MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE HIGHLANDERS.* THESE sketches, which were
originally given to the world in the Quarterly Review, are less known than they deserve. Much fragmentary information about the Highknders of the last century may be gleaned from Sir Walter Scott's other works, and especially from his novels ; but this is necessarily less satisfying than a connected history and description such as we have in this welcome republication.
The Highlanders of the present day differ little, except in language, from their southern Saxon neighbours, to whom— in spite of Lord Salisbury's ungenerous sneer about the "Celtic Fringe "—they are certainly not inferior in any of the moral, physical, and intellectual qualities which go to build up the greatness of a people. Considering the smallness of their numbers, and the comparative scantiness of their opportunities, they have produced at least their fair share of distinguished men in war, literature, and science ; while there is no portion of her Majesty's subjects more peaceful, loyal, and law-abiding. Very different were the Highlanders of the past. The contrast is, indeed, striking, and affords a signal disproof of the common error that every race has its own special characteristics, which it always inherits, and always transmits in entire independence of circumstances and surroundings.
Prior to the year 1745, the inhabitants of the South of Britain knew next to nothing of these hardy mountaineers of the North. This ignorance extended even to the educated classes, who regarded the Highlanders of their time pretty 'much as we of the present day regard the Zulus or the Hottentots. Swift, in his Journal to Stella, mentions as a remarkable fact that he had actually dined with two High- landers, and found them persons of ordinary decorum and • (1.1 Manners and Customs of the Highlanders, (2.) Historical, .Aeoount of the Can MacGregor. Both by Sir Walter Scott. London: Bimpkin, Marshall, and ,Co. Glasgow Thomas D. Morison. civility. In the midst of this all but universal contempt and ignorance came the audacious rebellion in favour of the young Chevalier, when the startling victories of the Celtio clans roused all England, as Scott puts it, "like a rattling peal of thunder." The despised barbarians of the North, with inferior numbers and inferior weapons, but superior strategy and tactics, had routed and re-routed the trained and veteran troops of the highly cultivated South. Nor was it in the field alone that the Highlanders showed to advantage. Their clemency to the vanquished, and their abstention from all rapine and outrage during their march through England, stand forth in strong contrast to the cowardly butchery to which they were subjected after their final defeat, by twice their number, on the moor of Culloden. Still more to their honour is their touching fidelity to their "Bonnie Prince Charlie" in the days of his adversity. His various places of concealment were known to many poor, half-starved High- landers; yet the reward of 230,000 offered by the Govern- ment for his betrayal could not tempt the meanest of them to stoop to the invited infamy.
Scott, in this volume, renders ample justice to the virtues of the ancient Gaul; but, on the other hand, be does not spare his vices. Among these his thirst for revenge—not so much in open war as in private feuds—holds a prominent place. A dying chief, on being urged by his pastor to for- give his enemy, as vengeance belonged to the Lord alone, acquiesced with a deep sigh, and with the remark that no doubt it was "too sweet a morsel for a mortal." Then he added, Well, I forgive him; but the deil take you, Donald" (turning to his son), "if you forgive him." Nevertheless, it was considered unworthy to kill a humbled and suppliant foe who had surrendered himself unconditionally, and, in token of absolute submission, offered his sword, held by the point, or laid his head upon the block. Clemency in such cases was the rule ; but it sometimes happened that a relentless enemy would seize this opportunity of there and then striking the long, coveted blow. Scott gives the following instance :— "William Macintosh, a leader, if not the chief, of that ancient clan, upon some quarrel with the Gordons, burnt the castle of Auchindown, belonging to this powerful family ; and was, in the feud which followed, reduced to such extremities by the persevering vengeance of the Earl of Huntly, that he was at length compelled to surrender himself at discretion. Ile came to the castle of Strathbogie, choosing his time when the Earl was absent, and yielded himself up to the Countess. She informed him that Huntly had sworn never to forgive him the offence he had committed until he should see his head upon the block, The humbled chieftain kneeled down, and laid his head upon the kitchen dresser, where the oxen were cut up for the baron's feast. No sooner had he made this humiliation, than the cook, who stood behind him with his cleaver uplifted, at a sign from the inexor- able Countess, severed Macintosh's head from his body at a stroke."
Everybody knows that the word Mac (pronounced in Gaelic 3facla) means son, so that, for example, MacDonald literally means the Son of Donald. But it is not generally known that when a woman is spoken of, the Highlanders substitute for Mao the feminine Nick which means daughter; that the vocative of Mac is Vichk (we spell phonetically), which always replaces Mac when a person is addressed ; and that the nomi- native plural is Michk (sons), or &tan (children). Sir Walter's ignorance of Gaelic frequently leads him into error upon these points, both in his poetry and in his novels. The mean- ing of the Gaelic word clan (as just stated) is children, and the obedience which clansmen owed to their chief was con- sidered by them rather as the affectionate obedience due by children to a father than as that due by subjects to a ruler. They believed themselves to be all blood-relations descended from a common ancestor, of whom their chief was the living representative. The clansman who hesitated to save his chief's life at the expense of his own was regarded as a coward who fled from his father's side in the hour of peril. On the other hand, the chief was expected at all times to acknowledge the meanest of his clan as his relation, and to shake hands with him wherever they might happen to meet, Sub- ordinate to the chief, and generally nearly related to him, were the chieftains and tacksmen. For a full account of these, and of the authority which they wielded, we must refer our readers to the book under notice. In this Sir Walter traces the history of the Highlanders as far back as available records permitted. In early times most of the chiefs owed allegiance to a Prince of their own, altogether independent of the Scottish King, with whom indeed he was frequently at war. This Prince—subsequently known as "Lord of the Isles "—was the chief of the powerful Clan Coll (or Colla), of which the Clan Donald and some others were branches. These branches do not appear to have been in any way subordinate to the parent Clan Colla, as any of their chiefs might, by right of inherit- ance, succeed to the sovereignty over the whole, and all the cognate clans considered themselves entitled to the general patronymic of Colla. The Kings of Scotland were never able to dissolve this formidable confederacy, or materially diminish to power, till towards the end of the fifteenth century, when the last "Lord of the Isles" (a Macdonald), died without male heirs, and his nearest kinsmen quarrelled amongst themselves about the succession. From that time the confederacy ceased to exist, for none of the rival chiefs was able to establish his authority over all the rest. The Kings, in order to strengthen their own power, fomented the mutual dissensions of the clans ; but though this policy met with some measure of success, the Highland chiefs remained virtually independent within their own territories; and when political circumstances united several of them in a common cause, they became, for the time, as danger- ous to the Crown as under the old dynasty of Clan Cola. Their brilliant victories under Montrose, and afterwards in sup- port of the exiled Stuarts in the reigns of William III. and George IL, show how formidable they could then become to the de facto Government of the country, whoever might be its ruler.
Sir Walter is deservedly severe upon the cruel and double- dealing traitor, Lord Lovat, whose tortuous history occupies several pages. He also lays the lash, though tenderly and with evident reluctance, on the royal "Butcher," Cumberland, with respect to whom he expresses himself as follows :— "If we touch upon the severities exercised with a most un- sparing hand after the insurrection of 1715, during the course of which the Highlanders had conducted themselves with humanity and moderation, it is but to repel an expression of the editor of the Culloden papers, who, after admitting the existence of these 'acts of atrocity,' strangely subjoins, that no blame can attach to the Duke of Cumberland for them.' We, on the contrary, main- tain that to the General of the victorious army, and to no other, is imputable every consequence of the orders which he issues ; and if a veil is drawn over the conduct of the Duke of Cumberland, it is out of no respect or tenderness to the memory of this Prince, but in justice to the far different sentiments of many members of his illustrious family."
The second half of this republication opens with a brief account of the outlawed Clan MacGregor, with whom, in spite of their occasional atrocities, one cannot help sym- pathising in consideration of the cruel persecution which first drove them to desperation. But the great bulk of this portion of the book is taken up with the history of one individual of the clan,—the famous Rob Roy, the Highland Robin Hood. Here will be found collected the authentic materials upon which Scott founded his well-known novel.
Out of these we will select the following as amusing and characteristic Bob Roy avenged himself for the loss which he sustained on this occasion [i.e., at the hands of the Duke of Montrose] by an act of singular audacity. About the middle of November, 1716, John Graham of Rillearn, already mentioned as factor of the Montrose family, went to a place called Chapel Errock, where the tenants of the Duke were summoned to appear with their termly rents. They appeared accordingly, and the factor had received ready money to the amount of about .t300, when Rob Roy entered the room at the head of an armed party. The steward endeavoured to protect the Duke's property by throwing the books of accounts and money into a garret, trusting they might escape notice. But the experienced freebooter was not to be baffled where such a prize was at stake. He recovered the books and cash, placed himself calmly in the receipt of custom, examined the accounts, pocketed the money, and gave receipts on the Duke's part, saying he would hold reckoning with the Duke of Montrose out of the damages which he had sustained by his Grace's means."
Rob's repeated hair-breadth escapes from the clutches of his powerful enemy rendered him at last so incautious that he allowed himself to be surprised by the Duke and taken prisoner. But even then his good fortune did not forsake him. As he was being transported across the Forth he managed (through the connivance of one of the Duke's High- land servants) to slip the bonds which held him, dived into the stream, and escaped,—pretty much in the manner described by Sir Walter in his novel. After this came the impudent freebooter's mock facetious challenge to the Duke, a document which will be found with other interesting curiosities in an appendix.
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