THE HIGHLAND HOST.
[To TIRE Eorroin or rws .iiirscrwrox."] SIB,—In the Spectator of May 9th your reviewer, in his notice of Mr. Elder's monograph on the Highland Host of 1678, expresses the opinion that there was no Macdonald peerage before 1776, and questions the identity of the "Lord MacDonald" mentioned on p. 62 of Mr. Elder's book. I think the peerage given to Eneas MacDonald of Glengary in 1660 has escaped his attention. Crawfuld's Peerage of Scot- land (1716) thus refers to him :— " Ewes MacDonald of Glengary, who, in a most eminent manner, manifested his Loyalty to King Charles I. and II. through- out the whole Civil War and Usurpation that followed, and living to see a happy End of them, was, upon the King's Return, in
Commemoration thereof, raised to the Honour of Lord MacDonald of Arose."
Lord MacDonald died childless in 1680, when his peerage, which was limited to the heirs male of his body, became extinct. The date of its creation is September 20th, 1600. The first edition of Douglas's Peerage of Scotland (1764) gives the same information. It is not until the Douglas and Wood Peerage of 1813 that Lord MacDonald of Arose is called Lord MacDonell, and no authority is given for the change of spelling, which has certainly since been adopted by the Glengary family.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ALICE MACDONALD OF THE ISLES. Thorpe Hall, Bridlington.
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