Breadalbane, 1000
Lochnell and other chieftains of the
Campbells, 1000
Macleans, 500
Maclauchlans, 200
Stewart of Appin, 300
Macdougals, 200
Stewart of Grandtully, 300
Clan Gregor, 700
Duke of Athol, 3000
Farquarsons, 500
Duke of Gordon, 300
Grant of Grant, 850
Mackintosh, 800
Macphersons, 400
Frasers, 900
Grant of Glenmorriston, 150
Chisholms, 200
Duke of Perth, 300
Seaforth, 1000
Cromarty, Scatwell, Gairloch, and other
chieftains of the Mackenzies, 1500
Laird of Menzies, 300
Munros, 300
Rosses, 500
Sutherland, 2000
Mackays, 800
Sinclairs, 1100
Macdonald of Slate, 700
Macdonald of Clanronald, 700
Macdonell of Glengary, 500
Macdonell of Keppoch, 300
Macdonald of Glencoe, 130
Robertsons, 200
Camerons, 800
M’Kinnon, 200
Macleod, 700
The Duke of Montrose, Earls of Bute
and Moray, Macfarlanes, M’Neils
of Barra, M’Nabs, M’Naughtons,
Lamonts, &c. &c. 5600
-----
31,930
There is nothing so remarkable in the political history of any
country as the succession of the Highland chiefs, and the long
and uninterrupted sway which they held over their followers. The
authority which a chief exercised among his clan was truly paternal,
and he might, with great justice, have been called the father of
his people. We cannot account for that warm attachment and the
incorruptible and unshaken fidelity which the clans uniformly
displayed towards their chiefs, on any other ground, than the kind
and conciliatory system which they must have adopted towards their
people; for, much as the feelings of the latter might have been
awakened, by the songs and traditions of the bards, to a respect for
the successors of the heroes whose praises they heard celebrated,
a sense of wrongs committed, or of oppressions exercised, would
have obliterated every feeling of attachment in the minds of the
sufferers, and caused them to attempt to get rid of a tyrant who had
rendered himself obnoxious by his tyranny.
The division of the people into small tribes, and the establishment
of patriarchal government, were attended with many important
consequences affecting the character of the Highlanders. This
creation of an _imperium in imperio_ was an anomaly, but it was,
nevertheless, rendered necessary from the state of society in the
Highlands shortly after the transference of the seat of government
from the mountains. The authority of the king, though weak and
inefficient, continued, however, to be recognised, nominally at
least, except indeed when he interfered in the disputes between the
clans. On such occasions his authority was utterly disregarded. “His
mandates could neither stop the depredations of one clan against
another, 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 administer 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.”[506]
The general laws being thus superseded by the internal feuds of the
clans, and the authority of the sovereign being insufficient to
repress these disorders, a perpetual system of warfare, aggression,
depredation, and contention existed among them, which, during the
continuance of clanship, banished peace from the Highlands. The
little sovereignties of the clans “touched at so many points, yet
were so independent of one another; they approached so nearly, in
many respects, yet were, in others, so distant; there were so many
opportunities of encroachment, on the one hand, and so little of a
disposition to submit to it, on the other; and the quarrel of one
individual of the tribe so naturally involved the 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.”[507]
The disputes between opposing clans were frequently made matters
of negotiation, and their differences were often adjusted by
treaties. Opposing clans, as a means of strengthening themselves
against the attacks of their rivals, or of maintaining the balance
of power, also entered into coalitions with friendly neighbours.
These bands of amity or _manrent_, as they were called, were of
the nature of treaties of offensive and defensive alliance, by
which the contracting parties bound themselves to assist each
other; and it is remarkable that the duty of allegiance to the king
was always acknowledged in these treaties,--“always excepting my
duty to our lord the king, and to our kindred and friends,” was a
clause which was uniformly inserted in them. In the same manner,
when men who were not chiefs of clans, but of subordinate tribes,
thus bound themselves, their fidelity to their chiefs was always
excepted. The smaller clans who were unable to defend themselves,
and such clans or families who had lost their chiefs, were included
in these friendly treaties.[508] Under these treaties the smaller
clans identified themselves with the greater clans; they engaged in
the quarrels, followed the fortunes, and fought under the greater
chiefs; but their ranks, as General Stewart observes, were separately
marshalled, and led by their own subordinate chieftains and lairds,
who owned submission only when necessary, for the success of combined
operations. Several instances of this union will be found in the
history of the clans.
As the system of clanship, by ignoring the authority of the sovereign
and of the laws, prevented the clans from ever coming to any general
terms of accommodation for settling their differences, their feuds
were interminable, and the Highlands were, therefore, for ages,
the theatre of a constant petty warfare destructive of the social
virtues. “The spirit of opposition and rivalry between the clans
perpetuated a system of hostility, encouraged the cultivation of
the military at the expense of the social virtues, and perverted
their ideas of both law and morality. Revenge was accounted a
duty, the destruction of a neighbour a meritorious exploit, and
rapine an honourable occupation. Their love of distinction, and
their conscious reliance on their courage, when under the direction
of these perverted notions, only tended to make their feuds more
implacable, their condition more agitated, and their depredations
more rapacious and desolating. Superstition added its influence in
exasperating animosities, by teaching the clansmen, that, to revenge
the death of a relation or friend, was a sacrifice agreeable to their
shades: thus engaging on the side of the most implacable hatred,
and the darkest vengeance, the most amiable and domestic of all our
feelings,--reverence for the memory of the dead, and affection for
the virtues of the living.”[509]
As the causes out of which feuds originated were innumerable, so many
of them were trivial and unimportant, but as submission to the most
trifling insult was considered disgraceful, and might, if overlooked,
lead to fresh aggression, the clan was immediately summoned, and
the cry for revenge met with a ready response in every breast. The
most glaring insult that could be offered to a clan, was to speak
disrespectfully of its chief,[510] an offence which was considered as
a personal affront by all his followers, and was resented accordingly.
It often happened that the insulted clan was unable to take the field
to repel aggression or to vindicate its honour; but the injury was
never forgotten, and the memory of it was treasured up till a fitting
opportunity for taking revenge should arrive. The want of strength
was sometimes supplied by cunning, and the blackest and deadliest
intentions of hatred and revenge were sought to be perpetrated under
the mask of conciliation and friendship. This was the natural result
of the inefficiency of the laws which could afford no redress for
wrongs, and which, therefore, left every individual to vindicate
his rights with his own hand. The feeling of revenge, when directed
against rival tribes, was cherished and honoured, and to such an
extent was it carried, that there are well authenticated instances
where one of the adverse parties has been exterminated in the bloody
and ferocious conflicts which the feuds occasioned.
As the wealth of the Highlanders consisted chiefly 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.”[511] These _Creachs_, as
such depredations were termed, were carried on with systematic order,
and were considered as perfectly justifiable. If lives were lost
in these forays, revenge full and ample was taken, but in general
personal hostilities were avoided in these incursions either against
the Lowlanders or rival tribes. These predatory expeditions were more
frequently directed against the Lowlanders, whom the Highlanders
considered as aliens, and whose cattle they, therefore, considered
as fair spoil at all times. The forays were generally executed with
great secrecy, and the cattle were often _lifted_ and secured for
a considerable time before they were missed. To trace the cattle
which had been thus carried off, the owners endeavoured to discover
their foot-marks in the grass, or by the yielding of the heath over
which they had passed; and so acute had habit rendered their sight,
that they frequently succeeded, in this manner, in discovering their
property. The man on whose property the tract of the cattle was lost
was held liable if he did not succeed in following out the trace or
discovering the cattle; and if he did not make restitution, or offer
to compensate the loss, an immediate quarrel was the consequence. A
reward, called _Tasgal_ money, was sometimes offered for the recovery
of stolen cattle; but as this was considered in the light of a bribe,
it was generally discouraged. The Camerons and some other clans, it
is said, bound themselves by oath never to accept such a reward, and
to put to death all who should receive it.
Besides those who took part in the _Creachs_ there was another and a
peculiar class called _Cearnachs_, a term of similar import with the
_Catherans_ of the Lowlands, the _Kernes_ of the English, and the
_Catervæ_ of the Romans. The Cearnachs were originally a select body
of men employed in difficult and dangerous enterprises where more
than ordinary honour was to be acquired; but, in process of time,
they were employed in the degrading and dishonourable task of levying
contributions on their Lowland neighbours, or in forcing them to pay
tribute or _black mail_ for protection. Young men of the second order
of gentry who were desirous of entering the military profession,
frequently joined in these exploits, as they were considered well
fitted for accustoming those who engaged in them to the fatigues
and exercises incident to a military life. The celebrated Robert
Macgregor Campbell, or Rob Roy,[512] was the most noted of these
freebooters.
The cearnachs were principally the borderers living close to and
within the Grampian range, but cearnachs from the more northerly
parts of the Highlands also paid frequent visits to the Lowlands,
and carried off large quantities of booty. The border cearnachs
judging such irruptions as an invasion of their rights, frequently
attacked the northern cearnachs on their return homewards; and if
they succeeded in capturing the spoil, they either appropriated it to
their own use or restored it to the owners.
It might be supposed that the system of spoliation we have described,
would have led these freebooters occasionally to steal from one
another. Such, however, was not the case; for they observed the
strictest honesty in this respect. No precautions were taken--because
unnecessary--to protect property; and the usual securities of locks,
bolts, and bars, were never used, nor even thought of. Instances of
theft from dwelling-houses were very rare; and, with the exception
of one case which happened so late as the year 1770, highway robbery
was totally unknown. Yet, notwithstanding the laudable regard thus
shown by the freebooters to the property of their own society, they
attached no ideas of moral turpitude to the acts of spoliation we
have alluded to. Donald Cameron, or Donald Bane Leane, an active
leader of a party of banditti who had associated together after the
troubles of 1745, tried at Perth for cattle-stealing, and executed
at Kinloch Rannoch, in 1752, expressed surprise and indignation
at his hard fate, as he considered it, as he had never committed
murder nor robbery, or taken any thing but cattle off the grass
of those with whom he had quarrelled. The practice of “lifting of
cattle” seems to have been viewed as a very venial offence, even by
persons holding very different views of morality from the actors, in
proof of which, General Stewart refers to a letter of Field-Marshal
Wade to Mr. Forbes of Culloden, then Lord Advocate, dated October,
1729, describing an entertainment given him on a visit to a party of
cearnachs. “The Knight and I,” says the Marshal, “travelled in my
carriage 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 forgetting your Lordship’s and
Culloden’s health; and, after three hours’ stay, took leave of
our benefactors, the highwaymen,[513] and arrived at the hut at
Dalnachardoch, before it was dark.”[514]
Amid the violence and turbulence which existed in the Highlands,
no appeal for redress of wrongs committed, or injuries sustained,
could be effectually made to the legal tribunals of the country;
but to prevent the utter anarchy which would have ensued from such
a state of society, voluntary and associated tribunals, composed
of the principal men of the tribes, were appointed. A composition
in cattle being the mode of compensating injuries, these tribunals
generally determined the amount of the compensation according to the
nature of the injury, and the wealth and rank of the parties. These
compensations were called _Erig_.
Besides these tribunals, every chief held a court, in which he
decided all disputes occurring among his clansmen. He generally
resided among them. “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 improper treatment of them.
These tenants followed his standard in war--attended him in his
hunting excursions--supplied 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 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 jurisdiction over
a portion of his people, and were ever ready to afford him their
counsel or 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 being followed by more dependants, and by entertaining a greater
number of guests. What his retainers gave from their individual
property was spent amongst them in the kindest and most liberal
manner. At the castle every individual was made welcome, and was
treated according to his station, with a degree of courtesy and
regard to his feelings unknown in any other country.[515] This
condescension, while it raised the clansman in his own estimation,
and drew closer the ties between him and his superior, seldom
tempted him to use any improper familiarities. He believed himself
well born, and was taught to respect himself in the respect which
he showed to his chief; 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 convinced
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.’”[516]
It cannot, however, be denied, that the authority of the chief was
naturally arbitrary, and was sometimes exercised unduly and with
great severity; as a proof of which, there is said to exist among
the papers of the Perth family, an application to Lord Drummond
from the town of Perth, dated in 1707, requesting an occasional
use of his lordship’s executioner, who was considered an expert
operator, a request with which his lordship complied, reserving,
however, to himself the power of recalling the executioner when he
had occasion for his services. Another curious illustration of this
exercise of power is given by General Stewart. Sometime before the
year 1745, Lord President Forbes dined at Blair castle with the Duke
of Athole, on his way from Edinburgh to his seat at Culloden. A
petition was delivered to his Grace in the course of the evening, on
reading which, he thus addressed the President: “My lord, here is a
petition from a poor man, whom Commissary Bisset, my baron bailie (an
officer to whom the chief occasionally delegated his authority), 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,” replied the Duke,
“since I have the power of punishing, it is but right that I should
have the power to pardon.” Then, calling upon a servant who was in
waiting, his Grace said, “Go, send an express to Logierait, and
order Donald Stewart, presently under sentence, to be instantly set
at liberty.”[517]
The authority which the generality of the chiefs exercised, was
acquired from ancient usage and the weakness of the government;
but the lords of regality, and the great barons and chiefs, had
jurisdiction conferred on them by the Crown, both in civil and
criminal cases, which they sometimes exercised in person and
sometimes by deputy. The persons to whom they delegated this
authority were called _bailies_. In civil matters the baron or
chief could judge in questions of debt within his barony, as well
as in most of those cases known by the technical term of possessory
actions. And though it has always been an established rule of law,
that no person can be judge in his own cause, a baron might judge in
all actions between himself and his vassals and tenants, necessary
for making his rents and feu-duties effectual. Thus, he could
ascertain the price of corn due by a tenant, and pronounce sentence
against him for arrears of rent; but in all cases where the chief was
a party, he could not judge in person. The criminal jurisdiction of a
baron, according to the laws ascribed to Malcolm Mackenneth, extended
to all crimes except treason, and the four pleas of the Crown, viz.,
robbery, murder, rape, and fire-raising. Freemen could be tried by
none but their peers. Whenever the baron held a court, his vassals
were bound to attend and afford such assistance as might be required.
On these occasions many useful regulations for the good of the
community were often made, and supplies were sometimes voluntarily
granted to the chief to support his dignity. The bounty of the
vassals was especially and liberally bestowed on the marriage of the
chief, and in the portioning of his daughters and younger sons. These
donations consisted of cattle, which constituted the principal riches
of the country in those patriarchal days. In this way the younger
sons of the chief were frequently provided for on their settlement in
life.
The reciprocal ties which connected the chief and his clan were
almost indissoluble. In return for the kindness and paternal care
bestowed by the former on the latter, they yielded a ready submission
to his authority, and evinced a rare fidelity to his person, which
no adversity could shake. Innumerable instances of this devoted
attachment might be given, but two will suffice. In the battle
of Inverkeithing, between the royalists and the troops of Oliver
Cromwell, 500 of the followers of the Laird of Maclean were left
dead on the field. Sir Hector Maclean being hard pressed by the
enemy in the heat of the action, was successively covered from their
attacks by seven brothers, all of whom sacrificed their lives in his
defence; and as one fell another came up in succession to cover him,
crying, “Another for Hector.” This phrase, says General Stewart, has
continued ever since a proverb or watchword, when a man encounters
any sudden danger that requires instant succour. The other instance
is that of a servant of the late James Menzies of Culdares, who had
been engaged in the rebellion of 1715. Mr. Menzies was taken at
Preston in Lancashire, was carried to London, where he was tried and
condemned, but afterwards reprieved. This act prevented him from
turning out in 1745: but to show his good wishes towards Prince
Charles, he sent him a handsome charger as a present, 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. Every attempt was made, by threats of immediate execution,
in case of refusal, and promises of pardon, on giving information,
to extort a discovery from him of the person who sent the horse,
but in vain. He knew, he said, what would be the consequence of a
disclosure, and that his own life was nothing in comparison with
that which it would endanger. Being hard pressed at the place of
execution to inform on his master, he asked those about him if they
were really serious in supposing that he was such a villain as to
betray his master. He said, that if he did what they desired, and
forgot his master and his trust, he needed not return to his country,
for Glenlyon would be no home or country for him, as he would be
despised and hunted out of the glen. This trusty servant’s name was
John Macnaughton, a native of Glenlyon in Perthshire.[518]
The obedience and attachment of the Highlanders to their chiefs,
and the readiness they displayed, on all occasions, to adopt, when
called upon, the quarrels of their superiors, did not, however, make
them forget their own independence. When a chief was unfit for his
situation, or had degraded his name and family, the clan proceeded
to depose him, and set up the next in succession, if deserving, to
whom they transferred their allegiance, as happened to two chiefs of
the families of Macdonald of Clanronald and Macdonell of Keppoch.
The head of the family of Stewart of Garth, who, on account of his
ferocious disposition, was nick-named the “Fierce Wolf,” was, about
the year 1520, not only deposed, but confined for life in a cell
in the castle of Garth, which was, therefore, long regarded by the
people with a kind of superstitious terror. The clans even sometimes
interfered with the choice of the chiefs in changing their places
of abode, or in selecting a site for a new residence. The Earl of
Seaforth was prevented by his clan (the M’Kenzies) from demolishing
Brahan castle, the principal seat of the family. In the same way the
Laird of Glenorchy, ancestor of the Marquis of Breadalbane, having
some time previous to the year 1570, laid the foundation of a castle
which he intended to build on a hill on the side of Lochtay, was
compelled, or induced, by his people, to change his plan and build
the castle of Balloch or Taymouth.
From what has been stated, it will be perceived that the influence
of a chief with his clan depended much on his personal qualities,
of which kindness and a condescension, which admitted of an easy
familiarity, were necessary traits. Captain Burt, the author of
‘Letters from the North,’ thus alludes to the familiarity which
existed between a chief and his clan, and the affability and courtesy
with which they were accustomed to be treated: “And as the meanest
among them pretended to be his relations by consanguinity, they
insisted on the privilege of taking him by the hand whenever they met
him. Concerning this last, I once saw a number of very discontented
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
knowledge of such seeming familiarity with slaves of wretched
appearance; and thinking it, I suppose, a kind of contradiction to
what he had often boasted at other times, viz., his despotic power in
his clan.”
From the feeling of self-respect which the urbanity and condescension
of the chiefs naturally created in the minds of the people, arose
that honourable principle of fidelity to superiors and to their
trust, which we have already noticed, “and which,” says General
Stewart, “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.”
From this principle flowed a marked detestation of treachery, a vice
of very rare occurrence among the Highlanders; and so tenacious were
they on that point, that the slightest suspicion of infidelity on the
part of an individual estranged him from the society of his clan,
who shunned him as a person with whom it was dangerous any longer to
associate. The case of John Du Cameron, better known, from his large
size, by the name of Sergeant Mor,[519] affords an example of this.
This man had been a sergeant in the French service, and returned to
Scotland in the year 1745, when he engaged in the rebellion. Having
no fixed abode, and dreading the consequences of having served in
the French army, and of being afterwards engaged in the rebellion,
he formed a party of freebooters, and took up his residence among
the mountains on the borders of the counties of Perth, Inverness,
and Argyle, where he carried on a system of spoliation by carrying
off the cattle of those he called his enemies, if they did not
purchase his forbearance by the payment of _black mail_. Cameron
had long been in the habit of sleeping in a barn on the farm of
Dunan in Rannoch; but having been betrayed by some person, he was
apprehended one night when asleep in the barn, in the year 1753, by
a party of Lieutenant (after Sir Hector) Munro’s detachment. He was
carried to Perth, and there tried before the court of justiciary
for the murder alluded to in the note, and various acts of theft
and cattle-stealing. Being found guilty, he was executed at Perth
in 1753. It was generally believed in the country that Cameron had
been betrayed by the man in whose barn he had taken shelter, and the
circumstance of his renting a farm from government, on the forfeited
estate of Strowan, on advantageous terms, strengthened the suspicion;
but beyond this there was nothing to confirm the imputation. Yet
this man was ever after heartily despised, and having by various
misfortunes lost all his property, which obliged him to leave the
country in great poverty, the people firmly believed that his
misfortunes were a just judgment upon him for violating the trust
reposed in him by an unsuspecting and unfortunate person.
Such were some of the leading characteristics of this remarkable
race of people, who preserved many of their national peculiarities
till a comparatively recent period. These, whoever, are now fast
disappearing before the march of modern improvement and civilization;
and we are sorry to add that the vices which seem almost inseparable
from this new state of society have found their way into some parts
of the Highlands, and supplanted, to a certain extent, many of those
shining virtues which were once the glory of the Gael.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XVIII.,
Containing notices by contemporary writers, from the 11th century
downwards, of the dress and arms of the Highlanders; extracted
from the Iona Club publication, _Collectanea de rebus Albanicis_.
Magnus Berfaet’s Saga.
A.D. 1093. It is said when King Magnus returned from his
expedition in the west, that he adopted the costume in use in the
western lands, and likewise many of his followers; that they went
about barelegged having short tunics (W. kyrtles), and also upper
garments; and so many men called him Barelegged or Barefoot.
Andrew Wyntoun (1420), referring to the combat on N. Inch, says,
At Sanct Johnstone beside the Freris,
All thai entrit in Barreris
Wyth Bow and Ax, Knyf and Swerd,
To deil amang them their last werd.
John Major (1512).
From the middle of their thigh to the foot they have no covering
for the leg, clothing themselves with a mantle instead of an
upper garment, and a shirt dyed with saffron. They always carry a
bow and arrows, a very broad sword with a small halbert, a large
dagger, sharpened on one side only, but very sharp, under the
belt. In time of war they cover their whole body with a shirt of
mail of iron rings, and fight in that. The common people of the
Highland Scots rush into battle, having their body clothed with a
linen garment manifoldly sewed and painted or daubed with pitch,
with a covering of deerskin.
In another place he speaks much to the same purport.
In the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, in August
1538, we find the following entries regarding a Highland dress made
for King James V., on the occasion of that monarch making a hunting
excursion into the Highlands:--
ITEM in the first for ii elnis ane quarter elne of variant
cullorit velvet to be the Kingis Grace are schort _Heland_
coit price of the elne vi^{lib} summa xiii^{lib} x^s.
ITEM for iii elnis quarter elne of grene taffatys to lyne
the said coit with, price of the elne x^s summa xxxii^s vi^d.
ITEM for iii elnis of _Heland tartane_ to be hoiss to
the Kingis Grace, price of the elne iiii^s iiii^d summa xiii^s.
ITEM for xv elnis of holland claith to be syde Heland sarkis
to the Kingis Grace, price of the elne viii^s summa vi^{lib}.
ITEM for sewing and making of the said sarkis ix^s.
ITEM for twa unce of silk to sew thame x^s.
ITEM for iiii elnis of rubanis to the handis of thame ii^s.
Letter written by John Elder, a Highland priest, to Henry VIII.
(1543).
Moreover, wherefor they call us in Scotland Reddshankes, and in
your Graces dominion of England, roghe footide Scottis, Pleas it
your Maiestie to understande, that we of all people can tollerat,
suffir, and away best with colde, for boithe somer and wyntir
(excepte when the froest is most vehemonte), goynge alwaies bair
leggide and bair footide, our delite and pleasure is not onely
in huntynge of redd deir, wolfes, foxes, and graies, whereof we
abounde, and have greate plentie, but also in rynninge, leapinge,
swymmynge, shootynge, and thrawinge of dartis: therfor, in so
moche as we use and delite so to go alwaies, the tendir delicatt
gentillmen of Scotland call us _Reddshankes_. And agayne in
wynter, whene the froest is mooste vehement (as I have saide)
which we can not suffir bair footide, so weill as snow, whiche
can never hurt us whene it cummes to our girdills, we go a
huntynge, and after that we have slayne redd deir, we flaye of
the skyne, bey and bey, and settinge of our bair foote on the
insyde therof, for neide of cunnyge shoemakers, by your Graces
pardon, we play the sutters; compasinge and mesuringe so moche
thereof, as shall retche up to our anclers, pryckynge the upper
part therof also with holis, that the water may repas when it
entres, and stretchide up with a stronge thwange of the same,
meitand above our said ancklers, so, and please your noble Grace,
we make our shoois: Therfor, we usinge such maner of shoois, the
roghe hairie syde outwart, in your Graces dominion of England,
we be callit roghe footide Scottis; which maner of schoois (and
pleas your Highnes) in Latyne be called perones, whereof the poet
Virgill makis mencioun, sayinge, That the olde auncient Latyns in
tyme of warrs uside suche maner of schoos. And althoughe a great
sorte of us Reddshankes go after this maner in our countrethe,
yeit never the les, and pleas your Grace, when we come to the
courte (the Kinges Grace our great master being alyve) waitinge
on our Lordes and maisters, who also, for velvettis and silkis,
be right well araide, we have as good garmentis as some of our
fellowis whiche gyve attendaunce in the court every day.
John de Beaugué, a Frenchman, who wrote a history of the campaigns in
Scotland in 1549, printed in Paris in 1556, states that, at the siege
of Haddington, in 1549, “they (the Scottish army) were followed by
the Highlanders, and these last go _almost naked_; they have painted
waistcoats, and a sort of woollen covering, variously coloured.”
Lindsay of Pitscottie (wrote about 1573):--
The other pairts [of Scotland] northerne are full of mountaines,
and very rud and homlie kynd of people doeth inhabite, which is
called the Reidschankis or Wyld Scottis. They be clothed with ane
mantle, with ane schirt saffroned after the Irisch manner, going
bair-legged to the knee. Thair weapones ar bowis and dartes, with
ane verie broad sword and ane dagger scharp onlie at the on edge.
John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, who published his work _De origine,
moribus et rebus gestis Scotorum_ at Rome in 1578, thus describes the
arms and dress of the old Scots, which were still in his time used by
the Highlanders and Islanders:--
In battle and hostile encounter their missile weapons were a
lance and arrows. They used also a two-edged sword which, with
the foot soldiers was pretty long, and short for the horse;
both had it broad, and with an edge so exceeding sharp that at
one blow it would easily cut a man in two. For defence, they
used a coat of mail, woven of iron rings, which they wore over
a leather jerkin, stout and of handsome appearance, which we
call an aeton. Their whole armour was light, that they might the
more easily slip from their enemies’ hands if they chanced to
fall into such a strait. Their clothing was made for use (being
chiefly suited to war), and not for ornament. All, both nobles
and common people, wore mantles of one sort (except that the
nobles preferred those of several colours). These were long and
flowing, but capable of being neatly gathered up at pleasure
into folds. I am inclined to believe that they were the same as
those to which the ancients gave the name of brachal. Wrapped up
in these for their only covering they would sleep comfortably.
They had also shaggy rugs, such as the Irish use at the present
day, some fitted for a journey, others to be placed on a bed.
The rest of their garments consisted of a short woollen jacket
with the sleeves open below for the convenience of throwing their
darts, and a covering for the thighs of the simplest kind, more
for decency than for show or a defence against cold. They made
also of linen, very large shirts, with numerous folds and wide
sleeves, which flowed abroad loosely to their knees. These, the
rich coloured with saffron, and others smeared with some grease
to preserve them longer clean among the toils and exercises of a
camp, which they held it of the highest consequence to practise
continually. In the manufacture of these, ornament and a certain
attention to taste were not altogether neglected, and they
joined the different parts of their shirts very neatly with silk
threads, chiefly of a green or red colour.
Their women’s attire was very becoming. Over a gown reaching to
the ancles, and generally embroidered, they wore large mantles of
the kind already described, and woven of different colours. Their
chief ornaments were the bracelets and necklaces with which they
decorated their arms and necks.
George Buchanan (pub. 1582, thus translated by Monypenny 1612).
They delight in marled clothes, specially that have long stripes
of sundry colours; they love chiefly purple and blew. Their
predecessors used short mantles or plaids of divers colours
sundry waies devided; and amongst some, the same custome is
observed to this day; but for the most part now they are browne,
more nere to the colour of the hadder; to the effect when they
lie amongst the hadder the bright colour of their plaids shall
not bewray them; with the which, rather coloured than clad,
they suffer the most cruel tempests that blow in the open field
in such sort, that under a wrythe of snow they slepe sound....
Their armour wherewith they cover their bodies in time of werre,
is an iron bonnet and an habbergion side (long) almost even to
their heeles. Their weapones against their enemies are bowes and
arrowes. The arrows are for the most part hooked, with a bauble
on either side, which once entered within the body cannot be
drawn forth againe, unlesse the wounde be made wider. Some of
them fight with broad swords and axes.
Nicolay d’Arfeville, Cosmographer to King of France, pub. 1583, a
vol. on Scotland, speaks thus:--
They [wild Scots] weir like the Irish, a long large and full
shirt, coloured with saffron, and over this a garment hanging
to the knee, of thick wool, after the manner of a cassock. They
go with bare heads, and allow the hair to grow very long, and
they wear neither stockings nor shoes, except some who have
buskins made in a very old fashion, which come as high as their
knees. Their arms are the bow and arrow, and some darts, which
they throw with great dexterity, and a large sword, with a
single-edged dagger. They are very swift of foot, and there is no
horse so swift as to outstrip them, as I have seen proved several
times, both in England and Scotland.
In 1594, when Red Hugh O’Donnell, Lord of Tirconall in Ulster, was in
rebellion against Queen Elizabeth, he was assisted for some time by a
body of auxiliaries from the Hebrides. These warriors are described
in the following terms in the Life of Hugh O’Donnell, originally
written in Irish by Peregrine O’Clery, and since translated by the
late Edward O’Reilly, Esq.
The outward clothing they (the auxiliaries from the isles) wore,
was a mottled garment with numerous colours hanging in folds
to the calf of the leg, with a girdle round the loins over
the garment. Some of them with horn-hafted swords, large and
military, over their shoulders. A man when he had to strike with
them, was obliged to apply both his hands to the haft.
John Taylor, the Water Poet, made an excursion to Scotland in 1618,
of which he published an amusing account under the title of _The
Pennylesse Pilgrimage_. He describes the dress of the Highlanders
in the following account he gives of his visit to Braemar for the
purpose of paying his respects to the Earl of Mar and Sir W. Moray of
Abercairney.
Thus, with extreme travell, ascending and descending, mounting
and alighting, I came at night to the place where I would be,
in the Brae of Marr, which is a large county all composed of
such mountaines, that Shooters hill, Gads hill, Highgate hill,
Hampstead hill, Birdlip hill, or Malvernes hills, are but
mole-hills in comparison, or like a liver, or a gizzard under
a capon’s wing, in respect to the altitude of their tops, or
perpendicularite of their bottomes. There I saw mount Benawne
with a furrd’d mist upon his snowy head instead of a night-cap;
for you must understand, that the oldest man alive never saw
but the snow was on the top of divers of those hills, (both in
summer as well as in winter). There did I find the truely noble
and Right Honourable Lords John Erskine, Earle of Marr, James
Stuart, Earle of Murray, George Gordon, Earle of Engye, sonne and
heire to the Marquise of Huntley, James Erskin, Earle of Bughan,
and John, Lord Erskin, sonne and heire to the Earle of Marr, and
their Countesses, with my much honoured, and my best assured
and approved friend, Sir William Murray, Knight, of Abercarny,
and hundred of others, knights, esquires, and their followers;
_all_ and every man in generall, in one habit, as if Licurgus
had been there, and made lawes of equality. For once in the
yeere, which is the whole moneth of August, and sometimes part of
September, many of the nobility and gentry of the kingdome (for
their pleasure) doe come into these Highland countries to hunt,
where they doe conforme themselves to the habite of the Highland
men, who, for the moste part, speake nothing but Irish; and in
former time were those people which were called the _Red-shanks_.
Their habite is shooes with but one sole apiece; stockings (which
they call short hose) made of a warme stuff of divers colours,
which they call tartane. As for breeches, many of them, nor their
forefathers, ever wore any, but a jerkin of the same stuffe that
their hose is of, their garters being bands or wreathes of hay or
straw, with a plaed about their shoulders, which is a mantle of
divers colours, much finer and lighter stuffe than their hose,
with blue flat caps on their heads, a handkerchiefe knit with two
knots about their necke; and thus are they attyred. Now, their
weapons are long bowes and forked arrowes, swords and targets,
harquebusses, muskets, durks, and Loquhabor-axes. With these
armes I found many of them armed for the hunting. As for their
attire, any man of what degree soever that comes amongst them,
must not disdaine to weare it; for if they doe, then they will
disdaine to hunt, or willingly to bring in their dogges; but
if men be kind unto them, and be in their habit, then are they
conquered with kindnesse, and the sport will be plentifull. This
was the reason that I found so many noblemen and gentlemen in
those shapes. But to proceed to the hunting.
My good Lord of Marr having put me into that shape, I rode with
him from his house, where I saw the ruines of an old castle,
called the castle of Kindroghit. It was built by king Malcolm
Canmore (for a hunting house), who raigned in Scotland when
Edward the Confessor, Harold, and Norman William raigned in
England; I speak of it, because it was the last house that I saw
in those parts; for I was the space of twelve dayes after, before
I saw either house, corne-field, or habitation for any creature,
but deere, wild horses, wolves, and such like creatures, which
made me doubt that I should never have seene a house againe.
Defoe, in his _Memoirs of a Cavalier_, written about 1721, and
obviously composed from authentic materials, thus describes the
Highland part of the Scottish army which invaded England in 1639, at
the commencement of the great civil war. The Cavalier having paid a
visit to the Scottish camp to satisfy his curiosity, thus proceeds:--
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 fellows; their swords were extravagantly and I
think insignificantly broad, and they carried great wooden
targets, large enough to cover the upper part of their bodies.
Their dress was as antique as the rest; a cap on their heads,
called by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and their
doublet, breeches, and stockings, of a stuff they called plaid,
stripped across red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same.
William Cleland, Lieutenant-Colonel to the Earl of Angus’s regiment,
who was killed whilst gallantly defending his post at Dunkeld,
against a party of Highlanders, soon after the Revolution, wrote a
satirical poem upon the expedition of the Highland host in 1678, from
which the following extract is taken:--
Their head, their neck, their legs, their thighs
Are influenced by the skies,
Without a clout to interrupt them
They need not strip them when they whip them;
Nor loose their doublet when they’re hanged.
* * * * *
But those who were their chief Commanders,
As such who bore the pirnie standards,
Who led the van, and drove the rear,
Were right well mounted of their gear;
With brogues, trues, and pirnie plaides,
With good blew bonnets on their heads,
Which on the one side had a flipe
Adorn’d with a tobacco pipe,
With durk, and snap work, and snuff mill,
A bagg which they with onions fill,
And, as their strik observers say,
A tupe horn fill’d with usquebay;
A slasht out coat beneath her plaids,
A targe of timber, nails and hides;
With a long two-handed sword,
As good’s the country can affoord.
* * * * *
they’re smear’d with tar,
Which doth defend them heel and neck,
Just as it doth their sheep protect.
William Sacheverell, governor of the Isle of Man, made an excursion
in 1688 through the Isle of Mull, and thence to Icolmkill. An account
of this he published in 1702, in which he describes from observation,
the dress, armour, and appearance of the Highlanders.
During my stay, I generally observed the men to be large-bodied,
stout, subtle, active, patient of cold and hunger. There appeared
in all their actions a certain generous air of freedom, and
contempt of those trifles, luxury and ambition, which we so
servilely creep after. They bound their appetites by their
necessities, and their happiness consists, not in having
much, but in coveting little. The women seem to have the same
sentiments with the men; though their habits were mean, and they
had not our sort of breeding, yet in many of them there was a
natural beauty and a graceful modesty, which never fails of
attracting. The usual outward habit of both sexes is the pladd;
the women’s much finer, the colours more lively, and the squares
larger than the men’s, and put me in mind of the ancient Picts.
This serves them for a veil, and covers both head and body. The
men wear theirs after another manner, especially when designed
for ornament: it is loose and flowing, like the mantles our
painters give their heroes. Their thighs are bare, with brawny
muscles. Nature has drawn all her strokes bold and masterly;
_what is covered is only adapted to necessity_--a thin brogue
on the foot, a short buskin of various colours on the leg, tied
above the calf with a striped pair of garters. What should be
concealed is hid with a large shot-pouch, on each side of which
hangs a pistol and a dagger, as if they found it necessary to
keep those parts well guarded. A round target on their backs,
a blue bonnet on their heads, in one hand a broadsword, and a
musquet in the other. Perhaps no nation goes better armed; and
I assure you they will handle them with bravery and dexterity,
especially the sword and target, as our veteran regiments found
to their cost at Killiecrankie.
The following minute description of Highland dress is contained in
Martin’s _Western Isles of Scotland_:--
The first habit wore by persons of distinction in the islands,
was the _leni-croich_, from the Irish word _leni_, which
signifies a shirt, and _croch_, saffron, because their shirt was
died with that herb: the ordinary number of ells used to make
this robe was twenty-four; it was the upper garb, reaching below
the knees, and was tied with a belt round the middle; but the
islanders have laid it aside about a hundred years ago.
They now generally use coat, wastcoat, and breeches, as
elsewhere, and on their heads wear bonnets made of thick cloth,
some blew, some black, and some gray.
Many of the people wear _trowis_. Some have them very fine woven
like stockings of those made of cloath; some are coloured and
others striped; the latter are as well shap’d as the former,
lying close to the body from the middle downwards, and tied round
with a belt above the haunches. There is a square piece of cloth
which hangs down before. The measure for shaping the trowis is a
stick of wood whose length is a cubit, and that divided into the
length of a finger, and half a finger; so that it requires more
skill to make it, than the ordinary habit.
The shooes anciently wore, was a piece of the hide of a deer,
cow, or horse, with the hair on, being tied behind and before
with a point of leather. The generality now wear shooes having
one thin sole only, and shaped after the right and left foot; so
that what is for one foot, will not serve the other.
But persons of distinction wear the garb in fashion in the south
of Scotland.
The plad wore only by the men, is made of fine wool, the thread
as fine as can be made of that kind; it consists of divers
colours, and there is a great deal of ingenuity requir’d in
sorting the colours, so as to be agreeable to the nicest fancy.
For this reason the women are at great pains, first to give an
exact pattern of the plade upon a piece of wood, having the
number of every thread of the stripe on it. The length of it
is commonly seven double ells; the one end hangs by the middle
over the left arm, the other going round the body, hangs by the
end over the left arm also. The right hand above it is to be at
liberty to do any thing upon occasion. Every isle differs from
each other in their fancy of making plaids, as to the stripes in
breadth and colours. This humour is as different thro’ the main
land of the Highlands, insofar that they who have seen those
places, is able at the first view of a man’s plaid, to guess the
place of his residence.
When they travel on foot, the plaid is tied on the breast with a
bodkin of bone or wood, (just as the _spina_ wore by the Germans,
according to the description of C. Tacitus;) the plaid is tied
round the middle with a leather belt; it is pleated from the belt
to the knee very nicely; this dress for footmen is found much
easier and lighter than breeches, or trowis.
The ancient dress wore by the women, and which is yet wore by
some of the vulgar, called _arisad_, is a white plade, having
a few small stripes of black, blew, and red; it reached from
the neck to the heels, and 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 an hundred marks value;
it was broad as any ordinary pewter plate, the whole curiously
engraven with various animals, &c. There was a lesser buckle
which was wore in the middle of the larger, and above two ounces
weight; it had in the center a large piece of chrystal, or some
finer stone, and this was set all round with several finer stones
of a lesser size.
The plad being pleated all round, was tied with a belt below the
breast; the belt was of leather, and several pieces of silver
intermix’d with the leather like a chain. The lower end of the
belt has a piece of plate about eight inches long, and three
in breadth, curiously engraven; the end of which was adorned
with fine stones, or pieces of red corral. They wore sleeves of
scarlet cloth, clos’d at the end as mens vests, with gold lace
round ’em, having plate buttons set with fine stones. The head
dress was a fine kerchief of linen strait about the head, hanging
down the back taper-wise; a large lock of hair hangs down their
cheeks above their breast, the lower end tied with a knot of
ribbands.
The ancient way of fighting was by set battles, and for arms some
had broad two handed swords, and head-pieces, and others bows
and arrows. When all their arrows were spent, they attack’d one
another with sword in hand. Since the invention of guns, they
aere very early accustomed to use them, and carry their pieces
with them wherever they go: they likewise learn to handle the
broad sword, and target. The chief of each tribe advances with
his followers within shot of the enemy, having first laid aside
their upper garments; and after one general discharge, they
attack them with sword in hand, having their target on their left
hand, (as they did at Kelicranky) which soon brings the matter
to an issue, and verifies the observation made of ’em by our
historians,
Aut mors cito, aut victoria læta.
The following is taken from _Letters from a Gentleman in the North of
Scotland_, written by Captain Burt, an English officer of Engineers,
engaged under Marshal Wade on the military roads through the
Highlands, begun in the year 1726:--
The Highland dress consists of a bonnet made of thrum without a
brim, a short coat, a waistcoat, longer by five or six inches,
short stockings, and brogues, or pumps without heels. By the way,
they cut holes in their brogues, though new made, to let out the
water, when they have far to go and rivers to pass: this they do
to preserve their feet from galling.
Few besides gentlemen wear the _trowze_,--that is, the breeches
and stockings all of one piece, and drawn on together; over
this habit they wear a plaid, which is usually three yards long
and two breadths wide, and the whole garb is made of chequered
tartan, or plaiding: this, with the sword and pistol, is called a
_full dress_, and, to a well-proportioned man, with any tolerable
air, it makes an agreeable figure; but this you have seen in
London, and it is chiefly their mode of dressing when they are
in the Lowlands, or when they make a neighbouring visit, or go
anywhere on horseback; but when those among them who travel on
foot, and have not attendants to carry them over the waters,
they vary it into the _quelt_, which is a manner I am about to
describe.
The common habit of the ordinary Highlanders is far from being
acceptable to the eye: with them a small part of the plaid, which
is not so large as the former, is set in folds and girt round
the waist, to make of it a short petticoat that reaches half way
down the thigh, and the rest is brought over the shoulders, and
then fastened before, below the neck, often with a fork, and
sometimes with a bodkin or sharpened piece of stick, so that they
make pretty nearly the appearance of the poor women in London
when they bring their gowns over their heads to shelter them from
the rain. In this way of wearing the plaid, they have sometimes
nothing else to cover them, and are often barefoot; but some I
have seen shod with a kind of pumps, made out of a raw cowhide,
with the hair turned outward, which being ill made, the wearer’s
foot looked something like those of a rough-footed hen or pigeon:
these are called _quarrants_, and are not only offensive to the
sight, but intolerable to the smell of those who are near them.
The stocking rises no higher than the thick of the calf, and
from the middle of the thigh to the middle of the leg is a naked
space, which, being exposed to all weathers, becomes tanned and
freckled. This dress is called the _quelt_; and, for the most
part, they wear the petticoat so very short, that in a windy day,
going up a hill, or stooping, the indecency of it is plainly
discovered.
I have observed before that the plaid serves the ordinary people
for a cloak by day and bedding at night: by the latter it imbibes
so much perspiration, that no one day can free it from the filthy
smell; and even some of better than ordinary appearance, when
the plaid falls from the shoulder, or otherwise requires to be
re-adjusted, while you are talking with them, toss it over again,
as some people do the knots of their wigs, which conveys the
offence in whiffs that are intolerable;--of this they seem not
to be sensible, for it is often done only to give themselves airs.
The plaid is the undress of the ladies; and to a genteel woman,
who adjusts it with a good air, is a becoming veil. But as I am
pretty sure you never saw one of them in England, I shall employ
a few words to describe it to you. It is made of silk or fine
worsted, chequered with various lively colours, two breadths
wide, and three yards in length; it is brought over the head, and
may hide or discover the face according to the wearer’s fancy or
occasion: it reaches to the waist behind; one corner falls as low
as the ankle on one side; and the other part, in folds, hangs
down from the opposite arm.
The ordinary girls wear nothing upon their heads until they are
married or have a child, except sometimes a fillet of red or blue
coarse cloth, of which they are very proud; but often their hair
hangs down over the forehead like that of a wild colt. If they
wear stockings, which is very rare, they lay them in plaits one
above another, from the ancle up to the calf, to make their legs
appear as near as they can in the form of a cylinder; but I think
I have seen something like this among the poor German refugee
women and the Moorish men in London.
Mr. Gough, in his additions to Camden’s _Britannia_, gives the
following accurate description of the Highland dress and armour, as
they were to be found in the district of Breadalbane previous to the
proscription of the dress:--
The dress of the men is the _brechan_ or plaid, 12 or 13 yards
of narrow stuff wrapped round the middle, and reaching to the
knees, often girt round the waist, and in cold weather covering
the whole body, even on the open hills, all night, and fastened
on the shoulders with a brooch; short stockings tied below the
knee; _truish_, a genteeler kind of breeches, and stockings of
one piece; _cueranen_, a laced shoe of skin, with the hairy side
out, rather disused; _kilt_ or fillibeg, g. d. little plaid, or
short petticoat, reaching to the knees, substituted of late to
the longer end of the plaid; and lastly, the pouch of badger or
other skins, with tassels hanging before them.
The women’s dress is the _kerch_, or white linen pinned round
behind like a hood, and over the foreheads of married women,
whereas maidens wear only a _snood_ or ribbon round their heads;
the _tanac_ or plaid fastened over their shoulders, and drawn
over their heads in bad weather; a plaited long stocking, called
_ossan_, is their high dress.
The following detail of the complete equipment of a Highland chief
was communicated by a Highland gentleman to _Charles Grant, Vicomte
de Vaux_, by whom it was printed in his _Mémoires de la Maison de
Grant_, in 1796:--
No. 1. A full-trimmed bonnet.
2. A tartan jacket, vest, kilt, and cross-belt.
3. A tartan belted plaid.
4. -------- pair of hose, made up [of cloth].
5. A tartan pair of stockings, ditto, with yellow
garters.
6. Two pair of brogs.
7. A silver-mounted purse and belt.
8. A target with spear.
9. A broadsword.
10. A pair of pistols and bullet-mould.
11. A dirk, knife, fork, and belt.
FOOTNOTES:
[465] For much of the matter in this chapter we must confess
ourselves indebted to General Stewart’s admirable and interesting
_Sketches of the Highlanders_, a well-stored repository of
information on all points connected with the ancient manners and
customs of the Highlands.
[466] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. pp. 7, 8.
[467] Martin’s _Western Islands_, 2d edit. pp. 194, 195.
[468] Logan, vol. i. pp. 404, 405.
[469] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 74.
[470] _Highlands_, vol. i. p. 180.
[471] Martin’s _Western Islands_, 2d edit. p. 80.
[472] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 78.
[473] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 76.
[474] Graham’s _Sketches of Perthshire_.
[475] Idem.
[476]
“It was a wild and strange retreat,
As e’er was trod by outlaw’s feet.
The dell, upon the mountain’s crest,
Yawned like a gash on warrior’s breast;
Its trench had staid full many a rock,
Hurl’d by primeval earthquake shock
From Ben-Venue’s grey summit wild,
And here, in random ruin piled,
They frowned incumbent o’er the spot,
And formed the rugged sylvan grot.
The oak and birch, with mingled shade,
At noontide there a twilight made,
Unless where short and sudden shone
From straggling beam on cliff or stone,
With such a glimpse as prophet’s eye
Gains on thy depth, Futurity.
No murmur wak’d the solemn still,
Save tinkling of a fountain rill;
But when the wind chafed with the lake,
A sullen sound would upward break,
With dashing hollow voice, that spoke
The incessant war of wave and rock.
Suspended cliffs, with hideous sway,
Seem’d nodding o’er the cavern grey.
* * * * *
Grey Superstition’s whisper dread,
Debarred the spot to vulgar tread;
For there, she said, did fays resort,
And satyrs hold their sylvan court,
By moon-light tread their mystic maze,
And blast the rash beholder’s gaze.”
_Lady of the Lake_, c. iii. s. 26.
[477] Graham’s _Sketches_.
[478] The belief in _Fairies_ is a popular superstition among the
Shetlanders. The margin of a small lake called the Sandy Loch,
about two miles from Lerwick, is celebrated for having been their
favourite resort. It is said that they often walk in procession along
the sides of the loch in different costumes. Some of the natives
used frequently, when passing by a knoll, to stop and listen to the
music of the fairies, and when the music ceased, they would hear
the rattling of the pewter plates which were to be used at supper.
The fairies sometimes visit the Shetland barns, from which they are
usually ejected by means of a _flail_, which the proprietor wields
with great agility, thumping and thrashing in every direction.
[479] ROBERTUS KIRK, A. M., LINGUÆ HIBERNII(C)Æ LUMEN, OBIIT, &c.
[480] The Fairies of Shetland appear to be bolder than the Shi’ichs
of the Highlands, for they are believed to carry off young children
even after baptism, taking care, however, to substitute a cabbage
stock, or something else in lieu, which is made to assume the
appearance of the abstracted child. The unhappy mother must take
as much care of this phantom as she did of her child, and on no
account destroy it, otherwise, it is believed, the fairies will not
restore her child to her. “This is not my bairn,” said a mother to a
neighbour who was condoling with her on the wasted appearance of her
infant, then sitting on her knee,--“this is not my bairn--may the
d--l rest where my bairn now is!”
[481] Graham’s _Sketches_.
[482] MS. No. IV. noticed in the Appendix to the Report on the Poems
of Ossian, p. 310.
[483] _Western Islands_, 2d ed. p. 86.
[484] Martin, 2d ed. p. 112.
[485] Martin, 2d ed. p. 112.
[486] _Western Islands_, p. 122.
[487] _Journey to the Hebrides_, p. 166.
[488] Id.
[489] Martin, p. 300.
[490] _Journey to the Western Islands_, pp. 167, 168.
[491] “On that occasion, sanctified by the puritanical cant of
the times, there was one marquis, three earls, two lords, sixteen
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 purpose--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 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.”--Stewart’s _Sketches--Memoirs of the Sommerville Family_.
[492] “Playing the bagpipes within doors,” says General Stewart, “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
broadside 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 bagpipes, softened by distance, had an indescribable effect
on the mind and actions of the Highlanders. But as few would choose
to be under the muzzle of the guns of a battery, 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.”--_Sketches_, App. xxiii.
[493] Dr. M’Queen’s Dissertation.
[494] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 86.
[495] Stewart’s _Sketches_.
[496] Two remarkable instances of the regard paid by the Highlanders
to their engagements, are given by General Stewart. “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
upon the table, the borrower offered a receipt. As soon as the lender
(grandfather of the late Mr. Stewart of Ballachulish) heard this, he
immediately collected the money, saying, that a man who could not
trust his own word, without a bond, should not be trusted by him,
and should have none of his money, which he put up in his purse and
returned home.” An inhabitant of the same district 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.” Such examples of stern honesty
are now, alas! of rare occurrence. Many of the virtues which adorned
the Highland character have disappeared in the vortex of modern
improvement, by which the country has been completely revolutionized.
[497] On the Superstitions of the Highlanders.
[498] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 82.
[499] Id.
[500] Stewart’s _Sketches_.
[501] Mrs. Grant’s _Superstitions of the Highlanders_.
[502] _Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland_, p. 189.
[503] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 22.
[504] The power of the chiefs over their clans was, from political
motives, often supported by the government, to counteract the great
influence of the feudal system which enabled the nobles frequently
to set the authority of the state at defiance. Although the Duke of
Gordon was the feudal superior of the lands held by the Camerons,
M’Phersons, M’Donells of Keppoch and others, he had no influence over
those clans who always obeyed the orders of Lochiel, Clunie, Keppoch,
&c.
[505] Martin observes that in the Western Islands, “every heir, or
young chieftain of a tribe, was obliged in honour to give a public
specimen of his valour before he was owned and declared governor or
leader of his people, who obeyed and followed him upon all occasions.
This chieftain was usually attended with a retinue of young men of
quality, who had not beforehand given any proof of their valour, and
were ambitious of such an opportunity to signalize themselves. It was
usual for the captain to lead them, 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 on the
lands 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 robbery, for the damage which one tribe
sustained by this essay of the chieftain of another, was repaired
when their chieftain came in his turn to make his specimen; but I
have not heard an instance of this practice for these sixty years
past.”--_Western Islands_, 2d edit. pp. 101, 102.
[506] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 30.
[507] Idem, vol. i. pp. 30, 31.
[508] General Stewart says that the families of the name of Stewart,
whose estates lay in the district of Athole, and whose chief, by
birth, was at a distance, ranged themselves under the family of
Athole, though they were themselves sufficiently numerous to raise
1000 fighting men.
[509] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. pp. 33, 34.
[510] “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”--Burt’s _Letters_.
[511] Stewart’s _Sketches_, vol. i. p. 35.
[512] For an account of this notorious individual, see the history of
the clan Macgregor in the second part of this work.
[513] General Stewart observes, that the Marshal had not at this
period been long enough in the Highlands to distinguish a cearnach,
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 Commander-in-chief would neither have associated with
men whom he supposed to be really highwaymen, nor partaken of their
hospitality.”
[514] _Culloden Papers._
[515] This was noticed by Dr. Johnson. He thus describes
a meeting between the young laird of Coll and some of his
“subjects:”--“Wherever we roved, 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 about him: he took them by the hand, and
they seemed mutually delighted. He has the proper disposition of a
chieftain, and seems desirous to continue the customs of his house.
The bagpiper played regularly when dinner was served, whose person
and dress made a good appearance; and he brought no disgrace upon the
family of Rankin, which has long supplied the lairds of Coll with
hereditary music.”--_Journey to the Western Islands._
[516] _Stewart’s Sketches_, vol. i. p. 46, &c.--Dalrymple’s _Memoirs_.
[517] Stewart, vol. i. p. 50.
[518] A picture of the horse was in the possession of the late
General Stewart of Garth, being a legacy bequeathed to him by the
daughter of Mr. Menzies. “A brother of Macnaughton,” says the
General, “lived for many years on the estate of Garth, and died in
1790. He always went about armed, at least so far armed, that when
debarred wearing a sword or dirk, he slung a large long 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. He was a smith by trade, 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 was due, he had an appearance of independence and ease, that
strangers, ignorant of the language and character of the people,
might have supposed to proceed from impudence. As he always carried
arms when legally permitted, so he showed on one occasion that he
knew how to handle them. When 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, on 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 stroke of his broadsword cut the chain, and crossing the river,
fixed the boat on the opposite side, and thus prevented an immediate
pursuit. Indeed no farther 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-Phaisaig, ‘Peter with the
Beard.’”
[519] The following amusing anecdote of this man is related by
General Stewart:--“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, murderer.--‘Stop
there,’ interrupted his companion, ‘he does indeed take the cattle
of the whigs and you Sassanachs, but neither he nor his cearnachs
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 misfortune!’
‘_You_,’ says the officer, ‘what had _you_ to do with the affair?’
‘I am John Du Cameron,--I am the sergeant Mor; there is the road to
Inverlochay,--you cannot now mistake it. You and your money are safe.
Tell your governor to send a more wary messenger for his gold. Tell
him also, that, although an outlaw, 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.”