Part 1 (1/2)

Rob Roy

by Sir Walter Scott

INTRODUCTION---(1829)

When the author projected this further encroachent public, he was at so very nearly of as much consequence in literature as in life The title of Rob Roy was suggested by the late Mr Constable, whose sagacity and experience foresaw the germ of popularity which it included

No introduction can be ular character whose naood report and bad report, has ree of importance in popular recollection This cannot be ascribed to the distinction of his birth, which, though that of a gentleave hih he lived a busy, restless, and enterprising life, were his feats equal to those of other freebooters, who have been less distinguished He owed his fae of the Highlands, and playing such pranks in the beginning of the 18th century, as are usually ascribed to Robin Hood in the reat commercial city, the seat of a learned university Thus a character like his, blending the wild virtues, the subtle policy, and unrestrained license of an Austan age of Queen Anne and George I Addison, it is probable, or Pope, would have been considerably surprised if they had known that there, existed in the sae of Rob Roy's peculiar habits and profession It is this strong contrast betwixt the civilised and cultivated hland line, and the wild and lawless adventures which were habitually undertaken and achieved by one elt on the opposite side of that ideal boundary, which creates the interest attached to his nah vale and hill, Are faces that attest the same, And kindle like a fire new stirr'd, At sound of Rob Roy's naes which Rob Roy enjoyed for sustaining to advantage the character which he assumed

The most prominent of these was his descent froor, so famous for their misfortunes, and the indomitable spirit hich they ether in spite of the ainst those who bore this forbidden surnainal Highland clans, ere suppressed by hbours, and either extirpated, or forced to secure the their own fa that of the conquerors The peculiarity in the story of the MacGregors, is their retaining, with such tenacity, their separate existence and union as a clan under circuency The history of the tribe is briefly as follows--But we ree on tradition; therefore, excepting ritten docuree dubious

The sept of MacGregor claiorius, third son, it is said, of Alpin King of Scots, who flourished about 787 Hence their original patronymic is MacAlpine, and they are usually termed the Clan Alpine An individual tribe of them retains the same name They are accounted one of the hlands, and it is certain they were a people of original Celtic descent, and occupied at one period very extensive possessions in Perthshi+re and Argyleshi+re, which they ilaive, that is, the right of the sword Their neighbours, the Earls of Argyle and Breadalbane, in the ors engrossed in those charters which they easily obtained froht in their own favour, without ard to its justice As opportunity occurred of annoying or extirpating their neighbours, they gradually extended their own dorants, those of their hbours A Sir Duncan Cahlands by the name of Donacha Dhu nan Churraichd, that is, Black Duncan with the Cowl, it being his pleasure to wear such a head-gear, is said to have been peculiarly successful in those acts of spoliation upon the clan MacGregor

The devoted sept, ever finding themselves iniquitously driven from their possessions, defended thees, which they used cruelly enough This conduct, though natural, considering the country and ti fro, it was said, could reor root and branch

In an act of Privy Council at Stirling, 22d Septeranted to the most powerful nobles, and chiefs of the clans, to pursue the clan Gregor with fire and sword A sirants the like powers to Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy, the descendant of Duncan with the Cowl, but discharges the lieges to receive or assist any of the clan Gregor, or afford them, under any colour whatever, or committed in 1589, by the murder of John Drummond of Drummond-ernoch, a forester of the royal forest of Glenartney, is elsewhere given, with all its horrid circumstances The clan swore upon the severed head of thethe deed This led to an act of the Privy Council, directing another crusade against the ”wicked clan Gregor, so long continuing in blood, slaughter, theft, and robbery,” in which letters of fire and sword are denounced against them for the space of three years The reader will find this particular fact illustrated in the Introduction to the Legend of Montrose in the present edition of these Novels

Other occasions frequently occurred, in which the MacGregors testified contempt for the laws, from which they had often experienced severity, but never protection Though they were gradually deprived of their possessions, and of all ordinarysubsistence, they could not, nevertheless, be supposed likely to starve for faers what they considered as rightfully their own Hence they became versed in predatory forays, and accustoer, and, with a little hbours, they could easily be hounded out, to use an expressive Scottish phrase, to coe, and left the ignorant MacGregors an undivided portion of bla on the fierce clans of the Highlands and Borders to break the peace of the country, is accounted by the historian one of the erous practices of his own period, in which the MacGregors were considered as ready agents

Notwithstanding these severe denunciations,---which were acted upon in the same spirit in which they were conceived, some of the clan still possessed property, and the chief of the naor of Glenstrae He is said to have been a brave and active man; but, from the tenor of his confession at his death, appears to have been engaged in many and desperate feuds, one of which finally proved fatal to himself and many of his followers This was the celebrated conflict at Glenfruin, near the southwestern extreors continued to exercise est, which we have alreadyand bloody feud betwixt the MacGregors and the Laird of Luss, head of the family of Colquhoun, a powerful race on the lower part of Loch Loan on a very trifling subject Two of the MacGregors being benighted, asked shelter in a house belonging to a dependant of the Colquhouns, and were refused They then retreated to an out-house, took a wedder from the fold, killed it, and supped off the carcass, for which (it is said) they offered payment to the proprietor The Laird of Luss seized on the offenders, and, by the summary process which feudal barons had at their coors verify this account of the feud by appealing to a proverb current ahil) that the black wedder with the white tail was ever laor assembled his clan, to the number of three or four hundred , by a pass called Raid na Gael, or the Highlandman's Pass

Sir Humphrey Colquhoun received early notice of this incursion, and collected a strong force, more than twice the nuentleentry of the Lennox, and a party of the citizens of Duistrate, or bailie, of that town, and ancestor of the celebrated author

The parties nifies the Glen of Sorrow---a name that seemed to anticipate the event of the day, which, fatal to the conquered party, was at least equally so to the victors, the ”babe unborn” of Clan Alpine having reason to repent it The MacGregors, soed by the appearance of a force much superior to their oere cheered on to the attack by a Seer, or second-sighted person, who professed that he saw the shrouds of the dead wrapt around their principal opponents The clan charged with great fury on the front of the ene party, reat part of the Colquhouns' force consisted in cavalry, which could not act in the boggy ground They were said to have disputed the field th cohter was exercised on the fugitives, of whom betwixt two and three hundred fell on the field and in the pursuit If the MacGregors lost, as is averred, only two ht provocation for an indiscriminate massacre It is said that their fury extended itself to a party of students for clerical orders, who had imprudently come to see the battle Soainst the chief of the clan Gregor being silent on the subject, as is the historian Johnston, and a Professor Ross, rote an account of the battle twenty-nine years after it was fought It is, however, constantly averred by the tradition of the country, and a stone where the deed was done is called Leck-a-Mhinisteir, the Minister or Clerk's Flagstone The MacGregors, by a tradition which is now found to be inaccurate, ile ald, Ciar Mhor, or the great Mouse-coloured Man He was MacGregor's foster-brother, and the chief coe, with directions to keep them safely till the affray was over Whether fearful of their escape, or incensed by some sarcasms which they threw on his tribe, or whether out of ors were engaged in the pursuit, poniarded his helpless and defenceless prisoners When the chieftain, on his return, demanded where the youths were, the Ciar (pronounced Kiar) Mhor drew out his bloody dirk, saying in Gaelic, ”Ask that, and God save me!” The latter words allude to the excla them It would seem, therefore, that this horrible part of the story is founded on fact, though the nuerated in the Lowland accounts The common people say that the blood of the Ciar Mhor's victior learnt their fate, he expressed the utmost horror at the deed, and upbraided his foster-brother with having done that which would occasion the destruction of him and his clan This supposed homicide was the ancestor of Rob Roy, and the tribe from which he was descended He lies buried at the church of Fortingal, where his sepulchre, covered with a large stone, is still shown, and where his great strength and courage are the theme of or

Note B Dugald Ciar Mhor

MacGregor's brother was one of the very few of the tribe as slain He was buried near the field of battle, and the place is or

Sir Hu well mounted, escaped for the time to the castle of Banochar, or Benechra It proved no sure defence, however, for he was shortly after murdered in a vault of the castle,---the fae the deed upon the MacFarlanes

This battle of Glenfruin, and the severity which the victors exercised in the pursuit, was reported to King Jaor, whose general character, being that of lawless though brave ht fully understand the extent of the slaughter, the s of the slain, to the nu upon white palfreys, and each bearing her husband's bloody shi+rt on a spear, appeared at Stirling, in presence of a hts of fear and sorrow, to deeance for the death of their husbands, upon those by whom they had been made desolate

The remedy resorted to was at least as severe as the cruelties which it was designed to punish By an Act of the Privy Council, dated 3d April 1603, the naor was expressly abolished, and those who had hitherto borne it were coe it for other surnaainst those who should call theor, the names of their fathers Under the same penalty, all who had been at the conflict of Glenfruin, or accessory to other ed in the act, were prohibited fro weapons, except a pointless knife to eat their victuals By a subsequent act of Council, 24th June 1613, death was denounced against any persons of the tribe forreater nuain, by an Act of Parliament, 1617, chap 26, these laere continued, and extended to the rising generation, in respect that great nuainst whom the acts of Privy Council had been directed, were stated to be then approaching to maturity, who, if permitted to resu as it was before

The execution of those severe acts was chiefly intrusted in the west to the Earl of Argyle and the powerful clan of Campbell, and to the Earl of Athole and his followers in the ors failed not to resist with the e; and hlands retains memory of the severe conflicts, in which the proscribed clan soes, and always sold their lives dearly At length the pride of Allaster MacGregor, the chief of the clan, was so s of his people, that he resolved to surrender hiyle, with his principal followers, on condition that they should be sent out of Scotland If the unfortunate chief's own account be true, he hadsome favour froed him to many of the desperate actions for which he was now called to so severe a reckoning But Argyle, as old Birrell expresses hi it to the ear, and breaking it to the sense MacGregor was sent under a strong guard to the frontier of England, and being thus, in the literal sense, sent out of Scotland, Argyle was judged to have kept faith with hiht hior of Glenstrae was tried before the Court of Justiciary, 20th January 1604, and found guilty He appears to have been instantly conveyed froallows; for Birrell, of the saed at the Cross, and, for distinction sake, was suspended higher by his own height than two of his kindred and friends

On the 18th of February following,i of March

The Earl of Argyle's service, in conducting to the surrender of the insolent and wicked race and naor, notorious coor, with a greatmen of the clan, worthily executed to death for their offences, is thankfully acknowledged by an Act of Parliarant of twenty chalders of victual out of the lands of Kintire

The MacGregors, notwithstanding the letters of fire and sword, and orders for ainst theislature, who apparently lost all the calnity and security, and could not even name the outlawed clan without vituperation, showed no inclination to be blotted out of the roll of clanshi+p They submitted to the law, indeed, so far as to take the nast whoht render it most convenient, Drummonds, Campbells, Grahams, Buchanans, Stewarts, and the like; but to all intents and purposes of coor, united together for right or wrong, and eance of their race, all who coainst any individual of their nuive offence with as little hesitation as before the legislative dispersion which had been attempted, as appears fro forth, that the clan Gregor, which had been suppressed and reduced to quietness by the great care of the late King Jaain, in the counties of Perth, Stirling, Clackus, and Mearns; for which reason the statute re-establishes the disabilities attached to the clan, and, grants a new coainst that wicked and rebellious race

Notwithstanding the extreainst this unfortunate people, ere rendered furious by proscription, and then punished for yielding to the passions which had been wilfully irritated, the MacGregors to athe civil war to the cause of the latter monarch Their bards have ascribed this to the native respect of the MacGregors for the crown of Scotland, which their ancestors once wore, and have appealed to their ars, which display a pine-tree crossed saltire ith a naked sword, the point of which supports a royal crown But, without denying that such ht, we are disposed to think, that a hich opened the low country to the raids of the clan Gregor would have more charms for them than any inducement to espouse the cause of the Covenanters, which would have brought thehlanders as fierce as theor, their leader, was the son of a distinguished chief, named Duncan Abbarach, to whom Montrose wrote letters as to his trusty and special friend, expressing his reliance on his devoted loyalty, with an assurance, that when once his Majesty's affairs were placed upon a peror should be redressed

At a subsequent period of thesethe immunities of other tribes, when summoned by the Scottish Parliament to resist the invasion of the Commonwealth's army, in 1651 On the last day of March in that year, a supplication to the King and Parliament, from Calum MacCondachie Vich Euen, and Euen MacCondachie Euen, in their own naor, set forth, that while, in obedience to the orders of Parlia all clans to come out in the present service under their chieftains, for the defence of religion, king, and kingdouard the passes at the head of the river Forth, they were interfered with by the Earl of Athole and the Laird of Buchanan, who had required the attendance of or upon their arrays This interference was, doubtless, owing to the change of naiven rise to the claim of the Earl of Athole and the Laird of Buchanan to ors under their banners, as Murrays or Buchanans It does not appear that the petition of the MacGregors, to be permitted to come out in a body, as other clans, received any answer But upon the Restoration, King Charles, in the first Scottish Parlian (statute 1661, chap 195), annulled the various acts against the clan Gregor, and restored thees of liege subjects, setting forth, as a reason for this lenity, that those ere for the late troubles, conducted theht justly wipe off all es, and take away all h, that it see Presbyterians, when the penalties which were most unjustly iors;--so little are the best e with impartiality of the same measures, as applied to themselves, or to others Upon the Restoration, an influence inimical to this unfortunate clan, said to be the same with that which afterwards dictated the massacre of Glencoe, occasioned the re-enaction of the penal statutes against the MacGregors There are no reasons given why these highly penal acts should have been renewed; nor is it alleged that the clan had been guilty of late irregularities Indeed, there is some reason to think that the clause was formed of set purpose, in a shape which should elude observation; for, though containing conclusions fatal to the rights of so many Scottish subjects, it is neither mentioned in the title nor the rubric of the Act of Parliament in which it occurs, and is thrown briefly in at the close of the statute 1693, chap 61, entitled, an Act for the Justiciary in the Highlands

It does not, however, appear that after the Revolution the acts against the clan were severely enforced; and in the latter half of the eighteenth century, they were not enforced at all Commissioners of supply were naor, and decrees of courts of justice were pronounced, and legal deeds entered into, under the saors, however, while the laws continued in the statute-book, still suffered under the deprivation of the naht, and so another, MacAlpine or Grant being proposed as the title of the whole clan in future No agreement, however, could be entered into; and the evil was submitted to as a matter of necessity, until full redress was obtained fro for ever the penal statutes which had been so long imposed upon this ancient race This statute, well entle and country, was passed, and the clan proceeded to act upon it with the same spirit of ancient times, which had made them suffer severely under a deprivation that would have been deereat part of their fellow-subjects

They entered into a deed recognising John Murray of Lanrick, Esq (afterwards Sir John MacGregor, Baronet), representative of the family of Glencarnock, as lawfully descended from the ancient stock and blood of the Lairds and Lords of MacGregor, and therefore acknowledged him as their chief on all lawful occasions and causes whatsoever The deed was subscribed by eight hundred and twenty-six persons of the nareatthe last war foriment, raised in 1799, under the coor

Having briefly noticed the history of this clan, which presents a rare and interesting example of the indelible character of the patriarchal system, the author ives nahlander, his pedigree is first to be considered That of Rob Roy was deduced froreatslain the young students at the battle of Glenfruin

Without puzzling ourselves and our readers with the intricacies of Highland genealogy, it is enough to say, that after the death of Allaster MacGregor of Glenstrae, the clan, discouraged by the unre persecution of their ene the to their places of residence and immediate descent, the several fahland acceptation, signifies the head of a particular branch of a tribe, in opposition to Chief, who is the leader and commander of the whole naald Ciar Mhor lived chiefly in the mountains between Loch Loood deal of property there--whether by sufferance, by the right of the sword, which it was never safe to dispute with theal titles of various kinds, it would be useless to inquire and unnecessary to detail Enough;--there they certainly were--a people whohbours were desirous to conciliate, their friendshi+p in peace being very necessary to the quiet of the vicinage, and their assistance in war equally proor Campbell, which last name he bore in consequence of the Acts of Parliaer son of Donald MacGregor of Glengyle, said to have been a Lieutenant-Colonel (probably in the service of Jahter of Canation was of Inversnaid; but he appears to have acquired a right of so Royston, a do on the east side of Loch Lomond, where that beautiful lake stretches into the dusky mountains of Glenfalloch

The time of his birth is uncertain But he is said to have been active in the scenes of war and plunder which succeeded the Revolution; and tradition affirms him to have been the leader in a predatory incursion into the parish of Kippen, in the Lennox, which took place in the year 1691 It was of al his life; but frouished by the name of the Her'-shi+p, or devastation, of Kippen The time of his death is also uncertain, but as he is said to have survived the year 1733, and died an aged man, it is probable he may have been twenty-five about the tin his birth to the middle of the 17th century

See Statistcal Account of Scotland, 1st edition, vol xviii p 332 Parish ofKippen

In the more quiet times which succeeded the Revolution, Rob Roy, or Red Robert, seems to have exerted his active talents, which were of no reat extent It may well be supposed that in those days no Lowland, hlands The cattle, which were the staple commodity of the mountains, were escorted down to fairs, on the borders of the Lowlands, by a party of Highlanders, with their ar around theood faith with their Southern customers A fray, indeed, would sometimes arise, when the Lowlandlish market, used to dip their bonnets in the next brook, and wrapping theels to the naked broadswords, which had not always the superiority I have heard froed in such affrays, that the Highlanders used re the point of the sword, far less their pistols or daggers; so that With , Hard crabtree and cold iron rang

A slash or two, or a broken head, was easily accommodated, and as the trade was of benefit to both parties, trifling skirmishes were not allowed to interrupt its harhlanders, whose income, so far as derived from their estates, depended entirely on the sale of black cattle; and a sagacious and experienced dealer benefited not only hihbours, by his speculations Those of Rob Roy were for several years so successful as to inspire general confidence, and raise him in the estimation of the country in which he resided

His importance was increased by the death of his father, in consequence of which he succeeded to the yle's property, and, as his tutor, to such influence with the clan and following as was due to the representative of Dugald Ciar Such influence was the ors seeor of Glencarnock, the ancestor of the present Sir Ewan MacGregor, and asserted a kind of independence

It was at this time that Rob Roy acquired an interest by purchase, wadset, or otherwise, to the property of Craig Royston alreadythis prosperous period of his life, with his nearest and hbour, James, first Duke of Montrose, froard His Grace consented to give his nephew and hiyle and Inversnaid, which they had till then only held as kindly tenants The Duke also, with a view to the interest of the country and his own estate, supported our adventurer by loans of money to a considerable amount, to enable him to carry on his speculations in the cattle trade

Unfortunately that species of commerce was and is liable to sudden fluctuations; and Rob Roy was, by a sudden depression of markets, and, as a friendly tradition adds, by the bad faith of a partner named MacDonald, whom he had imprudently received into his confidence, and intrusted with a considerable sum of money, rendered totally insolvent He absconded, of course--not empty-handed, if it be true, as stated in an advertisement for his apprehension, that he had in his possession su, obtained froentlehlands This advertisement appeared in June 1712, and was several tied his commercial adventures for speculations of a very different complexion

See Appendix, No I