ROB GOES TO ENGLAND.
All hope of restoring the exiled House of Stuart having ceased for a
time, Rob Roy, for some years subsequent to the establishment of the
Revolution, lived quietly on his estate of Inversnaid; only assuming
the sword to protect himself, his neighbours, or those whose
properties lay south of the Highland frontier, and who paid the usual
tax of black-mail for that security of life and goods which he and
others afforded them. He dealt largely in cattle, and speculated so
fortunately, that before the year 1707 he had cleared the lands of
Craigrostan from certain bonds held over them by James, Marquis of
Montrose; and he generously relieved the estate of Glengyle, the
property of his nephew, Gregor MacGregor, famous in Scottish history
as _Glun dhu_, or the Black-knee, from similar incumbrances of a
heavy kind; and being, by law, the guardian, or, as it is termed in
Scotland, the tutor of Glengyle, Rob had great influence over the
whole clan, though nameless, broken, and scattered.
Rob and his gillies, clad in their red tartans, and armed with sword,
dirk, and pistol, and with a target slung on the left shoulder, each
carrying, moreover, a heavy cudgel, driving some thousand head of
cattle, with pipers playing in front, to the fair of Callender, or
the Trysts of Falkirk, which were then held on the Reddingrig Moor,
and had been so since 1701, presented an appearance so animated, and
an aspect so formidable, that few cared to meddle with the Red
MacGregor and his followers.
Affrays were frequent at those fairs, and, indeed, everywhere else in
Scotland: political and religious differences made men rancorous, and
arms were readily resorted to. It was not until 1727 that the
Provost of Edinburgh prohibited wearing of pistols and daggers openly
in the streets of the city, for brawls had become incessant.
"It may well be supposed that in those days no Lowland, and much less
English drovers, _ventured into the Highlands_," says Scott. "The
cattle, which were the staple commodity of the mountains, were
escorted down to the fairs by a party of Highlanders, with all their
arms rattling about them, and who dealt, however, in all honour and
faith with their southern customers. A fray, indeed, would sometimes
arise, when the Lowland men, chiefly Borderers, who had to supply the
English market, used to dip their bonnets in the next brook, and
wrapping them round their hands, oppose the cudgels to the naked
broadsword, which had not always the superiority. I have heard from
aged persons who had been in such affrays, that the Highlanders used
remarkably fair play, never using the point of the sword, far less
their pistols or daggers; so that a slash or two, or a broken head,
was easily accommodated; and as the trade was of benefit to both
parties, trifling skirmishes were not allowed to interrupt its
harmony."
King William having restored all the severe laws against the clan,
Rob was compelled to resume the name of Campbell, when in 1703, his
nephew, Gregor Glun Dhu, who was likewise compelled to call himself
James Graham, was married to Mary Hamilton of Bardowie, in the
November of that year, and our hero signed their contract as "Robert
Campbell of Inversnaid."
While he was acquiring wealth and popularity of a local and peaceful
kind by his frequent visits to the Borders, his wife, Helen Mary,
managed his household at Inversnaid, and earned the reputation of
being a thrifty, active, and careful housewife. Gentle in manner,
and gently bred, she could play the old Highland harp with great
skill, as she had been taught by Rori Dall, or Blind Roderick, who
was bard to MacLeod of that Ilk, and was, moreover, the _last_ harper
of the Hebrides.
A Highland housewife had plenty of occupation in those days. The
corn was then dressed in an ancient fashion by the women. The straw
was fired, that the heat might parch the grain, which, though
blackened, was gathered into the handmills, or querns, and ground
into meal or flour, just as the Israelites ground theirs of old.
They had also the management of the sheep. No flocks were then kept
in the Highlands; but every family had from the Hebrides a few sheep
of a small breed, which were never permitted to range the mountain
but were carefully housed at night.
In the household of Inversnaid the spinning-wheels were never idle;
hence there was plenty of industry and comfort, but few luxuries.
All the furniture was of black oak, or Scottish pine; the only piece
of mahogany being an oval teaboard, a portion of Helen's
"plenishing," when she left her father's house at Comar. On ordinary
days her dress was linsey-woolsey and a tartan plaid; and though
dignified with the title of _lady_ in Gaelic, as being the wife of a
chieftain, and on certain occasions, such as birthdays or
anniversaries (the Gowrie conspiracy, the Restoration, or the
imaginary succession of James VIII.), wearing silk and fine lace,
they were all made up at home, for in those sequestered regions the
name and business of a milliner were unknown. Of their five sons,
only four had as yet been born,--Coll, Ronald, Hamish, and Duncan.
We are now rapidly approaching those events which scattered Helen's
happy household, and drove her brave and trusty, generous and humane
husband "to the hillside, to become a broken man," branded as an
outlaw and traitor, with a price upon his head. King James VII. was
dead, and his son, though in exile, had assumed the title of James
III. of England and VIII. of Scotland.
In 1707 the English endeavoured to _force_ the Scots into a union;
and, as a preliminary, very unwisely seized all their merchant ships
that were in southern ports. On this Scotland prepared for war by
strengthening her garrisons, and proposing to raise sixty thousand
infantry; so England resorted to other means, and by bribery achieved
the measure so long desired. Thus that which was hitherto a weak and
federal union, became a powerful and combined one; each country,
however, retaining its own church and laws.
Before this great treaty was complete, the Scottish Government
restricted the importation of cattle into England; but free
intercourse being one of the happy results of the Union, various
persons speculated in this traffic. Among others, Rob Roy engaged in
a joint adventure with James, Marquis of Montrose, who had received a
sum of money for his Union vote, and in the month _preceding_ that
measure had been created a duke, with the office of Lord Privy Seal
for Scotland.
"The capital to be advanced," says Dr. Browne, in his "History of the
Highlands," "was fixed at ten thousand _merks_ each, and Rob Roy was
to purchase cattle therewith, and drive them to England for sale."
The Duke's money he received from his factor or chamberlain, John
Grahame of Killearn, partly in cash and partly in bills of exchange,
drawn through the Bank of Scotland on Grahame of Gorthy. He soon
collected a vast herd, and leaving his trusty henchman and
foster-brother, MacAleister, in charge of his household, departed for
Carlisle.
The system of fosterage, which consisted in the mutual exchange of
children for the purpose of being nursed and bred, was a custom
peculiar to the Scots and Irish, who were wont to allege that there
was no love or faith in the world like that which existed between
foster-brethren; so Rob departed in confidence on his important
mission with a herd worth twenty thousand Scottish merks.
Prior to his leaving Inversnaid, Paul Crubach had come there, and
sprinkled all the cattle with water from his holy well. On such
occasions he was always provided with certain flint arrow-heads,
which he had found where a battle had been fought, long, long ago.
These _elfshots_ he duly dipped in the water of his well, and then
sprinkled it over the herd to prevent any spell an evil eye, or
another elfshot, might cast upon them before they reached the great
market at "Merry Carlisle."