24. At St Andrew's, Agnes, only daughter of the Rev. William Crawford, D. D. Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University there.

At Ottar House, Captain Duncan Campbell. At Edinburgh, Mr Robert Ranken, solicitor-at-law.

25. At Odell Castle, Bedfordshire, in the 85th year of his age, the Earl of Egmont. He is succeeded in his titles and estates by his only son, Viscount Perceval, Earl of Egmont.

At Tealing House, Mrs Scrymgeour of Tealing.

-At Edinburgh, Miss Elizabeth Douglas, eld. est daughter of the late Lord Reston.

27. At the apartments of Sir Richard Keats, at Greenwich Hospital, the Right Hon. Sir John Borlase Warren, Bart. G.C.B. Admiral of the White.

At Edinburgh, Mr Alexander Watson, writer, youngest son of David Watson, Esq. late of Pitforthy.

At Edinburgh, Frances Margaret, daughter of Captain James Haldane Tait, royal navy.

At 77, Great King Street, David, the infant son of E. Catheart, Esq.

At Hawthorn Hill, Berks, in his 91st year, Wilsted Keene, Esq. who sat near half a century in Parliament, and was father of the House of Commons some years previous to his retirement at the general election of 1818.

28. At Haddington, Miss Catherine Fraser, daughter of the late Alexander Fraser, Esq. Haddington.

28. At Edinburgh, Mr David Russell, candlemaker..

Lately. At her house, No. 1, Dundas Street, Edinburgh, Mrs Elizabeth Archibald, relict of the late John Archibald, Esq. wine-merchant in Leith. - At Badminton, after a short illness, Lord H. Somerset, third son of the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort.

-

At Cork, the Rev. Francis Atterbury, LL.D. in the 88th year of his age, grandson of Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester.

At Kirby, Mallory, Leicestershire, the Hon. Lady Noel, wife of Sir Ralph Milbanke Noel, Bart. sister of the late Thomas Lord Viscount Wentworth, and mother of the Right Hon. Lady Byron.

- In London, William Adam, Esq. sen. in the 84th year of his age.

In the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth, Captain Sir Thomas Lavie, K.C.B. of his Majesty's ship Spencer.

At Watergrass Hill, Ireland, Edmund Barry, aged 115 years. He had been a pensioner 65 years; was at the battle of Fontenoy, and several others in the reign of George II. He was six feet two inches high, and remarkably upright; was able to walk a mile at least every day, until three days before his death, and retained his senses to the last.

At Dublin, in his 79th year, Richard Nevil, Esq. of Furnace, in the county of Kildare, for many years Teller of his Majesty's Exchequer in Ireland.

THIS work has been already favoured with not the worst attestation of merit, in the extraordinary sale it has had it being, we believe, no secret that a very large edition has been entirely disposed of in the course of a very few weeks. The high and wellknown character of Colonel David Stewart himself, and the interest naturally taken by kindreds and families in the celebration of ancestors and relatives, may in a great measure account for this immediate and extensive success; but we regard the Colonel's book as one possessed of claims to lasting honour, and are sure that its eventual popularity will be by no means confined to the circles, wide as these are, in which the history of our Highland Regiments is family history or even national history.

The author of the book is a son of the house of Garth, an ancient and honourable branch of the Stewarts, settled in Athole. He entered life early, as an ensign in the Forty-Second, and served with that regiment in many bloody campaigns, including the expedition to Egypt, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie. At a subsequent period he was transferred to the Seventy-Eighth, or Ross-shire Highlanders, and had along with them a great share

in the glories of Maida. The severe wounds he received in that splendid action, have, we understand, never been entirely cured: and we are led to suppose, that the composition of the work before us has formed a principal occupation of his leisure during the several years he has since spent in the midst of his old friends here in Scotland.

The book, even had it appeared anonymously, and contained no clue to the real name of the author, must have been discovered by the most careless reader to be the work of a Highlander and a Soldier-most enthusiastic in either capacity. Colonel Stewart's prejudices are as strong as any man's prejudices can well be; but we are sincerely of opinion, that no man will think the worse of him for entertaining them. What would have been considered as eminently absurd in any other sort of person, will be universally honoured and applauded in the descendant of a hundred chieftains, whose infant ear was taught to relish no melody but that of the pipe, and who has charged the French a hundred times under the inspiration of its wild notes. This will be the first and most natural view of the subject. But he who

VOL. XI.

3 C

reads through the whole of the Colonel's work may probably see cause enough to doubt whether, after all, any of the leading feelings with which it overflows are worthy of being called by the name of prejudice-and whether it be not well entitled to a place in the English Library for the justice of its philosophy, as well as the richness of its historical details.

"

The first thing that will excite the astonishment of English readers-and perhaps it may tend to move the laughter of some of them, is the magnificent conception the Colonel seems to have formed concerning the state of the Highlands at a very remote period of time. Indeed we have little doubt that considerable cachination will be raised at the ideas he so boldly expresses concerning the ancient grandeur of his native region; and that many well-informed people enough will be inclined to rub their eyes, and try whether they are really awake, and not dreaming, when they find themselves in the midst of "the court of our Alpine Kings," "our royal palaces among the hills," and our "Hebridean University. Smile, nay laugh, however, as they may, we would just advise them to compare the accounts of the territory of Palestine, and of its population, contained in the early historical books of the Bible, with those in the works of modern travellers and historians, and then they may perhaps pause before they think themselves quite entitled to consider Colonel Stewart's statements as the mere ravings of a Celtic Sennachie. The contrast between the coast of Barbary as it was when a Roman province, and as it is now, is another case quite in point. But the best of all arguments are perhaps those on which the Colonel himself insists, viz. the vestiges of cultiva tion, population, and splendour, quite beyond what the Highlands can now boast of, still visible in almost every part of them. The deterioration of the climate, (the consequence, probably, in a very great measure of the decay of the woods,) has been such, that no one can either doubt the fact, or calculate to what extent it may have operated. For example, the Colonel tells us, that on his own estate on the braes of Athole, his grandfather

produced barley, (to which Marshal Wade gave the prize at a competition with gentlemen possessed of estates much farther south,) from a hill side where, during the last fifty years, there has grown nothing but heather. Within the limits of the same estate the vestiges still survive of several mansions, all evidently of considerable extent and importance, and each of which was in the old time the separate castle of a separate landholder able to sustain the character of wealth and independence. To rise from Garth to the Gael in general, it appears to us that the following passages are eminently curious, and at the same time very sensible.

"When the succession to the throne of the Picts induced the Kings of the Highlands to transfer the seat of royalty from the mountains to the more fertile regions of the Lowlands, and when the marble chair, the emblem of sovereignty, was removed from Dunstaffnage to Scone, the stores of learning and history, preserved in the College of Iona, were also carried to the south, and afterwards destroyed by the barbarous policy of Edward I. Deficient and mutilated as the records in consequence are, it is impossible to ascertain the degree of civilization which this kingdom of glens and mountains had attained; but, judging from the establishment of the College of Icolm-kill, at so early a period, when darkness prevailed in other parts of Europe, a considerable portion of learning must be admitted to have been diffused. The feelings of even Dr Johnson were powerfully awa kened by the associations naturally arising from the sight of this celebrated spot.

"Such a seat of learning and piety could not fail to influence the manners of the

people. Inverlochay, their capital, mainand Spain. Yet, of the progress made in the arts by the Scots of that remote period, no specimens have descended to our times except the remains of their edifices. The Castle of Inverlochay, although it has been in ruins, and uninhabitable for nearly five hundred years, is still so entire as to have furnished a model for the present castles of Inverary and Taymouth; so far had our ancestors, at a very early period, advanced in the knowledge and practice of tions round that part of Inverlochay which The underground foundais still standing, shew that it was originally of great extent. Dunstaffnage Castle, also in ruins for many centuries, has equal strength of walls, but not the same regu

tained a considerable intercourse with France

architecture.

larity of plan. This may have been owing to its situation, as it is built on a rock, to the edges and incurvations of which the walls have been adapted. Urquhart Castle, which has likewise stood in ruins for many centuries, is one of the finest specimens of castle building in the country. But it must be confessed that Scotland in general, and particularly the Highlands, possesses no castles that can bear comparison with the baronial residences of the more wealthy nobility of England and Wales.

"In many parts of the Highlands, however, ruins and foundations of places of strength, and of castles, are so frequent, as to exhibit proofs of a population more numerous than in latter ages. The marks and traces of the plough also evidently demonstrate that cultivation was more extended than at present. Fields, on the mountains, now bleak and desolate, and covered only with heath and fern, exhibit as dictinct ridges of the plough as are to be seen on the plains of Morray. Woods and cultivation gave a genial warmth to the climate, which planting and other improvements would probably restore. As an instance of these marks of the ancient population, I shall confine my observations to one district. In a small peninsula of four miles in breadth, situated between the rivers Tummel and Garry, in Athole, extending from Strowan to the Port of Lochtummel, about ten miles in length, and ending at the point of Invergarry, below the Pass of Killiekrankie, there are so many foundations of ancient habitations, (and these of apparent note,) as to indicate a remarkably numerous population. They are nineteen in number. One circular building, near the house of Fincastle, is sixty-two feet in diameter; the walls are seven and a half feet thick, and a height of five feet is still remaining. In the district of Foss there are four. On the estate of Garth there are eight, some with walls nine feet thick; the stones in two of which are so weighty, that they could scarcely have been raised to the walls without the aid of machinery. In Glenlyon* there are seven; and, in a word, they are scattered all over the country. Respecting these buildings, various opinions are entertained; but one thing is certain, that they must have been erected at a great expence of labour, and that a numerous people only would have required so many buildings, either for shelter or defence. Tradition assigns them to the age of Ossian, and they are accordingly denominated Caistail nam Fiann, the Castles of the Fingallians.' The adjacent smaller buildings are pointed out by names expressive of the purposes to which they were appropriated. In Glenlyon, for in

6

ers.

stance, is shewn the kennel for Fingal's dogs, and the house for the principal huntAll this, to be sure, is tradition, and will be received as such; but the traces of a numerous population in former times are nevertheless clear and incontrovertible.

"But, whatever might have been the population and state of civilization of ancient Albion, the country was destined to experience one of those revolutions which are frequent in human affairs. The extension of their dominions occasioned the frequent absence of the kings from the ancient seats of their governments. At length, when, about the year 1066, the Court was removed by Malcolm Ceanmor, never to return to the mountains, the sepulchres, as well as the residence of the future kings of Scotland, were henceforth to be in the south; and Dunfermline became the royal cemetery instead of Icolm-kill, where so many kings, chiefs, bishops, eminent ecclesiastics, and men of learning, lie entombed. That university, which had for ages been the fountain whence religion and learning were diffused among the people, was now deserted. The removal of the seat of authority, was speedily followed by the usual results. The Highlanders were impoverished. Nor was this the only evil that resulted from the transference of the seat of government. The people, now beyond the reach of the laws, became turbulent and fierce, revenging in person those wrongs for which the administrators of the laws were too distant and too feeble to afford redress. Thence arose the institution of chiefs, who naturally became the judges and arbiters in the quarrels of their clansmen and followers, and who were surrounded by men devoted to the defence of their rights, their property, and their power; and, accordingly, the chiefs established within their own territories a jurisdiction almost wholly independent of their liege lord.

*

*

"The country traditions are filled with anecdotes of the hunting expeditions of the Alpine kings. From these traditional authorities, the names of many remarkable objects in the neighbourhood of their ancient residence, particularly in Glenroy and Glenspean, are derived. Ossian, and the heroes celebrated in song, seem in a manner overlooked in the recollection of the later warriors and Nimrods. Since strangers and men of science have traversed these long-deserted regions, an irreconcileable feud of opinions has arisen between the Geologists and the Highlanders, regarding an uncommon conformation in Glenroy, a glen in Lochaber, remarkable for the height and perpendicularity of its sides, particularly of one of them. On the north

side, at a considerable elevation above the stream, which flows along the bottom of the glen, there is a flat, or terrace, about seventy feet broad, having an appearance of a road formed on the side of the mountain, and running along, on a perfect level, to the extremity of the glen; five hundred feet above this, there is another of these terraces, and still higher a third, all parallel, and of a similar form. In English they are called Parallel Roads: the inhabitants know them by the name of the King's Hunting Roads. Geologists say that the glen was once full of water, up to the level of the highest parallel, which must have been formed by the action of the waters of this lake on the side of the hill. By some violence, however, an opening was made in the lower end of the glen, which confined the water, in consequence of which it immediately fell as low as the second parallel, and formed it in the same manner as the first. Another opening of the same kind brought down the surface of the water to the third parallel, when, at

length, that which confined the water giving way entirely, it subsided to the bot tom of the glen, where it now runs, in a rapid stream, without obstruction. To this opinion the Highlanders object, that it is not probable that water, after the first declension, would remain so perfectly stationary as to form a second parallel of the same breadth and formation as the first, or that the second declension would be so regular in time, and the water so equal in its action, as to form a third terrace of form and breadth perfectly similar to the two others; that the glen is too narrow to allow the waves to act with sufficient force to form these broad levels; that, in the centre of the glen, which is narrow, the levels are the broadest and most perfect, whereas, on the upper end, which opens to a wide extent, allowing a large space for the wind to act with a superior force, the levels are contracted and less perfect; that on the other side of the glen these terraces are broad, and of perfectly regular formation, while, on the other, they are narrow, and not so well formed; and that, unless the wind blew always from the same quarter, waves would not roll with more force to one side of a piece of water than to another.

In Glenspean, which is in the immediate neighbourhood, and in which similar appearances present themselves, the hills recede from each other, leaving a wide expanse, on the sides of which, if the hollow had been filled with water, the waves

would have acted with considerable force, and yet these roads, or terraces, are by no means so well formed, continuous, and dis

tinct, as in Glenroy. The Highlanders also urge the impossibility of water having ever been confined in Glenspean, without an improbable convulsion of nature, the lower end being of great width, and open

to the ocean. After stating these reasons, they triumphantly conclude by a query, Why other glens and straths in the Highlands do not exhibit natural appearances similar to those in the vicinity of the ancient residence of their kings? Their own account, which they believe as firmly as they do their creed, is, that these roads were made for the hunting of the kings when at Inverlochay; that they were pali. sadoed on each side; and that the game was driven through, affording the Royal Hunters time to destroy numbers before they could get to the end. As a confirmation of this account, they quote the names of the circumjacent places, which all bear an analogy to these huntings,

"To these opinions, so opposite and difficult to reconcile, it is probable that each party will adhere."

Another matter, the Colonel's feelings as to the which break out in every part of his volumes, is the more recent deterioration (for such he esteems it) produced by the introduction of sheep-farming into the Highlands. This new system has been the instrument of lowering to a prodigious extent the population of these regions, and if persisted in, must ere long, in the Colonel's opinion, destroy altogether, what all the world must agree with him in considering as an invaluable nursery of British soldiers. His reflections are particularly severe as to the conduct of the Sutherland

family, and acquitting the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford, as we most sincerely do, of any evil intention, we can have no hesitation in expressing our doubts whether the reduction that has taken place in the population of these vast estates may not hereafter be repented very bitterly by those at the head of them.

The Colonel goes very deep into the history of the Highland clans, and the result of his own inquiries seems to be, at the least, a most sincere conviction in his own mind, that the territory of the chief was in reality the common inheritance of the race who followed his banner. In many instances it is well known the clansmen used to exercise the privilege of deposing a chief when he had and of electing another of his kindred acted unworthily of his high station, to be his successor in the phylarchic dignity. The unbroken custom of many centuries had completely settled in what proportions the produce of the land was to be at the disposal of the chief of the race-and accustom