Pipe-Major Ranald Mackenzie gave selections of pipe music at intervals in a most efficient manner, and a number of the gentlemen present agreeably enlivened the proceedings by songs between the toasts. The following verses to the Society were composed for the occasion by Mr Colin Chisholm, Namur Cottage, Inverness :Comunn Gailig Inbhirnis, Comunn na'm fear fialaidh glic, Tuigse 's uaisle dhaibh mar ghibht, Le cridhe glan 's le giulan math, Seol thar caolas agus cuan, Falbh bho thuath is siubhail deas, An cruinne-ce air leud 's air fad, 'S cha 'n fhaic thu 'm feasd an samhladh. Mo ruin, &c. Mar creid thu na thuirt mi riut, 1 Air by Mr Macpherson of Strathnashie. 22nd JANUARY, 1890. The meeting this evening was devoted to the nomination of Office-bearers for the ensuing year. 29th JANUARY, 1890. On this date the Office-bearers for next year were duly elected. The following gentlemen were elected Members of the Society, viz. :-Mr Roderick Gooden Chisholm, 33 Tavistock Square, London, Honorary Member; Mr William MacIntosh, Idvies, Forfar; Mr Murdo Mackenzie, Excise officer, Inverness; Mr Hugh Thomson, Stockbroker, Inverness; Mr John L. Robertson, Inspector of Schools, Inverness; and Mr William C. Spalding, Adampore, Tylbet, India, Ordinary Members. 5th FEBRUARY, 1890. At the meeting this evening Mr J. Macleod, assistant Inspector of Schools, Inverness, and Mr J. W. J. Burrel, Clachnaharry, were elected ordinary members of the Society. The paper for the evening was contributed by Mr Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, M.P., entitled, "Minor Highland Families-No. 3; The Macdonells of Scotos." Mr Fraser-Mackintosh's paper was as follows : MINOR HIGHLAND FAMILIES-No. III. THE MACDONELLS OF SCOTOS. Scotos, re-incorporated with the Barony of Knoydart seventy years since, has long been little more than a name; yet an old place and family which twice gave chiefs to Glengarry are worthy of remembrance in a permanent form. It was an estate of twelve pennies and one halfpenny value, part of the sixty-penny lands and Barony of Knoydart. The particular description ran thus :The four penny and the half penny lands of Scotos; ane penny land of Torroray; one penny and one half penny land of Inveriebeg; one penny land of Shennachie; one penny land of Angrugaig and Teaflich; two penny and one half penny land of Glendulochan, comprehending Penvoit, Penvoir, and the one penny land of Dornach; half penny land of Torbruiach; and half penny land of Corryleatach, all lying in Killichniman of Glenelg. These lands were held in feu of Glengarry for the sum of £3 Os 6d, being apparently the exact one paid by Glengarry for the whole of Knoydart to the Duke of Argyle, over superior. The following is a copy of an advertisement drawn up in 1790, which is not without interest as a description of the estate and its capacities: "In the West Highlands of the County of Inverness, adjoining to the Coast, "To lett, for such a number of years as may be agreed on, from and after the term of Whitsunday first (1791), either in whole or in lots, "All and Whole, the Lands and Estate of Scothouse, which all connect, and extend fifteen miles in length, and in breadth variable from four to five miles. "This property has been occupied as a sheep store farm now for six years bygone, is known to have produced as good wedders as any from the Highlands, which is well known in the Glasgow markets. "In 1788 upwards of 1000 wedders, not lambed upon the property, fetched 17s 6d each. The store is not at any time affected by braxy, trumbling, sturdy, or any other disease of that kind, and the fox is totally extirpated. There are high mountains on the property, which are green and produce natural clover to the top. "The Lands will at least graze 6000 sheep, besides the ordinary milk cows to the shepherds and a few for the tacksman. They lie contiguous to market, being only 20 miles from the military road leading by Fort-William to Glasgow, and are situated along the well-known sea-lake, called Loch-nevis, at the south, which is one of the best anchorage lochs for shipping in Britain; abounds with herring and muddfish, and from the frequency of busses and vessells which frequent that loch and pass the inner Sound, there is a great demand for cast sheep. The lands lye within a mile of the other well-known lake called Lochhourn, at the north, which also abounds with herring and muddfish. There is upon the property, and will be Lett with the Lands, a substantial good Mansion House, with office houses and garden." The mansion-house is described in the year 1800-" A double house, thoroughly finished, of two storeys high, with office houses, and a garden equal for vegetables to any to the north of Edinburgh." There was some fine furniture, old china, &c., remaining in the house in 1806, years after the property was sold. A galley for the family use, which made journeys to the West Coast and the Hebrides, swung at anchor in the bay of Scotos. The lands I have given are those which were ultimately sold in 1803, as after-mentioned. But prior to 1745, in the time of Eneas the 3rd Scotos, which is referred to by Ranald the 5th as the period of the family's greatest prosperity, Eneas appears to have had right to Kyles neodentoch (Kyles Knoideartach ?) Achachar, Sanderlain, and the two Crowlins. In 1784, Ranald Macdonell of Scotos writes inviting the wife of a friend in Inverness, in delicate health, to pay the family a visit, and says-"There is not a wholesomer part in the Highlands than this place-the sea close to the door, as also a pretty little wood, and a cascade near the house, surrounded with oak trees. So that, if Mrs Cumming is not thoroughly recovered, it will not be doing her justice should you neglect to send her here; and it is but an easy matter by Lochcarron, where I shall meet and conduct her safe from Mr Jeffrey's. Let not the seeming trouble of this jaunt, to yourself or anybody else, be an obstacle. Indeed it is the greatest obligation you will ever have an opportunity of putting upon me, should it contribute to the good woman's health; which I am persuaded it must, did she reap no other benefit than the convenience of the sea bath, which is the best strengthener of the nerves yet known, and agrees with most constitutions." The first Scotos was (1) Donald Macdonell, second son of Donald Macangus of Glengarry, who died the day the battle of Inverlochy was fought (in 1645), at the reputed age of 100. have seen many of this Donald's signatures, which all run "Donald Mack Angus," not Macdonald. Donald's eldest son, Alastair Dearg, having pre-deceased his father, the succession to Glengarry opened to his son Eneas, afterwards Lord Macdonell and Aros. Lord Macdonell dying in 1682 without issue, the succession to Glengarry devolved upon his cousin-german Ranald, second of Scotos, eldest son of Donald the first. At this period Ranald was advanced in years, having two grown-up sons, Allister Dubh and Eneas. Allister Dubh possessed Glengarry, and his male descendants, until their extinction in 1868, were chiefs of Glengarry. 2. Ranald, second of Scotos (and latterly of Glengarry), was succeeded in Scotos by his second son 3. Eneas, third of Scotos. As I am writing about the Scotos family, it must be here mentioned that, though now of no con sequence as regards the headship, there is a tradition in the family that Eneas was really the eldest son of Ranald: that Lord Macdonell on his deathbed sent for Alastair Dubh, and invested him with the chiefship, as the more able man, and the one most likely to uphold the credit of the Clan, the eldest son Eneas being content to succeed his father in Scotos merely. Alastair Dubh certainly was one of the most famous of the race of Glengarry. In the service of Alexander of Glengarry, in 1758, to his ancestors, going as far back as Donald Macangus, Alastair Dubh is not described as eldest son of Ranald. The late Colonel Macdonell of Glengarry, in the tree drawn up of the family, while giving prominence to the Barisdale, Lochgarry, and other branches, treats Scotos--his admittedly nearest cadet-very scantily, and in this he must have had some object. Other observations might be made; but, as I have said, the matter has lost any interest it might at one time have had. Eneas, third of Scotos, seems to have possessed many lands which did not go to the eldest son's successors, and it is said he had the whole of Knoydart facing Loch Nevis, except Inveriemore, which belonged to Barisdale. Eneas, who is said to have been out in 1689 and 1715 (if not also in 1745 as a follower), was twice married, but the name of his second wife I am unacquainted with; indeed, I only know the fact from a Sasine in the Pennyland of Sandelain, registered 30th August, 1753, in favour of Alexander Macdonell, "youngest son of the second marriage" of the deceased Eneas Macdonell of Scotos. Eneas had also, besides his eldest son Donald aftermentioned, at least one daughter named Anne; a son Allan, of Ardnaslishnish; and a son named John, of Crowlin, who was father of Colonel Jo hn, known as "Spanish John." Allan had a son, Captain James, a distinguished and loyal officer, who settled after the American Revolution in Montreal, whose son Angus was father of the present Mrs Chisholm of Chisholm. Spanish John, born in 1728, who died at Cornwall, Upper Canada, in 1820, drew up an account of his stirring early life, which appeared, with notes, in the "Canadian Magazine," April and May, 1825, by which it was shown that his father, John Crowlin, was educated at the Scots College, Rome; that he himself was sent there to be educated as a priest in 1740, when twelve years of age. He disliked the proposed mode of life, and took to that of arms. He was in several battles, and was desperately wounded and left for dead before he attained the age of sixteen. He had more than once seen King James, and, in his eighteenth year, was entrusted by Cardinal York with a mission to Scotland |