trait of character not uncommon among their countrymen, namely, so much economy in the expenditure of their daily pay of sixpence as to be able to remit considerable sums of money to their relations, and, when disembodied at Glasgow in 1783, to possess so much money, that, if the whole had been reckoned in one sum, it would have appeared very remarkable, considering the moderate means from which it had been saved.

GORDON.

1778.

It will be recollected, that the Duke of Gordon had, at the age of sixteen, offered his personal services as captain in the 89th Highland regiment, and had intended to have accompanied it to the East Indies, when he was prevented by George II. He now made proposals to Government to raise a regiment of Fencibles on his estates in the counties of Inverness, Moray, Banff, and Aberdeen. These proposals being accepted, a regiment of 960 men was recruited with great expedition, and embodied at Aberdeen in the year 1778. This corps was so healthy and efficient, that, in five years, till the reduction in 1783, only 24 men died of the 960 of which the corps was composed.

SUTHERLAND.

1779.

It has been already stated, that, twenty years before this period, the last Earl of Sutherland raised a regiment of Fen

cibles with unexampled ease and rapidity; unexampled except in the days of chivalrous fidelity to chiefs, whose signal, when danger was immediate, or the enemy at the door, was sufficient to rouse to arms all who could use them. As both the danger and the enemy were in this case distant, such rapid levies were unnecessary; but when nine days. sufficed for assembling 1,100 men, it must be allowed that the call to arms was obeyed with sufficient promptitude and celerity.

Soon after that period the Earl of Sutherland died, lamented by all who knew him, and more especially by his own people. His only child was then an infant. To her, however, as their future protectress, they looked up for a continuation of the same patriarchal protection which they and their forefathers had for six hundred years experienced from her family; and they now showed that this protection had not been thrown away on ungrateful objects. Though their superior was too young to be sensible of their attachment, or capable of rewarding it, their zeal was not, on that account, the less warm: they appeared as ready to obey as when the object of their regard was present, either to approve, reward, or punish. But, as the house of Sutherland had no near relative of the name to command the followers of the family, William Wemyss of Wemyss, nephew of the late Earl, was appointed colonel of the Fencible regiment to be raised on the estate of Sutherland.

The duty of recruiting was easily executed. In the parish of Farr alone, 154 men enlisted in two days. Two companies from Caithness, commanded by William Innes of Sandside and John Sutherland of Wester, were added to the regiment, which was embodied at Fort George in February 1779.

In the following summer they were marched to the southward, and remained stationed principally in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, always distinguished for sobriety, probity, and the most scrupulous and orderly attention to duty. "Desertions, or crimes requiring the check of

courts-martial, were totally unknown in this regiment. Such was their economy, that if any officer, in whom they had confidence, required a temporary supply of money, one thousand pounds could be raised among the men. They were always remitting money, and sending home little presents to their friends." Men of this character and disposition may be depended upon as trust-worthy in all situa tions; whether marching up to the cannon's mouth, or discharging the less arduous, but equally necessary, duties of private life, they will not fail to acquit themselves with honour.

Samuel Macdonald,* commonly known as Big Sam, was a soldier in the Sutherland Fencibles. He was too large to stand in the ranks, and generally stood on the right of the regiment when in line, and marched at the head when in column, but was always accompanied by a mountain deer of uncommon size. This animal was so attached to Macdonald, that, whether on duty with his regiment, or on the streets, the hart was at his side.

The regiment was ordered to the north, and reduced at Fort George in 1783.

* This man was a native of the parish of Lairg, in the county of Sutherland. He was seven feet four inches in height, and every way stout in proportion. His parents were of good size, but in nothing otherwise remarkable. Macdonald had fortunately a quiet, equable temper: had he been irritable, he might, from his immense strength and weight of arm, have given a serious blow, without being sensible of its force. He was considered an excellent drill, from his mild and clear manner of giving his directions. After the peace of 1783, he enlisted in the Royals. From thence he was transferred to the Sutherland Fencibles of 1793. The Countess of Sutherland, with great kindness, allowed him 2s. 6d. per diem, extra pay; judging, probably, that so large a body must require more sustenance than his military pay could afford. He attracted the notice of the Prince of Wales, and was for some time one of the porters of Carlton House. When the 93d was raised, he could not be kept from his old friends; and, joining the regiment, he died in Jersey în 1802, regretted by his corps as a respectable, trustworthy, excellent mán.

GRANT,

OR

STRATHSPEY.

1793..

I AM perfectly aware, that an objection may be made to the opinions which I have, with too much presumption, urged as to the value and importance of preserving undisturbed an ancient, faithful, and attached tenantry, and of that personal influence possessed by many former Highland noblemen and landed proprietors, by which they could, at any time, command the personal service in the field of their tenants and kinsmen. It has been alleged, that these services were not unbought, as the sons of tacksmen and tenants were sent by their parents to fill up the ranks of Highland regiments, on a direct or implied stipulation of abatement of rent, or some pecuniary or other advantage to be received, for the services of the youths who came forward to take up arms at the call of their chiefs and landlords. Circumstances do not confirm this view of the subject. As tenants, occupying land on feudal tenure, the Highlanders paid rents, according to the value of the land, in full proportion to the best lands in the Carse of Gowrie, the properties of Lords Gray and Kinnaird, and others, which, as I have already noticed, did not yield, seventy years ago, more than six or eight shillings the acre. Lord Kinnoul's, and that part of the Duke of Atholl's estates in the Lowlands, were still lower. The lands of Lords Gray and Kinnaird now average L. 6 Sterling per acre. Yet neither

these noblemen, nor the Duke of Atholl from his Lowland estates, ever could call on the personal service of their tenants on account of these low rents, which, indeed, if we consider the disproportion in climate and soil, were lower than those of the Highlands, where the sentiments of the landlords and their tenants, and their mutual confidence and dependence on each other, were so remarkably different. Of this difference several instances occurred in 1745. The Duke of Perth engaged in the Rebellion of that year; yet, though possessed of a valuable, extensive, and populous estate, he had not influence enough to carry along with him 150 men from the Lowland portion of his property to support the cause he warmly espoused. Lord Strathallan, who lost his title, his estate, and his life, in the same cause, did not bring so many men to the field as did two young gentlemen, the one a son of the Laird of Ballechin, the other a son of the Laird of Glenlyon, whose fathers' estates were not equal to one-third of the value of his. Lord Nairne, also, whose estate lay at the foot of the Grampians, close to the Highland boundary, (so different were the inhabitants of those adjoining districts,) was followed by very few of his people when he joined the Prince, and entailed ruin on himself and family, without strengthening the cause to which he was so ardently devoted, by any great addition of men. So much was this the case, that, as he had few followers of his own, Lord George Murray gave to his Lordship the command of one of the Athole regiments. These facts can only admit of one interpretation, namely, that the Highland chiefs and landlords were not followed from mercenary motives, but from a patriarchal, hereditary, and chivalrous attachment to their persons and families. While thus, in feudal times, chiefs and landed proprietors did not suffer any material diminution of rent by the personal service of their followers, we find that, in later times, the promptitude with which the Highland tenantry engaged in the service of their country contributed to raise the celebrity of their