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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 • ■ IlllUi dVVII 
 
SKETCHES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHARACTER, INSTITUTIONS, 
 AND CUSTOMS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID STEWART 
 
 OF GARTH. '^ 
 
 " 'Tis wonderful 
 That an invisible instinct should frame them 
 To loyalty unlearned ; honour untaught ; 
 Civility not seen from others ; valour 
 That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop 
 As if it had been sowed." 
 
 , SrH^il^E^PEARE. 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 INVERNESS : A. & W. MACKENZIE. 
 
 LONDON : SIMPKIN. MARSHALL, & CO. 
 
 EDINBURGH : JOHN MENZIES & CO. 
 
 1885. 
 
PRINTED RY ROBERT CARRUTHERS AND SONS, 
 INVERNESS. 
 
DA ^^0 
 IHSn 
 
 IS"?"? 
 
 FREFACE 
 
 In i822,Major-General David Stewart of Garth, then 
 a Colonel in the army, first published his invaluable 
 "Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present 
 State of the Highlands of Scotland, with Details of 
 the Military Service of the Highland Regiments." 
 It had a very extensive sale, two large editions hav- 
 ing been exhausted and a third called for in the 
 same year, though it was a high-priced work. In 
 recent years it became so scarce that a copy re- 
 alises now from a guinea to twenty-five shillings. 
 It is admitted by all whose opinion is worth listening 
 to on the subject, to be by far the best book in 
 every respect ever written on the Highlands; and it 
 has in fact become the foundation of nearly all that 
 has since been written on the character and annals 
 of the Highland people. The author has shown a 
 remarkable insight into the future, and has so accur- 
 ately predicted the ultimate results of the cold- 
 blooded exterminating policy of his time, that these 
 could not be more truly described even at the pre- 
 sent day, when all that he so correctly foretold 
 has been realised to the full in the existing social 
 and political state of the Highlands, as well as in 
 
 342 
 
iv. PREFACE. 
 
 the altered relations of proprietors and people. For 
 this and other reasons the portion of the work which 
 the author himself designated "A Sketch of the 
 Moral and Physical Character, and of the Institu- 
 tions and Customs of the Inhabitants of the High- 
 lands of Scotland" will prove a valuable addition 
 to the literature of the present day, and we have 
 decided to republish that portion of the work 
 at a price which shall place it within the reach of 
 the extended circle who now take a keen and sym- 
 pathetic interest in the social position of the High- 
 land peasantry. It is intended, by and bye, to 
 follow this up with the publication of the portions 
 of the work which deal specially with "The Military 
 Services of the Highland Regiments," bringing down 
 the account of these to date. 
 
 In the Preface to the first edition, General Stewart 
 informs us that his statements are grounded on 
 authentic documents ; on communications from 
 people in whose intelligence and correctness he 
 places implicit confidence ; on his own personal 
 knowledge and observation ; and on the mass of 
 general information, of great credibility and con- 
 sistency, preserved among the Highlanders of the 
 last century ; and he assures us of his " honest and 
 perfect conviction of the truth of all he has advanced, 
 and of the vital importance attached to the several 
 points touched upon." Having explained how he 
 was induced to commence the work, and how he suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining so much valuable and authen- 
 tic information, first, concerning the Forty-Second, 
 
PREFACE. V. 
 
 and afterwards respecting the other Highland Regi- 
 ments, he says — " In the course of this second inves- 
 tigation into the history of the Highland Regiments 
 I met, in all of them, with much of the same 
 character and principles. The coincidence was in- 
 deed striking, and proved that this similarity of 
 conduct and character must have had some common 
 origin, to discover the nature of which appeared an 
 object worthy of inquiry. The closest investigation 
 only confirmed the opinion I had before entertained, 
 that the strongly marked difference between the 
 manners and conduct of the mountain clans, and 
 those of the Lowlanders, and of every other known 
 country, originated in the patriarchal form of gov- 
 ernment which differed so widely from the feudal 
 system of other countries. I therefore attempted to 
 give a sketch of those manners and institutions by 
 which this distinct character was formed ; and hav- 
 ing delineated a hasty outline of the past state of the 
 manners and character, the transition to the changes 
 that had been produced and the present condition 
 of the same people was obvious and natural. 
 Hence I have been led on, step by step, from one 
 attempt to another, till the whole attained its pre- 
 sent form." A large edition was cleared off at once, 
 and another was issued within two months of the 
 first. In the Preface to the second edition the 
 author declares how gratified he was " by receiving 
 numerous communications confirming the general 
 correctness of the great multiplicity of facts and 
 circumstances " which he had occasion to detail in 
 
VI. PREFACE. 
 
 the first. The second edition, numbering 1300 
 copies, was cleared off immediately. The demand 
 for the work still "continued in a great measure 
 unabated," and the author made preparations for a 
 third edition, the printing of which was forthwith 
 commenced. 
 
 In the Preface to the third edition, hitherto 
 the last, issued in 1825, and of which this volume 
 is, so far, a verbatim reprint, he informs us that, 
 " owing to the distance of Garth from the press, 
 and having no daily post, with other causes of 
 interruption, this [the printing] proceeded so slowly 
 that the publication of the present edition has, 
 in consequence, been delayed for more than a 
 year beyond the time at which, in justice to the 
 work, it ought to have appeared. The delay thus 
 occasioned has, however, been attended with one 
 important advantage ; it has afforded me time and 
 ample opportunities of re-examining my statements, 
 and of applying corrections, where such appeared 
 necessary. If I have seen cause to make but few 
 alterations, with hardly a qualification, even in those 
 economical views which are, of course, most liable 
 to be disputed, it is solely because the result of the 
 most minute inquiries, and of personal observation, 
 has strikingly confirmed the general accuracy of my 
 statements and reasonings, and affords mc addi- 
 tional confidence in the truth and justness of the 
 opinions which I was previously led to maintain. I 
 employed three months of 1823 in this personal in- 
 vestigation, and travelled upwards of one thousand 
 
PREFACE. Vll. 
 
 miles through the Highlands, always communicating 
 with the most intelligent, and those best qualified 
 by their judgment, general intelligence, and local 
 knowledge to give the most correct information, 
 and unprejudiced opinions on the subject of my 
 inquiries. Receiving the fullest confirmation from 
 such men, I have now the more satisfaction in add- 
 ing, that, while I thus exerted myself to render the 
 present edition as correct as possible, the alterations 
 are so few and unimportant as not to diminish in 
 any degree, the value and general accuracy of the 
 former editions." Indeed, almost the entire change 
 consists of material and very valuable additions to 
 the text, notes, and appendices. 
 
 In "Notes Explanatory of the Map of the Clans," 
 issued with the original work, the author thinks it 
 proper to state that the divisions in which the clans 
 were arranged were " not intended to indicate that 
 the chiefs, or heads of the principal branches of all 
 the clans, were the sole proprietors of the lands 
 classed under their respective names. In several 
 instances, they were only occupiers and tenants at 
 will of the lands on which their forefathers had lived 
 for ages. But while the clansmen obeyed and fol- 
 lowed the chiefs of their family and kindred, the 
 superiors and proprietors of their lands seldom held 
 any authority or feudal control, except in cases 
 where the superior and his people entertained simi- 
 lar political views and sentiments." In a foot-note 
 to this, our author adds that, "nothing can be more 
 erroneous than an opinion, often repeated, and 
 
Vlll. PREFACE. 
 
 therefore sometimes believed, that whatever side the 
 feudal superior took in any great political question 
 or contest, he was invariably followed by his sub- 
 servient adherents. Many instances to the contrary 
 have been stated, and I could produce many more, 
 highly creditable to the spirit of independence which 
 long distinguished the clansmen." The lands " oc- 
 cupied by different clans and tribes, either as 
 proprietors or tenants are generally called their 
 * country' or territory ; Brae Lochaber, for example* 
 which was occupied for nearly five hundred years by 
 the Macdonalds of Keppoch, and their numerous 
 descendants, is called 'Keppoch's country,' although 
 the fee-simple of the property had been vested for 
 the greater part of the period in the families of 
 Gordon and Mackintosh. The Dukes of Gordon 
 and Argyll were feudal superiors of the whole of 
 the Camerons' country, the former nobleman being 
 also proprietor of part of the lands, as also of a con- 
 siderable portion of Badenoch, the * country of the 
 Macphersons,' many of whom arc his Grace's ten- 
 ants. Indeed, this clan is so numerous in that 
 extensive district that, except in the case of an 
 accidental emigration from the Duke's Lowland 
 estates, there is not a tenant of the name of Gordon 
 throughout its whole extent. The Duke of Atholl 
 possesses a very extensive property in Athole ; but 
 the district has, for centuries, been called the coun- 
 try of the Stewarts, Robertsons, Fergusons, etc. 
 With the exception of the Duke, there is not in the 
 whole district a proprietor or occupier of land of 
 
PREFACE. IX. 
 
 the name of Murray; but many descendants, whose 
 forefathers sprung from the Atholl family prior to 
 the change of their name from Stewart to Murray, 
 are still resident in the glens of A thole. Part of two 
 large parishes on the estate of Sutherland, including 
 Strathnaver, from which the Earldom of Sutherland 
 derives its secondary title, is situated in Lord Reay's 
 country, or, as it is called in Gaelic, the territory of 
 the Mackays The ranks of the Sutherland Regi- 
 ment of 1793 bore evidence to the propriety of this 
 appellation, as one hundred and four William Mac- 
 kays, almost all of them from Strathnaver, were in 
 the corps, and seventeen in one company, Captain 
 Sackville Sutherland's. The small clans or tribes of 
 Maclarens of Balquhidder in Perthshire, Macintyres 
 of Argyle, Macraes of Ross, Gunns of Sutherland, 
 and several others, were not proprietors ; but from 
 the earliest history of the clans, till a very recent 
 period, occupied their lands in undisturbed succes- 
 sion." Where are they now ? 
 
 Professor Blackie has repeatedly described 
 General Stewart's book as the best existing work — 
 whose " excellence shines forth on every page " — 
 on the Scottish Highlands and Highlanders ; and 
 that true and patriotic Sutherland Highlander, 
 Mr John Mackay, C.E., Hereford, writing to a 
 northern newspaper a few years ago, refers to 
 the work in the following terms : — " Without any 
 doubt, Stewart's Sketches is one of the best, if not 
 the very best book, published on the subject. It has 
 formed the groundwork for all the subsequent pub- 
 
X. PREFACE. 
 
 lications on the Highlands and Highland Clans. 
 It ought to be in the hands of every Highland lad ; 
 on the bookshelf of every Highland home, next to 
 the Bible. It is invaluable to every one who de- 
 sires to know all about the heroic past of the 
 Highland people. The author, born amongst the 
 hills of Perthshire, was reared amidst the people 
 he loved so well, respected so much, before 
 they became contaminated with Saxon ideas and 
 manners, before chiefs divorced themselves from 
 their retainers, before sheep became the golden 
 image to be worshipped, before the lust for gold 
 took the place of love for the people, and respect 
 and affection for the gallant defenders of their 
 country in danger ; when willing hands and brave 
 hearts, like himself, were pouring out, year after 
 year, from every hill and vale to sustain the hon- 
 our of the country, to preserve its freedom, to con- 
 quer or die for it in every battlefield from Fontenoy 
 to Waterloo. This was the heroic era of the High- 
 lands and Highlanders. Well did they deserve of 
 their country and chiefs. General Stewart sets all 
 this forth in his Sketches, in his own kindly langu- 
 age. Fortunate it was for the Highlanders to find 
 in their midst such a historian of their prowess and 
 heroic conduct as the gallant General, whose pen 
 was as ready to do them justice, and to record their 
 valour, as his sword was keen to lead them into 
 battle. Fortunate, too, it was to find such a 
 matchless defender of their character as Sir Walter 
 Scott. It was the incomparable heroism of the 
 
PREFACE. XI. 
 
 Highland soldier, and the majestic scenery of 
 his country, that awakene d the genius of Scott 
 Sir Walter Scott and General Stewart have done to 
 the Highlanders the justice denied them by others. 
 The magic wand of the one, and the facile pen and 
 intimate knowledge of the other, painted their 
 character and heroism in letters of gold, inefface- 
 able, imperishable. ' Waverley,' ' The Lady of the 
 Lake,' ' The Lord of the Isles,' are well known 
 productions of Sir Walter Scott. Stewart's Sketches 
 of the Highlands and Highland Regiments are 
 worthy to rank beside them : even more worthy 
 of being read ; for facts are stronger than fiction. 
 Stewart Sketches ought to be found in every library, 
 in the hall or in the cottage. Every Highland 
 lad should have the book in his hands as soon as 
 he is able to read." It is, in fact, impossible for 
 any one to read it without being and feeling a better 
 man or woman after the performance. The Appen- 
 dix deserves special attention from the reader who 
 desires to be fully informed on the subject of the 
 book, as it is a perfect mine of invaluable facts and 
 sound reasoning — such as cannot be found together 
 anywhere else that we know of 
 
 A. M. 
 Inverness, 20th April 1885. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Section Page. 
 
 I. — Geographical Situation and Extent of the High- 
 lands — Celtic Kingdom ... ... ... i 
 
 II. — System of Clanship — Patriarchal sway of the 
 Chiefs — Consequences of this System — 
 Effects of the want of Laws, and of constant 
 Agitation and Alarms on the Character of 
 the People ... ... ... ... ... 25 
 
 III. — Devoted Obedience of the Clans — Spirit of In- 
 dependence — Fidelity ... ... ... 57 
 
 IV. — Arms — Warlike Array 84 
 
 v.— Highland Garb 91 
 
 VI. — Bards — Pipers — Music ... ... ... ... 99 
 
 VII. — General Means of Subsistence — Checks on Popu- 
 lation — Salutary Influence of Custom in the 
 Absence of Laws ... ... ... ... 106 
 
 VIII. — Love of Country, Early Associations — Tradi- 
 tional Tales and Poetry ... ... ... 112 
 
 IX. — Disinterested, but Mistaken Loyalty and Fidelity 
 
 — Conduct in 1745 ... .. ... ... 119 
 
 X. — Abolition of Hereditary Jurisdictions — Disarming 
 
 Act — Suppression of the Highland Garb ... 139 
 
 PART II. 
 
 I. — Influence of Political and Economical Arrange- 
 ments — Change in the Character of the Clans 
 — Introduction of Fanaticism in Religion ... 147 
 
 II. — Causes and Consequences of these Changes — 
 State when placed on Small Lots of Land — 
 Poverty followed by Demoralisation ... 169 
 
XIV. CONTENTS. 
 
 Section. Page. 
 III.— Beneficial Results of Judicious Arrangements, 
 and of allowing time to acquire a Knowledge 
 of Agricultural Improvements — Emigration 
 — Agricultural Pursuits promote Independ- 
 ence and prevent Pauperism 210 
 
 IV. — Illicit Distillation — Consequences of Reducing 
 the Highlanders from the Condition of Small 
 Tenantry — Policy of Retaining an Agricul- 
 tural Population 236 
 
 V. — Military Character — National Corps advantage- 
 ous, especially in the Case of the Highlanders 
 — Character of Officers fitted to command a 
 Highland Corps 287 
 
 A.PFENDIX. 
 
 A. Parallel Roads 297 
 
 B. Ancient League between France and Scotland ... 299 
 
 C. Territories, Military Force, and Patronymic Designa- 
 
 tions of the Chiefs ... ... ... ... ... 301 
 
 D. War Cries, Signals, and Distinguishing Marks of the 
 
 Clans ... ... ... ... ... ... 308 
 
 E. Feuds — Garth and Macivor ... ... ... ... 310 
 
 F. Characteristic Anecdotes 312 
 
 G. Sketch of the Life and Character of Rob Roy ... 318 
 H. John Dubh Cameron, or Sergeant Mor 328 
 
 I. Highland Armour ... ... ... ... ... 330 
 
 K. Bows and Arrows ... ... ... ... ... 331 
 
 L. Highland Garb ... ... ... ... ... ^^^ 
 
 M. Highland Weddings 336 
 
 N. Highland Music ... ... ... ... ... 338 
 
 O. Highland Cianie ... ... ... ... ... 3^1 
 
 P. Honourable Manner of Contracting Bargains ... 342 
 
 Q. Patronymics ... 3^4 
 
 R. Spelling of the Name of Stewart 346 
 
 S. State of Education in the Highlamls in the Seven- 
 teenth and Eighteenth Cc-nturies 347 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XV. 
 
 T. Second-Sight 
 
 * Prejudiced Views of Highland Character ... 
 
 U. Lord President Forbes 
 
 V. Supposed Ferocity of the Highlanders 
 W. Disinterested Attachment, and Liberal Pecuniary 
 Support Afforded to Chiefs and Landlords when 
 in Distress ... 
 X. Equality of Property, and Operation of the New 
 
 Systems 
 Y. Report of Highland Convicts 
 Z. Ancient Cultivation 
 AA. Respectability and Independence of Small Farmers 
 
 in Comparison with Day Labourers 
 BB. Comparative Produce from Cultivation, and from 
 Land in the State of Nature 
 
 CC. Poor and Poor's Fund 
 
 DD. Letting Lands by Auction, Advertisements, or 
 
 Private Offers 
 
 EE. Influence of Public Opinion ... 
 FF. Religious Education — Gaelic Schools 
 GG. The Best Soldiers Destroyed by inattention to their 
 Feelings and Dispositions ... 
 Index ... 
 
 352 
 355 
 357 
 360 
 
 363 
 
 365 
 366 
 369 
 
 372 
 
 374 
 376 
 
 380 
 381 
 
 385 
 389 
 
SKETCHES OF THE 
 HIGHLANDERS. 
 
 P A K T I 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Geographical Situation and Extent of the Highlands of 
 Scotland — Inhahita?its — Character — Antiquities. 
 
 The tract of country known by the name of the High- 
 lands of Scotland, constitutes the northern portion of 
 Great Britain. Its maritime outline is bold, rocky, and 
 in many places deeply indented by bays and arms of the 
 sea. The northern and western coasts are fringed with 
 groups or clusters of islands, while the eastern and 
 southern boundaries are distinguished from that of Scot- 
 land denominated the Lowlands, by the strong and peculiar 
 features impressed on them by the hand of Nature. h. 
 range of mountains known in Roman history by the name 
 of Mons Grampius, at a later period called Gransbane,* 
 and now the Grampians, constitutes the line of demarca- 
 tion between these two distinct parts of the kingdom. 
 
 * Both derived from the Gaelic garu-bein, the rugged mountains. 
 
 B 
 
2 GRAMPIANS. 
 
 Within this range', '^s dvfery 'classical reader knows, is the 
 scene of that no'bleistancJ fAr lilD^erty and independence, 
 made by the Caledonians" against the invasion of the 
 Romans. The physical structure of the Grampian bound- 
 ary is as remarkable as the general direction is striking, 
 regular, and continuous. It forms, as it v/ere, a lofty and 
 shattered rampart, commencing north of the river Don, 
 in the county of Aberdeen — extending across the kingdom 
 in a diagonal direction, till it terminates in the south-west, 
 at Ardmore, in the county of Dumbarton — and present- 
 ing to the Lowlands throughout, a front, bold, rocky, and 
 precipitous. The Grampian range consists of rocks of 
 primitive formation. The front towards the south and 
 east presents, in many places, a species of breccia. In 
 the centre, and following the line of the range, is a re- 
 markable bed of valuable limestone,* with many strata of 
 marble t and slate. In the districts of Fortingall, Glen- 
 lyon, and Strathfillan, are found quantities of lead and 
 silver ore; and over the whole extent are numerous 
 
 * This great bed of limestone is first seen in Aberdeenshire. It 
 sometimes rises to the surface for many miles, then sinks and dis- 
 appears, following, as it were, the undulated and irregular direction 
 of the surface of the mountainous country through which it passes. 
 It runs from Brae-Mar to Athole, through the great forest, crossing 
 the river Garry at Blair Castle, and the Tummel near the foot of 
 Shichallain ; and, taking a south-westerly direction, by Garth, Fort- 
 ingall, and Breadalbane, passes through the centre of Loch-Tay, and 
 the west end of Loch-Earn, and thence stretches through Monteith 
 and Dumbartonshire, till it is lost in the Atlantic, north of the 
 Clyde. 
 
 + This marble takes a line polish. The prevailing colours are 
 blue, green, and brown, intermixed with streaks of pure white. In 
 Glcnlilt, within the forest of Athole, a quarry of green marble has 
 lately been opened, and wrought to advantage. 
 
STRATHS AND PASSES. 3 
 
 detached masses of red and blue granite, garnets, ame- 
 thysts, rock crystals, and pebbles of great variety and 
 brilliancy. 
 
 The continuation of this great chain is broken by 
 straths and glens, formed originally by the rivers and 
 torrents to which they now afford a passage. The prin- 
 cipal straths are on the rivers Leven, Earn, Dee, and Don. 
 But besides these great straths, there are many other glens 
 and valleys, the lower entrances of which are so rugged 
 and contracted, as to have been almost impassable till 
 opened by art. These are known by the name of Passes, 
 and are situated both on the verge of the outward line, 
 and in the interior of the range. The most remarkable 
 are Bealmacha upon Loch-Lomond, iVberfoyle and Leny 
 in Alonteith, the Pass of Glenalmond above Crieff, the 
 entrance into Athole near Dunkeld, and those formed by 
 the rivers Ardle, Islay, and South and North Esk. By 
 the excellent roads now constructed along their sides, 
 these passes, formerly so difficult to penetrate, furnish the 
 easiest entrance for horses, and the only one for carriages. 
 Immediately within the external boundary, are also many 
 strong and defensible passes, such as Killicrankie, and 
 the entrance into Glenlyon, Glenlochy, Glenogle, etc.* 
 
 * An apology may be necessary for stating facts so generally 
 known. But these boundaries formed one of the principal causes 
 which preserved the Highlanders a distinct race from the inhabitants 
 of the plains. For seven centuries, Bimam Hill, and the rocks 
 westward of Dungarth Hill, at the entrance into Athole, formed the 
 boundary between the Lowlands and Highlands, and between the 
 Saxon and Gaelic languages. On the south and east of these 
 boundaries, breeches are worn, and the Scotch Lowland dialect 
 spoken, with as broad an accent as in Mid-Lothian. On the north 
 and west are found the Gaelic, the kilt, and the plaid, with all the 
 peculiarities of the Highland character. The Gaelic is the dialect 
 
4 GENERAL ASPECT. 
 
 On the line of the Grampians, are many insulated 
 mountains of considerable altitude, such as Benlomond, 
 Benlawers, Shichallain, etc. The views of the Highlands 
 obtained on a clear day from the summits of these moun- 
 tains, are peculiarly imposing and magnificent. t But 
 when covered with clouds, or skirted with mists, their sum- 
 mits are often scarcely distinguishable from the vapours 
 which envelope them; while their bleak and barren aspect, 
 and the deep rocky channels with which they are furrowed, 
 testify to the violence of the tempests which have swept 
 over them. Towards their pointed summits there is little 
 vegetative mould ; but lower down we meet with a thin 
 covering of stunted heath, inhabited only by birds of 
 prey, and by the white hare and ptarmigan. Still farther 
 down is the region of the mountain deer and muirfowl, 
 producing more luxuriant heath, intermixed with nourish- 
 ing pasture, and supporting numerous flocks of sheep. 
 Towards the base are many romantic glens, watered by 
 mountain streams, or diversified by winding lakes, and in 
 some places beautifully wooded, and capable of producing 
 various kinds of grain. Many of these glens contain a 
 crowded population, and an unexpected number of 
 flocks and herds, the principal source of the riches of the 
 country. 
 
 The space which the Gaelic population occupied with- 
 in the mountains, includes the counties of Sutherland, 
 
 in common use among the people on the Highland side of the 
 boundary. This applies to the whole range of the Grampians ; for 
 example, at General Campbell's gate, at Monzie, nothing but Scotch 
 is spoken, while at less than a mile distant, on the hill to the north- 
 ward, we meet with the Gaelic. 
 
 t With a good glass Arthur's Seat and the higher grounds in the 
 neighbourhood of Edinburgh are clearly distinguishable. 
 
GENERAL ASPECT. 5 
 
 Caithness, Ross, Inverness, Cromarty, Nairn, Argyle, 
 Bute, the Hebrides, and part of the counties of Moray, 
 Banff, StirUng, Perth, Dumbarton, Aberdeen, and Angus. 
 It may be defined by a Hne drawn from the western open- 
 ing of the Pentland Frith, sweeping round St Kilda, so as 
 to include the whole cluster of islands to the east and south, 
 as far as Arran ; then stretching to the Mull of Kintyre, 
 re-entering the main land at Ardmore in Dumbartonshire, 
 following the southern verge of the Grampians to Aber- 
 deenshire, cutting off the Lowland districts in that country, 
 and in Banff and Elgin, and ending on the north-east 
 point of Caithness.* Throughout its whole extent this 
 country displays nearly the same features. 
 
 *The names of places in this county denote a considerable 
 mixture of Gothic and Danish. The same observation apphes to 
 the Isle of Skye, although in that island the language and manners 
 of the people are as purely Celtic as any now in existence. In 
 Caithness, however, two-thirds of the inhabitants speak the dialect 
 of the Lowland Scots. Part of that country bordering on the sea 
 coast is an uninterrupted flat of great extent. In that portion the 
 Lowland garb is worn, and Scotch spoken ; but at the commence- 
 ment of the high and mountainous country, we meet with the 
 Gaelic ; and formerly the Highland dress was worn. It would 
 therefore appear, that this low and accessible district must at an 
 early period have been invaded and occupied by strangers, whose 
 progress into the interior was arrested when the natural conform- 
 ation of the country enabled the original inhabitants to defend them- 
 selves, and prevent farther intrusion ; otherwise it is not easy to 
 account for the singular circumstances of an insulated district, 
 situated 150 miles within the boundary of the Gaelic language, be- 
 ing inhabited by people differing in dress, habits, and dialect, from 
 all around them. 
 
 A small district in the county of Cromarty, of five miles in length, 
 and less than half a mile in breadth, presents the same singularity, 
 the inhabitants having for ages spoken a language of which few or 
 none of those around them understand a sentence. It is the same 
 
6 CHARACTER. 
 
 The means of subsistence are necessarily limited to 
 the produce of mountain pasture, and to the grain that 
 can be raised in a precarious climate ; and that, too, only 
 on detached patches of land along the banks of rivers, in 
 the glens and plains, or on the sea coast. Though the 
 lakes and rivers in the interior, and the arms of the sea, 
 with which the coast is indented, abound with fish, the 
 distribution of this benefit among the general population 
 is necessarily limited by the difficulties peculiar to so 
 mountainous a region. The same cause precludes much 
 intercourse with the Lowlands, and the importation of 
 commodities so bulky as provisions. The inland parts 
 of the country must therefore, in a great degree, depend 
 on their own resources; and hence the number of 
 inhabitants must be small in proportion to the area of 
 territory. 
 
 From these circumstances, as well as from the seques- 
 tered situation in which the inhabitants were placed, a 
 peculiar character and distinctive manners naturally origin- 
 ated. The ideas and employment, which their seclusion 
 from the world rendered habitual, — the familiar con- 
 templation of the most sublime physical objects, — the 
 habit of concentrating their affections within the precincts 
 of their own glens, or the limited circle of their own kins- 
 men, — and the necessity of union and self-dependence 
 in all difficulties and dangers, combined to form a 
 peculiar and original character. A certain romantic 
 sentiment, the offspring of deep and cherished feeling, — 
 strong attachment to their country and kindred, — and a 
 consequent disdain of submission to strangers, formed 
 
 to this day, so remarkably has the distinction of languages been pre- 
 served, by people who, from close neighbourhood, must hold fre- 
 quent intercourse. 
 
ORIGIN. 7 
 
 the character of independence ; while an habitual con- 
 tempt of dangers was nourished by their solitary musings, 
 of which the honour of their clan, and a long descent 
 from brave and warlike ancestors, formed the frequent 
 theme. Thus, their exercises, their amusements, their 
 modes of subsistence, their motives of action, their pre- 
 judices, and their superstitions, became characteristic, 
 permanent, and peculiar. 
 
 Promptitude in decision, fertility in resource, ardour 
 in friendship, and a generous enthusiasm, were qualities 
 which naturally resulted from such a situation, such 
 modes of life, and such habits of thought. FeeHng 
 themselves, in a manner, separated by Nature from the 
 rest of mankind, and distinguished by their language, 
 manners, and dress, they considered themselves the 
 original possessors of the country, and regarded the 
 Saxons of the Lowlands as strangers and intruders. 
 
 Whether the progenitors of this singular race of people 
 were the aborigines of the Highlands of Scotland, is a 
 question which is now impossible to decide. But the 
 earliest authentic records which history affords of the 
 transactions of different tribes and nations, contain de- 
 scriptions of the character, and accounts of the migrations 
 of the Celts. Among this widely diffused race, though 
 there were considerable varieties, arising from climate 
 and situation, still in the case of all to whom the denom- 
 ination was extended, there might be traced indelible 
 marks of affinity, as well as a striking difference from 
 other tribes. C^sar, in his Commentaries, informs us, 
 that, in his time, they formed the most considerable por- 
 tion of the population of Gaul. Indeed, many circum- 
 stances render it probable, that the Celtic tribes emigrated 
 originally from the eastern provinces of Europe, retaining, 
 
8 DRUIDS. 
 
 in their progress westward, their rehgion, manners, and 
 language. Traces of this migration may be discovered 
 in the names of Albania, Iberia, Dahnatia, Caramania,* 
 etc., as well as in many appellations which we still recog- 
 nise in the western parts of Europe, all of which were 
 once, and some still are, in part, inhabited by Celts. 
 
 The most luminous and distinct account of the govern- 
 ment, manners, and institutions of this remarkable people, 
 as they existed in Gaul, as well as the most authentic his- 
 tory of some of their enterprises and transactions, is to be 
 found in Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War. The 
 separation of a distinct class of men called the Druids, 
 whom he describes t as the ministers of their religion, and 
 the depositaries of their sciences and laws — the retired 
 and contemplative modes of life to which this order de- 
 voted themselves, — the mystery which they affected, — the 
 reverence in which they were held, — the direction of their 
 studies to the natural sciences, particularly to astronomy, 
 — their opinions concerning a Providence, — and, above 
 all, their doctrine of transmigration, with their preten- 
 sions to prophetical knowledge, — all strongly remind us 
 of tlie character and institutions of the Magi. 
 
 The worship of Bel, or Baal, % some traces of which 
 
 * Albani, Dalmat, Corrimoni, etc., are names quite common in 
 the Highlands. 
 
 + See Book vi. Chapters 13, 14, and 16, of his Comm. de Bello 
 Galileo. 
 
 J The anniversary of Bel (in Gaelic Bealdin) was celebrated by 
 shepherds and children with a feast of milk, eggs, butter, cheese, 
 &c. These remains of ancient superstitions were accompanied with 
 many ceremonies and offerings for the protection of their flocks 
 from the storms, eagles and foxes. This festival was held on May- 
 day. When all was ready, a boy stood up, holding in his left hand 
 a piece of bread, covered with a kind of hasty pudding, or custard 
 
LANGUAGE. 9 
 
 Still remain in the Highlands, is unquestionably of East- 
 ern origin.* The Highland superstitions concerning the 
 enchantments of the Daoni-Si, or fairies, cannot fail to 
 brins: to the recollection of the classical reader the incan- 
 tations of Medea, Queen of Colchis. t 
 
 The language of the Scotch Highlanders affords strong 
 evidence of Oriental origin. It is well known, that, in 
 the languages of Asia, the Hebrew for example, the 
 
 of eggs, milk, and butter ; and turning his face towards the East, 
 he threw a piece over his left shoulder, and cried, " This to you, O 
 Mists and Storms, that ye be favourable to our corns and pasture : 
 This to thee, O Eagle, that thou mayest spare our lambs and kids : 
 This to thee, O Raven," etc. These superstitious rites were com- 
 mon thirty years ago, but they have now disappeared even among 
 children. Similar to this festival was the Samhuin, or fire of peace, 
 the origin of which tradition ascribes to the Druids, who assembled 
 the people in the open air for the purpose of administering justice. 
 In many parts of the country are still seen the small conical hills on 
 which these courts are said to have been held, and which are called 
 Tomvoid, i.e. the Court Hill. Three of these conical court hills 
 are near the Point of Lyon, where that river enters the Tay, three 
 miles above Castle Menzies. The anniversary of these meetings 
 was celebrated on the 1st of November, the Halloween of the Low- 
 lands. Immediately after dusk, large fires were kindled in con- 
 spicuous places in every hamlet. The inhabitants at the same time 
 assembled, and the night was passed in dancing, and the observance 
 of numberless ceremonies and superstitions, the principal object of 
 which was, to discover occult events, and to pry into futurity. 
 These superstitious rites are admirably described by Burns in his 
 *' Halloween," and are in every respect the same as those practised 
 in the Highlands. 
 
 * See Dr Graham's (of Aberfoyle) able and learned Essay on the 
 Authenticity of Ossian. 
 
 t See Ovid's Met. Lib. vii. fab. 2, and compare the description 
 of Medea's cauldron, and its effects, with the fairy tale related by Dr 
 Graham in his elegant and entertaining work, entitled, "Pictur- 
 esque Sketches of Perthshire." 
 
10 MIGRATIONS. 
 
 present tense of the verb is wanting, and is supplied by 
 the inference or circumlocution. This is also the case in 
 the Irish, the Welsh, and the Gaelic, which, indeed, are 
 kindred dialects. The Gaelic presents in its construction 
 the most prominent features of a primitive language, 
 being for the most part monosyllabic, and, with few ex- 
 ceptions, having no word to express abstract ideas, or 
 such terms of art as were unknown to a primitive people. 
 But to whatever conclusion we may arrive concerning 
 the origin and early migration of the Celtic race, it is 
 certain that tribes described as Celtic, and exhibiting 
 every indication of their having sprung from a common 
 stock ; preserving themselves unmixed in blood and un- 
 connected in institutions with strangers, and retaining 
 their own manners and language, were extensively diffused 
 over the west of Europe. From the Straits of Gibraltar 
 to the northern extremity of Scotland, not merely on the 
 sea-coast, but to a considerable distance into the interior, 
 we find traces of their existence, and memorials of their 
 history, deducible not only from the testimony of ancient 
 writers, but from the names of mountains and rivers, the 
 most permanent vestiges of the original language of a 
 country. Thus, we have, in France, the Garonne, in 
 Gaelic Garu-avon, rough or rapid river ; the Seine, the 
 Sequana of Caesar, the Seuv-avon, or silent running 
 river ; in Lombardy, the Eridanus, the Ard-an-er-avon, or 
 east running river ; and in Scotland, lar-avon, or Irvine, 
 the west running river.* But it would be endless to fol- 
 low the derivations in Scotland, where a great majority of 
 ancient names of places, rivers, and mountains, is unques- 
 
 * In Gaelic, Er is east ; Jar west. Thus we have laiagael or 
 Argyle, that is Western Gael ; lar, ar, Ayr, the West country ; the 
 Err, Earn, &c. streams running eastward. 
 
MIGRATIONS. 1 1 
 
 tionably Celtic. Thus, even in the Lothians and Berwick- 
 shire, we have Edinburgh, Dalkeith, the river Esk, 
 Inveresk, Inverleith, Balgone, Dunbar, Dunse, Dunglass, 
 Drumore, Mordun, Drumseugh, Dundas, * Dalmeny, 
 Abercorn, Garvald, Innerwick, Cramond, Corstorphine, 
 and Dunian, in Roxburgh, with many others as purely 
 Celtic as any names within the Grampians. In Galloway, 
 and the western districts, Celtic names are almost the 
 only ancient appellations of places, and of the common 
 people, the descendants of the earliest inhabitants of 
 whom we have authentic accounts. 
 
 Some may smile at derivations like these : but others, 
 again, will trace, in such affinities of language, if not the 
 only, at least the surest vestiges that still remain of the 
 vicissitudes and affiliations of nations whose annals extend 
 beyond the reach of authentic history. Unluckily for the 
 inquirer into Celtic antiquities, such vestiges form almost 
 the only basis on which his conclusions or conjectures can 
 rest. Amongst ancient authors, such subjects of research 
 excited little attention ; and long before the period at which 
 modern history commences, they had been almost annihi- 
 lated by the fierce and more numerous tribes, who occu- 
 pied great part of the country possessed by the ancient 
 Celts. When the Celts migrated to the westward, tribes 
 of a very different language and character advanced upon 
 their settlements, and spread farther to the northward. 
 These tribes, denominated Teutones t and Goths, had 
 
 * Dundas, Dun-dos, a hill with a tuft of wood. This et}Tnon 
 bears an analogy to the heraldic bearings of Dundas, (a tuft of wood 
 with a lion attempting to push through it), a family as ancient as 
 the period when the Gaelic was the language of Mid-Lothian. The 
 old Castle of Dundas has stood eight hundred years. 
 
 + Mr Grant, of Corrimonie, in Tiis learned work, entitled, 
 
12 MIGRATIONS. 
 
 probably their original seats in Scythia. They gradually 
 occupied Hungary, Germany, and Scandinavia, encroach- 
 ing everywhere upon the territories of the Celts, overturning 
 the Roman empire itself, and at length establishing them- 
 selves in Italy, Spain, Gaul, and the eastern districts of 
 Britain. By these invasions, the Celts were either driven 
 westward, or intermixed with their invaders. Their name 
 and national distinctions were lost, excepting in a few in- 
 accessible regions on the shores of the Atlantic, from 
 which they could not be dislodged. There they still remain 
 detached portions of an original race, preserving their 
 physical conformation, and their peculiar institutions, 
 nearly unchanged, until within the last fifty years ; and 
 are as easily distinguishable from the general mass of the 
 population with which they are combined in political 
 union, as they were from the Scythian and German tribes 
 in the days of Caesar. 
 
 In the provinces of Galiicia and Biscay in the west, 
 and in the valleys of the Pyrenees in the south of France, 
 and north of Spain, the inhabitants, differing, as they 
 evidently do, in manners and appearance, from the other 
 subjects of the respective kingdoms to which they belong, 
 exhibit a striking confirmation of this hypothesis. But it 
 is in Lower Bretagne, in Wales, in the Isle of M'lUj in 
 Ireland, and in the Highlands of Scotland, that the most 
 distinct traces of the Celtic manners and language are to 
 be found. In manners, indeed, the inhabitants of 
 
 "Thoughts on the Gael," gives an etymology of the appellation 
 Teutones, which he conjectures to have been the name given by the 
 Gaelic emigrants from the east to the hordes which advanced in the 
 same direction, upon their northern borders, peopling Russia and 
 Scandinavia. These were called Tuadaoine, that is, Afcn of the 
 North, or Teutones. 
 
MIGRATIONS. 1 3 
 
 Bretagne bear but a faint resemblance to their Celtic 
 brethren of other countries ; but the similarity of their 
 language proves, that originally it was the same with that 
 now spoken in Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland, &c. 
 In language, however, the Gallicians differ less from their 
 fellow subjects of the Spanish monarchy, than they do in 
 physical formation, and peculiar customs. The Biscayans 
 are remarkable for their difference in both respects ; and 
 the Basques, or inhabitants of the vvestern Pyrenees, are 
 distinguishable from the subjects of the two kingdoms to 
 which they belong, by their bodily appearance and habits, 
 as well as by a high spirit of independence, and pride of 
 ancestry, — and, in many respects, they exhibit striking re- 
 marks of an original and unmixed race.* 
 
 Many points of resemblance between the Basques and 
 Scottish Highlanders may, no doubt, be attributed as 
 much to similarity of situation, as to a common origin. 
 Similarity of situation, however, will not account for the 
 remarkable traits of resemblance between the inhabitants 
 of La Vendee and those of the north of Scotland. Widely 
 as they differ in their external features, the manners and 
 customs of the people of both countries are so nearly 
 similar, that a Highlander, in reading the Memoirst of 
 the Wars in La Vende'e during the French Revolution, 
 would almost think he was perusing the history of the 
 events of the years 1745 and 1746 in Scotland. In the 
 
 * The Basques wear a blue bonnet of the same form, texture and 
 colour, as that worn by the Scottish Highlanders ; and in their erect 
 air, elastic step, and general appearance, bear a remarkable resem- 
 blance to the ancient race of Highlanders, whose manners and habits 
 remained unchanged till towards the cominencement of the late 
 reign, but of which scarcely a trace now remains. 
 
 + Memoirs of Madame Larochejaquelin. Edinburgh, 1816. 
 
14 CELTS. 
 
 picture which has been drawn of the zeal with which the 
 followers and adherents of the Seigneurs crowded round 
 the castles of their Lords ; in the cordial affection and 
 respectful similarity subsisting between them ; in their 
 pastoral modes of life, and love of the chase ; in the 
 courage with which they took the field, and the persever- 
 ance with which they maintained their ground against 
 discipHned armies ; in their invincible fidelity to the cause 
 they had espoused ; in their remarkable forbearance from 
 pillage or wanton destruction, in which they exhibited a 
 noble contrast to the ferocious rapacity of the republican 
 troops ; and in their kindness to their prisoners — we are 
 strikingly reminded of the chiefs, the clanships, and the 
 warfare of the Scotch mountaineers. 
 
 In tracing the remains of the Celtic race, we find that 
 in a great proportion of Wales, in the Isle of Man, and in 
 Ireland, the language is still preserved,* but, owing to a 
 greater admixture with strangers, at an earlier period, an- 
 cient manners are much changed, whereas, in the High- 
 lands of Scotland, which successfully resisted their in- 
 trusion, and were never subdued by either Roman or 
 Goth, and where the repeated attacks of Danes and Nor- 
 wegians were uniformly repulsed, the remains of the 
 language, manners, superstitions, and mythology of the 
 Celts, are found in greater purity and originality, than in 
 any other country. 
 
 The earliest historical records bear testimony to the 
 
 * It is observed by Mr Grant of Corrimonie, that, in Con- 
 naught, and the west of Ireland, to which sti-angers had least access, 
 the language still spoken differs very little from that of the Scotch 
 Highlanders. The correctness of this observation I have had an 
 opportunity of noticing in my intercourse with Irish soldiers, to 
 whom I have often acted as interpreter. 
 
CELTIC KINGDOM. 1 5 
 
 warlike spirit of the people ; while the facts disclosed by 
 the Roman historians, prove that their commanders in 
 Britain found the Caledonians very formidable enemies ; 
 and it is not to be supposed that they would record de- 
 feats and disappointments which did not befall them. 
 According to Tacitus, the celebrated Caledonian general, 
 Galgacus, brought against Agricola an army of upwards of 
 30,000 men, of whom 10,000 were left dead on the field 
 of battle ; which sufficiently demonstrates their numbers, 
 their firmness, and their spirit of independence. Though 
 defeated, they were not subdued, and, after three years 
 of persevering warfare, the Roman general was forced to 
 relinquish the object of his expedition. Exasperated by 
 this obstinate resistance, the Emperor Severus determined 
 to extirpate a people who had thus prevented his country- 
 men from becoming the conquerors of Europe. Having 
 collected a large body of troops, he took the command in 
 person, and entered the mountains of the Caledonians. 
 Notwithstanding his immense preparations, however, he 
 was completely defeated, and driven back to the plains 
 with the loss of 50,000 men ; and subsequently, while one 
 legion was found sufficient to keep the southern parts of 
 the country in subjection, two were required to repel the 
 incursions of the Gael. 
 
 Some centuries posterior to this, we find the people 
 formmg a separate kingdom, confined within the Gram- 
 pian boundaries.* This has been always kno^^'n as the 
 kingdom of the Scots ; but to the Highlanders, only as 
 
 * This, according to the traditions of the Highlanders, is the era 
 of Ossian, when they had a kingly government within the moun- 
 tains, with all the consequent chivalry, heroism, and rivalry of 
 young men of family. See Appendix, A. 
 
1 6 PICTS AND SCOTS. 
 
 that of the Gael, or Albanich."* The whole country im- 
 mediately beyond the Grampian range, (that is, the 
 Lowlands of Perth, Angus, and Mearns), was in possession 
 of the Picts. Abernethy, said to have been their capital,t 
 is only twenty miles distant from Birnam hill, the out- 
 ward boundary at that entrance to the Highlands ; and 
 Brechin, supposed to have been another of their towns, is 
 nearly the same distance from the eastern boundary. 
 
 These two nations of Picts and Scots, the one in- 
 habiting the lowland territory, and the other the mountain- 
 ous region, differing considerably in manners, but speaking 
 the same language,:}: were sometimes in alliance, but 
 
 * The epithets England and Scotland, or Scots and English, are 
 totally unknown in Gaelic. The English are Sassanachs, the Low- 
 land Scots are Gauls, the low country is Gauldach (the Country of 
 Strangers), the Highlanders are Gael and Albanich, and the High- 
 lands Gaeldach. 
 
 t There ai-e remarkable subterranean ruins in Abernethy. These 
 have only been partially examined ; but they seem of great extent. 
 The stones consist of the same red freestone which abounds in the 
 neighbourhood, and have been prepared and squared for building, 
 but not cut into an ornamental form ; at least as far as they have 
 been examined. The mortar, as in all old buildings, is so hardened 
 by time, that the stones give way to a blow, while the cement 
 resists. As a striking instance of the revolutions of time, even in a 
 country not subjected to violent convulsions of the earth, all these 
 buildings are completely covered, in some parts to a considerable 
 depth, with the soil, which consists of a dry loam, occasionally 
 intermixed with gravel. The surface is quite smooth, producing 
 crops of corn and hay, and showing no vestige of what is under- 
 neath, except where holes have been dug when the proprietor, Mr 
 Paterson of Carpow, a few years ago, made use of some of the 
 stones for building a new house. The whole deserves the notice of 
 the antiquary. 
 
 X That the Picts, inhabiting the low and fertile districts on the 
 east of Scotland, and to the north of the Roman province, were 
 
SEAT OF GOVERNMENT REMOVED. 1 7 
 
 more frequently in a state of hostility, till the succession 
 of Kenneth MacAlpin, in right of his mother, to the 
 throne of the Picts, A.D. 843, when the Scots and Picts 
 were finally united under one sovereign. Gaelic con- 
 tinued to be the language of the Court and of the people 
 till the reign of Malcolm III., surnamed Ceannmor, who 
 had married the sister of Edgar Etheling, A. D, 1 066. From 
 that period the Gaelic language was gradually superseded 
 by the Saxon, until it entirely disappeared in the Low- 
 lands. 
 
 Towards the close of the eighth century, ambassadors, 
 it is said, were sent by Charlemagne to Achaius, King of 
 the Scots, or, according to the Highlanders, Righ nan 
 Gael, or Albanich, i.e.^ King of the Gael, or of Albany. 
 The result of this friendly communication is stated to 
 have been an alliance between France and Scotland.! 
 This is indeed involved in all the uncertainty of early 
 tradition : yet it is recorded by ancient chronicles ; and, 
 as far as it goes, confirms the belief of the number and 
 comparative civilization of the Caledonians ; for at what- 
 ever period the friendly connection between the two 
 countries commenced, it continued uninterrupted till 
 James VI. of Scotland succeeded to the throne of Eng- 
 land. The tradition that Charlemagne appointed two 
 Caledonian professors to preside over his academical 
 establishments at Padua and Paris, may, in like manner, 
 be regarded as a testimony in favour of the learning of 
 
 Gael, or Celts, and that they spoke the Gaelic language, seems to 
 be clearly proved by Mr Grant, in his "Thoughts on the Gael." 
 If the Picts spoke a language different from the Celtic, every trace 
 of it has disappeared ; the names of towns, rivers, mountains, valleys 
 etc., being either Celtic or Saxon. 
 
 t See Appendix, B. 
 
 C 
 
1 8 ICOLMKILL. 
 
 the Celts at that period. Before the age of Charlemagne, 
 indeed, the college of Icolmkill had reached the height 
 of its celebrity.* 
 
 When the succession of the Alpine Kings to the 
 throne of the Picts caused the seat of royalty to be trans- 
 ferred from the mountains to the more fertile regions of 
 the Lowlands, and when the marble chair, the emblem of 
 sovereignty, was removed from Dunstaffnage to Scone, 
 the stores of learning and history, preserved in the College 
 of lona, were also carried to the South, and afterwards 
 destroyed by the barbarous policy of Edward I. De- 
 ficient and mutilated as the records in consequence are, 
 it is impossible to ascertain the degree of civilization which 
 this kingdom of glens and mountains had attained ; but, 
 judging from the establishment of the College of Icolm- 
 kill, at a period when darkness prevailed in other parts of 
 Europe, a considerable portion of learning must be ad- 
 
 * Martin, in his Description of the Western Islands, printed in 
 1703, says of Icohnkill, " This monastery furnished bishops to 
 several dioceses of England and Scotland. One of these was Bishop 
 of Lindisfern, now Holy Island." Bede states, in his third Book, 
 that Oswald, King of Northumberland, took refuge from domestic 
 treason in the island of lona, where he was instructed in the 
 doctrines of Christianity, and learned the Gaelic language. He 
 returned home in 634, and founded the monastery of Lindisfern ; 
 and, on applying to lona, obtained a bishop, named Aidan, to 
 whom, as he knew Gaelic only, the Saxon King acted as interpreter, 
 when preaching to his subjects. Caxton, who wrote in 14S2, says, 
 "King Oswald axed the Scottes, and had it granted, that Bishop 
 Aidanus schold come and teche his people : Thence the Kinge gave 
 him a place of a Bishope's See in the island of Lyndcsfern ; then 
 men mighte see wonders ; for the Bishop preached in Scottishe (i.e. 
 in Gaelic, as the word was then understood by the English), and 
 the Kinge told forth in Englishe, to the people, what it was he said 
 or meent." Fol. 226. 
 
VESTIGES OF ARCHITECTURE. I9 
 
 mitted to have been diftused. Hence the feeUngs of even 
 Dr Johnson were powerfully awakened by the associations 
 naturally arising from the sight of this celebrated spot. 
 " We were now," says he, " treading that illustrious island, 
 which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, 
 whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the 
 benefit of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To 
 abstract the mind from all local emotion would be im- 
 possible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if 
 it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power 
 of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the 
 future, predominate over the present, advances us in the 
 dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and from my 
 friends, be such frigid philosophy, as would conduct us, 
 indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been 
 dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is 
 little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force 
 on the plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not 
 grow warm among the ruins of lona." 
 
 Such a seat of learning and piety could not fail to in- 
 fluence the manners of the people. Inverlochy, their 
 capital, maintained a considerable intercourse with France 
 and Spain.* Yet, of the progress made in the arts by the 
 Scots of that remote period, no specimens have descended 
 to our times except the remains of their edifices. The 
 Castle of Inverlochy, although it has been in ruins for 
 nearly five hundred years, is still so entire as to have fur- 
 nished a model for the present Castles of Inveraray and 
 Taymouth ; so far had our ancestors, at a ver}- early 
 period, advanced in the knowledge and practice of archi- 
 tecture, or rather so small has the advancement yet been, 
 
 * Hollineshed Chronicles. 
 
20 VESTIGES OF ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 that models are still taken from the works of " savage 
 clans and roving barbarians."* The underground foun- 
 dations round that part of Inverlochy which is still 
 standing, show that it was originally of great extent. 
 Dunstaunage Castle, which has been also in ruins for 
 many centuries, exhibits equal strength of walls, but not 
 the same regularity of plan. This may have been owing 
 to its situation, as it is built on a rock, to the edges and 
 incurvations of which the walls have been adapted. 
 Urquhart Castle, which has likewise stood in ruins for 
 many centuries, is one of the finest specimens of castle 
 building in the country. But it must be confessed that 
 Scotland in general, and particularly the Highlands, pos- 
 sesses no castles that can bear comparison with the 
 splendid baronial residences of the more wealthy nobility 
 of England and Wales. 
 
 In many parts of the Highlands, however, ruins and 
 foundations of places of strength, and of castles, are so 
 frequent, as to exhibit proofs of the existence of a popu- 
 
 * Modern architects of the first celebrity have not disdained to 
 imitate the ornamental and magnificent designs of the " dark ages," 
 when required to produce plans for public and private buildings of 
 more than usual elegance ; but seeing that the specimens they ex- 
 hibit in different parts of the country, are so inferior to the originals 
 they attempt to copy, perhaps the harsh epithets of ignorance and 
 barbarity, so often applied to those ages, might be somewhat soften- 
 ed. The men who designed and erected the cathedrals of Elgin 
 and Dunkeld, could not be so savagely ignorant as they have been 
 represented. They certainly were not ignorant of one elegant 
 branch of the fine arts, as is proved by the superb and magnificent 
 edifices they built and consecrated to Divine Worship ; an example 
 which might be imitated with advantage by their Presbyterian de- 
 scendants, of whom it has been said, that the *' Scotch build castles 
 and fine houses for themselves, and barns for the worship of God ! " 
 
ANCIENT POPULATION. 21 
 
 ktion more numerous than that of latter ages. The 
 marks and traces of the plough also evidently demonstrate 
 that cultivation was, at one period, more extended than 
 at present. Fields on the mountains, now bleak and 
 desolate, and covered only with heath and fern, exhibit 
 as distinct ridges of the plough as are to be seen on the 
 plains of Moray.* Woods and cultivation gave a genial 
 warmth to the climate, which planting and other improve- 
 ments would probably yet restore. As an instance of 
 these marks of the ancient population, I shall confine 
 my observations to one district. In a small peninsula, 
 situated between the rivers Tummel and Garry, extending 
 from Strowan, four miles west from Blair- Athole, to the 
 Port of Loch-Tummel, about ten miles in length, and four 
 miles in breadth, ending at the point of Invergarry, below 
 the Pass of Killiecrankie, there are so many foundations 
 
 * It has been said, in accounting for the existence of these marks 
 of more extended cultivation, that, in ancient times, the valleys 
 were thickly wooded, and much infested with wolves and other wild 
 animals ; and that the inhabitants were, in some measure, compelled 
 to cultivate the high grounds, which were more clear of woods and 
 wild beasts. But as wolves could not be such objects of terror to an 
 armed population, and as it is not probable men were so void of 
 common sense, however savage they might be, as to cultivate the 
 more barren and exposed parts of a country, and leave the warm 
 and sheltered untouched ; it may, with some confidence, be supposed, 
 that a stronger necessity than the dread of savage animals compelled 
 the inhabitants to cultivate, as high as the soil and climate would 
 produce any return for their labour. Being shut up in their moun- 
 tains by the hostility of their neighbours on the plains, from whom 
 no supply could be obtained except by force of arms, the number of 
 inhabitants required that every spot capable of cultivation should be 
 rendered as productive as possible : hence the higher parts were 
 necessarily cleared and cultivated, when the low grounds were found 
 insufficient. 
 
2 2 ANCIENT POPULATION. 
 
 of ancient habitations (and these of apparent note), as to 
 indicate a remarkably numerous population. They are 
 nineteen in number. One circular building, near the 
 house of Fincastle, is sixty-two feet in diameter ; the walls 
 are seven and a half feet thick, and a height of five feet is 
 still remaining. In the district of Foss there are four. 
 On the estate of Garth there are eight, some with walls 
 nine feet thick ; the stones in two of which are so weighty, 
 that they could scarcely have been raised to the walls 
 without the aid of machinery. In Glenlyon * there are 
 seven ; and, in a word, they are scattered all over the 
 country. Respecting these buildings, various opinions 
 are entertained ; but one thing is certain, that they must 
 have been erected at a great expense of labour, and that 
 a numerous people only would have required so many 
 buildings, either for shelter or defence. Tradition as- 
 signs them to the age of Ossian, and they are accordingly 
 denominated Chaistail na Fiann, "the Castles of the Fin- 
 gallians." The adjacent smaller buildings are pointed 
 out by names expressive of the purposes to which they 
 were appropriated. In Glenlyon, for instance, is shown 
 the kennel for Fingal's dogs, and the house for the 
 principal hunters. All this, to be sure, is tradition, and 
 will be received as such; but the traces of a numerous 
 population in former times, are nevertheless clear and 
 incontrovertible. 
 
 But, whatever might have been the population and 
 state of civilization of ancient Albion, the country was 
 destined to experience one of those revolutions which are 
 so frequent in human affairs. The extension of tlieir 
 
 * In ancient poetry, it is stated that the Fingallians had twelve 
 castles in Glenlyon, but the ruins of seven only are visible at this 
 <lay. 
 
INSTITUTION OF CHIEFS. 23 
 
 dominions occasioned the frequent absence of the kings 
 from the ancient seat of their government. At length 
 when, about the year 1066, the Court was removed by 
 Malcohii Ceannmor, never to return to the mountains, the 
 sepulchres, as well as the residence of the future kings of 
 Scotland, vrere henceforth destined to be in the south: 
 and Dunfermline became the royal cemetery instead of 
 Icolmkill, where so many kings, chiefs, bishops, eminent 
 ecclesiastics, and men of learning lie entombed. That 
 university, which had for ages been the fountain vvhence 
 religion and learning were diffused among the people, 
 was now deserted. The removal of the seat of authority 
 was speedily followed by the usual consequences. The 
 Highlanders were impoverished. Xor was this the only 
 evil that resulted from the transference of the seat of 
 government. The people, now beyond the reach of the 
 laws, became fierce and turbulent, revenging in person 
 those ^^Tongs for which the administrators of the laws 
 were too distant and too feeble to afford redress. Thence 
 arose the institution of chiefs, who naturally became the 
 judges and arbiters in the quarrels of their clansmen and 
 followers, and who, surrounded by men devoted to the 
 defence of their rights, their property, and their power, 
 established within their own territories a jurisdiction 
 almost wholly independent of their liege lord.* 
 
 * In 1057 Malcolm Ceannmor formed several thaneships through- 
 out the kingdom into lordships and earldoms ; those in the High- 
 lands were said to be Monteith, Lennox, Athole, Mar, Moray. Ross, 
 Caithness, Badenoch, and Sutherland. Many descendants of these 
 noble families still exist in the country ; but there is no representa- 
 tive of any in a direct line, except the present Countess of Suther- 
 land, whose title, the most ancient in the kingdom, will soon merge 
 in the superior title to which the son will succeed. It is a curious 
 circumstance, that, although there exists only one direct descendant 
 
24 INSTITUTION OF CHIEFS. 
 
 of the thanes who were promoted on the occasion above mentioned, 
 the families of many of those who remained as thanes, such as 
 Mackintosh, Campbell, Macdougal, Maclean, Cameron, Menzies, 
 Grant, etc., are to be traced in direct and unbroken male lineage, 
 down to the present day. The direct succession of the Lords of the 
 Isles ended in the fifteenth century ; yet there are many thousands of 
 their descendants, besides numerous descendants of several other 
 families of that early period, cadets and branches of which have 
 come down in lineal descent, although that of the chiefs has been 
 interrupted. 
 
SYSTEM OF CLANSHIP. 25 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 System of Clanship — Consequetices of this system — Effects 
 of the want of Laws on the Manners and Chaj-acter 
 of the People. 
 
 The division of the people into clans and tribes, under 
 separate chiefs, whose influence remained undiminished 
 till after the year 1 748, constitutes the most remarkable 
 circumstance in their political condition, and leads directly 
 to the origin of many of their peculiar sentiments, customs, 
 and institutions. The nature of the country, and the 
 motives which induced the Celts to make it their refuge, 
 almost necessarily prescribed the form of their institutions. 
 Unequal to contend with overwhelming numbers, who 
 drove them from the plains, and anxious to preserve 
 their independence, and their blood uncontaminated by 
 intermixture with strangers, they defended themselves in 
 those strongholds, which are, in every country, the sanctu- 
 aries of national liberty, and the refuge of those who 
 resist the oppression and domination of a more powerful 
 neighbour. Thus, in the absence of their monarchs, and 
 defended by their barrier of rocks, they did not always 
 submit to the authority of a distant government, which 
 could neither enforce obedience, nor afford protection. 
 The division of the country into so many straths, valleys, 
 and islands, separated from one another by mountains 
 or arms of the sea, gave rise, as a matter of necessity, to 
 various little societies ; and individuals of superior pro- 
 perty, courage, or talent, under whose banners they had 
 fought, or under whose protection they had settled. 
 
26 CONSANGUINITY. 
 
 naturally became their chiefs. Their secluded situation 
 rendered general intercourse difficult, while the impreg- 
 nable ramparts with which they were surrounded made 
 defence easy. 
 
 Every small society had arms sufficient for its own 
 protection, artisans skilful enough to furnish the rude 
 manufactures required within their own territory, pasture 
 for their cattle, wood for every purpose, moss and turf for 
 fuel, and space for their hunting excursions. As there 
 was nothing to tempt them to change their residence, to 
 court the visits of strangers, or to solicit the means of 
 general communication, every society became insulated. 
 The whole race was thus broken into many individual 
 masses, possessing a community of customs and character, 
 but placed under different jurisdictions. Thus every 
 district became a petty independent state. The govern- 
 ment of each community, or clan, was patriarchal,* a sort 
 of hereditary monarchy, founded on custom, and allowed 
 by general consent, rather than regulated by laws. Many 
 
 ■'■ The feudal system, which had obtained such general influence 
 over all the east and south of Europe, did not extend to the in- 
 accessible districts, where the remains of the Celts had taken 
 shelter. In Wales, in Ireland, in the western and middle borders 
 of Scotland, and in the Highlands, the patriarchal government was 
 universal. Opposed to this was the feudal system of their Saxon 
 invaders, who established it as far as their power extended. It was 
 long the policy of the Scottish legislature to oppose the feudal 
 government, and support the power exercised by the chief, jure 
 sanginnis, over the obedience and service of his clan, while the 
 power assumed by the feudal superior of his freehold was disre- 
 garded. In this manner the Duke of Gordon, feudal superior of 
 the lands and estates held by the Camerons, Macphersons, Mac- 
 donells of Keppoch, and others, had no vassalage or command over 
 these clans, who always followed the orders of their patriarchal 
 chiefs, Lochiel, Clunic, Keppoch, etc. 
 
COXSAXGUINITV. 27 
 
 members of each clan considered themselves, and actually 
 were, branches and descendants of the same family. The 
 central stem of this family was the chief. But the more 
 these connections of blood and friendship tended to 
 preserve internal harmony, the more readily the clans 
 broke out into violence on occasions of any external 
 injury or affront. The laws of the state affording no pro- 
 tection, clans and individuals, when oppressed or insulted, 
 were obliged to revenge, or seek for redress in their own 
 persons, and thence turbulence, aggressions, and reprisals 
 necessarily resulted. In this state of agitation, all know- 
 ledge of letters was lost, except among a few ; but a kind 
 of traditionary lore, scarcely less efficient, was preserved 
 by means of the Bards and Senachies, or the Elders of 
 Clans and Tribes. With very few laws, and no control- 
 ling power to enforce the execution of the few they had, 
 they presented the rare spectacle of a people so bene- 
 ficially influenced by the simple institutions and habits 
 which they had formed for themselves, that, with all the 
 defects consequent on such a state, they w^re prepared, 
 with a little cultivation, to become valuable members of 
 society. 
 
 In this insulated state, with a very limited admission 
 of strangers, intermarriages and consanguinity were the 
 natural consequence ; and many members of the clan 
 bore the same name with the chief.* In this manner a 
 
 * A supposition has been entertained, that many changed their 
 names, and assumed names different from that of the clan or family. 
 This was not frequent, and proceeded from a custom, (very neces- 
 sary where so many were of the same name), of adding a distinguish- 
 ing denomination to the Christian name ; and sometimes when a 
 man, from respect or gratitude, named his child after a friend, it 
 was continued to the descendants. But instances abound of the 
 
28 CONSANGUINITY. 
 
 kind and cordial intimacy, and a disposition towards 
 mutual support, were preserved, in a manner totally un- 
 
 wide extension of the same name and clan by lineal descent. Of 
 these the following is one : James Stewart, son of Alexander Stew- 
 art, Earl of Buchan and Badenoch, commonly called the Wolf of 
 Badenoch, second son of King Robert II., first of the Stewarts, is 
 said to have built the Castle of Garth, and settled there some time 
 after the year 1390. + There are now living in the district of 
 Athole, within its ancient boundary, 1937 persons of the name of 
 Stewart, descendants of this man, in the male line, besides numbers 
 in other parts of the kingdom. The descendants through the 
 female line being considerably more numerous, as few women leave 
 the country, in proportion to the number of men who enter the 
 army, and resort to different parts of the world, we have thus up- 
 wards of 4000 persons now living in one district, descended of this 
 individual. Facts of this nature are easily ascertained in the High- 
 lands, where descent from honourable ancestors is not forgotten or 
 neglected by the poorest individual. It may therefore be believed, 
 that, in former times, the bond of friendship was close and strong, 
 in societies where so much importance was attached to consan- 
 guinity. It has likewise been alleged, that the more ancient names 
 and people must have been removed by violence, or extirpated to 
 make room for the more recent clans. This opinion seems founded 
 on conjecture rather than fact. Such changes often occur from 
 natural causes. The name of Gunnison or Macconich was prevalent 
 in Athole in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries ; yet 
 not an individual of that name now remains. All died out without 
 violence or expulsion. In the same period there were twenty-four 
 small landed proprietors, (or wadsetters, as they were called), of 
 the name of MacCairbre in Breadalbane; but not a man of that name 
 
 + In the Gathedral of Dunkeld, there is a statue in armour of 
 this '* Wolf of Badenoch," or Alaster Mor Mac-in-Righ, " Alex- 
 ander the King's son," as he is called in the Highlands. The 
 statue seems to have been designed as part of a tomb, l)ut is now 
 greatly mutilated. The Earl of Buchan died in 1394. His de- 
 scendants, now resident in Athole, are so numerous, that if each sub- 
 scribed one shilling, this tomb and statue of their common ancestor 
 might be completely repaired and restored to its original state, and 
 would form an elegant and interesting ornament to the magnificent 
 ruin, in which it has lain upwards of four hundred years. 
 
CONSANGUINITY. 29 
 
 known in modern times. To all, the chief* stood in the 
 several relations of landlord, leader, and judge. He could 
 
 is now to be found, nor is there even a tradition of one of them 
 having ever been extirpated, or their lands taken from them by 
 force. All became extinct by natural causes. One of these 
 MacCairbres, probably their chief, possessed Finlairg Castle, after- 
 wards one of the principal seats of the family of Glenorchy. The 
 following communication, from Archibald Fletcher, Esq., advocate, 
 exhibits a more recent instance of the extinction of clans and names 
 without violence. ' About fifty years ago I visited my cousin, 
 Donald Fletcher of Bernice, who then lived at Baravourich in Glen- 
 orchy, the original country of the Fletchers, and who, in the figur- 
 ative language of the country, are said to be the first "that raised 
 smoke or boiled water " in that district. On the two farms of Bara- 
 vourich and Achalader, there were at that time eighty persons of 
 my own name and descent, but when I went there two years ago, 
 there was not a human being of my name remaining.' 
 
 In the former editions MacCairbre was by mistake spelt MacRabie. 
 Great antiquity is given by tradition to the MacCairbres ; they are 
 said to be descended from Cairbre Rua, frequently mentioned by 
 Ossian. Archibald Fletcher, Esq., advocate, is descended from the 
 MacCairbres in the female line, and in failure of the male line, may 
 be considered as their representative. 
 
 * It may be proper to mention, that many families of the same 
 descent had two names, one common to the whole clan, as Mac- 
 donald, Macleod, etc., the other to distinguish a branch, which last 
 was called the bun shine, or genealogical surname, taken from the 
 Christian name, or whatever designation marked the first man who 
 branched off from the original family. In this manner, Campbell of 
 Strachur is always called Macarstair or Macarthur, Campbell of 
 Asknish, Macivor, and a tribe of the Robertsons in Perthshire, 
 descendants from Strowan, are also called Clanivor ; a tribe de- 
 scended from Stewart of Garth are Clan Duilach, from their immedi- 
 ate ancestor, who was so denominated from his black eyes. Another 
 tribe of the same family are called Camachas, or Crookshanks, from 
 a bend or deformity in his leg, by which their ancestor was dis- 
 tinguished from others of his name. A class of the Stewarts of 
 Appin are called Combich ; and in this manner, through nearly all 
 
30 MILITARY STRENGTH OF THE CLANS. 
 
 call out the young men to attend him at the chase, or to 
 fight under his banners — a mandate which generally met 
 with ready obedience. 
 
 The zeal and courage which the Highlanders displayed 
 in the cause of the Stuart princes, particularly in 1 745, ex- 
 cited such alarm, and produced such extraordinary effects, 
 as to give an exaggerated idea of their numbers. The 
 peculiarity of their situation, and the sources of their 
 power, wdiich could no longer be despised, were minutely 
 examined, and a Memorial, * said to have been drawn up 
 by the Lord President Forbes of Culloden, was transmitted 
 to Government, detailing the force of every clan, the 
 tenures of every chieftain, and the amount of retainers 
 which he could bring into the field. This enumeration 
 proceeds on the supposition that the chieftain calculated 
 
 the clans, tribes, and families in the Highlands ; never, at \he same 
 time, forgetting the proper surname of their chief, or stem of their 
 family. Thus, all the Macarthurs of Strachur f are Campbells, as 
 are all the Macivors of Argyleshire ; while the Macivors of Athole 
 and Breadalbane are Robertsons, and the Duilach, Camachas, and 
 Combich, are Stewarts, and so sign their names, and are designated 
 in all writings, while in common conversation the />iPi s/oi/ic, or 
 genealogical surname, is their usual appellation. To a stranger, the 
 accuracy with which these genealogical connections were preserved 
 may appear ridiculous, but the people filled up many idle hours very 
 innocently with matters of this kind, never failing to bring forward 
 the best traits in the character of their relations. Few men disclaim 
 a relationship to persons of honour, worth, or high station. No 
 claims of this nature were allowed by the Highlanders to sleep ; and 
 it is to be wished their conduct would continue, as formerly, to be 
 influenced by the dread of disgracing the honourable race whose 
 blood they believed filled their veins. 
 
 t There is a very ancient clan of this name, quite distinct from 
 the branch of the Campbells. The Chiefs estate lay on the side of 
 Loch-owe in Argyleshire. 
 
 * See Appendix, C. 
 
MILITARY STRENGTH OF THE CLANS. 31 
 
 Upon the military sen-ices of the youthful, the most hard}-, 
 and the bravest of his followers, omitting those who were 
 infirm from age, those who, from tender years, or natural 
 inability, were unable to carry arms, and those whom it 
 was found necessar}^ to leave at home, for conducting the 
 business of the country. Besides the clans enumerated 
 in this curious document, there were a number of in- 
 dependent gentlemen, who had many followers, as also 
 several small clans, or " tribes " as they are commonly 
 called, which have been omitted in the Lord President's 
 report. 
 
 After treating of the general character of the High- 
 landers, the Memorial particularizes each clan, and sub- 
 joins statements of their respective forces, as under.'" 
 
 Duke of Argyll . . ... ... ... ... 3000 
 
 Breadalbane ... ... ... ... ... 1000 
 
 Lochnell and other cheftains of the Campbells ... loco 
 
 Macleans ... ... ... ... ... ... 500 
 
 Maclachlans ... ... ... ... ... 200 
 
 Stewart of Appin .. ... ... ... ... 300 
 
 Macdougals ... ... ... ... ... ... 200 
 
 Stewart of Grandtully ... ... ... ... 300 
 
 Clan Gregor ... ... ... ... ... 700 
 
 Duke of Athole 3000 
 
 Farquharsons .. ... ... ... ... 500 
 
 Grant of Gordon .. ... ... ... ... 300 
 
 Grant of Grant ... ... ... ... ... 850 
 
 Mackintosh 800 
 
 Macphersons ... .. .. ... ... 4CX) 
 
 Frasers ... ... ... ... ... ... 900 
 
 Grant of Glenmorriston ... ... ... ... 150 
 
 Chisholms ... ... ... ... ... ... 200 
 
 Duke of Perth 300 
 
 Seaforth looo 
 
32 MILITARY STRENGTH OF THE CLANS. 
 
 In the enumeration below, the reader will find ex- 
 hibited in one view the power by which this mixture of 
 patriarchal and feudal government was supported. When 
 the kindred and followers of the chief saw him thus sur- 
 rounded by a body so numerous, faithful, and brave, they 
 
 Cromarty, Scatwell, Gairloch, and other chieftains 
 
 of the Mackenzies ... ... ... ... 1500 
 
 Menzies 300 
 
 Munros ... ... ... ... ... ... 300 
 
 Rosses ... ... .'. ... ... ... 500 
 
 Sutherlands 2000 
 
 Mackays 800 
 
 Sinclairs ... ... ... ... ... ... iioo 
 
 Macdonald of Sleat ... ... ... ... 700 
 
 Clanranald ... ... ... ... 700 
 
 Glengarry ... ... ... ... 500 
 
 Keppoch ... ... ... ... 300 
 
 Glencoe 130 
 
 Robertsons ... ... ... ... ... ... 200 
 
 Camerons ... ... ... ... ... ... Soo 
 
 Mackinnons ... ... ... ... ... ... 200 
 
 Macleods ... ... ... ... ... ... 700 
 
 The Duke of Montrose, Earls of Bute and Moray, 
 Macfarlanes, Colquhouns, Macneils of Barra, 
 
 Macnabs, Macnaughtans, Lamonts, etc., etc. 5600 
 
 11,930 
 
 In this statement the President has not included his own family 
 of Culloden, and his immediate neighbours Rose of Kilravock, and 
 Campbell of Calder ; nor has he noticed Bannatyne of Kaimes, the 
 Macallasters, Macquarries, and many other families and names. 
 As an instance of uninterrupted lineal descent, through a series of 
 turbulent ages, that of the family of Kilravock is remarkable. 
 Colonel Hugh Rose is the twenty-sixth Laird, and the nineteenth 
 of the name of Hugh in regular succession, since the estate came 
 into the possession of his family. 
 
SUCCESSION OF THE CHIEFS. 35 
 
 could conceive no power superior to his ; * and how far 
 soever they looked back into the history of their tribe, 
 they found his progenitors at their head. Their tales, 
 traditions, and songs continually referred to the exploits 
 or transactions of the same line of kindred and friends, 
 living under the same line of chiefs; and the transmission 
 of command and obedience, from one generation to another, 
 thus became, in the eye of a Highlander, as natural as the 
 transmission of blood, or the regular laws of descent. 
 The long unbroken line of chiefs t is as great a proof of 
 
 * When the first Marquis of Huntly waited upon Kins; James 
 VI. in Edinburgh, on being created Marquis, in the year 1590, he 
 stood in the presence chamber with his head covered ; and on being 
 reminded of his seeming want of respect, he humbly asked pardon, 
 assigning as an excuse, that as he had just come from a countr}- 
 where all took off their bonnets to him, he had quite forgotten what 
 he owed to his present situation. 
 
 t Twenty-one Highland chiefs fought under Robert Bruce at 
 Bannockburn. The number of their direct descendants now in 
 existence, and in possession of their paternal estates, is remarkable. 
 The chiefs at Bannockburn were, Stewart, Macdonald, Mackay, 
 Mackintosh, Macpherson, Cameron, Sinclair, Drummond, Camp- 
 bell, Menzies, Maclean, Sutherland, Robertson, Grant, Fraser, 
 Macfarlane, Ross, Macgregor, Munro, Mackenzie, and Macqiiarrie. 
 Cumming, Macdougall of Lorn, Macnab, and a few others, were 
 also present, but unfortunately in opposition to Bruce. In conse- 
 quence of the distinguished conduct of the chief of the Drummonds 
 in this battle, the King added the calthropes to his armorial bear- 
 ings, and gave him an extensive grant of lands in Perthshire. It is 
 said to have been by Sir Malcolm Drummond's recommendation 
 that the calthropes, which proved so destructive to the English 
 cavaliy, were made use of on that day. 
 
 When we consider the state of turbulence and misrule which 
 prevailed in the Highlands, an unbroken succession, for five hundred 
 years, of so great a proportion of the chief agitators and leaders, is 
 the more remarkable, as there has been a greater change of property 
 
 D 
 
34 SUCCESSION OF THE CHIEFS. 
 
 the general mildness of their sway, as of the fidelity of 
 their followers ; for the independent spirit displayed on 
 various occasions by the people, proves that they would 
 not have brooked oppression, where they looked for kind- 
 ness and protection. " This power of the chiefs is not 
 supported by interest, as they are landlords, but by con- 
 sanguinity, as Hneally descended from the old patriarchs 
 or fathers of their families ; for they hold the same author- 
 ity when they have lost their estates, as may appear from 
 several instances, and particularly that of one who com- 
 mands his clan, though at the same time they maintain 
 him, having nothing left of his own."* 
 
 This was the late Lord Lovat, who, with all his good 
 and bad quaUties, possessed, in a singular degree, the art 
 of securing the love and obedience of his clan. Though 
 attainted and outlawed, and though his estate was for- 
 feited, and given to Mackenzie of Fraserdale, as next 
 heir in the female line, his mother being eldest daughter 
 of a former Lord Lovat ; yet such was the fidelity of the 
 clan to their real chief, that they flocked to his standard 
 at the first summons, quitting his rich rival, who, being 
 possessed of the estate, had the power of rewarding his 
 friends and supporters. The individuals might change, 
 but the ties that bound together one, were drawn more 
 closely, though by insensible degrees, around the suc- 
 ceeding ; and thus each family, in all its various succes- 
 sions, retained something like the same sort of relation 
 to the parent stem, which the renewed leaves of a tree 
 
 within the last forty years of tranquillity, abundance, and wealth, 
 than in the preceding two hundred years of feuds, rapine, and com- 
 parative poverty. 
 
 * Letters from an Officer of Engineers to his friend in London. 
 
CONSEQUENCES OF THIS SYSTEM. 35 
 
 in spring preserve, in point of relative position, to those 
 which dropped off in the preceding autumn.* 
 
 Many important consequences, regarding the char- 
 acter of the Highlanders, resulted from this division of 
 the people into small tribes, and from this establishment 
 of patriarchal government. The authority of the king 
 was rendered feeble and inefftcient. His mandates could 
 
 * The attachment and friendship of kindred, families, and clans, 
 were confirmed by many ties. It has been a uniform practice in 
 the families of the Campbells of Melford, Duntroon, and DmistafF- 
 nage, that, when the head of either family died, the chief mourners 
 should be the two other lairds, one of whom supporting the head to 
 the grave, while the other walked before the corpse. In this man- 
 ner friendship took the place of the nearest consanguinity ; for even 
 the eldest sons of the deceased were not permitted to interfere with 
 this arrangement. The first progenitors of these families were three 
 sons of the family of Argyll, who took this method of preserving the 
 friendship, and securing the support of their posterity to one another. 
 
 In a manner something similar the family of Breadalbane had 
 their bonds of union and friendship, simple in themselves, but 
 sufficient to secure the support of those whom they were intended to 
 unite. The motto of the armorial bearings of the family is " Follow 
 me." This significant call was assumed by Sir Colin Campbell, 
 Laird of Glenorchy, who was a Knight Templar of Rhodes, and is 
 still known in the Highlands by the designation of Cailean Dubh na 
 Roidh, "Black Colin of Rhodes." Several cadets of the family 
 assumed mottos analogous to that of this chivalrous knight, and 
 when the chief called " Follow me," he found a ready compliance 
 from Campbell of Glenfalloch, a son of Glenorchy, who says, 
 **Thus far," that is, to his heart's blood, the crest being a dagger 
 piercing a heart; — from Achlyne, who says, "With heart and 
 hand ;" — from Achallader, who says, " With courage ; " — and from 
 Barcaldine, who says, Paratus sum : Glenlyon, more cautious, says, 
 Qtue recta seqiior. A knight and baron, neighbours but not fol- 
 lowers, Menzies of Menzies, and Flemyng of Moness, in token of 
 friendship say, "Will God I shall," and "The deed will show." 
 An ancestor of mine, also a neighbour, says, " Beware." 
 
36 CONSEQUENCES OF THIS SYSTEM. 
 
 neither arrest the depredations of one clan against an- 
 other, nor allay their mutual hostilities. Delinquents 
 could not, with impunity, be pursued into the bosom of 
 a clan which protected them, nor could his judges ad- 
 minister the laws, in opposition to their interests or their 
 will. Sometimes he strengthened his arm, by fomenting 
 animosities among them, and by entering occasionally 
 into the interest of one, in order to weaken another.* 
 Many instances of this species of policy occur in Scottish 
 history, which, for a long period, was unhappily a mere 
 record of internal violence. The consequence of this 
 absence of general laws was an almost perpetual system 
 of aggression, warfare, depiedation, and contention. 
 These Httle sovereignties touched at so many points, 
 yet were so independent of one another; they approached 
 so nearly, in many respects, yet were, in others, so dis- 
 tant; there were so many opportunities of encroach- 
 ment on the one hand, and so little of a disposition to 
 submit to it on the other ; and the quarrel of one indi- 
 vidual of the tribe so naturally involved tlie rest, that 
 there was scarcely ever a profound peace, or perfect 
 cordiality between them. Among their chiefs the most 
 deadly feuds frequently arose from opposing interests, or 
 from wounded pride. These feuds were warmly espoused 
 by the whole clan, and were often transmitted, with 
 aggravated animosity, from generation to generation. 
 
 It would be curious to trace all the negotiations, 
 treaties, and bonds of amity (or Manrent^ as they are 
 called), with which opposing clans strengthened them- 
 selves, and their coalitions with friendly neighbours, against 
 the attacks and encroachments of their enemies or rivals, 
 
 * This was acting on the old maxim, " Divide cl impcra" 
 
FEUDS — ASSOCIATIONS. 37 
 
 or to preserve the balance of power.* By these bonds, t 
 they pledged themselves to assist each other ; but, however 
 general their internal insurrections and disputes might be, 
 however extended their cause of quarrelwith rivals or neigh- 
 bours, they invariably bound themselves to be loyal and 
 true to the king : "always, excepting my duty to our Lord 
 the King, and to our kindred and friends," w^as a special 
 
 * It is rather a humiliating consideration for the votaries of am- 
 bition, who have made war and politics their sole study, to find, 
 from the history of past ages, that no less art, sagacity, address, and 
 courage, have been displayed in the petty contest of illiterate moun- 
 taineers, than in their most refined schemes of policy and their most 
 brilliant feats of arms. That they should be able, by intrigue and 
 dexterity, to attach new allies, and detach hostile tribes from their 
 confederates, is a still more mortifying proof how nearly the un- 
 assisted powers of natural talent approach to the practices of the 
 most profound politicians. 
 
 + As a curious document of this nature, I may mention a bond 
 of amity and mutual defence entered into by a number of gentlemen 
 of the name of Stewart in Athole, Monteith, and Appin, to which 
 each affixed his seal and signature, binding himself to support the 
 others against all attacks and encroachments, especially from the 
 Marquis of Argyll, who had sided with the Covenanters. This 
 bond is dated at Burn of Keltney, 24th June 1654. The long con- 
 , tinued feuds between the Argyle and Atholem.en, which were latterly 
 much embittered by political differences, were the cause of many 
 skirmishes and battles. The last of these was a kind of drawn 
 battle, in the reign of Charles II,, each party retiring different ways. 
 When the Atholemen heard that the Argylemen were on their march 
 to attack them, they immediately flew to arms, and, moving forward, 
 encountered their foes in Breadalbane, near the east end of Loch-Tay. 
 The conflict was most desperate. The dead were carried to a con- 
 siderable distance and buried in a small knoll, now included in the 
 parks of Taymouth, where their bones were found in great numbers 
 in 18 16, when Lord Breadalbane cut down a corner of this knoll in 
 the formation of a road. 
 
38 FEUDS — ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 clause.* In these treaties of mutual support and protec- 
 tion were included smaller clans, unable to defend them- 
 selves, and such families or clans as had lost their chiefs. 
 Those of the name of Stewart, for instance, whose estates 
 lay in the district of Athole, and whose chiefs by birth, 
 being at one period Kings of Scotland, and afterwards 
 of Great Britain, where latterly in exile, ranged themselves 
 under the family of Athole, though they were themselves 
 sufficiently numerous to raise 1000 fighting men. When 
 such unions took place, the smaller clans followed the 
 fortunes, engaged in the quarrels, and fought under the 
 chiefs of the greater,t but their ranks were separately 
 marshalled, and led by their own subordinate chieftains 
 and lairds, who owned submission only when necessary, 
 for the success of combined operations. From these, 
 and other causes, the Highlands were, for ages, as constant 
 a theatre of petty warfare, as Europe has been of im- 
 
 * Of these bonds of Manrent, the instances are too many to be 
 enumerated. One in possession of Lord Bannatyne, is a bond be- 
 tween his ancestor the Laird of Karnes, chief of the Bannatynes or 
 MacCamelyne, as they are called in Gaelic, and Sir John Stewart, 
 ancestor to the Marquis of Bute, dated 20th May 1547, in which 
 they engage to stand by and support each other, against all persons 
 except the King and the Earl of Argyll ; this latter reservation being 
 to enable the chief of the Bannatynes to fulfil a bond of Manrent, he 
 had previously come under to Argyll. This latter bond is dated 
 14th April 1538. 
 
 Nor were these engagements confined to chiefs and heads of 
 families : humbler individuals thus bound themselves ; but a par- 
 ticular exception never to be forgotten or infringed, was their fidelity 
 to the chief of their own blood and family. 
 
 t In this manner the Macraes followed the Earl of Seaforth, the 
 Gunns and Mathesons the Earls of Sutherland, the MacColls, the 
 Stewarts of Appin, and the Macgillivrays and Macbeans, the Laird 
 of Mackintosh, etc., etc. 
 
FEUDS. 39 
 
 portant struggles. The smaller the society, and the more 
 closely connected together, the more keenly did it feel 
 an injury, or resent an insult offered by a rival tribe. A 
 haughty or contemptuous expression uttered against a 
 chief, was considered by all his followers, in the light of a 
 personal affront;* and the driving away the cattle of 
 one clansman, was looked upon as an act of aggression 
 against the whole. The rage for vengeance, and the 
 desire of reprisals, spread throughout the little community, 
 like the violence of an insult offered to an individual, 
 heightened by the sympathy of numbers. Submission to 
 insult would have been present disgrace, and would have 
 invited future aggression. Immediate hostility was there- 
 fore the result, and the gathering word of the clan found 
 an echo in every breast, t 
 
 If no immediate opportunity of obtaining complete 
 satisfaction occurred ; if the mjured party was too weak 
 to repel attack, and to vindicate their honour in the field, 
 or to demand compensation for their property, still the 
 hostile act was not forgotten, nor the resolution of aveng- 
 ing it abandoned. Every artifice by which cunning could 
 compensate the want of strength was practised ; alliances 
 were courted, and favourable opportunities watched. 
 
 * " When a quarrel begins in words between two Highlanders of 
 different clans, it is esteemed the very height of malice and rancour, 
 and the greatest of all provocations, to reproach one another with the 
 vices or personal defects of their chiefs, or that of the particular 
 branch whence they sprung ; and, in a third degree, to reproach the 
 whole clan or name, whom they will assist, right or wrong, against 
 those of any other tribe with which they are at variance, to whom 
 their enmity, like that of exasperated brothers, is most outrageous." — 
 Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland. 
 
 t See Appendix, D. 
 
40 FEUDS. 
 
 Even an appearance of conciliation was assumed, to 
 cover the darkest purposes of hatred ; and as revenge is 
 embittered in all countries where the laws are ill executed, 
 and where the hand of the individual must vindicate 
 those rights which pubHc justice does not protect, so this 
 feeling was cherished and honoured when directed against 
 rival tribes.* 
 
 To such a pitch were those feelings carried, that there 
 are instances, both in tradition and on record, in which 
 these feuds led to the most sanguinary conflicts, and 
 ended in the extermination of one of the adverse parties, t 
 
 The spirit of opposition and rivalry between the clans 
 perpetuated a system of hostility, encouraged the cultiva- 
 tion of the military at the expense of the social virtues, and 
 perverted their ideas both of law and morality. Revenge 
 was accounted a duty, the destruction of a neighbour a 
 meritorious exploit, and rapine an honourable occupa- 
 tion. Their love of distinction, and a conscious reliance 
 on their own courage, when under the direction of these 
 perverted notions, only tended to make their feuds more 
 implacable, their condition more agitated, and their de- 
 predations more rapacious and desolating. Superstition 
 
 * In the present enlightened times, were the laws unable to 
 afford protection, and were individuals, or collective bodies, forced 
 to arm in order to redress their own wrongs, — would murder, 
 turbulance, and spoliation of property, be less prevalent than they 
 were in the Highlands when unprotected by the general laws of the 
 realm ? Were the return of such scenes of license and rapine a 
 ])robable occurrence, I fear much the warmest advocate of modern 
 civilization would hardly venture to anticipate, that they would be 
 blended with those frequent and softening traits of honourable feel- 
 ing which distinguished the inroads of the wild mountaineers. 
 
 + See Appendix, E. 
 
MODE OF SUPPORTING WARFARE. 41 
 
 added its influence in exasperating animosities, by teach- 
 ing the clansmen, that, to revenge the death of a relation 
 or friend, was a sacrifice agreeable to his manes ; thus 
 engaging on the side of implacable hatred, and ven- 
 geance, the most amiable and domestic of all our feel- 
 ings, — reverence for the memory of the dead, and affec- 
 tion for the virtues of the living.* 
 
 As the general riches of the country consisted in 
 flocks and herds, the usual mode of commencing attacks, 
 or of making reprisals, was by an incursion to carry off the 
 cattle of the hostile clan. A predatory expedition was the 
 general declaration of enmity ; and a command given by 
 the chief to clear the pastures of the enemy, constituted 
 the usual letters of marque. Such inroads were frequently 
 directed to the Lowlands, where the booty was richest, 
 
 * Another custom contributed to perpetuate this spirit of lawless 
 revenge. Martin, who studied, and understood the character and 
 manners of the Highlanders, says, " Every heir or young chieftain 
 of a tribe was obliged in honour to give a specimen of his valour 
 before he was owned or declared governor or leader of his people, 
 who obeyed and followed him on all occasions. This chieftain was 
 usually attended with a retinue of young men, who had not before 
 given any proof of their valour, and were ambitious of such an 
 opportunity to signalize themselves. It was usual for the chief to 
 make a desperate incursion upon some neighbour or other, that they 
 were in feud with, and they were obliged to bring, by open force, 
 the cattle they found in the land they attacked, or to die in the 
 attempt. After the performance of this achievement, the young 
 chieftain was ever after reputed valiant, and worthy of government, 
 and such as were of his retinue acquired the like reputation. This 
 custom being reciprocally used among them, was not reputed rob- 
 bery ; for the damage which one tribe sustained by the inauguration 
 of the chieftain of another was repaired when their chieftain came in 
 his turn to make his specimen ; but I have not heard of an instance 
 of this practice for these sixty years since." — Martin's Description of 
 the Western Islatids. London, printed 1703. 
 
42 MODE OF SUPPORTING WARFARE. 
 
 and where less vigilance was exercised in protecting it. 
 Regarding every Lowlander as an alien, and his cattle as 
 fair spoil of war, they considered no law for his protection 
 as binding. The Lowlanders, on the other hand, regarded 
 their neighbours of the mountains as a lawless banditti, 
 whom it was dangerous to pursue to their fastnesses, in 
 order to recover their property, or to punish aggressions. 
 Yet, except against the Lowlanders, or a hostile clan, 
 these freebooters maintained, in general, the strictest 
 honesty towards one another, and inspired confidence 
 in their integrity. In proof of this, it may be mentioned, 
 that instances of theft from dwelling-houses scarcely ever 
 occurred, and highway robbery was totally unknown, 
 except in one case so recent as the year 1770, when a 
 man of education, and of respectable family, but of 
 abandoned character, formed and headed a gang of 
 robbers.* In the interior of their own society, all prO- 
 
 * His name was Mackintosh. He was a man of education, and 
 knowledge of the world, who disgraced the respectable family from 
 which he was descended, and the community to which he belonged. 
 He was bred in a school such as the Highlands had rarely witnessed. 
 His father, who, by a base stratagem, had usurped possession of an 
 estate to which he had no right, lived, after the death of his wife, in 
 a kind of seraglio, despised and shunned by the neighbouring gentry, 
 though his abilities were good, and his manners prepossessing. He 
 was the Colonel Charteris of his district, with this honourable dis- 
 tinction in favour of the Highlanders, that he was shunned as much 
 as the other was countenanced. This example accounts too well for 
 the bold profligacy of his heir, who excelled in all personal accom- 
 plishments, possessed engaging and elegant manners, and was 
 remarkably handsome. The last exploit of this man was an attempt 
 to rob Sir Hector Munro on his journey to the North, after his return 
 from India in 1770. Mackintosh escaped to America, and afterwards 
 joined Washington's army. One of his accomplices was taken and 
 executed at Inverness in 1773. 
 
MODE OF SUPPORTING WARFARE. 43 
 
 perty ^yas safe, without the usual security of bolts, bars, 
 and locks.* An open barn, or shed, was the common 
 summer receptacle of their clothes, cheese, and everything 
 that required air; and although iron bars and gates were 
 necessary to protect the houses and castle of the chiefs 
 and lairds from hostile inroads, when at feud, no security 
 
 *■ A late scientific tourist gives an unintentional testimony to the 
 probity and honesty of the people towards one another. Noticing 
 the wretched dwellings of the inhabitants of St Kilda, with an interior 
 dark and smoky, he adds, ' ' Each house has a door with a lock and 
 key, a luxury quite unkiiozun in other parts of the Highlands.'^ It 
 were well that this luxury should long continue unknown, and that 
 the people should remain ignorant of the necessity of securing their 
 houses. If the progress of civilization, as the change of manners is 
 called, compel the Highlanders to lock their doors against nightly 
 depredators, it may create a question, whether ignorance and integrity, 
 or knowledge and knavery, be preferable ; o\ whether people can 
 indeed be called ignorant, who are attentive to their religious duties, — 
 who exercise the moral virtues of integrity and filial reverence, — who 
 are loyal to their king, brave and honourable in the field, and equally 
 firm in opposing an enemy and in supporting a friend. If these 
 traits of character are exhibited by a people called ignorant and 
 uncivilized, the terms may have perhaps been misapplied. On this 
 subject Martin says of the Highlanders of the seventeenth century, 
 "I am not ignorant that foreigners have been tempted, from the 
 sight of so many wild hills, to imagine that the inhabitants, as well 
 as the places of their residence, are equally barbarous, and to this 
 opinion their habits as well as their language has contributed. The 
 like is supposed by many that live in the south of Scotland ; but the 
 lion is not so fierce as he is painted, neither are the people here so 
 barbarous as people imagine. The inhabitants have humanity, use 
 strangers hospitably and charitably. I could bring several instances 
 of barbarity and theft by stranger seamen in the Isles, hit there is -not 
 one instance of any injury offered by the islanders to any seaman or 
 stranger. For the humanity and hospitable temper of the islanders 
 to sailors I shall only give two instances. " + 
 
 + See Appendix F. 
 
44 CREACHS. 
 
 was required in time of peace, and while the castle gates 
 were open the dwellings of the people had no safeguard.* 
 But on the other hand, open depredations were carried on 
 with systematic order, and they saw no greater moral turpi- 
 tude in levying a creach^\ heading a foray, or in "lifting" 
 
 * My father, still adhering to old customs, does not lock his doors 
 to this day. I know not how long this custom may with safety be 
 continued : recent symptoms of a deplorable change in morals will 
 undoubtedly compel people to guard their property with more care. 
 It will then be no longer, as I have known it, that gentlemen have 
 been half their lives in the commission of the peace, without having 
 occasion to act against a criminal, unless in issuing warrants to recover 
 the fines of Excise Courts, or on account of assaults on Excise officers, 
 and accidental frays. Clothes and linens will no longer be seen dry- 
 ing and bleaching in all parts of the country, and at all hours, with- 
 out guard or protection ; nor open sheds hung round with all the 
 Sunday's apparel of tffe lads and lasses. The rude Highlanders are 
 undergoing a process of civilization by new manners, new morals, and 
 new religion, the progress of which is at once rapid and deplorable. 
 An inquiry into the cause of this loss of principle and morals in an 
 age when so much is done to enlighten and educate, would certainly 
 be extremely interesting. 
 
 + Creach is a very appropriate term, and means, to impoverish. 
 If there was much resistance in these forays, and if lives were lost, 
 great destruction frequently ensued in revenge for the loss sustained; 
 but in common incursions, either against the Lowlanders, or rival 
 tribes, personal hostilities were avoided except in retaliation of some 
 previous death or insult. The creachs of the Highlanders, though 
 sufficiently calamitous, were trifling when compared with the raids 
 or forays on the borders of England and Scotland. The following 
 account of the devastation committed by the English upon the 
 Scotch, in the year 1544, will serve as a specimen of the miseries 
 to which the border countries were exposed. The sum-total of mis- 
 chief done in diffisrent forays, from the 2nd of July to the 17th of 
 November of that year, is thus computed: — "Towns, towers, 
 steads, parish churches, castle houses, cast down and burnt, 192 ; 
 Scots slain, 403; prisoners taken, 816; nolts (z,<r., horned cattle), 
 
CREACHS. 45 
 
 the cattle which "cropped the grass of an enemy," than we 
 now discover in the reprisals and exploits of our men of 
 war and privateers, or in the killing of deer and game, 
 the latter of which subjects the offenders to punishment, 
 if detected, while no shame or disgrace attaches to the 
 deed, whether discovered or not. 
 
 In a country in which the ablest and most active of 
 the people despised the labour necessary to raise their sub- 
 sistence from the soil, and in which the use of arms was 
 thought the most honourable occupation, every excuse 
 was eagerly seized for commencing hostilities. If over- 
 taken in their depredations, the plunderers were generally 
 prepared for resistance, and for ennobling an act of 
 robbery by the intrepidity of their defence. Such an 
 event, however, was rather avoided than courted ; and the 
 rapidity of their retreat, joined to the acuteness of their 
 vision, formed generally their best security, as well as one 
 of their readiest means for recovering their cattle. It is 
 said that habit had rendered their sight so acute that, 
 where a common observer could perceive nothing, they 
 could trace the cattle, by the yielding of the heath over 
 which they had passed. If cattle were thus traced to a 
 man's property, without any marks of their having pro- 
 ceeded beyond his boundary, he was held responsible, and 
 
 taken, 10,386; sheep, 12,498; nags and geldings, 1296; goats, 
 200; bolls of corn, S50 ; insight gear (i.e., household furniture), 
 not reckoned." In another inroad by the Earl of Hertford, in the 
 year 1545, he burnt, rased, and destroyed in the counties of Berwick 
 and Roxburgh, " Monasteries and friars' houses, 7 ; castles, towers, 
 and piles, 16; market towns, 5; villages, 243 ; milns, 13; hospitals, 
 3. All these were cast down and burnt." As the Scots were equally 
 ready and skilful in this irregular warfare, we have many similar 
 instances of the damage done in their wasteful and destructive raids 
 or inroads into England. 
 
46 KEARNACHS. 
 
 an immediate quarrel ensued, unless he agreed to make 
 ample restitution, or compensation for the loss. 
 
 Besides those persons who committed occasional spoli. 
 ations, which they did not regard as dishonourable, and 
 which they exercised at times as the means of weakening 
 or punishing their enemies, there was a peculiar class, 
 called Kearnachs. This term, originally applied to the 
 character of soldiers, was equivalent to the catherons of 
 the Lowlands, the kernes of the English, and the catervae 
 of the Romans, — denominations, doubtless, of the same 
 import.* In their best days, the kearnachs were a select 
 
 * It has been suggested by a learned author, that the Lake, cele- 
 brated in the Poem of the " Lady of the Lake," and known by the 
 name of Loch Katrine, derives its name from the word above men- 
 tioned, and is the Loch of Kearnachs, or Catherons. Some of these 
 kearnachs died in my remembrance. They had completely abandoned 
 their old habits, and lived a quiet domestic life, but retained much of 
 the chivalrous spirit of their youth, and were respected in the country. 
 One man was considered an exception to this general description, as 
 it was supposed that he was not altogether convinced of the turpitude 
 of cattle-lifting. However, as he had the character of being a brave 
 soldier, these suspicions against his moral opinions were less noticed. 
 His name was Robert Robertson, but he was called in the country 
 Roh Bane. He was very old when I knew him, but he had not lost 
 the fire and animation of earlier years. In autumn 1746, a party, 
 consisting of a corporal and eight soldiers, marching north to Inver- 
 ness, after passing Tummel Bridge, halted on the road-side, and 
 placed their arms against a large stone some yards behind them. 
 Robert Bane observed the soldiers, and the manner in which they 
 disposed of their arms. This, as he said, was a good opportunity to 
 make a dash at his old friends the Saighdcaran dearg, or red coat 
 soldiers, whom he had met at (jladsmuir, Falkirk, and Culloden. 
 None of his neighbours were at home to assist him ; but he sallied 
 out by himself, armed with his gun, pistols, and broadsword, and, 
 proceeding with great caution, got close to the party undiscovered, 
 when he made a sudden spring, and placed himself between the 
 
BLACK MAIL. 47 
 
 band, and were employed in all enterprises where un- 
 common danger was to be encountered, and more than 
 common honour to be acquired. Latterly, however, their 
 employments were less laudable, and consisted in levying 
 contributions on their Lowland neighbours, or in making 
 them pay tribute, or Black Mail* for protection. The 
 
 soldiers and their arms. Brandishing his sword in one hand, and 
 pointing his gun with the other, he called out to them in broken 
 English, to surrender instantly, or he would call his party, who were 
 in the wood behind, and would kill them all. The soldiers were so 
 taken by surprise, that they permitted the kearnach to carry ofif their 
 arms for the purpose of delivering them, as he said, to his companions 
 in the wood. He quickly returned, however, and desiring the soldiers 
 to follow him quietly, else those in the woods would be out, he con- 
 ducted them to Tummel-Bridge inn, where he left them, and repair- 
 ing to the wood, took possession of the arms as fair spoil of war. The 
 soldiers soon discovered the truth, and hurried back to recover their 
 arms, and get hold of the man who, by his address and courage, had 
 thus disgraced them ; but the kearnach had taken care to place him- 
 self and his prize out of danger. When the soldiers reached Inver- 
 ness, they were tried and punished for the loss of their arms. In the 
 course of the following year, Bane went to Inverness, not expecting 
 that he would be recognised; but he was mistaken. The day he 
 arrived he met one of the soldiers who knew him, and instantly 
 laying hold of him, called for assistance, secured, and sent him to 
 jail. While he lay there, three men who were confined in the same 
 room, broke through the prison wall and made their escape. He 
 refused to accompany them, saying that he took nothing from his 
 prisoners but their arms, which he considered as no crime, and, 
 therefore, had no occasion to fear or to escape from punishment. The 
 circumstance coming to the knowledge of his Clansman, Mr Robert- 
 son of Inches, who lived in the neighbourhood, he made so favour- 
 able a representation of his case, that the kearnach was liberated 
 without trial, and allowed to return home as a reward for his conduct 
 in not availing himself of such an opportunity of escaping the intended 
 punishment, which in those days was sometimes very summary. 
 
 * See Appendix, G. 
 
48 HOSTILE EXPEDITIONS. 
 
 sons of the tacksmen, or second order of gentry, fre- 
 quently joined these parties, and considered their exploits 
 as good training in the manly exercises proper for a 
 soldier. 
 
 The Highlanders of the counties of Perth, Stirling, 
 and Dunbarton, inhabiting chiefly a border country, had 
 the most frequent encounters with their southern neigh- 
 bours, and also skirmishes with the Lochaber, Badenoch, 
 and northern kearnachs, whom on their return from their 
 expeditions to the south, they sometimes attacked, with 
 an intention of stripping them of their booty, either on their 
 own account, or for the purpose of restoring it to the 
 owners. 
 
 The borderers being thus placed in the centre of agita- 
 tion, and having arms always ready, were prepared to turn 
 out whenever their services might be required. The clan 
 Farquharson, and the Highlanders of Braemar, placed in 
 the same circumstances with regards to the Lowlands of 
 the counties of Banff, Aberdeen, and Kincardine, as the 
 Athole Highlanders were in regard to those of Perth, 
 Stirling, and Angus, acquired similar habits ; and both of 
 them being actuated by similar political principles, they 
 generally took the field together on all important occa- 
 sions. An instance of the warlike disposition thus cher- 
 ished, appeared in the rebellion during the reign of 
 Charles I., when the Marquis of Montrose always found 
 "his brave Atholemen " his never-failing support, both 
 in his numerous victories, and under his greatest reverses. 
 At his call they were always ready. O11 one occasion, 
 being dressed in the common Highland garb, and at- 
 tended only by the Laird of Inchbreakie and one servant, 
 he came among them so unexpectedly, that some Irish 
 soldiers who had been sent over by the Earl of Antrim, 
 
HOSTILE EXPEDITIONS. 49 
 
 under Macdonnell,* (or Alister MacCoUa, as he was called 
 by the Highlanders,) "could hardly be persuaded the 
 man they saw was the Marquis of Montrose, till he was 
 saluted by the Atholemen, who knew him perfectly, and 
 almost paid him the honours of a guardian angel ; "t and 
 the following day, " the Atholemen, to the number of eight 
 hundred, put themselves in arms, and offered their ser- 
 vices most cheerfully to Montrose." In the same manner 
 we find (as will be afterwards noticed), that "fifteen 
 hundred men of Athole, as reputable for arms as any in 
 the kingdom," J joined Lord Dundee to support King 
 James. The storming of the town of Dundee, and the 
 skilful and masterly retreat effected by ^lontrose and 
 his Atholemen in the face of a greatly superior force, 
 affords another instance in point, and is the only further 
 example of the same kind which I shall adduce. In the 
 year 1645, Montrose, being deceived by false information 
 firom his spies, mistook the motions of the enemy, and 
 resolving to punish the to\\m of Dundee, "a most seditious 
 town, being the securest haunt and receptacle of the 
 rebels in those parts, and a place that had contributed 
 as much as any other towards the rebellion," marched 
 from Dunkeld, at twelve o'clock at night, with one 
 hundred and fifty horse, six hundred Atholemen, and a 
 detachment of Irish, and reaching Dundee at ten o'clock 
 
 * This brave loyalist, and able partisan, was a native of the 
 county of Antrim. The Marquis of Montrose placed the utmost 
 confidence in his talents and intrepidity, entrusting to his command 
 the most difficult enterprises. To this day his memor>' is held in 
 the highest veneration by the Highlanders, who retain many tradi- 
 tional anecdotes of him. 
 
 t Bishop Wishart's Memoirs of Motitrose. 
 
 X General Mackay's Menioirs. 
 
50 HOSTILE EXPEDITIONS. 
 
 next morning, instantly stormed and carried the town; 
 but he had scarcely taken possession, when he received 
 information that General Baillie and Colonel Hurry, two 
 veteran and experienced officers, with eight hundred 
 horse, and three thousand infantry, were on their march 
 towards him, and within little more than a mile of the 
 town. Montrose immediately recalled his men, and 
 marched off, pursued by the enemy, who, dividing their 
 force, sent one part to intercept, and the other to pursue 
 him. During the retreat he occasionally halted, and 
 opposed their successive attacks, and by a circuitous 
 route regained the Grampians through the pass of Glen 
 Esk, with a trifling loss. — "And this was that so much 
 talked-of expedition to Dundee, infamous indeed for the 
 mistakes of the scouts, but as renowned as any for the 
 valour, constancy, and undaunted resolution of the Gene- 
 ral; and admirable for the hardiness of the soldiers in 
 encountering all extremities with patience: for threescore 
 miles together (Scotch miles, equal to ninety English), 
 they had been often in fight, always upon their march, 
 without either meat or sleep, or intermission, or the 
 least refreshment; which, whether foreign nations or 
 aftertimes will believe, I cannot tell; but, I am sure, I 
 deliver nothing but what is most certain of my own know- 
 ledge: And truly, amongst expert soldiers, and those of 
 eminent note, both of England, Germany, and France, I 
 have not seldom heard this expedition of Montrose pre- 
 ferred to his greatest victory."* 
 
 The endless feuds between tlie Argyle and Atholemen 
 assisted in preserving the military spirit and the use of 
 
 * Dr IVishart, Bishop of Edinburgh's Memoirs of the Marquis 
 of Montrose. 
 
HOSTILE EXPEDITIONS. 51 
 
 arms. In the charter-chest of Stewart of Ballechin there 
 is a commission to his ancestor, the Laird of Ballechin, 
 from the Marquis of Atholl, then Lord-Lieutenant of 
 Argyleshire, dated in 1685, authorising him to march 
 with a strong body of Atholemen into that county, and to 
 take possession of the property of the Marquis of Argyll, 
 and of several gentlemen then attainted for rebellion. 
 In what spirit these orders were carried into effect, will 
 appear from the circumstance that eighteen gentlemen, 
 of the name of Campbell, were executed at Inveraray. 
 The commission granted to Ballechin is highly curious, 
 and prescribes all the intended operations and proposed 
 plans with great accuracy and precision.* 
 
 * I am informed by my friend Mr Stewart of Ballechin, that, in 
 the preceding editions, I had misapprehended the nature of this 
 document ; and that it was a commission from the Marquis of Atholl 
 as Lord Lieutenant of Argyleshire to his ancestor, under the autho- 
 rity of which he marched into that county, and, taking possession o£ 
 Inveraray, held courts there. Many were tried on a charge of rebel- 
 lion, and refusing to take the Test Oath ; and eighteen men were 
 executed. I find also that Ballechin got a charter from the Crown 
 in 16S5, containing a grant of a considerable portion of lands in 
 Argyleshire. Having only had a cursory glance of these documents 
 a number of years ago, it is probable I may not have had a proper 
 recollection of their real import. But in whatever view this trans- 
 action is considered, whether as a feudal inroad, or a proceeding 
 under authority, it equally proves the object for which I introduced 
 the subject ; — namely, to show, in a strong light, the fatal effects 
 which may be expected when a weak and inefficient government is 
 unable to execute an important measure, except by employing the 
 inhabitants of one district to coerce and punish those of another ; 
 thus adding fresh matter of irritation and hostility to former feuds, 
 and exciting a spirit of revenge and retaliation — a feeling which 
 would not have existed, at least in the same degree, had a sufficient 
 force, from a distant country, been employed. Were the weavers of 
 Glasgow sent to quell a riot or insurrection among the weavers of 
 
52 EFFECTS OF THE WANT OF LAWS. 
 
 How little the Highlanders were accustomed to attach 
 any ideas of moral turpitude to such exploits, may be 
 learned from the conduct and sentiments of several of 
 those freebooters, who, at no very distant period, became 
 the victims of a more regular administration of the laws, and 
 who were unable to comprehend in what their criminality 
 consisted. After the troubles of 1745, many who had 
 been engaged in them, afraid to return to their own 
 country, over which the king's troops were dispersed, and 
 having no settled residence or means of support, formed 
 several associations of freebooters, which laid the borders 
 of the Highlands under contribution. 
 
 An active leader among these banditti, Donald 
 Cameron, or Donald Bane Leane, was tried in Perth 
 for cattle stealing, and executed at Kinloch Rannoch 
 in 1752, in order to strike terror into his band in that 
 district. At his execution he dwelt with surprise and 
 indignation on his fate. He had never committed mur- 
 der, nor robbed man or house, or taken anything but 
 cattle off the grass of those with whom he was at feud ; 
 why therefore punish him for doing that which was a 
 common prey to all? Another freebooter, Alexander 
 Stewart, (commonly called Alister Breac, from his being 
 marked with the smallpox), was executed in 1753. He 
 was despised as a pitiful thief, who deserved his fate, 
 because he committed such acts as would have degraded 
 a genuine Kearnach. 
 
 But they were not the actors alone who attached no 
 criminality, or at least disgrace, to the " lifting of cattle," 
 
 Paisley, and were they to hang a number of the rioters, the heart- 
 burnings, jealousies, and spirit of revenge, which such rencontres 
 would occasion, may easily be imagined. 
 
COMPENSATION FOR INJURIES. 53 
 
 as we find from a letter of Field Marshal Wade to Mr 
 Forbes of CuUoden, then Lord Advocate, dated October 
 1729, describing an entertainment given him on a visit to 
 a party of Kearnachs. The Marshal says, " The Knight 
 and I travelled in my cartiage with great ease and pleasure 
 to the feast of oxen which the highwaymen had prepared 
 for us, opposite Lochgarry, where we found four oxen 
 roasting at the same time, in great order and solemnity. 
 We dined in a tent pitched for that purpose. The beef 
 was excellent ; and we had plenty of bumpers, not for- 
 getting your Lordship's and Culloden's health ; and, after 
 three hours' stay, took leave of our benefactors^ the high- 
 waymen* and arrived at the hut at Dalnachardoch before 
 it was dark."t 
 
 The constant state of warfare, aggression, and rapine, 
 in which the clans lived, certainly tended to improve 
 their ingenuit)', and inured them to hardships and priva- 
 tions, which, indeed, their abstemious mode of living, and 
 their constant exposure to all varieties of weather in 
 their loose and light dress, enabled them to bear without 
 inconvenience, i On the other hand, this incessant 
 
 * The Marshal had not at this period been long enough in the 
 Highlands to distinguish a kearnach, or " lifter of cattle," from a 
 highwayman. No such character as the latter then existed in the 
 country ; and it may be presumed he did not consider these men in 
 the light which the word would indicate ; — for certainly the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief would neither have associated with men whom he 
 supposed to be really highwaymen, nor partaken of their hospitality. 
 
 t CuUoden Papers. 
 
 X Habituated as the people were, from the nature of the country, 
 and their pastoral emplojTnent, to traverse extensive tracts exposed 
 to tempests and floods, and to cross rapid torrents, and dangerous 
 precipices, the young Highlander acquired a presence of mind which 
 
54 EFFECTS OF THE WANT OF LAWS. 
 
 State of warfare gave a cast of savage ferocity to their 
 character, while their quarrels and hereditary feuds kept 
 them in a state of alarm and disquietude, and obliged 
 them to have recourse to stratagems and intrigues. These 
 naturally gave rise to habits of duplicity, which had a 
 baneful influence on their morals. Whilst a summary 
 and arbitrary course of proceeding was sanctioned by 
 ideas of honour, passion had no check from legal control, 
 and retaliation must have frequently been accompanied 
 by licentious cruelty, and a disregard of all moderation 
 
 prepared him for becoming an active and intelligent soldier, particu- 
 larly in that independent species of warfare practiced in the woods 
 of America, and lately so much in use with our light troops, in which 
 men must depend upon their own resources and personal exertions. 
 These habits are not so readily acquired in a level country, where 
 there are few natural obstructions or difficulties, and these few easily 
 surmountable by art. 
 
 In Mr Jamieson's excellent edition of Burt's Letters, the follow- 
 ing instance is given of presence of mind in a Highland lad, who, 
 with a Lowland farmer, was crossing a mountain stream, in a glen, 
 at the upper end of which a waterspout had fallen. The Highlander 
 had reached the opposite bank, but the farmer was looking about 
 and loitering on the stones over which he was stepping, wondering 
 at a sudden noise he heard, when the Highlander cried out, " Help, 
 help, or I am a dead man," and fell to the ground. The farmer 
 sprang to his assistance, and had hardly reached him when the 
 torrent came down, sweeping over the stones, with a fury which no 
 human force could have withstood. The lad had heard the roaring 
 of the stream behind the rocks, which intercepted its view from the 
 farmer, and fearing that he might be panic struck if he told him of 
 his danger, took this expedient of saving him. A young man like 
 this might have been trusted on an out-post in front of an enemy ; 
 and, possessing such presence of mind, would have been equally 
 capable of executing his own duties, and of observing the movements 
 and intentions of the enemy. 
 
COMPENSATION FOR INJURIES. 55 
 
 and justice.* To avoid the disorders produced by per- 
 
 * An old historian has drawn the following picture of the state 
 of Scotland after the murder of James I., and during the minority of 
 his son, James II., under the administration of Livingston of Cal- 
 lander, the Governor, and the Lord Chancellor Crichton, the im- 
 becility of whose government was such as to leave the turbulence of 
 the nobility without control. The strong arm of the law had never 
 been felt in the Highlands, and hence arose the summary modes of 
 avenging private wrongs, to which the people had recourse in the 
 absence of judicial redress. Yet they may be said to have lived in a 
 state of peace and repose, compared with the distractions and turbul- 
 ence of the south, whenever the laws and the executive authority 
 were for a time suspended. "Through this manner," says the author, 
 " the whole youth of Scotland began to rage in mischief; for as long 
 as there was no man to punish, much herships and slaughter was in 
 the land and boroughs, great cruelty of nobles among themselves, 
 for slaughters, theft, and murder, were there patent ; and so continu- 
 ally, day by day, that he was esteemed the greatest man of renown 
 and fame that was the greatest brigand, thief, or murderer. But 
 they were the cause of this mischief that were the governors and 
 magistrates of the realm. And this oppression and mischief reigned 
 not only in the south-west parts, but also the men of the Isles in- 
 vaded sundry parts of Scotland at that time, both by fire and sword, 
 and especially the Lennox was wholly overthrown. Traitors be- 
 came so proud and insolent, that they burned and berried the 
 country wherever they came, and spared neither old nor young, 
 bairn or wife, but cruelly would burn their houses and them to- 
 gether if they made any obstacles. Thus they raged through the 
 country without any respect either to God or man." 
 
 Of the reign of James V. the same author writes, "the King 
 went to the south with 12,000 men, and after this hunting he hanged 
 Johnie Armstrong, Laird of Kilnocky, over the gate of his castle, 
 and his accomplices, to the number of thirty-six persons, for which 
 many Scotchmen heartily lamented, for he was the most redoubted 
 chieftain that had been for a long time on the borders of Scotland 
 or of England. It is said, that, from the borders to Newcastle, 
 every man of whatsoever estate paid him tribute to be free of his 
 trouble. This being done, the king passed to the Isles, and there 
 
56 COMPENSATION FOR INJURIES. 
 
 petual strife, a plan was adopted for compensating injuries 
 by a composition in cattle. The amount of the reparation 
 to be made was generally determined by the principal men 
 of their tribes, according to the rank and wealth of the 
 parties, and the nature of the injury. Thus the aggres- 
 sions of the rich could not escape with impunity; and, 
 complete redress being the object of the arbiters, the com- 
 position was considered more honourable, as well as afford- 
 ing greater security against future encroachments, in pro- 
 portion to the largeness of its amount. These ransoms, 
 or compensations, were called Erig. 
 
 held justice courts, and then punished both thief and traitor, accord- 
 ing to their deserts ; syne brought many of the great men of the 
 Isles captive with him, such as Macdonnells, Macleod of the Lewis, 
 Macneil, Maclean, Mackintosh, John Muidart, Mackay, Mac- 
 kenzie, with many others that I cannot rehearse at this time, some 
 of them to be put in wards, and some had in courts, and some he 
 took in pledges for good rule in time coming ; so he brought the 
 Isles in good rule and peace both north and south, whereby he had 
 great profit, service, and obedience of people a long time thereafter ; 
 and as long as he had the heads of the country in subjection, they 
 lived in great peace and rest, and there was great riches and policy 
 by the king's justice." * 
 
 * Lindsay of Pitscottie's History of Scotland, 
 
JURISDICTION OF THE CHIEFS. 57 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Drvoted obedience of the Claris — Spirit of Independence — 
 Fidelity. 
 
 The chief generally resided among his retainers. His 
 castle was the court where rewards were distributed, and 
 the most enviable distinctions conferred. All disputes 
 were settled by his decision ; * and the prosperity or 
 poverty of his tenants depended on his proper or im- 
 proper treatment of them. These tenants followed his 
 standard in war, attended him in his hunting excursions, 
 supphed his table with the produce of their farms, and 
 assembled to reap his corn, and to prepare and bring home 
 his fuel. They looked up to him as their adviser and 
 their protector. The cadets of his family, respected in 
 proportion to the proximity of the relation in which they 
 stood to him, became a species of sub-chiefs, scattered 
 over different parts of his domains, holding their lands 
 and properties of him, with a sort of subordinate juris- 
 diction over a portion of his people ; and were ever 
 
 * During fifty-five years, in which the late Mr Campbell of 
 Achallader had the charge of Lord Breadalbane's estate, no instance 
 occurred of tenants going to law. Their disputes were referred to 
 the amicable decision of the noble proprietor and his deputy ; and as 
 the confidence of the people in the honour and probity of both was 
 unlimited, no man ever dreamed of an appeal from their decision. 
 Admitting even that their judgment might occasionally be erroneous, 
 the advantages of these prompt and final decisions, to a very numer- 
 ous tenantry', among whom many causes of difference naturally arose 
 from their mixed and minute possessions, were incalculable. 
 
58 JURISDICTION OF THE CHIEFS. 
 
 ready to afford him their counsel and assistance in all 
 emergencies. 
 
 Great part of the rent of land was paid in kind, and 
 generally consumed where it was produced. One chief 
 was distinguished from another, not by any additional 
 splendour of dress or equipage, but by having a greater 
 number of followers, * by entertaining a greater number 
 of guests, and by the exercise of general hospitality, kind- 
 ness, and condescension. What his retainers gave from 
 their individual property was spent amongst them in the 
 kindest and most liberal manner. At the castle every in- 
 dividual was made welcome, and was treated according to 
 his station, with a degree of courtesy and regard to his 
 feelings unknown in many other countries.! This con- 
 descension, whilst it raised the clansman in his own estima- 
 tion, and drew closer the ties between him and his superior, 
 seldom tempted him to use any improjjer familiarities. 
 
 * Macdonell of Keppoch being questioned as to the amount of his 
 income, " I can call out and command 500 men," was the answer. 
 
 t Dr Johnson, noticing this interchange of kindness and affection- 
 ate familiarity between the people and their landlords, thus describes 
 a meeting between the young Laird of Coll (elder brother of the pre- 
 sent), and some of his attached and dutiful retainers : — " Wherever 
 we moved," says the Doctor, " we were pleased to see the reverence 
 with which his subjects regarded him. He did not endeavour to 
 dazzle them by any magnificence of dress ; his only distinction was a 
 feather in his bonnet ; but as soon as he appeared, they forsook their 
 work and clustered round him ; he took them by the hand, and they 
 were mutually delighted. He has the proper disposition of a chief- 
 tain, and seems desirous to continue the custom of his house. The 
 bagpiper played regularly when dinner was served, whose person and 
 address made a good appearance, and brought no disgrace on the 
 family of Rankin, which has long supplied the Lairds of Coll with 
 hereditary music." — Doctor yohnsons Tour. 
 
JUEISDICTION OF THE CHIEFS. 59 
 
 He believed himself well born, * and was taught to re- 
 spect himself in the respect which he showed to his chief; 
 
 * This pride of ancestr)-, when directed as it was among this 
 people, produced very beneficial effects on their character and con- 
 duct. It formed strong attachments, led to the performance of 
 laudable and heroic actions, and enabled the poorest Highlander 
 begging his bread to support his hardships without a murmur. Alex- 
 ander Stewart claimed a descent from one of the first families in the 
 kingdom, and through them from the Kings of Scotland ; but being 
 poor and destitute, he went about the country as a privileged beggar. 
 He took no money, nor anything but a dinner, supper, or night's 
 accommodation, such as a man of his descent might expect on the 
 principles of hospitality. He never complained of bad fare, lodging, 
 or any other privation. Seeing (he said) that one king of his family 
 and name had been assassinated, another had died in a wretched 
 cottage or mill, a queen and a king of the same blood had lost their 
 heads upon the scaffold, and the descendants of these kings, exiles 
 from the country of their fathers, had been supported by the benevol- 
 ence of strangers ; and seeing that eminent men of his blood had 
 endured misfortunes and want with firmness and resignation,— ought 
 not he to do the same? and would he discredit his honourable descent 
 by unavailing complaints against that Providence which suffered the 
 high as well as the low to be visited by misfortune ? 
 
 These may be called prejudices, but it were well if all prejudices 
 had a similar effect in making men contented under poverty and 
 destitution ; and when such are their effects, perhaps the term pre- 
 judice, as usually understood, does not apply. 
 
 Alexander Macleod, from the Isle of Skye, was some years ago 
 seized with a fatal illness in Glenorchy, where he died. When he 
 found his end approaching, he earnestly requested that he might be 
 buried in the burjnng-ground of the principal family of the district, 
 as he was descended from one as ancient, warlike, and honourable ; 
 and stated that he could not die in peace if he thought his family 
 would be dishonoured in his person, by his being buried in a mean 
 and improper manner. Although his request could not be complied 
 with, he was buried in a corner of the churchyard, where his grave 
 is preserved in its original state by Dr Macintyre, the venerable 
 pastor of Glenorchy. 
 
60 JURISDICTION OF THE CHIEFS. 
 
 and thus, instead of complaining of the difference of 
 station and fortune, or considering a ready obedience to 
 his chieftain's call as a slavish oppression, he felt con- 
 vinced that he was supporting his own honour in showing 
 his gratitude and duty to the generous head of his family. 
 "Hence, the Highlanders, whom more savage nations 
 called savage, carried in the outward expression of their 
 manners the politeness of courts without their vices, and 
 in their bosoms the high point of honour without its 
 follies."* 
 
 " Nothing," says Mrs Grant, " can be more erroneous 
 than the prevalent idea that a Highland chief was an 
 ignorant and unprincipled tyrant, who rewarded the ab- 
 ject submission of his followers with relentless cruelty and 
 rigorous oppression. If ferocious in disposition, or weak 
 in understanding, he was curbed and directed by the 
 elders of his tribe, who, by inviolable custom, were his 
 standing counsellors, without whose advice no measure of 
 any kind was decided. "t 
 
 But though the sway of the chief was thus mild in 
 practice, it was in its nature arbitrary, and, on proper 
 occasions, was exercised with full severity. There is still 
 to be seen among the papers of the family of Perth, an 
 application from the town of Perth to Lord Drummond, 
 dated in 1707, requesting an occasional use of his Lord- 
 ship's executioner, who was considered an expert opera- 
 tor. The request was granted, his Lordship reserving to 
 himself the power of recalling him whenever he had occa- 
 sion for his services. Some time before the year 1745, 
 the Lord President Forbes, travelling from Edinburgh to 
 
 * Dalrymplc' 5 Memoirs, 
 + Mrs Gi-ant's Superstitions of the Highlanders. 
 
JURISDICTION OF THE CHIEFS. 6l 
 
 his seat at Culloden, dined on his way at the Castle of 
 Blair Athole, with the Duke of Atholl. In the course of 
 the evening a petition was delivered to his Grace, which 
 having read, he turned round to the President, and said 
 " My Lord, here is a petition from a poor man, whom 
 Commissary Bisset, my baron bailie,* has condemned to 
 be hanged ; and as he is a clever fellow, and is strongly 
 recommended to mercy, I am much inclined to pardon 
 him." "But your Grace knows," said the President, 
 "that, after condemnation, no man can pardon but his 
 Majesty." "As to that," rephed the Duke, "since I 
 have the power of punishing, it is but right that I should 
 have the power to pardon ;" and calling upon a servant 
 who was in waiting, " Go," said he, " send an express to 
 Logierait, and order Donald Stewart, presently under 
 sentence, to be instantly set at hberty."t 
 
 * A civil officer, to whom the Chiefs authority was occasionally 
 delegated. 
 
 + The family of Atholl possessed many superiorities in Perth- 
 shire; and when they held their courts of regality at Logierait, their 
 followers, to the number of nearly a hundred gentlemen, many of 
 them of great landed property, assembled to assist in council, or as 
 jurymen on such trials as it was necessary to conduct on this 
 principle ; and, as these gentlemen were accompanied by many of 
 their own followers and dependants, this great chief appeared like a 
 sovereign, with his parliament and army. Indeed, the whole was 
 no bad emblem of a king and parliament, only substituting a chief 
 and his clan for a king with his peers and commoners. The hall in 
 which the feudal parliament assembled (a noble chamber of better 
 proportions than the British House of Commons), has lately been 
 pulled down ; and thus one of the most conspicuous vestiges of the 
 almost regal influence of this powerful family has been destroyed, 
 and many recollections of the power and dignity to which it owed 
 its foundation obliterated. 
 
62 JURISDICTION OF THE CHIEFS. 
 
 Independently of that authority which the chiefs 
 acquired by ancient usage and the weakness of the 
 general government, the lords of regality, and great 
 barons and chiefs, possessed the rights of jurisdiction, 
 both in civil and criminal matters, and either sat in 
 judgment themselves, or appointed judges of their own 
 choice, and dependent upon their authority. Freemen 
 could be tried by none but their peers. The vassals 
 were bound to attend the courts of their chiefs, and, 
 among other things, to assist as jurymen in the trials of 
 delinquents. When they assembled on these occasions, 
 they established among themselves such regulations as, 
 in their opinion, tended to the welfare of the community; 
 and, whenever it became necessary, they voluntarily 
 granted such supplies as they thought the necessity of 
 their superiors required. Their generosity was particu- 
 larly shown on the marriage of the chief, and in the por- 
 tioning of his daughters and younger sons. These last, 
 when they settled in life, frequently found themselves 
 supplied with the essential necessaries of a family, and 
 particularly with a stock of cattle, which, in those patri- 
 archal days, constituted the principal riches of the country.* 
 
 * The above infornmtion I received from several old gentlemen 
 who remembered the practice. These were intelligent persons, 
 much habituated to conversation, faithful in recollection, and clear 
 in the communication of their knowledge, from having been chroni- 
 clers of what to them was of the greatest importance — the history, the 
 policy, the biography, and the character of their ancestors and con- 
 temporaries. To a common observer, no part of their communica- 
 tion would have appeared more extraordinary than the control 
 exercised by the Elders or Seniors of the clan or district, the ready 
 obedience yielded to their judgment and remonstrance, and the firm- 
 ness and independence of sagacious peasants, in setting effective 
 limits to arbitrary power. 
 
OBEDIENCE OF THE CLANS. 63 
 
 The laws which the chief had to administer were ex- 
 tremely simple. Indeed, his sway was chiefly paternal. 
 Reverence for his authority, and gratitude for his protec- 
 tion, which was generally extended to shield the rights of 
 his clansmen against the aggression of strangers, were the 
 natural result of his patriarchal rule. This constituted an 
 efficient control, without many examples of severity. At 
 the same time, the mutual dependence of the clansmen on 
 one another, and their frequent meetings for consulting on 
 their common interests, or for repelling common danger, 
 tended to produce and cherish the social and domestic vir- 
 tues, together with that ease and familiarity which, when 
 well regulated, prove a source of much endearment, and 
 render it necessary for every individual to cultivate a cor- 
 responding spirit of civility and complaisance. These 
 manners and dispositions, both of the people and their 
 superiors, furnish a ready explanation of the zeal with 
 which the former followed their chiefs, protected their per- 
 sons, and supported the honour of their country and name. 
 In the battle of Inverkeithing, between the Royalists and 
 Oliver Cromwell's troops, five hundred of the followers of 
 the Laird of Maclean were left dead on the field. In the 
 heat of the conflict, seven brothers of the clan sacrificed 
 their lives in defence of their leader, Sir Hector Maclean. 
 Being hard pressed by the enemy, he was supported and 
 covered from their attacks by these intrepid men ; and as 
 one brother fell, another came up in succession to cover 
 him, crying " Another for Hector." This phrase has con- 
 tinued ever since as a proverb or watch-word when a man 
 encounters any sudden danger that requires instant suc- 
 cour. 
 
 The late James Menzies of Culdares, having engaged 
 in the rebellion of 17 15, and been taken at Preston in 
 
64 FIDELITY. 
 
 Lancashire, was carried to London, where he was tried 
 and condemned, but afterwards reprieved.* Grateful for 
 this clemency, he remained at home in 1745, but, retain- 
 ing a predilection for the old cause, he sent a handsome 
 charger as a present to Prince Charles when advancing 
 through England. The servant who led and delivered the 
 horse was taken prisoner, and carried to Carlisle, where 
 he was tried and condemned. To extort a discovery of 
 the person who sent the horse, threats of immediate exe- 
 cution in case of refusal, and offers of pardon on his 
 giving information, were held out ineffectually to the faith- 
 ful messenger. He knew, he said, what the consequence 
 of a disclosure would be to his master, and his own life 
 was nothing in the comparison. When brought out for 
 
 * Two brothers of Culdares were taken prisoners at the same 
 time, and sent to Carlisle Castle. After a confinement of some 
 months they were released, in consideration of their youth and inex- 
 perience ; and immediately set off to London to visit their brother, 
 then under sentence of death. Being handsome young men, with 
 fresh complexions, they disguised themselves in women's clothes, 
 and pretending to be Mr Menzies' sisters, were admitted to visit 
 him in prison. They then proposed that one of them should ex- 
 change clothes with their brother, and that he should escape in this 
 disguise. But this he peremptorily refused, on the ground that, 
 after the lenity shown them, it would be most ungrateful to engage 
 in such an affair ; which, besides, might be productive of unpleasant 
 consequences to the young man who proposed to remain in prison, 
 particularly as he was so lately under a charge of treason and rebel- 
 lion. They were obliged to take, what they believed to be, their 
 last farewell of their brother, whose firmness of mind, and sense of 
 honour, the immediate prospect of death could not shake. However, 
 he soon met with his reward ; he received an unconditional pardon, 
 returned to Scotland along with his brothers, and lived sixty years 
 afterwards in his native glen, — an honourable specimen of an old 
 Highland Patriarch, beloved by his own people, and respected by all 
 within the range of his acquaintance. He died in 1776. 
 
FIDELITY. 65 
 
 execution, he was again pressed to inform on his master. 
 He asked if they were serious in supposing him such a 
 villain. If he did what they desired, and forgot his 
 master and his trust, he could not return to his native 
 country, for Glenlyon would be no home or country for 
 him, as he would be despised and hunted out of the Glen. 
 Accordingly, he kept steady to his trust, and was executed. 
 This trusty servant's name was John Macnaughton, from 
 Glenlyon, in Perthshire ; he deserves to be mentioned, * 
 
 *A picture of Prince Charles, mounted on this horse, is in my 
 possession, being a legacy from the daughter of Mr Menzies. A 
 brother of Macnaughton Hved for many years on the estate of 
 Garth, and died in 179c. He always went about armed, at least so 
 far armed, that when debarred wearing a sword or dirk, he slung a 
 large knife in his belt. He was one of the last I recollect of the 
 ancient race, and gave a very favourable impression of their general 
 manner and appearance. By trade he was a smith ; and although 
 of the lowest order of the people, he walked about with an air and 
 manner that might have become a Field-Marshal. He spoke with 
 great force and fluency of language, and, although most respectful to 
 those to whom he thought respect due, he had an appearance of in- 
 dependence and ease, that strangers, ignorant of the language and 
 character of the people, might have supposed to proceed from im- 
 pudence. As he always carried arms when legally permitted, so he 
 showed on one occasion that he knew how to handle them. Wlien 
 the Black Watch was quartered on the banks of the rivers Tay and 
 Lyon in 1741, an affray arose between a few of the soldiers and 
 some of the people at a fair at Kenmore. Some of the Breadalbane 
 men took the part of the soldiers, and, as many were armed, swords 
 were quickly drawn, and one of the former killed ; when their 
 opponents, with whom was Macnaughton, and a smith, (to whom he 
 was then an apprentice), retreated and fled to the ferry-boat across 
 the Tay. There was no bridge, and the ferryman seeing the fray, 
 chained his boat. Macnaughton was the first at the river side, and 
 leaping into the boat, followed by his master the smith, with a single 
 stroke of his broadsword he cut the chain, and crossing the river, 
 fixed the boat on the opposite side, — and thus prevented an im- 
 
 F 
 
-66 FIDELITY. 
 
 both on account of his incorruptible fidelity, and of his 
 testimony to the honourable principles of the people, and 
 to their detestation of a breach of trust to a kind and 
 honourable master, however great might be the risk, or 
 however fatal the consequences to the individual himself. 
 For the further exemplification of this attachment of 
 Highlanders to their superiors, I may refer to the celerity 
 with which regiments were raised by them, even in more 
 peaceable times, when the spirit of clanship had been 
 considerably broken, and the feudal tenures in a great 
 measure dissolved. Of this some remarkable instances 
 will be found in the history of the Highland regiments. 
 We have innumerable examples, too, of the force of that 
 disinterested fidelity which, till a very recent period, 
 
 mediate pursuit. Indeed, no further steps were taken. The Earl 
 of Breadalbane, who was then at Taymouth, was immediately sent 
 for. On inquiry, he found that the whole had originated from an 
 accidental reflection thrown out by a soldier of one of the Argyle 
 companies against the Atholemen, then supposed to be Jacobites, 
 and that it was difficult to ascertain who gave the fatal blow. The 
 man who was killed was an old warrior of nearly eighty years of age. 
 He had been with Lord Breadalbane's men, under Campbell of 
 Glenlyon, at the battle of Sheriffmuir ; and, as his side lost their 
 cause, he swore never to shave again. He kept his word, and as 
 his beard grew till it reached his girdle, he got the name of Padric 
 na Feusaig, " Peter with the Beard." Lachlan Maclean, presently 
 living near Taybridge, in his ninety-fifth year, and in perfect posses- 
 sion of all his faculties, was present at this affray. 
 
 This intelligent old man died since the publication of the former 
 editions, in his ninety-seventh year, and, as is very common with 
 men of his strength of constitution, preserved his faculties to his last 
 hour. I happened to call upon him a week previous to his death. 
 He was then in perfect health, and, besides repeating the above 
 story and some others with his usual accuracy, he recited several 
 portions of Ossian's poems with remarkable spirit and animation, 
 warming as he proceeded in his recitation. 
 
FIDELITY. 67 
 
 spurred on the Highlanders to follow their chieftains to 
 the cannon's mouth, and produced displays of national 
 feeling and intrepidity, which have procured for them a 
 name and character not to be soon forgotten. The 
 promptitude and zeal with which they formerly adopted 
 the quarrels of their chiefs, and obeyed the slightest 
 signal for action, are described in the following verses 
 with an ardour and rapidity which present as lively and 
 graphical a picture as words can convey. 
 
 "He whistled shrill, 
 
 And he was answered from the hill ; 
 
 Wild as the scream of the curlew 
 
 From crag to crag the signal flew ; 
 
 Instant thro' copse and heath arose 
 
 Bonnets and spears and bended bows, 
 
 On right, on left, above, below, 
 
 Sprung up at once the lurking foe ; 
 
 From shingles green the lances start, 
 
 The bracken bush sends forth the dart, 
 
 The rushes and the willow wand 
 
 Are bristling into axe and brand, 
 
 And every tuft of broom gives life 
 
 To plaided warriors, armed for strife. 
 
 That whistle garrisoned the glen 
 
 With full four hundred fighting men. 
 
 As if the yawning hill to heaven 
 
 A subterranean host had given. 
 
 Watching their leaders' beck and will, 
 
 All silent then they stood, and still. 
 
 Like the loose crags, whose threatening mass. 
 
 Long tottering o'er the hollow pass, 
 
 As if an infant's touch could urge 
 
 Their headlong passage down the verge ; 
 
 With step and weapon forward flung. 
 
 Upon the mountains' sides they hung."* 
 * Lady of the Lake. 
 It may be thought absurd to quote a poetical description to 
 
68 SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Yet the strength of this attachment and zeal did not ex- 
 tinguish the proper sense of independence. In some in- 
 stances they even proceeded so far as to depose such 
 chiefs as had degraded their name and family, or were unfit 
 for their situations, transferring their allegiance to the 
 next in succession, if more deserving. This happened in 
 the case of the families of Macdonald of Clanranald and 
 Macdonell of Keppoch. Two chiefs were deposed and 
 set aside. The rejected chief of the former clan was 
 killed, without issue, in an attempt to preserve his estate 
 and authority ;* the descendants of the latter are still in 
 existence. But, even when they did not resort to such 
 severe measures, their chiefs were often successfully 
 opposed. t 
 
 authenticate a well-known fact. That, however, being established^ 
 the poetical description is merely introduced, because the delineation 
 is perfect, and the ardour and rapidity of the diction present a livelier 
 picture of what actually existed, than any other words can convey. 
 The poet displays consummate judgment in seizing, for the purpose 
 of description, a circumstance in the highest degree picturesque and 
 poetical. 
 
 * The rejected chief of Clanranald was supported by his friend 
 and brother chief Lord Lovat, and the clan Fraser. As was usual in 
 those times, the question was decided by the sword. The strength 
 of both sides being mustered, a desperate conflict ensued, and the 
 Macdonalds confirmed their independence by victory. The heredi- 
 taiy chief was killed, together with his friend Lord Lovat, and a 
 great number of followers of each party. The next in succession con- 
 sidered as more deserving, was appointed to head the clan. In this 
 battle, which took place in July 1544, the combatants threw off their 
 jackets and vests, and fought in their shirts. From this circumstance 
 it has been called Blar na Lein, the " Battle of the Shirts." 
 
 t A son of a former Laird of Grant, known in tradition by the 
 name of Laird Humphry, presented, in his conduct and fate, a strik- 
 ing illustration of the power occasionally exerted by the Elders of a 
 
IXDEPENDENXE. 69 
 
 About the year 1460, the head of the family of 
 Stewart of Garth was not only deprived of his authority 
 by his friends and kindred, but confined for life on 
 account of his ungovernable passions and ferocious dis- 
 position. The cell in the Castle of Garth in which he 
 was imprisoned, was till lately regarded by the people 
 with a kind of superstitious terror. This petty tyrant 
 was nicknamed the '^Fierce WolfT perhaps from his 
 being a character similar to that of his immediate pre- 
 decessor, Alaster Mor Mac in Rhi, the " Wolf of Bade- 
 noch," noticed in page 28; and if the traditionary stories 
 related of him have any claim to belief, the appellation 
 was both deserved and characteristic. 
 
 The clan Mackenzie possessed such influence over 
 their chief, the Earl of Seaforth, that they prevented him 
 from demolishing Brahan Castle, the principal seat of the 
 family. Some time previous to the year 1570 the Laird 
 of Glenorchy, ancestor of the Earl of Breadalbane, re- 
 clan. He was, in some respects, what the Highlanders admire, — 
 handsome, courageous, open-hearted, and open-handed. But, by 
 the indulgence of a weak and fond father, and the influence of violent 
 and unrestrained passions, he became licentious and depraved, lost 
 all respect for his father, and used to go about \A-ith a number of idle 
 young men trained up to unbounded licentiousness. These dissolute 
 youths visited in families, remained until ever\-thing was consumed, 
 and after every kind of riotous insult, removed to treat another in the 
 same manner, till they became the pest and annoyance of the whole 
 coimtr>'. Laird Humphry had, in the meantime, incurred many 
 heav>' debts. The Elders of the clan bought up these debts, which 
 gave them full power over him ; they then put him in prison in Elgin, 
 where they kept him during the remainder of his life, leaving the 
 management of the estate in the hands of his younger brother. The 
 debts were made a pretext for confining him, the Elders not choosing 
 to accuse him of various crimes of which he had been guilty, and the 
 consciousness of which made him submit more quietly to the restraint. 
 
70 
 
 IISDEPENDENCE. 
 
 solved to build a castle on a small knoll, high upon the 
 side of Loch-Tay, and accordingly laid the foundation, 
 which is still to be seen.* This situation was not agree- 
 able to his advisers, who interfered, and induced him to 
 change his plan, and build the Castle of Balloch, or Tay- 
 mouth. It must be confessed that the clan showed more 
 taste than the Laird in fixing on a situation for the family 
 mansion.! 
 
 * At a short distance from the present hermitage at Taymouth. 
 
 t This fact vindicates the taste of the chief from the reflections 
 thrown out against it by all tourists, pretending to that faculty, who 
 have uniformly blamed his choice of so low a situation. His memory 
 would have escaped these reflections, had it been known that the 
 choice was made in due respect to the will of the " Sovereign people," 
 who said, that if he built his castle on the edge of his estate, which 
 was the site they proposed, his successors must of necessity exert 
 themselves to extend their property eastward among the Menzies and 
 Stewarts of Athole. This extension, however, was slow, for it was 
 not till one hundred and seventy years afterwards, that the late Lord 
 Breadalbane got possession of the lands close to Taymouth. But the 
 present Earl has fulfilled the expectations of his ancient clan, by ex- 
 tending his estate eight miles to the eastward. Previous to this 
 extension, so circumscribed was Lord Breadalbane, that the pleasure 
 grounds on the north bank of the Tay, as well as those to the east- 
 ward of the castle, were the property of gentlemen of the name of 
 Menzies. 
 
 The son of Sir Cohn Campbell, who built the Castle of Tay- 
 mouth, possessed seven castles, viz., Balloch or Taymouth, Finlarig, 
 Edinample, Lochdochart, Culchurn, Achallader, and Barcaldine. 
 Except Lochdochart, these were handsome edifices, and gave the 
 name of Donach na Castail, or "Duncan of the Castles," to Sir 
 Duncan Campbell, the Laird of Glenorchy and first Baronet of the 
 family. He was also distinguished by the name of Duncan Dhu na 
 curie, from his dark complexion, and the cap or cowl he constantly 
 wore, instead of the bonnet, to which only the eyes of the people 
 were in those days accustomed. His picture, now in Taymouth, 
 painted by Jamieson, the Scottish \'andyke, represents him in this 
 
INDEPENDENCE. 7 1 
 
 In this manner it required much kindness and con- 
 descension on the part of the chief to maintain his 
 influence with his clan, who all expected to be treated 
 with the affability and courtesy due to gendemen. "And 
 as the meanest among them," says the author of the 
 Letters before mentioned, " pretended to be his relations 
 by consanguinity, they insisted on the privilege of taking 
 him by the hand wherever they met him. Concerning 
 this last (he adds) I once saw a number of very discon- 
 tented countenances, when a certain Lord, one of the 
 chiefs, endeavoured to evade this ceremony. It was in 
 the presence of an English gentleman, of high station, 
 from whom he would willingly have concealed the know- 
 ledge of such seeming familiarity with slaves of ^\Tetched 
 appearance ; and thinking it, I suppose, a kind of contra- 
 diction to what he had often boasted at other times, viz., 
 his despotic power in his clan." 
 
 This condescension on the part of the chief gave a 
 feeHng of self-respect to the people, and contributed to 
 produce that honourable principle of fidelity to superiors 
 and to their trust which I have already noticed, and 
 which was so generally and so forcibly imbibed, that the 
 man who betrayed his trust was considered unworthy of 
 the name which he bore, or of the kindred to which he 
 belonged. This interesting feature in the character of the 
 Scotch Mountaineers is well known ; but it may be grati- 
 fying to notice a few more examples of the exercise of such 
 
 black cap. He was a liberal patron of this artist, the most eminent 
 of his day in Scotland. There are several specimens of his art in 
 Taymouth. Sir Duncan Campbell also planted and laid out several 
 of these noble avenues at Taymouth and Finlarig, which are now so 
 ornamental, and show to how great a size trees grow even in those 
 elevated glens. 
 
72 INCORRUPTIBLE FIDELITY. 
 
 an honourable principle amongst a race which has often 
 been considered as ferocious and uncivilized. 
 
 Honour and firmness sufficient to withstand tempta- 
 tion may in general be expected in the higher classes of 
 society ; but the voluntary sacrifice of life and fortune is 
 a species of self-devotion and heroism not often displayed 
 even in the best societies. All who are acquainted with 
 the events of the unhappy insurrection of 1745, must 
 have heard of a young gentleman of the name of Mac- 
 kenzie, who had so remarkable a resemblance to Prince 
 Charles Stuart, as to give rise to the mistake to which he 
 cheerfully sacrificed his life, continuing the heroic decep- 
 tion to the last, and exclaiming, with his expiring breath, 
 *' Villains, you have killed your Prince!" Such an in- 
 stance of heroic devotion would perhaps appear extrava- 
 gant even in poetry or romance.* 
 
 The late Macpherson of Cluny, father of Colonel Mac- 
 pherson, chief of that clan, was engaged in the rebellion 
 
 * The similarity of personal appearance was said to be quite re- 
 markable. The young gentleman was sensible of this, and at different 
 times endeavoured to divert the attention of the troops in pursuit of 
 the fugutive prince to an opposite quarter of the mountains to that 
 in which he knew Charles Edward was concealed after the battle of 
 Culloden. This he effected by showing his person in such a way as 
 that he could be seen, and then escaping by the passes or woods, 
 through which he could not be quickly followed. On one occasion, 
 he unexpectedly met with a party of troops, and immediately retired, 
 intimating by his manner as he fled, that he was the object of their 
 search ; but his usual good fortune forsook him. The soldiers pur- 
 sued with eagerness, anxious to secure the promised reward of ;i^ 30,000. 
 Mackenzie was overtaken and shot, exclaiming, as he fell, in the 
 words noticed above ; and it was not till the head was produced at 
 the next garrison, for the purpose of claiming the reward, that the 
 mistake was discovered. 
 
INCORRUPTIBLE FIDELITY. 73 
 
 of 1745.* His life was, of course, forfeited to the laws, 
 and much diligence was exerted to bring him to justice. 
 But neither the hope of reward, nor the fear of danger, 
 could induce any one of his people to betray him, or to re- 
 mit their faithful services. He lived for nine years chiefly 
 in a cave, at a short distance from his house, which was 
 burnt to the ground by the king's troops. This cave was 
 in the front of a woody precipice, the trees and shelving 
 rocks completely concealing the entrance. It was dug 
 out by his own people, who worked by night, and con- 
 veyed the stones and rubbish into a lake in the neigh- 
 bourhood, in order that no vestige of their labour might 
 betray the retreat of their master. In this sanctuary he 
 lived secure, occasionally visiting his friends by night, or 
 when time had slackened the rigour of the search. Up- 
 wards of one hundred persons knew where he was con- 
 cealed, and a reward of ^looo was offered to any one 
 who should give information against him ; and, as it 
 was known that he was concealed on his estate, eighty 
 men were constantly stationed there, besides the parties 
 occasionally marching into the country, to intimid- 
 
 * It is honourable to the memory of a respectable lady to record 
 the circumstances of Cluny's defection, which exaggerated his faults 
 in the eyes of government, and furnished a motive for pursuing him 
 with more determined hostility. He was, in that year, appointed to 
 a company in Lord Loudon's Highlanders, and had taken the oaths 
 to Government. His clan were, however, impatient to join the 
 adventurous descendant of their ancient sovereigns, when he came to 
 claim what they supposed his right. While he hesitated between 
 duty and inclination, his wife, a daughter of Lord Lovat, and a 
 staunch Jacobite, earnestly dissuaded him from breaking his oath, 
 assuring him that nothing could end well that began with perjury. 
 His friends reproached her with interfering, and hurried on the hus- 
 band to his ruin. 
 
74 INCORRUPTIBLE FIDELITY. 
 
 ate* his tenantry, and induce them to disclose the place 
 of his concealment. But though the soldiers were animated 
 with the hope of the reward, and though a step of promo- 
 tion to the officer who should apprehend him was super- 
 added, yet so true were his people, so strict to their pro- 
 mise of secrecy,! and so dexterous in conveymg to him 
 the necessaries he required in his long confinement, that 
 not a trace of him could be discovered, nor an individual 
 found base enough to give a hint to his detriment. At 
 length, wearied out with this dreary and hopeless state of 
 existence, and taught to despair of pardon, he escaped to 
 France in 1755, and died there the following year. 
 
 * The late Sir Hector Munro, then a lieutenant in the 34th 
 Regiment, and, from his zeal, and knowledge of the country and the 
 people, intrusted with the command of a large party, continued two 
 whole years in Badenoch, for the purpose of discovering the chiefs 
 retreat. The unwearied vigilance of the clan could alone have saved 
 him from the diligence of this party. At night, Cluny came from his 
 retreat, to vary the monotony of his existence by spending a few of 
 the dark hours convivially with his friends. On one occasion, he 
 had been suspected, and got out by a back window just as the 
 military were breaking open the door. At another time, seeing the 
 windows of a house kept close, and several persons going to visit the 
 family after dark, the commander broke in at the window of the sus- 
 pected chamber, with two loaded pistols, and thus endangered the 
 life of a lady newly delivered of a child, on account of whose confine- 
 ment these suspicious circumstances had taken place. This shows 
 that there was no want of diligence on the part of the pursuers. 
 Cluny himself liecame so cautious, while living the life of an outlaw, 
 that, on parting with his wife, or his most attached friends, he never 
 told them to which of his concealments he was going, or suffered any 
 one to accompany him ; — thus enabling them, when questioned, to 
 answer, that they knew not where he was. 
 
 t In a character of the Highlanders, drawn near 300 years ago, 
 the author says, "As to their faith and promise, they hold it with 
 great eonstancie." 
 
INCORRUPTIBLE FIDELITY. 75 
 
 It would be endless to adduce particular examples of 
 fidelity often tried and never found to fail, in periods of 
 the greatest civil commotion, when the interests and feel- 
 ings of men were so often opposed to their duties, and 
 when the whole frame of society was shattered by the 
 contending factions. After the troubles of 17 15 and 
 1745, although many thousands were forced to flee from 
 their houses, and conceal themselves from the vengeance 
 of Government, very few instances of treachery occurred. 
 The only persons who, on these occasions, sacrificed their 
 honour to their interests, were some renegade Highlanders, 
 who, having abjured their country, had lost along with it 
 all its characteristic principles. This general feeling of 
 honour, and standard of public virtue in the country, 
 formed the surest pledge of the conduct of individuals. 
 Of the many who knew of Prince Charles's places of con- 
 cealment, was one poor man, who being asked why he did 
 not give information, and enrich himself by the reward of 
 ^30,000, answered, "Of what use would the money be to 
 me? A gentleman might take it, and go to London or 
 Edinburgh, where he would find plenty of people to eat 
 the dinners, and drink the wine which it would purchase : 
 but, as for me, if I were such a villain as to commit a 
 crime like this, I could not remain in my own country, 
 where nobody would speak to me, but to curse me as I 
 passed along the road." No prohibitory law, no penal 
 enactment, or abstract rule of morality, could have oper- 
 ated so powerfully on the mind, as a feehng of this sort.* 
 
 * In those times of strife and trouble, instances that would fill a 
 volume might be given of fidelity and unbroken faith. The follow- 
 ing will show that this honourable feeling was common amongst the 
 lowest and most ignorant. In the years 1746 and 1747, some of the 
 gentlemen '■''who had been ouf^ in the rebellion, were occasionally 
 
76 INCORRUPTIBLE FIDELITY. 
 
 This sensibility to dishonour among their kindred 
 and neighbours, guided and controlled the conduct of 
 many, whose principles in other respects were not unim- 
 peachable. In September 1746, Prince Charles Edward 
 lay two days without food in the mountains of Lochaber. 
 The inhabited parts of the country were full of troops, 
 and Charles having moved to some distance from the 
 place he had agreed on with his friends, they knew not 
 where to send him supplies. In this extremity, he pro- 
 posed to ask assistance from some men whom they had 
 observed in the morning going into a hut or cave a short 
 way from the place where he then was. He had only 
 two attendants, Macdonell of Lochgarry, and an Irish- 
 man. The latter urged him not to trust men of their 
 
 concealed in a deep woody den near my grandfather's house. A poor 
 half-witted creature, brought up about the house, was, along with 
 many others, intrusted with the secret of their concealment, and em- 
 ployed in supplying them with necessaries. It was supposed that 
 when the troops came round on their usual searches, they would not 
 imagine that he could be intrusted with so important a secret, and, 
 consequently, no questions would be asked. One day two ladies, 
 friends of the gentlemen, wished to visit them in their cave, and 
 asked Jamie Forbes to show them the way. Seeing that they came 
 from the house, and judging from their manner that they were friends, 
 he did not object to their request, and walked away before them. 
 When they had proceeded a short way, one of the ladies offered him 
 five shillings. The instant he saw the money, he put his hands be- 
 hind his back, and seemed to lose all recollection. "He did not 
 know what they wanted ; — he never saw the gentlemen, and knew 
 nothing of them," and turning away, walked in a quite contrary 
 direction. When questioned afterwards why he ran away from the 
 ladies, he answered, that when they had offered him such a sum 
 (five shillings were of some value eighty years ago, and would have 
 purchased two sheep in the Highlands), he suspected they had no 
 good intention, and that their fine clothes and fair words were meant 
 to entrap him into a disclosure of the gentlemen's retreat. 
 
INCORRUPTIBLE FIDELITY. 77 
 
 suspicious appearance; but he answered, that he had 
 often reposed confidence in similar circumstances, and 
 never had cause to repent it, and that he would now put 
 these men to the proof. He then proceeded to the hut, 
 and, on entering, found six men sitting round a stone, on 
 which was placed a wooden plate with a piece of beef for 
 their dinner. 
 
 The men, struck by his tall figure and appearance, 
 vsath an old bonnet and a plaid flung across his shoulders, 
 started up at his entrance, when one of them, who at 
 once recognised him, cried out, "Oh Dougal Mahony," 
 (pretending he knew him as one of the Prince's Irish 
 followers), "I am happy you are come so opportunely; 
 sit down and take a share of our beef; I wish your master 
 Prince Charles had as good." x-^fter they had dined, the 
 Highlander led the Prince out of sight of his companions, 
 and, throwing himself on his knees, begged pardon in 
 the humblest manner for the freedom he had taken in 
 addressing him as an Irishman: which, he stated, he 
 did, because he knew not whether the Prince might 
 desire to trust his companions. Charles answered, that 
 he had no desire to conceal himself from them; however, 
 the Highlander, more cautious, went and spoke to each 
 of the men separately, informing them who their guest 
 was, and that he expected they would be faithful to him. 
 The instant every man was informed, he flew A^ith eager- 
 ness to the Prince, and assured him that no reward, not 
 all the kingdom of Scotland could give, would induce 
 them to betray him, — a crime which would render them 
 infamous, banish them for ever from their native country, 
 and cause them to be disowned by their kindred and 
 friends.* 
 
 * He remained some time with these men, who supplied him 
 
78 INCORRUPTIBLE FIDELITY. 
 
 The implied punishment of treachery was a kind of 
 outlawry or banishment from the beloved society, in 
 which affection and good opinion Avere of such vital im- 
 portance. Whilst the love of country and kindred, and 
 dread of the infamy which inevitably followed treachery, 
 acted thus powerfully, the superstitions of the people 
 confirmed the one and strengthened the other. A noted 
 freebooter, John Du Cameron,* or the Sergeant Mor, as 
 he was called, was apprehended by a party of Lieutenant 
 Hector Monro's detachment, which had been removed from 
 Badenoch to Rannoch in the year 1753. It was gene- 
 rally believed in the country, that this man was betrayed 
 by a false friend, to whose house he had resorted for 
 shelter in severe weather. The truth of this allegation, 
 however, was never fully established. But the supposed 
 treacherous friend was heartily despised ; and having lost 
 all his property by various misfortunes, he left the coun- 
 try in extreme poverty, although he rented from Govern- 
 ment a farm on advantageous terms, on the forfeited estate 
 of Strowan. The favour shown him by Government gave 
 a degree of confirmation to the suspicions raised against 
 him ; and the firm belief of the people to this day is, 
 that his misfortunes were a just judgment upon him for 
 his breach of trust towards a person who had, without 
 suspicion, reposed confidence in him. 
 
 Such were the principles which, without the restraints 
 of law, gave a kind of chivalrous tone to the feelings of 
 
 with all the comforts they could command, and, amonq; other things, 
 plundered an officer's baggage to procure him a change of linen, — a 
 luxury to which he had for some time been a stranger. This robbery 
 made a noise at the time, and was frequently mentioned as an in- 
 stance of the thievish disposition of the Highlanders. 
 
 * See Appendix, H. 
 
DESERTION OF A CHIEF. 79 
 
 the people, and combined cordial affection and obedience 
 to superiors, with that spirit of independence which dis- 
 dained to yield submission to the unworthy. I have al- 
 ready noticed instances of the deposition of worthless 
 chiefs : — the following is a remarkable one of the desertion 
 of a chief by his people. Powerful in point of influence 
 and property, neither the one nor the other was able to act 
 on his followers in opposition to what they considered 
 their loyalty and duty to an unfortunate monarch. In the 
 reign of King William, immediately after the Revolution, 
 Lord Tullibardine, eldest son of the Marquis of Atholl, 
 collected a numerous body of Athole Highlanders, to- 
 gether with three hundred Frasers, under the command 
 of Hugh Lord Lovat, who had married a daughter of the 
 Marquis. These men believed that they were destined to 
 support the abdicated king, but were, in reality, assembled 
 to serve the Government of William. When in front of 
 Blair Castle, their real destination was disclosed to them 
 by Lord Tullibardine. Instantly they rushed from their 
 ranks, ran to the adjoining stream of Banovy, and, filling 
 their bonnets with water, drank to the health of King 
 James ; and then, with colours flying, and pipes playing, 
 " fifteen hundred of the men of Athole, as reputable for 
 armiS as any in the kingdom," * put themselves under the 
 command of the Laird of Ballechin, and marched off to 
 join Lord Dundee, whose chivalrous bravery, and heroic 
 and daring exploits, had excited their admiration more 
 than those of any other warrior since the days of Mon- 
 trose, t They knew him not as the "Bloody Clavers" of 
 
 * General Mackay's Memoirs. 
 
 t In this instance, the paramount principle of loyalty triumphed 
 over feudal influence. 
 
8o BATTLE OF KILLIECRANKIE. 
 
 the southern and western districts ; on the contrary, to 
 the Highlanders, he was always kind and condescending. 
 Soon after this defection, the battle of Killiecrankie, or of 
 Renrorie, (as the Highlanders call it), was fought, when 
 one of those incidents occurred which were too frequent 
 in turbulent times. Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, with 
 his clan, had joined Lord Dundee in the service of the 
 abdicated king, while his second son, a captain in the 
 Scotch Fusiliers, was under General Mackay on the side 
 of Government. As the General was reconnoitring the 
 Highland army drawn up on the face of a hill, a little 
 above the house of Urrard, and to the westward of the 
 great Pass, he turned round to young Cameron, who stood 
 next to him, and, pointing to the Camerons, " There," 
 said he, " is your father with his wild savages; how would 
 you like to be with him? "It signifies little," replied the 
 other, " what I would like ; but I recommend it to you 
 to be prepared, or perhaps my father and his wild savages 
 may be nearer to you before night than you would like." 
 And so it happened. Dundee delayed his attack " till," 
 according to an eyewitness, " the sun's going down, when 
 the Highlandmen advanced on us like madmen, without 
 shoes or stockings, covering themselves from our fire with 
 their targets. At last they cast away their muskets, drew 
 their broadswords, and advanced furiously upon us, broke 
 us, and obliged us to retreat ; some fled to the water, some 
 another way."* In short, the charge was like a torrent, 
 
 * The author of the Memoirs of Lord Dundee, speaking of this 
 battle, says, "Then the Highlanders fired, threw down their fusils, 
 rushed in with sword, target, and pistol, upon the enemy, who did 
 not maintain their ground two minutes after the Highlanders were 
 amongst them ; and I dare be bold to say, there were scarce ever 
 such strokes given in Europe, as were given that day l)y the High- 
 
KILLIECRANKIE. 8 1 
 
 and the rout complete ; but Dundee fell early in the 
 attack.* The consternation occasioned by the death of 
 
 landers. Many of General Mackay's officers and soldiers were cut 
 down through the skull and neck to the very breast ; others had 
 skulls cut off above their ears, like night-caps ; some soldiers had 
 both their bodies and cross-belts cut through at one blow ; pikes 
 and small swords were cut like willows ; and whoever doubts of 
 this, may consult the witnesses of the tragedy." 
 
 * It has generally been believed that Lord Dundee was killed at 
 
 the close of the action ; but the following extract of a letter from 
 
 James VII. to Stewart of Ballechin, who commanded the Atholemen 
 
 after their desertion from Lord TuUibardine, shows that he fell early. 
 
 " Frofii otir Court at Dublin Castle, the last day of 
 
 Nove?nher i68g, and the fifth year of our reign. 
 
 "James R. 
 
 "The news we have received of the brave Viscount Dundee's 
 death has most sincerely affected us. But we are resolved, by extra- 
 ordinary' marks of favour, to make his family conspicuous, when the 
 world may see lasting honours and happiness are to be acquired by 
 the brave and loyal. What he has so happily begun, and you so 
 successfully maintained, by a thorough defeat of your enemies, we 
 shall not doubt a generous prosecution of, when we consider that the 
 Highland loyalty is inseparably annexed to the persons of their kings: 
 Nor no ways fear the event, whilst the justice of our cause shall be 
 seconded by so many bold and daring assertors of our loyal right. If 
 their courage and yours, and the rest of the commanders under you, 
 were not steady, the loss you had in a General you loved and con- 
 fided in, at your entrance into action, with so great inequality of 
 numbers, were enough to baffle you ; but you have showed yourselves 
 above surprise, and given us proof that we are, in a great measure, 
 like to owe the re-establishment of our monarchy to yotir valour. We 
 are therefore resolved to send immediately our Right Trusty the Earl 
 of Seaforth, to head his friends and followers ; and as soon as the 
 season will permit the shipping of horse, our beloved natural son, the 
 Duke of Berwick, with considerable succours, will be sent to your 
 assistance." * * * * 
 
 Addressed " To our Trusty and well beloved 
 Cousin, Stewart of Ballechan." 
 G 
 
82 ATTACHMENT TO A FOSTER-BROTHER. 
 
 the General prevented an immediate pursuit through the 
 great Pass. Had they been closely followed, and had a 
 few men been placed at the southern entrance, not a 
 man of the king's troops would have escaped. This un- 
 interrupted retreat caused General Mackay to conclude, 
 that some misfortune had befallen Lord Dundee. " Cer- 
 tainly," said he, " Dundee has been killed, or I should 
 not thus be permitted to retreat." 
 
 The 2 1 St, or Scotch Fusiliers, was on the left of 
 General Mackay's front line, Hastings' and Leslie's (now 
 the 13th and 15th) regiments in the centre, and Lord 
 Leven's (now the 25th) on the right ; the whole consisting 
 of two regiments of cavalry, and nine battalions or detach- 
 ments of infantry, the strength of which is not particularly 
 specified. After the right of the line had given way, the 
 regiments on the centre and left (the left being covered 
 by the River Garry, and the right by a woody precipice 
 below the House of Urrard) stood their ground, and for a 
 short time withstood the shock of the Highlanders' charge 
 with the broadsword ; but at length they gave way on all 
 sides. Hastings' fled through the pass on the north side. 
 The Fusiliers, dashing across the river, were followed by 
 the Highlanders, one party of whom pressed on their 
 rear, while the others climbed up the hills on the side of 
 the pass, and, having expended their ammunition, rolled 
 down stones, and killed several of the soldiers before they 
 recrosscd the river at Invergarry. This was the only at- 
 tempt to pursue.* 
 
 * In this battle Lochiel was attended by the son of his foster- 
 brother. This faithful adherent followed him like his shadow, ready 
 to assist him with his sword, or cover him from the shot of the 
 enemy. Soon after the battle began, the chief missed his friend from 
 his side, and, turning round to look what had become of him, saw 
 
ATTACHMENT OF A FOSTER-BROTHER. 
 
 83 
 
 him lying on his back, with his breast pierced by an aiTow. He had 
 hardly breath before he expired to tell Lochiel, that seeing an enemy, 
 a Highlander in General Mackay's army, aiming at him with a bow 
 and arrow from the rear, he sprung behind him, and thus sheltered 
 him from instant death. This is a species of duty perhaps not often 
 practised by aids-de-camp. 
 
84 ARMS. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 A?'ms of the Clans. 
 
 In attempting to explain how a people living within their 
 mountains, in an uncultivated and sequestered corner of a 
 country, should, as warriors, prove a ready and efficient 
 support to their friends, and formidable to their enemies, 
 it may be proper, first of all, to describe their arms. These 
 consisted of a broadsword girded on the left side, and a 
 dirk, or short thick dagger, on the right, used only when 
 the combat was so close that the sword could be of no 
 service.* In ancient times they also carried a small 
 short-handled hatchet, or axe, to be used when they 
 closed upon the enemy. A gun, a pair of pistols, and a 
 target, completed their armour, t In absence of the mus- 
 ket, or when short of ammunition, they used the Lochaber 
 axe, a species of long lance, or pike, with a formidable 
 weapon at the end of it, adapted either for cutting or 
 stabbing. This lance had been almost laid aside since 
 the introduction of the musket ; but a ready substitute 
 
 * See Appendix, I. 
 
 t Rea, in the History of the Rebellion of 17 15, describing the 
 inarch of a party along the side of Lochlomond, says, "That night 
 they arrived at Luss, where they were joined by Sir Humphrey Col- 
 quhoun of Luss, and James Grant of Pluscarden, his son-in-law, 
 followed by forty or fifty stately fellows in their hose and belted 
 plaids, armed each of them with a well-fixed gun on their shoulders, 
 a strong handsome target, with a sharp pointed steel, of about half 
 an ell in length screwed into the navel of it, on his arm, a sturdy 
 claymore by his side, and a pistol or two, with a dirk and knife in 
 his belt." 
 
WARLIKE ARRAY. 85 
 
 was found, by fixing a scythe at the end of a. pole, with 
 which the Highlanders resisted the charge of cavalry, to 
 them the most formidable kind of attack. In 1745 
 many of the rebels were armed in this manner, till they 
 supplied themselves with muskets after the battles of 
 Prestonpans and Falkirk. Thus, the Highlanders united 
 the offensive arms of the moderns with the defensive arms 
 of the ancients. Latterly, the bow and arrow* seems to 
 have been but rarely used. This is the more remarkable, 
 as these weapons are peculiarly adapted to that species of 
 hunting which was their favourite amusement ; I allude to 
 the hunting of deer, or what is commonly called " deer- 
 stalking," where the great art consists in approaching the 
 animal unobserved, and in wounding him without dis- 
 turbing the herd. It is evident that the use of the bow 
 and arrow must have ceased long before the Disarming 
 Act, as we find in it no mention made of them, nor do we 
 learn that the Highlanders ever availed themselves of the 
 omission. 
 
 In addition to the weapons already mentioned, gentle- 
 men frequently wore suits of annour, and coats of mail. 
 With these, however, the common men seldom encum- 
 bered themselves, both on account of the expense, and be- 
 cause they were ill adapted to the hills and steeps of 
 their country, and to their frequent, long, and expeditious 
 marches. 
 
 Thus armed, the Highlanders were arrayed for battle, 
 in that order which was best calculated to excite a spirit 
 of emulation. Every clan was drawn up as a regiment, 
 and the companies in every regiment were formed of the 
 tribes or families of the clan. The regiments, thus com- 
 posed, were under the control of the head or chief of the 
 * See Appendix, K. 
 
86 COMMAND OF THE CLAN REGIMENTS. 
 
 whole, while the smaller divisions were under the im- 
 mediate command of the chieftains of whose families they 
 were descended, or of those who, from their property, 
 assumed the feudal rights of chieftainship. Thus, the 
 Athole Brigade, which was sometimes so numerous as 
 to form two, three, or more regiments, was always com- 
 manded by the head of the family of Atholl, in person, or 
 by a son or friend in his stead. At the beginning of the 
 last century, as we learn from the Lockhart Papers, " the 
 Duke of Atholl was of great importance to the party of the 
 Cavahers, being able to raise 6000 of the best men in the 
 kingdom, well armed, and ready to sacrifice their all for 
 the king's service." 
 
 In 1707, his Grace took the field, with 7000 men of 
 his own followers, and others whom he could influence, 
 to oppose the Union with England.* With this force he 
 marched to Perth, in the expectation of being joined by 
 the Duke of Hamilton, and other noblemen and gentle- 
 men of the South ; but as they did not move, he pro- 
 
 * A friend of mine, the late Mr Stewart of Crossmount, carried 
 arms on that occasion, of which he used to speak with great anima- 
 tion. He died in January 1791, at the age of 104, having been 
 previously in perfect possession of all his faculties, and in such full 
 habit of body, that his leg continued as well formed and compact as 
 at forty. He had a new tooth at the age of ninety-six. Mrs Stew- 
 art, to whom he had been married nearly seventy years, died on the 
 Tuesday preceding his death. He was then in perfect health, and 
 sent to request that my father, who lived some miles distant, would 
 come to him. When he arrived the old man desired that the funeral 
 should not take place for eight days, saying, that he had now out- 
 lived his oldest earthly friend, and prayed sincerely that he might be 
 laid in the same grave. He kept his bed the second morning after 
 her death, and died the following day, without pain or complaint. 
 They were buried in the same grave on the succeeding Tuesday, 
 according to his wish. 
 
MODE OF ATTACK. 87 
 
 ceeded no farther, and, disbanding his men, returned 
 to the Highlands. In 17 15, the Atholemen were com- 
 manded by the Marquis of TuUibardine, and in 1745 by 
 his brother, Lord George Murray ; but the smaller divi- 
 sions and tribes were under the command of gentlemen, 
 who had the entire direction of their own followers, yield- 
 ing obedience to the superior only in general movements. 
 In consequence of this arrangement, each individual was 
 under the immediate eye of those he loved an feared. 
 His clansmen and kindred were the witnesses of his con- 
 duct, and ready either to applaud his bravery, reproach 
 his cowardice, or observe any failure of duty. 
 
 Before commencing the attack, they frequently put off 
 their jackets and shoes, that their movements might not 
 be impeded. Their advance to battle was a kind of trot, 
 such as is now, in our light infantry discipline, called 
 double-quick marching. When they had advanced with- 
 in a few yards of the enemy, they poured in a volley of 
 musketry, which, from the short distance, and their con- 
 stant practice as marksmen, was generally very effective ; 
 then dropping their muskets, they dashed forward sword 
 in hand, reserving their pistols and dirks for close action. 
 " To make an opening in regular troops, and to conquer, 
 they reckoned the same thing, because, in close engage- 
 ments, and in broken ranks, no regular troops would with- 
 stand them."* When they closed with the enemy, they 
 received the points of the bayonets on their targets ; and 
 thrusting them aside, resorted to their pistols and dirks, 
 to complete the impression made by the musket and 
 broadsword. It was in this manner that the Athole High- 
 landers and the Camerons, who were on the right of Prince 
 Charles Edward's followers at Culloden, charged the left 
 
 * Dalrymple's Memoirs. 
 
88 EXAMPLE AT CULLODEN. 
 
 wing of the royal army. After breaking through Barrell's 
 and Munro's (the 4th and 37th Regiments), which formed 
 the left of the royal army, they pushed forward to charge 
 the second line, composed of Bligh's and Semple's (the 
 20th and 25th Regiments). Here their impetuosity met 
 an effectual check, by the fire of those corps, when they 
 came within a few yards, and still more by Wolfe's (the 
 8th Foot), and Cobham's and Lord Mark Kerr's (the loth 
 and lith Light Dragoons), who had formed en potence on 
 their right flank, and poured in a most destructive fire 
 along their whole line. At the same moment they were 
 taken in rear by the Argyle, and some companies of Lord 
 Loudon's Highlanders, who had advanced in that direc- 
 tion, and had broken down an old wall that covered the 
 right of the rebels. By this combination of attacks in 
 front, right flank, and rear, they were forced to give up 
 the contest, and to charge back again, sword in hand, 
 through those who had advanced and formed on the 
 ground they had passed over in charging to their front. 
 In this desperate conflict they left half their number dead 
 on the field. The same kind of charge was made by the 
 Stewarts of Appin; Erasers, and Mackintoshes upon the 
 regiments in their front. These were the Scotch Fusiliers 
 and Ligonier's (the 21st and 48th Regiments,) which they 
 drove back upon the second line, but, being unable to 
 penetrate, numbers were cut down at the mouths of the 
 cannon, before they gave up the contest.* The Reverend 
 
 * Home in his History of the Rebellion, says that the " Athole 
 brigade, in advancing, lost thirty-two officers, and was so shattered 
 that it stopped short, and never closed with the king's troops." The 
 Athole brigade had not so many officers in the field ; nineteen 
 officers were killed, and four wounded. Many gentlemen who 
 served in the ranks were killed, which might occasion the mistake. 
 I have conversed with several who were in the battle, and among 
 
EXAMPLE AT CULLODEN. 89 
 
 Dr Shaw, in his manuscript History of the RebelHon, 
 says, " The enemy's attack on the left wing of the royal 
 
 others, with one gentleman still alive (1821) in my neighbourhood, 
 all of whom differed from Mr Home's account. 
 
 Mr Home, during some years, spent part of every summer in the 
 Highlands, ostensibly for the benefit of his health and for amusement, 
 but actually in collecting materials for his history. The respectability 
 of his character, and the sauvity of his manners, procured him every- 
 where a good reception. But his visits were principally made to 
 Jacobite families, to whom the secret history of those times was 
 familiar. They told him all they knew with the most unreserved 
 confidence ; and nothing could exceed their disappointment when 
 the history appeared, and proved to be a dry detail of facts univers- 
 ally known, while the rich store of authentic and interesting anec- 
 dotes, illustrative of the histoiy of the times, and of the peculiar 
 features of the Highland character, with which they had furnished 
 him, had been neglected or concealed, from an absurd dread of giv- 
 ing offence to the Royal Family by a disclosure of the cruelties 
 wantonly practised, or by relating circumstances creditable to the 
 feelings and character of the unfortunate sufferers. It is now very 
 well known with what generous sympathy the late king viewed the 
 sacrifice to mistaken .loyalty, and the countenance and protection 
 which he afforded to such individuals as lived to see him on the 
 throne, and which he extended to their descendants. It is equally 
 well known that there is not one individual in his family who would 
 not hsten with deep interest to the details of the chivalrous loyalty, 
 the honourable sacrifices, and the sufferings sustained with patience 
 and fortitude by those who are long since gone to their account, and 
 who are no more objects of dislike or hostility to them than Hector 
 or King Priam. 
 
 The only way in which the meagreness of this long meditated 
 history can possibly be accounted for, in reference to the high name 
 of the author, and the expectations entertained by the public, is the 
 circumstance of an accident which befel Mr Home a few years before 
 the publication of this work. In travelling through Ross-shire, his 
 carriage was overturned, and he received a severe contusion on the 
 head, which had such an effect upon his nerves, that both his 
 memory and judgment were very considerably affected ever after. 
 
90 EXAMPLE AT CULLODEN. 
 
 army was made with a view to break that wing, to run it 
 into disorder, and then to communicate the disorder to 
 the whole army. This could not easily be effected, when 
 a second and third line were ready to sustain the first. 
 But it must be owned the attack was made with the 
 greatest courage, order, and bravery, amidst the hottest 
 fire of small arms, and continued fire of cannon with 
 grape-shot, on their flanks, front, and rear. They ran in 
 upon the points of the bayonets, hewed down the soldiers 
 with their broadswords, drove them back, put them into 
 disorder, and possessed themselves of two pieces of 
 cannon. The rebel's left wing did not sustain them in 
 the attack, and four fresh regiments coming up from the 
 Duke's second line under General Huske, they could not 
 stand under a continual fire both in front, in flank, and 
 rear, and therefore they retired. It was in this attack that 
 Lord Robert Kerr, having stood his ground, after Barrell's 
 regiment was broke and drove back, was killed." And 
 farther we learn from the Lockhart papers, that " Lord 
 George Murray attacked, at the head of the Atholemen, 
 who had the right of the army that day, with all the 
 bravery imaginable, as the whole army did, and broke 
 the Duke of Cumberland's line in several places, and 
 made themselves masters of two pieces of cannon, — 
 though they were both fronted and flanked by them, who 
 kept a close firing from right to left, — and marched up to 
 the points of their bayonets, which they could not see for 
 smoke till they were upon them." Such were the strength 
 and dexterity with which these people used their arms, if 
 not always to conquer, at least to amaze and confound 
 regular troops. 
 
HIGHLAND GARB. 91 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 The Highland Garb. 
 
 Among the circumstances that influenced the military- 
 character of the Highlanders, we must not omit their 
 peculiar garb, which, by its lightness and freedom, en- 
 abled them to use their hmbs, and handle their arms 
 with ease and dexterity, and to move with great speed 
 when employed with either cavalry or light infantr}\ In 
 the wars of Gustavus Adolphus, in the civil wars of 
 Charles I., and on various other occasions, they were 
 often mixed with the cavalry, affording to detached 
 squadrons the incalculable advantage of support from in- 
 fantry, even in their most rapid movements. The 
 author of " Memoirs of a Cavalier," speaking of the 
 Scottish army in 1640, says, "I observed that these 
 parties had always some foot with them, and yet if the 
 horses galloped or pushed on ever so forward, the foot 
 were as forward as they, which was an extraordinary 
 advantage. These were those they call Highlanders ; 
 they would run on foot \A\ki all their arms and all their 
 accoutrements, and keep very good order too, and kept 
 pace with the horses, let them go at what rate they 
 would." The almost incredible swiftness of these people, 
 o\\'ing, in a great measure, no doubt, to the lightness of 
 their dress, by which their movements were totally unen- 
 cumbered, constituted the military advantage of the garb ; 
 although, in the opinion of Lord President Forbes, it pos- 
 sessed others, which his Lordship stated in a letter ad- 
 dressed to the Laird of Brodie, at that time Lord Lyon 
 
92 HIGHLAND GARB. 
 
 for Scotland. " The garb is certainly very loose, and fits 
 men enured to it to go through great marches, to bear out 
 against the inclemency of the loeather^ to wade through 
 rivers, to shelter in huts, woods, and rocks, on occasions 
 when men dressed in the Low country garb could not en- 
 dure. And it is to be considered, that, as the High- 
 landers are circumstanced at present, it is, at least it 
 seems to me to be, an utter impossibility, without the 
 advantage of this dress, for the inhabitants to tend their 
 cattle, and go through the other parts of their business, 
 without which they could not subsist, not to speak of pay- 
 ing rents to their landlords." 
 
 The following account of the dress is from an author 
 who wrote prior to the year 1597. "They," the High- 
 landers, " delight in marbled cloths, especially that have 
 long strips of sundrie colours ;* they love chiefly purple 
 and blue ; their predecessors used short mantles, or plaids, 
 of divers colours, sundrie ways divided, and among some 
 the same custom is observed to this day ; but for the 
 most part now, they are brown, most near to the colour 
 of the hadder, to the effect when they lye among the 
 hadders, the bright colour of their plaids shall not be- 
 wray them, with the which rather coloured than clad, 
 they suffer the most cruel tempests that blow in the open 
 
 * From Remarks on the Chartularies of Aberdeen, by John 
 Graham Dalyell, Esquire, we learn that these Chartularies contain 
 general Statutes and Canons of the Scottish Church for the years 
 1242 and 1249, as also private regulations and ordinances for the 
 See of Aberdeen from 1256 downwards. In these ordinances it is 
 enacted, that " Ecclesiastics are to be suitably apparelled, avoiding 
 red, green, and striped clothing, and their garments shall not be 
 shorter than to the middle of the leg,'" that is, they are not to wear 
 tartan plaids, and kilts. 
 
HIGHLAND GARB. 95 
 
 fields, in such sort, that in a night of snow they sleep 
 sound." * The dress of the Highlanders was so peculi- 
 arly accommodated to the warrior, the hunter, and the 
 shepherd, that, to say nothing of the cruelty and im- 
 policy of opposing national predilections, much dis- 
 satisfaction was occasioned by its suppression, and the 
 rigour with which the change was enforced. People in a 
 state of imperfect civilization retain as much of their 
 ancient habits, as to distinguish them strongly from the 
 lower orders in more advanced society. The latter, more 
 laborious, less high-minded, and more studious of conveni- 
 ence and comfort, are less solicitous about personal ap- 
 pearance, and less ;villing to bear personal privations in re- 
 gard to food and accommodation. To such privations the 
 former readily submit, that they may be enabled to procure 
 arms and habiliments which may set off to advantage a per- 
 son unbent and unsubdued by conscious inferiority, with 
 limbs unshackled, and accustomed to move with ease and 
 grace. The point of personal decoration once secured, 
 it mattered not to the Highlander that his dwelling was 
 mean, his domestic utensils scanty, and of the simplest 
 construction, and his household furniture merely such as 
 could be prepared by his own hands. He was his own 
 cooper, carpenter, and shoemaker, while his wife improved 
 the value of his dress by her care and pride in preparing 
 the materials. To be his own tailor or weaver he thought 
 beneath him : these occupations were left to such as, 
 from deficiency in strength, courage, or natural ability, 
 were disquaHfied for the field or the chase. Gentlemen on 
 horseback, old men, and others, occasionally wore the 
 
 * Certayne Mattere conceiiiing Scotland. London, printed 
 1603. 
 
^4 HIGHLAND GARB. 
 
 truis.* These were both breeches and stockings in one 
 piece, made to fit perfectly close to the limbs, and were 
 always of tartan, though the coat or jacket was sometimes 
 of green, blue, or black cloth. The waistcoat and short 
 coat were adorned with silver buttons, tassels, embroidery, 
 or lace, according to the fashion of the times, or the taste 
 of the wearer. But the arrangements of the belted plaid 
 were of the greatest importance in the toilet of a High- 
 landman of fashion. This was a piece of tartan two yards 
 in breadth, and four in length, which surrounded the 
 waist in large plaits, or folds, adjusted with great nicety, 
 and confined by a belt, buckled tight round the body, 
 and while the lower part came down to the knees, the 
 other was drawn up and adjusted to the left shoulder, 
 leaving the right arm uncovered, and at full liberty. In 
 wet weather, the plaid was thrown loose, and covered both 
 shoulders and body ; and when the use of both arms was 
 required, it was fastened across the breast by a large silver 
 bodkin, or circular brooch, often enriched with precious 
 stones, or imitations of them, having mottoes engraved, 
 consisting of allegorical sentences, or mottoes of armorial 
 bearings. These were also employed to fix the plaid on 
 the left shoulder. A large purse of goat's or badger's 
 skin, answering the purpose of a pocket, and ornamented 
 with a silver or brass mouthpiece, and many tassels, hung 
 before. t A dirk, with a knife and fork stuck in the side 
 
 * See Appendix, L, My grandfather always wore the Highland 
 garb except when in mourning ; that is, the truis on horseback, and 
 the kilt when at home. 
 
 t The ladies have recently adopted this purse, as a substitute for 
 the female pocket, which has disappeared. The form and mouth- 
 pieces of the Reticule are a perfect model of the Highlanders' purses. 
 In 1824, the ladies have farther followed the fashion of the ancient 
 
HIGHLAND GARB. 95 
 
 of the sheath, and sometimes a spoon, together with a pair 
 of steel pistols, were essential accompaniments. The bon- 
 net, which gentlemen generally wore with one or more 
 feathers completed the national garb. The dress of the 
 common people differed only in the deficiency of finer or 
 brighter colours, and of silver ornaments, being otherwise 
 essentially the same ; a tuft of heather, pine, holly, oak, 
 etc., supplying the place of feathers in the bonnet. The 
 garters were broad and of rich colours, wrought in a small 
 primitive kind of loom, the use of which is now little 
 known, — and formed a close texture, which was not liable 
 to wrinkle, but which kept the pattern in full display.* 
 The silver buttonst were frequently found among the 
 better and more provident of the lower ranks, — an inherit- 
 ance often of long descent.^ The belted plaid, which 
 
 Highlanders, by adopting, as a new fashion, a bell with a square 
 Tjuckle, exactly of the same form and manufacture as that used in old 
 times, only that the modern belt is of course not so broad, and the 
 size of the buckle is less. 
 
 * These garters are still made on the estate of General Campbell 
 of Monzie, and on the banks of Lochow in Argyleshire. 
 
 t The officers of the Highland regiments of Mackay's and 
 Munro's, who served under Gustavus Adolphus, in the wars of 1626 
 and 1638, "in addition to rich buttons, wore a gold chain round the 
 neck to secure the owner, in case of being wounded or taken prisoner, 
 good treatment, or payment for future ransom." In the Highlands, 
 buttons of large size, and of solid silver, were worn, that, in the event 
 of falling in battle, or dying in a strange country, and at a distance 
 from their friends and their home, the value of the buttons might 
 defray the expenses of a decent funeral. 
 
 Il: "The women," says Martin, "wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, 
 closed at the end as men's vests, with gold lace round them, having 
 plate buttons set with fine stones. The head-dress was a fine ker- 
 
96 HIGHLAND GARB. 
 
 was generally double, or in two folds, formed, when let 
 down so as to envelop the whole person, a shelter from 
 the storm, and a covering in which the wearer wrapt 
 himself up in full security, when he lay down fearlessly 
 among the heather. Thus, if benighted in his hunting ex- 
 cursions, or on a distant visit, he by no means considered 
 it a hardship ; nay, so little was he disturbed by the petty 
 miseries which many feel from inclement weather, that, 
 in storms of snow, frost, or wind, he would dip the plaid 
 in water, and, wrapping himself up in it when moistened, 
 lie down on the heath. The plaid thus swelled with 
 moisture was supposed to resist the wind, so that the ex- 
 halation from the body during sleep might surround the 
 wearer with an atmosphere of warm vapour. Thus their 
 garb contributed to form their constitutions in early life 
 for the duties of hardy soldiers, while their habits, their 
 mental recollections, and the fearless spirit they nourished, 
 rendered them equally intrepid in the attack, and firm in 
 resisting an enemy. 
 
 In dyeing and arranging the various colours of their 
 tartans, they displayed no small art and taste, preserving 
 at the same time the distinctive patterns (or sets, as they 
 were called) of the different clans, tribes, families, and 
 
 chief of linen strait about the head.* The plaid was tied before on 
 the breast, with a buckle of silver or brass, according to the quality 
 of the person. I have seen some of the former of one hundred 
 merles value, with the figures of various animals curiously engraved. 
 A lesser buckle was worn in the middle of the larger. It had in the 
 centre a large piece of cr}'Stal, or some finer stone, and this was set 
 round with several precious stones of a lesser size." 
 
 * This is still worn by old women in Breadalbane, Fortingal, and 
 other districts in Perthshire ; and the silver buckles or brooch, richly 
 ornamented with stones, are still preserved in families as relics of 
 ancient fashions. 
 
OF THE COSTUME. 97 
 
 districts. Thus a Macdonald, a Campbell, a Mackenzie, 
 etc., was known by his plaid ; and in like manner the 
 Athole, Glenorchy, and other colours of different dis- 
 tricts, were easily distinguishable. Besides those general 
 divisions, industrious housewives had patterns, distin- 
 guished by the set, superior quality, and fineness of the 
 cloth, or brightness and variety of the colours. In those 
 times when mutual attachment and confidence subsisted 
 between the proprietors and occupiers of land in the 
 Highlands, the removal of tenants, except in remarkable 
 cases, rarely occurred, and consequently, it was easy to 
 preserve and perpetuate any particular set, or pattern, 
 even among the lower orders.* 
 
 I have dwelt the longer on the particulars of this cos- 
 tume, as much of the distinctive character of the people 
 was connected with it. In Eustace's Classical Tour, he 
 has some ingenious strictures on the European habit con- 
 trasted with the Asiatic costume. The former, he says, is 
 
 * At Inch Ewan, in Breadalbane, a family of the name of Mac- 
 nab occupied the same farm, for nearly four centuries, till within 
 these few years, the last occupier resigned. A race of the name of 
 Stewart, in Glenfinglas, in Menteith, has for several centuries pos- 
 sessed the same farms, and, from the character and disposition of the 
 present noble character (the Earl of Moray) it is probable that, with- 
 out some extraordinary cause, this respectable and prosperous com- 
 munity will not be disturbed. It would be endless to give instances 
 o the great number of years during which the same families possessed 
 their farms, in a succession as regular and unbroken as that of the 
 landlords. The family of Macintyre possessed the farm of Glenoe, in 
 Nether Lorn, from about the year 1300 down till 18 10. They were 
 originally foresters of Stewart, Lord Lorn, and were continued in 
 their possession and employments after the succession of the Glen- 
 orchy and Breadalbane families to this estate by a marriage with a 
 co-heiress of the last Lord Lorn of the Stewart family in the year 
 
 U3S. 
 
 H 
 
98 OF THE COSTUME. 
 
 Stiff, formal, confined, full of right angles, and so unlike 
 the drapery which invests the imperishable forms of grace 
 and beauty left us by ancient sculptors, as to offer a re- 
 volting contrast to all that is flowing, easy, and pictur- 
 esque in costume. The Asiatic dress, he observes, is 
 only suited to the cumbrous pomp, and indolent effemin- 
 acy of Oriental customs ; it impedes motion, and encum- 
 bers the form which it envelops. In one corner of 
 Great Britain, he continues, a dress is worn by which 
 these two extremes are avoided ; it has the easy folds of 
 a drapery, which takes away from the constrained and 
 angular air of the ordinary habits, and is, at the same 
 time, sufficiently light and succinct to answer all the pur- 
 poses of activity and ready motion. With some obvious 
 and easy alterations, he thinks it might, in many cases, 
 be adopted with advantage. 
 
BARDS — PIPERS. 99 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Bards— Pipe7's — Music. 
 
 While the common people amused themselves, as I 
 will have occasion to notice afterwards, with recitals of 
 poetr}^ and imaginary or traditionary tales, every chief 
 had his bard, whose office it was to celebrate the warlike 
 deeds of the family and of individuals of the clan ; to 
 entertain the festive board with the songs of Ossian, of 
 Ullin, and of Oran ; and to raise the feelings and energies 
 of the hearers by songs and narratives, in which the ex- 
 ploits of their ancestors and kinsmen were recorded. The 
 bards were an important order of men in Highland society. 
 In the absence of books they constituted the library, and 
 concentrated the learning of the tribe. By retentive 
 memories, indispensable requisites in their vocation, they 
 became the living chronicles of past events, and the de- 
 positaries of popular poetry. They followed the clans to 
 the field, where they eulogized the fame resulting from a 
 glorious death, and held forth the honour of expiring in 
 the arms of victor}^ in defence of their beloved country, 
 as well as the disgrace attending dastardly conduct or 
 cowardly retreat. Before the battle they passed from 
 tribe to tribe, and from one party to another, gi\ing to all 
 exhortations and encouragement; and when the com- 
 mencement of the fight rendered it impossible for their 
 voice to be heard, they were succeeded by the pipers, who, 
 with their inspiring and warhke strains, kept alive the en- 
 thusiasm which the bard had inspired. When the con- 
 test was decided, the duties of these two public function- 
 
lOO IMPORTANCE OF THEIR OFFICE. 
 
 aries again became important. The bard was employed 
 to honour the memory of the brave who had fallen, to 
 celebrate the actions of those who survived, and to excite 
 them to future deeds of valour. The piper, in his turn, 
 was called upon to sound mournful lamentations for the 
 slain, and to remind the survivors how honourably their 
 friends had died. By connecting the past with the present, 
 by showing that the warlike hero, the honoured chief, or 
 the respected parent, who, though no longer present to 
 his friends, could not die in their memory ; and that, 
 though dead, he still survived in fame, and might sympa- 
 thise with those whom he had left behind, a magnanimous 
 contempt of death was naturally produced, and sedulously 
 cherished. It has thus become a singular and character- 
 istic feature of Highland sentiment, to contemplate with 
 easy familiarity the prospect of death, which is con- 
 sidered as merely a passage from this to another state of 
 existence, enlivened with the assured hope of meeting 
 their friends and kindred who had gone before them, and 
 of being followed by those whom they should leave behind. 
 The effect of this sentiment is perceived in the anxious 
 care with which they provide the necessary articles for 
 a proper and becoming funeral. Of this they speak with 
 an ease and freedom, equally remote from affectation or 
 presumption, and proportioned solely to the inevitable cer- 
 tainty of the event itself. Even the poorest and most desti- 
 tute endeavour to lay up something for this last solemnity. 
 To be consigned to the grave among strangers, without 
 the attendance and sympathy of friends, and at a distance 
 from their family, was considered a heavy calamity ;* and 
 
 * This feeling still exists with considerable force, and may afford 
 an idea of the despair which must actuate people when they can 
 bring themselves to emigrate from a beloved country, hallowed by 
 
IDEA OF DEATH FAMILIAR. TO I 
 
 even to this day, people make the greatest exertions to 
 carry home the bodies of sucH relations 'as ha'pp'en to 
 die far from the ground halldv/ed by the -ashes of their 
 forefathers. "A man well 'knovrh to th'e writer of -tJhese 
 pages," says Mrs Grant, " was remarkable for his filial 
 affection, even among the sons and daughters of the moun- 
 tains, so distinguished for that branch of piety. His 
 mother being a widow, and having a numerous family, 
 who had married very early, he continued to live single, 
 that he might the more sedulously attend to her comfort, 
 
 the remains of their forefathers, and where they so anxiously desired 
 that their own bones might be laid. Lately, a woman aged ninety- 
 one, but in perfect health, and in possession of all her faculties, went 
 to Perth from her house in Strathbraan, a few miles above Dunkeld. 
 A few days after her arrival in Perth, where she had gone to visit a 
 daughter, she had a slight attack of fever. One evening a consider- 
 able quantity of snow had fallen, and she expressed great anxiety, 
 particularly when told that a heavier fall was expected. Next morn- 
 ing her bed was found empty, and no trace of her could be discovered, 
 till the second day, when she sent word that she had slipt out of the 
 house at midnight, set off on foot through the snow, and never stopped 
 till she reached home, a distance of twenty miles. When questioned 
 some time afterwards why she went away so abruptly, she answered, 
 " If my sickness had increased, and if I had died, they could not 
 have sent my remains home through the deep snows. If I had told 
 my daughter, perhaps she would have locked the door upon me, to 
 prevent my going out in the storm, and God forbid that my bones 
 should lie at such a distance from home, and be buried among 
 Goill-na-machair^ ' the strangers of the plain.' " 
 
 Now, since this woman, who was born on the immediate borders 
 of the plains had such a dread of leaving her bones among strangers, 
 as she considered a people whom she was accustomed to meet fre- 
 quently, and among whom her daughter and family resided ; how 
 much stronger must this feeling be in the central and northern 
 Highlands, where the majority of the people never saw the plains or 
 their inhabitants ! 
 
I02 IDEA OF DEATH FAMILIAR. 
 
 and watch over her dedining years with the tenderest care. 
 On 'hef birth- day, he -always collected his brothers and 
 sisters, and all their families, to a sort of kindly feast, and 
 • m con-cliision, gave a toast^ not easily translated from the 
 .emphatic language, without circumlocution, — An easy and 
 decorous departure to my ?ndther, comes nearest to it.* 
 This toast, which would shake the nerves of fashionable 
 delicacy, was received with great applause, the old woman 
 remarking, that God had been always good to her, and 
 she hoped she would die as decently as she had lived; for 
 it is thought of the utmost consequence to die decently. 
 The ritual of decorous departure, and of behaviour to be 
 observed by the friends of the dying on that solemn occa- 
 sion, being fully established, nothing is more common than 
 to take a solemn leave of old people, as if they were going 
 on a journey, and pretty much in the same terms. People 
 frequently send conditional messages to the departed. If 
 you are permitted^ tell my dear brother, that I have merely 
 endured the world smce he left it, and that I have been very 
 kind to every creature he used to cherish, for his sake. I 
 have, indeed, heard a person of a very enlightened mind, 
 seriously give a message to an aged person, to deliver to a 
 child he had lost not long before, which she as seriously 
 promised to deliver, with the wonted salvo, if she was 
 permitted'' \ Speaking in this manner of death as a 
 common casualty, a Highlander will very gravely ask you 
 where you mean to be buried, or whether you would prefer 
 such a place of interment, as being near to that of your 
 ancestors. 
 
 * *' Crioch Onarach !" may you have an honourable exit or death, 
 ' is a common expression to a friend, in return for a kindly word 
 or action. 
 
 t Mrs Grant's Superstitions of the Highlanders. 
 
PECULIAR CHARACTER. IO3 
 
 With this freedom from the fear of death, they were, 
 and still are, enthusiastically fond of music and dancing, 
 and eagerly availed themselves of every opportunity of in- 
 dulging this propensity. * Possessing naturally a good ear 
 for music, they displayed great agility in dancing. Their 
 music was in unison with their character. They de- 
 hghted in the warlike high-toned notes of the bagpipes, 
 and were particularly charmed with solemn and melan- 
 choly airs, or Laments (as they call them) for their de- 
 ceased friends, — a feeling, of which their naturally sedate 
 and contemplative turn of mind rendered them pecuHarly 
 susceptible; while their sprightly reels and strathspeys 
 were calculated to excite the most exhilarating gaiety, and 
 to relieve the heart from the cares and inquietudes of life.t 
 
 Such were and still are some of the most striking and 
 peculiar traits in the character of this people. " Accus- 
 tomed to traverse tracts of country, which had never been 
 subjected to the hands of art, contemplating every day the 
 most diversified scenery, surrounded everywhere by wild 
 and magnificent objects, by mountains, lakes, and forests, 
 the mind of the Highlander is expanded, and partakes in 
 some measure of the wild sublimity of the objects with 
 
 * At harvest home, Hallowe'en, christenings, and every holiday, 
 the people assembled in the evenings to dance. At all weddings, 
 pipes and fiddles were indispensable. These weddings were some- 
 times a source of emolument to the young people, who supplied the 
 dinner and liquors, while the guests paid for the entertainment, more 
 agreeably to their circumstances and inclinations than in proportion 
 to the value of the entertainment itself. Next morning the relations 
 and most intimate friends of the parties re-assembled with offerings 
 of a cow, calf, an article of furniture, or whatever was thought 
 necessary for assisting the establishment of a young housekeeper. 
 See Appendix, M. 
 
 t See Appendix, N. 
 
I04 SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 which he is conversant. Pursuing the chase in regions 
 not peopled, according to their extent, he often finds him- 
 self alone, in a gloomy desert, or by the margin of the dark 
 frowning deep ; his imagination is tinged with pleasing 
 melancholy ; he finds society in tlie passing breeze, and 
 he beholds the airy forms of his fathers descending on the 
 skirts of the clouds. When the tempest howls over the 
 heath,* and the elements are mixed in dire uproar, he re- 
 cognises the airy spirit of the storm, and he retires to his 
 cave. Such is, at this day, the tone of mind which 
 characterises the Highlander, who has not lost the dis- 
 tinctive marks of his race by commerce with strangers ; 
 
 * Previous to a tempest, some mountains in the Highlands emit 
 a loud hollow noise like the roaring of distant thunder ; and the 
 louder the noise, the more furious will be the tempest, which it 
 generally precedes about twelve or twenty-four hours. From this 
 warning, when " the spirit of the mountain shrieks, "t the super- 
 stitious minds of the Highlanders presage many omens. Beinndouran 
 in Glenorchy, near the confines of Perth and Argyle, emits this 
 noise in a most striking manner. It is remarkable that it is emitted 
 only previous to storms of wind and rain. Before a fall of snow, 
 however furious the tempest, the mountain, which is of a conical 
 form, and 3500 feet in height, is silent. In the same manner several 
 of the great waterfalls in the Highland rivers and streams give 
 signals of approaching tempests and heavy falls of rain. Twenty- 
 four or thirty hours previous to a storm, the great falls on the River 
 Tummel, north of Shiehallain, emit a loud noise, which is heard at 
 the distance of several miles. The longer the course of the preced- 
 ing dry weather, the louder and the more similar to a continued roll 
 of distant thunder is the noise ; consequently, it is louder in summer 
 than in winter. When the rain commences the noise ceases. It 
 forms an unerring barometer to the neighbouring farmers. Why 
 mountains and waterfalls in serene mild weather emit such remark- 
 able sounds, and are silent in tempests and rains, might form an in- 
 teresting subject of physical inquiry. 
 
 + Ossian. 
 
SUPERSTITIONS. I05 
 
 and such, too, has been the picture which has been drawn 
 by Ossian."* Such scenes as these impressed the wami 
 imaginations of the Highlanders ^vith sentiments of awe 
 and sublimity; and without any moroseness or suUenness 
 of disposition, produced that serious turn of thinking so 
 remarkably associated with gaiety and cheerfulness. 
 
 * Dr Graham of Aberfoyle, on the Authenticity of Ossian. 
 
I06 MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 General inea7is of Subsistence — Filial Affection — Influence 
 of Custom — Disgrace attached to Cowardice^ etc. 
 
 In former times the population, which, as already stated, 
 appears to have been greater than at a later period, would 
 seem at first sight to have greatly exceeded the means 
 of subsistence, in a country possessing so small an extent 
 of land fit for cultivation. Their small breed of cattle 
 throve upon the poorest herbage, and was, in every re- 
 spect, well calculated for the country. In summer, the 
 people subsisted chiefly on milk, prepared in various 
 forms; while in winter they lived, in a great measure, on 
 animal food : the spring was with them a season of 
 severe abstinence. Many were expert fishers and hunters. 
 In those primitive times, the forest, heaths, and waters, 
 abounding with game and fish, were alike free to all, and 
 contributed greatly to the support of the inhabitants. 
 Now, when mountains and rivers are guarded with severe 
 restrictions, fish and game are become so scarce, as to be 
 of little benefit to the people, and to form only a few 
 weeks' amusement to the privileged.* 
 
 The little glens, as well as the larger straths, were, 
 however, peopled with a race accustomed to bear priva- 
 tions with patience and fortitude. Cheered by the enjoy- 
 ment of a sort of wild freedom, cordial attachments 
 bound their little societies together. A great check to 
 population was, however, found in those institutions and 
 habits, which, except in not preventing revengeful retalia- 
 
 * See Appendix, O. 
 
CHECKS ON POPULATION. IO7 
 
 tion and spoliations of cattle, served all the purposes for 
 which laws are commonly enforced. 
 
 While the country was portioned out amongst numer- 
 ous tenants, none of their sons were allowed to marry till 
 they had obtained a house, a farm, or some certain pro- 
 spect of settlement, unless, perhaps, in the case of a son, 
 who was expected to succeed his father. Cottagers and 
 tradesmen were also discouraged from marrying, till they 
 had a house, and the means of providing for a family. 
 These customs are now changed. The system of converting 
 whole tracts of country into one farm, and the practice of 
 letting lands to the highest bidder, without regard to the 
 former occupiers, and their future ruin or prosperity, occa- 
 sions gloomy prospects, and the most fearful and dis- 
 couraging uncertainty of tenure. Yet, as if in despite of 
 the theory of Malthus, these discouragements, instead of 
 checking population, have removed the restraint which the 
 prudent foresight of a sagacious peasantry had formerly im- 
 posed on early marriages. Having now no sure prospect 
 of a permanent settlement, by succeeding to the farms in- 
 herited by their fathers, nor a certainty of being per- 
 mitted to remain in their native country on any terftis, they 
 marry whenever inclination prompts them. The pro- 
 priety of marrying when young, they defend on this 
 principle, that their children might rise up around them, 
 while they are in the vigour of life, and able to provide for 
 their maintenance, and that they may thus ensure support 
 to their old age ; for no Highlander can ever forego the 
 hope, that, while he has children able to support him, he 
 will never be allowed to want. On the other hand, the 
 affection of children to their parents has led to the most 
 zealous exertions, and the greatest sacrifices in providing 
 for their support and comfort. Children are considered 
 
Io8 SENSE OF DUTY. 
 
 less as a present incumbrance, than as a source of future 
 assistance, and as the prop of dechning age. Whatever 
 their misfortunes might be, they beheve that, while their 
 offspring could work, they would not be left destitute. 
 It is pleasing to observe, that, among many changes of 
 character, this laudable feeling still continues in consider- 
 able force. If a poor man's family are under the necessity 
 of going to service, they settle among themselves which of 
 their number shall in turn remain at home, to take charge of 
 their parents, and all consider themselves bound to share 
 with them whatever they are able to save from their wages. 
 The sense of duty is not extinguished by absence 
 from the mountains. It accompanies the Highland soldier 
 amid the dissipations of a mode of life to which he has not 
 been accustomed. It prompts him to save a portion of 
 his pay, to enable him to assist his parents, and also to 
 work when he has an opportunity, that he may increase 
 their allowance, — at once preserving himself from idle 
 habits, and contributing to the happiness and comfort of 
 those who gave him birth. I have been a frequent 
 channel through which these offerings of filial bounty were 
 communicated, and I have generally found, that a threat 
 of informing their parents of misconduct, has operated 
 as a sufficient check on young soldiers, who always re- 
 ceived the intimation with a sort of horror. They knew 
 that the report would not only grieve their relations, but 
 act as a sentence of banishment against themselves, as 
 they could not return home with a bad or a blemished 
 character. Generals Mackenzie-Fraser and Mackenzie of 
 Suddie, who successively commanded the 78th High- 
 landers, seldom had occasion to resort to any other 
 punishments than threats of this nature, for several years 
 after the embodying of that regiment. 
 
PUNISHMENT BY A CHIEF. IO9 
 
 Honesty and fair dealing in their mutual transactions 
 were enforced by custom* as much as by established law, 
 and generally had a more powerful influence on their 
 character and conduct, than the legal enactments of later 
 periods. Insolvency was considered as disgraceful, and 
 prima facie a crime. " Bankrupts were forced to surren- 
 der their all, and were clad in a party coloured clouted 
 garment, with the hose of different sets, and had their 
 hips dashed against a stone in presence of the people, 
 by four men, each taking hold of an arm or a leg. This 
 punishment was called Ton cruaidh.'''' \ 
 
 Where courage is considered honourable and indis- 
 pensable, cowardice is of course held infamous, and 
 punished as criminal. Of the ignominy that attached to 
 it, Mrs Grant relates the following anecdote : "There was 
 a clan, I must not say what clan it is,% who had been for 
 ages governed by a series of chiefs singularly estimable, 
 and highly beloved, and who, in one instance, provoked 
 their leader to the extreme of indignation. I should ob- 
 serve that the transgression was partial, the culprits being 
 the inhabitants of one single parish. These, in a hasty 
 skirmish with a neighbouring clan, thinking discretion the 
 best part of valour, sought safety in retreat. A cruel 
 chief would have inflicted the worst of punishments — 
 banishment from the bounds of his clan, — which, indeed, 
 fell little short of the curse of Kehama. This good laird, 
 however, set bounds to his wrath, yet made their punish- 
 
 ■* See Appendix, P. 
 
 * The Reverend Dr McQueen'' s Dissertation. 
 
 X I may now mention, what the accomplished author suppressed, 
 that this chief was the Laird of Grant, grandfather of the late estim- 
 able representative of that honourable family. 
 
no CHASTITY. 
 
 ment severe and exemplary. He appeared himself with 
 all the population of the three adjacent parishes, at the 
 parish-church of the offenders, where they were all by 
 order convened. After divine service they were all 
 marched three times round the church, in presence of 
 their offended leader and his assembled clan. Each in- 
 dividual, on coming out of the church-door, was obliged 
 to draw out his tongue with his fingers, and then cry audi- 
 bly, ^Sudam bleidire'theich^ i. e. 'This is the poltroon who 
 fled,' and to repeat it at every corner of the church. 
 After this procession of ignominy, no other punishment 
 was inflicted, except that of being left to guard the dis- 
 trict when the rest was called out to battle." Mrs Grant 
 adds — " It is credibly asserted, that no enemy has seen 
 the back of any of that name ever since. And it is cer- 
 tain, that, to this day, it is not safe for any person of an- 
 other name to mention this circumstance in presence of 
 one of the affronted clan."* 
 
 Under the protection of the same principle, were 
 placed the fidelity of domestic attachment, and the sacred 
 obligation of the marriage vow. " The guilty person, 
 whether male or female, was made to stand in a barrel of 
 cold water at the church door, after which the delinquent, 
 clad in a wet canvas shirt, was made to stand before the 
 congregation, and at close of service the minister explained 
 the nature of the offence."+ 
 
 This punishment was, however, seldom necessary. 
 The crime was not frequent, and the separation of a married 
 couple among the common people almost unknown. 
 However disagreeable a wife might be to her husband, he 
 
 * Mrs Grant on the Superstitions of the Highlanders. 
 t Dr McQueen's Dissertation. 
 
CHASTITY. Ill 
 
 rarely contemplated the possibility of getting rid of her. 
 As his wife he bore with her failings : as the mother of his 
 children, he supported her credit: a separation would 
 have disgraced his family, and have entailed reproach on 
 his posterity. For the illicit intercourse between the 
 sexes, in an unmarried state, there was no direct punish- 
 ment beyond those established by the church; but, as 
 usual among the people, custom supplied the defect, by 
 establishing some marks of reprehension and infamy. 
 These were often of a nature \vhich showed a delicacy of 
 feeling, not to be expected among an uneducated people, 
 were it not that these established habits so well suppHed 
 the want of education, and of what is usually term civili- 
 zation. Young unmarried women never wore any close 
 head dress, but only the hair tied with bandages or some 
 slight ornament. This continued till marriage, or till 
 they attained a certain age; but if a young woman lost 
 her virtue and character, then she was obliged to wear a 
 cap, and never afterwards to appear with her hair un- 
 covered, in the dress of virgin innocence. Sir John 
 Dalrymple has observed of the Highlanders, "That to be 
 modest as w^ell as brave, to be contented with a few things 
 which Nature requires, to act and to suffer without com- 
 plaining, to be as much ashamed of doing anything 
 insolent or ungenerous to others, as of bearing it when 
 done to ourselves, and to die with pleasure to revenge 
 affronts offered to their clan or their country; these they 
 accounted their highest accomplishments." 
 
112 LOVE OF COUNTRY. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 Love of Country — Social Meetings — Traditional 
 Tales and Poetry. 
 
 It has often been remarked that the inhabitants of 
 mountainous and romantic regions are of all men the 
 most enthusiastically attached to their country. The 
 Swiss, when at a distance from home, are sometimes said 
 to die of the maladie du pays.'^ The Scotch High- 
 landers entertain similar feelings. The cause of this at- 
 tachment to their native land is the same in all. In a 
 rich and champaign country, with no marked or striking 
 features, no deep impression is made on the imagination 
 by external scenery. Its fertiHty is the only quality for 
 which the soil is valued ; and the only hope entertained 
 from it is realized by an abundant crop. In such a 
 country, the members of a community do not immedi- 
 ately depend for their happiness on mutual assistance or 
 friendly intercourse ; and thus an exclusive selfishness is 
 apt to supplant the social affections. Hence, too, in the 
 ordinary tenor of life, we seldom find amongst them any 
 thing calculated to catch the imagination, to excite the 
 feelings, or to give an interest to the records of memory ; 
 — no striking adventures — no daring or dangerous enter- 
 prises. Amongst them we seldom hear 
 
 * During last war a Swiss soldier, confined in the French prison 
 at Perth, was long in a lingering sickly state, from no other cause 
 that ths surgeon could discover but a constant longing and sighing 
 for his native country. I have frequently met with instances of the 
 same kind among Highland recruits. 
 
LOCAL ATTACHMENTS. II3 
 
 " Of moving accidents by flood and field, 
 
 Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' th' imminent deadly breach." 
 
 To the Highlanders such scenes and subjects were 
 congenial and familiar. The kind of Hfe which they led 
 exposed them to vicissitudes and dangers, which they 
 shared in common. They had perchance joined in the 
 chase or in the foray together, and remembered the ad- 
 ventures in which they all had participated. Their tra- 
 ditions refer to a common ancestry ; and their songs of 
 love and valour found an echo in general sympathy. In 
 removing from their homes, such a people do not merely 
 change the spot of earth on which they and their ances- 
 tors have lived. Mercenary and selfish objects are for- 
 gotten in the endearing associations entwined round the 
 objects which they have abandoned. Among a people 
 who cannot appreciate his amusements, his associations, 
 and his tastes, the expatriated Highlander naturally sighs 
 for his own mountains. Even in removing from one part 
 of the Highlands to another, the sacrifice was regarded as 
 severe.* 
 
 The poetical propensity of the Highlanders, which in- 
 
 * A single anecdote, selected from hundreds with which every 
 Highlander is familiar, will show the force of this local attachment. 
 A tenant of my father's, at the foot of Shichallain, removed, a good 
 many years ago, and followed his son to a farm which he had taken 
 at some distance lower down the country. One morning the old 
 man disappeared for a considerable time, and being asked on his re- 
 turn where he had been, he replied, "As I was sitting by the side 
 of the river, a thought came across me, that, perhaps, some of the 
 waters from Shichallain, and the sweet fountains that watered the 
 farm of my forefathers, might now be passing by me, and that if I 
 bathed they might touch my skin. I immediately stripped, and, 
 from the pleasure I felt in being surrounded by the pure waters of 
 Leidnabreilag (the name of the farm), I could not tear myself away 
 sooner." 
 
 I 
 
114 TRADITIONAL POETRY. 
 
 deed was the natural result of their situation, and their 
 peculiar institutions, is generally known. When adven- 
 tures abound they naturally give fervour to the poet's 
 song ; and the verse which celebrates them is listened to 
 with sympathetic eagerness by those who have similar 
 adventures to record or to repeat. Accordingly, the re- 
 citation of their traditional poetry was a favourite pas- 
 time with the Highlanders when collected round their 
 evening fire. The person who could rehearse the best 
 poem or song, and the longest and most entertaining 
 tale, whether stranger or friend, was the most acceptable 
 guest.* When a stranger appeared, after the usual in- 
 
 * When a boy, I took great pleasure in hearing these recitations, 
 and now reflect, with much surprise, on the ease and rapidity with 
 which a person could continue them for hours, without hesitation 
 and without stopping, except to give the argument or prelude to a 
 new chapter or subject. One of the most remarkable of these reciters 
 in my time was Duncan Macintyre, a native of Glenlyon, in Perth- 
 shire, who died in September i8i6, in his 93rd year. His memory 
 was most tenacious; and the poems, songs, and tales of which he 
 retained a perfect remembrance to the last, would fill a volume. 
 Several of the poems are in possession of the Highland Society of 
 London, who settled a small annual pension on INIacintyre a few 
 years before his death, as being one of the last who retained any re- 
 semblance to the ancient race of bards. When any surprise was ex- 
 pressed at his strength of memory, and his great store of ancient 
 poetry, he said, that in his early years, he knew numbers whose 
 superior stores of poetry would have made his own appear as nothing. 
 This talent was so general, that to multiply instances of it may appear 
 superfluous. 
 
 A few years ago the Highland Society of London sent the late 
 Mr Alexander Stewart f through the vSouthern Highlands to collect 
 a few remains of Gaelic poetry. When he came to my father's 
 house, a young woman in the immediate neighbourhood was sent 
 for, from whose recitations he wrote down upwards of 3000 lines ; 
 
 + He was grandson to the man who bathed in his native waters. 
 
POWERS OF MEMORY. II5 
 
 troductory compliments, the first question was, " Bheil 
 dad agad air na Fheinnf (Can you speak of the days 
 of Fingal ?) If the answer was in the affirmative, the 
 whole hamlet was convened, and midnight was usually 
 the hour of separation. At these meetings the women 
 regularly attended, and were, besides, in the habit of as- 
 sembling alternately in each other's houses, with their 
 distaffs, or spinning-wheels, when the best singer, or the 
 most amusing reciter, always bore away the palm. 
 
 The powers of memory and fancy thus acquired a 
 strength unexampled among the peasantry of any other 
 country, where recitation is not practised in a similar way, 
 and where, every thing being committed to paper, the 
 exercise of memory is less necessary. It is owing to this 
 ancient custom that we still meet with Highlanders who 
 can give a connected and minutely accurate detail of the 
 history, genealogy, feuds, and battles of all the tribes and 
 families in every district, or glen, for many miles round, 
 and for a period of several hundred years. They illus- 
 trated these details by a reference to any remarkable 
 stone, cairn,* tree, or stream, within the district ; con- 
 
 and, had she been desired, she could have given him as many more. 
 So correct was her memory, that, when the whole was read over to 
 her, the corrections were trifling. When she stopped to give the 
 transcriber time to write, she invariably took up the word immedi- 
 ately following that at which she stopped. This girl had pecuUar 
 advantages, as her father and mother possessed great stores of Celtic 
 poetry and traditions. Several specimens are in possession of the 
 Highland Society of London. 
 
 * A heap of stones was thrown over the spot where a person 
 happened to be killed or buried. Every passenger added a stone to 
 this heap, which was called a Cairn. Hence the Highlanders have a 
 saying, when one person serves another, or shows any civility, "I will 
 add a stone to your cairn;" in other words, I will respect your memory. 
 
Il6 POWERS OF MEMORY. 
 
 necting with each some kindred story of a fairy or ghost, 
 or the death of some person who perished in the snow, 
 by any sudden disaster, or by some accidental rencontre, 
 and embelUshing each with some tradition or anecdote. 
 Such topics formed their ordinary subject of conversation. 
 In the Lowlands, on the other hand, it is difficult to find 
 a person, in the same station of life, who can repeat from 
 memory more than a few verses of a psalm or ballad, 
 and who, instead of giving an historical detail of several 
 ages, and changes of families, is generally dumb, or per- 
 haps answers with a vacant stare of surprise when such 
 questions are asked. The bare description, however, of 
 such rencontres and accidents, among a people merely 
 warlike, how impetuous and energetic soever in character, 
 would have proved exceedingly monotonous, or fit only 
 to amuse or interest persons possessed of a few ideas and 
 obtuse feelings; but in the graphic delineations of the 
 Celtic narrator, the representation of adventures, whether 
 romantic or domestic, was enlivened by dramatic sketches, 
 which introduced him occasionally as speaking or convers- 
 ing in an appropriate and characteristic manner. This, 
 among people accustomed to embody the expressions of 
 passion and deep feehng in a powerful and pathetic elo- 
 quence, gave life and vigour to the narratives, and was, in 
 fact, the spirit by which these narratives were at once 
 animated and preserved.* 
 
 * Martin, speaking of the Highlanders of his time, says, " Several 
 of both sexes have a quick vein of poesy; and in their language 
 (which is very emphatic) they compose rhymes and verse, both of 
 which powerfully affect the fancy, and, in my judgment (which is not 
 singular in this matter), with as great force as that of any ancient or 
 modern poet I ever yet read. They have generally very retentive 
 memories. " 
 
LANGUAGE. II7 
 
 By this manner of passing their leisure time, and by 
 habitual intercourse with their superiors, they acquired 
 a great degree of natural good breeding, together with a 
 fluency of nervous, elegant, and grammatical expression, 
 niot easily to be conceived or understood by persons 
 whose dialect has been contaminated by an intermixture 
 of Greek, Latin, and French idioms. Their conversations 
 were carried on with a degree of ease, vivacity, and free- 
 dom from restraint, not usually to be met with in the 
 lower orders of society. The Gaelic language is singu- 
 larly adapted to this colloquial ease, frankness, and 
 courtesy. It contains expressions better calculated to 
 mark the various degrees of respect and deference due to 
 age, rank, or character, than are to be found in almost any 
 other language. These expressions are, indeed, peculiar 
 and untranslatable. A Highlander was accustomed to 
 stand before his superior with his bonnet in his hand, if 
 so permitted, (which was rarely the case, as few superiors 
 chose to be outdone in politeness by the people,) and his 
 plaid thrown over his left shoulder, with his right arm in 
 full action, adding strength to his expressions, while he 
 preserved a perfect command of his mind, his words, and 
 manners. He was accustomed, without showing the 
 least bashful timidity, to argue and pass his joke (for 
 which the language is also well adapted) with the greatest 
 freedom, naming the person whom he addressed by his 
 most familiar appellation.* Feeling thus unembarrassed 
 
 * If the individual was a man of landed property, or a tacksman of 
 an old family, he was addressed by the name of his estate or farm ; 
 if otherwise, by his christian name or patronymic. From these 
 patronymics many of our most ancient families, such as the Mac- 
 donalds, Macdougals, Macgregors, and others of the western and 
 southern clans, assumed their names, as well as the more modem 
 
Il8 MANNERS. 
 
 before his superior, he never lost the air of conscious 
 independence and confidence in himself, which was ac- 
 quired by his habitual use of arms ; " a fashion," as is 
 observed by a celebrated writer, "which, by accustoming 
 them to the instruments of death, removed the fear of 
 death itself, and which, from the danger of provocation, 
 made the common people as polite and as guarded in 
 their behaviour as the gentry of other countries."* 
 
 clans of the southern Highlanders, the Robertsons and Farquharsons, 
 the latter changing the Celtic mac to the Scottish soii^ as the Fergu- 
 sons have done, although this last is supposed to be one of the most 
 ancient names of any, as pronounced in Gaelic, in which language 
 the modern name Ferguson is totally unknown. The last instance 
 I knew of a person assuming the patronymic as a surname, was the 
 late General Reid, who died Colonel of the 88th Regiment in 1806, 
 and whom I shall have occasion to mention as an officer of the 42nd 
 Regiment, and as one of the most scientific amateur musicians of his 
 time. He was son of Alexander Robertson of Straloch, whose fore- 
 fathers, for more than three centuries, wei-e always called Barons 
 Rua, Roy, or Red. The designation was originally assumed by the 
 first of the family having red hair, and having got a royal grant of a 
 barony. Although the representative of the family was in all com- 
 panies addressed as Baron Rua, and as I have said, was known by 
 no other name, yet his signature was always Robertson, all the 
 younger children bearing that name. General Reid never observed 
 this rule ; and being the heir of the family, was not only called 
 Reid, but kept the name and signature of Reid : why he added the 
 letter i to Red I know not. The celebrated Kcarnach, Robert Rua 
 Macgregor, sometimes signed Rob Roy, or Red Robert. t 
 
 * Sir John Dalrymple's Memohs of Great Britain. 
 
 t See Appendix, Q. 
 
ATTACHMENT TO THE ANCIENT ROYAL RACE. II9 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 Attachment to the Exiled Fa??itly — Political differences 
 betveen the Loivlanders and the Highlanders — Disinte?-- 
 ested but mistaken feeling of Loyalty — Military conduct. 
 
 Under the House of Stuart, * the Highlanders en- 
 joyed a degree of freedom suited to the ideas of a high- 
 spirited people, proud of having, for a series of ages, 
 maintained their independence. The occasional inter- 
 ference of the royal authority, and the policy frequently 
 pursued, of employing one chief to punish another, and 
 of rewarding the successful rival with a share of the lands 
 forfeited by the vanquished, had a greater tendency to 
 perpetuate than to allay the endless feuds between differ- 
 ent clans and districts. It had another effect ; it turned 
 the exasperation of the subdued clan against those who 
 attacked them, and directing it from the person of a dis- 
 tant sovereign, whose power was sometimes so weak that 
 he had no other means of estabhshing his authority than 
 that of setting the clans in opposition to each other. In 
 this state of hostility, their rage and irritation being ex- 
 pended against their neighbours and rivals, the part the 
 Sovereign had taken attracted little notice ; and thus 
 loyalty and attachment to his person continued unshaken. 
 Of this we have striking instances in the case of the 
 Macdonalds of Cantyre and Islay, and the Macleans of 
 Duart, whose lands were forfeited and granted to the 
 Earl of Argyll in consequence of some acts of violence 
 committed in the course of their mutual feuds ; and yet 
 
 * See Appendix, R. 
 
I20 ATTACHMENT TO THE STUART FAMILY. 
 
 no people in the Highlands retained a stronger or more 
 lasting attachment and loyalty than these two clans. The 
 case was the same with the Macleods of the Lewis, whose 
 lands were granted to the Mackenzies ; and it is not a 
 little remarkable that the Macdonalds, Macleans, and 
 Macleods, with all their reverses and forfeitures, preserved 
 a kind of enthusiastic loyalty to their ancient sovereigns 
 and their descendants, — an attachment which was early 
 forgotten by those who were more favoured, and were 
 enriched by the grants of their estates. The actual inter- 
 ference of the Sovereign or any distant authority being 
 little felt by the Highlanders, it contributed to give them 
 an idea of independence, and fostered a kindly feeling 
 towards the King, whose severity was not immediately 
 felt, as few mandates came directly from him. Thus a 
 species of freedom and independence continued with 
 little interruption, and always accompanied with loyalty 
 and a high spirit, till after the reign of Charles I. and 
 during the Commonwealth, when Oliver Cromwell planted 
 garrisons in the heart of their country to punish them for 
 their loyalty during the civil wars. It was then that they 
 began to find their independence lowered, and their free- 
 dom restrained. This restraint, however, continued only 
 during the period of the Usurpation ; for soon after the 
 Restoration, the garrisons were withdrawn by Charles H. 
 in consideration of the eminent services rendered to his 
 father and himself in their adversity. The subsequent 
 measures adopted by King William helped greatly to 
 awaken and confirm the attachment of the Highlanders 
 to their ancient kings, while it increased their aversion to 
 the new monarch. 
 
 To these causes may in part be ascribed the eagerness 
 with which the Highlanders strove for the restoration of 
 
JACOBITE SONGS. 121 
 
 their ancient line of sovereigns. Another source of this 
 attachment may be traced to the feudal system itself. 
 When we take into account the implicit devotion of the 
 clans to the interests and the honour of their chiefs, we 
 may cease to wonder at their respect for a family, between 
 which and many of their chiefs a connection by birth, 
 marriage, and hereditary descent, was known to subsist. 
 This connection was nearly similar to that between the 
 chief and many members of his clan. The doctrine of 
 hereditary succession, and indefeasible right, never, in its 
 abstract sense, formed any part of their system. Acute 
 and inteUigent in regard to all objects within their view, 
 they had but vague and indefinite ideas of the limits of 
 royal power and prerogative. Their loyalty, like their re- 
 ligion, was a strong habitual attachment; the object of 
 which was beyond the reach of their observation, but not 
 beyond that of their affections. The Stuarts were the 
 only kings their fathers had obeyed and served. Of the 
 errors of their Government in regard to the English and 
 Saxons of the Lowlands, they were either ignorant or un- 
 qualified to judge. Poetry was here a powerful auxiliary 
 to prejudice. Burns has said that the " Muses are all 
 Jacobites." " There are few Scotchmen, even of the 
 present day," says Laing in his History of Scotland, 
 " whose hearts are not warmed by the songs which cele- 
 brate their independence, under their ancient race of 
 kings." The sympathy which we naturally cherish, when 
 the mighty are laid low, — the generous indignation ex- 
 cited by the abuse of power, or by insulted feeling, — and 
 the tender anguish with which the victims of mistaken 
 principle looked back from a foreign shore, where they 
 wandered in hopeless exile, to the land of their forefathers • 
 — these and similar themes were more susceptible of 
 
122 JACOBITE SONGS. 
 
 poetical embellishment than the support of a new and ill- 
 understood authority ; a subject not of feeling, but of that 
 cool and abstract reasoning which was the more un- 
 poetical for being sound and conclusive. Accordingly, 
 we find that the whole power of national song, during 
 that period, inclined towards the ancient dynasty; and 
 the whole force of the ludicrous, the popular, and the 
 pathetic, volunteered in the Jacobite service. It is be- 
 yond question, that the merit of these Jacobite songs 
 eclipsed, and still eclipses, every attempt at poetry on the 
 other side, which has produced little beyond a few scraps 
 of verses, in ridicule of the bare knees, the kilts, and bad 
 English of the Highlanders.* 
 
 The last great cause which I shall mention of the 
 attachment of the Highlanders to the House of Stuart, 
 was the difference of religious feelings and prejudices 
 that distinguished them from their brethren of the South. 
 This difference became sti iking at the Reformation, and 
 continued during the whole of the subsequent century. 
 While many Lowlanders were engaged in angry theo- 
 
 * Now, as the House of Hanover has not more loyal or devoted 
 subjects than the descendants of the honourable old Jacobites, it may 
 be permitted to notice a few of those popular songs which so power- 
 fully affected many of the last generation, and which continue to 
 aflford occasional amusement and pastime to the present : — " Hey 
 Johnnie Cope, are ye wauken yet?" " Hame, hame, it's hame I 
 would be, For I'm wearied of my life in this foreign countrie;" "A 
 health to them that I lo'e dear ;" " Kenmure's on and awa ;" *' The 
 King shall enjoy his ain ;" — all of which spoke to the heart in the 
 strong and simple language best suited to awaken its most powerful 
 emotions. When it is considered how many feel, and how few 
 reason, the power of popular poetry will be easily understood. Of 
 this the Government in 1746 seemed to be fully sensible; for great 
 numbers of the popular ballads and songs were bought up and 
 publicly burnt. 
 
RELIGION. 125 
 
 logical controversies, or adopted a more sour and forbid- 
 ding demeanour, the Highlanders retained much of their 
 ancient superstitions, and from their cheerful and poetical 
 spirit, were averse to long faces and wordy disputes. 
 They were, therefore, more inclined to join the Cavaliers 
 than the Roundheads, and were, on one occasion, em- 
 ployed by the ministry of Charles 11. to keep down the 
 republican spirits in the West of Scotland. The same 
 cause, among others, had previously induced them to join 
 the standard of Montrose. 
 
 It has been said by a celebrated author,* that the 
 Highlands of Scotland is the only country in Europe that 
 has never been distracted by religious controversy, or 
 suffered from religious persecution.t This is easily 
 
 * Dalrymple^ s Memoirs. 
 
 t Although they never suffered from religious persecutions, they 
 sometimes resisted a change in the mode of worship. The last 
 Episcopal clergyman of the parish of Glenorchy, Mr David Lindsay, 
 was ordered to surrender his charge to a Presbyterian minister then 
 appointed by the Duke of Argyll. When the new clergyman reached 
 the parish to take possession of his living, not an individual would 
 speak to him, and every door was shut against him, except Mr 
 Lindsay's, who received him kindly. On Sunday the new clergyman 
 went to church, accompanied by his predecessor. The whole popu- 
 lation of the district were assembled, but they would not enter the 
 church. No person spoke to the new minister, nor was there the 
 least noise or violence, till he attempted to enter the church, when 
 he was surrounded by twelve men fully armed, who told him he must 
 accompany them ; and, disregarding all Mr Lindsay's prayers and 
 entreaties, they ordered the piper to play the march of death, and 
 marched away with the minister to the confines of the parish. Here 
 they made him swear on the Bible that he would never return, or 
 attempt to disturb Mr Lindsay. He kept his oath. The Synod of 
 Argyle were highly incensed at this violation of their authority ; but 
 seeing that the people were determined to resist, no farther attempt 
 
124 RELIGION. 
 
 accounted for. The religion of the Highlanders was 
 founded on the simplest principles of Christianity, and 
 cherished by strong feehng. On this, also, was grounded 
 a moral education, without letters, (so far as regarded the 
 lower orders I mean; the middle* and higher classes 
 having, for many generations, been well educated,) and 
 transmitted to them from their forefathers, with which 
 was mixed a degree of honourable feeling t which never 
 forsook them in pubhc life, whether engaged in open 
 
 was made, and Mr Lindsay lived thirty years afterwards, and died 
 Episcopal minister of Glenorchy, loved and revered by his flock. 
 
 * See Appendix, S. 
 
 t One instance of the force of principle, founded on a sense of 
 honour, and its consequent influence, was exhibited in the year 1745, 
 when the rebel army lay at Kirkliston, near the seat of the Earl of 
 Stair, whose grandfather, when Secretary of State for Scotland in 
 1692, had transmitted to Campbell of Glenlyon, the orders of King 
 William for the massacre of Glencoe. Macdonald of Glencoe, the im- 
 mediate descendant of the unfortunate gentleman, who, with all his 
 family (except a child carried away by his nurse in the dark), fell a 
 sacrifice to this horrid massacre, had joined the rebels with all his 
 followers, and was then in West Lothian. Prince Charles, anxious 
 to save the house and property of Lord Stair, and to remove from 
 his followers all excitement to revenge, but at the same time not com- 
 prehending their true character, proposed that the Glencoe men should 
 be marched to a distance from Lord Stair's house and parks, lest the 
 remembrance of the share which his grandfather had had in the order 
 for extirpating the whole clan should now excite a spirit of revenge. 
 When the proposal was communicated to the Glencoe men, they 
 declared, that, if that was the case, they must return home. If they 
 were considered so dishonourable as to take revenge on an innocent 
 man, they were not fit to remain with honourable men, nor to sup- 
 port an honourable cause ; and it was not without much explanation, 
 and great persuasion, that they were prevented from marching away 
 the following morning. When education is founded on such principles, 
 the happiest effects are to be expected. 
 
RELIGION. 125 
 
 rebellion, as in 1745, or as loyal subjects fighting the 
 battles of their country, in after periods. 
 
 " The two principal distinctions in the religion of 
 the Highlanders are the Presbyterian and the Roman 
 Catholic. The latter, with few exceptions, is confined 
 to the County of Inverness, particularly to the districts 
 of Lochaber, Moidart, Arasaig, Morar, Knoidart, and 
 Strathglass, and to the Islands of Canna, Eig, South 
 Uist, and Barra, where the adherents to the religion of 
 their ancestors are equal, if not superior in number, to 
 the disciples of the Reformation. There are likewise a 
 few Episcopalians, chiefly among the gentry. 
 
 " The religion of a Highlander is peaceable and un- 
 obtrusive. He never arms himself with quotations from 
 Scripture to carry on offensive operations. There is no 
 inducement for him to strut about in the garb of piety, 
 in order to attract respect, as his own conduct insures it. 
 Not being perplexed by doubt, he wants no one to cor- 
 roborate his faith. Upon such a subject, therefore, he 
 is silent, unless invited to conversation, and then he 
 entertains it with solemnity and reverence. The re- 
 lationship betweenJiim and his Creator is more in his 
 heart than on his tongue. I believe his religious feehngs 
 to be as sincere as they are simple and unassuming, and 
 that moral precepts are more congenial to his disposition 
 than mysteries. 
 
 "Another circumstance, still more astonishing, is, 
 that Protestants and Papists, so often pronounced to be 
 eternally inimical, live here in charity and brotherhood. 
 On neither side is humanity forgotten in their doctrine 
 of divinity. In Fort- William there is the Scotch church, 
 and the Episcopal and the Roman Catholic chapels. The 
 inhabitants of the town, and of the neighbourhood, know no 
 
126 RELIGION. 
 
 division, except at the doors of their respective places of 
 worship.* On a Sunday morning they may be seen in 
 the street, and approaching by the several roads, convers- 
 ing together ' in unity of spirit and in the bond of peace,' 
 till the time arrives for their separation, when each man 
 bends his course according to the dictates of his own con- 
 science, without note or comment from the others ; and 
 when the assembhes are dismissed, they meet again as 
 cordially as they parted. The advocate for intolerance 
 will say, such a people must either be lukewarm and in- 
 different, or the thing is impossible. Not at all. They 
 are truly earnest in their devotion. The same spirit of 
 charity is diffused throughout families. A master does 
 not require his servants to think as he thinks ; he merely 
 requires them to do as they are bid. A husband is not 
 offended because his wife loves consubstantiation better 
 than transubstantiation, provided she loves him. As for 
 their children, they easily come to an agreement about 
 them, if they agree in every thing else. I visited a family, 
 where the master of the house and his sons are Roman 
 Catholics, his wife and daughter Episcopalians, and the 
 tutor a Presbyterian. What a mixture ! And does it not 
 lead to confusion and wrangling ? By no means ; quite 
 the contrary. It is a daily lesson of good-will and kind- 
 hearted forbearance, and every one in the house is bene- 
 fited by it." 
 
 This was the state of religion, liberality, and Christian 
 charity among different sects twenty years ago. In more 
 
 * Pennant, speaking of the Island of Canna, says, "The minister 
 and the Popish priest reside in Eig ; but, by reason of the turbulent 
 seas that divide these isles, are very seldom able to attend their flocks. 
 I admire the moderation of their congregations, who attend the 
 preaching of either indifferently as they happen to arrive." 
 
RELIGION. 127 
 
 ancient times, the minds and principles of the High- 
 landers were influenced and guided by their institutions ; 
 by their notions, that honour, or disgrace, communicated 
 to a whole family or district ; by their chivalry, their 
 poetry, and traditionary- tales ; in later periods the labours 
 of the parish ministers have, by their religious and moral 
 instructions, reared an admirable structure on this found- 
 ation. No religious order in modern times, have been more 
 useful and exemplary, by their instructions and practice, 
 than the Scotch parochial clergy. Adding example to pre- 
 cept, they have taught the pure doctrines of Christianity in 
 a manner clear, simple, and easily comprehended by their 
 flock. Thus, the religious tenets of the Highlanders, guided 
 by their clergy, were blended with an impressive, captivat- 
 ing, and, if I may be allowed to call it so, a salutary super- 
 stition, inculcating on the minds of all, that an honour- 
 able and well-spent life entailed a blessing on descend- 
 ants, while a curse would descend on the successors of 
 the \\-icked, the oppressor, and ungodly.* These, with a 
 
 * The belief that the punishment of the cruelty, oppression, or 
 misconduct of an individual descended as a curse on his children, to 
 the third and fourth generation, was not confined to the common 
 people. All ranks were influenced by it ; and many believed, that 
 if the curse did not fall upon the first or second generation, it would 
 inevitably descend upon the succeeding. The late Colonel Campbell 
 of Glenlyon retained this belief through a course of thirty years' in- 
 tercourse with the world, as an officer of the 42nd Regiment, and of 
 Marines. He was grandson of the Laird of Glenlyon, who com- 
 manded the military at the massacre of Glencoe, and who lived in the 
 laird of Glencoe's house, where he and his men were hospitably enter- 
 tained during a fortnight prior to the execution of his orders. 
 Colonel Campbell was an additional Captain in the 42nd Regiment in 
 1748, and was put on half pay. He then entered the Marines, and 
 in 1762 was Major, with the brevet rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and 
 commanded 8cx) of his corps at the Havannah. In 1771, he was 
 
128 RELIGION. 
 
 belief in ghosts, dreams, and second-sighted visions,* 
 served to tame the turbulent and soothe the afflicted, and 
 differed widely from the gloomy inflexible Puritanism of 
 many parts of the south. The demure solemnity and 
 fanaticism of the plains, offered a ceaseless subject of 
 
 ordered to superintend the execution of the sentence of a court- 
 martial on a soldier of marines, condemned to be shot. A reprieve 
 was sent ; but the whole ceremony of the execution was ordered to 
 proceed until the criminal should be upon his knees, with a cap over 
 his eyes, prepared to receive the volley. It was then that he was to 
 be informed of his pardon. No person was to be told previously, 
 and Colonel Campbell was directed not to inform even the firing 
 party, who were warned that the signal to fire would be the waving 
 of a white handkerchief by the commanding officer. When all was 
 prepared, the clergyman having left the prisoner on his knees, in 
 momentary expectation of his fate, and the firing party looking with 
 intense attention for the signal, Colonel Campbell put his hand into 
 his pocket for the reprieve ; but in pulling out the packet, the white 
 handkerchief accompanied it, and catching the eyes of the party, 
 they fired, and the unfortunate prisoner was shot dead. 
 
 The paper dropped through Colonel Campbell's fingers, and, 
 clapping his hand to his forehead, he exclaimed, " The curse of God 
 and Glencoe is here; I am an unfortunate ruined man." He desired 
 the soldiers to be sent to the barracks, instantly quitted the parade, 
 and soon afterwards retired from the service. This retirement was 
 not the result of any reflection, or reprimand on account of this un- 
 fortunate affair, as it was known to be entirely accidental, but the 
 impression on his mind was never effaced. Nor is the niassacre, and 
 the judgment which the people believe has fallen on the descendants 
 of the principal actors in this tragedy, effaced from their recollection. 
 They carefully note, that, while the family of the unfortunate gentle 
 man who suffered is still entire, and his estate preserved in direct 
 male succession to his posterity ; the case is very different with the 
 family, posterity, and estates of the laird of Glenlyon, and of those 
 who were the principals, promoters, and actors in this infamous 
 affair. 
 
 * See Appendix, T. 
 
POLITICAL FEELINGS. I 29 
 
 ridicule and satire to the poetical imaginations of the 
 mountaineers. The truth is, that no two classes of people 
 of the same country, and in such close neighbourhood, 
 could possibly present a greater contrast than " the wild 
 and brilliant picture of the devoted valour, incorruptible 
 fidelity, patriarchal brotherhood, and savage habits of the 
 Celtic clans on the one hand; and the dark, untractable, 
 domineering bigotry of the Covenanters, on the other."* 
 Differing so widely in their manners, they heartily de- 
 spised and hated each other. " The Lowlander con- 
 sidered the Highlander as a fierce and savage depredator, 
 speaking a barbarous language, inhabiting a gloomy and 
 barren region, which fear and prudence forbade all 
 strangers to explore. The attractions of his social habits, 
 strong attachment, and courteous manners, were confined 
 to his glens and kindred. All the pathetic and sublime 
 records were concealed in a language difficult to acquire, 
 and utterly despised as the jargon of barbarians by 
 their southern neighbours. If such was the light in 
 which the cultivators of the soil regarded the hunters, 
 graziers, and warriors of the mountains, their contempt 
 was amply repaid by their high-spirited neighbours. 
 The Highlanders, again, regarded the Lowlanders as 
 a very inferior mongrel race of intruders, sons of little 
 men, without heroism, 'v^'ithout ancestry, or genius; 
 mechanical drudges, etc., etc., who could neither sleep 
 upon the snow, compose extempore songs, recite long 
 tales of wonder or of woe, or live without bread and 
 without shelter for weeks together, following the chase. 
 Whatever was mean or effeminate, whatever was dull, 
 slow, mechanical, or torpid, was in the Highlands im- 
 puted to the Lowlanders, and exemplified by allusions to 
 * Edinburgh Reviexu. 
 
130 POLITICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 them; while, in the Low country, everything ferocious 
 or unprincipled, every species of awkwardness or ignor- 
 ance, of pride, or of insolence, was imputed to the High- 
 landers."* These mutual animosities and jealousies, long 
 sustained, operated as a check to a more free communica- 
 tion, and cherished the affections of the Highlanders to 
 the exiled family. Their frequent contentions with the 
 peasantry of the plains adjacent to the mountains, and 
 the comparison of their own constancy and loyalty with 
 what they regarded as the time-serving disposition of the 
 Lowlanders, exalted them in their own estimation, and 
 contributed, by a feeling of personal pride, to confirm 
 them in their political predilections. 
 
 This attachment, too, will appear the less surprising if 
 we bear in mind that the Highlanders, far distant from 
 the seat of government, and not immediately affected by 
 the causes which produced the Revolution in England, 
 were imperfectly acquainted with the circumstances 
 which led to that event. Hence we may discover an 
 apology for their subsequent conduct, as proceeding more 
 from a mistaken loyalty, than from a turbulent, restless 
 spirit. Since this adherence to the House of Stuart pro- 
 duced most important consequences, as affecting the 
 Highlanders, and led to measures on the part of Govern- 
 ment which have conduced so materially to change the 
 character and habits of the people, we may shortly ex- 
 amine the cause and motives in which it originated, and 
 the manner in which it displayed itself 
 
 With few exceptions, the Highlanders were of high 
 monarchical notions. Opposed to these was the family of 
 Argyll, which took the lead in the interest of the Cove- 
 nanters and Puritans, and which, during two-thirds of the 
 * Mrs Grant'' s Superstitions of the Highlanders. 
 
POLITICAL PRINCIPLES. 131 
 
 seventeenth century, was at feud with the families of 
 Atholl, Huntly, Montrose, and Airley. This opposition 
 of rehgious feeHng and poHtical principles, the warlike 
 habits of the Highlanders, and the natural conformation of 
 the country, suddenly rising from the plains into moun- 
 tains difficult of access, and of exterior communication, 
 combined to keep up that difference of character already 
 noticed, which, though so distinctly marked, was divided 
 by so slight a line, as the small stream or burn of Inch 
 Ewan below the bridge of Dunkeld, the inhabitants on 
 each side of which present perfect characteristics of the 
 Saxons and Celts.* One of the most remarkable of the 
 latter was the celebrated Neil Gow, whose genius has 
 added fresh spirit to the cheerful and exhilarating music 
 of Caledonia, and who, although he was bom, and, dur- 
 ing the period of a long life, lived within half-a-mile of 
 the Lowland border, exhibited a perfect specimen of 
 the genuine Highlander in person, garb, principles, and 
 character. 
 
 While both sides of this line differed so widely, the 
 language of the northern division, together with their 
 chivalry, their' garb, their arms, and their Jacobite princi- 
 ples, kept them too well prepared, and made them too 
 ready to join in the troubles that ensued. The Disarm- 
 ing Act of 1 7 16 and 1725, with various irritating causes, 
 contributed to keep alive these feelings, and to encourage 
 the hopes of the exiled family. These hopes led to 
 the Rebellion of 1745, when Charles Edward landed 
 
 * The author of Waverley has, with great spirit and humour, 
 given an admirable delineation of this difference of character, in the 
 account of Waverley's journey from Glenquaich, and his rencontre 
 with Gilfillan, the evangelical landlord of the Seven-branched 
 Golden Candlesticks at Crieff. 
 
132 POLITICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 in the West Highlands without men or money, trust- 
 ing to that attachment which many were supposed to 
 cherish to his family; and committing to their charge 
 his honour, his life, and his hopes of a crown, he threw 
 himself among them, and called upon them to support 
 his claims. This confidence touched the true string, 
 and made a powerful appeal to that fidelity which had 
 descended to them, as it w^ere, in trust from their fore- 
 fathers."^ Seeing a descendant of their ancient kings 
 among them, confiding in their loyalty, and believing him 
 unfortunate, accomplished, and brave, " Charles soon 
 found himself at the head of some thousands of hardy 
 mountaineers, filled with hereditary attachment to his 
 
 * It was not without reason he relied on this loyal attachment 
 to his person and family. The numerous anecdotes in proof of this 
 attachment are so remarkable, as to appear almost incredible to 
 those unacquainted with the manners and feelings of the High- 
 landers. 
 
 When the late Mr Stewart of Balichulish returned home, after 
 having completed a course of general and classical education at 
 Glasgow and Edinburgh, he was a promising young man. A friend 
 of the family happening to visit his father, who had^ '■^ been out" in 
 1 715 and 1745, congratulated the old gentleman on the appearance 
 and accomplishments of his son. To this he answered, that the 
 youth was all he could wish for as a son ; and "next to the happi- 
 ness of seeing Charles restored to the throne of his forefathers, is the 
 promise my son affords of being an honour to his family. " 
 
 A song or ballad of that period, set to a melancholy and beautiful 
 air, was exceedingly popular among the Highlanders, and sung by 
 all classes. It is in Gaelic, and cannot be translated without injury 
 to the spirit and effect of the composition. One verse, alluding to 
 the conduct of the troops after the suppression of the rebellion, pro- 
 ceeds thus : " They ravaged and burnt my country ; they murdered 
 my father, and carried off my brothers ; they ruined my kindred, and 
 broke the heart of my mother ; — but all, all could I bear without 
 murmur, if I saw my king restored to his own." 
 
REBELLION IN 1745- I 33 
 
 family, and ardently devoted to his person, in consequence 
 of his open and engaginj^ manners, as well as having as- 
 sumed the ancient military dress of their country, which 
 added new grace to his tall and handsome figure, at the 
 same time that it borrowed dignity from his princely air ; 
 and who, from all these motives, were ready to shed the 
 last drop of their blood in his cause; and descending 
 from the mountains with the rapidity of a torrent at the 
 head of his intrepid Highlanders, he took possession of 
 Dunkeld, Perth, etc., etc." * 
 
 So universal and ardent was this feeling, that had it 
 not been for the wisdom and influence of the Lord Pre- 
 sident Forbes,! a general rising of the Highlanders would 
 probably have ensued. This will appear the more remark- 
 able, if it be true, as is insinuated by that eminent person, 
 that there was no previous plan of operations, or con- 
 nected scheme of rebellion; although, had there really 
 been a preconcerted scheme of any kind, it will be al- 
 lowed, that the Lord President of the Court of Session 
 was not the person to whom treasonable plots would have 
 been disclosed, how intimate soever he might be with the 
 persons concerned. The whole, however, would seem to 
 have been a sudden ebulHtion of loyalty, long cherished 
 in secret, and cherished the more intensely, for the very 
 reasons that it was secret and persecuted. The Lord 
 President, in a letter to Sir Andrew Mitchell, dated Sep- 
 tember 1745, gives the following account of the spirit then 
 displayed in the North : "All the Jacobites, how prudent 
 soever, became mad, all doubtful people became Jaco- 
 bites, and all bankrupts became heroes, and talked of 
 nothing but hereditary right and victory. And what was 
 
 * Letters of a Nobleman to his Son. 
 + See Appendix, U. 
 
134 REBELLION IN 1 745- 
 
 more grievous to men of gallantry, and, if you believe 
 me, more mischievous to the public, all the fine ladies,* if 
 
 * Of all the fine ladies, few were more accomplished, more beauti- 
 ful, or more enthusiastic, than the Lady Mackintosh, a daughter of 
 Farquharson of Invercauld. Her husband, the Laird of Mackintosh, 
 had this year been appointed to a company in the then 43rd, now 
 42nd, Highland Regiment ; and, restrained by a sense of duty, he 
 kept back his people, who were urgent to be led to the field. These 
 restraints had no influence on his lady, who took the command of 
 the clan, and joined the rebels, by whom her husband was taken 
 prisoner, — when the Prince gave him in charge to his wife, saying, 
 *'that he could not be in better security, or more honourably 
 treated." One morning when Lord Loudon lay at Inverness with 
 the royal army, he received information that the Pretender was to 
 sleep that night at Moy Hall, the seat of Mackintosh, with a guard 
 of two hundred of Mackintosh's men. Expecting to put a speedy 
 end to the rebellion by the capture of the person who was the prime 
 mover of the whole, Lord Loudon assembled his troops, and 
 marched to Moy Hall. The commandress, however, was not to be 
 taken by surprise ; and she had no want of faithful scouts to give her 
 full information of all movements or intended attacks. Without 
 giving notice to her guest of his danger, she with great, and, as it 
 happened, successful temerity, sallied out with her men, and took 
 post on the high road, at a short distance from the house, placing 
 small parties two or three hundred yards asunder. When Lord 
 Loudon came within hearing, a command was passed from man to 
 man, in a loud voice, along a distance of half a mile : The Mack- 
 intoshes, Macgillivrays, and Macbeans, to form instantly on the 
 centre, — the Macdonalds on the right, — the Frasers on the left ; and 
 in this manner were arranged all the clans in order of battle, in full 
 hearing of the Commander-in-chief of the royal army, who, believ- 
 ing the whole rebel force ready to oppose him, instantly faced to the 
 right about, and retreated with great expedition to Inverness ; but 
 not thinking himself safe there, he continued his route across three 
 arms of the sea to Sutherland, a distance of seventy miles, where he 
 took up his quarters. 
 
 Such was the terror inspired by the Highlanders of that day, 
 even in military men of experience like Lord Loudon. It was not till 
 
REBELLION IN 1 745. 135 
 
 you 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 credit, provided 
 with no means to prevent extreme folly, except pen and 
 ink, a tongue, and some reputation ; and if you will 
 except Macleod (the Laird of Macleod), whom I sent 
 for from the Isle of Skye, supported by nobody of com- 
 mon sense or courage." 
 
 During the progress of this unfortunate rebellion, the 
 moral character of the great mass of the Highlanders en- 
 gaged in it was placed in a most favourable point of view. 
 The noblemen and gentlemen, too, who took a lead in the 
 cause, were generally actuated by pure, although mistaken 
 motives of loyalty and principle. Some of them might 
 be stung by the remembrance of real or supposed injuries, 
 by disappointed ambition, or excited by delusive hopes ; 
 yet the greatest proportion even of these staked their 
 lives and fortunes in the contest, from a disinterested 
 attachment to an unfortunate prince, for whose family 
 their fathers had suffered, and whose pretensions they 
 themselves were taught to consider as just. Into these 
 principles and feelings, the mass of the clansmen entered 
 
 the following morning that Lady Mackintosh informed her guest of 
 the risk he had run. One of the ladies noticed by the President, 
 finding she could not prevail upon her husband to join the rebels, 
 though his men were ready ; and perceiving, one morning, that he 
 intended to set off for Culloden with the offer of his services as a 
 loyal subject, contrived, while making tea for breakfast, to pour, as 
 if by accident, a quantity of scalding hot water on his knees and 
 legs, and thus effectually put an end to all active movements on his 
 part for that season, while she dispatched his men to join the rebels 
 under a commander more obedient to her wishes. 
 
136 REBELLION IN 1 745- 
 
 with a warmth and zeal unmixed mth, or unsullied by, 
 motives of self-interest or aggrandizement ; for whatever 
 their superiors might expect, they could look for nothing 
 but that satisfaction and self-approbation which accompany 
 the consciousness of supporting the oppressed. They 
 were therefore misguided, rather than criminal, and to 
 their honour it ought to be remembered, that though en- 
 gaged in a formidable civil war, which roused the strongest 
 passions of human nature, and though unaccustomed to 
 regular discipline, or military control, though they were in 
 a manner let loose on their countr}^men, and frequently 
 flushed with victor)^ and elated with hopes of ultimate 
 success, they committed comparatively very few acts of 
 wanton plunder, or gratuitous violence. They withstood 
 temptations, which, to men in their situation, might have 
 appeared irresistible ; and when they marched into the 
 heart of England through fertile and rich districts, present- 
 ing numberless objects of desire, and also when in the 
 northern parts of the kingdom, often pinched with hunger, 
 and exposed throughout a whole winter to all the in- 
 clemencies of the weather, without tents, or any covering 
 save what chance afforded ; in these trying circumstances, 
 acts of personal violence and robbery were unheard of, 
 except among a few desperate followers, who joined more 
 for the sake of booty, than from other and better motives. 
 Private revenge, or unprovoked massacre,* wanton de- 
 predation, the burning of private houses, or destruction 
 of property, were entirely unknown. When the cravings 
 of hunger, or the want of regular supplies in the north of 
 Scotland, compelled them to go in quest of food, they 
 limited their demands by their necessities, and indulged 
 in no licentious excess. The requisitions and contribu- 
 * See Appendix, V. 
 
REBELLION IN I 745- 1 37 
 
 tions exacted and levied by the rebel commanders, were 
 the unavoidable consequences of their situation, and did 
 not in any manner affect the character of the rebel army, 
 which conducted itself throughout with a moderation, for- 
 bearance, and humanity, almost unexampled in any civil 
 commotion. In a military point of view, they proved 
 themselves equally praiseworthy. Neither in the advance 
 into England, to within a hundred and fifty miles of Lon- 
 don, nor in the retreat, when pursued by a superior army 
 while another attempted to intercept them, did they leave 
 a man behind by desertion, and few or none by sickness. 
 They carried their cannon along with them, and the re- 
 treat "was conducted with a degree of intrepidity, re- 
 gularity, expedition and address, unparalleled in the 
 history of nations, by any body of men under circum- 
 stances equally adverse."* 
 
 When such were the character and conduct of the 
 rebel army, — irreproachable in every respect, except in 
 the act of rebellion, — it is to be lamented that their en- 
 lightened and disciphned conquerors did not condescend 
 to take a lesson of moderation from these uncultivated 
 savages (as they called them); and that they sullied their 
 triumphs by devastation and cruelty inflicted on a de- 
 fenceless enemy. As to the burning of the castles of 
 Lovat, Lochiel, Glengarry, Clunie, and others, some 
 apology may be found in the expediency of punishing 
 men, who, from the circle in which they moved, and 
 their general intelligence and knowledge of the world, 
 must have known the stake which they hazarded, and 
 the consequences of a failure. Not so with their fol- 
 lowers, who acted from a principle of fidelity and at- 
 tachment, which had withstood the lapse of so many 
 * Letters from a Nobleman to his Son. 
 
138 REBELLION IN I 745. 
 
 years of absence and exile, and which, by gentle treat- 
 ment, might have been turned into the proper channel. 
 Instead of this, a line of conduct was pursued infinitely 
 more ferocious and barbarous than the worst acts of the 
 poor people to whom these epithets were so liberally 
 applied. 
 
 These cruelties compelled many of the followers of 
 the rebel army, afraid of punishment, and unwilling to 
 return to their homes, to form themselves into bands of 
 freebooters, who frequented the mountains of Athole, 
 Breadalbane, and Monteith, districts which form the 
 border country, and often laid the Lowlands under con- 
 tributions ; defying the exertions of their Lowland neigh- 
 bours, assisted by small garrisons, stationed in different 
 parts of the country, to check their depredations. The 
 harsh measures afterwards pursued were more calculated 
 to exasperate, than to allay the discontents which they 
 were intended to remove, and were perhaps less excus- 
 able as being more deliberate. 
 
ABOLITION OF HEREDITARY JURISPRUDENCE. 1 39 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 Abolition of Hereditary Jurisdiction — Suppression of the 
 Highland Garb. 
 
 The alarm occasioned by this insurrection, determined 
 Government to dissolve the patriarchal system in the 
 Highlands, the nature, as well as the danger of which, 
 had the power of the clans been properly directed, was 
 now exhibited to the country. It would appear that it 
 was considered impracticable to effect this dissolution of 
 clanship, fidelity, and mutual attachment, between the 
 Highlanders and their chiefs, by a different and improved 
 modification of the system and state of society; and, un- 
 fortunately, no course was pursued short of a complete 
 revolution. For this purpose, an Act was passed in 1747, 
 depri\Tng all chiefs and landholders of their jurisdictions 
 and judicial powers; and in August of the same year, it 
 was also enacted, that any person in the Highlands, pos- 
 sessing or concealing any kind of arms, should be liable 
 in the first instance to a severe fine, and be committed 
 to prison without bail till payment. If the delinquent 
 was a male, and unable to pay the fine, he was to be sent 
 to serve as a soldier in America, or, if unfit for service, to 
 be imprisoned for six months ; if a female, she was, be- 
 sides the fine and imprisonment till payment, to be 
 -detained six months in prison. Seven years' transporta- 
 tion was the punishment for a second offence. 
 
 The Highland garb was proscribed by still severer 
 penalties. It was enacted, that any person within Scot- 
 land, whether man or boy (excepting officers and soldiers 
 
140 DISARMING ACT. 
 
 in his Majesty's service), who should wear the plaid, 
 philibeg, trews, shoulder belts, or any part of the High- 
 land garb ; or should use for greatcoats, tartans, or party 
 coloured plaid, or stuffs ; should, without the alternative 
 of a fine, be imprisoned, on the first conviction, for six 
 months without bail, and on the second conviction be 
 transported for seven years.* 
 
 The necessity of these measures is the best apology 
 for their severity; but, however proper it may have been 
 to dissolve a power which led to such results, and to de- 
 prive men of authority and their followers of arms, which 
 they so illegally used, the same necessity does not appear 
 to extend to the garb. " Even the loyal clans," says Dr 
 Johnson, -'murmured with an appearance of justice, that, 
 after having defended the king, they were forbidden to 
 defend themselves, and that the swords should be for- 
 feited which had been legally employed. It affords a 
 generous and manly pleasure, to conceive a little nation 
 gathering its fruits and tending its herds, with fearless 
 confidence, though it is open on every side to invasion ; 
 where, in contempt of walls and trenches, every man 
 sleeps securely with his sword beside him, and where all, 
 on the first approach of hostility, come together at the 
 call to battle, as the summons to a festival show, com- 
 mitting their cattle to the care of those, whom age or 
 
 * Considering the severity of the law against this garb, nothing 
 but the strong partiality of the people could have prevented its going 
 entirely into disuse. The prohibitory laws were so long in force, 
 that more than two-thirds of the generation who saw it enacted had 
 passed away before the repeal. The youth of the latter period knew 
 it only as an illegal garb, to be worn by stealth under the fear of im- 
 prisonment and transportation. Hreeches, by force of habit, had 
 become so common, that it is remarkable how the plaid and philibeg 
 were resumed at all. 
 
HIGHLAND GARB. I4I 
 
 nature had disabled to engage the enemy; with that 
 competition for hazard and glory, which operate in men 
 that fight under the eye of those whose dislike or kind- 
 ness they have always considered as the greatest evil, or 
 the greatest good. This was in the beginning of the 
 present century : in the state of the Highlanders every 
 man was a soldier, who partook of the national con- 
 fidence, and interested himself in national honour. To 
 lose this spirit, is to lose what no small advantage will 
 compensate, when their pride has been crushed by the 
 heavy hand of a vindictive conqueror, whose severities 
 have been followed by laws, which, though they cannot 
 be called cruel, have produced much discontent, because 
 they operate on the surface of life, and make every eye 
 bear witness to subjection. If the pohcy of the Disarm- 
 ing Act appears somewhat problematical, what must we 
 think of the subsequent measure of 1747, to compel the 
 Highlanders to lay aside their national dress ? It is im- 
 possible to read this latter Act, without considering it 
 rather as an ignorant wantonness of power, than the pro- 
 ceeding of a wise and a beneficent legislature. To be 
 compelled to wear a new dress has always been found 
 painful."* So the Highlanders found; and it certainly 
 was not consistent with the boasted freedom of our 
 countr)^ (and in that instance, indeed, it was shown that 
 this freedom was only a name) to inflict, on a whole 
 people, the severest punishment short of death, for wear- 
 ing a particular dress. Had the whole race been de- 
 cimated, more violent grief, indignation and shame, could 
 not have been excited among them, than by being 
 deprived of this long inherited costume. This was an 
 encroachment on the feelings of a people, whose ancient 
 * Dr Johnson^ s Journey to the Highlands, 
 
142 SUPPRESSION OF THE 
 
 and martial garb had been worn from a period reaching 
 back beyond all history or even tradition.* 
 
 The obstinacy with which the law was resisted, pro- 
 ceeded no less from their attachment to their proscribed 
 garb, than from the irksomeness of the dress forced upon 
 them. Habituated to the free use of their limbs, the 
 Highlanders could ill brook the confinement and restraint 
 of the Lowland dress, and many were the little devices 
 which they adopted to retain their ancient garb, without 
 incurring the penalties of the Act, devices which were cal- 
 culated rather to excite a smile, than to rouse the ven- 
 geance of prosecution. Instead of the prohibited tartan 
 kilt, some wore pieces of a blue, green, or red thin cloth, 
 or coarse camblet, wrapped round the waist, and hanging 
 down to the knees like the fea/dag.f The tight breeches 
 
 * vSome opinion may be formed of the importance which Govern- 
 ment attached to the garb by the tenor of the following oath, ad- 
 ministered in 1747 and 1748 in Fort-William and other places where 
 the people were assembled for the purpose; those who refused to 
 take it being treated as rebels : " I, A. B., do swear, and as I shall 
 answer to God at the great day of judgment, I have not, nor shall 
 have, in my possession any gun, sword, pistol, or arm whatsoever, 
 and never use tartan, plaid, or any part of the Highland garb ; and 
 if I do so, may I be cursed in my undertakings, family, and property, 
 — may I never see my wife and children, father, mother, or relations, 
 — may I be killed in battle as a coward, and lie without Christian 
 burial in a strange land, far from the graves of my forefathers and 
 kindred; may all this come across me if I break my oath.'' The 
 framers of this oath understood the character of the Highlanders. The 
 abolition of the feudal power of the chiefs, and the Disarming Act had 
 little influence on the character of the people in comparison of the 
 grief, indignation, and disaffection occasioned by the loss of their 
 garb. 
 
 t The fealdag was the same as the philibeg, only not plaited. 
 The mode of sewing the kilt, into plaits or folds, in the same manner 
 
HIGHLAND GARB. 1 43 
 
 were particularly obnoxious. Some who were fearful of 
 offending, or wished to render obedience to the law, 
 which had not specified on what part of the body the 
 breeches were to be worn, satisfied themselves with having 
 in their possession this article of legal and royal dress, 
 which, either as the signal of their submission, or more 
 probably to suit their own convenience when on journeys, 
 they often suspended over their shoulders upon their 
 sticks ; others who were either more wary, or less sub- 
 as the plaid, is said to have been introduced by an Englishman of 
 the name of Parkinson, early in the last century, which has given 
 rise to an opinion entertained by many, that the kilt is modern, and 
 was never known till that period. This opinion is founded on a 
 memorandum left by a gentleman whose name is not mentioned, and 
 published in the Scots Magazine. To a statement totally unsup- 
 ported, little credit can of course be attached; and it may, surely 
 with as much reason, be supposed, that breeches were never worn 
 till the present cut and manner of wearing them came into fashion. 
 As the Highlanders had sufficient ingenuity to think of plaiting the 
 plaid, it is likely they would be equally ingenious in forming the 
 kilt ; and as it is improbable that an active light-footed people would 
 go about on all occasions, whether in the house or in the field, en- 
 cumbered with twelve yards of plaid, (to say nothing of the expense 
 of such a quantity), I am less wiUing to coincide in the modern 
 opinion, founded on such a slight unauthenticated notice, than in the 
 universal belief of the people, that the philibeg has been part of their 
 garb, as far back as tradition reaches. 
 
 Since the publication of the former editions, several friends have 
 represented to me, that a more decided contradiction ought to be 
 given to the story of Parkinson and his supposed invention of the 
 kilt, which, they say, is totally unfounded. The truth is, the thing 
 is not worth contradicting. If the story were true, which it is not, 
 the whole would amount to this, — that in the reign of George II. 
 the Highlanders began to wear four yards of tartan instead of twelve, 
 as was their practice in former reigns. This is one of the arguments 
 brought forward by some modern authors, to prove that the Highland 
 garb is of recent introduction. 
 
144 SUPPRESSION OF THE 
 
 missive, sewed up the centre of the kilt, with a few 
 stitches between the thighs, which gave it something of 
 the form of the trowsers worn by Dutch skippers. At 
 first the evasions of the Act were visited with considerable 
 severity; but at length the officers of the law seem to 
 have acquiesced in the interpretation put by the High- 
 landers upon the prohibition of the Act. This appears 
 from the trial of a man of the name of Macalpin, or 
 Drummond Macgregor, from Breadalbane, who was ac- 
 quitted, on his proving that the kilt had been stitched up 
 in the middle.* This trial took place in 1757, and was 
 the first instance of relaxation in enforcing the law of 
 i747.t 
 
 The change produced in the Highlands, by the Dis- 
 arming and Proscribing Acts, was accelerated by the 
 measures of the Government for the abolition of heridi- 
 tary jurisdictions, and the consequent overthrow of the 
 
 * This very strong attachment to a habit which they thought 
 graceful and convenient, is not singular among an ancient race, 
 proud of their independence, manners, customs, and long unbroken 
 descent. It is in every one's memory, that a dangerous mutiny was 
 produced at Vellore, in the East Indies, by insisting on an alteration 
 in the dress of the native troops, in the adjustment of their turbans, 
 and in the cut of their whiskers. There was, perhaps, a religious 
 feeling mixed with this opposition ; yet whiskers and turbans seem 
 of less importance than a whole garb, such as that the use of which 
 the Highlanders were prohibited. 
 
 + Although the severity of this " ignorant wantonness of power" 
 began to be relaxed in 1757, it was not till the year 1782 that an Act, 
 so ungenerous in itself, so unnecessary, and so galling, was repealed. 
 In the session of that year, the present Duke of Montrose, then a 
 member of the House of Commons, brought in a bill to repeal all 
 penalties and restrictions on the Celtic garb. The motion was 
 seconded by the Earl of Lauderdale, then Lord Maitland, and passed 
 without a dissenting voice. 
 
HIGHLAND GARB. I45 
 
 authority of the chiefs. This was the last act of Govern- 
 ment which had any influence upon the Highland charac- 
 ter. Subsequent changes are to be traced to causes, 
 which owe their existence chiefly to the views and specula- 
 tions of private individuals. Into the order of these 
 causes, and their practical operations and effects, I shall 
 now shortly inquire. 
 
P A E T T I. 
 
 PRESENT STATE, AND CHANGE OF CHARACTER AND 
 MANNERS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Influence of Political and Economical Arrangements — 
 Change in the Character of the Clans — Introduction 
 of Fanaticism in Religion. 
 
 It will be perceived that the preceding Sketch of the cus- 
 toms, manners, and character of the inhabitants of the 
 Highlands of Scotland refers rather to past than present 
 times. A great, and, in some respects, a lamentable 
 change has been produced ; and the original of the pic- 
 ture which I have attempted to draw is suffering daily 
 obliterations, and is, in fact, rapidly disappearing. Much 
 of the romance and chivalry of the Highland character is 
 gone. The voice of the bard has long been silent; 
 poetry, tradition, and song, are vanishing away. To 
 adopt the words of Mrs Grant, "The generous and 
 characteristic spirit, the warm affection to his family, the 
 fond attachment to his clan, the love of story and song, 
 the contempt of danger and luxury, the mystic super- 
 
148 EFFECTS OF THE UNION. 
 
 stition, equally awful and tender, the inviolable fidelity to 
 every engagement, the ardent love of his native heaths 
 and mountains," will soon be no longer found to exist 
 among the Highlanders, unless the change of character 
 which is now in rapid progress be checked. 
 
 Of this change there was no symptom previous to the 
 year 1745, and scarcely a faint indication till towards the 
 year 1770. The Union, which has had the happiest 
 effect in contributing to the prosperity of both kingdoms, 
 seemed at first, and indeed for many years afterwards, to 
 paralyze the energies, and break the spirit of Scotchmen. 
 The people in general imagined, that, by the removal of 
 their court and parliament, they had lost their independ- 
 ence. The subsequent decrease of trade contributed to 
 exasperate and to increase their aversion to the measure ; 
 and from this period, the country seems to have remained 
 stationary, if not to have retrograded, till about the com- 
 mencement of the late reign, when a spirit of improve- 
 ment, both in agriculture and commerce, and a more 
 extensive intercourse with the world, infused new life and 
 vigour into the general mass of the population. 
 
 While this was the effect of the Union in the south- 
 ern and lowland parts of Scotland, its operation upon the 
 north was much slower and more imperceptible. There 
 the inhabitants retained their ancient pursuits, prejudices, 
 language, and dress; with all the peculiarities of their 
 original character. But a new era was soon to commence. 
 The primary cause, both in time and importance, which 
 contributed to produce a remarkable change in the High- 
 lands, was the legislative measures adopted subsequent 
 to the year 1745. This cause, however, had so little in- 
 fluence, that, as I have already noticed, its operation was 
 for many years imperceptible ; yet an impulse was given 
 
CHANGE OF MANNERS. 1 49 
 
 which, in the progress of events, and through the co- 
 operation of many collateral and subordinate causes, has 
 effected a revolution, which could not have been fully 
 anticipated, or indeed thought possible in so short a 
 period of time. This change appears in the character 
 and condition of the H ighlanders, and is indicated, not 
 only in their manners and persons, but in the very aspect 
 of their country. It has reduced to a state of nature, 
 lands that had long been subjected to the plough, and 
 which had afforded the means of support to a moral, 
 happy, and contented population; it has converted whole 
 glens and districts, once the abode of a brave, vigorous, 
 and independent race of men, into scenes of desolation ; 
 it has torn up families which seemed rooted, like Alpine 
 plants, in the soil of their elevated region, and which, 
 from their habits and principles, appeared to be its 
 original possessors, as well as its natural occupiers, — and 
 forced them thence, penny less and unskilful, to seek a 
 refuge in manufacturing towns, or, in a state of helpless 
 despair, to betake themselves to the wilds of a far distant 
 land. The spirit of speculation has invaded those moun- 
 tains which no foreign enemy could penetrate, and ex- 
 pelled a brave people whom no warlike intruder could 
 subdue. 
 
 I shall now briefly advert to the circumstances which 
 have led to the system of managing Highland estates re- 
 cently adopted by many proprietors, adding a few ob- 
 servations on the manner in which it has been carried 
 into effect, and on its certain or probable consequences, 
 as these affect the permanent prosperity of the landlord, 
 improve or deteriorate the character and condition of the 
 people, and influence their loyalty to the king, respect for 
 the laws, and attachment to the higher orders. 
 
150 CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 A Striking feature in the revolutionized Highland 
 • character is, the comparative indifference of the people 
 towards chiefs and landlords. Formerly, their respect 
 and attachment to their chiefs formed one of the most 
 remarkable traits in their character; and such, indeed, 
 were their reverence and affection for their patriarchal 
 superiors, that, to swear by the hand of their chief, was a 
 confirmation of an averment ; and " May my chief have 
 the ascendant," was a common expression of surprise.* 
 It is remarkable how little this kindly disposition of the 
 people was, for many years after the abolition of the 
 hereditary jurisdictions, influenced or impaired by an 
 Act which deprived the chiefs of their power, and released 
 the clans from all compulsive obedience to these patri- 
 archal rulers. Notwithstanding this, they still performed 
 their services as before, and admitted the arbitration of their 
 chiefs, when they had no more power or authority over 
 them than gentlemen of landed property in England or 
 Ireland possess over their tenants. 
 
 When a chief, his son, or friends, wished to raise a 
 regiment, company, or smaller number of men, to entitle 
 him to the notice of Government, the appeal was seldom 
 made in vain. The same attachment was even displayed 
 towards those whose estates were confiscated to Govern- 
 ment, and who, as outlaws from their country, became the 
 objects of that mixture of compassion and respect which 
 
 * Martin says, ' ' The islanders have a great respect for their 
 chiefs and heads of tribes, and they conclude grace after every meal, 
 with a petition to God for their welfare and prosperity. Neither 
 will they, as far as in them lies, sufter them to sink under any mis- 
 fortune, but, in case of decay of estate, make a voluntary contribu- 
 tion in their behalf, as a common duty to support the credit of their 
 families." 
 
CHANGE OF MANNERS. 151 
 
 generous minds accord to the victims of principle. The 
 rights of their chiefs and landlords, in these unhappy cir-- 
 cumstances, they regarded as inalienable, unless forfeited 
 by some vice or folly. The victims of law were not 
 merely respected as chiefs, but revered as martyrs, and 
 those to whom self-denial was at all times familiar, be- 
 came more rigidly abstemious in their habits, that they 
 might, with one hand, pay the rent of the forfeited land 
 to the Crown,* and with the other supply the necessities 
 of their exiled chiefs ; while the young men, the sons of 
 their faithful and generous tenantry, were ready with their 
 personal services to fons-ard the welfare, and procure 
 military rank and commissions for the sons of the unfor- 
 tunate individuals who had lost their estates, t 
 
 * See Appendix, W. 
 
 t It will be seen in the Appendix, that, in many cases, the tenants 
 on the forfeited estates remitted to their attainted landlords, when in 
 exile, the rents which they formerly paid them, Government, at the 
 same time, receiving the full rents of the new leases. This generosity 
 was exhibited on many other occasions, when the objects of their 
 affection and respect required assistance. In the year 1757, Colonel 
 Fraser, the son of Lord Lovat, without an acre of land, found him- 
 self, in a few weeks, at the head of nearly 800 men from his father's 
 estate (then forfeited), and the estates of the gentlemen of the clan. 
 About the same period, and previously, numerous detachments of 
 young men were sent to the Scotch Brigade in Holland, to procure 
 commissions for the gentlemen who had lost their fortunes. In the 
 year 1777, Lord Macleod, eldest son of the Earl of Cromarty 
 (attainted in 1746), found his influence as effective as when his family 
 were in full possession of their estate and honours. By the support 
 of the Mackenzies, and other gentlemen of his clan, 900 Highlanders 
 were embodied under his command, although he was personally un- 
 known to the greater part of them, having been thirty years in exile. 
 Besides these 900, there were 870 Highlanders raised for his regiment 
 in difierent parts of the North. In the year 1776, the late Lochiel 
 
152 CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that, by condescension and 
 kindness, this feeling might have been perpetuated, and 
 that the Highland proprietors, without sacrificing any real 
 advantage, would have found, in the voluntary attachment 
 of their tenants, a grateful substitute for the loyal obedi- 
 ence of their clans.* Amid the gradual changes and im- 
 
 was a lieutenant in the 30th Regiment, having returned from France 
 after his father's death, and obtained a commission. This lieuten- 
 ancy was his only fortune after the forfeiture of his estate. The 
 followers of his father's family raised 120 men to obtain for him a 
 company in the 71st Regiment. Macpherson of Cluny, also without 
 a shilling, raised 140 men, for which he was appointed major to the 
 71st, and thus secured an independency till his family estate was 
 restored in 1783. It is unnecessary to give more instances of this 
 disposition, which formed so distinguished a trait in the character of 
 the Highlanders of the last generation. 
 
 * The following is one of many existing proofs of permanent 
 respect and attachment, testified by the Highlanders to their land- 
 lords. A gentleman possessing a considerable Highland property, 
 and descended from a warlike and honourable line of ancestors, long 
 held in respect by the Highlanders, fell into difficulties some years 
 ago. In this state, he was the more sensible of his misfortune as his 
 estate was very improvable. In fact, he attempted some improve- 
 ments, but employed more labourers than he could easily afford to 
 pay. But, notwithstanding the prospect of irregular payments, such 
 was the attachment of the people to the representative of a respect- 
 able house, that they were ready at his call, and often left the 
 employment of others, who paid regularly, to carry on his operations. 
 To this may be added a circumstance, which will appear the more 
 marked, to such as understand the character of the Highlanders, 
 and know how deeply they feel any neglect in returning civility on 
 the part of their superiors. If a gentleman pass a countryman with- 
 out returning his salute, it furnishes matter of observation to a whole 
 district. The gentleman now in question, educated in the South, 
 and ignorant of the language and character of the people, and of 
 their peculiar way of thinking, paid so little regard to their feelings, 
 that although a countryman pulled off his bonnet almost as soon as 
 
CHANGE OF MANNERS. 1 53 
 
 provements of the age, might not the recollections and 
 most approved virtues and traits of chivalrous times have 
 been retained, along with something of the poetry of the 
 Highland character in the country of Ossian? And if 
 unable to vie with their Southern neighbours in luxury 
 or splendour, might not gentlemen have possessed in their 
 mountains a more honourable distinction, — that of com- 
 manding respect without the aid of wealth, by making a 
 grateful people happy, and thus uniting true dignity with 
 humanity ? This many gentlemen have accomplished, and 
 in the full enjoyment of the confidence, fidelity, and grati- 
 tude of a happy and prosperous tenantry, are now support- 
 ing a manly and honourable independence, while others 
 have descended from their enviable eminence for an im- 
 mediate or prospective addition to their rent-rolls, — an 
 addition which the short respite or delay, so necessary in 
 all improvements and considerable changes, would have 
 enabled their ancient adherents to have contributed.* By 
 
 he appeared in sight, the respectful salute generally passed unnoticed: 
 yet this was overlooked in remembrance of his family, in the same 
 manner that generous minds extend to the children the gratitude due 
 to the parents. 
 
 * Most of the evils which press upon the present age, and which 
 lately desolated Europe, have arisen from the very cause, which has 
 produced such violent changes among the mountains of Scotland ; 
 namely, an impatience to obtain too soon, and without due prepara- 
 tion, the advantages that were contemplated, and, from an attempt 
 to accomplish at once, what no human power can effect without the 
 slow but certain aid of time. As an instance of the result of the 
 modem method of management, in hurrying on improvements, with- 
 out regard to the sacrifice of the happiness of others, contrasted with 
 the effects of improving with moderation and as time and circum- 
 stances admitted, I shall state the results of the opposite lines of con- 
 duct followed by two Highland proprietors. 
 
 One of these gentlemen obtained possession of his father's estate, 
 
154 CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 many proprietors, no more attention has been shown to 
 the feelings of the descendants of their fathers' clans- 
 
 and employed an agent to arrange the farms on a new plan. The 
 first principle was to consider his lands as an article of commerce, to 
 be disposed of to the highest bidder. The old tenants were accord- 
 ingly removed. New ones offered, and rents, great beyond all pre- 
 cedent, were promised. Two rents were paid ; the third was de- 
 ficient nearly one half, and the fourth failed entirely, or was paid by 
 the sale of the tenant's stock. Fresh tenants were then to be pro- 
 cured. This was not so easy, as no abatement was to be given ; 
 hence, a considerable proportion of the estate remained in the pro- 
 prietor's hands. After the second year, however, the whole farms 
 were again let, but another failure succeeded. The same process 
 was again gone through, and with similar results, to the great dis- 
 credit of the farms, as few would again attempt to settle, without a 
 great reduction of rent, where so many had failed. But, in all those 
 difficulties, there was no diminution in the landlord's expenses. 
 Indeed, they were greatly extended by fresh speculations and dreams 
 of increased income. Without detailing the whole process, I shall 
 only add, that his creditors have done with the estate what he did 
 with the farms — offered it to the highest bidder. 
 
 The other gentleman acted diff'erently. When he succeeded his 
 father, he raised his rents according to the increased value of produce. 
 This continuing to rise, he showed his people, that as a boll of grain, 
 a cow or sheep, obtained one or two hundred per cent, higher price 
 than formerly, it was but just that they should pay rent in proportion. 
 In this they cheerfully acquiesced, while they followed his directions 
 and example in improving their land. He has not removed a tenant. 
 In cases where he thought them too crowded, he, on the decease of 
 a tenant, made a division of his land amongst the others. This was 
 the only alteration as far as regarded the removal of the ancient 
 inhabitants, who are contented and prosperous, paying adequate 
 rents so regularly to their landlord, that he has now saved money 
 sufficient to purchase a lot of his neighbour's estate ; and he has also 
 the happiness of believing, that no emissary sovting the seeds of 
 sedition against the King and Government, or of disaffection to the 
 Established Church, will find countenance, or meet with hearers or 
 converts among his tenantry, whose easy circumstances render them 
 
CHANGE OF ^MANNERS. 1 55 
 
 men, than if the connection between the families of the 
 superiors and the tenantry had commenced but yesterday. 
 By others, again, the people have been preserved entire, 
 the consequence of which has been, that they have lost 
 nothing of their moral habits, retain much of the honour- 
 able feelings of former times, and are improving in in- 
 dustry and agricultural knowledge; these kind and con- 
 siderate landlords, having commenced with the improve- 
 ment of the people as the best and most permanent 
 foundation for the improvement of their lands, instead of 
 follo\^-ing the new system, which seems to consider the 
 population of a glen or district in the same light as the 
 flocks that range the hills, to be kept in their habitations 
 so long as they are thought profitable, and when it is be- 
 Heved that they have ceased to be so, to be ejected to 
 make room for strangers. * But those whose families and 
 predecessors had remained for ages, on a particular spot, 
 considered themselves entitled to be preferred to strangers, 
 when they offered equally high rents for their lands. Men 
 of supposed skill and capital were, however, invited to bid 
 against them ; and these, by flattering representations of 
 their own abiUty to improve the property, and by holding 
 out the prejudices, indolence, and poverty of the old 
 tenantr}', as rendering them incapable of carr}'ing on im- 
 provements, or paying adequate rents, frequently obtained 
 the preference. In many cases even secret offers have 
 been called for. and received, the highest constituting the 
 best claim ; t and notwithstanding the examples exhibited 
 
 loyal, and proof against all the arts of the turbulent and factious, 
 whether directed against the King, the Church, or their immediate 
 superiors. 
 
 * See Appendix, X. 
 
 t Nothing, in the poHcy pursued in the management of Highland 
 
156 CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 by those true patriots, who, by giving time and encourage- 
 ment, showed at once the capabiHty of their lands and of 
 their tenants, yet, to one of these strangers, or to one of 
 their own richer or more speculating countrymen, were 
 surrendered the lands of a whole valley, peopled, perhaps, 
 by a hundred famihes. An indifference, if not an aver- 
 sion, to the families of the landlords who acted in this 
 manner, has too frequently been the natural result ; and, 
 in many places, the Highland proprietors, from being the 
 objects of greater veneration with the people than those 
 of any other part of the kingdom, perhaps of Europe, 
 have entirely lost their affections and fidelity. But while 
 many have thus forfeited that honourable influence (and 
 
 estates, has been more productive of evil than this custom, introduced 
 along with the new improvements, of letting farms by secret offers. 
 It has generated jealousy, hatred, and distrust, setting brother against 
 brother, friend against friend ; and, wherever it has prevailed on 
 large estates, has raised such a ferment in the country as will require 
 years to allay. Sir George Mackenzie, in his Report of the County 
 of Ross, with reference to this manner of letting farms, thus feelingly 
 expresses himself : "No exaggerated picture of distress can be drawn 
 to convey to the feeling mind the horrible consequences of such con- 
 duct as has been mentioned, towards a numerous tenantry. What- 
 ever difference of opinion may exist respecting the necessity of 
 reducing the numbers of occupiers of land in the Highlands, there 
 can exist but one on conduct such as has been described, — that it is 
 cruelly unjust and dishonourable, especially if, as too often happens, 
 the old tenants are falsely informed of offet s having been made. Such 
 a deception is so mean, that its having been ever practised, is enough 
 to bring indelible disgrace on us all." Certainly such proceedings 
 must be repugnant to every honourable and enlightened mind. But 
 the disgrace attaches only to those who practise such infamous decep- 
 tions. There are many honourable men in the Highlands, who wish 
 for nothing but a fair and honest value for their lands, and would as 
 soon take the money out of their tenants' pockets as act in this 
 manner. 
 
CHANGE OF MANNERS. I57 
 
 what influence can be more honourable than that which 
 springs from gratitude and a voluntary afifectionate obedi- 
 ence ?) which their predecessors enjoyed to such a degree, 
 that to this day the most affectionate blessings are poured 
 out on their memory, as often as their names are men- 
 tioned ; the system which has so materially contributed to 
 this change, has not been followed by advantages in any 
 way proportionate to the loss. On the contrary, the result 
 has, in too many cases, been bankruptcy among tenants, 
 diminution of honourable principles, and irregularity in 
 the payment of rents, which, instead of improving, have 
 embarrassed the condition of the landlord. 
 
 In some cases these proceedings have been met by 
 resistance on the part of the tenants, and occasioned 
 serious tumults.* In some instances, however, the latter 
 
 * The leading circumstances of one of these tumults will be seen in 
 the account of the military services of the 42nd Regiment. In the 
 year 1792, a numerous body of tenantry, in the County of Ross, were 
 removed on account of what was called an improved plan, in the 
 advantages of which the people were to have no share. Their 
 welfare, as in too many cases in the Highlands, formed no part of 
 this plan. They were all ejected from their farms. It was some 
 years before the result could be fully estimated, so far as regarded 
 the welfare of the landlords. The ruin of the old occupiers was 
 immediate. To the proprietor the same result, though more slowly 
 produced, seems equally certain. In one district, improved in this 
 merciless manner, the estates of five ancient families, who, for 
 several centuries, had supported an honourable and respected name, 
 are all in possession of one individual, who, early in the late war, 
 amassed a large fortune in a public department abroad. The 
 original tenants were first dispossessed, and the lairds soon followed. 
 May I not hazard a supposition, that, if these gentlemen had per- 
 mitted their people to remain, and if they had followed the example 
 of their ancestors, who preserved their estates for two, three, and 
 four hundred years, they too might have kept possession, and be- 
 queathed them to their posterity ? The new proprietor has made 
 
158 CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 have submitted with patient resignation to their lot ; and, 
 by their manner of bearing this treatment, showed how 
 Httle they deserved it. But their character has changed 
 with their situations. The evil is extending, and the ten- 
 ants of kind and patriotic landlords seem to be, in no small 
 degree, affected by the gloom and despondency of those 
 who complain of harsh treatment, and who, neglected and 
 repulsed by their natural protectors, while their feelings and 
 attachment were still strong, have, in too many instances, 
 sought consolation in the doctrines of ignorant and fana- 
 tical spiritual guides, capable of producing no solid or 
 beneficial impression on the ardent minds of those to 
 whom their harangues and exhortations are generally ad- 
 dressed. The natural enthusiasm of the Highland charac- 
 
 great and extensive improvements. It is said, that he has laid out 
 thirty thousand pounds on two of these estates. Some very judici- 
 ous men think, that if the numerous old hardy and vigorous oc- 
 cupiers had been retained, and encouraged by the application of 
 one-third of this sum, such effectual assistance, with their abstemious 
 habits and personal labour, would have enabled them to execute the 
 same improvements, and to pay as high rents as the present oc- 
 cupiers. To be sure their houses would have been small, and their 
 establishments mean in comparison to those of the present tenants ; 
 but, to balance the mean appearance of their houses, they would 
 have cost the landlord little beyond a small supply of wood. We 
 should then have seen these districts peopled by a high-spirited in- 
 dependent peasantry, instead of miserable day-labourers and cottars, 
 who are now dependent on the great farmer for their employment 
 and daily bread, and who, sensible of their dependence, must cringe 
 to those by offending whom they would deprive themselves of the 
 means of subsistence. When no tie of mutual attachment exists, as 
 in former days, the modern one is easily broken. A look that may 
 be construed into insolence is a sufficient cause of dismissal. Can 
 we expect high-spirited chivalrous soldiers, preferring death to 
 defeat and disgrace, from such a population, and such habits as 
 these ? 
 
CHANGE OF MANNERS. 1 59 
 
 ter has, in many instances, been converted into a gloomy 
 and morose fanaticism. Traditional history and native 
 poetry, which reminded them of other times, are ne- 
 glected. Theological disputes, of interminable duration, 
 now occupy much of the time formerly devoted to poetical 
 recitals and social meetings, These circumstances have 
 blunted their romantic feelings, and lessened their taste 
 for the works of imagination. "Among the causes," says 
 Dr Smith, " which make our ancient poems vanish so 
 rapidly, poverty and the iron road should in most places 
 have a large share. From the baneful shades of these 
 murderers of the Muse, the light of the song must 
 fast retire. No other reason need be asked why the 
 present Highlanders neglect so much the songs of their 
 fathers. Once the humble but happy vassal sat at his 
 ease at the foot of his gray rock, or green tree. Few were 
 his wants, and fewer still his cares, for he beheld his herds 
 sporting round him on his then unmeasured mountains. 
 He hummed the careless song, and tuned the harp of joy, 
 while his soul in silence blessed his chieftain. Now, I 
 was going to draw the comparison, — Sed Cynthius aurem 
 vellit, et admonuit,"* 
 
 In the same manner, and from the same cause, their 
 taste for music, dancing, and all kinds of social amuse- 
 ment, has been chilled. Their evening meetings are now 
 seldom held, and when they do occur, instead of being en- 
 livened with the tale, the poem, or the song, they are too 
 frequently exasperated with political or religious discus- 
 sions, or with complaints against their superiors, and the 
 established clergy, which have altogether exerted a bane- 
 ful instead of a salutar)' influence on their general man- 
 
 * See Report of the County of Argyle, drawn up for the Board 
 of Agriculture. 
 
l6o CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 ners, as well as on that natural civility, which in the last 
 age, never permitted a Highlander to pass any person of 
 respectable appearance without a salute, or some civil ob- 
 servation, whereas at present, so great is the change of 
 manners, that instead of the cordial greetings of former 
 times, a Highlander will frequently pass his immediate 
 superior without the slightest notice. Even the aspect of 
 the Highlander, his air, and his carriage, have undergone 
 a marked change.* Formerly the bonnet was worn with 
 a gentle inclination over the left or right eye-brow, and 
 the plaid was thrown over the left shoulder (the right arm 
 being exposed, and at full liberty) with a careless air, giv- 
 ing an appearance of ease not distant from grace, while 
 the philibeg gave a freedom to the Hmbs, and showed 
 them to advantage. At present, as the Highland dress is 
 almost exclusively confined to the lower orders, a degree 
 
 * The difference in the personal appearance of the people is re- 
 markable, and forms an interesting subject for a philosophic inquiry. 
 The causes of the change in character and manners are evident, but 
 those which have affected personal appearance are not equally clear. 
 Persons who remember the remains of the chivalrous race, whose 
 character I have attempted to delineate, will not now discover any 
 of those martial patriarchal figures, remarkable for an erect inde- 
 pendent air, an ease of manners, and fluency of language and ex- 
 pression, rarely to be found among any peasantry. Even in my own 
 time I remember many, such as I now describe, who, with kindly 
 dispositions and warm attachment to my family and forefathers, 
 never failed, when I met them, to remind me of their honourable 
 character and name. In the districts where these persons lived, we 
 now see only plain homespun folks. To what can this change be 
 attributed? Not surely to the " progress of improvement" — seeing 
 that their personal appearance is as much deteriorated as their con- 
 dition. Many observe, and with great reason, that the tacksmen and 
 second order of gentry are more changed than the lower orders, and 
 are every way different from the gentlemen tacksmen of former times. 
 
CHANGE OF MANNERS. l6l 
 
 -of vulgarity is attached to it, which makes it unfashion- 
 able in the eyes of young men, who awkwardly imitate 
 the gentry, and their Southern neighbours, and in their 
 slouched hats and mis-shapen pantaloons offer a most 
 unseemly contrast to the airy garb and martial appear- 
 ance of their forefathers. 
 
 Along the line of the Grampians, the Gaelic has 
 nearly kept its ground, and is, to this day, spoken in the 
 same districts to which it was limited, after it had ceased 
 to be the prevailing language of Scotland seven hundred 
 years ago. But, although it is universally spoken in com- 
 mon discourse, the Gaelic of the Counties of Dumbarton, 
 Stirling, and Perth, and, in short, of all the Highlands 
 bordering on the Low^lands, is corrupted by a consider- 
 able admixture of English words, ill chosen and ill ap- 
 plied. The chief causes of this corruption are the prac- 
 tice, universal in schools, of teaching children to read 
 English, the more general intercourse w^ith the South, 
 w^hich has lately prevailed, and the introduction of 
 many articles of refinement and luxury, unknown when 
 the Gaelic was in its original purity. Successful at- 
 tempts have recently been made to methodize the 
 structure of the language, to digest the rules of its 
 composition, and, along with the collection of ancient 
 works, to give the means of reading and understanding 
 them by a grammar and dictionary. But if the process 
 continues, which has for some time being going forward, 
 the Gaelic, it is to be feared, will gradually become a 
 dead language. In the remote glens and mountains it 
 might have been preserved for ages, as an interesting 
 monument of a most ancient and original language, re- 
 taining its peculiar modes and forms of expression un- 
 affected by the progress of time, the great innovator in 
 
l62 CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 Other spoken languages ; but the system of modern High- 
 land improvement, marked by an aversion^ inveterate as 
 it seems unaccountable and causeless, to the ancient inhabi- 
 tants, their customs, language, and garb, is now extending 
 to the most distant corry and glen, and will probably root 
 out the language of the country, together with a great 
 proportion of the people who speak it.* 
 
 I have already mentioned, that the Highlanders, 
 though Presbyterians, did not in former times, rigidly 
 adhere to the tenets of that church. For several ages 
 after the Reformation, they evinced a strong predilection 
 to the Episcopalian form of worship. In many parishes, 
 the Presbyterian clergy were not established till the reigns 
 of George I. and II.; but whether of the Church of 
 England or of Scotland, the people retained a portion of 
 their ancient superstitions. With these superstitions was 
 blended a stiong sentiment of piety, which made them 
 regular attendants on divine worship and the ordinances 
 of religion at the expense of much bodily fatigue and 
 
 * Many of the common people begin to despise their native 
 language, as they see gentlemen endeavouring to prevent their 
 children from acquiring the knovirledge of the Gaelic, v^^hich has 
 been spoken in their native country for a time beyond the reach of 
 record and even tradition. In order that their children may not hear 
 spoken the language of their forefathers, from a dread of their acquir- 
 ing the accent, they employ Lowland servants, forgetting that people 
 who know not a word of the Gaelic, invariably catch the accent, 
 merely from the ear being accustomed to the sound. Landlords are 
 thus deprived of the power of holding that free and confidential com- 
 munication with their tenants, which is necessary to acquire a know- 
 ledge of their character, dispositions, and talents ; and being com- 
 pelled to trust to interpreters, they are led into much misconception 
 in regard to their tenants, and these again into frequent misapprehen- 
 sion and prejudiced notions of the character and turn of thinking of 
 their landlord. 
 
CHANGE OF MANNERS. 1 63 
 
 personal inconvenience.* Guided by the sublime and 
 simple truths of Christianity, they were strangers to the 
 very existence of the sects that have branched off from 
 the National Church. In this respect, their character and 
 habits have undergone a considerable alteration since 
 they began to be visited by itinerant missionaries, and 
 since the gloom spread over their minds has tended to de- 
 press their spirit. The missionaries, indeed, after having 
 ventured within the barrier of the Grampians, found 
 a harvest which they little expected, and amongst the 
 ignorant and unhappy, made numerous proselytes to 
 their opinions. These converts losing by their re- 
 cent civilization — as the changes which have taken 
 place in their opinions are called — a great portion of 
 their belief in fairies, ghosts, and second sight, though 
 retaining their appetite for strong impressions, have 
 readily supplied the void ^vith the visions and in- 
 spirations of the " new light," t and, in this mystic 
 
 * In the parish where I passed my early years, the people travelled 
 six, seven, and twelve miles to church, and returned the same even- 
 ing every Sunday in summer, and frequently in winter. A chapel of 
 ease and an assistant clergyman are now established, and the people 
 have not to travel so far. I do not give this as a singular instance ; 
 the case was the same in all extensive parishes, and continues to be 
 so where no chapel of ease is established. 
 
 t Thus have been extirpated the innocent, attractive, and often 
 sublime superstitions of the Highlanders — superstitions which in- 
 culcated no relentless intolerance, nor impiously dealt out perdition 
 and Divine wrath against rival sects — superstitions which taught men 
 to believe that a dishonourable act attached disgrace to a whole 
 kindred and district, and that murder, treachery, oppression, and all 
 kinds of wickedness, would not only be punished in the person of the 
 transgressor himself, but would be visited on future generations. 
 When the Highlander imagined that he saw the ghost of his father 
 frowning upon him from the skirts of the passing clouds, or that he 
 
164 CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 lore, have shown themselves such adepts, as even to 
 astonish their new instructors. Indeed, the latter have, 
 in many cases, been far outdone by the wild enthusiasm 
 and romantic fancy of those disciples whose minds they 
 had first agitated. The ardour of the Highland character 
 remains ; it has only taken another and more dangerous 
 direction, and, when driven from poetical recitals, super- 
 stitious traditions, and chivalrous adventures, has found 
 a vent in religious ravings, and in contests with rival sects. 
 These enthusiastic notions are observed to be most fervent 
 amongst young w^omen. A few years ago, an unfortunate 
 girl in Breadalbane became so bewildered in her imagina- 
 tion by the picture drawn of the punishment of unbeHevers, 
 that she destroyed herself in a fit of desperation, a 7'are, and, 
 till lately, the only instance of this crime in the Highlands. 
 The powerful and gloomy impressions which the doc- 
 heard his voice in the bowlings of the midnight tempest, or when he 
 found his imagination awed by the recital of fairy tales of ghosts, and 
 visions of the second sight, his heart was subdued ; and when he 
 believed that his misdeeds would be visited on his succeeding genera- 
 tions, who would also be rewarded and prosper in consequence of 
 his good actions, he would either be powerfully restrained or en- 
 couraged. When so much — perhaps too much — has been done to 
 destroy these feelings, it were well that some pains were taken to 
 substitute good principles in their room. But I fear that many of the 
 new teachers think more of implicit faith in their own particular 
 doctrines, than of good works in their disciples; and that morals are 
 in general left to the teaching and control of the laws. I trust I 
 shall not be thought too partial to the ancient and innocent supersti- 
 tions of my countrymen, if I wish that the restraints on vice were 
 more numerous than the laws afford ; and confess my belief, that the 
 fear of a ghost is as honourable and legitimate a check as the fear of 
 the gallows, and the thoughts of bringing dishonour on a man's 
 country, name, and kindred, fully as respectable as the fear of Bride- 
 well, Botany Bay, or the executioner's whip. 
 
CHANGE OF MANNERS. 1 65 
 
 trines of some of these teachers have made, are evidently 
 owing to an aheration in the state of their proselytes, 
 whose strong feelings, irritated by many causes, seek re- 
 fuge and consolation in powerful emotions. It is well 
 known, that no itinerant preacher ever gained a footing 
 among the Highlanders, till recent changes in their situa- 
 tion and circumstances paved the way for fanaticism. 
 Some of these new teachers are, no doubt, zealous and 
 conscientious men, but others again are rash, illiterate, 
 ignorant of human nature, and vulgar ; very incapable of 
 filling the situation they have assumed, and peculiarly un- 
 qualified for the instruction of a people, sensitive and 
 imaginative, devout in their habits of thinking, and blame- 
 less in their general conduct. The same force of langu- 
 age and terrors of denunciation, which are barely adequate 
 to produce compunction in the mind of the reckless and 
 godless reprobate, are sufiicient to plunge in utter despond- 
 ency, a tender conscience, and a mind accustomed to re- 
 gard the doctrines of religion with deep and mysterious 
 awe. Some of these religious reformers, as they wish to 
 be considered, intermix their spiritual instructions with 
 reflections on the incapacity and negligence of the clergy- 
 men of the EstabHshed Church, and on the conduct of 
 landlords, whom they compare to the taskmasters of 
 Egypt : and it is an important fact, that, wherever the 
 people are rendered contented and happy in their ex- 
 ternal circumstances, by the judicious and humane treat- 
 ment of their landlords, and wherever they are satisfied 
 with the parish minister in the discharge of his pastoral 
 duties, no itinerant preacher has ever been able to obtain a 
 footing, and the people retain much of their original man- 
 ners, devoutly and regularly attending the parish church.* 
 * The inhabitants of a border strath (Strathbraan is the parish of 
 
l66 CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 While these seem to be the effects of rehgion and ex- 
 ternal circumstances combined, the differences and mutual 
 recriminations which have taken place between the Estab- 
 lished Church and the sects which have branched off from 
 it, are apparently tending to the most deplorable results 
 in the Highlands, where the Gospel, as explained by 
 their clergy, was formerly beHeved with the most implicit 
 faith ; but now, that they see new preachers come among 
 them, and hear the doctrines and lessons of the regular 
 clergy derided, and described as unchristian and unsound, 
 and that, as some times happens, the parish minister re- 
 torts on the intruders, they know not what or whom to 
 
 Little Dunkeld, the property of Sir George Stewart of Grandtully, 
 Bart. ), in the Highlands of Perthshire were, about thirty years ago, 
 considered the most degenerate and worst principled race in the 
 country. Less regular in their attendance on church, litigious, 
 almost the only smugglers in the country, horse-dealers (or horse- 
 coupers, as they are called in Scotland), and, as was said, giving 
 employment to more than one lawyer in the neighbouring town of 
 Dunkeld ; these people have, for many years, been blessed with 
 a humane and indulgent landlord, and a conscientious, able, and 
 zealous clergyman (the late Dr Irvine). The consequences have been 
 striking and instructive. While the population in many other parts 
 of the country are deteriorated in character, these are improving in 
 morals, industry, and prosperity. Regular in their attendance on 
 church, they have lost their litigious disposition, the minister having 
 ever been zealous and successful in deciding and composing their 
 differences. They are clearing and improving their lands, paying 
 their rents regularly, and are little addicted to smuggling. Itinerant 
 preachers have in vain attempted to show themselves in this populous 
 thriving district, which contains 875 inhabitants, who support them- 
 selves in this exemplary manner ; on farms, too, the smallness of 
 which might seem incredible to those statistical economists who 
 reason on theory, and are ignorant of the country, the capability of 
 the natives, or their exertions when thus kindly treated by a patriotic 
 landlord. 
 
CHANGE OF MANNERS. 167 
 
 believe, and there are many instances of the doubt thus 
 thrown on rehgious doctrines, ending in loss of all respect 
 for, or belief in, any religion whatever.* 
 
 Yet, though many Highlanders are thus changed, and 
 have lost much of their taste for the poetry and romantic 
 amusements of their ancestors, though their attachment 
 to superiors has decayed, and the kindness, urbanity, and 
 respect with which all strangers were treated, have con- 
 siderably abated, — notwithstanding all these, and several 
 other changes for the worse, they still retain the inesti- 
 mable virtues of integrity and charity ; t their morality is 
 sufficiently proved by the records of the courts of justice ',% 
 their liberality to the poor, and the independent spirit of 
 the poor themselves, are likewise sufficiently evinced by 
 the trifling and almost nominal amount of the public 
 funds for their rehef ; and their conduct in the field, and 
 their general qualities of firmness, spirit, and courage, 
 will appear in the subsequent annals. 
 
 * Of these lamentable consequences of ignorant zeal, and un- 
 christian disputations, there are many instances ; and many persons 
 whom I knew to have been once of religious habits, regular and 
 exemplary in their attendance at church, were some years ago in- 
 duced to quit the established clergymen, and to follow the dissenters; 
 but soon leaving them also, and apparently dissatisfied with both 
 churches, they have given up all attendance on Divine Service, and 
 renounced even the semblance of religion. 
 
 t It is a principle among the Highlanders never to allow poor 
 and distressed persons to apply in vain, or to pass their door without 
 affording them some charitable assistance. This disposition is so 
 well known, that the country bordering on the Lowlands is over- 
 whelmed with shoals of beggars ; an evil which has increased since 
 the societies for the suppression of mendicity were established in the 
 South. This is a heavy charge on the benevolence of the people, 
 and calls for the prompt interference of the landlords. If they would 
 + See Appendix. 
 
l68 CHANGE OF MANNERS. 
 
 establish checks in the great passes and entrances into the country, 
 to stop those sturdy beggars and strangers, who are so numerous, 
 while the native beggars are so few, the people would easily support 
 their own poor without any assistance whatever. 
 
 Travelling some years ago through a high and distant glen, I 
 saw a poor man, with a wife and four children, resting themselves 
 by the road-side. Perceiving, by their appearance, that they were 
 not of the country, I inquired whence they came. The man an 
 swered, from West Lothian. I expressed my surprise how he would 
 leave so fine and fertile a country, and come to these wild glens. 
 "In that fine country," answered the man, "they give me the cheek 
 of the door, and hound the constables after me ; in this poor country, 
 as you, Sir, call it, they give me and my little ones the fire-side, with 
 a share of what they have." 
 
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THIS CHANGE. 1 69 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Causes afid Cofisequences of this Change — State when 
 
 placed on small Lots of Land — Poverty folloived 
 
 by De77ioralization. 
 
 Having thus hastily glanced at some of the changes 
 which Highland manners have undergone during the last 
 fifty years, it may be interesting to trace the causes by 
 which those changes have been produced. When High- 
 land proprietors, ceasing to confine themselves within 
 the limits of the Grampians, began to mingle with the 
 world and acquire its tastes and manners, they became 
 weary of a constant residence on their estates, and 
 wished for a more enlarged and varied society than a 
 scanty and montonous neighbourhood afforded, t Those 
 who could afford the expense removed to London or 
 
 t To those who live in the busy world, and are hurried round by 
 its agitations, it is difficult to form an idea of the means by which 
 time may be filled up, and interest excited in families, who, through 
 choice or necessity, dwell among their own people. The secret lies 
 in the excitement of strong attachment. To be in the centre of a 
 social circle, where one is beloved and useful, — to be able to mould 
 the characters and direct the passions by which one is surrounded, 
 creates, in those whom the world has not hardened, a powerful in- 
 terest in the most minute circumstance which gives pleasure or pain 
 to any individual in that circle, where so much affection and good 
 will are concentrated. The mind is stimulated by stronger excite- 
 ments, and a greater variety of enjoyments, than matters of even the 
 highest importance can produce in those who are rendered callous, 
 by living among the selfish and the frivolous. It is not the import- 
 ance of the objects, but the value at which they are estimated, that 
 renders their moral interest permanent and salutary. 
 
lyo CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES 
 
 Edinburgh, for at least the winter months; and their sons 
 who formerly remained at home till sent to the Univer- 
 sities to finish their education, now accompanied their 
 parents at so early an age, that they lost the advantages 
 of founding their classical attainments" on the generous 
 enthusiasm and the amor patricB ascribed to moun- 
 taineers. But the Highland youth were now, in many 
 cases alienated from their clans, and from those regions 
 in which warm affections and cordial intimacies subsisted 
 between the gentry and the people ; and the new tastes 
 which they acquired were little calculated to cherish 
 those sympathies and affections which indescribably en- 
 dear the home of our youth. Thus initiated into the 
 routine of general society, when they occassionally re- 
 turned to their native glens they felt the absence of the 
 variety of town amusements, and had also lost that home- 
 felt dignity and those social habits which formerly gave 
 a nameless charm to the paternal seat of a Highland 
 landlord, while he maintained an easy intercourse with 
 the neighbouring proprietors, with the old retainers of 
 the family, and with gentlemen farmers, or, as they are 
 styled in the expressive language of patriarchal brother- 
 hood, " friendly tenants."* These were no longer com- 
 
 * The extinction of the respectable race of tacksmen, or gentle- 
 men farmers, where it has taken place on extensive estates, is a 
 serious loss to the people. Dr Johnson, speaking of the removal of 
 the tacksmen, as it was supposed they could not pay equally high 
 rents with men who lived in an inferior style, and who required less 
 education for their children, thus expresses himself: "The com- 
 modiousness of money is indeed great, but there are some advantages 
 which money cannot buy, and which, therefore, no wise man will, 
 by the love of money, be tempted to forego." The soundness of 
 this opinion has been fully confirmed ; the rank and influence which 
 these respectable men held are now void, — there places being, in 
 
OF THIS CHANGE. 171 
 
 panions suited to the newly acquired tastes and habits. 
 The minds of landlords were directed to the means 
 
 most cases, filled up by shepherds and graziers from the South, or 
 by such natives as had capital or credit enough to undertake their 
 farms. This new class being generally without birth, education, or 
 any of the qualifications requisite to secure the respect of the people 
 on those great estates, where there are no resident proprietors, the 
 inhabitants are left without men of talent, or of sufficient influence, 
 from rank or education, to settle the most ordinary disputes, or 
 capable of acting as justices of the peace, and of signing those certifi- 
 cates and affidavits, which the law in so many instances requires. 
 In extensive districts, containing two, three, and four thousand per- 
 sons each, not more than one, or two at the utmost, or perhaps 
 none, of the ancient rank of gentlemen tacksmen remain, although 
 once so numerous, that on the estates of Macdonald and Macleod, 
 there were upwards of sixty, who, as I am informed by my friend 
 Lord Bannatyne (and many of them were of his intimate acquaint- 
 ance,) "were in general liberally educated, possessing the manners 
 and spirit of gentlemen." It was the same in many other districts, 
 but the few of this description of gentlemen farmers who remain, 
 are the only individuals capable of acting as justices of the peace ; 
 and pensioners and others, who wish to make affidavits, must travel 
 thirty or forty miles for that purpose. Fortunately for the people of 
 many Highland districts, their original habits are still so strong and 
 so well preserved, that magistrates have hitherto been seldom neces- 
 sary for other purposes. The want of inagistrates, therefore, is a 
 trifling grievance in comparison of leaving a population so numerous 
 and virtuous, open to an inundation of political and religious tracts, 
 of ignorant and pretended teachers of the gospel, and of agents of 
 the WHITE SLAVE TRADE, the last of whom induce many unfortunate 
 creatures to emigrate to America, and to sell the reversion of their 
 persons and labour for the passage, which they cannot otherwise 
 obtain. Of the religious and political tracts industriously distributed 
 among these people, they cannot discriminate the truth from what 
 may be intended to deceive and inflame. The itinerant preachers 
 of the "New Light" disseminate hostility to the character and doc- 
 trines of the Established clergy ; while the agents of the emigrant 
 vessels are most active in contrasting the boasted happiness, ease. 
 
172 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 of increasing their incomes, and of acquiring the funds 
 necessary to support their new and more expensive 
 mode of Hfe in a distant country, while their own was 
 impoverished by this constant drain of its produce. 
 
 The system of agriculture which formerly prevailed in 
 the Highlands was well adapted to the character and 
 habits of the people, and was directed to the cultivation 
 of grain, and the rearing of cattle and goats. The value 
 of sheep not being then well understood, they only formed 
 a secondary object. During the summer months the 
 herds were driven to the shealings, or patches of pasture 
 along the margins of the mountain streams. Temporary 
 huts were erected to shelter those who tended the herds 
 and flocks and managed the dairy, the produce of which, 
 and the cattle, the goats, and the few sheep which they 
 could dispose of, formed the only sources of their wealth, 
 the produce of the arable land being seldom sufficient to 
 supply the wants of a family. Latterly grazing appears to 
 have almost superseded agriculture. When a farmer 
 could afford to enlarge his possession, he usually did so, 
 by adding to the number of his live stock, and neglecting 
 cultivation, which at an early period was greatly more 
 extensive.* 
 
 While this continued to be the prevailing practice 
 among the farmers of the Highlands, the improvements 
 
 and freedom, to be enjoyed in America, with what they call the 
 oppression of their landlords. To all this delusion these unfortunate 
 people are exposed, while the new system of statistical economy, 
 with its cold unrelenting merciless spirit, has driven away those who 
 contributed ?o materially to maintain the moral and physical energies 
 of the state, by the influence they exerted over the minds and actions 
 of the people. 
 
 * .See Appendix, Z. 
 
AGRICULTURE. 1 73 
 
 in agriculture in England, which had their origin in the 
 reign of Elizabeth and James I., were matured and re- 
 duced to system in the reign of his son Charles I. The 
 extension of these to the northward seems, however, to 
 have been gradual. From the reign of James I. of Eng- 
 land, so slow was the march of improvement, that it did 
 not extend to Scotland till 140 years thereafter. Potatoes, 
 which were known in England in the time of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, were not introduced into Scotland, except as a 
 rare garden vegetable, till after the commencement of the 
 reign of George III.* In East Lothian, as late as the 
 year 1740, few carts were to be seen, and none adapted 
 for hea\T and distant conveyances. Fifty years ago field 
 turnips were in very limited use, and it is not many years 
 since they were generally cultivated ; yet field turnips, 
 potatoes, and sown grass, were quite common in England 
 a century before. In the year 1760, the Lothian farmers 
 were as prejudiced in favour of old customs, and as back- 
 ward in adopting modern improvements, as the most un- 
 cultivated of the Highlanders. One of the most opulent, 
 extensive, and enlightened farmers in the county of Perth, 
 was twenty years a cultivator before he could overcome 
 his prejudices so far as to enter upon the new system ; 
 and it was not till after the year 1 7 70 that Mr John White, 
 
 *In the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, it is 
 stated that Mr Prentice, in the neighbourhood of Kilsyth, was the 
 first person who planted potatoes in the open field in Scotland. He 
 died in 1792. 
 
 It was not till after the year 1770, that my father planted pota- 
 toes, which were the first raised in the field in this district; and it 
 required some time and persuasion to induce his servants to eat them. 
 This vegetable, which is now the principal food of the Highland 
 peasantry, was then considered as incapable of supporting a man 
 employed in active labour. 
 
174 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 at Kirkton of Mailler, in Strathearn, first introduced the 
 green crop system into Perthshire.* The farmer who 
 first commenced the system of dry fallow in East Lothian 
 only died in the late reign. This new mode of agriculture 
 was considered so extraordinary, that for some time it 
 was looked upon as the result of a disordered intellect, 
 even in the now highly cultivated district of the Lothians.t 
 
 * So backward was agriculture in the Carse of Gowrie, in the 
 year 1756, that a gentleman who, by his abilities, had risen to the 
 highest dignity in the law, walking with a friend through his fields, 
 where his servants were weeding the corn, expressed great gratitude 
 to Providence for raising such a quantity of thistles; "as otherwise," 
 said the Lord President, " how could we, in this district, where we 
 cannot allow our good corn land to be in pasture, find summer food 
 for our working horses?" 
 
 + Had the Lothian gentleman of that period ejected the bulk of 
 the ancient inhabitants, as indolent, prejudiced, ignorant, and worth- 
 less, as the Highlanders are characterized by the supporters of the 
 depopulating system, placing those allowed to remain on barren and 
 detached patches of land ; — and had they invited strangers from Eng- 
 land, France, or Flanders, to supply the place of the extirpated in- 
 habitants, would there not have been the same senseless clamour (as 
 the expression of the indignant feelings, roused by various cruel and 
 unnecessary measures pursued in the Highlands, is called), although 
 in the fertile soil of the Lothians, near the consumption of great 
 cities, with the command of manure and water carriage, large estab- 
 lishments, and farms of one or two hundred arable acres, may be 
 suitable to the circumstances and situation of the country? But 
 what are the consequences even in that fertile country ? People are 
 so scarce, that, without assistance from other countries, their field 
 labour and harvest could not be accomplished. It may indeed be a 
 question, — if the whole kingdom were in similar circumstances, and 
 had as few inhabitants comparatively as the Lothians, where part of 
 the autumn labour is performed by Highlanders, (principally women, 
 who travel southward upwards of 100, and numbers 200 miles), — 
 whence could a supply be obtained? If then, large farms cause a 
 deficiency of necessary labourers, even in the fertile lands of the 
 
AGRICULTURE. 1 75 
 
 Whilst agriculture in Scotland was thus slowly ad- 
 vancing, it was suddenly accelerated by the spirit of enter- 
 prise which burst forth after the Seven Years' War. In 
 the Lowlands, however, the people were allowed time to 
 overcome old habits, and to acquire a gradual knowledge 
 of the new improvements. But many Highland land- 
 lords, in their intercourse with the South, seeing the ad- 
 vantages of these improvements, and the consequent in- 
 crease of rents, commenced operations in the North with 
 a precipitation which has proved ruinous to their ancient 
 tenants, and not always productive of advantage to them- 
 selves ; — a consequence to be expected, when, as has been 
 remarked by Mr Pennant, in his Tour through the High- 
 lands, "they attempted to empty the bag before it was 
 filled." 
 
 The people, unwilling to change old institutions and 
 habits, as if by word of command; unable, or perhaps 
 averse, to pay the new rents, without being allowed time 
 to prepare for the demand; and seeing, as it often 
 happened, their offers of a rent equal to that of the 
 
 Lothians, how unsuitable and ruinous to the barren Highlands must 
 a system be, which leaves not a sufficiency of hands, in a countr}- 
 with such narrow stripes of arable land, that a farm of 300 acres 
 would stretch along the whole side of a district ? From the uncer- 
 tainty of the climate, the want of an immediate and efficient supply 
 of hands would be ruinous. The North having no towns or villages 
 whence assistance could be obtained, if the arable lands in the 
 Highlands contained as few inhabitants as the Lothians, the prin- 
 cipal parts must be kept in pasture, and one-half of what the soil 
 would produce lost ; for, even in the Highlands, where the cultiva- 
 tion of the valleys is well managed, and the supply of labourers 
 sufficient, it is beyond all proportion the most profitable, notwith- 
 standing the comparatively barren soil, and backward uncertain 
 climate. 
 
176 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 Strangers rejected, were rendered desperate. Irritated by 
 the preference thus given, and by the threats of expulsion, 
 their despondency and discontent must cease to astonish. 
 The natural consequence is a check to exertion, or on any 
 attempt to improve. When this seeming indolence shows 
 itself, gentlemen, and those by whom they often allow 
 themselves to be influenced, and to whom they frequently 
 yield their better judgment and kindlier feelings, declare, 
 that so long as such a lazy incorrigible race remains, they 
 cannot enjoy the value of their lands. In this opinion 
 they are confirmed by persons who argue, that the 
 prosperity of the State calls for such measures, at the 
 same time that they acknowledged the harshness of these 
 measures in themselves, and profess their sympathy with 
 the people who are thus reduced to poverty, and its too 
 frequent consequences, immorality and crime ; forgetting 
 that it can never be for the well-being of any state 
 to deteriorate the character of, or to extirpate a brave, 
 loyal, and moral people, its best supporters in war, and 
 the most orderly, contented, and economical in peace. 
 These reasoners found their arguments on general prin- 
 ciples ; and, without taking into consideration, or per- 
 haps unacquainted with the peculiar circumstances of 
 the case, with the nature of the country, its uncertain 
 humid climate, or the hardihood and capability of the 
 inhabitants, if properly managed, — and keeping entirely 
 out of view, also, the reduced condition of the people, 
 an omission not to be expected in an enlightened age; — 
 they endeavour to prove that if one family can manage 
 a tract of country,* it is an useless waste of labour to 
 
 * If it were probable that machinery could be invented to carry 
 on manufactures of every description without the intervention of 
 human labour, and that corn could be imported for the consumption 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. I 77 
 
 allow it, as was formerly, and is still the case in many parts 
 of the Highlands, to be occupied by many families possess- 
 ing much economy and industry, though with little capital. 
 But whatever be the capital of farmers, or the size 
 of farms, rents must be according to the value of the 
 produce. While the staple and only article of export 
 from the Highlands was so low that the price of the best 
 ox did not exceed thirty shillings, and a sheep half-a- 
 crown, the rents were in proportion to, but not lower than, 
 those in the most fertile districts of Scotland* at the same 
 
 of the inhabitants of Great Britain, the soil turned to pasture, and 
 little manual, manufacturing, or agricultural labour left for the work- 
 ing population, which would thus be thrown idle ; would such a 
 sacrifice of productive labour be proper, and would the welfare of the 
 state be promoted by the diminution of the people, which must be 
 the necessar)- consequence of a want of employment ? for, if the 
 population is reduced, how is the produce of the soil and of manu- 
 factures to be consumed ? The question is as applicable to the 
 northern portion as to the whole empire ; and as it would be ruinous 
 to the lower orders to put an end to all agricultural labour in the 
 South, so it must be to the people of the North, if the whole coun- 
 try be converted into pasture and large farms. In this case, the 
 people must be sent to the colonies, as the Lowlands offer no 
 encouragement for extensive emigration from the Highlands. If 
 allowed to remain in their native country', without any support but 
 daily labour, in a country where, under such management, all, except 
 a few men of capital, must be day-labourers, and under a system 
 which pelds but little employment ; when even that little fails, as 
 from the natural course of events it must often do, poor-rates must 
 be established, and the lower orders in the Highlands become 
 paupers, as is the case with one-seventh of the population of Eng- 
 land ; a state of degradation unparalleled in the Christian world. 
 And yet this is the state to the completion of which, so much has 
 been said and written, to prevail upon the Highland proprietors to 
 reduce the ancient occupiers of their land. 
 
 * In the year 1785, some of the best lands on Lord Kinnaird's 
 
 N 
 
178 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 period. But when a great demand and increased prices 
 led to the prosperity of the tenants, it was natural for 
 proprietors to raise their rents, and to attempt those im- 
 provements and changes which the progress of agricul- 
 tural knowledge and the wealth of the country suggested. 
 This was the just and natural progress of events, and 
 would of itself have been the cause of many changes 
 in the manners and condition of the Highlanders ; and, 
 judging from numerous examples, might have been 
 effected without injury to the original tenants, and to 
 the great and permanent advantage of the proprietors. 
 Rents might have been gradually increased with the 
 increasing value of produce, and improved modes of 
 cultivation introduced, without subverting the characteris- 
 tic dispositions of a race of men who inherited from their 
 ancestors an attachment seldom equalled, and still more 
 seldom exceeded, either in fidelity or disinterestedness.* 
 
 estate in the Carse of Gowrie were rented on old leases of fifty-nine 
 years, at four pounds Scots, or six shillings and eightpence the acre. 
 The present rent is £(> sterling per acre. The difference of the pre- 
 sent rents and of those paid seventy years ago, on the estates of 
 Lords Kinnoull, Gray, and others in the Lowlands, are similar. In 
 those days they were equally low with the rents in the Highlands, 
 which were of niore value to the proprietors than they would seem, 
 by merely looking to the money rent, as much was paid in kind, and 
 in personal services. It is said that Stewart of Appin received as 
 rent an ox or cow for every week, and a goat or wether for every 
 day in the year, with fowls and smaller articles innumerable. When 
 the money rent and personal service for warlike and domestic pur- 
 poses are added, the provisions gave the laird abundance, the money 
 independence, and the personal services, dignity and security in tur- 
 bulent ages, when the laws were too weak to afford protection. 
 
 * It may be considered unnecessary to multiply examples of dis- 
 interested attachment ; but the traits they disclose are of such a 
 nature, as must be gratifying to all who respect the best characteristics 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 1 79 
 
 By taking advantage of this honourable disposition, (for 
 what can be more honourable than that disinterested 
 fidelity to which life and fortune were sacrificed?) the 
 tenants might have been induced to pay adequate rents 
 for their lands, without the necessity of depopulating 
 whole districts ; the farms, too, might have been gradu- 
 ally enlarged — the mode of husbandry altered- — sheep 
 stock introduced — the surplus population, if such there 
 was, employed in clearing and improving the land fit for 
 cultivation, or induced to change their residence from one 
 district to another, or to transfer their industry from the 
 land to the fisheries, or to trades or handicrafts, without 
 being driven at once from their usual means of subsist- 
 ence and from their native districts. " The forcible 
 establishment of manufactories and of fisheries," says a 
 learned author on the rural economy of the Highlands, 
 ^' are projects only of inconsiderable benevolence ; it is 
 
 of human nature. A few years ago, a gentleman of an ancient and 
 honourable family got so much involved in debt, that he was obliged 
 to sell his estate. One-third of the debt consisted of money bor- 
 rowed in small sums from his tenants, and from the country people 
 in the neighbourhood. The interest of these sums was paid very 
 irregularly. Instead of complaining of this inconvenience, his credi- 
 tors among his people kept at a distance, lest their demands might add 
 to the difficulties of the man whose misfortunes they so much 
 lamented ; and many declared, that if their money could contribute 
 to save the estate of an honourable family they would never ask for 
 principal or interest. Speaking to several of these people on this 
 subject, the uniform answer which I received was nearly in the fol- 
 lowing words : " God forbid that I should distress the honourable 
 gentleman ; if my money could serve him, how could I bestow 
 it better? He and his family have ever been kind, — he will do 
 more good with the money than ever I can, — I can live without it, — 
 I can live on potatoes and milk, but he cannot ; — to see his family 
 obliged to quit the house of his forefathers, is cause of grief to us all." 
 
l8o CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 only by the gradual change of opinions and practices, by 
 the presentation of new motives, and the creation of new 
 desires, that the state of society must be changed. 
 All that which ought to follow will proceed in its natural 
 order, without force, without loss, and without disappoint- 
 ment."* This would, no doubt, have been the case in 
 the Highlands, where a gradual, prudent, and proper 
 change would not have excited riots among a people dis- 
 tinguished by their hereditary obedience to their superiors, 
 nor rendered it necessary to eject them -from their posses- 
 sions by force, or as in some instances, by burning their 
 houses about their ears, and driving them out, home- 
 less and unsheltered, to the naked heath. It was a cold- 
 hearted spirit of calculation, from before which humanity, 
 and every better feeling, shrunk, that induced men to set 
 up for sale that loyalty, fidelity, and affection, which, as 
 they cannot be purchased, are above all price, t 
 
 * Dr Macadloch^ s Description of the Western Islands of Scotland. 
 
 t The same disposition is seen in the sale of woods which beauti- 
 fied the country; and gave an appearance of antiquity and pre- 
 eminence to gentlemen's seats. The destruction of the old timber 
 has. for some years past, been so great, that if continued, Dr John- 
 son's remark, " that no tree in vScotland is older than the Union," 
 will have too much the air of truth. Noble trees, of the age and 
 growth of centuries, which gave dignity to the seats they ornamented, 
 have been levelled to the ground, and sold for a trifle, as the age 
 that made them so venerable diminished their value as timber. It 
 would be trifling with common sense, to dispute the propriety of cut- 
 ting and selling wood as an article produced from the soil, but that 
 cannot be applied to woods planted for ornament or shelter, more 
 particularly in Scotland, now bare and destitute of wood, although 
 once abounding with the noblest forests. There are few countries 
 where the woods have a more striking effect than in the Highlands 
 of Scotland, from the contrast they form to the bleak and barren 
 mountains which enclose them. Whether trees are found in natural 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. l8l 
 
 But, though the introduction of a few men of agri- 
 cultural experience and judgment into the Highlands, 
 might be a judicious measure, as their knowledge and ex- 
 ample would readily spread among the natives, this can- 
 not justify the entire removal or ejection of the ancient 
 inhabitants. In several cases, those who promoted these 
 improvements, by the costly sacrifice of turning adrift 
 from their lands a people who considered themselves 
 born to love and honour their superiors, reasoned so 
 speciously on the expected advantages of this course of 
 policy, as to extinguish in themselves and others those 
 feelings of remorse and compunction, which the price at 
 
 woods, covering the boldest and most precipitous rocks, or in those 
 ancient avenues and groves around gentlemen's seats in the glens, 
 they alike excite the surprise of the stranger, who does not expect to 
 see such strength of vegetation, and brightness of verdure, in the 
 centre of mountains, which, on the first approach, look so dreary and 
 forbidding. Every man of taste must deplore the loss of woods and 
 picturesque scenery which animated the poet, and delighted the 
 painter. In former ages, these trees were preserved and venerated ; 
 and by the recollections of the length of time they had sheltered and 
 thrown an air of dignity and importance over the castles and seats of 
 ancient families, the respect of the people for their owners was in- 
 creased and preserved. But such recollections now are out of fashion; 
 the trees are valued according to the money they bring, and, like 
 the fidelity of the clansmen, are sold to the highest bidder. And so is 
 disposed of much of the respect and esteem of the lower oi'ders for 
 their superiors, who thus for the sake of a small acquisition of money 
 easily spent and soon forgotten, destroy for ever the magnificent 
 ornaments reared by their forefathers, which no wealth can purchase 
 and which proved the antiquity and respectability of the families 
 who possessed them. No person of taste can view without a feeling 
 of reverence, an ancient mansion, embosomed in groups of tall trees 
 or avenues, the growth of centuries, with noisy rooks clustering and 
 cawing on the tops as if they were inhabitants of another and higher 
 region. 
 
1 82 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 which they were to be purchased might have been cal- 
 culated to excite. Thus was identified with national ad- 
 vantages the system at which individual benevolence re- 
 volted, but which, it was pretended, was to support liberal 
 and enlightened principles, and to achieve a conquest 
 over all deep-rooted prejudices, and stubborn long- 
 descended customs; and many have been induced, more 
 from authority and fashion than from sordid motives, to 
 follow the example. In this manner the system has 
 spread with a fatal rapidity, allowing no time for the bet- 
 ter feelings of those who have been drawn into it, perhaps 
 unwarily, to operate ; and it is certain that there is no re- 
 cent instance in which so much unmerited suffering has 
 produced so little compassion, or reprobation for the 
 authors. The cruelty of removing the slaves on one 
 West India estate to another, perhaps scarcely five miles 
 distant, is frequently reprobated in the strongest terms, 
 and attempts are made to procure Acts of Parliament to 
 prevent the removal of a slave from his usual residence ; 
 yet the ejectment or emigration of the Highlanders, their 
 total ruin and banishment from their native land, is 
 viewed with apathy, and their feelings of despair deemed 
 unworthy of notice. The negroes, with little local at- 
 tachment, may be as happy on their new as on their 
 former plantations, as they are probably deprived of no 
 former comfort, and merely subjected to a change of resi- 
 dence. The Highlander, with the strongest local attach- 
 ment, confirmed by numberless anecdotes of former ages, 
 cherishes with reverence the memory of his ancestors. 
 With these attractions to his native country, he is de- 
 prived of his means of livelihood, driven from his house 
 and his ancient home, and forced to take shelter in a 
 foreign land, or in a situation so new to him, that all his 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 1 83 
 
 habits must undergo a total change : and yet this appears 
 so just and proper, that strangers, ignorant of the national 
 character of this country, and witnessing the apathy with 
 which the misery of the unfortunate Highlanders is be- 
 held, might suppose that the inhabitants are void of all 
 humanity ; and, while the press is often employed in ex- 
 posing and reprehending political delinquencies, the op- 
 pressions, forcible ejectments, and burnings out of the 
 Highlanders, pass unnoticed, however rapidly such cruel 
 measures lead to poverty,* immorality, and crime. In- 
 deed, so little do such considerations affect some of our 
 modern philanthropists, that the conduct of those who 
 have made desolate wastes of many once happy communi- 
 ties in Inverness, and other counties, is applauded ; while 
 they violently declaim against a similar line of conduct, 
 when the inhabitants of the West Indies are in question. 
 A very honourable and humane friend of mine, who has 
 exerted himself powerfully in the cause of the poor negroes, 
 told me, not long ago — and was not well pleased because 
 I did not coincide in his opinion,— that Sutherland con- 
 tained 20,000 inhabitants too many, and that they ought 
 to be removed without delay, and sent to the colonies.* 
 
 * Mr Foster Alleyne, of Barbadoes, has a population of nearly 
 I2CX) negroes on his estate in that island, which has been in his family 
 since the reign of Charles I. By overcropping and mismanagement 
 during his absence, the soil, which was favourable for sugar, had be- 
 come totally unfit for producing that valuable article ; he therefore 
 turned his attention to the raising of provisions, the cultivation of 
 which is less laborious, and requires little more than half the number 
 of hands necessary for sugar ; consequently, he might have disposed 
 of the surplus population, to the amount of nearly 500 persons. 
 How did this honourable and humane gentleman act in these circum- 
 stances, while several Highland proprietors, in similar cases, found 
 no difficulty or hesitation ? "I cannot find in my heart," said he. 
 
184 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 As two-thirds of these people are unable to pay for their 
 passage, they must bind themselves to serve for a term 
 of years the person who pays for them, and who again 
 disposes of them to the highest bidder ; * a species of 
 slavery not very agreeable to the dispositions of the 
 mountaineers, and which I did not expect that my phil- 
 anthropic friend, who has such an abhorrence of slavery 
 of every kind, would have proposed for them. Slavery 
 is already too common in America, where every sixth 
 individual is in that degraded condition. Although 
 the term of the emigrant's bondage is only temporary, 
 
 "to part with any of these poor faithful creatures, all of whom have 
 been born on my property, where their fathers have served mine for 
 generations (there has been no addition by purchase since the year 
 1744, when a few were added for some special purpose), and they 
 shall remain undisturbed while I remain." From a very extensive 
 and intimate knowledge of many colonies, acquired in the course of 
 military service in the West Indies, at different periods, I could cite 
 many pleasing instances of this kind regard to the feelings of negroes. 
 Were clansmen treated with the same fatherly kindness displayed by 
 this gentleman, landlords would ever be exempted from witnessing 
 such horrible excesses as have been exhibited by the Irish peasantry. 
 When attempts are made to establish very laudable regulations, in 
 order to prevent the removal of negroes from their original homes, why 
 is humanity so blind as not to see the cruelty of transporting 20,000 
 Highlanders from their native country to the plantations? Perhaps 
 the defenders of depopulation may say, as the defenders of the slave 
 trade did of that atrocious and inhuman traffic, that ti-ansportation 
 will improve their condition, and that they will be more comfortable 
 in the colonies than in their native country. This may be true as far 
 as regards some Highlanders, whose condition may easily be im- 
 proved (as in many cases it cannot well be worse) ; but does the 
 misery of the unfortunate outcasts, during the progress of this im- 
 provement and transportation to a foreign land, deserve no consider- 
 ation ? 
 
 * See Parkinson'' s Tour and oilier works on North America. 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 185 
 
 yet slavery of any kind is not calculated to procure the 
 means, or foster the spirit of independence ; — it must, 
 therefore, be a matter of regret, that our countrymen are 
 compelled to become bondsmen in a foreign country, 
 even in a land of liberty such as America, — if that can 
 be called a land of liberty where slavery exists to such a 
 lamentable extent. 
 
 The late transfer of 3000 subjects between the 
 sovereigns of Baden and Bavaria has been arraigned in 
 the strongest language by some of our journalists. Yet 
 these people retain, as before, possession of their pro- 
 perty and their native homes, and have only to suffer in 
 their feelings by being transferred from the government 
 of one sovereign to that of another ; a matter that seems 
 to be of little consequence amongst the contiguous princi- 
 palities of Germany. The Highlanders are not only 
 forced to transfer their allegiance to another government, 
 but to transport themselves to distant regions: — and yet 
 no reprobation follows. 
 
 While the misery of a blameless and unoffending 
 people thus excites so little pity, and while the depopula- 
 tion of a glen is viewed with indifference, or hailed as an 
 advantage, like ridding pasture ground of foxes and other 
 vermin, it is no wonder that proprietors should be en- 
 couraged to proceed, not only without regret, but even with 
 self-gratulation.* A late author, describing the state of 
 
 * To afford an idea of the extent of the newly estabHshed farms, 
 and the consequent depopulation of the country, we may produce, as 
 an instance, an advertisement in the Inverness newspapers of a High- 
 land farm to be let, described as consisting of looo arable acres, near 
 the dwelling-house (the number of arable acres at a greater distance 
 is not stated) of the first quality, and with a full supply of drifted 
 sea-weed on the shore, and which may, as stated in the advertise- 
 
1 86 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 the agricultural population in England in the reign of 
 Henry VIII., when the country was first arranged in 
 large farm, says. " Millions of independent peasantry were 
 thus at once degraded into beggars ; stripped of all their 
 proud feelings which hitherto characterized Englishmen, 
 they were too ignorant, too dispersed, too domestic, and 
 possessed too much reverence for their superiors, to com- 
 bine as mechanics and manufacturers in towns. Parish 
 relief was, therefore, established."* Lord Chancellor 
 More, one of the most virtuous men in England, an eye- 
 witness of what he describes, gives a view of the state 
 
 ment, "be laboured to the greatest advantage.*' "The hill pas- 
 tures," it is added, "stocked with Cheviot sheep, are of the first 
 quality in the country, and extend 30 miles along the sea coasts It 
 is impossible to read this advertisement without commiseration for 
 the fate of those who formerely occupied this extensive tract of coun- 
 try, which is " capable of being laboured to the greatest advantage,'' 
 and, consequently, well calculated to support its ancient population. 
 Another farm is also advertised as capable of "maintaining 9000 
 Cheviot sheep, and as perhaps the safest in Britain ; and its pastures, 
 for richness and variety, inferior to none in the Highlands." This 
 fact furnishes a striking example of the force of that delusive patriot- 
 ism which benumbs the feelings of even good men, and blinds them 
 to the sufferings of the ejected tenantry. Part of the land which 
 gave birth to many brave men, who, as soldiers, have contributed to 
 make the name of Scotland honoured and respected over all Europe, 
 is now without an inhabitant, except five shepherds and their 
 families. But then it is " capable of maintaining gooo sheep /" So 
 it would be although all the ancient race had remained. The 
 quantity of grass required for sheep and cattle does not depend on 
 the land being occupied by one, or by a number of tenants. 
 
 *■ The suppression of the monasteries, no doubt, contributed to 
 this sudden creation of artificial misery; but it is a proper distinction, 
 that the monasteries only fed those who were poor and idle already, 
 whereas, the engrossing and grazing system made thousands idle 
 whose habits were formerly industrious. 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 1 87 
 
 of the people at that period, which must strike home to 
 th^ heart of every humane person, who has seen or heard 
 of similar scenes in the Highlands. Speaking of engross- 
 ing farms, by which small tenants were compelled to be- 
 come day-labourers,* relying for their support on acci- 
 dental circumstances, a situation more dependent than 
 that which trusts to the more certain produce of nature, 
 the Lord Chancellor says, " These men turn all dwelling 
 and all the glebe land into desolation and wilderness ;: 
 therefore, that one covetous and unsatiatable cormorant, 
 and very plague of his native country, may compass 
 about and enclose many thousand acres of ground to- 
 gether with one pale, or hedge, the husbandmen be thrust 
 out of their own, or else, either by force, or fraud, or 
 by violent oppression, they be put aside, or by wrongs 
 and injuries they be so wearied, that they be compelled 
 to sell all; by one means, therefore, or another, either 
 by hook or crook, they must needs depart away, poor 
 wretched souls ! men, women, husbands, wives, fatherless 
 children, widows, woful mothers, with their young babes, 
 and their whole household, small in substance, but much 
 in numbers, as husbandry requireth many hands. Away 
 they trudge, I say, out of their known and accustomed 
 houses, finding no place to rest on. All their household 
 stuff, which is very little worth, though it may well abide 
 the sale, yet being suddenly thrust out, they be con- 
 strained to sell it for a thing of nought, and when they 
 have wandered till that be spent, what can they do but 
 steal, and then, justly perhaps, be hanged, or else go 
 about begging. And yet then, also, they may be cast 
 into prison as vagabonds, because they go about and 
 work not, when no man will set them to work, though 
 * See Appendix, AA. 
 
1 88 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 they never so willingly offer themselves thereto. For one 
 shepherd, or herdsman, is enough to eat up that with 
 cattle which occupied numbers, whereas about husbandry 
 many hundreds were requisite. And this is also the 
 cause why victuals now in many places be dearer; be- 
 sides this, the price of wool is so risen, that poor folks, 
 which were wont to work it and make cloth thereof, be 
 now able to buy none at all, and by this means very many 
 be forced to forsake work, and give themselves to idle- 
 ness."*" 
 
 On the part of those who instituted similar improve- 
 ments, in which so few of the people were to have a share, 
 conciliatory measures and a degree of tenderness, beyond 
 what would have been shown to strangers, might have 
 been expected towards the hereditary supporters of their 
 families. It was, however, unfortunately the natural 
 consequences of the measures which were adopted, that 
 few men of liberal feelings could be induced to under- 
 take their execution. The respectable gentlemen,t who, 
 
 * This picture of misery, degradation, and vice, to which the 
 brave, the generous, the independent peasantry of England were re- 
 duced, was written more than two centuries ago, when no inter- 
 mediate station was left in the agricultural population between 
 wealthy yeomen and day-labourers. It bears too striking a resem- 
 blance to later scenes in some Highland glens ; and as it was the 
 origin of the English poor-rates, are not similar results to be dreaded 
 in the Highlands, by depriving the bulk of the people of all perman- 
 ent property or certain means of subsistence, more especially as there 
 is no manufacturing or regular employment for the labouring classes? 
 
 t Several years previous to the death of George Lord Littleton, 
 he visited Scotland, and passed some weeks at Taymouth with the 
 late Earl of Breadalbane. Being asked by a friend some time after 
 his return, what he had seen in the Highlands, and what he thought 
 of the people and country? After giving his opinion, at some length, 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 1 89 
 
 in so many cases, had formerly consented to undertake 
 the management of Highland property, resigned their 
 employments, when they found the execution of the new 
 measures incompatible with their sense of humanity and 
 duty to a higher power than their employers. They 
 shrunk from the ungrateful task. Their places were 
 supphed by persons cast in a coarser mould, and gene- 
 rally strangers to the country ; who, detesting the people, 
 and ignorant of their character, capability, and language, 
 quickly surmounted every obstacle, and hurried on the 
 change, without reflecting on the distress of which it 
 might be productive, or allowing the kindlier feelings of 
 landlords to operate in favour of their ancient tenantry. 
 " Men of this cast," says a reverend author, " overturn 
 
 he concluded: "But of all I saw or heard, few things excited my 
 surprise more than the learning and talents of Mr Campbell of Ach- 
 allader, factor to Lord Breadalbane. Born and resident in the 
 Highlands, I have seldom seen a more accomplished gentleman, 
 with more general and classical learning." The late Achallader and 
 his father were upwards of ninety years factors to two successive 
 Earls of Breadalbane. 
 
 Such w'ere the gentlemen who formerly managed great Highland 
 estates. With their superior rank in society, (an important point in 
 the eyes of the Highlanders, whose feelings are hurt, when they see 
 men without birth or education placed over them,) their influence, 
 honourable principles, and intelligence, they kept the people under 
 such judicious rules, as produced great fidelity, contentment, and in- 
 dependence of spirit. The gentlemen who managed the estates of 
 Atholl, Argyll, Montrose, Perth, etc., were also of the first character 
 and families in the country. "Why has this system been changed, 
 and why do independent men refuse acting ? Formerly, and even 
 within my own remembrance, the tenants on great estates were en- 
 vied, and considered most fortunate, in the ease, happiness, and 
 comfort they enjoyed. How does it happen, that, in this respect, 
 there is a total change and revolution in the views and feelings of 
 the people ? 
 
190 CHANGE OF TENAT^TRY. 
 
 everything." To attempt a new system, and to become 
 acceptable tenants, was considered impossible with men 
 so prejudiced, incurably indolent and ignorant, as the 
 old occupiers were described; they were therefore in two 
 many cases removed from the fertile and cultivated 
 farms ; some left the country, and others were offered 
 limited portions of land on uncultivated moors, on which 
 they were to form a settlement ; and thus, while particular 
 districts have been desolated, the gross numerical popu- 
 lation, has in some manner been preserved, and has 
 afforded a ready answer to those who have thus acted, " I 
 have not rooted out my people, I have only changed my 
 system ; they are as numerous as ever." Many judicious 
 men, however, doubt the policy of these measures, and 
 dread their consequences on the condition and habits of 
 the people. The following account of their situation is 
 from the respectable and intelligent clergyman of an ex- 
 tensive parish in the County of Ross. "When the valleys 
 and higher grounds were let to the shepherds, the 
 whole population was drawn down to the sea-shore, where 
 they were crowded on small lots of land, to earn their 
 subsistence by labour (idhere all are labourers atid 
 few employers) and by sea-fishing, the latter so little 
 congenial to their former habits. This cutting down 
 farms into lots* was found so profitable, that over 
 the whole of this district, the sea-coast, where the 
 
 * It will be observed, that these one or two acre lots are forming 
 iis an improved system, in a country where many loud complaints are 
 daily made of surplus population, and of the misery of the people on 
 their old farms of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and more, arable acres, 
 with pasture in proportion ; and yet in a country without regular 
 employment, and without manufactures, a family is to be supported 
 on one or two acres ! ! 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. I9I 
 
 shore is accessible, is thickly studded with wretched cot- 
 tages, crowded with starving inhabitants. Ancient re- 
 spectable tenants, who passed the greater part of life in 
 the enjoyment of abundance, and in the exercise of 
 hospitality and charity, possessing stocks of ten, twenty, 
 and thirty breeding cows, with the usual proportion of 
 other stock, are now pining on one or two acres of bad 
 land, with one or two starved cows; and, for this accomo- 
 dation, a calculation is made, that they must support 
 their families and pay the rent of their lots, not from the 
 produce, but from the sea; thus drawing a rent which 
 the land cannot afford. When the herring fishery (the 
 only fishery prosecuted on this coast) succeeds, they 
 generally satisfy the landlords, whatever privations they 
 may suffer; but when the fishing fails, they fall in arrears, 
 and are sequestrated, and their stock sold to pay the rents, 
 their lots given to others, and they and their families 
 turned adrift on the world. The herring fishery, always 
 precarious, has, for a succession of years, been very de- 
 fective, and this class of people are reduced to extreme 
 misery. At first, some of them possessed capital, from 
 converting their farm stock into cash, but this has been 
 long exhausted. It is distressing to view the general 
 poverty of this class of people, aggravated by their having 
 once enjoyed abundance and independence; and we 
 cannot sufficiently admire their meek and patient spirit, 
 supported by the powerful influence of religious and 
 moral principle. There are still a few small tenants on 
 the old system, occupying the same farm jointly, but 
 they are falling fast to decay, and sinking into the new 
 class of cottars. 
 
 " Except in Glenelg, emigration has been very limited 
 from this side of the island, owing to their powerful 
 
192 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 attachment to the country of their fathers : although, at 
 the time of the violent changes, they had sufficient pro- 
 perty to transport and settle their families comfortably in 
 America, they could not tear themselves away; and now, 
 although eager for a change, they have not the power."'^ 
 
 This mode of giving all the good and cultivated land 
 to a few rich individuals, and of subdividing small por- 
 tions of barren moor or of inferior soil among the previ- 
 ous occupiers, in a country without any permanent means 
 of subsistence beyond the scanty and precarious produce 
 of those unreclaimed patches, is a line of policy, which 
 could not fail to excite universal surprise, did we not 
 yearly witness so many theoretical schemes, often incon- 
 sistent with each other, and so little regard for the 
 happiness of the people. But leaving out of view the 
 consideration that, from the prevalence of turning corn 
 lands into pasture, the demand for labour is diminished 
 while the number of labourers is increased, it can scarcely 
 be expected that a man who had once been in the 
 condition of a farmer, possessed of land, and of consider- 
 able property in cattle, horses, sheep, and money ; often 
 employing servants himself, conscious of his independ- 
 ence, and proud of his ability to assist others ; should 
 without the most poignant feehngs, descend to the rank 
 of a hired labourer, even where labour and payment can 
 be obtained, more especially if he must serve on the 
 farms or in the country where he formerly commanded 
 as master. It is not easy for those who live in a country 
 like England, where so many of the lower orders have 
 nothing but what they acquire by the labour of the pass- 
 ing day, and possess no permanent property or share in 
 the agricultural produce of the soil, to appreciate the 
 * Letter from Dr Downic, minister of Lochalsh. 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. I93 
 
 nature of the spirit of independence, which is generated 
 in countries where the free cultivators of the soil con- 
 stitute the major part of the population. It can scarcely 
 be imagined how proudly a man feels, however small 
 his property may be, when he has a spot of arable 
 and pasture land, stocked with corn, horses, and cows; 
 a species of property which, more than any other, binds 
 him, by ties of interest and attachment, to the spot 
 with which he is connected. He considers himself 
 an independent person, placed in a station in society 
 far above the day-labourer, who has no stake in the 
 permanency of existing circumstances, beyond the pro- 
 spect of daily employment : his independence being 
 founded on permanent property, he has an interest in the 
 welfare of the state, by supporting which he renders his 
 own property more secure, and, although the value of the 
 property may not be great, it is every day in his view ; 
 his cattle and horses feed around him ; his grass and corn 
 he sees growing and ripening ; his property is visible to 
 all observers, which is calculated to raise the owner in 
 general consideration : and when a passing friend or 
 neighbour praises his thriving crops and his cattle, his 
 heart swells with pleasure, and he exerts himself to sup- 
 port and to preserve that Government and those laws 
 which render it secure. Such is the case in many parts 
 of the world : such was formerly the case in Scotland, 
 and is still in many parts of the Highlands. Those who 
 wish to see only the two castes of capitalists and day- 
 labourers, may smile at this union of independence and 
 comparative poverty. But, that the opposite system is 
 daily quenching the independent spirit of the Highlanders, 
 and laying a foundation for the establishment of poor- 
 rates, and the consequent degradation of the people, is 
 
194 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 an undoubted fact, and gives additional strength to the 
 argument of those Avho object to the reduction of the agri- 
 cultural population, and regret their removal to the great 
 towns, and to those seats of misery and vice, the villages 
 in preparation in some parts of the country. 
 
 It is painful to dwell on this subject ; but as informa- 
 tion, communicated by men of honour, judgment, and 
 perfect veracity, descriptive of what they daily witness, 
 affords the best means of forming a correct judgment ; 
 and as these gentlemen, from their situations in life, have 
 no immediate interest in the determination of the ques- 
 tion beyond what is dictated by humanity and a love of 
 truth, their authority may be considered as undoubted. 
 The following extract of a letter from a friend, as well as 
 the extract already quoted, is of this description. Speak- 
 ing of the settlers on the new allotments, he says, " I 
 scarcely need tell you that these wretched people exhibit 
 every symptom of the most abject poverty, and the most 
 helpless distress. Their miserable lots in the moors, not- 
 withstanding their utmost labour and strictest economy, 
 have not yielded them a sufficient crop for the support of 
 their families, for three months. The little money they 
 were able to derive from the sale of their stock has, there- 
 fore, been expended in the purchase of necessaries. 
 and is now wholly exhausted.* Though they have now, 
 
 * When whole districts are depopulated at once, their pecuniary 
 losses, and the distress of those ejected, are increased by the circum- 
 stance of all selling off their stock and furniture at the same time, as 
 consequently there can be but few purchasers. Their movables will 
 not suit the establishments of the capitalists ; and, while the ejected 
 tenants must leave them unsold, or accept of a nominal price, they 
 are deprived of this small and last resource for transporting them- 
 selves to a foreign country, where a virtuous, high-spirited, brave 
 people, are not considered as a nuisance or a burthen on the soil. 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 1 95 
 
 therefore, overcome all their scruples about leaving their 
 native land, and possess the most ardent desire to emi- 
 grate, in order to avoid the more intolerable evils of star- 
 vation, and have been much encouraged by the favour- 
 able accounts the\' have received from their countrymen 
 already in America, they cannot possibly pay the expenses 
 of transporting themselves and their families thither."* 
 
 Well might the old Highlander thus warn his country- 
 men — '' Take care of yourselves, for the law has reached 
 Ross-shire." He had more cause for alarm for his pos- 
 terity than he was aware of. Little could he calculate, 
 when his fears were excited by vague ideas of a change ; 
 little could he anticipate that the introduction of civil 
 order, and the extension of legal authority, which, in an 
 enlightened age, tend to advance the prosperity, as well 
 as promote the security of a nation, should have been to 
 his countrymen either the signals of banishment from 
 their native country, or the means of lowering the con- 
 dition of those who were permitted to remain. With 
 more reason it might have been expected that the prin- 
 ciples of an enlightened age would have gradually intro- 
 duced beneficial changes among the ancient race ; that 
 they would have softened down the harsher features of 
 their character, and prepared them for habits better suited 
 to the cultivation of the soil, than the indolent freedom 
 of a pastoral life. Instead of this, the new system, what- 
 ever may be its intrinsic merits or defects, has, in too 
 many cases, been carried into execution, m a manner 
 which has excited the strongest and most indignant sen- 
 sations in the breasts of those who do not overlook the 
 present inconvenience and distress of the many, in the 
 
 * Letter from a gentleman in the County of Ross. 
 
196 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 eager pursuit of a prospective advantage to the few. The 
 consequences which have resulted, and the contrast be- 
 tween the present and past condition of the people, and 
 betw^een their present and past disposition and feelings 
 towards their superiors, show, in the most striking light, 
 the impolicy of attempting, with such unnatural rapidity, 
 innovations which it would require an age, instead of a 
 few years, to accomplish in a salutary manner ; and the 
 impossibihty of effecting them without inflicting great 
 misery, endangering good morals, and undermining loyaltv 
 to the king, and respect for constituted authority. 
 
 A love of change, proceeding from the actual posses- 
 sion of wealth, or from the desire of acquiring it, disturbs, 
 by an ill-directed influence, the gradual and effectual pro- 
 gress of those improvements which, instead of benefiting 
 the man of capital alone, should equally distribute their 
 advantages to all. In the prosecution of the great changes 
 which have taken place in different parts of the North, it 
 would appear that, in many instances, the original inhabi- 
 tants were never thought of, nor included in the system 
 which was to be productive of such wealth to the land- 
 lord, the man of capital, and the country at large. 
 Strangers were called in to assist as agents in the exe- 
 cution of the plans, while others were placed, as farmers, 
 on large establishments, to make room for which whole 
 glens were cleared of their inhabitants, who, in some in- 
 stances, resisted these mandates, (although legally exe- 
 cuted), in the hope of preserving to their families their 
 ancient homes, to which all were enthusiastically attached.* 
 
 * The strength of this attachment is not easily comprehended by 
 those who are unacquainted with the people. An instance of this feel- 
 ing has been already given, and I could add many more, all evinc- 
 ing an unconquerable attachment to the spot where they first drew 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. I97 
 
 These people, blameless in every respect, save their 
 poverty and ignorance of modern agriculture, could not 
 believe that such harsh measures proceeded from their 
 honoured superiors, whose conduct had hitherto been 
 kind and paternal, and to whom they themselves had 
 ever been attached and faithful. The whole was, there- 
 fore, attributed to the acting agents, and against them 
 their indignation was principally directed ; and, in some 
 instances, their resistance was so obstinate, that it became 
 necessary to enforce the orders " vi et armis" and to have 
 recourse to an obsolete mode of ejectment, by setting 
 their houses on fire. This last species of legal proceed- 
 ing was so conclusive, that even the stubborn High- 
 
 breath. I shall state two cases of men who seem to have died of 
 what is commonly called a broken heart, originating in grief for the 
 loss of their native homes. I knew them intimately. They were 
 respectable and judicious men, and occupied the farms on which 
 they were born till far advanced in life, when they were removed. 
 They afterwards got farms at no great distance, but were afflicted 
 with a deep despondency, gave up their usual habits, and seldom 
 spoke with any seeming satisfaction, except when the subject turned 
 on their former life, and the spot which they had left. They 
 appeared to be much relieved by walking to the tops of the neigh- 
 bouring hills, and gazing for hours in the direction of their late 
 homes ; but in a few months their strength totally failed, and with- 
 out any pain or complaint, except mental depression, one died in a 
 year, and the other in eighteen months. I have mentioned these 
 men together, as there was such a perfect similarity in their cases ; 
 but they were not acquainted with each other, nor of the same dis- 
 trict. When they suffered so much by removing from their ancient 
 homes only to another district, how much more severe must their 
 feelings have been had they been forced to emigrate, unless, perhaps, 
 distance and new objects would have diverted their attention from 
 the cause of their grief? But be that as it may, the cause is 
 undoubted. 
 
198 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 landers, with all their attachment to the homes of their 
 fathers, were compelled to yield.* 
 
 Some of the ejected tenants were allowed small allot- 
 ments of land ; some half an acre, others two acres of 
 moor, which they were to cultivate into arable land ; and 
 the improvements which have succeeded those summary 
 ejectments have been highly eulogized, and references 
 made to their effects, in contrast to the former unculti- 
 vated state of the country. Many people are, however, 
 inclined to doubt the advantages of improvements which 
 call for such frequent apologies ; for if the advantages to 
 the people were so evident, and if more lenient measures 
 had been pursued, vindication could not have been 
 necessary. 
 
 It must, however, be matter of deep regret, that 
 such a line of proceeding was pursued Avith regard to 
 these brave, unfortunate, and well-principled people, as 
 excited so strong and general a sensation in the public 
 mind. It is no less to be deplored, that any conduct 
 sanctioned by authority, even althouojh productive of 
 ultimate advantage (and how it can produce any advan- 
 tage beyond w^hat might have been obtained by pursuing 
 a scheme of conciliation and encouragement, is a very 
 
 * The author of Guy Mannering has alluded to this " summary 
 and effectual mode of ejectment still practised in the North of Scot- 
 land when a tenant proves refractory," in his admirable description 
 of the ejectment of the colony of Derncleugh. When this picture 
 of fictitious distress, of which a lawless race were the supposed 
 objects, has created a powerful sensation wherever our language is 
 understood, what heart shall withhold its sympathy from real dis- 
 tress when faithful, blameless, and industrious beings are treated in 
 the same manner, without the same provocation, and without any 
 cause except the desire of increasing an income, and where, instead 
 of " thirty hearts that wad ha'e wanted bread before ye wanted 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 199 
 
 -questionable point),* should have, in the first instance, 
 inflicted such general misery. This regret must be 
 greatly increased, by the belief that these proceedings ori- 
 ginated in mistaken notions, founded on malignant and 
 persevering misrepresentations, calculated to give the 
 proprietors a most unfavourable impression of the charac- 
 ter and capability of the native inhabitants ; who were 
 described as being in a state of misery, without religion 
 or morality, and totally unfit for any good purpose. 
 
 sunkets," more than twice thirty thousand have been turned adrift 
 in different parts of the North ? 
 
 * The following are instances of the capability of small tenants in 
 the Highlands, and of the improvement of lands and rents effected by 
 far other means than the burning decrees. The tenant of a friend of 
 mine, when he first took his farm, paid a rent of ;^8. los. This rent 
 has been gradually augmented, since the year 1781, to jQS^, and 
 this without lease or encouragement from the landlord, who, by the 
 industry and improvements of his tenant, has received an increase of 
 more than 1000 per cent, in less than forty years. On another estate, 
 nineteen small tenants paid, in the year 1784, a joint rent of £S7- 
 This has been raised by degrees, without a shilling given in assistance 
 for improvements, which have been considerable, to £371. The 
 number of acres is 145, which are situated in a high district, and 
 with no pasture for sheep. These are not insulated facts. I could 
 produce many to show that industry, with abstemious and contented 
 habits, more than compensates for the increased consumption of pro- 
 duce by so many occupants ; and that by judicious management, the 
 peasantry of the Highlands, although they may be numerous in pro- 
 portion to the quantity of fertile land, contribute to secure the 
 permanent welfare both of the landholder and of the country. What 
 men can pay better rents than those who live nine months in the 
 year on potatoes and milk, on bread only when potatoes fail, and on 
 butcher meat seldom or never? Who are better calculated to make 
 good soldiers, than men trained up to such habits, and contented 
 with such moderate comforts? And who are likely to make more 
 loyal and happy subjects, contented with their lot, and true to their 
 king, and to their immediate superiors? 
 
200 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 These prejudiced and unfounded statements were fol- 
 lowed up by flattering views of the prosperity and happi- 
 ness to be expected from the proposed plans for their 
 future establishment. Those who thus vilified the poor 
 people, and who strongly advocated the adoption of these 
 new plans, were well aware of the partiality, patriarchal 
 kindness, and protection exercised by the proprietors; 
 and knew that no proposal for their entire ejectment and 
 expatriation, nor even for their removal to the situations 
 proposed to them, would be received unless the former 
 favourable opinion had been changed and obliterated. 
 To this point, therefore, the attention of the promoters of 
 these violent changes was particularly directed, till at 
 length they succeeded in procuring the removal of the 
 native farmers, and the introduction of a new order of 
 tenantry. This system of overlooking the original oc- 
 cupiers, and of giving every support to strangers, has 
 been much practised in different Highland counties ; and 
 on one great estate, the support which has been given to 
 farmers of capital, as well in the amount of the sums ex- 
 pended on improvements, as in the liberal abatement of 
 rents, is, I believe, unparalleled in the United Kingdom, 
 and affords additional matter of regret, that the delusions 
 practised on a generous and public-spirited landholder, 
 have been so perseveringly and successfully applied, that it 
 would appear as if all feeling of former kindness towards 
 the native tenantry had ceased to exist. To them any un- 
 cultivated barren spot of moor land, however small, was 
 considered sufficient for the support of a family; while 
 the most lavish encouragement was given to the new 
 tenants, on whom, and on the erection of buildings, the 
 improvement of lands, roads, bridges, etc., upwards of 
 ;^2 10,000 have been expended since the year 1808. 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 20I 
 
 With this proof of unprecedented liberality, it cannot be 
 sufficiently lamented that an estimate of the character ot 
 these poor people was taken from the misrepresentations 
 of interested persons, instead of judging from the con- 
 duct of the same men when brought out into the world, 
 where they obtained a name and character which has 
 secured the esteem and approbation of men high in hon- 
 our and rank, and, from their talents and experience, per- 
 fectly capable of judging with correctness. With such 
 proofs of capability, and with such materials for carrying 
 on the improvements, and maintaining the permanent 
 prosperity of the country, when occupied by a hardy, 
 abstemious race, easily led on to a full exertion of their 
 faculties by proper management, there cannot be a ques- 
 tion but that if, instead of placing them, as has been 
 done, in situations bearing too near a resemblance to the 
 potato-gardens of Ireland, — the origin and still existing 
 cause of the poverty, disaffection, and hostility towards 
 the higher orders, so prevalent in that country, — they had 
 been permitted to remain as cultivators of the soil, receiv- 
 ing a moderate share of the vast sums expended on their 
 richer but not more deserving successors, such a humane 
 and considerate regard to the prosperity of a whole 
 people, instead of confining it to a favoured few, would 
 undoubtedly have answered every good purpose. Al- 
 though the wealth expected from the improvements might 
 be delayed, it would have been no less certain, had the 
 progress been left to the ancient attached race ; and had 
 such a course been pursued, instead of depopulating glens, 
 and starving peasantry, alienated from their superiors, and 
 in their grief and despair too ready to imbibe opinions 
 hostile to the best interests of their countr)', we should 
 still have seen a high-spirited and loyal people, ready, at 
 
202 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 the nod of their respected chiefs, to embody themselves 
 into regiments, with the same zeal as in former times ; 
 and when enrolled among the defenders of their country, 
 to exhibit a conduct honourable to that country and to 
 their professions.* Such is the acknowledged character of 
 the men of these districts as soldiers, when called forth in 
 the service of their country, although they have been 
 described as irregular in their habits, and a burden on the 
 lands which gave them birth, and on which their fore- 
 fathers maintained the honour, and promoted the wealth 
 and prosperity of their chiefs and superiors. t But is it 
 
 * See articles on the Sutherland regiments. In a memorial pre- 
 sented to Government by the Earl of Sutherland, claiming a com- 
 pensation for expense and loss sustained in 1745, it is stated, that 
 his Lordship had armed and ready to support the royal cause, 2337 
 men, from his own estate, who, it is added, received high approba- 
 tion from the Earl of Loudon, and the other generals who saw their 
 fine and warlike appearance. The power of bringing to the support 
 of the King so large a force, when the country required their ser- 
 vices, is worth some sacrifice of rent ; not that any sacrifice would 
 be necessary were time allowed to the tenants, and the same en- 
 couragement and support given to them as has been received by the 
 newly introduced tenants, who perhaps would hesitate to obey a 
 summons to attend their landlord's call, or, if they did, their small 
 number would render them of little use. 
 
 + The late Lord Sutherland was the twenty-first Earl ; a length 
 of succession unparalleled in the peerage of this country. The estates 
 which supported this ancient unbroken descent have undergone less 
 change than almost any others. In all the numberless revolutions 
 of property, either in troublesome or peaceable times, these have not 
 only been preserved entire, but great additions made by the purchase 
 of neighbouring estates, from the produce of the labour and rents of 
 the ancient tenantry. With a boisterous, ungenial climate, and a 
 rugged barren soil, the estate supported 15,000 persons, who main- 
 tained the independence of their superiors, and enabled them to pre- 
 serve their title and property in a manner which no other family can 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 203 
 
 conceivable that the people at home should be so de- 
 graded, while their brothers and sons who have become 
 soldiers maintain an honourable character? The people 
 ought not to be reproached with incapacity or immor- 
 ality without better evidence than that of their prejudiced 
 and unfeeling calumniators. If it be so, however, and if 
 this virtuous and honourable race, which has contributed 
 to raise and uphold the character of the British peasantry 
 in the eyes of all Europe, are thus fallen, and so suddenly 
 fallen ; how great and powerful must be the cause ! and 
 if at home they are thus low in character, how unparal- 
 leled must be the improvement which is produced by 
 difference of profession, as, for example, when they be- 
 come soldiers, and associate in barracks with troops of all 
 characters, or in quarters, or billets, with the lowest of the 
 people, instead of mingling with such society as they left 
 in their native homes 1 Why should these Highlanders 
 be at home so degenerate, as they are represented, and as 
 in recent instances they should actually appear to have be- 
 come ?* And wdiy, when they mount the cockade, are 
 
 boast ; and, with such evidence, it might have been expected that 
 some hesitation would have been observed in asserting that the coun- 
 try is totally incapable of maintaining the ancient population. When 
 it is recollected that this population has been maintained for so many 
 centuries, and that, by the rents they paid, they enabled the landlords 
 to purchase all the lands for sale which lay convenient for them, 
 these assertions will be received with caution. 
 
 * Of the fruits of the modern civilization of the Highlanders, and 
 of the system of improving their condition, as it is practised in the 
 North, we have an instance in a recent association for the suppres- 
 sion of felony, formed by those concerned in the stock and grazing 
 farms. The object of this measure is the protection of property from 
 the depredations of that people, amongst whom, in their uncivilized 
 and uneducated state, crimes were so few, that, according to the 
 
204 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 they found to be so virtuous and regular, that one thou- 
 sand men have been embodied four and five years to- 
 gether at different and distant periods, from 1759 to 1763, 
 from 1779 to 1783, and from 1793 to 1798, without an 
 instance of military punishment 1 These men performed all 
 the duties of soldiers to the perfect satisfaction of their 
 commanders, and continued so unexceptionable in their 
 conduct down to the latest period, when embodied into 
 the 93rd Regiment, that, according to the words of a dis- 
 tinguished general officer, " although the youngest regi- 
 ment in the service, they might form an example to all : " 
 and on general parades for punishment, the Sutherland 
 Highlanders have been ordered to their quarters, as 
 " examples of this kind were not necessary for such hon- 
 ourable soldiers, who I.ad no crimes to punish."* 
 
 Can it be doubted, that had a moderate portion of 
 the encouragement given to the stock graziers possessed 
 
 records of the Court of Justiciary, from 1747 to iSio, there was only 
 one capital conviction for theft (horse steaUng, which happened in 
 the year 1791), and only two capital convictions for other crimes ; 
 namely, a woman for child murder in 1761, and a man for fire raising 
 in 1785. Such was the former state of the people in these districts, 
 where crimes have increased so rapidly of late, that protecting asso- 
 ciations are become necessary, and where it has been found that 
 nearly 600 sheep have been stolen in a season from one individual : 
 while those who left the country with the character and dispositions 
 acquired among their fathers and brothers (against whom those pro- 
 tecting societies are formed), are declared by the first authority " pic- 
 tures of perfect moral rectitude, military discipline, and soldierly 
 conduct ;" and, in the energetic language of an ingenious author, "a 
 mirror to the British army." The man convicted of horse stealing 
 was William Mackay, a discharged soldier, who had learned a lesson 
 in another country. The circumstance was so very extraordinary as 
 still to afford subject of conversation among the people. 
 
 * See Article Sutherland Highlanders [3rd Edition, vol. ii.] 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 205 
 
 of capital, been bestowed on these valuable men, we 
 should probably have seen no difference of character, 
 except that, in those who remained at home, we might 
 have expected to meet with more of native simplicity and 
 integrity, part of which might have been lost by those 
 who had mixed more with the world? If those who 
 remain at home have shown contrary dispositions, these 
 must have been produced by some powerful cause ; and, 
 with the loss of that independence and disinterested 
 fidelity which hardly knew any bounds, the best parts of 
 their character must have been destroyed. Is not their 
 altered conduct rather a subject of pity than of blame ? 
 When they see their children starving, and crying for 
 that food which they have not to give; and when we 
 reflect that, according to the Gaelic pioverb, "Hunger 
 has a long arm," — some cause may, perhaps, be dis- 
 covered why the hand which ought to have been em- 
 ployed in profitable industry at home, or against an 
 enemy abroad, has been sometimes extended to endanger 
 a neighbour's property. Have they shown ingratitude 
 for kind treatment? Are they unreasonable, because 
 they are not satisfied when suddenly deprived of their 
 usual means of subsistence, and placed upon the black 
 moors? Some are, indeed, told that the ocean is open 
 to them, and that they may hve by fishing, though their 
 former habits render them unfit for that line of life.* 
 
 * Till lately, very few flat fish were caught by the fishers on the 
 east coast of Scotland, although the sea abounds with turbot, soles, 
 etc. Every encouragement in the way of premiums had failed to 
 induce these men to alter their usual mode of fishing. When such 
 are the difficulties in the way of overcoming the prejudices of men 
 who have been fishers from their youth, can it be matter of surprise 
 that the shepherds and graziers of the mountains do not, as if by 
 
206 CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 It is probable that the notoriety which these facts 
 have obtained, is the cause which has given birth to the 
 statements which I have already noticed. In these pub- 
 lications the people are vilified, and described as dis- 
 honest, void of religion, irregular in their habits,* and 
 incapable of managing farms, or of paying adequate 
 rents ; although, on a reference to the poor's funds, taken 
 on an average of many years previous to 1800, it will be 
 
 instinct, become fishers, without the least knowledge or experience 
 of the new element from which they are desired to extract their 
 subsistence ? 
 
 * Detachments of the Sutherland Fencible Regiment of 1762 
 were stationed in different parts of the Perthshire Highlands. The 
 excellent and orderly conduct of these men, their regular attendance 
 at church, and their general deportment, were so marked, even 
 among a people who were themselves distinguished for similar 
 habits, that the memory of the Sutherland soldiers is, to this day, 
 held in respect. In the years 1797 and 1798, large detachments of 
 the Sutherland Regiment of that period were stationed in the same 
 districts. The character and conduct of these soldiers, every man 
 of whom was from Sutherland, were in all respects the same. So 
 strong was the impression made on the minds of the people of 
 Athole and Breadalbane by the behaviour of the Sutherland men, 
 that it materially changed their previous opinion of the character of 
 soldiers in general, whom they considered as reprobates, with whom 
 no person of quiet domestic habits could with safety associate ; and 
 hence, when a young man enlisted in any regiment except the 
 National Corps, his family were loo ready to believe that he was a 
 lost man, an outcast from them and his native country. I now 
 speak from personal experience, as I found, in the course of my 
 recruiting in those districts, a great and gratifying change in the 
 sentiments of the people. After the Sutherland detachments were 
 stationed in Perthshire, young men engaged more readily, and their 
 parents showed less dread at their enlistment as recruits, "as they 
 now found that soldiers were quiet sober people, with whom they 
 need not be afraid to trust their sons." 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 207 
 
 found, that, however ignorant they were of farming, they 
 were so independent of parochial aid, that, in those days, 
 when the population of that country was so great as to 
 form one of the alleged causes of removal, the sums paid 
 to the poor of this supposed surplus population, in the 
 parish of Rogart, containing 2023 persons, were under 
 ^13 annually; in the parish of Farr, containing 2408 
 persons, under ;£"i2; in Assynt, containing 2395 inhabi- 
 tants, under £11; in Kildonan, containing 1443 persons, 
 under £^ annually; other parishes were nearly in the 
 same proportion ; and at this moderate expense were all 
 the poor of those districts supplied ! Few districts, how- 
 ever fertile, can produce such instances of independence 
 as were exhibited by these uncultivated parishes, which 
 gave birth to the religious, the virtuous, and honourable 
 soldiers of the Reay and Sutherland Regiments, whose 
 character, as appreciated by the best judges, and proved 
 by their own conduct, will be seen in the Notice of the 
 Mihtary Services of these Corps.* 
 
 * The great changes which have taken place in the aboye 
 parishes, and some others, have excited a warm and general interest. 
 While the liberal expenditure of capital was applauded by all, many 
 intelligent persons lamented that its application was so much in one 
 direction ; that the ancient tenantry were to have no share in this 
 expenditure ; and that so small a portion was allotted for the future 
 settlement of the numerous population who had been removed from 
 their farms, and were placed in situations so new, and in many 
 respects so unsuitable, — certain that, in the first instance, great dis- 
 tress, disaffection, and hostility towards the landlords and govern- 
 ment, with a diminution of that spirit of independence and those 
 proper principles which had hitherto distinguished them, would be 
 the inevitable result. So sudden and universal a change of station, 
 habits, and circumstances, and their being reduced from the state of 
 independent tenants to that of cottagers and day-labourers, could 
 not fail of arresting the notice of the public. 
 
20S CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 
 
 Anxious to obtain the best information on this interesting subject, 
 I early made the most minute inquiry, careful, at the same time, to 
 form no opinion on intelligence communicated by the people of the 
 district, or by persons connected with them, and who would 
 naturally be interested in, and prejudiced against, or in favour of 
 those changes. I was the more desirous for the best information, as 
 the statements published with regard to the character, capability, 
 and principles of the people, exhibited a perfect contrast to my own 
 personal experience and knowledge of the admirable character and 
 exemplary conduct of that portion of them which had left their 
 native country ; and I believed it improbable, nay impossible, that 
 the sons of worthless parents, without religious or moral principle — 
 as they have been described — could conduct themselves in such an 
 honourable manner as to be held up as an example to the British 
 army. But, indeed, as to information, so much publicity had been 
 given, by various statements explanatory of, and in vindication of 
 these proceedings, that little more was necessary, beyond what 
 these publications afforded, to show the nature of the plans, and the 
 manner in which they were carried into execution. 
 
 Forming my opinions, therefore, from those statements, and from 
 information communicated by persons not immediately connected 
 with that part of the country, I drew the conclusions which appeared 
 in the former editions of these Sketches. But, with a strong desire 
 to be correct and well informed in all I state, and with an intention 
 of correcting myself in this edition, should I find that I had been 
 misinformed, or had taken up mistaken views of the subject, in the 
 different statements I had produced, I embraced the first spare time 
 I could command ; and in autumn 1823, I travelled over the improved 
 districts, and a large portion of those parts which had been depopu- 
 lated and laid out in extensive pastoral farms, as well as the stations 
 in which the people are placed. After as strict an examination as 
 circumstances permitted, and a careful inquiry among those who, 
 from their knowledge and judgment, were enabled to form the best 
 opinions, I do not find that I have one statement to alter, or one 
 opinion to correct; though I am fully aware that many hold very 
 different opinions. But however much I may differ in some points, 
 there is one in which I warmly and cordially join; and that is, in 
 expressing my high satisfaction and admiration at the liberality dis- 
 played in the immense sums expended on buildings, in enclosing, 
 
CHANGE OF TENANTRY. 209 
 
 clearing, and draining land, in forming roads and communications, 
 and introducing the most approved agricultural implements. In all 
 these, the generous distribution of such exemplary encouragement 
 stands unparalleled and alone. Equally remarkable is the great 
 abatement of rents given to the tenants of capital — abatements which 
 it was not to be expected they would ask, considering the preference 
 and encouragement given them, and the promises they had held out 
 of great and unprecedented revenue, from their skill and exertions. 
 But these promises seem to have been early forgotten ; the tenants of 
 capital were the Jirst to call for relief: and so great and generous has 
 this relief been, that the rents are reduced so low as to be almost on 
 a level with what they were when the great changes commenced. Thus 
 while upwards of ;^ 2 10,000 have been expended on improvements, 
 no return is to be looked for from this vast expenditure ; and in the 
 failure of their promised rents, the tenants have sufficiently proved 
 the unstable and fallacious nature of the system which they, with so 
 much plausibility and perseverance, got established by delusions 
 practised on a high-minded, honourable individual, not aware of 
 the evils produced by so universal a movement of a whole 
 people. Ever}' friend to a brave and valuable race, must rejoice 
 that these evils are in progress of alleviation, by a return of that 
 kindness and protection which had formerly been so conspicuous 
 towards that race of tenantry, and which could never have been 
 interrupted, had it not been for those delusions to which I have 
 more than once alluded, and which have been prosecuted, within the 
 last twenty years, in many parts of the Highlands, with a degree of 
 assiduity and antipathy to the unfortunate inhabitants altogether 
 remarkable. But in the county in question, no antipathy to the 
 people is now to be dreaded ; a return of ancient kindness will be 
 met with ancient fidelity and attachment; and if the people are 
 rendered comfortable and contented, they will be loyal, warlike, and 
 brave. Then regiments may again send recruiting parties, which 
 had been recalled from the county, as not a young man would enlist 
 while the minds of the people were soured and disaffected ; but now, 
 Sutherland will again be what it has been, a nursery of soldiers, 
 "Mirrors," as they have been called, "to the British army." 
 
210 RESULTS OF JUDICIOUS ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Beneficial Results of Judicious Arrangements, andof allou>- 
 ing Time to acquire a Knoivledge of Agricultural 
 Improvements — Emigratio?i — Agricultural Pursuits 
 promote Independefice, and prevent Pauperism. 
 
 Happily for the prosperity of the Highlands, for the 
 welfare of the state, and for the preservation of the ori- 
 ginal inhabitants of the mountains, there are many popu- 
 lous districts, in which the inhabitants have been per- 
 mitted to remain, and are contented and independent, 
 and in which the beneficial effects of judgment, com- 
 bined with a proper appreciation of the best interests of 
 Highland landlords, are successfully displayed, and the 
 character and capability of Highland tenants practically 
 proved. The former, avaiHng themselves of the natural 
 benefit of a hardy athletic race of men, easily induced by 
 kindness to make a full exertion of their powers, have 
 realized the most beneficial effects on their general 
 character, and, by a gradual and gentle diffusion of 
 agricultural knowledge, have both improved their own 
 incomes, and increased the wealth and comfort of their 
 tenants. The aversion of the latter to any change of 
 ancient habits, has been, in a great measure, overcome ; 
 and they are found to enter very keenly into the im- 
 proved system, when encouraged by example, and once 
 fairly convinced of its advantages.* The gentlemen to 
 
 * This is no new trait of character. Dr Walker, an eminent Pro- 
 fessor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, commenced, 
 in the year 1760, an extensive and enlarged system of inquiry relative 
 
RESULTS OF JUDICIOUS ARRANGEMENTS. 2 I I 
 
 whom I allude commenced with the improvement of 
 the condition of their tenants, as the best foundation for 
 the improvement of their estates, the permanency of 
 their incomes, and the pleasure of seeing themselves 
 surrounded by a prosperous, grateful, and contented 
 tenantry.* "On every estate," says Dr Robertson, 
 
 to the Highlands. From that year till 1780, he was employed by 
 the General Assembly to examine and report on the religious and 
 moral condition of the inhabitants, to which he added their economi- 
 cal history. Of the people he says, "It is only from a superficial 
 view that they are represented as unconquerably averse to industry 
 and every kind of innovation. Besides other good qualities, their 
 laborious assiduity in various occupations is well known, wherever 
 they happen to settle in the low country." He adds, "The un- 
 restrained progress of inoculation abundantly shows, that the High- 
 landers are as candid in their judgment, are as ready to embrace, and 
 can as vigorously pursue, any innovation that is advantageous or salu- 
 tory, as any other people whatever. " — Economical History of the 
 Highlands of Scotland. 
 
 * A very worthy Baronet in the Highlands (Sir George Stewart 
 of Grandtully), who has made the necessary allowances for the pre- 
 judices and frailties of men, has allowed his tenants the time neces- 
 sary to learn the improved mode of culture, and to increase the value 
 and size of their breed of cattle and sheep. This has been done 
 without separating the arable land from the pasture, or diminishing 
 the farms of any, but rather enlarging them, if too small, when it 
 could be done without prejudice to others. At the same time the 
 rents have been gradually rising. The consequence is, that he re- 
 ceives the undiminished rental of his estate ; and while considerable 
 distress has been experienced in his neighbourhood, his people are in 
 so different circumstances, that, when lately, he had occasion for a 
 supply of money to assist him in the purchase of some adjoining 
 lands, they came forward with a spontaneous offer to advance ;^ 18,000, 
 with a declaration that they were ready with £6000 more if required. 
 This is a pleasing instance of the attachment of the olden times. 
 The manner in which these people pay their rents, and support their 
 families, will appear the more remarkable to the advocates for large 
 
212 POLICY OF THE CHANGES. 
 
 speaking of the new system, " this complete change has 
 not taken place : the ancient connection between the 
 heads of tribes and their clan is not in every in- 
 stance dissolved. In these cases, the affability and 
 kindness of the landlord is the frequent subject of 
 their conversation, and the prosperity of his family is 
 the object of their warmest wishes and devout prayers. 
 At their little parties and convivial meetings, his health 
 is always the first toast. They feel an interest in the 
 fortunes and destiny of his children. Upon his return 
 home, after a long absence, or his promotion to a place 
 of honour or profit, or the birth of an heir, the glad 
 tidings spread with the velocity of lightning, and bon- 
 fires illuminate the whole estate. In the county of 
 Inverness there are such landlords ; as the almoners of 
 of heaven, they take the divine pleasure of making their 
 dependents happy. There are also, in the same county, 
 landlords, who are left to the execration of their people, 
 to the contempt of every benevolent man, and to the re- 
 proach of their own condemning consciences."* 
 
 The policy of the innovations may be considered in 
 three points of view ; ist, As affecting the interests of the 
 proprietors ; 2ndly\ The welfare of the people ; and, jrJly^ 
 That of the state. 
 
 1st, The interest of the proprietors. Whether these 
 
 farms, as this estate, with a rental of less than ;i^9000 supports a 
 population of 2835 souls, all maintained on the produce ; while only 
 17 disaliled paupers, and some poor old women, require parochial 
 relief; and the tenants are so independent, and so grateful to their 
 humane and generous landlord, that they enable him to purchase the 
 estates for sale in his neighbourhood. 
 
 * Dr Robertson^ s General Vieiv of the Agnculture of the County 
 of Inverness^ drawn up by order of the l^oard of Agriculture. 
 
POLICY OF THE CHANGES. 213 
 
 innovations be conducive to the advantage of tlie pro- 
 prietor is a point which, in the conflict of adverse 
 opinions, is not easily decided ; yet it would seem to be 
 very clear, that a system, which has so great a tendency 
 to break the spirit and lower the natural and moral con- 
 dition of the bulk of the people engaged in the agricul- 
 ture of the Highlands, cannot, in any just sense of the 
 word, be very advantageous to the landlords, since, by 
 throwing the produce of the country into the hands of a 
 few men of capital, it gives them a monopoly of the farms, 
 and often the option of fixing whatever rents they choose 
 to pay; for few men can enter into competition on the 
 enlarged scale of the new system, — an evil which seems 
 to have been overlooked when it was adopted. But, 
 admitting that landlords are not bound to wait for the in- 
 struction and improvement of their tenants in agricultural 
 knowledge ; admitting, to its fullest extent, their legal 
 right of managing their lands in the manner apparently 
 most profitable ; and allowing the most unqualified power 
 to exercise the right of removing the ancient occupiers,* 
 
 * In answer to the question of the propriety of dismissing the 
 ancient occupiers of land, the conduct of manufacturers and trades- 
 men is quoted as an example of the exercise of such a right, and of 
 the practice of turning away the people without regard to their 
 future comfort. While it is admitted that this is certainly the 
 practice in the instance alluded to, it may still be a question 
 whether, if more kindness were shown, if the legal right of dismissal 
 were less rigorously exerted, and if working tradesmen and artisans 
 were encouraged, by ties of kindness and association, to believe 
 their situations and employments permanent, we would not see so 
 many combinations against master tradesmen and manufacturers, and 
 their houses and property so often in danger of conflagration. But, 
 whatever may be the cause, there is no doubt of the appearance of 
 a spirit of revenge and despair on the part of the working classes, 
 and of a want of confidence and a distrust on the part of their em- 
 
214 POLICY OF THE CHANGES. 
 
 it may still be doubted whether plans so hastily adopted, 
 so productive of immediate distress, and which occasion 
 such permanent discontent, are likely to be ultimately 
 successful. 
 
 But, at the same time that this legal and admitted 
 right of removing the original tenantry from their farms 
 has been very freely exercised, it must appear somewhat 
 extraordinary, nor is it easy to account for it in a satis- 
 factory manner, that so many attempts have been made 
 to restrain emigration, the best and only remaining relief 
 for those who had been deprived of their farms. This 
 course must undoubtedly have been pursued under the 
 persuasion that some benefit would have been lost to the 
 community by the consequent depopulation. But, the 
 truth is, the value of the people was well known ; and to 
 constrain them to remain in the country, after they 
 have been deprived of their usual resources, is equally 
 inconsistent with every principle of sound policy and 
 of justice. Nor is it a weak objection to the expedi- 
 ency of these measures, that an interference to pre- 
 vent Government from giving encouragement to emi- 
 grants was found necessary;* for this furnishes a practical 
 
 ployers ; and certainly such a state of society, in which the em- 
 ployed are kept down by the bayonet and the strong arm of the 
 law, and the lives and properties of the employers protected by 
 military force, and a strict police, does not form a very desirable 
 example for the imitation of Highland proprietors, in the case of 
 the once chivalrous, and still valuable occupiers of their land. 
 
 * Government having listened to representations made a few years 
 ago in name and behalf of those Highlanders who had already been 
 ejected from their possessions; and in behalf of others who dreaded 
 the same fate, it was resolved to encourage emigration to Canada, 
 under certain stipulations. Several landholders became alarmed, 
 and made counter representations, on the plea that their country 
 
AGRICULTURE. 215 
 
 refutation of the principles on which many have acted, 
 and of the assertion made, that the Highlands were only 
 calculated for pasture and a thin population. If the 
 position was correct, why, in opposition to this maxim, 
 attempt to retain the people, and place them on such 
 paltry lots of land as have been mentioned, perhaps not 
 one-tenth of the extent of the farms from which they 
 were removed, on the ground that they were too small, 
 and this in a country without regular employment, or, in- 
 deed, any means of subsistence except such as are drawn 
 Irom the soil? Hence, it would appear, that the value 
 of the old tenantry was well understood ; otherwise why 
 encourage or compel them to remain ? Many consider- 
 ations might be expected to operate to prevent the adop- 
 tion of a system which called for such indefensible ex- 
 pedients, and which could only be supported by arguments 
 so inconsistent. 
 
 When the proprietor is anxious to obtain the utmost 
 rent for his land, it is, in general, his interest not to 
 divide his farms upon too minute a scale, such sub- 
 division of land, among those of the ancient tenantry, 
 who, after their removal from their original farms, are 
 permitted to remain, being found to be fruitful in misery 
 and discontent : but, however proper and applicable ex- 
 tensive establishments may be to fertile districts, easily 
 
 would be depopulated. In consequence of this, the execution of the 
 plan was suspended, and it was at length entirely withdrawn, to the 
 great distress of numbers who were anxious to avail themselves of 
 this opportunity of removal to a country more favourable to their 
 views, but who were destitute of the means of attaining their object, 
 as much of their small capital had been expended in waiting the final 
 decision of the proposed offers. This line of conduct must appear 
 very inconsistent. 
 
2l6 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 cultivated, situated in a favourable climate, and posses- 
 sing the advantages of being near market, water carriage, 
 and manure ; and also of being within reach of towns and 
 villages, where a supply of labourers, in the busy period 
 of autumn, may be readily procured ; yet, in peculiar 
 situations, great advantage may be derived from a division 
 of the soil into moderately small farms ; and, with regard 
 to the Highlands, many, who have had opportunities of 
 judging accurately, have been inclined to believe that, at 
 a distance from market, with much rugged but improv- 
 able land, an active abstemious population, and a com- 
 paratively barren soil, improvements, which could not be 
 executed by capital alone, unassisted by the manual 
 labour of the occupiers,* may be carried on to the mutual 
 advantage both of landlord and tenant. To this we may 
 add what has occurred in many instances in times of 
 difficulty, that the economical habits of the small tenantry 
 will enable them to fulfil their engagements to their land- 
 lords, when the large farmers, embarrassed by extensive 
 speculations and expensive establishments, must often 
 fail in the fulfilment of theirs. That this is not merely a 
 fanciful hypothesis, unsupported by facts, may be seen by 
 reference to those countries in which the lands are more 
 generally distributed, as in France, where the labours of 
 the agricultural population are at once productive of a 
 great public revenue, and of comfort and independence 
 to the body of the people. England, in the days of the 
 Edwards and Henries, although her foreign commerce 
 was then extremely circumscribed, was prosperous and 
 powerful from the produce of the soil alone, as was 
 France during the late war, in which, though general 
 communication and commerce were almost entirely in- 
 *See Appendix, BB. 
 
AGRICULTURE. 21 7 
 
 "terrupted, great revenues were derived from internal re- 
 sources. In the same manner, in Flanders, Holland, etc., 
 the profits of agricultural produce are more generally 
 diffused, and few countries display a finer agricultural 
 prospect; especially Austrian Flanders, where the farms 
 do not, in many instances, exceed lo, 20, and 30 acres 
 each, and only, in a few cases, extend to 100 or 200; 
 and yet it has been maintained that, in Britain, where, 
 in many counties, the farms average from 300 to 3000 
 acres, the country could not pay the taxes and other 
 public burdens,* unless formed into such extensive es- 
 tablishments, and unless the rural population were dis- 
 persed. It is a striking fact, however, that poor-rates 
 are as high, and in some cases higher, and that, con- 
 sequently, greater poverty prevails in the thinly-peopled 
 agricultural districts, than in the more populous counties. 
 In Norfolk, Sussex, and other counties, where the 
 largest capitals are invested t in agriculture, and where 
 public meetings are held to celebrate the prosperity and 
 
 * The great increase in the value of animal produce has been 
 ascribed to an extensive commerce, and particularly to the great con- 
 sumption in manufacturing towns. Yet, in no period in the history 
 of this country, were the manufacturers in greater distress, and less 
 able to purchase animal food, than in 1 8 16 and the four succeeding 
 years, while at no time were sheep and cattle higher priced, or in 
 greater demand. In 1822, when manufacturers were in full employ- 
 ment, the price of beef and mutton fell fifty per cent, below former 
 prices in the butcher-market. In 1824, again, cattle have risen forty 
 per cent, in price above that of 1822, while there is no change in the 
 condition of the manufacturers. The high price of Highland pro- 
 duce must, therefore, depend on other causes than the demands of 
 manufacturing districts. 
 
 + It was stated by Mr Burrell, in the House of Commons, that, 
 in the parish of West Grinstead, in Sussex, 5000 acres pay poor-rates 
 to the amount of ;^40(X). 
 
2 1 8 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 successful enterprise of the men of capital and skill, land- 
 lords must pay back 20, 30, and 40 per cent, of the pro- 
 duce of their land to support the paupers, who are so 
 numerous in the midst of this prosperity. No part of 
 the crowded manufacturing districts of Lancashire is 
 more heavily taxed with poor-rates than several of these 
 great agricultural districts. In like manner, we find, 
 that parochial rates are, by no means, so heavy in the 
 populous manufacturing counties of Lanark and Renfrew, 
 as in the large farming counties in the South of Scotland, 
 particularly in Roxburgh and Berwick shires, where the 
 English system of pauperism has begun to find its way, — 
 not, as I heard stated by some reverend members of the 
 General Assembly in the year 18 18, on account of the 
 vicinity of these counties to England, but, partly at least, 
 from the similarity of system adopted and pursued. 
 Pauperism is not geographically contagious, and poverty 
 and poor-rates have not increased in Roxburgh and Ber- 
 wick shires, because they happen to be contiguous to 
 England, but because the same evil will spread in Scot- 
 land as well as in other countries, by the action of the 
 same cause. But it is evident, as has been already stated» 
 that it is advantageous to have a considerable portion of 
 a country laid out in large farms, that men of capital and 
 education may be encouraged to engage in agricultural 
 pursuits ; and this has always been the case in the High- 
 lands, where large tracts have been held in lease by men 
 of education and respectability, — as, for instance, the 
 estates of Macdonald and Macleod, on which there were 
 sixty gentlemen farmers : it is the too general adoption of 
 such a system which is to be dreaded ; nor, indeed, can 
 it be generally established, even in one district, without 
 ■causing great distress, in the first instance, and ultimately 
 
AGRICULTURE. 219 
 
 expelling a valuable and industrious race of people.* 
 Nor does the adoption of such a system appear so con- 
 ducive to the interest of the proprietor as it might, on a 
 first view, seem. Late experience has, in many cases, 
 shown, that improvements may be effected, and good 
 rents obtained, by judicious changes and modifications 
 of the old system, without the expatriation of inhabitants 
 or great expense to the landlords. Jn illustration of this 
 point, I could produce many instances, but shall content 
 
 * The evils resulting from the non-residence of proprietors are 
 generally acknowledged. In no country is the absence of country 
 gentlemen more felt than in the Highlands, where many proprietors 
 seldom see their estates or tenants : and when they do, it is too often 
 either for the sake of a few weeks' pastime, or perhaps to collect 
 arrears of rent, or to make arrangements for an increase ; and hence 
 their visits are more a subject of dread than of satisfaction to their 
 tenants. Now, if the absence of proprietors be an evil, would it not 
 be subversive of the best interests of the Highlands to suppress or 
 remove the whole class of country gentlemen and proprietors of small 
 estates from ;[^ioo to ;^3000 a-year, and concentrate their lands in 
 possession of a few individuals, leaving no intermediate class between 
 the great landholder and the occupiers of his farms .'' By the same 
 analogy, would it not be destructive of the independence of the lower 
 classes in the North, if entire districts were given to one great farmer, 
 leaving the whole population to support themselves on accidental 
 labour, or on such employment as the man of capital chose to give 
 them? As country gentlemen, of small or moderate properties, re- 
 sident on their estates, have ever been an honourable, independent, 
 and useful class in the chain of society, and as they have eminently 
 contributed to the support of the country, does not the same thing 
 apply to a lower link in society in the Highlands, where the gradation 
 in the division of land among the tacksmen, smaller tenantry', and 
 cottagers, has preserved their race moral and independent, without 
 the degradation of poor-rates or pauperism ? And should not these 
 facts and considerations operate in preserving a share of the profits 
 of the soil for a more general distribution of its benefits in producing 
 independence and comfort to the bulk of the people ? 
 
220 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 myself with the following brief account of a great High- 
 land estate. 
 
 Previous to 1797, this estate was occupied by a num- 
 erous small tenantry, interspersed with large farms, rented 
 by men of education and respectable rank in society. The 
 latter began to improve their lands and stock, after the 
 examples they saw in the Lowlands. The small tenants 
 also evinced symptoms of increasing industry, but they 
 held their lands in common, and by what is known in 
 Scotland by the name of " Rim?'igf that is, each man 
 having a ridge of the arable land alternately with his 
 neighbour, the higher pastures being held in common. 
 While this interlacing system continued, it was not easy 
 to carry on any improvement ; but, soon after the period 
 just mentioned, the arable lands were measured, and each 
 man received a portion equal to what he formerly held, 
 but contiguous, and, in general, enclosed, so that the 
 benefit of his improvements was entirely his own. The 
 people were so numerous, that from eight to thirty arable 
 acres, with a portion of pasture, were all that could be 
 allotted to each tenant ; but none were removed. The 
 pastures remained in common, as, from their nature and 
 extent, they must always be, the expense of enclosures 
 and subdivisions being more than such unproductive 
 lands can sustain. But the number of horses, cattle, and 
 sheep to be kept on the pastures was limited in propor- 
 tion to the quantity and quality of the arable land occu- 
 pied by each tenant, at the same time allowing a small 
 portion for each cottager. By taking advantage of the 
 great inequahty of soil and climate, and diversifying the 
 stock and produce accordingly, the tenants were fre- 
 quently able to pay their rents in cases in which they 
 must have failed, had they had only one article for sale. 
 
AGRICULTURE. 221 
 
 When these changes took place, the farms of the tacks- 
 men on a larger scale remained without any alteration as 
 to extent ; but they henceforth commenced considerable 
 improvements, and gave an example to the common 
 people, who readily followed it, and who, at the same 
 time, received considerable encouragement from their 
 landlord. 
 
 The consequence of this wise and equitable plan was 
 a progressive and regular improvement of the soil, and 
 an advancement of the wealth and comfort of the tenants, 
 while rents at once adequate and well paid were secured 
 to the proprietor. But in an evil hour, and unfortunately 
 for both landlord and tenant, the management of this 
 estate was transferred to an agent of the new school, who 
 immediately commenced operations according to the most 
 approved modern system. He divided and subdivided 
 farms that were already sufficiently small, while he made 
 others again by far too large. Secret and rival offers were 
 called for, and while he raised a spirit of rivalry, revenge, 
 and irritation, which has not yet been subdued, he quickly 
 succeeded in increasing the rent-roll to an unprecedented 
 nominal amount ; but the actual returns have fallen much 
 below the original rent, much of the stock and capital of 
 the tenants having been expended :— a deficiency of pay- 
 ment hitherto unknown among a people remarkable for 
 their punctuality, and respect to their pecuniary engage- 
 ments with their landlords. 
 
 Others by separating the high pasture lands from the 
 low arable grounds, and letting them apart, have lost the 
 advantages which joint possessions of arable and pasture 
 grounds afforded for counteracting the evils of precarious 
 seasons, and the difficulty of disposing of produce when 
 distant from market ; and have also lost the benefit to 
 
222 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 the arable ground of the winter manure of the cattle fed 
 upon the pastures in summer. It frequently happens, 
 that, when corn is at a low price, the produce of the 
 pastures is high ; and, again, when sheep, wool, and cattle, 
 are low, there is sometimes a great demand for grain. 
 Judicious distribution of these natural advantages of the 
 country have long secured an equality to, if not, in some 
 cases a superiority over situations more favoured in point 
 of climate and soil. Of this superiority, however, many 
 have deprived themselves by the separation of the arable 
 from the pasture lands, in expectation that, by this separa- 
 tion, better rents would be received — an expectation which 
 experience has proved to have been ill founded. To de- 
 prive people of their pasture lands, in a country naturally 
 pastoral, appears a very questionable measure, when it is 
 considered that in the Highlands manure cannot be 
 purchased, and that the scarcity of fuel renders lime 
 expensive.* Another mconvenience arising from this 
 
 * By the loss of their sheep, the small tenants suftered exceedingly. 
 All the clothes in common use were formerly manufactured at home 
 from their own wool, and they were thus able to clothe their families 
 with comfort and at small expense. Now, much money goes out of 
 the country for clothing, which formerly went to pay the rents, or to 
 portion their children. This also accounts for the almost total dis- 
 appearance of tartan, which was formerly made in every family ; for 
 so many want wool that they cannot manufacture any, and the flimsy 
 thin dry tartan made in the Lowlands is too expensive, and ijuite 
 different from what was in use in the Highlands, and is unfit for the 
 common purposes of life. Thus almost every new measure temls to 
 change the habits as well as the character of the people. How much 
 dress affects the manners is well known; and certainly the clumsy, 
 vulgar, ill -made clothes, now so much worn by the young men of the 
 Highlands, give them a clownish appearance, altogether ditTerent 
 from, and forming a marked contrast to the light airy garb, gay with 
 many colours, and the erect martial air and clastic step of the former 
 
AGRICULTURE. 225 
 
 separation is, that their hay cannot be consumed unless 
 the farmers become dealers in cattle, which often renders 
 them losers by the uncertainty and sudden variations of this 
 precarious traffic ; whereas, if they had cattle of their own, 
 reared and fed on the produce of their lands, they could 
 only occasionally suffer by the falHng of markets, and 
 not be subject to the heavier loss of purchasing high and 
 selling low. 
 
 These reflections will receive further confirmation, if 
 we look to the state of the inhabitants in the two most 
 populous and extensive districts of • the Highlands of 
 Perthshire, namely, Athole and Breadalbane. These 
 districts are divided into eleven parishes, there being nine 
 in the former, and two in the latter, and contain a popu- 
 lation of 26,480 persons, of which number not more 
 than 364 (taking the average of five years previous to 
 181 7) require relief from the pubHc funds. The extent of 
 this reHef cannot be great, as the funds for the support of 
 the poor are suppHed by voluntary donations, and the 
 interest of a few trifling legacies. Accordingly, the 
 annual sum allotted for the above number is, on the 
 same average of five years, ^£^522. os. lo^d. * t or 
 £^\. 8s. 8d. to each individual. 
 
 race of Highlanders. I have already noticed the manner in which 
 particular patterns or sets of tartan were preserved in families, as also 
 Mr West's opinion of the beauty of the colours, and the taste with 
 which they were arranged. Indeed, the beauty and clearness of the 
 dye were quite remarkable. There are plaids preserved in families, 
 manufactured in the Highlands in the seventeenth century, with as 
 brilliant a tint as can well be given to worsted. These were the 
 manufactures of the tenants in their families. 
 
 * This is a very difFerent condition from what we find in a large 
 t See Appendix, CC. 
 
224 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 When the poor in these districts are so few, and when 
 these few are so easily supported, how does it happen 
 that such frightful misery and poverty have existed in the 
 more northern counties, and that, in other parts of the 
 country, such heavy demands are made on the benevo- 
 lence of landlords ? This difference between the poverty 
 of some districts and the comparative comfort of others 
 may be ascribed to local situation, and to different modes 
 of management. In those parts of the North where the 
 greatest distress prevails, the people have been removed 
 from their lands; and in the Southern counties, where 
 poor-rates are establishing, the people have no support 
 
 parish in Sussex, stated by Mr Burrell in the House of Commons to 
 contain a population of 18,000 souls, and to pay ;i^i6,ooo of poor- 
 rates; so that the proportion paid for the maintenance of the poor by 
 the Highland population of these two districts is to the proportion 
 paid by an equal number of the English population in the same con- 
 dition with the parish in Sussex, referred to by Mr Burrell, as I to 
 5*5 nearly. And yet the Highlanders, among whom there is only 
 one pauper for every fifty-one, in one of the most fertile counties in 
 England, are called a slothful, beggarly, poor people. They are 
 poor; but as they manifest so proper a spirit of independence, such 
 appellations might sometimes be spared. When the Highlanders are 
 so often branded as poor and ignorant, might not some observations 
 be made on the line of conduct pursued by those who are the cause 
 of their poverty and ignorance ? If the people had the power, they 
 would soon remove the stain of poverty, and having the means would 
 provide teachers to enlighten their ignorance. Gentlemen would be 
 more honourably employed, in individually removing the cause of the 
 distress of their people — which they have themselves the power to do 
 — than in calling public meetings in Edinburgh and other towns, to 
 proclaim to the world the destitute and deplorable state of their 
 dependants and tenants ; and begging for charity from the benevolent 
 to relieve them. There are many gentlemen in the Highlands who 
 would hesitate to acknowledge that their tenants are poor and 
 depressed, and would ])lush if forced to ask for charitable aid. 
 
AGRICULTURE. 22*5 
 
 but from accidental daily labour : but in Athole and in 
 Breadalbane the removal of the ancient tenantry, and the 
 increase of unemployed labourers, has not, by any means, 
 been adopted to the same extent, and, consequently, the 
 continuance of small farms allows to a very great propor- 
 tion of the people a share in the produce of the earth. 
 Hence, they feel no want of food, no abject poverty, 
 although subjected, of course, like other parts of the 
 kingdom, to the difficulties arising from bad crops, depre- 
 ciated produce, and other causes. So great a proportion 
 of the people having a permanent support, they are able 
 to assist the destitute without the smallest call upon land- 
 lords. But, while the people are in a great measure 
 independent of charitable aid, it must nevertheless be 
 admitted, that, in some recent instances, lamentable 
 symptoms of a relaxation of principle are visible, especi- 
 ally in the want of punctuality in the payment of rents. 
 This is not now, as formerly, a heavy reproach ; for the 
 frequency of defalcation has obliterated the shame which 
 attached to it, and thus the best security of punctual pay- 
 ment and correct general conduct is destroyed.* 
 
 The great influx of money occasioned by the late war, 
 a circumstance which, in general, has had an effect directly 
 contrary, introduced into the Highlands the same specu- 
 lative spirit which was, more or less, in operation over 
 the whole kingdom. Agriculturists and graziers received 
 
 * This ev41 is extending to more transactions than payment of rents. 
 When so much of the sense of shame is lost, when a breach of engage- 
 ment with a landlord, which was considered as a heavy misfortune, 
 begins to be contemplated with indifference, other claims will soon 
 come to be viewed in the same light. Such answers as the following 
 are already becoming frequent, "Don't speak of your debt; why 
 should I pay you, when I have not paid my rent?" 
 
 Q 
 
226 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 unprecedented prices for their grain and for their cattle. 
 Intoxicated with this gleam of prosperity, tenants, forsak- 
 ing their wonted integrity and union of interests, were 
 induced to overbid each other, and succeeded in mislead- 
 ing such landlords as were inclined to be moderate in 
 their calculations, till thus tempted, as it were, by such 
 extravagant offers ; for who, it was said, could know the 
 value of land so well as the cultivators ? and how could 
 landlords be expected to refuse rents, however high, that 
 were thus urged upon them? * If the moderate and well- 
 meaning were thus misled, the speculations of the san- 
 guine or thoughtless may be supposed to have exceeded 
 the bounds of moderation. This progress of late events 
 and of new opinions may, in some manner, account for 
 the more painful process now in operation, which has a 
 marked tendency to deprive proprietors of the genuine 
 comfort that attends living honoured and beloved in a 
 safe and happy home, surrounded by an attached and 
 contented people. 
 
 The point of view in which the system of agriculture, 
 now pursued in many parts of the Highlands, may be 
 considered as affecting the general interests of the State, 
 is the loss of a valuable body of men by too general emi- 
 gration, or the much greater evil that may be produced 
 by forcing the inhabitants to remain without affording 
 them any certain means of subsistence, and by breaking 
 down their native spirit, and extinguishing the shame, 
 which, happily, for themselves and their country, has 
 hitherto attached to mendicity. 
 
 An attempt has been made to account for the pe- 
 culiar character of the Highlanders on the principle of 
 feudal subordination and hereditary attachment to their 
 * See Appendix, I)D. 
 
AGRICULTURE. 227 
 
 leaders ; and those who impute the character attained by 
 Highland troops solely to such causes, aifect to ascribe 
 the change which, they say, they discover in the con- 
 duct of later corps, to the absence of this excitement. 
 Whether these corps have actually degenerated from the 
 example shown by their predecessors, will be best de- 
 cided by those who, either as friends or enemies, have 
 witnessed their conduct ; and, on the testimony of such 
 persons, though strangers to their country and their Ian- 
 guage, the proof may safely be allowed to rest. Still, 
 however, it may with truth be said, that, in those regi- 
 ments which, as national corps, have been preserved 
 more unmixed than any other, their moral and military 
 character stands pre-eminent to this day. Of this the 
 Seaforth and Sutherland Highlanders afford incontestable 
 proof. 
 
 To those who object to the policy of the late changes 
 in the Highlands, on account of their effect in expelling 
 or in lowering the condition of so many able defenders of 
 their country, it has been replied, that, with the abolition 
 of the patriarchal system, the military spirit of the High- 
 landers has been extinguished; that the recruits, who 
 have been obtained from the Highlands of late years, did 
 not come forward, as their fathers were wont to do, at the 
 call of their chief, but were procured by a species of 
 crimping, or offered as the premium of a renewed lease, 
 or some other petty gain. But those who urge this 
 argument ought to remember, that the great drafts from 
 the Highlands were made at a time long subsequent to 
 the dissolution of the patriarchal brotherhood and feudal 
 government, and were completed with as much expe- 
 dition, and to as great an extent, as in times when the 
 authority of the chieftain was most absolute; and that 
 
2 28 INFLUENCE OF THE 
 
 numerous bands of recruits followed Highland gentlemen^ 
 and young men, who had neither lands nor leases to 
 grant, nor money with which to tempt or reward the 
 young soldiers. To those who know the facts, it will ap- 
 pear absurd to state what must be so familiar to their 
 knowledge, that the great numbers of independent men 
 who have, from time to time, enlisted from the High- 
 lands, could not have been influenced by the trifling 
 temptations which most of the individuals to whose for- 
 tunes they attached themselves were able to offer.* It is 
 the value of such recruits, and the danger of their being 
 lost to this country by too extensive an emigration, and 
 more especially by the disaff'ection of those who remain 
 
 * It is well known that the bounty-money had no influence in the 
 Highlands, when men were raised for the 42nd and other Highland 
 corps in the Seven Years' War, as well as in that which ended in 
 1783. In 1776, upwards of 800 men were recruited for the 42nd in 
 a few weeks, on a bounty of one guinea, while officers who offered 
 ten and twelve guineas for recruits, which they were raising for their 
 commissions, could not get a man till the national corps were com- 
 pleted. I have also had frequent experience of this in my own 
 person while serving in the 42nd and 78th regiments. On many 
 occasions, as I shall have to notice afterwards, numbers of young 
 Highlanders enlisted for foreign service (and this sometimes in bands 
 together), on receiving less than one-half of the bounty-money given 
 at the same time by officers for their commissions in the regular and 
 fencible regiments for home-service, as likewise by others for militia 
 substitutes. When I was recruiting for the 78th, the regiment was 
 in the East Indies, and the prospect held out to the men of embark- 
 ing for that country in a few months ; yet they engaged with me, and 
 other officers, for ten guineas, to embark immediately on a dangerous 
 but honourable duty, when they could have got twenty guineas as 
 militia sulxstitutes, and to remain in their native country. This is 
 very different from what some late authors have pretended to dis- 
 cover, that the youth of the Highlands have a notorious aversion to 
 a n\ilitary life. 
 
CHANGE OF SYSTEM. 229 
 
 at home, that constitute the great consideration of pubHc 
 importance. If the proprietors of many estates, once full 
 of men able and willing to serve in defence of their coun- 
 try, were now to muster their military strength, it is to be 
 feared, that, even in cases where the ancient race is still 
 retained, neither the influence of the name, nor the wealth 
 of their superiors, w^ould be able to counteract the effects 
 of the disregard which has been shown to the feelings of 
 their ancient retainers, nor recall that power over the 
 mind and heart which their forefathers so fully possessed. 
 Many seem to apprehend that the military spirit of the 
 Highlanders is not only connected with the existence of 
 the feudal system, but that it is, in some measure, de- 
 pendent upon their continuing to lead a pastoral or agri- 
 cultural life, and that a sedentary or mechanical employ- 
 ment must of necessity assimilate them to other artisans. 
 Although there may be some reason for this conclusion, 
 perhaps it assumes too much. " Nature," says Mrs Grant, 
 •'Never meant Donald for a manufacturer. Fixing a 
 mountaineer to a loom too much resembles yoking a 
 deer to a plough, and will not in the end succeed better." 
 And it is presumed that, even supposing he should be- 
 come a manufacturer, there is still something left to dis- 
 tinguish him from either the Glasgow or the Perth weaver. 
 It is not, however, so much the actual removal of the 
 inhabitants to another country, which the State has reason 
 to deprecate, as the manner in which it has, in so many 
 instances, been effected, and the impression which it has 
 made upon the character and the spirit of those who re- 
 main in their native country. Under proper limitations, 
 emigration is desirable, and ought to be encouraged, in as 
 much as, it affords vent for a redundant population which 
 might otherwise prove injurious to a country without 
 
230 EMIGRATION. 
 
 commerce, and without extensive tracts of new and un- 
 cultivated land.* Surplus population, where it exists in 
 the Highlands, must be disposed of as in all other coun- 
 tries. But admitting that moderate emigration would 
 provide for a useful people, if too numerous for their 
 native country, this cannot apply to measures which do 
 not aim at lessening the number of people, but either at 
 the complete expatriation of the whole, or such a depres- 
 sion of the condition of those who are permitted to re- 
 main, as will endanger their independence by creating 
 both the necessity and inclination for receivinor charitable 
 aid, and by increasing in a tenfold ratio the evil of a re- 
 dundant population, — an evil which is by no means 
 general in the Highlands, t and which exists only in those 
 places where small lots of an acre, or more, have recently 
 been assigned to each of those families whose former 
 farms had been dismantled. Emigration is, in every 
 view, preferable to this system of retaining the peasantry 
 
 * It was sending forth colonies from a redundant population, 
 which originally peopled the different regions of the earth. This 
 was the policy of Greece and Rome, and, in later ages, of the 
 northern nations, who, in their migrations southward, overcame and 
 ultimately subdued the Roman empire. 
 
 t While the evil of a crowded population is so much dreaded in 
 the Highlands, it must be irreconcileable with every principle of 
 sound policy or humanity, to attempt to check emigration, its best 
 antidote. Yet, notwithstanding the many complaints of a superabund- 
 ant population, grain, in all average seasons, is so plentiful, even in 
 the most populous glens, in which the i)eo{)le have been retained in 
 their original possessions, that the greater part is unsaleable. Now, 
 as provisions are unsaleable from their abundance, can there be any 
 serious danger of over-population.'* Or, if the number of consumers 
 was lessened, would it not increase the evil of superabundant preduce 
 (if it can be called an evil) ; and can there be a surplus population, 
 when the value of land is diminished, by the cheapness of the produce.'* 
 
EMIGRATION. 231. 
 
 after they have lost their lands, and of confining them 
 within bounds too narrow to afford them subsistence. 
 Voluntary emigration would benefit the state by strength- 
 ening the colonies, and transfusing into their general 
 mass able and intrepid defenders : but it is much to be 
 feared that the provocations and oppressions which have 
 already induced many to fight in the ranks of an enemy, 
 may, at some future day, set those who have sought an 
 asylum in another region in open array against their 
 mother country, whence they have, in effect, been ban- 
 ished, — the highest punishment, next to death, which the 
 law inflicts.* The intercourse between Highland land- 
 
 * Although the sentences of judges condemning criminals to 
 temporary banishment have been questioned as being too severe, and 
 the miseries of the convicts on their passage to New South Wales 
 have been brought under the view of Parliament, little notice has 
 been taken of the banishment for life of thousands driven from, 
 the Highlands; of whom so many must sell the reversion of a 
 portion of their lives for the expense of the passage, the miseries 
 of which, and of the after slavery, will be seen in Parkinson's 
 Tour in America, and other works. Emigrants paying, in this 
 manner, for their passage, are said to be bought and sold, and trans' 
 ferred like cattle from hand to hand. When felons, who, with all 
 their crimes, are certainly objects of compassion, meet with such 
 commendable attention, why do not the virtuous and innocent, who 
 are sent to perpetual exile, meet with equal commiseration ? While 
 Government is arraigned for supposed inattention to the comforts of 
 those whose crimes are disgraceful to the countr}' for whose safety 
 they are transported, the misery of the unoffending Highlanders does 
 not seem to attract the same attention as the supposed harsh usage 
 of felons, who, in reality are rendered so comfortable on the passage, 
 that in a voyage of ten months, vessels have not lost an individual 
 by sickness. How different is the condition of unfortunate emigrants 
 in their wretched and crowded vessels ! In fact, the subject is too. 
 melancholy to contemplate without the deepest commiseration ; and 
 yet the usual professors of philanthropy and religion are silent. 
 
232 EMIGRATION. 
 
 lords and their people resembled that of a family, and, 
 when a breach of confidence occurs, their quarrels and 
 animosities, like those of long-tried friends, are the more 
 bitter and painful ; * and, consequently, those who emi- 
 grate from compulsion, carry with them a lasting remem- 
 brance of the cause. I have been told by intelligent 
 officers, who served in Canada during the last war, that 
 they found the Highland emigrants more fierce in their 
 animosity against the mother country than even the 
 
 * Perhaps it may be thought that I give too many instances of 
 the attachment and fidelity of the Highlanders to their superiors. I 
 shall only give one more from a number of facts of the same descrip- 
 tion. While the estates forfeited after the rebellion of 1745 were 
 vested in the Crown, the rents were moderate, and the leases long, 
 the latter being generally forty-one or fifty-nine years. In the year 
 1783, these estates were restored to those who had been attainted, or 
 to their heirs. This event caused general joy in the Highlands, and, 
 among many other acts of kindness of his late Majesty towards the 
 Highlanders, has so operated on their ardent minds, long affection- 
 ately attached to their kings and superiors, that he is often called the 
 •'King of the People." The heir of one of the persons attainted 
 succeeded to an estate of considerable extent. Government, with a 
 kindness that might have been imitated to advantage, removed few 
 of the tacksmen, " kindly tenants," and followers of the old families. 
 When the tenants of this gentleman found the descendent of their 
 venerated chiefs in possession of the inheritance of his ancestors, they 
 immediately surrendered their leases, doubled the rents upon them- 
 selves, and took new ones for a term shorter by ten years than that 
 which was yet to run of the King's leases ; in order, as they said, 
 that the man whose presence among them had diftused so much 
 happiness, might sooner be enabled to avail himself of the price of 
 produce, which they saw annually increasing, and raise his rents ac- 
 cordingly. This was in 1783, nearly forty years after the whole 
 power of the chiefs, except over the minds and affections of thcpeople, 
 had ceased. This is one of the many instances that show how long 
 those honourable traits of character continued, and the importance 
 of such disinterested and fjenerous attachment. 
 
EMIGRATION. 233 
 
 native Americans. By weakening the principle of loyalty 
 and love of country among a people hitherto distin- 
 guished for both, but who now impute part of their griev- 
 ances to the Government which does not (perhaps 
 cannot) protect them, the interests of the State are 
 affected, and a fund of hostility created, if I may so ex- 
 press myself, against the occurrence of some season of 
 difficulty and trial, when Government will in vain look 
 for aid from those men whose minds are rankling with 
 the remembrance of recent injuries, and whose spirits are 
 broken by an accumulation of actual and irritating evils. * 
 
 * How different the feelings of those are who emigrate voluntarily, 
 may be seen by the following instance. My father had long been an 
 indulgent landlord to a numerous tenantry. By his kind treatment 
 several became rich, at least they believed themselves rich, and 
 wished to get their farms enlarged. Their landlord explained to 
 them that he could not do this without injustice to others, by remov- 
 ing them without cause from their farms. They saw the force of this 
 reasoning ; but, still anxious to enlarge their possessions, resolved to 
 emigrate to a country where they could, without injustice or injury 
 to their neighbours, accomplish their wishes ; and they accordingly 
 gave up their farms and embarked for America. Having the com- 
 mand of money, one detachment purchased a tract of land on the 
 banks of the Hudson river, equal in fertility to any in the United 
 States ; others purchased in different parts of the Union. By their 
 labour they cleared a considerable portion of land. It is now upwards 
 of thirty years since the first detachment emigrated ; but, so far are 
 they from entertaining a spirit of hostility towards this country, that 
 they cherish the kindest feelings towards their ancient homes, and the 
 families of their ancient laird ; their new possessions are named 
 after their former farms, and their children and grandchildren are 
 named after the sons and daughters of their laird ; and so loyal were 
 they to the King and Government of this country, that, to avoid 
 serving against them in the late war, several emigrated from the 
 States to Canada, where the young men entered the Royal Militia 
 and Fencibles. Such are the consequences of considerate treatment, 
 and of voluntary emigration. 
 
234 EMIGRATION. 
 
 These emigrants, with all their endearing recollec- 
 tions of the past, have excited the sympathy of the Muse, 
 and poetry has been called in to interest us in their fate ; 
 but, in this case, truth is better than fiction.* Dr 
 
 * In the Emigrant, by the late Honourable Henr) Erskine, he 
 describes the feelings of an old Highlander on quitting his native 
 country for America. 
 
 " Farewell, farewell, dear Caledonia's strand, 
 Rough though thou be, yet still my native land. 
 Exiled from thee, I seek a foreign shore, 
 Friends, kindred, country, to behold no more : 
 By hard oppression driven — 
 
 Thou dear companion of my happier life, 
 Now to the grave gone down, my virtuous wife, 
 Twas here you reared, with fond maternal pride. 
 Five comely sons ; three for their country died, 
 Two still remain, sad remnant of the wars. 
 Without one mark of honour but their scars : 
 They live to see their sire denied a grave 
 In lands his much-loved children died to save. 
 My two remaining boys, with sturdy hands. 
 Reared the scant produce of our niggard lands ; 
 Scant as it was, no more our hearts desired. 
 No more from us our generous lord required. 
 
 " But, ah ! sad change ! those blessed days are o'er, 
 And peace, content, and safety charm no more : 
 Another lord now rules those wide domains, 
 The avaricious tyrant of the j^lains. 
 
 " For thee, insatiate chief! whose ruthless hand 
 For ever drives me from my native land ; 
 For thee I leave no greater curse behind. 
 Than the fell bodings of a guilty mind ; 
 Or what were harder to a soul like thine. 
 To find from avarice thy wealth decline. 
 
 *' Feed on, my flocks -my harmless people, feed. 
 The worst that ye can suffer is to bleed. 
 
EMIGRATION. 235 
 
 Robertson, in his Report for the County of Inverness 
 says, " Some of the chieftains themselves have given the 
 death-blow to chieftainship ; they have cut the cords of 
 affection which tied their followers and their tribes, and 
 yet they complain of the defection of their tribes, which, 
 with their eyes open, they have driven from them."* 
 Those who respect the feelings of a whole people, may 
 mourn over the breaking of those cords which bound 
 together in affectionate duty and esteem the different 
 orders of Highland society : and, while a change of 
 management and improved cultivation were not only 
 necessary, but indispensable, may regret that, to attain 
 them, it has been found necessary to occasion such a 
 revolution as has, in many cases, taken place, by the 
 abrupt and unanticipated adoption of such measures as, 
 without time or opportunity afforded for guarding against 
 the convulsive shock, have been productive of the most 
 violent changes, and proved subversive of all former 
 habits and modes of living. 
 
 O ! that the murderer's steel were all my fear. 
 How fondly would I stay to perish here; 
 But hark, my sons loud call me from the vale, 
 And, lo ! the vessel spreads her swelling sail. 
 
 Farewell, farewell 
 
 Then casting many a lingering look behind, 
 Down the steep mountain's brow began to wind." 
 
 * See Report to the Board of Agriculture. 
 
.236 ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 
 
 SECTION IV. . 
 
 Smuggling — Consequences of reducing the Highlanders from 
 the Condition of small Tenantry — Policy of retaining 
 Agricultural Populatioti. 
 
 I MUST now advert to a cause which contributes to de- 
 moralise the Highlanders in a manner equally rapid and 
 lamentable. Smuggling has grown to an alarming extent, 
 and, if not checked, will undermine the best principles of 
 the people. When they become habituated to falsehood, 
 fraud, and perjury, in one line of life, they will soon learn 
 to extend these vices to all their actions. This traffic 
 operates like a secret poison on all their moral feelings. 
 They are the more readily betrayed into it, as, though 
 acute and ingenious in regard to all that comes within the 
 scope of their observation, they do not comprehend the 
 nature or purpose of imposts levied on the produce of 
 the soil, nor have they any distinct idea that the practice 
 of smuggling is attended with disgrace or turpitude. 
 Their excuse for engaging in such a traffic, is, that its aid 
 is necessary to enable them to pay their rents and taxes ; 
 — an allegation which supposes that these demands re- 
 quire the open violation of the law, by practices at once 
 destructive of health and good morals, and affords a 
 lamentable instance of the state to which they find them- 
 selves reduced. As a contrast to the discontents against 
 Government which prevail in the South on political sub- 
 jects, and on Reform, it deserves to be mentioned, that 
 in the North, annual parliaments, universal suffrage, and 
 the whole catalogue of political grievances, are never 
 
ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 237 
 
 thought of. There the severity and intricacy of the 
 Excise laws, which render them equally difficult to be 
 understood or obeyed, conjoined with the conduct of in- 
 dividual proprietors, form the theme of their complaints. 
 The delicate situation in which landlords are placed, when 
 sitting as magistrates in Excise courts, and inflicting pen- 
 alties for smuggling, has a strong influence on the minds 
 of their tenants, who complain that they cannot dispose 
 of their produce, or pay their rents, without the aid of 
 this forbidden traffic ; and it is difficult to persuade them 
 that gentlemen are sincere in their attempts to suppress a 
 practice without which, as it is asserted, their incomes 
 could not be paid, in a country where legal distillation is 
 in a manner prohibited. How powerfully this appearance 
 of inconsistency contributes to affect the esteem and respect 
 of tenants for their landlords must be sufficiently evident. 
 It was not till after the year 1786, when the introduc- 
 tion of foreign spirits was checked by Mr Pitt's celebrated 
 bill, that the distillation of whisky was carried on, to any 
 extent, in the Highlands.* Brandy and rum were landed 
 
 * So little was it practised in the Perthshire Highlands, that a 
 tenant of my grandfather's was distinguished by the appellation of 
 "Donald Whisky," from his being a distiller and smuggler of that 
 spirit. If all existing smugglers were to be named from this traffic, 
 five of the most numerous clans in the country conjoined, could not 
 produce so many of one name. In the year 1778, there was only 
 one officer of Excise in that part of Perthshire above Dunkeld, and 
 he had little employment. In the same district, there are now eleven 
 resident officers in full activity, besides Rangers (as they are called) 
 and extra officers sent to see that the resident excisemen do their 
 duty; yet, so rapidly did illicit distillation increase, that it would 
 seem as if the greater the number of officers appointed, the more 
 employment they found for themselves ; and it is a common, and, I 
 believe, a just remark, that whenever an Excise officer is placed in a 
 glen, he is not long without business. 
 
238 ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 
 
 on the West Coast, from which they were conveyed to all 
 parts of the country, and composed the principal spiritu- 
 ous drink of the inhabitants. But when foreign spirits 
 were prohibited, the contraband distillation of whisky 
 commenced, and was prosecuted to an extent, and with 
 an open defiance of the laws, hitherto unknown ; and 
 yielding large profits, — particularly since the improve- 
 ments in agriculture increased the produce of barley, — 
 the traffic spread rapidly, and, in many districts, became 
 the principal source from which the rents were paid. 
 Whisky became fashionable, and superseded the con- 
 sumption of other liquors ; one effect of which has been, 
 the nominal price to which rum has been reduced. The 
 Lowland distillers complained that the smugglers under- 
 sold them, and lessened the demand for their manufac- 
 ture. These complaints were not without cause, at the 
 same time that the preference given to the contraband 
 spirits was owing to its superior quality; — a remarkable 
 difference, considering that the legal distiller has full 
 time for conducting his operations in safety, while the 
 smuggler is in constant hurry and dread of detection, 
 and, when ferreted out from one rock or hiding-place, is 
 obliged to commence in another. With all this, a pure 
 and wholesome spirit is distilled in the hills, while the 
 legal still throws out an unsaleable liquor, at least not 
 saleable, unless at a lower price, or until after it is re- 
 distilled and rectified. 
 
 Several Acts of Parliament were passed for the sup- 
 pression of smuggling. By a special Act, the Highland 
 district was marked out by a definite line, extending 
 along the southern base of the Grampians, within which 
 all distillation of spirits was prohibited from stills of less 
 than 500 gallons. It is evident that this law was a com- 
 
ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 239 
 
 plete interdict, as a still of this magnitude would consume 
 more than the disposable grain in the most extensive 
 county within this newly drawn and imaginary boundary; 
 nor could fuel be obtained for such an establishment, 
 without an expense which the commodity could not 
 possibly bear. The sale, too, of the spirits pioduced was 
 circumscribed within the same line, and thus the market 
 which alone could have supported the manufacture of 
 such quantities was entirely cut off. The quantity of 
 grain raised in many districts, in consequence of recent 
 agricultural improvements, greatly exceeds the consump- 
 tion ; but the inferior quaUty of this grain, and the great 
 expense of carrying it to the Lowland distillers, who, by a 
 ready market, and the command of fuel, can more easily 
 accommodate themselves to this law, renders it impracti- 
 cable for the Highland farmers to dispose of their grain 
 in any manner adequate to pay rents equal to the real 
 value of their farms, subject as they are to the many 
 drawbacks of uncertain climate, uneven surface, distance 
 from market, and scarcity of fuel. Thus, no alternative 
 remained but that of having recourse to illicit distillation, 
 or absolute ruin, by the breach of their engagements with 
 their landlords.* These are difficulties of which the 
 
 * Since the formation of roads to the hill-mosses, and the intro- 
 duction of carts, the consumption of peat for fuel has greatly increased, 
 and is quickly diminishing the supply. Peat has now become an 
 
 expensive fuel ; the raising and carrying home the quantity necessary 
 for even family purposes consume much valuable time, in the season 
 best calculated for agricultural labour and improvements. Coals are 
 brought from thirty to fifty miles by land carriage, in preference to 
 the expense and loss of time in preparing a species of fuel which is 
 not w^ell calculated for strong fires. The nature and expense of this 
 fuel afford additional arguments against the propriety or justice of 
 equalizing the Highland duties with those of the Lowland distilleries. 
 
24<> ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 
 
 Highlanders complain heavily, asserting that nature and 
 the distillery-laws present insurmountable obstacles to the 
 carrying on of a legal traffic. The surplus produce of 
 their agricultural labour will, therefore, remain on their 
 hands, unless they incur an expense beyond what the 
 article will bear, in conveying to the Lowland market so 
 bulky a commodity as the raw material, and by the draw- 
 backs of price on their inferior grain. In this manner, 
 their produce must be disposed of at a great loss, as it 
 cannot be legally manufactured in the country. Hence 
 they resort to smuggling as their only resource, — a state 
 to which it might have been expected that neither an 
 enlightened Government nor liberal landlords would 
 have reduced a well-principled race, and thereby com- 
 pelled them to have recourse to practices subversive of 
 the feelings of honour and rectitude, and made them re- 
 gardless to their character in this world, and their happi- 
 ness in the next. And if it be indeed true, that this 
 illegal traffic has made such deplorable breaches in the 
 honesty and right feeling of the people, the revenue 
 drawn from the large distilleries, to which the Highlanders 
 have been made the sacrifice, has been procured at too 
 high a price to the country. 
 
 By the late alterations in the distillery-laws, the size 
 of the still has been reduced, with the view of meeting 
 the scarcity of fuel, and the limited means of the High- 
 
 independently of the great dififeience in the quality of the grain and 
 of the distance from market. The price of forty stones of coal sold 
 in this neighbourhood is thirteen or fourteen shillings; the same 
 quantity is sold in Perth for four shillings; how then, with an inferior 
 grain, and such a difference in the expense of fuel, and a farther 
 expense of sending the spirits to market, can the Highland distiller 
 pay the same duty as the Lowland distiller? 
 
ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 24I 
 
 landers. Government had, unfortunately, shut their eyes 
 to the representations of the evil consequences resulting 
 from those prohibitory measures, and had turned a ready 
 ear to the offers of revenue by the large distillers. This 
 conflict between temporary revenue and lasting injury to 
 the morals of a virtuous people, was so long continued, 
 that the evil has become too general, but not beyond 
 remedy. If the Excise-laws were so framed as to enable 
 the Highland distiller to overcome the difficulties which 
 nature has thrown in his way, and with his light and in- 
 ferior grain, to pay the duties which are calculated for 
 the more productive grain of the southern counties, it 
 might safely be predicted that smuggling to any extent 
 would speedily disappear.* It is well known that smug- 
 gling was little practised, and produced no deterioration 
 in the morals of the people, (who, in the last age, were 
 not, in any manner, addicted to strong liquors, t) till the 
 
 *■ When the duty on malt was lowered a few years ago, all grain 
 malted in the Highlands of Perthshire was entered for the Excise- 
 duty, and a great increase of revenue drawn ; but when it was again 
 augmented, smuggling of malt recommenced, and the revenue pro- 
 duced has not been worth the expense of collection. 
 
 Since the publication of the former editions, circumstances have 
 occurred which, if persevered in, will confirm the above prediction. 
 An act was passed in 1823, lowering the duty, and allowing stills of 
 forty gallons. The consequence has been, that smuggling is dis- 
 appearing; and when the people have time to comprehend the 
 provisions of the act (no easy matter, considering the power the 
 Board of Excise assume, of construing the different clauses at their 
 own discretion), smuggling will be as little practised in the Highlands 
 as it was sixty years ago ; that is, before the people were prohibited 
 from manufacturing their grain, by enactments so unsuitable to the 
 state of the country as to be a complete interdict. 
 
 + The salaries of Excise- ofi&cers are so small, as to be inadequate 
 to the support of their families, and the expense to which the exercise 
 
 R 
 
242 ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 
 
 change in the Excise-laws,* and in the manner of letting 
 land ; and there is little doubt, that, if the laws were ac- 
 
 of their duty lays them open, viz., being daily on horseback, and 
 living much in taverns. The deficiency is supplied by their being 
 allowed a share of all fines and seizures ; but it is evident that, if 
 there were no smuggling, there could be neither fines nor seizures, 
 and, while the suppression of the traffic would destroy a source of 
 great emolument to those whose duty it is to suppress it, they must 
 live on their small and inadequate salaries — an alternative to which 
 it were prudent not to expose them. Without attributing any im- 
 proper conduct, or neglect of duty, to men placed in this delicate 
 situation, it is well known, that fines and seizures have failed in sup- 
 pressing smuggling. On the contrary, smugglers proceed with more 
 eagerness than usual, immediately after a seizure or conviction, as, 
 otherwise, how could the consequent fine be paid? How could the 
 Excise-officer be paid his share? 
 
 * Till within the last thirty years, whisky, as I have just noticed, 
 was less used in the Highlands than rum and brandy, which were 
 landed on the West coast, and thence conveyed all over the country. 
 Indeed, it was not till the beginning, or rather towards the middle of 
 the last century, that spirits of any kind were so much drank as ale, 
 which was formerly the universal beverage. Every account and 
 tradition go to prove that ale was the principal drink among the 
 country people, and French wines and brandy among the gentry. In 
 confirmation of the general traditions, I may state, that Mr Stewart 
 of Crossmount, whom I have already mentioned, and who lived till 
 his 104th year, informed me, that, in his youth, strong frothing ale 
 from the cask was the common beverage. It was drank from a 
 circular shallow cup with two handles. Those of the gentry were of 
 silver (which are still to be seen in ancient families), and those used 
 by the common people were of variegated woods. Small cups were 
 used for spirits. Whisky-house is a term unknown in the Gaelic. 
 Public-houses are called Tigh-Leanna, that is. Ale-houses. Had 
 whisky been the favourite beverage of the Highlanders, as many 
 people believe, would not their songs, their tales, and names of 
 houses allotted for convivial meetings, bear some allusion to this 
 propensity, which has no reality in fact, and is one of those numer- 
 ous instances of the remarkable ignorance of the true character of the 
 
ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 243 
 
 <:ommodated to the peculiar circumstances of the High- 
 lands, the prediction which I have now ventured to make 
 would be fully verified. In this opinion I am supported 
 by that of many men of judgment and knowledge of the 
 character and disposition of the people, whom I have 
 consulted, and who have uniformly stated that smuggling 
 was little practised till within the last thirty years. The 
 open defiance of the laws, the progress of chicanery, per- 
 jury, hatred, and mutual recrimination, with a constant 
 dread and suspicion of informers, — men not being sure 
 of, nor confident in, their next neighbours, a state which 
 results from smuggling, and the habits which it engenders, 
 — are subjects highly important, and regarded with the 
 most serious consideration, and the deepest regret, by all 
 who value the permanent welfare of their country, which 
 depends so materially upon the preservation of the virtu- 
 ous habits of the people. No people can be more sen- 
 Highlanders on the part of their Lowland friends and neighbours? 
 In addition to the authority of Mr Stewart (who was a man of sound 
 judgment and accurate memory to his last hour), I have that of men 
 of perfect veracity, and great intelligence regarding every thing con- 
 nected with their native country. In the early part of their recollec- 
 tion, and in the time of their fathers, the whisky drank in the 
 Highlands of Perthshire was brought principally from the Lowlands. 
 The men to whom I allude died within the last thirty years, at 
 a great age, and consequently the time they allude to was the end of 
 the seventeenth century, and up to the years 1730 and 1740. A 
 ballad full of humour and satire, composed on an ancestor of mine, 
 in the reign of Charles L, and which is sung to the tune of Logie o' 
 Buchan, or rather, as the Highland traditions have it, the words of 
 Logie o' Buchan were set to the air of this more ancient ballad, 
 describes the Laird's jovial and hospitable manner, and, along with 
 other feats, his drinking a brewing of ale at one sitting, or convivial 
 meeting. In this song whisky is never mentioned ; nor is it in any 
 case except in the modern ballads and songs. 
 
244 ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 
 
 sible than the Highlanders themselves are of this melan- 
 choly change from their former habits of mutual confidence 
 and good neighbourhood, when no man dreaded an 
 informer, or suspected that his neighbour would betray 
 him, or secretly offer for his farm. And they still recollect 
 that the time has been when the man who had betrayed 
 or undermined the character or interests of his friend and 
 neighbour, would have been viewed as an outcast from 
 the society to which he belonged. But, while they 
 bitterly lament this change, they ascribe much of it to the 
 seeming determination of Government to prevent distil- 
 lation on a small scale, by enforcing laws and regulations 
 unsuitable to their country or its means, and equally diffi- 
 cult to be comprehended or obeyed ; and when landlords 
 cannot draw the full value of their lands, nor tenants pay 
 their rents without a vent for their produce, the com- 
 plaints of the Highlanders, both proprietors and tenants, 
 seem to be well founded. 
 
 There is another circumstance which I cannot avoid 
 noticing ; that is, a practice lately introduced of ordering 
 parties of cavalry to the Highlands as a terror to smug- 
 glers. Dragoons are necessary to oppose an enemy; but 
 they are instruments that ought not to be used at the in- 
 stigation, or under the direction, of an irritated, and 
 perhaps ignorant, exciseman. Parading cavalry through 
 glens and rocks, where they can be of no use, is an 
 ignorant display of power, and would be matter of 
 derision, were it not for the feeling which the exhibition 
 occasions among the people, who ought not to be sus- 
 pected of resisting the laws without good grounds ; nor 
 should they be permitted to believe that they are so for- 
 midable as to require military force. So different is it in 
 the Highlands, that, with a tolerable knowledge of circum- 
 
ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 245 
 
 Stances, I know not of one case where it was necessary to 
 call in the military. On the contrary, the excise-officers 
 are so far from meeting with resistance, that when they 
 make a seizure, they are often assisted by the people to 
 destroy their own utensils with their contents ; and when 
 the duty is finished, the officers are offered refreshment, 
 and invited into the houses of those whose property had 
 been destroyed. Are these a people requiring dragoons to 
 keep them down. Government and the Board of Excise 
 ought to look into this matter. Military force is not yet 
 required in the Highlands, except in the northern eject- 
 ments by fire, and military execution ; but unnecessary 
 harshness, and accustoming men to believe that they are 
 turbulent, may make cavalry and infantry necessary. Let 
 a warning be taken from Ireland. The deforcements and 
 resistance to excise-officers, so frequent in the neighbour- 
 hood of Glasgow, Stirling, and Perth, are by bands of men 
 of desperate character, many of them Irish, and from the 
 western counties, who are the purchasers and carriers of 
 smuggled spirits, but not the manufacturers, who carefully 
 avoid such encounters and skirmishes, and, except in 
 cases of unnecessary severity on the part of excise-officers, 
 and the consequent irritation, quietly surrender their pro- 
 perty when discovered. 
 
 The recent change of disposition and character forms 
 an additional argument with those who urge the propriety 
 of removing the ancient inhabitants, on pleas derived from 
 their supposed incapacity and indolence, or from the 
 climate and soil. This character has been depicted in 
 strong colours. Pinkerton describes the Celts as " mere 
 radical savages, not advanced even to a state of barbarism; 
 and if any foreigner," adds he, " doubts this, he has only 
 to step into the Celtic part of Wales, Ireland, or Scotland, 
 
246 ILLICIT DISTILLATION. 
 
 and look at them, for they are just as they were, incap- 
 able of industry or cultivation, even after half their blood 
 is Gothic, and remain, as marked by the ancients, fond 
 of Hes, and enemies to truth." Without being influenced 
 by the opinions of this author, the well-known fact should 
 be recollected, that much of the land in the Highlands is 
 barren, rugged, and from the numerous heights and de- 
 clivities difficult to cultivate ; that the climate is cold, wet, 
 and boisterous ; and that the winter is long and severe, 
 and the country fitted only for the maintenance of a hardy 
 abstemious population. No doubt, the population is 
 numerous in many districts, in proportion to the extent 
 of fertile land, but nevertheless the people have supported 
 themselves, with an independence, and a freedom from 
 parochial aid, which a richer, more favoured, and more 
 fertile country, might envy. 
 
 The indolence of the Highlander is a common topic 
 of remark : at the same time it is admitted, that, out of 
 their own country, they show no want of exertion, and 
 that, in executing any work by the piece, and in all situa- 
 tions where they clearly see their interest concerned, they 
 are persevering, active, and trustworthy.* But still it is 
 
 * The integrity and capability of the numerous bands of High- 
 landers which supplied Edinburgh with Cadd'ies is proverbial. These 
 Caddies were, during the last century, a species of porters and 
 messengers plying in the open street, always ready to execute any 
 commission, and to act as messengers to the most distant corners of 
 the kingdom, and were often employed in business requiring secrecy 
 and dispatch, and frequently had large sums of money intrusted to 
 their care. Instances of a breach of trust were most rare, indeed 
 almost unknown. These men carried to the South the same fidelity 
 and trustworthiness which formed a marked trait in the character of 
 the Highlanders of that period, and formed themselves into a society, 
 under regulations of their own. Dr Smollet, in his Humphry 
 Clinker, gives an account of an anniversary dinner of this fraternity, 
 
TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 247 
 
 maintained, that, if placed on small farms in their native 
 country, they are worse than useless. If this opinion be 
 well-founded, it might furnish a subject of inquiry, why 
 men should be persevering as labourers in one situation, 
 and in another useless, and that too, though labouring for 
 their own immediate comfort, and for the support of their 
 families ? It might also furnish a surmise, that as they 
 seldom show any deficiency of intellect in comprehending 
 their own interests, so there is something wrong in the 
 system under which they are frequently managed ; other- 
 wise what could occasion an inconsistency so difficult to 
 reconcile with any known principle, as that a man should 
 be indolent and careless about his own fields, and yet 
 active and vigilant about those of others. * 
 
 of which nine-tenths were Highlanders, though httle now remains of 
 the original order of Caddies. These employments were thrown into 
 other channels, the number of stage-coaches rendering communica- 
 tion so cheap and safe, that special messengers are unnecessary. 
 There are, however, many Highlanders in Edinburgh employed as 
 chairmen, and in other occupations ; and it might furnish no unin- 
 teresting inquiry, whether the Highlanders formerly employed in 
 Edinburgh were not trustworthy, and more remarkable for their 
 zeal, activity, and regard to their word, than those of the present 
 day? If such an inquiry should prove that they have not greatly 
 degenerated from the virtues of their predecessors, perhaps there is 
 little foundation for the reports of the deplorable want of religion and 
 morality in the North. It would, on the contrary, show that their 
 moral feelings, and the sense of shame which they attached to a 
 breach of trust, were the best safeguard of that integrity which made 
 them valuable servants to the public. On the other hand, were 
 such an inquirj- to show a change of character, it would afford a 
 melancholy contradiction to the reports of the improved religious 
 knowledge of the Highlanders, and show that the blessings resulting 
 from religious and moral education were not so defective in the last 
 age as many have been made to believe. 
 
 * The small tenantry often complain of the want of encourage- 
 
248 CAPABILITY. 
 
 Another circumstance has prejudiced the character of 
 the Highlanders in the opinion of strangers ; I mean, the 
 reluctance they showed to avail themselves of the em- 
 ployment offered them on the Caledonian Canal, al- 
 though furnishing employment to the ejected tenantry 
 was one of the reasons assigned for undertaking that 
 work. At the same time, it may be observed, that this 
 expensive rehef, the formation of the Canal, was only 
 
 ment to improve. But the want of encouragement to themselves 
 they w^ould not perhaps feel so much, did they not see great en- 
 couragement given to the large farmers, while they are abandoned to 
 their own exertions. Thus, when glens and districts in the Highlands 
 are depopulated, and the lands given to a man of capital, estimates 
 are taken for building a proper establishment, large sums are ex- 
 pended on inclosures, and stipulations are made to recompense the 
 tenant at the end of the lease for improvements made by him. When 
 such are the very commendable encouragements given to farmers on 
 a large scale, why are the small tenants so often refused any kind of 
 support ? Before large houses are built for tenants, it might, how- 
 ever, be matter of consideration to apportion the rent and taxes in 
 such a manner as to leave a clear income suitable to the accommoda- 
 tion provided for them ; otherwise it must appear absurd to place a 
 man in a house proper for an income of six or seven hundred a year, 
 as is often seen, when perhaps the clear profits of the farm are not 
 fifty. There are farms of two and three hundred pounds' rent, where 
 the interest of money sunk in building houses is from fifty to sixty, 
 and in some cases more than one hundred pounds. Had these men 
 the fee-simple of their farms, it might be a question how far it would 
 be prudent to pay such rents for a dwelling-house and its appendages. 
 Several farms within my knowledge are rented at two pound the 
 acre, but the landlords have erected such expensive buildings, that 
 the interest of the money expended is e(}ual to one pound per acre, 
 leaving only the same sum of clear rent, while the tenant is subjected 
 to an unsuitable expense in furnishing and keeping in repair such an 
 establishment, A process which is so hurtful to the tenant, and 
 which reduces the landlord's rent one half, is called by our statistical 
 €Conomists, improving his property. 
 
CAPABILITY. 249 
 
 temporary, while the want of employment is permanent 
 The small number of Highlanders who have been em- 
 ployed on the Canal has afforded ground for an opinion, 
 that they have a disinclination to labour, and are not 
 calculated for any exertion beyond the habits of a pastoral 
 life. To those who are strangers to their habits and way 
 of thinking, this of itself might appear a sufficient proof 
 of their aversion to any stationary or laborious employ- 
 ment ; but not so to those who know that land and 
 cattle, with their usual appendages, form, as I have 
 already noticed, the principal aim of a Highlander's ambi- 
 tion. Deprived of these, he is lowered and broken in 
 spirit ; and to become a labourer in his own country, and 
 to be forced to beg for his daily hire and daily bread, in 
 sight of his native mountains, and of those who witnessed 
 his former independence, he cannot bear without extreme 
 impatience. Hence, while so few resorted to the con- 
 stant and well-paid labour on the Canal, in the heart of 
 iheir country, thousands crowded dowTi for employment 
 to the most distant Lowlands. Indeed, the greater the 
 distance the better, as at a distance from home they 
 were unknown, and their change of station remained 
 concealed, or unnoticed. For the same reason, they 
 overcome their attachment to their native country, 
 and emigrate to the woods of America, in the hope of 
 obtaining a portion of land, the possession of which they 
 consider as the surest and most respectable source of 
 independence. " Wherever the Highlanders are defective 
 in industry," says the late Professor Walker, "it will be 
 found upon fair inquiry, to be rather their misfortune 
 than their fault, and owing to their want of knowledge 
 and opportunity, rather than to any want of spirit for 
 labour. Their disposition to industry is greater than is 
 
250 CAPABILITY. 
 
 usually imagined, and, if judiciously directed, is capable 
 of being highly advantageous both to themselves and to 
 their country." 
 
 Their spirit and industry may be seen by looking to 
 the nature of the country, and the length of time during 
 which the Highlands formed a separate and indepen- 
 dent kingdom, repelling all invasions, and at length 
 establishing their king and government in more fertile 
 regions. It must therefore have been capable of support- 
 ing a greater population than it is commonly supposed 
 adequate to maintain : for, surrounded as the people 
 were by the sea, and by neighbours often hostile, pre- 
 venting any excursions beyond their mountains, except 
 by force of arms, their sole dependence must have been 
 on their own resources. But these must have been 
 sufficient to maintain the whole inhabitants, or they 
 could not have so long existed in independence. In- 
 deed, it is not easy to form an opinion of the extent to 
 which population might be carried by spirited and liberal 
 encouragement to the industry and energy of the people. 
 Unfortunately, however, this is not the opinion of many, 
 who hold that the country cannot prosper while the 
 original inhabitants remain, and that, to improve the 
 soil, where the people are without capital or skill, would 
 be a vain attempt. This opinion is probably the cause 
 why, in so many cases, the liberal encouragement of 
 Highland landlords has been directed to other channels 
 than that of raising the condition of the original occupiers 
 of their estates. If the Highlanders arc deprived of their 
 lands, where is the benefit to them, that great sums are 
 expended in building large and commodious establish- 
 ments for the stranger of cajHtal? Is it of any advantage 
 to the ancient race, that the landlord liberally sacrifices 
 
CAPABILITY. 251: 
 
 part of his expected rents to encourage the present skilful 
 possessors, to make room for whom they were removed? 
 Nor does it seem clear that the natives of the country- 
 can profitably avail themselves of the admirable roads, 
 for the formation of which gentlemen advanced large 
 sums ; or that they can frequent the inns built, and the 
 piers and shores formed, since by their removal to their 
 new stations, as cottagers, they are left without a horse to 
 travel on the roads, without produce to embark at the 
 shores, and deprived of the means of acquiring property 
 or independence. 
 
 It was not by depopulation, or by lowering the condi- 
 tion of the inhabitants ; it was not by depriving the coun- 
 try of its best capital and strength, " a sensible, virtuous, 
 hardy, and laborious race of people,"* and, by checking 
 all further increase of wealth, except what might arise 
 from the increased value of the produce of pasture lands, 
 that the Dutch reclaimed fertile meadows from the ocean, 
 that the Swiss turned their mountains into vineyards, and 
 that the natives of Majorca and Minorca, scraping the 
 rocky surface of their respective islands (as hard as the 
 most barren within the Grampians), caused them to 
 produce corn and wine in abundance. What industry 
 has accomplished on the rocks of Malta is proverbial. 
 But, in the North, " the climate is a common-place 
 objection against every improvement. It is certain that 
 improvements, which, for this reason, are resisted in the 
 Highlands, have taken place successfully in districts of Scot- 
 land, which are more unfavourable in point of climate."! 
 If such is the case in other districts, the difficulty 
 should be more easily overcome in the Highlands, 
 from the abstemious and hardy habits of the people, who 
 * Professor Walker's Economical History. + Ibid. 
 
252 CAPABILITY. 
 
 are contented and happy with the plainest and cheapest 
 food. Wherever time has been allowed, and proper 
 encouragement afforded, the industry of the tenants has 
 overcome the difficulties of climate, and of unproductive 
 soil.* Although their labours are unremitting, their time 
 and attention are divided among so many objects, that 
 the aggregate produce of their labour is less visible than 
 
 * No encouragement to a Highlander is equal to the prospect of 
 a permanent residence, and of an immediate return for his labour. 
 The rent should be fully as high as the produce will admit, with a 
 promise of reduction in proportion to the extent of improvements 
 made. Hence, when men rent small farms of fifteen, twenty, and 
 thirty acres, they will, by their personal labour, and that of their 
 families and servants, be able to drain, clear, and enclose the land. 
 The improvements should be annually valued, and one-fourth or one- 
 third of the amount allowed to the tenant as a deduction from his rent. 
 In this manner an industrious tenant will work equal to twenty or thirty 
 per cent, of the rent. This will make the farm cheap during the pro- 
 gress of improvement, and, as these operations can be completed in 
 a few years, the landlord will afterwards have his full rent, which the 
 tenant will be enabled to pay easily by the improved state of his land, 
 and, at the end of the lease, can afford a considerable augmentation 
 from his increased produce, the consequence of his own industry, and 
 of the encouragement given him, — which may be said to have cost 
 the landlord nothing, as the money remitted out of the rent could 
 not perhaps have been paid without the personal labour and im- 
 provement of the tenant. It is evident that this process could not 
 be accomplished by mere capital alone, without the personal labour 
 of the occupier ; and that the farm must consequently be small, be- 
 cause, if the work were done by hired labour, the payment by the 
 landlord would be no relief to the tenant in the way of abatement 
 of rent, as he must pay it away to those he hired ; whereas, if he 
 labours himself with the assistance of his family, he retains the money 
 for his immediate use. Such a mode as this might be advisable in 
 barren land, which will not always reimburse any considerable out- 
 lay of money, without the assistance of the personal labour of the 
 cultivator. 
 
CAPABILITY. 253 
 
 where the same time is employed in the single endeavour 
 to extract the utmost produce from the soil. The tend- 
 ing of cattle wandering over mountains, or constantly 
 watched in pastures not enclosed, and the preparing and 
 carrying home their fuel, with numerous interruptions, 
 divide and increase their toil, in a manner of which the 
 people of the plains can form no idea. These, indeed, 
 are not monotonous labours that chain down the body to 
 a certain spot, and limit the mind to a narrow range of 
 ideas ; but still they are toils incessant and exhausting. 
 A different kind of labour may seem more advantageous 
 to those economists, who would reduce the labouring 
 class to mere machines, and produce, in this free coun- 
 try, a division of the people into castes, like the popula- 
 tion of India. But such a change is nowhere desirable, 
 and is impossible, in regions divided from each other 
 by almost insurmountable barriers. A general plan of 
 making all persons, however different their circumstances, 
 conduct the agriculture of their respective districts in the 
 same manner, — like the iron bed of Procrustes, which all 
 were made to fit, by being either stretched to the proper 
 length, or shortened by mutilation, — must not only be 
 inexpedient, but cruel and oppressive to the tenant, and 
 subversive of the best interests of the landlord.* 
 
 * The sagacity and facility of accommodation to novel situations 
 that mark the Highland character, may be ascribed to the versatility 
 arising from such varied occupations. As emigrants settling in a 
 wilderness, the exemption from dependence on tradesmen must be 
 peculiarly useful. If the Highland, like the English peasant, could 
 not subsist without animal food, and bread made of the best of flour, 
 together with ale and beer, it would give some strength to the 
 opinion of those who think that the barren lands of the North ought 
 to be left in a state of nature, and that an attempt to improve them 
 to advantage would be hopeless, as the produce of so sterile a soil 
 
254 DECAY OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to talk of economy, industry, 
 and good morals, in regard to a country without people, 
 as is the state of many Highland districts. These dis- 
 tricts, once well-peopled with a race who looked back for 
 ages to a long line of ancestors, will now only be known 
 like the ancient Pictish nation : that is, by name, by his- 
 torical tradition, and by the remains of the houses and 
 the traces of the agricultural labours of the ancient in- 
 habitants. In these there can be no increase of the 
 general produce, by any amelioration of the soil, and con- 
 sequently the rents can advance only by a rise in the 
 value of the animals fed on the pastures ; and as this in- 
 crease of price may proceed from a previous loss by 
 severe winters, diseases, and other causes, it is rather a 
 precarious contingency. The increased value of animal 
 produce has enabled those interested to put forth state- 
 ments of the unprecedented riches of the country, and of 
 the expected prosperity of those placed in the new vil- 
 lages.* But no hint is given of this important truth, that 
 
 could not support a people requiring such expensive food. But, 
 when we have men of vigorous bodies, capable of subsisting on 
 potatoes and milk for nine months in the year, using animal food, 
 beer, or spirits, only on great occasions, and wheaten bread never ; 
 it may be allowed that a Highland proprietor, having lands fit for 
 cultivation, and a hardy race, might preserve the one and improve 
 the other, and thus secure a better and more certain income on his 
 improved soil, than that which depends entirely on the price of sheep 
 or cattle. 
 
 * In the same manner, reports are published of the unprecedented 
 increase of the fisheries on the coast of the Highlands, proceeding, as 
 it is said, from the late improvements ; whereas, it is well known, 
 that the increase is almost entirely occasioned by the resort of fishers 
 from the South. To form an idea of the estimation in which High- 
 land fishermen are held, and the little share they have in those 
 
SHEEP-FARMING. 255 
 
 the same high prices would have equally affected the 
 small occupiers as the great stock graziers, and that the 
 high prices are the causes of the increased value of land, 
 and not the cold-hearted, merciless system pursued, and 
 the change of inhabitants. Wherever there is ^ space and 
 soil covered with a well-disposed population, experience, 
 example, and encouragement, will teach them to better 
 their situation. 
 
 I shall only notice one other argument adduced in 
 support of the depopulation of the Highlands; and that 
 is, that sheep are the stock best calculated for the moun- 
 tains. On this subject there can be but one opinion ; 
 but why not allow the small farmer to possess sheep as 
 well as the great stock grazier ? It is indeed said that it 
 is only in extensive establishments that stock-farming can 
 be profitable to the landlord. This hypothesis has not 
 yet been proved by sufficient experience, or proper com- 
 parison. But allowing that it were, and allowing a land- 
 lord the full gratification of seeing every tenant possessing 
 a large capital, with all comforts corresponding to the 
 opinion of a great proprietor, who wishes to have no tenant 
 but who can afford a bottle of wine at dinner ; there is 
 another important consideration, not to be overlooked in 
 
 improvements of the fisheries noticed in the newspapers, we may 
 turn to an advertisement in the Inverness newspapers, describing 
 sixty lots of land to be let in that county for fishing stations. To this 
 notice is added a declaration, that a ^'' decided preference %vill be 
 given to strangers.'' Thus, while, on the one hand, the unfortunate 
 natives are driven from their farms in the interior, a "decided pre- 
 ference" is given to strangers to settle on the coast, and little hope 
 left for them, save that those invited from a distance will not accept 
 the offer. When they see themselves thus rejected, both as cultiva- 
 tors, shepherds, and fishermen, what can be expected but despond- 
 ency, indolence, and a total neglect of all improvement or exertion? 
 
256 CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 introducing this system into the Highlands — that, in 
 allotting a large portion of land to one individual, per- 
 haps two, or three, or even five hundred persons will be 
 deprived of their usual means of subsistence, compelled 
 to remove from their native land, and to yield up their 
 ancient possessions to the man of capital,* to enable him 
 to drink wine, to drive to church in a gig, to teach his 
 daughters music and quadrille-dancing, and to mount his 
 sons upon hunters, while the ancient tenants are forced to 
 become bondsmen or day-labourers, with the recollection 
 of their former honourable independence still warm. Yet 
 this is a system strongly recommended, and practised with 
 great inconsistency, by men who have the words liberty and 
 independence in their mouths, and are loud in their com- 
 plaints of the slavish and oppressed state of the people. 
 
 It is impossible to contemplate, without anxiety and 
 pain, the probable effects of these operations in producing 
 that demoralization, pauperism, and frequency of crime, 
 which endanger the public tranquillity, and threaten to im- 
 pose no small burden on landlords, in contributing to the 
 maintenance of those who cannot or will not maintain them- 
 selves. Will the Highlanders, as cottagers, without em- 
 ployment, refrain from immorality and crime? Can we ex- 
 
 * We have lately seen 31 families, containing 115 persons, dis- 
 possessed of their lands, which were given to a neighbouring stock- 
 grazier, to whom these people's possessions lay contiguous. Thus, 
 as a matter of convenience to a man who had already a farm of 
 nine miles in length, 115 persons, who had never been a farthing in 
 arrears of rent, were deprived of house and shelter, and sent penny- 
 less on the world. The number of similar instances of disregard of 
 the happiness or misery of human beings in an age which boasts of 
 enlightened humanity, patriotism, and friendship for the people, are 
 almost incredible, and do unspeakable injury to their best principles, 
 by generating a spirit of malice, envy, and revenge. 
 
IRISH AND HIGHLANDERS. 257 
 
 pect from such men the same regularity of conduct as 
 when they were independent, both in mind and in circum- 
 stances ?* When collected together in towns and villages, 
 will they be able to maintain the same character that 
 was their pride on their paternal farms? Losing re- 
 spect for the opinion of the world, + will they not also 
 lose that respect for themselves, which, in its influence, is 
 much more powerful than laws on morality and public 
 manners ; and attempt to procure a livelihood by dis- 
 creditable expedients, by petty depredations, or by parish 
 aid ? We have the example of Ireland, where the people 
 are poor and discontented. In the tumults and out- 
 rages of that country, we see how fertile poverty and 
 misery are in crimes. The Irish and Highlanders were 
 originally one people, the same in lineage, character, and 
 language, till the oppression of a foreign government, and 
 the system of middlemen, as they are called, with other 
 
 * When the engrossing system commenced in the North, and 
 the people were removed from their farms, a spirit of revenge was 
 strongly evinced among those who were permitted to remain in the 
 country. They saw themselves reduced to poverty, and, believing 
 that those who got possession of their lands were the advisers of 
 their landlords, hatred and revenge, heightened by poverty, led to 
 the commission of those thefts from the pastures noticed in the 
 criminal convictions in the Appendix, BB. As cattle-stealing dis- 
 appeared when the people were convinced of the immorality of the 
 practice, and as the crime now noticed commenced only when they 
 were reduced to poverty, and instigated by vindictive feelings for 
 the loss of their ancient habitations, may it not be believed that, if 
 these irritating causes had not occurred, neither would the crimes 
 which seem to have resulted from them? And if circumstances 
 confirm the justness of this supposition, may we not ask what degree 
 of responsibility to God and to their country attaches to those whose 
 plans led to the commission of these crimes ! 
 
 t See Appendix, EE. 
 
 S 
 
258 IRISH PEASANTRY. 
 
 irritating causes, have reduced the lower orders in the 
 former country to a state of poverty which, while it has 
 debased their principles, has generated hatred and envy 
 against their superiors. This has been the principal cause of 
 those outrages which throw such a shade over the character 
 of a brave and generous people ; who, if they had been 
 cherished and treated as the clansmen of the Highlands 
 once were, would, no doubt, have been equally faithful to 
 their superiors in turbulent times, and equally moral and 
 industrious in their general conduct.* But, instead of 
 exhibiting such a character as has been depicted, we 
 have the following view from an intelligent author on the 
 *' Education of the Peasantry in Ireland." In allusion to 
 the absence of proprietors, their ignorance of the charac- 
 ter, dispositions, and capability of the native population, 
 and their harsh measures towards them, he says, "The 
 gentry, for the most part, seldom find time for such in- 
 quiries : the peasantry who live around them are some- 
 times the object of fear, but more usually of contempt ; 
 
 * The misery of the lower orders in Ireland is frequently produced 
 as an instance of the misery resulting from the continuance of small 
 tenants in the Highlands. This, however, must originate in gross 
 ignorance of the relative state of the two countries, which will not 
 bear a comparison. The small tenants in the Highlands generally 
 possessed from two to ten or twenty milch cows, with the usual pro- 
 portion of young cattle, from two to five horses, and from twenty to 
 one or two hundred sheep ; the quantity of arable land being suffi- 
 cient to produce winter provender for the stock, and to supply every 
 necessary for the family. To each of these farms a cottager was 
 usually attached, who also had his share of land ; so that every 
 family consumed their own produce, and, e.xcept in bad seasons were 
 independent of all foreign supplies. This was, and still is, in many 
 cases the small farming system in the Highlands, to which the system 
 prevalent in Ireland bears so little resemblance, that it is impossible 
 to reason analogically from the one to the other. 
 
IRISH PEASANTRY. 259 
 
 there may be enemies to guard against, creatures to be 
 despised, but never subjects of research or examination. 
 The peasantry saw that the real hardships of their con- 
 dition were never inquired into. Their complaints were 
 met by an appeal to force : the impatience of severe 
 oppression was extinguished in blood. This served to 
 harden their hearts; it alienated them from the estab- 
 lished order of things ; it threw them back on their own 
 devices, and made them place their confidence in their 
 wild schemes of future retaliation. 
 
 "■ " The gentry, of a lofty and disdainful spirit, intrepid 
 and tyrannical, divided from the people by old animosi- 
 ties, by religion, by party, and by blood ; divided, also, 
 frequently by the necessities of an improvident expendi- 
 ture, which made them greedy for high rents, easily to be 
 obtained in the competition of an overcrowded popula- 
 tion, but not paid without grudging and bitterness of 
 heart ; the extravagance of the landlord had but one re- 
 source — high rents; the peasant had but one means of 
 living — the land ; he must give what is demanded, or 
 starve ; and, at best, he did no more than barely escape 
 starving. His life is a struggle against high rents, by 
 secret combination and open violence : that of the land- 
 lord, a struggle to be paid, and to preserve a right of 
 changing his tenantry when and as often as he pleased. 
 In this conflict, the landlord was not always wrong, nor 
 the peasantry always right. The indulgent landlord was 
 sometimes not better treated than the harsh one, nor low 
 rents better paid than high. The habits of the people 
 were depraved ; and the gentry, without attending to this, 
 and surprised that no indulgence on their part produced 
 an immediately corresponding return of gratitude and 
 punctuality, impatiently gave up the matter as beyond 
 
26o ENGLISH PEASANTRY. 
 
 their comprehension, and the people as incapable of im- 
 provement/' 
 
 This being given as the state of the Irish, we have 
 the following view of the EngHsh peasantry from an able 
 author, who, as I have already stated, in p. i8i, describes 
 the degradation consequent on the expulsion of the 
 agricultural population from their lands. "Millions of 
 independent peasantry were thus at once degraded into 
 beggars. Stripped of all their proud feelings, which 
 hitherto had characterized Englishmen, they were too 
 ignorant, too dispersed, too domestic, and possessed too 
 much reverence for their superiors, to combine as me- 
 chanics or manufacturers in towns. Parish relief was, 
 therefore, established as a matter of necessity." En- 
 deavouring to show the impossibility of preserving inde- 
 pendence and morality in the precarious state of existence 
 to which many are subject in England, he proceeds : 
 " In England, the poor quarrel about, and call for, 
 charity as a right, without being either grateful or satisfied. 
 The question of property should be but of secondary 
 consideration on this subject with the State. Whether 
 the rents of the parish go to one great lord, or to one 
 hundred great paupers, is a point of less importance than 
 moral character. It has been already shown, that the 
 poor rates of England tend to make the peasantry base 
 and vicious. Men having no encouragement will idle if 
 they can, but the parish officers will not let them if they 
 can. The peasantry will not find work, but the parish 
 officers will. The peasantry are put upon the rounds, as 
 it is called ; that is, they are sent round the parish, from 
 door to door, not to beg, indeed, but to work a certain 
 number of days, according to the extent of the property 
 on which they are billeted, whether there be any work 
 
ENGLISH PEASANTRY. 26 1 
 
 for them to do or not. The roundsmen are paid eight or 
 tenpence a-day, and so much is saved apparently to the 
 parish funds. But the roundsmen knowing this, and 
 having no mercy on the parish fund, thinking they are 
 used ill in being thrust about, and being treated probably 
 with ill humour by those they are thrust upon : under 
 these circumstances, the roundsmen do just as Httle work 
 as they can, and perhaps do more harm than good. 
 Thus pushed about, as a nuisance, are the peasantry of 
 this great, wealthy, and enlightened nation, without house 
 or living, kindred, or protecting superiors ; and yet we 
 shall be told, these are free-born EngUshmen, and that 
 the slaves in the West Indies are hardly off, though they 
 possess those enjoyments of which the English peasant is 
 deprived, except personal liberty ; that is, the enjoyment 
 of being disregarded by every one, except as a nuisance. 
 This is the state of the lower orders : and yet we are told, 
 that teaching them to read will remove the evil — will 
 correct the vices which such a horrible system neces- 
 sarily generates. Give them not a looking-glass; gin and 
 drugged beer will do better.* 
 
 We have here a short but impressive view of the state 
 of the peasantry in the two sister kingdoms ; what the 
 peasantry have been in the northern part of Scotland, 
 and what they are now, I have attempted to show. But 
 if the Highlanders are forced to renounce their former 
 habits of life : if the same system is applied to them as to 
 the peasantry of the two sister kingdoms, infinitely more 
 favoured by climate, soil, and every natural advantage 
 for promoting the comfort, independence, and content- 
 ment of the people; are we not to expect that the results 
 will be much more fatal in a country comparatively poor, 
 
 * Serious Considerations on the State of the English Peasant. 
 
262 MORAL CHARACTER. 
 
 and destitute of such adventitious aids, as might counter- 
 balance, or fix a limit to, the evils of systems which have 
 produced so much wretchedness? Should the High- 
 landers be placed in similar circumstances, may we not 
 dread least they realize in the North of Scotland the law- 
 less turbulence of the sister island of Celts, and the de- 
 graded pauperism of a large part of England ? 
 
 After the year 1 745, when many of the Highlanders were 
 driven from their homes, and forced to lead a wandering 
 life, we know that many depredations were committed, 
 although the great body of the people remained sound. 
 Judging from recent symptoms, we may safely hazard the 
 assertion, that the irritatmg causes in 1746, 1747, and in 
 1748, did not affect the morals of the people to the same 
 extent as the events which have lately taken place. At 
 no period of the history of the country, indeed, were the 
 people more exemplary than for many years posterior to 
 the RebelHon, when the moral principles peculiar to, and 
 carefully inculcated at that period, combined with the 
 chivalry, high feeling and romance of preceding times, 
 strengthened by the religious and reverential turn of 
 thinking peculiar to both, gave force and warmth to 
 their piety, and produced that composition of character, 
 which made them respected by the enemy in the field, 
 and religious, peaceable, and contented in quarters, as 
 well as in private life. * What they have formerly been, 
 will they not still continue to be, if they were only made 
 to experience the same kindness as their forefathers ? The 
 cordial and condescending kindness of the higher orders, 
 as I have already oftener than once said, contributed 
 materially to produce that character which the people 
 seem anxious to perpetuate. This is particularly exempli- 
 * See Appendix, VV. 
 
TEMPORAL COMFORT. 263 
 
 fied by the exertions which they make to give their 
 children an education suitable to their station in life, and 
 often far above it. The value of education is well under- 
 stood ; and whenever they have the power, and their cir- 
 cumstances are comfortable, they seldom fail to give it to 
 their children.* 
 
 But unless their temporal, as well as their intellectual 
 and spiritual concerns are attended to, it may be a ques- 
 tion whether any degree of learning will make them con- 
 tented and moral. If men live in the dread of being 
 ejected at every term, or contemplate the probability of 
 being obliged to emigrate to a distant country, the best 
 education, unless supported by a strong sense of religion 
 and morality, will hardly be sufficient to produce content, 
 respect for the laws, and a love of the country and its 
 government. 
 
 * One of the many instances of this is exhibited in a small High- 
 land valley, the length of which is less than six miles, and the breadth 
 from half a mile to one mile and a quarter. This glen is, with one 
 exception, managed in the old manner, the original people being 
 allowed to remain on their small possessions. How small these are 
 may be judged from the population, which is 985 souls. They are 
 consequently poor, but not paupers. Several aged women, and two 
 men, who are lame, receive ten or fifteen shillings annually from the 
 parish fund. The whole are supported on their lands, for which 
 they pay full value. There are not manufactures, except for home 
 consumption. In this state of comparative poverty, independent, 
 however, of parochial aid, such is their proper spirit, and sense of the 
 value of education, that as the parish school is near one end of the 
 glen, the people of the farther extremity have established three 
 separate schools for their children, paying small salaries, with school 
 fees, to the teachers, who, if unmarried (as is generally the case), live 
 without expense among the more wealthy of the tenants. Thus, these 
 industrious people give an education, suitable to their situation in life, 
 to 240 children (the number when I last saw them), including those at 
 the parish school, without any assistance whatever from the landlords. 
 
264 EDUCATION. 
 
 Scotland has indeed reaped the greatest benefits from 
 education ; but perhaps it is rating these advantages too 
 high to ascribe the acknowledged moral character of the 
 people solely to this source. The Scotch were a trust- 
 worthy people before there was any established system of 
 education in the country. Of this we have sufficient evi- 
 dence in the confidence placed in Scotchmen in France 
 and Holland, where for ages they were held in such 
 esteem as to be preferred to situations requiring the 
 greatest trust, honour, and firmness. Had these men 
 been void of good principles at home, they could not 
 well have acquired them in a superior degree in countries 
 where they were preferred to the natives. In a report of 
 the southern counties of Scotland by William Elliot of 
 Stobbs, and Walter Scott of Arkleton, in the year 1649, 
 we find that, after seven years of rebellion and intestine 
 commotion, theft, lying, and swearing (except among a 
 few outcasts), were totally unknown; the people were 
 strong and active, sober, and abstemious in their diet; 
 ingenious, and hating deceit* 
 
 When the tyrannical restrictions on religion and con- 
 science, in the reign of Charles II., drove the people in 
 the western counties to desperation, and when forced to 
 fly to the mountains, woods, and mosses, and to exist on 
 such accidental supplies as an exhausted country could 
 afford, we meet with no firing of houses, nor murders 
 of magistrates, prosecutors and witnesses, as we daily see 
 in the present enlightened age : all was borne with 
 Christian patience, except in cases where fanaticism and 
 bigotry deprived men of their reason ; and it ought to be 
 observed, that the principal actors in these instances 
 were generally of the higher and educated orders, as in 
 * Report of Selkirk, etc., Advocates' Library, 1 649. 
 
EDUCATION. 265 
 
 that of the murderers of Archbishop Sharpe. In the 
 Highlands we find, from many authors, that, with the ex- 
 ception of their forays and cattle depredations, the High- 
 landers were early considered a valuable, trustworthy 
 race. In the year 1678, when the Duke of Lauderdale 
 and the Ministers of Charles II., ordered the " Highland 
 Host " to the south-western districts of Scotland to put 
 down the Covenanters, their forbearance, considering the 
 nature of their duty, was a topic of remark. In like 
 manner, in 1745, when many thousands were in arms, 
 and let loose from all restraint, with littk education among 
 the common men, it may be a problem whether, if they had 
 all been graduates of St Andrews or Aberdeen, they 
 could have conducted themselves with more urbanity and 
 moderation. Such were the characteristic principles of 
 the Scotch, both Lowland and Highland, when education 
 was far from being general. There are upwards of 8000 
 schools in Ireland, but these apparently exert little influ- 
 ence on the morals of the peasantr}', because they are 
 oppressed, despised, and neglected; nourishing a spirit of 
 hatred and revenge, and in a state of poverty and despair 
 which no education can remove. 
 
 The truth seems to be, that in a country where a uni- 
 versal system of education has been established as in 
 Scotland, there must have been an early and well-founded 
 principle, of which the schools may be considered as the 
 effect, and not the cause, and which must have produced 
 those estimable habits, long a distinguished feature in the 
 national character. The foundation of those valuable 
 habits may in part have been owing to the cordiality, 
 mutual confidence, and support, which subsisted between 
 the higher and lower orders in Scotland. 
 
 Fletcher of Saltoun, a strenuous supporter of the inde- 
 
266 SOUTH OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 pendence of his country, gives indeed a deplorable view 
 of the state to which thousands of the people were 
 reduced at the end of the seventeenth century. His 
 statement seems to refer only to Fife and the counties 
 southward and westward, which at that period did not 
 contain beyond 900,000 inhabitants. Of this population, 
 he states that 200,000 went about in bands of sturdy 
 beggars, or sorners, as they were called, without house or 
 habitation, living on the public by begging, open plunder, 
 and private stealing. This frightful number of beggars 
 and outcasts of society, in so small a population, is almost 
 incredible, particularly when compared with the report 
 of the same counties by the Lairds of Arkleton and 
 Stobbs, fifty years preceding. There was, indeed, suffi- 
 cient cause for poverty, distress, and crimes in Saltoun's 
 time. It was at that period that the stock-grazing system 
 of large farms began in the South, when the higher orders 
 lost all regard for their followers, and forgot all ancient 
 kindness and friendship (of which we have seen too many 
 instances in our times in the North), and thousands of 
 the brave Borderers, whose forefathers defended their 
 country, were sent adrift without house or shelter, in that 
 country for which their ancestors had fought and bled. 
 Then the people naturally lost all confidence and 
 respect for those from whom they received this treat- 
 ment ; and there being no manufacturing towns to receive 
 them, no emigration to America, and no employment in 
 a country all turned to pasture, they had no alternative but 
 beg or steal.* Were it not for America and the towns in 
 
 * I happened to read Fletcher of Saltoun's Statement of the Scotch 
 Poor early in life, and was much struck with it. I mentioned the 
 subject to Mr Stewart of Crossmount, who, as I have already noticed, 
 died in 1791, in his 104th year, consec[uently was born before the 
 
SOUTH OF SCOTLAND. 267 
 
 the Lowlands, would not the late ejectments and de- 
 populations in the North produce a host of sturdy beg- 
 gars, sorners, and thieves? A reference to the state of 
 England by Sir Thomas Moore, of Scotland by Fletcher 
 of Saltoun, and to the recent associations for the suppres- 
 sion of felony in different parts of the Northern High- 
 lands, exhibits a striking coincidence, and shows that the 
 want of education is not the principle cause of crimes 
 and poverty. Now that schools are generally established 
 in Scotland, it behoves the higher orders to endeavour, by 
 protection, by kindness, and by example, to preserve 
 those principles which have been so honourable to this 
 country, which form the best basis for good education 
 
 reign of King William, and was 15 years of age at the death of that 
 monarch in 1702. He had a perfect recollection of the period to 
 which Fletcher's Statement refers. I have already said that he was 
 a man of sound judgment and accurate memory, but from his extreme 
 youth at the period in question, he could not speak from personal 
 observation beyond the glen in which he lived ; yet he remembered 
 that King William's seven years of famine, as they were called by the 
 Jacobites, were the subject of all conversations, and that his father 
 made a considerable sum of money by a speculation in grain which 
 he brought from Dundee and Perth. In the Highlands the grain 
 never ripened for many harvests. It would not grind into meal from 
 its softness. The people dried or roasted the best and ripest grains, 
 and, pounding it between two stones, ate it in that state. He knew 
 little more of the South, than that he always heard that the people 
 there suffered more than the Highlanders, because they had not so 
 many cattle and deer to kill for their food. The number of cattle 
 killed in those years, and afterwards sent to England, when the trade 
 opened after the Union, raised the price to a height formerly un- 
 known ; that is, to twenty shillings or a guinea for a fat ox or cow. 
 He added, that he went South with the rebels in 1715, and was 
 wounded and taken at Sheriffinuir. When he recovered he came 
 back through the south-east of Scotland. He saw many wandering 
 beggars. 
 
268 INFLUENCE OF THE CONDUCT 
 
 among a people, and without which, indeed, education 
 may be a curse instead of a blessing. But, unfortunately, 
 many Highlanders have begun (as I have too often had 
 occasion to mention), to lose all confidence in the views 
 and line of conduct of their superiors, of whom they say, 
 -'When I see a man subscribing for schools and Bible 
 societies, while he reduces his tenants to poverty by ex- 
 orbitant rents ; while he has school books and Bibles in 
 one hand, and in the other a warrant of ejectment, or an 
 order for roiiping out for the rent ; and when he makes 
 speeches at public meetings lamenting the loss of morals, 
 and in private lectures against drunkenness and the vices 
 it produces, while at the same time the rents are such that 
 they cannot be paid without smuggling, cheating, perjury, 
 .and lying; — when all this is daily seen and practised, who 
 .can doubt but that there is much hypocrisy at the bottom?" 
 Such are the sentiments I often hear expressed by 
 the people, and which may be ascribed to the operation 
 of that grasping selfish system, which looks only to what 
 is supposed to bring the most immediate advantages, 
 careless of the loss to others, — tempting men to cheat 
 and deceive by calling for the cheapest contracts, — 
 raising a spirit of rivalry and by over-reaching by auc- 
 tioning, and receiving secret offers for farms, and which 
 have occasioned great distress and discontent in the 
 Highlands, with much less permanent advantage to 
 the promoters than might have been obtained by a 
 more open and a milder line of conduct. If the people 
 see that their welfare is attended to, they will return the 
 favour. Gratitude, kindness, and friendship, are natural 
 to man ; but harshness and oppression will quickly de- 
 stroy all. In the Highlands, the contrast between the 
 past and present manners are the more striking, from the 
 
OF THE HIGHER ORDERS. 269 
 
 recollection of those times when the poorest clansman re- 
 ceived a kind shake of the hand from the laird, and was 
 otherwise treated like an independent man, and a proper 
 regard shown to his feelings. Modern customs allow 
 of no such intimacy with the lower orders, and strangers, 
 with no recommendation but money, are preferred to all 
 ancient claimants. "If a Lowlander," said an old ac- 
 quaintance to me, with tears in his eyes, "comes among 
 us with a good horse, a pair of spurs, and a whip, he is 
 immediately received by the laird, who takes him to his 
 house; he has the choice of a farm, and a whole tribe of 
 us are sent to cot-houses on the moors, or ejected en- 
 tirely; and while the Lowlander gets a fine house at the 
 landlord's expense, I must build my own hut, get no 
 allowance for the house I have left, although I built it 
 myself, and while the stranger is supplied with Norway 
 wood for his house, if I take a birch-tree not worth five 
 shillings from the hill-side, the constable is sent after me 
 with a warrant ; I am threatened with a removal and the 
 terrors of the law by the laird on whose lands I built the 
 house, and whose property it will be when I leave it, 
 which I would do to-morrow if I knew where to go." 
 Will education cure this poor man's grief and indigna- 
 tion? Will reading make him contented with his lot, 
 loyal to his King and government, and attached to his 
 landlord? Reading will more clearly show him his misery. 
 To make a man comfortable in his circumstances, and 
 easy in his mind, and thus to remove all temptation or 
 necessity for resorting to improper practices, are better 
 and more certain preservatives of morals than reading 
 or writing, particularly if the educated reader is in poverty 
 and destitution, and that destitution occasioned by the 
 oppressive conduct of others. 
 
270 IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 As a man blind from his infancy may be virtuous, 
 and well instructed in all useful knowledge, without ever 
 having read a line in his life, so are the bulk of the un- 
 educated Highlanders well instructed in a knowledge of 
 the Gospel and of the Scriptures, and possessed of great 
 intelligence in all that immediately concerns themselves, 
 and comes within the range of their knowledge, confined, 
 as it must necessarily often be, to the narrow bounds of a 
 Highland strath or glen. 
 
 I have already mentioned that many Highland 
 gentlemen, though possessed of honourable and humane 
 dispositions, have, with the best intentions, allowed them- 
 selves to be seduced into hasty measures, and the adop- 
 tion of plans unsuitable to their lands and their tenants ; 
 and have thus unhinged the social virtues, and the 
 mutual confidence between them and their formerly 
 attached dependants, whose sentiments and feelings are 
 deplorably changed in many respects. May we not 
 therefore hope, that when prejudicial effects are produced 
 on the minds of the tenants, an abatement of hasty 
 changes will ensue ; and that we shall not see advertise- 
 ments inviting strangers to offer for their lands, while 
 they are themselves willing and able to pay equally high 
 rents; with other measures calculated to raise their indig- 
 nation, and check the inclination to improve their farms 
 and modes of cultivation? May we not hope, that 
 gentlemen will take into consideration the well-known 
 fact, that the agricultural system now carried on with 
 such spirit it Scotland, was 140 years* in progress in 
 
 * A respectable Highland clergyman, of talents and learning, 
 who occupied a farm of some extent contiguous to his glebe, was so 
 wedded to old customs, that it was not till the year 1815 that he 
 commenced green crops, liming, and fallow ; although two gentle- 
 
IMPROVEMENTS. 27 1 
 
 England before the prejudices of the southern Scotch 
 farmers were so far overcome as to embrace and practise 
 it? And if gentlemen will also recollect that their own 
 fathers and grandfathers, men of education and know- 
 ledge of the world, saw these improved changes, in their 
 frequent intercourse with the South, long before they 
 introduced them into their own practice, many never 
 having done so at all; will they not then make some 
 indulgent allowance for the prejudices of the poor and 
 ignorant Highlander, who never travelled beyond the 
 bounds of his own or the neighbouring districts, and 
 afford him time to comprehend the advantages of changes 
 so recent, and so opposite to his usual habits ? Should 
 landlords arraign their people as incorrigible, because 
 they do not change with every variation of every political 
 or economical opinion, or according to the direction in 
 which newly-adopted theories would turn them, and em- 
 brace systems of which they have never been made to 
 comprehend the advantages, and without any encourage- 
 ment or spur for exertion but an aug?nenfation of rent? 
 
 In what manner the people comprehend and act on 
 the new system of agriculture, when the knowledge of 
 it is attainable, is clearly seen in those districts whose 
 vicinity to the South has enabled the inhabitants to follow 
 the example shown them.* Any person travelling through 
 
 men (the honourable Baron Norton and Mr Macdonald of Glencoe) 
 in his immediate neighbourhood, had carried on the system for some 
 years with great success. Xow, when such a person rejected all in- 
 novations, is it surprising than an ignorant Highlander, with his deep- 
 rooted predilection to ancient habits, should not commence a system 
 (by order, perhaps, of a harsh and authoritative agent) which would 
 overturn all notions of respect and reverence for the customs of his 
 fathers ? 
 
 * The inveteracy and the difficulty of overcoming ancient habits, 
 
272 CHECKS TO 
 
 Athole, Breadalbane, and other districts of the Highlands 
 of Perthshire, will observe in the altered appearance of 
 the country, how readily the people have availed them- 
 selves of useful and practical knowledge, and to what ex- 
 tent improvements have been carried, both in respect to the 
 quantity and the quality of the produce. These districts 
 furnish decisive proof of this progressive improvement. 
 In glens where a few years ago, turnips and the green 
 crop system were totally unknown, they are now as re- 
 gularly cultivated as in Mid-Lothian ; on a small scale, ta 
 be sure, as it must necessarily be, from the size of the 
 farms and the narrow limits of cultivation, but in a manner 
 calculated to produce good rents to the proprietors, and 
 great comparative comfort to the tenants. This spirit of 
 improvement is extending northwards, and has every ap- 
 pearance of spreading over the whole country, although it 
 has, in various instances, been checked by attempts to 
 force it on too rapidly, and by theories founded on the 
 customs of countries totally different, both in soil, in 
 climate, and in the habits of the people. One obvious 
 evil is, the too frequent practice of giving leases for only 
 seven years. This the people dislike more than none at all,f 
 
 in countries hicjlily favoured by many opportunities of improvement, 
 is shown in several parts of England, where ploughing is still per- 
 formed, even on light soils, with four and five horses ; whereas that 
 custom has long been laid aside in Scotland, where two horses are 
 found sufficient for the deepest soils : yet, with this example before 
 them, English farmers continue such a waste of labour, at great ad- 
 ditional expense to themselves and consequent loss to the landlord. 
 But it would be endless to state instances of prejudices as deep-rooted 
 and prejudicial as any entertained in the Highlands, where the people 
 have suffered so much from mischievous experiments, founded on 
 their supposed incapacity and incurable prejudices. 
 
 t On several estates, tenants neither ask for leases, nor are any 
 
IMPROVEMENTS. 273 
 
 as, according to their opinion, the expiration of these 
 short terms serves to remind the landlords of an increase 
 of rent on the improvements made, without allowing 
 
 given, yet improvements are carried on with the same spirit as on 
 estates where leases are granted. In the former case, much of the 
 confidence of old times remains, the landlord's promise being as good 
 as his bond ; and the tenants trust to this in preference to a docu- 
 mentary term of years, and are safe from a removal while they con- 
 duct themselves with propriety, and are willing at the same time to 
 augment their rents according to the times. In the latter they would 
 be in anxious suspense, and in dread of removal at the end of each 
 lease. Such is the manner of acting and thinking peculiar to land- 
 lords and tenants on the estates of honourable and judicious men, 
 some of whom I have the happiness to call my friends ; and such also 
 is the custom in many parts of England. A highly enlightened and 
 respectable friend, a native of Yorkshire, has favoured me with the 
 following communication: — "The practice of letting farms to the 
 highest bidder is unknown. It would be utterly destructive of that 
 good faith that subsists between landlord and tenant. In Yorkshire, 
 few gentlemen grant leases. It may be supposed that the want of 
 leases impedes improvement, inasmuch as tenants are unwilling to 
 lay out their capital upon an uncertain tenure. This may be true to 
 a certain extent, but the good faith that subsists between landlord and 
 tenant is a sort of relationship in which they stand to each other. 
 They are not bound to observe each other's interest by leases or 
 bonds of parchment ; but they are bound by obligations of honour, 
 of mutual interest, and reciprocal advantage. The right of voting at 
 county elections gives the freeholder of forty shillings a high degree 
 of importance and respectability in his own opinion, and in that of 
 his landlord. He confers a favour on his superiors, and he has at 
 least once in seven years the power of showing his independence, and 
 of chastising the insolence or oppression of the rich. At a late 
 county election, the popular candidate of a northern county waited on 
 a shoemaker to solicit his vote. ' Get out of my house. Sir,' said the 
 shoemaker : the gentleman walked out accordingly. ' You turned 
 me out of your estate,' continued the shoemaker, 'and I was deter- 
 mined to turn you out of my house ; but, for all that, I will give you 
 my vote.' " 
 
 T 
 
2 74 IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 time to the tenants to reap the benefit of their previous 
 ■exertions. 
 
 Much of the want of that spirit for improvement, so 
 much complained of, is owing to the practice of augment- 
 ing the rent on any successful exertion or change made 
 by the tenant. On several estates within my knowledge, 
 the rents were augmented every third and fourth year after 
 the improve7nt?its coinmenced ; but the consequence of the 
 last augmentation was a complete bar to further exertions 
 on the part of the tenants, who then saw no prospect of 
 being allowed any benefit from their labours. Another 
 practice equally incredible is gaining ground, and cal- 
 culated to excite surprise, in an enlightened age, with the 
 •example of Ireland as a warning, were we not accustomed 
 to see many extraordinary things in the management of 
 the poor Highlanders. Landlords and their agents have 
 employed middlemen, to whom they let a tract of coun- 
 try, with power to subset, on a rent of their own fixing, 
 to the small tenants, — a system pregnant with misery and 
 discontent, without one apparent advantage to the land- 
 lord, except the saving of trouble by collecting rent from 
 one great middle man instead of thirty or forty small 
 tenants. 
 
 But notwithstanding these insulated cases, when we 
 find, that in the southern Highland districts, the natural 
 course of improvements has led to the best results, the 
 same might be expected in piore northern counties, if the 
 inhabitants were allowed the additional time rendered 
 necessary by their greater distance from example^ and 
 suffered to reap the advantage of the new communica- 
 tions opened by the admirable roads, the construction of 
 which does so much credit to the spirit and liberality 
 both of the proprietors and of Government, at whose joint 
 
PAYMENT OF RENTS. 275 
 
 expense they have been formed.* It is hoped, therefore, 
 that gentlemen will believe that Highlanders may acquire 
 skill by experience, and a capital by their exertions and 
 industry; and that they will also believe, that although 
 a numerous tenantry may consume more produce than 
 one large establishment, humanity, and the poverty, 
 misery, and perhaps crimes, resulting from their removal, 
 ought not to be totally forgotten ; nor a plausible theory 
 of feeding a surplus population, at the landlord's expense, 
 be allowed to make tliem lose sight of the important fact, 
 that their income is never so secure as when their farms 
 are occupied by an economical, industrious, and well- 
 principled people ;t — a people who always attach so much 
 
 * The amount of this joint expenditure exceeds ;/^46o,ooo. Up- 
 wards of 1200 miles of new roads have been made, and about 540 
 miles of the old military roads completely repaired, with 1436 bridges, 
 of one or more arches, and 11,460 water-courses and covered drains. 
 — See Reports of Parliamentary Commissioners. 
 
 + The late Mr Campbell of Achallader, who, as I have already 
 mentioned, was fifty-five years agent or factor to the late Earl of 
 Breadalbane, often stated, that during this long period, a failure of 
 payment was so rare, and so much shame was attached to it, that 
 when, by misfortune or accident, a person happened to be deficient, 
 his friends or neighbours generally assisted him by a loan, or other- 
 wise. The deficiency was never officially known to the chamberlain, 
 except in cases of total bankruptcy, or roguery on the part of the 
 tenant. I have the same good authority for stating, that of these the 
 instances were ver}'^ rare ; and such was the mutual confidence, and 
 such the honourable manner in which business was conducted, that 
 no receipt for rent was ever asked. An account was opened for 
 every tenant, and when the rent was paid, Achallader put the 
 initials of his name below the sum credited. This was sufficient 
 receipt for upwards of eleven hundred sums paid by that number of 
 tenants under his charge. I know not whether this is more honour- 
 able to the noble proprietor, to the judicious management of his ex- 
 cellent chamberlain, or to the integrity and industry of the numer- 
 
276 PAYMENT OF RENTS. 
 
 disgrace to a failure in the payment of rent, that, on a 
 reverse of fortune having befallen a man, he comforted 
 himself with this reflection, " I have one happiness I have 
 paid my rent, and have not lost credit with my landlord."*' 
 
 ous tenantry. During that period there were several years of severe 
 pressure, and particularly the autumns, from 1770 to 1774, were 
 cold and wet, and very unproductive in the higher grounds, where 
 the corn did not ripen for three successive harvests. I am informed 
 by my friend Mr Stewart of Ardvorlich, a gentleman of the first re- 
 spectability and intelligence, who succeeded Mr Campbell, that he 
 experienced equal fidelity to their engagements on the part of the 
 tenants, and that he never had a shilling of arrears while he had the 
 management, which he resigned many years ago. 
 
 * A young artist, who has raised himself in the first eminence by 
 his talents, painted, a few years ago, two pieces on a subject highly 
 interesting to agriculturists, but, as Mr Wilkie found, not a popular 
 piece of art. These he called Rent-Day, and Distraining for Rent. 
 The latter was little known in the Highlands till introduced with the 
 improvements ; and Rent-Day, as it was held in former times, is no 
 longer seen in what are called the improved districts. In former 
 times, the collection of rents was a kind of jubilee, when the tenants 
 on great estates attended, and spent several days in feasting and 
 rejoicing at fulfilling their engagements with their landlords, and in 
 offering grateful libations to their honour and prosperity. Perhaps 
 things are differently managed now, and the irregularity of payment 
 renders general meetings impossible. But in Yorkshire, as I am 
 informed by a friend to whom I owe very interesting communications, 
 " The good custom of Rent-Day Dinners still continues to be 
 observed, when all the tenantry on the estate assemble in the hall of 
 the landlord's mansion, and are regaled with roast beef, plum- 
 pudding, and home-brewed ale, and the Squire's health is drank 
 with affectionate enthusiasm. In ancient families it is still customary 
 for the landlord to preside in person, but in more refined modern 
 establishments, the steward takes the head of the table. The annual 
 appearance at this table is a subject of honest pride. The absence 
 of a tenant is considered ominous of his declining credit. Not 
 to appear at the rent-day is disgraceful. The conversations at 
 
HIGHLAND SOCIETY. 277 
 
 This is a principle worth preserving, and a more honour- 
 able security for good payments than distraining for rents, 
 and other modes much too frequent ; for it is no uncom- 
 mon thing to see a tenant's whole stock under sequestra- 
 tion, without liberty to dispose of an article, unless by 
 consent of the landlord, who orders an examination of 
 the stock and produce at certain periods, and what is 
 marketable to be disposed of for the rent. Will it be 
 credited, that such a system can be pursued, and that 
 men, who thus act towards their tenants, complain of their 
 indolence and want of spirit to improve — under sequestra- 
 tion^ and an annual warning to remove ? 
 
 After so long a disquisition on a most painful subject, 
 I now turn to one of a more agreeable nature, — the exer- 
 tions made of late years to remedy, or rather to restrain 
 the progress of those evils which press so heavily on the 
 natives of the Highlands. These efforts, and the examples 
 shown by individuals, have done much; but having 
 avoided the mention of names, either in approbation or 
 the reverse, I shall now follow the same rule, and merely 
 
 these dinners is on the best breed of cattle, and the best modes of 
 husbandry. They have given rise to agricultural societies. Thus 
 emulation, good neighbourhood, respectful attachment to landlords, 
 and friendly feelings towards each other, are promoted. The man 
 who would offer a higher price for his neighbour's farm, or endeavour 
 to supplant him, could not show his face at the Rent-Day Dinner ; 
 and the landlord who would accept such an offer at the expense of 
 an old and respectable tenant, would be held in contempt by many 
 of his own rank, and in abhorrence by his tenantry. Such, I believe, 
 are the implied conditions between landlord and tenant ; and how 
 soon the increasing progress of luxury and extravagance may produce 
 rapacity and extortion, it is impossible to say ; but hitherto the re- 
 spect paid to good faith, and the value attached to good character, 
 have prevented those melancholy and cruel effects which have been 
 so severely felt in many of the northern parts of the island." 
 
278 HIGHLAND SOCIETY. 
 
 notice public bodies. Among these, the high respect- 
 abihty of the members of the Highland Society of Scot- 
 land — the judicious discrimination and spirit with which 
 the objects of this institution are carried into effect — the 
 benefits it has conferred — and the hberal and impartial 
 manner in which its premiums are distributed — justly 
 entitle this patriotic body to high estimation, and render 
 it the most eminently useful of any public association ever 
 connected with the Highlands. 
 
 " The Highland Society of Scotland derives its origin 
 from a number of gentlemen, natives of, or connected 
 with the Highlands, assembled at Edinburgh in the year 
 1784. That meeting 'conceiving (as the words of their 
 own resolutions express) that the institution of a Highland 
 Society at Edinburgh would be attended with many good 
 consequences to the country, as well as to individuals,' 
 determined to take the sense of their countrymen on the 
 propriety of such an institution. A numerous meeting of 
 such gentlemen as a residence in or near Edinburgh 
 allowed of being called together, was assembled. They 
 warmly approved of the measure; agreed to become 
 members of such a society; proceeded to the nomination 
 of a President, Vice-Presidents, and Committee; and 
 having thus far embodied themselves, wrote circular letters 
 to such noblemen and gentlemen as birth, property, or 
 connexion qualified, and, as they supposed, might incline, 
 to join in the formation of such an establishment, invit- 
 ing them to become members of the proposed society." * 
 
 The original objects of the Society were, an inquiry 
 into the present state of the Highlands and adjacent Isles, 
 
 * Introduction to the first volume of Transactions and Essays 
 of the Highland Society by Henry Mackenzie, Esq., one of the 
 Directors. 
 
HIGHLAND SOCIETY. 279 
 
 with the condition of their inhabitants; the means of 
 their improvement by estabHshing towns and villages, 
 roads and bridges, advancing agriculture and extending 
 fisheries, introducing useful trades and manufactures, and 
 by an exertion to unite the efforts of the landlords, and to 
 call the attention of Government towards the encourage- 
 ment and promotion of these useful purposes. The 
 Society also proposed to pay attention to the preservation 
 of the language, poetry, and music of the Highlands. 
 These were the original objects of the institution ; but 
 they are now extended so as to embrace a great variety 
 of branches, both of agriculture and the arts. The pre- 
 miums annually distributed by the Society have raised a 
 spirit of emulation, exertion, and a desire to improve, 
 productive of the greatest advantages. Premiums have 
 been given in every district of the countr}' for improving 
 the breed of horses, cattle, and sheep, — for draining, 
 trenching, clearing, and planting, — for the cultivation of 
 green crops in all their varieties, as well as for many other 
 improvements, more especially applicable to the High- 
 lands. In support of national literature, the Society has 
 been equally liberal; and the amount of the sums ex- 
 pended in preparing and publishing a Gaelic Dictionary 
 is, I believe, almost unexampled in the history of litera- 
 ture. Premiums are also given for various agricultural 
 improvements, etc., in the Lowlands. Much labour, and 
 a considerable portion of the Society's funds, have been 
 expended on the subject of establishing an uniformity of 
 weights and measures, with many other important objects 
 intimately connected with the welfare of the country. 
 
 Faithful to the purposes of its institution, the Society 
 has taken every opportunity of encouraging whatever 
 tends to improve the cultivation of the country in general, 
 
28o HIGHLAND SOCIETY. 
 
 and particularly of the remote and mountainous region 
 from which it assumed its name. The premiums, there- 
 fore, are not confined to the Highlands, or to such kinds 
 of agriculture or manufactures as are exclusively adapted 
 to that country ; they have extended, and continue still 
 farther to extend, to draw forth information, and to stimu- 
 late ingenuity in every branch of those departments which 
 may be useful, whether in the Highlands or other parts 
 of the country: and in the eloquent language of one of its 
 first members, who has ever been a constant, zealous, and 
 able conductor of its duties, — "The Highland Society 
 has been, not unaptly, compared to one of our native 
 rivers, which has its rise indeed in the Highlands, but 
 which, increasing as it flows, fertilises and improves Low- 
 land districts, at a distance from those less cultivated 
 regions whence it originally springs."* In prosecution of 
 these views, the Society has, within the last twelve years, 
 distributed about ^1400 annually in premiums. 
 
 The subject of emigration did not escape the attention 
 of the Society ; but the Directors were too intelligent to 
 attempt to prevent emigration, among a people who, in the 
 language of the Report on the subject, have been "thrown, 
 as it were, loose from their native land," and left without 
 the means of subsistence. With more humanity they en- 
 deavoured to show the cruelty of such measures, and, at 
 the same time, suggested the necessity of establishing regu- 
 
 * Introduction to the third volume of the Transactions of the 
 Highland Society, by Henry Mackenzie, Esquire. Lord Bannatyne 
 and Mr Mackenzie are now the only surviving members of the 
 Lounger and Mirror Club. For a period of thirty-nine years they 
 have never been absent from a General or Committee Meeting of the 
 Highland Society, except in instances of indisposition, or some in- 
 dispensable engagement. 
 
HIGHLAND SOCIETY. 281 
 
 lations to preserve the health and lives of the emigrants on 
 their voyage, by preventing vessels *from taking more than 
 a certain number of passengers, that there might be proper 
 accommodation and a sufficient supply of provisions, so 
 that emigrants may in future be treated with humanity, 
 "instead of being delivered over, by numberless priva- 
 tions, and the want of comfort and care, to diseases and 
 destruction."* In conformity to these views on this im- 
 portant subject, the Society got a bill brought into Parlia- 
 ment, founded on their suggestions : it passed with little 
 opposition,t so that an emigrant has now the chance of 
 reaching his destination without danger of being doomed 
 to " diseases and destruction." With this humane act, I 
 conclude this short notice of the patriotic Highland 
 Society of Scotland, which has rendered such essential 
 service to that part of the country whose name it bears. 
 It consists of nearly 1500 members. 
 
 A few years previous to the institution of the High- 
 land Society of Scotland, a Society was estabhshed in 
 London in somewhat similar circumstances. General 
 
 * Report of the Highland Society. 
 
 + Emigration, properly regulated, ought to be encouraged from 
 those districts where the new improvements have sent the people to 
 patches of land, and laid the foundation for realizing the cottage and 
 potato-garden system, and the wretchedness of the Irish peasantry. 
 It is surely better for the mother country that they should emigrate 
 than remain with such deplorable prospects in view. Two years ago 
 some Highland gentlemen, resident in India, lamenting the state to 
 which so many of their countrymen were reduced, subscribed about 
 ;^I250, and sent home the money to pay for the passage of a certain 
 number of emigrants. About 200 received the benefit of this donation, 
 and have gone to Canada. The humane act of these gentlemen is 
 called the "Demon of Reform" by those who write in praise of the 
 new order of things in the North. 
 
252 HIGHLAND SOCIETY. 
 
 Fraser of Lovat, and several Highland gentlemen, met at 
 the Spring-Garden Coffee-House in the year 1778, and, 
 after a few arrangements, formed themselves into a So- 
 ciety with the same views, and for somewhat similar 
 purposes as those I have detailed of the meeting in 
 Edinburgh. The Society soon increased in numbers^ 
 and in the rank and respectability of its members, among 
 whom were not only many of the first nobility and men 
 of talent and property in the kingdom, but several mem- 
 bers of the Royal Family; and in 181 7, his Majesty, 
 then Prince Regent, was graciously pleased to become 
 '' Chief of the Highland Society of London." 
 
 The Highland Society of Scotland taking the lead in 
 promoting the agricultural, and indeed the general im- 
 provement of the country, that of London confines itself 
 chiefly to the language, music, poetry, and garb of the 
 Highlands, and, along with these, to preserve, perhaps, 
 some of the best traits of the ancient character of the 
 people : and while in Edinburgh, rewards and premiums 
 are given for agricultural improvements, ingenious inven- 
 tions, and other objects applicable to civil life; in London 
 it was intended to give rewards and honorary marks of 
 distinction for particular instances of courage, distin- 
 guished talent, and chivalrous deeds in war, as they might 
 be displayed by Scotchmen and Scotch corps. But in 
 this respect the intentions of the Society have been in- 
 terrupted by an unfortunate misunderstanding, which 
 will be noticed afterwards. In the encouragement of 
 national music and other objects, it has been most 
 liberal ; as is seen at the annual exhibition in Edinburgh 
 of the ancient war and field music of the mountains, and 
 of the Highland garb, which was instituted, and the ex- 
 pense defrayed, by the London Society. But the greatest 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 283 
 
 and most important benefit which it has conferred, was 
 the institution of the Caledonian Asylum in London, 
 for educating, supporting, and clothing the children of 
 soldiers and sailors of Scotland killed or disabled, or of 
 other destitute Scotchmen resident in London. This 
 institution originated with the Highland Society of Lon- 
 don ; and having concluded the notice of the Society of 
 Scotland by the act for the protection of the unfortunate 
 emigrants, I finish now this notice of the sister Society, 
 by stating its connexion with the Caledonian Asylum. 
 
 Two such dissertations as the foregoing, on the past 
 and present state of the Highlands, may be considered as 
 out of the line of my profession, and not a very suitable 
 preliminary to a military memoir. But as the same 
 people form the subject of both, and as their personal 
 hardihood and moral qualities were such as peculiarly 
 fitted them for the toils and privations of a military life,, 
 as will more fully appear in the military narrative ; it may 
 not, perhaps, be foreign to the principal subject, to show 
 of what materials the Highland regiments were originally 
 composed, and what were the habits of thinking and act- 
 ing which, formed and matured within their native moun- 
 tains, accompanied them in their military progress. And, 
 as much of the happiness of the Highlanders, and no 
 small share of the prosperity of the country, depends 
 on the manner in which they are treated by their natural 
 protectors, in whose hands Providence and the laws have 
 placed so much power to raise or depress their condition ; 
 it is surely of importance to remember that this race of 
 people, although poor in circumstances, has been both 
 moral and independent; and as symptoms of a retrograde 
 tendency have recently begun to show themselves, I trust 
 I shall not be thought presumptions in making this 
 
284 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 feeble attempt, founded on long intimacy with the people, 
 both as inhabitants of their native glens, and as soldiers 
 in barracks and in the field, and on some knowledge of the 
 state of the country, — to show what they were, what they 
 now are, and what, under a proper management, they 
 may yet become. The revolution to which I have so 
 often alluded^ considering the short space of time in 
 which it has been in operation, has been great. Had it 
 been accomplished in a more gentle manner, its influence 
 on the general disposition and character of the people 
 would have been less evident and more beneficial, and 
 they might have been taught to become more industrious, 
 without any loss of attachment or of moral principle. 
 
 In the central Highlands, industry can be employed 
 only in the cultivation of the land. Fuel is too scarce, 
 and all materials, except wool and flax, are too distant for 
 manufactories. This is not to be regretted ; there is 
 sufficient space for manufactories in the Low country, 
 and the towns are abundantly populous. Let the High- 
 landers, therefore, remain a pastoral and agricultural 
 people ; the superabundant population filling our military 
 ranks with good recruits, sending out an annual supply of 
 labourers to the Low country when required, and coloniz- 
 ing our distant possessions with a loyal and well-princi- 
 pled race. Although there may be some waste of labour, 
 and some parts of that produce consumed on the spot, 
 which might otherwise be sent to distant markets, still it 
 may be admitted, that the general value of produce does 
 not depend on the difference between a distant and 
 home consumption. It matters little to the general wel- 
 fare of the State, whether the consumption be on the 
 spot, or at the distance of forty or one hundred miles ; 
 and, although on a first view, it may appear a waste of 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 285 
 
 labour to employ more persons in agriculture than are 
 absolutely necessary to cultivate the soil, yet the morality 
 and the independence of the agricultural population is 
 surely of some, if not of the highest, consideration. It 
 ought not, moreover, to be forgotton, that, if small farmers 
 raise the same quantity of produce as large farmers, 
 the greater consumption on the spot, in the former case, 
 cannot possibly affect the question, or form any solid 
 objection that can be brought into comparison with the 
 advantage the bulk of the people derive from having 
 a share in the cultivation of the soil : seeing that, while 
 these people remain in the country, they are to be fed 
 from its produce, it matters not in what particular place 
 they consume it. It may be further remarked, that the 
 frequent distress of the working classes, is mainly to be 
 ascribed to the too general adoption of the present agri- 
 cultural system, which forces people from the country to 
 the towns, increases in an inordinate degree the number 
 of competitors for employment, and entails misery on 
 themselves and all who are in similar circumstances. 
 These observations will receive additional force, when it is 
 considered that this agricultural independency is the best 
 security against poor's rates. It is evident that these rates 
 originated in England when the people were driven from 
 the cultivation of the land, and left without any share in the 
 profits of the soil, except as labourers hired by others. It is 
 equally well known, that, in Scotland, people occupying 
 land never apply for charity, except in extreme cases. 
 Numerous examples show, likewise, that the consumption 
 of a few additional mouths will not diminish the rent : 
 therefore, as the population in the Lowlands is already 
 fully adequate for the present state of manufactures in that 
 part of the country, is it prudent or patriotic to overstock 
 
286 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 them by depopulating the glens of the Highlands ? There, 
 experience has proved, that a man may be poor, yet inde- 
 pendent, and innocent, although idle: but how idleness 
 and poverty generate vice in populous towns, the records 
 of the criminal courts sufficiently evince. These show, 
 likewise, how numerous the crimes committed by High- 
 landers, or, at least, persons with Highland names, and of 
 Highland descent, have become in cities. In their native 
 country, on the contrary, the convicted criminals in 
 seventy years, during periods the most turbulent and 
 lawless, and taken from a population of 394,000 souls, 
 did not exceed 91:* while the number of criminals con- 
 victed in one year (181 7), at the spring and summer 
 assizes at Lancaster, was 86 ; and yet the agricultural 
 parts of the neighbouring County of Westmoreland, and 
 some counties in Wales, equal any part of the kingdom in 
 morality and exemption from crime. It may be said, 
 that, to compare the habits, temptations, debauchery, and 
 crimes of cities, with the innocence of an agricultural or 
 pastoral life, cannot be fair and just. Certainly it is not; 
 but is it then consistent with our duty to God, or to 
 humanity, with our love of country, or our patriotism, to 
 drive the people away from the innocent walks of life, and 
 force them into the resorts of immorality and crime? 
 
 * Records of the Court of Justiciary. 
 
MILITARY CHARACTER. 287 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Military Character — National Corps advantageous^ especi- 
 ally in the Case of Highlanders — Character of Officers 
 fitted to command a Highland Corps, 
 
 In the preceding pages, I have attempted to deUneate a 
 sketch of the general character of the Scottish Highland- 
 ers, and to assign some of the causes which may have 
 contributed to its formation. 
 
 It was a saying of Marshal Turenne, that " Providence 
 for the most part declares in favour of the most numerous 
 battalions." The success of the British arms has often 
 refuted this observation, and proved that moral force, un- 
 yielding fortitude, and regular discipline, frequently make 
 up for inferiority of numbers. 
 
 Mihtary character depends both on moral and on 
 physical causes, arising from the various circumstances 
 and situations in which men are placed. Every change 
 in these circumstances tends either to improve or deterior- 
 ate that character ; and hence we find, that nations which 
 were once distinguished as the bravest in Europe, have 
 sunk into weakness and insignificance, while others have 
 been advancing to power and pre-eminence. The im- 
 portance of preserving this character is evident. Unless a 
 people be brave, high-spirited, and independent in mind 
 and in principles, they must, in time, yield to their more 
 powerful neighbours. To show how the Highlanders 
 supported their character, both in their native country and 
 when acting abroad, is the principal object which I have 
 now in view. 
 
288 MILITARY CHARACTER. 
 
 In forming his military character, the Highlander was 
 not more favoured by nature than by the social system 
 under which he lived. Nursed in poverty, he acquired a 
 hardihood which enabled him to sustain severe privations. 
 As the simplicity of his life gave vigour to his body, so it 
 fortified his mind. Possessing a frame and constitution 
 thus hardened, he was taught to consider courage as the 
 most honourable virtue, cowardice the most disgraceful 
 failing; to venerate and obey his chief, and to devote 
 himself for his native country and clan ; and thus pre- 
 pared to be a soldier, he was ready to follow wherever 
 honour and duty called him. With such principles, and 
 regarding any disgrace he might bring on his clan and 
 district as the most cruel misfortune, the Highland private 
 soldier had a peculiar motive to exertion. The common 
 soldier of many other countries has scarcely any other 
 stimulus to the performance of his duty than the fear of 
 chastisement, or the habit of mechanical obedience to 
 command, produced by the discipline in which he has 
 been trained. With a Highland soldier it is otherwise. 
 When in a national or district corps, he is surrounded by 
 the companions of his youth, and the rivals of his early 
 achievements ; he feels the impulse of emulation strength- 
 ened by the consciousness that every proof which he dis- 
 plays, either of bravery or cowardice, will find its way to 
 his native home. He thus learns to appreciate the value 
 of a good name ; and it is thus, that in a Highland Regi- 
 ment, consisting of men from the same country, whose 
 kindred and connexions are mutually known, every in- 
 dividual feels that his conduct is the subject of observa- 
 tion, and that, independently of his duty, as a member of 
 a systematic whole, he has to sustain a separate and in- 
 dividual reputation, which will be reflected on his family 
 
MILITARY CHARACTER. 289 
 
 and district or glen. Hence he requires no artificial ex- 
 citements. He acts from motives within himself; his 
 point is fixed, and his aim must terminate either in 
 victory or death. The German soldier considers him- 
 self as a part of the military machine and duty marked 
 out in the orders of the day. He moves onward to his 
 destination with a well-trained pace, and with as phleg- 
 matic indifference to the result, as a labourer who works 
 for his daily hire. The courage of the French soldier is 
 supported in the hour of trial, by his high notions of the 
 point of honour ; but this display of spirit is not always 
 steady : neither French nor German is confident in him- 
 self, if an enemy gain his flank or rear. A Highland 
 soldier faces his enemy, whether in front, rear, or flank ; 
 and if he has confidence in his commander, it may be 
 predicted with certainty that he will be victorious, or die 
 on the ground which he maintains. He goes into the 
 field resolved not to disgrace his name. A striking 
 characteristic of the Highlander is, that ail his actions 
 seem to flow from sentiment. His endurance of priva- 
 tion and fatigue, his resistance of hostile opposition, his 
 soUcitude for the good opinion of his superiors, all 
 originate in this source, whence also proceeds his obedi- 
 ence, which is always most conspicuous when exhibited 
 under kind treatment. Hence arises the difference observ- 
 able between the conduct of one regiment of Highlanders 
 and that of another, and frequently even of the same 
 regiment at different times, and under different manage- 
 ment. A Highland regiment, to be orderly and well- 
 disciplined, ought to be commanded by men who are 
 capable of appreciating their character, directing their 
 passions and prejudices, and acquiring their entire con- 
 fidence and affection. The officer to whom the command 
 
 u 
 
290 MILITARY CHARACTER. 
 
 of Highlanders is entrusted, must endeavour to acquire 
 their confidence and good opinion. With this view, he 
 must watch over the propriety of his own conduct.* He 
 must observe the strictest justice and fidehty in his 
 promises to his men, conciHate them by an attention to 
 their dispositions and prejudices, and, at the same time, 
 by preserving a firm and steady authority, without which 
 he will not be respected. 
 
 Officers who are accustomed to command Highland 
 soldiers, find it easy to guide and control them when 
 their full confidence has been obtained; but when dis- 
 trust prevails, severity ensues, with a consequent neglect of 
 duty, and, by a continuance of this unhappy misunder- 
 standing, the men become stubborn, disobedient, and, in 
 the end, mutinous, f The spirit of a Highland soldier 
 revolts at any unnecessary severity; though he may be 
 led to the mouth of a cannon if properly directed, and 
 will rather die than be unfaithful to his trust. But if, 
 instead of leading, his officers attempt to drive him, he 
 may fail in the discharge of the most common duties. 
 A learned and ingenious author, who, though himself a 
 
 * In some instances, when the misconduct of officers, particularly 
 in the field, was not publicly censured, the soldiers who served under 
 them made regular representations that they could not and would 
 not remain longer under their command, and that, if they were not 
 relieved from the disgrace of being so commanded, they would lay 
 their complaints before the highest authority. In like manner, when 
 any of the soldiers showed a backwardness in facing an enemy, their 
 comrades brought them forward, calling for punishment on the pol- 
 troons, who were a disgrace to their country, their name, and their 
 kindred. With such checks to disgraceful, and such incitements to 
 an honourable line of conduct, the best results might be anticipated, 
 as indeed experience has proved. 
 
 + See Appendix, GG. 
 
MILITARY CHARACTER. 29! 
 
 Lowlander, had ample opportunity, while serving in many 
 campaigns with Highland regiments, of becoming inti- 
 mately acquainted with their character, thus develops 
 their conduct in the field: "The character of ardour 
 belongs to the Highlander; he acts from an internal 
 sentiment, and possesses a pride of honour, which does 
 not permit him to retire from danger with a confession of 
 inferiority. This is a property of his nature, and as it is 
 so, it becomes the business of officers who command 
 Highland troops to estimate the national character cor- 
 rectly, that they may not, through ignorance, misapply 
 their means, and thereby concert their own ruin. 
 
 " If ardour be the characteristic of Highlanders, it is 
 evident that they are not calculated for mechanical 
 manoeuvres, nor for demonstrations or encounters with a 
 view to diversion; for unless the purpose be previously 
 explained and understood in its full extent, the High- 
 lander darts on the enemy with impetuosity, rushing into 
 close action, where it was only intended to amuse. He 
 does not brook disappointment, sustain a gaUing distant 
 fire with coolness, or retire from an enterprise with 
 temper. He may be trusted to cover the most danger- 
 ous retreat assigned to him as a duty ; a retreat in 
 consequence of his own failure is Hkely to degenerate 
 into a rout. In action, the Highlander requires to see 
 his object fully: he then feels the impression of his duty, 
 and acts animately and consistently, more from impres- 
 sion and sentiment than from external impulse of com- 
 mand ; for, when an enemy is before the Highlander, the 
 authority of the officer may be said to cease. Different 
 nations have different excellencies or defects in war. 
 Some excel in the use of missile weapons : the power of 
 the Highlander lies in close combat. Close charge was 
 
292 MILITARY CHARACTER. 
 
 his ancient mode of attack ; and it is probably from im- 
 pression, ingrafted in his nature in consequence of the 
 national mode of war, that he still sustains the approach- 
 ing point of a naked weapon with a steadier eye than any 
 other man in Europe. Some nations turn with fear from 
 the countenance of an enraged enemy: the Highlander 
 rushes towards it with ardour; and if he can grasp his 
 foe, as man with man, his courage is secure." 
 
 I shall subjoin one other quotation from the same 
 author. After describing their social meetings, at which 
 the enterprises of war were the frequent and usual themes 
 of conversation, he proceeds: — "The Highlanders, in this 
 manner, looking daily on war, and the enterprise of war, 
 with interest and animation, acquire radical ideas of the 
 military art. Without design, or formal intention, this germ 
 of military education, planted in the first years of life, as- 
 sumes a fair growth among these northern Scots ; for, as 
 objects of war, and warlike enterprise, command more 
 than other objects the exertions of the thinking faculty, 
 the Highlanders, formed with sound minds, and sus- 
 ceptible of good impressions, discover more natural saga- 
 city than any other class of people in the kingdom, per- 
 haps than any other people in Europe. The Highlanders, 
 in relation with their southern neighbours, were con- 
 sidered as freebooters, barbarians, given to spoil and 
 plunder. In former times, the charge had some appearance 
 of truth ; for the Lowlanders were considered as a hostile 
 or strange people. But though they drove the cattle of 
 a hostile tribe, or ravaged a Lowland district, with which 
 they had no connexion or bond of amity, their conduct 
 in the year 1745 proves that they are neither a ferocious 
 nor a cruel people ; for no troops probably ever traversed 
 a country which might be esteemed hostile with fewer 
 
MILITARY CHARACTER. 293 
 
 traces of outrage. They are now better known : their 
 character is conspicuous for honesty and fideUty. They 
 possess the most exalted notions of honour, the warmest 
 friendships, and the highest portion of mental pride, of 
 any people perhaps in Europe. Their ideas are few 
 but their sentiments are strong ; their virtues, principles 
 in their nature."* 
 
 * Jackson's Systematic View of the Formation, Discipline, and 
 Economy of European Armies. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A, Page 15. 
 
 The country traditions are filled with anecdotes of the 
 hunting expeditions of the Alpine kings. From these 
 traditional authorities, the names of many remarkable ob- 
 jects in the neighbourhood of their ancient residence, par- 
 ticularly in Glenroy and Glenspean, are derived. Ossian, 
 and the heroes celebrated in song, seem in a manner over- 
 looked in the recollection of the later warriors and Nim- 
 rods. Since strangers and men of science have traversed 
 these long-deserted regions, an irreconcilable feud oi 
 opinions has arisen between the Geologists and the High- 
 lan'ders, regarding an uncommon conformation in Glenroy, 
 a glen in Lochaber, remarkable for the height and per- 
 pendicularity of its sides, particularly of one of them. On 
 the north side, at a considerable elevation above the 
 stream, which flows along the bottom of the glen, there is 
 a flat, or terrace, about seventy feet broad, having the 
 appearance of a road formed on the side of the mountain, 
 and running along, on a perfect level, to the extremity of 
 the glen. Five hundred feet above this, there is another 
 of these terraces, and still higher a third, all parallel, and 
 of similar form. In English they are called Parallel 
 Roads : the inhabitants know them by the name of the 
 King's Hunting Roads. Geologists say that the glen was 
 once full of water, up to the level of the highest parallel, 
 which must have been formed by the action of the waters 
 of this lake on the side of the hill. By some violence, 
 however, an opening was made in the lower end of the 
 glen that confined the water, in consequence of which it 
 
290 APPENDIX. 
 
 immediately fell as low as the second parallel, and formed 
 it in the same manner as the first. Another opening of 
 the same kind brought down the surface of the water to 
 the third parallel, when, at length, that which confined 
 the water giving way entirely, it subsided to the bottom of 
 the glen, where it now runs, in a rapid stream, without 
 obstruction. To this opinion the Highlanders object, that 
 it is not probable that water, after the first declension, 
 would remain so perfectly stationary as to form a second 
 parallel of the same dimensions as the first, or that the 
 second declension would be so regular in time, and the 
 water so equal in its action, as to form a third terrace in 
 every respect perfectly similar to the two others ; that the 
 glen is too narrow to allow the waves to act with sufficient 
 force to form these broad levels ; that, in the centre of 
 the glen, which is narrow, the levels are the broadest and 
 .most perfect, whereas, on the upper end, which opens to 
 a wide extent, allowing a large space for the wind and 
 waves to act with superior force, the levels are contracted 
 *and less perfect ; that on one side of the glen these ter- 
 races are broad, and of perfectly regular formation, while, 
 on the other, they are narrow, and not so well formed ; 
 and that, unless the wind blew always from the same 
 quarter, waves would not roll with more force to one side 
 of a piece of water than to another. In Glenspean, which 
 is in the immediate neighbourhood, and in which similar 
 appearances present themselves, the hills recede several 
 miles from each other, leaving a wide expanse, on the 
 sides of which, if the valley or strath had been filled with 
 water, the waves would have acted with considerable force, 
 and yet these roads, or terraces, are by no means so dis- 
 tinctly formed, and continuous, as in Glenroy. The 
 Highlanders also urge the impossibility of water having 
 ever been confined in Glenspean, without an improbable 
 convulsion of nature, the lower end being of great width, 
 and open to the ocean. After stating these reasons, they 
 triumphantly conclude by a query, Why do not other 
 glens and straths in the Highlands exhibit natural appear- 
 ances similar to those in the vicinity of the ancient resid- 
 
APPENDIX. 299 
 
 ence of the Alpine kings? Their own account, which 
 they beheve as firmly as they do their creed, is, that these 
 roads were made for the hunting of the kings when at In- 
 verlochay ; that they were palisadoed on each side ; and 
 that the game was driven through, affording the Royal 
 Hunters time to destroy numbers before they could get 
 to the end. As a confirmation of this account, they quote 
 the names of the circumjacent places, which all bear an 
 analogy to these huntings. 
 
 To these opinions, so opposite and difficult to recon- 
 cile, it is probable that each party will adhere. 
 
 B, Page 17. 
 
 Tradition states, that, in honour of this ancient alliance,- 
 and in compliment to the Lilies of France, one of the 
 succeeding Kings of Scotland surmounted the lion on his 
 arms with the double tressure, which has, ever since, con- 
 tinued to be the arms of Scotland. In consequence of a 
 requisition from Charles VII. of France, founded, as it is 
 said, on this treaty, the Duke of Albany, Regent of Scot- 
 land, in the year 141 9, sent his son, John Stewart, Earl of 
 Buchan, with 7000 men, to assist him in his wars against 
 the EngHsh. The Earl of Buchan, as a reward for the 
 eminent service rendered by his army, w^as made Constable 
 of France, which is the only instance of a foreigner receiv- 
 ing this distinction. 
 
 The late Lord Hailes was so remarkable for his accu- 
 racy and precision, that, on one occasion, it is said, he pro- 
 posed to reject a law-paper, because the ^xord Justice was 
 improperly spelt, the last letter having been omitted. 
 The severity of criticism he carried through all his labours. 
 In his remarks on the Histor}' of Scotland, he doubts 
 the reality of this alliance, because it has been variously 
 related by authors, and particularly by Hector Boece, a 
 Scotch historian (of a character very different from that 
 of the accurate, honourable, and learned judge,) who in- 
 dulges himself in detaihng many improbable and fabulous 
 events. Though doubts may reasonably be entertained 
 
300 APPENDIX. 
 
 concerning the authenticity of this alliance, it is evident 
 that our ancient historians and chroniclers, when they 
 thought it probable that such a treaty had really existed, 
 must have believed that the Alpine kings had numerous 
 and warlike subjects ; and hence we may conjecture, that 
 the country was able to support a numerous population, 
 which has been denied by modern economists. With re- 
 gard to the credit due to traditions, it may be observed, 
 that, in the absence of written documents, they may be so 
 unvarying in their tenor, and so confirmed by colateral 
 circumstances, as to be entitled to a considerable degree 
 of importance. Traditions, thus preserved and confirmed, 
 are certainly preferable to the mere conjectures and hypo- 
 thesis of modern authors, which are not so much founded 
 on any authentic documents, as on the absence of them, 
 and which often vary with the peculiar opinions and pre- 
 conceived notions of each individual speculatist. The 
 want of written proof may, in many cases, be a good legal 
 objection ; but are we warranted, merely from the absence 
 of proof to the contrary, in refusing all credit to what has, 
 for ages, been handed down as the firm belief of our 
 ancestors? These observations I have thought it necessary 
 to offer, as I shall have occasion to refer to many tradi- 
 tions, for which I have neither written nor printed proofs, 
 but which I have every reason to believe are founded on 
 facts, although there may be some little difference in the 
 relation,— not more, perhaps, than we have met with in 
 the accounts given of the same work by the Edinburgh 
 and Quarterly Reviews. 
 
 There is hardly any point of history, far less tradition, 
 in which all men are agreed. Recent as the events are, 
 we have contradictory accounts of the Peninsular cam- 
 paigns, and of the battle of Waterloo. When, therefore, 
 we every day hear discordant reports and versions of 
 events that occurred within our own memory, can it be 
 matter of surprise that the affairs of remote ages should 
 be variously related, and can it furnish good grounds for 
 rejecting the whole as fabulous ? Many parts of our own 
 national history, which we receive with implicit credence, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 301 
 
 ( 
 
 will not perhaps bear that strictness of criticism which 
 calls for present and written proofs. In the same manner, 
 therefore, as I believe that there was a great and over- 
 whelming victory gained at Waterloo, notwithstanding 
 the discrepancy of minute details, so I am likewise will- 
 ing to give credit to many parts of our traditional story, 
 when these are not opposed to the principles of reason 
 and well-authenticated facts. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of the treaty with Charle- 
 magne, the connexion between France and Scotland must 
 be allowed to be of high antiquity, since it is noticed as 
 the "Ancient League," as far back as the reigns of Baliol, 
 Bruce, and Robert, the first of the Stewarts, upwards of 
 five hundred years ago. Now, as it is not disputed that 
 an amicable communication subsisted thus early, those 
 who disbelieve the alliance between Charlemagne and 
 Achaius ought to fix the period of the commencement of 
 that friendly intercourse, which continued uninterrupted 
 till the kings of Scotland removed to England, and 
 united the rival kingdoms under one Crown. It should 
 also be stated how far back the League must have ex- 
 tended, to have entitled it to the term of "Ancient" 
 bestowed on it in the days of John Baliol, who was de- 
 clared King of Scotland in the year 1292. 
 
 C, Page 30. 
 
 The Memorial begins with Argyleshire, "the countr}- 
 of the Campbells." 
 
 " Campbells. — In Gaelic they are called Clan Guin, 
 or O Duine. The Duke of Argyle is their Chief He 
 is called in the Highlands MacCailean Mor. On his own 
 property, and on his kinsmen's lands, he can raise above 
 3000 men; the Earl of Breadalbane, more than 1000; 
 and the Barons of the names of Campbell, Ardkinglass, 
 Auchinbreck, Lochnell, Inveraw, and others, 1000; so 
 that this clan could bring into the field above 5000 men, 
 besides those barons and gentlemen of the name in Dum- 
 barton, Stirling, and Perthshire, and the Laird of Calder 
 
302 APPENDIX. 
 
 in Nairn. They are at present the richest and most 
 numerous clan in Scotland ; their countries and bounds 
 most extensive; their superiorities, jurisdictions, and other 
 dependencies, by far the greatest in the kingdom, which 
 makes the family of the greatest importance in North 
 Britain, and has been so since the decline of the Doug- 
 lasses, the total fall of the Cummins, the extinction of 
 the Earl of Ross's family, and of the Macdonalds of the 
 Isles. 
 
 " Macleafi. — In Gaelic called Clan Lein. Sir Hector 
 Maclean of Dowart is their Chief. He is called in the 
 Highlands Mac-il-Lein. This was a very potent clan 
 200 years ago, and could have raised 800 men ; but now 
 that the Campbells are possessed of their Chiefs estate, 
 they will hardly make 500, and even many of that num- 
 ber must be brought out of the Duke of Argyle's estate. 
 
 ^'' Maclachian. — In Gaelic called Clan Lachlin. The 
 Laird of Maclachlan is their Chief He can raise 300 men. 
 
 Stewart of Appin. — The Laird of Appin is their 
 Chieftain. He holds his lands of the Crown, and can 
 raise 300 followers. 
 
 ^^ Macdougall of Lorn. — In Gaelic called Clanvickuil. 
 Their Chief is the Laird of Macdougall. He is called in 
 the Highlands Mackuil Laurin. This was a more potent 
 family of old, but is now much diminished by the Camp- 
 bells ; they can still (I believe) bring out 200 men. 
 
 " Macdonalds of Sleat. — Proceeding northward by 
 the coast and Isles, we come to the Macdonalds. Sir 
 Alexander Macdonald is their Chieftain. In Gaelic he 
 is called Mac Connel nan Eilean, simply by way of pre- 
 eminence ; he has a very large estate which he holds of 
 the Crown. It lies in the isles of Skye and Uist. He 
 can bring out 700 men. 
 
 ^^ Macdonald of Clanranald. — In Gaelic this Chieftain 
 is called Mack vie Allian, and in English Captain of 
 Clanranald. He has a very handsome estate, holding 
 most of it from the Crown. It lies in Moidart and 
 Arisaig on the Continent, and in the Isles of Uist, Ben- 
 becula, and Rum. He can bring out 700 men. 
 
APPENDIX. 303 
 
 " Macdonell of Glengarry. — The Laird of Glengarry is 
 their Chieftain. In GaeHc he is called Mac-vic-Allistair. 
 He has a good estate, which he holds of the Crown. It 
 lies in Glengarry and Knoidart. He can bring out 500 
 men. 
 
 ^'^ Macdondl of Keppoch. — Keppoch is iheir Chieftain. 
 In Gaelic he is called Mac-vic-Raonuil. He is not pro- 
 prietor of one ridge of land, but himself, kindred, and 
 followers, are only tacksman and tenants, holding the 
 most of their possessions from the Laird of Mackintosh, 
 and the rest from the Duke of Gordon, all being in Loch- 
 .aber. He can raise and bring out 300 followers. 
 
 '''' Macdojiald of Glenco. — The Laird of Glenco is their 
 Chieftain: In Gaelic he is called Mac-vicTan. He holds 
 his lands of Stewart of Appin, and can raise 150 men. 
 
 "These five Chieftains of the Macdonalds all claim a 
 lineal descent from Alexander Macdonald Earl of Ross, 
 successor and representative of the Macdonalds of the 
 Isles; but none of them have any clear document to 
 vouch the same, so that that great and aspiring family, 
 who waged frequent wars with our Scotch Kings, and 
 who acted as sovereigns themselves, and obliged most of 
 the clans to swear fealty to them, is now utterly extinct. 
 The last Earl of Ross had no sons, nor any near male 
 relation to succeed him. 
 
 " Cameron. — A very potent clan in Lochaber. The 
 Laird of Lochiel, called in the Gaelic Maconnel Dui, is 
 their Chief. He has a good estate, but none of it holds 
 of the Crown; the most of it holds of the Duke of Argyle, 
 and the rest of the Duke of Gordon. He can bring out 
 800 men. Of old there were several tribes in that coun- 
 try, viz., Macmartin of Letterfinlay, and others, branches 
 of the Camerons, who faithfully followed their chief. 
 
 ^'' Macleods — Were two distinct and very potent fami- 
 lies of old, viz., Macleod of Lewis, and Macleod of Harris, 
 but they are both utterly extinct, and their lands possessed 
 by the Mackenzies. The present Laird of Macleod is 
 Chief of the name. He is called in Gaelic, Macleoid. 
 He has a very considerable estate, all holden of the Cro^^^l, 
 
304 APPENDIX. 
 
 lying in Glenelg, on the Continent, and in the Isle of 
 Skye. He can bring out 700 men. 
 
 '■^ Mackift?2ons. — The Laird of Mackinnon is their 
 Chief; he holds his lands of the Crown, both in the Isles 
 of Skye and Mull, and can raise 200 men. 
 
 " I again pass to the south to give an account of the 
 inland Chiefs, beginning again in Argyleshire, and pro- 
 ceeding from thence northward. There are several per- 
 sons of rank, as well as gentlemen, who are chieftains, 
 and who have the command of many Highlanders in 
 Argyle, Monteith, Dumbarton, Stirling, and Perth shires; 
 such as the Duke of Montrose, the Earls of Moray and 
 Bute, also the Macfarlanes, Macneil of Barra, Macnab of 
 Macnab, Buchanans and Colquhouns of Luss, Macnaugh- 
 tons, Lamont of Lamont, etc. They can raise among 
 them 5400 men. Besides these there are several border 
 famines, those of Kilravock, Brodie of Brodie, Innes of 
 Innes, Irvine of Drum, Lord Forbes, and the Earl of 
 Airley, all of whom are loyal, except the Ogilvies. Few 
 or none of them have any followers, except Lord Airley, 
 from his Highland estate. 
 
 ^^ Duke of Perth — Is no clan family, although the 
 Duke is Chief of a considerable number of barons and 
 gentlemen of the name of Drummond in the Low coun- 
 try. He is brought in here allenarly on account of his 
 command of about 300 Highlanders in Glenartnie and 
 other glens in the County of Perth. 
 
 '■'• Robe7'tso7is. — The Laird of Strowan is their Chief 
 They are called in Gaehc, Clan Donachie. His lands 
 hold of the Crown, and lie in Rannoch, and in the Braes 
 of Athole in Perthshire. On his own estate he can raise 
 about 200 men. There are 500 men more of the Robert- 
 sons in Athole who never follow their chief, being part of 
 the followers of the Duke of Athole. 
 
 " Menzies. — -Sir Robert Menzies of Weem is the Chief 
 In Gaelic he is called Menairich. He has a very hand- 
 some estate, all holding of the Crown, lying in Rannoch, 
 and Appin Dull in Athole, and can raise 300 men. 
 
 '•''Stewart of Grandtully. — Has a handsome estate in 
 
APPENDIX. 305 
 
 Strathbrane and Strathtay in Athole, all holding of the 
 Crown, out of which he can raise 300 followers. 
 
 " Clan Gregor. — This name was called down by Act of 
 Parliament. They are now dispersed under the different 
 names of Drummond, Murray, Graham, and Campbell, 
 and live in the counties of Perth, Stirling, Dumbarton, 
 etc., etc. They have no present Chief, that being elective, 
 and continuing no longer than the current expedition. 
 He is chosen on the principle of dctur digniou. They can 
 raise among them 700 men. 
 
 ^'Duke of Atholl. — The Murray s is no clan family, 
 though the Duke of Atholl is Chief, and head of a num- 
 ber of barons and gentlemen of the name of Murray in 
 the Lowlands; but he is deser%-edly placed here on account 
 of his extensive following of about 3000 Highlanders, a 
 good many of them out of his own property, but most of 
 them from the estates of the barons and gentlemen who 
 hold their land of him on account of his great superiorities 
 in Athole, Glenalmond, and Balquidder. The most 
 numerous of these, and the readiest to turn out on all 
 occasions, are the Stewarts of Athole, in number more 
 than 1000 men, as also 500 Robertsons, who do not 
 follow their chief; likewise the Fergussons, Smalls, Spald- 
 ings, Rattrays, Mackintoshes in Athole, and Maclarens in 
 Balquidder, with other broken names in Athole, are all 
 followers of the Duke of Atholl. 
 
 " Crossing the Grampian mountains to Braemar. 
 
 '''' Farquharsons. — The only clan family in i\.berdeen- 
 shire. In Gaelic called Clan lanla. They can bring 
 out about 500 men. The Laird of Invercauld is their 
 Chief. He has a ver}' handsome estate holden of the 
 Crown, both in Perthshire and Braemar. There are 
 several other barons of the same name that have com- 
 petent fortunes, such as Monaltrie, Inverey, Finzean, etc. 
 
 Duke of Gordon. — The Gordons is no clan family, 
 although the Duke is Chief of a very powerful name in 
 the Lowlands. He has a great posse of cavalry and 
 gentlemen on horseback in Enzie and Strathbogie, but he 
 is only placed here on account of his Highland followings 
 
 -X 
 
3o6 APPENDIX. 
 
 in Strathavon and Glenlivet, which are about 300 men ; 
 his extensive jurisdictions and superiorities in the centre 
 Highlands, viz., Badenoch, Lochaber, and Strathspey, do 
 not yield him any followers. The tenants on his own 
 property, as well as those who hold their lands of him in 
 feu, follow their natural-born Chief, of whom they are 
 descended, and pay no regard either to the master 
 or superior of their lands. Thus the Camerons follow 
 Lochiel, the Macphersons follow Cluny, and other chiefs 
 followed and obeyed in the same manner from respect, 
 family attachment, and consanguinity. 
 
 " Grant. — A considerable name and family in Strath- 
 spey. The Laird of Grant is their Chief. He has a 
 handsome and large estate both in Strathspey and Urqu- 
 hart, in the County of Inverness, all holden of the Crown, 
 except Abernethy, which he holds of the Earl of Moray. 
 He can raise out of Strathspey 700 men, and out of 
 Urquhart 150. He has several barons of his name 
 both in Inverness, Moray, Banff, and Aberdeen shires, 
 such as Dalvey, Ballindalloch, Rothiemurchus, Cullen, 
 etc. 
 
 " Mackintoshes. — This was one of the most potent 
 clans in Scotland when their residence was at Tor Castle 
 in Lochaber, the ancient seat of their family (of which 
 country they are still heritable stewards), but the Came- 
 rons having purchased the said estate, their power is 
 much diminished. The Laird of Mackintosh is their 
 Chief; in Gaelic he is called Mackintoshach, and in 
 English Captain of Clan Chattan. He can bring out 
 800 men, including the small neighbouring clans of Mac- 
 gillivray, Macqueen, Macbean, etc., who all own them- 
 selves his kinsmen. His countries are Brae Lochaber, 
 Badenoch, and Strathnairn, in Inverness-shire. He still 
 retains a very competent estate. He holds Brae Loch- 
 aber, Moy, and Largs, of the Crown, Badenoch of the 
 Duke of Gordon, and most of his kinsmen hold Strath- 
 nairn of the Earl of Moray. 
 
 " Macpherso?is. — Called in Gaelic Clan Vurrich. Their 
 Chief is the Laird of Cluny. He can raise 400 men. 
 
APPENDIX. 307 
 
 His whole lands, and all his kinsmen's lands, hold of the 
 Duke of Gordon, and lie in Badenoch. 
 
 ^^ Erasers — Are a considerable clan in the countries 
 of Aird and Stratherrick, in Inverness-shire. Their Chief 
 is Lord Lovat : in Gaelic he is called Macimmie. He 
 has a large estate held of the Crown, and can raise 900 
 men. He has a good number of barons of his name in 
 Inverness and Aberdeen shires. 
 
 " Gra?it of Glenmoriston — Is Chieftain of a branch of 
 the Grants, but does not follow his Chief He brings out 
 150 men. In Gaelic he is called Macphadrick. His 
 lands hold of the Crown. In armaments he frequently 
 joins with the Laird of Glengarry. 
 
 " Chishoh7ts.~T\i€ix Chief is Chisholm of Strathglass, 
 in Gaelic called Chisallich. His lands are held of the 
 Crown, and he can bring out 200 men. 
 
 '■^ Macke?iz{es. — One of the most considerable clans of 
 one name next to the Campbells in the nation. The 
 Earl of Seaforth is their Chief In GaeHc he is called 
 Mac Coinnich. Out of his countries of Kintail, Loch- 
 broom, Lochcarron, on the Continent, and in the Isles 
 of Lewis, all in Ross-shire, he can raise 1000 men. The 
 Earl of Cromartie, with the Lairds of Gairloch, Scatwell, 
 Killcowie, Redcastle, Comric, etc., etc., can raise among 
 them 1500 men more. 
 
 " Monroes. — Sir Henry Monro of Fowlis is their Chief. 
 His lands hold of the Crown. He can raise 300 men. 
 
 " Rosses. — Lord Ross is their Chief His lands hold 
 of the Crown, and he can raise 500 men. 
 
 " Sutherlands. — The Earl of Sutherland is their Chief 
 In Gaelic he is called Morar Chatto. He can raise 2000 
 men. 
 
 '■^ Mackays. — The Lord Reay is their Chief He is 
 called in Gaehc, Macaoi. His estate holds of the Crown^ 
 and brings out 800 men. 
 
 " Sinclairs. — The Earl of Caithness is their Chief 
 He is called in Gaelic, Morar Gallu. He could raise 1000 
 men, but many of his followers are now under May,. 
 Dunbeath, Ulbster, Freswick, etc., etc. 
 
3o8 APPENDIX. 
 
 D, Page 39. 
 
 Of the expedients generally adopted by the Chiefs for 
 summoning their friends and followers, it may not be un- 
 acceptable to afford the reader some idea. The warlike 
 disposition of the Celtic clans, their jealousy of wrongs, 
 the numerous concurrent causes of irritation and quarrel, 
 and the nature of the country, over a large extent of 
 which they lived scattered and distant from one another, 
 Tendered some signal necessary to give the alarm, and 
 assemble the warriors. The principal signal was the 
 Cross Tarie, or Fiery Cross, a piece of wood burnt or 
 burning at one end, with a piece of linen or \vhite cloth 
 stained with blood hanging from the other. This symbol 
 served two purposes. It was sent round the country to 
 call the men to arms, and it was meant also to show what 
 were the intentions of the enemy (that is, to burn and 
 desolate the country), and what would be their own fate 
 if they did not defend their honour, their lives, and their 
 properties. The cross was sent round the country from 
 hand to hand, each person who bore it running at full 
 speed, shouting as he w-ent along the war-cry of the tribe, 
 and naming the place of rendezvous. At each hamlet a 
 fresh man took it up, so that an alarm was given, and the 
 people assembled with a celerity almost incredible. One 
 ■of the latest instances of the Fiery Cross being used 
 happened in 1745, w^hen, by the orders of Lord Breadal- 
 bane, it was sent round Loch-Tay (a distance of thirty- 
 two miles in three hours), to raise the people, and prevent 
 their joining the rebels, — but with less effect than in 17 15, 
 when it went the same round, and when five hundred 
 men assembled the same evening under the command of 
 the Laird of Glenlyon, acting under the orders of the 
 Earl of Breadalbane, to join the Earl of Mar. 
 
 The war-cry served as a watchword to individuals in 
 the confusion of the combat, in the darkness of the night, 
 or on any sudden alarm, when assistance was necessary. 
 Each tribe had its own war-cry (or slogan^ as it is called 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 309 
 
 in Scotch), to which every clansman answered. The 
 war-cry of the Grants was Craig Eilachie, from a large 
 rock in the centre of the country of the Grants ; that of 
 the Mackenzie, Tidloch-ard ; of the Macdonalds, Craig- 
 na-fioch : of the Macphersons, Craig-dui ; of the Mac- 
 gregor, Ard-Choile ; of the Macfarlanes, Loch Sloy ; of the 
 Buchanans, Clairimsh ; and of the Farquharsons, Carn- 
 na-cuin. Some families in the border Lowlands em- 
 ployed their names as slogans and watchwords. In the 
 case of the Gordons, whenever assistance was necessary, 
 the cry of "A Gordon! a Gordon I" was sure to be 
 effectual. The cry of " A Forbes ! a Forbes !" was equally 
 availing with regard to the Forbeses; and as these two war- 
 Hke families were at feud for more than 200 years, they 
 had frequent occasion for their respective slogans, in their 
 countless strifes and rencounters. Besides these cries, 
 they had other marks by which it could be known to what 
 clan, tribe, or district, individuals belonged. One of 
 these was the particular disposition or set of the different 
 colours of the tartan, in the plaid, kilt, hose, and trews. 
 Another mark of distinction was a tuft of heath, pine, or 
 such plant, stuck in the bonnet, as would not fade or cast 
 the leaf. Thus the Macdonalds wore in their bonnets 
 tufts of heath ; the Macgregors and Grants a bunch of 
 pine ; the Drummonds and Mackenzie wore the holly, 
 the former the plain, and the latter the variegated ; * the 
 Mackintoshes the boxwood, and so on; always taking 
 care, whatever the bad^e or mark was, that it should be 
 
 * The Mackenzies occasionally assumed the deer's grass, in 
 allusion to the armorial bearings of the chief, viz., deer's head and 
 horns. In connexion with these bearings, and with the origin of 
 the clan, is an anecdote which will be found in the account of the 
 Seaforth Regiments. This distribution of the distinguishing badges 
 must have been well understood, otherwise interferences would 
 occur, as our evergreen trees and shrubs, are not numerous. The 
 Macgregors and Grants carried the same badge, as being of the same 
 descent. Clans inhabiting countries distant from each other, had 
 sometimes badges somewhat similar, although sufficiently marked ta 
 distinguish them, as in the instance of the plain and variegated holly 
 of the Drummonds and Mackenzies. 
 
3IO APPENDIX. 
 
 permanent, and not affected by the change of the season, 
 and thus be equally conspicuous in winter as in summer. 
 This was the practice of all except the Stewarts, who 
 generally wore the oak ; which, from losing the leaf and 
 decaying, many regarded as ominous of the decline of 
 the family and name, who also considered the oak em- 
 blematical, as the leaves, though withered and decayed, 
 still hang by the branches till forced off by the new leaves 
 in spring. 
 
 E, Page 40. 
 
 Of such feuds, many instances might be adduced. I 
 shall select only one, which may serve to exemplify the 
 apparently trival causes from which they sometime arose, 
 in periods when men could not resort to the laws for pro- 
 tection, and the deadly and often fatal animosity with 
 which they were maintained. After the middle of the 
 fifteenth century, a quarrel occurred between Stewart of 
 Garth and a clan named Macivor, who then possessed 
 the greater part of Glenlyon. The Laird of Garth had 
 been nursed by a woman of the clan Macdiarmid, which 
 was then, and is still, pretty numerous in Glenlyon 
 and Breadalbane. This woman had two sons, one of 
 whom, foster-brother to the laird, having been much 
 injured by Macivor in a dispute, threatened to apply 
 for redress to his foster-brother. Accordingly, the two 
 brothers set out for that purpose to the Castle of Garth, 
 twelve or fourteen miles distant. In those days, a foster- 
 brother was regarded as one of the family ; and Macivor, 
 well aware that the quarrel of the Macdiarmids would be 
 espoused by his neighbour, ordered a pursuit. The 
 young men being hard pressed, threw themselves into a 
 deep pool of the River Lyon, where they hoped that their 
 pursuers would not venture to follow them. The foster- 
 brother was, however, desperately wounded with an arrow, 
 and drowned in the pool, which still retains the name of 
 Linne Donnel, or Donald's Pool. The other succeeded 
 in reaching Garth. Resolved to avenge his friend's death. 
 
APPENDIX. 311 
 
 the laird collected his followers, and marched to Glenlyon. 
 Macivor mustered his men, and met the invaders about 
 the middle of the glen. The chieftains stepped forward 
 between the two bands, in the hope of settling the affair 
 amicably. Garth wore a plaid the one side of which was 
 red, and the other dark-coloured tartan, and, on pro- 
 ceeding to the conference, he told his men, that, if 
 the result was amicable, the darker side of the plaid 
 should remain outward as it was ; if otherwise, he would 
 give the signal of attack by turning out the red side. 
 They were still engaged in the conference, when Mac- 
 ivor whistled loud, and a number of armed men started 
 up from the adjoining rocks and bushes, where they 
 had been concealed, while the main body were drawn 
 up in front. " Who are these," said Stewart, " and 
 for what purpose are they there?" "They are only a 
 herd of my roes that are frisking about the rocks," replied 
 Macivor. "In that case," said the other, "it is time for 
 me to call my hounds." Then turning his plaid he re- 
 joined his men, who were watching his motions, and in- 
 stantly advanced. Both parties rushed forward to the 
 combat ; the Macivors gave way, and were pursued eight 
 miles farther up the glen. Here they turned to make a 
 last effort, but were again driven back with great loss. 
 The survivors fled across the mountains to another part 
 of the country, and were for some time not permitted to 
 return. Macivor's land was, in the mean time, seized by 
 the victors, and law confirmed what the sword had won.* 
 The names of the river and glen still continue memo- 
 rials of this sanguinary fray. Dhui and Glen Dhui were 
 their former names. When the Stewarts were returning 
 from the last pursuit, they washed their swords in the 
 river, which was discoloured a considerable way down on 
 
 * Charters under the Great Seal were passed by James III., 
 dated at Edinburgh, 24th January 1477, and addressed " To John 
 Stewart of Garth and Fothergill, and Neil Stewart, his son and heir, 
 of the lands of Fothergill (now Fortingal), Apnadull, Temper, and 
 others in Rannoch ; Glenquaich, Wester Strathbrane, and Glenlioun, 
 in theCounty of Perth," — Records^ General Register House. 
 
312 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 one side by the blood. " This stream," exclaimed the 
 chieftain, "shall no longer be called Dhui, but Leiven 
 (feiven is to wipe or lave), and the glen shall be called 
 Glenleiven." Before the combat commenced, Stewart's 
 men pulled off a kind of sandals, bound round the ancles 
 with thongs, and called in Gaelic cuaran. These they 
 laid aside, close to a small rock, which to this day is 
 called Lech-na-cuaran, the stone or slab of the sandals. 
 The spot where they drew their swords is called Ruskich, 
 to uncover or unsheath ; the field where the rencounter 
 commenced Laggan-na-cath^ the field of battle, and the 
 spot where the last stand was made, Carnus-na-car?i, from 
 the cairns or mounds of stones which cover the graves, 
 and which, from their quantity, show the considerable 
 number slain, which, tradition says, amounted to 140 on 
 the part of the Macivors. 
 
 In t8i6, a sword and battle-axe, now in my possession, 
 were dug up at Laggan-na-cath. The first is in the form 
 of a small sword, and remarkable for its elegance and 
 proportions, being equal to any model of the present day. 
 The blade is long, but, as may be supposed, much de- 
 stroyed by rust. The axe, more decayed than the sword, 
 is the same as was anciently used by the Highlanders when 
 they closed in the fight. The sword is so far curious, as 
 it shows that the Highlanders of that age had small 
 swords. 
 
 F, Page 43. 
 
 The following are the instances given by Martin : 
 " Captain Jackson of Whitehaven, about sixteen years 
 ago, was obliged to leave his ship, being leaky, in the bay 
 within Island Glass, alias Scalpa, in the Isle of Harris, 
 with two men only to take care of her, though loaded 
 with goods. The ship was not within three miles of a 
 house, and separated from the dwelling-houses by moun- 
 tains. Yet when the captain returned, twelve months 
 afterwards, he found the vessel and his men quite safe. 
 Captain Lotch lost the Dromedary of London, of 600 
 
APPENDIX. 313 
 
 tons burthen, with all her rich cargo from the Indies, of 
 which he might have saved a great deal, had he embraced 
 the assistance the natives offered him. The captain and 
 his men were kindly entertained in the Isle of Skye, by 
 Sir Norman Macleod ; and though, among other valuable 
 goods, they had six boxes of gold dust, there was not the 
 least thing taken from them by the inhabitants."* 
 
 The protection afforded to the lives and property of 
 their fellow-creatures in the calamity of shipwreck, is 
 honourable to a people among whom the restraints of poli- 
 tical institutions were few and feeble. To persons who 
 understand the character of the Highlanders, it would be 
 unnecessary to state facts, to prove how generally feelings 
 of humanity, charity, and probity prevail ; but it is by re- 
 lating a succession of characteristic traits and circum- 
 stances of different ages and periods, connected with, and 
 illustrating each other, that prejudices, long entertained, 
 can be subdued, and that a proposition, however true in 
 itself, which militates against general opinion, can be fully 
 established. To deny the truth of a general statement, 
 to which, in all cases, exception may be made, is a mat- 
 ter of no difficulty ; by it is not so easy to resist a coin- 
 cident and connected view of the manners and habits of 
 successive generations. I do not mean to apply those 
 observ^ations to the statements which follow, but to the 
 general scope of the whole, as I have had occasion to 
 state facts in opposition to the opinion of many, with 
 regard to the character and dispositions of the High- 
 landers, as well as with regard to their intelligence and 
 religious and moral principles. 
 
 Without referring to Roman authors, Ossian's Poems, 
 or the traditional history of the ancient Caledonians, for 
 the firmness and spirit of independence with which they 
 maintained their freedom from a foreign yoke ; I shall 
 only notice a few extracts from authors, whose works 
 were printed soon after they were composed. Amongst 
 the earliest of these is Hollingshed, who wrote previous 
 
 * Martin's Description of the Western Isles. London, printed 1703. 
 
314 APPENDIX. 
 
 to 1560, and who thus speaks of the Highlanders: 
 " Hereby, in Hke sort, it cometh to pass, that they are 
 more hard of constitution and bodie, to beare off the 
 cold blasts, to watch better, and abstaine longer ; where- 
 into also it appeareth, that they are ki7id^ bold, nimble^ 
 and thereto more skillfull in the warres. As for their 
 faith and promise, they hold it with great constancies 
 The author of " Certayne Matters Concerning Scot- 
 land," printed in 1597, describes the Highlanders of his 
 day in the following manner: "Their drink is the broth 
 of sodden flesh * ; they love very well the drinks made of 
 whey and certayne yerbs, drinking the same at feasts ; 
 but the most part of them only drink water ; their custom 
 is to make their bread of oats and barley, which are the 
 only kinds of grain that grow in those parts ; experience 
 with tyme hath taught them to make it of such sort that 
 it is not unpleasant to eat ; they take a little of it in the 
 morning, and passing to the hunting or any other busynis, 
 content themselves without any other kind of meat till 
 even." The following extract is from an author of great 
 learning and research, who wrote upwards of a century 
 after the preceding : " But what contributes above all 
 things to their health and longevity, is constant temperance. 
 They rather satisfy than oppress nature. Their meals are 
 two a-day, water being their ordinary drink; they are 
 strangers to many of the distempers, as they are to most 
 of the vices, of other nations, for some of which they have 
 not so much as a name. They owe everything to nature. 
 They cure all disorders of the body by simples of their 
 own growth, and by proper diet or labour. Hence, they 
 are stout and active, dexterous in all their exercises, as 
 they are withal remarkably sagacious, choleric, but easily 
 appeased, sociable, good natured, ever cheerful, and having 
 a strong inclination to poetry and music. They are hospit- 
 able beyond expression, entertaining all strangers of what- 
 
 * This beef-soup has gone out of fashion, as many cannot now 
 indulge in animal food. It was called iucrich, and considered so 
 nourishing, that, even in my own time, it was given to delicate per- 
 sons who rcfjuired strengthening food. 
 
APPENDIX. 315 
 
 ever condition gratis. They have no lawyers or attorneys. 
 The men and women plead their own causes, and every 
 decision is made by the proprietor, who is perpetual pre- 
 sident in their courts ; or by his bailiff as his substitute. 
 In a w^ord, they are equally void of the two chief curses 
 of mankind, luxury and ambition. They are not o?ily 
 rigid observers of justice, but show less propensity than 
 any people to tumult, except what they may be led into by 
 the extraordinary deference they pay to their chiefs and 
 leaders, w-ho are accountable for the mischiefs they some- 
 times bring on these well-meaning men, by their feuds and 
 quarrels wdth their neighbours."t 
 
 The next quotation is from a valuable work lately 
 published. The author, although born in the Lowlands, 
 and at a distance from the people he describes, was latterly 
 much among them, and had every opportunity of ascer- 
 taining the truth of what he states. " The natives of the 
 Highlands and Isles possess a degree of civilisation, 
 that, by those who had never been amongst them, would 
 hardly be believed. Attention to the great laws of moraUty, 
 as confirmed and supported by religion, is nowhere more 
 complete; in no part of the world is property more secure. 
 A stranger in these regions, behaving inoffensively, will 
 not only travel in perfect safety, but be kindly received, 
 and welcomed with affectionate hospitaUty. On these 
 unknown coasts, shipwTecks must sometimes happen; and, 
 in all cases of that nature, the mariners are not only saved, 
 where it possibly can be done, and kindly entertained, but 
 their property is secured and preserved, w^ith a degree of 
 care that reflects the highest honour on the natives. Dur- 
 ing the winter of 1784-5, a vessel, navigated by Danish 
 seamen, having struck on a rock west of Icolmkill, the 
 men, afraid of sinking, took to their boat, and made for 
 that island, leaving the vessel, with the sails set, to drive 
 with the wind and tide. Some of the natives, seeing the 
 vessel rolling, without being under proper management, 
 put off to the ship, and, finding nobody on board, took 
 
 t Tolamfs History of the Druids. London, printed 1709. 
 
3l6 APPENDIX. 
 
 possession of her, and carried her into Loch Scridan in 
 Mull. The mariners, seeing their vessel safely moored, 
 went and claimed her, and, without hesitation or dispute, 
 obtained full possession, without any salvage or other 
 charge being made, save a few shillings to the men who 
 brought her in. The ship and cargo were then entrusted 
 to the farmer of the land adjoining the port in which she 
 lay, who, for a very trifling consideration, insured the 
 whole cargo to the owners, and delivered it over to them 
 som^ months afterwards, complete, and in good order. 
 Another vessel was put ashore about the same time in the 
 Island of Coll, the cargo of which was, in like manner, 
 saved by Mr Maclean, the respectable chief and laird of 
 the island. 
 
 " About the same time, two large vessels, belonging to 
 Clyde, went ashore in the Island of Islay ; one of them 
 contained on board ten thousand pounds in specie. As 
 these vessels were not under management merely because 
 of the sickness and lassitude of the crew, as often happens 
 from a long voyage, although the weather was not tempestu- 
 ous, the cargoes were taken out, and placed along the 
 shores in the best way they could. The vessels were then 
 got off, and when the articles of the two cargoes were col- 
 lected together, there was not one thing missing, save one 
 barrel of tar, which had probably been hove overboard, or 
 lost through carelessness. But the most singular instance 
 of the kind I met with was the following. A vessel from 
 Ireland, laden with linen yarn, was stranded in Islay. 
 The weather happened to become easy, and the cargo was 
 got out ; but as it was drenched in salt water, it became 
 necessary to have the whole washed in fresh water. This 
 was done in a river that was near, and the yarn spread 
 about along some extensive fields near the shore. Several 
 hundred persons were employed in this vvork for several 
 weeks. Yarn is the staple manufacture of the island, so 
 that the temptation for embezzlement was very great, as a 
 discovery in these circumstances would have been ex- 
 tremely difficult. Yet when the whole was collected to- 
 gether, to the utter astonishment of the parties concerned, 
 
APPENDIX. 317 
 
 only a very few hanks of the yarn, (about five or six to the 
 best of my recollection), value about two or three shillings, 
 were wanting. 
 
 "I gladly record these instances of honesty and friendly 
 care of the unfortunate. How different from what I have 
 been witness to on the coast of England and Ireland!"* 
 
 In a recent scientific work, the author speaks of the 
 hospitality of the Highlanders, as forming a striking con- 
 trast to their exorbitant demands, when payment is ex- 
 pected. These demands (as stated by Dr Alacculloch) 
 are much at variance with Mr Fraser's statement. Both 
 are substantially correct. *' This habitual extortion," 
 says the Doctor, " presents an amusing, but not an inex- 
 plicable contrast to the hospitality, which every one who 
 has travelled in this country must also have experienced. 
 The milk is given with the utmost generosity, but if 
 purchased, even from the same individual, ten times the 
 value is required. '"t This inconsistency, as the Geologist 
 justly observes, is not inexplicable. Hospitality and 
 kindness to strangers proceed from the natural disposi- 
 tion ; the exorbitant demand for that which, under other 
 circumstances, would be presented with cheerfulness, pro- 
 ceeds from the trafficking spirit which has now^ reached 
 the Highlands, and is gradually superseding all gratuitous 
 kindness and disinterested hospitality. Men who are not 
 in the habit of demanding payment for hospitality or for 
 accidental personal services, know not what to ask. The 
 man who would ask tw^o shillings for a quart of milk, 
 would work a whole day for a shilling, or run ten 
 miles with a letter or message without any payment. A 
 Highland lad will enlist to serve for life, along with a 
 friend, for a trifling or nominal bounty ; but if an attempt 
 be made to bargain with the same lad, no sum, perhaps, 
 will tempt him to enhst ; or if he do listen to proposals, 
 
 * See Letter to the Right Honourable Charles Abbot, Speaker 
 of the House of Commons, on the best Means of Improvement of 
 the Coasts and Western Isles of Scotland, and the extension of the 
 White Fisheries, by Robert Fraser, Esq. 
 
 t Dr MaccuUoch'' s Descriptioti of the Western Isles, 
 
3l8 APPENDIX. 
 
 he will demand a sum out of all reason. I have seen 
 Highland soldiers spring forward to cover their officers 
 from the shot of the enemy ; I have seen them endeavour- 
 ing to restrain their officers, and to keep them under 
 cover, while they fully exposed themselves, in the expecta- 
 tion of diverting the attention of the enemy from their 
 commanders ; I have seen the same soldiers disputing a 
 penny in their accounts with the same officers, and, this 
 perhaps, only a few days after this voluntary hazard of 
 their Uves to shelter them. 
 
 G, Page 47. 
 
 The most noted of these was the celebrated Robert 
 Macgregor Campbell, or Rob Roy, well known in his 
 own and after times, as the most daring freebooter of his 
 day, and latterly celebrated by the great and faithful 
 delineator of the character and manners of our country- 
 men, who has recalled to the recollection of the aged, 
 scenes and circumstances which they had almost for- 
 gotten, — showed to the young what their forefathers saw 
 in their days, — aijd taught all to appreciate the blessing 
 of living under the laws which protect their persons and 
 property, and which forbid the injured or the turbulent 
 to redress their grievances by the sword. Much, perhaps 
 too much, has already been said about this man; but as his 
 actions have formed the subject of one of the most popu- 
 lar works of the age, it may be desirable to state a few 
 particulars explanatory of his birth, character, and con- 
 duct, and also of the primary cause of his adopting the 
 lawless course of life which he led for many years. The 
 few notices which follow may be considered as perfectly 
 authentic, being communicated by men who were either 
 sharers in his different exploits, or were perfectly ac- 
 quainted with the leader and many of liis followers. 
 
 The father of the present Mr Stewart of Ardvorlich 
 knew Rob Roy intimately, and attended his funeral in 
 1736, the last at which a piper officiated in the Highlands 
 
APPENDIX. 319 
 
 of Perthshire.* The late Mr Stewart of Bohalhe, Mr 
 Macnab of Inchewan, and several gentlemen of my 
 acquaintance, also knew Rob Roy and his family. Alex- 
 ander Stewart, one of his followers, afterwards enlisted in 
 the Black Watch. He was wounded at Fontenoy, and 
 discharged with a pension in 1748. Some time after this 
 period, he was engaged by my grandmother, then a 
 widow, as 2i grieve or overseer to direct and take charge of 
 the farm-servants. In this situation he proved a faith- 
 ful trustworthy servant, and was by my father continued 
 in his situation till his death. He told many anecdotes 
 of Rob Roy and his party, among whom he was distin- 
 guished by the name of the Baihe, a title which he ever 
 after retained. It was before him that people were sworn, 
 when it was necessary to bind them to secrecy. 
 
 Robert Macgregor Campbell + was a younger son of 
 Donald Macgregor of Glengyle, in Perthshire, by a daughter 
 of Campbell of Glenlyon, sister of the individual who com- 
 manded at Glencoe.i He was born some time between 
 
 * The pipers on these occasions played a solemn dirge, which 
 ser\'ed the same purpose as bells in towns, organs in churches, and 
 bands of music at military funerals or executions. The difference 
 was only in the instruments used : the principle and effect were the 
 same in all. This ancient custom was revived three years ago at 
 the funeral of a most exemplar}', patriarchal, and honourable Chief- 
 tain, the late Sir John Murray Macgregor of Lanrick, Baronet. 
 
 + After the name of Macgregor was suppressed by Act of Parlia- 
 ment in 1622, individuals of the clan assumed the names of the 
 chiefs or landlords on whose estates they lived, or adopted the 
 names of such men of rank and power as could afford them protec- 
 tion. Thus, Rob Roy, took the name of his friend and protector 
 the Duke of Arg)'ll, while his son James, putting himself under the 
 protection of the family of Perth, took the name of Drummond. 
 This cruel and degrading Act was repealed in 1775. Now the clan 
 Macgregor may assume and sign their own names to bonds and 
 deeds (formerly no document signed by a Macgregor was legal), but 
 numbers do not avail themselves of this indulgence. Many Mac- 
 gregors have not assumed their original name. 
 
 t In a contract of amity and manrnit between this Donald Mac- 
 gregor and John Buchanan of Arnprior, he is called Colonel. In 
 this contract, which is dated 24th May 1693, Colonel Macgregor be- 
 comes bound for himself, and for all those descended of his family, 
 
320 APPENDIX. 
 
 1657 and 1660, and married Helen Campbell of the family 
 of Glenfalloch. As cattle was at that period the principal 
 marketable produce of the hills, the younger sons of gen- 
 tlemen had few other means of procuring an independent 
 subsistence, than by engaging in this sort of traffic. At 
 an early period Rob Roy was one of the most respectable 
 and successful drovers in his district. Before the year 
 1707 he had purchased of the family of Montrose the 
 lands of Craigrostane, on the banks of Lochlomond, and 
 had reheved some heavy debts on his nephew's estate of 
 Glengyle. While in this prosperous state, he continued 
 respected for his honourable dealings both in the Low- 
 lands and Highlands. Previous to the Union no cattle 
 had been permitted to pass the English border. As a 
 boon or encouragement, however, to conciliate the people 
 to that measure, a free intercourse was allowed. The 
 Marquis of Montrose, created Duke the same year, and 
 one of the most zealous partisans of the Union, was the 
 first to take advantage of this privilege, and immediately 
 entered into partnership with Rob Roy, who was to pur- 
 chase the cattle and drive them to England for sale ; the 
 Duke and he advancing an equal sum, (10,000 merks 
 each, a sum which would have purchased 500 head of 
 catde in those days, when the price of the best ox or 
 cow was seldom twenty shillings), all transactions be- 
 yond this amount to be on credit. The purchases hav- 
 ing been completed, Macgregor drove them to England ; 
 but so many people had entered into a similar specu- 
 lation, that the market was completely overstocked, 
 and the cattle sold for much less than prime cost. 
 Macgregor returned home, and went to the Duke to 
 settle the account of their partnership, and to pay 
 the money advanced with the deduction of the loss. 
 The Duke, who had taken Macgregor's bond for the 
 money, it is said, would consent to no deduction, but in- 
 
 or "Clan Duil Cheire," to support Arnprior in all difficulties and 
 ngainst all aggressors. This "Clan Duil Cheire" have lately been 
 brought to notice, as the " Children of the Mist" of a celebrated 
 and jwpular work. 
 
APPENDIX. 321 
 
 sisted on principal and interest. "In that case, my 
 Lord," said Macgregor, "if these be your principles, I 
 shall not make it my principle to pay the interest, nor my 
 interest to pay the principal ; so if your Grace do not 
 stand your share of the loss, you shall have no money 
 from me." On this they separated. No settlement of 
 accounts followed, the one insisting on retaining the 
 money unless the other would consent to bear his share of 
 the loss. Nothing decisive was done till the Rebellion of 
 171 5, when Rob Roy "was out," his nephew Glengyle 
 commanding a numerous body of the Macgregors, but 
 under the control of his uncle's superior judgment and 
 experience. On this occasion the Duke of Montrose's 
 share of the cattle speculation was expended. The next 
 year his Grace took legal means to recover his money, and 
 got possession of the lands of Craigrostane on account of 
 his bond. This rendered Macgregor desperate. Deter- 
 mined that his Grace should not enjoy his lands with 
 impunity, he collected a band of about twenty followers, 
 declared open war against him, and gave up his old course 
 of regular droving, declaring that the estate of Montrose 
 should, in future, supply him with cattle, and that he 
 would make the Duke rue the day on which he had 
 quarrelled with him. He kept his word ; and for nearly 
 thirty years, that is, till the day of his death, levied regular 
 contributions on the Duke and his tenants, not by nightly 
 depredations and robberies, but in broad day, and in a 
 systematic manner ; at an appointed time making a com- 
 plete sw^eep of all the cattle of a district ; always passing 
 over those not belonging to the Duke's estate, as w^ell as 
 the estates of his friends and adherents : and having pre- 
 viously given notice where he was to be by a certain day 
 with his cattle, he w^as met there by people from all parts 
 of the country, to whom he sold them publicly. These 
 meetings, or trysts, as they were called, were held in 
 different parts of the country; sometimes the cattle were 
 driven south, but oftener to the north and west, where the 
 influence of his friend the Duke of Argyll protected him. 
 When the cattle were in this manner driven away, the 
 
3^2 APPENDIX. 
 
 tenants paid no rent, so that the Duke was the ultimate 
 sufferer. But he was made to suffer in every way. The 
 rents of the lower or cultivated farms were partly paid in 
 grain and meal, which was generally lodged in a store- 
 house or granary called a girnal, near the Loch of Mon- 
 teith. When Macgregor required a supply of meal, he 
 sent notice to a certain number of the Duke's tenants to 
 meet him at the girnal, on a certain day, with their horses 
 to carry home his meal. They met accordingly, when he 
 ordered the horses to be loaded, and, giving a regular 
 receipt to his Grace's storekeeper for the quantity taken, 
 he marched away, always entertaining the people very 
 handsomely, and careful never to take the meal till it had 
 been lodged in the Duke's store-house, in payment of rent. 
 When the money rents were paid, Macgregor frequently 
 attended. On one occasion, when Mr Graham of Killearn 
 (the factor) had collected the tenants to receive their rents, 
 all Rob Roy's men happened to be absent except Alex- 
 ander Stewart, "the Bailie," whom I have already men- 
 tioned. With this single attendant, he descended to 
 Chapellairoch, where the factor and the tenants were 
 assembled. He reached the house after it was dark, and, 
 looking in at a window, saw Killearn, surrounded by a 
 number of the tenants, with a bag full of mioney, which he 
 had received, and was in the act of depositing in a press 
 or cupboard; at the same time saying, that he would 
 cheerfully give all in the bag for Rob Roy's head. This 
 notification was not lost on the outside visitor, who 
 instantly gave orders in a loud voice to place two men at 
 each window, two at each corner, and four at each of two 
 doors, thus appearing to have twenty men. Immediately 
 the door opened, and he walked in with his attendant 
 close behind, each armed with a sword in his right and a 
 pistol in his left hand, and with dirks and pistols slung in 
 their belts. The company started up, but he requested 
 them to sit down, as his business was only with Killearn, 
 whom he ordered to hand down the bag and put it on 
 the table. When this was done, he desired the money to 
 be counted and proper receipts to be drawn out, certifying 
 
APPENDIX. 323 
 
 that he had received the money from the Duke of Mon- 
 trose's agent, as the Duke's property, the tenants having 
 paid their rents, so that no after demand could be made 
 against them, on account of this transaction ; and finding 
 that some of the people had not obtained receipts, he de- 
 sired the factor to grant them immediately, " to show his 
 Grace," said he, " that it is from him I take the money, 
 and not from these honest men who have paid him." After 
 the whole was concluded, he ordered supper, saying, that 
 as he had got the purse, it was proper he should pay the 
 bill ; and after they had drank heartily together for 
 several hours, he called his baiHe to produce his dirk and 
 lay it naked on the table. Killearn was then sworn that 
 he would not move from that spot for an hour after the 
 departure of Macgregor, who thus cautioned him : " If 
 you break your oath, you know what you are to ex- 
 pect in the next world and in this," pointing to his dirk. 
 He then walked away, and was beyond pursuit before the 
 hour expired. 
 
 At another collection of rents by the same gentleman, 
 Macgregor made his appearance, and carried him away 
 with his servants, to a small island in Loch-Katrine ; and 
 having kept him there for several days, entertaining him 
 in the best manner, as a Duke's representative ought to 
 be, he dismissed him, with the usual receipts and compli- 
 ments to his Grace. In this manner did this extraordi- 
 nary man live, in open violation and defiance of the laws, 
 and died peaceably in his bed when nearly eighty years 
 of age. His funeral was attended by all the country 
 round, high and low, the Duke of Montrose and his 
 immediate friends only excepted. How such things could 
 happen at so late a period must appear incredible ; and 
 this, too, within thirty miles of the garrisons of Stirling 
 and Dumbarton, and the populous city of Glasgow ; and, 
 indeed, with a small garrison stationed at Inversnaid, in 
 the heart of the country, and on the estate which had 
 belonged to Macgregor, for the express purpose of check- 
 ing his depredations. The truth is, the thing could not 
 have happened, had it not been for the peculiarity of the 
 
324 APPENDIX. 
 
 man's character ; for, with all his lawless spoliations and 
 unremitting acts of vengeance and robbery against the 
 Montrose family, he had not an enemy in the country, 
 beyond the sphere of their influence. He never hurt or 
 meddled with the property of a poor man, and, as I have 
 stated, was always careful that his great enemy should be 
 the principal, if not the only sufferer. Had it been other- 
 wise, it was quite impossible that, notwithstanding all his 
 enterprise, address, intrepidity, and vigilance, he could 
 have long escaped in a populous country, with a warlike 
 people well qualified to execute any daring exploit, such 
 as the seizure of this man, had they been his enemies, 
 and willing to undertake it. Instead of which, he lived 
 socially among them, that is, as socially as an outlaw, 
 always under a certain degree of alarm, could do, — giving 
 the education of gentlemen to his sons,* frequenting the 
 most populous towns, and whether in Edinburgh, Perth, 
 or Glasgow, equally safe ; at the same time that he dis- 
 played great and masterly address in avoiding, or calling 
 for public notice. 
 
 * One of his sons, who died not many years ago, was very young 
 at his father's death, and did not receive so good an education as his 
 brothers. Another son, James Drummond Macgregor, was impli- 
 cated with his brother Robert in carrying off by force a rich widow, 
 whom he afterwards married. For this crime they v/ere tried and 
 condemned. Robert was executed in 1753. His execution is thus 
 noticed in the Caledonian Mercury of 7th February 1752: " Yester- 
 day Robert Macgregor Campbell, alias Rob Roy Ogg, was executed 
 in the Grass Market, for the forcibly carrying away of the deceased 
 Mrs Jean Keay, heiress of Edenbelly ; he was genteely dressed, and 
 read on a volume of Gother's Works from the prison to the place of 
 execution." James escaped from prison, and fled to France, where 
 he lived in great poverty ; but, being a man of considerable talent 
 and address, he was offered a sum of money for communicating in- 
 telligence — in short, to be employed as a spy for the French Govern- 
 ment. An idea of his education, and of his principles, may be 
 formed from some letters published in " Blackwood's 5lagazine " in 
 1818, and from his rejection of an employment which he considered 
 dishonourable in itself, and detrimental to the good of his country, 
 although banished from it, and having little prospect of being ever 
 permitted to return. He died in France in great poverty, being 
 chiefly supported by some benevolent countrymen. 
 
APPENDIX. 325 
 
 These instances of his address struck terror into the 
 minds of the troops, whom he often defeated and out- 
 generalled. One of these instances occurred in Breadal- 
 bane, in the case of an officer and forty chosen men sent 
 out after him. The party crossed through Glenfalloch to 
 Tyndrum, and Macgregor, who had correct information 
 of all their movements, was with a party in the immediate 
 neighbourhood. He put himself in the disguise of a 
 beggar, with a bag of meal hung on his back (in those 
 days, alms were always bestowed in produce), went to the 
 inn at Tyndrum where the party were quartered, walked 
 into the kitchen with great seeming indifference, and sat 
 down among the soldiers. They soon found the beggar a 
 lively, sarcastic fellow, and began to attempt some practi- 
 cal jokes upon him. He pretended to be very angry, 
 and threatened to inform Rob Roy, who would quickly 
 show them they were not to give, with impunity, such 
 usage to a poor and harmless person. He was immedi- 
 ately asked what he knew of Rob Roy, and if he could 
 tell where he was. On his answering that he knew him 
 well, and where he was, the sergeant informed the officer, 
 who immediately sent for him. 
 
 After some conversation, the beggar consented to 
 accompany them to Crianlarich, a few miles distant, 
 w^here he said Rob Roy and his men were, and that he 
 believed their arms were lodged in one house, while they 
 were sitting in another. He added, that Rob Roy was 
 friendly and sometimes joked with him, and put him at 
 the head of his table ; " and when it is dark," said he, "I 
 will go forward, you will follow in half-an-hour, and, 
 when near the house, rush on, place your men at the back 
 of the house, ready to seize on the arms of the Highlanders, 
 while you shall go round to the front with the sergeant 
 and two men, walk in, and call out that the whole are your 
 prisoners ; and don't be surprised although you see me at 
 the head of the company." As they marched on, they 
 had to pass a rapid stream at Dalrie, a spot celebrated on 
 account of the defeat of Robert Bruce, by Macdougal of 
 Lorn, in the year 1306. Here the soldiers asked their 
 
326 APPENDIX. 
 
 merry friend the beggar to carry them through on his 
 back. This he did, sometimes taking two at a time till he 
 took the whole over, demanding a penny from each for his 
 trouble. When it was dark they pushed on (the beggar 
 having gone before), the officer following the directions of 
 his guide, and darting into the house with the sergeant 
 and three soldiers. They had hardly time to look to the 
 end of the table where they saw the beggar standing, when 
 the door was shut behind them, and they were instantly 
 pinioned, two men standing on each side, holding pistols 
 to their ears, and declaring that they were dead men if 
 they uttered a word. The beggar then went out and 
 called in two more men, who were instantly secured, and 
 in the same manner with the whole party. Having been 
 disarmed, they were placed under a strong guard till morn- 
 ing, when he gave them a plentiful breakfast, and released 
 them on parole (the Bailie attending with his dirk, over 
 which the officer gave his parole), to return immediately 
 to their garrison, without attempting anything more at this 
 time. This promise Rob Roy made secure, by keeping 
 their arms and ammunition as lawful prize of war. 
 
 Some time after this, the same officer was again sent 
 in pursuit of this noted character, probably to retrieve his 
 former mishap. In this expedition he was more fortunate, 
 for he took two of the freebooters prisoners in the higher 
 parts of Breadalbane, near the scene of the former exploit, 
 but the conclusion was nearly similar. He lost no time 
 in proceeding in the direction of Perth, for the purpose of 
 putting his prisoners in jail ; but Rob Roy was equally 
 alert in pursuit. His men marched in a parallel line with 
 the soldiers, who kept along the bottom of the valley on 
 the south side of Loch Tay, while the others kept close 
 up the side of the hill, anxiously looking for an opportunity 
 to dash down and rescue their comrades, if they saw any 
 remissness or want of attention on the part of the soldiers. 
 Nothing of this kind offered, and the parly had passed 
 Tay Bridge, near which they halted and slept. Mac- 
 gregor now saw that something must soon be done or 
 never, as they would speedily gain the Low country and 
 
APPENDIX. 327 
 
 be out of his reach. In the course of the night he pro- 
 cured a number of goat-skins and cords, with which he 
 dressed himseh" and his party in the wildest manner pos- 
 sible, and, pushing forward before daylight, took post near 
 the road side, in a thick wood below Grandtully Castle. 
 When the soldiers came in a line with the party in am- 
 bush, the Highlanders, with one leap, darted down upon 
 them, uttering such yells and shouts, as, along with their 
 frightful appearance, so confounded the soldiers, that they 
 were overpowered and disarmed without a man being hurt 
 on either side. Rob Roy kept the arms and ammunition, 
 released the soldiers, and marched away m triumph with 
 his rescued men. 
 
 The terror of his name was much increased by ex- 
 ploits like these, which, perhaps, lost nothing by the tell- 
 ing, as the soldiers would not probably be inclined to 
 diminish the danger and fatigues of a duty in which they 
 were so often defeated. But it is necessary to repeat the 
 stories preserved and related of this man and his actions, 
 which were always daring and well contrived, often suc- 
 cessful, but never directed against the poor, nor prompted 
 by revenge, except against the Duke of Montrose, and 
 without an instance of bloodshed committed by any of his 
 party, except in their own defence.* In his war against 
 the Montrose family he was supported and abetted by the 
 Duke of Arg)'ll, from whom he always received shelter 
 when hard pressed, or, to use a hunting term, when he was 
 in danger of being earthed by the troops, t These two 
 
 * It is said that the last rencontre Macgregor had was a duel 
 with Mr Stewart of Ardshiel. They fought with the broadsword. 
 Macgregor being then far advanced in years, and ver>- corpulent, 
 gave up the contest, after receiving a cut in the chin. 
 
 t A cave under Craigrostane, and close to Lochlomond, is 
 pointed out as one of his hiding places. If, contrary to the general 
 opinion of the people, he ever Hved in caves, it is probable that he 
 would not make choice of such an one as that at Craigrostane, whence 
 an escape would be impossible if an enemy discovered the hiding 
 place, and guarded the entrance. Rob Roy was not a man likely to 
 trust himself in such a place on any emergency, or danger from an 
 enemy. 
 
328 APPENDIX. 
 
 powerful families were still rivals, although Montrose had 
 left the Tories and joined Argyll and the Whig interest. 
 It is said that Montrose reproached Argyll in the House 
 of Peers with protecting the robber Rob Roy, when the 
 latter, with his usual eloquence and address, parried off 
 the accusation, (which he could not deny), by jocularly 
 answering, that, if he protected a robber, the other sup- 
 ported and fed him. 
 
 H, Page 78. 
 
 This man had been a sergeant in the French service, 
 and came over to Scotland in the year 1745. From his 
 large size he was called Sergeant Mor. Having no settled 
 abode, and dreading the consequence of having served in 
 the army of France, and of being afterwards engaged in 
 the Rebellion, he formed a party of outlaws, and took up 
 his residence among the mountains between the counties 
 of Perth, Inverness, and Argyle. While he plundered the 
 cattle of those whom he called his enemies, he protected 
 the property of his friends, and frequently made people on 
 the borders of the Lowlands purchase his forbearance by 
 the payment of Black Mail. Many stories are told of this 
 man. On one occasion he met with an officer of the 
 garrison of Fort-William on the mountains of Lochaber. 
 The officer told him that he suspected he had lost his 
 way, and, having a large sum of money for the garrison, 
 was afraid of meeting the Sergeant Mor; he, therefore, 
 requested that the stranger would accompany him on his 
 road. The other agreed ; and, while they walked on, they 
 talked much of the Sergeant and his feats, the officer using 
 much freedom with his name, calling him robber, mur- 
 derer. — " Stop there," interrupted his companion, *' he 
 does indeed take the cattle of the Whigs and Sassanachs, 
 but neither he nor his kearnachs ever shed innocent 
 blood ; except once," added he, " that I was unfortunate 
 at Braemar, when a man was killed, but I immediately 
 ordered the creach (the spoil) to be abandoned, and left 
 to the owners, retreating as fast as we could after such a 
 
APPENDIX. 329 
 
 misfortune." " You," says the officer, " what had you to 
 do with the affair?" "I am John Dhu Cameron — I am 
 the Sergeant Mor ; there is the road to Inverlochy — you 
 cannot now mistake it. You and your money are safe. 
 Tell your governor to send in future a more wary messen- 
 ger for his gold. Tell him also, that, although an out- 
 law, and forced to live on the public, I am a soldier as 
 well as himself, and would despise taking his gold from 
 a defenceless man who confided in me." The officer 
 lost no time in reaching the garrison, and never forgot the 
 adventure, which he frequently related. 
 
 Some time after this, the Sergeant Mor was betrayed 
 by a treacherous friend, and taken by a party under the 
 command of Lieutenant (afterwards Sir Hector) Munro. 
 This happened at the farm of Dunan, in Rannoch, where 
 he was in the habit of sleeping in safety, till that night, 
 when it is said that his landlord sent notice to Lieutenant 
 Munro, who was stationed two miles distant. Cameron 
 slept in a barn, his arms having, as was supposed, been 
 secretly removed, by his false friend. He was found 
 asleep, and the soldiers rushed in and seized him ; but, 
 being a powerful man, he shook them all off, and made 
 his way to the door, where he was overpowered by those 
 on the outside. He threw one of the soldiers with such 
 force against the wall of the barn, that he was long dis- 
 abled by his bruises. Cameron was carried to Perth, 
 and tried before the Court of Justiciary for the murder in 
 Braemar, and various acts of theft and cattle stealing. 
 One of these acts of theft was stealing from the Duke of 
 Athole's parks at Blair two wedders, which the party 
 killed for food, on their retreat from Braemar. Cameron 
 was executed at Perth on the 23rd of November 1753, 
 and hung in chains. 
 
 It was then the practice, in the Court of Justiciary, to 
 call the Doomster (an officer so called) into Court after 
 sentence of death was passed, to place his hand on the 
 head of the criminal, as a token that he was in future to 
 be under his care. A friend of mine, who was present 
 at this trial, informed me, that when the Doomster 
 
330 APPENDIX. 
 
 approached the Sergeant Mor, he exclaimed, " Keep the 
 caitiff off, let him not touch me ;" and stretching his arms 
 as if to strike, the Doomster was so terrified by his look, 
 action, and voice, that he shrunk back, and retired from 
 the Court, without going through the usual ceremony. 
 
 I, Page 84. 
 
 Beague, in his History of the Scotch Campaigns of 
 1548 and 1549, describing the Battle of Pinkie, in which 
 the Scots were defeated, says, " The Highlanders, who 
 show their courage on all occasions, gave proof of their 
 conduct at this time, for they kept together in one body, 
 and made a very handsome and orderly retreat. They 
 are armed with broadswords, large bows, and targets." 
 
 "The armour," says the author of "Certayne Matters," 
 in 1597, "with which they covered their bodies in times 
 of war, is an iron bonnet, and halberzion side almost 
 even with their heels ; the weapons against their enemies 
 are bows and arrows ; they fight with broadswords and 
 axes ; in place of a drum they use a bagpipe ; they 
 delight much in music, but chiefly in harps and clairs- 
 shoes {clairsach is the Gaelic for harp) of their own 
 fashion." The author of '' Memoirs of a Cavalier," 
 speaking of the Highlanders in the Scotch army under 
 General Leslie in 1640, says, "I confess the soldiers 
 made a very uncouth figure, especially the Highlanders ; 
 the oddness and barbarity of their garb and arms seemed 
 to have something in it remarkable. They were generally 
 tall swinging-looking fellows ; their swords are extrava- 
 gantly broad, and they carried large wooden targets, large 
 enough to cover the upper part of their bodies. Their dress 
 was antique as the rest ; a flat cap on their head, called 
 by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and their 
 doublets, breeches, and stockings, of a stuff they called 
 plaid, stripped across red and yellow, with short cloaks of 
 the same. These fellows looked, when drawn out, like 
 a regiment of Merry Andrews, ready for Bartholomew 
 Fair. They are in companies all of a name, and therefore 
 
APPENDIX. 331 
 
 call one another by his Christian name, as James, John, 
 Rob, and AUister, that is Alexander, and the like ; and 
 they scorn to be commanded but by one of their own 
 clan or family. They are all gentlemen, and proud 
 enough to be kings. The meanest fellow among them is 
 as tenacious of his honour as the best nobleman in the 
 country, and they will fight and cut one another's throats 
 for every trifling aff'ront ; but to their own chiefs or lairds 
 they are the wilhngest and most obedient fellows in 
 nature. To give them their due, were their skill and 
 exercise and discipline proportioned to their courage, 
 they would make the best soldiers in the world. They 
 have large bodies, and prodigious strong, and two qualities 
 above all other nations, viz., hardy to endure fatigue, 
 hunger, cold, and hardships, and wonderfully swift of 
 foot. The latter is such an advantage in the field, that 
 I know none like it, for if they conquer, no enemy can 
 escape them, and if they run, even the horse can hardly 
 overtake them. There were some of them, as I observed 
 before, went out in parties with their horse. There were 
 3000 or 4000 of these in the Scotch army, armed only 
 with swords and targets, and in their belts some of them 
 had a pistol, but no musquets at that time among them. 
 But there were also a great many Scotch regiments of 
 disciplined men, who, by their carrying their arms, looked 
 as if they understood their business, and by their faces, 
 that they durst see an enemy." 
 
 K, Page Ss. 
 
 Two which occurred in the reign of Charles II. were 
 among the last instances of bowmen being employed in 
 the Highlands. After a long and protracted feud between 
 the Lairds of Mackintosh and Lochiel commencing in a 
 claim of the former to lands held by the latter, Mackintosh, 
 to enforce his claim, raised his clan, and assisted by the 
 Macphersons, marched to Lochaber with 1500 men. He 
 was met by Lochiel ^yiih 1200 men, of whom 300 were 
 Macgregors. About 300 were armed with bows. When 
 
332 APPENDIX. 
 
 preparing to engage, the Earl of Breadalbane, who was 
 nearly related to both chiefs, came in sight, \vith 500 men, 
 and sent them notice, that if either of them refused to 
 agree to the terms which he had to propose, he would 
 throw his force into the opposite scale. This was a strong 
 argument, and not easily refuted. After some hesitation, 
 his offer of mediation was accepted, and the feud amicably 
 and finally settled. 
 
 The other instance happened about the same time, in 
 a contest between the Macdonalds of Glencoe and the 
 Breadalbane men. The former being on their return 
 from a foray in the low country, attempted to pass through 
 Breadalbane without giving due notice, or paying the 
 accustomed compHment to the Earl, who, a short time 
 previous, had been raised to that rank. A number of his 
 Lordship's followers, and a great many others, w^ho were 
 assembled at the castle of Finlarig to celebrate the 
 marriage of a daughter of the family, enraged at this 
 insult, instantly rushed to arms, and following the Mac- 
 donalds, with more ardour than prudence, attacked them 
 on the top of a hill north from the village of Killin, where 
 they had taken post to defend their cattle. The assailants 
 were driven back with great loss, principally caused by 
 the arrows of the Lochaber men. It is said that nineteen 
 young gentlemen of the name of Campbell, immediate 
 descendants of the family, fell on that day. Colonel 
 Menzies of Culdares, who had been an active partisan 
 under the Marquis of Argyll and the Covenanters in the 
 civil wars, and whose prudent advice of attacking in flank 
 the hot-headed youth despised, had nine arrow wounds 
 in his legs and thighs. These vvounds he received in 
 retreating across the River Lochy, and when ascending 
 the hill on the opposite side of the valley. Though the 
 arrows were well aimed, they lost much of their force by 
 the distance ; consequently the wounds were slight. 
 
 The yew was the common material of the bows of the 
 Highlanders, 
 
 " who drew, 
 And almost joined the horns of the tough yew." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 333 
 
 Within the church-yard of Fortingal, Perthshire, the ruins 
 of an enormous yew-tree still remain. The stem is now 
 separated into two parts ; the principal, although only a 
 mere shell, the centre being entirely decayed, measures 
 thirty-two feet in circumference. Colonel Campbell of 
 Glenlyon, and my grandfather, used to say that when they 
 were boys (about the year 1725) the parts now separated 
 were united, when the whole stem measured fifty-six feet 
 in circumference. This venerable relic, which appears so 
 respectable in its decay, has suffered much from delapi- 
 dations. Tradition says, that warriors, at one time, cut 
 their bows from it ; latterly dirk-makers, shoemakers, and 
 others, made handles from it for their dirks, awls, and 
 other instruments; and it has suffered greatly from the 
 curiosity of modern tourists. 
 
 In the original charter for building the church of 
 Perone, in Piccardy, dated in the year 684, a clause was 
 inserted, directing the proper preservation of a yew-tree, 
 which was in existence in the year 1790, nearly iioo 
 years after this notice of it in the charter — a remarkable 
 instance of the durability of this species of wood. 
 
 L, Page 94. 
 
 Within these few years, an opinion has prevailed that 
 the truis is the ancient garb of the Highlanders, and that 
 the plaid, kilt, and bonnet are of modem invention. This 
 opinion, adopted by many, is supported by a wTiter in the 
 "Scots Magazine" of 1798. This author endeavours to 
 prove that the plaid and philibeg must be modern, and 
 assigns, as a reason, that they are not mentioned by 
 ancient authors ; and that, in all monumental figures and 
 statues of the ancient kings of Ireland, the kilt never 
 appears as part of their garb. But as those authors 
 generally wrote in Latin, the words plaid and kilt could 
 not probably be expressed in appropriate terms: and 
 as the Irish kings were not Highlanders, there appears 
 no good reason for supposing that they should be 
 represented in kilts. The author of "Memoirs of 
 
334 APPENDIX. 
 
 a Cavalier" says, that a body of 4000 Highlanders, 
 whom he saw with the Scotch army in 1640, wore 
 flat caps on their heads, called by them bonnets, long 
 hanging sleeves behind, and their doublets, breeches^ and 
 stockings, of a kind of stuff they called plaids, striped 
 across, red, green, and yellow, with short cloaks of the 
 same." Now, as this author mentions neither truis nor 
 kilt, it might be supposed that those articles of dress were 
 not in use so late as the reign of Charles I., that breeches 
 only were worn, and that truis and kilt were adopted since 
 that period ; although it is well known that the truis is a 
 very ancient, but not the only ancient, dress of the Cale- 
 donians. Beague, in his History of the Campaigns in 
 Scotland in 1548 and 1549, printed in Paris, in 1556, states, 
 that at the siege of Haddington, in 1549, "they (the 
 Scotch army) were followed by the Highlanders, and these 
 last go ahnost naked ; they have painted waistcoats, and a 
 sort of wollen covering, variously coloured." As the 
 author wrote in French, perhaps he did not understand 
 the terms tartan, plaid, and kilt, and as the people wore 
 painted waistcoats and coloured coverifigs, it is probable, 
 that, if they had had the addition of truis, they would not 
 have been described as " almost naked." The author of 
 "Certayne Matters" says, that in his days (previous to 
 1597), they (the Highlanders) delighted much in mar- 
 bled clothes, specially that has long stripes of sundrie 
 colours ; their predecessors used short mantles of divers 
 colours, sundrie ways divided." The author first men- 
 tioned states, that plaids and tartan came from Flanders 
 to the Lowlands of Scotland, in the sixteenth century, 
 and thence passed to the Highlands ; but is it certain that 
 tartan was known in Flanders, and that tartan and the 
 kilt were worn in the Lowlands, before their supposed 
 passage to the mountains? But allowing, what is very 
 improbable, that the fashion of striped and variegated 
 clothes, or tartan, came from Flanders, it must have been 
 much earlier than the sixteenth century ; for we find by 
 the chartularies of the Episcopal See of Aberdeen, lately 
 edited by John Graham Dalyel, Esq., that the statutes or 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 335 
 
 canons of the Scottish Church, in the year 1242 and 1249, 
 and the ordinances and regulations of the See of Aber- 
 deen, 1256, directs that all ecclesiastics be suitably 
 apparelled, avoiding red, green, stripped clothing, and 
 their garments not to be shorter than to the middle of the 
 leg. Now, this red, green, stripped clothing must have 
 been tartan, and the forbidden garment worn shorter than 
 to the middle of the leg, the kilt. 
 
 But to return to the article in the "Scots Magazine," 
 it is stated that the garb is called "beggarly, effe?ninate 
 (this, I apprehend, is rather an unexpected characteristic), 
 grossly indecent and absurd," to say nothing of the taste- 
 less regularity and ^^ vulgar glare of tartan''^ The 
 colours of the tartan do nor appear so red and glaring as 
 the peers' robes, the military uniforms, or the royal livery, 
 which therefore cannot with propriety be called vulgar, 
 considering those who wear them. But this author's 
 remarks deserve no attention ; and as on the whole it is 
 not probable that a people, at so late a period, would 
 assume a garb totally unknown in the world, and in their 
 cold climate put away the warm breeches, and expose 
 half their body to the blast, there are the better grounds 
 for the undivided opinion of the people themselves, that 
 as far back as they have any tradition, the truis, breachan- 
 nafeal (the kilted plaid), and philibeg, have ever been 
 the dress of the Highlanders. The truis were used by 
 gentlemen on horseback, and by others as they were in- 
 clined, but the common garb of the people was the plaid 
 and kilt. This was the usual dress down till the Act 
 passed for the suppression of the garb. When gentlemen 
 travelled southwards, it was generally on horseback, con- 
 
 * One of the most distinguished artists of the age, Mr West, late 
 President of the Royal Academy, differs from this opinion. He has 
 expressed his surprise at the blending and arrangement of the colours, 
 and considers, "that great art (that is to say, much knowledge of 
 the principles of colouring with pleasing effect) has been displayed 
 in the composition of the tartans of several clans, regarding them in 
 general as specimens of natural taste, something analogous to the 
 affecting but artless strains of the native music of Scotland." 
 
336 APPENDIX. 
 
 sequently they wore the truis, and were often in armour ; 
 of course the Lowlanders would the more readily notice 
 the former as a prominent part of the mountain garb, and 
 describe it accordingly, t 
 
 M, Page 103. 
 
 The weddings were the delight of all ages. Persons from 
 ten years of age to four score attended them. Some weeks 
 previous to the marriage-day, the bride and bridegroom 
 went round their respective friends, to the distance of 
 many miles, for the purpose of inviting them to the wed- 
 ding. To repay this courtesy, the matrons of the invited 
 families returned the visit within a few days, always well 
 supplied with presents of beef, hams, butter, cheese, spirits, 
 malt, and- whatever they thought necessary for the ensuing 
 feast. These, with what the guests paid for their enter- 
 tainment, and the gifts presented the day after the mar- 
 riage, were often so considerable, as to contribute much to 
 the future settlement of the young couple. On the wed- 
 ding-morning, the bridegroom, escorted by a party of 
 friends, and preceded by a piper, commenced a round 
 of morning calls, to remind their invited friends of their 
 engagements. This circuit sometimes occupied several 
 hours, and as many joined the party, it might perhaps be 
 increased to some hundreds, when they returned to the 
 bridegroom's house. The bride went a similar round 
 among her friends. The bridegroom gave a dinner to his 
 friends, and the bride to hers. During the whole day, the 
 fiddlers and pipers were in constant employment. The 
 fiddlers played to the dancers in the house, and the pipers 
 
 t My great-grandfather's portrait is in complete armour, with a 
 full-bottomed wig reaching down nearly to his waist, according to 
 the fashion of King William's and Queen Anne's reigns. This 
 portrait was painted in London, where he never wore the Highland 
 garb. Yet this is given as an instance of the garb not being in use 
 among gentlemen. Had his picture been painted in the Highlands, 
 it would probably have been done in his usual dress, which was the 
 tartan, etc. 
 
APPENDIX. 337 
 
 to those in the field.* The ceremony was generally per- 
 formed after dinner. Sometimes the clergyman attended, 
 sometimes they waited on him : the latter was preferred, 
 as the walk to his house with such a numerous attendance 
 added to the eclat of the day. On these occasions the 
 young men supplied themselves with guns and pistols, 
 with which they kept up a constant firing. This was 
 answered from every hamlet as they passed along, so 
 that, with streamers flying, pipers playing, the constant 
 firing from all sides, and the shouts of the young men, 
 the whole had the appearance of a military array passing, 
 with all the noise of warfare, through a hostile country. 
 The young couple never met on the wedding-day till 
 they came before the clergyman, when the marriage 
 rites were performed, with a number of ceremonies 
 too minute to particularize. One of these was to untie 
 all the strings and bindings on the person of the bride- 
 groom ; nothing to be bound on that occasion, but the 
 one indissoluble knot, which death only could dissolve. 
 The bride was not included in this injunction. She was 
 supposed to be so pure and true, that infidelity on her part 
 was not contemplated. Such were the pecuhar notions and 
 delicacy of thinking among a people esteemed rude and 
 uncultivated. As all these ceremonies, which were very 
 
 * Playing the bagpipes within doors is a Lowland and English 
 custom. In the Highlands the piper is always in the open air ; and 
 when people wish to dance to his music, it is on the green, if the 
 weather permits ; nothing but necessity makes them attempt a pipe 
 dance in the house. The bagpipe was a field instrument intended 
 to call the clans to arms, and animate them in battle, and was no 
 more intended for a house, than a round of six-pounders. A broad- 
 side from a first rate, or a round from a battery, has a sublime and 
 impressive effect at a proper distance. In the same manner, the 
 sound of the bagpipe, softened by distance, had an indescribable 
 effect on the minds and actions of the Highlanders. But as few 
 would choose to be under the muzzle of the guns of a ship of the line 
 or of a battery when in full play, so I have seldom seen a Highlander, 
 whose ears were not grated when close to pipes, however much his 
 breast might be warmed, and his feelings roused, by the sounds to 
 which he had been accustomed in his youth, when proceeding from 
 the proper distance. 
 
338 APPENDIX. 
 
 numerous and very innocent, added much to the cheerful- 
 ness and happiness of the young people, I cannot avoid 
 regretting their partial disuse. Nor can I help preferring 
 a Highland wedding, where I have myself been so happy, 
 and seen so many blithe countenances and eyes sparkling 
 with delight, to such weddings as that of the Laird of 
 Drum, ancestor of the Lord Sommerville, when he married 
 a daughter of Sir James Bannatyne of Corhouse. On 
 that occasion, sanctified by the puritanical cant of the 
 times, there was " one marquis, three earls, two lords, six- 
 teen barons, and eight ministers present at the solemnity, 
 but not one musician ; they liked yet better the bleating 
 of the calves of Dan and Bethel, the ministers' long- 
 winded, and sometimes nonsensical graces, little to pur- 
 pose, than all musical instruments of the sanctuaries, at 
 so solemn an occasion, which, if it be lawful at all to have 
 them, certainly it ought to be upon a wedding-day, for 
 divertisement to the guests, that innocent recreation of 
 music and dancing being much more warrantable, and far 
 better exercise than drinking and smoking of tobacco, 
 wherein the holy brethren of the Presbyterian (persuasion) 
 for the most part employed themselves, without any formal 
 health, or remembrance of their friends, a nod with the 
 head, or a sign with the turning up of the white of the eye, 
 served for the ceremony."* Such was a Scotch wedding 
 towards the end of the seventeenth century, and such, I 
 hope, will not be Highland weddings of the nineteenth 
 century, although now seldom countenanced by the pre- 
 sence of chiefs and landlords, as modern manners preserve 
 a greater distance than in former days, when a more cordial 
 communication subsisted between the higher and lower 
 orders. 
 
 N, Page 103. 
 
 It has often been said that the music of Scotland was 
 borrowed from Italy, and that David Rizzio first gave it the 
 stamp and character which it now bears. If this opinion 
 
 * Memoirs 0/ the Sommerville Family. 
 
APPENDIX. 339 
 
 be well founded, it would be desirable to show what part 
 of the Scottish music has been borrowed, what is original, 
 and whether this particular kind of music was ever known 
 in Italy. Bagpipes are common in Italy, particularly 
 among the Tyrolese in the north, and the Calabrese in the 
 south ; yet, is it probable that the Highland pibrochs came 
 either from Italy or the Tyrol ? The Reel of Tulloch, 
 Rothiemurchus Rant, and Jenny Dang the Weaver, can- 
 not well claim any near connexion with Italian music. 
 Mackintosh's Lament, and Craguana in the north, the 
 Birks of Invermay, in the centre, and the Flowers of the 
 Forest in the south of Scotland, from their melody, bear 
 some resemblance to the Italian ; but as there must be a 
 similarity in all melodious sounds, it is probable that the 
 connexion between the softer music of Scotland and of 
 Italy is only to be found in their beauty, and that the 
 Pibroch, Reel, Strathspey, Lament, and Songs are 
 peculiar to the country. The opinion which attributes 
 the melody of the Scotch songs to Rizzio, and the sublime 
 and elevated sentiments of Ossian to ^lacpherson, seem 
 to be founded more on the ideas entertained of the rude 
 and uncultivated state of Scotland, at an early period, as 
 being perfectly incompatible with the delicacy of taste and 
 feeling which both the poetry and music display, than on 
 any authentic information. But where there is a deficiency 
 of authentic information, there is more room for a diver- 
 sity of opinion, especially as, on one side, all is tradition, 
 supported by many facts ; and on the other, all is assertion, 
 without one fact, except some surmises originating in the 
 vanity of Rizzio and Macpherson. The latter had too 
 much honour to assert that he was the author of the poems, 
 although, as the MSS. of which he got possession have dis- 
 appeared, perhaps he would not have been sorry if the world 
 had given him credit for talents equal to such compositions. 
 The MSS. would have been clear evidence that he was not the 
 author: but he has himself furnished complete evidence, by 
 his poetical works, and other translations, which unfortun- 
 ately for his literary reputation he published, as if it were 
 to show how inferior they are to his Gaelic translations. 
 
340 APPENDIX. 
 
 However, a fine field of disquisition is opened, and national 
 vanity interposes to darken the question. In the South, 
 it cannot be endured, that a people who have always been 
 considered as rude and savage, should compose, preserve 
 for ages, and enjoy with enthusiasm, the beauties of a 
 body of poetry, equal to what the most refined civilization 
 has produced. In the North, again, the people are im- 
 patient and irritated at the attempts to accuse them of fraud 
 and falsehood ; and of endeavours to palm on the public 
 the patched-up works of a modern author, as the genuine 
 productions of their ancestors. Had the question, when 
 first agitated, been properly managed, it might have been 
 easily decided, when there were such a cloud of witnesses, 
 and so many people were living who had the poems be- 
 fore Macpherson was born, and who knew that the re- 
 hearsal and learning of them formed one of the principal 
 winter pastimes of the people. But, even at that period, who 
 were to be the judges ? The southern unbelievers could 
 not have understood one word of the poems in dispute, 
 although all the bards in the North had been assembled, 
 and each had recited Macpherson's publication verbatim 
 in the original. The Highlanders, the only people 
 who understood the language, and could judge properly, 
 would not have been beheved, although they had 
 asserted, that the recitals of the bards and the trans- 
 lation coincided perfectly. In such a determined difference 
 of opinion, how is the point to be settled ? All, there- 
 fore, who believe that Rizzio did not, in any manner 
 whatever, originate the national music of Scotland, and 
 that the poems ascribed to Ossian are very ancient, and 
 so authentic as to have been handed down from fatlier to 
 son for ages beyond the reach of record, will continue of 
 this belief ; while those who are of the contrary opinion 
 must remain so, as there are no proofs such as they 
 require, that is, books or manuscripts. The manuscripts 
 on which so much stress was laid were not many cen- 
 turies old, and did in no manner prove who was the 
 author. Had they been preserved, they would only have 
 established this point, — certainly of some importance in 
 
APPENDIX. 341 
 
 the controversy, — that the poems were not the composi- 
 tion of a modern author; but as I believe it has not yet 
 been ascertained in what MSS. the works of Homer were 
 found and transmitted to posterity, Ossian's poems, who- 
 ever may have been the author or authors of them, are in 
 good company when in a similar predicament. 
 
 O, Page 106. 
 
 While game was in such abundance as to form part 
 of the subsistence of the people, at a time when many 
 had the means of destruction ready, and much liberty 
 was given, it appears remarkable that now, when pre- 
 served with such jealous care, it is in many places 
 become so scarce as only to furnish a short pastime to a 
 comparatively few privileged individuals ; a fact which 
 might lead to a belief that too great care defeats its own 
 object, and ensures the evil against which it seeks to 
 guard. It is certain, that in moors which annually afford 
 an apparently inexhaustible supply, and where good 
 marksmen have been known to shoot more than one 
 hundred birds in a forenoon, the game seems to increase 
 instead of diminishing by this periodical destruction, per- 
 severed in, as it has been, for weeks, each successive 
 season ; whereas, in other moors strictly preserved, the 
 birds are fewer in number, and becoming very scarce ; at 
 the same time, that I have been assured by men well 
 acquainted with the state of these grounds in past times^ 
 that game was as abundant as on those which now furnish 
 the greatest numbers. The mountains of Breadalbane, 
 Athole, Badenoch, and other districts, furnish marked 
 instances of this scarcity of game w^hen protected, and of 
 abundance where the greatest annual destruction prevails. 
 For the singular fact that the periodical killing of game 
 does not diminish the annual increase, various reasons 
 are assigned. It is said, that when the old birds are left, 
 they chase away in spring all the young brood of the pre- 
 ceding season, and that these take shelter on grounds 
 where the old birds had been killed. It is also said. 
 
345» APPENDIX. 
 
 that in preserved moors, poachers are more frequent, 
 bold, and destructive, in the expectation, as few frequent 
 them, that they will not be discovered. A third assigned 
 cause, and, in appearance, the most destructive of game, 
 is, that the farmers and shepherds who occupy these 
 moors, irritated by severe restrictions, tormented by 
 threats of punishment, and insulted by the arrogance of 
 insolent gamekeepers, instead of being encouraged to 
 preserve the game, and, instead of being allowed to derive 
 from it either benefit or amusement, make a practice, in 
 many cases, of feeding their dogs with the eggs, and 
 when these escape their notice, accustom them to search 
 for and destroy the young brood before they are fledged. 
 Whether any or all of these causes affect the decrease of 
 game, there appears little doubt, that judging from the 
 character of the Highlanders, a kind and liberal indulg- 
 ence to tenants in a moderate use of the gun on their 
 own grounds, with strict injunction to their shepherds to 
 be careful of the nests and of the young, and not to burn 
 the heather in improper seasons, or in those places most 
 frequented by the game (although burning the heath in 
 moderation is advisable, as the young sprouts furnish 
 their principal food), and along with this indulgence, the 
 offer of small premiums to the shepherds for each covey 
 of eight or more birds they can produce in their pasture, 
 would make it their interest to preserve the game ; no 
 person could escape notice ; and thus, they would form a 
 better protection against poachers, than prosecutions, 
 fines, and imprisonment. 
 
 P, Page 109. 
 
 In the common transactions of the people, written 
 obligations were seldom required, and although the bar- 
 gains were frequently concladed in the most private 
 manner,* there were few instances of a failure in, or 
 
 * When their money agreements or other negotiations were to be 
 concluded and confirmed, the contracting parties went out by them- 
 selves to the open air, and looking upwards, called Heaven to witness 
 
APPENDIX. 343 
 
 denial of, their engagements. A gentleman of the name 
 of Stewart agreed to lend a considerable sum of money 
 to a neighbour. When they had met, and the money 
 was already counted down on the table, the borrower 
 offered a receipt. As soon as the lender (grandfather of 
 the late Mr Stewart of Ballachulish) heard this, he im- 
 mediately took up his money, saying, that a man who 
 could not trust his own word without a bond, should not 
 be trusted by him, and would have none of his money, 
 which he put up in his purse and returned home. An in- 
 habitant of the same district, father of the late Dr Smith, 
 of Campbelton, and of Donald Smith, M.D., eminent for 
 antiquarian learning and research, kept a retail shop for 
 nearly fifty years, and supplied the whole district, then 
 full of people, with all their little merchandise. He 
 neither gave nor asked any receipts. At Martinmas 
 of each year, he collected the amount of his sales, 
 which were always paid to a day. In one of his 
 annual rounds, a customer happened to be from home, 
 consequently, he returned unpaid ; but before he was 
 out of bed the following morning, he was awakened by a 
 call from his customer, who came to pay his account. 
 After the business was settled, his neighbour said, " You 
 are now paid ; I would not for my best cow* that I should 
 sleep while you wanted your money after your term of 
 payment, and that I should be the last in the country in 
 your debt." Unforunately, new regulations, new views of 
 Highland statistics, and the novel practice of letting land 
 to the highest bidder, regardless of the fidehty and punctual 
 payment of old occupiers, have occasioned a melancholy 
 
 their engagements, at the same time each party repeating the pro- 
 mise of payment, and, by way of seal, putting a mark on some re- 
 markable stone, or other natural object, which had been noticed by 
 those ancestors whose memory they so much respected and loved, and 
 whom from the superstitious notions of the times they believed were 
 permitted to look down upon them and their actions and conduct. 
 
 * My longest horned cow, was the literal Gaelic expression. 
 Long and well-shaped horns are considered as marks of health and 
 strength. 
 
344 APPENDIX. 
 
 change. Few of the late moral population now remain, 
 and that few are mostly reduced to the condition of cottars 
 and day-labourers. The person who now occupies the 
 shop, a son of the former possessor, must not only keep 
 strict accounts, but give short credits, and calculate on an 
 annual reduction of his profits by bad payments ; and he 
 is in little danger of being deprived of his morning slum- 
 bers by debtors anxious to pay, and ashamed of being in 
 debt. This is now too common to be a reproach, and is 
 one of the many concomitants of modern improvements 
 and civilization, as they have been forced on and practised 
 in the Highlands. 
 
 Q, Page 1 1 8. 
 
 In the Highlands, where so many of the same name 
 live in the same district or glen, some denomination for 
 distinguishing individuals beyond that of the generic name 
 is indispensable. In the late Sutherland Fencible Regi- 
 ment there were 17 William Mackays in Captain Sack- 
 ville Sutherland's company, and 104 in the regiment. 
 When the 2nd battalion of the 78th Highlanders was raised 
 in 1804, an eneign from Ross-shire brought 18 men of his 
 own name, of Macrae, as part of his complement of 20, 
 for an ensigncy. On the estates of many noblemen and 
 gentlemen, the number of their own surnames is often be- 
 yond all proportion greater than any others. On a part 
 of the estate of Menzies, running four miles along one side 
 of the valley, on the banks of the Tay, there are 502 of 
 the Chiefs name, descendants of his family. Many 
 similar instances are still to be met with where gentlemen 
 have retained their ancient tenantry. In Athole, an ex- 
 tensive district of Perthshire, there were, fifty years ago, 
 36 landholders of the name of Stewart : there are still 23; 
 and in Athole, Strathearn, and Monteith, there are 5000 
 people of tliat name, of whom upwards of 1800 are de- 
 scendants of Neil Stewart of Garth, who died in 1433. 
 In such communities, the want of some distinguishing 
 appellation would lead to confusion. These distinctions 
 
APPENDIX. 345 
 
 were generally made as follows : — In the case of a chief 
 by using singly, and by way of distinction, the denomina- 
 tion of son of the first founder, or most renowned man of 
 the family ; as, for example, the Duke of Argyll, who is 
 styled Mac Cailean Mor* the son of the great Colin ; 
 Mac Co7inel Dubh, the son of Donald the Black, the name 
 of the chiefs of the Camerons. Under this head there 
 was another distinction. Chieftains, Ceann-Tays, or great 
 branches of a clan or family, were distinguished as the 
 sons of the first founder. Such as Breadalbane, a great 
 branch of the clan Campbell; Mac Cailean MacConachie, 
 the son of Colin the son of Duncan. + Lairds or land- 
 holders were often named from their estates, as Stewart of 
 Grandtully, Stewart of Garth, and so on ; all others being 
 distinguished by some personal mark which might be 
 either an accidental defect, any natural advantage, or any 
 singularity of colour, figure, or features. The second 
 Marquis of Atholl was known by the name of lati a Bheul 
 Mhoi'^ John with the large mouth; John the first Duke of 
 Atholl being blind of an eye, Ian Cam ; the first Earl of 
 Breadalbane having a pale countenance, Ian Glas; the 
 second Earl, Ian Bacach, from his being lame. If a man 
 had no personal mark, or patrimonial distinction, he was 
 known by adding the name of his father, as the son of 
 John. This perhaps ran back for three or four generations. 
 However absurd a long string of names may appear in 
 English, it is not so in Gaelic, from the facility of com- 
 pounding words in that language. 
 
 * Although Mo7' is great, the word does not always mean great 
 power, or superior talent. It was more frequently given to men of 
 large size, or portly persons. 
 
 t The people seldom call Lord Breadalbane by his patronymic^ 
 but not so the Duke of Argyll, Lord Seafield, Lord Macdonald, and 
 many others. Riding a few years ago through the Duke of Argyll's 
 parks at Inveraray, I observed some young blood horses grazing. A 
 woman happening to pass at that time, I asked her in Gaelic to whom 
 the horses belonged. " To whom should they belong," she answered 
 sharply, " To whom should they belong but to Mac Cailean?" seem- 
 ingly quite indignant that I should suppose that any man could possess 
 anything there but Mac Cailean Mor. 
 
346 APPENDIX. 
 
 R, Page T19. 
 
 There are four different spellings of this name ; Stew- 
 art, Steuart, Stuart, and Steward. The ancient and 
 original name, as spelt by the royal family, is Stewart, 
 taken from the office of Lord High Steward of Scotland, 
 which was hereditary in the family nearly two centuries 
 before the succession of Robert II. to the throne. The 
 original spelling of Stewart continued for several reigns after 
 this succession, till the increased communication between 
 France and Scotland induced so many noblemen, gentle- 
 men, and soldiers, to enter the French army. James 
 Stewart, Earl of Buchan, Constable of France, carried 
 with him on one occasion 7000 men, as auxiliaries in the 
 war with England. The Lords of Darnley and Aubigny 
 were frequent visitors in France, and held extensive mili- 
 tary commands and possessions there, and following the 
 idiom of the French language, the W being unknown, 
 several began to use the U, and spelt the name Stuard 
 or Stuart. Mary Queen of Scots being educated in 
 France, likewise adopted that mode of spelling, on her 
 subsequent marriage with the Dauphin, and out of com- 
 pliment to her husband's language ; as did her brother 
 the Earl of Murray, and the families of Traquair, Bute, 
 Castlemilk, and several others, which from whim or acci- 
 dent changed their names. How much accident influenced 
 this change of name is evident from the circumstance, that 
 Lord Galloway retains the old spelling of Stewart, while 
 Lord Blantyre and other families of the same descent, as 
 Castlemilk, spell Stuart ; Allanton, Steuart ; Allanbank, a 
 branch of Allanton, Steuart ; Coltness, also a branch 
 of Allanton, Stewart ; and while Traquair is Stuart, 
 Grandtully, of the same descent and family, is Stewart. 
 The Earl of Murray, before his promotion to that title, 
 when Prior of St Andrews, and previous to the return of 
 Queen Mary from France, spelt his name Stewart, as we 
 find by the following document, signed by him and the 
 Earl of Argyle, and Ruthven Earl of Cowrie, authorizing 
 
APPENDIX. 347 
 
 the Lairds of Airntully and Kinvaid to destroy all images 
 and relics of the Catholic religion in the Cathedral of 
 Dunkeld. 
 
 " To our traist friends the Lairds of Airntully and 
 Kinvaid. 
 
 " Traist friends, after most hearty commendation, we 
 pray you fail not to pass incontinent to the Kirk of 
 Dunkeilden, and tak doon the hail images thereof, and 
 bring them forth to the kirk yaird and burn them openly. 
 And sicklyke cast doon the alters and purge the kirk of all 
 kind of idolatyry. And this ze fail not to do, as ze will do 
 us singular impleasure, and so committeth you to the pro- 
 tection of God. 
 
 "From Edinburgh the XII of August 1560. 
 
 " Argyle. 
 '''•James Stewart. 
 " William Ruthven. 
 
 " Fail not, but ze tak guid heyd that neither the desks, 
 windocks, nor duires, be any way hurt or broken, eyther 
 glassin wark or iron wark." 
 
 S, Page 124. 
 
 It is a generally received opinion, that the Highlanders 
 are ignorant and uneducated. It is no doubt true, that 
 previous to the present reign, many could not read, or 
 understand what they read in English, and there were few 
 books in their own language ; but they had their Bards 
 and Senachies, who taught them in the manner already 
 mentioned. The middle and higher orders of society 
 were as well educated as the youth of any part of the 
 United Kingdom. The gentlemen farmers and tacksmen 
 were certainly better classical scholars than men holding 
 the same occupation and rank in society, in the South. 
 These observations must be confined to the period which 
 has elapsed since the reign of Charles XL, as the prior 
 notices are not in a connected series. But, to judge from 
 
34^ APPENDIX. 
 
 insulated circumstances, the education of the gentry, and 
 the better order of farmers of an earHer period, was not 
 deficient. Of this, the celebrated George Buchanan, the 
 son of a small Highland farmer, was a remarkable instance. 
 On reference to old family charters and papers, it will be 
 found, that the signatures to the former, from and after 
 the year 1500, show a correctness of writing not to be 
 seen in modern times, and not to be acquired without 
 much time and experience. Aware that it might be said 
 that these signatures were written by the notaries and 
 others who drew out these charters, I have compared the 
 signatures of the same persons to different instruments at 
 considerable intervals, and signed in different places, 
 sometimes as principals, at others as witnesses, and I 
 have found them always similar, or in the same hand. 
 Of this I have seen many instances in my own family, as 
 well as in several others. A fair hand is certainly no 
 proof of a classical education ; but it is a proof of care 
 having been bestowed on a branch of education which 
 was not then so necessary as it is now, when epistolary 
 communication is so much more frequent. In those 
 days, when there was no public conveyance, and when 
 distant events did not occupy so much of the attention of 
 men, there was not the same inducement to correspond. 
 It may therefore be concluded that they to whose instruc- 
 tion in writing so much attention had been paid, would 
 not be neglected in other branches of education. The 
 fragments of manuscripts and private correspondence 
 which have been preserved in families give evidence of 
 classical attainments, and prove also, that this was not 
 confined to one sex. The following is an instance. 
 There is a manuscript volume preserved in the family of 
 Stewart of Urrard, of 260 pages, consisting of poems, 
 songs, and short tracts, in the Scotch language, written, 
 as is stated on the first page, by Margaret Robertson 
 (daughter of John Robertson of Lude) and wife of Alex- 
 ander Stewart of Bonskeid, dated 1643. It is written in a 
 beautiful hand, and with such correctness, that it might 
 be sent to the press. 
 
APPENDIX. 349 
 
 There were eminent grammar schools in Inverness, 
 Fortrose or Chanonry, Dunkeld, etc. The grammar 
 school of Perth was celebrated for ages. From these 
 different seminaries, young men were sent to Aberdeen 
 and St Andrews, and many to Leyden and Douay. The 
 armies of Sweden, Holland, and France, gave employ- 
 ment to the younger sons of the gentry, who were educated 
 abroad ; many of these returned with a competent know- 
 ledge of modern languages, added to their classical educa- 
 tion, often speaking Latin with more purity than Scotch, 
 which these Highlanders sometimes learned after leaving 
 their native homes, where nothing but Gaelic was spoken. 
 The race of Bradw^ardine is not long extinct. In my own 
 time, several veterans might have sat for the picture, so 
 admirably drawn in Waverley, of that most honourable, 
 brave, learned, and kind-hearted personage, the Baron of 
 Bradwardine. These gentlemen returned from the 
 Continent full of warlike Latin, French phrases, and 
 inveterate broad Scotch (learned, as I have said, by 
 the Highlanders abroad.) One, I believe, of the 
 last of these, Colonel Alexander Robertson, of the 
 Scotch Brigade, uncle of the present Strowan, I well 
 remember.* I also knew several tacksmen of good learn- 
 
 * Another of the Bradwardine character is still remembered by 
 the Highlanders, with a degree of admiration bordering on enthu- 
 siasm. This was John Stewart of the family of Kincardine, in Strath- 
 spey, known in the country by the name of John Roy Stewart, an 
 accomphshed gentleman, an elegant scholar, a good poet, a brave 
 soldier, and an able officer. He composed with equal facility in 
 English, Latin, and Gaelic; but it was by his songs, epigrams, and 
 descriptive pieces in the latter language, that he attracted the admir- 
 ation of his countrymen. He was an active leader in the Rebellion 
 of 1745, and during "his hiding" of many months, he had more 
 leisure to indulge his taste for poetry and song. The country tradi- 
 tions are full of his descriptive pieces, eulogies, and laments on 
 friends, or in allusion to the events of that unfortunate period. He 
 had been long in the service of France and Portugal. He was in 
 Scotland in 1745, and commanded a regiment composed of the 
 tenants of his family, and a considerable number of the followers of 
 Sir George Stewart of Grandtully, who had been placed under him. 
 With these, amounting in all to 400 men, he joined the rebel army, 
 and proved one of its ablest partisans. Had the rebel commanders 
 
350 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing, who could quote and scan the classics with much 
 ease and rapidity ; while the sons of these men are now 
 little better than clowns, knowing nothing beyond Eng- 
 lish reading and the common rules of arithmetic. When 
 the Hessian troops were quartered in Athole in 1745, the 
 commanding officers, who were accomplished gentle- 
 men, found Latin a ready means of communication at 
 every inn. At Dunkeld, Inver, Blair-Athole, Taybridge, 
 etc., every landlord spoke that language, and I have 
 been informed, by eye-witnesses, of the pleasure ex- 
 pressed by a colonel of the Hessian cavalry, when he 
 halted at the inn in Dunkeld, the landlord of which 
 addressed and welcomed him in Latin, the only lan- 
 guage they mutually understood. I knew four of these 
 respectable innkeepers, who, like many other valuable 
 classes in the Highlands, have disappeared. Perhaps the 
 landlords of Dunkeld, Blair-Athole, or indeed any other 
 Highland inn, will not, even in this educated age, agree- 
 ably surprise, or make themselves more acceptable to 
 their customers, by addressing them in Latin. 
 
 benefited by his judgment and military talents, that deplorable con- 
 test would probably have been lengthened, and much additional 
 misery inflicted on the country. Colonel Stewart recommended op- 
 posing the passage of the Duke of Cumberland's army across the 
 Spey. Had this advice been acted upon, allowing for the expe- 
 ditious movements of the rebels, many men must have been lost in 
 forcing the passage of the rapid river. He also opposed fighting on 
 Culloden Moor, which, with a level and hard surface, was well cal- 
 culated for the cavalry and artillery of the royal army. When this 
 advice was rejected, he proposed to attack before the army was 
 formed in order of battle ; this also was disregarded, and the attack 
 delayed till the royal army was formed in two lines. It is said that 
 the Irish officers attached to the rebel army, dreading a lengthened 
 campaign in the mountains, opposed retiring farther north, seeing 
 that, in such a field as Culloden, one-third of the Highlanders being 
 absent, and those present, two days without food, and after a long 
 and harrassing night-march to Nairn and back, with an intention of 
 surprising the Duke's army (as at Preston), the contest would soon 
 be decided, and their lives safe from the laws, whatever was the re- 
 sult. The point was fortunately brought to an issue, and much 
 calamity, the consequence of a lengthened civil war, saved to the 
 country. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 351 
 
 But it was in the remotest district of the kingdom, the 
 Isle of Skye, and other islands, that classical education 
 was most general. There the learning of the gentry was 
 quite singular. Few of them went abroad, and except 
 the three lairds, Macdonald, Macleod, and Mackinnon, 
 few of them were proprietors. I believe it is rather 
 unique for the gentry of a remote corner to learn Latin 
 merely to talk to each other; yet so it was in Skye. It was 
 remarked that, for a considerable period, the clerg}-men 
 of the sixteen parishes of Skye, Harris, Lews, etc., were 
 men of good families, great learning, and consequent in- 
 fluence ; their example, therefore, might diffuse and pre- 
 serve this classical taste. Owing to the same cause, the 
 Isle of Skye songs are sometimes filled with allusions to 
 the heathen deities. While the younger sons of the 
 Highland gentlemen were educated for the church, law, 
 or physic, the elder could not be neglected. The elder 
 brothers of Sir George Mackenzie, Lord Advocate to 
 Charles II. and of Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Advocate 
 to George II., could not have been uneducated. 
 
 But various causes have contributed to a change of 
 manners, and to remove numbers of the ancient race, 
 and have put an end to all university education, except 
 in a few cases, where young men are intended for the 
 learned professions : consequently the last generation did 
 not give their children the same education which they 
 themselves had received.* Thus we see young men sent 
 
 * The average annual salary of the parish schoolmaster was 
 £"]. 105. that is, ;!^5 the lowest and /, 10 the highest, with school 
 fees, which were equally low, Latin being taught for half a crown 
 the quarter, English and writing for one shilling. When the Lord 
 President Hope was Lord Advocate, he brought a bill into Parlia- 
 ment to increase the salaries of this useful body of men. The bill 
 was passed, and no schoolmaster can now have less than ;^io salary, 
 the maximum being £2^. The opposition Mr Hope met with 
 showed, that however much people may talk about the value of 
 education, the estimate of its advantages does not appear to stand 
 high in the opinion of those who pay the schoolmasters, or perhaps 
 the value is better understood and more appreciated when cheaply 
 obtained ; otherwise why meet so important a measure by an oppo- 
 
352 APPENDIX. 
 
 into the army and other professions with an education 
 not extending beyond reading and arithmetic, and with 
 manners unformed and as unUke the former race of 
 gentlemen farmers in their general appearance and cha- 
 racter, as in their education. Hence, many have been 
 led to observe, that the youth of the second order of 
 Highland gentry have more degenerated, and are more 
 changed in every respect than the Highland peasantry. 
 Many causes have tended to accelerate this change ; one 
 of which is, that three-fourths of the old respectable race 
 of gentlemen tacksmen have disappeared, and been sup- 
 planted by men totally different in manners, birth, and 
 education. Persons travelling through the Highlands 
 will observe what description of persons the present tacks- 
 men are. The character upheld by the officers of the 
 Highland regiments in the Seven Years' War, and in that 
 with America, show what sort of men the ancient race 
 were. One half of the officers of those corps were the 
 sons of tacksmen. Of these respectable officers I could 
 give many names, but shall mention only a few : — 
 Generals Simon Fraser, killed at Saratoga in 1777, and 
 Thomas M. Fraser, killed at Dieg in 1804 ; Lieutenant- 
 General Simon Fraser, commanding the British troops in 
 Lisbon ; Sir Archibald Campbell, Governor-General of 
 India; Sir Hector Munro; Sir Alexander Munro ; Major- 
 Generals John Small, Thomas Fraser, Francis Maclean, 
 J. Stewart, P. Mackenzie, and a numerous list of brave 
 soldiers and officers of talent and acquirements ; as well 
 as many accomplished civilians. Sir John Macpherson, 
 Governor-General of India, the translator of Ossian, and 
 many others. 
 
 T, Page 128. 
 
 There are many traits of the character, manners, and 
 dispositions of the people, which I have not noticed. The 
 
 sition which has reduced the scale so low, that even with the in- 
 creased emoluments, no man of talents will remain a parish school- 
 master except from necessity. 
 
 1 
 
APPENDIX. 353 
 
 most remarkable of these is that imaginary talent of seeing 
 into futurity, commonly called the "Second Sight." The 
 subject has been frequently discussed ; and I shall, there- 
 fore, say little of these ideal flights of a warm and vivid 
 imagination. But however ridiculous the beUef of the 
 second sight may now appear, it certainly had no small 
 influence on the manners and actions of the people. 
 The predictions of the seers impressed their minds with 
 awe, and as they were generally such as brought to the 
 remembrance death, a future state, retributive justice, the 
 reward of honourable and virtuous conduct, and the 
 punishment of the wicked, they certainly controlled the 
 passions, and, as I have often had occasion to observe, 
 supplied the defect of those laws which now extend to the 
 most distant recesses of the mountains. 
 
 The impressions of a warm imagination appear so like 
 realities, and their confirmation is so readily found in 
 subsequent events, that we can scarcely wonder if popular 
 superstitions have long maintained their ground, even 
 against the advances of reason and science. Allowing 
 the possibility of coming events being shadowed forth by 
 supernatural agency to some favoured seers, the question 
 naturally occurs. Why should those revelations be con- 
 fined to the Highlanders of Scotland ? Yet it must be 
 owned, that the coincidences between events and their 
 foreboding have, in many instances, been so curious and 
 remarkable, that credulous minds may be excused for 
 yielding to the impression of their prophetic character. It 
 may not be improper to produce an instance or two for 
 the amusement of the reader. 
 
 Late in an autumnal evening in the year 1773, the 
 son of a neighbouring gentleman came to my father's 
 house. He and my mother were from home, but several 
 friends were in the house. The young gentleman spoke 
 little, and seemed absorbed in deep thought. Soon after 
 he arrived he inquired for a boy of the family, then about 
 three years of age. When shown into the nursery, the 
 nurse was trying on a pair of new shoes, and complaining 
 that they did not fit." "They will fit him before he will 
 
 2 A 
 
354 APPENDIX. 
 
 have occasion for them," said the young gentleman. 
 This called forth the chidings of the nurse for predicting 
 evil to the child, who was stout and healthy. When he 
 returned to the party he had left in the sitting-room, who 
 had heard his observations on the shoes, they cautioned 
 him to take care that the nurse did not derange his new 
 talent of the second sight, with some ironical congratula- 
 tions on his pretended acquirement. This brought on an 
 explanation, when he told them, that, as he approached 
 the end of a wooden bridge thrown across a stream at a 
 short distance from the house, he was astonished to see a 
 crowd of people passing the bridge. Coming nearer he 
 observed a person carrying a small coffin, followed by about 
 twenty gentlemen, all of his acquaintance, his own father 
 and mine being of the number, with a concourse of the 
 country people. He did not attempt to join, but saw 
 them turn off to the right in the direction of the church- 
 yard, which they entered. He then proceeded on his in- 
 tended visit, much impressed from what he had seen with a 
 feeling of awe, and believing it to have been a representation 
 of the death and funeral of a child of the family. In this 
 apprehension he was the more confirmed, as he knew my 
 father was at Blair- Athole, and that he had left his own 
 father at home an hour before. The whole received per- 
 fect confirmation in his mind by the sudden death of the 
 boy the following night, and the consequent funeral, 
 which was exactly similar to that before represented to his 
 imagination. 
 
 This gentleman was not a professed seer; this was his 
 first and his last vision ; and, as he told me, it was sufti- 
 cient. No reasoning or argument could convince him 
 that the appearance was an illusion. Now when a man 
 of education and of general knowledge of the world, as 
 this gentleman was, became so bewildered in his imagina- 
 tion, and that even so late as the year 1773, it cannot be 
 matter of surprise that the poetical enthusiasm of the 
 Highlanders, in their days of chivalry and romance, should 
 have predisposed them to credit wonders which so deeply 
 interested them. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 355 
 
 The other instance occurred in the year 1775, when a 
 tenant of the late Lord Breadalbane called upon him, 
 bitterly lamenting the loss of his son, who, he said, had 
 been killed in battle on a day he mentioned. His Lord- 
 ship told him that was impossible, as no accounts had 
 been received of any battle, or even of hostilities having 
 commenced. But the man would not be comforted, 
 saying, that he saw his son lying dead, and many officers 
 and soldiers also dead, around him. Lord Breadalbane, 
 perceiving that the poor man would not be consoled, left 
 him; but when the account of the battle of Bunker's 
 Hill arrived some weeks afterwards, he learnt, with no 
 small surprise, that the young man had been killed at the 
 time and in the manner described by his father. 
 
 T*, Page 129. 
 
 The notions entertained by the inhabitants of the 
 Low Country in this respect are very excusable, when it 
 is considered that they formed their opinions regarding 
 the natives of the mountains on information received 
 from those who lived nearest the boundary, and who 
 were supposed to be best acquainted with them. This, 
 however, was a very doubtful source of intelligence ; 
 because, in the first place, the borderers lived in a 
 state of perpetual contention with, their Lowland neigh- 
 bours, and had thus the worst propensities of their 
 nature" called forth and exasperated; and, secondly, 
 because their more powerful neighbours had been, for 
 ages, in the habit of taking deep revenge for petty injuries. 
 No one who knows anything of human nature need be 
 told, that there exists a strong propensity in the minds of 
 those who oppress others by an undue exercise of power, 
 to justify that proceeding to themselves, by exaggerating 
 every provocation given by the objects of their hostility. 
 Prejudice and party hatred are like streams, always 
 enlarging in their progress by petty additions. A man 
 incapable of direct falsehood, willingly and confidently 
 repeats the tales of wonder told by others ; and these 
 
356 APPENDIX. 
 
 seldom lose in the recital. That " oppression," which, 
 we are told from the highest authority, " makes a wise 
 man mad,"* must have produced a similar effect on a 
 proud high-spirited people, who had not even language 
 in which to complain, and who would not have been 
 listened to if they had. " Lions are not painters," as the 
 fable says, and Highlanders are not writers of their own 
 traditions ; but if the tales of wrong and injustice pre- 
 served in traditions were unfolded, they might then 
 "make justice and indignation start," etc.; but this blazon 
 must not be. It would be visiting the sins of the fathers 
 on the children, who may, perhaps, even on this score, 
 have enough of their own to answer for, when they 
 appear on their last account. 
 
 Since the above was written, a new edition of " Letters 
 from a Gentleman in the North" has been published by 
 Mr Jamieson of Edinburgh. This edition has been 
 enlarged, by several tracts and articles on the Highland- 
 ers, and the former state of the people. One of these is 
 a kind of statistical report of the state of the Highlands 
 about the year 1747. This paper is a perfect specimen of 
 the spirit of the times, and of the jaundiced eye with which 
 the Highlanders were viewed by their Lowland neighbours, 
 who held them in the greatest contempt for their Jacobite 
 principles, their heathenish belief in ghosts and fairies, 
 their slothful habits, fabulous traditions, poetry and songs. 
 The author was educated beyond the mountains, quite in 
 opposition to the habits and principles of the Highlanders; 
 and at a period when the stream of ribaldry ran strongly 
 against them, and their true character was ill understood, 
 it was difficult to state it in proper colours ; the commonly 
 received opinions of the times were, that their fidelity and 
 ready obedience proceeded from a base and servile dis- 
 position, and their idle habits from an aversion to industry, 
 when, in fact, they proceeded from want of employment or 
 payment for labour. Had the author given in to the grave 
 
 * Of this we have too many instances among the peasantry in 
 Ireland. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 357 
 
 discussions which were not infrequent at that period, on 
 the propriety of exterminating the whole race, it might 
 have excited less surprise, than that this mode of improv- 
 ing a people by extirpation and banishment should not 
 only be discussed in more enlightened times, but actually 
 acted upon and enforced, if not with the fury and violence 
 with which those who call themselves the friends of 
 liberty in America treat their free, independent, but un- 
 fortunate neighbours the Indians, the original possessors 
 of their country, at least by means sufficiently effectual. 
 
 U, Page 133. 
 
 Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Lord President of the 
 Court of Session, was one of the most enlightened men of 
 his time. Born in the Highlands, he lived much among 
 his countrymen, gained an intimate knowledge of their 
 habits, and, by his virtue, wisdom, and probity, obtained 
 an influence over them almost incredible. His " pen and 
 ink, and tongue, and some reputation," as he himself 
 expressed it, contributed more than any other means to 
 the suppression of the Rebellion — breaking the union of 
 the clans, overawing some, crossing and checking the 
 intentions of others, and retarding and preventing their 
 rising en jnasse, to which they had every inclination. That 
 such services were neglected and slighted by Government 
 must remain an indelible stain on the memory of the men 
 in power at that period. It is said that when this great 
 and good man was recommending clemency and modera- 
 tion in the punishment of the misguided men about to 
 suffer for their infatuation, and stating his services as a 
 claim to be heard, he was contemptuously asked, " What 
 were his services, and what they were worth ?" " Some 
 think them worth three Crowns," was the answer. 
 
 An idea of the importance of his services and of his 
 influence may be formed by looking over his Memorial, 
 already given in the Appendix, of the State and Number 
 of the Clans, whose rising he prevented, or whose exer- 
 tions he paralyzed. It has been thought by some, parti- 
 
358 APPENDIX. 
 
 cularly by Jacobites, that those Chiefs who were per- 
 suaded by Culloden to relinquish, on the day of trial, the 
 cause to which they were secretly attached, showed 
 duplicity, if not cowardice, in so doing. This was not at 
 all the case. The President knew too well the character 
 of the persons he addressed, to endeavour to change 
 their opinion, or induce them to dissemble. The argu- 
 ments by which he prevailed on so many to remain 
 neutral, while others risked all in a desperate cause, were 
 drawn from his knowledge of the world, and of the 
 resources and views of the opposite parties. He at- 
 tempted no sudden conversions, but merely represented 
 the folly of sacrificing their lives, and what was dearer to 
 them, their clans, in a rash and unsupported enterprise, 
 in which they were deceived by their French allies, 
 deserted by many whose courage evaporated in drinking 
 healths, and more particularly by the English Jacobites, 
 who promised everything and performed nothing. It was 
 by a statement of obvious facts, and not by an attack 
 on established principles, that he succeeded in rescuing, 
 by persuasion, so many families from the destruction 
 in which the inconsiderate and rashly brave were so 
 suddenly involved. The sound arguments that pre- 
 vailed with the Chiefs, who could comprehend them, had 
 no influence on their followers, who were, in this instance, 
 more inclined to follow their feelings than listen to reason. 
 Of this, the behaviour of the clan Grant was an instance. 
 Eleven hundred men pressed forward to offer their 
 services, on condition that their Chief would lead them, 
 to support, what they styled, the cause of their ancient 
 Kings. Afterwards, when it was found necessary to pay 
 a compliment to the Royal General, by meeting him at 
 Aberdeen, all the Chiefs influence could only procure 
 ninety-five followers to attend him; a Chief, too, much 
 beloved by his people. 
 
 In the Isle of Skye, likewise. Sir Alexander Mac- 
 donald (father of Chief Baron Macdonald), and the Lairds 
 of Macleod, Raasay, and others, had 2400 men ready, 
 when expresses arrived from Culloden. Macdonald re- 
 
APPENDIX. 359 
 
 mained at home with his men; Macleod obeyed the 
 summons of the President, but Raasay indulged the 
 incHnation of his people to join the rebels, contrary to 
 the views and injunction of the Chief. Though ]Macleod 
 is described by this great law officer as the only man of 
 sense and courage he had about him, his influence over 
 his followers failed so completely, when they discovered 
 that his opinion was opposite to their own, that he could 
 not command the obedience of more than 200 men, 
 although upwards of 1500 men, consisting of his own 
 people, the Laird of Raasay's, and other gentlemen, were 
 ready at Dunvegan Castle. These, and many circum- 
 stances which occurred at that period, are of themselves 
 sufficient to prove, that the Highlanders were not those 
 slaves to the caprice and power of their Chiefs they have 
 been supposed ; and that, on the contrary, as I have 
 already noticed, the latter were obliged to pay court, 
 and yield to the will and independent spirit of their clans. 
 These facts also refute a general opinion, that those 
 who engaged in the Rebellion were forced out by their 
 Chiefs and Lairds, and that indeed on all occasions 
 the principles or caprice of their Chief guided those of 
 the clan, and that, whatever side he took, they followed. 
 In Lord Lovat's correspondence with Culloden, he is full 
 of complaints against his clan, whose eagerness to fly to 
 arms he could not restrain. Although his is not the best 
 authority, I have had sufficient evidence of his correct- 
 ness in this instance from eye-witnesses. We learn also 
 from the President, that Lord Lovat's eldest son (after- 
 wards General Fraser) " put himself at the head of his 
 clan, who are passionately fond of following him, and w'ho 
 cannot be restrained by my Lord's authority from follow- 
 ing the fortunes of the Adventurous Prince, which not 
 only may destroy the Master* and the family, but bring 
 his owm grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. "t 
 
 * In Scotland, the eldest son of a Lord or Baron of the House of 
 Peers was styled Master. Thus, the Master of Gray, the Master of 
 Rollo, the Master of Blantyre, etc. 
 
 t Culloden Papers. 
 
360 APPENDIX. 
 
 To this same independent spirit we may ascribe the 
 preference which the people now manifest for emigration 
 to a foreign land to remaining in the degraded state of 
 cottars and day labourers, to which the late changes have 
 reduced such numbers of the once independent tenantry. 
 When they have once resolved to remove to a foreign 
 country, a set of " illiterate peasants," says Mrs Grant, 
 "have gone about it in a systematical manner. They 
 have themselves chartered a ship, and engaged it to 
 come for them to one of their Highland ports, and a 
 whole cluster of kindred of all ages, from four weeks to 
 fourscore years, have gone in mournful procession to the 
 shores ; the bagpipes meanwhile playing before them a 
 sad funeral air." 
 
 V, Page 136. 
 
 A Highlander would fight to the last drop of his 
 blood at the command of his Chief; and if he thought 
 his own honour, or that of his district or clan, insulted, 
 he was equally ready to call for redress, and to seek 
 revenge : yet, with this disposition, and though generally 
 armed, few lives were lost, except in general engagements 
 and skirmishes. This is particularly to be remarked in 
 their personal encounters, duels, and trials of swordsman- 
 ship.* The stories detailed of private assassinations, 
 
 * A relation of mine, the late Mr Stewart of Bohallie, exhibited 
 an instance of this. He was one of the gentlemen soldiers in the 
 Black Watch (but left them before the march to England), and one 
 of the best swordsmen of his time. Latterly he was of a mild dis- 
 position, but in his youth he had been hot and impetuous ; and as 
 in those days the country was full of young men equally ready to take 
 fire, persons of this description had ample opportunity of proving 
 the temper of their swords, and their dexterity in the use of them. 
 Bohallie often spoke of many contests and trials of skill, but they 
 always avoided, he said, coming to extremities, and were in general 
 satisfied when blood was drawn, and " I had the good fortune never 
 to kill my man." His swords and targets gave evidence of the ser- 
 vice they had seen. On one occasion he was passing from Breadal- 
 bane to Lochlomond through Glenfalloch, in company with James 
 Macgregor, one of Rob Roy's sons. As they came to a certain spot, 
 
APPENDIX. 361 
 
 murders, and conflagration, deserve no credit, as is well 
 known to every man of intelligence in the country, at 
 least when reported to have occurred within the last 
 century-and-a-half. In earlier times, there were murders 
 in the Highlands, as there were in the streets of Edin- 
 burgh in mid-day, but much of these may be attributed 
 to the weakness of the laws, and a high spirited 
 turbulence. The character of the Highlanders will be 
 better understood by their actions than by collect- 
 ing anecdotes two and three hundred years old, and 
 giving them as specimens of what was supposed to have 
 occurred within the fifty years preceding the Rebellion of 
 1745. In this Rebellion did they display any blood- 
 thirsty atrocity ? It were as just to take the character of 
 the people of Scotland from the period and scenes de- 
 scribed by Pitscottie in the extract I have quoted, as thus 
 to collect all the revolting anecdotes and repetitions of 
 centuries, and give them as specimens of the Highland 
 character in the days of Rob Roy Macgregor. Even in 
 the seventeenth century, when turbulence was at its 
 height, less atrocity was shown by the Highlanders than 
 has been exhibited by enlightened nations of modern 
 times when living at free quarters in an enemy's country. 
 Spain, Portugal, Germany. Russia, Italy, and Egypt, have 
 ample reason to remember the murders, conflagrations, and 
 spoliation of the armies of France. The following state- 
 ment shows the manner in which the Highlanders com- 
 ported themselves, when ordered from their mountains, 
 
 Macgregor said, " It was here I tried the mettle of one of your kins- 
 men." Some miles further on, he continued, " Here I made another 
 of your blood feel the superiority of my sword ; and here," said he, 
 when in sight of Benlomond, in the country of the Macgregors, " I 
 made a third of your royal clan yield to Clan Gregor." My old 
 friend's blood was set in motion by the first remark : the second, as 
 he said, made it boil; however, he restrained himself till the third, 
 when he exclaimed, " You have said and done enough ; now stand, 
 defend yourself, and see if the fourth defeat of a Stewart will give 
 victor)' to a Gregarach." As they were both good swordsmen, it 
 was some time before Macgregor received a cut in the sword arm, 
 when, dropping his target, he gave up the contest. 
 
362 APPENDIX. 
 
 for the special purpose of keeping down the Republican 
 spirit in the south-west of Scotland, and of living at free 
 quarters on the Covenanters, and others inimical to the 
 measures of Government. This was in 1678, when the 
 *' Highland Host" (as they were called), of 8000 men, 
 were ordered south, to "eat up" the Covenanters. In 
 what manner they obeyed these instructions we learn from 
 an eye-witness, whose account is preserved in Wodrow's 
 MS. in the Advocates' Library. This writer, who evinces 
 no friendship for this "Heathen and Unholy Host," 
 describes their parties sent out for provisions, and 
 the sufferings of the inhabitants, who were beaten 
 and driven out of their houses if they refused to 
 give what they demanded. After a detail of out- 
 rages, which, indeed, were to be expected, as it was for 
 this very purpose that they were sent on the duty, he 
 concludes, in a manner hardly to be expected, and 
 certainly very different from the accounts we read of the 
 proceedings of the modern Vandals when overrunning 
 the Continent, and who, if they had forced their way 
 into this country, and had, like the Highlanders, been 
 ordered to live at free quarters, " to eat up," harass, and 
 keep down the people, would not perhaps have left the 
 country with such a report of the proceedings as the 
 following, "Yet I hear not," says the writer in Wodrow's 
 MS., " of any having been killed^ though many were hurt; 
 but I would not have you think that all the Highlanders 
 behave after the same manner " (going about in parties to 
 collect provision and plunder.) " No, there is a differ- 
 ence both among the men and leaders. The Marquis of 
 Atholl's men are generally commended, both as the best 
 appointed and the best behaved. Neither do I hear of 
 any hurt done by the Earl of Moray's men, but all of them 
 take free quarters, and at their own discretion." Living 
 in this manner, and sent for such a special purpose, none 
 were killed even by the most turbulent. 'I'hat numbers 
 were hurt in defending their property was to be expected, 
 and it is matter of surprise, that, in such circumstances, 
 lives were not lost. 
 
APPENDIX. 363 
 
 W, Page 151. 
 
 The tenants of Lochiel and Ardsheal supplied these 
 gentlemen with money, after the year 1745, when their 
 estates were forfeited, and they themselves in exile in 
 France. When the Earl of Seaforth was in similar circum- 
 stances, after his attainder in 17 16, he experienced the 
 same generous and disinterested fidelity;* and Macpher- 
 son of Clunie, though an outlaw, and compelled to live 
 for nine years in caves and woods, was in no want of 
 money or anything that could be contributed by his 
 people, who, after his death, continued the same assistance 
 to his widow and family. But it is needless to multiply 
 examples of this attachment, which existed till a late period, 
 without the least prospect of reward or remuneration, all 
 being the free gift of men poor in substance, but of warm 
 affections and liberal minds. Moreover, this generous 
 disposition was not indulged without risk ; for while they 
 paid the full rents demanded by Government after the 
 forfeitures, they were threatened with higher rents, and 
 persecuted by the agents for sending the money out 
 of the country. The disputes between the people 
 and the Crown factors, on this subject, ran very 
 high. A respectable gentleman, Mr Campbell of Glen- 
 ure, factor on the estate of Ardsheal, was shot from 
 behind a rock when riding on the high road. This 
 happened in 1752, and was the second instance of a 
 murder in these troublesome times. The first was that 
 
 * When the rents were collected, for the purpose of being sent to 
 Lord Seaforth in France, 400 of his old followers and tenants escorted 
 the money to Edinburgh to see it safely lodged in the bank. Their 
 first appearance there on this errand caused no small surprise, and 
 strong animadversions on Government for allowing such proceedings. 
 The same people, so generous to their chief in his adversity, preserved 
 such control over him when in full power and prosperity, that they 
 interfered and prevented his pulling down his Castle of Brahan, the 
 destruction of which they considered derogatory to the respectability 
 of the family and clan. In the year 1737, the tenants sent Lord 
 Seaforth ;^8oo in one sum, equal to ;!^8ooo in the present day, cal 
 culating the rents, and the value of the estate. 
 
364 APPENDIX. 
 
 of Captain Munro of Culcairn in 1746, noticed in the 
 Annals of the 42nd Regiment. He was shot in the same 
 manner as Glenure, while riding at the head of a party of 
 men marching through Lochaber. But this blow was in- 
 tended for an officer whose party had, some time previously, 
 burned the assassin's house, turned his family out in a 
 storm of snow, and taken away his cattle ; while his son, 
 who had resisted, was killed. Considering the state of 
 men's minds, and the disturbed condition of the country 
 for so many years, it may be considered remarkable, that 
 these were the only two instances of premeditated murder. 
 The man who shot Culcairn was known; but, through some 
 unexplained cause, he was not apprehended. It has 
 never been fully ascertained who shot Mr Campbell. 
 Suspicion fell upon a man of the name of Allan Stewart 
 or Allan Breac (as he was called, from the marks of 
 the small-pox), who had been a sergeant in the French 
 service, had come over in the year of the RebeUion, and 
 lived afterwards as an outlaw. He was never seen after 
 the murder, and was supposed to have gone to France. 
 A gentleman of the name of Stewart, a relation of the 
 family of Ardsheal, was taken up, indicted, and tried 
 at Inveraray, on suspicion of being art and part (as the 
 Scotch law terms it), or in the fore-knowledge of the 
 murder. The Duke of Argyll, then Justice-General, sat 
 on the bench, and the Lord-Advocate attended as prose- 
 cutor, the only instance of this officer presiding on any 
 criminal trial, or of the Lord-Advocate prosecuting at an 
 assize. Mr Stewart was found guilty, and executed near 
 the spot where the murder was committed, and his body 
 hung in chains. The whole transaction caused a great 
 sensation, and the justice of the verdict and execution was 
 much canvassed. It is now believed that the result 
 would have been different had the trial taken place at a 
 later period. But whether or not Mr Stewart deserved 
 his fate, it were well that all executions made such an 
 impression on the minds of the people as this did, and 
 still continues to make to this day. The talents and re- 
 spectable character of the person executed, the public 
 
APPENDIX. 365 
 
 exhibition of his body, a thing hitherto unknown in that 
 country, and the doubtful circumstance of his guilt, are 
 still matters of deep reflection among the people. On 
 Sundays, and at times when they pass in more than ordi- 
 nary numbers, they assemble on or near the spot where 
 the gibbet stood, and talk with solemn and impressive 
 awe of the whole circumstances. 
 
 Turbulent and accustomed to blood as the High- 
 landers were supposed to be, the terror and avve inspired 
 by public executions is very remarkable. This awe is 
 not confined within the mountains. I have seen soldiers, 
 fearless of death when before an enemy, for days previ- 
 ous to an execution become grave, thoughtful, and seem- 
 ingly powerfully impressed with a kind of dread, which 
 they could not shake off. 
 
 X, Page 155. 
 
 It may be curious to notice the similarity of action 
 among men with very different principles in all things, 
 except what concerns their interests. After the new 
 system of managing lands and laying out farms had com- 
 menced in the Highlands, the ancient occupiers and 
 cultivators were often overlooked by those who undertook 
 to new-model gentlemen's estates. Their future happi- 
 ness or misery formed no part of the new plans, and 
 seemed as much disregarded as the fate of the an- 
 cient breed of horses and sheep. The old Highlanders 
 were considered unfit for the new improvements; the 
 length of time they held their lands gave them no claim ; 
 they had possessed them too long already; they must 
 now give place to others. This was the language of 
 many agents employed in these arrangements, and the 
 language also of too many of those who employed them. 
 — At the beginning of the French Revolution, when 
 Dundee, Perth, and other towns, planted the tree of 
 liberty, and the doctrine of equality of property was held 
 out to encourage the partisans of Revolutionary Prin- 
 ciples, the late Mr Dempster of Dunichen observed, in 
 
366 APPENDIX. 
 
 the spring of 1791, that his farm-grieve, or overseer, had 
 paid particular attention to a large field, ploughing and 
 harrowing it twice, and laying down a double allowance 
 of manure. He w^as preparing a third dressing, when 
 Mr Dempster asked the cause of all this care bestowed 
 upon one field more than the others. After some hesita- 
 tion, the man answered, that every person had a right to 
 attend to his own interest. Mr Dempster observed, that 
 however true that might be, it could have no concern 
 with that field. To this the grieve replied, that, as he 
 had been a kind and generous master to him, he would 
 explain the whole matter. He then told him that, at a 
 late meeting of Delegates of the Friends of the People, 
 they had discussed much business, and, among other 
 matter, had made a division of all the lands in the dis- 
 trict, when this field, and some acres of pasture, fell to 
 his share. His master told him he was happy to find him 
 well provided, and asked what part of the estate they had 
 allotted to him. " Oh, as to you. Sir, and the other 
 Lairds," rephed the man, "it was resolved that you 
 should have nothing to do with the land, and that none 
 of the old Lairds or Proprietors were to have any. They 
 and their families had had these lands long enough ; 
 their old notions were not fit for the new times ; there- 
 fore they must all quit, and make way for the new system 
 and new order of things ; but as you have been always so 
 good to me, I will propose, at the next meeting, that a 
 portion be left for you." 
 
 y. Page, 167. 
 
 On reference to the proceedings of the Court of Justi- 
 ciary in the northern counties, it will be found that the 
 capital convictions at Inverness, from the year 1747 to 
 181 7, have been fifty-nine. Of these there were — 
 10 men for murder. 
 9 women for child-murder.* 
 
 * This crime is less frequent since the strictness of church disci- 
 
APPENDIX. 367 
 
 2 men for rape ; one of them rape and murder 
 
 near Elgin. 
 I man for fire-raising. 
 12 men for cattle-stealing.* 
 
 1 man for sheep-stealing. + 
 
 2 men for house-breaking and theft. 
 9 men for theft. 
 
 3 men for robbing. 
 
 Of these criminals eight were strangers, soldiers quar- 
 tered in the different garrisons, and others, who committed 
 crimes as they passed through the country, and were ap- 
 prehended and tried there. This Circuit includes the low- 
 land part of the counties of Moray and Orkney (in the 
 latter crimes of magnitude are very rare), containing a 
 population of 238,681 souls, out of which there were 59 
 persons (51 natives) convicted in the course of seventy 
 years, making the proportion of one criminal to 283,180 
 souls. From 1756 to 1761, and from 1767 to 1773, there 
 were no convictions. From 1773 to 1783, there was only 
 
 pline has been softened. Only one woman has been condemned 
 since 1763. 
 
 * This was at the earlier period, before the nature and danger of 
 ^^ lifting cattle " as it was called, was properly understood by the 
 Highlanders. None have been convicted of cattle-stealing since the 
 year 1765. When it was known to be a crime, the practice ceased. 
 Two of the above offenders were in the knowledge of all the Pre- 
 tender's movements after the battle of Culloden. They gave him in- 
 formation, supplied him with provisions, were taken up on suspicion, 
 threatened with instant execution, if they did not confess what they 
 knew of him, and, at the same time, offered the tempting reward of 
 ;/^30,ooo. But all in vain. Neither the prospect of immediate 
 death, or the offer of immediate wealth, had any influence over the 
 minds of these poor men, in a case where they thought their honour 
 was concerned. They were afterwards hanged for stealing a cow ! 
 
 + This was at a later period, when the stock graziers got posses- 
 sion of the pasture grounds. Many sheep were stolen at that period. 
 Four men were banished for this crime : one of them from Glengarry 
 is in possession of considerable property in Botany Bay. He was 
 taken up near Perth, where I saw him a prisoner. His appearance 
 was remarkable ; six feet three inches, stout, well formed, and with 
 a florid handsome countenance. 
 
368 APPENDIX. 
 
 one man convicted; his crime was murder. From 1794 
 to 1817, there were three convictions for murder, but none 
 for robbery, housebreaking, or any other crime. In May 
 1817, a woman was condemned for theft. 
 
 The feudal powers and jurisdiction of the Duke of 
 Argyll were abolished in the year 1748, and the first assize 
 court was held at Inveraray in May 1749. From that 
 period till 181 7, the number of convictions has been eight. 
 The crimes were — 
 
 3 for murder. 
 
 I for cattle-stealing. 
 
 3 for theft (two women, and one man). 
 
 I man for forgery. 
 
 This last case happened in the year 1782. The 
 offender's name was Macaffie. The forgery was com- 
 mitted in Dublin, but, attempting to pass his notes in 
 Inveraray, he was apprehended, tried and condemned. 
 On some certified question of law, however, he was taken 
 to Edinburgh, when the point was decided against him, 
 and he was executed there. If we except this conviction 
 of a stranger, and that of James FuUarton for theft in 
 1783, there were none condemned at Inveraray, for a 
 period of fifty-one years, from 1753 to 1804. There 
 have been two convictions for murder since. One in 
 1805,* another in 181 7. The Inveraray Circuit includes 
 the counties of Argyle and Bute, containing a population 
 of 82,261 persons. 
 
 The population of that part of the Aberdeen Circuit, 
 which may be properly called Highland, and which includes 
 portions of the counties of Kincardine and Banff, amounts 
 to 14,596 persons. From 1747 to 181 7, there were two 
 men condemned from that part of the country ; one for 
 murder in the year 1770, and another for fire-raising in 
 1785. From 1770 to 1784, there was no capital convic- 
 tion in Aberdeen. 
 
 * This was a travelling linker from Athole. He was executed 
 for throwing his wife into a river, where she was found drowned, 
 near the King's House Inn, Glcnorchy. 
 
APPENDIX. 369 
 
 As the Highland parts of Perthshire constitute but a 
 small part of that Circuit, which comprehends Perth, Fife, 
 and Angus, I shall only notice the native Highlanders 
 tried and condemned at Perth, from 1747 to 181 7. The 
 number was sixteen, of whom 
 
 5 men were convicted for murder. 
 
 4 men for cattle-stealing. 
 
 4 for theft. 
 
 2 women for cliild-murder. 
 
 I man for rape. 
 The population of the Highlands of Perthshire is about 
 40,130. giving a greater proportion of criminals than either 
 of the other circuits. 
 
 Proportion of Convicted Criminals to the Population in 
 the different Districts in the Highlands from 1747 to 181 7. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Convictions. 
 
 Proportions. 
 
 Inverness Circuit - - - 238,681 
 
 59 in 70 years. 
 
 I to 283,180 
 
 Inveraray 82,261 
 
 8 in 69 
 
 I to 709,501 
 
 Perthshire Highlands - 40,130 
 
 16 in 70 
 
 I to 175,569 
 
 Aberdeen, Banff, etc. - 14,596 
 
 2 in 70 
 
 I to 510,860 
 
 Highlands of Stirling and 
 
 
 
 Dumbarton - - - - 13,259 
 
 5 in 70 
 
 I to 185,626 
 
 All the Highlands - - 388,982 90 i to 301,677 
 
 Proportion of England and 
 Wales, for 7 years pre- 
 vious to 181 7 - - 10,204,280 4226 in 7 years, or i to 16,898 
 
 Z, Page 172. 
 
 Of this there are numberless proofs in all parts of the 
 Highlands. I remember many old people, who, in their 
 youth, saw corn growing on fields now covered with 
 heather. Among many traditions on this subject, there 
 is one of a wager between my great grandfather, and 
 four Lowland gentlemen. These were the then Mr 
 Smythe of Methven, Sir David Threipland, Mr Moray of 
 Abercairney, and Sir Thomas Moncrieff. The object of 
 the wager was, who could produce a boll of barley of 
 the best quality, my ancestor to take his specimen 
 
 2 B 
 
37© APPENDIX. 
 
 from his highest farm, and Sir David Threipland not 
 to take his specimen from his low farms on the plains 
 of the Carse of Gowrie, but from a farm on the heights. 
 Marshall Wade who was then Commander in Chief, 
 and superintending the formation of the Highland roads, 
 was to be the umpire. Methven produced the best barley, 
 Sir Thomas Moncrieff the second, my relation the third, 
 Abercairney the fourth, and Sir David Threipland the 
 fifth and most inferior quality. This happened in the 
 year 1726 or 1727. It is said that the season was 
 uncommonly favourable for high grounds, being hot 
 and dry. The spot which produced the Highland speci- 
 men is at the foot of the mountain Shichallain, and is 
 now totally uncultivated, but of a deep rich soil, only 
 requiring climate and shelter with planting to produce the 
 best crops. Some hundred yards farther up the side of 
 the mountain, and more than 1400 feet above the level 
 of the sea, the traces of the plough are clear and dis- 
 tinct ; also the remains of enclosures and mounds of 
 stones, which had been cleared away from the lands, 
 when prepared for cultivation in more ancient times. 
 In the present state of the climate and the country, 
 bare and unsheltered from the mountain blast, those 
 fields, once smiling with verdure, woods (the under- 
 ground roots of which still exist in vast quantities), 
 and cultivation, now present the aspect of a black de- 
 solate waste. This extension of early cultivation was the 
 more necessary from the numerous population, of which 
 there are so many evident traces. Although the more re- 
 mote ages are called pastoral, the value and importance of 
 cultivation seem to have been well appreciated. Forest 
 trees of large size have flourished on those high moun- 
 tains, as is fully proved by their remains, which are still 
 found in mosses more than 1500 feet above the sea. 
 Recent experience, in several instances, has shown, that 
 Scotch fir and Alpine larch will prosper in those high 
 regions.* An experiment to try how far their shelter 
 
 * The larch is now spreading over the whole kingdom, and has 
 proved a valuable acquisition to the produce of many barren moors 
 
APPENDIX. 371 
 
 would improve the climate, so as to make the soil pro- 
 ductive and cultivable, as in former times, would, in the 
 in the opinion of many intelligent men, be preferable to 
 the modern system of improving our mountains and 
 glens, by removing the ancient hardy race that have 
 peopled, for so many ages, extensive tracts which are 
 now to be left in the state of nature, never to experience 
 the influence of human industry. These regions might 
 be improved into arable productive soil by humane and 
 considerate proprietors, who retain their people, which 
 are the wealth and capital of the country, and, in the 
 opinion of Sir Humphry Davie, on the Improvement of 
 Moss and Moorland, there is " strong ground to believe 
 that the capital expended (in the Highlands the manual 
 labour of the people is their capital) would, in a very few 
 years, afford a great and increasing interest, and would 
 contribute to the wealth, prosperity, and populaation of 
 this island." 
 
 in the Highlands, where the climate is found more favourable for 
 this species of pine than in the plains. The wood is of an excellent 
 quality. The Athole frigate, built entirely of Athole larch, is ex- 
 pected to show that it will prove a good substitute for oak in ship- 
 building. 
 
 The larch was accidentally brought to Scotland by a gentleman 
 whom I have had occasion to mention more than once. Mr Menzies 
 of Culdares was in London in 1737, and hearing of a beautiful pine 
 shrub recently imported from the Alps, procured four plants; he gave 
 two to the Duke of Atholl, which are now in full vigour at Dunkeld, 
 and maybe called the parents of all the larch in the kingdom ; he gave 
 a third to Mr Campbell of Monzie, and kept the fourth for himself, 
 which unfortunately was cut down forty years ago. It had then been 
 planted 45 years, and had grown to seven feet nine inches in circum- 
 ference. The Duke of AthoU's plants were placed in a green-house 
 at Dunkeld, where they did not thrive, and were thrown out, when 
 they immediately began to grow, and quickly showed the consequence 
 of being placed in a proper climate. 
 
 The Duke of Atholl sold one thousand larch trees of seventy years 
 growth for ;^5ooo. If they had been planted and grown regularly, 
 they would not have covered more than nine Scotch acres of the 
 light soil on which they thrive best, allowing 22 feet square for each 
 tree, more than ample space for the larch. 
 
372 APPENDIX. 
 
 A A, Page 187. 
 
 It is said that a man is more comfortable as a day- 
 labourer than as a small farmer. Experience is in opposi- 
 tion to this opinion, in so far as, where we see many 
 thousand labourers become paupers, such is never the 
 case with the occupiers of land. These may be poor and 
 involved in difficulties, but they are never in want of 
 food, or dependent on charitable aid. Ireland is stated 
 as an instance of the misery of small farmers. This is no 
 more a fair example, than that of the people placed on 
 small allotments of moorland in the new mode introduced 
 into the Highlands. 
 
 That part of Lord Breadalbane's estate, which is on 
 both sides of Loch Tay, contains nearly 1 1,000 acres of 
 arable woodland and pasture, in sight of the lake, besides 
 the mountain grazing ; the whole supporting a population 
 of about 3120 souls. Were he to divide the 11,000 
 acres into eight or ten farms, agreeably to the practice 
 now in progress in the Highlands, placing the present 
 population on small lots as day-labourers, would they be 
 so independent as they now are, paying for the lands on 
 the banks of Loch Tay, high as they are, and notwithstand- 
 ing a backward climate, as good a rent as is paid by many 
 farmers in Kent or Sussex ? Lord Breadalbane is sensible 
 of this, and preserves the loyal race of men who occupy 
 his land, without having occasion to establish associa- 
 tions for the suppression of felony, as in the improved 
 districts in the North,* or establishing rates for the poor, 
 
 * When protecting associations are found necessary in the North 
 Highlands, under the new mode of management, I may notice the 
 state of morals in this great property, maintaining a population of 
 more than 8000 persons in Perthshire, besides 5000 in Argyleshire. 
 From the year 1750 to 1813, there have been only two persons 
 accused of capital crimes in Lord Breadalbane's estate in Perthshire, 
 and both were acquitted. The first was a farmer tried on suspicion 
 of murder.t The second was Ewan Campbell (or Laidir), noticed 
 
 t He was a married man, who lived at the foot of Ben Lavrres. 
 
APPENDIX. 373 
 
 as has been done in the fertile and wealthy counties of 
 Roxburgh, Berwick, etc. Should his Sovereign visit 
 Scotland, and pass through the Earl of Breadalbane's 
 territory, his Lordship might assemble, on a few hours' 
 warning, 2000 men, in the prime of life, ready to receive 
 his Prince at any of the great passes or entrances into his 
 property, at Taybridge, Glenorchy, or Glenogle. At the 
 head of this loyal and hardy race of men, Lord Bread- 
 albane may welcome his Sovereign, and, pointing to his 
 followers, may say, such men as these are good supporters 
 of the country and the throne, and, while their loyalty, 
 principles, and ancient spirit are preserved pure and 
 undaunted, they will always be ready to "Follow me"* 
 at the call of their King and Country. t 
 
 in Appendix EE. Macalpine, also mentioned in the text, was 
 tried for an illegal act, which would have subjected him to the 
 punishment of felony, namely, for wearing the Highland garb. Some 
 aberrations from the general rule of morality have lately occurred, — 
 the concomitants, as a certain class of political economists say, of the 
 progress of civilization. — Swindling^ fraudulent bankruptcy, and for- 
 gery, the consequences of civilization 1 ! I 
 
 * See page 31, Vol. I. 
 t Since the above was written, a meeting of this kind happened 
 in September 1819, when 1238 men of Lord Breadalbane's tenants, 
 in the prime of life, and in the garb of their ancestors, assembled on 
 the lawn in front of Taymouth Castle, when Prince Leopold honoured 
 his Lordship with a visit. The number could have been doubled. 
 
 In autumn 1765, a servant girl in his family suddenly disappeared, 
 and no trace of her could be discovered till the following spring, 
 when the shepherds found her body floating in a small lake, nearly 
 half way up the mountain. Owing to the length of time the body 
 lay in the water, no close examination could be made, and no marks 
 of violence were observed: but after the body was found, a report 
 was spread that an improper intimacy between the deceased and her 
 master had been observed. On this suspicion he was apprehended 
 and tried at the Perth Circuit Court, and acquitted, as there was no 
 evidence beyond this suspicious report. While he lay in jail, it was 
 broke, and several prisoners made their escape, and as he refused to 
 accompany them, saying he was conscious of his innocence, the cir- 
 cumstance acted powerfully in his favour ; he, however, never re- 
 turned to the country. His family followed him to the Low country, 
 where he settled and died. 
 
374 APPENDIX. 
 
 BB, Page 216. 
 
 To oifer an agricultural comparison, taken from a 
 Highland glen, may occasion a smile ; but I may be per- 
 mitted to mention the relative state of two glens high up 
 in the Highlands, both of nearly the same extent and 
 quality of pasture and arable land, with no difference of 
 climate. The one is full of people, all of whom are sup- 
 ported by the produce. The other glen was once as 
 populous, but is now laid out in extensive grazings, and 
 the arable land turned into pasture. The population of 
 the latter, compared with the former, is as one to fifteen, 
 and the difference of rent supposed to be about four per 
 cent, in favour of the stock-farming glen. But in the 
 populous district, the surface is cleared, the soil improved, 
 and the produce increased, merely by the strength of many 
 hands, without expense to the landlord either in building 
 houses or otherwise. In the grazing glen the soil remains 
 in a state of nature, and large sums have been expended 
 in building houses for the men of capital. The income- 
 tax being removed, few direct taxes reach them, horses or 
 carts being scarcely at ail employed ; whereas, in the 
 populous districts, taxes are paid for horses, hearths, dogs, 
 and for the manufactures which the people consume. The 
 stock-farmer ought to send more produce to market 
 than can be spared, where there are so many people to 
 support, but does this additional marketable produce go 
 to the landlord? Perhaps as much of this produce is laid 
 out on the extended mode of living in the family and per- 
 sonal expense of the man of capital, as is consumed by 
 the more numerous but more economical occupiers ; but 
 that even they can spare a full proportion, is evident from 
 the rent and taxes they pay, and the money required for 
 their necessary supplies; the land, at the same time, sup- 
 porting a numerous population who improve the soil, and 
 give nearly as good rents to the landlord, and pay more 
 taxes; consuming manufactures in the same proportion, 
 and adding to the employment of those who prepare 
 
 J 
 
APPENDIX. 375 
 
 them ; and producing from their small spots of land a 
 sufficiency to answer all demands; and, above all, to 
 maintain a robust, active body of men, ready to turn out 
 in defence of the liberty and honour of their country. 
 With all this the earth is cultivated and grain produced, 
 and industry, and the improvements of men, are allowed 
 full play. In the grazing districts, again, with less than 
 one-fifteenth part of this population, few taxes are paid, 
 few manufactures consumed, the soil is left in the state of 
 nature, and the country apparently waste. 
 
 Conversing on this point at different times with judici- 
 ous stock-farmers and graziers of capital, I asked if they 
 could pay a rent equal to that of the small tenants in the 
 populous glens. They answered, " Yes, certainly." Fol- 
 lowing up this question, I asked if they could pay the rent, 
 still keeping the people, having no cultivation, and turning 
 all the land to pasturage. The answer always was. Cer- 
 tainly not more than half the rent. When further ques- 
 tioned, why then did they turn their own farms to 
 pasturage, when they saw and acknowledged the superior 
 advantage of cultivation ? To this the only answer was, 
 That pasturage was more easily managed ; that, with ten 
 men and twenty dogs, they would take care of all the 
 sheep and cattle in the glen, which, under cultivation, 
 supported 643 persons. In short, they fully acknow- 
 ledged, that cultivating the land made this immense 
 difference ; but then they could not cultivate the farms 
 without restoring the people, or employing a great many 
 servants. They insisted, at the same time, that pasture 
 is better adapted to wet climates, and more easily man- 
 aged than cultivated fields, overlooking the strong and 
 acknowledged fact before them, as well as many others 
 of the same tendency. Their concluding argument was, 
 that to improve the soil was the business of the proprie- 
 tor, not theirs. If gentlemen allowed their lands to remain 
 in a state of nature, without an attempt to improve or 
 continue the cultivation, the loss was the proprietor's, 
 and so long as they got their farms for the rents they 
 
376 APPENDIX. 
 
 could afford to pay in pasture, they asked for no improve- 
 ment.* 
 
 CC, Page, 223. 
 
 The funds for the reHef of the poor have been 
 stationary in those districts where the inhabitants hold 
 their lands. In the Highlands of Perthshire, even in 
 1816 and 181 7, years of unprecedented pressure on the 
 poor, when great sums were subscribed for their support 
 in the South, there was no increased demand beyond what 
 private benevolence supplied. The clergymen, who have 
 the management and distribution of the funds for the poor 
 find no clamorous call for charitable aid ; on the con- 
 trary, they are obliged to search for proper objects, who 
 conceal their wants, suffering every i)rivation, rather than 
 humble themselves to ask for public charity, at the same 
 time that they will gratefully receive private aid from any 
 benevolent or more opulent neighbours. In a letter 
 from a respectable clergyman in Athole on this subject, 
 he says, " I have witnessed many singular instances, and 
 have been astonished and gratified, to see how long poor 
 creatures will struggle with their fate before they submit 
 to that painful degradation. How eminently useful it is 
 to step forward to their aid before the virtuous pride is 
 altogether destroyed, and they are reduced to that last 
 resource which they so justly and greatly dread ! " t 
 Another able and zealous clergyman writes : " I must 
 always search for the objects of charity in my parish. 
 When questioning individuals on their state, I have seen 
 
 * It may not be irrelevant to state, that, notwithstanding the 
 recent depopulation of the higher glens, their inhabitants have 
 always been more athletic, better limbed, and more independent in 
 their minds, than the inhabitants of the lower glens ; the soil in 
 many of the higher glens is deep and rich, and when properly culti- 
 vated with lime, manure, and green crops, the corn is strong and 
 productive, failing only in cold and wet autumns. The upper glens 
 on Lord Breadalbane's, as well as those on many other estates, prove 
 the superior appearance of the people and capability of the soil. 
 
 + Letter from the Reverend Mr Duff, Minister of Mouline. 
 
APPENDIX. 377 
 
 a blush of shame and confusion spread over their coun- 
 tenances ; and while they endeavoured to conceal their 
 wants, and pointed out to me others more needful, I 
 knew that they were in great necessity."* 
 
 In the parish of MouUn, containing a population of 
 1947 souls, there are thirteen poor receiving permanent 
 relief, and eleven occasional assistance, but no itinerant 
 beggars in the parish. Indeed, the fund could not afford 
 much, as the amount has not exceeded ;£"2 2. los. on the 
 average of the last five years. To this may be added the 
 interest of small sums bequeathed by benevolent indivi- 
 duals some years ago. In the parish of Dull, with a 
 population of 4236 persons, the number of poor is sixty- 
 one, assisted by a fund of £,^2. 15s. annually. Weem 
 parish has no itinerant beggars out of a population of 
 1484 souls. The amount of the funds is £^2Af. los. on an 
 average of five years, and the number of poor on the same 
 average fifteen persons. In the parish of Logierait, the 
 poor have lessened in late years, when there was a great in- 
 crease of them in the Northern Highlands. The number 
 of inhabitants is 3015, with little variation for several 
 years. In 18 12, the paupers were forty-one, and in 
 181 7, the number was thirty-two persons. Dr Smith, in 
 his " General Survey of the County of Argyle, drawn up 
 for the Board of Agriculture," in speaking of the poor of 
 Argyleshire, says, " The number supported by private or 
 public contributions or otherwise is, in general, very 
 inconsiderable, as they have a modesty and spirit that 
 makes them endure absolute want before they can bring 
 themselves to the mortification of receiving any public 
 aid. This innate disposition keeps them from being any- 
 where a burden. In the Island of Tyree, in Argyleshire, 
 there are 2446 persons, with fifty paupers. In the Island 
 of Coll, the number is 1193, and thirty-four poor receive 
 aid. The annual distribution to each individual from the 
 poor's fund is 3s." With such a fund, it is absurd to 
 speak of the allowance to a pauper as a support. 
 
 * Letter from the Reverend Dr Irvine, Little Dunkeld. 
 
378 APPENDIX. 
 
 DD, Page 226. 
 
 The excuse for this manner of letting lands by auc- 
 tion, is, that landlords cannot otherwise ascertain the 
 value of their property. But are those who are thus 
 called upon to offer the proper value the best judges ? 
 They are, in general, either the tenant in possession, dis- 
 tracted with the dread of being turned out, and, there- 
 fore, ready to give any rent rather than move from the 
 scene of his past happiness ; or it may be a speculator, 
 supported by credit, without property to lose, who will 
 risk any rent, in the expectation that fortune and favour- 
 able seasons will enable him to work his way ; if he fails, 
 he is no worse off than before, nay, perhaps, richer, as 
 pan of his creditors' money may remain in his hands ; or, 
 lastly, it may be a stranger from a distant country, ignorant 
 of the quality of the soil and of its proper management 
 in an elevated country, and a boisterous uncertain climate. 
 It is said that while people are ready to take farms, the 
 rent cannot be too high, and the landlord is justifiable 
 in taking the best offer. In the same manner, it has 
 been said, that w^hile there are numberless candidates 
 for army commissions, the pay of subalterns is not too 
 small. That the pay of a subaltern is too small, I well 
 know by years of hard experience, and I believe the 
 numberless candidates are rather urged by a predilec- 
 tion for the profession, and by their want of other em- 
 ployment, than temjDted by the sufficiency of military 
 emoluments. From the same cause, and from the same 
 desire of obtaining a settlement, candidates are induced 
 to bid for land at whatever rent. Were it the practice to 
 set up commissions to public sale to the highest bidder, 
 or by secret and rival offers, the money to be paid in 
 annual instalments, like the rents, instead of the whole 
 down, thus affording some hope, that the delay would 
 enable them to pay all, there is no doubt that the 
 price of commissions would quickly augment ; but what 
 would be the consequence? Certain ruin to the unfor- 
 
APPENDIX. 379 
 
 tunate purchasers, their spirit broken down by poverty, 
 their morals unhinged, and in the hope of retriev- 
 ing their difficulties, gambling and other practices, 
 discreditable to themselves and their profession resorted 
 to. But, happily for the honour of the army, the destruc- 
 tion of principle consequent on such proceedings was 
 foreseen and guarded against, and all officers are strictly 
 prohibited from giving more than the price established by 
 regulations for their commissions. A different system 
 would quickly ruin the army; and it is no less destructive 
 and subversive of the best principles of the cultivators of 
 the land, who have hitherto been conspicuous for their 
 primitive manners and integrity. 
 
 Although all my observations apply to the Highlands 
 only, I may take examples from the Lowlands, and give 
 that of a nobleman whose character adds lustre to his high 
 rank, and who, after having proved himself one of the most 
 illustrious and able commanders of his country, when 
 fighting her battles, has now, when his services in the field 
 are no longer necessary, shown himself equally great, 
 judicious, and generous, in the management of his almost 
 princely estate, to which he succeeded a few years ago."^ 
 The former leases were let by public advertisement and 
 acceptance of the highest offer ; accordingly, great rents 
 were promised, but irregularly paid, and sometimes by 
 sequestrations. Tormented and disgusted with these pro- 
 ceedings, and shocked at the distress and deteriorated 
 character and principles of the tenants, who were resorting 
 to discreditable shifts to meet demands they could not 
 fairly answer, he determined to act agreeably to the dic- 
 tates of his honourable mind. As the term of the leases 
 expired, he called for no secret offer, he employed no 
 land valuator or agent, he did not offer his farms by pub- 
 lic advertisements ; he examined every farm himself, and 
 calculated the produce, and thus was personally able to 
 ascertain how^ far the former rents were the cause of the 
 failures and defalcations ; he fixed the new rents at a 
 
 * This was General the late Earl of Hopetoun. 
 
380 APPENDIX. 
 
 reduction of the old, on an average of thirty per cent., 
 although some were raised. So injudicious were the 
 former rents, that while some were far beyond their value, 
 others were too low. Every tenant obtained his own 
 farm, except two, who, by their offers, were partly the 
 cause of the former injudicious augmentations. The 
 tenants can now bear up under low prices and taxes, as 
 their moderate rents enable them to meet unfortunate 
 contingencies, and their generous landlord is secured in 
 a regular income, thus making him as independent as he 
 made his tenants. 
 
 EE, Page 257. 
 
 Instances are common in the Highlands, even to this 
 day, of the influence of pubhc opinion operating as a 
 powerful restraint on crimes, nay, even as a punishment, 
 to the extent of forcing individuals into exile. Of these, 
 two have occurred within my own remembrance. Several 
 years ago, two men, one old and the other young, stepped 
 into a small boat to cross Loch Tay. In the middle of 
 the lake they were seen to stand up, as if struggling, and 
 then quickly to sit or fall down, the people from the dis- 
 tance could not distinguish which. When the boat arrived 
 at the shore, the young man was missing. The account 
 which his aged companion gave was, that the youth was in 
 hquor, and wished to quarrel with him, and got up in the 
 boat to strike him, but his foot slipped and he fell over- 
 board. This story was not believed. The man was sent 
 to Perth jail, tried at the ensuing assizes, and acquitted for 
 want of evidence. The impression of his guilt, however, 
 was not to be effaced from the minds of the people. 
 This belief was farther confirmed by the character of the 
 man, who was quarrelsome and passionate. On his return 
 to Breadalbane no person would speak to him. He was 
 not upbraided for his supposed guilt, nor was any attempt 
 made to insult or maltreat him ; but he found every back 
 turned upon him, and every house he entered instantly 
 emptied of its inhabitants. He withstood this for a short 
 
APPENDIX. 381 
 
 time, when he left the country, and never returned, or was 
 seen afterwards. I was present at this man's trial. His 
 name was Ewan Campbell, or Ewen Laidir, or the Strongs 
 from his great strength. The other instance happened 
 some years afterwards in Strathbrane, the most southern 
 valley in the Perthshire Highlands. The circumstances 
 were in part similar to those which occasioned the late 
 proposed trial by wager of battle in the case of Thornton, 
 accused of the murder of Mary Ashford. A young woman 
 was found drowned in a small pool of water used for 
 steeping flax, having considerable marks of violence on 
 the body, and traces of struggling being discovered on 
 the grass round the pool. There was not a doubt but 
 she had been murdered and forced into the water. Sus- 
 picions fell upon a young man supposed to have been her 
 sweetheart. He was sent to Perth jail, tried, and ac- 
 quitted for want of proof In the minds of the people, 
 however, there was proof sufficient. He happened to 
 reach home late on a Saturday night, and next morning 
 went to hear Divine service, and took his seat in one end 
 of the church ; but in a moment he had it wholly to him- 
 self. Every person moved away to a distance, and left 
 the whole range of seats empty. When he came out after 
 service, and stood in the church-yard, all shunned him, 
 and when he walked homewards, those that were in his 
 front hurried on, and those behind walked slow, leaving 
 the road to himself This was too much to bear, and his 
 resolution not holding out so long as the old man's, he 
 disappeared that night, and, like him, has never since 
 been heard of 
 
 The laws are now sufficiently strong to punish all 
 crimes in the Highlands, ^^^len such was not the case, 
 these were the institutions and habits of thinking which 
 these illiterate people established for themselves, to pun- 
 ish and prevent transgressions. 
 
 FF, Page 262. 
 To extend the means of education, a knowledge of 
 
382 APPENDIX. 
 
 the Scriptures, and a consequent regard to religion and 
 moral duties, great improvements have been lately made 
 by the humane beneficence of individuals, who have 
 raised a fund for the support of Gaelic schools, and have 
 thus enabled the natives to read the Scriptures in a lan- 
 guage which they understand. As the best books only 
 are published in that language, the principles of the people 
 will be protected from the contamination of seditious and 
 improper tracts, and the advantages of education will be 
 unmixed with the danger that threatens their best prin- 
 ciples, by the abuse of those blessings which ought to be 
 the result. The means of educating the Highlanders in 
 the early part of the last century, and of instructing them 
 in religious knowledge, do not seem to have been well 
 understood or well conducted. The established clergy 
 were directed to preach and exhort in English, and 
 schoolmasters to teach in the same language. Thus, 
 while the parishioners were compelled to listen to dis- 
 courses and prayers of which they did not comprehend 
 one sentence, their children were taught to pronounce and 
 run over their letters with as little instruction. In con- 
 formity to this precious system, patrons of Highland 
 parishes have, in many cases, appointed ministers from 
 the Lowlands, totally ignorant of the only language under- 
 stood by the parishioners.* In the year 1791, the case 
 
 * If it were proper to be otherwise than serious on such a subject, 
 the appearance the Lowland clergy make in attempting to preach in 
 Gaelic might occasion more than a smile. The mistakes they con- 
 stantly commit, their perversion of the language and confounding of 
 the meaning of words, which may be understood in two or more 
 senses, occasion ridiculous scenes, which put the gravity of the aged 
 to the proof, and throw the youthful into fits of laughter not easily 
 controlled. When these are the means by which religious instruction 
 is in so many cases conveyed to the Highlanders, their ignorance 
 may cease to excite wonder; and, instead of seeing men expressing 
 their grief and horror at the want of religion, knowledge of Christi- 
 anity, and the vices which, they pretend, exist in the Highlands, it 
 were well if a share of their horror and indignation were raised 
 against those who deprive the inhabitants of the means of instruction, 
 and some share of merit and approbation might be shown towards a 
 people who, although under such disadvantages, are not altogether 
 so ignorant as they are called. 
 
APPENDIX. 383 
 
 of the appointment of a clergyman, ignorant of the Gaelic 
 language, to a Highland parish in Aberdeenshire, came, 
 by appeal, before the General Assembly. But the Assem- 
 bly, from the members of which, as the fathers of the 
 church and supporters of religion, a different decision 
 might have been expected, sustained the appointment ; and 
 thus, by giving countenance to an unprincipled practice, 
 by which the very source of Christian instruction is dried 
 up, patrons of parishes are encouraged to persevere in a 
 flagitious system which deprives a whole population of the 
 means of hearing Divine worship performed in an intel- 
 ligible language. Yet, while religious knowledge was, in 
 these cases, placed beyond the reach of the Highlanders, 
 by those whose bounden duty it was to afford them every 
 facility to acquire it, the state of religion, and the clear 
 notions the people entertain of their religious duties, are 
 very remarkable, particularly when those disadvantages, 
 the scarcity of clergymen, and the general great extent of 
 the parishes, are taken into consideration. The indiffer- 
 ence shown to their religious instruction at the Reforma- 
 tion is well known, and looked more like a total extinction, 
 than a reform of religion ; for, at that period, two, three, 
 and in some cases four parishes, were united into one; 
 numberless chapels were destroyed,* and tracts of forty or 
 fifty miles in extent were left without a church, or minister 
 of the gospel. 
 
 Although there are many thousand unable to read, and 
 many more unable to understand what they read (in 
 Enghsh), the advantages of education,, when combined 
 with temporal comforts, are well understood, and when 
 
 * The churches of the adjoining parishes of Fortingall in Perth- 
 shire, and of Lismore in Argyleshire, are 78 miles distant. The parish 
 of Appin was suppressed and annexed to Lismore, and Kilchonnan 
 annexed to Fortingall. Nine chapels in these four parishes were 
 totally suppressed; and thus, where thirteen clergymen were estab- 
 lished formerly, the economy of the Reformers allowed only two; 
 and this they called teaching the true gospel, where no teachers were 
 left, no provision for clerg^'men, nor churches for Divine worship 
 allowed. Four parishes were united under one clergyman at Blair- 
 Athole. Similar instances are frequent in the Highlands and Isles. 
 
384 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 allowed to go hand in hand, they have answered the most 
 sanguine expectations. In this manner, we see men, in 
 the lowest situations as cottagers, giving an education to 
 their children, which fits them for any profession. Many 
 men of my intimate acquaintance, educated in this manner, 
 have been, and now are, eminent in different learned pro- 
 fessions. Others give equal promise. These men acquire 
 the religious and moral habits, which paved the way to 
 their present eminence, from the poor but well-principled 
 parents. The number of persons thus educated from the 
 poorest class of the people is, I believe, unparalleled. 
 This commendable trait of character may be considered 
 as part of that chivalrous independent spirit which ani- 
 mated the clans, and which, amidst poverty and frequent 
 violations of law and regular government, developed many 
 honourable points of character. 
 
 But to return to the subject of rehgious knowledge. 
 They who suppose that knowledge is only acquired from 
 books, will find some difficulty in believing that in the 
 Highlands, men without any education, or any language 
 but their own, can give a clear account of their faith. 
 With a memory rendered tenacious and accurate, by their 
 inabihty to read, and the consequent necessity of retain- 
 ing in their recollection what they hear, they acquire a 
 competent knowledge of the Scriptures, and on reference 
 to any important passage, will readily point out the chap- 
 ter and verse. Not only can they repeat whole chapters 
 from recollection, but even recollect the greater part of a 
 sermon. Men of this kind were not to be found in every 
 family, but they were frequent ; and by free communica- 
 tion of their acquirements, have greatly contributed to 
 considerable intelligence, both civil and religious. But, 
 as education extends, this faculty of a tenacious memory 
 must diminish. When a man can find what he wishes to 
 know by turning up a book, he is apt to ttiink that he 
 need not be at the trouble of retaining it in his memory. 
 As education is becoming so general, it is to be hoped, 
 that moral principles will be presei-ved and combined 
 with increase of knowledge, and that the people will read 
 
APPENDIX. 355 
 
 and comprehend the Scriptures with at least the same 
 advantage and instruction as when they were taught and 
 explained by zealous and able clergymen, and by such in- 
 telligent persons as I have just noticed. 
 
 GG, Page 290. 
 
 That Highlanders may be rendered useless, and their 
 best military qualities destroyed, by want of attention to 
 their peculiar habits, was exemplified in the reign of 
 Charles I., when two potent rivals, the Marquis of 
 Montrose and the Marquis of Argyll, taking opposite 
 sides in the RebelHon, each commanded an army of 
 Highlanders. Montrose, whose numbers were on every 
 occasion very inferior, never lost a battle. Argyll, with 
 Highlanders equally brave, was constantly worsted. 
 Haughty and overbearing, although a Republican in 
 principle and a Puritan in religion, he kept aloof from 
 his people (who honoured him as their Chief, but could 
 not love him as a man), and disregarded those courtesies 
 by which a Highlander can be so easily managed. Mon- 
 trose, on the contrary, knew every soldier in his army, 
 and, while he flattered them by his attention to their 
 songs, genealogies, and traditions, and by sharing in 
 all their fatigues and privations, he roused them to 
 exertions almost incredible. So extraordinary were the 
 marches which he performed, that on many occa- 
 sions, the appearance of his army was the first notice 
 the enemy had of his approach: and of his retreats, 
 the first intelhgence was, that he was beyond their 
 reach. Before the battle of Inverlochy in February 
 1645, when the Marquis of Argyll had 3000 men, and 
 Montrose only 1600, the latter marched thirty miles by 
 an unfrequented route across the mountains of Lochaber, 
 during a heavy fall of snow, and came at night in front of 
 the enemy, when they believed him in another part of 
 the country. " The moon shone so clear that it was 
 almost as light as day ; they lay upon their arms the 
 whole night, and, with the assistance of the light, they so 
 
 2 c 
 
386 APPENDIX. 
 
 harassed each other with sHght alarms and skirmishes, 
 that neither gave the other time to repose. They all 
 earnestly wished for day, only Argyll, more intent on his 
 own safety, conveyed himself away about the middle of 
 the night, and having very opportunely got a boat, 
 escaped the hazard of a battle, choosing rather to be a 
 spectator of the prowess of his men, than share in the 
 danger himself Nevertheless the chiefs of the Camp- 
 bells, who were indeed a set of very brave men, and 
 worthy of a better chief, and a better cause, began the 
 battle with great courage. But their first ranks discharg- 
 ing their muskets only once, Montrose's men fell in upon 
 them furiously sword in hand, with a great shout, and ad- 
 vanced with such great impetuosity, that they routed the 
 whole army, and put them to flight, and pursued them 
 for about nine miles, making dreadful slaughter all the 
 way. There were fifteen hundred of the enemy slain, 
 among whom were several gentlemen of distinction of the 
 name of Campbell, who led on the clan, and fell on the 
 field of battle too gallantly for their dastardly chief. 
 Montrose, though an enemy, pitied their fate, and used 
 his authority to save and give quarter to as many as he 
 could. In this battle Montrose had several wounded, 
 but he had none killed but three privates, and Sir Thomas 
 Ogilvie, son of the Earl of Airlie, while Argyll lost the 
 Lairds of Auchenbreck, Glensaddell, and Lochnell, with 
 his son and brother, and Barbreck, Inveraw, Lamont, 
 Silvercraigs, and many others taken prisoners."* 
 
 Spalding, in his " History of the Troubles," states, 
 that "there came direct from the Committee of Edin- 
 burgh certain men to see Argyll's forwardness in follow- 
 ing Montrose, but they saw his flight in manner foresaid. 
 It is to be considered that few of this army had esca])ed 
 if Montrose had not marched the day before the fight 
 twenty-three miles (Scotch miles), on little food, and 
 crossed sundry waters, wet and weary, and standing in 
 wet and cold the hail night before the fight." Similar 
 
 * Bishop WisharCs Memoirs. 
 
 A 
 
APPENDIX. 387 
 
 to this were six successive battles fought by Montrose, 
 the loss on his side being equally small, and that on the 
 side of the Covenanters proportionably great.* In those 
 instances we find a body of men very inferior in numbers, 
 of whom the Highlanders constituted the main strength, 
 carry all before it, when commanded by a man of great 
 miHtary genius, to which he united, in a very eminent 
 degree, the useful talent for properly understanding the 
 character of those he commanded, and accommodating 
 himself to their peculiar habits. 
 
 At the battle of Auldearn, a few weeks after that of 
 Inverlochy, Campbell, Laird of Lawers, although up- 
 wards of seventy years of age, fought on the side of the 
 Covenanters with a two-handed broadsword, till himself, 
 and four out of six sons who were with him in the field, 
 fell on the ground on which they stood. Such was the 
 enemy which the genius and talents of Montrose over- 
 came. 
 
 On that occasion the left wing of Montrose's army 
 was commanded by his able auxiliary Macdonell, or Mac- 
 coull (as he is called in Gaelic), still celebrated in 
 Highland tradition and song for his chivalry and courage. 
 An elevation of the ground separated the wings. Mon- 
 trose received a report that Macdonell's wing had given 
 way, and was retreating. He instantly ran along the 
 ranks, and called out to his men that Macdonell was 
 driving the enemy before him, and unless they did the 
 same, the other wing would carry away all the glory of 
 the day. His men instantly rushed forward, and charged 
 the enemy off the field, while he hastened with his 
 reserve to the relief of his friend, and recovered the 
 fortune of the day. 
 
 * These battles were those of Auldearn, Alford, Tippermuir, 
 Killsyth, etc. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aberfoyle, pass of, 3. 
 
 Abernethy, supposed the capital of the Picts, 16 — subterranean ruins 
 
 at, ib. , note. 
 Achaius, King of the Scots, 17. 
 Agricola the Roman General, 15. 
 Airley, family of, their feud with the Argyll, 131. 
 AUeyne, Mr Foster, how he treats his negroes, 183, note. 
 Argyle, county of, 5. 
 
 family of, their feud with the Atholl, etc., 130. 
 
 ■ Marquis of, bond against, 37, note. 
 
 Arms, description of those of the clans, 84. 
 Arran, island of, 5. 
 Array, warlike, of the clans, 85. 
 Asylum, Caledonian, its institution, 283. 
 Athole, district of. 2, note, 3, note. 
 
 Duke of, his reason for exercising the power of pardon, 60 
 
 — number of men he formerly brought into the field, 86. 
 
 family of, their feud with the Argyll, 131. 
 
 Marquis of, collects a body of men to assist King William, 
 
 79. 
 
 Athole-raen, bond of, 37, note — encounter the Argyle-men, ib., note 
 — take Dundee, 49 — take Inverary, 51 — refuse to serve King 
 William, 79. 
 
 Attachment, local, striking instances of, 100, note, 112, note, 196. 
 
 Attack, mode of, used by the clans, %"]. 
 
 Baden and Bavaria, transfer of their subjects between the sovereigns 
 
 of, 185. 
 Bane, Robert, 46, note. 
 Bannockburn, clans who fought at the battle of, under King Robert 
 
 Bruce, 33. 
 Bards, their duties, 99 — effects produced by, 100. 
 Bealmacha, pass of, 3. 
 Bel, or Baal, traces in the Highlands of the worship of, 8 — aniii- 
 
 versaiy of, ib., 7iote. 
 Bisset, Commissary, the Duke of Atholl's baron bailie, 61. 
 
390 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bonnet, Highland, how worn, 95, 
 Brae-Mar, crossed by a great bed of limestone, 2, note. 
 Breadalbane, district of, 2, note. 
 
 Brodie, Laird of, a letter from President Forbes to, 91. 
 Burns, the poet, quoted, 121. 
 
 Burrel, his statement in the House of Commons respecting the poor- 
 rates, 217, note, 223, note. 
 
 Caddies of Edinburgh, their integrity and capability, 246, note. 
 Ceann-mor, Malcolm, GaeHc used at Court till his reign, 17— he 
 
 removes the Court south, 23. 
 Cairn, how raised, 115, note. 
 
 Caledonians, scene of their stand for liberty, 2— early civilization, 17. 
 Cameron, clan, 32— at the battle of Killicrankie, 80— their charge at 
 
 Culloden, 87. 
 
 John Dhu, a noted freebooter, 78. 
 
 of Lochiel, at the battle of Bannockburn, 33, w^/^— joins 
 
 Lord Dundee, 80. 
 
 second son of Lochiel, warns General Mackay of his danger, 
 
 80. 
 
 Campbell, Colonel, of Glenlyon, an opinion entertained by, 127, 
 
 note. 
 of Glenlyon, the commander at the massacre of Glencoe, 124, 
 
 note. 
 Laird of Glenorchy, the influence of the Elders of his clan 
 
 over him, 70 — distinctive names of, ib., note. 
 
 General, of Monzie, Scotch spoken to his gate, 4, note. 
 
 of Achallader ; he and Lord Breadalbane's tenants place 
 
 great confidence in each other, 57, note, 275, note — Lord George 
 Littleton's opinion of, 188, note. 
 Campbells of Dunstaffnage, Duntroon and Melford, the practice of, 
 
 35- 
 Canal, Caledonian, the reluctance of the Highlanders to work at it 
 
 accounted for, 249. 
 Celtic names of places, 10— where spoken at present, 14, 
 Celts, migrations of, 8 — traces of them over a considerable part of 
 
 Europe, 10 — the warlike spirit of the Caledonian, 14. 
 Charles L, King, civil wars of, 120. 
 
 n.. King, his gratitude to the Highlanders, 120. 
 
 Prince. — See Stuart, Prince Charles. 
 
 Chiefs, their sway, 28 — their sway mild, 34 — concluded treaties, 36 
 — young chief obliged to give a specimen of his valour, 41, note 
 — ^jurisdiction of, 60, 62— had power of life and death, 60— their 
 power not uncontrolled, 60, 63 — occasionally deposed, 68 — 
 their generosity, 58. 
 
 Clans, cause of the separation into, 25 — community of customs, 28 
 — their government patriarchal, ib., 29, 34, 57, 71— conse- 
 quences arising from the system, 35 — feuds of, 35, 53, 130 — 
 tendency of their warfare, 53 — black-mail levied l)y, 47 — 
 
INDEX. 391 
 
 creachs, 44— hostile expeditions, 48 — their spoliations not 
 thought immoral, 46, 52 - compensation for injuries, how 
 awarded by, 56 — effects of their pride of ancestry, 59, note— 
 compensation for juries, 60, 62 — attached to their chiefs, 63, 
 150 — instances, 72, 82, note, 150, notc—\}ci€\x generosity to their 
 chiefs, 62 — description of their arms, 84 — warlike array, 85 — 
 mode of attack, 87 — example at Culloden, %"] — distinguished by 
 their tartans, 97 — their bards, 99— pipers, ib. — effects produced 
 on them by their poetry and music, icx) — disgrace attached to 
 cowardice by, 109. See Highlanders. 
 
 Clergy, Scotch, their character, 125. 
 
 Clyde, river, 2, note. 
 
 Coat, Highland, 92. 
 
 Cowardice, note — disgrace attached to, by the Clans, 109. 
 
 Creachs of the Clans, 44. 
 
 Cromwell, usurpation of, 120. 
 
 Culloden, battle of, exemplifies the mode of attack practised by the 
 Clans, 87. 
 
 Cultivation of the soil, more extensive formerly than now, 21. 
 
 Dalrymple, Sir John, quoted, iii, 118, 123. 
 
 Daoni-si, or fairies, 9. 
 
 Dee, river, 3. 
 
 Deer-stalking, the bow and arrow best fitted for, 85. 
 
 Disarming Act, 139 — oath ordered to be administered in the High- 
 lands in consequence of, 142, note. 
 
 Dissertations, preliminary, the object of the prefixed, 283. 
 
 Distillation, illicit, 236 — cause of, 239. 
 
 Don, river, 3. 
 
 Druids, 8. 
 
 Dry fallow, its introduction into East-Lothian, 174. 
 
 Dumbarton, county of, 2, 5, 48. 
 
 Dundee, Lord, joined by a large party of Highlanders, 79 — 
 killed at ICilliecrankie, 81. 
 
 Dunkeld, district of, 3, 28, note, 133. 
 
 Dunstaffnage, castle of, 20. 
 
 Edinbtirgh Review quoted, 129. 
 
 Elgin, county of, 5. 
 
 Erig, or ransom, how awarded, 56. 
 
 Erskine, Honourable Henry, his Emigrant quoted, 234. 
 
 Eustace's Classical Tour quoted, 97. 
 
 Excise-laws, in reference to the Highlands, 236 — -245. 
 
 Excise, officers of, 241, note. 
 
 Falkirk, arms of the Clans at the battle of, 85. 
 
 Farms, bad effect of secret offers for, 157. 
 
 Fletcher of Saltoun, his statement about the poor, 265. 
 
•92 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Forbes, Jamie, his feigned loss of recollection, 75, note 
 
 Lord President, his memorial about the Clans, 30 —descrip- 
 tion of a visit to Kearnachs, 53 — his visit to the Duke of 
 Athole, 60 — his opinion of the Highland garb, 91 — influence 
 during the rebellion, 133. 
 
 Fortingall, district of, ores found in, 2. 
 
 Erasers, a body of, refuse to comply with their chiefs wishes, 79 — 
 their charge at Culloden, 88, 
 
 Eraser, Lord Lovat, his influence over his Clan, 34. 
 
 Gaelic language, 3, note — the counties in which it is spoken, 4, i6i 
 — very like the Hebrew, 9 — when discontinued at Court, 17. 
 
 Galagacus, Caledonian, army of, 15. 
 
 Garb, Highland, 91— ornamental parts of, 94 — ordinances regard- 
 ing that of Ecclesiastics, 92, )iotc - suppression of, 141. 
 
 Garth, 2, note — ancient buildings on the estate of, 22. 
 
 Garters, Highland, 95. 
 
 Glencoe, an anecdcrte connected with, 124, note, 127, note. 
 
 Glenlochy, district of, 3. 
 
 Glenogle, district of, 3. 
 
 Glenlyon, ores in, 2— ancient buildings in, 22. 
 
 Glentilt, a marble quarry in, 2, note. 
 
 Gow, Neil, musician, 131. 
 
 Graham Dalyell, John, his remarks on the chartullaries of Aberdeen, 
 92, note. 
 
 Grampians, i direction of, 2 -composition of, ib. — names of the 
 principal mountains, 4. 
 
 Grant, Laird Humphrey, conflned by the Elders of his Clan, 68, note. 
 
 I^aird of, his mode of punishing cowardice, 109. 
 
 of Laggan, Mrs, quoted, 60, 101, 109, 130, 229. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, wars of, 91 -dress of the Scotch ofticers serving 
 under, 95, note. 
 
 Highlanders, their means of subsistence, 6, 106— an ancient people, 8 
 —of Oriental origin, 9— like the Bascjues, 13— names by which 
 they were known, 15— their honesty, 43, note, 109, 275, note, 
 262, 275 — eff"ects of their position on those of the border coun- 
 ties, 48 -their fidelity and honourable feeling, with instances, 
 63, 72, 124, note, 178, note, 206, note, 246, note — presence of 
 mind and address, 53— spirit of independence, 68, 117— familiar 
 with the idea of death, 100 wish to be interred where their 
 friendsare, 100 — their filial affection, 107 — chastity, no — fond of 
 poetry, 1 13- their memory formerly retentive, 115- attachment to 
 the House of Stuart, 1 19— state under the Stuarts, 119— dislike 
 of Cromwell's usurpation, I20 -the cause of their attachment to 
 the Stuarts, 119— their religious sentiments, 122— charitable dis- 
 position, 167, note -the opinions they and the Lowlanders enter- 
 tained of each other, 129— cftects of fanaticism on, 163, 165 — 
 probable eff"ects of the present system on, 256— influence of the 
 
INDEX. 393 
 
 conduct of the higher ranks on, 266— their conduct after the 
 rebellion of, 1745, and during the reign of Charles II., 262, 264 
 — respect for the landlord on the decline, 150 — capability of, 
 207, 246— instances, 199, note, 207, note, 267- military char- 
 acter, 287. 
 
 Highlanders, Loudon's, engaged at Culloden, 88. 
 
 Highlands, outline of, i — boundaries of, 4 — passes into, 3 — when 
 united to the Lowlands, 18 — ancient population greater than 
 now, 20 — tumults in, 157 — change of manners in, 148— agricul- 
 ture of, 172, 214 — checks to improvement in, 268— cultivation 
 of the soil the only object to which industry can be applied in 
 the central, 284 — education in, 265 — change of tenantry in, 
 176 — emigration from, 229 — cause of illicit distillation in, 236. 
 
 Home's History of the Rebellion quoted and characterized, 88, note. 
 
 Huntly, family of, their feud with the Argyll, 131. 
 
 Jackson's Systematic View quoted, 291. 
 
 Jacobite songs, their merit and influence, 121. 
 
 James, the abdicated King, his letter to Stewart of Ballechin, 81, 
 
 note. 
 Icolm-kill, college of, 18 — furnishes England with bishops, 18, note. 
 Inch Ewan, stream of the boundary between the Celts and Saxons, 
 
 131- 
 
 Inverkeithing, battle of, 63. 
 
 Inverlochy, castle of, 19. 
 
 Johnson, Dr Samuel, remarks by, 19, 58, note — his opinion of the 
 Disarming Act, 140 — his Journey quoted, 170, «^^^ — his sarcasm 
 respecting the want of old trees likely to prove true, 180, note. 
 
 Katrine, Loch, supposed origin of the name, 46. 
 Kenmore, an affray at, 65, note. 
 Killicrankie, pass of, 3, 21 — battle of, 78. 
 Kingdom, Celtic, 15. 
 
 Landlords, instances of the attachment of the Highlanders to, 151, 
 
 7iote — 152, 7iote. 
 Language, Gaelic, 4 — of Oriental origin, 9 — when discontinued at 
 
 Court, 17— adapted for social intercourse, 1 1 7 -whisky-house a 
 
 term unknown in, 242, note. 
 Leane, Donald Bane, freebooter, 52. 
 Leny, pass of, 3. 
 
 Letters of a Nobleman to his Son, quoted, 133. 
 Lindsay, Rev. D., minister of Glenorchy, 123, note. 
 Lockhart, papers, quoted, 86. 
 Loudon, Earl of, 134, note, 202, note. 
 Lovat, Lord, his influence over his clan, 34. 
 Lowlanders, 122 — the opinion they and the Highlanders entertained 
 
 of each other, 129. 
 Lowlands, i, 5, 16, 46, 116, 121. 
 
 2 D 
 
394 INDEX. 
 
 Macalpin, King Kenneth, unites the Scots and Picts, 17. 
 Macculloch, Dr, his Description of the Western Islands, quoted, 179. 
 Macdonald of Clanronald rejected by his clan, 68. 
 Macdonell of Keppoch, 32 -rejected by his tribe, 68. 
 Mackintosh, clan of, their mode of attack at the battle of Culloden, 
 88. 
 
 Lady, embarks in the Rebellion, 134, note. 
 
 leader of a band of robbers, 42, 
 
 Macintyre, a family of, possessors of the farm of Glencoe, 97, note. 
 
 Mackay, General, commands the King's troops at the battle of Killi- 
 crankie, 80. 
 
 Mackenzie, clan of, their influence over their chief, 69. 
 — a young gentleman of that name personates Prince Charles, 
 72. 
 
 Maclean, Sir Hector, supported by his clan, 5. 
 
 Lachlan, concerned in an affray at Loch Tay, 65, note. 
 
 Macnab, a family of that name long in the same farm, 97, note. 
 
 Macnaughton, John, his fidelity, 65. 
 
 Macpherson of Cluny, the tried fidelity of his clan, 72— the circum- 
 stances of his defection, ']'>,, note. 
 
 Manners, Highland, change of, 144 — effects of the Union on, 148. 
 
 Martin, his Description of the Western Islands, quoted 18, note — 41, 
 note — 95, note — 116, note — 150, note. 
 
 Memoirs of an English Cavalier, quoted, 91. 
 
 Menzies of Culdares, makes a present of a charger to Prince Charles, 
 64. 
 
 Military character, what it depends on, 287 — importance of, 288 — of 
 the Highlanders, ib. 
 
 Munro, Sir Hector, commands a detachment in the Highlands, 78. 
 
 Names of places, Celtic, Gothic, and Danish, 5, 7tote — 10. 
 Negroes, their treatment compared with that of the Highlanders, 182. 
 
 Parish relief established in England, 186. 
 
 Peasantry of England, cause of their degradation, 186. 
 
 of Ireland, cause of their discontent, 257. 
 
 Pennant the Tourist, quoted, 126, 175. 
 
 Pentland F'irth, 5. 
 
 Perth, the town of, petition Lord Drummond, 60. 
 
 Picts, 16, 17. 
 
 Pinkerton, his misrepresentation of the Highland character, 245. 
 
 Plaid, belted, 94. 
 
 Poetry, traditional, recitations of, 115. 
 
 Presence of mind, instances of, 52. 
 
 Prestonpans, battle of, arms of the clans at, 85. 
 
 Proprietors, their absence much felt in the Highlands, 219, note. 
 
 Proverbs, the origin of one, 63. 
 
 Purse, Highland, used by the ladies as their reticule, 94, note. 
 
INDEX. 395 
 
 Recce's History quoted by, 84. 
 
 Rebellion, strength of the clans at, 30 — Home's History of, 88 — feel- 
 ings which led the clans to engage in, 130 — influence of the 
 ladies in inciting to, 134. 
 
 Reid, General, assumes the patronymic as his surname, 118, note. 
 
 Religion, of the Highlanders, on what founded, 124 — cordiality of 
 the adherents to the National, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic, 
 
 125. 
 Rent-day dinners, 276, note. 
 Reticule, like the Highland purse, 94, note. 
 Robertson, Dr, his view of Agriculture in Inverness quoted, 211. 
 
 Scone, emblems of royalty removed to, 18. 
 Scotch, moral character and education of, 262. 
 Scotland, picture of, after the death of James I., 55, note. 
 Severus, Emperor, 15. 
 
 Rev. Dr, his MS., History of the Rebellion, quoted, 89. 
 
 Shichallian, 2, note, 4, 104, 7iote, 113, note. 
 
 Skye, Island of, 5, tiote. 
 
 Smuggling, its consequences, 236. 
 
 Society, Highland, of London, when formed, 278 — its objects, 278 
 
 — the Caledonian Asylum instituted by, 283. 
 — of Scotland, origin of, 282— objects of, 282 — liberality of, 
 
 282 — its attention to the comfort of emigrants, 283. 
 Society, Royal, their Transactions quoted, 173, note. 
 Stair, Earl of, his property saved, 124. 
 Stewart, a freebooter, 52. 
 
 Donald, pardoned by the Duke of Atholl, 61. 
 
 of Ballechen, his proceedings at Inveraray, 51 — Athole-men 
 
 place themselves under his command, 79 — letter of the abdicated 
 King to, 81, note. 
 
 of Crossmount, his great age, 86, note. 
 
 of Garth, 28. 
 
 Stewarts of Appin, their charge at CuUoden, 88. 
 
 their distinctive appellations, 29, note. 
 
 Stewart, a race of the name long possessed of the same farms, 97, 
 note. 
 
 St Kilda, Island of, 5. 
 
 Stuart, the exiled royal family of, causes of the attachment of the 
 clans to, 120. 
 
 Stuart, Prince Charles, personated by one Mackenzie, 72 — his treat- 
 ment from some men in Lochaber, 76. 
 
 Strathfillan, ores found in, 2. 
 
 Surnames of clans changed, 27, note, 29, note — derived from patrony- 
 mics, 117, 7tote. 
 
 Sutherland, Lord, the late twenty-first Earl in succession, 107. 
 
 Tacitus, his account of the Caledonians, 15. 
 Tartan, each clan had its distinctive pattern, 96. 
 
396 INDEX. 
 
 Theft, rare among the Highlanders, 42. 
 
 Truis, Highland, by whom worn, 93. 
 
 Tullibardine, Marquis, deserted by the Athole-men, 79. 
 
 Tumults in the Highlands, 157. 
 
 Turenne, Marshal, a saying of his controverted, 287. 
 
 Union, the effects of, 148. 
 
 Wade, Field-Marshal, his letter regarding a feast given by Kearnachs^ 
 
 53. 
 Walker, Dr, quoted, 211, 249, 251. 
 Waverley, the author of, quoted, 131. 
 White, Mr John, his introduction of the green crop system into 
 
 Perthshire, 173. 
 Whisky, when brought into general use in the Highlands, 237 — ale 
 
 formerly the universal beverage, 241. 
 William HI., King, confirmed the attachment of the Highlanders to 
 
 their former kings, 120. 
 
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