Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 2, 1894

THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
119
THE REAY FENCIBLES.
{To the Editor of the Celtu' Monthly)
Sir, — In the Cdtic Monthh/ for August (Vol.
i., p. 17:"i) Mr. D. Murray Rose gave some intro-
ductory remarks re<;ariiing this regiment, l)aseil
on tlie muster-roll, which he has taken the
trouble to copy, anil which appears in full in
the current (.January) numlier of tlie magazine.
T agree with Mr. Rose when he says that the
regiment was a " mixed lot," because every
regiment is so, more or less ; but he writes in a
somewhat disparaging strain, which may lead
many people to think (notwithstanding a dis-
claimer which he jiuts in) that the Mackays
did not press forward to fill up the ranks as
freely as was e.xpected, and that it was only by
enlisting men in other districts, and l)y the bait
of a bounty, "dangled before the eyes of un-
THE BANNER "OF THE HEAY FENCIBLES
Is an interestint; relic, and was plainl
years ago, when, with appropriai'
deposited there. The Hatj is of m
Barbara Mackay, irranddau<;htei <-
Mackay, Eriboll. Miss Mackay niai
long life was well known throughoi
piety, and great benevolence.*
■willing recruits," that the regiment, as he e.x-
presses it, was enabled " to take the field, and
acquire laurels unfairly placed to the credit of
the Clan Mackay alone."
* We are indebted to Mr. Andrew Ross, author of
"Old Scottish Regimental Colours," for the use of
the photograph from which the above illustration was
engraved, and to Mr. John Mackay, Hereford, for its
reproduction in our pages.
It is a pity that Mr. Rose made such a state-
ment, because it conveys a false impression.
When we speak of the gallant deeds of a famous
regiment — the Gordon Highlanders for instance
— and say "the brave Gardons " did so and so,
we do not mean that it was the members of the
Clan Gordon alone, who did the brave deeds ;
but the men, whatever their names, who formed
the regiment. So when we say that "the