Next is the country of the Aird belonging to Lord Lovat, and where his house stood. The people Protestants, and of our Communion, save very few.[290] The Commons here are an honest, civilized sort of people if left to themselves.
[Strathglass]
Next, to the North, is the country of Strathglass, mostly inhabited by Papists. I do not hear much of their thieving, though they suffer much by the Glengarry thieves. This country belongs mostly to Chisholm of Comar (whose men were in the Rebellion, though he himself was not)[291] and partly to the Frasers.
[Seaforth, Munro, and Cromartie’s Country]
Next is Seaforth’s country, all along pretty low and level, till you come to Ferrindonall, the country of the Munro’s; (the Highland part of his estate, I described on the first sheet as it lies on the North Sea). The Gentlemen and Commons of the McKenzies are Protestants save very few, but very much devoted to the Nonjurant Episcopal Clergy. The Seaforth family embraced the Reformation in the Minority of James the sixth. Coline, then Earl, entertained the famous Mr. Robert Bruce[292] at his house with great respect and esteem when he was banished to Inverness and the country beyond it. I saw the subscription of Earl George, brother to the said Colin, to an original copy of the Covenant ingrossed on parchment, but he was afterward excommunicated by the Church for breach of trust. I am not sure if this family turned Popish before James the seventh’s time, but the then Earl, whose name was Kenneth, was Popish, as was his son the late Earl. The present Earl was very faithful to the Government all the time of the Rebellion.[293] The Munros and Rosses, I say nothing of, as their good affection to Church and State is well known.
Next is the Earl of Cromartie’s Estate. In the low country the people well affected to our Constitution in Church and State; and very few of his Low Country tenants went with their Lord to the Rebellion.
[Mackintosh Country]
Having in the first sheet described all be-north the broad Ferry of Sutherland at which I have arrived, I come to McIntoshes country, viz., Strathnairn, Strathdearn,[294] and Badenoch. The people are all Protestants, not given to thieving, but strangely poisoned by the Nonjurant Clergy. Their dissatisfaction has sufficiently appeared by their rising with the Lady against the King, rather than with the Laird, their Chief who was a captain in the King’s pay, yea, McIntoshes own company, which he had newly levied, deserted from him and listed in what was called the Lady’s Regiment.[295]
[Strathspey, Strathavon and Glenlivat]
The next country, Strathspey, the property and seat of the Laird of Grant: this Clan raised a Regiment at the Revolution and were firm to the interest of King William, but they suffered so much by the depredations of the Camerons and McDonalds that they became rather too cautious in time of the late Rebellion; the truth is they were ’twixt two fires, Lord Lewis Gordon to the east, and McIntoshes, Camerons and MacDonalds to the west, so that their country must have been severely plundered if they had been more than Neuters.[296] Besides the emulation ’twixt Grant and the President in former Elections for a member of Parliament was said to have made the Grants too [cautious]; however their good affection to the Revolution Interest has not been questioned, and they are firm Presbyterians. Theft is scarcely known in this country, though they have been great sufferers by the thieving clans to the West.