Series 1 > Grameid: an heroic poem descriptive of the campaign of Viscount Dundee in 1689, and other pieces

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PANURGI PHILOCABALLI [731-743
Et Grami sat nomen erat quo terreat hostem,
Urgeat atque loco dare terga inhonesta relicto.
Inde rapit gressus, atque Alvae praeterit aedem,
Et silvas, Rothemurce, tuas, et flumina Spejae
Transmeat ad Coili dictum de nomine campum.
Et nemora, et vastos solerti indagine saltus
Lustrat Abrenethios, et Cromdala rura secabat,
Subsequiturque ducem fugientem, atque agmine toto
Instat, et hostiles ceu turbine dissipat alas ;
Bellisonoque procul terram clangore tubarum
Concutit, ignivomis et sidera territat armis.
Ecce repens totis rumor penna alite castris
Discurrit magno chlamydata per agmina plausu,
enough to affright the enemy, and to compel him to desert his post
in disgraceful flight. Dundee hurries on, and passes the house
of Alvie,1 and thy woods, O Rothiemurchus,2 and at the fields
named from Coilus,3 he fords the Spey. With wary skill he
traverses the woods, and vast forest paths of Abernethy,4 and
onward marches through the haughs of Cromdale,5 pursuing the
flying general. He presses after him with his whole force, and,
as a whirlwind, disperses the hostile squadrons. He shakes the
earth with the clang of the trumpet, and affrights the stars with
the fire flashing muskets.
Quickly, on flying wing, amid the applause of the plaided host.
1 I do not know anything of the house of Alvie. The kirk has long been
famous, with its manse and lochs, and lovely scenery around. Kinrara may
have replaced the house of Alvie.
2 With the Doune of Rothiemurchus, and its great forests of pine, travellers
are very familiar.
3 This, I think, is Kinakyle, the head of the strait or pass, as Culnakyle is
the foot, or back of it. Here upper Craigellachie—the rock of alarm—guards
the Grant country, and here there was a ford over the Spey. Dundee passes to
the south, or rather east side of the river here. Our author, for his derivation,
still falls back upon King Coilus. See note in Book in. p. 112.
4 The great forests of Abernethy are still the chief features of the place, with
the magnificent Cairngorm towering over them. Ballindalloch and Glenmoriston
would recall stirring scenes in their family history as they rode through this forest.
See Memorialls of the Tnibles, Spalding Club, vol. i. p. 2. James-an-Tuim, the
famous freebooter, was related to them both, and had caused much ill-blood
among the Grants for which Abernethy saw mutual vengeance.
5 Cromdale and these localities were soon to see Dundee on his march back
with his Highlanders in safety, and the next year, to see them, under Buchan,
routed and slaughtered, 1st May 1690.