Series 1 > Loyall dissuasive

INTRODUCTION
xli
that respect which is due to your character and station, so
much that for twenty years thereafter there was not a family
or a society in the kingdom more united amongst themselves
or more affectionate to their chief, as I trust they continue to
this day, tho. I have not the good fortune to be there to
witness it’ (Loyall Dissuasive, p. 62).
A change of policy on the part of the Marquis of Huntly
towards Cluny no doubt helped the clansmen to a better mind.
The following letters manifest this gleam of Gordon favour.
It was only a gleam, however, and came at a time when Huntly,
a very young man, was abroad, and Aboyne1 and Adam
Urquhart of Meldrum were acting for him.
‘Gentlemen our very good Friends,—
Last of March 1674.
‘The Laird of M‘Intosh his arrogant demeanors in severall
affairs wherein my Lord Huntly is concerned and particularly of
the Teinds of Badenoch has brought us to a clear understanding
of these differences been betwixt the Laird of Cluny and him anent
the Chieftenry and what endeavours have been used be him to
frusterat Cluny of the Benefide of the Counsell’s just determina¬
tion, and seeing we now understand that most sureptitiously
M‘Intosh did borrow our names not only in the prosecution of
that action, but always since when occasion offered as a mean, to
rent yourselves and devyde you; we have therefore upon conside¬
ration of the justness of Cluny’s cause (whereof the emptiness of
M'Intoshs arguments does sufficiently convince us) Cluny’s and his
predecessors constant fidelity to the famely of Huntly, thought
fitt to make known both to you and him our dislike to his pro¬
ceedings togeder with the resolutions we have now (on just
1 Charles, first Earl of Aboyne, created 1660. He died in 1681. Adam
Urquhart of Meldrum had, in 1667, married Lady Mary Gordon, sister of the
Marquis of Huntly. The marquis was abroad, in the French and other armies,
for several years, from 1673, and Lord Aboyne, his uncle, and Urquhart took
charge of his affairs. By a misreading of the manuscript, the name Ad Urquhart
is transformed into Hel Urquhart in Glimpses of Life in Highlands, p. 434, and
Helen is said to be the Dowager Marchioness of Huntly, but this is all a
mistake. In the old paper in the Cluny Charter Chest from which we are
quoting, where a copy of the letters are given, the initial ‘ Ad ’ of Adam are con¬
verted into ‘Kell.’