marks of regard. His Grace consented
to give his nephew and himself a right of property on
the estates of Glengyle and Inversnaid, which they had
till then only held as kindly tenants. The Duke, also,
with a view to the interest of the country and his own
estate, supported our adventurer by loans of money to
a considerable amount, to enable him to carry on his
speculations in the cattle trade.

Unfortunately, that species of commerce was and is
liable to sudden fluctuations ; and Rob Roy was — by a
sudden depression of markets, and, as a friendly
tradition adds, by the bad faith of a partner named
MacDonald, whom he had imprudently received into
his confidence, and intrusted with a considerable sum
of money — rendered totally insolvent. He absconded,
of course, — not empty-handed, if it be true, as stated
in an advertisement for his apprehension, that he had

ROB ROY ABSCONDS. 139

in his possession sums to the amount of L.1000 sterling,
obtained from several noblemen and gentlemen under
pretence of purchasing cows for them in the Highlands.
This advertisement appeared in June 1712, and was
several times repeated. It fixes the period when Rob
Roy exchanged his commercial adventures for specu-
lations of a very different complexion.*

He appears at this period first to have removed,
from his ordinary dwelling at Inversnaid, ten or twelve
Scots miles (which is double the number of English)
farther into the Highlands, and commenced the lawless
sort of life which he afterwards followed. The Duke
of Montrose, who conceived himself deceived and
cheated by MacGregor's conduct, employed legal
means to recover the money lent to him. Rob Roy's
landed property was attached by the regular form of
legal procedure, and his stock and furniture made the
subject of arrest and sale.

It is said that this diligence of the law, as it is called
in Scotland, which the English more bluntly term dis-
tress, was used in this case with uncommon severity,
and that the legal satellites, not usually the gentlest
persons in the world, had insulted MacGregor's wife,
in a manner which would have aroused a milder man
than he to thoughts of unbounded vengeance. She
was a woman of fierce and haughty temper, and is not
unlikely to have disturbed the officers in the execution

* See Appendix, No. I.

140 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

of theh>duty, and thus to have incurred ill treatment,
though, for the sake of humanity, it is to be hoped that
the story sometimes told is a popular exaggeration.
It is certain that she felt extreme anguish at being ex-
pelled from the banks of Loch Lomond, and gave vent
to her feelings in a fine piece of pipe-music, still well
known to amateurs by the name of " Rob Roy's
Lament."

The fugitive is thought to have found his first place
of refuge in Glen Dochart, under the Earl of Breadal-
bane's protection ; for though that family had been
active agents in the destruction of the MacGregors in
former times, they had of late years sheltered a great
many of the name in their old possessions. The Duke
of Argyle was also one of Rob Roy's protectors, so far
as to afford him, according to the Highland phrase,
wood and water — the shelter, namely, that is afforded
by the forests and lakes of an inaccessible country.

The great men of the Highlands in that time, besides
being anxiously ambitious to keep up what was called
their Following, or military retainers, were also desirous
to have at their disposal men of resolute character, to
whom the world and the world's law were no friends,
and who might at times ravage the lands or destroy
the tenants of a feudal enemy, without bringing res-
ponsibility on their patrons. The strife between the
names of Campbell and Graham, during the civil wars
of the seventeenth century, had been stamped with
mutual loss and inveterate enmity. The death of the

WAR AGAINST MONTROSE. 141

great Marquis of Montrose on the one side, the defeat
at Inverlochy, and cruel plundering of Lorn, on the
other, were reciprocal injuries not likely to be for-
gotten. Rob Roy was, therefore, sure of refuge in the
country of the Campbells, both as having assumed
their name, as connected by his mother with the family
of Glenfalloch, and as an enemy to the rival house of
Montrose. The extent of Argyle's possessions, and the
power of retreating thither in any emergency, gave
great encouragement to the bold schemes of revenge
which he had adopted.

This was nothing short of the maintenance of a pre-
datory war against the Duke of Montrose, whom he
considered as the author of his exclusion from civil
society, and of the outlawry to which he had been
sentenced by letters of horning and caption, (legal
writs so called,) as well as the seizure of his goods,
and adjudication of his landed property. Against his
Grace, therefore, his tenants, friends, allies, and
relatives, he disposed himself to employ every means
of annoyance in his power; and though this was a
circle sufficiently extensive for active depredation,
Rob, who professed himself a Jacobite, took the
liberty of extending his sphere of operations against
all whom he chose to consider as friendly to the re-
volutionary government, or to that most obnoxious of
measures — the Union of the Kingdoms. Under one or
other of these pretexts, all his neighbours of the Low-
lands who had any thing to lose, or were unwilling to

9

142 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

compound for security, by paying him an annual sum
for protection or forbearance, were exposed to his
ravages.

The country in which this private warfare, or system
of depredation, was to be carried on, was until opened
up by roads, in the highest degree favourable for his
purpose. It was broken up into narrow valleys, the
habitable part of which bore no proportion to the huge
wildernesses of forest, rocks, and precipices by which
they were encircled, and which was, moreover, full of
inextricable passes, morasses, and natural strengths,
unknown to any but the inhabitants themselves, where
a few men acquainted with the ground were capable,
with ordinary address, of baffling the pursuit of numbers.
The opinions and habits of the nearest neighbours to
the Highland line were also highly favourable to Rob
Roy's purpose. A large proportion of them were of
his own clan of MacGregor, who claimed the property
of Balquhidder, and other Highland districts, as having
been part of the ancient possessions of their tribe ;
though the harsh laws, under the severity of which
they had suffered so deeply, had assigned the owner-
ship to other families. The civil wars of the seven-
teenth century had accustomed these men to the use of
arms, and they were peculiarly brave and fierce from
remembrance of their sufferings. The vicinity of a
comparatively rich Lowland district gave also great
temptations to incursion. Many belonging to other
clans, habituated to contempt of industry, and to the

ROB ROY'S CHARACTER. 143

use of arms, drew towards an unprotected frontier
which promised facility of plunder ; and the state of
the country, now so peaceable and quiet, verified at
that time the opinion which Dr. Johnson heard with
doubt and suspicion, that the most disorderly and law-
less districts of the Highlands were those which lay
nearest to the Lowland line. There was, therefore, no
difficulty in Rob Roy, descended of a tribe which was
widely dispersed in the country we have described,
collecting any number of followers whom he might be
able to keep in action, and to maintain by his proposed
operations.

He himself appears to have been singularly adapted
for the profession which he proposed to exercise. His
stature was not of the tallest, but his person was un-
commonly strong and compact. The greatest peculiari-
ties of his frame were the breadth of his shoulders, and
the great and almost disproportioned length of his
arms ; so remarkable, indeed, that it was said he could,
without stooping, tie the garters of his Highland hose,
which are placed two inches below the knee. His
countenance was open, manly, stern at periods of
danger, but frank and cheerful in his hours of festivity.
His hair was dark red, thick, and frizzled, and curled
short around the face. His fashion of dress showed, of
course, the knees and upper part of the leg, which was
described to rne as resembling that of a Highland bull,
hirsute, with red hair, and evincing muscular strength
similar to that animal. To these personal qualifications

144 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

must be added a masterly use of the Highland sword,
in which his length of arm gave him great advantage,
and a perfect and intimate knowledge of all the
recesses of the wild country in which he laboured, and
the character of the various individuals, whether
friendly or hostile, with whom he might come in
contact.

His mental qualities seem to have been no less
adapted to the circumstances in which he was placed.
Though the descendant of the blood-thirsty Ciar Mohr,
he inherited none of his ancestor's ferocity. On the
contrary, Rob Roy avoided every appearance of cruelty,
and it is not averred that he was ever the means of
unnecessary bloodshed, or the actor in any deed which
could lead the way to it. His schemes of plunder were
contrived and executed with equal boldness and
sagacity, and were almost universally successful, from
the skill with which they were laid, and the secrecy
and rapidity with which they were executed. Like
Robin Hood of England, he was a kind and gentle
robber, and, while he took from the rich, was liberal in
relieving the poor. This might in part be policy ; but
the universal tradition of the country speaks it to have
arisen from a better motive. All whom I have con-
versed with, and I have in my youth seen some who
knew Rob Roy personally, gave him the character of a
benevolent and humane man " in his way."

WORDSWORTH ON ROB ROY. 145

CHAPTER IV.

Wordsworth on Rob Roy — Rob Roy at Doune — Combat at Shiling
Hill — Rob Roy's lieutenant — A narrow escape — Rob Roy's depre-
dations— The MacGregors in the 1715 Rising — The affair of the
Boats.

His ideas of morality were those of an Arab chief,
being such as naturally arose out of his wild education.
Supposing Rob Roy to have argued on the tendency
of the life which he pursued, whether from choice or
from necessity, he would doubtless have assumed to
himself the character of a brave man, who, deprived of
his natural rights by the partiality of laws, endeavoured
to assert them by the strong hand of natural power ;
and he is most felicitously described as reasoning
thus, in the high-toned poetry of my gifted friend
Wordsworth :

Say, then, that he was wise as brave,
As wise in thought as bold in deed ;

For in the principles of things
He sought his moral creed.

Said generous Rob, " What need of Books ?

Burn all the statutes and their shelves !
They stir us up against our kind,

And worse, against ourselves.

" We have a passion, make a law,

Too false to guide us or control ;
And for the law itself we fight
In bitterness of soul.

" And puzzled, blinded, then we lose

Distinctions that are plain and few ;
These find I graven on my heart,
That tells me what to do.

146 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

1 ' The creatures see of flood and field,

And those that travel on the wind ;
With them no strife can last ; they live
In peace, and peace of mind.

" For why ? Because the good old rule

Sufficeth them ; the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.

" A lesson which is quickly learn'd,

A signal through which all can see ;
Thus, nothing here provokes the strong
To wanton cruelty.

" And freakishness of mind is check'd,

He tamed who foolishly aspires,
While to the measure of his might
Each fashions his desires.

"All kinds and creatures stand and fall

By strength of prowess or of wit ;
'Tis God's appointment who must sway,
And who is to submit.

" Since then," said Robin, "right is plain,

And longest life is but a day,
To have my ends, maintain my rights,
I'll take the shortest way."

And thus among these rocks he lived,
Through summer's heat and winter's snow :

The eagle, he was lord above,
And Rob was lord below.

We are not, however, to suppose the character of
this distinguished outlaw to be that of an actual hero,
acting uniformly and consistently on such moral prin-
ciples as the illustrious bard who, standing by his grave,
has vindicated his fame. On the contrary, as is

ROB ROY AT DOUNE. 147

common with barbarous chiefs, Rob Roy appears to
have mixed his professions of principle with a large
alloy of craft and dissimulation, of which his conduct
during the civil war is sufficient proof. It is also said,
and truly, that although his courtesy was one of his
strongest characteristics, yet sometimes he assumed an
arrogance of manner which was not easily endured by
the high-spirited men to whom it was addressed, and
drew the daring outlaw into frequent disputes, from
which he did not always come off with credit. From
this it has been inferred, that Rob Roy was more of a
bully than a hero, or at least that he had, according to
the common phrase, his fighting days. Some aged
men who knew him well, have described him also as
better at a taich-tuhie, or scuffle within doors, than in
mortal combat. The tenor of his life may be quoted
to repel this charge ; while, at the same time, it must
be allowed, that the situation in which he was placed
rendered him prudently averse to maintaining quarrels,
where nothing was to be had save blows, and where
success would have raised up against him new and
powerful enemies, in a country where revenge was
still considered as a duty rather than a crime. The
power of commanding his passions, on such occasions,
far from being inconsistent with the part which Mac-
Gregor had to perform, was essentially necessary, at
the period when he lived, to prevent his career from
being cut short.

I may here mention one or two occasions on which

148 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

Rob Roy appears to have given way in the manner
alluded to. My late venerable friend, John Ramsay of
Ochtertyre, alike eminent as a classical scholar and as
an authentic register of the ancient history and manners
of Scotland, informed me, that on occasion of a public
meeting at a bonfire in the town of Doune, Rob Roy
gave some offence to James Edmondstone of Newton,
the same gentleman who was unfortunately concerned
in the slaughter of Lord Rollo, (See Maclaurin's
Criminal Trials, No IX.,) when Edmondstone compelled
MacGregor to quit the town on pain of being thrown
by him into the bonfire.

" I broke one of your ribs on a former occasion," said
he, " and now, Rob, if you provoke me farther, I will
break your neck"

But it must be remembered that Edmondstone was
a man of consequence in the Jacobite party, as he
carried the royal standard of James VII. at the battle
of Sherrif-muir, and also, that he was near the door of
his own mansion-house, and probably surrounded by
his friends and adherents. Rob Roy, however, suffered
in reputation for retiring under such a threat.

Another well-vouched case is that of Cunningham of
Boquhan.

Henry Cunningham, Esq. of Boquhan, was a gentle-
man of Stirlingshire, who, like many exquisites of our
own time, united a natural high spirit and daring char-
acter with an affectation of delicacy of address and

COMBAT AT SHIELING HILL. 149

manners amounting to foppery.* He chanced to be in
company with Rob Roy, who, either in contempt of
Boquhan's supposed effeminacy, or because he thought
him a safe person to fix a quarrel on, (a point which
Rob's enemies alleged he was wont to consider,) in-
sulted him so grossly that a challenge passed between
them. The goodwife of the clachan had hidden Cun-
ningham's sword, and, while he rummaged the house
in quest of his own or some other, Rob Roy went to the
Shieling Hill, the appointed place of combat, and
paraded there with great majesty, waiting for his anta-
gonist. In the meantime, Cunningham had rummaged
out an old sword, and, entering the ground of contest
in all haste, rushed on the outlaw with such unexpected
fury that he fairly drove him off the field, nor did he
show himself in the village again for some time. Mr.
MacGregor Stirling has a softened account of this
anecdote in his new edition of Nimmo's Stirlingshire ;
still he records Rob Roy's discomfiture.

* His courage and affectation of foppery were united, which is less
frequently the case, with a spirit of innate modesty. He is thus de-
scribed in Lord Binning's satirical verses, entitled " Argyle's Levee."

" Six times had Harry bow'd unseen

Before he dared advance ;
The Duke then, turning round well pleased,

Said, ' Sene you've been in France,
A more polite and jaunty man

I never saw before ; '
Then Harry bow'd, and blush'd, and bow'd,

And strutted to the door."

See a Collection of Original Poems, by Scotch Gentlemen, Vol. II.,
p. 126.

150 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

Occasionally Rob Roy suffered disasters, and incurred
great personal danger. On one remarkable occasion
he was saved by the coolness of his lieutenant, Mac-
analeister, or Fletcher, the Little John of his band — a
fine active fellow, of course, and celebrated as a marks-
man. It happened that MacGregor and his party had
been surprised and dispersed by a superior force of
horse and foot, and the word was given to " split and
squander." Each shifted for himself, but a bold
dragoon attached himselt to pursuit of Rob, and over-
taking him, struck at him with his broadsword. A
plate of iron in his bonnet saved the MacGregor from
being cut down to the teeth ; but the blow was heavy
enough to bear him to the ground, crying as he fell,

" 0, Macanaleister, is there naething in her ? " (ie. in
the gun). The trooper, at the same time exclaiming,

" D — n ye, your mother never wrought your night-
cap I" had his arm raised for a second blow, when
Macanaleister fired, and the ball pierced the dragoon's
heart.

Such as he was, Rob Roy's progress in his occupa-
tion is thus described by a gentleman of sense and
talent, who resided within the circle of his predatory
wars, had probably felt their effects, and speaks of
them, as might be expected, with little of the forbear-
ance with which, from their peculiar and romantic
character, they are now regarded.

" This man (Rob Roy MacGregor) was a person of
sagacity, and neither wanted stratagem nor address ;

ROB ROY'S DEPREDATIONS. 151

and, having abandoned himself to all licentiousness, set
himself at the head of all the loose, vagrant, and
desperate people of that clan, in the west end of Perth
and Stirlingshires, and infested those whole countries
with thefts, robberies, and depredations. Very few
who lived within his reach (that is, within the distance
of a nocturnal expedition) could promise to themselves
security, either for their persons or effects, without sub-
jecting themselves to pay him a heavy and shameful
tax of black mail. He at last proceeded to such a
degree of audaciousness, that he committed robberies,
raised contributions, and resented quarrels, at the head
of a very considerable body of armed men, in open day
and in the face of the government." *

The extent and success of these depredations cannot
be surprising, when we consider that the scene of them
was laid in a country where the general law was
neither enforced nor respected.

Having recorded that the general habit of cattle-
stealing had blinded even those of the better classes to
the infamy of the practice, and that as men's property
consisted entirely in herds, it was rendered in the
highest degree precarious, Mr. Grahame adds, —

" On these accounts there is no culture of ground, no
improvement of pastures, and, from the same reasons,
no manufactures, no trade ; in short, no industry. The

*Mr. Grahame of Gartmore's Causes of the Disturbances in the
Highlands. See Jamieson's edition of Burt'a Letters from the North
of Scotland, Appendix, Vol. II., p. 348.

152 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

people are extremely prolific, and therefore so numerous,
that there is not business in that country, according to
its present order and economy, for the one-half of them.
Every place is full of idle people, accustomed to arms,
and lazy in every thing but rapines and depredations.
As buddel or aguavitce houses are to be found every
where through the country, so in these they saunter
away their time, and frequently consume there the
returns of their illegal purchases. Here the laws have
never been executed, nor the authority of the magis-
trate ever established. Here the officer of the law
neither dare nor can execute his duty, and several
places are about thirty miles from lawful persons. In
short, here is no order, no authority, no government."

The period of the Rebellion, 1715, approached soon
after Rob Roy had attained celebrity. His Jacobite
partialities were now placed in opposition to his sense
of the obligations which he owed to the indirect pro-
tection of the Duke of Argyle. But the desire of
" drowning his sounding steps amid the din of general
war," induced him to join the forces of the Earl of Mar,
although his patron, the Duke of Argyle, was at the
head of the army opposed to the Highland insurgents.

The MacGregors, a large sept of them at least, that
of Ciar Mohr, on this occasion, were not commanded
by Rob Roy, but by his nephew already mentioned,
Gregor MacGregor, otherwise called James Grahame
of Glengyle, and still better remembered by the Gaelic
epithet of Ghlune Dhu, i.e. Black Knee, from a black

SEIZURE OF BOATS. 153

spot on one of his knees, which his Highland garb
rendered visible. There can be no question, however,
that being then very young, Glengyle must have acted
on most occasions by the advice and direction of so ex-
perienced a leader as his uncle.

The MacGregors assembled in numbers at that
period, and began even to threaten the Lowlands
towards the lower extremity of Loch Lomond. They
suddenly seized all the boats which were upon the lake,
and, probably with a view to some enterprise of their
own, drew them overland to Inversnaid, in order to in-
tercept the progress of a large body of west-country
whigs who were in arms for the government, and
moving in that direction.

The whigs made an excursion for the recovery of
the boats. Their forces consisted of volunteers from
Paisley, Kilpatrick, and elsewhere, who, with the
assistance of a body of seamen, were towed up the
river Leven in long-boats belonging to the ships of war
then lying in the Clyde. At Luss they were joined by
the forces of Sir Humphry Colquhoun, and James
Grant, his son-in-law, with their followers, attired in
the Highland dress of the period, which is picturesquely
described. " At night they arrived at Luss, where
they were joined by Sir Humphry Colquhoun of Luss,
and James Grant of Plascander, his son-in-law, followed
by forty or fifty stately fellows in their short hose and
belted plaids, armed each of them with a well-fixed
gun on his shoulder, a strong handsome target, with a

154 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOB.

sharp-pointed steel of above half an ell in length
screwed into the navel of it, on his left arm, a sturdy
claymore by his side, and a pistol or two, with a dirk
and knife, in his belt."* The whole party crossed to
Craig-Royston, but the MacGregors did not offer com-
bat. If we are to believe the account of the expedition
given by the historian Rae, they leaped on shore at
Craig-Royston with the utmost intrepidity, no enemy
appearing to oppose them, and, by the noise of their
drums, which they beat incessantly, and the discharge
of their artillery and small arms, terrified the Mac-
Gregors, whom they appear never to have seen, out of
their fastnesses, and caused them to fly in a panic to the
general camp of the Highlanders at Strath Fillan.
The Loch Lomond expedition was judged worthy to
form a separate pamphlet, which I have not seen, but,
as quoted by the historian Rae, it must be delectable.
" On the morrow, being Thursday the 13th, they
went on their expedition, and about noon came to
Inversnaid, the place of danger, where the Paisley men
and those of Dumbarton, and several of the other com-
panies, to the number of an hundred men, with the
greatest intrepidity leapt on shore, got up to the top of
the mountains, and stood a considerable time, beating
their drums all the while ; but no enemy appearing,
they went in quest of their boats, which the rebels had
seized, and having casually lighted on some ropes and
oars hid among the shrubs, at length they found the

* Roe's History of the Rebellion, 4to. p. 287.

RACE OF THE CIAR MOHR. 155

boats drawn up a good way on the land, which they
hurled down to the loch. Some of them as were not
damaged they carried off with them, and such as were,
they sank and hewed to pieces. That same night they
returned to Luss, and thence next day to Dumbarton,
from whence they had first set out, bringing along with
them the whole boats they found in their way on either
side of the loch, and in the creeks of the isles, and
mooring them under the cannon of the castle. During
this expedition the pinnaces discharging their patar-
aroes, and the men their small-arms, made such a
thundering noise, through the multiplied rebounding
echoes of the vast mountains on both sides of the loch,
that the MacGregors were cowed and frighted away to
the rest of the rebels who were encamped at Strath
Fillan."* The low-country men succeeded in getting
possession of the boats, at a great expenditure of noise
and courage, and little risk of danger.

After this temporary removal from his old haunts,
Rob Roy was sent by the Earl of Mar to Aberdeen, to
raise, it is believed, a part of the clan Gregor, which is
settled in that country. These men were of his own
family (the race of the Ciar Mohr). They were the
descendants of about three hundred MacGregors whom
the Earl of Murray, about the year 1624, transported
from his estates in Monteith to oppose against his
enemies the Macintoshes, a race as hardy and restless
as they were themselves.

* Roe's History of the Rebellion, 4to. p. 287.

156 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.
CHAPTER V.

Bob Roy and the Professor — The MacGregors at the Battle of Sheriff-
muir — Rob turns the Battle to personal advantage — Resumes his
warfare with Montrose — The Duke's Factor — Rob lifts the rents.

BUT while in the city of Aberdeen, Rob Roy met a
relation of a very different class and character from
those whom he was sent to summon to arms. This was
Dr. James Gregory, (by descent a MacGregor,) the
patriarch of a dynasty of professors distinguished for
literary and scientific talent, and the grandfather of the
late eminent physician and accomplished scholar, Pro-
fessor Gregory of Edinburgh. This gentleman was at
the time Professor of Medicine in King's College,
Aberdeen, and son of Dr. James Gregory, distinguished
in science as the inventor of the reflecting telescope.
With such a family it may seem our friend Rob could
have had little communion. But civil war is a species
of misery which introduces men to strange bedfellows.
Dr. Gregory thought it a point of prudence to claim
kindred, at so critical a period, with a man so formid-
able and influential. He invited Rob Roy to his house,
and treated him with so much kindness, that he pro-
duced in his generous bosom a degree of gratitude
which seemed likely to occasion very inconvenient
effects.

The Professor had a son about eight or nine years
old, — a lively, stout boy of his age, — with whose
appearance our Highland Robin Hood was much taken.

A DOUBTFUL OFFER. 157

On the day before his departure from the house of his
learned relative, Rob Roy, who had pondered deeply
how he might requite his cousin's kindness, took Dr.
Gregory aside, and addressed him to this purport : —

" My dear kinsman, I have been thinking what I
could do to show my sense of your hospitality. Now,
here you have a fine spirited boy of a son, whom you
are ruining by cramming him with your useless book-
learning, and I am determined, by way of manifesting
my great good-will to you and yours, to take him with
me, and make a man of him."

The learned Professor was utterly overwhelmed
when his warlike kinsman announced his kind purpose,
in language which implied no doubt of its being a pro-
posal which would be, and ought to be, accepted with
the utmost gratitude. The task of apology or expla-
nation was of a most delicate description ; and there
might have been considerable danger in suffering Rob
Roy to perceive that the promotion with which he
threatened the son was, in the father's eyes, the ready
road to the gallows. Indeed, every excuse which he
could at first think of — such as regret for putting his
friend to trouble with a youth who had been educated
in the Lowlands, and so on — only strengthened the
chieftain's inclination to patronise his young kinsman,
as he supposed they arose entirely from the modesty of
the father. He would for a long time take no apology,
and even spoke of carrying off the youth by a certain
degree of kindly violence, whether his father consented

10

158 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

or not. At length the perplexed Professor pleaded that
his son was very young, and in an infirm state of
health, and not yet able to endure the hardships of a
mountain life ; but that in another year or two he
hoped his health would be firmly established, and he
would be in a fitting condition to attend on his brave
kinsman, and follow out the splendid destinies to which
he opened the way. This agreement being made, the
cousins parted, — Rob Roy pledging his honour to carry
his young relation to the hills with him on his next
return to Aberdeenshire, and Dr. Gregory, doubtless,
praying in his secret soul that he might never see Rob's
Highland face again.

James Gregory, who thus escaped being his kins-
man's recruit, and in all probability his henchman, was
afterwards Professor of Medicine in the College, and,
like most of his family, distinguished by his scientific
acquirements. He was rather of an irritable and per-
tinacious disposition ; and his friends were wont to re-
mark, when he showed any symptom of these foibles,
" Ah ! this comes of not having been educated by Rob
Roy."

The connexion between Rob Roy and his classical
kinsman did not end with the period of Rob's transient
power. At a period considerably subsequent to the
year 1715, he was walking in the Castle Street of
Aberdeen, arm in arm with his host, Dr. James Gregory,
when the drums in the barracks suddenly beat to arms,
and soldiers were seen issuing from the barracks.

ANECDOTES OF ROB ROY. 159

" If these lads are turning out," said Rob, taking
leave of his cousin with great composure, " it is time
for me to look after my safety."

So saying, he dived down a close, and, as John
Bunyan says, " went upon his way and was seen no
more."

The first of these anecdotes, which brings the
highest pitch of civilisation so closely in contact with
the half-savage state of society, I have heard told by
the late distinguished Dr. Gregory, and the members
of his family have had the kindness to collate the story
with their collections and family documents, and furnish
the authentic particulars. The second rests on the
recollection of an old man, who was present when
Rob took French leave of his literary cousin on hearing
the drums beat, and communicated the circumstance
to Mr. Alexander Forbes, a connexion of Dr. Gregory
by marriage.

We have already stated that Rob Roy's conduct
during the insurrection of 1715 was very equivocal
His person and followers were in the Highland army,
but his heart seems to have been with the Duke of
Argyle's. Yet the insurgents were constrained to
trust to him as their only guide, when they marched
from Perth towards Dumblane, with the view of cross-
ing the Forth at what are called the Fords of Frew,
and when they themselves said he could not be relied
upon.

This movement to the westward, on the part of the

160 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

insurgents, brought on the battle of Sheriff-muir,
indecisive indeed in its immediate results, but of which
the Duke of Argyle reaped the whole advantage. In
this action, it will be recollected that the right wing of
the Highlanders broke and cut to pieces Argyle's left
wing, while the clans on the left of Mar's army, though
consisting of Stewarts, Mackenzies, and Camerons, were
completely routed. During this medley of flight and
pursuit, Rob Roy retained his station on a hill in the
centre of the Highland position ; and though it is said
his attack might have decided the day, he could not be
prevailed upon to charge. This was the more unfor-
tunate for the insurgents, as the leading of a party of
the Macphersons had been committed to MacGregor.
This, it is said, was owing to the age and infirmity of
the chief of that name, who, unable to lead his clan in
person, objected to his heir-apparent, Macpherson of
Nord, discharging his duty on that occasion ; so that
the tribe, or a part of them, were brigaded with their
allies the MacGregors. While the favourable moment
for action was gliding away unemployed, Mar's positive
orders reached Rob Roy that he should presently
attack To which he coolly replied,

" No, no ! if they cannot do it without me, they can-
not do it with me."

" One of the Macphersons, named Alexander, one of
Rob's original profession, videlicet a drover, but a man
of great strength and spirit, was so incensed at the

BATTLE OF SHERIFF-MUIR. 161

inactivity of his temporary leader, that he threw off his
plaid, drew his sword, and called out to the clansmen,

" Let us endure this no longer ! if he will not lead
you, I will."

" Rob Roy replied, with great coolness,

" Were the question about driving Highland stots or
kyloes, Sandie, I would yield to your superior skill ;
but as it respects the leading of men, I must be allowed
to be the better judge." —

" Did the matter respect driving Glen-Eigas stots,"
answered the Macpherson, " the question with Rob
would not .be, which was to be last, but which was to
be foremost."

" Incensed at this sarcasm, MacGregor drew his
sword, and they would have fought upon the spot if
their friends on both sides had not interfered. But the
moment of attack was completely lost. Rob did not,
however, neglect his own private interest on the
occasion. In the confusion of an undecided field of
battle, he enriched his followers by plundering the
baggage and the dead on both sides.

The fine old satirical ballad on the battle of Sheriff-
muir does not forget to stigmatize our hero's conduct
on this memorable occasion.

Rob Roy he stood watch
On a hill for to catch

The booty, for aught that I saw, man ;
For he ne'er advanced
From the place where he stanced,

Till nae mair was to do there at a', man.

162 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

Notwithstanding the sort of neutrality which Rob
Roy had continued to observe during the progress of
the Rebellion, he did not escape some of its penalties.
He was included in the act of attainder, and the house
in Breadalbane, which was his place of retreat, was
burned by General Lord Cadogan, when, after the
conclusion of the insurrection, he marched through the
Highlands to disarm and punish the offending clans.
But upon going to Inveraray with about forty or fifty
of his followers, Rob obtained favour, by an apparent
surrender of their arms to Col. Patrick Campbell of
Finnah, who furnished them and their leader with pro-
tections under his hand. Being thus in a great measure
secured from the resentment ot government, Rob Roy
established his residence at Craig-Royston, near Loch
Lomond, in the midst of his own kinsmen, and lost no
time in resuming his private quarrel with the Duke of
Montrose. For this purpose, he soon got on foot as
many men, and well armed too, as he had yet com-
manded. He never stirred without a body-guard of
ten or twelve picked followers, and without much effort
could increase them to fifty or sixty.

The Duke was not wanting in efforts to destroy this
troublesome adversary. His Grace applied to General
Carpenter, commanding the forces in Scotland, and by
his orders three parties of soldiers were directed from
the three different points of Glasgow, Stirling, and Fin-
larig near Killin. Mr. Graham of Killearn, the Duke of
Montrose's relation and factor, Sheriff-depute also of

A BOLD SEIZURE. 163

Dumbartonshire, accompanied the troops, that they
might act under the civil authority, and have the
assistance of a trusty guide well acquainted with the
hills. It was the object of these several columns to
arrive about the same time in the neighbourhood of
Hob Roy's residence, and surprise him and his followers.
But heavy rains, the difficulties of the country, and the
good intelligence which the Outlaw was always sup-
plied with, disappointed their well-concerted combina-
tion. The troops, finding the birds were flown, avenged
themselves by destroying the nest. They burned Rob
Roy's house, though not with impunity, for the Mac-
Gregors, concealed among the thickets and clifis, fired
on them, and killed a grenadier.

Rob Roy avenged himself for the loss which he
sustained on this occasion by an act of singular
audacity. About the middle of November, 1716, John
Graham of Killearn, already mentioned as factor of the
Montrose family, went to a place called Chapel Errock,
where the tenants of the Duke were summoned to
appear with their termly rents. They appeared
accordingly, and the factor had received ready money
to the amount of about £300, when Rob Roy entered
the room at the head of an armed party. The steward
endeavoured to protect the Duke's property by throw-
ing the books of accounts and money into a garret,
trusting they might escape notice. But the experienced
freebooter was not to be baffled where such a prize
was at stake.

164 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

He recovered the books and cash, placed himself
calmly in the receipt of custom, examined the accounts,
pocketed the money, and gave receipts on the Duke's
part, saying he would hold reckoning with the Duke of
Montrose out of the damages which he had sustained
by his Grace's means, in which he included the losses
he had suffered, as well by the burning of his house by
General Cadogan, as by the later expedition against
Craig-Royston. He then requested Mr. Graham to
attend him; nor does it appear that he treated him
with any personal violence or even rudeness, although
he informed him he regarded him as a hostage, and
menaced rough usage in case he should be pursued, or
in danger of being overtaken. Few more audacious
feats have been performed. After some rapid changes
of place, (the fatigue attending which was the only
annoyance that Mr. Graham seems to have complained
of,) he carried his prisoner to an island on Loch
Katrine, and caused him to write to the Duke, to state
that his ransom was fixed at 3,400 merks, being the
balance which MacGregor pretended remained due to
him, after deducting all that he owed to the Duke of
Montrose.

. However, after detaining Mr. Graham five or six
days in custody on the island, which is still called Rob
Roy's Prison, and could be no comfortable dwelling for
November nights, the Outlaw seems to have despaired
of attaining further advantage from his bold attempt,
and suffered his prisoner to depart uninjured, with the

ROB ROY'S PRANKS. 165

account-books, and bills granted by the tenants, taking
especial care to retain the cash.*

Other pranks are told of Rob, which argue the same
boldness and sagacity as the seizure of Killearn. The
Duke of Montrose, weary of his insolence, procured a
quantity of arms, and distributed them among his
tenantry, in order that they might defend themselves
against future violences. But they fell into different
hands from those they were intended for. The Mac-
Gregors made separate attacks on the houses of the
tenants, and disarmed them all one after another, not,
as was supposed, without the consent of many of the
persons so disarmed.

As a great part of the Duke's rents were payable in
kind, there were girnels (granaries) established for
storing up the corn at Moulin, and elsewhere on the
Buchanan estate. To these storehouses Rob Roy used
to repair with a sufficient force, and of course when he
was least expected, and insist upon the delivery of
quantities of grain, sometimes for his own use, and
sometimes for the assistance of the country people,
always giving regular receipts in his own name, and
pretending to reckon with the Duke for what sums he
received.

* The reader wiil find two original letters of the Duke of Montrose,
with that which Mr. Graham of Killearn dispatched from his prison-
house by the Outlaw's command, in the Appendix, No. II.

166 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

CHAPTER VI.

The Garrison at Inversnaid — Eob Roy as a Black- Mailer — Description
of Black-Mail — A Cattle-stealing story — Rob captured by the
Duke — And his escape.

IN the meanwhile a garrison was established by
government, the ruins of which may be still seen
about half way betwixt Loch Lomond and Loch
Katrine, upon Rob Roy's original property of Inver-
snaid. Even this military establishment could not
bridle the restless MacGregor. He contrived to sur-
prise the little fort, disarm the soldiers, and destroy the
fortification, it was afterwards re-established and
again taken by the MacGregors under Rob Roy's
nephew, Ghlune Dhu, previous to the insurrection of
1745-6. Finally, the fort of Inversnaid was a third
time repaired after the extinction of civil discord ; and
when we find the celebrated General Wolfe command-
ing in it, the imagination is strongly affected by the
variety of time and events which the circumstance
brings simultaneously to recollection. It is now totally
dismantled. About 1792, when the author chanced to
pass that way while on a tour through the Highlands,
a garrison, consisting of a single veteran, was still
maintained at Inversnaid. The venerable warder was
reaping his barley croft in all peace and tranquillity ;
and when we asked admittance to repose ourselves, he

BLACK-MAIL. 167

told us we would find the key of The Fort under the
door.

It was not strictly speaking, as a professed depre-
dator that Rob Roy now conducted his operations, but
as a sort of contractor for the police ; in Scottish phrase
a lifter of black-mail. The nature of this contract has
been described in the Novel of Waverley, and in the
notes on that work. Mr. Graham of Gartmore's
description of the character may be here transcribed.

" The confusion and disorders of the country were so
great, and the government so absolutely neglected it,
that the sober people there were obliged to purchase
some security to their effects by shameful and igno-
minious contracts of black-mail. A person who had the
greatest correspondence with the thieves was agreed
with to preserve the lands contracted for from thefts,
for certain sums to be paid yearly. Upon this fund he
employed one half of the thieves to recover stolen
cattle, and the other half of them to steal, in order to
make this agreement and black-mail contract necessary.
The estates of those gentleman who refused to con-
tract, or give countenance to that pernicious practice,
are plundered by the thieving part of the watch} in
order to force them to purchase their protection. Their
leader calls himself the Captain of the Watch, and his
banditti go by that name. And as this gives them a
kind of authority to traverse the country, so it makes
them capable of any mischief. These corps through
the Highlands make altogether a very considerable

168 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

body of men, inured from their infancy to the greatest
fatigues, and Tery capable to act in a military way
when occasion offers.

" People who are ignorant and enthusiastic, who are
in absolute dependence upon their chief or landlord,
who are directed in their consciences by Roman
Catholic priests, or non-juring clergymen, and who are
not masters of any property, may easily be formed into
any mould. They fear no dangers, as they have
nothing to lose, and so can with ease be induced to
attempt any thing. Nothing can make their condition
worse ; confusions and troubles do commonly indulge
them in such licentiousness, that by these they better
it."*

As the practice of contracting for blackmail was an
obvious encouragement to rapine, and a great obstacle
to the course of justice, it was, by the statute 1567,
chap. 21, declared a capital crime, both on the part of
him who levied and him who paid this sort of tax.
But the necessity of the case prevented the execution
of this severe law, I believe, in any one instance ; and
men went on submitting to a certain unlawful im-
position rather than run the risk of utter ruin, — just as
it is now found difficult or impossible to prevent those
who have lost a very large sum of money by robbery,
from compounding with the felons for restoration of a
part of their booty.

* Letters from the Nortk ef Scotland, Vol. II., pp. 344-5.

ROB ROY'S BENEFICENCE. 169

At what rate Rob Roy levied black-mail, I never
heard stated ; but there is a formal contract by which
his nephew, in 1741, agreed with various landholders
of estates in the counties of Perth, Stirling, and Dum-
barton, to recover cattle stolen from them, or to pay
the value within six months of the loss being intimated,
if such intimation were made to him with sufficient
dispatch, in consideration of a payment of L.5 on each
L.100 of valued rent, which was not a very heavy
insurance. Petty thefts were not included in the con-
tract ; but the theft of one horse, or one head of black
cattle, or of sheep exceeding the number of six, fell
under the agreement.

Rob Roy's profits upon such contracts brought him
in a considerable revenue in money or cattle, of which
he made a popular use ; for he was publicly liberal, as
well as privately beneficent. The minister of the parish
of Balquhidder, whose name was Robinson, was at one
time threatening to pursue the parish for an augmenta-
tion of his stipend. Rob Roy took an opportunity to
assure him that he would do well to abstain from this
new exaction, — a hint which the minister did not fail
to understand. But to make him some indemnification,
MacGregor presented him every year with a cow and
a fat sheep ; and no scruples as to the mode in which
the donor came by them, are said to have aflected the
reverend gentleman's conscience.

The following account of the proceedings of Rob
Roy, on an application to him from one of his contrac-

170 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

tors, had in it something very interesting to me, as told
by an old countryman in the Lennox who was present
on the expedition. But as there is no point or marked
incident in the story, and as it must necessarily be
without the half-frightened, half-bewildered look with
which the narrator accompanied his recollections, it
may possibly lose its effect when transferred to paper.

My informant stated himself to have been a lad of
fifteen, living with his father on the estate of a gentle-
man in the Lennox, whose name I have forgotten, in
the capacity of herd. On a fine morning in the end of
October, the period when such calamities were almost
always to be apprehended, they found the Highland
thieves had been down upon them, and swept away
ten or twelve head of cattle. Rob Roy was sent for,
and came with a party of seven or eight armed men.
He heard with great gravity all that could be told him
of the circumstances of the creagk, and expressed his
confidence that the herd-widdiefows* could not have
carried their booty far, and that he should be able to
recover them. He desired that two Lowlanders should
be sent on the party, as it was not to be expected that
any of his gentlemen would take the trouble of driving
the cattle when he should recover possession of them.
My informant and his father were dispatched on the
expedition. They had no good-will to the journey :
nevertheless, provided with a little food, and with a

* Mad herdsmen, a name given to cattle-stealers.

A CATTLE-STEALING INCIDENT. 171

dog to help them to manage the cattle, they set off
with MacGregor. They travelled a long day's journey
in the direction of the mountain Benvoirlich, and slept
for the night in a ruinous hut or bothy. The next
morning they resumed their journey among the hills,
Rob Roy directing their course by signs and marks on
the heath, which my informant did not understand.

About noon, Rob commanded the armed party to
halt, and to lie couched in the heather where it was
thickest.

" Do you and your son," he said to the oldest Low-
lander, " go boldly over the hill. You will see beneath
you, in a glen on the other side, your master's cattle
feeding, it may be, with others; gather your own
together, taking care to disturb no one else, and drive
them to this place. If any one speak to, or threaten
you, tell them that I am here, at the head of twenty
men."

" But what if they abuse us, or kill us ? " said the
Lowland peasant, by no means delighted at finding the
embassy imposed on him and his son.

" If they do you any wrong," said Rob, " I will never
forgive them as long as I live."

The Lowlander was by no means content with this
security, but did not think it safe to dispute Rob's
injunctions.

He and his son climbed the hill, therefore, found a
deep valley, where there grazed, as Rob had predicted,
a large herd of cattle. They cautiously selected those

172 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

which their master had lost, and took measures to drive
them over the hill. As soon as they began to remove
them, they were surprised by hearing cries and screams ;
and looking around in fear and trembling, they saw a
woman, seeming to have started out of the earth, who
flyted at them, that is, scolded them, in Gaelic. When
they contrived, however, in the best Gaelic they could
muster, to deliver the message Rob Roy told them, she
became silent, and disappeared without offering them
any further annoyance. The chief heard their story on
their return, and spoke with great complacency of the
art which he possessed of putting such things to rights
without any unpleasant bustle. The party were now
on their road home, and the danger, though not the
fatigue, of the expedition was at an end.

They drove on the cattle with little repose until it
was nearly dark, when Rob proposed to halt for the
night upon a wide moor, across which a cold north-
east wind, with frost on its wing, was whistling to the
tune of the Pipers of Strath-Dearn, — the winds which
sweep a wild glen in Badenoch are so called. The
Highlanders, sheltered by their plaids, lay down in the
heath comfortably enough, but the Lowlanders had no
protection whatever. Rob Roy observing this, directed
one of his followers to afford the old man a portion of
his plaid.

" For the callant (boy), he may," said the freebooter,
" keep himself warm by walking about and watching
the cattle."

A STRANGE TALE. 173

My informant heard this sentence with no small
distress ; and as the frosty wind grew more and more
cutting, it seemed to freeze the very blood in his young
veins. He had been exposed to weather all his life, he
said, but never could forget the cold of that night ; in
so much that, in the bitterness of his heart, he cursed
the bright moon for giving no heat with so much light.
At length the sense of cold and weariness became so
intolerable, that he resolved to desert his watch to seek
some repose and shelter. With that purpose, he
couched himself down behind one of the most bulky of
the Highlanders, who acted as lieutenant to the party.
Not satisfied with having secured the shelter of the
man's large person, he coveted a share of his plaid, and
by imperceptible degrees drew a corner of it round him.
He was now comparatively in paradise, and slept sound
till daybreak, when he awoke, and was terribly afraid
on observing that his nocturnal operations had alto-
gether uncovered the dhuinie-wassell's neck and
shoulders, which, lacking the plaid which should have
protected them, were covered with cranreuch (i.e. hoar
frost). The lad rose in great dread of a beating, at
least, when it should be found how luxuriously he had
been accommodated at the expense of a principal per-
son of the party. Good Mr. Lieutenant, however, got
up and shook himself, rubbing off the hoar frost with
his plaid, and muttering something of a cauld neight.
They then drove on the cattle, which were restored to
their owner without farther adventure. The above

ii

174 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

can hardly be termed a tale, but yet it contains
materials both for the poet and artist.

It was perhaps about the same time that, by a rapid
march into the Balquhidder hills at the head of a body
of his own tenantry, the Duke of Montrose actually sur-
prised Rob Roy, and made him prisoner. He was
mounted behind one of the Duke's followers, named
James Stewart, and made fast to him by a horse-girth.
The person who had him thus in charge was grand-
father of the intelligent man of the same name, now
deceased, who lately kept the inn in the vicinity of
Loch Katrine, and acted as a guide to visitors through
that beautiful scenery. From him I learned the story
many years before he was either a publican or a guide,
except to moorfowl shooters. — It was evening, (to re-
sume the story) and the Duke was pressing on to lodge
his prisoner, so long sought after in vain, in some place
of security, when in crossing the Teith or Forth, I
forget which, MacGregor took an opportunity to con-
jure Stewart, by all the ties of old acquaintance and
good-neighbourhood, to give him some chance of an
escape from an assured doom. Stewart was moved
with compassion, perhaps with fear. He slipped the
girth-buckle, and Rob, dropping down from behind the
horse's croupe, dived, swam, and escaped, pretty much
as described in the novel. When James Stewart came
on shore, the Duke hastily demanded where his prisoner
was ; and as no distinct answer was returned, instantly
suspected Stewart's connivance at the escape of the

A MOCK CHALLENGE. 175

outlaw ; and, drawing a steel pistol from his belt, struck
him down with a blow on the head, from the effects of
which, his descendant said, he never completely re-
covered.

In the success of his repeated escapes from the
pursuit of his powerful enemy, Rob Roy at length
became wanton and facetious. He wrote a mock
challenge to the Duke, which he circulated among his
friends to amuse them over a bottle. The reader will
find this document in the Appendix.* It is written in
a good hand, and not particularly deficient in grammar
or spelling. Our Southern readers must be given to
understand that it was a piece of humour, — a quiz, in
short, — on the part of the outlaw, who was too
sagacious to propose such a rencontre in reality. This
letter was written in the year 1719.

CHAPTER VII.

Rob Roy's declaration to General Wade— Becomes more peaceable in
his habits— Gives some attention to religious matters— Dispute
with the Stewarts of Appin — Rob's combat with Alaster Stewart
—Rob Roy's death— Estimate of his life and character— Rob's five
sons — Renewal of quarrel with MacLarens and Stewarts.

IN the following year Rob Roy composed another
epistle, very little to his own reputation, as he therein
confesses having played booty during the civil war of

* Appendix, No. III.

176 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

1715. It is addressed to General Wade, at that time
engaged in disarming the Highland clans, and making
military roads through the country. The letter is a
singular composition. It sets out the writer's real and
unfeigned desire to have offered his service to King
George, but for his liability to be thrown into jail for
a civil debt, at the instance of the Duke of Montrose.
Being thus debarred from taking the right side, he
acknowledged he embraced the wrong one, upon
Falstaff's principle, that since the King wanted men
and the rebels soldiers, it were worse shame to be idle
in such a stirring world, than to embrace the worst
side, were it as black as rebellion could make it. The
impossibility of his being neutral in such a debate, Rob
seems to lay down as an undeniable proposition. At
the same time, while he acknowledges having been
forced into an unnatural rebellion against King George,
he pleads that he not only avoided acting offensively
against his Majesty's forces on all occasions, but, on
the contrary, sent to them what intelligence he could
collect from time to time ; for the truth of which he
refers to His Grace the Duke of Argyle. What influ-
ence this plea had on General Wade we have no means
of knowing.

Rob Roy appears to have continued to live very
much as usual. His fame, in the meanwhile, passed
beyond the narrow limits of the country in which he
resided. A pretended history of him appeared in
London during his lifetime, under the title of the High-

CARICATURE OF ROB ROY. 177

land Rogue. It is a catch-penny publication, bearing
in front the effigy of a species of ogre, with a beard of
a foot in length ; and his actions are as much exagger-
ated as his personal appearance. Some few of the best
known adventures of the hero are told, though with little
accuracy ; but the greater part of the pamphlet is
entirely fictitious. It is great pity so excellent a theme
for a narrative of the kind had not fallen into the hands
of De Foe, who was engaged at the time on subjects
somewhat similar, though inferior in dignity and
interest.

As Rob Roy advanced in years he became more
peaceable in his habits, and his nephew, Ghlune Dhu,
with most of his tribe, renounced those peculiar quarrels
with the Duke of Montrose, by which his uncle had
been distinguished. The policy of that great family
had latterly been rather to attach this wild tribe by
kindness than to follow the mode of violence which
had been hitherto ineffectually resorted to. Leases at
a low rent were granted to many of the MacGregors,
who had heretofore held possessions in the Duke's
Highland property merely by occupancy ; and Glen-
gyle, (or Black-knee,) who continued to act as collector
of black-mail, managed his police, as a commander of
the Highland watch arrayed at the charge of govern-
ment. He is said to have strictly abstained from the
open and lawless depredations which his kinsman had
practised.

It was probably after this state of temporary quiet

178 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

had been obtained, that Rob Roy began to think of the
concerns of his future state. He had been bred, and
and long professed himself, a Protestant; but in his
later years he embraced the Roman Catholic faith, —
perhaps on Mrs. Cole's principle, that it was a comfort-
able religion for one of his calling. He is said to have
alleged as the cause of his conversion, a desire to
gratify the noble family of Perth, who were then strict
Catholics. Having, as he observed, assumed the name
of the Duke of Argyle, his first protector, he could pay
no compliment worth the Earl of Perth's acceptance,
save complying with his mode of religion. Rob did not
pretend, when pressed closely on the subject, to justify
all the tenets of Catholicism, and acknowledged that
extreme unction always appeared to him a great waste
of ulzie, or oil.*

In the last years of Rob Roy's life his clan was in-
volved in a dispute with one more powerful than them-
selves. Stewart of Appin, a chief of the tribe so named,
was proprietor of a hill-farm in the Braes of Bal-
quhidder, called Invernenty. The MacGregors of Rob
Roy's tribe claimed a right to it by ancient occupancy,
and declared they would oppose to the uttermost the
settlement of any person upon the farm not being of
their own name. The Stewarts came down with two
hundred men, well armed, to do themselves justice by

* Such an admission is ascribed to the robber, Donald Bean Lean, in
Waverley, Vol. II., p. 309.

A TRIAL OF SKILL. 179

main force. The MacGregors took the field, but were
unable to muster an equal strength. Rob Roy, finding
himself the weaker party, asked a parley, in which he
represented that both clans were friends to the King,
and that he was unwilling they should be weakened by
mutual conflict, and thus made a merit of surrendering
to Appin the disputed territory of Invernenty. Appin,
accordingly, settled as tenants there, at an easy quit-
rent, the MacLarens, a family dependent on the
Stewarts and from whose character for strength and
bravery, it was expected that they would make their
right good if annoyed by the MacGregors. When all
this had been amicably adjusted, in presence of the two
clans drawn up in arms near the Kirk of Balquhidder,
Rob Roy, apparently fearing his tribe might be thought
to have conceded too much upon the occasion, stepped
forward and said, that where so many gallant men
were met in arms, it would be shameful to part with-
out a trial of skill, and therefore he took the freedom
to invite any gentleman of the Stewarts present to
exchange a few blows with him for the honour of
their respective clans. The brother-in-law of Appin,
and second chieftain of the clan, Alaster Stewart of
Invernahyle, accepted the challenge, and they en-
countered with broadsword and target before their
respective kinsmen. Some accounts state that Appin
himself was Rob Roy's antagonist on this occasion.
My recollection, from the account of Invernahyle him-
self, was as stated. But the period when I received

180 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

the information is now so distant, that it is possible I
may be mistaken. Invernahyle was rather of low
stature, but very well made, athletic, and an excellent
swordsman.

The combat lasted till Rob received a slight wound
in the arm, which was the usual termination of such a
combat when fought for honour only, and not with a
mortal purpose. Rob Roy dropped his point, and con-
gratulated his adversary on having been the first man
who ever drew blood from him. The victor generously
acknowledged, that without the advantage of youth,
and the agility accompanying it, he probably could not
have come off with advantage.

This was probably one of Rob Roy's last exploits in
arms. The time of his death is not known with cer-
tainty, but he is generally said to have survived 1738,
and to have died an aged man. When he found him-
self approaching his final change, he expressed some
contrition for particular parts of his life. His wife
laughed at these scruples of conscience, and exhorted
him to die like a man, as he had lived. In reply, he
rebuked her for her violent passions, and the counsel
she had given him. " You have put strife," he said,
" betwixt me and the best men of the country, and
now you would place enmity between me and my God."

There is a tradition, no way inconsistent with the
former, if the character of Rob Roy be justly considered,
that while on his death-bed, he learned that a person,
with whom he was at enmity, proposed to visit him.

DEATH OF ROB ROY. 181

" Raise me from my bed," said the invalid ; " throw
my plaid around me, and bring me my claymore, dirk,
and pistols — it shall never be said that a foeman saw
Rob Roy MacGregor defenceless and unarmed."

His foeman, conjectured to be one of the MacLarens
before and after mentioned, entered and paid his com-
pliments, enquiring after the health of his formidable
neighbour. Rob Roy maintained a cold, haughty
civility during their short conference, and so soon as
he had left the house, —

" Now," he said, " all is over — let the piper play Ha
til mi tulidh, (we return no more)."

And he is said to have expired before the dirge was
finished.

This singular man died in bed in his own house, in
the parish of Balquhidder. He was buried in the
churchyard of the same parish, where his tombstone is
only distinguished by a rude attempt at the figure of a
broadsword.

The character of Rob Roy is, of course, a mixed one.
His sagacity, boldness, and prudence, qualities so highly
necessary to success in war, became in some degree
vices from the manner in which they were employed.
The circumstances of his education, however, must be
admitted as some extenuation of his habitual transgres-
sions against the law ; and for his political tergiversa-
tions, he might in that distracted period plead the ex-
ample of men far more powerful, and less excusable in
becoming the sport of circumstances, than the poor and

182 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

desperate outlaw. On the other hand, he was in the
constant exercise of virtues, the more meritorious as
they seem inconsistent with his general character.
Pursuing the occupation of a predatory chieftain, — in
modern phrase, a captain of banditti, — Rob Roy was
moderate in his revenge, and humane in his successes.
No charge of cruelty or bloodshed, unless in battle, is
brought against his memory. In like manner, the for-
midable outlaw was the friend of the poor, and, to the
utmost of his ability, the support of the widow and the
orphan — kept his word when pledged — and died
lamented in his own wild country, where there were
hearts grateful for his beneficence, though their minds
were not sufficiently instructed to appreciate his errors.

The author perhaps ought to stop here ; but the fate
of a part of Rob Roy's family was so extraordinary, as
to call for a continuation of this somewhat prolix
account, as affording an interesting chapter, not on
Highland manners alone, but on every stage of society
in which people of a primitive and half-civilized tribe
are brought into close contact with a nation, in
which civilization and polity has attained a complete
superiority.

Rob had five sons, — Coll, Ronald, James, Duncan,
and Robert. Nothing occurs worth notice concerning
three of them ; but James, who was a very handsome
man, seems to have had a good deal of his father's
spirit, and the mantle of Dougal Ciar Mohr had
apparently descended on the shoulders of Robin Oig,

ROBIN OIG SHOOTS MACLAREN. 183

that is, young Robin. Shortly after Rob Roy's death,
the ill-will which the MacGregors entertained against
the MacLarens again broke out, at the instigation, it
was said, of Rob's widow, who seems thus far to have
deserved the character given to her by her husband, as
an Ate stirring up to blood and strife. Robin Oig,
under her instigation, swore that as soon as he could
get back a certain gun which had belonged to his
father, and had been lately at Doune to be repaired, he
would shoot MacLaren, for having presumed to settle
on his mother's land. This fatal piece was taken from
Robin Oig, when he was seized many years afterwards.
It remained in possession of the magistrates, before
whom he was brought for examination, and now makes
part of a small collection of arms belonging to the
author. It is a Spanish-barrelled gun, marked with
the letters R. M. C. for Robert MacGregor Campbell.
He was as good as his word, and shot MacLaren when
between the stilts of his plough, wounding him mor-
tally.

The aid of a Highland leech was procured, who
probed the wound with a probe made out of a castock,
i. e. the stalk of a cole-wort or cabbage. This learned
gentleman declared he would not venture to prescribe,
not knowing with what shot the patient had been
wounded. MacLaren died, and about the same time
his cattle were houghed and his live stock destroyed in
a barbarous manner.

Robin Oig, after this feat — which one of his bio-

184 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

graph era represents as the unhappy discharge of a gun —
retired to his mother's house, to boast that he had
drawn the first blood in the quarrel aforesaid. On the
approach of troops, and a body of the Stewarts, who
were bound to take up the cause of their tenant, Robin
Oig absconded, and escaped all search.

The doctor already mentioned, by name Callam
Maclnleister, with James and Ronald, brothers to the
actual perpetrator of the murder, were brought to trial.
But as they contrived to represent the action as a rash
deed committed by the " daft callant Rob," to which
they were not accessary, the jury found their accession
to the crime was Not Proven. The alleged acts of
spoil and violence on the MacLarens' cattle were also
found to be unsupported by evidence. As it was
proved, however, that the two brothers, Ronald and
James, were held and reputed thieves, they were
appointed to find caution to the extent of £200, for
their good behaviour for seven years.

The author is uncertain whether it is worth while to
mention that he had a personal opportunity of observ-
ing, even in his own time, that the king's writ did not
pass quite current in the Braes of Balquhidder. There
were very considerable debts due by Stewart of Appin
(chiefly to the author's family), which were likely to be
lost to the creditors, if they could not be made avail-
able out of this same farm of Invernenty, the scene of
the murder done upon MacLaren.

His family, consisting of several strapping deer-

EXECUTING OF KING'S WRIT. 185

stalkers, still possessed the farm, by virtue of a long
lease, for a trifling rent. There was no chance of any
one buying it with such an encumbrance, and a trans-
action was entered into by the MacLarens, who, being
desirous to emigrate to America, agreed to sell their
lease to the creditors for £500, and to remove at the
next term of Whitsunday. But whether they repented
their bargain, or desired to make a better, or whether
from a mere point of honour, the MacLarens declared
they would not permit a summons of removal to be
executed against them, which was necessary for the
legal completion of the bargain. And such was the
general impression that they were men capable of
resisting the legal execution of warning by very
effectual means, no king's messenger would execute
the summons without the support of a military force.
An escort of a sergeant and six men was obtained from
a Highland regiment lying in Stirling ; and the author,
then a writer's apprentice, equivalent to the honour-
able situation of an attorney's clerk, was invested with
the superintendence of the expedition, with directions
to see that the messenger discharged his duty fully,
and that the gallant sergeant did not exceed his part
by committing violence or plunder. And thus it
happened, oddly enough, that the author first entered
the romantic scenery of Loch Katrine, of which he may
perhaps say he has somewhat extended the reputation,
riding in all the dignity of danger, with a front and
rear guard, and loaded arms. The sergeant was

136 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

absolutely a Highland Sergeant Kite, full of stories of
Rob Roy and of himself, and a very good companion.
We experienced no interruption whatever, and when
we came to Invernenty, found the house deserted. We
took up our quarters for the night, and used some of
the victuals which we found there. On the morning
we returned as unmolested as we came.

The MacLarens, who probably never thought of any
serious opposition, received their money, and went to
America, where, having had some slight share in re-
moving them from their pauvera regna, I sincerely hope
they prospered.

The rent of Invernenty instantly rose from £10 to
£70 or £80 ; and when sold, the farm was purchased
(I think by the late laird of MacNab) at a price higher
in proportion than what even the modern rent author-
ised the parties interested to hope for.

The spirit of clanship was at that time so strong — to
which must be added the wish to secure the adherence
of stout, able-bodied, and, as the Scotch phrase then
went, pretty men — that the representative of the noble
family of Perth condescended to act openly as patron
of the MacGregors, and appeared as such upon their
trial. So at least the author was informed by the late
Robert Macintosh, Esq., advocate. The circumstance
may, however, have occurred later than 1736, the year
in which this first trial took place.

Robin Oig served for a time in the 42d regiment,
and was present at the battle of Fontenoy, where he

A MACGREGOR REGIMENT. 187

was made prisoner and wounded. He was exchanged,
returned to Scotland, and obtained his discharge. He
afterwards appeared openly in the MacGregor's country ;
and, notwithstanding his outlawry, married a daughter
of Graham of Drunkie, a gentleman of some property.
His wife died a few years afterwards.

CHAPTER VIII.

The MacGregors in the Rising of 1845— At the Battle of Prestonpans
— At the Battle of Culloden— Return home — The Matrimonial
Tragedy— The Story of the Abduction— Liberation of Jean Keay
— Her Decease.

THE insurrection of 1745 soon afterwards called the
MacGregors to arms. Robert MacGregor of Glen-
carnoch, generally regarded as the chief of the whole
name, and grandfather of Sir John, whom the clan re-
ceived in that character, raised a MacGregor regiment,
with which he joined the standard of the Chevalier.
The race of Ciar Mohr, however, affecting indepen-
dence and commanded by Glengyle and his cousin
James Roy MacGregor, did not join this kindred corps,
but united themselves to the levies of the titular Duke
of Perth, until William MacGregor Drummond of Bol-
haldin, whom they regarded as head of their branch of
Clan-Alpine, should come over from France. To
cement the union after the Highland fashion, James

188 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

laid down the name of Campbell and assumed that of
Drummond, in compliment to Lord Perth. He was
also called James Roy, after his father, and James
Mohr, or Big James, from his height. His corps, the
relics of his father Rob's band, behaved with great
activity ; with only twelve men he succeeded in sur-
prising and burning, for the second time, the fort at
Inversnaid, constructed for the express purpose of
bridling the country of the MacGregors.

What rank or command James MacGregor had, is
uncertain. He calls himself Major, and Chevalier John-
stone calls him Captain. He must have held rank
under Ghlune Dhu, his kinsman, but his active and
audacious character placed him above the rest of his
brethren. Many of his followers were unarmed ; he
supplied the want of guns and swords with scythe-
blades set straight upon their handles.

At the battle of Prestonpans, James Roy dis-
tinguished himself. " His company," says Chevalier
Johnstone, " did great execution with their scythes."
They cut the legs of the horses in two ; the riders
through the middle of their bodies. MacGregor was
brave and intrepid, but, at the same time, somewhat
whimsical and singular. When advancing to the charge
with his company, he received five wounds, two of
them from balls that pierced his body through and
through. Stretched on the ground, with his head rest-
ing on his hand, he called out loudly to the High-
landers of his company, —

REMARKABLE BRAVERY. 189

" My lads, I am not dead. By G— , I shall see if
any of you does not do his duty."

The victory, as is well known, was instantly ob-
tained.

In some curious letters of James Roy,* it appears
that his thigh bone was broken on this occasion, and
that he, nevertheless, rejoined the army with six com-
panies, and was present at the battle of Culloden.
After that defeat the Clan MacGregor kept together in
a body, and did not disperse till they had returned into
their own country. They brought James Roy with
them in a litter: and, without being particularly
molested, he was permitted to reside in the MacGregor's
country along with his brothers.

James MacGregor Drummond was attainted for high
treason with persons of more importance. But it
appears he had entered into some communication with
government, as, in the letters quoted, he mentions
having obtained a pass from the Lord Justice Clerk in
1747, which was a sufficient protection to him from
the military. The circumstance is obscurely stated in
one of the letters already quoted, but may perhaps,
joined to subsequent incidents, authorise the suspicion
that James, like his father, could look at both sides of
the cards. As the confusion of the country subsided,
the MacGregors, like foxes which had baffled the
hounds, drew back to their old haunts, and lived un-

* Published in Black wood's Maga7ine, Vol. II., p. 228.
12

190 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

molested. But an atrocious outrage, in which the sons
of Rob Roy were concerned, brought at length on the
family the full vengeance of the law.

James Roy was a married man, and had fourteen
children. But his brother, Robin Oig, was now a
widower ; and it was resolved, if possible, that he
should make his fortune by carrying off and marrying,
by force if necessary, some woman of fortune from the
Lowlands.

The imagination of the half-civilized Highlanders
was less shocked at the idea of this particular species
of violence, than might be expected from their general
kindness to the weaker sex when they make part
of their own families. But all their views were
tinged with the idea that they lived in a state of
war ; and in such a state, from the time of the siege
of Troy to " the moment when Previsa fell,"* the female
captives are, to uncivilized victors, the most valuable
part of the booty.

" The wealthy are slaughtered, the lovely are spared."

We need not refer to the rape of the Sabines, or to a
similar instance in the Book of Judges, for evidence
that such deeds of violence have been committed upon
a large scale. Indeed, this sort of enterprise was so
common along the Highland line as to give rise to a
variety of songs and ballads, f The annals of Ireland,

* Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto II.
t See Appendix, No. V.

ABDUCTING A BRIDE. 191

as well as those of Scotland, prove the crime to have
been common in the more lawless parts of both coun-
tries ; and any woman who happened to please a man
of spirit who came of a good house, and possessed a
few chosen friends, and a retreat in the mountains, was
not permitted the alternative of saying him nay. What
is more, it would seem that the women themselves,
most interested in the immunities of their sex, were,
among the lower classes, accustomed to regard such
marriages as that which is presently to be detailed as
" pretty Fanny's way," or rather, the way of Donald
with pretty Fanny. It is not a great many years
since a respectable woman, above the lower rank
of life, expressed herself very warmly to the author
on his taking the freedom to censure the behaviour
of the MacGregors on the occasion in question. She
said —

" That there was no use in giving a bride too much
choice upon such occasions : that the marriages were
the happiest lang syne which had been done off hand."

Finally, she averred that her "own mother had
never seenjier father till the night he brought her up
from the Lennox, with ten head of black cattle, and
there had not been a happier family in the country."

James Drummond and his brethren having similar
opinions with the author's old acquaintance, and
debating how they might raise the fallen fortunes of
their clan, formed a resolution to settle their brother's

192 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

fortune by striking up an advantageous marriage
betwixt Robin Oig and one Jean Key, or Wright, a
young woman scarce twenty years old, and who had
been left about two months a widow by the death of
her husband. Her property was estimated at only from
16,000 to 18,000 merks, but it seems to have been suf-
ficient temptation to these men to join in the commis-
sion of a great crime.

This poor young victim lived with her mother in her
own house at Edinbilly, in the parish of Balfron and
shire of Stirling. At this place, in the night of 3d
December 1750, the sons of Rob Roy, and particularly
James Mohr and Robin Oig, rushed into the house
where the object of their attack was resident, presented
guns, swords, and pistols to the males of the family,
and terrified the women by threatening to break open
the doors if Jean Key was not surrendered, as, said
James Roy, " his brother was a young fellow deter-
mined to make his fortune." Having, at length,
dragged the object of their lawless purpose from
her place of concealment, they tore her from her
mother's arms, mounted her on a horse before one of
the gang, and carried her off in spite of her screams
and cries, which were long heard after the terrified
spectators of the outrage could no longer see the party
retreat through the darkness. In her attempts to
escape, the poor young woman threw herself from the
horse on which they had placed her, and in so doing
wrenched her side. They then laid her double over

A CRUEL ABDUCTION. 193

the pummel of the saddle, and transported her through
the mosses and moors till the pain of the injury she had
suffered in her side, augmented by the uneasiness of
her posture, made her consent to sit upright.

In the execution of this crime they stopped at more
houses than one, but none of the inhabitants dared
interrupt their proceedings. Amongst others who saw
them was that classical and accomplished scholar the
late Professor William Richardson of Glasgow, who
used to describe as a terrible dream their violent and
noisy entrance into the house where he was then resid-
ing. The Highlanders filled the little kitchen, brandish-
ing their arms, demanding what they pleased, and re-
ceiving whatever they demanded. James Mohr, he
said, was a tall, stern, and soldier-like man. Robin Oig
looked more gentle ; dark, but yet ruddy in complexion
— a good-looking young savage. The victim was so
dishevelled in her dress, and forlorn in her appearance
and demeanour, that he could hardly tell whether she
was alive or dead.

The gang carried the unfortunate woman to Rower-
dennan, where they had a priest unscrupulous enough
to read the marriage service, while James Mohr forcibly
held the bride up before him ; and the priest declared
the couple man and wife, even while she protested
against the infamy of his conduct. Under the same
threats of violence, which had been all along used to
enforce their scheme, the poor victim was compelled to
reside with the pretended husband who was thus forced

194 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

upon her. They even dared to carry her to the public
church of Balquhidder, where the officiating clergyman
(the same who had been Rob Roy's pensioner) only
asked them if they were married persons. Robert
MacGregor answered in the affirmative ; the terrified
female was silent.

The country was now too effectually subjected to
the law for this vile outrage to be followed by the
advantages proposed by the actors. Military parties
were sent out in every direction to seize the Mac-
Gregors, who were for two or three weeks compelled
to shift from one place to another in the mountains,
bearing the unfortunate Jean Key along with them.
In the mean while, the Supreme Civil Court issued a
warrant sequestrating the property of Jean Key, or
Wright, which removed out of the reach of the actors
in the violence the prize which they expected. They
had, however, adopted a belief of the poor woman's
spirit being so far broken that she would prefer sub-
mitting to her condition, and adhering to Robert Oig
as her husband, rather than incur the disgrace of
appearing in such a cause in an open court. It was,
indeed, a delicate experiment, but their kinsman
Glengyle, chief of their immediate family, was of a
temper averse to lawless proceedings. Such, at least,
was his general character; for when James Mohr,
while perpetrating the violence at Edinbilly, called
out, in order to overawe opposition, that Glengyle was
lying in the moor with a hundred men to patronise his

A FORCED OATH. 195

enterprise, Jean Key told him he lied, since she was
confident Glengyle would never countenance so scoun-
drelly a business. And the captive's friends having
had recourse to his advice, they feared that he would
withdraw his protection if they refused to place the
prisoner at liberty.

The brethren resolved therefore to liberate the
unhappy woman, but previously had recourse to every
measure which should oblige her, either from fear or
otherwise, to own her marriage with Robin Oig. The
cailliachs (old Highland hags) administered drugs,
which were designed to have the effect of philtres, but
were probably deleterious. James Mohr at one time
threatened that if she did not acquiesce in the match
she would find that there were enough of men in the
Highlands to bring the heads of two of her uncles who
were pursuing the civil lawsuit. At another time he
fell down on his knees, and confessed he had been
accessory to wronging her, but begged she would not
ruin his innocent wife and large family. She was
made to swear she would not prosecute the brethren
for the offence they had committed; and she was
obliged, by threats, to subscribe papers which were
tendered to her, intimating that she was carried off in
consequence of her own previous request.

James Mohr Drummond accordingly brought his
pretended sister-in-law to Edinburgh, where, for some
little time, she was carried about from one house to
another, watched by those with whom she was lodged,

196 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

and never permitted to go out alone or even to
approach the window. The Court of Session, consider-
ing the peculiarity of the case, and regarding Jean
Key as being still under some forcible restraint, took
her person under their own special charge, and
appointed her to reside in the family of Mr. Wightman
of Mauldsley, a gentleman of respectability, who was
married to one of her near relatives. Two sentinels
kept guard on the house day and night — a precaution
not deemed superfluous when the MacGregors were in
question. She was allowed to go out whenever she
chose, and to see whomsoever she had a mind, as well
as the men of law employed in the civil suit on either
side. When she first came to Mr. Wightman's house,
she seemed broken down with affright and suffering,
so changed in features that her mother hardly knew
her, and so shaken in mind that she scarce could
recognise her parent. It was long before she could be
assured that she was in perfect safety. But when she
at length received confidence in her situation, she
made a judicial declaration or affidavit, telling the full
history of her wrongs, imputing to fear her former
silence on the subject, and expressing her resolution
not to prosecute those who had injured her, in respect
of the oath which she had been compelled to take.
From the possible breach of such an oath, though a
compulsory one, she was relieved by the forms of
Scottish jurisprudence, in that respect more equitable
than those of England, prosecutions for crimes being

DEATH OF JEAN KEY. 197

always conducted at the expense and charge of the
King, without inconvenience or cost to the private
party who has sustained the wrong. But the unhappy
sufferer did not live to be either accuser or witness
against those who had so deeply injured her.

James Mohr Drummond had left Edinburgh so soon
as his half-dead prey had been taken from his clutches.
Mrs. Key, or Wright, was released from her species of
confinement there, and removed to Glasgow, under the
escort of Mr. Wightman. As they passed the Hill of
Shotts, her escort chanced to say,

" This is a very wild spot ; what if the MacGregors
should come upon us ? "

" God forbid ! " was her immediate answer, " the
very sight of them would kill me."

She continued to reside at Glasgow, without ven-
turing to return to her own house at Edinbilly. Her
pretended husband made some attempts to obtain an
interview with her, which she steadily rejected. She
died on the 4th October, 1751. The information for
the crown hints that her decease might be the conse-
quence of the usage she received. But there is a
general report that she died of the small-pox.

198 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

CHAPTER IX.

The Trial — James Mohr MacGregor's imprisonment and romantic
escape — Outlawed — A remarkable Highland Story — James's later
days and death — Robert Oig MacGregor's Trial and Execution.

IN the meantime, James Mohr, or Drummond, fell into
the hands of justice. He was considered as the insti-
gator of the whole affair. Nay, the deceased had
informed her friends that, on the night of her being
carried off, Robin Oig, moved by her cries and tears,
had partly consented to let her return, when James
came up, with a pistol in his hand, and, asking whether
he was such a coward as to relinquish an enterprise in
which he had risked every thing to procure him a
fortune, in a manner compelled his brother to persevere.
James's trial took place on 13th July, 1752, and was
conducted with the utmost fairness and impartiality.
Several witnesses, all of the MacGregor family, swore
that the marriage was performed with every appearance
of acquiescence on the woman's part ; and three or four
witnesses, one of them sheriff-substitute of the county,
swore she might have made her escape if she wished,
and the magistrate stated that he offered her assistance
if she felt desirous to do so. But when asked why he,
in his official capacity, did not arrest the MacGregors,
he could only answer, that he had not force sufficient
to make the attempt.

The judicial declarations of Jean Key, or Wright,

THE TRIAL. 199

stated the violent manner in which she had been
carried off, and they were confirmed by many of her
friends, from her private communications with them,
which the event of her death rendered good evidence.
Indeed, the fact of her abduction (to use a Scottish
law term) was completely proved by impartial wit-
nesses. The unhappy woman admitted that she had
pretended acquiescence in her fate on several occasions,
because she dared not trust such as offered to assist her
to escape, not even the sheriff-substitute.

The jury brought in a special verdict, finding that
Jean Key, or Wright, had been forcibly carried off from
her house, as charged in the indictment, and that the
accused had failed to show that she was herself privy
and consenting to this act of outrage. But they found
the forcible marriage, and subsequent violence, was not
proved ; and also found, in alleviation of the panel's
guilt in the premises, that Jean Key did afterwards ac-
quiesce in her condition. Eleven of the jury, using the
names of other four who were absent, subscribed a
letter to the Court, stating it was their purpose and de-
sire, by such special verdict, to take the panel's case
out of the class of capital crimes.

Learned informations (written arguments) on the
import of the verdict, which must be allowed a very
mild one in the circumstances, were laid before the
High Court of Justiciary. This point is very learnedly
debated in these pleadings by Mr. Grant, Solicitor for
the Crown, and the celebrated Mr. Lockhart, on the

200 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

part of the prisoner ; but James Mohr did not wait the
event of the Court's decision.

He had been committed to the Castle of Edinburgh
on some reports that an escape would be attempted.
Yet he contrived to achieve his liberty even from that
fortress. His daughter had the address to enter the
prison, disguised as a cobbler, bringing home work as
she pretended. In this cobbler's dress her father
quickly arrayed himself. The wife and daughter of
the prisoner were heard by the sentinels scolding the
supposed cobbler for having done his work ill, and the
man came out with his hat slouched over his eyes, and
grumbling, as if at the manner in which they had
treated him. In this way the prisoner passed all the
guards without suspicion, and made his escape to
France. He was afterwards outlawed by the Court of
Justiciary, which proceeded to the trial of Duncan
MacGregor, or Drummond, his brother, 15th January,
1753. The accused had unquestionably been with the
party which carried off Jean Key ; but no evidence
being brought which applied to him individually and
directly, the jury found him not guilty, and nothing
more is known of his fate.

That of James MacGregor, who, from talent and ac-
tivity, if not by seniority, may be considered as head
of the family, has been long misrepresented, as it has
been generally averred in Law Reports, as well as else-
where, that his outlawry was reversed, and that he
returned and died in Scotland. But the curious

A DOUBTFUL CONVICTION. 201

letters published in Blackwoocfs Magazine for Decem-
ber, 1817, show this to be an error. The first of these
documents is a petition to Charles Edward. It is
dated 20th September, 1753, and pleads his service to
the cause of the Stewarts, ascribing his exile to the
persecution of the Hanoverian Government, without
any allusion to the affair of Jean Key, or the Court of
Justiciary. It is stated to be forwarded by MacGregor
Drummond of Bohaldie, whom, as before mentioned,
James Mohr acknowledged as his chief.

The effect which this petition produced does not
appear. Some temporary relief was perhaps obtained.
But, soon after, this daring adventurer was engaged in
a very dark intrigue against an exile of his own
country, and placed pretty nearly in his own circum-
stances. A remarkable Highland story must be here
briefly alluded to. Mr. Campbell of Glenure, who had
been named factor for Government on the forfeited
estates of Stewart of Ardshiel, was shot dead by an
assassin as he passed through the wood of Lettermore,
after crossing the ferry of Ballichulish. A gentleman,
named James Stewart, a natural brother of Ardshiel
the forfeited person, was tried as being accessory to
the murder, and condemned and executed upon very
doubtful evidence ; the heaviest part of which only
amounted to the accused person having assisted a
nephew of his own, called Allan Breck Stewart, with
money to escape after the deed was done. Not satis-
fied with this vengeance, which was obtained in a

202 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

manner little to the honour of the dispensation of
justice at the time, the friends of the deceased Glenure
were eagerly desirous to obtain possession of the person
of Allan Breck Stewart, pupposed to be the actual
homicide. James Mohr Drummond was secretly ap-
plied to to trepan Stewart to the sea-coast, and bring
him over to Britain to almost certain death.

Drummond MacGregor had kindred connexions with
the slain Glenure ; and, besides, the MacGregors and
Campbells had been friends of late, while the former
clan and the Stewarts had, as we have seen, been
recently at feud ; lastly, Robert Oig was now in cus-
tody at Edinburgh, and James was desirous to do some
service by which his brother might be saved. The
joint force of these motives may, in James's estimation
of right and wrong, have been some vindication for
engaging in such an enterprise, although, as must be
necessarily supposed, it could only be executed by
treachery of a gross description. MacGregor stipulated
for a license to return to England, promising to bring
Allan Breck thither along with him. But the intended
victim was put upon his guard by two countrymen,
who suspected James's intentions towards him. He
escaped from his kidnapper, after, as MacGregor
alleged, robbing his portmanteau of some clothes and
four snuffboxes. Such a charge, it may be observed,
could scarce have been made unless the parties had
been living on a footing of intimacy, and had access to
each other's baggage. .

JAMES DRUMMOND MACGREGOR. 203

Although James Drummond had thus missed his
blow in the matter of Allan Breck Stewart, he used his
license to make a journey to London, and had an inter-
view, as he avers, with Lord Holdernesse. His
Lordship, and the Under-Secretary, put many puzzling
questions to him ; and, as he says, offered him a situa-
tion, which would bring him bread, in the Government's
service. This office was advantageous as to emolu-
ment; but in the opinion of James Drummond, his
acceptance of it would have been a disgrace to his
birth, and have rendered him a scourge to his country.
If such a tempting offer and sturdy rejection had any
foundation in fact, it probably relates to some plan of
espionage on the Jacobites, which the Government
might hope to carry on by means of a man who, in the
matter of Allan Breck Stewart, had shown no great
nicety of feeling. Drummond MacGregor was so far
accommodating as to intimate his willingness to act in
any station in which other gentlemen of honour served,
but not otherwise ; an answer which, compared with
some passages of his past life, may remind the reader
of Ancient Pistol standing upon his reputation.

Having thus proved intractable, as he tells the story,
to the proposals of Lord floldernesse, James Drummond
was ordered instantly to quit England.

On his return to France his condition seems to have
been utterly disastrous. He was seized with fever and
gravel, ill consequently in body, and weakened and
dispirited in mind. Allan Breck Stewart threatened to

204 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

put him to death in revenge of the designs he had
harboured against him. Allan Breck Stewart was a
man likely in such a matter to keep his word. James
Drummond MacGregor and he, like Katherine and
Petruchio, were well matched " for a couple of quiet
ones." Allan Breck lived till the beginning of the
French Revolution. About 1789, a friend of mine, then
residing at Paris, was invited to see some procession
which was supposed likely to interest him, from the
windows of an apartment occupied by a Scottish
Benedictine priest. He found, sitting by the fire, a
tall, thin, raw-boned, grim-looking old man, with the
petit croix of St. Louis. His visage was strongly
marked by the irregular projections of the cheek-bones
and chin. His eyes were grey. His grizzled hair ex-
hibited marks of having been red, and his complexion
was weather-beaten, and remarkably freckled. Some
civilities in French passed between the old man and
my friend, in the course of which they talked of the
streets and squares of Paris, till at length the old
soldier, for such he seemed, and such he was, said with
a sigh, in a sharp Highland accent,

" Deil ane o' them a' is worth the Hie street of
Edinburgh ! "

On enquiry, this admirer of Auld Reekie, which he
was never to see again, proved to be Allan Breck
Stewart. He lived decently on his little pension, and
had, in no subsequent period of his life, shown any
thing of the savage mood, in which he is generally

SUSPICIOUS INTERCOURSE. 205

believed to have assassinated the enemy and oppressor,
as he supposed him, of his family and clan.

The Stewart clan were in the highest degree un-
friendly to him : and his late expedition to London had
been attended with many suspicious circumstances,
amongst which it was not the slightest that he had
kept his purpose secret from his chief Bohaldie. His
intercourse with Lord Holdernesse was suspicious.
The Jacobites were probably, like Don Bernard de
Castel Blazo, in Gil Bias, little disposed to like those
who kept company with Alguazils. MacDonnell of
Lochgarry, a man of unquestioned honour, lodged an
information against James Drummond before the High
Bailie of Dunkirk, accusing him of being a spy, so that
he found himself obliged to leave that town and come
to Paris, with only the sum of thirteen livres for his
immediate subsistence, and with absolute beggary
staring him in the face.

We do not offer the convicted common thief, the ac-
complice in MacLaren's assassination, or the manager
of the outrage against Jean Key, as an object of sym-
pathy : but it is melancholy to look on the dying
struggles even of a wolf or tiger, creatures of a species
directly hostile to our own ; and, in like manner, the
utter distress of this man, whose faults may have
sprung from a wild system of education, working on a
haughty temper, will not be perused without some pity.
In his last letter to Bohaldie, dated Paris, 25th Sep-
tember, 1754, he describes his state of destitution as

13

206 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

absolute, and expresses himself willing to exercise his
talents in breaking or breeding horses, or as a hunter
or fowler, if he could only procure employment in such
an inferior capacity till something better should occur.
An Englishman may smile, but a Scotsman will sigh at
the postscript, in which the poor starving exile asks the
loan of his patron's bagpipes that he might play over
some of the melancholy tunes of his own land. But
the effect of music arises, in a great degree, from
association, and sounds which might jar the nerves of
a Londoner or Parisian, bring back to the Highlander
his lofty mountain, wild lake, and the deeds of his
fathers of the glen. To prove MacGregor's claim to
our reader's compassion, we here insert the last part of
the letter alluded to.

" By all appearance I am born to suffer crosses, and
it seems they're not at an end, for such is my wretched
case at present, that I do not know earthly where to
go or what to do, as 1 have no subsistence to keep
body and soul together. All that I have carried here
is about 13 livres, and have taken a room at my old
quarters in Hotel St. Pierre, Rue de Cordier. I send
you the bearer, begging of you to let me know if you
are to be in town soon, that I may have the pleasure of
seeing you, for I have none to make application to but
you alone ; and all I want is, if it was possible you
could contrive where I could be employed without
going to entire beggary. This probably is a difficult
point, yet, unless it's attended with some difficulty, you

A DISCONSOLATE LETTER. 207

might think nothing of it, as your long head can bring
about matters of much more difficulty and conse-
quence than this. If you'd disclose this matter to your
friend Mr. Buttler, it's possible he might have some
employ wherein I could be of use, as I pretend to know
as much of breiding and riding of horses as any in
France, besides that I am a good hunter, either on
horseback or by footing. You may judge iny re-
duction, as I propose the meanest things to lend a turn
till better cast up. I am sorry that I am obliged to
give you so much trouble, but I hope you are very well
assured that I am grateful for what you have done for
me, and I leave you to judge of my present wretched
case. I am, and shall for ever continue,

" Dear Chief, your own to command,

"JAS. MACGEEGOR.

«« P.S. — If you'd send your pipes by the bearer, and
all the other little trinkims belonging to it, I would put
them in order, and play some melancholy tunes, which
I may now with safety, and in real truth. Forgive my
not going directly to you, for if I could have borne the
seeing of yourself, I could not choose to be seen by my
friends in my wretchedness, nor by any of my ac-
quaintance."

While MacGregor wrote in this disconsolate manner,
Death, the sad but sure remedy for mortal evils, and
decider of all doubts and uncertainties, was hovering
near him. A memorandum on the back of the letter

208 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

says the writer died about a week after, in October,
1754.

It iiow remains to mention the fate of Robin Oig,
for the other sons of Rob Roy seem to have been no
way distinguished. Robin was apprehended by a party
of military from the fort of Inversnaid, at the foot of
Gartmore, and was conveyed to Edinburgh 26th May,
1753. After a delay, which may have been protracted
by the negotiations of James for delivering up Allan
Breck Stewart, upon promise of his brother's life, Robin
Oig, on the 24th December, 1753, was brought to the
bar of the High Court of Justiciary, and indicted by the
name of Robert MacGregor, alias Campbell, alias
Drummond, alias Robert Oig ; and the evidence led
against him resembled exactly that which was brought
by the Crown on the former trial. Robert's case was in
some degree more favourable than his brother's ; for,
though the principal in the forcible marriage, he had
yet to plead that he had shown symptoms of relenting
while they were carrying Jean Key off, which were
silenced by the remonstrances and threats of his harder
uatured brother James. Four years had also elapsed
since the poor woman died, which is always a strong
circumstance in favour of the accused ; for there is a
sort of perspective in guilt, and crimes of an old date
seem less odious than those of recent occurrence. But
notwithstanding these considerations, the jury, in
Robert's case, did not express any solicitude to save his
life, as they had done that of James. They found him

EXECUTION OF ROBIN OIG. 209

guilty of being art and part in the forcible abduction of
Jean Key from her own dwelling.*

Robin Oig was condemned to death, and executed
on 14th February, 1754. At the place of execution he
behaved with great decency ; and professing himself a
Catholic, imputed all his misfortunes to his swerving
from the true church two or three years before. He
confessed the violent methods he had used to gain Mrs.
Key, or Wright, and hoped his fate would stop further
proceedings against his brother James.f

The newspapers observe that his body, after hang-
ing the usual time, was delivered to his friends to be
carried to the Highlands. To this the recollection of a
venerable friend, recently taken from us in the fulness
of years, then a schoolboy at Linlithgow, enables the
author to add, that a much larger body of MacGregors
than had cared to advance to Edinburgh, received the
corpse at that place with the coronach, and other wild
emblems of Highland mourning, and so escorted it to
Balquhidder. Thus, we may conclude this long
account of Rob Roy and his family, with the classic
phrase,

"ITE. CONCLAMATUM EST."

I have only to add, that I have selected the above
from many anecdotes of Rob Roy, which were, and

* The Trials of the Sons of Rob Roy, with Anecdotes of Himself and
his Family, were published at Edinburgh, 1818, in 12mo.

t James died near three months before, but his family might easily
remain a long time without the news of that event.

210 HISTORY OF CLAN MACGREGOR.

may still be, current among the mountains where he
flourished ; but 1 am far from warranting their exact
authenticity. Clannish partialities were very apt to
guide the tongue and pen as well as the pistol and
claymore, and the features of an anecdote are wonder-
fully softened or exaggerated, as the story is told by a
MacGregor or a Campbell.

APPENDIX.

No. I.

ADVERTISEMENT FOR APPREHENSION
or

BOB ROY.

(From the Edinburgh Evening Courant, June 18 to June 21, A. D. 1712.
No. 1058.)

" THAT Robert Campbell, commonly known by the
name of Rob Roy MacGregor, being lately intrusted by
several noblemen and gentlemen with considerable
sums for buying cows for them in the Highlands, has
treacherously gone off with the money, to the value of
L.1000 sterling, which he carries along with him. All
Magistrates and Officers of his Majesty's forces are in-
treated to seize upon the said Rob Roy, and the money
which he carries with him, until the persons concerned
in the money be heard against him ; and that notice be
given, when he is apprehended, to the keepers of the
Exchange Coffee-house at Edinburgh, and the keeper
of the Coffee-house at Glasgow, where the parties con-
cerned will be advertised, and the seizers shall be very
reasonably rewarded for their pains."

212 APPENDIX.

It is unfortunate that this Hue and Cry, which is
afterwards repeated in the same paper, contains no
description of Rob Roy's person, which, of course, we
must suppose to have been pretty generally known.
As it is directed against Rob Roy personally, it would
seem to exclude the idea of the cattle being carried off
by his partner, MacDonald, who would certainly have
been mentioned in the advertisement, if the creditors
concerned had supposed him to be in possession of the
money.

APPENDIX. 213

No. II.
LETTERS

FROM AND TO

THE DUKE OF MONTROSE,

RESPECTING

ROB ROY'S ARREST OP MR. GRAHAME OF KILLEARN.
THE DUKE OF MONTROSE TO .*

" Glasgow, the 2lst November, 1716.

" MY LORD, — I was surprised last night with the
account of a very remarkable instance of the insolence
of that very notorious rogue, Rob Roy, whom your
lordship has often heard named. The honour of his
Majesty's government being concerned in it, I thought
it my duty to acquaint your lordship of the particulars
by an express.

" Mr. Grahame of Killearn (whom 1 have had occa-
sion to mention frequently to you, for the good service
he did last winter during the rebellion) having the

* It does not appear to whom this letter was addressed. Certainly,
from its style and tenor, it was designed for some person high in rank
and office — perhaps the King's Advocate for the time,

214 APPENDIX.

charge of my Highland estate, went to Monteath, which
is a part of it, on Monday last, to bring in my rents, it
being usual for him to be there for two or three nights
together at this time of the year, in a country house,
for the conveniency of meeting the tenants, upon that
account. The same night, about 9 of the clock, Rob
Roy, with a party of those ruffians whom he has still
kept about him since the late rebellion, surrounded the
house where Mr. Graham e was with some of my tenants
doing his business, ordered his men to present their
guns in att the windows of the room where he was
sitting, while he himself at the same time with others
entered at the door, with cocked pistols, and made Mr.
Grahame prisoner, carreing him away to the hill with
the money he had got, his books and papers, and my
tenants' bonds for their fines, amounting to above a
thousand pounds sterling, whereof the one half had
been paid last year, and the other was to have been
paid now ; and att the same time had the insolence to
cause him to write a letter to me (the copy of which is
enclosed) offering me terms of a treaty.

" That your Lordship may have the better view of
this matter, it will be necessary that I should inform
you, that this fellow has now, of a long time, put him-
self at the head of the Clan M'Gregor, a race of people
who, in all ages, have distinguished themselves beyond
others, by robberies, depredations, and murders, and
have been the constant harbourers and entertainers of
vagabonds and loose people. From the time of the

APPENDIX. 215

Revolution he has taken every opportunity to appear
against the government, acting rather as a robber than
doing any real service to those whom he pretended to
appear for, and has really done more mischief to the
countrie than all the other Highlanders have done.

" Some three or four years before the last rebellion
broke out, being overburdened with debts, he quitted
his ordinary residence, and removed some twelve or
sixteen miles farther into the Highlands, putting him-
self under the protection of the Earl of Bredalbin.
When my Lord Cadogan was in the Highlands, he
ordered his house att this place to be burnt, which
your Lordship sees he now places to my account.

" This obliges him to return to the same countrie he
went from, being a most rugged inaccessible place,
where he took up his residence anew amongst his own
friends and relations; but well judging that it was
possible to surprise him, he, with about forty-five of
his followers, went to Inveraray, and made a sham
surrender of their arms to Coll. Campbell of Finab,
Commander of one of the Independant Companies, and
returned home with his men, each of them having the
Coil's protection. This happened in the beginning of
summer last ; yet not long after he appeared with his
men twice in arms, in opposition to the King's troops ;
and one of those times attacked them, rescued a
prisonerfromthem, and all this while sentabroad his party
through the countrie, plundering the countrie people,
and amongst the rest some of my tenants.

216 APPENDIX.

Being informed of these disorders after I came to
Scotland, I applied to Lieut. Genii. Carpenter, who
ordered three parties from Glasgow, Stirling, and
Finlarig, to march in the night by different routes, in
order to surprise him and his men in their houses,
which would have had its effect certainly, if the great
rains that happened to fall that verie night had not
retarded the march of the troops, so as some of the
parties came too late to the stations that they were
ordered for. All that could be done upon the occasion
was to burn a countrie house, where Rob Roy then
resided, after some of his clan had, from the rocks,
fired upon the king's troops, by which a grenadier was
killed.

" Mr. Grahame, of Killearn, being my deputy-sheriff
in that countrie, went along with the party that
marched from Stirling ; and, doubtless, will now meet
with the worse treatment from that barbarous people
on that account. Besides, that he is my relation, and
that they know how active he has been in the service
of the government — all which, your Lordship may
believe, puts me under very great concern for the
gentleman, while, at the same time, I can forsee no
manner of way how to relieve him, other than to leave
him to chance and his own management.

" I had my thoughts before of proposing to govern-
ment the building of some barracks, as the only ex-
pedient for suppressing these rebels, and securing the
peace of the countrie; and in that view I spoke to

APPENDIX. 217

Genii. Carpenter, who has now a scheme of it in his
hands ; and I am persuaded that will be the true
method for restraining them effectually ; but, in the
meantime, it will be necessary to lodge some of the
troops in those places, upon which I intend to write to
the Generall.

" I am sensible I have troubled your Lordship with
a very long letter, which I should be ashamed of, were
I myself concerned ; but where the honour of the
King's Government is touched, I need make no
apologie, and I shall only beg leave to add, that I
am, with great respect, and truth,

" My Lord,

" yr. Lords8- most humble and
. " obedient servant,

" MoNTROSE."

218 APPENDIX.

COPT OF GRAHAME OF KILLEARN'S LETTER ENCLOSED IN
THE PRECEDING.

" Chappellaroch, Nov. 19^, 1716.

" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE, — I am obliged to give
your Grace the trouble of this, by Robert Roy's com-
mands, being so unfortunate at present as to be his
prisoner. I refer the way and manner I was appre-
hended, to the bearer, and shall only, in short, acquaint
your Grace with the demands, which are, that your
Grace shall discharge him of all soumes he owes your
Grace, and give him the soume of 3400 merks for his
loss and damages sustained by him, both at Craigros-
town and at his house, Auchinchisallen ; and that your
Grace shall give your word not to trouble or prosecute
him afterwards ; till which time he carries me, all the
money I received this day, my books and bonds for
entress, not yet paid, along with him, with assurances
of hard usage, if any party are sent after him. The
soume I received this day, conform to the nearest com-
putation I can make before several of the gentlemen, is
322 7L. 2sh. 8d. Scots, of which I gave them notes. I
shall wait your Grace's return, and ever am,

" Your Grace's most obedient, faithful,
" humble servant,

Sic subscribitur, " JOHN GRAHAME."

APPENDIX.

/

THE DUKE OF MONTROSE TO .

28th Nov. 1716. — KILLEARN'S RELEASE.

« Glasgow, 2Sth Nov. 1716.

" SIR, — Having acquainted you by my last, of the
21st instant, of what had happened to my friend Mr.
Grahame of Killearn, I'm very glad now to tell you,
that last night I was very agreeably surprised with Mr.
Grahame's coming here himself, and giving me the first
account I had had of him from the time of his being
carried away. It seems Rob Roy, when he came to
consider a little better of it, found that he could not
mend his matters by retaining Killearn his prisoner,
which could only expose him still the more to the
justice of the government; and therefore thought fit to
dismiss him on Sunday evening last, having kept him
from the Monday night before, under a very uneasy
kind of restraint, being obliged to change continually
from place to place. He gave him back the books,
papers, and bonds, but kept the money.

" I am, with great truth, Sir,

" your most humble servant,

" MONTROSE."

220 APPENDIX.

No. III.

CHALLENGE BY ROB ROY.

ROB ROY to ain hie and mighty Prince, JAMES DUKE OF
MONTROSE.

u In charity to your Grace's couradge and conduct,
please know, the only way to retrieve both is to treat
Rob Roy like himself, in appointing your place and
choice of arms, that at once you may extirpate your in-
veterate enemy, or put a period to your punny (puny ?)
life in falling gloriously by his hands. That impertin-
ent criticks or flatterer's may not brand me for chal-
lenging a man that's repute of a poor dastardly soul,
let such know that I admit of the two great supporters
of his character and the captain of his bands to joyne
with him in the combate. Then sure your Grace will
not have the impudence to clamour att court for multi-
tudes to hunt me like a fox, under pretence that I am
not to be found above ground. This saves your Grace
and the troops any further trouble of searching ; that
is, if your ambition of glory press you to embrace this
uiiequald venture offerd of Rob's head. But if your
Grace's piety, prudence, and cowardice, forbids hazard-
ing this gentlemanly expedient, then let your design of
peace restore what you have robed from me by the

APPENDIX. 221

tyranny of yoar present cituation, otherwise your over-
throw as a man is determined ; and advertise your
friends never more to look for the frequent civility
payed them, of sending them home without their arms
only. Even their former cravings wont purchase that
favour ; so your Grace by this has peace in your offer,
if the sound of war be frightful, and chuse your whilk,
your good friend or mortal enemy."

[This singular rhodomotade is enclosed in a letter to
a friend of Rob Roy, probably a retainer of the Duke
of Argyle in Isla, which is in these words : — ]

"Sm, — Receive the enclosed paper, qn you are taking
your botle ; it will divert yourself and comrades. I got
noa news since I saw you, only q* we had before about
the Spanyards is like to continue. If I get any account
about them I'll be sure to let you hear of it, and till
then I will not write any more till I have more account.
I am, Sir, your affec O [cousin,] and most humble
servant,

« Argyle, 1719. " ROB ROY."

Addressed, To Mr. Patrick Anderson, >
at Haig— These. )

The seal, a stag— no bad emblem >
of a wild catteran. I

222 APPENDIX.

It appears from the envelope that Rob Roy still con-
tinued to act as an intelligencer to the Duke of Argyle
and his agents. The war he alludes to is probably
some vague report of invasion from Spain. Such
rumours were likely enough to be afloat, in conse-
quence of the disembarkation of the troops who were
taken at Glensheal in the preceding year, 1718.

No. IV.

FROM ROBERT CAMPBELL, ALIAS M'GREGOR,
COMMONLY CALLED ROB ROY,

TO FIELD-MARSHAL WADE,

Then receiving the submission of disaffected Chieftains and

Clans.*

" SIR, — The great humanity with which you have
constantly acted in discharge of the trust reposed in
you, and your ever having made use of the great
powers with which you were vested, as the means of
doing good and charitable offices to such as ye found

* This curious epistle is copied from an authentic narrative of Mar-
shal Wade's proceedings in the Highlands, communicated by the late
eminent antiquary, George Chalmers, Esq., to Mr. Robert Jamieson of
the Register House, Edinburgh, and published in the Appendix to an
Edition of Burt's Letters from the North of Scotland. 2 Vols., 8vo.
Edinburgh, 1818.

APPENDIX. 223

proper objects of compassion, will, I hope, excuse my
importunity in endeavouring to approve myself not
absolutely unworthy of that mercy and favour which
your Excellency has so generously procured from his
Majesty for others in my unfortunate circumstances. I
am very sensible nothing can be alledged sufficient to
excuse so great a crime as I have been guilty of, that
of Rebellion. But I humbly beg leave to lay before
your Excellency some particulars in the circumstance
of my guilt, which, I hope, will extenuate it in some
measure. It was my misfortune, at the time the
Rebellion broke out, to be liable to legal diligence and
caption, at the Duke of Montrose's instance, for debt
alledged due to him. To avoid being flung into
prison, as I must certainly have been, had I followed
my real inclinations in joining the King's troops at
Stirling, I was forced to take party with the adherents
of the Pretender ; for the country being all in arms, it
was neither safe nor indeed possible for me to stand
neuter. I should not, however, plead my being forced
into that unnatural Rebellion against his Majesty, King
George, if I could not at the same time assure your
Excellency, that I not only avoided acting offensively
against his Majesty's forces upon all occasions, but on
the contrary, sent his Grace the Duke of Argyle all
the intelligence I could from time to time, of the
strength and situation of the Rebels; which I hope his
Grace will do me the justice to acknowledge. As to
the debt to the Duke of Montrose, I have discharged it

224 APPENDIX.

to the utmost farthing, I beg your Excellency would
be persuaded that, had it been in my power, as it was
in my inclination, I should always have acted for the
service of his Majesty King George, and that one
reason of my begging the favour of your intercession
with his Majesty for the pardon of my life, is the
earnest desire I have to employ it in his service, whose
goodness, justice, and humanity, are so conspicuous to
all mankind.

" I am, with all duty and respect,
" Your Excellency's most, etc.

"ROBERT CAMPBELL."

No. V.

ON HIGHLAND WOOING.

There are many productions of the Scottish Ballad
Poets upon the lion-like mode of wooing practised by
the ancient Highlanders when they had a fancy for the
person (or property) of a Lowland damsel. One ex-
ample is found in Mr. Robert Jamieson's Popular
Scottish Songs : —

Bonny Babby Livingstome

Gaed out to see the kye,
And she has met with Glenlyon,

Who has stolen her away.

APPENDIX. 225

He took frae her her satin coat,

Bat an her silken gown,
Syne roud her in his tartan plaid,

And happd her round and roun'.

In another ballad we are told how

Four-and-twenty Hieland men

Came doun by Fiddoch side,
And they have sworn a deadly aith,

Jean Muir suld be a bride :

And they have sworn a deadly aith,

like man upon his durke,
That she should wed with Duncan Ger,

Or they'd make bloody worke.

This last we have from tradition, but there are many
others in the collections of Scottish Ballads to the same
purpose.

The achievement of Robert Oig, or young Rob Roy,
as the Lowlanders called him, was celebrated in a
ballad, of which there are twenty different and various
editions. The tune is lively and wild, and we select
the following words from memory :

Rob Roy is frae the Hielands come,

Down to the Lowland border ;
And he has stolen that lady away,

To haud his house in order.

He set her on a milk-white steed,

Of none he stood in awe ;
Untill they reached the Hieland hills,

Aboon the Balmaha' ! *

Saying, Be content, be content,
Be content with me, lady ;

* A pass on the eastern margin of Loch Lomond, and an entrance to
the Highlands.

226 APPENDIX.

Where will ye find in Lennox land,
Sae braw a man as me, lady ?

Rob Roy, he was my father called,
MacGregor was his name, Lady ;

A' the country, far and near,
Have heard MacGregor 's fame, lady.

He was a hedge about his friends,
A heckle to his foes, lady ;

If any man did him gainsay,
He felt his deadly blows, lady.

I am as bold, I am as bold,
I am as bold and more, lady ;

Any man that doubts my word,
May try my gude claymore, lady.

Then be content, be content,
Be content with me, lady ;

For now you are my wedded wife,
Until the day ye die, lady.

No. VI.
GHLUNE DHU.

THE following notices concerning this Chief fell under
the Author's eye while the sheets were in the act of
going through the press. They occur in manuscript
memoirs, written by a person intimately acquainted
with the incidents of 1745.

This Chief had the important task intrusted to him
of defending the castle of Doune, in which the Cheva-
lier placed a garrison to protect his communication

APPENDIX. 227

with the Highlands, and to repel any sallies which
might be made from Stirling Castle. Ghlune Dim dis-
tinguished himself by his good conduct in this charge.

Ghlune Dhu is thus described : — " Glengyle is, in
person, a tall handsome man, and has more of the mien
of the ancient heroes than our modern fine gentlemen
are possessed of. He is honest and disinterested to a
proverb — extremely modest — brave and intrepid — and
born one of the best partisans in Europe. In short, the
whole people of that country declared that never did
men live under so mild a government as Glengyle's,
not a man having so much as lost a chicken while he
continued there."

It would appear from this curious passage that Glen-
gyle — not Stewart of Balloch, as averred in a note on
Waverley — commanded the garrison of Doune. Bal-
loch might, no doubt, succeed MacGregor in the situa-
tion.

FINIS.