They had come up from the North in search of work; and, having been unsuccessful, they engaged with him.

The casualties will, in all probability, be so few for many years, that they will be easily supplied, and none but good men received. The returns and lists in the Appendix will show the number of killed and wounded. There are also 342 discharged men on the strength of Chelsea Hospital, receiving pensions for length of service, and from being disabled by wounds or disease. But many of the pensioners have suffered so little, that they have been again called to serve in veteran battalions.

The number of soldiers killed, from 1793 to the peace of 1814, has been 89; and at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, 55; in all 144, down to the final peace of 1815, an eventful period of twenty-two years' warfare, in the course of which this regiment bore an active share, in Europe, Africa, and the West Indies.

NINETY-SEVENTH,

OR

STRATHSPEY REGIMENT.

1794.

I SHALL have occasion to mention an early offer made by the Laird of Grant, in 1793, along with the Duke of Gordon, the Marchioness of Stafford, and the Earl of Breadalbane, to raise Fencible regiments in the Highlands. As soon as Sir James Grant's Fencible regiment was embodied, he made further proposals to raise a regiment for general

service. After the exertions recently made to complete the Grant Fencibles, this was an arduous undertaking.

The difficulty soon appeared. Though the corps was numerically completed to 1000 men within the stipulated time, all of them were not of that class which formed the Fencible corps. The lieutenant-colonel, major, and others of the officers, were not natives of the north, and without local knowledge or influence; their commissions depending on their success in recruiting, their principal object was to procure a sufficient number capable of passing muster, and, as money in manufacturing towns effected what influence did in the north, many men were recruited whose character and constitutions could bear no comparison with men of regular and hardy habits raised in the agricultural districts. However, there was among them a number of very good men: the flank companies were excellent.

The regiment was inspected and embodied at Elgin by Major-General Sir Hector Munro, and numbered the 97th; and thus á private gentleman added 1,300 soldiers to the force of the country, besides those raised by the officers in the southern districts. From this, and several other instances at this period, we may, without going back to the days of chiefs and clansmen, estimate the great importance of family, territorial, and personal influence. When exercised by such men as the late Sir James Grant-honourable, humane, and hospitable in his private character, as well as a kind and generous landlord to a numerous and grateful tenantry-Great Britain may calculate on commanding the willing services of the youth of the mountains.

The 97th was ordered to the south of England in 1794, and served a few months as marines on board Lord Howe's fleet in the Channel. In autumn 1795, the men and officers were drafted into different regiments, and the two flank companies turned over to the 42d, when preparing to embark for the West Indies.

NINETY-EIGHTH,

OR

ARGYLESHIRE HIGHLANDERS;

NOW THE NINETY-FIRST REGIMENT.

1794.

On the 10th of February 1794, Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan Campbell of Lochnell received letters of service to raise a regiment in Scotland, with permission to select his officers: he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant.

The regiment was embodied at Stirling in the autumn of that year. I know not exactly how many men were from the Highlands; but, judging from the captains of companies, of whom seven were of the name of Campbell, besides two others natives of Argyle, the proportion must have been considerable. The regiment was early removed to the Cape of Good Hope, and remained there till that colony was restored to the Dutch in 1801. In 1798 the number was altered to the 91st, and in 1809, the Highland garb was discontinued; consequently, the future movements do not come within my plan. As no county is more purely Highland than Argyle, which comprehends every characteristic of mountains, glens, and language; it has excited some surprise that such a district could not supply a sufficient number of men, and that the garb of the Gael should be taken away from the regiment of a county which has, both in ancient and modern times, produced so many Highland warriors of talent and celebrity, and of as true Celtic origin as any race in Gaelic history.

The regiment formed a part of the army under Lord Wellington, and in the actions from the Pyrenees to Toulouse was actively engaged. On the latter occasion, the support given by this regiment to the 42d, when attacked by overwhelming numbers, was as prompt as it was effectual. *

NINETY-SECOND,

OR

GORDON HIGHLANDERS.

1794.

WHATEVER notions might have been entertained regard. ing the loyalty of the family of Gordon, in the year 1715, when the Marquis of Huntly was an active leader in opposition to the Government of that time, or in the year 1745, when Lord Lewis, the Duke of Gordon's brother, was equally zealous in the same cause, and in supporting, what he believed, the just claims of an unfortunate Prince; the loyal

* A soldier of this regiment deserted, and emigrated to America, where he settled. Several years after his desertion, a letter was received from him, with a sum of money for the purpose of procuring one or two men to supply his place in the regiment, as the only recompence he could make for "breaking his oath to his God, and his allegiance to his King, which preyed on his conscience in such a manner, that he had no rest night nor day."

This man had had good principles early instilled into his mind, and the disgrace which he had been originally taught to believe would attach to a breach of faith now operated with full effect. The soldier who deserted from the 42d regiment at Gibraltar, in 1797, exhibited the same remorse of conscience after he had violated his allegiance. In countries where such principles prevail, and regulate the character of a people, the mass of the population may, on occasions of trial, be reckoned on as sound and trust-worthy.

ty and patriotism of the present representative of this great family-which has been, for upwards of four hundred years, so distinguished in the annals of Scotland, and particularly of the Highlands-have made ample atonement for those ebullitions of attachment to a legitimate but expatriated race of Princes, evinced by the conduct of some of his an

cestors.

Soon after the reign of Robert Bruce this family became powerful in the North. By the extinction of the Cummings, (of whom there were thirty-two Noblemen and Barons in that reign,) the Gordons acquired large possessions in Badenoch and Strathspey, in addition to those which they had previously held in the Lowlands of Elgin, Banff, and Aberdeen ;-possessions which were greatly increased and extended in the Highlands by those of the Lords of the Isles, part of whose estates, in Lochaber, came into their hands by purchase and by royal grants, on the failure of that great and powerful family. In this manner the Gordons acquired a property extending from the east coast of Scotland to Inverlochay on the west; indented here and there by the lands of several smaller proprietors, but not so entirely as to prevent a circuitous line from being drawn, so as to connect the Gordon estate, without interruption, from the Atlantic on the west, to the German Ocean on the east. This extensive territory, with its numerous population, secures to the Duke of Gordon an influence which few British subjects enjoy. His feudal power was indeed small in proportion to the number of people and the extent of territory. The patriarchal sway of the chiefs of families, or, as they were called, naturalborn chiefs of their own blood, superseded the authority of the feudal lord of whom several chiefs and lairds held their lands. Independently of any vassalage or subjection, these chiefs commanded their own followers, acknowledging no power as superior, except that of the Sovereign. But although they did not publicly acknowledge a superior power in the Chief of the Gordons of whom they held,