J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

KHTMES UPON FAMILIES OF DISTINCTION. 91
and immediately put her family in possession of the adjoin-
ing lands, which yet continue to be the property of her
descendant, the present Guthrie of Guthrie.
THE DUKE OF ATHOLL.
Duke of Atholl — king in Man,
And the greatest man in a' the land !
The idea expressed in this popular rhyme is supported by
high authority. ' I shall conclude with the opinion of all
the g-reat lawyers in England who have had occasion to
mention the Isle of Man ; namely, that it is a royal fief of the
crown of England, and the only one ; so that I may venture
to say without censure, that if his Grace the Duke of Atholl
is not the richest subject the King of Britain has, he is
the greatest man in his majesty's dominions.' — Nisbet's
Heraldry, ii. 201.
FRASER.
As lang as there's a cock in the north,
There'll be a Eraser in Pliilorth.
The ' Cock o' the North' is a familiar name of the head
of the Gordon family : the rhyme promises that the Erasers,
Lords Salton, the proprietors of Philorth, shall exist as
long as that greater line.
CLAN GREGOR.
Cnoic is uisgh is Alpauich,
An truir bu shine 'blia 'n Albin.
Literal Translation.
Hills, and waters, and Alpins,
The eldest three in Albin.
The Macgregors are esteemed in the Highlands as one of
the oldest, if not the very oldest, of the clans. This is
implied by the above rhyme, in which they are designated
as Alpanich, with reference to their descent from Alpin, a
king of Scotland in the ninth century. They derive their
descent, and also their name, from Gregory, a king who
was grandson to Alpin, and whose posterity would have
continued to enjoy the crown, but for the law of tanistry,
which preferred a full-grown nephew or uncle to an infant
son. Their being thus dispossessed of the sovereignty is
adverted to in an old Gaelic rhyme, of which Mr Alexander