Historical and genealogical account of the Clan Maclean

HISTORICAL NOTICES. 105
the pleasure of the king in this respect, as well
as to renew their oaths of allegiance, and to
intimate to them the nature of certain additional
measures the government about this time thought
proper to adopt.
The regulations contemplated in these mea-
sures had for their object the introduction of an
additional number of pious divines, who were
to be provided for out of the lands of the
great island proprietors : the abolishing a certain
remarkable custom which till then prevailed,
namely, that of taking a wife on approbation, or
in plain intelligible terms, on trial!* The estab-
lishment of inns and houses of public accommo-
dation for the convenience of travellers through-
out the isles was also provided for ; and the
reduction of the expensive establishments kept
up by the great chiefs under the name of
* Upon this strange principle John Mac-Vic-Ewen, fourth
laird of Ardgour, had handfasted (as it was called) with a
daughter of Mac-Ian of Ardnamurchan, whom he had taken
on a promise of marriage if she pleased him. At the expi-
ration of two years he sent her home to her father, but his
son by her (the gallant John of Inverscaddel, already noticed
, at p. 60.) was held to be a legitimate offspring, by virtue of
the " handfast ceremony."
Another instance is recorded of a Macneil of Barra
having for several years enjoyed the society of a lady of the
name of Maclean on the same principle, but his offspring
by her were deprived of their inheritance by the issue of
his subsequent marriage with a lady of the Clan-rannald
family.