The Fair Maid of Perth | Page 6

some
opportunities of interesting contrast; and the tragic fate of the heir of
the throne, with its immediate consequences, might serve to complete
the picture of cruelty and lawlessness.
Two features of the story of this barrier battle on the Inch of Perth --the
flight of one of the appointed champions, and the reckless heroism of a
townsman, that voluntarily offered for a small piece of coin to supply
his place in the mortal encounter--suggested the imaginary persons, on
whom much of the novel is expended. The fugitive Celt might have
been easily dealt with, had a ludicrous style of colouring been adopted;
but it appeared to the Author that there would be more of novelty, as
well as of serious interest, if he could succeed in gaining for him
something of that sympathy which is incompatible with the total
absence of respect. Miss Baillie had drawn a coward by nature capable
of acting as a hero under the strong impulse of filial affection. It
seemed not impossible to conceive the case of one constitutionally
weak of nerve being supported by feelings of honour and of jealousy up
to a certain point, and then suddenly giving way, under circumstances
to which the bravest heart could hardly refuse compassion.
The controversy as to who really were the clans that figured in the
barbarous conflict of the Inch has been revived since the publication of
the Fair Maid of Perth, and treated in particular at great length by Mr.
Robert Mackay of Thurso, in his very curious History of the House and
Clan of Mackay. Without pretending to say that he has settled any part
of the question in the affirmative, this gentleman certainly seems to
have quite succeeded in proving that his own worthy sept had no part in

the transaction. The Mackays were in that age seated, as they have
since continued to be, in the extreme north of the island; and their chief
at the time was a personage of such importance, that his name and
proper designation could not have been omitted in the early narratives
of the occurrence. He on one occasion brought four thousand of his
clan to the aid of the royal banner against the Lord of the Isles. This
historian is of opinion that the Clan Quhele of Wyntoun were the
Camerons, who appear to have about that period been often designated
as Macewans, and to have gained much more recently the name of
Cameron, i.e. Wrynose, from a blemish in the physiognomy of some
heroic chief of the line of Lochiel. This view of the case is also adopted
by Douglas in his Baronage, where he frequently mentions the bitter
feuds between Clan Chattan and Clan Kay, and identifies the latter sept
in reference to the events of 1396, with the Camerons. It is perhaps
impossible to clear up thoroughly this controversy, little interesting in
itself, at least to readers on this side of Inverness. The names, as we
have them in Wyntoun, are "Clanwhewyl" and "Clachinya," the latter
probably not correctly transcribed. In the Scoti Chronicon they are
"Clanquhele" and "Clankay. Hector Boece writes Clanchattan" and
"Clankay," in which he is followed by Leslie while Buchanan disdains
to disfigure his page with their Gaelic designations at all, and merely
describes them as two powerful races in the wild and lawless region
beyond the Grampians. Out of this jumble what Sassenach can pretend
dare lucem? The name Clanwheill appears so late as 1594, in an Act of
James VI. Is it not possible that it may be, after all, a mere corruption
of Clan Lochiel?
The reader may not be displeased to have Wyntoun's original rhymes
[bk. ix. chap. xvii.]:
A thousand and thre hundyr yere, Nynty and sex to mak all clere-- Of
thre scor wyld Scottis men, Thretty agane thretty then, In felny bolnit
of auld fed, [Boiled with the cruelty of an old feud] As thare forelderis
ware slane to dede. Tha thre score ware clannys twa, Clahynnhe
Qwhewyl and Clachinyha; Of thir twa kynnis ware tha men, Thretty
agane thretty then; And thare thai had than chiftanys twa, Scha
Ferqwharis' son wes ane of tha, The tother Cristy Johnesone. A
selcouth thing be tha was done. At Sanct Johnestone besid the Freris,
All thai entrit in barreris Wyth bow and ax, knyf and swerd, To deil

amang thaim thare last werd. Thare thai laid on that time sa fast, Quha
had the ware thare at the last I will noucht say; hot quha best had, He
wes but dout bathe muth and mad. Fifty or ma ware slane that day, Sua
few wyth lif than past away.
The prior of Lochleven makes no mention either of the evasion of one
of the Gaelic champions, or of the gallantry of the Perth