第56章 CASTLE OF COL(4)

This is plausible,but I am afraid it is not true.Those who went before,if they were not sensibly missed,as the argument supposes,must have gone either in less number,or in a manner less detrimental,than at present;because formerly there was no complaint.Those who then left the country were generally the idle dependants on overburdened families,or men who had no property;and therefore carried away only themselves.In the present eagerness of emigration,families,and almost communities,go away together.Those who were considered as prosperous and wealthy sell their stock and carry away the money.Once none went away but the useless and poor;in some parts there is now reason to fear,that none will stay but those who are too poor to remove themselves,and too useless to be removed at the cost of others.

Of antiquity there is not more knowledge in Col than in other places;but every where something may be gleaned.

How ladies were portioned,when there was no money,it would be difficult for an Englishman to guess.In 1649,Maclean of Dronart in Mull married his sister Fingala to Maclean of Coll,with a hundred and eighty kine;and stipulated,that if she became a widow,her jointure should be three hundred and sixty.I suppose some proportionate tract of land was appropriated to their pasturage.

The disposition to pompous and expensive funerals,which has at one time or other prevailed in most parts of the civilized world,is not yet suppressed in the Islands,though some of the ancient solemnities are worn away,and singers are no longer hired to attend the procession.Nineteen years ago,at the burial of the Laird of Col,were killed thirty cows,and about fifty sheep.The number of the cows is positively told,and we must suppose other victuals in like proportion.

Mr.Maclean informed us of an odd game,of which he did not tell the original,but which may perhaps be used in other places,where the reason of it is not yet forgot.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 inion,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.