Blair Collection > Sar-obair nam bard gaelach, or, The beauties of Gaelic poetry, and lives of the Highland bards

264 SAU-OBAIR NAM BARD GAELACH.
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IAIN RUADH STIUBHART.
John Roy Stuart, not less celebrated for his invocations of tlie muse than for his
prowess in the field of battle, was a native of Kincardine, in Badenoch. Being of the
middle class, and the son of a respectable tacksman, to whose farm he succeeded, ho had
the benefit of a good education. His scholastic advantages, combined with his extraordi-
nary genius, soon procured him the reputation of a " knowing one." Like many other
votaries of the muse, he manifested a strong and early predilection for hunting and fishing,
which in themselves are a species of poetry. At an early period of his existence he copiously
imbibed the principles of Jacobinism. These principles grew with his growth, and
strengthened with his strength ; — and he was always proud to trace his descent fi-om the
royal family of the Stuarts. We do not mean here to enter on the moral or constitutional
dissection of a poet ; but history and observation have combined to impress us with the
fact, that people of colonel Stuart's mental structure are, some how or other, more liable
to fall into companies than men of solid clay. The continual demands upon his presence
at the festive board led to some irregularities, upon which censoriousncss might animadvert,
but over which we are disposed to draw the veil of oblivion. This we are the rather in-
clined to do, as he himself always stood forth as " king's evidence" against his own eruptions
at the shrine of Bacchus. His genuine sallies of wit have established his reputation
as an arch wag ; and his more plaintive strains are characterized throughout by origi-
nality and great pathos.
Stuart's mind was of that fabric which delights in the jostle of the elements of strife ;
and his puissant arm, coolness of courage, and intrepidity of action, trumpeted his fame
far and near. It is needless here to recount his adventures and " hairbreadth 'scapes,"
in the memorable civil war of 1745, — history already records them. On the first out-
breaking of that war he was in Flanders, actively engaged in belligerent oiicrations against
the British government, when the Duke of Cumberland was called home to lead the
Hanoverian forces against the Prince. Roy Stuart also hurried to his native country,
now distracted with intestine broils and civil war ; and when at Culloden, he signalized
himself in hewing and cutting down the red-coats, and spreading havoc and death on
all hands, the Duke, pointing to the subject of our memoir, inquired who he was:
" Ah !" replied one of his aides-de-camp, "that is John Roy Stuart." "Good God!"
exclaimed the Duke, ''tlie nwn I left in Flanders doing the butcheries of ten
heroes ! Is it possible that he could have dogged me here 't" It is told of Colonel Stuart
that he strongly urged for a day's truce before attacking the Government forces at
(Ja!!oden. This, however, Lord George Murray overruled ; and the prognostications