Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

Notwithstanding all this, it is true that, like most others in the Highlands at the time, Flora herself felt a very deep and friendly interest in the welfare of the Prince, not from political views, but from pure compassion for suffering humanity. As yet she had never seen his Royal Highness, but she cherished the greatest sympathy for his varied privations and hardships.

In "Waverley" Sir Walter Scott has beautifully delineated her general traits of character, while her loyalty to the House of Stuart, at least to the royal aspirant to the British throne under his misfortunes, is represented as the ruling passion of her youthful, generous heart. Well then may it be fancied that on her hearing the news of Prince Charles having landed in Scotland, and raised the Royal Standard on the hills of Moydart, and called the Chiefs of Macdonald, Lochiel, and Glengarry to uphold that banner, the enthusiastic Flora would breath in silent aspiration these poetic words:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.

SIR,-Will you permit me to correct a few errors in the note upon this subject in your May number?

Although most of the English dignities you assign to the Duke of Athole are very generally attributed to him, it has been conclusively proved that the only Barony inherited by him, as heir-general of the Dukes of Northumberland, is that of Percy, created by Writ of Summons in 1722. The Baronies of Lucy, Poynengs, Fitz-Payne, Bryan, and Latimer, as well as the more ancient Barony of Percy, created in 1299, were never part of the inheritance of the latter Earls and Dukes of Northumberland, consequently could not be transmitted to their heir. It must be remembered that the Smithson-Percies-of whom the Duke of Athole is heirgeneral, and the Duke of Northumberland heir-male-though descended from, in no way represented the original Percies.

The Dukedom of Aubigny is not a Scottish but a French dignity, and the Duke of Richmond, like the Duke of Hamilton. is Duke in three Peerages, or perhaps we might almost say four, viz., Richmond, in England; Lennox, in Scotland; Gordon, in the United Kingdom; Aubigny, in France.

I cannot quite make out the summary of five Lords Hamilton, five

Lords Harvard (the latter, I suppose, a mistake for Howard), five Lords Stewart, &c. Should be glad to see these enumerated. Also the distinction between Delamar and Delamere, unless by the former is intended the Barony of Delamer or Delamere of Dunham Massey, one of the titles of the Earl of Stamford and Warrington.

It is perhaps worth noting that the Duke of Abercorn possesses the same title, though of different grade, in the three Peerages, i.e., Duke of Abercorn in Ireland, Marquess of Abercorn in the United Kingdom, and Earl of Abercorn in Scotland. The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos also holds dignities in the three Kingdoms, being Earl Nugent in Ireland, and Baron Kinloss in Scotland.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

JAMES SINCLAIR, Fourteenth Earl of Caithness, died, not at his old baronial residence, but in the great city of New York, United States, in the month of March last. He was a distinguished and public-spirited nobleman, and descended from "the lordly line of high St Clair," The Earldom of Caithness carries us back for about a thousand years, and reference is made to it in the year 870 in the writings of Torpheus. It was, however, in 1456 that the title as a separate earldom was conferred on William Sinclair, the first Earl of Caithness, who was then Great Chancellor and Lord Lieutenant of Scotland. From this eminent sire the late Earl traced his pedigree; and it is a somewhat singular circumstance that for upwards of four centuries the Caithness family have never wanted a male representative. While many of the late Earl's forefathers were well known on the battlefield and in the council chamber, he still had a higher reputation than they had, for he studied and encouraged what tended to the arts of peace, the development of science, and consequently the happiness and prosperity of his fellow-men.

His father was the thirteenth Earl of Caithness, and his mother a daughter of the Dean of Hereford. He was born in the year 1821, and succeeded to the family estates and honours in 1855. He was twice married-first, to Louisa Georgiana, a daughter of Sir George Philip of Weston, by whom he had two of a family, the present Earl and Lady Fanny Sinclair. The first Countess died in 1870, and a few years after wards his Lordship married Marie, widow of General Medina de Pomar, who still survives him.

The late Earl received his education privately and at the University of Edinburgh; and from his youth upwards he took a plain, common-sense view of every topic that presented itself for his consideration. This practical turn of mind gave him a decided advantage, as it enabled him to treat a subject on its own merits, without any degree of impulsiveness on the one hand, or of influence on the other. He bore his family honours lightly, and he was possessed of a winning manner and obliging disposi

tion, which prevented him from losing any friends. He was a Baronet, and in the Scottish Peerage Earl of Caithness; while he had a seat in the House of Lords as Baron Barrogill of the United Kingdom. For many years he sat in the House of Lords as one of the sixteen Scottish representative Peers, but he had so commended himself to the Liberal party as one in whom every confidence could be placed in political matters, that Lord Palmerston created him a Peer of the United Kingdom. He had other offices from the Liberal party, as he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant and Vice-Admiral of the County of Caithness. For several years he was a Lord-in-Waiting on Her Majesty the Queen. While he held this office he was a favourite with the Royal Family, and taught the young Princes lessons in turning and photography. The Prince and Princess of Wales visited the Earl at Barrogill Castle in 1876.

But while the late Earl was known for his many good qualities of head and heart, the chief bent of his mind lay in a scientific direction, and specially in the mechanical world. He had been fond of mechanics since his boyhood, and in his early days he wrought in an engineering establishment in Manchester for about a year, attending regularly at six o'clock in the morning. The steam-engine and machinery of all kinds were themes on which he delighted to dwell, and his knowledge of the principles of mechanics, coupled with the practical cast of his own mind, enabled him to grasp the details of a given subject, and thus understand its bearings. He patented several inventions. One was connected with the tape-loom, whereby a weaver by the Earl's invention was enabled to stop one of the shuttles without stopping the whole, as had been done formerly. He got £500 for this invention, and had he been a mercantile gentleman instead of a British nobleman, he might have realised a fortune by his mechanical genius. He was likewise the patentee of a gravitating compass, the main object of which was to secure in boisterous weather at sea steadiness of action, and this compass is now used by several lines of ocean vessels. He further invented a machine for washing railway carriages, which has proved very useful, as a whole train of carriages can be cleaned in a very short time, thereby saving the time and expense connected with such an operation previously.

The Earl was for years anxious to get railway communication extended to Caithness, and as a preliminary thereto he appeared himself in 1860 in the county with his road locomotive, accompanied by the Countess, having by this conveyance travelled all the way from Inverness to Barrogill. The locomotive createdquite a sensation at the time in the county. At the meeting of the British Association for the Promotion of Science, held in July 1860, he read a paper on Road Engines; and it may be mentioned that the locomotive by which he travelled to Caithness was at first experimented upon on the roads at Windsor, in presence of the Queen. The able advocacy of his Lordship to get the railway into Caithness is well known, and although he was not successful in getting his line adopted, it is evident that he hailed with great satisfaction the opening of the line under the patronage of the Duke of Sutherland, The Earl was a Director for many years of the London and North-Western Railway; and he was accustomed to say that the only stock with which he was acquainted was the rolling stock of the company.

Being fondly attached to the county of Caithness, he took a deep in

he was very

terest in all measures bearing on the development of its resources and the welfare of its inhabitants. He was warmly attached to the volunteer movement, and was Honorary-Colonel of the Caithness Artillery Volunteers. As Governor of the British Fishery Society, attentive to the fishing interests of Wick and Pulteneytown, and was thoroughly alive to the wants of sufficient harbour accommodation at Wick, He assisted materially in getting the Pulteney Harbour Act of 1862 passed, while the foundation-stone of the breakwater was laid by the late Countess amid great public rejoicing, although it is now sad to behold the breakwater a wreck, as it could not resist the tremendous violence of the storms with which it was assailed. The Earl was patron or president of nearly all the educational and benevolent societies in or connected with the county.

He was exceedingly liberal as a county landlord, and spared no efforts or expense in having his estates and the condition of his tenantry improved. It may be safely said that no estate in the North of similiar extent as that of the deceased Earl, has had such extensive improvements carried on, and that so successfully within the last twenty years. He reclaimed a considerable extent of moorland in the course of a few years, and the same was converted into an arable farm, on which there is a very commodious steading-while ditching, draining, and fencing have greatly increased the value of the estate. The Earl was the first who introduced the steam plough to the North, and for many years this powerful implement has been free to any tenant on his estates willing to reclaim and cultivate a piece of waste ground. The thatched houses have been gradually disappearing; and the tourist who may now wend his way to the farfamed locality of John o'Groat's, will observe nice and substantial dwellings with slated roofs in the district around Huna. The Earl never refused an improving lease, and in 1876 he granted upwards of one hundred and thirty leases to his tenants. It is well known that the tenants placed the utmost reliance in the integrity of the Earl. He could be easily approached by them, and would listen very carefully to any reasonable request. In the agricultural improvements, and generally in the management of the estate, he had the able and shrewd assistance of his factor, Captain Keith of Barrogill Castle.

The Town Council of Wick highly appreciated the services which the Earl had rendered to the county, and, in 1860, the freedom of the burgh was conferred on him--an honour with which he was much pleased, coming as it did from a Royal burgh only distant a few miles from his own estates. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in respect of his scientific attainments, and was besides a member of several other learned and scientific bodies. In 1877 he published a volume of Lectures, which he delivered from time to time in large towns, where they were very well received. A few years ago he acted as President of one of the sections of the Mechanical Department of the Paris Exhibition, having been appointed to that office by the Prince of Wales.

In the winter months the Earl lived at Staganhoe, a short distance out of London. He had a beautiful residence at that place, over and above a London house. Barrogill Castle-an ancient pile, the grounds of which he greatly improved and ornamented-was his residence in Caithness. Considering the limited space at our command, we have given

as much detail as possible relating to the deceased nobleman, a nobleman who was exceedingly kind and generous to all with whom he came in contact, who was on all occasions accessible to and beloved by his tenants, and one who will be mourned by a wide circle of friends for a long time to come. He was sixty years of age. His body was embalmed in New York, and carried across the wide Atlantic to Holyrood Abbey, where his remains were laid in their last resting-place about a month ago.

WICK.

G. M. SUTHERLAND,

A LOCHABER LEGEND.

Uirisg an easa-bhuidh,

'S e na shuidhe an Gleanna-maili,

'S a nuair a chiaradh air an fheasgar,
Thigeadh e dhachaidh gu Mairi.

THIS is a frequent saying in Lochaber if any person makes a habit of daily frequenting a neighbour's house, and the story of it is as follows:Once upon a time a farmer who had Glenmaillie had a pretty servant lass of the name of Mary. The farmer built a sheiling far up the glen near the falls that are still known as the "Eas buidhe," and Mary was sent there to take charge of the cows and their milk. The girl was very brave-hearted, but though not afraid to be alone in the mountain sheiling, yet she began to have company frequently that caused her great alarm. An "Uirisg" came to her cot evening by evening in the dusk, and as he came in he invariably repeated the sentence at the head of this article. He had always some small trout with him, which in the course of the evening he roasted one by one, always eating the one before he roasted another, and saying as he ate each,—

Mar a rostar bricein ithear bricein.

And as he cooked and ate his fish he ogled Mary the whole time, casting at her the most admiring glances possible, to the girl's great dismay. At length she got so frightened that she fled to her master's house, and told him about the "Uirisg," and that she was not safe alone in the sheiling. Her master told her he would go in her place for a day or two, and he would see if he could not rid her of the troublesome visitor. He went and dressed himself in a suit of Mary's clothes, and sat at dusk spinning the distaff as Mary was wont to do. By and by he heard a footstep, heavy and slow, and as the creature came in he exclaimed as usual,-

Uirisg an easa-bhuidh,

'S e na shuidhe 'n Gleanna maili,
'S a nuair a chiaradh air an fheasgar,
Thigeadh e dhachaidh gu Mairi.

He then sat down and began as usual to roast his fish, saying,—

Mar a rostar bricein ithear bricein,

« AnteriorContinuar »