Clan Donald

“ Ronald Maclean of the Drums—a little tower upon the peninsula of Loch Suinard—was shot by an arrow, and not one who left Duairt with "a fasting stomach," escaped;—why, God alone knows; for though my grand-uncle Lauchlan Barroch retreated with a remnant of our people to the birlinns, he was mortally wounded by a musket-shot. Of the Clan Donald, only thirty men were killed and sixty wounded. Among the latter was their young chief—afterwards a general of the Scots Brigade in Holland—who was found on the field with an arrow in his breast. ”

“ The aspect of Sir Donald's men, this brave regiment of Strathnaver, whose name in future wars was fated to carry terror and defeat into the ranks of the Austrian and Spanish Imperialists, would have fired even a coward-heart with a glow of chivalry, as on that morning they marched down, by the shores of the Firth of Cromartie, fifteen hundred strong; raised entirely among his own clan and kinsmen in Farr, Strathnaver, and Strathalladale, together with a few Munroes and Gunns. The regiment of Sir Donald well deserved the name given it in the "Svedish Intelligencer," the Scottish Invincibles. ”

“ As to the clan Gun, he could not with honesty or credit abandon them, and particularly John and his cousin Alexander, until tried and found guilty, as he had promised faithfully to be their friend, for revealing the affair of Sanset; that he had made them this promise at the earnest desire and entreaty of Sir Donald himself; that the house of Sutherland did always esteem their truth and constancy to be their greatest jewel ”

“ Joining in the insurrection, his two brothers commanded the battalion of his clan, on the Pretender’s side, at Sheriffmuir; and, being sent out with the Earl Marischal’s horse to drive away a reconnoitring party, under the Duke of Argyll, from the heights, may be said to have commenced the battle. Sir Donald himself had joined the Earl of Seaforth at his camp at Alness with 700 Macdonalds. After the suppression of the rebellion, Sir Donald proceeded to the Isle of Skye with about 1000 men ”

“ Donald was the heir to the chieftainship of Ardnamurchan, but his uncle, Big Angus, wishing to secure the estate for himself, waylaid his nephew at the ford mentioned, which is very difficult to jump across when the tide is in, as he was on his way to be married to a daughter of the then Chief of Lochiel. While Donald was jumping across the ford, one of Big Angus’s men shot an arrow in his face, so that when he [Pg 27] touched the ground on the other side, he staggered and reeled. ”

“ To suppose Lowlanders to be Highlanders we must suppose that they spoke the Gaelick, and held the system of clanship. Without this there could be no occasion for wearing clan tartans. Now, every law or regulation concerning clanship is limited to the Highlands and to the Borders, who seem to have it as a tie of communion calculated to bind a tribe strongly together. ”

“ I have lived, and shall dye, Your Majesty’s most humble, most Obedient, and most faithfull subject and servant,
‘Donald Cameron. [199] ’
There speaks a man who makes real the ideal of the Clan system. But the ideal, though a hundred times illustrated in the conduct of the commons, has left less conspicuous examples in the behaviour of some Chiefs. ‘My brother-in-law, Major Grant, pretended that the man,’ (a recruit) ‘I sent from this country, I sold, which is false,’ says Old Lovat to Cluny. [200] Major Grant, his brother-in-law, knew Old Lovat. ”

“ The “Glencow” men—no doubt the Mac Ians of Glencoe, a sept of the Clan Mac Donald—“had for their ensign a fair bush of heath,” and the badge of the Mac Donalds is still Fraoch or heath. The writer’s description implies that the rank and file of the Highland Host wore the kilt or the belted plaid; those who did not being, of course, the officers, who would wear the trews. ”

“ The Mac Leods of Raasay wore a design in brilliant yellow whose authority is the Vestiarium Scoticum. An examination of the portraits and relics at Dunvegan Castle in Skye, the seat of Mac Leod of Mac Leod, has been made in search of records of the tartan of the clan. It has revealed the singular circumstance that in the only early portrait in tartan dress, that of the chief painted by Allan Ramsay in 1768, red is the predominant colour of the tartan plaid, while coat and trews are in “Rob Roy” check. Logan has stated, from recollection, that the plaid is in the Fraser pattern ”

“ The tartan seems to have been first worn by Kennedy families in the Lochaber district. Tradition avers that some centuries back Ulric Kennedy, a scion of the Ayrshire Kennedys who came originally from Ireland, settled in Lochaber, and that all bearing the name in this locality are descended from him. In the Highlands they are known as Mac Ulrics or Clan Ulric, and are said to have once mustered considerable force. The design has been accepted by the Kennedys in Carrick, many of whom adopted it last century as an emblem of their Jacobite sympathies. ”

“ Nothing authentic has been ascertained as to its first introduction, but traditions of its long use are plentiful among the families entitled to wear it. An ancient legend of the Ogilvys concerning their tartan has been deemed to apply to this pattern, and to prove its antiquity. It is averred that the fairies, displeased at the appropriation of so much of their favourite colour (green) in the design, cast their influence against the clan in one of its feuds, and brought about its overthrow. Hence, according to the legend, the adoption of the pattern shown in the preceding illustration. ”

“ The pattern of Menzies tartan, signed and sealed by the chief of that day, in the collection formed by the Highland Society of London in 1816-17, is an arrangement of red, green, blue, and white, and an example of last century date in the Editor’s collection is identical in sett. The use of the red and white Menzies tartan as a design for hose was common throughout the Highlands, as the ancient portraits of various families prove, and this use of the sett is probably of earlier date than its special adoption as the Clan Menzies wear. ”

“ Their dress was as antique as the rest; a cap on their heads, called by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and their doublet, breeches, and stockings, of a stuff they called plaid, striped across red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same. These fellows looked, when drawn out, like a regiment of merry-andrews, ready for Bartholomew Fair. They are in companies all of a name and therefore call one another only by their christian names, ... and they scorn to be commanded but by one of their own clan or family.... ”

“ Donald felt that he had a good start of his pursuer, however, and he had his gun in his hand; but it was empty. Luckily, it was a repeating-rifle; and so, without abating his speed, he hastily took two cartridges from his jacket and slipped them into the chamber of the gun.
"I'll climb a tree and shoot him!" he said to himself, "if only I can warn the girls out of the way."
"Girls! Girls!" he screamed. But as he looked up, he saw, descending the hill and sauntering toward him, his sister and Josie Manning, absorbed in earnest conversation. ”

“ After a good many brushes in the scrub, the black fellows grew more used to fire-arms, and ventured down one night upon the station buildings. Fortunately it was moonlight, and Donald, who chanced to be awake and looking out of the window, could plainly distinguish the invaders as they crept out of a patch of scrub about a couple of hundred yards off, and came crouching towards the huts with their noses almost touching the moonlit grass.
“Sydney! Harry!” he shouted, “here come the blacks!” and snatching up his gun, he deliberately levelled it, and let fly at the foremost black fellow. ”

“ At the moment that the glowing eyes of the scout looked in through the window, Donald was sitting on a chair in the middle of the floor talking to his mother, who was filling a bottle of milk for him.
"I'm to meet M—— in the morning in the woods, and then I'm going to surrender. The police by this time know my intention."
"You have acted wisely, Donald," his mother said. "We will all see that you get a fair trial. My poor hunted boy, what have you suffered during the past twelve months. Anything would be better than this. You are liable to be caught at any moment—perhaps shot." ”

“ I have heard a mare squeal in a burning stable, but I have never heard agony in sound as I heard it there, on the top of Shap, when Donald flung himself across the dead body of his chief and foster-brother.
There is one tender memory of this distressing scene. Neither by look, word, nor tone did Donald attach blame or responsibility to me. He recovered himself in a few minutes, and then stood up, and gave a brief command in Gaelic. Four awe-struck men spread a plaid on the ground, placed the dead body on it, and carried it into the hut. ”

“ Scattered in groups, they lay or sat on the hillside to shout occasionally words of derision at Donald’s faithful crew.
Donald’s nerves were on edge. At any moment there might be a pitched battle with loss of lives. He studied the faces of the strikers to see how many were from his crew, and was surprised to recognize fully forty of his men. He saw “Blackie” in the rear of the crowd of strikers. When his eyes met Donald’s he turned away shamefacedly. All the men from his camp refused to meet his gaze squarely. “Those men are ready to come back right now,” he said to Gillis. ”

“ Living, too, in an age in which, like the Covenanters of a former century, the Highlander still retained his weapons, and knew how to use them, Donald had, like the Patons, Hackstons, and Balfours of the south, his dash of the warlike spirit; and after assisting his minister, previous to the rebellion of 1745, in what was known as the great religious revival of Nigg, he had to assist him, shortly after, in pursuing a band of armed Caterans, that, descending from the hills, swept the parish of its cattle. ”

“ If you can hold sight on a herd of beeves on a bad night like you did her, you'll be a foreman some day. And she's not only good blood herself, but she's got cattle and land. Old man Donald, her father, was killed in the Confederate army. He was an honest Scotchman who kept Sunday and everything else he could lay his hands on. In all my travels I never met a man who could offer a longer prayer or take a bigger drink of whiskey. I remember the first time I ever saw him. He was serving on the grand jury, and I was a witness in a cattle-stealing case. ”

“ We had purchased good saddle-horses and baggage animals to carry our goods, and had engaged two men—a French Canadian, Pierre Le Clerc, and an Irishman, Cornelius Crolly, or “Corney,” as he was generally called. Both men were known to Uncle Donald, and were considered trustworthy fellows, who would stick by us at a pinch. The route Uncle Donald proposed taking was looked upon as a dangerous one, but he was so well acquainted with all the Indian tribes of the north that he believed, even should we encounter a party of Blackfeet, they would not molest us. ”

“ Let boys and women whine! I must act!"
And with this resolution Black Donald dogged the path of the horsemen until he had reached that part of the woods skirting the road opposite the park gate. Here he hid himself in the bushes to watch events. Soon from his hiding place he saw the wagon approach, containing the three men, heavily ironed and escorted by a strong guard of county constables and plantation negroes, all well armed, and under the command of the Sheriff and Herbert Greyson. ”

“ Gillis’s gang, with the exception of “Blackie,” remained fervently faithful.
Toiling in the hot sun, nearly blinded by sweat, singing lustily, this gallant crew worked their twelve hours without a murmur of complaint. Donald lived on the job, ate on the job, and all day long he drove his men even as he drove himself. His rest consisted of such fitful snatches of sleep as he could steal between his rounds of the night guards.
The first move of the strikers was not of open violence. The haul-back on two of the donkeys broke without apparent reason; one of the big saws had been tampered with ”

“ A female and a minor was the legal proprietrix of the ancient possessions of the tribe, which, by her marriage, might be conveyed to another and a hostile family; whilst her uncle, the natural leader of the clan according to ancient custom, was left without any means to keep up the dignity of a chief, or to support the clan against its enemies. His claims on the estates possessed by the Clandonald were worse than nugatory, as they threatened to involve him in a feud with that powerful and warlike tribe, in case he should take any steps to enforce them. ”

“ He pointed to the coast-line beyond the bay.
"Yes."
"We had to climb that, to start with; and not even a glimpse of a rabbit all the way up. ''Ave a care, sir,' says Donald; and I took down my gun from my shoulder, expecting to walk into a whole covey at least. 'His lordship shot a brace and a alf of grouse on this wery knoll the last day he shot over the moor last year.' And now there was less talking, don't you know; and we went cautiously through the heather, working every bit of it, until we got right to the end of the knoll. 'It's fine heather,' says Donald ”

“ Black Donald, through the whole ordeal, deported himself with a gallant and joyous dignity, that would have better become a triumph than a trial.
He was indicted upon several distinct counts, the most serious of which—the murder of the solitary widow and her daughter in the forest cabin, and the assassination of Eugene Le Noir in the woods near the Hidden House—were sustained only by circumstantial evidence. But the aggregate weight of all these, together with his very bad reputation, was sufficient to convict him, and Black Donald was sentenced to death. ”