THE HUNTING OF BRAEMAR.

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

It was early in August, 1715, that the earl of Mar embarked at Gravesend, in the strictest incognito, having for his companions major-general Hamilton and colonel Hay, men of some military experience. They sailed in a coal-sloop, working, it was said, their passage, the better to maintain their disguise, landed at Newcastle, hired a vessel there, and then proceeded to the small port of Elie, on the eastern shore of Fife, a county which then abounded with friends to the Jacobite cause. The state of this province in other respects offered facilities to Mar. It is a peninsula, separated from Lothian by the Frith of Forth, and from the shire of Angus by that of Tay; and it did not, until a very late period, hold much intercourse with the metropolis; though so near it in point of distance, it seemed like a district separated from the rest of Scotland, and was sometimes jocosely termed the "Kingdom of Fife." The commonalty were, in the beginning of the 18th century, almost exclusively attached to the presbyterian persuasion; but it was otherwise with the gentry, who were numerous in this province to a degree little known in other parts of Scotland. Its security, during the long wars of former centuries, had made it early acquainted with civilisation. The value of the soil, on the sea-coasts at least, had admitted of great subdivision of property; and there is no county of Scotland which displays so many country-seats within so short a distance of each other. These gentlemen were, as we have said, chiefly of the Tory persuasion, or, in other words, Jacobites; for the subdivision of politicians termed Whimsicals, or Tories attached to the House of Hanover, could hardly be said to exist in Scotland, though well known in South Britain. Besides their tenants, the Fife lairds were most of them men who had not much to lose in civil broils, having to support an establishment considerably above the actual rents of their estates, which were, of course, impaired by increasing debts: they were, therefore, the less unwilling to engage in dangerous enterprises. As a party affecting the manners of the ancient cavaliers, they were jovial in their habits, and cautious to omit no opportunity of drinking the king's health; a point of loyalty which, like virtue of other kinds, had its own immediate reward. Loud and bold talkers, the Jacobites had accustomed themselves to think they were the prevailing party; an idea which those of any particular faction, who converse exclusively with each other, are usually found to entertain. Their want of knowledge of the world, and the total absence of newspapers, save those of a strong party leaning, whose doctrines or facts they took care never to correct by consulting any of an opposite tendency, rendered them at once curious and credulous. This slight sketch of the Fife lairds may be applied, with equal justice, to the Jacobite country gentleman of that period in most counties of Scotland. They had virtues to balance their faults and follies. The political principles they followed had been handed down to them from their fathers; they were connected, in their ideas, with the honour of their country; and they were prepared to defend them with a degree of zeal, which valued not the personal risks in which the doing so might place life and property. There were also individuals among them who had natural talents improved by education. But, in general, the persons whom the earl of Mar was now desirous to stir up to some sudden act of mutiny, were of that frank and fearless class who are not guilty of seeing far before them. They had already partaken in the general excitation caused by queen Anne's death, and the appraching crisis which was expected to follow that important event. They had struggled with the whig gentry, inferior in number, but generally more alert and sagacious in counsel and action, concerning the addresses of head-courts and the seats on the bench of justices. Many of them had commissioned swords,

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Carabines, and pistols, from abroad. They had bought up horses fit for military preference men who had served in some of the dragoon regiments, which had been service; and some had taken into their service additional domestics, selecting in reduced in consequence of the peace of Utrecht. Still, notwithstanding these preto hesitate before engaging in the irretrievable step of rebellion against the established parations for a rising, some of the leading men in Fife, as elsewhere, were disposed

government.

Their reluctance was overcome by the impatience of the majority, excited by the flattering though premature rumours which were actively circulated by a set of men, who might be termed the Intelligencers of the faction.

It is well known that in every great political body there are persons, usually neither the wisest, the most important, nor most estimable, who endeavour to gain personal consequence by pretending peculiar access to information concerning its most intimate concerns, and who are equally credulous in believing, and indefatigable in communicating, whatever rumours are afloat concerning the affairs of the party, whom With several of these lord Mar communicated, and they incumber by adhering to. exalted their hopes to the highest pitch, by the advantageous light in which he placed the political matters which he wished them to support, trusting to the exaggerations and amplifications with which they were sure to retail what he had

said.

Such agents, changing what had been stated as probabilities into certainties, furnished an answer to every objection which could be offered by the more prudent of their party. If any cautious person objected to stir before the English Jacobites had shown themselves serious--some one of these active vouchers was ready to affirm, that every thing was on the point of a general rising in England, and only waited the appearance of a French fleet with ten thousand men, headed by the duke of Ormond. Did the listener prefer an invasion of Scotland,-the same number of men, with the duke of Berwick at their head, were as readily promised. Supplies of every kind were measured out, according to the desire of the auditors; and if any was moderate enough to restrain his wish to a pair of pistols for his own use, he was assured of twenty brace to accommodate his friends and neighbours. This kind of mutual delusion was every day increasing; for as those who engaged in the conspiracy were interested in obtaining as many proselytes as possible, they became active circulators of the sanguine hopes and expectations by which they, perhaps, began already to suspect that they had been themselves deceived.

It is true, that looking abroad at the condition of Europe, these unfortunate gentlemen ought to have seen that the state of France at that time was far from being such as to authorize any expectations of the prodigal supplies which she was represented as being ready to furnish, or, rather, as being in the act of furnishing. Nothing was less likely than that that kingdom, just extricated from a war in which it had been nearly ruined by a peace so much more advantageous than they had reason to expect, should have been disposed to afford a pretext for breaking the treaty which had pacified Europe, and for renewing against France the confederacy under whose pressure she had nearly sunk. This was more especially the case when, by the death of Louis XIV., whose ambition and senseless vanity had cost so much blood, the government devolved on the regent duke of Orleans. Had Louis survived, it is probable that, although he neither did nor dared to have publicly adopted the cause of the chevalier de St. George, as was indeed evident by his refusing to receive him at his court, yet the recollection of his promise to the dying James II., as well as the wish to embarrass England, might have induced him to advance money, or give some underhand assistance to the unhappy exile. But, upon Louis's death, the policy of the duke of Orleans, who had no personal ties whatever with the chevalier de St. George, induced him to keep entire good faith with Britain-to comply with

the requisitions of the earl of Stair--and to put a stop to all such preparations in the French ports, as the vigilance of that minister had detected and denounced as being made for the purpose of favouring the Jacobite insurrection. Thus, while the chevalier de St. George was represented as obtaining succours in arms, money, and troops from France, to an amount which that kingdom could hardly have supplied, and from her inferiority in naval force, certainly must have found it difficult to have transported into Britain, even in Louis's most palmy days, the ports of that country were even closed against such exertions as the chevalier might make upon a small scale by means of his private resources.

But the death of Louis XIV. was represented in Scotland as rather favourable than otherwise to the cause of James the pretender. The power of France was now wielded, it was said, by a courageous and active young prince, to whose character enterprise was more natural than to that of an aged and heart-broken old man, and who would, of course, be ready to hazard as much, or more, in the cause of the Jacobites than the late monarch had so often promised. In short, the death of Louis the great, long the hope and prop of the Jacobite cause, was boldly represented as a favourable event during the present crisis.

Although a little dispassionate inquiry would have dispelled the fantastic hopes founded on the baseless rumour of foreign assistance, yet such fictions as I have here alluded to, tending to exalt the zeal and spirits of the party, were circulated because they were believed, and believed becaused they were circulated; and the gentlemen of Stirlingshire, Perth, Angus, and Fifeshire, began to leave their homes, and assemble in arms, though in small parties, at the foot of the Grampian hills, expecting the issue of lord Mar's negotiations in the highlands.

Upon leaving Fifeshire, having communicated with such gentlemen as were most likely to serve his purpose, Mar proceeded instantly to his own estates of Braemar, lying along the side of the river Dee, and took up his residence with Farquharson of Invercauld. This gentleman was chief of the clan Farquharson, and could command a very considerable body of men. But he was vassal to lord Mar for a small part of his estate, which gave the earl considerable influence with him; not, however, sufficient to induce him to place himself and followers in such hazard as would have been occasioned by an instant rising. He went to Aberdeen to avoid importunity on the subject, having previously declared to Mar that he would not take arms until the chevalier de St. George had actually landed. At a later period he joined the insurgents.

Disappointed in this instance, Mar conceived, that as desperate resolutions are usually most readily adopted in large assemblies, where men are hurried forward by example, and prevented from retreating or dissenting by shame, he should best attain his purpose in a large convocation of the chiefs and men of rank who professed attachment to the exiled family. The assembly was made under pretext of a grand hunting match, which, as maintained in the highlands, was an occasion of general rendezvous of a peculiar nature. The lords attended at the head of their vassals, all, even lowland guests, attired in the highland garb, and the sport was carried on upon a scale of rude magnificence. A circuit of many miles was formed around the wild desolate forests and wildernesses which are inhabited by the reddeer, and is called the tinchel. Upon a signal given, the hunters who compose the tinchel begin to move inwards, closing the circle, and driving the terrified deer before them, with whatever else the forest contains of wild animals who cannot elude the surrounding sportsmen. Being in this manner concentrated and crowded together, they are driven down a defile, where the principal hunters lie in wait for them, and show their dexterity by marking out and shooting those bucks which are in season. As it required many men to form the tinchel, the attendance of vassals * *

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on these occasions was strictly insisted upon. Indeed, it was one of the feudal services required by the law, attendance on the superior at hunting being as regularly required as at hosting, that is, joining his banner in war; or watching and warding, garrisoning, namely, his castle in times of danger.

An occasion such as this was highly favourable; and the general love of sport, and well-known fame of the forest of Braemar for game of every kind, assembled many of the men of rank and influence who resided within reach of the rendezvous, and a great number of persons besides, who, though of less consequence, served to give the meeting the appearance of numbers. This great council was held about the 26th of August, and it may be supposed they did not amuse themselves much with hunting, though it was the pretence and watchword of their meeting.

Among the noblemen of distinction, there appeared, in person or by representation, the marquis of Huntly, eldest son of the duke of Gordon; the marquis of Tulliebardine, eldest son of the duke of Athole; the earls of Nithsdale, Marischal, Traquair, Errol, Southesk, Carnwath, Seaforth, and Linlithgow; the viscounts of Kilsythe, Kenmuir, Kingston, and Stormount; the lords Rollo, Duffus, Drummond, Strathallan, Ogilvy, and Nairne. Of the chiefs of clans, there attended Glengarry, Campbell of Glendarule, on the part of the powerful earl of Breadalbane, with others of various degrees of importance in the highlands.

When this council was assembled, the earl of Mar addressed them in a species of eloquence which was his principal accomplishment, and which was particularly qualified to succeed with the high-spirited and zealous men by whom he was surrounded. He confessed, with tears in his eyes, that he had himself been but too instrumental in forwarding the union between England and Scotland, which had given the English the power, as they had the disposition, to enslave the latter kingdom. He urged that the prince of Hanover was an usurping intruder, governing by means of an encroaching and innovating faction; and that the only mode to escape his tyranny was to rise boldly in defence of their lives and property, and to establish on the throne the lawful heir of these realms. He declared that he himself was determined to set up the standard of James III., and summon around it all those over whom he had influence, and to hazard his fortune and life in the cause. He invited all who heard him to unite in the same generous resolution. He was large in his promises of assistance from France in troops and money, and persisted in the story that two descents were to take place, one in England, under the command of Ormond, the other in Scotland, under that of the duke of Berwick. He also strongly assured his hearers of the certainty of a general insurrection in England, but alleged the absolute necessity of showing them an example in the north, for which the present time was most appropriate, as there were few regular troops in Scotland to restrain their operations, and as they might look for assistance to Sweden as well as to France.

It has been said that Mar, on this memorable occasion, showed letters from the chevalier de St. George, with a commission nominating the earl his lieutenantgeneral and commander-in-chief of his armies in Scotland. Other accounts say, more probably, that Mar did not produce any other credentials than a picture of the chevalier, which he repeatedly kissed, in testimony of zeal for the cause of the original, and that he did not at the time pretend to the supreme command of the enterprise. This is also the account given in the statement of the transaction drawn up by Mar himself, or under his eye, where it is plainly said that it was nearly a month after the standard was set up ere the earl of Mar could procure a commission.

The number of persons of rank who were assembled, the eloquence with which topics were publicly urged which had been long the secret inmates of every bosom,