CASTLE OF URQUHART.-FORT AUGUSTUS.

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of three stories, and surmounted by four square projecting turrets, still exists. The outer wall encloses a spacious area, and in some places is terraced, with platforms in the angles for the convenience of the defending soldiery. The entrance is through a spacious gateway, between two guard-rooms, projecting beyond the general line of the walls, and guarded by more than one massive portal, and a huge portcullis. These entrance-towers are much in the style of architecture peculiar to the Welsh castles built by Edward I.; and in front of them lay the drawbridge across the outer moat. The whole buildings were of superior masonry, strongly secured, and so extensive as to accommodate a garrison of at least five hundred men.

The first siege sustained by this castle was in 1303. In that year, the officers of Edward I.—who did not venture in person beyond Nairn-were sent forward to subdue the country around Kildrummie, and began their operations against Castle Urquhart, which, of all the strongholds in the North, maintained the most determined resistance. At length, however, the place was captured, A.D. 1334,* and the intrepid governor, De Bois, and his garrison, were put to the sword.

Fort Augustus, the central stronghold erected in the Great Glen, stands on a peninsula formed by the rivers Tarf and Oich, at the western extremity of Loch-Ness. The scenery is wild and mountainous; but in respect to convenience, and the facilities of communication, the locality is well chosen. All the supplies necessary for a garrison could be transported at little expense by land and water. It is a regular fortification, with barracks for nearly four hundred troops,

Thirty-one years later, Sir Robert Lauder, a knight of Morayshire, was governor of Urquhart, and held the castle successfully against the Baliol faction. His daughter having married the laird of Chisholm in Strathglass, the offspring of that union, Sir Robert Chisholm, on coming into the inheritance of his maternal property, the estates of Quarrel Wood, became constable of Urquhart Castle, in right of his grandfather. After this period, it is known to have been a royal fort or garrison; and such, probably, it also was at the commencement of the fourteenth century, the period of the siege, and during the reigns of the Alexanders, and other early Scottish sovereigns. About the middle of the fourteenth century, the barony and castle of Urquhart were disponed by David II. to William count of Sutherland, and his son John; and were subsequently held for the king by the ancient family of Grant of Freuchie, now Grant of Grant, who, as chamberlains of the crown, obtained possession of most of the lands around, constituting the domains of the Castle. Finally, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, when James IV. was empowered by parliament to let out in feu-farm the royal lands, both annexed and unannexed, he granted three charters of the lordship of Urquhart, and baronies of Urquhart and Glenmoriston, in different portions, to John Grant of Freuchie, and his two sons; from the latter of whom are descended the GRANTS of Glenmoriston and Corymony.-Paroch. Statist. 1836.

• A gentleman of Inverness is in possession of an original charter of this Sir Robert Chisholm, to the church of the Holy Cross, in Inverness, of certain lands near the town, dated on the first of the Epiphany, A.D. 1362.

and was built in 1729, on the Lovat estate, to overawe certain clans who were inclined to disturb the peace by supporting the exiled family of Stuart in their claims to the throne. In 1746 it was taken by the Highland clans, and partly demolished, but, afterwards reinstated, it became for some time the head-quarters of the royal army.* The garrison is now become unnecessary; and, some years ago, orders were given to dismantle the ramparts and transfer the ordnance to Fort George-measures which were carried into effect.

The hill of Suidh-Chuiman is crossed by the great military road from Inverness to Fort Augustus; and on its very summit, within two yards of him, the tourist will observe a small cairn-such as is commonly found where persons have perished from the inclemency of the weather, or died suddenly. On this spot, it is said, one of the chieftains of the Clan Cummin,† so powerful in their day, while on the way to visit some of his dependants, fell sick and died. Here, any disastrous event is perpetuated by a cairn-in the Alps, by a cross erected on the spot.

Among the traditions relative to events which took place in this neighbourhood at the calamitous period of "forty-five," one is thus perpetuated :-Cameron of Lochiel, having joined Prince Charles, was followed by his whole clan—a measure which involved them in ruin. The royal army, after its victory on the field of Culloden, as already mentioned, was stationed at Fort Augustus, from which point small detachments were sent in different directions to plunder and lay waste the country. In Lochaber, they drove away all the cattle, burnt the houses,

When taken possession of by the royal army, it became the centre of gaiety and fashion. Amidst the fatigues and hardships which the soldiers had to suffer, says a writer of that day, the brave Duke makes all about him as jovial as the place will possibly admit of." In a letter, dated from the fort, June 17th, the writer gives some account of the royal pastimes. "Last Wednesday," says he, "the duke gave two prizes to the soldiers to run heats for, on bare-backed galloways taken from the rebels, when eight started for the first, and ten for the second prize. These galloways are little larger than a good tup, and shew excellent sport. Yesterday his royal highness gave the soldiers' wives a fine Holland smock to be run for on these galloways, also bare backed, and riding with their limbs on each side the horse, like men. Eight started, and there were three of the finest heats ever seen! The prize was won with great difficulty by one of the Old Buffs' ladies. In the evening, General Hawley and Colonel Howard ran a match for twenty guineas, on two of the above shelties (or ponies), which Hawley won by about five inches."-Struthers' Hist. Scots Mag. 1748.

+ The whole distict of Badenoch was originally the property of the Comyns, (or Cummins,) who, at an early period of Scottish history, were one of the most powerful families in the kingdom. It is matter of doubt at what time and in what manner this family, which came from England in the time of David I., acquired possession of so much wealth and influence; but we find John Comyn first noticed as lord of Badenoch in the reign of Alexander III.-See Parochial Statistics.

"We hang or shoot," says an officer, writing from Fort Augustus, "every one that is known to conceal the Pretender; burn their houses, and take away their cattle, of which we got a thousand head within these few days past; so that if some of your Northumberland graziers were here, they would make their fortunes."—Ray. "We had near twenty thousand head of cattle brought in, taken from the rebels.

LOCAL TRADITIONS.-GLENGARRY.

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and expelled the miserable inhabitants, old and young, without food or clothing, to the hills. Several persons were murdered in cold blood, or shot through sheer wantonness. About four hundred of the royal army having surprised a young man of the name of Cameron with a musket in his hand, the unfortunate youth, without any form of trial, was posted up and shot by an order from Grant, who commanded a party of the Ross-shire militia. This, it is not improbable, was as much the result of private antipathy as of political zeal, which too frequently served as a mask for similar acts of violence. At this time, a difference in name implied a difference in nature; so that he who was not a Grant, or of some other clan conspicuous for its loyalty, was marked as a rebel; and, too frequently it is feared, the mere difference of a patronymic, sufficed for the prompt execution of feeble and inoffensive individuals. Dugald Roy Cameron, the father of the unhappy youth, and witness of his death, kept a vigilant eye upon the detachment as they returned to quarters with their plunder. In their progress towards the fort, either by accident, or, as it has been surmised, with the well-founded apprehension that the avenger was not far distant, and that his identity might at least be rendered doubtful by the change, Grant gave his horse to Major Munro. Dugald having come up shortly after, and taken aim at the rider without observing the change, the amiable Major fell mortally wounded by the shot. In vain the soldiers attempted to capture the assassin; throwing away his musket, he scaled the precipices with a speed and determination known only to mountaineers; and hastening to intercept them once more in a narrow pass, hoped to accomplish, by a discharge of rocky fragments, results still more fatal than that already caused by his musket. This, however, was happily prevented by the delay and consternation caused by the death of Munro. Cameron found no more victims that day, but the morning's disaster checked all similar expeditions into Lochaber. Cameron was never discovered, and served afterwards as a private in the royal army.

On the western shore of Loch-Oich, where it receives the tributary stream from Loch-Garry, is the modern residence of the Macdonell family — distinguished for centuries as the chieftains of that name, and the leaders of a warlike clan. Not far distant from the present mansion is the ruined Castle* of Invergarry

by parties sent out for them... Great numbers of our men grew rich by their share of the spoil, which was bought in the lump by jockeys and farmers from Yorkshire and the south of Scotland, and divided amongst the men... few common soldiers were without horses. . . gold was also as common among great numbers as copper at other times."-Journal of a Medical Officer, London, 1746.

Invergarry was the first stage of Prince Charles's pilgrimage—after his defeat at Culloden, and when he had assumed his disguise—a pilgrimage long continued, perilous in the extreme, and which nothing