sat to him for his portrait. Lord Seaforth ure delusive; but it must have been a bitter also commissioned from West one of those pill for these haughty chiefs to swallow. immense sheets of canvas on which the old The solemn march and surrender of the cheracademician delighted to work in his latter ished weapons were humiliation enough, but years. The subject of the picture was the worse than all was the presence of the two traditionary story of the royal hunting in hundred Hanoverian soldiers. "Lord Percy which King Alexander the Third was saved sees me fall." from the assault of a fierce stag, by Colin Fitzgerald,—a wandering knight unknown to authentic history. West considered it one of his best productions, charged £800 for it, and was willing some years afterwards, with a view to the exhibition of his works, to purchase back the picture at its original cost.

ance.

Every old Highland family has its store of traditionary and romantic beliefs. Centuries ago a seer of the Clan Mackenzie, known as Kenneth Oag, predicted that when there should be a deaf Caberfae, the gift-land of the estate would be sold, and the male line become extinct. The prophecy was well known in the north, and it was not, like many similar vaticinations, made after the event. At least three unimpeachable Sassenach witnesses, Sir Humphry Davy, Sir Walter Scott, and Mr. Morritt, of Rokeby, had all heard the prediction when Lord Seaforth had two sons alive both in good health. The

In one instance Lord Seaforth did not evince artistic taste. He dismantled Brahan Castle, removing its castellated features, and completely modernizing its general appearThe house, with its large modern additions, is a tall, massive pile of building, the older portion covered to the roof with ivy. It occupies a commanding site on a bank mid-tenantry and clansmen were, of course, strongway between the river Conon and a range of ly impressed with the truth of the prophecy, picturesque rocks. This bank extends for and when their chief proposed to sell part of miles, sloping in successive terraces, all richly Kintail, they offered to buy in the land for wooded or cultivated, and commanding a him, that it might not pass from the family. magnificent view that terminates with the One son was then living, and there was no Moray Firth. The place abounds in exqui- immediate prospect of the succession expirsite walks, wooded dells, and hollows. One ing; but, in deference to the clannish prejuspacious promenade extends on high under dice or affection, the sale of any portion of the gray rocky cliffs, and another lies at the estate was deferred for about two years. bottom of the valley, where the river Conon The blow at last came. Lord Seaforth was sweeps past in a broad stream, shaded by involved in West India plantations which rows of old trees and evergreens. "It is a were mismanaged, and he was forced to diswild and grand place," says Sir James Mack-pose of part of the "gift-land." About the intosh, "and we were particularly delighted same time, the last of his four sons, a young with the rock and river walks." In front of man of talents and eloquence, and then repthe castle, one day in August, 1725, was wit-resenting his native county in Parliament, nessed a melancholy procession. In pursu- died suddenly, and thus the prophecy of Kenance of the Disarming Act, General Wade neth Oag was fulfilled :repaired to Brahan, with a detachment of two hundred of the regular troops, in order

to receive the arms and submission of certain of the Jacobite chiefs. "On the day appointed," he says, "the several clans and tribes assembled in the adjacent villages, and marched in good order through the great avenue that leads to the castle; and one after

"Of the line of Fitzgerald remained not a male To bear the proud name of the Chief of Kin

tail."

Lord Seaforth himself died a few months

afterwards, in January, 1815, and the estates,

with all their honors and duties and embar

rassments, devolved on his eldest daughter, then a young widowed lady :

And thou, gentle dame, who must bear, to thy grief,

another laid down their arms in the courtyard, in great quiet and decency, amounting" to seven hundred and fourteen. The solemnity with which this was performed had undoubtedly a great influence over the rest of the Highland clans." There is reason to believe that the submission was in a great meas-Of thy husband and father and brethren bereft ;

For thy clan and thy country, the cares of a Whom brief rolling moons, in six changes, have chief,

left

To thine ear of affection how sad is the hail
That salutes thee the heir of the line of Kin-
tail."*

The coarser features of the princess's character had not then become prominent, or we should have had them noticed by an observer at once acute and delicate.

"WIMPOLE STREET, Oct. 15, 1805. "I am at this moment returned from attending the princess to Covent Garden Theatre. She was very gracious and pleasant The lady, however, had, as Scott admitted, indeed. The Duke of Cumberland was of "the spirit of a chieftainess in every drop of the party. She did me the honor of introher blood." When, in 1805, she returned ducing me to him, which was a great favor, from the West Indies, the young and happy you know, and promoted conversation. When wife of Sir Samuel Hood, her beauty, her hands, and desired to see us as soon as we we attended her to her carriage, she shook varied accomplishments, and fascinating con- returned, when she intends to visit us in our versation, rendered her society greatly court-new house. She desired us to dine with her ed. The world of fashion was thrown open the day after in a quiet way. We did so, to her. The young wife, however, was aware nobody but ourselves, and very pleasant it was. She did not dismiss us till after midof the dangers of the society of that time. "I know," she wrote, half demurely but all night, and I had the honor of winning six earnestly," how much depends on my first shillings from her royal highness." outset as a married woman. She did not, however, consider it incompatible with her matronly gravity and prudence to visit the opera; and though smitten in conscience at first by the character of some of the dances A favorite correspondent at this time was and dresses, she was charmed with the sing- the Marchioness of Stafford, afterwards Duching of Mrs. Billington, and could have lis-ess-Countess of Sutherland. She was countess tened, she said, for days to her heavenly in her own right,-the nineteenth head of voice. Sir Samuel Hood was a Whig. Dur- the family possessing the earldom. Her maning the short administration of "All the ners, as Byron remarked, were truly prinTalents," he contested the representation of cessly. She had travelled far and seen much, Westminster, and, after a desperate struggle, and had a taste for music and art. Her letwas successful. "We carried the election ters are generally short sensible notes, more hollow as to myself," he writes, "and al- hurried and careless, perhaps, because the though they tagged Sheridan to me, we suc-writer could always command franks. Here ceeded in that also; but I believe ministers is an extract :are convinced that his interest alone would never have brought him in." Among the acquaintances of Sir Samuel was the Princess of Wales-the unfortunate Caroline. Lady Hood writes to her mother :

"The balls are to me excessively tiresome; indeed I have never been able to bear the bore

of them since I left off dancing years ago; and I think the best part of London is late in the year, in a smaller sort of society, which one sometimes finds when there are fewer Mary-Elizabeth-Frederica Mackenzie was born people. I have been to-night at Vauxhall, at Tarradale, Ross-shire, March 27, 1783. She which is the prettiest thing possible to see married at Barbadoes, November 6, 1804, Sir Sam- once or twice.... This beautiful moonlight uel Hood, afterwards K.B., and Vice-Admiral of night turns everybody's head, and makes them the White. Sir Samuel died at Madras, December romantic. I regret much being so far from 24, 1814. Lady Hood then returned to England, and took possession of the family estates, which had Tunbridge, and not having a husband belongdevolved to her by the death of her father without ing to the Barouche Club, and not being able male issue, January 11, 1815. She married again, to see Penshurst along with you. Walter May 21, 1817, J. A. Stewart, Esq., of Glasserton, Scott must have been highly pleased with who assumed the name of Mackenzie, was returned seeing it in such good company. Lord StafM.P. for Ross-shire, held office under Earl Grey; ford says he hopes it will set him to write and was successively Governor of Ceylon, and Lord High Commissioner to the Ionian Islands. He died something of a more southern nature than September 24, 1843. Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie died what he proposed to do of our northern clans at Brahan Castle, November 28, 1862, and was in- and their squabbles, which sometimes beterred in the family vault at Fortrose or Chanonry, come a little tiresome to the English ear. I Her funeral was one of the largest ever witnessed like the Border stories, I own, better than the in the North, several thousands of persons being present on foot, and the number of vehicles about very Highland ones of Macleans and Macdonalds, which never go beyond their own hills, one hundred and fifty. The deceased lady is succeeded by her son, Keith-William Stewart-Macken- and I like the hills themselves better than the zie of Seaforth.

traditions of a Maclean kicking a Macdonald

THE SEAFORTH PAPERS.

down one of them, or vice versa. I do not, however, mean to say, that when you come to stories of the Thanes of Ross, Sutherland, etc., they are not really interesting; but it is the endless traditions of the Western Highlands to which I object in detail. However, Walter Scott throws so great a charm over what he writes, that he may take any subject he pleases.'

This was abundantly verified by the publication of the "Lady of the Lake," and subsequently by the Lord of the Isles." In the latter the poet showed how well and powerfully he could deal with the scenery and traditions of the West Highlands. It is true, however, that in both of these great metrical romances Scott added the attraction arising from popular historical names and events, from the appearance on the scene of the gay and chivalrous James the Fourth, and from Robert Bruce and Bannockburn. Such characters irradiated, as it were, local incidents and descriptions, imparting to the whole a national interest and importance.

Regarding a conspicuous character in the West Highlands, the supposed original of Scott's chieftain, Fergus MacIvor, Lady Louisa Stuart relates an amusing anecdote told her, she says, by Lord Montagu, and which, in a comedy, would certainly be called

outré :

Sir Samuel Hood had gone to the East Indies as the naval commander-in-chief. Extraordinary attentions were paid to Lady Hood by the native princes, and some of her progresses through India were marked by a sort of regal splendor. In 1812, she made a journey in her palanquin from Madras to Seringpatum and Mysore, and traditions of sports, still linger among the people. Of her beauty, her high spirit, and love of fieldthese progresses Lady Hood kept journals, but their interest has been superseded by the accounts of later travellers, and by the vast changes in India.

thus gratifying her enlightened curiosity, and While the great lady from the West was receiving homage in India, her friends at home were assiduous in acquainting her with English occurrences and gossip. Lady Anne Barnard, authoress of the fine Scottish ballad," Auld Robin Gray," was one of those friendly and accomplished correspondents whose genial epistles were welcomed at Madras. She was of the family of the Lindsays, having removed to England, where her sis a daughter of the Earl of Balcarras; and were settled, she became the wife of Mr. ters, Lady Fordyce and Lady Hardwicke, Andrew Barnard, son of the Bishop of Limerick, who was some time secretary to Lord Macartney at the Cape. Lady Anne was "Macdonell of Glengarry came with a now a widow,-her husband died in 1807; great staring lad of fourteen to enter him at she was lively, good-humored, and observant, Eton. The poor boy, almost of a man's size, noted for her active kindness, and delighting being lamentably deficient in grammar and the higher circles in which she moved by her prosody, and pronouncing Latin à l'Ecossaise, conversational talents and gayety, which the was placed in the third form with children of weight of seventy years scarcely diminished. ten years old. Meanwhile, the father desired to speak with Dr. Keate himself, and the The fact of her authorship, notwithstanding doctor left his dinner to receive the laird's the immense popularity of her song, she concommands. These were to observe a point of great importance; namely, that his son should be entered in the books Macdonell, and not Macdonald. Sir,' said he, Macdonell was the true ancient name from time immemorial. It had always been Macdonell till the invasion of the Romans; then they corrupted it into Macdonaldus, but we have nothing to do with the Latin termination.' The little doctor did nothing but bow and assent to the formidable chieftain; but in repeating it, he said, I could have told him, if I durst, that Macdonellus was much better Latin than Macdonaldus, and thus have exculpated the Romans altogether.''

cealed till she was on the verge of the grave, when she avowed it in a letter to Sir Walter Scott. When Lady Hood was at Portsmouth, on the eve of her departure for India, Lady Anne sent her an affectionate fare

well:

anything I can do for you, command me "When far away, remember if there is freely; your order will be accompanied by a letter, and that will be something gained. Pray do not exceed your three years. Sir Samuel knows well that the full extent of human good-humor is but three years. After a great man has been anywhere, those who Glengarry, like Don Quixote, was born at on him as a godsend, long to see him back, were rejoiced to have him, and who looked least a century and a half too late.

in the hope that they may effect more points

with his successor; and if he does not go honor of letting me know that my strong quite so soon as they calculated on, they be- recommendation had much aided the colonel's come provoked with him."

There is something of native shrewdness, as well as courtly experience, in this estimate of human nature. Lady Anne, like most of the ladies of her acquaintance, dabbled a little in politics, and she predicted truly (Feb. 4, 1812) that when the restrictions on the prince regent were removed, there would be little or no change in the ministry:

"The Houses of Lords and Commons are met to wrangle, and look forward with hope and fear to the momentous day, the 18th of February, when the prince is to be taken out of his go-cart to walk alone. What he is to do no one knows, and I fully believe he himself does not know; for he is not in a state of body or mind fitted to make decisions. I should think, as the H. family who live almost exclusively with him, and have alone the opportunity of recommending or suggesting, are with the present administration, that he will continue them all in, a very few excepted."

own meritorious services, I went to say chose to bedizen me with, together with 'Thank you,' in all the jewels that my friends twenty-two high, white ostrich feathers, and a white satin gown, all embroidered with silver! In short, I was most splendid, and, of course, very well received. The whole of the female part of the company were loaded with feathers and jewels. Oh, how sleepy and tired I was! .

6

"You naturally say. Where are you?' At the house of Sir James Burges, to whom my sister Margaret was married a year and a half ago. It was late in life for her to change her state, but as she had known him for forty years he could not be called a new acquaintance; and as she is fond of a large and jolly society of young people, he has made her at once mother to seven good-humored men and women, who are all satisfied with her, and with whom she is happy. Since her marriage, a dozen of old couples have led off in the hymneneal dance, which seems to be the fashion at present; but not for chickens-for the old hens and game-cocks. Witness the old Marchioness of Clanricarde and Sir Jo

A more general letter of gossip may be seph Yorke, Lady Sligo and Sir William quoted :Scott, etc.

"BEAUFORT, BATH, Nov. 12, 1813. "Last winter London was supposed to be later in its hours, and more expensive in all its ways, than it was ever known to be before. The parties and balls began late; they went on unremittingly when they did begin; and it is the fashion now to have a sideboard covered with all manner of ices, fruits, wines, cakes, and even cold meat. This, I should have imagined, would have made them less frequent, but no such thing. The regent, in spite of his greatness, goes about wherever he is asked; and the quantity of royal dukes is voluminous. It has been supposed, in the course of this last year, that a certain royal heart is not quite so much devoted as it has been to a handsome marchioness; but as we see no new person on the ground sharing the attentions, we can only conjecture about this; all he charms there increase rather than diminsh. The Princess Charlotte is a lively goodboking girl, and seems to long much for an establishment of her own, but that, I hear, is mt likely to be granted to her yet. was at one ball he (the regent) gave at Carlto House-the most splendid thing that could be seen. I went in the full glory of firery, and looked like nothing but a mad old osrich! However the fashion of the times mist answer for this, not me. The regent having appointed my cousin, Colonel Barnard, to be his aide-de-camp, and done me the

It is said there is to be no opera this scason; so much the better; the fine ladies will have money in their pockets. Waltzing, which was begun to be in fashion when you left us, gains ground. It was supposed to be a dance fatal to the interests of husbands, but there have not been any divorces in consequence of it, that I have heard of. . . . I will now close, for I hear the word dinner. This is a letter of chatter, but not the worse for that to a friend far away. God bless you pretty good creature!Yours,

you,

"ANNE BARNARD."

A letter from Miss Berry, the eldest of the dual sisterhood at Little Strawberry Hill, and the friend of Horace Walpole, has the pleasant flavor of antiquated literary gossip:

"GROVE, BATH, 30th Dec. 1811. "Of chit-chat, Miss Long's immediate marriage with young Mr. Wellesley Pole is the great subject. A friend of mine, connected with Rundell's house, writes me: 'Her diaImonds, which they are preparing, are much more splendid and magnificent than ever were furnished to a subject.' To what a height are the Wellesleys rearing their heads, and decollation is out of fashion now-a-days! . . . In Herefordshire I passed three weeks, at the house of a mutual friend, with Mrs. A preece, and as you know her, you can appreciate the value of three weeks in her

society. The following lines were sent me so unequal a match, till her long flirtations from town, but I have not a guess at their accustomed her to it. Sydney Smith called author. It may be as well Sir Harry Engle- it a new chemical salt-Davite of Apreecefield himself as any other wit, notwithstand- though he admitted that this was a bad joke, ing the sneer at his Catholicism. I hope your The courtship is humorously alluded to in ladyship may be pleased with them. I think they are good, especially the first stanza, another excellent letter, which we must quote. which seems to me quite happy; but after Lady Hood had transmitted a farewell note this estimate of their merit, it would not do and the present of a book-" Mémoires de la for me to be in the same page, and I shall Reine Marguerite "-to her friend Mr. Mortherefore turn over a new leaf. rit, of Rokeby, who replied by a long and affectionate letter, containing some amusing details, criticism, and information, tinged with a cynical spirit of coloring worthy of Matthew Bramble :

"Have you seen the famed Bas-bleu,

The gentle dame, Apreece,

Who at a glance shot through and through
The Scots Review,

And changed its swans to geese?
Playfair forgot his mathematics,
Astronomy and hydrostatics;
And in her presence often swore

He knew not two and two made four !

To the Institution then she came,

And set her cap at little Davy;
He in an instant caught the flame,

Before Sir Harry said an Ave;
Then, quick as turmeric or litmus paper
An acid takes, begun to vapor;
And, fast as sparks of fire and tinder,
Was burned, poor fellow, to a cinder.'

"(1811)—I have no doubt you will find in India a great deal to amuse, and a good deal to interest, a mind so active and so cultivated as yours; and should you ever feel disposed to communicate the result of your Asiatic researches to two immovable Europeans, whose annual migrations from Yorkshire to London constitute the whole of their travels, pray bestow it on one of us, and you shall hear in return that we live and are grateful. A recueil of Indian ghost stories is a desideratum in Western literature, though, as Indian souls migrate from one living being to another, they have not time to make visits to their friends like the spirits of departed Gacls. I rely on your zeal in the cause of the seers for settling this disputable point.

"I am anxious to hear of your safe arrival in India, and I shall long to know how you like that country, so different from Europe in many respects, and in few for the better. Ladies are in high estimation there, but your ladyship, who was the admiration of Lon"London just now is overwhelmed with don, will little value attentions at Madras or politics, and I am sure they would amuse you Bombay. You will, however, prize the con- as little as they have done me. When there versation of such men as my friends, Sir James is time for tittle-tattle, I think the most genMackintosh and Sir Samuel Auchmuty. How eral subject is the announced and approachI wish the latter had deferred his conquest ing union of Mr. Davy and Mrs. Apreece of Batavia till your admiral might have shared in the spoils! The former, I fear for your sake, and rejoice for my own, is soon returning home. Of myself I will only say (and that because I flatter myself it will be gratifying to your ladyship), that I am really quite well, and had I not, as I fortunately have, the feeling of health, I should soon be talked into it, so daily am I complimented on my good looks. I pray Heaven your ladyship's may continue, and that I may have the pleasure to see you return in spirits, health, and riches to your friends and country. Í need not add how much this would delight your obliged and faithful M. B."

This rumored alliance of Davy with the rich widow (which actually took place next year when the philosopher was also knighted) seems to have astonished the world of fashion and art. Mrs. Apreece was believed to be too ambitious and artificial to marry for mind only. She did not mean, it was said, to make

an event which I contemplate as the triumph of English philosophical courtship over the cautious advances of the Edinburgh Professors. Poor Playfair will be in despair when he finds that the heart which he failed to conquer was not impregnable: but what can resist galvanic batteries and the persuasive powers of oxygen gas? Such are the most prominent philosophical transactions of the year of grace 1812. Gell is gone on a mission from the Dilettanti Society to Asia Minor with two good draughtsmen, and we expect much fruit from his labors. He was last heard of from Malta, whence he sailed for Smyrna. There are ruins innumerable on the south coast and in the north-east provinces of Asia which are very little known. views, architectural drawings, maps, plans etc. What an antiquarian paradise in pros pect for the elect! Walter Scott has agai sounded the trumpet, and announced anothe poem, which is to come out next year. In the

and of all these we are to have facsimiles ir