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Sm ALEXANDER, 1st LORD MACDONALD.
Among our clan bards the distinguished subject
of the present sketch deserves a high place. Sir
Alexander MacDonald, sixteenth baron, and
ninth baronet of Sleat, was on the 17th of July,
1766, created a peer of Ireland by the title of
Baron MacDonald of Sleat and County Antrim.*
In May 1761 he obtained a commission as
ensign in the Coldstream regiment of Foot
Guards, and on the 3rd of INIay, 1768, he married
Elizabeth Diana, eldest daughter of Godfrey
Bosville of Gunthwaite, county of York, by
whom he had a family of seven sons and three
daughters.
He was educated at Eton, and turned out a
highly accomplished scholar and musician, and a
very keen politician. He took a considerable
interest in literature, and was elected a member
of the Society of Antiqiiaries. His taste for
music led him to encourage those who took an
interest in the arts. A celebrated harper named
O'Kane, who travelled in the Highlands in those
days, was often entertained by his Lordship, and
he used to be delighted and charmed with his
performances.
Gunn, in his work on the harp, published in
1805, remarks that " no one was better able to
feel and to estimate the superior talents of O'Kane,
for I can vouch Lord MacDonald to have been
one of our best amateurs on the violin, and one of
the best judges of musical talents of that period.
There had been for a great length of time in the
family a valuable harp key ; it was finely
ornamented with gold and silver, and with a
precious stone. This key is said to have been
worth eighty or one hundred guineas, and on this
occasion our itinerant harper had the good
fortune of being presented by Lord MacDonald
with this curious and valuable implement of his
profession.
In December, 1777, letters of service were
issued to his Lordship to raise a regiment in the
Highlands, with an offer of a lieutenant-colonelcy,
He declined the rank, but recommended that it
should be given to Major MacDonald, Lochgarry,
who was in consequence at once appointed.
Lochgarry raised a fine body of men, numbering
1086, which was afterwards known as the 76th or
* MacKenzie's History of the MacDonalds.
36
—
MacDonald Highlanders. His Lordship was
distinguished from the other barons of the family
by the appellation of the " Morair Ban," or the
fair-haired lord, and " being an English-bred
chieftain and given to increasing his rents, he
was somewhat unpopular with his principal
tenants, several of whom combined to keep the
lands at the old rents, and many of them feeling
keenly the hard pressure of the times, were forced
to emigrate."*
At the time of Dr. Johnson's visit to Skye there
was an emigrant ship, called the Nestor, in
Portree Harbour to carry off the emigrants. Dr.
Johnson's profound intellect saw at a glance the
mistake of " educating a young heir to a great
estate, at a distance from, and in ignorance of
the country where he has so high a stake ; he cannot
acquire a knowledge of the people, can form no
local attachment, be a stranger to his own
property and to his tenants, is often disgusted
with both, although the one is valuable by its
produce, and the other estimable in character."
In continuation of the same .subject Boswell
records the following conversation as having
occurred between his lordship and Dr. Johnson :
— " Were I in your place, sir," said Johnson, " in
seven years I would make this an independent
island, I would roast oxen whole, and liang
out a flag to the MacDonalds." Sir Alexander
was still stating difficulties. " Nay, sir," continued
Johnson, " if you are born" to object, I
have done with yon ; sir, I would have a magazine
of arms." Sir Alexander, " They would rust."
To which Johnson replied : " Let tliere be men
to keep them clean ; your ancestors did not let
them rust. Four years after this. Sir Alexander
found that arms put in the hands of his people
would not be suffered to ruse, and that when an
opportunity offered they were ready to take them
up in defence of their country."!
Besides being a first-rate player on the violin
of classical and general music, Ìiis lordship composed
a number of strathspeys and reels, still very
popular, such as " Lord MacDonald'sreel," " Mrs
MacLeod, Raasay," " Mrs MacKinnon, Corry,"
and several others. A famous Sleat violinist,
named " Iain Ruadh (John Roy) Kennedy," was
a great favourite of his and used often to be
entertained at Armadale, in a musical capacity,
and it is said that on one occasion, at least, his
lordship tied Kennedy's arm to a chair, but the
result was almost the same as if it had been free.
The following is a selection from his poetical
effusions :
* History and traditions of the Isle of Skye.
t General Stewart's Sketches of the Highlanders,
vol. II., pp. 21-420.