Matheson Collection > Clan Donald > Volume 1

254 THE CLAN DONALD.
tracts of territory in feu from John's predecessors,
and it does not appear from the evidence of history
that John was in this respect so much more lavish
than his sires, or that he to a large extent
impoverished the heritage of his Family. In the
eyes of those who sighed over the fading glory of
his House, the gravamen of his offence consisted in
his not only parting with the Earldom of lioss,
which was, after all, but a recent possession of the
Island Family, but what was perhaps more galling
to the amour j^ropre of the Clan, his tamely giving
up the patrimonial lands of Kintyre and Knapdale,
the heritage of the Clan Cholla from far distant
times. This was undoubtedly the universal and
deeply seated sentiment of his Clan — a sentiment
not only in itself excusable, but springing from a
just self-respect, and burning as it did with a fiery
glow in the bosom of many a valiant clansman, it
needed only a leader or head to give it fitting and
powerful expression.
It is equally intelligible that the other vassals
should have regarded the crisis from a somewhat
different point of view. The clans other than Clan
Donald, who held their lands from John, had greatly
increased in power and dignity under the kindly
sway of the Lords of the Isles. The loss of sway
by their superior did not, however, imply their
decadence. On the contrary, the greatness of the
Family of the Isles overshadowed their attempts at
self-assertion, and the signs of a new order of things,
in which they might rival the historic house in pro-
perty and infiuence, were naturally not unwelcome.
Thus there came to be a parting of the ways between
those clans that held their territories, less on account
of ties of kinship, and more by the bonds of feudal