At New-Year's Eve, In The Hall
Or Castle Of The Laird, Where, At Festal Seasons, There May Be
Supposed A Very Numerous Company, One Man Dresses Himself In A
Cow's Hide, Upon Which Other Men Beat With Sticks.
He runs with
all this noise round the house, which all the company quits in a
counterfeited fright:
The door is then shut. At New-year's eve
there is no great pleasure to be had out of doors in the Hebrides.
They are sure soon to recover from their terrour enough to solicit
for re-admission; which, for the honour of poetry, is not to be
obtained but by repeating a verse, with which those that are
knowing and provident take care to be furnished.
Very near the house of Maclean stands the castle of Col, which was
the mansion of the Laird, till the house was built. It is built
upon a rock, as Mr. Boswell remarked, that it might not be mined.
It is very strong, and having been not long uninhabited, is yet in
repair. On the wall was, not long ago, a stone with an
inscription, importing, that 'if any man of the clan of Maclonich
shall appear before this castle, though he come at midnight, with a
man's head in his hand, he shall there find safety and protection
against all but the King.'
This is an old Highland treaty made upon a very memorable occasion.
Maclean, the son of John Gerves, who recovered Col, and conquered
Barra, had obtained, it is said, from James the Second, a grant of
the lands of Lochiel, forfeited, I suppose, by some offence against
the state.
Forfeited estates were not in those days quietly resigned; Maclean,
therefore, went with an armed force to seize his new possessions,
and, I know not for what reason, took his wife with him. The
Camerons rose in defence of their Chief, and a battle was fought at
the head of Loch Ness, near the place where Fort Augustus now
stands, in which Lochiel obtained the victory, and Maclean, with
his followers, was defeated and destroyed.
The lady fell into the hands of the conquerours, and being found
pregnant was placed in the custody of Maclonich, one of a tribe or
family branched from Cameron, with orders, if she brought a boy, to
destroy him, if a girl, to spare her.
Maclonich's wife, who was with child likewise, had a girl about the
same time at which lady Maclean brought a boy, and Maclonich with
more generosity to his captive, than fidelity to his trust,
contrived that the children should be changed.
Maclean being thus preserved from death, in time recovered his
original patrimony; and in gratitude to his friend, made his castle
a place of refuge to any of the clan that should think himself in
danger; and, as a proof of reciprocal confidence, Maclean took upon
himself and his posterity the care of educating the heir of
Maclonich.
This story, like all other traditions of the Highlands, is
variously related, but though some circumstances are uncertain, the
principal fact is true.
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