WAVERLEY TALES.

VOLUME 52.

TALES OF A GRANDFATHER;

BEING

STORIES TAKEN FROM SCOTTISH HISTORY.

HUMBLY INSCRIBED TO

HUGH LITTLEJOHN, ESQ.

THIRD SERIES,

IN TWO VOLUMES.

II.

PARKER'S EDITION,

PUBLISHED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERIES OF WAVERLEY NOVELS, WHICH WERE REVISED, CORRECTED, AND

ILLUSTRATED, BY

THE AUTHOR.

BOSTON:

SAMUEL H. PARKER, WASHINGTON STREET.

TALES OF A GRANDFATHER.

Third Series.

CHAPTER I.

State of the Lowlands-Landlords and TenantsState of Learning-Bad effect of Oaths of Office -Decay of the Feudal Authority of LandlordsState of the Highlands-Influence of the Chiefs over their Clans-Cameron of Lochiel and Fraser of Lovat-Unpopularity of the two first Georges, and of Walpole's Administration-Marriage of the Chevalier de St. George-Petty intrigues among his Adherents-Character of Prince Charles EdwardResolution of Prince Charles to try his fortune in Scotland-he Embarks-and Lands at Moidart.Note, Personal Appearance and Demeanour of Prince Charles.

AFTER the temporary subjection of the Highlands in 1720, and the years immediately succeeding, had been in appearance completed, by the establishment of garrisons, the formation of military roads, and the general submisson of the Highland clans who were most opposed to government, Scotland enjoyed a certain degree of internal repose, if not of prosperity. To estimate the nature of this calm, we must look at the state of the country in two points of view, as it concerned the Highlands and the Lowlands.

In the Lowlands a superior degree of improvement began to take place, by the general influence of civiliza

4

LANDLORDS AND TENANTS.

tion, rather than by the effect of any specific legislative enactment. The ancient laws, which vested the administration of justice in the aristocracy, continued to be a cause of poverty amongst the tenantry of the country. Every gentleman of considerable estate possessed the power of a baron, or lord of regality, and by means of a deputy, who was usually his factor or land-steward, exercised the power of dispensing justice, both civil and criminal, to those in his neighbourhood. In the most ordinary class of law suits one party was thus constituted the judge in his own cause; for in all cases betwixt landlord and tenant, the questions were decided in the court of the baron, where the landlord, by means of an obsequious deputy, in fact possessed the judicial power. The nature of the engagements between the proprietor and the cultivator of the ground, rendered the situation of the latter one of great hardship. The tenants usually held their farms from year to year, and from the general poverty of the country, could pay but little rent in money. The landlords, who were usually struggling to educate their children, and set them out in the world, were also necessitous, and pursued indirect expedients for subjecting the tenants in services of a nature which had a marked connexion with the old slavish feudal tenThus the tenant was bound to grind his meal at the baron's mill, and to pay certain heavy duties for the operation, though he could have had it ground more conveniently and cheaply elsewhere. In some instances he was also obliged to frequent the brewery of his landlord, in almost every case, he was compelled to discharge certain services, of driving coals, casting peats,* or similar domestic labour, for the proprietor. In this manner the tenant was often called upon to perform the field work of the laird when that of his own farm was in arrear, and deprived of that freedom of employing his powers of labour to the best possible account, which is the very soul of agriculture.

ures.

* i. e. Digging moss for fuel.