History of the Frasers of Lovat

XX. COLONEL ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL FRASER. 507
of the intrepid performance of duty entrusted to "a High-
land Fraser sentinel, whom his friends desired to retreat
with them, but he heroically refused to quit his post, which
was elevated, with some steps leading- to it. He loaded and
fired five times successively, and killed a Frenchman at every
shot; but before he could charge a sixth time they rushed
on him," and he adds the remark that, if all the soldiers at
Castlebar had behaved with equal firmness the French
invasion would have ended that day. The Fraser regiment
remained in Ireland until the close of the war. In barracks,
their conduct was uniformly good, and corporal punish-
ments were equally unnecessary and unknown, and in this
respect there was no going back until they were reduced
in Glasgow in July, 1808.*
In 1797 an Act of Parliament was passed authorising the
sale of the superiorities and certain other portions of the
Lovat estates for the purpose of paying off what remained
of General Fraser's debts. The superiorities sold amounted
to £250 a year, and the lands to an annual rental of £3$o.
And such of the entailed lands as were not sold were made
liable in the payment of ^400 a year to be applied in the
creation of a sinking fund to form a capital sum to be
applied under authority of the Court of Session in the
purchase of other lands of equal value to be settled on the
same series of heirs.
The trust executed by General Fraser in 1779, and
already explained, was brought to an end by Act of Par-
liament in 1802, when the Hon. Archibald Campbell Fraser
entered into full possession of the family estates in terms
of the entail, and made up titles accordingly.
Anderson says that Colonel Fraser "possessed talents of
no ordinary kind. To a knowledge of letters he added an
intimate acquaintance with the world. He had spent a
considerable portion of his life in the first circles, both at
home and abroad, and many yet look back to him as the
beau ideal of a gentleman of the old school. That eccen-
tricities of character displayed themselves cannot be denied ;
* Sketches of the Highlanders, vol. ii., pp. 351-353.