Kinlochiel respectively; the same who acted as tutors, during the minority of the young chief, Allan. Who was the fourth son? Before answering that question, it is quite understood that Donald was not the name of the progenitor of the Erracht family,* and Gregory with the "Introduction" before him, changes "Donald of Eracht" of the "Introduction" into "Ewen of Eracht." This "Ewen of Eracht," or Ewen MacEwen, he represents as having been murdered at Inverlochy; but the recordst seem to show that the tutor or guardian who was put to death there was not Ewen MacEwen, but Donald MacEwen. There is no means of discovering how the latter was styled, whether of Erracht or of some other place. As it is not disputed that John of Kinlochiel was the other guardian, the names given in the "Introduction" ought to stand; and as, by general consent, the progenitor of the Erracht family was Ewen MacEwen, the inference is, that this last was the son whose name has not been recorded in the "Introduction." It would thus appear, that there were two sons by Ewen Alanson's first marriage, Donald and Ewen; and two of second first marriage, Donald and John. Donald (1), had pre-deceased his father; his full brother, Ewen seems to have died soon after young Allan's birth; but, if alive when these contentions in the Clan commenced, it goes without saying, that he was not an abettor of Donald (2) and John, in their attempted usurpation.

(To be continued.)

"COLONEL ANN" MACKINTOSH AND CUMBERLAND. - Lady Mackintosh, generally known as "Colonel Ann," was taken prisoner after the Battle of Culloden, and carried up to London, but was soon set at liberty. Cumberland, it is said, gave a ball, to which he invited this lady. The first tune played was, "Up and Waur them a', Willie," to which he requested her to dance. Having consented, she asked, when they were done, if, since she had danced to his tune, he would dance to hers. He could not refuse to a lady, and "Colonel Ann" asked for "The Auld Stuarts back Again!" To this tune the singularly assorted couple also danced. — Chambers's History of the Rebellion.

Celtic Magazine, April, 1883, p. 269. Highlands and Islands (2nd Edition), p. 228-9.

+ Record of Privy Council, vol. ii., 597.

Gregory's History of the Western

His son appears soon afterwards in the Records, as "Johnne Badach Mac Vc. Ewne of Erach," which, unfortunately, does not settle the point. Reg. Privy Council. vol. v., p. 498.

AN INCURSION OF THE FRASERS TO ATHOLE.

AT one time there raged a bitter feud between the Frasers of Lovat and the Athole men. At the date of this story, the latter had made a terrible raid upon the Lovat country during the absence of nearly all its male inhabitants upon a similar expedition. The Frasers returned only to find their houses pillaged and burned, their women and children slain or chased to the hills, and their cattle driven away by the invaders. As the scene of desolation broke upon their view, and as they beheld stretched around them the lifeless bodies of the few old men whom they had left behind, a deep thirst for revenge took possession of the Frasers, and they called upon their lord to lead them at once into the Athole country. They brandished their gleaming claymores on high, as if calling upon Heaven to aid them in their purpose, while the weird, sad strains of the coronach rose in the air, and mingled with their angry voices. Lord Lovat, a man of fierce passions, swore solemnly on the crosshilt of his dirk that he would not return to his own lands again until he had either captured or put to death every living creature in the Athole country, from the human inhabitants to the very barn-door fowls. The Clan were at once marshalled, and set off determinedly on their expedition.

They were fortunate enough to find the Athole country in the same unprotected state as their own had been, and for two days they harried and burned and slaughtered to their hearts' content. At the end of that time they commenced the return march, laden with plunder, when, just as they were leaving the boundaries of the blackened and wasted land, a cock was heard to crow from some deserted farm-house a long distance behind them. Faint though the sound was, it reached the quick ears of Donald Fraser, the henchman of Lord Lovat, and he at once. reminded his Chief that his vow had not been fulfilled to the letter.

An oath taken upon the dirk was then considered the most binding of any, and it was reckoned a terrible crime to break such an oath, so that Lord Lovat ordered Donald to go back with a small party of men, and not to return until he had effectually silenced the

poor cock. The henchman accordingly set off, but on reaching the place whence the sound had come, his party was attacked on all sides by the furious Athole men, who had meanwhile returned, and were only too glad to take advantage of the opportunity of revenge thus offered them. The party of Frasers were cut to pieces, the only survivor being Donald himself, who, after a most vigorous resistance, was overpowered by numbers and bound tightly with cords. He was then commanded in no gentle terms to guide his captors to where the rest of his Clan were awaiting him, but by an almost superhuman effort he burst his bonds asunder, and broke through his guards. He had not got a hundred yards, however, before he was overtaken and slain. A few of the victorious Athole men then proceeded to don the tartans of the dead Frasers, and made straight in the track of the main body of Lovat's men, the rest of their party following some distance in the rear.

After marching two or three miles they came in view of the Frasers, encamped in a little hollow in the side of a hill, evidently feasting on their booty, unconscious of danger, and totally unprepared for an attack. The main body of the Athole men now made a circuit round to the back of the hill so as to take the enemy in the rear, while the advance party, secure in their borrowed tartans, advanced boldly towards the Frasers. Believing them to be his own men, Lovat beckoned them to come on, when, with a wild yell, they threw off their disguises, and rushed furiously upon the astonished foe. At the same moment, the main body charged down from the brow of the hill and threw themselves upon the rear. A scene of butchery ensued which it is impossible to describe. Lord Lovat was shouting for his horse, when he was cut down by several of his opponents at once. The rest of his Clan, disheartened by the fall of their Chief, were quickly despatched, save a remnant who managed to escape. The Athole men returned home with all the booty which had been carried off by the Frasers. Before leaving, however, they generously gave the rites of burial to their fallen foes, and erected an immense cairn of stones over their graves, which is known as Fraser's Cairn to this day. The country people believe that at midnight the ghost of Lord Lovat can be seen rushing madly round the cairn, calling loudly for a horse— a horse!

H. R. M.

THE "SCOTTISH REVIEW" ON THE REPORT
OF THE CROFTERS' COMMISSION.

THE Scottish Review for the present quarter contains two articles of special interest to Highlanders-the first to students of Celtic Philology, and the second to Land Law Reformers. The articles we refer to are those on the Scottish Language and Highland Land Law Reforın. The first-mentioned bears evidence of coming from the pen of one who has kept himself quite abreast-in some respects, indeed, ahead-of the most recent disclosures in the field of philologic and ethnologic research. His special subject is the Lowland Scottish Language; but in the course of his observations he makes digressions among the tangled thicket of Celtic Philology, and his remarks on the subject are full of interest. Very important, and even striking, is the following remark, which lays down a theory that the upholders of the old fashioned beliefs will find it hard to disprove. He says "The probability is that the race to which both the Scots and the Picts belonged was neither Gaelic nor Celtic, but non-Aryan. The Scots certainly spoke the Goidelic dialect of the Celtic language, probably as an acquired or adopted tongue; but many of the Picts did not understand it. Columba, who spoke Goidelic, could make himself understood, it is true, to King Brude and the men about him when he visited him in his stronghold in the neighbourhood of the River Ness; but when he penetrated further into the Pictish country, and came in contact with plebeians and peasants, he had to preach to them, as Adamnan says, by means of interpreters. Their language, there is reason to believe, was, like their race, non-Aryan." The whole article will amply repay careful perusal.

The author of the article on Highland Land Law Reform enters on an able and most sympathetic examination of the Report of the Crofters' Commission. The author is one of the few who seem to have properly grasped the idea expressed by the Commissioners in the "Township" scheme, which they recommend for the sanction of the Legislature. The proposal

has met with disfavour, very much because it has not been understood by the critics. Opinions, the most various and

"It has

On the

contradictory, have been expressed with respect to the scheme according to the standpoint from which it is viewed. been stigmatised as retrograde, socialistic, and illusory. other hand, it has been denounced with equal vigour as timid. and half-hearted." "It has altogether failed to satisfy the more advanced advocates of Highland Land Law Reform, and it has utterly disgusted the economists." The principle of the scheme the Reviewer puts in a sentence-" It recommends an individual occupancy of arable land with a common occupancy of pasture.” The origin of the idea is neither new nor foreign; it "has been for centuries, and is still a reality in the habits of the people,' a reality which could not now be set at nought without arousing public sentiment and opposition."" References in proof of the existence and practical operation of the Township system are made to the very interesting contribution by Mr A. A. Carmichael, which is appended to the Report of the Commission. "It thus appears," says our author, " that the organisation of the Highland Township, whatever the value of that organisation may be, is entirely indigenous-a product of the past life of the people, and an illustration of a deep-seated and farreaching race characteristic." To the objection that a system involving "common occupancy" of pasture is retrogressive and inimical to individual industry, the Commissioners give the unanswerable reply "that pasture is indispensable to the small tenant in most parts of the Highlands and Islands, the soil and climate being such that he can never depend on cereal cultivation alone, either for rent or sustenance, while the areas requisite for the grazing of cattle, and especially of sheep, are so vast and the surface so rugged that numerous enclosures are impracticable." "Even Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, the kindliest of proprietors, who would solve the problem by increasing the number of farms with individual holdings, must know that on his own Gairloch estate the cost of fencing the pasture ground of each small farm would be such as to render the scheme impracticable. The farms would need to be so large that the country, if the occupiers of these farms were the only inhabitants, would be desolate."

The Township of the past never possessed corporate existence in law. "The Township conceived by the Commissioners