No. 3. Survey'd the fragments rude.-P. 146. The faithful adherent who delivered this narration, and spent fifty years and upwards in the service of this family, (by the younger branches of which she was regarded with filial veneration) died about two years since, and was buried beside her lady, at the foot of the eminence on which the ruin stood. No. 4. The caves that hid their lord.-P. 153. It is a singular fact, but well ascertained, that this Chief, before escaping to France, remained nine years in his native strath, concealed in different places, though all that time a company of soldiers were quartered in the country to discover his haunts, and were so diligent in their search of him, that they have been known at midnight to surround a house where he was enjoying himself with his friends; and to enter at a door while he escaped from a window. His haunts were known to near a hundred people; though he never left them in daylight. Many of his adherents had caves dug for him in woods adjacent to their houses. His consort lived in a small house adjoining the ruined castle, where there was a concealment in the wall, to which he retreated upon any alarm during the stolen visits he paid to his family. Several of the caves dug for his concealment still remain. He was a man of good natural parts, but before his misfortunes a mere hunter and soldier, like other lairds of those times, whose lives were too active, and too social for much mental improvement; but during this recess from the world, he made considerable literary attainments. No. 5. "The hopeless mourners cheer'd.—P. 154. He died near Boulogne, as far as the Author recollects, and was buried, on account of his close adherence to the Protestant faith, in his own garden: This was a great additional grief to his friends, Highlanders holding the rights of sepulture in high veneration, which indeed is always the case where people are eminent for filial piety: Luxury looks neither backward nor forward, but merely dwells on the present, and centres in Self. AS the following Poem contains intrinsic evidence of having been written in an easy familiar manner, with haste too great for accuracy, merely to amuse a few partial Friends, it would be no compliment to the Reader's discernment, to endeavour to convince him of a truth so obvious. It will be more difficult to ascertain the propriety of submitting to the Public eye a careless effusion, so very local, that its interest might seem confined to the Dramatis Persone who appear on the scene. It so happened, however, that some Friends who were pleased with the Poem, breaking through all injunctions to the contrary, not only took, but gave copies, to the great discredit of the performance itself, in which errors and absurdities were multiplied. This must be the Author's apology for including it in the present Volume. A JOURNAL FROM GLASGOW TO LAGGAN: ADDRESSED TO MRS FURZER. "Then let me go, and hinder not my course. "I'll make a pastime of each weary step, "Till the last step have brought me to my home; "And then I'll rest, as after much turmoil A blessed soul doth in Elysium." SHAKESPEARE. DEAR NANCY, well you know my way, |