which, from the short distance, and their constant practice as marksmen, was generally very effective: then dropping their muskets, they dashed forward sword in hand, reserving their pistols and dirks for close action. "To make an opening in regular troops, and to conquer, they reckoned the same thing, because, in close engagements, and in broken ranks, no regular troops would withstand them." * When they closed with the enemy, they received the points of the bayonets on their targets; and thrusting them aside, resorted to their pistols and dirks, to complete the impression made by the musket and broadsword. It was in this manner that the Athole Highlanders and the Camerons, who were on the right of Prince Charles Edward's followers at Culloden, charged the left wing of the royal army. After breaking through Barrell's and Munroe's (4th and 37th regiments,) which formed the left of the royal army, they pushed forward to charge the second line, composed of Bligh's and Semple's (the 20th and 25th) regiments. Here their impetuosity met an effectual check, by the fire of those corps, when they came within a few yards, and still more by Wolfe's, (the 8th Foot,) and Cobham's and Lord Mark Kerr's (the 10th and 11th Light Dragoons,) who had formed en potence on their right flank, and poured in a most destructive fire along their whole line. At the same moment they were taken in rear by the Argyle, and some companies of Lord Loudon's Highlanders, who had advanced in that direction, and had broken down an old wall that covered the right of the rebels. By this combination of attacks in front, right flank, and rear, they were forced to give up the contest, and to charge back again, sword in hand, through those who had advanced and formed on the ground they had left. In this desperate conflict they left half their number dead on the field. The same kind of charge was made by the Stewarts of Appin, Frasers, and Mackintoshes, upon the regiments in their front. These were the Scotch

• Dalrymple's Memoirs.

Fusileers and Ligonier's (the 21st and 48th regiments,} which they drove back upon the second line, but, being unable to penetrate, numbers were cut down at the mouths of the cannon, before they gave up the contest. The Reve

• Home, in his History of the Rebellion, says that the “Athole brigade, in advancing, lost thirty-two officers, and was so shattered that it stopped short, and never closed with the king's troops." The Athole brigade had not so many officers in the field; nineteen officers were killed, and four wounded. Many gentlemen who served in the ranks were killed, which might occasion the mistake. I have conversed with several who were in the battle, and, among others, with one gentleman still alive in my neighbourhood, all of whom differed from Mr Home's account.

Mr Home, for some years, spent part of every summer in the Highlands, ostensibly for the benefit of his health and for amusement, but actually in collecting materials for his history. The respectability of his character, and the suavity of his manners, procured him everywhere a good reception. But his visits were principally made to Jacobite families, to whom the secret history of those times was familiar. They told him all they knew with the most unreserved confidence; and nothing could exceed their disappointment when the history appeared, and proved to be a dry detail of facts universally known, while the rich store of authentic and interesting anecdotes, illustrative of the history of the times, and of the peculiar features of the Highland character, with which they had furnished him, had been neglected or concealed, from an absurd dread of giving offence to the Royal Family by a disclosure of the cruelties wantonly practised, or by relating circumstances creditable to the feelings and character of the unfortunate sufferers. Now, it is well known with what generous sympathy the late King viewed the sacrifice to mistaken loyalty, and the countenance and protection which he afforded to such individuals as lived to see him on the throne, and which he extended to their descendants. It is equally well known that there is not one individual in his family who would not listen with deep interest to the details of the chivalrous loyalty, the honourable sacrifices, and the sufferings sustained with patience and fortitude by those who are long since gone to their account, and who are no more objects of dislike or hostility to them than Hector or King Priam.

The only way in which the meagreness of this long meditated history can credibly be accounted for, is, by reflecting on the circumstances in which the work was finished. Two or three years before it was published, the author's carriage had been overturned when travelling in Ross-shire, on which occasion he received a severe contusion on the head, which had such an effect upon his nerves, that both his memory and judgment were very considerably affected ever after.

rend Dr Shaw, in his manuscript History of the Rebellion, says, "The enemy's attack on the left wing of the royal army was made with a view to break that wing, to run it into disorder, and then to communicate the disorder to the whole army. This could not easily be effected, when a second and third line were ready to sustain the first. But it must be owned the attack was made with the greatest courage, order, and bravery, amidst the hottest fire of small arms, and continued fire of cannon with grape-shot, on their flanks, front and rear. They ran in upon the points of the bayonets, hewed down the soldiers with their broadswords, drove them back, put them into disorder, and possessed themselves of two pieces of cannon. The rebel's left wing did not sustain them in the attack, and four fresh regiments coming up from the Duke's second line under General Huske, they could not stand under a continual fire both in front, in flank, and rear, and therefore they retired. It was in this attack that Lord Robert Kerr, having stood his ground, after Barrell's regiment was broke and drove back, was killed." And farther, we learn from the Lockhart papers, that "Lord George Murray attacked, at the head of the Atholemen, (who had the right of the army that day,) with all the bravery imaginable, as the whole army did, and broke the Duke of Cumberland's line in several places, and made themselves masters of two pieces of cannon, (though they were both fronted and flanked by them, who kept a close firing from right to left,) and marched up to the points. of their bayonets, which they could not see for smoke till they were upon them." Such were the strength and dexterity with which these people used their arms, if not always to conquer, at least to amaze and sometimes to confound regular troops.

SECTION V.

The Highland garb.

AMONG the circumstances that influenced the military character of the Highlanders, we must not omit their peculiar garb, which, by its lightness and freedom, enabled them to use their limbs, and handle their arms with ease and dexterity, and to move with great speed when employed with either cavalry or light infantry. In the wars of Gustavus Adolphus, in the civil wars of Charles I., and on various other occasions, they were often mixed with the cavalry, affording to detached squadrons the incalculable advantage of support from infantry, even in their most rapid movements. The author of "Memoirs of a Cavalier," speaking of the Scots army in 1640, says, "I observed that these parties had always some foot with them, and yet if the horses galloped or pushed on ever so forward, the foot were as forward as they, which was an extraordinary advantage. These were those they call Highlanders; they would run on foot with all their arms and all their accoutrements, and keep very good order too, and kept pace with the horses, let them go at what rate they would." The almost incredible swiftness of these people, owing, in a great measure, no doubt, to the lightness of their dress, by which their movements were totally unencumbered, constituted the military advantage of the garb; although, in the opinion of Lord President Forbes, it possessed others, which his Lordship stated in a letter addressed to the Laird of Brodie, at that time Lord Lyon for Scotland. "The garb is certainly very loose, and fits men enured to it to go through great marches, to bear out against the inclemency of the weather, to wade through rivers, to shelter in huts, woods, and rocks, on occasions when men

dressed in the low country garb could not endure. And it is to be considered, that, as the Highlanders are circumstanced at present, it is, at least it seems to me to be, an utter impossibility, without the advantage of this dress, for the inhabitants to tend their cattle, and go through the other parts of their business, without which they could not subsist, not to speak of paying rents to their landlords."

*

The following account of the dress is from an author who wrote prior to the year 1597. "They," the Highlanders, "delight in marbled cloths, especially that have long stripes of sundrie colours; they love chiefly purple and blue; their predecessors used short mantles, or plaids of divers colours, sundrie ways divided, and among some the same custom is observed to this day; but, for the most part now, they are brown, most near to the colour of the hadder, to the effect when they lye among the hadders, the bright colour of their plaids shall not bewray them, with the which rather coloured than clad, they suffer the most cruel tempests that blow in the open fields, in such sort, that in a night of snow they sleep sound." The dress of the Highlanders was so peculiarly accommodated to the warrior, the hunter, and the shepherd, that, to say nothing of the cruelty and impolicy of opposing national predilections, much dissatisfaction was occasioned by its suppression, and the rigour with which the change was enforced. People in a state of imperfect civilization retain as much of their ancient habits, as to distinguish them strongly from the lower orders in more advanced society. The latter, more laborious, less high-minded, and more studious of convenience and

• From "Remarks on the Chartularies of Aberdeen," by John Graham Dalyell, Esquire, we learn that these Chartularies contain general Statutes and Canons of the Scottish Church for the years 1242 and 1249, as also private regulations and ordinances for the See of Aberdeen from 1256 downwards. In these ordinances the clergy are prohibited from wearing tartan or the kilt. "The ecclesiastics are to be suitably apparelled, avoiding red, green, and striped clothing, and their garments shall not be shorter than to the middle of the leg."

+ Certayne Mattere concerning Scotland. London, printed 1603.