Comann Eachdraidh Mhùideirt

Alastair mac Mhaighstir Alastair (Alexander MacDonald) and the ’45

Ronald Black

This lecture was given by Ronald Black to members of the Moidart Local History Group on Monday 13 November 2006. He is a well known academic, formerly a lecturer in Celtic in Glasgow and Edinburgh universities and is current Gaelic Editor of The Scotsman. It was therefore particularly appropriate that Ronald should have been invited to lecture on Alastair mac Mhaighstir to the Moidart Local History Group at this time. This came on the heels of research being done by them on a Journal recording Bonnie Prince Charlie’s ill-fated uprising, recently unearthed in the Drambuie Collection and, thought to have been written by Alastair. In brief, the lecture notes which follow, trace the life of the Gaelic Bard through written evidence presented in the form of about seventy slides, with captions – which are set out below. In addition to being a bard, Alastair mac Mhaighstir wrote a Gaelic/English dictionary and was a schoolmaster in Ardnamurchan. His poems, ranged from the bawdy to the philosophical and many were passionately allied to the Jacobite cause. He was intemperate in nature and alienated many by his outspokenness throughout his life. Ronald Black, like some other well-known literary figures before him, said he felt convinced that the bard was the writer of the Journal in the Lockhart Papers. However, unlike those before him, he had had the opportunity of seeing the original manuscript and this had made him even more convinced that Alastair was the writer. A month after the talk, an article appeared in the Scotsman recounting the discovery of the Journal – and this is reproduced elsewhere on the site. 1 Mac Mhgr Alastair and the ’45

The Sources 1. Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 2. His Gaelic manuscripts 3. Correspondence in English 4. Legal documents in English 5. Biographical works 6. His accounts of the ’45

The talk was grouped into these six main headings

Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works His Gaelic manuscripts Correspondence in English Legal documents in English Biographical works His accounts of the ’45

2 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 3 (1a) A Galick and English Vocabulary . . . For the Use of the Charity- Schools, Founded and Endued in the Highlands of Scotland by the Honourable, the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, by Mr. Alexander McDonald Schoolmaster at Ardnamurchan in Argyleshire (Edinburgh, 1741). The Society paid the poet £10 sterling for the work.

3 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 4 (1b) John Lorne Campbell, ‘The First Printed Gaelic Vocabulary’, The Scots Magazine , October 1937, p. 51 (beginning of article).

4 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 5 (1c) Alexander Robertson of Struan, Esq., Poems, on Various Subjects and Occasions . . . Mostly Taken from his own Original Manuscripts , Edinburgh, 1751, pp. 202–03: ‘MacDonald the Bard’s Salutation to General Wade’.

5 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 6 (1d) Ais-Eiridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich . . . Le Alastair Mac-Dhonuill, Bailli Chana (“The Resurrection of the Ancient Scottish Tongue . . . By Alexander MacDonald, Factor of Canna”), 1751. This copy (NLS Hall 149.k) bears a note perhaps in the hand of Simon Fraser of Knockie: “Numerous Copies of this Collection were burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman in Edinburgh in 1752 by order of Government.”

6 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 7 (1e) Second edition of the Ais-Eiridh , published by John Orr in Glasgow in 1764. Contains less poems than the first edition, but the main elements are still in place: nature, sedition, obscenity.

7 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 8 (1f) Comh-Chruinneachidh Orannaigh Gaidhealach, le Raonuill MacDomhnuill, An ’N Eilean Eigg (“A Collection of Gaelic Songs, by Ronald MacDonald, in the Isle of Eigg”), 1776. Ronald was the poet’s only son. The book is an anthology of the Gaelic verse of the past three centuries. Only one volume ever appeared, but a new edition was published in 1809, shortly after Ronald’s death. Alastair wrote in the preface to the Ais-Eiridh that one reason for its publication was ‘to bespeak, if possible, the favour of the public, to a greater collection of poems of the same sort, in all kinds of poetry . . . from those of the earliest composition to modern times’. The ‘Eigg Collection’ is the son’s fulfilment of the father’s aims.

8 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 9 (1g) Other editions of his poetry: 1802, 1834, 1835, 1839, 1851, 1874, 1892, 1924, 1996. This is the 1924 edition – Revs A. and A. Macdonald, The Poems of Alexander MacDonald (Inverness, 1924), title-page.

9 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 10 (1h) Derick Thomson, ed., Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, Selected Poems (Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, 1996): title-page. Does not contain translations.

10 Mac Mhgr Alastair’s published works 11 (1i) Title-page of an English translation of mac Mhgr Alastair’s epic poem ‘Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill’ by Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Grieve), St Andrews, 1935.

11 Mac Mhgr Alastair and the ’45

2. His Gaelic manuscripts

His Gaelic manuscripts

12 His Gaelic manuscripts 13 (2a) NLS Adv. ms 72.1.39, ff. 16v–17r. A seventeenth-century MacMhuirich manuscript containing, in Gaelic script, the tale of the Seven Wise Masters followed by a collection of poems. A certain Alexander MacDonald has made jottings in English related to a journey through Rannoch in the winter of 1738-39. His signature appears here three times. Top: “writen by my hand Alexr McD / Alexr McDonald aught this”. Left: “Discharge Alexr McDonald to Duncan Kenedy / for the sume of two Hundred merks Scots Money / Fionart Janury the twenty fouth 1739 years”. Upside-down, foot: “The fear of the fear of the Lord”. Top right: “Alexander McDonald”. The discharge (receipt) shows that Kennedy has given MacDonald 200 merks (£10 sterling).

13 His Gaelic manuscripts 14 (2b) NLS Adv. ms 72.1.39, ff. 22v–23r. This is a bill of exchange in MacDonald’s hand: “Sir against the term of mertimas next / Sir, Fioinart nomr Janr 20 5 1739 / Aganst the term of mertimas next to Come / plase pay to me Duncan Kenedy son to / Donald oge Kennedy in wester Finard or my / order within the House of George Small / Writter in Dull thee sume of twenty merks / Scots money the value Recived of mine in your / hand hands make thankfull paymt and obli.” In other words MacDonald now owes Kennedy 20 merks (£1 sterling), his credit with Small is reckoned good, and Small is to pay Kennedy that amount from MacDonald’s account.

14 His Gaelic manuscripts 15 (2c) NLS Adv. ms 72.1.39, ff. 27v–28r. Here MacDonald jots down a Gaelic song. It’s badly spelt and hard to make out, but by comparing it with another eighteenth-century version in the MacLagan collection in Glasgow University, I was able to read it and make a translation.

15 His Gaelic manuscripts 16 (2d) Ronald Black, ‘Mac Mhaighstir Alastair in Rannoch: A Reconstruction’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness , vol. 59 (1994–96), pp. 378–79 (the song).

16 His Gaelic manuscripts 17 (2e) NLS Adv. ms 72.2.11, pp. 2–3. This manuscript consists entirely of the traditional story Cath Fionntràgha (“The Battle of Ventry”), taken down by the poet in Gaelic script from (I suspect) the dictation of his fellow poet Iain MacCodrum in North Uist, whom we know Alastair visited and who was one of the most celebrated tellers of such stories in his day.

17 His Gaelic manuscripts 18 (2f) Royal Irish Academy ms E.ii.1 (746), papers of the antiquarian Charles O’Conor of Belanagare (1710–91): John Lorne Campbell, ‘The Royal Irish Academy Text of “Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill”’, Scottish Gaelic Studies , vol. 9 (1961–62), pp. 52–53, showing a page of the manuscript.

18 His Gaelic manuscripts 19 (2g) NLS Adv. ms 72.2.11, p. 1, and NLS Adv. ms 72.2.13, p. 118 (the first surviving page), showing part of Òran Luaidh no Fùcaidh ‘The Waulking or Fulling Song’. This is what’s left of the poet’s manuscript of his own poems, an invaluable source, probably written in the 1760s, as in one place it mentions the coming of sheep-farming to Cowal. It now has fifty pages but originally had at least 184. It contains eighteen of the sixty-odd poems which Alastair is known to have composed. Of these eighteen, four are extended or alternative versions of items in the Ais-Eiridh , while the other fourteen are unique.

19 His Gaelic manuscripts 20 (2h) NLS ms 72.2.13 (“Gaelic ms 63”), p. 120, showing end of Òran Luaidh no Fùcaidh ‘The Waulking or Fulling Song’ and beginning of Òran Bachail ‘Drinking Song’ (both Jacobite).

20 His Gaelic manuscripts 21 (2i) Donald Mackinnon, ‘Unpublished Poems by Alexander MacDonald (Mac Mhaighstir Alastair)’, The Celtic Review , vol. 4 (1907–08), p. 289 (beginning of article).

21 His Gaelic manuscripts 22 (2j) John Lorne Campbell, ‘Gaelic MS. 63 of the National Library’, Scottish Gaelic Studies , vol. 4 (1934–35), p. 70 (beginning of article).

22 His Gaelic manuscripts 23 (2k) John Lorne Campbell, ‘Gaelic MS. 63 of the National Library’, Scottish Gaelic Studies , vol. 4 (1934–35), p. 169 (showing a page of the manuscript).

23 His Gaelic manuscripts 24 (2l) John Lorne Campbell, ‘Gaelic MS. 63 of the National Library’, Scottish Gaelic Studies , vol. 4 (1934–35), p. 191 (beginning of Bha Seumas Caimbeul san àm).

24 His Gaelic manuscripts 25 (2m) Donald Mackinnon, ‘Unpublished Poems by Alexander MacDonald (Mac Mhaighstir Alastair)’, The Celtic Review , vol. 5 (1908–09), p. 231 (beginning of Bha Seumas Caimbeul san àm). Rennet: the lining of cow’s stomach, used to curdle milk in cheese-making. Sowans: a poor relation of porridge, made from the starch found among the husks of oats.

25 His Gaelic manuscripts 26 (2n) Donald Mackinnon, ‘Unpublished Poems by Alexander MacDonald (Mac Mhaighstir Alastair)’, The Celtic Review , vol. 5 (1908–09), p. 232– 33 (middle of Bha Seumas Caimbeul san àm).

26 His Gaelic manuscripts 27 (2o) Donald Mackinnon, ‘Unpublished Poems by Alexander MacDonald (Mac Mhaighstir Alastair)’, The Celtic Review , vol. 5 (1908–09), p. 234– 35 (end of Bha Seumas Caimbeul san àm).

27 Mac Mhgr Alastair and the ’45

3. Correspondence in English

Correspondence in English

28 Discharge, Sunart, signed at Edinburgh 3 March 1729: £7 10s for half-year August 1728 to February 1729.

Correspondence in English See minutes of the Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge and of the Royal Bounty Committee (National Archives).

29 (3a) EUL La. II 484/6. Discharge, Sunart, signed at Edinburgh, 3 March 1729: £7 10s for half-year August 1728 to February 1729.

29 Discharge, Sunart, signed at Edinburgh 17 March 1729: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1729.

Correspondence in English 30 (3b) EUL La. II 484/6. Discharge, Sunart, signed at Edinburgh, 17 March 1729: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1729.

30 Letter, Edinburgh, 19 March 1729.

Correspondence in English 31 (3c) NAS CH1/2/59. Letter, Edinburgh, 19 March 1729. “Dear Sir / I am so ill since you saw me with the cold that I always kept my chamber, but am confident you’ll see my business righted this day before the committee otherwise I am sadly disappointed to wait of it so long. But hopes your vigorous mediation will prevail, I have drawn a kind of a genealogical tree of Clanranald’s family as you desired me, and will bring it to you when you bid me to go to you, either by the bearer or otherwise. I would fain set off tomorrow, which is all at point from / Sir / Your most Humble Servant / Alexr Mack Donald / Mr Davidsons wigmaker / at the sign of the Cock / March 19th 1729.”

31 Address on verso of previous item: letter, Edinburgh, 19 March 1729.

Correspondence in English 32 (3d) Address on verso of previous.

32 Letter, Kilmorie, 5 Dec. 1730.

Correspondence in English 33 (3e) NLS Adv. ms 29.1.1 (iii), ff. 258r–259v. Letter, Kilmorie, 5 December 1730. Ard’n Years p. 20.

33 Discharge, Kilmorie, 4 May 1733: £7 10s for half-year November1732 to May 1733.

In 1733, £7 10s was £1,012 in 2005 terms. A year’s salary was therefore £2,024 in 2005 terms. The minimum wage in 2005 for a 40-hour week was £10,504 per annum.

Correspondence in English 34 (3f1) NAS E412/8/33. Discharge, Kilmorie, 4 May 1733: £7 10s for half- year November 1732 to May 1733.

34 Discharge, Kilmorie, 20 November 1733: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1733.

Correspondence in English 35 (3f2) NAS E412/8/33. Discharge, Kilmorie, 20 November 1733: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1733.

35 Discharge, Kilmorie, 2 November 1735: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1735.

Correspondence in English 36 (3g) NAS E412/10/65. Discharge, Kilmorie, 2 November 1735: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1735.

36 Discharge, Kilmorie, signed at Edinburgh, 14 May 1736: £7 10s for half-year November1735 to May 1736.

Correspondence in English 37 (3h) NAS E412/10/66. Discharge, Kilmorie, signed at Edinburgh, 14 May 1736: £7 10s for half-year November 1735 to May 1736.

37 Discharge, Moidart, signed at Islandfinnan, 2 November 1737: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1737.

Correspondence in English 38 (3i) NAS E412/12/59. Discharge, Moidart, signed at Islandfinnan, 2 November 1737: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1737.

38 Discharge, Islandfinnan, signed at Dalilea, 4 May 1738: £7 10s for half-year November 1737 to May 1738.

Correspondence in English 39 (3j) NAS E412/12/59. Discharge, Islandfinnan, signed at Dalilea, 4 May 1738: £7 10s for half-year November 1737 to May 1738.

39 Discharge, Kilchoan, 6 November 1738: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1738.

Correspondence in English 40 (3k) NAS E412/13/57. Discharge, Kilchoan, 6 November 1738: £7 10s for half-year May to November 1738.

40 Discharge, Kilchoan, signed Edinburgh, 24 Nov. 1738: £6 in advance for half-year Nov. 1738 to May 1739.

Correspondence in English 41 (3l) NAS E412/13/58. Discharge, Kilchoan, signed at Edinburgh, 24 November 1738: £6 in advance for half-year November 1738 to May 1739.

41 Discharge, Kilchoan, 5 November 1739: £6 for half-year May to November 1739.

£1,613.64 per annum in 2005 terms.

Correspondence in English 42 (3m) NAS E412/14/152. Discharge, Kilchoan, 5 November 1739: £6 for half-year May to November 1739.

42 Discharge, Kilchoan, 2 May 1740: £6 for half-year November 1739 to May 1740.

Correspondence in English 43 (3n) NAS E412/15/73. Discharge, Kilchoan, 2 May 1740: £6 for half-year November 1739 to May 1740.

43 Discharge, Corryvullin, 13 November 1740: £6 for half-year May to November 1740.

Correspondence in English 44 (3o) NAS E412/15/74. Discharge, Corryvullin, 13 November 1740: £6 for half-year May to November 1740.

44 Discharge, Corryvullin, 4 November 1742: £5 10s for half-year May to November 1742. £1,480 per annum in 2005 terms.

Correspondence in English 45 (3p) NAS E412/17/44, 56. Discharge, Corryvullin, 4 November 1742: £5 10s for half-year May to November 1742. On 28 April 1741 it was recorded in the minutes of the Presbytery of Mull that when the school was formally visited Alastair had sent an apology for his absence to the effect ‘that through the great scarcity of the year he was under immediate necessity to go from home to provide meal for his family’ (Ard. Years 31).

45 Discharge, Corryvullin, 30 April 1743: £5 10s for half-year November 1742 to May 1743. £1,480 per annum in 2005 terms.

Correspondence in English 46 (3q) NAS E412/18/68. Discharge, Corryvullin, 30 April 1743: £5 10s for half-year November 1742 to May 1743.

46 Discharge, Swordilmore, 1 November 1743: £5 10s for half-year May to November 1743.

Correspondence in English 47 (3r) NAS E412/18/59. Discharge, Swordilmore, 1 November 1743: £5 10s for half-year May to November 1743.

47 Discharge,Swordilmore, signed at Edinburgh, 1 November 1744: £5 10s for half-year May to November 1744.

Correspondence in English 48 (3s) NAS E412/19/69, 78. Discharge, Swordilmore, signed at Edinburgh, 1 November 1744: £5 10s for half-year May to November 1744. “For most of the summer of 1744 Alastair was unaccountably from home, and his son Ronald (who would now have been 15 or 16 years old) was acting as his substitute in the school. At the beginning of 1745 he was in Edinburgh, and appeared before the Royal Bounty Committee. They were evidently not satisfied with the interview, and subsequently asked the Presbytery of Mull to inform them how he had conducted himself since his return home. The answer came in June: ‘Alexr. MacDonald Schoolmaster at Ardnamurchan is an offence to all Sober Well inclin’d persons as he wanders thro’ the Country composing Galick songs, stuffed with obscene Language.’ The nature of the Presbytery’s concern here is clear enough, the clue being their phrase ‘Well inclin’d’: Alastair’s crime was not moral but political, for his obscenities were now being directed at King George. Around 15 May 1745 Alastair left his school at Corryvullin for the last time. Whether by accident or design, his employers had by now, through progressive reductions of his salary, clawed back almost every penny of the £10 he had been paid for the Vocabulary. On 4 July 1745 they decided to dismiss him, and on 15 July the minister of Ardnamurchan reported ‘that the charity school in this parish has been vacant since Whitsunday last by the voluntary desertion of Alexander MacDonald, the former schoolmaster of this country.’ Ten days later Prince Charlie sailed into Loch nan Uamh.” (Ard. Years 34–35.) 48 Mac Mhgr Alastair and the ’45

4. Legal documents in English

Legal documents in English

49 Legal documents in English 50 (4a) NAS GD201/1/218. Bond of Corroboration, Nuntown, Benbecula, 28 February 1727, of which a facsimile appeared in the 1924 edition of the poems, see image 56: “Bond of corroboration by Donald Macdonald of Clanranald and Ronald Macdonald, younger of Clanranald, to Roderick Macleod of Contullich, 1727.”

50 Legal documents in English 51 (4b) NAS GD201/1/362/5. This document from the Clanranald papers consists of a poem in Gaelic script, perhaps written by Lachlan MacMhuirich, along with notes in English in Alastair’s hand, recording the names of 52 individuals in named townships in Arisaig, with information on their property, especially in respect to the smuggling trade, and a set of accounts. It suggests that Alastair was working as a sub-factor on the forfeited estate of Arisaig during the first three months of 1749. The ground officer in Arisaig was a John Gillies but he could not write (E774/1/89). I edited the poem in my book An Lasair: Anthology of 18th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse (Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2001); this is from the notes (pp. 468–69).

51 Anthology of 18 th Century Scottish Verse, Edited by Ronald Black

52 Mac Mhgr Alastair and the ’45

5. Biographical works

Biographical works

53 Biographical works 54 (5a) William Mackay, ‘Presbyterial Notices of Mac Mhaighstir Alastair, and Some of his Contemporaries in Ardnamurchan and Morven’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness , vol. 11 ( 1884–85 ), p. 171 (beginning of article).

54 Biographical works 55 (5b) Fr Charles Macdonald, Moidart; or Among the Clanranalds (1889 , repr. Edinburgh 1989), pp. 172–73. This book contains a good deal of information on the poet. Here we see part of a roll of men on Clanranald’s mainland estates, 1745. It suggests the poet was no swordsman and preferred the newer technology.

55 Biographical works 56 (5c) Revs A. and A. Macdonald, The Poems of Alexander MacDonald (Inverness, 1924 ), pp. xxii–xxiii (beginning of biographical introduction).

56 Biographical works 57 (5d) John Lorne Campbell, ed., Highland Songs of the Forty-Five (Edinburgh, 1933 , new edition Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, Edinburgh, 1984), pp. 32–33 (first page of biography).

57 Biographical works 58 (5e) John Lorne Campbell, ‘The Expurgating of Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair’, Scottish Gaelic Studies , vol. 12 ( 1971–76 ), p. 59: beginning of article. Campbell makes some highly memorable comments. At p. 64 he says: “When Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair dispraises a woman, he does it thoroughly. Mórag is portrayed as a promiscuous nymphomaniac with every possible moral and physical defect.” At p. 76 he concludes with a reflection on the changing nature of censorship, or what we would now call political correctness: “In 1970 the most likely passage in Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair to be suppressed is the allusion to Na Hotentots bhreuna on page 159 of MS LXIII.”

58 Biographical works 59 (5f) Ronald Black, Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair: The Ardnamurchan Years , Society of West Highland & Island Historical Research, Coll, 1986 (front cover: Beinn Shiant’).

59 Mac Mhgr Alastair and the ’45

6. His accounts of the ’45

His accounts of the ’45

60 His accounts of the ’45 61 (6aa) Rev. Robert Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , ed. by Henry Paton (Scottish History Society, Edinburgh, 1895–96), vol. 1, title-page.

61 His accounts of the ’45 62 (6aaa) Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , vol. 1, pp. 320–21. Alastair visits Forbes in Leith, 28 December 1747, bringing a journal of the Prince’s wanderings drawn up by young Clanranald, Alexander MacDonald of Glenaladale, Ronald MacDonald younger of Clanranald, and himself.

62 His accounts of the ’45 63 (6b) Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , vol. 1, pp. 332–33. Alastair’s section of the narrative ends with a piece of Gaelic: Bheir mi nis a’ chorra-shiamain dhuit fhéin, gus am faigh mi tuilleadh gaoisid.

63 64 (6b2) Werner Kissling, thrawcrook.

64 His accounts of the ’45 65 (6c) Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , vol. 1, pp. 334–35. Young Clanranald takes over the writing at the point in the story where he was accused by the MacKinnons of having told Morar that he was unwilling to shelter the Prince.

65 His accounts of the ’45 66 (6dd) Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , vol. 1, p. 344, footnote. On the bits of the boat delivered to Forbes by Alastair. One fragment, not two, is to be seen today pasted into the inside back cover of NLS Adv. ms 32.6.19, vol. 1 of Forbes’s manuscript.

66 His accounts of the ’45 67 (6ee) Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , vol. 1, p. 354. Biographical detail on Alastair.

67 His accounts of the ’45 68 (6ff) Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , vol. 2, pp. 336–37. Forbes to Alastair, 10 July 1749: “You told me you intended to take up your abode in Egg or Canna, which if you do, then it will be in your power to make up an exact account of the severe pillaging and plunderings that were committed in these islands.”

68 His accounts of the ’45 69 (6gg) Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , vol. 3, pp. 84–85. Alastair’s narrative of raids in Canna and Eigg. “Monday, April 22nd, 1751.—Alexander MacDonald (Dalely’s brother) made me, Robert Forbes, a visit, when he put into my hands the four folio pages all in his own handwriting, an exact copy of which is as follows.”

69 His accounts of the ’45 70 (6j) Anthony Aufrere, The Lockhart Papers , vol. 2 (London, 1817), p. 479, showing first page of ‘Journall and Memoirs of P . . . . C . . . . Expedition into Scotland &c. 1745–6. By a Highland Officer in his Army.’

70 Compton Mackenzie, Prince Charlie (London, 1932).

His accounts of the ’45 71 (6k) Compton Mackenzie, Prince Charlie (London, 1932), p. 43, footnote: “Lang asserts without any justification that the anonymous chronicle of the Lockhart Papers was written by Morar himself, and Blaikie says he was assured it was by young Ranald of Kinlochmoidart. The internal evidence that it was by the poet is incontrovertible.”

71 His accounts of the ’45 72 (6l) John Lorne Campbell, ‘Alexander MacDonald: Portrait of a Traditionalist’, The Scots Magazine , October 1935, p. 61: “The internal evidence for MacDonald’s authorship . . . is almost incontrovertible.”

72 His accounts of the ’45 73 (6m) John Lorne Campbell, Canna (Oxford, 1984), p. 97, footnote: “Lockhart Papers , ii. 479, ‘Journall and Memoirs of Prince Charles’ expedition into Scotland, etc. 1745–6., by a Highland Officer in his Army’. There can be no doubt whatever that, as was first pointed out by Compton MacKenzie, MacDonald was the Highland Officer in question.”

73 Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , vol. 1, p. 352. Alastair’s first meeting with the Prince.

His accounts of the ’45 74 (6n) Forbes, The Lyon in Mourning , vol. 1, p. 352. Alastair’s first meeting with the Prince.

74 Journal 75 (6o) Portrait of Prince Charles by Antonio David.

Final comments on the Journal and commentary upon the Website p. 1 fourth-last line, “Clanrd . . . came to Forsy”. p. 2 eighth-last line, “after being 3 hours . . . p. 4 . . . soon after left us.” p. 6 fifteen lines up, “the Pr. and all his company . . . p. 7 . . . and so was made toast the healths of the Pr. and D.—” p. 8 twelve lines up. “As the Pr. was setting out for Glenfinin . . . live & die with our noble Prince”. p.13 footnote 1: see Ard. Years p. 8 (top). p. 19 thirteen lines down, “As the Pr. left his guard . . . make haste.” p. 38 sixteen lines up, “Ld Lowdon with the President ? Forbes . . . the D. of Perth & Ld Cromarty .” It ’s very useful to have the manuscript here 75