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the celebrated bard and scholar, as well as accomplished rector of the Grammar School, Old Aberdeen. These letters, written before envelopes and postage stamps were invented, are undoubtedly genuine, and bear marks of having been frequently perused. They were found after John's death in a secret drawer, and their appearance now throws a curious light on the intercourse between the Mackenzies of Culblair and the Maclachlan family more than 70 years ago.

The Maclachlan letters were first shown to me in the autumn of 1888, by my friend, Mr Alexander Mackenzie, John's eldest son, who, for many years back, has been the respected stationmaster at Grandtully, on the Aberfeldy branch of the Highland Railway. Mr Mackenzie and I had several long conferences over these letters, as to whether or not it was desirable that they should be published. At length a resolution was arrived at to give them to the world, and that for the four following reasons (1) because the letters are now over seventy years old, and all the persons referred to in them are dead; (2) because of the eminence of the chief writer of them, Ewen Maclachlan, and of the new light they cast on some parts of his life; (3) because of their general interest as illustrative of social life in the Highlands during the first quarter of this century; and (4) because John, their late possessor, in the very act of leaving such letters behind him, evidently appreciated their great literary value, and recognised the propriety of their being published some day. Mr Mackenzie deserves the thanks of every true Highlander for the liberal and unselfish view he has thus taken of his duty in regard to the letters; and it is to be hoped that his example will stimulate others to search their secret drawers for hidden treasures, and therewith enrich the transactions of our various Gaelic Societies.

In order to make the letters intelligible to the present generation of readers, it is necessary to give a short preliminary sketch (1) of Ewen Maclachlan and his family relations; (2) of the Robertsons who resided at Ardnagrask; and (3) of the Mackenzies who resided at Culblair of Highfield (Ciurnaig).

(1) EWEN MACLACHLAN AND HIS FAMILY RELATIONS.--Ewen Maclachlan was born at Torrachalltuinn of Coruanan, in Nether Lochaber, near Fort-William, in the year 1775. His father, Donald Maclachlan,1 carried on there the business of a country weaver a trade which we know was much more necessary and profitable in those days than it is now. Donald was evidently a

1 Called also in the Lochaber "Domhnull Mòr" or "Big Donald," from his great size.

man of great natural sagacity, of deep moral and religious convictions, and of an unfailing charity-an altogether beautiful and lovely character, such as won the profound and lasting veneration of his illustrious son, and is still spoken of with reverence by all true natives of Lochaber. I well remember when, in the summer of 1875, I paid a visit to Miss Cameron, Dornie Ferry, an enthusiastic Lochaber lady, that I had the pleasure of being shown by her a blanket which, 60 years before, had been woven by Donald, Ewen Maclachlan's father; and it seemed to me that this article, as she put it, "wrought by the worthy father of a worthy son," was more valued by her than anything else she had in her house. I am sorry to say that I have not hitherto been able to find out anything regarding the good wife of Torrachalltuinn; but we may presume, judging from all analogy, that she was the worthy helpmeet of such a husband. The family, born to them, consisted of at least three sons and three daughters; but I have not been able to ascertain the order of their birth. The sons were Ewen, Hugh, and one whose name I have not discovered; and the daughters were Mary, Anne, and Sarah or Sally (Mor). The whole family were duly sent to the Parish School of Kilmallie, where they evidently received an elementary education far above the average then common, even in Parish Schools, in Scotland. The girls, who were very clever, received a sound English education, and one of them, Anne, having got married to a Macinnes, became the mother of the late Rev. Mr Macinnes, the learned and esteemed Free Church minister of Tummel Bridge, in Perthshire. Hugh and the unnamed son were also well educated, for, when they grew up to manhood, they proceeded to Jamaica, where in due time they became not only successful sugar planters, but also took a respectable position in society as educated and polished gentlemen. But Ewen 2 aspired to a higher education than Kilmallie School, good as it was, could furnish him with.

He

1 Since writing the text, I have got, through my friend Miss Cameron, the following funny story about "Big Donald" and his wife, which shows that she was possessed of a keen sense of humour. Donald used to wear one of those long blue cloaks, at one time so common in the Highlands. One night his wife pinned her tall white "mutch" to the back of this cloak as it was hanging to the bedpost. Donald, having risen before daybreak to go from home, put on his cloak without noticing what was attached. When daylight c me he wondered why the people were all coming out and looking after him, and he went on for a considerable distance before he discovered the cause of attraction.

2 Miss Cameron says that Ewen's talents were first recognised by the Rev. Dr Ross, minister of Kilmorivaig, who gave the young student the first start in his career. It is probable that it was through Dr Ross's recommendation that Macdonell of Glengarry was led to assist Ewen.

desired to prepare to enter the University, and his ardent soul for years hungered and thirsted after the realisation of this, his fondest dream--that some day he should be privileged to drink at one of the fountain heads of learning in his native land, and so qualify himself for running an honourable and useful career in one of the learned professions.

There is a tradition that, when Ewen was advanced as far in learning as the Kilmallie schoolmaster could carry him on, he had a great desire to enter the Grammar School of Fort-William; but, as his father could not afford to pay the high fees charged in that institution, the idea of entering there, as a regular scholar, had for some time to be abandoned. But "where there is a will there is always a way." Ewen, bent on improving himself, every evening waylaid the scholars of the Grammar School as they were going home, got their exercises from them, and regularly wrought them out against the next day. When this became known to the headmaster, he sent for the eager student, and agreed to admit him free, on condition that the latter should blow the school horn every morning and at the close of the play hour, which, in those days, was the method employed for summoning the boys and girls to their school work. Ewen was overjoyed; and not only did he prove himself to be the most punctual and best horn-blower ever known in Fort-William, but also in a very short time wrought himself up to be the dux of the Grammar School. What a noble example does this poor man's son present to us of overcoming difficulties in the pursuit of knowledge! It is of such countrymen, as Ewen Maclachlan, that we ought to be proud.

I now quote the brief, accurate, and admirable sketch of this distinguished man from the sympathetic and authoritative pen of Professor Blackie, as exactly suitable for my purpose:-" "The zeal and success,' "1 says the Professor, "with which he followed out classical studies in private, not to mention his poetical and musical accomplishments, attracted the attention of Macdonell of Glengarry, who, with that generosity for which the old Highland chiefs were notable, furnished the scholar with what little pecuniary aid he required, in order to pursue his studies at the University. In the year 1796 he proceeded to King's College, Old Aberdeen, where young Celts, ambitious of intellectual distinction, still delight to congregate. Here he forthwith announced himself as a candidate for one of those bursaries, or scholarships, which abound in those parts; and, after the usual trial in Latin composition, for which the Granite City of the north was always

See "Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands," by Profess r Blackie, pp. 261-2-3. Edinburgh: 1876.

famous, to the great surprise and mortification of the shrewd young Lowlanders, who had enjoyed far better opportunities of juvenile indoctrination, the raw Highlander came out first on the roll of merit. From that moment he was a marked man. After going through the regular classes, and taking the degree of A.M., he entered the Divinity Hall. In the year 1800 he received a royal bursary, in the gift of the Barons of Exchequer, and was shortly afterwards appointed to the office of teacher in the Grammar School of Old Aberdeen, and assistant-librarian to King's College. In England these would have been offices as lucrative as they were honourable; but it has long been an ugly characteristic of social morality in Scotland, while putting the highest value on education, to overwork and underpay the educator. Maclachlan, ike every genuine Scot, was a hard worker. After going through the tear and wear of his daily routine, he found leisure to carry on his classical studies to a height not commonly attained in Scotland. But, though devoted to Greek, as in his view the most valuable of intellectual acquisitions, he never forgot, as some people foolishly do, the learning he had brought from the bens and the glens of his early boyhood. He wedded the study of Gaelic to that of Greek, by employing himself--like the present Archbishop of Tuam-in making a poetical Celtic version of the Iliad, a work held in high estimation by his countrymen, though only a few selections from it have been published.

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"Maclachlan," continues the Professor, was not only a scholar but a poet, and, like all true poets, felt the might of the mother tongue. His proficiency as a Celtic scholar was so great that he was selected by the Highland Society of Scotland to superintend the Gaelic-English part of their Scoto-Celtic Dictionary, published in the year 1828, a circumstance which one can hardly mention without expressing a very natural wonder, that the Society which exerted itself so meritoriously in the registration of the words of the Gaelic language did not follow their noble inspiration further by the erection of a Celtic chair in one of the Scottish Universities. Maclachlan was the very man for such a post, and there can be no doubt that, had the British Government of that day been as quick-sighted in searching out intellectual excellence as the Prussian is now, this distinguished poet-scholar would have been transplanted to the metropolitan seat of learning, there to found a national school of Celtic philology, which is only now being dreamt of. As it was, Maclachlan died of over-work on the 29th

1 Thanks to Professor Blackie's energy and eloquence, his dream has been realised. A Celtic Chair has now been in operation for some years back in the University of Edinburgh, and apparently a brilliant future lies before it.

His

day of March, 1822, in the forty-ninth year of his age. remains were carried to his own Highland home, and interred in their native soil with all the honours which affection and respect could gather round a departed magnate. A monument was raised to him near Fort-William, before which every educated man who makes the ascent of the chief of Scottish Bens will reverently take off his hat."

(2) THE ROBERTSONS WHO RESIDED AT ARDNAGKASK.--John Robertson, who spent the latter years of his life at Ardnagrask, was born at Comrie, a township on the north side of the river Conon, directly opposite the present Scatwell, about the year 1730. The exact spot of his birth lies on the south side of the Meig where it joins with the Conon. In his boyhood and early youth, John was specially remarkable for his liveliness and agility in climbing to all sorts of apparently inaccessible places. Like a squirrel, he could climb up any tree, and, if in a thick wood, go from tree to tree along the branches; he could climb up the face of the steepest precipice, if the rock did not actually beetle over ; and the highest houses in the country he was able to get to the top of with the greatest ease. It is related that on one occasion a sensation was produced in the countryside by the unexampled feat John performed of climbing up the old tower of Fairburn, and perching himself on the top of it-an achievement surely as wonderful as that of the cow that is said to have clambered up the staircase and given birth to a calf in the uppermost chamber of that neglected old "keep!" This exploit attracted the attention of an English officer, then a guest in Brahan Castle, who immediately sent for the youth, and persuaded him to enlist in his regiment.2 John thereupon proceeded south to England along with his patron, and having joined his regiment, and been duly drilled and trained for six or seven months, he was at once dispatched across the Atlantic to Canada, where, along with his companions-in-arms, he had a full share of all the vicissitudes and perils and glories of the seven years' war with the French, beginning in 1755, and ending February 10th, 1763.

John took a rather prominent part in the famous attack on Quebec, at which the regiment he served in happened to be present. It is well-known that the first operations against that stronghold were unsuccessful, the city being ably defended by the

1 See "Prophecies of the Brahan Seer," page 50.

2 John had a brother named Alexander, who also served for some time in the army. He thereafter settled in Ceylon, where he died.

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