ON

THE STATE

OF

SOCIETY AND KNOWLEDGE

IN THE

HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND.

-Time rolls his ceaseless course.

Yet live there still who can remember well,
How, when a mountain chief his bugle blew,
Both field and forest, dingle, cliff, and dell,
And solitary heath, the signal knew,

And fast the faithful clan around him drew,
What time the warning note was keenly wound,
What time aloft their kindred banner flew,

While clamorous war-pipes yelled the gathering sound,
And while the fiery cross glanced like a meteor round.

Lady of the Lake, Canto III.

ON THE STATE OF

\\SOCIETY AND, KNOWLEDGE

IN THE

HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND,

PARTICULARLY

IN THE NORTHERN COUNTIES,

AT THE

PERIOD OF THE REBELLION IN 1745,

AND OF

THEIR PROGRESS UP TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE

NORTHERN INSTITUTION FOR THE PROMOTION OF

SCIENCE AND LITERATURE, IN 1825.

BY JOHN ANDERSON,

WRITER TO THE SIGNET, SECRETARY TO THE SOCIETY OF
SCOTTISH ANTIQUARIES.

EDINBURGH :

PRINTED FOR WILLIAM TAIT, 78, PRINCE'S STREET; AND CHARLES TAIT, 63, FLEET STREET, LONDON. M.DCCC.XXVII.

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

DEXTER FUND
Nov2411925 B

8314

24

PRINTED BY A BALFOUR AND CO.

INTRODUCTION.

THE NORTHERN INSTITUTION was established at Inverness in the month of March 1825, for the promotion of Science and Literature in general, and more particularly with the view of investigating the Antiquities, and Civil and Natural History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

To aid the researches of the members, and to afford to Society at large, throughout the northern districts of the country, facilities for study which did not previously exist, a Museum has been opened by the Institution, for the collection and preservation of objects of Natural History,