LOVAT OF THE FORTY - FIVE . By W. C. Mackenzie Recent
interest in Prince Charlie has induced Mr. W. C. Mackenzie to give us in Lovat of the Forty-Five (The Moray Press, 5s.) an abridged and up-thdate version of the lengthy study which he published a good number of years ago. Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, was certainly the villain of the Jacobite piece: and he has- been dismissed impatiently by romantic writers who shrink from the less attractive aspect of the movement. Lovat was More fickle than the notorious "Vicar of Bray, and in the political intrigues in Scotland and at the court of Louis he surpassed all others. Neither his enemies nor his friends could tell whether he was Jacobite or Hanoverian, Catholic or Protestant, spy or counter-spy. Despite his constant trimming , and ' hedging," Lovat captured the Highland imagination. He had all the Celtic weakness for honours, titles and ranks but he was lavish and careless of mere gain. His jokes and sayings became proverbial. The immense influence of Lovrit might have changed the fortunes of the Chevalier in the fateful year of forty-five, but the wily old man still clung to his fence. Despite his contemptible career, his death was .gallant. When he was captured and brought to London to be executed he tested the sharpness of the axe and laid his head on the block with a jest. Mr. • Mackenzie succeeds as nearly as anyone possibly could in solving the riddle of Lovat's character.
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