316

MANNERS OF THE HIGHLANDers.

him-never plundered the poor ;-never refused to share his bread with the needy and the stranger." One might think one's self among the Arabs!

The Highlander covered, with his own body, the body of his wounded chief,-never abandoned him in danger, and was ready to lay down his life for him at any time. Innumerable instances of this sort of devotedness are on record; and when he took up the quarrel of his chief, he never thought of inquiring into its merits. The following is a curious instance. It was a great honour to be god-father of the young laird, and the children of the god-father were his brothers; one of them was always his cup-bearer, (hanchman.) "An English officer being engaged in earnest conversation at table with a Highland chief, and wine having given to their discourse that animated appearance which might be mistaken for a quarrel; the hanchman, who stood behind the chair of his laird, and did not understand the language they spoke, took it into his head that his master was insulted, and, without farther ceremony, drawing a pistol from his belt, fired at the head of the English officer, who would have been a dead man, if the pistol had not providentially missed fire."

Notwithstanding their hospitality, the Highlanders did not approve of a stranger coming to settle among them, and acquiring landed estates; they were jealous of him; and his life was not always safe. Gordon, laird of Glenbucket, had become possessed of some lands in a neighbouring clan, the Macphersons, but his tenants would not acknowledge him. After long disputes, six of them endeavoured to get rid of him in the following manner-They came in a humble and submissive manner, expressed their regret for what had pas

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317

sed,-begged of him to withdraw the prosecution he had begun, and declared their readiness to acknowledge him as their lord, and pay their rents. The laird was then lying on his bed. During these speeches, they approached by degrees, that he might not have time to call for help, or to defend himself, being known to be a very resolute man. As soon as they saw themselves sufficiently near, they all fell upon him at the same time with their daggers. This passed close to and in sight of a body of soldiers quartered on the spot.

Another intruder had his bed pierced with five balls, fired through the window during the night. Fortunately for him he had not slept at home; and, profiting by the admonition, he took leave of the country.

The population of the Highlands has increased, as was observed before, in the last fifty years, from 256,000 to 297,000. They consume more in proportion, and export likewise more, in cattle, wool, fish, and even in manufactured goods, not only to the low country of Scotland, but to England, and to foreign countries. Mountain pastures are at present exclusively appropriated to the raising of young cattle; and a certain proportion of the land of the low country, formerly used for that purpose, is now cultivated; different sorts of soils and situations being thus employed to most advantage, and crops, as well as men, have only changed places.

It is remarkable, that the same complaints of depopulation of the country, by the introduction of large farms of sheep, were made in England under the reign of Henry VII.-precisely at the period when, as in Scotland two centuries and a half later, the feudal system was beginning to give way to civil equality and the laws. It is strange

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HIGHLANDERS LOYALTY-BREECHES.

that this barbarous government should have subsisted in Scotland so much later than anywhere else; and no less so, that, so little a while after its emancipation (scarcely more than half a century), this country should have made such rapid progress, as to approach as near as it does to the state of high prosperity of England.

I have remarked before, that Scotland is the most loyal part of Great Britain. This spirit is, I believe, not less general in the Highlands; and it does not seem easy to account for it, considering how much they were attached to the dynasty of the Stuarts, their own countrymen, and that they submitted with difficulty to the princes who succeeded. The Highlanders resisted King William, and were punished by him à la mode de la Vendée. They were afterwards the first to espouse the cause of the Pretender, and were again severely punished. But this time the vengeance of government conferred a benefit upon them; it fell on their chiefs, broke the bonds of clanship, and was the dawn of civilization among them. There was, however, a species of hardship they were unable to bear; this was, the obligation imposed on them by act of Parliament of wearing breeches. Evading this paternal law, they were seen to exhibit the hated garment, not where the spirit of the act meant it to be, but at the end of a stick. This repugnance could not be subdued; and the power of government, after carrying every thing else, was obliged to yield this delicate point,—and, by another act of Parliament, in 1784, formally to abandon the breeches. Now, however, that the point is given up, more than half the nation have come round to the breeches of their own accord. The highland regiments, indeed, are still sans cu

lottes, and no less remarkable for their bravery and good conduct, than for their dress. Its immodesty is such, that I cannot see a Highland officer appear in women's company, without feeling some sort of confusion.

The object of Lord Selkirk in writing his observations on the state of the Highlands was, to shew the impolicy, as well as inhumanity, of preventing that part of the population which is driven out from the mountains from emigrating to America. Those who cannot overcome their dislike to the new ways of life, necessary for them to embrace if they remain, would not be very useful members of society; and the void left by their emigration will be very soon filled by a new generation, born and educated in the new order of things. Another object of this writer was, to shew, by a practical experiment, how this spirit of emigration of the Highlanders might be made useful to their country, if guided, instead of opposed. A colony of them, transplanted to an island at the entrance of the St Lawrence, seems to have had all the success the humanity and public spirit of the founder deserved. The Duke of Atholl keeps in pay his old decayed labourers; and I am told it is the same with several other great proprietors, and probably, in some degree, with wealthy farmers. This is better than the poor's-rates in England, which seem to equalize the burden, but, in fact, increase it. What the proprietors pay here to assist the poor is nothing compared to the poor's-rates in England. Wages, however, exceed but little the wages in England, and yet there are few beggars; and the people, although less neat in their appearance, do not seem

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CRIEFF LOCH EARN HEAD.

in want. We heard here of peasants eighty and ninety years old, still capable of some labour.

The last ten or twelve miles before we reached Crieff, were through some wild passes among mountains, upon which we observed vast flocks of sheep and herds of cattle grazing. It was fine weather and sunshine, but the wind was north and cool, and so elastic and bracing, that walking up and down the hills seemed no exertion. From the last hill we saw, in a sheltered valley, a castle-like mansion, flanked with towers, fine old trees round it, extensive plantations all over the mountains, and the vale in high cultivation. Soon after this we came to two genteel cottages, the first of the kind we had seen in the Highlands, where all is castle or hovel. The excellent military road, along which we have travelled so many miles gratis, ended just before we entered Crieff.

Sept. 5.-Loch Earn Head. Twenty-two miles to-day. About seven miles from Crieff, we stopped to look at Lord Melville's house. This ex-minister, the scape-goat of his party, was made to suffer for the sins which they had in common with him; an example which shews that public opinion is not entirely subdued, and must be obeyed now and then. The house is an immense quadrangle, so full of windows as to look like a manufactory or barracks, and in the plainest style. It is situated in a hollow, surrounded by hills, where there are some good views, and a very pretty waterfall. Four or five miles farther, we came to Loch Earn, and travelled along the north side of it nine miles. It is about three miles wide, the water clear, a clean sandy shore, and high hills all round; but covered in part with coppice-wood, which does not look