It was harvest time also when I visited the spot, and in the near neighbourhood of the fort a Highlander was carrying his barley in a very peculiar and primitive way. The machine was neither wagon, cart, nor wheelbarrow-in fact, it had not any wheels; but two stout shafts had been joined together, in the place where the cart should have been, by some half dozen posts, with open spaces between each, and at the further end of the shafts had been fixed a back-piece of open railwork. When the shafts were raised to the harness of the steed (a ragged hungry-looking 'garron,' or Highland pony), the back of the machine dragged along the ground, and was tilted to an angle which adapted it for the reception of sundry barley-mows, which were piled upon it by the Highlander's wife and daughter, and with which the man drove off to his little homestead. It was heavy work for the ragged pony, especially as there was a deep dyke to be crossed by the side of the road, into which the machine descended with a heavy thud, and out of which it had to be assisted by the united efforts of man and beast. It was certainly the most primitive specimen of 'carrying' that I had ever witnessed. It was after the first rebellion of 1715, that the government awoke to the conviction that, if the Highlands were to be subdued, the various stations throughout the country must be rendered accessible. For this purpose several great lines of road were formed, extending to upwards of 800 miles, and including the building of more than a thousand bridges, by which a communication with the Lowland garrisons was maintained, and through which it was hoped by the Government that the Highland feudal system would be broken up. The Macgregors and Macfarlanes kept the country from Loch Katrine to the north CAUFIELD'S EPIGRAM. 211 of Loch Lomond in a state of chronic feuds, striking terror to the well-disposed, aiding the rebels at every opportunity, and harassing the royal troops by their guerilla warfare. To drive them out of their fastnesses, therefore, it was confided to General Wade to form roads, cut down forests, and open up the country for the advance and movements of his soldiers. The Macgregors' country was denuded of its timber, a road was taken over the moors and rivers, and the little fort of Inversnaid was built and garrisoned, with what success we have already seen. A number of grassy hillocks, with a few head-stones scattered around the ruins, mark the last resting-places of some of the defenders of the fort of Inversnaid. With regard to General Wade's military road in this neighbourhood, a couplet is often quoted, though not always correctly; and as the anecdote would appear to have been first published by Grose, I therefore give it in his words:- Caufield, to whom the management of the roads through the Highlands of Scotland devolved after General Wade, having brought his part of the road to join with that made by the General, in a fit of ecstasy commenced poet by the following verses, which preclude the necessity of saying he was an Irishman :— Had you seen these roads before they were made, Although the road is still a stern, and lone, yet lovely road,' we may traverse it with more pleasurable feelings than did Andrew Fairservice, when he set foot. in that mountainous and desolate territory, which, lying between the lakes Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine, and Loch Ard, was currently called Rob Roy's, or *Grose's Olio, p. 185. * the Macgregor country.' And very fitly, too; for, although it was not strictly correct to say that— The eagle he was lord above, And Rob was lord below! -yet, besides his inherited possessions at Inversnaid, of which he was the legal lord or laird, until the southern soldiers drove him out, and built upon his own property the fort which was to keep him in check, this Highland Robin Hood, in his character of a predatory chieftain of a powerful clan, contrived to render himself an outlaw sufficiently formidable to be the recognised ruler over that wild country. In some contemporary documents, Rob Roy is called 'Laird of Inversnait.' His nephew and ward, James Graham of Glengyle, is denominated in his marriagecontract as Robert Campbell of Inversnait,' and it appears from other documents that he had also at one time been proprietor of Craig Royston. It is said, however, that he had been compelled to wadsel, or impledge his estate of Inversnait to the Duke of Montrose for a sum of money; that the property was afterwards adjudged by the creditor; and that the family of Macgregor was expelled by the factor for the Duke, with the most frightful outrage. The insult offered to his wife on this occasion forms the subject of a ballad entitled 'Rob Roy's Lament,' said to have been composed by the unhappy lady herself; but this is very doubtful. This treatment, along with his other misfortunes, drove him to desperation, and he vowed revenge on the authors of his wrongs.† * Rob Roy, II. 234. See the introduction to The Trials of James, Duncan, and Robert M'Gregor, three Sons of the celebrated Rob Roy. With Anecdotes of Rob Roy and his Family. Edinburgh, 1818. This is a work extending ROB ROY'S LAST DUEL. 213 Major-General Stewart, in the appendix to the first volume of his History of the Highlanders,' and Sir Walter Scott, in the introduction to his novel, give the history of Rob Roy at some length, with many interesting particulars derived from authentic sources; and the true story of his life is so full of stirring incidents and romantic adventures, that it is to be regretted (to quote Scott's words) that 'so excellent a theme for a narrative of the kind had not fallen into the hands of De Foe, who was engaged at the time on subjects somewhat similar, though inferior in dignity and interest.' It is somewhat remarkable that Rob Roy should have died peaceably in his bed when nearly eighty years of age. 'His last duel,' says General Stewart, 'was with Mr. Stewart, of Ardshiel.* They fought with the broadsword. Macgregor, being then far advanced in years, and very corpulent, gave up the contest after receiving a cut in the chin.'+ Rob Roy, very corpulent,' and with his stature not of the tallest' (as Scott testifies), comes before us in a very questionable shape as a fat hero. But, as is not uncommon, the terror of his name, added to his undoubted personal strength, invested his person, in the eyes of many of his contemporaries, to 372 pages. It is referred to in Sir Walter Scott's Introduction to Rob Roy, cxvii. In the trial, Robert Campbell is always spoken of, after the Highland fashion, as 'Glengyle.' From the evidence, it would appear to have then been the custom at Highland weddings for the bride and bridegroom to go publicly to bed, around which the company gathered to drink their health; and they, in return, drank to the health of the company, who then retired. See also Popular Superstitions and Festive Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland, by W. Grant Stewart (1823), p. 277. Ghlune Dhu,' Glengyle, commanded the garrison of Doune on behalf of the Chevalier. See Introduction to Rob Roy, cxxxv. * 'Of Inverrahyle,' says Scott, who narrates the circumstance at some length. A slight wound in the arm,' says Scott. with dimensions as exaggerated as were the reports of his actions. During his lifetime the so-called history of him (quoted in my last chapter) was published in London under the title of The Highland Rogue,' of which Scott says, that It is a catch-penny publication, bearing in front the effigy of a species of ogre, with a beard of a foot in length. Some few of the best known adventures of the hero are told, though with little accuracy; but the greater part of the pamphlet is entirely fictitious.' As Scott does not quote from this scarce pamphlet, I transcribe, as a specimen of its contents, the following exaggerated description of the personal appearance of the Highland Rogue:-' He is a man of a prodigious strength, and of such an uncommon stature, that he approaches even to a gigantic size; he wears a beard above a foot long, and not only his face, but his whole body is covered over with red hair, which is the reason that he is commonly called Rob Roy-for that, in the Highland dialect, signifies Red Robert; it being usual there to give people nicknames from their hair or complexion.' 6 To kill one man makes a murderer; to be the means of slaying a thousand constitutes a hero. And so with the Highlander who was arraigned as a common thief for a Rob Roy raid. 'Common tief! common tief!' he interrupted, indignantly, as his indictment was being read; a common tief steal ane cow, twa cow; tat be common tief! Lift a huntret cow, tat be shentilman trover.' Rob Roy's system is similar to what is recorded of the great Lord Clive, when he was a schoolboy at Market Drayton, where he formed his schoolfellows into a kind of predatory army, and levied black mail on the shopkeepers in the shape of apples and halfpence, in return for which he guaranteed the |