Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 2, 1894

220
THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
assisting the local candidate, Mr. Morley's
telegram did not reach him until too late.
Like a true clansman Mr. Jlackay takes a
special warm interest in the Clan Mackay
Society, of which he is a Life-member, and has
contrilmted liberally to its various educational
and other schemes. He also attended the grand
rece]ition given by the Clan in Glasgow to the
Chief, Lord Reay, on his return from Lidia, and
delivered on that memorable occasion an eloquent
address. He is a Life-member of the Glasgow
and London Caithness Associations.
Although himself born in Caithness, Mr.
]\Iackay'a parents were both natives of Lord
Reay's countiy in the north of Sutherland.
We trust that with greater leisure at his
command Mr. Mackay will be soon able to take
even a larger interest in matters relating to the
mountain land from which he sprung, and upon
which he has reflected credit. Editor.
HIGHLANDERS IN THE ARCHER
GUARD OF FRANCE.
{^Continued from page 199).
^J^fi. T the battle of Yerneuil, the Earls of
Aj^f Buchan, Mar and Moray were slain ;
^^^^ and large numbers of the common
soldiers must of necessity have been North
Country Celts.
As long as the war with England continued,
the hereditary enemies of the Saxon never ceased
to pour into France and gather unfading laurels.
The English hated them with a deadly race-
hatred. C^uarter was given to all "save the men
of Wales and Scotland." No quarter for the
Celt, who had baffled the Saxon advance at home
and now baffled it abroad ! Thirty Scots were
Inmged in cold blood at the siege of Melun. At
the battle of Verneuil nearly 9000 Scots fell.
" The cause of this implacable slaughter" says
one writer, "was the pride of the Scots, who
would neither give nor take quartei'."
After twenty-five years' hard fighting we find
the Scots Guard instituted. A hasty survey of
the muster roll of this famous body shows that
the English military writer was scarcely correct
when he a.ssured us that the Highlanders had no
share in its glory.
The rolls are somewhat difKcuIt reading and
many of the names, after passing through the
alembic of a French brain, cannot be identified
even as Scots, much less Highland or Lowland.
The orthography, as one might expect 15th
century orthography to be, is execrable, and one
is frequently staggered by such names as Hour-
dcla, Nyssuenain, Doyel, Yon, IIoulphell,^and
Neuserich. The Lowland Scottish names must
have been comparatively easy writing for the
French penman : but one can easily imagine his
dilhculty with the Gaelic ones and the process
by which M'Lellan might become Leolain ; or
Dughal, Doyle; or Iain, Yon. \Ve trace a certain
Doincarap through the rolls of several years
\intil, to our surprise we find the name resolve
itself into "Duncan": Doincamp being the frantic
attempt of the clerk to spell "Donnachadh."
Other Highland names are more easily identified.
]\Ioureau is plainly Munro ; Macrat, ]SIacrae ;
Maclaclem, MacLachlan ; and so on. We have
no difficulty with Joe Maguy, who appears on
the list in 1449.
In studying the Muster Rolls one is struck by
their brevity, running as they do from 14 to 170
names. It must be kept in mind, however, that
only the names of the gentlemen are entered,
no notice being taken of the common archers.
Each Highland name infers a Highland following;
so that, at times, there must have been a con-
siderable contingent in the Archer Guard. For
example, on the Roll for 1449, we have, among
other names which are indistinguishable, at least
33 unmistakably Celtic names. Each of these
must, at the lowest computation, have had five
Celts at his back, and, without doubt, men
of his own clan ; so that, to mention a few
names, there would be 3G Stewarts, 12 Frazers,
18 Robertsons (or Donnachies), and of Rosses,
Mackays, Gordons, MacDugals, Macleods, Sin-
clairs, MacMillans, and Macleans, 6 each, in the
Guard of that year. There must have been
plenty of Gaelic spoken in the barrack room of
the Archer Guard in the year 1449.
A cursory survey of the lists up till about
1500 gives us the names of the following High-
land Clans, some of them slightly disguised by
the French spelling — others only to be guessed
at:—
Cameron, Campbell, Comyn, Davidson,
FVazer, Forbes, Fullarton, Graham, Grant,
Gordon, Lamont, Mackay, Maclean, MacDugal,
MacLachlan, MacDonell, Macrae, MacCalluui,
MacMillan, MacLay, Macauslan, MacKinlay,
MacMorran, Maclellan, Menzies, Munro,
Robertson, Ross, Sinclair and Stewart. Loudc
(the same man appears as Patrick Loude and
Patrick Clou) is, no doubt, Macleod ; Mag Nyn
may be MacKinnon ; Fagozil, which, traced
through the rolls of successive years, becomes
Fargozilles and finally Fergouzil, is probably
Ferguson.
Many of the men seemed to have been entered
under names which refer to some personal char-
acteristic, such as " Le Petit," " Le Roy," kc.
There is one very interesting and most signi-
ficant instance of this on the Roll for about
1450, viz: John Coquenen, called the Saxon. It