R. CHARLES EDWARD STUART MACDONALD was born at Inverin 1853. His father was the late aray D. T. Macdonald of Calumet, U.S. A., formerly magistrate at Inveraray, and was well known in the Western Highlands and Islands. He was related to Lachlan Maclean, author of a

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History of the Celtic Language", "History of Iona", and other works on Gaelic subjects; and he took a deep interest in the literature of the Highlands. He claimed to be descended from the Lords of the Isles.

When a young man, the subject of our sketch left Scotland with his father, and lived in Norway and Germany, and also visited Turkey and Egypt. On arriving in the United States he settled in St. Louis, Mo., and embarked in the drug business, in which he has prospered.

We read a great deal in the newspapers about the large pro-Boer meetings held in America, but we may safely infer that few Highlanders are to be found at these gatherings. They are in entire sympathy with the Mother Country in the present struggle in South Africa.

Mr.

Macdonald, like many of his countrymen in the States, is doing a good work at present in raising money, by means of "chain letters", for the widows and orphans of the brave Highlanders killed in the Boer War, and has succeeded in raising a good sum for this laudable object. He expects to be able to visit the Highlands and his old home this autumn, to see once more the lochs and glens he loved so well in his youth.

St. Louis, Mo., where Mr. Macdonald resides, has a strong Highland colony, and a flourishing society of the Order of the Clans. We have quite a number of subscribers in that great city

of the United States-the home of probably as mixed a population as can be found in any part of the globe.

Hatfield.

THE WHITE ROSE.

THE STEWARTS' BADGE.

My Highland harp again I string
At day's e'er welcome close,
And for the gallant Stewarts sing
A song on the white rose.

Not faultless was the regal line
Who as a symbol chose

From out the flora of our clime
The snow-white fragrant rose ;

But able aye to win and charm-
Though traitors did oppose-
The Highland heart, the Highland arm
To guard their treasured rose.
Forgotten was the broil and feud
And reconciled were foes,
As shoulder up to shoulder stood
The clansmen round the rose.

In trying days, "Come woe or weal,"
Dundee and good Montrose,
And kindred heroes dauntless, leal,
Have bled for the white rose.

From the first morn of Stewart sway
To its romantic close,
Scenes tragic, brilliant, sad, and gay,
Have clustered round the rose.

And still a youth of royal mien
In tattered kilt and hose
Haunts the low wilds of stern Albyn,
His badge a withered rose.

Peace to the brave devoted dead,

In their last long repose,
Who on the field and scaffold bled
For the white regal rose.

While to the ben the mist shall cling,
And stream through valley flows,
In plaintive song the Gael shall sing
Of Stewarts and their rose.

ANGUS MACKINTOSH,

ANCIENT GAELIC LITERATURE.

II. THE DEAN OF LISMORE'S BOOK.

BY FIONN.

HIS volume consists of Gaelic poetry collected by Sir James MacGregor, Dean of Lismore, Argyle, and his brother, Duncan MacGregor, who acted as his secretary, in the early part of the sixteenth century, 1512-1526. It is a small quarto of some 311 pages, bound in a piece of coarse sheep-skin, and very much defaced. It lies in the library

of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh, where it may be examined by the curious.

"The Dean's MS. differs," says Skene, "from all other MSS. in the library in two essential particulars. It is not, like the other MSS., written in what is called the Irish character, but in the current Roman character of the early part of the sixteenth century; and the language is not written in the orthography used in writing Irish, and now universally employed in writing Scotch Gaelic, but in a peculiar kind of phonetic orthography, which aims at presenting the words in English orthography as they are pronounced."*

A complete transcript of the Dean's Book, with the exception of those parts that are illegible, was made in 1813 by Ewen MacLachlan, of Aberdeen, for the Committee of the Highland Society. The greater portion of it was afterwards transcribed, translated, annotated, and published in 1862, under the title of "The Book of the Dean of Lismore," by the late Rev. Thomas MacLauchlan, LL.D., Edinburgh. To this volume Dr. Skene contributed valuable notes and an elaborate introduction on the history of Gaelic, and especially Ossianic, literature. All the Ossianic ballads in the Dean's MS. were transcribed by the well-known Gaelic scholar and philologist, the late Dr.

Cameron, Brodick, and are published in the first volume of that valuable work-" Reliquiæ Celticæ."

In presenting our readers with a fac-simile specimen of this MS. we have selected a complete poem, by no less a personage than Isabel, Countess of Argyle in the fifteenth century. In these degenerate days, when it is difficult to find a Highland proprietor who can speak the language of the people on his estate, it is pleasing to think that Gaelic was cultivated in fashionable quarters in days gone by. Here, then, is the text of the Dean's MS.,

*Introduction to "The Dean of Lismore's Book," by the late Dr. W. F. Skene, page vii.

ISEABAIL NI MHIC CHAILEIN.

Mairg do'n galar an gràdh, ge b'e fàth fa 'n abraim e,

Deacair sgarachduinn r'a phàirt, truagh an càs 'sa bheileam féin,

An gràdh sin thugas gun fhios, o's e mo leas gun a luaidh,

Mar faigh mi furtachd tràth, bithidh mo bhlàth gu tana truagh;

Am fear sin do'n tugas gràdh, is nach faodas ràdh os n-àird,

Da cuiridh mise am buan chioma, domh féin is ceud mairg.

Margi.

The above has been rendered by Dr. Nigel MacNeill, in his "Literature of the Highlanders," as follows:

Pity one that bears love's anguish, Yet the cause that must conceal; Sore it be to lose a dear one,

And a wretched state to feel.

And the love I gave in secret

I must ever keep unknown;
But unless relief comes quickly
All my freshness will be gone.

Ah! the name of my beloved

Ne'er to other can be told;
He put me in lasting fetters ;-
Pity me a hundred fold.

The MS. of the Dean of Lismore has a literary and a philological value, and throws considerable light on the language and literature of the Scottish Highlands, and, therefore, we are much indebted to the patience and perseverance of those Gaelic scholars who have placed the treasures contained therein within easy reach of all students of the ancient language.

REV. THOMAS MACLAUCHLAN, LL.D.

Dr. Thomas Maclauchlan, who transcribed and translated the Dean of Lismore's Book, was born at Moy, Inverness, where his father was minister, in 1816. After studying at Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities he was licensed in 1837. The following year he was appointed colleague and successor to his father at Moy. In 1844 he accepted a call to the Free Church at Stratherick where he remained till 1849, when he accepted a call to St. Columba Church, Edinburgh. He acted as Convener of the Free Church Committee on the Highlands and Islands from 1854 till 1882. In 1864 he received the honour of LL.D. from Aberdeen University, and in 1876 he was elected Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly. He died at Edinburgh, 21st March, 1886.

Among his best known works are "The Early Scottish Church," 1873; "Carswell's Prayer Book," 1873; "Celtic Gleanings," 1857; "The Dean of Lismore's Book," 1862; "The Gaelic Reference Bible" which he edited along with Dr. Clark. The "Review of Gaelic Literature" (1872) which appears in "The History of the Highlands and Highland Clans" was from his pen, while he also contributed to current Gaelic Literature.

MR. R. W. FORSYTH, RENFIELD STREET, GLASGOW, has at present a magnificent display of tartans and Highland military dress accoutrements in his windows. The tartan kilt materials worn by the officers of the various Highland regiments are shown, as well as specimens of the artistic sporran tops supplied by him for the officers, privates, and pipers, of these distinguished corps.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE

HIGHLANDERS:

BY JOHN MACKAY, C.E., J.P., HEREFORD.

'Tis wonderful

That an invisible instinct should frame them
To loyalty unlearned; honour untaught;
Civility not seen from others; valour
That wildly grew in them, but yields a crop
As if it had been sowed."

HE great antiquity of the Celtic races- -of which the Caledonians or Highlanders formed a part, and do yet form a part— is now undoubted. Their language, their ancient religion (Druidism), their customs, their usages, make it evident that their origin was oriental. Their language, even in its modern style, has a greater affinity to the ancient languages of the east, and to the classic languages of Europe, than any other language now spoken.

The first glimpse we have of the Celts in history is from the ancient Greek and Roman historians. They swarmed away from Mid Asia, along the northern shores of the Black Sea, crossed the Danube, and turned southward into Greece; westward along the northern shores of the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, into Lombardy, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and Gaul or France; and crossed the channel into Ireland and Britain, south and north. From Lombardy and Gaul they invaded and ravaged the territories of the infant Roman Republic, and formed settlements eastward of Rome which became eventually incorporated in the Republic. They afterwards swarmed from Gaul, the Alps, and Lombardy, beseiged Rome, and threatened the very existence of the Roman Republic, as told by Livy. It took the Romans ten years to subdue the Gauls, and many more to subjugate South Britain. The Caledonians, within their mountain regions, bravely defied and withstood the legions of mighty Rome, and eventually expelled them beyond the Forth and the Tyne. They overleaped the Roman walls, and ravaged the country from the Tyne to the Humber and the Trent; which led to the introduction into South Britain of the Saxons and the Danes, and other swarms of continental hordes, who expelled the ancient inhabitants of the country, and gradually took possession of it from the English Channel to the Firth of Forth on the eastern side, cooping up the ancient inhabitants into Cornwall, Wales, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Strathclyde. These fierce barbarians were soon followed by a fiercer race, the Norsemen, or the Lochlinnich of the Gaelic annalists, who subjugated the Hebrides and the maritime districts of the northern and eastern coasts of Scotland to the Tay. These portions of the

mainland were recovered during the reign of Malcolm Ceann-mor and his sons who succeeded him. The Caledonians in the interior remained unsubdued and independent, thanks to their Grampian mountain fastnesses.

Malcolm Ceann-mor, from his being reared in Northumbria and his marriage with the Princess Margaret, the near relative of the last Saxon king of England, Edward the Confessor, was the means of introducing various Saxon usages in the government of the State and Church, obnoxious to the Celtic population. The removal of the Court to Dunfermline was an event which was followed by results very disastrous to the future prosperity of the Highlands, the inhabitants of which, by the continual incursions of the Norsemen, were being reduced to a condition of poverty. The transference of the seat of government from Abernethy to Dunfermline by Malcolm, caused the administrations of the sons to become inoperative in the Highlands beyond the Grampians, or to be only feebly enforced; and, in consequence, the people gave themselves up to turbulence and violence, revenging in person those injuries which the laws could no longer redress. Especially was this accentuated by the repeated contentions between the sons of Malcolm and his brother, Donald Ban. In the turmoil caused by these revolutions and civil wars, the great districts of Moray and Ross fell under the sway of the native Mor-maors. The Hebrides, Galloway, Argyll, Sutherland, and Caithness, were still to a great extent occupied by the Norsemen. Among the Gaelic tribes, Donald Ban was regarded as the rightful heir by the law of tanistry. In the consequent wars of succession the Normans came in, also the introduction of feudalism. They were useful to the sons of Malcolm in asserting their pretensions to the crown, and for their services obtained large grants of lands, creating an element of further discord.

Released from the salutary control of monarchical government and harassed by these civil wars, the Highlanders soon saw the necessity of substituting some system in its place to protect themselves from the aggressions to which they were exposed. From this state of affairs originated the great power of the chiefs, who obtained their ascendancy over the different little communities into which the population of the Highlands was naturally divided. powers of the chiefs gradually became very great. They were judges in all cases of dispute between their clansmen and followers; and, as they were backed up by resolute supporters, they soon established within their own territories a jurisdiction almost independent of kingly authority.

The

From the division of the people into tribes and clans, under separate chiefs, arose many of

those institutions, customs, feelings, and usages that characterised the Highlanders. The nature of the country, and the motives that induced the Celtic inhabitants of the country beyond the Grampians to make it their refuge, necessarily prescribed the form of their institutions.

Unequal to the forces that drove them from the plains, and anxious to preserve and maintain their independence, they defended themselves in those fastnesses which in every country are the sanctuaries of national liberty, and the refuge of those who resist oppression. Thus, in the absence of their monarch, and defended by their mountain barriers, they did not always submit to the authority of a distant government that could neither enforce obedience nor afford protection.

Thus a patriarchal system of government, a kind of hereditary monarchy founded on custom, was established over each clan in the person of the chief. This system of clanship was calculated to cherish a warlike and martial spirit. The young chiefs and heads of families were respected or despised according to their military or peaceable inclinations and dispositions.

The military ranks of the clans were fixed and perpetual. The chief was the principal commander; the eldest cadet commanded the right wing, the youngest the left. Every head of a distinct family, or sept, was captain of his own men. Each clan had its own standard-bearer, who generally inherited the office from a distinguished ancestor. Each clan had a stated place of meeting, or rendezvous, where they assembled at the call of their chief; and on emergency, for an immediate meeting, the "Fiery Cross" was despatched through the country of the clan. This custom is well described by Scott in the third canto of "The Lady of the Lake," the "Gathering." Each clan had its own "war-cry," or slogan, a Scoticism from the Gaelic word, sluagh-ghairm (call the people). It served as a watch-word in case of alarm, in the confusion of battle, or in the darkness of night. Each clan had also its particular badge, and its own peculiar, or set of, tartan.

When the warriors went upon any expedition, omens for good or evil luck were always looked for. If an armed man was met, the portent was good. If any four-footed animal of the chase was observed and killed, success would crown the expedition; if it escaped, the portent was bad.

For every expedition of this kind, the tenants had to pay to the chief a night's provisions, and also when he went a-hunting, he who lived nearest the hunting place, had to find, or was bound to supply, a night's entertainment for the chief and his men, and food for the hounds.

There is nothing so remarkable in the social

and political history of any country as the succession of the Highland chiefs, and the long and uninterrupted sway they held over their clansmen. The authority that a chief exercised among his clan was truly paternal. He might, with great justice, be called the father of his people. It cannot be accounted for in any other way than that the warm attachment, the respect, the incorruptible fidelity which the Highlanders always displayed for their chiefs, proceeded from the kind and conciliatory system which they must have adopted towards their people, much as the feelings of the clansmen may have been awakened by the songs and traditions of the bards, to respect the successors of the heroes they celebrated.

The tribal divisions of the clans, and the establishment of patriarchal government, were attended with important consequences, affecting the character of the people. It was rendered necessary from the state of society in the Highlands. The authority of the king, from the distance of the court in the south, became weak and inefficient, yet it continued to be recognised, though his mandates could neither stop the depredations of one clan against another, nor allay mutual hostility. This was particularly the case in the reign of the first Stewart kings, when the Lords of the Isles held regal sway and dominated the whole of the Isles, Argyll, and Ross, and even held the superiority over parts of Sutherland and Caithness, creating continued commotions, and setting one clan against another. another. The only remedy the powerless king could suggest was a three score duel on the North Inch of Perth, which he and his court came to witness. No wonder, that with such a government, the Highlands were a scene of turbulence and violence. The state of affairs was no better in the Lowlands and the south, among the clans of those districts, the Gordons, Keiths, Lindsays, and Ogilvies; the Scotts, Kerrs, Douglases, Maxwells, Johnstones, Armstrongs-a continuous source of rapine, turbulence, and defiance of authority, entirely owing to the feudal power and the ambition of the nobility. In this respect, and in respect of obedience to the kingly authority, the Lowland clans and their nobles were greatly less patriotic than the Highland clans, as a fact in Scottish History.

Amid the turbulence and violence that without doubt existed in the Highlands, when no appeal for redress of wrong done, or injuries sustained, could be effectually made to any legal tribunal, yet to prevent the utter anarchy which would have ensued from such a condition of society, voluntary tribunals composed of the principal men of the clan were appointed to assess damages and compensation, and as cattle,