THE • APPIN MURDER.
ITo THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") Sut—In a review in your issue of the 28th ult. reference is made to the old story of the Appin murder-and the identity of the assassin. In this connexion the following experience may not be without interest to your readers. In the autumn' of 1886 I stayed for a night in a farmhouse at the back of Ben Nevis. I spent the evening in conversation -with a gillie, a man of remarkable intelligence and education, a Cameron of the large fair type of Highlander. He was exceptionally well read in. history both general and national, and in the course of the evening I asked him about the Appin murder. Naturally, he was well acquainted with the story, but when I came to -the crucial question, " Who did it? " I could get nothing out of him. He confessed that the name was known, and I got the impression, as much from his manner as from any actual statement made by him, that the guilty man was .a clansman of his own. In this connexion can anyone tell me-whether the tall, fair men one sees in the Highlands are 'Celtic in origin, and, if so, to what stock do the small, swarthy men one meets in the same region belong? The latter have far. more of the characteristics usually attributed to Celts, -while the appear- ance of the former-agrees more with the descriptions found in ancient writers about the race.—I am, Sir, lac., CHARLES N. Mstvnial Barracks, Reading. (Colonel A.hLS., retired par).
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