III.-Jts Domestic and Social Life. Notice has already been incidentally taken of the great influx to the town of Highlanders, after Prince Charlie's Rebellion, but this was not by any means the first occasion of contact. Early in the 18th century the landless Macgregors, and their notorious leader Rob Roy, who in the language of our day would be known as "Undesirable Aliens," were in the habit of coming down to Greenock Fair (held then, as now, in the beginning of July), not for the purpose of seeing the shows and the merry-go-rounds, but in order to carry off the cattle, brought there in large numbers for sale. In order to put a stop to this practice, Sir John Shaw assembled his stalwart feuars and tenants, in each year when the Fair began, and marched them through the town, where they acted as special constables for the protection of the lieges. The memory of this gathering was perpetuated till 1822, by an annual procession known as the "Riding of the Fair," when the various trades marched in procession, gaudily or fantastically attired, and bearing their trade emblems. As shewing how much our town was permeated by the Celtic element at the close of the 18th century, the Minister of the East Parish mentions, in a writing left by him, that a person might walk from one end of the town to the other, when the streets were crowded, without hearing anything spoken but Gaelic. Regarding the recently-imported Celts, he also quaintly remarks that many of them were very poor, but when spoken to on the subject they would, with the dignified pride pertaining to a long pedigree, admit that they were not so wealthy as their neighbours, but to compensate, and more than compensate, for this, they were of |