1i /fk/M fiVdu, THE SPIRIT OF JACOBITE LOYALTY BY THE SAME AUTHOR In one Volume /cap. Bvo, paper. Price IS. ()d. net. THE WORK OF ARTHUR SYMONS An Appreciation Edinburgh : J. & J. GRAY & CO. THE ST JAMES PRESS. THE SPIRIT OF JACOBITE LOYALTY AN ESSAY TOWARDS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF "THE FORTY-FIVE" BY W. G. BLAIKIE MURDOCH " No man who has studied history, or even attended to the occurrences of everyday life, can doubt the enormous practical value of trust and faith ; but as little will he be inclined to deny that this practical value has not the least relation to the reality of the objects of that trust and faith." Huxley. WILLIAM BROWN 5 CASTLE STREET, EDINBURGH 1907 0x 1 30SI0M COH^GE LIBRARY A. J. B. GRAHAM IN TOKEN OF SINCEREST FRIENDSHIP ♦ PREFACE Some account of the scope of this book will be found in the Introduction, which, owing to the fact that authorities are cited therein, has been placed after the list of these. Since writing my final pages, I have lighted upon two things which have made me feel, more strongly than ever, the need of an essay on the spirit of Jacobite loyalty. During the last few days I have been re-reading Esmond^ a book which I had not opened for fully ten years; and I find that Thackeray describes the efforts to restore the exiled Stuarts as con- spiracies so like murder, so cowardly in the means used, so wicked in the end, that our nation has sure done well in throwing off all allegiance and fidelity to the unhappy family that could not vindicate its right except by such treachery — by such dark intrigue and base agents." An admirer of Thackeray, it grieves me to find fault with him ; yet I cannot pass the above without blame. It may be said that the writer merely put those words into the mouth of one of his dramatis personce, and that they were not his own senti- ments. Unfortunately, however, there is reason to believe that the quoted passage was the expression of the novelist's own feelings con- cerning Jacobite loyalty ; for, as Mr Andrew 8 JACOBITE LOYALTY Lang has ably pointed out, his delineation of the character of the Chevalier de St George shows how litttle Thackeray knew concerning the exiled Stuarts. I have also, lately, had occasion to read Mr G. K. Chesterton's Heretics, a book in which many of the greatest of con- temporary writers are audaciously assailed, and in which the sacred names of Shelley, Pater, and Swinburne are taken in vain. With Mr Chesterton's comments on "Celts and Celtophiles " yet before me, I realise very truly that, despite the eulogies of Ernest Renan and Matthew Arnold, the Celtic race is still misunderstood by some, and that its actions in the past stand in need of defence to this day. Some time ago a reviewer of mine affirmed that I was suffering from a complaint which he ingeni- ously described as "poetic inebriation." While looking forward with interest to his diagnosis in the present case (historic inebriation ?), I do not purpose to attempt the disarming of criticism ; yet there is one thing which I feel it advisable to say here concerning my book. It is an essay, not a history ; and, eager to be convincing, and believing brevity to be of the utmost importance when writing with such an end in view, I have kept my work within the smallest possible limits. Thus, when touching on the part played by women in the Forty-five, I am but illustrating a point, and do not prete:':id to give a full account of Jacobite ladies. Again, in dealing with the movements, after Culloden, of Prince Charles's adherents, I r \ PREFACE 9 lay no claim to a complete narration of these movements, but am merely exemplifying what I have stated : that loyalty to the Stuarts, and hopes of their restoration, did not end with the suppres- sion of the Forty-five. I desire to express my obligations to the editor of the Inverness Courier^ who has courteously allowed me to reprint here matter formerly in- cluded in articles which I have contributed to his paper. In the course of my researches I have received some valuable assistance from Mr Robert Fitzroy Bell, and from the Rev. Murdo Mackenzie ; and I owe a debt of gratitude to Mr J. Macbeth Forbes, who has kindly elucidated for me a point in his book, Jacobite Gleanings. Though he was unable to give me the information for which I asked, I am none the less grateful to Mr Arthur Symons for the letter which he wrote to me in answer to an inquiry, and it is with singular pride that I tender him my thanks. It gives me the greatest pleasure to take this opportunity of acknowledging my indebtedness to Mr Duncan Mathieson, who has befriended me as an author, and who has aided and furthered my work, to an extent which no one else has. Finally, as in the case of almost everything else I have written, I have to thank my friend Mr John M. Marshall, not only for material help he has rendered me, but for frequently constituting a sympathetic and patient audience to the tale of my labours. W G. B. M. Edinburgh, August 1907, CONTENTS i'A(;e Authorities ..... 13 Introduction . . . . .21 LocHiEL, Lord George Murray, and Lord PiTSLIGO • • • • • 33 Jacobite Men of Letters . . .46 Jacobite Diaries and Memoirs . . .61 Culture and yEsTHETicisM . . .72 " The Forty-five " as Representation of the Highlands ..... 86 Discipline ...... 107 Humanity . . . . . .121 On the Scaffold . . . . .130 Waifs and Strays . . . ' . .134 Conclusion ..... 164 AUTHORITIES The following is a list of the principal authorities cited in this essay, together with the abbreviations used in citing : — The Works of Joseph Addison (Bohn's Libraries) .... Addison Historical Papers illustrative of the Jacobite Period, edited by Major Allardyce (New Spalding Club) .... Allardyce Essay on the State of the Highlands in 1745, by John Anderson (Edinburgh 1827) ..... Anderson The Stewarts of Appin, by J. H. J. Stewart and Lieutenant - Colonel D. Stewart (Edinburgh 1880) . . . Appin The Study of Celtic Literature, by Matthew Arnold (London 1905) . . . Arnold Chronicles of the Families of AthoU and Tullibardine, by John, 7th Duke of Atholl (privately printed) . . Atholl Genealogical Collections concerning the Sirname of Baird (London 1870) . Baird Macdonald Bards, by K. N. Macdonald (Edinburgh 1900) . . . Bards The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry, edited by John Mackenzie (Edinburgh 1882) . Beauties Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, by James Boswell (London 1906) . . Boswell 13 14 JACOBITE LOYALTY Memorials of John Murray of Broughton (Scottish History Society) . . Broughton A History of the Highlands, by James Browne (London N.D.) . . . Browne The History of Civilisation, by H. T. Buckle (The World's Classics) . . Buckle Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland, by Captain Burt (London 1815) Burt The History of Scotland, by John Hill Burton (London 1853) . . . Burton History of the Camerons, by Alexander Mackenzie (Inverness 1884) . . Cameron Autobiography of the Rev. Alexander Carlyle (Edinburgh i860) . . Carlyle History of the Rebellion of 1745, by Robert Chambers (Edinburgh N.D.) . . Chambers Transactions in Scotland in 1745, by George Charles (Stirling 181 7) . . . Charles Memoirs of Sir John Clerk (Scottish History Society) ..... Clerk CollectanearelatingtoManchester(Chetham Society) ..... Collectanea The Earls of Cromartie, by William Eraser (Edinburgh 1876) . . . Cromartie The CuUoden Papers (London 181 5) . CuUoden Curiosities of a Scots Charta Chest, by the Hon. Mrs Atholl Forbes (Edinburgh 1897) ..... Curiosities The Dictionary of National Biography . D.N.B. The Life of Colonel Gardiner, by P. Doddridge (London 1778) . . Doddridg The Clan Donald, by the Rev. A. Mac- donald (Inverness 1900) . . . Donald Genealogical Memoirs of the Duffs (Aber- deen 1869) .... Duff Eiseirigh na Seann Chanain Albannaich, LIST OF AUTHORITIES le Alastair Doniillach, Mac Mhaighistir Alastair (Edinburgh 1874) . . Eiseirigh A Short Account of the Affairs of Scotland in 1745, by Lord Elcho (Edinburgh 1907) ..... Elcho The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History, by Willmott Dixon (Glasgow St Andrew- Society) ..... Episode The Life and Times of Prince Charles Stuart, by Alexander Ewald (London 1883) ..... Ewald The Works of Henry Fielding (London 1882) ..... Fielding Underground Jacobitism, by R. E. Francillon {Monthly Review, Dec. 1905) Francillon Sketches of the Highlanders, by Major- General Stewart of Garth (Inverness 1885) ..... Garth The Clan Gillean, by the Rev. A. Maclean Sinclair (Charlottetown 1899) . . Gillean Jacobite Gleanings, by J. Macbeth Forbes (Edinburgh 1903) . . . Gleanings Or and Sable : A Book of the Graemes and Grahams, by L. G. Graeme (Edinburgh 1903) ..... Graeme Reminiscences of the Grants of Glen- moriston, by the Rev. A. Sinclair (Edin- burgh 1887) . . . . Grant The Works of Thomas Gray (London 1807) ..... Gray The Highlands of Scotland in 1750, from a MS. in the British Museum (Edinburgh 1898) Highlands The Works of John Home (Edinburgh 1822) ..... Home An Inquiry into the Principles of Political 1 6 JACOBITE LOYALTY Economy, by Sir James Stewart (London 1767) ..... Inquiry Abbotsford and Newstead, by Washington Irving (London 1894) . . . Irving An Itinerary of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, by W. B. Blaikie (Scottish His- tory Society) .... Itinerary Jacobite Memoirs, edited by Robert Cham- bers (Edinburgh 1834) . . . Jacobite A Journey to the Hebrides, by Samuel Johnson (Cassell's National Library) . Johnson The Journal of Sir Walter Scott (Edin- burgh I 891) . . . . Journal Alexander Macdonald the Poet, by the Rev. John Kennedy {Celtic Magazine^ April, May, and June 1888) . . . Kennedy A Memoir of the Macdonalds of Keppoch, by Angus Macdonald (n.p. 1885) . Keppoch Prince Charles Edward Stuart, by Andrew Lang (London 1903) . . . Lang A History of England in the i8th Century, by W. E. H. Lecky (London 1898) . Lecky The Life of Samuel Johnson, by James Boswell (London 1906) . . . Life A List of Persons concerned in the Rebellion (Scottish History Society) . . List The Literature of the Highlands, by Magnus Maclean (London 1904) . Literature Loyal Lochaber, by W. Drummond-Norrie (Glasgow 1898) .... Lochaber The Lockhart Papers (London 181 7) . Lockhart The Life of Lord Lovat, by John Hill Burton (Edinburgh 1847) • . Lovat The Lyon in Mourning (Scottish History Society) ..... Lyon LIST OF AUTHORITIES 17 The History of England, by Lord Macaulay (London 1854) .... Macaulay The Poems of John Maccodrum (Glasgow 1894) ..... Maccodrum History of the Macdonalds, by Alexander Mackenzie (Inverness 1881) . . Macdonald The Maclean Bards, by the Rev. A. Maclean Sinclair (Charlottetown 1898) . . Maclean History of the Macleods, by Alexander Mackenzie (Inverness 1889) . . Macleod Original Papers, edited by James Mac- pherson (London 1775) • • • Macpherson The Forty-five, by Lord Mahon (London 1852) . . . . . Mahon A Plistory of Greater Britain, by John Major (Scottish History Society) . . Major Narrative of Charles Prince of Wales' Ex- pedition, by James Maxwell of Kirk- connell (Maitland Club) . . . Maxwell Memoirs of the Rebellion, by the Chevalier de Johnstone (London 1820) . . Memoirs A Collection of Gaelic Proverbs, edited by Alexander Nicolson (Edinburgh 1882) . Nicolson The Jacobite Lairds of Gask, by T. L. Kingston Oliphant (Grampian Club) . Oliphant Pickle the Spy, by Andrew Lang (London 1897) ..... Pickle Lord Pitsligo : An Anonymous Article {Blackwood' s Magazine^ May 1829) . Pitsligo Scotland and Scotsmen in the i8th Century, by James Ramsay of Ochtertyre (Edin- burgh 1888) .... Ramsay A Compleat History of the Rebellion, by James Ray (n.p. 1755) • • • Ray The Poetry of the Celtic Races, by Ernest Renan (The Scott Library) . . Renan B i8 JACOBITE LOYALTY Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott (Abbotsford Edition) . . Scott Sidelights on the Forty-five and its Heroes (Edinburgh 1903) . . . Sidelights Sidney, by John Addington Symonds (English Men of Letters) . . Sidney The Gaelic Bards, by the Rev. A. Maclean Sinclair (Charlottetown 1892) . . Sinclair The Highlanders of Scotland, by W. F. Skene (Stirling 1902) . . . Skene Memoirs of Sir R. Strange and A. Lumisden, by James Dennistoun (London 1855) . Strange Poems on Various Occasions, by Alexander Robertson of Struan (Edinburgh N.D.) . Struan Swift, by Sir Leslie Stephen (English Men of Letters) .... Swift Tales of a Grandfather, by Sir Walter Scott (Edinburgh 1888) . . . Tales The Threiplands of Fingask, by Robert Chambers (Edinburgh 1882) . . Threipland Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inver- ness ..... Transactions The Trial of Archibald Stewart, late Lord Provost of Edinburgh (Edinburgh 1747) . Trial The Forty-five, by Major-General TuUoch (Inverness 1896) . . . TuUoch Memoirs of Prince Rupert, by Eliot War- burton (London 1849) . . . Warburton The Woodhouselee MS. (Edinburgh 1907) Woodhouselee In citing works in the English Men of Letters series, my citations are to the original issue of these books. The article on Lord Pitsligo, mentioned above as anonymous, certainly ap- peared without its author's name. It is probable, LIST OF AUTHORITIES 19 however, that it was written by Sir Walter Scott ; for in his Journal, under date April 13th, 1829, Scott writes : " In the morning, before breakfast, I corrected the proof of the critique on the life of Lord Pitsligo in Blackwood's Magazine r It is, of course, possible that Sir Walter revised the proofs for a friend ; and the article does not appear in the collected edition of Scott's mis- cellaneous prose writings. Besides the authorities in the foregoing list, I shall have occasion to cite notes in Waver ley and The Monastery. Of works which have aided in my researches, but to which I make no reference, the most important are Companions of Fickle, by Andrew Lang; Memoirs of the Pretenders and their Adherents, by J. H. Jesse ; and The Rising of 1 745, by Charles San- ford Terry. Much which Mr George Moore has said and written lately concerning the Irish literary revival has interested me intensely, and has, I think, helped to form the opinions I express in the Celtic part of my essay. In this connection also my ideas have been moulded by the writings, in prose and poetry, of Mr W. B. Yeats, and by Mr Horatio Sheafe Krans' study of that author ; w^hile I must acknowledge my debt to Blair's Dissertation on the Era of Ossian, Logan's introduction to Mackenzie's Beauties of Gaelic Poetry, and Professor Anwyll's work on Celtic religion. INTRODUCTION BoswELL tells of Samuel Johnson that, dining one day in 1763 at the house of his friend Bennet Langton, the Doctor said to his host's niece: " My dear, I hope you are a Jacobite." Langton asked his guest why he expressed such a hope. Why, sir," said Johnson, " I meant no offence to your niece ; I meant her a great compliment. A Jaco- bite, sir, believes in the divine right of kings. He that beUeves in the divine right of kings believes in a Divinity. A Jacobite believes in the divine right of bishops. He that believes in the divine right of bishops believes in the divine authority of the Christian religion." Again, in 1777, when Johnson and Boswell were at Derby, their conversation turned on the Forty-five, and Johnson gave his opinion of that episode. " It was a noble attempt," he said.^ It is interesting to find that Johnson understood the main cause of the Jacobite risings, and that he appreciated and admired the spirit of Jacobite loyalty ; for this spirit was little understood in the mid-eighteenth century. The Lofidon Magazine for 1745 is filled with fibels on the Jacobites. One versifier describes the Highland soldiers as " the fierce sons of lawless rapine," while another declares that 21 2 2 JACOBITE LOYALTY The rebel clans, in search of prey, Come over the hills and far away Regardless, whether wrong or right, For booty (not for fame) they fight. Banditti like, they storm, they slay, Then plunder, rob, and run away.' The London Evening Post is another paper which contains many such Hbels, and of these the most absurd is a piece of doggerel entitled The Highlanders' Pedigree, The writer, having a genea- logical knowledge which many students of Scot- land's story would like to possess, traces the origin of the Scottish Celt to Cain the first Murd'rer," who, he affirms, ''from Eden Edenborough did name. But thought the Highlands the more fertile Place To propagate around his Murd'rous race." He refers to the crimes of Macbeth and Bothwell ; and, again showing his intimate acquaintance with Scottish history, says : " From these curs'd Seeds of Traytors sprung the birth Of Glencos, Glenbuckets, Ogilvies and Perth." ^ The theatres vied with the newspapers in defaming the partisans of the Stuarts. On the loth of December 1745, on the occasion of The Begga?^s Opera being played at one of the London theatres, a prologue referring to the Jacobites was spoken, and in this the following passage occurs : INTRODUCTION 23 Flush'd with success these lawless Vagrants come From France their Maxims, and their Gods from Rome. Ruffians who fight not in fair Honour's Cause, For injur'd Rights, or violated Laws ; But like the Savage Race they roam for Prey, And where they pass destruction marks their way."'^ It is not altogether surprising that, during the rising of 1745, the motives of those who supported the exiled dynasty should have been misunder- stood by writers of prologues and occasional verses ; but it is strange that men like Addison and Fielding should have been unable to ap- preciate the spirit of Jacobite loyalty. In an essay entitled The Tory Foxhunter, which appeared in The Freeholder on the sth of March 1716, Addison lampoons the adherents of the Chevalier de St George : he attempts to hold them up to ridicule, and depicts them as totally deficient in sense and patriotism.^ Fielding, in The True Patriot for the 19th of November 1745, describes Prince Charles's followers as "ill looked rascals and " ruffians." He draws a picture of what, in his opinion, would be the state of the country if the Stuart cause were to prove victorious ; and in this he portrays the Highlanders committing nameless crimes, and ravaging the land with all the fury which rage, zeal, lust, and wanton fierce- ness could inspire into the bloody hearts of Popish priests, bigots, and barbarians.'' Again, in The JacobMs Journal for the 12th of March 1748, he declares "that Jacobites are no scholars, and understand no Latin " ; and he affirms that " want JACOBITE LOYALTY has made many a man a Jacobite, revenge more, and ignorance thousands/' ^ In Tom Jones he maintains this tone, satirising loyalty to the Stuarts by his delineation of the character of Squire Western, and describing as " banditti " the High- landers who followed Charles Edward. The benefits of the Revolution were so obvious> that it were absurd to censure severely, in men who lived immediately after that event, a mis- conception of the spirit of Jacobite loyalty. But it is surprising that this misconception should be continued in modern times, and that its propa- gandism should be the work of writers of ability. In his hfe of Swift, Leslie Stephen, a scholar who knew the i8th century so well that it is amazing to find him making a mistake when dealing with that period, has a sneer for Jacobitism, which, he says, " meant mere sentimentalism or vague dis- content."^ John Addington Symonds, in his monograph on Sir Philip Sidney, declares that the Stuarts " brought the name of loyalty into con- tempt " ; and he characterises the devotion of their adherents as " decrepit affection for a dynasty."^ Eliot Warburton, more generous, makes nevertheless a curious mistake. In his Memoirs of Prince Rupert he deals with the difficulty of understanding, in the 19th century, the enthusiastic sentiment, the passionate loyalty, that was excited by the misfortunes of Charles I." ; and he says that " To all the devoted affection with which in after times the Pretender's cause was cherished, there was now added the solemn INTRODUCTION 25 sense of religious duty, and an intense conviction that in their king's safety all the glory and prosperity of England was involved. Loyalty was, then, to the cavaliers' politics, what religion was to morals, a rule, a cause, and a foundation." ^ It is certain that, in the Jacobite risings, men did not take arms with that enthusiasm which, in the Civil War, dis- tinguished (to cite examples at random) Sir Bevill Grenville and the Seigneur d'Aubigny. Yet it is equally certain that, in the i8th century, the adherents of the Stuarts were inspired, to just as great an extent as they were in the time of Charles I., by a sense of religious duty, and by belief that in the restoration of the exiled royal house the welfare of England was involved. Better informed than Warburton, yet also in error, is Lord Rosebery. In his preface to A List of Persons concerned in the Rebellion, he touches on the sources of the Forty-five, and he affirms that many of the Jacobites were " men in the mood for adventure, living in poverty at home, whose condition might possibly be made better, but could hardly in any event be made worse." He owns that There were noble souls, like Perth and Tullibardine and Pitsligo, who could under- stand no other cause, to whom it was a religion and a martyrdom " ; but he asserts that " these were exceptions." In proof of this, he mentions that The army that invaded England was practi- cally a gathering of clans " ; and of the rising of the clans he says : Why the chiefs rose is less difficult to understand. . . . There had been the 2 6 JACOBITE LOYALTY Union, profoundly distasteful to men half-proud, half-barbarous, but supremely independent. . . . Movement might be fatal, but it might not ; and at any rate it would be exciting."^ Why he should lay such stress on the Union as having incited the Highlanders to come out, it is difficult to see. That several adherents of Charles Edward thought the Union unjust, and were thus stimulated to take arms, is certain. But these were mostly Lowland gentlemen, such as James Hepburn of Keith ; and, on the whole, mention of the Union is conspicuous by its absence in Jacobite cor- respondence of 1745 and later years. Why Lord Rosebery should except the Highland chiefs from his category of noble souls," and should descrbe the clansmen as half-barbarous," it is hard to knov/. In these respects, however, he is but following in the footsteps of several historians. John Hill Burton, in his History of Scotland^ affirms that " whoever desired, with the sword, to disturb or overturn a fixed government, was sure of the aid of the chiefs, because a settled government was ruinous to their power, and almost inimical to their existence. . . . The clansman's loyalty was to his chief, and it is an undoubted mistake to suppose that the com- moners, as they were termed, had any choice or care in which army the chief raised his banner." Again, in his life of Lord Lovat, he says that The clansmen cared no more about the legitimate race of the Stuarts than they did about the war of the Spanish sue- INTRODUCTION 27 cession." These statements are echoed by Willmott Dixon, in wliose book, The Jacobite Episode in Scottish History^ the following passage occurs : '*That 'lying spirit' of romance, which is responsible for so much gross perversion of history, for so many false notions and deplorable misconceptions, has foisted upon the world no falsehood that has obtained wider credence than the famous fiction of Highland loyalty to the Stuarts. We have been taught to believe that these Highlanders, from the day they fought under Montrose, at Kilsyth, till the day they fought under Murray, at Culloden, were the staunch and devoted adherents, the leal and loyal henchmen of the House of Stuart, and the sturdy champions of divine right and hereditary succession. It is a picturesque and captivat- ing idea ; but unfortunately for those who have grounded upon it conclusions favourable to the Highland clans, it has no foundation whatever in fact. The Highlanders cared as little for the House of Stuart as for the House of Orange." But of all those writers who sneer at Jacobite loyalty, the most absurd is Henry Thomas Buckle. In his History of Civilisation he describes the Highlanders of 1745 as a "barbarous race," who "flourished by rapine and traded in anarchy." He says that they did not care " about the principle of monarchical succession, or speculate on the doc- trine of divine right," and that they hated any government which was strong enough to punish crime." He affirms that the clansmen " heeded not whether Stuart or Hanoverian gained the day," and descants at length on the absurdity of the idea 2 8 JACOBITE LOYALTY " which represents the rising of the Highlanders as the outburst of a devoted loyalty." He adds : **The Highlanders have crimes enough to account for, without being burdened by needless reproach. They were thieves and murderers ; but that was in their way of life, and they felt not the stigma. Though they were ignorant and ferocious, they were not so foolish as to be personally attached to that degraded family, which, before the accession of William III., occupied the throne of Scotland. . . . They burst into insurrection, because insurrection suited their habits, and because they hated all government and all order. But, so far from caring for a monarch, the very institution of monarchy was repulsive to them. . . . No one, indeed, who is really acquainted with their history, will think them capable of having spilt their blood on behalf of any sovereign, be he whom he might ; . . ."^^ Considering these statements, it is well to examine the true causes of the Forty-five, and the motives of those who made the rising possible. Several leading men in the Jacobite army have themselves recorded the circumstances under which they took arms, and the reasons which prompted them to do so. It is necessary to weigh these circumstances and reasons. It is also important to inquire into the characters of Prince Charles's principal adherents, and to in- vestigate as to the degree of culture which existed among them. It is indispensable to observe the discipline of the Jacobite army on the march, and to see what measure of humanity was meted out to such prisoners as fell into the hands of the Jacobite officers. It is also necessary to consider INTRODUCTION 29 the statements made before death, in letters and speeches, of those who were executed for taking part in the rising. Besides these things there are others — waifs and strays of tradition and history — which must be examined when forming an opinion on the spirit of Jacobite loyalty. As Dr Johnson notes, the adherents of the Stuarts believed that that dynasty held a divine right to the British throne. Loyalty to the exiled house was part of their religion; and many of them had, pasted on the fly-leaf of their prayer- books, a print of the Chevalier de St George, for whose restoration they considered it their duty to pray daily. Yet when Charles Edward came to Scotland he found it difficult to rally the Jacobites to his banner. They were averse to joining him, because he had come without assistance ; and because they knew that, without supplies of arms and money, the quest of restor- ing the Stuarts was hopeless. In May 1745, Alexander Macdonald (son of Macdonald of Glengarry) had been sent to France with a message from several of the chiefs, desiring Charles not to come to Scotland till he could procure foreign aid.^^ Maxwell of Kirkconnell ex- pressly states that the Highlanders endeavoured to persuade him [the Prince] from an undertaking they thought could not succeed." For three weeks after landing in Moidart, Charles stood almost alone. It was with the greatest difficulty that he prevailed on Clanranald and Cluny to join him.^^ When, at length, the chiefs decided 30 JACOBITE LOYALTY to take arms, they did so with reluctance. They knew that they were going to almost certain destruction, but they considered it their duty to follow their Prince. A certain glamour, of course, surrounds the Jacobites; yet it is certain that Burns was right when he said of them : " With unshaken firmness and unconcealed political at- tachments, they shook hands with ruin for what they esteemed the cause of their king and their country." That the Highlanders rose against their will, and with knowledge that the exiled dynasty's cause had little chance of success, must, above all other things, be borne in mind when treating of Jacobite loyalty; because the Forty-five, though many English and Lowland Scottish gentlemen were involved therein, was primarily a Highland rising. Almost since the Revolution the main hopes of the Stuarts had been centred in the clans. So early as 1709 there was submitted to Louis XIV. " An account of the Highland clans in Scotland, with a short narrative of the services they have rendered the crown, and the number of armed men they may bring to the field for the King's service." And Maxwell of Kirkconnell says of the Forty-five : " But the Prince's chief dependence was on the north of Scotland, where the common people, as well as the gentlemen, are well inclined generally." Not only because they formed the sheet-anchor of the Stuarts' hopes, but because they, more than any other Jacobites, lie under the aspersions of historians, the Highlanders INTRODUCTION 3^ deserve the main notice in a study of the spirit of Jacobite loyalty. But in an essay towards a better understanding of the Forty-five, it is not sufficient merely to show that the clansmen rose as a matter of duty ; it is necessary to show why loyalty was part of their creed. To understand the last Jacobite rising, it is necessary to understand the Highlanders ; and therefore a part of this essay, entitled The Forty-five as Representation of the Highlands will be devoted to examination of the Scottish Celtic temperament, and particularly of such traits therein as begot Jacobitism. NOTES AND REFERENCES ^ Life, ii. 95, iv. 164. Johnson, as is well known, had a marked partiality for the Stuarts ; but he was no Jacobite in the true sense. Life, ii. 94, vi. 9. 2 Curiosities, 154, 155. 3 Ray, 226. ^ Addison, iv. 478. ^ Fielding, vi. 182, 231. 6 Swift, 62. 7 Sidney, 198. ^ Warburton, i. 412. List, xi. 1^ Home, iii. 72. Burton, i. 105, 107. ^2 Lovat, 150. 1^ Episode, 13, et seq. 1^ Buckle, iii. 149, et seq, Itinerary, 5. Maxwell, 21. 17 Itinerary, 5, D.N.B. art Cluny. Letter to Lady Winifred Constable, dated Ellisland, i6th December 1789. 1^ Macpherson, ii. 117. 20 Maxwell, 44, 45. 21 This title was suggested to me by that of Schopenhauer's great work. The World as Will and Representation. CAMERON OF LOCHIEL, LORD GEORGE MURRAY, AND LORD PITSLIGO I Three men made the Forty-five possible ; these were Donald Cameron of Lochiel, Lord George Murray, and Lord Pitsligo. Each came out as a matter of duty, believing that the restoration of the Stuarts and the good of Great Britain were synonymous. A man of exceptionally charming character, the chief of clan Cameron was known as "the gentle Lochiel." He made strenuous endeavours towards improving the condition of his clansmen ; and, conscious of the lack of industries among them, he caused water-mills to be built in his country, and tried to make his tenants use these.^ In 1744 he entered, along with Glengarry and Keppoch, into a scheme for the prevention of crime in the Highlands. In the agreement which they drew up on this occasion, the three chiefs state that, " taking to consideration that severals of our dependents and followers are too guilty of theft, and depredations, and being sensible of the bad effects and consequencies of such pernicious practicis, and in order to put an entire stop to such villany, as far as ly in our c 33 34 JACOBITE LOYALTY power, Have jointly agreed and resolved upon the following articles which we faithfully promise upon honour to observe and fulfil." They proceed to state plans which will aid the cause of law and order, and they mutually agree that any criminal " flying from, and deserting any of us, to the protection of any of the other two of us, or privately lurking within any part of our estates, any one of us in whose estate such a fugitive resides, is hereby oblidged, upon proper applica- tion, to deliver him up to the one of us who has a right and title to punish him/'^ Lochiel was admired by many who did not share his political opinions. The author of the Woodhouselee MS. says that the chief of the Camerons was " the politest man of the partie " ; ^ and another Whig, the anonymous writer of The Highlands of Scotland in 1750^ tells that '^several persons who pretended to an intimate acquaintance with Lochiel extolled him as a man of great Honesty and Address, . . ."^ On his death in 1748, a poem, which was pro- bably the work of the Rev. John Home,^ appeared in the Scots Magazine, The writer calls on his countrymen to do justice : " Be just, ye Whigs ; and tho' the Tories mourn, Lament a Scotsman in a foreign urn ; Who, born a chieftain, thought the right of birth The source of all authority on earth. Mistaken as he was, the man was just, Firm to his word, and faithful to his trust : He bade not others go, himself to stay. As in the pretty, prudent, modern way ; JACOBITE LOYALTY 35 But like a warrior bravely drew the sword, And rear'd his target for his native lord. Humane he was, protected countries tell ; So rude an host was never rul'd so well. Fatal to him, and to the cause he lov'd Was the rash tumult which his folly mov'd ; Compell'd for that to seek a foreign shore, And ne'er behold his mother-country more ! " The elegist concludes with a surprising statement : "And good Lochiel is now a Whig in heaven." By his own party, Lochiel was esteemed above all other men. Writing to him in 1747, the Chevalier says : Your great zeal for us and singular attachment to the Prince, joyned to your universal good character, will always make what comes from you both acceptable and of weight with me, as it renders me yet more sensible of your losses and sufferings on our account. . . . It is a pleasure to me to think that the Prince has in you so honest and worthy a man about him, and who will, I am persuaded, allways act towards him not only with zeal, but with a candour and freedom suitable to your character, and the kindness he has for you, while mine for you is as sincere as it will be constant." And Drum- mond of Balhaldie, informing the Chevalier of Lochiel's death, says : " It is so long since the situation of affairs I had any concern in permitted my troubling your Majesty directly with accounts from this place, that it becomes cruel in me now to be obliged to begin to inform you of the loss 36 JACOBITE LOYALTY your Majesty has of the most faithful and zealously devoted subject ever served any Prince, in the person of Donald Cameron of Lochiel. . . . He had all the temptations laid in his way that Government could. The late Duke of Argyle, Duncan Forbes the President, and the Justice Clerk, never gave over laying baits for him, tho' they knew his mind was immoveable as a moun- tain on that article, and since he came here [Paris] he has not been left at ease. The Duke of Cumberland caused information that, if he would apply in the simplest manner to him, he would never quit his father's knees until he had obtained his pardon and favour : this he disdained, or rather had a horror at. I need say no more ; his own services, and the voice of your Majesty's enemies, speak loudly the loss."^ In 1740 Lochiel, along with six other Highland chiefs, signed articles of association for the restora- tion of the Stuarts, engaging to take arms for that purpose provided assistance were sent from France^ ; and, in February 1745, he wrote to the Chevalier, saying : I lay hold on the present occasion, to assure your Royal Highness of my steady ad- herence to whatever may conduce to the interest of your family."^ But when, in July of the same year, Charles Edward came to Scotland with only seven followers, Lochiel implored him not to make an attempt which was obviously rash, and to postpone the rising to a time when circumstances would add to the possibility of success. The Prince, however, was obdurate. " In a few JACOBITE LOYAT.TY 37 days," he said, "with the few friends I have, I will raise the royal standard, and pro- claim that Charles Stuart is come to claim the crown of his ancestors — to win it, or to perish in the attempt. Lochiel, who, my father has often told me, was our warmest friend, may stay at home and learn from the newspapers the fate of his Prince." No," said Lochiel, "I'll share the fate of my Prince ; and so shall every man over whom nature or fortune hath given me any power." Such was the juncture upon which depended the rising of 1745. "For it is a point agreed among the Highlanders," says Home, who tells the story, " that if Lochiel had persisted in his refusal to take arms, the other chiefs would not have joined the standard with- out him, and the spark of rebellion must have instantly expired."^ His statement is confirmed by Maxwell of Kirkconnell, who affirms that "had Lochiel stood out, the Prince must either have returned to France on board the same frigate that brought him to Scotland, or remained privately in the Highlands waiting for a landing of foreign troops." That Lochiel, in taking arms, was actuated purely by motives of duty, is further proven by his conduct subsequent to the Forty-five. After the failure of the rising, Prince Charles procured the chief a commission in the French army. The latter was loth to accept this, because, though he had lost all through his share in the insurrection, he still hoped to see his exiled king restored. 38 JACOBITE LOYALTY Writing to the Chevalier on this subject, he talks of the possibility of saving Scotland from "the slavery with which it is threatened," and mentions that a day may come when " loyal subjects in England may with small assistance be in a con- dition to shake off the yoke, and complete their own deliverance and ours by a happy restoration." He speaks with deep regret of the fate of his clansmen ; and, referring to his objection to accepting the aforesaid commission, says : " My ambition was to serve the Crown and serve my country, or perish with itt." II As illustrative as the case of Lochiel is that of Lord George Murray, who exercised the greatest influence in bringing out the gentlemen of Perth- shire and the midland counties ; and to whose military talents and experience must chiefly be ascribed such success as attended the Jacobite arms. That Lord George, in drawing his sword on behalf of the Stuarts, was stimulated by prin- ciples of patriotism, is clearly proven by a letter w^hich he wrote to his brother shortly before joining Prince Charles. " I never did say to any person in life," he writes, " that I would not engage in the cause I always in my heart thought just and right, as well as for the interest, good, and liberty of my country." After stating that he is well aware of the desperate and hopeless state of the Jacobite cause, and that he knows he is taking a JACOBITE LOYALTY step ^' that may very probably end in my utter ruen/' he continues : "My Life, my Fortune, my expectations, the Happyness of my wife and children, are all at stake (and the chances are against me), and yet a principle of (what seems to me) Honour, and my duty to King and Country, outweighs everything. . . . After what I have said, you may believe that I have weighted what I am going about with all the deliberation I am capable off, and suppose I were sure of dicing in the attempt, it would neither deter or prevent me." He makes an appeal to his brother to care for his (Lord George's) family. Of his wife he says *' that nothing but so strong an attachment as I have to the cause I am to imbark in, could make me do what in all appearance must disturb her future quiet and Happyness." By his conduct during and after the Forty-five, Lord George amply showed that the sentiments which he expressed in the above letter were absolutely sincere. Writing to Charles Edward two days after Culloden, he refers to the deep grief he feels for our late loss," but says : I declare that were your R.H. person in safety, the loss of the cause and the misfortunate and un- happy situation of my countrymen is the only thing that grieves me, for I thank God I have resolution to bear my own and family's ruine without a grudge." He adds that he awaits any commands from the Prince, and concludes by signing himself "with great zeal, Sr. Your R.H. most dutifull and humble servant. Ruined and proscribed on the failure of the rising, he remained true to his first love, and never swerved in his JACOBITE LOYALTY allegiance. For some years after the Forty-five he and Charles Edward were estranged, the latter thinking that Lord George was partly to blame for the disaster at Culloden ; and when, in 1747, Murray was at Paris and desired to pay his respects to the Prince, Charles refused to see him. Even this did not shake his devotion. He sent word to the Prince that he was prepared to obey his orders, and he wrote to the Chevalier as follows : In any parte of the world I may happen to be in, I shall pray for your Majestie's prosperity, and that of your sons, and my distressed country. Whatever misfortunes may attend me I shall look upon as small in comparison with what you all suffer . . .'^^^ Lord George lived for fifteen years after the Forty-five ; and, during that period, he had frequent occasion to write to his exiled king. All his letters breathe the most devoted loyalty. He never mourns for what he has lost in fighting for the Stuart cause ; and, far from expecting thanks for the services he has rendered, he says ever that he has acted only according to duty, and repeatedly expresses gratitude for little services done him by his royal master. Writing to the Chevalier in September 1748, he says : I should think myself wanting in my duty if any thing occurred to me that might in the smallest degree be useful to your Majesty, did I not acquaint you of it." In November of the same year he ex- presses sentiments eminently illustrative of the spirit of Jacobite loyalty : " The present situation of affairs, I am much afraid, have but a gloomy I JACOBITE LOYALTY 41 aspect with regard to your Majesty's just rights and that of your royal House, as well as to the happiness of your subjects, who must groan under oppression (which indeed most of them deserved) till such time as it pleases the Almighty to open their eyes." He adds that his wife begs leave to lay herself at your Majesty's feet. ... I can venture to say in her name, as her principles are founded in religion and justice, her attachment to your Majesty and royal family, and ardent wishes for your prosperity are deeply engrav'd in her heart." Writing again to the Chevalier in 1750, Lord George states that he is still prepared to draw his sword. " Would to God," he declares, " that my acknowledgments could be indeed useful and acceptable to your Majesty and Royal House. I should then with pleasure and cheer- fulness spend the last drop of my blood in so glorious and just a cause." In this letter, also, he gives his opinion of the House of Hanover, whose interests," he afifirms, " are diametrically opposite to those of Great Britain," and whose "government is founded in wickedness, and is supported by falsehoods." It was not only when corresponding wdth his sovereign that Lord George expressed these disinterested sentiments. Writing to the Chevalier's secretary in 1 751, he says : " Most people in Britain now regard neither probity nor any other virtue — all is selfish and vainal. But how can I complain of such hard usage when my Royal Master has met with what is a thousand times more cruel. He bears it like 42 JACOBITE LOYALTY a Christian hero : ill would it suit me to repine. I thank the Almighty I never did, and I think it my greatest honour and glory to suffer in so just and upright a cause." . Lord George Murray lived till 1 7^0 ; and, even unto the end, he continued to hope that he might see the Stuarts restored to the throne of their ancestors. If it was the influence of Lochiel which brought out the Highland chiefs, and that of Lord George Murray which affected the lairds of Perthshire, it was undoubtedly the example set by Lord Pitsligo which induced the gentlemen of the north-eastern counties to draw their swords. Too little is known of this peer, but all that can be gleaned redounds to his credit. In early manhood Pitsligo travelled in France ; and having gained the friendship of Fenelon, was introduced by him to Madame Guyon and other "quietists." Their influence left a deep impression on his mind, and led him to devote much atten- tion to the study of the mystical writers.^^ Not only a man of earnest piety, but a writer on religion, he was author of two books : Essays, Moral and Philosophical (1734) and Thoughts concerning Maris Condition (posthumously, 1763 and 1835). There are many contemporary testimonies to the excellence of Pitsligo's char- acter, and one of the most notable of these comes III JACOBITE LOYALTY from a renegade Jacobite — Dr William King, Principal of St Mary Hall, Oxford. He says : *' Whoever is so happy, either from his natural disposition or his good judgment, constantly to observe St Paul's pre- cept, *to speak evil of no one,' will certainly acquire the love and esteem of the whole community of which he is a member. But such a man is the rara avis in terris ; and, among all my acquaintance, I have known only one person to whom I can with truth assign this character. The person I mean is the present Lord Pitsligo of Scotland. I not only never heard this gentleman speak an ill word of any man living, but I always observed him ready to defend any other person who was ill spoken of in his company. It is no wonder that such an excellent man, who, besides, is a polite scholar, and has many other great and good qualities, should be universally admired and beloved — inso- much, that I persuade myself he has not one enemy in the world." Another contemporary (evidently a Jacobite) writes : — " Lord Pitsligo is ... a great Schollar and fond of study . . . humane to a fault, and brave to admiration, extreamly affable and engaging in conversation. The deservedly most popular man in his country, not beloved but adored, being ever employ'd in doing good offices to his neighbours. . . . I would conclude by saying yt he is the best husband, the best father, and the best s — bj — t in Brittain."^^ Like Lochiel, Pitsligo had many admirers who did not share his political opinions ; and among these must be reckoned John Home. That historian, dealing with the influence which Pitsligo 44 JACOBITE LOYALTY exercised in bringing recruits to Prince Charles's army, says : *' This peer, who drew after him such a number of gentle- men, had only a moderate fortune ; but he was much beloved and greatly esteemed by his neighbours, who looked upon him as a man of excellent judgment, and of a wary and cautious temper ; so that when he, who was deemed so wise and prudent, declared his purpose of joining Charles, most of the gentlemen in that part of the country where he lived, who favoured the Pretender's cause, put themselves under his command, thinking they could not follow a better or a safer guide than Lord Pitsligo. " In ill health, and sixty-seven years of age at the beginning of the rising, Pitsligo's decision to join Prince Charles was taken after much deliberation. In a letter which he wrote at the time, he says : " I thought, I weighed, and I weighed again. If there was any enthusiasm in it, it was of the coldest kind." When his men were drawn up, ready to start, he moved to the front, lifted his hat, and prayed : " O Lord, Thou knowest that our cause is just " ; then, turning to his followers, he said : " March, gentlemen." The news that Pitsligo was on his way to join the Prince spread fast, and the Caledonian Mercury of 4th October 1745 reported thus: '*A letter from Aberdeen assures that the Rt. Hon. Alexander Lord Pitsligo has put himself at the head of his friends and tenants, and is on the march to join the Prince's army. This most worthy peer cannot fail of becoming an honour and ornament to either camp or cabinet." Another contemporary writer, JACOBITE LOYALTY 45 probably Hamilton of Bangour, telling of Pitsligo's arrival, says that it seemed as if religion, virtue, and justice were entering the camp under the appearance of this venerable old man."^^ NOTES AND REFERENCES 1 Highlands, 84, 95. ^ Lochaber, 442. ^ Wood- houselee, 54. ^ Highlands, 84. ^ Sidelights, 49. ^ Browne, iii. 478, iv. 43. ^ Cameron, 217. ^ Browne, iii. 440. ^ Home, iii. 5, 6, 7, 8. Maxwell, 23. ^1 Browne, iii. 476. ^^Atholl, iii. 19. Itinerary, 79. ^■^ Browne, iv. 12. Browne, iv. 39, 45, 70. Browne, iv. 95. 17 D. B. Art. Pitsligo. pjtsligo. 1^ Broughton, 225. 20 Home, iii. 104, 105. '^^ Pitsligo. -2 List, 376. Pitsligo. JACOBITE MEN OF LETTERS I It is strange that the Jacobites of 1745 should have been so often pictured as a band of lawless and uneducated banditti; for, besides Lord Pitsligo, there were many authors who took arms for Charles Edward. Of these the most noteworthy were Andrew Lumisden, William Hamilton of Bangour, Alexander Robertson of Struan, John Roy Stewart, Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees, and Alexander Macdonald, or (to give him his Gaelic name, and distinguish him from a namesake who was also a Jacobite man of letters) Alasdair MacMhaigstir Alasdair. A lawyer by profession, Andrew Lumisden was a friend of James Boswell, who talks of him as **my very worthy and ingenious friend," and praises his writings as *^at once accurate and classical."^ Lumisden was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and also of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries. He was an occasional contributor to the Edinburgh Critical Review^ and was author of a book entitled Remarks on the Antiquities of Rome and its 46 JACOBITE LOYALTY 47 Environs (1797), generously praised by John Home as *'that most excellent treatise." ^ But he is chiefly interesting in the present case be- cause he illustrates the spirit of Jacobite loyalty, and because it is certain that he followed the Stuarts with the conviction that the Hanoverian government was detrimental to Great Britain. Writing to his father from Rouen in 1747, he says he cannot enjoy "the diversions I have seen," because " I reflect on the situation of my poor, but brave country, groaning under all the miseries of a usurpation and civil war, whilst I enjoy such gaieties ; and thus I know how much the love of my country is rooted in me, and gets the better of my other passions, since neither the distance of time nor place is able to erase it." In exile for his share in the Forty- five, Lumisden was employed for several years as secretary to the Chevalier ; and, on his master's death at Rome in 1766, he became anxious to leave Italy and to go to Paris, whither he hoped his sister, Mrs Strange, would be induced to come to him from Scotland. He was prevented, how- ever, from taking this step, through Charles Edward calling upon him to pass into his service ; and on this occasion he wrote to Mrs Strange : " Since the king is come here, and commands me to attend him, I cannot but obey, although it alters all the scheme of happiness I had proposed to myself." At this time, also, he wrote to the Prince in a manner which shows that he con- sidered Charles the only rightful ruler of England. 48 JACOBITE LOYALTY " May your Majesty long live," he says, ''and soon enjoy your undoubted rights, thereby rendering an infatuated people happy by the blessings of your reign." ^ One of the trials which crossed James Boswell's path of hero-worship was that he could not induce his idol to share his admiration for the author of Busk ye, busk ye, my bonnie, bonnie bride." He tells how " I tried to get Dr Johnson to like the poems of William Hamilton of Bangour, . . . : I had been much pleased with them at a very early age : the impression still remained on my mind; it was confirmed by the opinion of my friend, the Honourable Andrew Erskine, himself both a good poet and a good critic, who thought Hamilton as true a poet as ever wrote, and that his not having fame was unaccountable. Johnson, upon repeated occasions . . . talked slightingly of Hamilton." ^ Posterity, in its judg- ment of Bangour, has followed the opinion of Johnson rather than that of his biographer ; yet the poet was admired by Allan Ramsay, and had many other contemporary devotees. Hamilton was a Whig by birth and education ; and, accord- ing to Ramsay of Ochtertyre, v/as converted to Jacobitism by the persuasions of Prince Charles himself.^ At one time he purposed writing a history of the Forty-five, and he received from Lord George Murray materials on which to base his work.^ His verse, redolent of the Augustan age, expresses little of himself; yet it contains ample proof that the poet's devotion to the JACOBITE LOYALTY Stuarts was akin to patriotism. In one place he writes : On Gallia's shore we sat and wept, When Scotland we thought on, Robbed of her bravest sons, and all Her ancient spirit gone. How shall the sons of freedom e'er For foreign conquest fight ; For power, how wield the sword unsheath'd For liberty and right ? If thee, O Scotland, I forget, Even with my latest breath, May foul dishonour stain my name, And bring a coward's death. May sad remorse of fancied guilt My future days employ, If all thy sacred rights are not Above my chiefest joy." Again, in a poem written at Rouen in 1749, he says : " Scotia, for genius famed and gallant deed, Has yet her bards to sing, her chiefs to bleed : Yes, freedom shall be hers, her kings shall reign, For, know, CuUoden was not lost in vain."'' But of all Bangour's poems, the one most notable as throwing light on the spirit of its author's Jacobitism is his ode on the battle of Prestonpans. In this he describes the Highlanders as " Victorious D so JACOBITE LOYALTY over tyrant pow'r " ; and, referring to the speed with which Cope was routed, says : How quick the race of fame was run ! The work of ages in one hour : Slow creeps th* oppressive weight of slavish reigns ; One glorious moment rose, and burst your chains." In the following passage he displays his ardent admiration for Charles Edward, and his faith in the Prince's capability for governing the country : "What arm has this deliverance wrought ? 'Tis he ! the gallant youth appears ; 0 warm in fields, and cool in thought ! Beyond the slow advance of years ! Haste, let me, rescu'd now from future harms, Strain close the filial virtue in my arms. Early I nurs'd this royal youth, Ah ! ill detain'd on foreign shores ; 1 fill'd his mind with love of truth. With fortitude and wisdom's stores : For when a noble action is decreed Heaven forms the hero for the destin'd deed." He goes on to praise the Highlanders, and to speak of their devotion to the cause of the exiled house : '*He came ! he spoke ! and all around, As swift as heav'n's quick-darted flame, Shepherds turned warriors at the sound. And every bosom beat for fame : They caught heroic ardour from his eyes, And at his side the willing heroes rise." JACOBITE LOYALTY His last two verses not only suggest that the poet believed in the divine right of the Stuarts, but show that he thought that the restoration of that dynasty would prove the salvation of England : Rouse, England ! rouse, fame's noblest son, In all thy ancient splendour shine ; If I the glorious work begun, O let the crowning palm be thine. I bring a prince, for such is heav'n's decree, Who overcomes but to forgive and free. So shall fierce wars and tumults cease. While plenty crowns the smiling plain ; And industry, fair child of peace, Shall in each crowded city reign ; So shall these happy realms for ever prove The sweets of union, liberty, and love."^ Like many Highland chiefs of the mid-eighteenth century, Alexander Robertson of Struan was an university man : he was educated at St Andrews, and at one time intended taking holy orders. Ramsay of Ochtertyre praises him as a writer, and says that " there was a dignity and courtesy in his manner which, joined to the vigour and sprightli- ness of his understanding, made his conversation highly acceptable to persons of every rank." Struan was out in 1689 and 17 15; and, though eighty-one years of age in 1745, declared that "none but himself should raise the clan,"^ and joined the Jacobite army on its march from the Highlands to Edinburgh. His verses, which were published in 1751 and include translations from 52 JACOBITE LOYALTY Horace and Virgil, are deeply tinged with the characteristic faults of mid-eighteenth century literature, but have nevertheless considerable merit. It is evident, from his work, that Struan regarded the Revolution as a crime, and that he believed the restoration of the Stuarts and the good of his country to be inseparable. In a poem on the accession of William of Orange, he writes : " A Government that's built on breach of Trust And Perjury, can ne'er be counted just." And in an ode written to celebrate the birthday of the Chevalier de St George, he looks forward to a happy day when King James will be reinstated on the British throne, and prophesies : **Then the world shall be free'd from their evils amain, And virtue shall flourish again." John Roy Stewart is one of the most interesting of Jacobite men of letters ; for he was a personal friend of Charles Edward, who placed great con- fidence in him. When the Forty-five broke out, John Roy was serving with the French army in Flanders against the British ; but on receiving news of the Prince's landing in Scotland, he hurried home to engage in the rising. Having seen much service abroad, he well understood the craft of the soldier ; and he fought so well at Culloden that his prowess attracted the attention of the Duke of Cumberland. As a Gaelic poet John Roy was much admired by his contemporaries ; and though his songs were never published m JACOBITE LOYALTY 53 book form, many of them are still remembered in the Highlands. His work throws considerable light on the nature of his loyalty. In one of his best known Gaelic poems he thus expresses love of his country : " On my heart grief is pressing For the wounds and distress of my land ; King of Heaven still guard us From our foes that are hard on each hand. On our track is Duke William And we fall by his villainous band, Till the vilest and basest On the flower of our race have their stand." He goes on to show that he regards the Stuarts as the rightful owners of the British throne, and that he looks to their restoration to bring happi- ness to the kingdom. He regrets that the Prince *' By King George and his carles should be chased ! That the Right should be banished And the truth thus have vanished disgraced." And he adds : " But, O God, if it please Thee, Bring the Kingdom in season to peace ; And the true king enthroning In time make our moaning to cease. "^^ According to Stewart of Garth, John Roy wrote not only in Gaelic, but also in Latin.^^ It is certain that he sometimes wrote in English ; and one of his pieces in that language, "John Roy's 54 JACOBITE LOYALTY Psalm " (written when the author was in hiding after CuUoden) is of significance. The poet says here nothing concerning his own misfortunes, but expresses sentiments which prove that he beheved he had followed the path of duty in taking arms. He attributes to divine providence his escape from Cumberland's minions, and says : "The Lord's my targe, I will be stout ♦ With dirk and trusty blade, Though Campbells come in flocks about, I will not be afraid. " Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees, like many other noted adherents of the Stuarts in 1745, was a lawyer by profession. He studied law at Edin- burgh University, and in 1735 became a Fellow of the Faculty of Advocates. A friend of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, he was a voluminous author on the subject of political economy, and a collected edition of his writings was issued so late as 1808. His chief work, An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy (1767), was the first systematic exposition of the science written in English, and was the result of many years of labour and study, travel and observation. It is difficult to understand why Sir James abetted the exiled dynasty ; for, in the preface to his Mag- num Opus^ he says " that in political questions it is better for people to judge from experience and reason, than from authority ; . . On joining the Prince at Edinburgh, Steuart was sent to France on a diplomatic mission ; and the Chevalier, JACOBITE LOYALTY 55 mentioning him as acting in this respect, talks of the "entire trust and confidence" which Charles placed in him.^^ Sir James was not at Culloden ; but the government must have re- garded him as a dangerous Jacobite, for he was exempted by name from the Act of ObHvion (1747). Though he was prevented from serving the cause with his sword, his pen proved useful, and he wrote some of the proclamations issued by the Prince.^^ II Of all those authors who took arms for Charles Edward in 1745, the one most illustrative of the spirit of Jacobite loyalty is Alasdair MacMhaigstir. Born about the year 1700, probably at Dalilea in Moidart — the exact date and place of his birth are nowhere recorded — he was the son of an Episcopalian clergyman. His chief, Clanranald, offered to undertake the cost of his education if he went in for law, and he was accordingly sent to Glasgow University. Ere his studies were far advanced, Alasdair married a lady of Glen Etive, Jane Macdonald of Dalness, or Sine bheag nam brogan buidhe (little Jean with the yellow shoes), as she was locally called. This step forced the poet to relinquish the project of becoming a lawyer, and to return to the High- lands. Though he had failed to acquire the desired legal training, he had gained a good classical education, and was thus enabled to S6 JACOBITE LOYALTY become a schoolmaster in his native parish. He soon won a high reputation as a scholar and a bard, and the society for propagating the Gospel entrusted to him the compilation of the first Gaelic and English dictionary, which task he completed in 1741. The poet's initiative did not rest here, for he holds the distinction of having been the first to issue a volume of original Gaelic poems. This, published at Edinburgh in 1 7 5 1, is entitled Ais-eiridh na Sean Chanain Alban- naich, which is, being translated, The Resurrection of the Old Languages of Albion, Like most Highland bards, MacMhaigstir was an ardent lover of the past. At one time he contemplated the publication of a volume of ancient Gaelic poetry, and it is probable that it was he who gathered the materials for the collection issued by his son Ranald in 1776. When Charles Edward came to Scotland, MacMhaigstir joined him at Glenfinnan, where he is said to have had an interview with the Prince himself, and to have extemporised a song in his praise. He received a captain's commission under young Clanranald, and in that capacity he served in the Jacobite army throughout the whole of the Forty-five. Though Alasdair MacMhaigstir was probably the most learned and scholarly of all Gaelic bards of the mid-eighteenth century, his culture is little reflected in his poetry. He wrote from the ful- ness of his heart, from passion, from impulse ; and his work has this great interest : that it clearly JACOBITE LOYALTY 57 explains the nature of his devotion to the Stuarts, the spirit in which he drew his sword on their behalf. An ardent admirer of Montrose, he trans- lated some of the soldier-poet's verses into Gaelic.^^ He wrote many poems in praise of Prince Charles, and these were of great service in inspiring warlike enthusiasm among the Jacobites. One of his poems, The Year of Charles,'^ is a defence of the claims of the House of Stuart. The writer declares that there is nothing to be hoped for from King George ; he draws a gloomy picture of the state of the country in the absence of its rightful king ; but predicts the commencement of a golden epoch in "The Year of Charles." In "Song of the Clans" MacMhaigstir addresses the Prince himself : ' ' Although my heart were weaker, The news would soon restore me (Though death itself stood o'er me With visage pale and dry) That God across the ocean Had brought your galleys nigh. Your friends are weary-hearted, So long from us you stay, Like fawns from mothers parted, Or bees, whose store is taken By fox, while they forsaken Lie dying on the brae ; Then to our succour hasten And clear our foes away." Of all MacMhaigstir's Jacobite songs, the most beautiful is " Morag." The Prince is here repre- sented in the personality of a young girl with 58 JACOBITE LOYALTY locks of yellow hair waving on her shoulders. She had gone away over the sea, and the bard entreats her to return with troops of other maidens to dress the red cloth (as he expresses it), which means to beat the English red-coats. He intro- duces himself as one who had followed Morag in foreign lands, and who is still ready to follow her the world over. He begins : Lovely Morag, rich in ringlets, I would sing your praises sweetly. O'er the deep from us you journeyed, Soon returning may we see you. Troops of maidens round you pressing Fit to dress the red-cloth neatly. Dainty Morag is my dear one, Round whose ears the locks are sweeping, O'er her shapely shoulders falling Blinding all that chance to see them." The poet vows to cleave to his beloved forever : I would follow you and serve you Still unswerving in allegiance. Cling to you with love compelling, Like the shell to rock adhering. With your love my soul is flaming, All my frame with longing eager. Morag with the face divinest, Fair the lines of every feature. " JACOBITE T.OYALTV 59 He goes on to tell of the devotion of the High- landers : ''From the Orkneys south to Manann Many a man adores you dearly. There would come, did you but call them, Many a stalwart Highland hero, Who, with claymore and with shield, would Cannon's thunder charge unfearing. Many a youth with ardour swelling Loves you well in high Dunedin. These would boldly gather round you, Once they found that you were near them. All the Gael their love would show you. Faithful, though the world should leave you.''^^ It is difficult, after reading MacMhaigstir's " Song of the Clans," to know why Buckle asserted that the Highlanders cared nothing for the theory of divine right ; and it is hard, with the cadences of "Morag " ringing in the ear, to understand how Hill Burton could affirm that the clansmen did not love the Prince. NOTES AND REFERENCES ^ Boswell, ii. 224. ^ Home, iii. 226. ^ Strange i. 89. ii. 79, 106. 4 Life iv. 152. ^ Ramsay, i. 28. The conversion occurred when the poet, as a young man, was travelling on the continent. ^ Jacobite, 29. ^ Lyon, i. 228. Threipland, 49. Neither of these poems are found 6o JACOBITE LOYALTY in Hamilton's works. " On Gallia's shores " is attributed to the poet, not only in Lyon, but also in a collection of Jacobite songs published at Glasgow in 1 87 1. ^ This ode, though undoubtedly the work of Hamilton, is not found in all editions of his works. I quote it from the ninth volume of a series, published at Edinburgh in 1794, entitled A Com- plete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain. ^ Ramsay, i, 34, 36. 1^ Struan, 75, 276. Literature 45. Garth, 349. Beauties, 268. Inquiry, vi., vii., xi. 1^ Browne, iii. 480. Writing to his father in October 1745, Charles says of Sir James Steuart : He is an understand- ing capable man, and can be depended on, which has made me choose him to send to the French court with proper compliments to the French King, and to hasten them for succours." Mahon, 156. Lang, 175. ^'^ Eiseirigh, 124, 125. Literature, 22, et seq. Beauties, Kennedy, D.N.B. Art. Macdonald, and memoir prefixed to Eiseirigh. JACOBITE DIARIES AND MEMOIRS I The high degree of culture which existed among Prince Charles's adherents is shown by the fact that many of these, in exile after the Forty-five, wrote diaries or memoirs of the campaign. Lord George Murray was author of a brief account of the rising, entitled Marches of the Highland Army, which is criticised by Lord Mahon as " very clear and able." ^ It will be quoted in this essay at a later stage, in dealing with the topic of discipline in the Jacobite army; but, the spirit in which Lord George came out having been already shown, it is not necessary to draw from that officer's work further proof in his favour. It is essential, how- ever, to examine the writings of other Jacobites, and to see what light these throw on the nature of their authors' loyalty. A Jacobite diarist of particular interest is the Chevalier de Johnstone. He did not like the Prince ; and it is certain that he did not join him, as some may have done, because he was fascinated by that personal charm which Charles, as a young man, undoubtedly possessed. In his Memoirs, Johnstone says little of the motives which led him to come out in 1745; yet it is obvious, from many passages in his work, that he believed in the 61 62 JACOBITE LOYALTY theory of divine right, and regarded the Stuarts as the only rightful rulers of Great Britain. Telling how the Duke of Cumberland's officers " had par- ticular instructions to stab the Prince, if he fell into their hands/' he says : " but divine wisdom frustrated the atrocious and barbarous designs of the sanguinary Duke " ; and again, conjecturing on what would have occurred had Charles fallen into the hands of the government, he writes : " The Parliament of England could not have indicted him for treason, as a subject of Great Britain, on account of his undoubted right to the crown." Though he bore little love to Charles Edward, Johnstone certainly thought Stuart rule beneficial to England. After referring to the misfortunes of the exiled dynasty, he says that its members " have never received any other return for their tender regard than incessant persecution; the English shedding their blood even on the scaffold, and, at last, driving the whole family from the country, and stripping them of their crown." While saying comparatively little concerning the nature of his own loyalty, Johnstone has some valuable comments on the Jacobitism of others, and repeatedly touches on the Highlanders' de- votion to the Prince. Accounting for Charles's victory at Prestonpans, he says : " However, when we come to consider the matter attentively, we can hardly be astonished that Highlanders, who take arms voluntarily from attachment to their legitimate Prince and their chiefs, should defeat thrice their number of regular troops, ..." And describing JACOBITE LOYALTY 63 CuUoden, he talks of Charles's followers as having " exposed their lives and fortunes to establish him on the throne of his ancestors, and who would have shed for him the last drop of their blood." ^ A diarist of even greater interest than Johnstone is Maxwell of Kirkconnell. Educated at Douay, where he gained distinction as a scholar,^ he served throughout the Jacobite rising in the Prince's life-guards. His Narrative of Charles Prince of Wales^ Expedition to Scotland^ though of considerable historical value, contains no proof that its author believed in the theory of divine right. But his love of the House of Stuart is shown by his ardent eulogies of Prince Charles ; and, from many of his statements, it is palpable that he regarded George IL, on whose attachment to Hanover he vents his scorn, as an usurper. He says that the decay of virtue and honor in our Island since the Accession is very remarkable, and the progress and barefacedness of vice astonishing." He declares that "The intruders of the family of Hanover, . . . seem to have had nothing in view but increasing their power, and gratifying their insatiable avarice." He descants at length on the grievances of Englishmen under the rule of a foreigner ; and talks of " their love of liberty, which they saw expiring under the family of Hanover." It is evident that he thought the restoration of the Stuarts would cure all these ills, for he expresses his longing for "better times, when loyalty will cease to be capital," and, talking of Charles's setting out for Scotland, says that the 64 JACOBITE LOYALTY Prince was happy beyond expression with the thought of restoring the king his father, and deHvering his people from the foreign yoke they had long groaned under." ^ The work of a Highland Jacobite officer, Jou7'nall and Memoirs of P C Expedi- tion info Scotland, merits particular notice. It was written by a Clanranald Macdonald, who was one of the first to join the Prince on his arrival in Moidart; and who, on account of his work being included in The Lockhart Papers, is commonly designated the Lockhart chronicler. Like most other Highland gentlemen, Macdonald was well aware of the slender hopes which Charles had of success; and, at the beginning of his journal, he describes the Forty-five as " ane enterprise the most hazardous and resolute that the history of any person or country can aford." Despite his knowledge in this respect, he was enraptured when Charles came to claim the throne; and he tells how, when the *'Doutelle" dropped anchor in Loch-na-nuagh, "our hearts were overjoyed to find ourselves so near our long- wished for P — ce." That the chronicler came out as a matter of duty is evinced by what he says of Charles's negotiations with Macleod of Macleod and Macdonald of Sleat. Describing the Prince's efforts to enlist those chiefs in his interest, he says that messengers were sent to them " to induce them to join His R.H. according to duty . . By several passages, he refutes those extraordinary statements of historians as to JACOBITE LOYAT.TY 65 the clansmen having no love for the Stuarts. He tells that " Clanranald's people," notwith- standing the dangers which faced them, were resolved to follow our P. most chearfuUy and risque our fate with him." Relating how Charles appointed him to the command of 50 cliver fellows," he says that the Prince told me I was the first officer he had made in Scotland " ; and he adds : " which compliment encouraged my vanity not a little, and with our friends vowed to the Almighty we would live and die with our noble P. though all Britain should forsake him but our little regiment alone." By a later passage Macdonald shows how well he loved the cause, and that he regarded the restoration of the exiled dynasty as indispensable to the good of the country. Talking of the retreat from Derby, he says : " Would to God we had pushed on tho' we had all been cut to pieces, when we were in a condition for fighting and doing honour to our noble P. and the glorious cause we had taken in hand . . ." ^ Another Highland Jacobite who wrote an account of the Forty-five was Macdonald of Lochgarry, whose memoir, addressed to his chief, Glengarry, deals in particular with the loyal actions of the clan. When Charles came to Scotland, Lochgarry held a commission under the govern- ment in Lord Loudon's regiment ; but, on hearing that the Prince had landed, he hastened to join him. He makes no direct statement as to the reasons which induced him to espouse the cause £ 66 JACOBITE LOYALTY of the Stuarts ; but, like the Lockhart chronicler, he illustrates the passionate admiration which Charles won from the Highlanders. He was with the Prince for a while during his wander- ings after Culloden ; and, describing the hardships which the royal fugitive had to endure, he says : Our indefatigable Prince bore this with greater courage and resolution than any of us, nor never was there a Highlander born cou'd travel up and down hills better or suffer more fatigue. Show me a king or prince in Europe cou'd have born the like, or the tenth part of it." At the con- clusion of his memoir, he declares with pride that the clan to which he belongs had been foremost in befriending the Stuarts ; and he adds : *'Now, you may observe what number M^Donells were at each battle ; and I dare say without any selfishness, that none of the battles cou'd have been won without them ; and further, I say that those and their followers, under God, had the good fortune to save his Roy'^ H' person." ^ II Three diarists of the Forty-five who must now be treated are Lord Macleod, Murray of Broughton, and Lord Elcho. These cannot be said to illus- trate, either in their writings or in their persons, the spirit of Jacobite loyalty ; but they and their works serve to refute the absurd imputation of barbarism which has so often been laid on the partisans of the Stuarts. JACOBITE LOYALTY 67 Lord Macleod was not a Jacobite in the real sense of the term. It is true that, in writing the Forty-five, he talks of "the Prince, for whom I had conceived the greatest veneration " ; that, when attempting to procure recruits for Charles in Caithness, he called on the people (so he writes) "to adhere to the principles they had always profess'd, and to embrace with unani- mity and zeal the favourable opportunity they now had of serving their lawful P , by taking arms for his service";^ and that, in 1750, he wrote to the Chevalier, saying that James may have heard of him on account of " my best endeavours to do my duty and serve your majesty," mentioning the justice of the claims held by the House of Stuart to the British throne, and adding : "I shall think myself happy if I can in the state of life and station I am now in, render myself more capable to serve your Majesty and Royal Family, which is my utmost ambition."^ But the fact remains that he came out in 1745, not so much because he loved King James as because he bore a grudge to King George. Before the outbreak of the rising, Lord Macleod was offered a commission in Loudon's regiment. He declined the offer, or, to be strictly accurate, his father, the Earl of Cromartie, declined it for him, because the appointment of subalterns was given to Lord Fortrose instead of to Lord Macleod ; and it was probably on account of this affront that, along with his father, he joined Prince Charles. In his memoir he tells how, when his 68 JACOBITE LOYALTY grand-aunt expostulated with him for turning Jacobite, " I complain'd bitterly to her of the bad usage I had receiv'd from the government, which had in a manner forc'd me into the Rebellion ; but I told her at the same time, that as I was now engaged in a different in- terest, that no consideration in the world cou'd ever engage me to abandon the same, nor to take any step that cou'd bring the least stain upon my honour." Murray of Broughton is one of w^hom it is hard to speak without bated breath, not only because he turned king's evidence after the Forty-five, but also because he prejudiced the Prince against that noblest of his adherents, Lord George Murray.^ But it were deUberate evasion, in deahng with Jacobite diaries and memoirs, to make no mention of the man who wrote what is, in many respects, the most valuable contribution to the history of the last rising on behalf of the Stuarts. A graduate of Edinburgh University, Murray possessed great intellectual abiUties ; and was, as his writings show, a man of letters and a fair classical scholar. Throughout the Forty-five he was extremely active in whatever concerned providing for the Jacobite army, and proved himself to be one of the Prince's most useful partisans. Though he eventually turned traitor, it is probable that throughout life he remained in sentiment true to his first love ; and it is certain that few Jacobites had a warmer admiration for Charles Edward than Murray of Broughton. JACOBITE LOYALTY 69 Little inferior in historical value to the memoirs of Murray of Broughton, is the narrative of Lord Elcho. Its author presents a curious problem ; because, while what is known of the manner of his education, and of the circumstances under which he came out in 1745, conduce to belief that he was a Jacobite in the true sense of the term, the belief cannot be entertained when it is remembered that, after the failure of the rising, he petitioned the British government for pardon, renounced allegiance to the White Rose, and sued Prince Charles for payment of a debt. Elcho, according to Lord Rosebery, was one of many who, in espousing the cause of Charles Edward, ^' knew not why they joined." It is true that, in his own account of the rising, Elcho throws no light on the nature of his loyalty ; yet it is certain that he was brought up in adherence to those principles which begot the various efforts on behalf of the exiled Stuarts, and it is probable that he held to those principles in 1745, though he threw them aside at a later stage in his career. His biographer, the Hon. Evan Charteris, says that " Before the age of nine he (Elcho) had been taught by a non-juring minister of the English Church that allegiance was due not to the usurper at St James's, but to the king over the water, and that the Episcopalian ritual in no way suffered by the omission of the prayers for the House of Hanover." He adds : " His whole education had been directed — and successfully directed — to inspiring him with Jacobite ideas ; he had been 70 JACOBITE LOYALTY taught not merely to sympathise with James as his lawful king in exile, but to regard him as the sovereign by divine right, who would sooner or later be re-established on the throne of his ancestors. And divine right was not at that time the politic claim of decadent kingship, but an active and living principle, animating those who held it with the zeal and the tenacity of a re- ligious doctrine." In proof of this last statement, and as illustration of the nature of that loyalty in which Elcho was nurtured, Mr Charteris tells that there is, in the house where the peer passed his boyhood, a prayer-book in which the names of the Stuarts are pasted over those of the Georges. In 1 741 Elcho made the acquaintance of Lord Sinclair, who had been out in the Fifteen, but had been pardoned while in exile. Sinclair counselled him to enter the service of King George, declaring that the Stuarts were an un- grateful race, who looked on everything done for them simply as the fulfilment of a duty. Though thus tempted to forsake the cause, Elcho, on hearing in 1744 that plans were being laid for a Jacobite rising, agreed that he would draw his sword against the Hanoverian government. And in the following year, though he attempted, through the medium of Murray of Broughton, to dissuade the Prince from his enterprise, and though he had been warned by Duncan Forbes of CuUoden that the insurrection would almost certainly prove futile, he gave not only his military services but also his purse on behalf of the exiled dynasty. JACOBITE LOYALTY 71 Such, then, were the manner of Elcho's educa- tion, and the circumstances under which he joined the rising. They are of the utmost importance, because from them is deducible that, in 1745, Elcho was a Jacobite in the true sense. But, on account of his eventual apostacy, he can scarcely be taken as exemplifying the spirit of Jacobite loyalty ; and must be regarded rather in the light of one who serves to show that the partisans of the Stuarts were not the ruffians and banditti they have been represented. Murray of Broughton, after stating that he has " had the honour to know him intimately," says : " He has very good natural parts, and is far from being deficient in acquired knowledge ; has a very quick, lively apprehension, . . After being educated at Winchester, and at the Academy of Angers, Elcho made the usual grand tour of young gentlemen in the eighteenth century. During his travels he became friendly with Horace Walpole; and he returned to Scotland, writes his biographer, "having a cultured acquaint- ance with music and languages, and instructed in all that the Continent had to teach of the elegances and graces." NOTES AND REFERENCES 1 Mahon, 36. ^ Memoirs, 30, 39, 153, 154. 3 D. N. B. Art. Maxwell. ^ Maxwell, 5, 10, 13, 108, 173. ^ Lockhart, ii. 479, et seq. ^ Itinerary, 112, 125, 126. Cromartie, ii. 379, et seq. ^ Browne, iv. 71. ^ Elcho, 250. 1^ Broughton, xxxi. List, x. ^2 Broughton, 122. Elcho, 8, 20, 34, 35. CULTURE AND ^STHETICISM I Besides authors and diarists, there were many cultured men in the Jacobite army. It included at least two artists ; and one of these, John Alexander, designated in A List of Persons concerned in the Rebellion as " Picture Drawer," is of interest as being a descendant of George Jamesone^ the Scottish Vandyke.^ The Duke of Perth had been a distinguished mathematical scholar at Douay, while Lord Ogilvie had been educated at Edinburgh University.^ Sir Robert Strange, after the Forty-five, became one of the most famous of eighteenth century engravers, and rivalled Bartolozzi himself.^ Home describes Hepburn of Keith as learned and intelligent," and tells that he was " idolised by the Jacobites, and beloved by some of the best Whigs, who regretted that this accomplished gentleman, the model of ancient simplicity, manliness, and honour, should sacrifice himself to a visionary idea of the independence of Scotland." ^ William Baird of Auchmeddan, a friend of Lord Pitsligo, was a Greek scholar and translated Thucydides. He was the early patron of James Ferguson, the astronomer, who, in the preface to one of his 7a JACOBITE LOYALTY 73 works, says of Baird that it was " as easy for him to read English from a Greek, Latin, or French book, as from an English one."^ Baird compiled two genealogical works, the one dealing with his own family, the other with the house of Duff, with which he was connected. It is important to note that, in the latter, he refers to " the Usurpation of Oliver Cromwell," and talks of Montrose as that heroic soldier."^ It is well known that Charles Edward was a keen lover of music ; and though at Falkirk, as Lord George Murray writes, " one vast loss was, that not a pair of pipers could be got,"^ it is certain that the Prince had several adherents who were musicians. One of these was John Macintosh, an Inverness man, who, in a list of Jacobite prisoners transported to Martinico, is designated " fidler," and is described as " sprightly." ^ Another was Thomas Chadwick, a native of Manchester, at whose trial it was deponed : " In the churches at Derby and Lancaster the defendant played several tunes upon the organ — amongst others that called *The 29th of May/ or *The King shall enjoy his own again,' which made him much esteemed by the chief officers of the rebels."^ Those who describe the Jacobite soldiers as banditti, should remember that Charles Edward numbered among his followers many professional men. There were upwards of twenty lawyers in the Jacobite army ; and in one of these, John Hay of Restalrig, the Prince placed particular confidence.^^ The medical profession was also 74 JACOBITE LOYALTY largely represented ; and two Jacobite doctors, Sir Stuart Threipland, and Lochiel's brother, Archibald Cameron, merit personal notice. Threipland, some time President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and a man of excep- tionally attractive character, was a friend of Sir Robert Strange and Hamilton of Bangour. He was in exile for several years after the Forty- five, but was allowed to return to Scotland in 1747. Thenceforth he practised in Edinburgh, and always gave his professional services gratis to any who had suffered in the Jacobite cause.^'^ Archibald Cameron studied medicine at Edin- burgh University. In 1745 he was practising in Lochaber among his brother's tenants, and was aiding LochiePs attempts to improve the condition of his clansmen. He is of singular interest in the present case, for he has himself recorded the motives which led him to join the Prince. He writes : " I thank kind Providence I had the happiness to be early educated in the principles of Christian loyalty, which, as I grew in years, inspired me with an utter abhorrence of rebellion and usurpation, tho' ever so successful. And when I arrived at man's estate, I had the testimony both of religion and reason to confirm me in the truth of my first principles. Thus my attachment to the Royal Family is more the result of examination and conviction than of prepossession and prejudice. ... As soon, therefore, as the royal youth had set up the king his father's standard, I immediately, as in duty bound, repaired to it. . . ."^^ In exile after the Forty-five, Archibald Cameron, writing to the Chevalier, says that it gives him JACOBITE LOYALTY 75 " great pleasure to think that any assistance or little services our family was ready to offer towards the royal cause should have such a grateful impression on your Majesty " ; expresses regret that " there is no return in my power, for your Majesty's constant care of us, but what I, as well as others, at all times w^ill promise, which is my readiness to serve your Majesty ; " and affirms that, in the event of the royal standard being again unfurled, " I hope I will have the loyalty and courage to draw my sword." II Stewart of Garth, dealing with the subject of education in the Highlands at the time of the Forty- five, points out that there were good grammar- schools at Fortrose, Inverness, and Dunkeld ; shows that it was common for Highland gentlemen to go to the Universities of Aberdeen, St Andrews, Leyden or Douay ; and writes : " The middle and higher orders of society were as well educated as the youth of any part of the United Kingdom. The gentlemen farmers and tacksmen were certainly better classical scholars than men holding the same occupation and rank in society, in the south." The truth of Garth's statements is evinced by the high degree of culture which existed among the Highland gentlemen who followed Charles Edward. Barrisdale was a scholar, and Ardsheal is described by a con- temporary Whig historian as "a gentleman of 76 JACOBITE LOYALTY good parts, though misapphed." Cluny was an intimate friend of Robertson of Struan, with whom he was wont to correspond on Uterary subjects ; and he won the ardent eulogies of Lachlan Macpherson, the Strathmashic poet.^^ Sir Hector Maclean was a good classical scholar, and knew French and Italian well, having studied on the continent.^^ His praises were sung by the poetess, Mairearad Nigh'n Lachainn (Margaret, the daughter of Lachlan ),^^ and also by the Mull bard, John Maclean.^^ Keppoch, who was educated at Glas- gow University, is described in The Highlands of Scotland in 1750 as "A man of Great Parts and some Learning, and if he had been free from the poison of Jacobitism, a Good Member of Society."^^ He came of a family noted for its aesthetic tastes, his grandfather, Archibald Macdonell, and his uncle, Angus Macdonell, having both been Gaelic bards. Long after the Forty-five, Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees used to grow ardent in praises of Keppoch ; and the chief is of singular interest because of what he said when he heard that the Prince had come to Scotland. Shortly after Charles's arrival, Keppoch held a council of his friends, and declared that as the Prince had risked his person among them and generously thrown himself into the hands of his friends, they were bound in duty at least to raise men instantly for the protection of his person, whatever might be the consequences." Having thus declared, he made his way to the Jacobite camp. He was one of many who implored the adventurer not to JACOBITE LOYALTY 77 make his foolhardy attempt, who took arms against his will, and who knew well the hopelessness of the cause.'^^ Long before the Forty-five, the Highland muse had done deeds for the Stuarts. Hector Maclean, a Mull poet, was an ardent royalist and fought at Inverkeithing ; Ian Lorn glorified in verse the defeat of the Campbells at Inverlochy, and cele- brated in song the Restoration of Charles II. ; Archibald Macdonell of Keppoch used both sword and pen in the cause of the Stuart dynasty ; while Ranald of the Shield not only fought under Montrose and Dundee, but wrote in praise of the latter, and composed a noble elegy for Charles I.^^ The Chevalier de St George enlisted the sympathies of many Highland singers, notably Catriona Mac- lean and Cicely Macdonell ; and when the Earl of Mar led the Jacobite clans to battle in 1715, he had in his force at least two Gaelic bards, John Macdonald and Kenneth Macrae.^^ This tradition was well maintained in 1745, when Prince Charles's merits and rights were sung throughout the land, not only by poets, but also by poetesses. Nighean Mhic Aonghuis Oig, a bardess of the Keppoch family, wrote a poem of a hundred and six lines, replete with devotion to the Stuart cause ; and Catherine Ferguson, in lamenting the loss of her husband, who was killed at Culloden, sang of the Prince in a strain which illustrates the spirit of Jacobite loyalty : " Who now shall wield the burnish'd steel, Or fill the throne he ought to fill ? " ^7 78 JACOBITE LOYALTY Most of the Highland poets of the time, for instance Rob Donn and John Maccodrum, were in sympathy with the exiled dynasty ; and, besides Alasdair MacMhaigstir and John Roy Stewart, who have been noted in the category of Jacobite men of letters, there were in Prince Charles's army three Gaelic bards — Donald Ban Macdonald, Donald Macdonald, and Alexander Macdonald. Little is known of Donald Ban, save that he fought at Culloden, and was captured some time after that battle. Donald Macdonald, who was a son of Ranald of the Shield, commanded the Glencoe men in the Forty-five. He was a great friend of Duncan Ban Macintyre, with whom he aspired to vie as a describer in poetry of the bens and glens.^^ Alexander Macdonald was eighty years of age when he joined Prince Charles. He wrote several Jacobite songs; and in one of these, "An Incitement to the Highlanders in 1745," he calls on the clansmen, in a very earnest and religious strain, to follow their rightful king, " Ye clans of the Gael, who used to be royal," he sings, " up to the heights, fortunate for you is the present time." He urges the Highlanders not to lose sight of "your cherished ideal, which is founded in Christ;" and adds : '* Bravely, and fully harnessed, Hasten with zest, With bristling strength upon you, Ho ro ! up to the heights. "^^ Three Highland Jacobites whose culture merits JACOBITE LOYALTY 79 notice are Donald Roy Macdonald, Roderick Macleod of Cadboll, and Neil MacEachain. Donald Roy was a humanist, and wrote Latin poems, several of which, amongst others a lament for CuUoden, were duly captured by the inde- fatigable Bishop Forbes, and included by him in The Lyon in Mourning. In exile on the Continent after the Forty-five, Roderick Macleod collected a valuable library ; and, on being allowed to return to Scotland, he brought his books to Cadboll, where he built four rooms to hold them.^^ Neil MacEachain, who attended the Prince during his wanderings in Skye, was a friend of Flora Macdonald, whom he was wont to address in correspondence as *'Dear Florry." He was an able classical scholar and a musician. In 1745 he held the post of parish schoolmaster in South Uist, and was acting as tutor in Clanranald's family. Having studied at the Scots College in Paris, he knew French well, and often conversed with Prince Charles in that language. Neil was known to be capable of using his pen ; and was credited in the Highlands with having written Alexis^ or the Young Adventurer (London 1746), which is an account of the Prince's wanderings up to the time of his leaving Skye, couched in the form of a pastoral allegory. Macdonald of Kingsburgh, talking in 1747 of the authorship of this book, said that he knew " nobody who could be the author of it but Neil MacKechan, so pointed and exact it was in giving the narrative. "^^ Writer or not of Alexis^ Neil was author of at 8o JACOBITE LOYALTY least one Gaelic poem. For his participation in Charles Edward's escape, he suffered a short imprisonment; and, soon after his Hberation, he wrote some lines which elucidate the nature of his loyalty. The poet tells that he has been taken from the isle of my love," because I gave assistance to Charles, the cherished, So that he might get safely across the sea." He hopes that the Prince will come again, and vows that he is ready to serve him once more : *' The Prince betook him to France, but he'll be seen again, He is shut out of the land but his steps will be followed ; And Neil the son of Hector the son of James will be again under ban, If he hasten not to Charles, running and leaping. Alas ! Fiongal, daughter of Raonal, O light was'thy step ! Going to behold thy Charles being exalted as a king ! And welcoming him to his palace, with the golden crown of the heroes, And he ruling the kingdom with mildness and peace. "^^ III Captain Burt tells that, at the time of the Forty- five, inns in the Highlands were usually kept by gentlemen ; and Stewart of Garth has an anecdote which not only shows the culture of these gentlemen inn-keepers, but corroborates his own assertion con- cerning the state of education in the Highlands in the eighteenth century. When the Hessian troops," he says, " were quartered in the Highlands in 1745, the commanding officers, who were JACOBITE LOYALTY 8i accomplished gentlemen, found Latin a ready means of communication at every inn. At Dunkeld, Inver, Blair- Athole, Taybridge, etc., every landlord spoke that language, and I have been informed, by eye-witnesses, of the pleasure expressed by a colonel of the Hessian cavalry, when he halted at the inn in Dunkeld, the landlord of which ad- dressed and welcomed him in Latin, the only language they mutually understood." Scholar- ship was still the vogue among Highland inn- keepers when Dr Johnson and his biographer visited the north. Passing through Glenmoriston, these travellers spent a night at the inn of Avoch, where the landlord was one Macqueen, who had been out in 1745. He had a good library; "and his pride," says Boswell, " seemed to be much piqued that we were surprised at his having books." It is intensely interesting to recall that, among the volumes owned by Macqueen, was The Travels of Cyrus by the Chevalier Ramsay, who had been at one time tutor to Prince Charles. This story is not the only thing in BoswelFs Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides which shows that culture was common in the Highlands in the eighteenth century ; and, as it was only twenty- eight years after the Forty-five that Johnson and his biographer made their journey, it is well to examine such of their statements as bear on the aforementioned topic. At Mull, the travellers found a Highlander who was intimately acquainted with Johnson's own writings ; and at several F 82 JACOBITE LOYALTY places they met people who tried to glean bon mots from the lexicographer. Of one of these people, Johnson said : " This is a critical man, sir. There must be great vigour of mind to make him cultivate learning so much in the isle of Sky, where he might do without it. It is wonderful how many of the new publications he has."^'' Wherever they went throughout the islands they found books in the houses in which they stayed. " Dr Johnson told me," says Bos well, he found a library in his room at Talisker ; and observed that it was one of the remarkable things of Sky that there were so many books in it." Staying at Ostig, Johnson was pleased because " In his bedchamber was a press stored with books, Greek, Latin, French, and English ; " while at Dunvegan he was pleasur- ably surprised to see the works of Bacon and Sterne. At other places in the Hebrides, the travellers found the writings of Hervey, Bishop Burnet, Sir Thomas More, and Henry Mackenzie.^^ " I never was in any house of the island," writes Johnson, " where I did not find books in more languages than one, if I had stayed long enough to want them, except one from which the family was removed. Literature is not neglected by the higher rank of the Hebridians." One visit on which, in after years, Johnson looked back with singular pleasure, was that which he paid to John Macleod of Rasay. " We were," he says in a letter, " introduced into the house, which one of the company called the Court of Rasay, with politeness which not the Court of Versailles could have JACOBITE LOYAITY 83 thought defective." Here the visitors met Malcolm Macleod, who had not only been out in the Forty- five, but who had, after Culloden, materially assisted in Prince Charles's escape. Boswell tells that Malcolm sang a Gaelic song " with words of his own " ; and he says of the singer : " His eye was quick and lively, yet his look was not fierce, but he appeared at once firm and good-humoured. . . . I never saw a figure that gave a more per- fect representation of a Highland gentleman. I wished much to have a picture of him just as he was. I found him frank and polite^ in the true sense of the word." That the Jacobite army was by no means composed of barbarous ruffians, must be obvious from the foregoing statements. These statements, however, refer chiefly to Prince Charles's officers ; and the question arises : What degree of aestheticism existed among the rank and file ? Major, writing at the beginning of the sixteenth century, praises the Scottish Gael as excelling in playing the harp.^^ Martin, who visited the Hebrides about the end of the seventeenth century, says of the Highlanders of that time : " Several of both sexes have a quick vein of poesy; and in their language (which is very emphatic) they compose rhymes and verse, both of which powerfully affect the fancy, and, in my judgment (which is not singular in this matter), with as great force as that of any ancient or modern poet I ever yet read. They have generally very retentive memories." And Toland, who wrote in the reigns of Queen Anne and 84 JACOBITE LOYALTY George L, and whose witness is all the more valuable because it comes from a violent Whig, mentions the clansmen as "having a strong in- clination to poetry and music." From these testimonies it must be clear that the forces of Charles Edward contained hundreds of men who, though they knew little or nothing of books, were lovers of art. But this cannot be fully understood save by studying the Forty-five as representation of the Highlands. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1 List, 363. 2 D.N.B. Art. Perth and Ogilvie. 2 Strange, ii. 1 1, 23, etc. ^ Home, iii. 72, 73. 5 Baird, v. vi. The translation does not appear to have been published. ^ Duff, 27, 33. Jacobite, 87. s Gleanings, 50. ^ Allardyce, ii. 441. List, 362. Strange, ii. 102. Elcho, 254. '^'^ Threipland, 51, etc. Cameron, 261. Lyon, iii. 134, 135. Browne, iv. 49. Garth, 347. There are interesting facts and comments on the subject of education in the Highlands at the time of the Forty-five in Anderson, 107, 112, 113. Waverley, note F. Appin, 135. 20 Writing to Struan in March 1746, Cluny says : **I have read the poem you lent me. I think it exceeding good, and can have no amendment in this Climat." Transactions, xxi. 433. 2^ Beauties, 260. 22 QiHean, 237, 246. Sir Hector was not actually in Charles Edward's army, but he was a Jacobite nevertheless. He was on the Con- tinent at the outbreak of the rising ; and, on coming home to join the Prince, was captured at Edinburgh. 23 Maclean, i. 205. ^4 Beauties, 388. 25 Highlands, loi. 26 Macdonald, 489, 490. 27 Keppoch, 47. JACOBITE LOYALTY 85 '•^ Lochaber, 445. ^ Itinerary, 4. Maclean, i. 28. 31 Beauties, 41 ; Bards, 11. Bards, 90; Lochaber, 471. Bards, 21, 22. Maclean, i. 51 ; Bards, 92. 3^ Bards, 19 ; Sinclair, ii. 27. Bards, 19. ^ Beauties, 373 i-tns> thus : *'A tale of the times of old ! The deeds of days of other years ! The murmur of thy streams, O Lora ! brings back the memory of the past ; " and the poet goes on to invoke " the sun-beams of other days, the delight of heroes of old." Take, as another instance, the following from Fingal : JACOBITE LOYALTY 99 " Now I behold the chiefs, in the pride of their former deeds ! Their souls are kindled at the battles of old ; at the actions of other times.'' This is echoed by the words of Cuthullin : " O Carril, raise again thy voice ! let me hear the song of Selma ; which was sung in my halls of joy, when Fingal, king of shields, was there, and glowed at the deeds of his fathers." It is important, in suggesting that Highland devotion to whatsoever things are ancient was a source of the Forty-five, to note that this devotion was still common among the clansmen at the time of the Jacobite rising. Captain Burt, writing about ten years before the Forty-five, says of the Gaelic bard of that time that he "is skilled in the genealogy of all the Highland families . . . celebrates in Irish verse the original of the tribe, the famous warlike actions of the successive heads " ; and the same writer affirms of the Highlanders "that the inclination to preserve the remains and memory of the dead, is greater with those people than it is among us." Two officers in Prince Charles's army testify to the same effect. Maxwell of Kirkconnell says of the clansmen that even " the lower sort are more curious about news and politics, and better versed in their own histories and genealogies than the common people of other countries"; and he mentions, as "the genius of the Highlanders," the fact that " the deeds of their ancestors is the common topic of conversation among them. ..." And Lord Macleod, describing the manoeuvres of the Jacobite JACOBITE LOYALTY army before Falkirk, tells that the clansmen " were very desirous that the battle should be fought at Bannockburn, as they thought that they wou'd then certainly win it because their ancestors had wone a great victory over the EngHsh at the same place some ages before." That love of the past was common among the Highlanders in 1745 is further evinced by the strenuous endeavours they made to withstand the prohibition of their ancient garb, several of their poets, notably Donald Roy Macdonald and John Maccodrum, expressing in their work abhorrence of the act forbidding the use of the kilt.^^ Even so late as 1773, Dr Johnson found that devotion to the past was a common characteristic of the Gael. " Everything in those countries," he writes concerning the Hebrides, "has its history"; while he says that in Skye "there is an ambition of exalting what- ever has survived memory, to some important use, and referring it to very remote ages." Again he relates how, on one occasion, his boatmen inquired who he and Boswell were, "and being told we came one from Scotland, and the other from England, asked if the Englishman could recount a long genealogy." It has been shown that Johnson struck a wrong note in dealing with the Ossianic controversy ; but he must not be blamed severely in this respect, for his error arose from the time and circumstances in which he lived. Curiously enough, though he failed to understand Celtic aestheticism, he under- stood Celtic love of the past ; and his work, apart JACOBITE LOYALTY loi from the above citations, contains a passage which is not merely an illuminating comment on the subject, but which shows that Highland devotion to old manners and things was produced by the Highlands. He writes : '*The inhabitants of mountains form distinct races, and are careful to preserve their genealogies. Men in a small district necessarily mingle blood by intermarriages, and com- bine at last into one family, with a common interest in the honour and disgrace of every individual. Then begins that union of affections and co-operation of endeavours that con- stitute a clan. They who consider themselves as ennobled by their family will think highly of their progenitors, and they, who through successive generations live always to- gether in the same place, will preserve local stories and hereditary prejudices. Thus every Highlander can talk of his ancestors, . . .'"-^^ IV Renan says truly that the Celts **are quick to believe in destiny and resign themselves to it " ; and, in a passage which evokes the sentence from Huxley prefixed to this essay, talks of " the profound sense of the future and of the eternal destinies of his race, which has ever borne up the Cymry, and kept him young still beside his conquerors who have grow^n old. . . . The hand that arose from the mere, when the sword of Arthur fell therein, that seized it, and brandished it thrice, is the hope of the Celtic races. It is thus that little peoples dowered with imagination revenge themselves on their conquerors. Feeling themselves to be strong in- wardly and weak outwardly, they protest, they exult ; and such a strife unloosing their might renders them capable of miracles." I02 JACOBITE LOYALTY It is well known that belief in destiny is common among the Highlanders ; and it must be obvious that this belief aided, not only heroic actions on behalf of an almost forlorn hope, but acceptance of the theory of divine right, the theory that a certain race was destined to rule over the land. Theid an dutchas an agaidh nan creag,'^^ says an old Gaelic proverb, which is, being translated, nature will withstand the rocks, nature in this case meaning blood, or hereditary right. Believers in destiny, the clansmen long adhered to the tenets of that proverb. It has been suggested that their chiefs were at one time elected. " But nothing," as Skene points out, "can be more erroneous than this opinion, or more inconsistent with the character of the Highlanders than to suppose that they ever, in any degree, admitted of election.^^ It cannot be shown that this form of belief in destiny was produced by the character of the Highlands ; yet it must be apparent that it was, to a great extent, begotten of clanship or the patriarchal system, which, as Dr Johnson shows, results naturally from montane life. And if dwellers among mountains, on account of the nature of their country, form clans, clanship, in its turn, produces in such peoples other char- acteristics which were sources of the Forty-five — capacity for fidelity and devotion, and admiration for bravery. " Its very fidelity has been a useless devotion," says Renan of the Celtic race ; and he praises the Celt as having *^ a great capacity for devotion, an JACOBITE LOYALTY 103 exquisite loyalty " ; and adds : " Thus the Celtic race has worn itself out in resistance to its time, and in the defence of desperate causes." It is surely unnecessary, in an essay on the Forty-five, to bring forward any proof that these traits which Renan attributes to the Celtic race in general are common to the Scottish Gael. It is interesting, however, to recall the early testimony of Holinshed, who says of the Highlanders : " As for their faith and promise, they hold it with great constancie." Highland capacity for fidelity and devotion, and admiration for bravery, were not merely sources of the Forty-five, but were constituents in the Highland temperament save for the active exist- ence of which the Jacobite rising could never have occurred. There is, in the Celtic genius, yet another factor save for the existence of which Charles Edward must have called vainly for loyalty from the High- landers. In a masterly essay, Mr W. B. Yeats points out that idealism is a salient quality in Celtic literature.^"^ Matthew Arnold likewise touches on the topic, pointing out that, in much Celtic poetry, '^all is illusion and phantasy.'^ Renan, also, writes of the idealistic tempera- ment of the Celt, whose race, he says, "has worn itself out in taking dreams for realities, and in pursuing its splendid visions." He further deals with the Celt's " invincible need of illusion," and adds : " Compared with the classical imagina- tion, the Celtic imagination is indeed the infinite contrasted with the finite." That this trait of I04 JACOBITE LOYALTY idealism was common to the Highlanders of the eighteenth century is shown by the passionate devotion which Charles Edward won from his followers. Sir Walter Scott knew old men, who had been out in the Forty-five, who could not speak of the Prince without tears in their eyes ; and he tells of one, Hugh Chisholm, who, being in receipt of a pension to which Scott himself was a contributor, would never, when receiving his money, take it save with his left hand. Charles Edward had shaken hands with him in 1746, and therefore Chisholm would never allow his right hand to touch anything which might contaminate it.^^ Surely, in that story, there is ample proof that the Scottish Gael is an idealist, and that his idealism was of a nature sufficiently intense to lend itself to belief in the divine right of kings. The Celt requires illusion ere he can act; he gets it by believing that the Stuarts hold a brief to the crown from the Almighty ; and this, more almost than anything else which arises when studying Jacobite history, evokes the Huxleyan text. That the Highlanders' idealism was caused by the nature of the Highlands, is so obvious that it cannot be proved. While the scenery of low- land dales speaks of ease and contentment, that of the Highlands is evocative of aspiration and endeavour ; stirs the heart like a memory ; has in it always something of the strenuous note which marks the work of Milton or Beethoven ; and is inseparably associated with that wistful JACOBITE LOYALTY 105 pathos, that quest of the unseen, which characterise much of the poetry, and most of the music, of the Scottish Gael. And thus this reverie cannot be more fitly concluded than by re-quotation of its key-note : " Are not nations formed by the lands they live in? ... Is not the Celt like his country? Are not his stories like his country? His soul is the image of his country ; take a man's country away from him and you take his soul. That is why I speak of the old gods ; they are the instinct of the land, the breath of all the landscape before you." NOTES AND REFERENCES ^ Literature, 82. ^ Gray, i. 143, 160. ^ Johnson, 77, 122, 137, etc. ^ Studies in Prose and Verse, by Arthur Symons. ^ Literature, 19, etc. ^ Macaulay, iii. 301. At the time of the Forty-five, John Maccodrum was bard to Macdonald of Sleat. The poet could neither read nor write, but was well acquainted, not only with the history of Clan Donald, but with that of many other High- land clans. Maccodrum, x., xxx. At this period, also. Grant of Glenmoriston had as his senachie, one Archibald Grant. The poet was, for a while, tutor to young Macdonald of Glengarry, who was killed by a random shot after P'alkirk ; and he made many songs concerning the prospective chief- ship of his pupil. Grant, 48, etc. Dr Johnson says : ** Some of the chief families still entertain a piper, whose office was anciently hereditary." And again: "They said that a great family had a bard and a senachie, who were the poet and historian of the house ; and an old gentleman told me that he remembered one of each." Johnson, 122, 132. ^ Literature, 3, etc., and many passages in Beauties. io6 JACOBITE LOYALTY ^ Scott, i. 829. 1^ Garth, 113, 114. Skene, 118. Quoted in Arnold. All quotations from Matthew Arnold and Renan are from the works for which those authors' names are given as abbreviations. Literature, 141. Bards, 4. Skene, 181, 182, 332. Literature, 141. Burt, ii. 145, 191. Maxwell, 27, 184; Cromartie, ii. 391. '^^ Lyon, iii. 79; Macco- drum, xxxix. ^'^ Johnson, 60, 88. '^^ Johnson, 57, 58. Nicolson, xxviii. 365. Skene, 104. The law of tanistry, long in vogue in the Highlands, made it possible for brothers to succeed to the chiefship ; and this is what has misled those who have suggested that election was at one time the rule. Tanistry was inevitable in the High- lands ; for a competent leader in war was necessary to a clan, and it often happened that, when a chief died, his son was a minor, and was incapable of commanding in battle. 26 Garth, 314. '^^^ Ideas of Good and Evil, by W. B. Yeats. ^8 Xales, iii. 1156. DISCIPLINE I Lecky, dealing with the Forty-five in his History of England in the Eighteenth Century^ says : " The clans, though they were ever ready to take up arms, and would follow their chiefs in any cause, were absolutely destitute of the discipline and sub- ordination of a regular army, and after their first victory more than half the army disbanded to secure the spoil." ^ The historian is here in error. Sir Walter Scott, in a note to Waverley, points out that the Highlanders " used a peculiar sort of drill, suited to their own dress and mode of w^arfare ; " ^ and, though Lecky was probably unaware of it, Prince Charles numbered among his officers many men who thoroughly understood the art of war. Long after the Forty-five, Lord John Drummond distinguished himself in the French army ; Lord Elcho was presented by Louis XV. with the Order of Military Merit ;^ Lord Macleod gained eminence as a soldier, first in the service of Sweden, and then in that of England ; and the Master of Lovat became a general in the British forces, and won fame under Wolfe in Canada. Of O^Sullivan, a Whig historian of the Jacobite rising, says : " He afterwards serv'd 107 io8 JACOBITE LOYALTY two Campaigns, one in Italy, and the other on the Rhine ; in which latter Campaign, a French General giving a character of him, said, that he understood the irregular Art of War better than any Man in Europe; nor was his knowledge of the Regular much inferior to that of the best General."^ Prior to the Forty-five, Maclean of Drimmin and Lord Lewis Gordon had served in the British navy.^ Ker of Graden and Macpherson of Cluny were both competent officers, the former having been in the Spanish military service,^ the latter having held a commission in one of Lord Loudon's independent companies.'^ John Roy Stewart's knowledge of war has been already noted. Lord Balmerino had, during the reign of Queen Anne, commanded a company in Lord Shannon's regiment. Colonel Grant (Master of Ordnance to Prince Charles) is described by the Chevalier Johnstone as " an officer of great talents " and " an able mathematician." ^ Before the Forty-five he had been employed in the Paris Observatory ; and he published in 1748 a map of Scotland, on which the routes of the Jacobite army are marked.^ Donald Macdonald of Benbecula and Robertson of Struan had both been in the French military service. Francis Townley had learned the craft of the soldier in the same school ; and, fighting under the Duke of Berwick at the siege of Philipsburgh, had distinguished himself greatly, and had won the respect and esteem of his brother officers.^^ Macdonell of Keppoch enjoyed a high reputation as a soldier, JACOBITE LOYALTY and was known in the Highlands as mirror of martial men." He had been for seventeen years in the French army ; and, during the Forty-five, he was indefatigable in training his regiment and in maintaining discipline.^^ But of all Prince Charles's officers, the most capable was un- doubtedly Lord George Murray. Describing the siege of Carlisle, Murray of Broughton says that Lord George conducted this with so much judgment that the few French officers then in the army allow'd they had never seen anything of the kind better executed, and regreted that a man possessed of so fine a natural genius for war should not have been bred a Solger."^^ Lord George, though his eulogists did not know of it, had been in the Sardinian army, and had there won considerable credit for military skill. He has himself given some account of the dis- cipline which prevailed in Prince Charles's force, and it is of the utmost importance to examine what he says on this topic. Describing the march from the Highlands to Edinburgh, Lord George says he was much satisfied to find the men could march in such order; and, upon any emergency, were perfectly obedient." He tells how, after the Scottish capital had been taken, guards were placed round the castle ; and he says of the Camerons, acting in this capacity : "I was with him (Lochiel) when the guards were relieved, and the men did their duty exceeding well, especially when there was danger ; and, when the fire was hottest from the no JACOBITE LOYALTY castle, they kept their posts with much resolution and bravery." He further praises the conduct of Lochiel and his men at Prestonpans ; and talks of the capability, as soldiers, of Ker of Graden and Macpherson of Cluny. He mentions the alacrity with which his directions were followed by his subordinates ; relates how pleased he was with the behaviour of the Highlanders, particularly those from Glengarry, on the retreat from Derby ; and, writing of the skirmish at Clifton, says : " The officers that were with me, as well as the men, behaved to my wish and punctually obeyed the orders they received." Describing the general management of the Jacobite army, he writes : I not only wrote the orders myself when I commanded a separate corps of the army, or directed them, but to any officer that was to go upon a party, or upon an outpost, I endeavoured to explain everything that might happen, and answered any objections that could be started, besides giving the orders in writing, by which means there was no mistake or confusion, and the officers did their duty with cheerfulness, and made their reports with exactness." ^'^ All through Lord George Murray's journal there runs a tone of pride — pride that so small an army had achieved so much. He remarks that as we had no time to discipline and exercise our people, w^ho were alw^ays in action, being so much em- ployed in marching and countermarching, battles, sieges, blockades and skirmishes, I believe it will be thought more surprising that we did so much, as that we did no more/' He was thoroughly justified in writing thus ; and the Whigs them- JACOBITE LOYALTY selves owned that the Jacobites, in marching all the way to Derby, had done something wonder- ful. Ray says: ''that they who were so small a number, and some of them unarmed, should penetrate so far into this Kingdom, is what future Ages, when they read of it, will hold in Derision. "^"^ And the author of the Woodhouselee MS. com- ments thus : " To write of the transactions of the letter parte of this year 1745 is to write of wonderful! things. A poor Italian prince C. Stewart, from Lochqwaber in the obscurest corner of Britain, with ane ill-armed mobb of Highlanders and a bankrupt Twedall laird his secretary, and bagpypes surprising Edinburgh o'rruning Scotland at Cockeny, defeating a Royall armie, penetrating in to the heart of England, seasing gari- soned towns, proclaiming a King in spight of a mighty King with some six millions in hand, with powerful! armies and fleets and many generals, and the Parliament of Great Britain now sitting to support all. " It is important to note that the achievement of the Jacobite army has been praised by one who is himself a soldier. Major-General Tulloch, dealing with the Forty-five from a military point of view, says : " If a hostile force ever does land on the Enghsh coast, the objective point will be the same, viz., London, but the length of the march would not be one quarter of what the Highlanders accomplished in the teeth of two opposing armies, each double their strength." His praise is valuable, because the fact that Prince Charles's followers accomplished much, must be kept in mind when attempting to gain a right understand- 112 JACOBITE LOYALTY ing of the Forty-five. It shows that the rising was not, as some historians have inferred, a mere pre- datory foray ; and the Jacobites' very achievement, being largely due to their maintenance of discipline, refutes Lecky's statement that the Highlanders had none of the subordination of a regular army." The extent of their accomplishment is of further importance when forming an opinion on the spirit of Jacobite loyalty, because their success partially resulted from the concert in which they acted. Lochiel's uncle, Allan Cameron, writing to Lochiel before the Forty-five, said : " You are to keep on good terms with Glengarry, and all other neigh- bours, and let bygones be bygones, as long as they continue firm to the King's interest." Considering the many feuds which prevailed in the Highlands, it is remarkable to what a degree Allan Cameron's advice was acted on throughout the rising, not only by Lochiel, but by all the partisans of the Stuarts. There was, of course, a good deal of dissension in the Prince's council. Yet Maxwell of Kirkconnell, after showing that, in the latter half of the campaign, many distresses harassed the Jacobite army, and want of pay was liable to make the men discontented, says : the diligence of the officers, and the loyalty of the men themselves, got the better, and all was set to rights again." And one of the Highland officers affirms that, till the abortive night march which preceded Culloden, " there never had been the least dispute or misunderstanding among the officers." Inspired by motives of patriotism and JACOBITE LOYALTY 113 duty, the Jacobites let bygones be bygones " and united in their efforts to bring about success. II Colonel Gardiner's biographer, the Rev. Philip Doddridge, declares that Highlanders are " used to so rapacious a life at home,'^ that it is almost impossible to train them to discipline in time of war.^^ Both parts of his statement are wrong. Captain Burt shows that, save where predatory warfare with a rival clan is concerned, the High- landers are noted for honesty. " Personal rob- beries," he says, "are seldom heard of among them. For my own part, I have several times, with a single servant, passed the Mountain way from hence (Inverness) to Edinburgh, with four or five hundred guineas in my portmanteau, with- out any apprehension of robbers by the way, or danger in my lodgings by night ; though in my sleep any one, with ease, might have thrust a sword from the outside, through the wall of the hut and my body together. I wish we could say as much of our own country, civilised as it is said to be, though one cannot be safe in going from London to Highgate." And he adds that he cannot approve the Lowland saying, " Show me a Highlander and I will show you a thief." The truth of Burt's statements as to the honesty of the Highlanders is borne out by the conduct of those people during the Forty-five. Stewart of Garth, and a writer less favourable to the Jacobites, H 114 JACOBITE LOYALTY George Charles (fl. 1800), both praise the Prince's soldiers for the orderly way in which they acted while on the march.^^ Robert Chambers affirms that people were astounded at the courtesy and civility of the Highlanders ; and in this he is corroborated by the contemporary evidence of Lord Elcho, who, after saying that ^' The people of England seemed mightily afraid of the army, and had abandon'd all the villages on its approach/' adds : " when they found themselves w^ell used, they seemed mightily surprised." When marching to Edinburgh, the Jacobites had to pass the mansion of that Earl of Stair who had brought about the massacre of Glencoe, and which now belonged to his son, who was in arms for King George. Fears were expressed that the Macdonaids might take the opportunity for revenge. Not only did they indignantly repel the accusation, but they insisted on furnishing a party from among themselves to guard Lord Stair's house, till the army had passed. Soon after crossing the English border, a party of High- landers came to Rose Castle, the seat of the Bishop of Carlisle, but then occupied by the family of Squire Dacre. On asking for quarters, they were told that the lady of the mansion had just been delivered of a daughter ; and that it was hoped that, under these circumstances, the party would give as little trouble as possible. " God forbid," said the officer in command, "that I or mine should be the means of adding to a lady's inconvenience at such a time. May I request to JACOBITE LOYALTY 115 see the infant ? " The child was brought, and the Highlander, taking from his bonnet his white cockade, and pinning it to the baby's breast, said : " That will be a token to any of our people who may come hither, that Donald Macdonald of Kinloch Moidart has taken the family of Rose Castle under his protection/' Throughout the Forty-five, the Duke of Perth was noted for his courtesy towards his enemies ; and even Doddridge remarks that his conduct was "very humane in many cases." On one occasion, when pass- ing through Kendal with his escort a little in advance, the Duke narrowly escaped capture in his carriage. Anxious to avoid taking life, he told his men to fire over the heads of the mob.^^ Maxwell of Kirkconnell, describing the Jacobite occupation of Carlisle, says that the people of that town " all expressed their sense of the great civility and amity with which they had been treated by the Duke of Perth, who commanded in the town till the Prince arrived.'^ Charles Edward himself made every effort to regulate the behaviour of his troops en route. Writing to his English adherents soon after his victory at Prestonpans, he says that what he depends on and expects is, "that as many of them as can, should take care to provide Provisions and Money, that the Country may suffer as little as possible by the March of my Troops." In these his efforts, the Prince was ably seconded by Lord George Murray ; and also by Lochiel, who, in his ardour for discipline, shot a clansman for Ti6 JACOBITE LOYALTY stealing. After the Jacobites had captured Edin- burgh, Lord George issued a proclamation to the effect ** That if any soldier or officer, in his royal highness's army, shall be guilty of any abuse in taking, pillaging, or dis- turbing any of the good people of Edinburgh or in the country, by forcibly taking away any of their goods, without making a fair Bargain, and Payment made, shall be punished, whenever taken up, and found guilty of the above offenses, by a court-martial and shall suffer death, or whatever other punishment the court-martial shall think fit to inflict upon them ; it being his Royal Highness's unalterable resolution to protect the country in the full Enjoyment of their Rights and Privileges." Lord Elcho shows that this proclamation was no empty threat. He tells that, in Edinburgh, " Their were court-martials satt every day for the discipline of the Army, and some delinquents were punish'd with death " ; and he adds : " Their was a great many proclamations to prevent thefts and robberies. The Highlanders no doubt committed some, but a great Many more were done by people who putt on white Cockades for that end, and did not at all belong to the Army ; but at last their was a trusty officer and party putt into all the villages about Edin^' to put a Stop to it." Several passages in his journal show how strenuously Lord George Murray tried to prevent rapine on the part of his troops. But above all," he says, " I was particularly careful to have discipline as exactly kept as was possible, and, to the utmost of my power, I protected the country JACOBITE LOYALTY 117 wherever I went. ... I never took the least thing without paying the full value." He tells how he tried to keep the men together while on the march, saying that, if they straggled "great abuses would be committed, which above all things we were to avoid." Lord George was by no means the only officer who was careful in this respect. Lord Elcho, after stating that " the army did no manner of mischief the whole march up to Derby," affirms that " the officers paid for everthing they gott, and very often very extra- vagantly, which they did rather than disoblidge the people." The example thus set by the officers had the desired effect, and Lord George Murray says of his soldiers : I never heard of an army, generally speaking, so temperate." This statement is corroborated by those of several other writers. Maxwell of Kirkconnell, detailing events in Edinburgh after the battle of Prestonpans, writes : " Lochiel had obtained of the Prince the guard of the City, which he was more acquainted with than the rest of the High- land chiefs, and his discipline was so exact that the city guns, persons, and effects, were as secure as in time of sound peace. There was indeed some pilfering in the country, but no more than what was unavoidable in the neighbourhood of the most regular armies, and much less than what was to be expected from an army of undisciplined Highlanders."^^ The Lockhart chronicler affirms that the citizens of Edinburgh " cannot in justice but acknowledge that the behaviour of our Highlanders was civil and innocent beyond what their best friends could have ii8 JACOBITE LOYALTY expected Lord Elcho asserts that " The com- mon soldiers did little or no damage in going up to Darby ; " and the anonymous author of Journal of the Marches of His Royal Highness the Prince Regenfs Army^ writes : ^' During both times that Carlisle was blockaded, there was but one Man killed, and one wounded. The militia that served in Carlisle, all the Inhabitants of the City, as well as the Neighbourhood, can testify the exact Dis- cipline of his Royal Highnesses Army, who paid for every Thing. All the Subjects were protected in the full Enjoyment of their Liberties and Properties." The Whigs themselves owned that the conduct of the Jacobite forces was exemplary. " When the Highland parties came," says Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, " they were civilly used, and so committted no disorders about the house, . . . ."^^ And the author of the AVood- houselee MS., talking of the Highlanders' march to Edinburgh, writes : The rebels approached with good discipline for to give them their due never did 6000 theiving naked ruffiens with uncowth wappons make so harmless a march in a civilised plentiful country, and theMiscipline was so severe they hanged up one or two at Lithgow for plunder- ing." And again : " Monday October 21, we had a new alarme of Highlanders. Captain Stewart and his party with Liftenant Stewart came in search of armes. They came with a party of 16 and were civill. Mrs Philip and her Highland gward, one Stewart, paid us a visit October 22, these are all civill and protect the country . . . ." JACOBITE LOYALTY 119 NOTES AND REFERENCES. Lecky, ii. 28 ^ Waverley, Note L. * Elcho 210. 4 Ray, 64. 5 Gillean, 437, D.N.B. Art. Gordon. ^ List, 381. At his trial it was deponed: ''The prisoner was a very active man in the rebel army, and was looked upon to be one of the best disciplined officers in it." Allar- dyce, ii. 387. ^ D.N.B. art. Macpherson. Sir Walter Scott talks of him as "that gallant chief." Waverley, Note A. A. ^ Memoirs, 41, 59. ^ Described in Itinerary 104. Grant was not the only geographer in Prince Charles's army. Another Jacobite soldier who published a map illustrative of the rising was John Finlayson, a mathe- matical instrument maker in Edinburgh. His work is described in Sidlights 56 and Itinerary 107. Donald, i. 360. Ramsay, i. 31 Collectanea, i. 225, 226. ^2 Keppoch, 44, 45, 48. Broughton, 240. "Lord George Murray was the soul of the undertaking," says Sir Walter Scott. Journal, Feb. loth 1826. The Chevalier Johnstone writes : " Lord George Murray, who had the charge of all the details of our army, and who had the sole operation of it, possessed a natural genius for military operations ; and was indeed a man of surprising talents, which, had they been cultivated by the study of military tactics, would unquestionably have rendered him one of the greatest generals of the age." Memoirs, 19. 14 Jacobite, 35, 46. Jacobite, 71,125. Jacobite, 30. 17 Ray, vii. 18 Woodhouselee, 88, 89. i^ Tulloch, 56, 57. 2^ Home, iii. 258. Maxwell, 132. 22 Lockhart, ii. 533. ^3 Doddridge, 256. 24 g^^^-^ i. 217, 218. Compare Ramsay, ii. 397, 398. 25 Garth, 136. Charles, ii. 164. Chambers, 183. See also an ancedote in Journal, Oct. 30th 1826. 27 Elcho, 310. 28 Garth 124. 29 Monastery, Note. B. 30 Doddridge, 206. ^'^i D.N.B. Art. Perth. ^2 Maxwell, JACOBITE LOYALTY 64, 65. '^^ Ray, 57. Culloden, 226. Broughton, 214. Elcho, 281, 291. 36 Jacobite, 30, 126, 127. ^'^ Jacobite, 128. Maxwell, 46. Lockhart, ii. 488. 4^ Elcho, 351. AUardyce, i. 283. Clerk, 188. Woodhouselee, 17, 57. HUMANITY I In Edinburgh, in 1745, there existed the most extraordinary ideas concerning the Highlanders in Prince Charles's army — a fact evinced by many statements in the account of the trial of Archibald Stewart, who, after the cessation of the rising, was charged with " Neglect of Duty, and Misbehaviour in the Execution of his Office, as Lord Provost of Edinburgh, before and at the Time the Rebels got possession of that City." It is here written that " never Enemy was received with greater Dread, or painted out in stronger Colours of Cruelty and Barbarity : From the Newspapers, from the Pulpits, from all the best Accounts, nothing was to be ex- pected from them but what was fierce, savage, and inhuman." ^ This opinion of the Highlanders was practically universal ; and Sir John Cope, address- ing his army before the battle of Prestonpans, said : " Gentlemen, you are now to engage with a parcel of Rable, a parcel of Brutes, Being a small number of Scots Highlanders."^ Bravery and brutality seldom go hand in hand. That the Highlanders were brave is shown by the very nature of their undertaking in 1745; that they were humane is equally certain. Renan, in the essay already re- 121 122 JACOBITE LOYALTY ferred to, talks of the Celtic races as noted for " extreme mildness of manners," points out that " the ideal of a gentle and polished society " first found its way into literature through the medium of the Cymric romances, and shows that, in almost all the great Celtic poems, the desire for vengeance finds no expression. It is difficult to believe that, when he wrote thus, he was not thinking of the last Jacobite rising, for throughout the Forty-five the conduct of the Highlanders exemplified to an extraordinary extent those traits which Renan attributes to the Celtic races in general. The humanity of the clansmen towards their enemies was remarkable, and serves to disprove the asper- sions under which they lie, and to illustrate the purity of motive which inspired them in taking arms. During his sojourn in Scotland, during his whole life, indeed, Charles Edward was humane to a fault. When the Jacobites were marching into England, they seized one Weir, a government spy. By the laws of war, he should have been shot ; " yet so surprising," says Murray of Brough- ton, was the Chevalier's humanity and good nature, that he would not inflict on him the punishment he so justly demerited. . . And Maxwell of Kirkconnell writes : " I cannot tell whether the Prince on this occasion was guided by his opinion or his inclination; I suspect the latter, because it was his constant practice to spare his enemies when they were in his power. I don't believe there was one instance to the JACOBITE LOYALTY 123 contrary to be found in the whole expedition." ^ The example of humanity thus set by Charles was follow^ed by almost all his officers. After Prestonpans the Jacobites showed the greatest kindness towards their wounded enemies, and carried many of them to the infirmary at Edin- burgh. Lord Elcho, describing the victory, says : As soon as the pursuit began all the Principal Officers Mounted on horseback in order to save and proteck Gen. Cope's Officers as much as they could . . ; and he adds : As most of General Cope's Surgeons had run away, the Prince sent into Edinr. for some, and the wounded were taken very good care of." ^ The Lockhart chronicler has a valuable passage on this subject : "Now whatever notion or sentiments the low country people may entertain of our Highlanders, this day there were many proofs to a diligent spectator amidst all the bloodshed (which at the first shock was unavoidable) of their humanity and mercy ; for I can with the strictest truth and sincerity declare that I often heard the people call out to the soldiers if they wanted quarters (su)^ and we the officers exerted our utmost pains to protect the soldiers from their first fury, when either through their stubborness or want of language they did not cry for quarters, and I observed some of our privat men run to P. Seton for ale and other liquors to support the wounded. And as one proof for all, to my own particular observation, I saw a Highlander supporting a poor wounded soldier by the arms till he could ease nature, and afterwards carry him on his back into a house. ... In all which we followed not only the dictates of humanity but the orders of our P. in all, like the true father of his country."^ 124 JACOBITE LOYALTY In thus caring for their enemies, the Jacobites followed not merely " the orders of our P. in all," but also those of Lord George Murray. That officer showed personal kindness towards many prisoners taken at Prestonpans, buying provisions for them himself, and ministering to their comfort to the utmost of his ability. Talking of his own captivies, he says that nothing gave him more pleasure "than having it so immediately in my power to save those men, as well as several others." He tells how, when he could not induce the "country people of that neighbourhood" to convey the wounded to houses, he " got some of our people to do it " ; and he affirms that " His Royal Highness caused take the same care of their wounded as of ours." ^ Maxwell of Kirk- connell confirms this statement. He says that, at Prestonpans, the Prince and his officers "got more honour by their humanity than even by their bravery"; and of the prisoners taken by the Jacobites at this time he writes : *' They had been allowed the liberty of the city of Edin- burgh upon their parole till two or three of them made their escape, upon which most of those that were not wounded were sent to Perth, and had the liberty of the town, where they continued till the Prince went into England. While he was there, some of the officers were detected sending intelli- gence to Edinburgh, and after Lord John Drummond's arrival they endeavoured to debauch his men. As these particulars were contrary to the word of honour they had given, no punishments could be too severe for those that were guilty, nevertheless, such was the lenity of those that commanded for the Prince at Perth, that they inflicted no punishment at JACOBITE LOYALTY 125 all, and only endeavoured to put it out of their power to do any further mischief, by removing them to Glamis, Leslie, and Cowper, where they could want for nothing, and were under no restraint but their parole." Concerning prisoners taken later in the cam- paign, the same writer says : "The officers that were afterwards taken in Sutherland, were as well used as if their fellow officers had behaved themselves like men of honour. Even the common soldiers were as well treated as the necessity of the Prince's affairs would allow. He had a great many of them on his hands towards the end, and they were maintained while his own men could hardly find subsistence ; so that if it is possible to err on the side of lenity, several errors of this kind may justly be imputed to him (Charles). . . Maxwell was thoroughly justified in thus eulo- gising " the lenity of those that commanded for the Prince." At Prestonpans the Duke of Perth said he was deeply grieved to see so much English blood spilt.^ Lord Lewis Gordon, writing to Mac- leod of Macleod after the battle of Inverurie, said : " All the care in our power has and shall be taken of your wounded men ; and all the prisoners that were taken under their arms shall meet with all the civility in our power. ... I shall take care to order supplies to be given to all the prisoners who want them, and the wounded men are as well taken care of as our own." ^ Lord George Murray, whose humanity towards the wounded has already been observed, was noted throughout the whole of the Forty-five for his exemplary conduct in this respect. A little before CuUoden he captured a 126 JACOBITE LOYALTY Swedish officer serving under the Prince of Hesse. This officer expressed surprise at the great kind- ness he met with from his captor ; and, after the suppression of the rising, many EngUsh soldiers who had been temporarily prisoners of the Jacobite army, wTote to Lord George, mentioning their gratitude for the courteous treatment they had received at his hands. II It is necessary, ere a just estimate can be formed of the humanity shown by the Jacobites to their enemies, to examine such statements as were made by Whigs on this subject. Alexander Carlyle, who, in 1745, was living at Prestonpans ; and who, after the fight, visited the battlefield with a view to ministering to the needs of the w^ounded, gives some valuable information con- cerning the conduct of the Highlanders after their victory. Describing his negotiations wuth the Jacobites, he says : The officers with whom I mixed were gentleman-like, and very civil to me, as I was on an errand of humanity. I was conducted to Lochiel, who was polished and gentle, and w^ho ordered a soldier to make all the inquiry he could about the medicine-chests of the dragoons." He tells of the courteous and gentlemanly conduct of the Duke of Perth, and describes one Captain Stewart as " grave and of polished manners." He mentions "wdth what humanity I had seen the wounded officers treated," JACOBITE LOYALTY 127 and relates that some friends of his, who were " well acquainted with the Highland chiefs, assured us that there was no danger, as they were civil to everybody." ^'^ After the Forty-five, several Jacobite soldiers obtained pardon on account of the humanity they had shown towards their enemies. Among these was Archibald Stewart, a servant of the Duke of Perth. He saved the life of Major Bowles at Prestonpans, and that officer afterwards wrote to his brother, William Bowles, M.P., on Stewart's behalf. He said that he gladly embraced " the opportunity of endeavouring to show my gratitude to a man who undoubtedly was more than instru- mental in saving my life," and who " supported me when I was fainting and almost dying with the great loss of blood which ran from eleven wounds." Lieutenant Drummond, of Colonel Lee's regiment, also wrote on Stewart's behalf ; and told how the latter had carried him and other wounded to a house at Prestonpans. Another Jacobite who obtained pardon in the same way was Captain Robert Taylor. When he was tried at Carlisle, many Whigs testified on his behalf ; and Professor Monro of Edinburgh University, w^ho had been at Prestonpans after the battle, told of the kind- ness which Taylor had there shown towards the wounded. On the 12th of October 1745, one Eagle Griffith wrote to General Guest (command- ing Edinburgh Castle) as follows : " It was recommended to me by last post to present you with Colonel's Whiteford's, Colonel Halket's, and the other 128 JACOBITE LOYALTY field officers' compliments, and to acquaint you from them that they and most of the officers had taken particular notice of the remarkable care Mr Taylour (now a prisoner in the Castle) took of our wounded prisoners at Colonel Gardiner's house and by his tender good offices and great assiduity in getting surgeons, providing refreshments, etc. This they thought a piece of justice to the gentleman to acquaint you of, that you may have an opportunity to give such orders about his confinement as you shall think proper. "^^ One other example of humanity on the part of a Jacobite officer must be cited. In a petition made after the Forty-five by the moderator, ministers, and presbytery of Alford on behalf of James Farquharson of Balmoral, it is stated " that his (Farquharson^s) conduct before engaging in the late unnatural Rebellion was very agreeable to the rules of humanity and morality, remarkable for benevolence, friendship, and hospitality." It is further told that, throughout the rising, Farqu- harson still retained his humanity and other social virtues, and gave signal proofs thereof in his mild and discreet behaviour to, and protection of some of us and (as we have been well informed) of our brethren in other places, from the dangers to which our loyalty to His Majesty did then expose us, and shewed all the kindness and did all the services in his power to severall of his Majesty's faithful subjects, our countrymen, and acquaintances who were taken prisoners by the Rebells. ..." One Charles Maitland, an advo- cate, testified to the same effect on Farquharson's behalf. He said that ''in the time of the late JACOBITE LOYALTY 129 rebellion I was taken prisoner by the Rebels, and with other prisoners came under a guard from Aberdeen to Perth ; that we past by Dundee where James Farquharson of Balmoral had the command ; that the said James Farquharson did not only use the prisoners with humanity and tenderness, but did everything in his power to releave and assist us. . . John Chalmers, Principal of King's College, Aberdeen, wrote in the same tenor. He told that I was taken prisoner by the Rebels " ; that " I was in com- pany of James Farquharson of Balmurle," and that the prisoners " were treated by him with uncommon discretion and humanity.'^ NOTES AND REFERENCES 1 Trial, i. 155. ^ AUardyce, ii. 607. ^ Broughton, 248; Maxwell, 71. ^ Elcho, 272, 276, 277. ^ Lock- hart, ii. 491. ^ Jacobite, 40, 41, 42. Maxwell, 42, 107, 169. ^ Gleanings, 12. ^ Culloden, 466. Jacobite, 109. Jacobite, 128. Carlyle, 142, 145, 147, 148, 149. Carlisle makes an exception of Lord Elcho, but that nobleman's biographer, the Hon. Evan Charteris, says ; '* I have been unable to find any evidence to support the charge. Such accusations were lightly made." Elcho, 108. Gleanings, 14 ^/ seg^. AUardyce, ii. 620 et seq. I ON THE SCAFFOLD Nothing illustrates better the spirit of Jacobite loyalty than the letters and speeches, written and made before execution ; of those who suffered death for taking part in the Forty-five. Almost all these sufferers continued, to the last, to justify the cause which had brought them to the scaffold ; and declared that, if set at liberty, they would act in the same w^ay as they had done. Many of them stated that they had taken arms from motives of duty, and that they regarded the restoration of the Stuarts and the w^elfare of Great Britain as synonymous. Sir Archibald Primrose of Dunipace, writing to his sister, said that he was to die "for my religion, my prince, and my country" ; and added, " For each of these I wdsh I had a thousand lives to spend." ^ Charles Gordon of Terperse expressed sentiments of a like nature. " I now tell you," he wrote to his wife, " that I suffer death to-morrow for my duty to God, my king, and country." ^ Lord Balmerino showed the most extraordinary fortitude on the scaffold. One John Walkinshaw, who was with him to the last, wTOte : ''I cannot say I have know^n one cheerful day but the i8th, when I attended, 130 JACOBITE LOYALTY in his last moments, the greatest man that ever lived and was enabled by I do not know what power to go through and support that trial." ^ In a speech which he made before death, Balmerino affirmed that, in attempting to rein- state the Stuarts on the English throne, he had done what he considered right : I was brought up in true loyal Anti-Revolution principles, and I hope the world is convinced that they stick to me. I must acknowledge I did a very inconsiderate thing, for which I am heartily sorry, in accepting of a company of foot from the Princess Anne, who I knew had no more right to the crown than her predecessor the Prince of Orange, whom I always look upon as a vile, unnatural usurper. To make amends for what I had done I join'd the King when he was in Scotland, and when all was over I made my escape and liv'd abroad till the year 1734. . . . When his royal highness came to Edinburgh, as it was my bounden and indispensable duty, I join'd him, though I might easily have excused myself from taking arms on account of my age. But I never could have had peace of conscience if I had stayed at home when that brave Prince was exposing himself to all manner of dangers and fatigue both night and day. I am at a loss when I come to speak of the Prince ; I am not a fit hand to draw his character. I shall leave that to others. But I must beg leave to tell you the incomparable sweetness of his nature, his affability, his compassion, his justice, his temperance, his patience, and his courage are virtues, seldom all to be found in one person. ... I hope you will have the charity to believe I die in peace with all men, for yesterday I received the Holy Eucharist from the hands of a clergyman of the Church of England, in whose Communion I die as in union with the Episcopal Church of Scotland." 4 132 JACOBITE LOYALTY Thomas Theodore Deacon, a Heutenant in the regiment which Charles Edward raised in Man- chester, said that he was "happy in having an opportunity of dying in so just and so glorious a cause." ^ Another English Jacobite, Thomas Syddall, adjutant of the Manchester regiment, told that he had not been " tempted to enter into the army commanded by the Prince of Wales by any ambitious or self-interested views ; said that if the gallant good Prince hath any fault it would be that of an ill-timed humanity " ; and added : " My motive for serving in the Prince's army was the duty I owe to God, the King, and the Country, in endeavouring the restoration of King James the Third and the royal family ; which I am persuaded is the only human means by which this nation can ever become great and happy." ^ Syddall's words were echoed by Mac- donell of Tiendrish, who spoke as follows : *'As I am now to suffer a publick, cruel, barbarous and (in the eyes of the world) an ignominious and shameful death, I think myself obliged to acknowledge to the world that it was principle and a thorough conviction of its being my duty to God, my injured king and oppressed country, which engaged me to take up arms under the standard and magnanimous conduct of his royal highness, Charles, Prince of Wales, etc. It was always my strongest inclination as to worldly concerns to have our ancient and only rightful royal family restored, and even (if God would) to lose my life chearfully in promoting the same. I solemnly declare I had no by-views in drawing my sword in that just and honourable cause, but the restoration of my king and prince to the throne, the recovery of our liberties to this unhappy island which has JACOBITE LOYALTY 133 been so long loaded with usurpation, corruption, treachery and bribery ; being sensible that nothing but the king's restoration could make our country flourish, all ranks and degrees happy, and free both Church and State from the many evil consequences of Revolution principles. ... I here declare I die an unworthy member of the Roman Catholic Church, in the communion of which I have lived, however much her tenets be spoken against and misrepre- sented by many ; and in that I now expect salvation through the sufferings and merits and mediation of my only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But I hereby declare upon the word of a dying man that it was with no view to establish or force that religion upon this nation that made me join my Prince's standard, but purely owing to that duty and allegiance which was due to our only rightful, lawful and natural sovereign, ... I am hopeful and am persuaded that my valorous prince, by the blessing of God, will at last be successful, and when in his power, will, under God, take care of my poor wife and family. And as I have no worldly fortune to leave my dear son, I recommend him to the blessing and protection of Almighty God, as the best legacy I can give him, and earnestly require his obedience to my last and dying command, which is to draw his sword in his King's, his Prince's, and his country's service, as often as occasion offers and his lawful sovereign requires. ... I conclude with my blessing to my dearest wife and all my relations and friends, and humbly beg of my God to restore the King, to grant success to the Prince's arms, to forgive my enemies and receive my soul. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly ! Into Thy hands I resign my spirit ! " NOTES AND REFERENCES. ^ Lyon, i. 122. Some time before WTiting the above. Prim- rose had pleaded guilty. In the letter to his sister he expresses deep regret for having taken so disloyal a step. " I thought JACOBITE LOYALTY by my plea," he says, " to procure some time longer life only to do service to my poor family, not doubting but yet in a short time that glorious cause will succeed, which God of His infinite mercy grant. I repent most heartily for what I did, and I merit this death for my punishment, and I trust in the Almighty for mercy to my poor soul." ^ Lyon, i. 252. ^ Gleanings, 26. ^ Lyon, i. 54. ^ Lyon, i. 22. ^ Lyon, i. 26 seq. ^ Lyon, i. 34. WAIFS AND STRAYS I It now remains to collect those waifs and strays of tradition and history which serve to illustrate the spirit of Jacobite loyalty. It has been already shown that some of Charles's followers were in extreme old age when they took arms — a fact which shows that they were not, as stated by Buckle, prompted by desire for plunder and hope of self aggrandisement. In 1745 the chief of the Mackinnons was past sixty,^ while Gordon of Glen- bucket was seventy-four.^ Lord George Murray describes the latter as " very infirm," and another contemporary writer says, " He is a very old man much crouched." ^ After CuUoden, Glenbucket escaped abroad, and hght is thrown on the nature of his loyalty by letters which he wrote in exile. Writing in 1747 to Edgar, the Chevalier's secre- tary, he talks of the happiness which fighting for the Prince has given him ; says that to live to see the King restored, is my earnest prayers and wish " ; and reverts with pleasure and pride to services done him by Charles and the Chevalier. In this letter he applied to Edgar to ask the Chevalier to renew his (Glenbucket's) commission as a Major- General, which commission he had 13s 136 JACOBITE LOYALTY lost ; and on this being granted, he expressed the most ardent gratitude. Prince Charles, writing to his father on this subject, says that he has " punctually obeid your orders in regard to good Glenbucket, who is penetrated with your Majesty's gracious expressions and goodness for him." * It is not known exactly how old the Marquis of TuUibardine was in 1745,^ but it is certain that he was far advanced in years. His feelings con- cerning the House of Stuart are shown by a letter which, soon after Prestonpans, he wrote to the Earl of Cromartie. In this he calls upon that nobleman to " serve the King for the delivery of your country from oppression," and says : As doubtless you are informed of his Highnesses com- plete victory, your Lordship will also encourage your neighbours quickly to second his glorious undertaking."^ Another illustrative case is that of Sir David Threipland of Fingask. When the Prince came to Scotland, Sir David was nearly eighty years of age, so did not at first join the Jacobite army, though his two sons did. Tradi- tion in the Threipland family asserts that, when Sir David heard of the retreat from Derby, he decided that he was in duty bound to join the forlorn hope, and that he died suddenly while making preparations to follow the Prince."^ Threipland was not the only man who rallied to the Jacobite cause when its prospects were dark. When the Highlanders were encamped at Stirling (January 1746), after their retreat from Derby, they were largely reinforced. Lord Lewis JACOBITE LOYALTY 137 Gordon brought many men from Aberdeenshire, including a regiment under Moir of Stonywood, one under Gordon of Avochy, and another under Farquharson of Monaltrie ; while Lady Macintosh and Lady Fortrose (Seaforth) sent regiments which they had raised among their tenants. At this time also, Charles was joined by the Earl of Cromartie with a number of Mackenzies. Barisdale, young Glengarry, and the elder Lochiel, brought rein- forcements from the west, and Glengyle some Macgregors from Perthshire. The Master of Lovat led out the clan of Eraser.^ II The motives of the Jacobites are clearly ex- emplified by a manifesto which Charles's officers issued after their capture of Edinburgh. In this they declare themselves determined and resolved to set their country at liberty, by establishing that glorious plan which has been freely offered to us by the only rightful Prince of the British nations." They affirm that " The justice therefore of the cause we now appear for, the interest of the nation which we support and pursue, and the glorious character of our royal leader, may each by itself, or all together, abundantly convince the nation, that now at last there appears an happy and un- forseen opportunity of acquiring all those blessings which a distrest nation has been so long wishing for in vain.'' They describe themselves as " carry- ing into execution a scheme calculated and adapted 138 JACOBITE LOYALTY to those principles of liberty, which the true lovers of their country have been polishing and refining for these many years past." And they conclude by calling on their countrymen to " chearfuUy join issue with us, and share in the glory of restoring our king, and in setting their country free, which, by the strength of our arm, and the blessing of Almighty God, w^e shortly expect to see accom- plished."^ The part played by the Macleods in the rising is of interest and importance ; for it refutes Hill Burton's and Lecky's statements as to the clansmen having no loyalty save to their chiefs, and being ready to follow these in any cause. In 1745, Macleod of Macleod himself took arms for the government ; but he could not induce his tenants to join him, save by falsely teUing them that they were going to fight for Charles Edw^ard. Many of them, after finding that they had been imposed upon, deserted ; and several of them joined the Prince, and expressed great indignation at the behaviour of their chief. A plan of the battle of Culloden, printed in the Scots Magazine for 1746, shows a battaUon of Macleods, 100 strong, on the left centre of the first line. The Prince, while in hiding, found many of his staunchest ad- herents, his most faithful helpers, among the Mac- leods ; and one of these, Donald Macleod of Gualtergill, talking of the conduct of his chief, said to Charles that he had " played the rogue to you altogether. " Two Macleods who merit particular notice are Muiravonside and Bernera. JACOBITE LOYALTY 139 Of Muiravonside,who was an advocate by profession, Sir Walter Scott tells that he " became extremely obnoxious to government by his zealous personal efforts to engage his chief, Macleod, and Mac- donald of Sky, in the Chevalier's attempt of 1745."^^ Bernera, on being summoned by his chief to bring his men to Dunvegan to proceed against Prince Charles, wrote at once an expost- ulary letter. He said that " in any other quarrel" he should at once have obeyed the commands of his chief ; but in the present," he added, I must go where a more imperious duty calls me." Having written thus, he made his way to the Jacobite camp. Besides that of the Macleods, there were numerous instances in 1745 of clansmen being Jacobite though chiefs were Whig. The Earl of Breadalbane had to take strong measures to prevent his tenants from joining the Prince ; and, long before Cluny had been induced to take part in the rising, many of his clansmen were, according to Stewart of Garth, impatient to join the advent- urous decendant of their ancient sovereigns, when he came to claim what they considered his right." Eleven hundred men of the clan Grant offered their military services to their chief, pro- vided he would lead them against the government forces ; but, on his taking the part of King George, he found it impossible to rally his clansmen. " It is a thing well known," said a member of the clan to Bishop Forbes in 1750, *'that the Grants would not rise in arms, even at the importunity of their own chief." The case of the Erasers, whose I40 JACOBITE LOYALTY chief, Lord Lovat, played a double part, is of im- portance. Duncan Forbes of CuUoden relates how, though Lovat himself did not join the Jacobite army, his son put himself at the head of his clan, who are passionately fond of following him, and who cannot be restrained by my Lord's authority from following the fortunes of the Ad- venturous Prince. . . And Lovat himself, writing to Duncan Forbes, says that Clanchattan's rendezvousing to go and join the Highlanders has so intoxicated my people that I find it morally impossible for me to stop them." Of Lovat's testimony to the Jacobite ardour of his clansmen, Stewart of Garth says : " Although his is not the best authority, I have had sufficient evidence of his correctness in this respect from an eye-witness." The same writer, dwelling on this topic of loyalty to the Stuarts on the part of Highlanders whose chiefs adhered to the government in 1745, affirms that " many circumstances which occurred at that period, are of themselves sufficient to prove, that the Highlanders were not those slaves to the caprice and power of their chiefs they have been supposed ; and that, on the contrary . . . the latter were obliged to pay court, and yield to the will and independent spirit of their clans." And he adds : These facts also refute a general opinion, that those who engaged in the Rebellion were forced out by their Chiefs and Lairds, and that indeed on all occasions the principles or caprice of their Chief guided those of the clan, and that, whatever side he took, they followed." JACOBITE LOYALTY III It is not possible to prove that every noted Jacobite who drew his sword in 1745 was prompted purely by motives of patriotism and duty ; but it is certain that none took arms for the reasons ascribed to them by historians repeatedly referred to in this essay. Three men whose motives in fighting can be illustrated are Lord John Drummond, Major Stewart, and the Duke of Perth. Lord John, in a proclamation which he issued at Montrose in December 1745, refers to " the just and undisputable title of the Stuarts to the British throne.^^ Stewart, in prison after CuUoden, was questioned: ''Did you cause your men fire upon the King's army ? " No," he replied, '' I caused my men fire upon the Elector of Hanover's army." 20 Qf Perth, Lord Elcho writes : " He was a very brave and gallant man, and devotedly attached to the House of Stuart " ; while Maxwell of Kirkconnell relates that the Duke, on one occasion, said " he never had anything in view but the Prince's interest, and would cheerfully sacrifice anything to it."^^ The Jacobites of England do not lie under such bitter imputations as have been laid on those of the Highlands ; yet they have been assailed, and therefore deserve to be defended. It is of value to note that, on the banner borne by the regiment which Prince Charles raised in Manchester, there was inscribed on the one side " Liberty and Property," and on the other, Church and 142 JACOBITE LOYALTY Country " ; and that this regiment, according to Maxwell of Kirkconnell, was composed of " some young men of the most reputable families in the town/' 22 Still bearing in mind the extraordinary state- ments of writers to the effect that many who sup- ported the exile dynasty in 1745 "heeded not whether Stuart or Hanoverian gained the day," it is important to examine letters which were written by Jacobites, the nature of whose loyalty cannot be well shown save by citation of their correspondence. Young Clanranald, writing to Prince Charles in 1750, says: "It was the greatest pleasure in the world for me to learn by the same hand that forwards this, that your Royal Highness was well. Many an anxious and uneasy hour have I spent for you since I had last the honour to see you. When I have that honour again, God grant it may be in a happier time." He requests that the Prince should be godfather to a child of whose birth he (Clanranald) is in expectation. " If I have a son," he writes, " it shall be my care to educate him in principles agreeable to you, to render him worthy the honour of bearing your name " ; and he concludes by declaring that he is, with the truest sincerity and loyalty. Your Royal Highness's most obliged, and most obedient, and most devoted subject and servant." Writing again in September of the following year to the Prince, young Clanranald mentions his " sincere respect and loyalty " ; and talks of "The inviolable zeal and attachment JACOBITE LOYALTY 143 I have for your royal person and interest, to which I wish from my heart more success than to my own. . . ."^^ In these expressions of ardent devotion, young Clanranald was echoed by many other Jacobites, notably Lochgarry, Lord Nairne, and the Viscount Strathallan. Lochgarry, in a letter addressed to Charles Edward in June 1750, says that "the interest of your Royal Highness has ever been my chief concern, and ever shall be so in whatever shape of life fortune may throw me." He mentions the " valuable honor " of the Prince's countenance, which, he affirms, " I would not renounce for any consideration below that of seeing the face of my God in mercy." That Lochgarry firmly believed that the restoration of the Stuarts and the welfare of Scotland were synonymous is proven by what, in September 1750, he wrote to Sir Hector Maclean. Talking of the miseries which the Highlanders are enduring under the Hanoverian government, he says : *^ God Almighty send these poor people a respite, and an opportunity to show what they would do to restore their King and relieve their country." Lord Nairne, writing to the Chevalier in February 1751, declares: "All that I have suffered or lost for the royal cause never gave me so much uneasiness as I now feel, in finding myself under an absolute necessity of giving your sacred Majesty the trouble of this letter to acquaint you that Lady Nairne and Lady Clementina have been obliged to leave their native country and come to this for bread." After re- 144 JACOBITE LOYALTY questing that James should do something towards aiding these ladies, he asserts that whatever happens to me in this world, nothing, by the assistance of Almighty God, shall ever alter me in the duty and loyalty I owe to your sacred person and royal family, but shall ever remain to the last drop of my blood, sir, Your Majesty's most faithfull, most obedient, and devoted subject and servant." The Viscount Strathallan, though he lost all by his share in the Forty-five, continued unshaken in his devotion to the Stuarts; and when, in October 1 750, he petitioned the Chevalier to procure him a commission in the French army, he expressed himself in a manner which showed that he regarded his services on behalf of the exiled house as having been a mere matter of duty. " It gives me more concern/' he says, "to know that your Majesty is not in circum- stances at present to help me than it does to stand in need of that help, without which I never would have troubled your Majesty. IV The foregoing quotations clearly show the sacred light in which the partisans of the Stuarts looked on that dynasty. Further illustration of the Jacobites' standpoint in this respect is found in the narrative of Lord Elcho, who, describing the council which, during his invasion of England, Charles Edward was wont to hold from time to time among his principal officers, tells that there JACOBITE LOYALTY 145 were many "of the council who's principals were that Kings and Princes can never either act or think wrong. . . This extreme form of loyalty, a relic of the days of James L and of the Civil War, was probably held by only a few of Prince Charles's followers. Yet it certainly existed at the time of the Forty-five; and, particularly among ladies, this deification of the Lord's anointed was not uncommon in the eighteenth century. When the Jacobites w^ere marching to Derby, they crossed the Mersey at Cheadleford. A few gentlemen of Cheshire had drawn up on the southern bank of the river, and among them was one Mrs Skyring. She was in extreme old age, and as a child had been lifted up in her mother's arms to view the landing at Dover of Charles IL Her father, an old cavalier, had afterwards to undergo not merely neglect, but oppression, from that monarch ; yet he continued devoted to the House of Stuart, and his daughter grew up as loyal as he. After the Revolution, all her hopes and prayers were directed towards another Restora- tion ; and she annually laid aside one half of her income to remit to the royal exiles, concealing only the name of the sender, which, she said, was of no importance to them, and might give them pain if they remembered the unkind treatment the Skyring family had formerly received. Now, at the coming of Charles Edward, she had parted with every article of value she possessed, the price of which, in a purse, she laid at the feet of the K 146 JACOBITE LOYALTY Prince. Straining her dim eyes to gaze on his features, and pressing her hand to his lips, she felt that at last the dream of her life was realised, and exclaimed : " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." Tradition asserts that she did not long survive the shock which, a few days afterwards, was caused her by the news of Charles's retreat.'^^ Three Jacobite ladies who exemplify the most intense form of loyalty are Miss Christian Threip- land. Lady Balmerino, and Lady Strange {nee Isabella Lumisden). Miss Threipland, in a letter written a few days after Prestonpans, at which battle her brother David Threipland had been killed, expresses her deep regret for his loss, but declares that " we must not repine nor chew the pill we are commanded to swallow " ; and says that she has great consolation in the fact that " his master, whom he served faithfully, was pleased to take notice of his death, when I had the honour to be introduced to him." She then enters into an eulogy of the Prince, which, coming as k does from a lady of forty-four, well illustrates the passionate devotion won by the House of Stuart, and the sacred light in which that dynasty was regarded by its adherents. After describing Charles as "a gift from heaven/' and affirming that he is *'the top of perfection and heaven's darling," she writes : " Oh, may my good God, who has hitherto been so auspiciously gracious to him, influence his Councils, prosper all his Under- takings, and preserve his person from all secret JACOBITE LOYALTY 147 Pests and open Violence. Oh, would to God I had been a man, that I might have shared his fate of weal or wo, never to be removed from him." In June 1751 Lady Balmerino wrote from Edinburgh to the Chevalier de St George, stating that she was in a destitute condition, and request- ing his bounty. "All the days of my life," she says, after making her petition, " my earnest prayers shall never cease for your Majesty's preservation and restoration, and the increase and prosperity of your Majesty's royal family." Writing soon afterwards to thank James for a present he had sent her, she mentions, " my dear Lord, whose greatest honour is, and will be, to have lived and died for your Majesty's cause and service " ; and concludes : I esteem what your bounty bestows as sacred as the offerings of the Holy altar, neither to be wasted or misapplyed under pain of sacraledge."^^ Miss Threipland and Lady Balmerino did not regard the House of Stuart in a more sacred light than did Lady Strange. Princess of corre- spondents, her letters to her brother Andrew Lumisden, which form one of the most charming links with bygone Scotland, are full of confident assertions that in the restoration of the exiled dynasty is involved the welfare of Great Britain, and are replete with ardent praise of Charles Edward and the Chevalier. To her, the former is "the dear Prince," who is blessed with many " personal perfections"; and her mother's heart cannot ex- press better her admiration for her little son, than 148 JACOBITE LOYALTY by telling how, " when he went to the park every- body called him the Young Chevalier." In June 1747 she writes to Lumisden : "The situation of the Prince's affairs and those of his friends in France is a killing thought to me " ; and in the same letter she says of her infant daughter : " I hope one day to hear her bless God she was gotten, born, and nursed a good Jacobite, though 1 own at present 'tis not a profitable religion." Lady Strange reverenced her king as her con- science ; and when, during Charles Edward's latter years, she began to hear evil reports of the Prince, she made every effort to keep these from the public ear. In 1778, when news reached her that, owing to discreditable conduct on Charles's part, Lumisden had been dismissed from the post he had long held as secretary to the Prince, she wrote to her brother as follows : "I wish to bury from others what grieves me in the conduct of a friend who is dearer to me than life. O ! entreat the person whom I never saw (Cardinal York), but even for his father and family's sake I ever lov'd, to, if possible, patch up things so as, in the eye of the world, you may bid a respectful farewell. I could walk barefooted to kneel for this favor. ... If ever anything in prejudice to my darling's (the Prince's) character is suggested, I deny it, or find an excuse for it. ... I am perfectly satisfied, my dearest Andrew, that you have not failed in your duty, for which I thank God. ... All I beg is secrecy. Four-and- twenty years' faithful service cannot be rewarded with a frown ; no, you must be mistaken." Nothing, not even his ingratitude to her brother, JACOBITE LOYALTY 149 could shake her faith in Charles Edward ; and when, in 1788, she heard of his death, she said that "None can feel the loss of a friend more than I do that of the first man who drew my attention into actual life. ... I hope my friend is much happier now than this world could make him. He now views with a smile the littleness of all the pursuits of this world; but I find 1 must not pursue this subject, for it has so affected me I cannot hold the pen but with difficulty." But of all the letters of this staunch Jacobite lady, the most characteristic, and the one which best exemplifies her feelings towards her sovereign, is that which she wrote to Lumisden on the death of the old Chevalier in 1766 : "I will not renew your grief nor my own by regretting the loss of that friend we equally honoured and esteemed ; and yet I cannot be silent ; my heart is so full of that feeling of pain which cannot be described, only known to one that suffers like myself. If my twenty years' old acquaintance (Charles Edward) is now at your house, on your knees present my most respectful duty, nor blush to think a lady bid you do so. O, had I been of a more useful sex ! Had my pen been a sword, I had not been sitting tamely by my fireside, desiring you to do me a simple office like this. In those years, so many and so long, I have not been altogether idle, for I have made three fine boys, who I hope will do me credit : they'll be recruits when I'm gone ; I hope they'll all have Roman spirits in them. I'll instruct them that their lives are not their own when Rome demands them."'^^ Lady Strange's wishes concerning her sons were ISO JACOBITE LOYALTY never realised, the " three fine boys " finding other vocations in life than the service of the House of Stuart. Disappointed in this respect, their mother must often have recalled with pleasure that she had, in 1745, procured a valuable recruit for the Jacobite army. At the time that Charles Edward came to Scotland, Robert Strange was engaged to Isabella Lumisden ; and the lady, on hearing that the Prince had come to claim the throne, told her lover that he need never hope to marry her if he did not draw his sword in the cause of his rightful king.^^ Strange, who obeyed the orders of his fia7icee in this respect, was not the only man whose deeds on behalf of the Stuarts in 1745 were begotten of feminine influence. In has been already shown that Lady Mackintosh and Lady Fortrose, the Jacobite wives of Whig husbands, both raised men for the Prince's interest. Lady Kilmarnock induced her husband to take arms for Charles Edward, a fact which appears the more remarkable when it is remembered that in 1 7 15 Kilmarnock, not then married, had fought for King George.^^ It is known that Patrick Graham of Inchbrakie was unwilling to join the Prince, and it can scarcely be doubted that, when he eventually came out, he did so to win favour with Miss Oliphant of Gask, who was an ardent Jacobite, and with whom he was in love at the time of Charles's arrival. Lady Nithsdale pre- vailed on her husband to mount a White Cockade ; and it was in accordance with the wishes of his mother, the Dowager-Duchess of Gordon, that JACOBITE LOYALTY 151 Lord Lewis Gordon joined the Princess army.^^ The Marquis d'Equilles, Duncan Forbes of Cul- loden, Maxwell of Kirkconnell, and several other contemporary writers on the Forty-five, declare that the Jacobite enthusiasm of many ladies was of the greatest value to the cause of the House of Stuart, and that the exertions of the fair sex were, if a minor, yet as undoubted source of the last rising on behalf of the exiled dynasty. How much of this is heard in the blatant and confident state- ments of Dixon, Hill Burton, and Buckle ? V It may surely he taken for granted that, had the Jacobites been in arms with a view to plunder and rapine, their energies would have been cut short by the disaster to their arms at Culloden. It is thus important, in attempting to gain a right understanding of the Forty-five, to note that the hopes and aspirations of the Jacobites lingered for many years after the death knell of their cause had been tolled. The firmness with which many ad- herents of James III., even after losing all in his service, continued in their allegiance, has already been illustrated in this essay ; and it is now neces- sary to glance briefly at such efforts as were made, after the Forty-five, on behalf of the exiled King. The English Jacobites were active in 1750,^^ while the year 1753 witnessed the Elibank plot for the restoration of the Stuarts. When Boswell and 152 JACOBITE LOYALTY Johnson visited the Highlands in 1773, Macleod of Muiravonside assured them *'that Prince Charles was in London in 1759, ^^^^ there was then a plan in agitation for restoring the family." It is known that the Prince was in London in 1763,^'^ and it is certain that, at a much later date, he had many avowed adherents in England. In 1777 one Samuel Curwen, an American, kept a journal of a visit to England ; and he tells how, at Man- chester, he met a lady " who was in the abdicated family's interest, which is here openly professed ; all of that party putting up large oak boughs over their doors on the 29th May to express joy at the glorious event of the restoration of the Stuart family to the English throne ; many such I saw." He adds : ^' The ladies, who if they take a part are very violent, scruple not openly and without restraint to drink Prince Charlie's health, and express their wishes for his restoration to his paternal kingdom. I saw the house wherein the Prince, as he is called, dwelt whilst here (at the time of his invasion) ; the gentleman and his family still remain in it, and steady to their prin- ciples." In 1 7 7 8 some Jacobites wrote to Prince Charles from America, proposing to set up his standard there.^^ In Wales the adherents of the Stuarts were long eager, if not active ; and in an old Welsh ballad on the theme of Owen of the Red Hand — one of those popular heroes who are some day to wake from death-like slumber, and work wonders for their country — the following lines occur JACOBITE LOYALTY 153 Yr Owen hwn yw Harri'r Nawfed, Sydd yn trigo 'ngvvlad estronied." "^^ (This Owen is Henry the Ninth, who dwells in a foreign land.) These lines, which cannot have been written till after 1788, the year in which Charles Edward died, and his brother Henry (ob, 1807) was recognised as King by the Jaco- bites, are of twofold interest. Not only do they evince the longevity of Jacobitism in Wales, but they show that the Welsh adherents of the exiled house thought that the restoration of the Stuarts would bring welfare to the country. That belief was long held in Scotland, and, indeed, it was in that country, rather than in England, America, or Wales, that the Jacobites were really active after the Forty-five. Soon after Culloden, a number of gentlemen, including Lochiel, Major Kennedy (Lochiel's uncle), Gordon of Glenbucket, John Roy Stewart, Clanranald, Barisdale, Lochgarry, Sir Stuart Threipland, and Barisdale the younger, met near Loch Arkaig and agreed to the following resolutions : "We, subscribers, heads of clans, commanders and leaders, do hereby unanimously agree, and solemnly promise forth- with, with the utmost expedition, to raise in arms, for the interest of His Royal Highness Charles, Prince of Wales, and in defence of our country, all the able bodied men that all and every one of us can command or raise, within our respective interests or properties. . . . We further promise and engage ourselves, each to the other, to stand and abide by these our resolutions, for the interest of his Royal High- rS4 JACOBITE LOYALTY ness, and the good of our country, which we apprehend to be inseparable, to the last drop of our blood." Though this attempt at another rising proved abortive, the British government, for several years after the Forty-five, considered it necessary to have troops quartered all over the Highlands with a view to overawing the Jacobite clans- men. Lieutenant-Colonel Watson, drawing up in December 1747 a series of "Proposals for cantoning the five Highland additional com- panys in the Western Isles, and remoter Parts of the Highlands," assures that most of the people in the " above countries " are disaffected to His Majesty's Government." Captain Scott, writing from his station at Braemar in August 1749, talks of Jacobite activity, and adds : " The Ridiculous News amongst them (the Highlanders) is that the Pretender is landed in Long Island with 2000 men, which Spirits them up greatly." The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) which forced Louis XV. to eject Charles Edward from France, did much to end the hopes of the Jacobites. Yet, for many years after the conclusion of that peace, the British government was on the qui vive con- cerning efforts on behalf of the Stuarts. So late as 1753, it was thought advisable to execute Dr Archibald Cameron for the part he had played in 1745; while in 1756 the Lord Justice-Clerk declared that "the king's enemies are still attempt- ing to create an insurrection in the Highlands." The questions then arise : was it really necessary that troops should be quartered in the north for JACOBITE LOYALTY 155 long after the Forty-five; and had the government, ten years after Culloden, grounds to beUeve that the Jacobites were still active ? In 1746 the Chevalier Johnstone went to Paris, and he stayed there till 1748, in the hope that France would yet do something for the Stuarts.^^ In January 1747, Lochiel, writing from Paris to the Chevaher, shows by the tenor of his letter that he is still hopeful. " I most humbly beg leave/' he writes, " to renew my duty and respect to your Majesty in the beginning of the year, which I pray God may prove more prosperous to your Royall Family and Cause than the present face of things gives reason to expect." He declares that the present misfortunes tho' very great are not irretrievable " ; and adds : " the landing ten Regiments in Scotland before the Highlands are depopulated, will not only unite all the High- landers but all other Scotsmen of spirit in Y'' M's. cause, and give so much employment to the troops of the Government, that Y^ M's. loyal subjects in England may with small assistance be in a con- dition to shake off the yoke, and compleat their own deliverance and ours by a happy restoration." Writing to James Edgar six months later, Lochiel again refers to a possible Jacobite rising in Scot- land. " As for the hopes," he says, you would gladly entertain of seeing a more happy prospect of affairs, I wrote . . . very fully to his Majesty on that important subject, and by a view of the state of things both here and at home, am persuaded we have solid grounds to hope for a speedy comple- iS6 JACOBITE LOYALTY tion of all we wish. . . . This comfortable account has raised our spirits as much as contrary sur- mises had before depressed them, and determined us to exert ourselves with new vigour. . . ."^^ Lochiel was not the only man who, at this time, continued to seriously entertain the project of reinstating the Stuarts on the British throne ; and the Rev. Myles Macdonell, writing to the Chevalier in July 1747, declared that "the people at home were never so ripe, so well disposed, nor in greater hopes of another successful attempt ; being deter- mined to second it with all their power. . . James himself was buoyed up by these statements. In answering Lochiel's assurances of loyalty, he talks of turning " our thoughts towards the under- taking some solid expedition, which may have a reasonable prospect of success ; while, address- ing Prince Charles in June 1747, he refers to "a new negociation in your favour/' In 1749 Cluny held out hopes of a rising in the Highlands.^'' In April of the following year, writing to Lord George Murray, James says he has little hope of gaining foreign assistance, but tells that the Jacobites are very sanguine, notwithstanding late misfortunes, and seem to be of opinion that your countrymen are as willing as ever to enter again into action, and that they might do even much by themselves." That he was justified in thinking thus, is proven by Lord George's answer : I am convinced, Sir, that the Highlanders will always persevere in their fidelity, and will be ever ready to enter cheerfully into action, when your Majesty in your wisdom I I JACOBITE LOYALTY 157 thinks it proper to order them. ... As we all rest assured of your Majesty's paternal goodness, so that whenever you are pleased to order them to the field, they may promise themselves success not only from the justness of the cause, but that they may depend upon your Majesty's weighing thoroughly what measures are properest to be pursued to attain the desired end as well as the most proper time for undertaking it." Mention has already been made of Lochgarry, as a diarist of the Forty-five, and as one whose motives as a Jacobite were of the purest cast. About 1752^^ he wrote a long letter to Charles Edward, telling the Prince that there were still many men in the Highlands who were ready to follow him. " It is," he says, the greatest consequence to your R.H. not to delay much longer making an attempt in Scotland. Otherwise it will be hardly possible to bring the Clans to any head, it would be no difficult matter at this instant to engage them once more to draw their swords." He mentions the Highlanders' natural attachment to your R.H ; " and declares that if France would but help, " England would do wonders." He advises the Prince "to land where you landed before, or rather in Lochnanuie ; " and says : " Your R.H. will have an army by the management and influence of yourself, and by their concertion already agreed upon with me before you are twenty days landed, of at least six thousand Men, and there is actually but six BataUions of Foot, and two Regiments of Dragoons in Scotland, and your R.H. can have 2000 good men ere you are eight and 158 JACOBITE LOYALTY forty hours landed." He assures that ''If the enemy take the field they will make but a feint resistance against such a resolute determined set of men ; " and adds : " If this project be not long delayed. . . . you will in all human probability drive your Enemys before you like a parcel of Sheep." He then proceeds to deal minutely with the support Charles may expect in Scotland. " Your R.H. ; he says, " arriving with money, Arms, and a few choice ofificers, will find the following Clans ready to join, this computation of them being very moderate, and most of them have been always ready to join the R. Strd under the most palpable disadvantages." He affirms that, provided young Glengarry's concurrence, the Mac- donalds will furnish 2600 men : declares that the *' Duke of Gordon's interest Glenlivat and Strath- don" will yield 500 ; computes the Camerons at the same figure ; and vouches, in all for 9650 '^ good men." Lochgarry was not the only Highlander who wrote thus to Charles at this period. Cameron of Torcastle, addressing the Prince so late as November 1753, mentions himself as "being always proud and ready to serve your Royal Highness whenever you are pleased to command me, and God send soon a good occasion ; " and adds : " I can likewise answer for the readyness of the remains of the clan, according to the late accounts I have had from Scotland." Even after all hopes of another rising were at an end, many of Charles's adherents remained true JACOBITE LOYALTY 159 to their first love. Bishop Forbes, noting the death of John Mackinnon of that Ilk in 1756, says : " He used to say he hoped God would not take him off the earth but on the field of battle when fighting for his king and country. He frequently retired to the cave in which the Prince and he himself and his lady dined just before the Prince's leaving Sky in his skulking, and there he w^ould have entertained himself with laying down a plan for the restoration, and with the execution thereof in theory, and then came home extremely well pleased." Long after the Forty-five, Stewart of Balachulish, on being congratulated on the accomplishments of his son, replied that there was but one thing — the crowning of Charles Edward as king of England — which could possibly give him more pleasure than that which he derived from "the promise my son affords of being an honour to his family." Alasdair Mac- Mhaigstir, who died about 1780, continued Jacobite even unto the end." Sir Stuart Threipland, who lived till 1805, used till his last days to give every day at dinner the toast : To the land of cakes, and the right Steward to deal them." In his old age he lost to some extent his original clearness of mind, but still the passionate loyalty of his early days clung to him ; and when the news of the peace of Amiens (1802) was imparted to him, he was heard to murmur : " There'll never be peace till Jamie come hame." But of all those Jacobites who persevered in their allegiance for long after the Forty-five, the i6o JACOBITE LOYALTY most interesting and illustrative is Laurence Oliphant of Gask. The following prayer, found among his papers after his death, was written by him in 1779 : " O Lord, be gracious to our King and Queen, enable the King to please thee and shine forth an example in virtue. May he be the Instrument in thy hands of restoring Truth and Justice to these Nations and of turning many thousands unto Thee. May all his subjects become duty full & obedient unto him ; and all our pass'd iniquitys be pardoned. May the neighbouring Nations joyn, and kindly all events concur to bring the King back. May the present Possessor think upon his ways, do justice to the King, and have thy favour upon him and his familie for doing so. But upon the King's head may the crown flourish, and may he live with the Queen in virtue, comfort, and affection, and whatever be Thy will here, made greatly happy hereafter for our Saviour's sake, Amen." So late as 1783, Charles Edward, writing to Mr Cowley, prior of ye English Benedictines at Paris," says : " It gives me a sensible pleasure, ye remembrance of Oliphant of Gask ; he is as worthy a subject as I have, and his family never deroged {sic) from their principles." When Charles died, Laurence Oliphant regarded Henry Benedict as King of Great Britain ; and in a letter written early in 1788, referring to the fact that Henry is a Cardinal in the Church of Rome, he declares : ** The particular situation the King is in cannot take away his right ; were he even Mahumitan and a Turkish priest, it could not do it, unless he himself gave up his right. You know ye King of England never dies, «& were Henry the 9th JACOBITE LOYALTY i6i to do so, unquestionably the King of Sardinia is our lawful! Prince. **It is true the Savoy Princes have treated with the Electors of Hanover as Kings of Great Britain ; but these are political double dealings that subjects are not allowed. Passive obedience and non-resistance is our unalterable duty." In June 1788 the Rev. Mr Cruickshank, chap- lain at Cask, wrote from Muthill to Laurence OHphant, stating that he had begun to pray for King George, and adding : which I am exceeding sorry for on your account, but satisfied on my own. Whether you'l desire any more of my ministrations must be left entirely to yourself.'' Gask replied : " Mr Oliphant presents his Comps to Mr Cruick- shank, and as he has incapacitated himself from officiating at Gask, his Gown is sent by the Carryei & the book he gave the reading of." But a more bitter blow than this was in store for the staunch old Jacobite. In 1790 his eldest son, Laurence, wrote from London saying he was anxious to be presented at the Court of King George. The father, shocked at the idea of this disloyalty, at once despatched the following rebuke : I last night received yours of the 20th, franked 23rd. The contents could not be very agreeable to me, & I abso- solutely forbid your being presented. *' However few continued faithful to their Prince, I never doubted but my sons & I would have been of the number ; I was in hopes I had done my best to bring up my family loyal, and it was my joy & comfort to think that in so general a defection they were so. It gives me real pain to see that I am in some measure disappointed, for had you consulted ye L i62 JACOBITE LOYALTY principle that should be within, you would have given a proper answer to the proposal yourself. What I mentioned to you of the Electoral family was, that you might take a view of them as far as that went ; supposing that you perhaps would be shey to do so without my mentioning it, I wanted to free you of constraint whatever I could ; but where there is homage to be paid, the thing is widely different. " I know my very dear Cousin Henry will rather approve of my continuing steady and wanting my sons should follow their father's footsteps than otherwise ; & though Jacobits have been presented, and continued Jacobits, yet a two-faced person is not a character worthy of imitation." That letter, replete with the true spirit of Jabo- bite loyalty, was one of the last things written by Laurence Oliphant of Gask. He died in 1792, and, to the end^ stood firm to " ye principle that should be within." NOTES AND REFERENCES ^ Lyon, iii. 152. ^ Browne, iv. 18. ^Jacobite, 71, 72 ; Allardyce, ii. 353. ^ Browne, iv. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. »D.N.B. Art. Tullibardine. ^ ^romartie, ii., 188. ^ Threipland, 45. ^ Itinerary, 35, 36, 37. ^ Charles, ii. 95 et seq. Lyon, ii. 85 ; Mahon, 28. Itine- rary, 4. ^2 Lyon, i. 161. Boswell, i. 169. ^'^ Mac- leod, 250. 15 Garth, 73, 308. Lyon, iii. 7. Garth, 359 ; Culloden, 229, 230. Garth, 359. ^'-^ Allardyce, i. 194. 20 Charles, ii. 351. Elcho, 234. Max- well, 67. 22 Collectanea, i. 229; Maxwell, 70. Browne, iv. 67, 88. 24 Browne, iv. 72, 74. ^5 Browne, iv. 76, 78. 26 Elcho, 289. 27 Mahon, 83, 84. 28 Threipland, 42, 43, 44. 29 Browne, iv. 83, 97. Strange, ii. 114, 115, 216, etc. '^1 Strange, i. 45. b. Art., Kilmar- JACOBITE LOYALTY 163 nock. '^'^ Graeme, 284, 289. The Duchess- Dowager of Gordon was an enthusiastic Jacobite. For showing hospi- tality to Charles Edward, she forfeited an annuity of ;£'iooo which government had bestowed upon her in consideration of her bringing up her family in the Protestant faith. Cham- bers, 173. ^'^ Prince Charles himself was in London in that year : Ewald, 345. Boswell, i. 196. Brough- ton, XXX. Francillon. Irving, 21. Francillon. Charles, ii. 435. ^Uardyce, ii. 509, 510, 517. Gleanings, 59. The Lord Justice-Clerk at this time was Charles Erskine of Tinwald. D.N.B. Art., Johnstone. Browne, iii. 476 ; iv. 4. Browne, iii. 478 ; iv. 9, 13. Pickle, 70. Browne, iv. 67. Browne, iv. 70. The exact date is uncertain. Highlands, iv. Pickle, 214 et seq. ^'^ Browne, iv. 117. Lyon, iii. 152. 54 Garth, 132. j^Q^ald, iii. 584. ^hreipland, 54. 57 Oliphant, 388, 395, 409, 418, 427. The king of Sardinia to whom Gask refers was Victor Amadeus III., a descendant of Henrietta of Orleans, daughter of Charles I. CONCLUSION Nothing serves so well to show how admirable was the spirit of Jacobite loyalty, as the immediate sequel to the Forty-five. For five months after Culloden, Charles Edward was a fugitive in the Highlands ; and though government had offered 0,000 to his captor, no one could be found to betray him. As Maxwell of Kirkconnell writes: " Necessity frequently drove him to employ people he knew nothing about, but all gave him convinc- ing proofs of the most zealous attachment and the most inviolable fidelity. . . ."^ Countless were the acts of devotion won by the Prince during his wanderings. Almost unparalleled was the love he gained. But why retell this tale of heroism ? Is it not known throughout all Scotland, from the Cuchullins unto the Cairngorms ? Is it not written in the books of the chronicles of the good Bishop Forbes, even in The Lyon in Mourning ? This sheltering and guarding of the Prince was no mere matter of humanity. It was begotten of loyalty to the exiled dynasty. Lord Albemarle, in a letter to the Duke of Newcastle announcing Charles's escape, says : " Nothing is to me a more convincing proof of the disaffection of that part 164 JACOBITE LOYALTY 165 of the country (the Highlands) than that of his lying so long concealed amongst those people, and that he should be able to elude our narrowest and most exact searches, and at last make his escape, notwithstanding the great reward to appre- hend him." 2 And a Gaelic song, popular for long after Culloden, and sung by high and low alike, further shows the nature of that affection won by the royal fugitive. Here is a verse : ' ' They ravaged and burnt my country ; They murdered my father, and carried off my brothers ; They ruined my kindred, and broke the heart of my mother ; But all, all could I bear, If I saw my king restored to his own."'^ Belief in the divine right of kings is now a thing of the past ; yet Scotland may well look back with pride on those who held the belief, and who gave so much for its sake. There is a beautiful passage in The Rise of the Dutch Republic^ where Motley says we " should remem- ber that the character of a great and good man is too precious a possession of history to be lightly abandoned." He is right. Fiat justitia mat coelum. It is only giving honour to whom honour is due, to praise those whose feelings have thus been expressed in imperishable verse by one whose own ancestors fought and bled for the Stuarts, and who is distantly related to one of Prince Charles's life-guards : 1 66 JACOBITE LOYALTY Our name the night may swallow, Our lands the churl may take : But night nor death may swallow, Nor hell's nor heaven's dim hollow, The star whose height we take, The star whose light we follow For faith's unfaltering sake Till hope that sleeps awake." It may seem strange to conclude an essay on Jacobite loyalty by quoting from the author of Songs before Sunrise and Note of an English Republican on the Muscovite Crusade^ the friend of Mazzini and the eulogist of Whitman. But if there is one thing of which a man might be absolutely certain it is that, in praise of noble and disinterested deeds on the part of men who have been true to themselves, no one has been more ardent, eager, and enthusiastic, than the great poet who has reigned since the publication of Atalanta in Calydon and Poems and Ballads^ not only as king of song, but as king of hearts ; and who bears a name to conjure with, a name to ring in the ear like a passage from his own work, or a cadence from the only Wagner — Algernon Charles Swinburne. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1 Maxwell, 190. Itinerary, 109. Garth, 132, PRINTED BY TURNBULL AND SPEARS EDINBURGH .4^ DATE DUE UtSG2 GA YLORO PRINTED IN U. S A. BOSTON COLLEGE 3 9031 01214175 813 .M8 Bapsf Library Boston College Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02167