"At the foot of a rock sat the Fair Maid of Perth, listening in an attitude of devout attention EDINBURGH ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1868 PREFACE. (1831.) Lv continuing the lucubrations of Chrystal Croftangry, it occurred that, although the press had of late years teemed with works of various descriptions concerning the Scottish Gael, no attempt had hitherto been made to sketch their manners, as these might be supposed to have existed at the period when the Statute-book, as well as the page of the chronicler, begins to present constant evidence of the difficulties to which the crown was exposed, while the haughty house of Douglas all but overbalanced its authority on the Southern border, and the North was at the same time torn in pieces by the yet untamed savageness of the Highland races, and the daring loftiness to which some of the remoter chieftains still carried their pretensions. The well-authenticated fact of two powerful clans having deputed each thirty champions to fight out a quarrel of old standing, in presence of King Robert III., his brother the Duke of Albany, and the whole court of Scotland, at Perth, in the year of grace 1396, seemed to mark with equal distinctness the rancour of these mountain-feuds, and the degraded condition of the general government of the country; and it was fixed upon accordingly as the point on which the main incidents of a romantic narrative might be made to hinge. The characters of Robert III., his ambitious brother, and his dissolute son, seemed to offer some opportunities of interesting contrast; -and the tragic fate of the heir of the throne, with its immediate consequences, might serve to complete the picture of cruelty and lawlessness. Two features of the story of this barrier-battle on the Inch of Perth, the flight of one of the appointed champions, and the reckless heroism of a townsman, that voluntarily offered for a small piece of coin to supply his place in the mortal encounter suggested the imaginary persons, on whom much of the novel is expended. The fugitive Celt might have been easily dealt with, had a ludicrous style of colouring been adopted; but it appeared to the author that there would be more of novelty, as well as of serious interest, if he could succeed in gaining for him something of that sympathy which is incompatible with the total absence of respect. Miss Baillie had drawn a coward by nature capable of acting as a hero under the strong impulse of filial affection. It seemed not impossible to conceive the case of one constitutionally weak of nerve, being supported by feelings of honour and of jealousy up to a certain point, and then suddenly giving way, under circumstances to which the bravest heart could hardly refuse compassion. 1 The controversy, as to who really were the clans that figured in the barbarous conflict of the Inch, has been revived since the publication of the Fair Maid of Perth, and treated in particular at great length by Mr. Robert Mackay of Thurso, in his very curious "History of the House and Clan of Mackay." Without pretending to say that he has settled any part of the question in the affirmative, this gentleman certainly seems to have quite succeeded in proving that his own worthy sept had no part in the transaction. The Mackays were in that age seated, as they have since continued to be, in the extreme north of the island; and their chief at the time was a personage of such importance, that his name and proper designation could not have been omitted in the early narratives of the occurrence. He on one occasion brought four thousand of his clan to the aid of the royal banner against Edinburgh, 4to. 1829 quietata fuit per duos pestiferos Cateranos, et eorum sequaces, viz. Scheabeg et suos consanguinarios, qui Clankay; et Cristi-Jonson, ac suos, qui Clanquhele dicebantur; qui nullo pacto vel tractatu pacificari poterant, nullâque arte regis vel gubernatoris poterant edomari, quoadusque nobilis et industriosus D. David de Lindesay de Crawford, et dominus Thomas comes Moraviæ, diligentiam ct vires apposuerunt, ac inter partes sic tractaverunt, ut coram domino rege certo die convenirent apud Perth, et alterutra pars eligeret de progenie sua triginta personas adversus triginta de parte contraria, gladiis tantùm, arcubus et sagittis, absque deploidibus, vel armaturis aliis, præter bipennes; et sic congredientes finem liti ponerent, et terra pace potiretur. Utrique igitur parti summè placuit contractus, et die Lunæ proximo ante festum Sancti Michaëlis, apud North-insulam de Perth, coram Rege et Gubernatore, et innumerabili multitudine comparentes, conflictum acerrimum inierunt: ubi de sexaginta interfecti sunt omnes, excepto uno ex parte Clankay, et undecim exceptis ex parte altera. Hoc etiam ibi accidit, quòd omnes the Lord of the Isles. This historian is of opinion that the Clan Quhele of Wyntoun were the Camerons, who appear to have about that period been often designated as Macerans, and to have gained much more recently the name of Cameron, i. e. Wrynose, from a blemish in the physiognomy of some heroic chief of the line of Lochiel. This view of the case is also adopted by Douglas in his Baronage, where he frequently mentions the bitter feuds between Clan Chattan and Clan Kay, and identifies the latter sept, in reference to the events of 1396, with the Camerons. It is perhaps impossible to clear up thoroughly this controversy, little interesting in itself, at least to readers on this side of Inverness. The names, as we have them in Wyntoun, are Clanchewyl and Clachinya, the latter probably not correctly transcribed. In the Scoti-Chronicon they are Clanquhele and Clankay. Hector Boece writes Clanchattan and Clankay, in which he is followed by Leslie; while Buchanan disdains to disfigure his page with their Gaelic designations at all, and merely describes them as two powerful races in the wild and lawless region beyond the Grampians. Out of this jumble what Sassenach can pre-in præcinctu belli constituti, unus eorum locum tend dare lucem? The name Clanwheill appears so late as 1594, in an Act of James VI. Is it not possible that it may be, after all, a mere corruption of Clan Lochiel ? The reader may not be displeased to have Wyntoun's original rhymes: "A thousand and thre hunder yere, Thretty agane thretty then, In Felny bolnit of auld Fede,1 As thare fore-elders ware slane to dede: And thare thai had thair Chiftanys twa, A selcouth thing by tha was done. Suá few wyth lif than past away." The Prior of Lochleven makes no mention either of the evasion of one of the Gaelic champions, or of the gallantry of the Perth artisan, in offering to take a share in the conflict. Both incidents, however, were introduced, no doubt from tradition, by the continuator of Fordun, whose narrative is in these words : « Anno Dom. millesimo trecentesimo nonagesimo sexto, magna pars borealis Scotia, trans Alpes, in 1 i. e. Boiled with the cruelty of an old feud. 2 Scha is supposed to be Toshach, i. e. Macintosh: the father of the chief of this sept at the time was named Ferchard. In Bowar he is Scheabeg, i. e. Toshach the little. diffugii considerans, inter omnes in amnem ela- 3 i. e. Fate, doom. 4 The waur-the worse. conce 6 Muth and mad, i. e. exhausted both in body and mind The scene is heightened with many florid additions by Boece and Leslie, and the contending savages in Buchanan utter speeches after the most approved pattern of Livy. The devotion of the young Chief of Clan Quhele's foster-father and foster-brethren, in the novel, is a trait of clannish fidelity, of which Highland story furnishes many examples. In the battle of Inverkeithing, between the Royalists and Oliver Cromwell's troops, a foster-father and seven brave sons are known to have thus sacrificed themselves for Sir Hector Maclean of Duart-the old man, whenever one of his boys fell, thrusting forward another to fill his place at the right hand of the beloved chief, with the very words adopted in the novel "Another for Hector !" Nay, the feeling could outlive generations. The late much lamented General Stewart of Garth, in his account of the battle of Killikrankie, informs us that Lochiel was attended on the field by the son of his foster-brother. "This faithful adherent fol lowed him like his shadow, ready to assist him with his sword, or cover him from the shot of the enemy. Suddenly the chief missed his friend from his side, and turning round to look what had become of him, saw him lying on his back with his breast pierced by an arrow. He had hardly breath, before he expired, to tell Lochiel, that seeing an enemy, a Highlander in General Mackay's army, aiming at him with a bow and arrow, he sprung behind him, and thus sheltered him from instant death. This," observes the gallant David Stewart," is a species of duty not often practised, perhaps, by our aide-de-camps of the present day."-Sketches of the Highlanders, Vol. I., p. 65. I have only to add, that the Second Series of "Chronicles of the Canongate," with the Chapter Introductory which now follows, appeared in May 1828, and had a favourable reception. CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE. INTRODUCTORY. The ashes here of murder'd Kings CAPTAIN MARJORIBANKS. remains of Monarchs, and that we have the power to excite, in a degree unknown to the less honoured quarters of the city, the dark and solemn recollections of ancient grandeur, which occupied the precincts of our venerable Abbey from the time of St. David, till her deserted halls were once more made glad, and her long silent echoes awakened, by the visit of our present gracious Sovereign." EVERY quarter of Edinburgh has its own peculiar boast, so that the city together combines within its precincts, (if you take the word of the inhabitMy long habitation in the neighbourhood, and the ants on the subject,) as much of historical inte- quiet respectability of my habits, have given me a rest as of natural beauty. Our claims in behalf sort of intimacy with good Mrs. Policy, the houseof the Canongate are not the slightest. The Castle keeper in that most interesting part of the old may excel us in extent of prospect and sublimity of building, called Queen Mary's Apartments. But a site; the Calton had always the superiority of its circumstance which lately happened has conferred unrivalled panorama, and has of late added that of upon me greater privileges; so that, indeed, I might, its towers, and triumphal arches, and the pillars of I believe, venture on the exploit of Chatelet, who its Parthenon. The High Street, we acknowledge, was executed for being found secreted at midnight had the distinguished honour of being defended by in the very bedchamber of Scotland's Mistress. fortifications, of which we can show no vestiges. We will not descend to notice the claims of more upstart districts, called Old New Town and New New Town, not to mention the favourite Moray Place, which is the newest New Town of all. We will not match ourselves except with our equals, and with our equals in age only, for in dignity we admit of none. We boast being the Court end of the town, possessing the Palace and the sepulchral This "newest New Town," in case Mr. Croftangry's lucubrations, should outlive its possession of any right to that designation, was begun, I think, in 1824, on the park and gardens attached to a quondam pretty suburban residence of It chanced, that the good lady I have mentioned, was, in the discharge of her function, showing the apartments to a cockney from London ;-not one of your quiet, dull, commonplace visitors, who gape, yawn, and listen with an acquiescent umph, to the information doled out by the provincial cicerone. No such thing-this was the brisk, alert agent of a great house in the city, who missed no opportunity of doing business, as he termed it, that is, of put the Earls of Moray-from whose different titles, and so forth. the names of the places and streets erected were, of course, taken. Aug. 1831. 2 See Note A. King George IV. |