P. 456. The account in ‘The History of the Feuds’ is taken from Sir
Robert Gordon’s History of Sutherland, p. 217.
Jamieson, writing to Scott, in November, 1804, says: “I have heard a
scrap of the rude ballad on the burning of Achindoun, ‘Bonny Willie
Mackintosh—You’ve tint a feather frae your cap—By the day dawing,’ etc.,
or something of this kind, from the Rev^d John Grant of Elgin. The
Duchess of Gordon applied to him about it some years ago, but he could
never recover it.” (Letters addressed to Sir W. Scott, I, No 117,
Abbotsford.)