Various

“ Nature was very kind to Donald. He had ready wit, a quick invention, an excellent address, an uncommon degree of firmness of mind, strength of body, and activity. Those qualities rendered him a fit leader of a chosen band in those restless and warlike times. ”

“ What a delightful jaunt is it to move, for some miles together, through a wood of the fragrant birch, bending down its leaves to regale the nose of the traveller. The beauties of a country-seat, wood and water, are here in the greatest abundance. ”

“ He set out openly for Moidart, discovered to his uncle the engagement he had come under, and asked his advice. His uncle told him that the people of certain farms in that neighbourhood having offended him, to go and spoil them; that he, to save appearance, when it came to his knowledge, should pursue him to retake the spoil; but should not be in such haste that Donald ran any risk of being overtaken. Donald did so; carried off his spoil; set fire to two or three farms, and got safe off. The affair made a great noise, and reached Argyle’s ears, who was astonished at Donald’s rashness. ”

“ Sir—It is now become fashionable among the English to make a tour into Scotland for some few weeks or months; and there is a moral certainty of the fashion increasing, as the foolish prejudices against the country and its inhabitants daily decrease. But it is to be regretted, that an intelligent curious traveller from England has no proper helps to assist him; so that it often happens, that many return without having seen one third of what is most curious in the country, although, perhaps, they have passed within some few hours ride, or rather some few yards, of such articles of importance ”

“ Having informed her husband of the circumstances, they agreed to bring up the child as if he was their own, and to keep the secret of his parentage concealed from the world, even from himself, till a proper time arrived for disclosing it.
Donald was accordingly educated in the family of Rab a Pheti, the blacksmith. When he acquired some strength, he was often called to assist his supposed father in carrying on his trade. Being of a strong, athletic make, he performed every task proposed to him with ease, little thinking he had any right to be otherwise employed. ”

“ John du MacDhonuil, fourth son to Donald nan Ord. He married a daughter of James Stewart of Glens, commonly called Ni Mhic Sheumais. By her he had one son and seven daughters. His son, along with another youth, a son of Sir Donald Campbell of Ardnamurchan, during the rage for suppressing Popery, went to Craig, a place sacred to Saint Curulames, carried away the images, and burnt them in the castle of Island Stalker, offering impious scoffs and insults to the images as they were burning. They both died when young. One of the daughters was married to Stewart of Ardsheil ”

“ During Donald’s life the feud that subsisted between him and the family of Dunstaffnage did not entirely subside. It gave much trouble and uneasiness to the friends of both parties. It was very prudently concluded, in order to put a final end to it, that Duncan should pay his addresses to a daughter of Dunstaffnage, which he did with success. This was carried on unknown to Donald, and when the marriage took place, he was in very bad blood with his son. It cost the friends a great deal of work to get him reconciled to him. ”

“ The peculiar family circumstances under which Donald was left to his protection, his life being in danger, rendered the smith more careful of him. The kindness thus shown by his supposed father, drew the attachment of the child towards him. The smith at last got fonder of him than any of his own family, and frequently brought him to the smithy to assist him in making swords, axes, and such other warlike instruments as were used in those times. As Donald grew up, his strength and intrepidity increased with his years. ”

“ There is a well-known anecdote, which we cannot pass over in silence. Donald was, on a time, returning from an expedition into Stirlingshire, and, passing through Monteith, called at a tenant’s house, where they were preparing a wedding dinner. The Earl of Monteith was at the marriage, and was to partake of the dinner. Donald and his men were hungry, and asked for a supply of meat, which being refused, they were so unpolite as step in and eat up the whole dinner. Upon the Earl’s arrival with the marriage people, they were enraged at the affront put upon them. ”

“ The building is now secured from violence and wanton dilapidation, and as it has only to contend against the silent erosion of lichen and wallflower, we may hope that it will long continue to adorn our district—a monument of a far distant age and far different state of society, and a beautiful and affecting link between the past and the present. ”

“ Upon which one of Donald’s men remarked, that he gave cleaner blood to the crabs of Island Stalker, without a cause.
9. Donald the Hammerer, the smith’s step-son. The darling of the mail coats. You lifted a hership from Lochow side that Argyle cannot redeem, nor his son, nor his grandson, nor his great-grandson.
10. Grey, withered Argyle, you care little about me, and when I return, as little I’ll care about you.
11. Dirty Laugh.
12. Dirty laugh they call the rock, and always that way remains; you will the same get with yourself, if your wife’s face you would compare. ”

“ Donald seized one of these large hammers in each hand, and beat it down with great ease. The smith, admiring his strength and activity, could no longer contain himself: and after consulting his wife, sent for ‘Mhac Mhic Allen,’ the uncle of Donald, to reveal the secret. On the arrival of the uncle, the smith told him he wanted to show him what one of his sons, who was only eighteen years of age, could do. They went to the smithy, and Donald, in order to please his supposed chief, exerted himself in beating on the study with the two large hammers. ”

“ Donald, the only son of Alexander, being an infant, was, at the death of his father, carried away to Lochshiel side, in Moidart, to a smith’s family, commonly known by the name of ‘An Gothan Muidartsich.’ The smith was a descendant of the Clanronald family, and had a tack of both sides of Lochshiel, which, together with his trade, supported his family. ”

“ ALEXANDER, the first Invernahyle, was son to Allan Stewart, third Laird of Appin. He married Margaret Macdonald, daughter of Donald Macdonald of Moidart, commonly called Donul an Lochan. [1] He had only one child, Donald, who succeeded him. Alexander, it would appear, lived in Island Stalker. He rose early on a summer morning, and stepped over to the Nan Gall, [2] which lies contiguous. He had in his hand a Lochaber axe, which at that period was frequently used instead of the sword. He reclined upon a verdant spot of the isle, with his Lochaber axe laid carelessly by him. ”

“ Above the pier-arches there has existed a triforium, of which the only remains are a single shaft at either end of the nave, the beginning and termination of the arcade. The Norman triforium is in England simply a row of openings or pannels in the wall, to fill up, ornamentally, what would otherwise have been a blank space. In Germany it is a real gallery, and appropriated to the young men, and called the Männer-chor. ”

“ Duncan was advised to fly from the impending storm. The incensed hero looked for his degenerate son. Where is he? He is gone towards the house. Towards the house marched Donald, inquired and searched, but could not find the object of his wrath. At length he thought he found him under the bedclothes, in his own bed. He could contain himself no longer. He drew his hanger, and made a deadly stroke at the supposed Duncan. Though the arm was old, it had not wholly lost its strength. ”

“ James, the third Innishchaorach, married —— Stewart, daughter to Stewart of Annat, and had issue, Alexander and Neil, who died unmarried.
Neil, second son of Dugald, the first Innishchaorach, was the male heir to Innishchaorach. He was wadsetter to Ledcharrie and Edarramhionoich, in Glendochart, and had issue, John, Charles, and Neil. Charles succeeded to the wadset, which was paid up to him, and with the money he bought the lands of Bohalic, in Athole, of which he died possessed. ”

“ In these edifices we perceive the general arrangement of our Norman and Gothic churches—a wide central space arched over at top, with the vaults resting on pillars corresponding to our nave; between these pillars lofty arches open into as many vaulted apartments on either side intercommunicating by similar archways and constituting side-aisles. The roof of the side-aisles being considerably lower than that of the central vault, admits the insertion of lights in the main wall looking into the cave, which correspond with our clerestory windows. ”

“ The gentleman can beat up all kinds of game; the deer and the roe bounding up and down; the partridge, the tarmachan, the muir-fowl, the wood-cock, the black-cock, and the heath-hen, and many others I cannot name, whirling through the air, or whidding up and down upon the ground ”

“ But the greatest care should be taken to stand clear of all party-work, either in religion or politics, because such peculiarities will disgust some readers, and thereby effectually condemn the work, be its merit otherwise ever so great. ”

“ Alexander, the fourth Ballechelish, was first married to a daughter of Stewart of Ardsheils, issue, sons. He married after her, Isabel Stewart, daughter to Alexander Stewart of Annat, in Perthshire, and had issue: 1. John, the present Ballechelish; 2. Alexander, who was killed at Falkirk in 1746; and one daughter, Isabel, married to Donald Stewart, nephew to Alexander Stewart, fourth Ballechelish, and son to Donald Mac Alisdair Mhoir. ”

“ One day, when about eighteen years of age, it being his turn to work in the smithy, he took hold of a large hammer, which required the strength of any ordinary man to wield with both hands, and, of course, deemed too unweildly for a stripling of his age, yet he found so little difficulty in managing it, that he wrought it with one hand ”

“ But if the owners of the said Lands and the foresaid workmen do not agree, each party is to chuse an honest man to value the expence of the foresaid damages. Item, and that any having power from me, maintain my peace firm and stable against all other pretenders and usurpers, who encroach on me or my subjects to disturb our peace. ”

“ He left them to his daughter, having no male issue.
James, second son to Alexander, the fourth Invernahyle, was wadsetter of Inverkinglass, in Glenkinglass. He was married, and had a son, Allan, who settled in Ardnamurchan. Allan married a daughter of Mr Maccalman, minister of Appin, by whom he had four sons—James, John, Allan and Dugald. Dugald had an estate in Jamaica, called Mounstewart. It was sold and divided among his relations. Allan had a son called Andrew, who settled in Perth, and left a son, a glover. Andrew has two sons, Peter, a glover, and Thomas, a shipmaster and an heritor. ”

“ When at length they came to talk of business, the terms upon which Argyle offered peace were, that Donald should raise a hership in Moidart, and another in Athole, thinking probably that he would be cut off in these attempts; or if successful against such powerful people, that his disgrace would be less in what was done to his own lands. Donald readily agreed to the terms. ”

“ Margaret, married to Duncan Stewart, son to Innishchaorach.
Duncan, the seventh Invernahyle, was bred to the law in Edinburgh, where he had an opportunity of cultivating a fine natural taste for music, to the enjoyment of which he very much devoted himself in his latter days. He married, when young, Mary Campbell, daughter of Alexander Campbell of Barcaldine, and by her had a numerous offspring, of whom there came to maturity—1. Alexander, the present Invernahyle, who is married to Catharine Stewart, daughter to Robert Stewart of Appin, and has issue; 2. ”

“ Tam, with the shrewdness of a crafty mind, made use of this folly and superstitious fear for his own aggrandisement; and few, after a time, dared refuse him an alms, from his “uncanny” notoriety. Of the many strange and unaccountable stories still related of him. I will narrate the following:—
“One day when the water of Lugton, which separates the parishes of Beith and Dunlop, was rolling “from bank to brae,” and the holms were in a flooded state, Tam was observed on the opposite bank by some people. ”

“ Whereas our trusty and well-beloved friends, the Operative Masons in the City of Glasgow, Hath, by their Petition, humbly represented to us, that the inhabitants of this City has been imposed upon by a number of unskilled and unsufficient workmen, that has come to work at our Cathedral, and other parts of the City ”

“ It is a pain in their head that have it, and a soreness in their stomachs, with a great cough; it remaineth with some longer, with others shorter time, as it findeth apt bodies for the nature of the disease. ”

“ There is no doubt, however, that the very virtues, which originally inspired awe and attracted esteem, tended, by a natural process, frequently renewed, and always with similar results, to the gradual corruption and final overthrow of the monastic system. ”

“ The bearer hereof, Mr Peter Heuat, [22] is ane honest man, and your maiestye may reiose in the planting of him, being ane of your maiestyes owne plantation there, and ansuring to your maiestyes expectation of him in all pointis, and can truely and sufficiently informe your maiestye of all particulars here; bot he is not, as he deserues, and as your maiestye appointed for his encuragement, ansured of his small pension assigned to him, vhiche is pitie, and wald be helped to put difference betuix those that are your maiesties owne men and others. ”

“ Sir Walter made various alterations on the MS., in the narrative as well as in the style; but, the object of our Journal being the preservation of what is original, rare, or curious, rather than the cultivation of fine writing, we have preferred adhering to the copy, which is more complete than when in the hands of the Author of Waverley, several additions having been made to it by Mr Stewart, Excise Officer, Kirkcudbright, who claims kindred with the Stewarts of Appin. It will be interesting to the reader to compare our pages with the story as related by the “Great Magician.” ”

“ Alexander quickly replied—“Bheil duil agad nach eil sin innte,” [5] and also laid hold of the axe, being fully sensible of the spirit of Colin’s remark. During the struggle, Colin’s men surrounded Alexander, and basely murdered him. Donald, his infant son, was suckled by Morag, a woman from Moidart, and wife to Rab a Pheti, the smith of that district. Colin, foreseeing that the black deed he had committed might not pass unrevenged, was very anxious to destroy the child. ”