Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 4, 1896

THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
237
the profession of iirms— some to liud fame,
and others a grave, on foreign shores.
Alexander, lltb of Bahanald and Ljndale, was
a Captain in the Bengal Artillery. ' He raised,
and was Colonel of. the .Skje Volunteers, which
were afterwards drafted into the Glengarry
Fencibles.
Alexander ilaedonald, the present representa-
tive of the bouse, was born in North Uist in
February, 1831, and received his education at
Perth Academy and Edinburgh University.
Early in life he started farming, and is at
present the most extensive rearer of Highland
cattle in Scotland. He resided at the mansion
house of Balranald till 1877, when he bought
Edenwood iu Fifeshire, and four years later he
purchased Overkelly.
Two years ago he had the great satisfaction
of becoming proprietor of the estate of Bal-
ranald, with which his family have been
connected for so many generations, and from
which they have taken the name by which they
are best known to Highlanders. We give a
photo reproduction of the old house, which will
doubtless interest many of our readers. Mr.
Macdonald is a J. P. for Inverness and Fife-
shires. In politics he is a staunch Conservative.
He married first, Margaret Anne C'hristina,
daughter of Norman M'Leod of Scalpay, and
secondly, Margaret Campbell, daughter of
Major Lyon Mackenzie of St. Martins, and
Kraelangwell, Ross shire, and has one son
(James Alexander Ronald) and six daughters. '^
Editor.
EDEXWOOIl HOUSE.
FINGAL'S WEEPING.
Fingal's weeping in the mist
By the pool that watchful even'
Turns into a targe of steel
Shining as the moon in heaven.
For the great wild thistles feel
Tears upontheir purple leaping,
Every tear "an amethyst — ■
Fingal's weeping.
Steals the stag to drink serene
At the wonted pool, as trusting
That the hunter's bow is laid
Where the hero's dirk is rusting, —
Fingal looks, as through its shade,
To a mound where men lie sleejiing,
Men whose eyes had never seen
Fingal's weeping.
SAR.4n RolSEKT.SON MatHESON.