Just Before We Came To Oban, We Passed The Estate Of Lord Heigh,
Where We Heard The Following Story.
The origin of his name and rank
is this:
When King Kenneth ruled in Scotland, he was beaten in a
great battle by the Danes, and his army scattered among the hills,
while the enemy was marching home in triumph. A man in the Scottish
army said that he knew a pass through which the victor must go,
where one man might stop a thousand, and offered himself and his two
sons to defend it. He came to the pass armed only with an ox-yoke,
but made such use of his weapon that the Danes were kept at bay,
till the Scots rallied and cut them to pieces. When Kenneth reached
the pass, he found his brave subject lying in truth quite exhausted.
He raised him up, and inquired his name; the fainting man could only
gasp, "Heigh-ho, heigh!" From that moment he was called the Lord of
Heigh, and the king gave him as much land as an eagle could fly over
without alighting. The family arms are an eagle on the wing over an
ox-yoke.
At Edinburgh, I went to see the Regalia, which are kept in a small
room in the castle, in which they were found after being buried
there for more than a century. It is a small room, not more than
twelve feet square. On one side is the iron chest in which the
Regalia were found; and in the middle of the room is a marble table,
entirely white, surrounded by an iron grating, on which is the crown
which Robert Bruce had made for himself, the sword of James the
First, the signet ring of Charles the First, and other jewels that
had belonged to some of the Scottish kings.
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