Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

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FAS
of the chamberlain and agent of Lord Lovat. Old
Lovat himself resided at Gortuleg at this interesting
time, and hence we may suppose took place this
accumulation of fire-arms which were afterwards
thrown into the loch when the battle of Culloden
had decided the fate of the Jacobites. It is well-
known that, after his defeat, Prince Charles retreated
through Strathnairn — a district possessed by the
clan Mackintosh, of whom their leader, and every
individual of rank, had fallen in the action — and
came towards evening to the house of Fraser of Gor-
tuleg. Lovat had prepared a sumptuous feast in
anticipation of victory. The house was crowded
with the retainers of Charles Edward and Lovat,
and, connected with this, Mr. Fraser used to relate
a touching and striking anecdote. The children of
the family were, for convenience, placed in a small
room between the Prince's chamber and another,
but which had communication with both. The
whispers of the children, afraid to speak out, pro-
duced a suspicion in the mind of Charles that he had
been betrayed, and he exclaimed, with agitation,
' Open the door ! open the door !' One of the boys
having complied with his request, the unfortunate
prince presented a countenance so strongly marked
with terror, that its features were indelibly impressed
on the minds of his juvenile beholders. One of them
described, in vivid terms, the fair oval face and blue
eye, distended with fear and agitation, of the tall
handsome young wanderer. Seeing his mistake,
Charles gave way to the pathetic exclamation — ' How
hard is my fate, when the innocent prattle of chil-
dren can alarm me so much !' words which long
dwelt in their memories, and often moved the house-
hold to tears. Charles was too much agitated to
think of rest. He changed his dress, and, taking a
glass of wine, left the house at 10 o'clock at night
for Invergarry, the seat of Macdonell of Glengarry."
FARRER (The), an important branch of the
river Beauly in Inverness-shire. It rises in Loch
Monar, on the north-west point of the county, and
flows eastwards through Glen-Farrer until it joins
the Glass, the other main branch of the Beauly, near
Erchless castle. A little above the junction of the
two streams, nearly opposite Strtiey, 10 miles from
Beauly, there is a fine bridge across the Farrer, by
which the road from Beauly is carried into Strath-
glass. There is a graphite or black-lead mine in
Glen-Farrer, of which the following account, is given
in ' The New Philosophical Journal.' " Nearly op-
posite to Struey, beautiful veins of red granite are to
be seen traversing the gneiss strata, which range from
north-east to south-east, and dip to the south, and
generally at a pretty high angle. The glen to the
black-lead mine, appears — as far as we had an oppor-
tunity of examining it, in our rapid journey — to be
principally composed of gneiss, which frequently,
when the quartz predominates, passes into mica-slate.
It is sometimes grooved, with projections fitting into
these grooves, as we have observed to be the case
with quartz-rock, sandstone, and even trap-rock.
We did not reach the black-lead mine until 12
o'clock, the distance being greater from Beauly than
we had calculated on: it proving to be 20 or 22
miles. The excessive heat of the day, and the tor-
ment of the midges, was intolerable. My face, lips,
and eyes were speedily distorted by them, and one
of my eyes fairly closed up. The rock in which the
graphite or black-lead occurs is gneiss, in which the
direction is a little to the east of north, and dip west
80°. The gneiss in some places is very micaceous,
contains garnets, and here and there is traversed by
veins of granite. The graphite is not in beds or
veins, but in masses imbedded in the gneiss. The
first mass, or bed, as it is called, is fully three feet
thick where broadest. The whole mass appeared to
be scaly foliated; no regular crystals were observed,
although, judging from the crystalline nature of the
deposit, I think it probable that in cavities varie-
ties of its regular form — which is rhomboidal — will
be met with. It is not throughout pure, but is oc-
casionally mixed with the gneiss, which occurs either
in apparent fragments, or its ingredients, especially
felspar, are disseminated in grains or crystals."
FAST CASTLE, a relic of feudal ages, situated
on the verge of a lofty rock which overhangs the
German ocean, near St. Abb's Head, in the parish of
Coldingham, in Berwickshire. It is a tower surround-
ed by flanking walls, and accessible only by one path,
which is but a few feet wide, and is bordered on
either hand by frowning precipices. It was an ancient
fortress of the Earls of Hume. In 1410, it was held
by Thomas Holden, and an English garrison, who
had long infested the country by their pillaging ex-
cursions, when Patrick, son of the Earl of Dunbar,
with a hundred followers, took the castle and cap-
tured the governor. According to Holinshed, Fast
castle again fell into the hands of the English, but was
recovered by the following stratagem in 1548: " The
captain of Fast castle had commanded the husband-
men adjoining to bring thither, at a certain day, great
store of victuals. The young men thereabouts hav-
ing that occasion, assembled thither at the day ap-
pointed, who taking their burdens from their horses,
and laying them on their shoulders, were allowed to
pass the bridge, which joined two high rocks, into
the castle ; where laying down that which they
brought, they suddenly, by a sign given, set upon
the keepers of the gate, slew them, and before the
other Englishmen could be assembled, possessed the
other places, weapons, and artillery of the castle, and
then receiving the rest of the company into the same,
through the same great and open gate, they wholly-
kept and enjoyed the castle for their countrymen."
Sir Nicolas Throgmorton, in 1567, characterizes it
as a place "fitter to lodge prisoners than folks at.
liberty;" and, in 1570, when only tenanted by ten
Scots, Drury, Marshal of Berwick, after taking Home
castle, was sent to invest Fast castle with 2,000 men,
it being the next principal place that belonged to
Lord Home. " In the reign of James VI.," says Sir
Walter Scott, in his ' Provincial Antiquities,' " Fast
castle became the appropriate stronghold of one of
the darkest characters of that dark age, the celebrated
Logan of Restalrig. There is a contract existing in
the charter-chest of Lord Napier, betwixt Logan and
a very opposite character, the celebrated inventor of
the logarithms, the terms of which are extremely
singular. The paper is dated, July 1694, and sets
forth, ' Forasmuch as there were old reports and ap-
pearances that a sum of money was hid within John
Logan's house of Fast castle, John Napier should do
his utmost diligence to search and seek out, and by-
all craft and ingine to find out the same; and, by the
grace of God, shall either find out the same, or make
it sure that no such thing has been there.' For his
reward he was to have the exact third of what was
found, and to be safely guarded by Logan back to
Edinburgh. And in case he should find nothing, after
all trial and diligence taken, he refers the satisfaction
of his travel and pains to the discretion of Logan,"
Logan was next engaged in the mysterious plot of
the Gowrie conspiracy. It was proposed to force
the king into a boat from the bottom of the garden
of Gowrie-house, and thence conduct him by sea to
that ruffian's castle, there to await the disposal of
Elizabeth or of the conspirators. Logan's connec-
tion with this affair was not known till nine years
after his death, when the correspondence betwixt bin:
and the Earl of Gowrie was discovered in the pos-