[546]. Private Letters, &c., p. 29.
[547]. Sir Walter Scott mentions this little fact in the Border Minstrelsy.
[548]. For a short time before the insurrection, he had acted as factor to Sir John Preston of Preston Hall, in Mid-Lothian, now also a forfeited estate, but of minor value.
[549]. Memorial of William and Robert Ross to the Commissioners on Forfeited Estates. Report of Commissioners, printed for Jacob Tonson, 1724.—Traditional and topographical notes from a relative of Donald Murchison.
[550]. It may be curious to contrast with the above account of the fight of Aa-na-Mullich, framed mainly from authentic documents, the following traditionary account, which has been communicated by Mr F. Macdonald, residing at Druidag Lodge, Lochalsh.
‘The first encounter that this famous man [Donald Murchison] had with the royal commissioner and troops was at the pass of Aa-na-Mullich, about a hundred yards from the end of Loch Affaric. He stationed himself and his Kintail men at the pass, on the north side of the river which empties itself into Loch Affaric, on a place called Tor-an-beithe, or Birch Hillock, where they had a good view of the enemy some miles off. On advancing towards this pass, Captain Monro of Fearn [mistake for Ross of Easterfearn], the royal commissioner, sent his son forward to reconnoitre on horseback, and when he appeared on the opposite side of the river, the poor fellow was shot at once, receiving a mortal wound. Upon hearing the report, and that Monro’s son was shot, the bulk of the royal troops wheeled round, and took to their heels, leaving Captain Monro with very few of his men to help in the painful duty of conveying his wounded son back. In this emergency, he implored Murchison to lend him some of his men to assist in carrying the wounded young man till he should be able to join his own fugitive troops; which, with his wonted generosity, he immediately complied with. They constructed a litter the best way they could, and retraced their steps to Beauly, which, however, they did not reach before the young man died. Murchison and his men followed, lest those troops who formerly fled should turn round and assault the men he had given to assist them. He followed as far as Knockfin on the heights of Strathglass.’ [Mr Macdonald ends by quoting two or three stanzas of a Gaelic poem composed by an old woman at Beauly, as they were passing with the dead body.]
[551]. Edinburgh Ev. Courant.
[552]. Caledonian Mercury, May 7, 1722.
[553]. Wodrow Correspondence, ii. 640.
[554]. Arnot’s Crim. Trials, p. 335.