Broadside ballad entitled 'Lochiel's Warning (New Version)'

Commentary

This ballad begins: 'LOCHIEL! LOCHIEL! Beware of the day / When Sir Kenneth shall meet you in battle array ; / The close of the struggle looms clear on my sight, / And the ranks of the Tories are scattered in flight.' The original poem was written by Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), about Donald Cameron of Lochiel (c.1700- 48), who was a highly-regarded Highland chief, and supporter of the Jacobite cause.

This piece cleverly adapts Campbell's original 1802 text, making it applicable to an Inverness-shire Parliamentary election. It takes the form of a dialogue between a nineteenth-century Lochiel, Donald Cameron of Lochiel, M.P., and a Wizard. They discuss the merits of the incumbent Tory M.P., Sir Kenneth Mackenzie of Gairloch. Lochiel is poked fun at in various ways, and the device of allowing him to speak for himself cleverly lets him show up his own hypocrisy and corrupt nature, e.g. 'I have marshalled my clan, With coaxing and threatening they'll plump to a man'.

This style of text, with its implicit political propaganda, would not only have made for compelling entertainment, but would also perhaps have stimulated political thought, reasoning and debate. Modern-day satirists use much the same techniques, only using pop songs rather than poetry!

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