Cromarty

“ Cromarty had come in, sir, I understood you for to say everything pointed to the man having come in by the door and hit Sir Reginald on the head as he came to see who it was when he heard him outside."
"I merely suggested that," said Simon Rattar sharply. "It fits the facts, but there's no definite evidence yet."
Ned Cromarty had turned and was frowning out of the window. Now he wheeled quickly and exclaimed:
"If the murderer came in through the window while Sir Reginald was in the room, either the window was standing open or Sir Reginald opened it for him! ”

“ Between the times of Macbeth and an age comparatively recent, there occurs a wide chasm in the history of Cromarty. The Thane, magnified by the atmosphere of poetry which surrounds him, towers like a giant over the remoter brink of the gap, while, in apparent opposition to every law of perspective, the people on its nearer edge seem diminished into pigmies. And yet the Urquharts of Cromarty—though Sir Thomas, in his zeal for their honour, has dealt by them as the poets of ancient Greece did by the early history of their country—were a race of ancient standing and of no little consideration. ”

“ Cromarty, is neither more nor less than I'd have expectit of a gentleman of your intelligence. Weel, to continue, Miss Farmond acted on your advice—which would have been my own, sir, under the circumstances—and tellt her ladyship the plain facts. Weel then——"
"And what did Lady Cromarty say to you?" demanded Ned.
"Hardly a word. She simply looked at me and said she would send for Mr. Rattar."
Not a whit rebuffed, Mr. Bisset straightway resumed his narrative.
"A perfectly proper principle if the man was capable of telling the truth. ”

“ I was once one of his pupils in the far north; but I have heard nothing of him since he left Cromarty.”
“Why,” rejoined the old man, “he’s just the man that, mair nor a’ the rest, has borne the brunt o’ Robert’s fearsome waggery. Did ye ken him in Cromarty, say ye?”
“He was parish schoolmaster there,” said the gentleman, “for twelve years; and for six of these I attended his school. I cannot help respecting him; but no one ever loved him. Never surely was there a man at once so unequivocally honest and so thoroughly unamiable.” ”

“ It is, perhaps, not quite unworthy of remark, that not only is Cromarty the sole district of the kingdom whose annals ascend into the obscure ages of fable, but that the first passage of even its real history derives its chief interest, not from its importance as a fact, but from what may be termed its chance union with a sublime fiction of poetry. Few, I daresay, have so much as dreamed of connecting either its name or scenery with the genius of Shakspere, and yet they are linked to one of the most powerful of his achievements as a poet, by the bonds of a natural association. ”

“ Cromarty, though in a cheerful voice, and then added with an engaging smile. "Pardon me, Mr. Rattar. I'm trying to get educated out of strong language, but, Lord, at my time of life it's not so damned—I mean dashed easy!"
Even Simon Rattar's features relaxed for an instant into a smile.
"And who is educating you?" he enquired.
Mr. Cromarty looked a little surprised.
"Who but the usual lady? Gad, I've told you before of my sister's well meant efforts. It's a stiff job making a retired cow puncher into a high grade laird. ”

“ The gentleman who came through a door in the walled garden beside the house was a fresh-coloured, white-haired man of sixty; slender and not above middle height, but very erect, and with the carriage of a person a little conscious of being of some importance. Sir Reginald Cromarty was, in fact, extremely conscious of his position in life, and the rather superior and condescending air he was wont to assume in general society made it a little difficult for a stranger to believe that he could actually be the most popular person in the county ”

“ Life would not be worth one’s acceptance if it led to nothing better; and yet of all the mere men of the world who ever designed sagaciously, and laboured indefatigably, how very few have been so fortunate as the Earl of Cromartie!
There was no very immediate effect produced by the Revolution in the parish of Cromarty, and indeed but little in the north of Scotland. ”

“ Indeed, few people in this world can have cut a more dissimilar figure as seen from his own and from other men's eyes; though as both parties were equally pleased with Sir Reginald Cromarty, it mattered little. ”

“ Beyond Beauly, it crosses the neck of the peninsula called the Black Isle, on which stand the ex-cathedral city of Fortrose, and Cromarty on the deep inlet guarded by its cave-worn Sutors, where one can ferry over the mouth of this Cromarty Firth to the farther promontory, ended by one of Scotland’s several “Tarbets,” name denoting an isthmus or portage. Cromarty no longer exists as a separate and much-separated county, of which Macbeth seems to have been Maormor or satrap. ”

“ Rattar, is the fact that a farmer benefits by a shower any evidence that he has turned on the rain?"
"I have repeatedly said, Mr. Cromarty, that there is no definite evidence to convict anybody. But nothing would have been easier than making an end of Sir Reginald Cromarty, to anybody [Pg 141] inside that house whom he would never suspect till they struck the blow. ”

“ Sir John's son Jonathan sold Cromarty in 1685 to Viscount Tarbat, first earl of Cromarty, and on the death of Jonathan's son James, in 1741, the ‘Tutor's’ descendant, William Urquhart of Meldrum, became the representative of the ancient house of Cromarty (see Davidson, Inverurie, 1878, pp. 468–9; Fraser Mackintosh, Antiquarian Notes, 1865, pp. 202–3) .
Urquhart was a Scottish euphuist, with a brain at least as fertile and inventive as that of the Marquis of Worcester (many of whose hundred projects he anticipated) . ”

“ It was well for the people of Cromarty that, when there was no law powerful enough to protect them, they had courage enough to protect themselves; and particularly well at a period when the neighbouring Highlanders were still united by the ties of clanship into formidable bodies, ready to assert to a man the real or pretended rights of any individual of their number. ”

“ From his earliest years his life was one of constant toil. He was a herd-boy in his seventh, and a ploughman in his sixteenth year. He was then indentured to a mason; and he soon became one of the most skilful workmen in this part of the country, especially in hewing tombstones and engraving epitaphs. There is not a churchyard within ten miles of Cromarty in which there may not be seen some of his inscriptions. His heart was [Pg 388] an affectionate one, and open to love and friendship ”

“ He died in Poland Street, St. James's, Westminster, 28 Sept. 1766. 'The Earl of Cromartie's private character,' says the writer of his life in 1746, 'is very amiable; he is esteemed a polite nobleman, and affable in his temper and behaviour, and has little or nothing of that austere pride and haughtiness so peculiar to most highland chiefs.'
By his wife Isabella Gordon, called 'Bonnie Bell Gordon,' eldest daughter of Sir William Gordon, baronet, of Invergordon, Ross-shire, Cromarty had three sons—John, lord Macleod [q. v.] ”

“ Even in this age, however, as if to show that there can be nothing completely perfect that has human nature in it, Cromarty had its one Whig;—a person who affirmed that Franklin was a philosopher, and Washington a good man, and that the Americans were very much in the right. Could anything be more preposterous? The town’s-folk lacked patience to reason with a fellow so amazingly absurd. He was a slater, and his name was John Holm;—a name which became so proverbial in the place for folly, that, when any one talked very great nonsense, it was said of him that he talked like John Holm. ”

“ The sale of his father’s effects was coming on in about a week; and as the farmhouse at such a time could be no comfortable home for the widow, he brought her with him across the Firth to her sister’s in Cromarty, and then returned to Minitarf.
Her sister’s son was a saddler, a sagacious, well-informed man, truthful and honest, and as little imaginative as may be. He was employed at the time at the Mains of Invergordon—some six or seven miles from Cromarty—and slept in an apartment of the old castle, since burnt down. No one could be less influenced by superstitious beliefs of the period ”

“ Ned Cromarty was a nasty looking customer at that moment.
"Who started the lie?"
"It's just ignorance and want of education of the people, I'm thinking, Mr. Cromarty. They're no able to grasp the proper principles—"
"Lady Cromarty must be told! She could put a stop to it—"
Something in Bisset's look pulled him up sharply.
"I'm afraid her ladyship believes it herself, sir. Maybe you have heard she has keepit Miss Farmond to stay on with her."
"I have."
"Well, sir," said Bisset very slowly and deliberately, [Pg 133] "I'm thinking—it's just to watch her." ”

“ There occurs in our narrative another wide chasm, which extends from the times of Wallace to the reign of James IV. Like the earlier gap, however, it might be filled up by a recital of events, which, though they belong properly to the history of the neighbouring districts, must have affected in no slight degree the interests and passions of the people of Cromarty. ”

“ Forsyth died at Cromarty 30 Jan. 1800. He was twice married, first to Margaret Russell, who died within a year in childbed, and next, after eleven years, to Elizabeth Grant, daughter of the Rev. Patrick Grant of Nigg, Ross-shire. He had nine children, three only surviving him. He and his family were large benefactors to Cromarty. Hugh Miller, himself a native of Cromarty, says: ‘He was one of nature's noblemen ”

“ On the retreat of the Jacobite forces from Stirling, the brigade under Cromarty accompanied the division consisting chiefly of lowland troops, which under Lord George Murray followed the coast route to Inverness by Montrose and Aberdeen. Subsequently, Cromarty took over the command of the Earl of Kilmarnock's troops [see Boyd, William, fourth Earl of Kilmarnock] , and he for some time held the chief command north of the Beauly. The command was again transferred to James Drummond, third titular duke of Perth [q. v.] , but after the duke's departure Cromarty remained in command in Sutherland. ”

“ It is impossible to mistake the small dark profile which he has left us, small and dark though it be, for the profile of any mind except his own. He was born in 1613, the eldest son of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, and of Christian, daughter of Alexander Lord Elphinston. Of his earlier years there is not a single anecdote, nor is there anything known of either the manner or place in which he pursued his studies. ”

“ There lived in the succeeding reign a proprietor of Cromarty, who, from the number of his children, received, says the genealogist, the title, or agname, of Paterhemon. He had twenty-five sons who arrived at manhood, and eleven daughters who ripened into women, and were married. Seven of the sons lost their lives at the battle of Pinkie; and there were some of the survivors who, settling in England, became the founders of families which, in the days of the Commonwealth, were possessed of considerable property and influence in Devonshire and Cumberland. ”

“ And then he paced on.
"Just what I was saying to myself, sir. It was likely a wee thing of over anxiety to stop it that made me think o' the possibility of a wild man from America, which was perhaps a bit beyond the limits of what ye might call, as it were, scientific deduction."
"When did Lady Cromarty begin to take up this attitude?"
"Well, the plain truth is, sir, that her ladyship has been keeping sae much to herself that it's not rightly possible to tell what's been in her mind. But it was the afternoon when Mr. ”

“ Mordaunt, and touches me keenly; but happily for you, you serve an all-powerful master; he ought to aid you in your search; we have so many means of gaining information."
"My lord, to a well-bred dog it is only necessary to show one end of a track; he is certain to reach the other."
"But this relation you mentioned - do you wish me to speak to him?" said Mazarin, who was anxious to make a friend about Cromwell's person. ”

“ God knows I need it, but my heart wakes, and I do fear it will wake this night—if so, there is no sleep for me. You see, dearest, how God mingles our cup. When I was Mr. Cromwell, I could sleep from night till morning. When I was General Cromwell, my labours gave me rest. Now that I am Lord Protector of three Kingdoms, sleep, alas! is gone far from me! In my mind I run to and fro through all the land. I have a thousand plans and anxieties, Elizabeth, my dearest; great place is not worth looking after. It is not."
"But if beyond our will we be led into great place and great honour, Oliver?" ”

“ Cromartie. Nobody can vote who does not give up his secret, that is called the secrecy of the ballot—but it is out of the question for you to vote, anyhow ... you bear the Mark of the Beast.”
And Mr. Cromartie looked at his hand and felt his forehead and saw that he did indeed bear the Mark of the Beast where it had bitten him, and he knew that he was an outcast. That was what everybody had whispered. He would not give up his secret so he was rejected by mankind and hated by them, for he frightened them. ”

“ Curse on thy muddy veins, thou hast no honourable desperation in thee. Come, if thou beest a man, give up thy odds. What, ho! Excalibur!
[Makes a rush to get at CROMWELL]
Crom. It seemeth that
The ungodly fret. Go, place him in the stocks.
I charge ye harm him not—
But give him ale,
Wine, and a scurvy song-book—Such as he
Do make us triumph. Fie, fie, Cornet Dean!
Well, stop his mouth, an't please ye; come, away!
[Trumpets sound.] ”