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HAVING written to Mr
Ruskin with reference to a lecture, with the above title,
to be given to our Young Men’s Association, he was kind
enough to reply as follows:-
"BRANTWOOD, C0NISTON, LANCASHIRE,
"4th February, 1881.
"My DEAR Sin,—I should like to give my
day to the answering your letter. All I can do is to
answer what I may, before I open the others on my
breakfast table. This will be an indulgence rather than a
duty, for your deeply interesting letter and its enclosure
move every corner of heart in me, that is fullest of
old—and coming— days. Forgive my going abruptly into what
I would ask you to do. First—at your lecture—to bid those
of your audience who have leisure enough, and faculty, to
read with extreme attention every word of ‘The Monastery’
and ‘Abbot,’ gathering from them the gist of what Scott
tells, or represents to them there, of Scottish life.
Broadly, they will find these tales to contain the story
of two Scottish shepherd boys, who, their father having
been killed in civil war, leave their widowed mother, the
one going into the Army, the other into the Church—-the
first that he may marry a beautiful young lady above his
own rank in life, and the other that he may forget her.
The result of this conduct of theirs, for their
country, is that the first spends his life in a vain
struggle for what you Scotch clergymen have ever since
called Antichrist; and the second, so far as his best
bodily and mental strength can go, is instrumental in
getting the Queen of Scotland beheaded by the Queen of
England, and a few years (put in the number, please, in
your lecture) the King of England beheaded by a farmer of
Huntingdonshire. Possibly both their pieces of life-work
may have been good for the Scottish and English
nations, but they are both beyond a doubt questionable
goods. While had Halbert and Edward stayed with their
widowed mother, and both married a maid of the moor or the
mill, quite without question they might in that station
have promoted (every hour of their lives) the strength and
vital happiness of their country.
"Must they in that line of life and
conduct have remained country ‘bumpkins,’ and led less
happy lives than they found in the castle and the
cloister? Is Dandie Dinmont—is even Cuddle Headrigg—a less
rapectable person than Halbert Glendinning? Are
either of them less happy than Edward? These questions
will you help your audience to put and to answer? You will
be doing, it seems to me, your clergyman’s most sure duty
in such sermon,
"And now I pass to your enclosure. I
have underlined a sentence in it—strongly underlined its
last word.
"Will you read it to your audience, and
ask those of them who, after the above questions have been
considered, still desire to be gallant Colonels, and marry
Mary Avenels—what they are to do when the entire frontier
has been pacificated? and when, by Republican destruction
of all chateaux, Mary Avenels have become as much myths as
the White Lady.—Ever faithfully and respectfully yours,
"JOHN RUSKIN."
The enclosure referred to by Mr Ruskin,
with the underlined sentence, is given further on. One of
our most notable Halbert Glendinnings was MALCOLM
FRASER. Here is the record of his birth and
baptism:—"Malcolm, son to Donald
Fraser and Janet McIntosh in Bellifurth was born ye
15th and baptised ye 22nd
of May, 1732.
Witnesses Duncan Cameron and John McIntosh there." Malcolm
was educated at the Abernethy School, which was then
taught by Malcolm Grant. He was for some time in the
service of the minister, Mr William Grant, and afterwards
went south to friends at Delford, near Edinburgh. His
father was killed at Culloden, but this did not deter
young Malcolm from becoming a soldier. The 78th
Highlanders were raised by the Hon. Simon Fraser, son of
Lovat of the ‘45, and in this regiment Malcolm obtained a
commission, 1757. War with France was then going on, and
the 78th were ordered to America. Malcolm fought with his
regiment in the famous battle won by Wolfe on the Heights
of Abraham, 1759, where he was wounded. He was again more
severely wounded at the siege of Quebec, 1760.
Some time after, with many of his comrades,
he retired from active service, obtaining a grant of land
from the Government, and settling in Canada. But in 1775,
when the Revolutionary War broke out, he again joined the
King’s forces, and became Captain and Paymaster in the
84th Highlanders. He obtained promotion, and ultimately
retired with the rank of Colonel. Malcolm Fraser appears
to have been twice married—first, about 1754,
to some
bonnie lassie from Nethy side, who died early; and
secondly, in another land, perhaps with more of worldly
prudence than the ardour of youthful love, to a Canadian
lady of some fortune. Colonel Fraser spoke Gaelic,
English, and French, and knew some Latin. He held several
important public situations at Quebec, and was Seignor of
Mount Murray, Islet du Portage, and other localities. By
his second wife he had ten children — 1, Angelique,
married to John M’Laughlin; 2, Alexander, Seignor of River
du Loup, Temisconata, and Madawaska, and five other
Seignories; 3, Joseph, surveyor, Seignor of Islet du
Portage; 4, Dr Simon, Seignor of Clause; 5, Julia, married
Commissary Patrick Langan, Seignor of De Ramsay and
Bourcheinn; 6, Honourable John Malcolm Fraser, Legislative
Councillor, and Seignor of part of Mount Murray; 7, Dr
William, co-Seignor of Mount Murray; 8, Mrs Belaire, only
surviving child, 1871, aged 85; 9, Honourable John Fraser,
Seignor of Villeray; 10, Ann, wife of Joseph Belanger,
merchant at Murray Bay. Colonel Fraser died 14th June,
1871, at Mount Murray, and was buried at Quebec in the St
John’s Burying-Ground. The above information as to the
family was obtained in 1871 from the late Honourable John
Fraser de Berry, son of Dr Simon, Chief of the Frasers of
the Province of Quebec, who stated that at that time
Colonel Fraser’s descendants numbered more than 150, and
that most of them spoke French, and were Roman Catholics.
Doubtless, in the interval since then, they have greatly
increased.
Another of our Halbert Glendinnings was
PATRICK MACGREGOR. His father, James, married Marry Grant
of Tullochgorm, and was for some time factor of Strathspey,
and resided at Balliemore. He was held in repute as a man
of ability and enterprise, who did much for the
improvement of agriculture in the district. Patrick
entered the medical service, and was appointed surgeon to
George IV. He was ultimately rewarded with a Baronetcy,
and settled in England. The present representative of the
family is William Gordon Macgregor, Leyton, Essex, 4th
Baronet—born in 1846.
The STUARTS of Lethnachyle (now called
Lainchoil) were one of our oldest families (chap. IX.)
Donald and John were the family names. In 1739 there was a
John, who was an elder of the Church. His son John married
Marjory Stewart of Lynchurn, who died at Grantown, 7th
November, 1830, aged 101. Their son Donald married Janet,
younger daughter of Robert Grant, Wester Lethendry,
Cromdale, and had three sons, John, Robert, and Peter, and
two daughters, Barbara and Marjory. Marjory died at
Grantown in 1844, aged 72, and Barbara married Alexander
Smith of Archiestown Cottage, Knockando, father of the
late Dr Stuart Smith, of the 55th regiment, and Lord
Strathcona and Mount Royal. The fortunes of the sons were
very diverse. Patrick went into the army, and was for some
years Fort Major at Belfast, Ireland. John and Robert went
to North America. Robert was in the service of the North
West Company, and came quickly to the front from his
ability and courage. One day, going down the Columbia
River, his canoe was upset, and he and the three men with
him were thrown into the water. They succeeded in getting
upon a rock, but this was but temporary relief. Stuart was
a powerful swimmer, but none of the others could swim. He
bade them be of good cheer—that, if God permitted, he
would save them. Then, taking one of them on his back, he
struck out for the shore, which with difficulty was
reached. He was now safe, and he had rescued one of the
men, but this was not enough so long as the others were in
danger of perishing. So he dashed again into the water,
and brought the second man ashore. The tremendous effort
told upon him, and, if he had listened to the voice of
self, he would have said, "I have done what I could; to
try again would be to throw my life away." But the man on
the rock, alone amidst the surging billows, appealed to
him. The third time he plunged into the river, and again
he reached the rock. Resting for a little, he set out for
the shore. But alas! his strength failed, and, after a
brave struggle, he and the man he bore sank down in the
mighty waters and were seen no more. John, the elder
brother, was more fortunate. He found employment in the
Hudson Bay Company. Being a man of much shrewdness and of
indomitable pluck and perseverance, he soon rose to high
position, and did great service in establishing trading
ports and exploring the country. The Stuart Lake and
Stuart River, which has recently been so often noticed in
connection with the Klondyke Gold Country, are called
after him. Mr John Stuart was for some years chief factor
of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He died at Springfield House,
Forres, in 1847, having directed in his will that he
should be "interred in the tomb of his ancestors in the
Parish Church-Yard of Abernethy, south-east corner of the
Church."
Early in the twenties there were four
James’s, born in the parish, whose fortunes are worthy of
notice. JAMES STEWART was the son of Lieutenant J.
Stewart, 78th Regiment, Pytoulish. He became a cotton
planter in South America, and died at St Joseph,
Mississippi, in 1896.
JAMES FORSYTH was the son of William
Forsyth, Dell of Abernethy, for twenty years manager of
the Seafield Woods and Wood Manufactures. He entered the
Caledonian Bank as Clerk in 1539. In 1845 he went to
Ceylon, where he was employed for five years as a coffee
plantation manager. His health failing, he returned home,
and in 1854 he entered into the employment of the
Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Banking Company. In 1864
he was appointed manager, which office he held till 1895,
when the Bank was amalgamated with the Birmingham and
District Companies Bank. On his retirement he was
presented by leading men in Wolverhampton and
neighbourhood with a handsome silver bowl, a purse of 400
sovereigns, and an illuminated album and address.
JAMES CHARLES GORDON was the eldest son
of Captain Gordon, Revack, by his first wife, Margaret
Knight. He entered the Queen’s service, as Ensign in the
92nd Gordon Highlanders in 1839; subsequently he sold out,
and in 1847 he was appointed to the 4th Bengal Native
Infantry. He served in the Punjab in 1849, and died at
Wazirabad in 1852. Two of his brothers also served in the
army—Robert, who rose to be second in command of the 2nd
Sikh Infantry, and died at Dhurmsala in 1860; and Benjamin
Lumsden, born 1833, who entered the Madras Artillery,
1852, and in 1863 joined the Royal Artillery. He served
through the Indian Mutiny, receiving the medal with clasp.
He also served in the Afghan war, 1879-80, and commanded
in Lower Burmah in the Expedition of 1886-87, receiving
the thanks of the Government and the medal with clasp. He
commanded the Burma District during the Chin Lushai
Expedition in 1890, and was specially mentioned in
despatches, and granted the Distinguished Service Reward.
He retired as Lieutenant9eneral in 1890, and was made
K.C.B. in 1898.
JAMES DAWSON MACDONALD was the eldest
son of Captain Macdonald, Coulnakyle. He was educated at
Abernethy, Grantown, and Aberdeen, and obtained a
Cadetship in 1836. He served in the Gwalior and Rajpootana
Campaigns. He was quartered at Neemuch when the Mutiny
(1857) occurred, and his escape, as he used to tell, was
due to the loyalty of two Sepoys, who, alone of 1000 men,
remained faithful to their colours. Alas! they sealed
their devotion with their blood. General Macdonald
afterwards tried to discover their families, but failed.
"Soon after the mutiny, the Government
resolved to raise a corps of Meenas, and the carrying out
of this resolution fell to Captain Macdonald. The Meenas
are described in official documents as a lawless hill
tribe, by nature turbulent, independent, and vagabond.
Plunderers by profession, they had long been known as
daring and expert robbers. Sir William Sleeman pronounced
them irreclaimable, and according to him they pursued the
crime of dacoity more systematically than any other Indian
tribe. But they were tall, handsome, athletic, and brave;
and, though well known to be bloodthirsty and revengeful,
they were believed to be sensible of kindness, obedient to
their leaders, and proud of their descent. Out of this raw
material there was raised a force, about 1000 strong, now
known as the Deolee Irregulars, but long spoken of more
familiarly as ‘Macdonald’s Meenas.’ Many inspecting
generals have said that no body of men so well illustrates
the Indian irregular system as this Deolee force, which
is, moreover, believed to afford ‘the only instance of
native Indians trained into skilful tank-diggers,
gardeners carpenters, builders, and artists, as well as
loyal and smart sepoys,’ not inferior in drill and
discipline to any native regiment of the line. They built
not only a Hindoo temple for themselves, but a handsome
Christian chapel for the Europeans resident in the
station. Their chief works of utility, however, consisted
in the erection of such things as tanks, wells,
durbar-rooms, guard-rooms, and hospitals. General
Macdonald had an extraordinary influence over the minds
and affections of these men, yet he might perhaps be
called eccentric in his management of them. He regarded
them as he regarded his own Highland ancestors—Highland
robbers, as he knew them sometimes to be called. They
became a Meena clan: of which he was the chief. Looting,
and lying, and insults to women he punished with merciless
severity; but he had no irksome punishments, and no
wearisome rules as to all sorts of petty details. He had a
judicious way of letting the men alone. They were dressed
like French Zouaves, but they wore the Glengarry cap. He
thought all Highlanders must love the bagpipes, so the
music of the force was played, and well played, on that
instrument. His six pipers wore plaids of Macdonald
tartan. The penants from the drones were embroidered in
Edinburgh, and carried on them the Macdonald crest. The
force marched to the ‘Pibroch o’ Donuil Dhu,’ and the
piper-in-chief bore the name of Fassifern. General
Macdonald entered thoroughly into the ways and feelings of
his men, and in return they proved faithful to him and
jealous of the honour of the corps to which they belonged.
It is a common story that when exhorted by an eloquent
missionary to embrace Christianity, they informed him that
they were ready to be converted on the spot if the Colonel
Sahib would pass the order."—Daily Scotsman.
General Macdonald died in London, 25th
December, 1879. He left three sons—Dougan, Major in
the 91st Highlanders, was accidentally killed by the fall
of his horse in Hyde Park in 1893; and Claude, after
distinguished service in India, Egypt, and Africa, is now
Her Majesty’s Representative in China.
Abernethy can claim two distinguished
soldiers, who, though not born amongst us, were by family
and residence nearly connected with the parish, and
delighted to call themselves "Grandsons of the Manse."
Field-Marshal Sir DONALD MARTIN SEWART,
Bart., G.C.B., is the son of the late Captain Robert
Stewart of Clachglas, Kincardine. Captain Stewart was
married at the Manse, in 1821, to a daughter of the then
minister, the Rev. Donald Martin. He was of the Stewarts
of Fincastle, but his family had resided for several
generations at Kincardine. Some time after his marriage he
removed to Dyke, near Forres, and Sir Donald was born
there in 1824. He was educated mainly at Dufftown and
Elgin. In 1839 he gained a bursary at King’s College,
Aberdeen, and passed through the classes of 1839-40 with
distinction. In 1840 he obtained a cadetship through his
uncle, Sir Ranald Martin, the great Indian surgeon. His
career was for a long time confined to Regimental Staff
duty, and he was deemed one of the smartest adjutants in
the Bengal Army. During the Mutiny he came to the front,
and gained much honour for his heroic conduct in carrying
despatches to Delhi. He went through the Siege of Delhi,
the Capture of Lucknow, and the subsequent Campaign in
Rohilcund. He commanded a Brigade in the Abyssinian
Campaign, and was appointed to the command of the force
which invaded Southern Afghanistan in 1869. On the
occupation of Candahar he administered Siat province with
marked sagacity and success. He subsequently commanded the
Army in Northern Afghanistan until the evacuation of Cabul
and the withdrawal to India. His splendid victory at
Ahmedkeyl, his disinterestedness in giving place to
General Roberts, who won much fame by his glorious march
from Cabul, and his distinguished services as
Commander-in-Chief in India, and as member of the Indian
Council, are well known. Sir Donald is at present Governor
of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.
Major-General ANDREW ALDCORN MUNRO
spent the first fourteen years of his life at the Manse,
receiving his principal education at the Parish School. He
was for some time apprenticed with the late Dr Creyk at
Grantown, being succeeded by another Strathspey man, who
served with much distinction in India, China, Sierra
Leone, and Paris during the Siege, and was honoured with
knighthood in the Jubilee year—Surgeon-General Sir Charles
Gordon. General Munro had always a grateful recollection
of his early days, and he shewed his strong attachment to
Abernethy by generous remembrance of the poor, and by
giving handsome prizes for the encouragement of Secondary
Education. General Munro went to India in 1846, when he
was 20 years of age. After spending some years in the
army, he was transferred to the Civil Department of the
Punjab Commission in 1855, where he served for 25 years
under some of the most distinguished Frontier Officers —as
Sir Herbert Edwardes, Colonel Taylor, C.B., C.S.I., and
Major James—rising through all the grades to the higher.
The following notice of his services is taken from the
Punjab Gazette of 2nd December, 1880, where it was
published by order of the Hon. the Lieut.-Governor Sir
Robert Egerton. This is the enclosure referred to by Mr
Ruskin, and the sentence underscored by him is given in
italics:-
"On the occasion of the retirement of
Colonel Andrew Munro, the Lieutenant-Governor desires to
place upon record his high estimation of the services of
this officer, whose long and honourable career has been
spent in most arduous and responsible post of frontier
administration. Coming to India in 1846, Colonel Munro was
appointed to the Punjab Commission in 1856; he became
Deputy Commissioner in 1859, and at various times in the
course of the next twelve years held charge of every
border district from Hazara to Dera Ghazi Khan. In 1863,
when Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar, he was present
throughout the Ambeyla Campaign, for his services in
which, as Political Assistant to Colonel Reynell Taylor,
C.B., he received the special thanks and acknowledgments
of Government. He became Commissioner and Superintendent
of the Derajat Division in 1871, and, with short intervals
of special political duty, has held this important office
ever since. In the reorganisation of Frontier Militia, the
new arrangements for the better administration of the Tank
Valley, the enforcement of tribal responsibility for
guarding the passes, and in other important measures
introduced within the past few years to secure the peace
of the Derajat border, and improve our relations with its
wild hill clans, and also in the final settlement of
Khelat affairs, and the events which led to the
appointment of a British Agent at Quetta, Colonel Munro’s
long experience, sound judgment, and thorough knowledge of
border tribes, Biluch and Pathan, have proved of the
utmost value and assistance to Government. His career
covers a period in which the work of the gradual
pacification of the frontier has made notable
progress; wild and independent clans have been taught
to respect and fear Government, and our own subjects,
once lawless and turbulent, have settled down into quiet
and peaceful cultivations. This happy change has been
due to the ability and unwearied zeal with which the
policy of Government has been carried out by a succession
of distinguished officers, among whose names that of
Colonel Munro will be remembered with honour, both by the
Government he has so loyally served, and by the border
tribes, whose affairs he has so long and so ably
administered."
Our parish has continued to give some
of its best blood to other lands. We have sent bankers to
England, farmers to Ireland, and parsons to every county
in the Highlands. We have sent settlers to Canada and the
United States, shepherds to Fiji, stock-keepers to New
Zealand, gold diggers to Australia, diamond merchants to
Africa, doctors to the army and the navy, and soldiers to
fight our cause in all parts of the world. Wherever men
speaking the English tongue have toiled and bled, there
might be found Halbert Glendinnings who claimed kin with
us, as having been born on the banks of the Nethy, and
brought up under the shadow of Cairngorm. True, all who
have gone forth from us have not prospered. Some have been
cut off by disease, some have fallen in battle, and some
have become the victims of folly and sin, or like ships
that foundered at sea, have been never more heard of.
"Some sink outright,
O’er them, and o’er their names the billows close,
To-morrow knows not they were born.
Others a short memorial leave behind
Like a flag floating when the bark’s engulphed:
It floats a moment and is seen no more.
One Caesar lives—a thousand are forgot."
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