Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 2

258 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
THE PEOPHECIES OF THE BEAHAN SEEK, COIN N EACH
ODHAR FI0;SAICHE.
By the Editor.
[Continued.]
An attempt Avas recently made to sell the remaining possessions of tlie
family, but fortunately, for the present, this attempt has l^een defeated
by tlie interposition of the Marchioness of Tweedale and Mrs Colonel
Stanley, daughters of the present nominal possessor of tlie property. At
the time a leading article appeared in the Edinburgh Daily Reoieio giving
an outline of the family history of the Seaforths. After describing how
the fifth Earl, with the fidelity characteristic of his house, " true as the
dial to the sun," embraced, the losing side in '' the Fifteen ; " fought at
the head of his clan at Sherifihiuir : how in 1719 he, along Avith the
Marquis of Tullibardine, and the Earl ]\Iarischal, made a final attempt to
bring the " auld Stewarts back again ; " how he was dangerously Avounded
in an encounter with the Government forces at Glenshiel, and compelled
to abandon the vain enterprise ; how he Avas carried on board a A'^essel by
his clansmen, conveyed to the Western Isles, and ultimately to France ;
hoAV he Avas attainted by Parliament, and his estates forfeited to the
Crown ; how all the efibrts of the Government failed to penetrate into
Kintail, or to collect any rent from his faithful INIacraes, Avhom the Sea-
forths had so often led victorious from many a bloody conflict, from the
battle of Largs down to the Jacobite Eebellions of 1715 and 1719 ; and
hoAV the rents of that part of the estates Avere regularly collected and
remitted to their exiled chief in France, Avith a devotion and faithfulness
only to be equalled by their OAvn countrymen Avhen their beloved^
"bonnie Prince Charlie" was a Avanderer, helpless and forlorn, at the
mercy of his enemies, and Avith a rcAvard of £30,000 at the disposal of
many a poverty-stricken and starving Highlander, Avho Avould not betray
his laAvful Prince for all the gold in England. The article continues : —
But their (the Seaforths) doAvnfall came at last, and the failure of the
male line of this great historical family Avas attended Avitli circumstances
as singular as they Avere painful. Francis, Lord Seaforth, the last Baron
of Kintail, Avas, says Sir Walter Scott, " a nobleman of extraordinary
talents, Avho must have made for himself a lasting reputation, had not his
political exertions been checked by painful natural infirmity." Though
deaf from his sixteenth year, and inflicted also Avith a partial impediment
of speech, he was distinguished for his attainments as Avell as for his
intellectual activity. He took a lively interest in aU questions of art
and science, especially in natural history, and displayed at once his
liberality and his love of art by his munificence to Sir Thomas LaAVTence,
in the youthful straits and struggles of that great artist, and by his pat-
ronage ol other artists. Before his elevation to the peerage, Lord Sea-
forth represented Eoss-shire in Parliament for a number of years, and Avas
afterAvards Lord-Lieutenant of the county. During the revolutionary Avar