“Sir,—I thank God I am in good health, and have got off as designed. Remember me to all friends, and thank them for the trouble they have been at.—I am, Sir, your humble servant.
“James Thomson.”
“Ellighiul, July 4th, 1746.”
[1270] This ‘cutty,’ as a small tobacco-pipe, almost worn to the stump, is called in Scotland, was presented by Malcolm, when at London, to Dr. Burton of York, a fellow-prisoner, who got a fine shagreen case made for it.—Jacobite Memoirs, p. 487. Mr. Boswell gives the following sketch of this worthy Highlander in his Tour to the Hebrides: “He was now (1774) sixty-two years of age, hale and well proportioned, with a manly countenance, tanned by the weather, yet having a ruddiness in his cheeks, over a great part of which his rough beard extended. His eye was quick and lively, yet his look was not fierce; but he appeared at once firm and good-humoured. He wore a pair of brogues, tartan hose which came up nearly to his knees, a purple camblet kilt, a black waistcoat, a short green cloth coat bound with gold cord, a yellow bushy wig, a large blue bonnet with a gold thread button. I never saw a figure which gave a more perfect representation of a Highland gentleman. I wished much to have a picture of him just as he was. I found him frank and polite in the true sense of the word.”
[1271] True Journal, p. 47.
[1272] The subsequent history of the estimable Flora Macdonald may be stated in a few words. After her return to Skye, she married, in 1750, young Macdonald of Kingsburgh, whom she accompanied to North Carolina, America, probably in 1774. Young Kingsburgh joined the Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment, embodied in 1775, but was taken prisoner in 1776 and committed to Halifax gaol. He afterwards served with the regiment in Canada, holding the rank of captain, and, at the close of the war, returned to Scotland on half-pay. The vessel in which Flora and her husband sailed was attacked by a French privateer, and while Flora, with characteristic spirit, stood on deck, animating the seamen, she was thrown down and had her arm broken. The wanderers, however, arrived in Skye, and never afterwards left it. Flora died on the 4th of March 1790, aged 68, and was interred in the churchyard of Kilmuir, in a spot set apart for the graves of the Kingsburgh family. Kingsburgh died on the 20th September 1795. Flora had seven children—five sons and two daughters; the sons all became officers in the army, and the daughters officers’ wives. Dr. Johnson and Boswell visited Skye in the autumn of 1773, and were entertained at Kingsburgh house by Flora and her husband. Flora, then aged about 51, is described by Johnson as a woman of middle stature, soft features, gentle manners, and elegant presence; and by Boswell as “a little woman, of a genteel appearance, and uncommonly mild and well-bred.”—See Carruthers’ Edition of Boswell’s Tour to the Hebrides, p. 143.
[1273] Jacobite Memoirs, pp. 488–90, 492.
[1274] Jacobite Memoirs, p. 494.
[1275] Author of the Journal and Memoirs, printed among the Lockhart papers, beginning at p. 579.
[1276] Mr. Home mentions an interview with one Macraw in the Braes of Kintail, which is not even alluded to in the narrative of the prince’s escape, drawn up by Glenaladale and others, and printed among the Lockhart Papers. If such an interview took place, its omission can only be fairly accounted for by supposing that the writer of that part of the narrative (Captain Alexander Macdonald, a younger brother of the Laird of Dallely,) was not aware of it. The following is Mr. Home’s account of this affair:—