Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Jacobite relics of Scotland > Second series

238 NOTES.
casion for to carry alongst for the use of his men, which accord-
ingly was done, as Seaforth's officers told me."
This letter must certainly have been from the laird of Macleod,
or Mackenzie of Applecross, as their estates, or at least part of
them, lie contiguous to that possessed by Seaforth ; and it could
not be a man of small consequence who was taken into the inner
room, when such gentlemen were left in the outer one. It shews
that the great Highland chiefs were not disposed to make reprisals
on one another, uncertain how affairs might turn out, or in whose
favour the scale was to turn ; and also, that although the chiefs
dined together, in order to settle business, yet they had not judged
it proper to trust the chieftains of the Whig and Jacobite parties
together, which would certainly, at best, have been like sowing
hot ashes among gunpowder. If some of my old Jacobite songs
had been forthcoming, the feast might have ended like the peat-
casting in Lochaber, where two young men of different clans be-
gan to throw moss clods at each other in a frolic ; the rest by
degrees joined, every one to his name or kindred; and out of
eighty there was none went home alive but an old wife.
Seaforth and Sir Donald, after tarrying two days in Badenoch,
marched straight to the camp without farther interruption. —
There was nothing north of the Forth happened before the battle
worth narrating in such a miscellaneous work as this, save a skir-
mish at Castle Campbell, in which Mar's party were rather worst-
ed, and lost seventeen prisoners, several of them gentlemen volun-
teers. They were on their way to tax the town of Dunfermline,
a great concern of the earl of Mar's about that time. There are
more letters of his preserved, about taxing the town of Montrose,
Brechin, &c, and sending orders for meal, bread, shoes, and other
necessaries of life, than all other matters put together. He ap-
pears to have had very much ado to keep his men alive, without
exposing them in battle. A battle was now inevitable. Every
thing manifested the sudden approach of it, and farther excuses
there were none. As a last shift, Mar proposed, in his council of
war, to strengthen the outposts around Perth, and remain where
they were till the arrival of the king and the duke of Ormond
in the camp, but in this he was over-ruled; and on the 10th
of November orders were issued for marching. A good part of
the army reached Auchterarder that night ; but, short as their
march was, it was very confused, for want both of victuals and ac-
commodation. They drove sheep and cattle from the owners,
and caused much dissatisfaction.
On the 12th, the two armies came within two miles of each
other, and, on the 13th, they met on a common about two miles
from the village of Dunblane, called the Sherrifmoor. The earl
of Mar outnumbered Argyle in men nearly as three to one. The