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Allt lonndrainn in harmony murmurs,
Whilst the mavis its melody sings,
And far above through the evening sky
The trill of the lark clearly rings.
Once again thro' the heather and bracken
By the banks of the Spean I roam,
And hear " Eas na Smùide " as it thunders down.
And lashes the waters to foam.
Oh ! how dear are the bonnie thatched hamlets
That gladden the face of each hill ?
They shelter true gems, that are Scotia's pride.
For Highlanders dwell in them still.
I see their kind faces around me,
I can feel in the grasp from each hand,
A true noble heart, such as only beats
In our riigged, unconquered land.
But how sad Roy and Spean seem, wailing.
Near the spot where our old castle stood
With its plane-trees still bearing black scars of flames
Set by Cumberland's bloodthirsty brood.
My own loved home, I hear but the voices
Of strangers within thee to-day,
Dismantled and changed are thy ancient walls.
And thy children are far, far away.
Oh ! Lochaber, to me thou are fairest
Of scenes where all beauties abound.
And from childhood's days 'mid stalwart sons
I have ever true friendship found.
Now the mist from the mountain falls o'er thee.
The vision that charmed me is gone ;
And all that I see of Lochaber now
Is a sprig of white heather alone.
Having resigned martial compositions to her
sister, the Clan bardess, other poems need
not be quoted. Meantime we can only
express the liope that she will not forsake the
muses entirely, interesting as the sister art of
painting may be.
Since the above was written her very interesting
paper on " The Little People of Keppoch's
Country," has been published in the Clan Donald
year book of 1S99, and the following poem, which
has not hitherto been published :
UNDER TONES.
The whisperings and the sobbings 'xieath the rushing
rudJy streams,
A phiuthairag ! don't we hear it ? don t we hear it in
our dreams,
Ah ! m'eudail, ah ! m'eudail, 'twas surely yesterday.
Two bairnies we nestled upon the grassy brae 1
The Untie on the thornbush, the humming bees around.
As we listen to the music, the music underground.
The sunshine, the sunshine, how soon it fled away.
The glow upon the moorland was gone before the day
Tears showered upon the heath-bloom, dark mists
that hid the hill.
But m'eudail we hear it, we hear the music still.
—
!
How silent yon twilight !—the home -our home no
Chill, cheerless ; how fearful, that sullen, bolted door.
The sombre, stirless, pine-trees, the wailing in the
A phiutharag ! a phiutharag ! 'tis ever in my dreams.
I\IARTIAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE
MACDONELLS OF KEPPOCH.
As there is an intimate relation between poetry
and music, love and war, I shall now enumerate
the principal battles in which the MacDonells
(MacDonalds) of Keppoch were engaged. Having
been remarkable for their poetic genius and martial
achievements, I consider them to hold about
the foremost place among all the MacDonalds,
and to have been the most distinguished and
most loyal family in the Stewart cause in the
history of Scotland.
Beginning with the founder of the family,
AlastairCarrach, youngest brother of Donald,
Lord of the Isles, who was married to a daughter
of the Earl of Lennox, and flourished from about
A.D. 1380 to 1440-6 I shall briefly mention the
principal battles in which they, and the ])eople
of the Braes of Lochaber, fought during the
troublous times in which they lived.
1394*.—Alastair Carrach, 1st Chief of Keppoch,
who in a deed of 139S is styled " Magnificus
vir et potens," became Lord of Lochaber. By
order of his brother Donald, Lord of the Isles, of
connection with a dispute about the Earldom in
Ross, he laid waste the Valley of the Ness, and
miles of country were devastated by the Lochaber
men, and the Earl of Moray who governed the
district found it necessary to make terms with
Alastair Carrach on the 5th Sept., 1394, in whicli
they bind themselves to support each other, and
all the church lands and possessions of the
Regality of Moray were put under the Lochaber
chief's protection for seven years, f
1398.—Alastair Carrach seized the church lands
of Kinmylies and took upon himself the partition
of them.
1402.—He attacked and plundered the Canonry
of Elgin, and burned the town, for which he afterwards
made some amends, and some time after
^ The Lochaber MacDonalds also fought at Bannockburn
in 1314.
t Sec Loyal Lochaber, by W. D. Norie, pub. in 1893.
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