MORE ABOUT SELLAR AND THE SUTHERLAND CLEARANCES. COLONEL STEWART of Garth, when collecting the materials for his "Sketches of the Highlanders "-incomparably the best book ever written on the Highlands-wrote, among others, to Colonel Duncan Macpherson of Cluny, for information about the hairbreadth escapes of his father after the battle of Culloden, and other questions, especially those connected with the management of Highland property within his own recollection and experience. Cluny was born in 1750, and was, therefore, at this date (1817), in the sixty-seventh year of his age-full of knowledge derived from personal observation and experience of the state of the country, and the actual condition of the people. After detailing a most interesting account of Cluny's wanderings, the devotion of his followers, his many and almost miraculous escapes from capture by the Government troops, and the raising of the Old 71st, or Fraser's Highlanders, in which he had himself long and gallantly served, he concluded a long letter, dated "Cluny House, 9th June 1817," in the following terms : "I am clearly of your opinion that much of the attachment of the people to their superiors is unncessarily lost, though I cannot impute the whole blame to proprietors. In many instances the people themselves are entirely in the fault, and in other cases factors abuse the trust reposed in them, and, of course, the proprietor gets the whole blame of their oppressions. You have given two very striking and opposite instances, which may serve to illustrate the situation of landlord and tenant all over the nation. I mean Sir George Stewart, and the Earl of Breadalbane. The one has well-paid rents, and the offer of a large sum of money besides for his accommodation, while the other with difficulty gets one-tenth of his. If a tenant has a fair bargain of his farm, it is an absurdity to suppose that one bad year will distress him, but when the rent is so racked that he is only struggling in the best of times, a very little falling off in prices or seasons will totally ruin him, and I am sorry to say that much of the present distress is to be attributed to that cause. I am happy to have it in my power to tell you that my rents were all paid, that is, to a mere trifle, and even that trifle due by a few improvident individuals who would be equally in arrear in the best of times. The Duke of Gordon has not received more than one-half his rents either in Lochaber or Badenoch, but I have reason to believe his Grace's rents were better paid in the low country. Belville has not exceeded onetenth, and though I do not exactly know in what proportion the Invereshie rent was paid, yet I know that it was a bad collection. The conduct of the family of Stafford is certainly unaccountable, for I am credibly informed that the old tenants offered a higher rent than those that came from England, consequently they are losers in every respect. I know it will be said by those who are advocates for depopulating the country that they could not stand to their offer, but neither could their successors, for a very large deduction has already been given them, and one man in particular has got five hundred pounds down. Upon the whole, it is clear that the Marquis of Stafford was led into those arrangements (so disgraceful to the present age) by speculative men that wish to overturn the old system at once, without considering that their plans were at least only applicable to the present moment, and that such changes, even if necessary, should be done. gradually and with great caution. I cannot dismiss this subject without making a few remarks on the conduct of Lady Stafford, and you will be astonished to learn that when her old and faithful adherents, who had given her such repeated proofs of their attachment, were cruelly oppressed by a factor, that she should refuse to listen to their complaints, and when that factor was tried for his life on charges of cruelty, oppression, and murder, it is most unaccountable that her Ladyship should exert all her influence to screen him from the punishment which he so richly deserved. I have only to add that, as far as my own observations extend, much of the evil complained of arises from the absence of proprietors from their properties, by which they are in a great measure unacquainted with the real state of their tenants, and consequently open to every species of advice and misrepresentation." This letter was written within less than a year of Patrick Sellar's trial at Inverness, and the comments of a landed proprietor of Cluny's age, high social position, and experience, written at the time, will be read with much interest at present Only the substance of the letter was published by Colonel Stewart, in the "Sketches ;" and the Editor of the Celtic Magazine, unfortunately quite forgot that he had an authentic printed copy of it in his possession, when writing The History of the Highland Clearances, kindly given him several years ago by the present Chief. The following communication from one of the leading ministers in Nova-Scotia, and one of the most accomplished living Gaelic scholars, will prove interesting in the same connection :— TO THE EDITOR OF THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. BARNEY'S RIVER, NOVA SCOTIA, March 4th, 1884. SIR, I have received your "Isle of Skye," with Patrick Sellar's Trial. I have read them with great interest. Sellar's deeds of cruelty were made known to me before by the people from Sutherlandshire in my congregation here, but the one-half was not told of his work. I read the trial to an old man of 75 years, who was an eyewitness to some of the deeds of that time when he was a little boy. He remembers seeing a party of soldiers marching up and down along the banks of the Brora River, not far from Golspie. He said that a satire or lampoon had been composed on Sellar, but he could repeat only one stanza of it. When he came to the chorus he almost jumped up out of the chair; the old spirit revived in him; his horror awakened at the bare mention of Sellar's name, whose memory is held in execration by the people here who came from Sutherland. The song was long remembered, and used to be sung by the old people who had been driven from their homes and came to live here, especially by the descendants of John Sutherland of the Kilt, commonly called "Iain Muilleir." About the year 1735 John Sutherland was born in the parish of Clyne, and was a boy, about ten years old, when the battle of Culloden was fought. He remembered the battle and a skirmish also at the Little Ferry between Golspie and Dornoch. In his younger days he was employed as a forester or deer-keeper by William, Earl of Sutherland, and he lived on the Sutherland estate all his life, until the year 1820, when he was evicted from his house and home by Sellar, at the age of 85. Because he would not willingly remove he was forcibly ejected, and carried as a prisoner to Dornoch jail, where he was confined for some time, with other persons, until he was liberated at the request of the Countess Elizabeth, who, on consideration of the services he had rendered to her father and family, ordered him to be set at liberty. He emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1821, and settled here at Barney's River with his family, consisting of two sons and three daughters. He never wore a pair of trowsers in his life, and as he always wore the kilt he was known here by the name of "Bodach-an-fhéilidh," the kilt-man, or John Sutherland of the kilt. He lived till March 1840, and died at the age of 105 years. His wife, Elizabeth Mackay, was five years younger than he, but lived sixteen years after him, so that she was 116 years old at the time of her death, in March 1856. His eldest daughter, who was known by the name of "Sine Mhor," Big Jane, lived to be 105 years old; she died in 1877. This Big Jane was a heroine; and when the constables and officers were sent to eject her father and other people, she, with a gang of women, opposed and attacked them. Big Jane took hold of the summons in her teeth as Lochiel did of the Englishman's throat at Achadalew, and though she was thrown down on the ground by the constables who held her fast, she tore it in pieces with her teeth. Her daughter "Sine Bheag," Little Jane, a girl of sixteen, was struck with a stick by one of the constables; but the girl's uncle, Alexander Sutherland, rushed in to protect his niece, and received a blow from Brander's staff on the top of the head. These cruelties were never forgotten by the people; they were indelibly imprinted on their minds; they are still remembered by the descendants of John Sutherland of the Kilt, whose posterity live here to the sixth generation. The satire on Sellar is now almost forgotten; some odd verses of it are remembered by one here and there. I send you a copy of all I could collect of it. Likely it will be remembered by old persons in the parish of Clyne, where it was originally composed. It is a curiosity in the history of that period. I would like to have the whole of it. Whenever it is repeated here by any of the people, the old animus towards Sellar appears and breaks forth. He has certainly gained for himself an unenviable reputation. As you have been taking so much interest in Sellar's doings in Sutherland, I thought the above worth sending to you. Yours truly, D. B. BLAIR. [We may inform our reverend correspondent that twelve verses of the "Satire on Sellar were published last year in the Oban Times, and afterwards circulated in slips. We shall try to procure and send him a copy. Mr Blair sends us some verses not included in the published version.-Ed. C. M.] I MACDONALD OF SCOTUS AND HIS SON IN 1745.-Macdonald of Scothouse came to pass the day with me. He was endowed with a fine figure and a prepossessing address, joined to that of an agreeable exterior, and had all the qualities of soul which ordinarily distinguish the honourable and gallant man-brave, polite, obliging, of fine spirit and sound judgment. As he was naturally of a gay disposition, I perceived his melancholy on his entering my dwelling. On asking him the cause, this worthy man looked at me, his eyes bathed in tears—“ Ah, my friend, you do not know what it is to be a father. I am of this detachment which must depart this evening to attack Lord Loudon. You do not know that a son whom I adore is with him an officer in his regiment. believed myself fortunate in obtaining that rank for this dear boy, not being able to foresee the descent of Prince Charles Edward into Scotland. Perhaps to-morrow I shall have the grief to kill my son with my own hand, and that the same ball that I shall fire off in my defence may occasion from myself a death the most cruel! In going with the detachment I may be able to save his life; if I do not march, some other may kill him." The recital of poor Scothouse rent my heart. I retained him the whole day at my house, endeavouring to dissipate his fears as much as I possibly could, and making him promise on parting to come straight to my house on leaving the boat. The next day, at evening, I heard a great knock at my door. I ran thither, and perceived the good father holding a young man by the hand, of a jolly figure, who cried to me, his eyes sparkling with joy, "Behold, my friend, the one who yesterday caused all my alarms. I have taken him prisoner myself; and when I had hold of him he embraced me fervently, not regarding the others who were present." I then saw him shed tears of joy, very different from those of the night before. Memoirs of the Chevalier de Johnstone. CELTIC MYTHOLOGY. BY ALEXANDER MACBAIN, M.A., F.S.A. SCOT. XIII. CELTIC WORSHIP AND RITES. Unfor A BRIEF glance at the places and rites of worship and burial among the ancient Celts will conclude the religious aspect of their Mythology. The Celts worshipped in temples and in groves; both are frequently referred to in the classical writers. tunately no description of any Celtic temple is vouchsafed us; the natural conclusion we must come to is that they must have been similar, however rude, to the temples of the kindred races of Greece and Rome. Celtic houses were constructed of wood : "great houses," says Strabo, " arched, constructed of planks and wicker, and covered with a heavy thatched roof." They were circular, high, and with either a conical or domed roof. This description applies to the very earliest Celtic buildings, those of Britain and rural Gaul, for the Gauls of Cæsar's time had towns. with walls, streets and market places, as opposed to the "dunum," the stockaded hill-top or fortified forest-clearing, of their insular brethren. The Gaulish temples must, therefore, have been of stone, but the British temples were most likely constructed, like the houses, of wood. The earliest Christian churches were also made of wood, and, for the most part, clearly consisted of the old heathen temples consecrated to Christian use. "The temples of the Idols in Britain," says Pope Gregory (A.D. 601), "ought not to be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples; let altars be erected and relics placed." There are no remains of either Celtic heathen temples or early Christian churches. The theory that the so-called "Druid" circles were Celtic temples is refuted by the two facts that the Celts were Aryans with Aryan culture, and that they made use of metal-even iron— tools from the earliest period we have record of them. The rude stone circles are evidently not the work of a race well acquainted with the use of metal. It is quite true that in religious ceremonies old phases of culture, whether of dress, instruments, or buildings, survive in a higher stage of civilisation. Thus the flint knife of |