The chiefs of Grant - Electric Scotland

4G4
MARCH OF THE STllATHSPEY HIGHLANDERS TO ELGIN
IN ]8i!0.
Lady Anne Grant was a h.dy of great pei'sonal beuMiy and aceuni]ilisli-
ments, and was looked up t- \vitli jirlde by every one on the widi'-
extended estates of Grant, and_ ospecially 1)y the Highlanders ol' Strathspey,
where rrom her infancy she Iiad ])eeu well known and almost idolised.
Proof of tliis was given in a remarkahle manner in 1S20, during a contested
election of a ^lemlicr of Parliament for tlie Pmghs of Elgin, Inverurie,
Banff, Kintore, and Culk'n, commonly known as the Elgin Ijurghs. In
Elgin particulaily, where Lewis Earl of Seaiield, with his sisters Amie,
Margaret, and Peiuiel, resided at their mansion of (irant Lodge, political
feeling ran high. The contest lay between Mr. Earquharson of Einzean,
brougdit forwai-d by Lord Kintore to represent the burg] is, and supported
by the Earl of Seatield's interest, on one side, and General Duff, backed by
Lord Fife, on the other, and the burghers of Elgin strongly fivoured the
cause of tliC latter. During the heat of the election the Grant ladies
dared scarcely appear on the streets of the town without being annoyed by
the rabble. Such conduct the high-spirited Lady Anne could ill lax.ok, and
on the morning of Simda}-, 12th :^Iarch, she communicated to her friends in
Strathspey intelligence of the treatment to which she and her sisters were
being subjected. What folhA\ed may be given in the words of one who
was°an eye-witness and actor in the proceedings.' Grant Lodge was com-
pletely l)eleaguered by the towns people, %vho were all on the Fife side—not
a soul was allowed to go in or out of the house, and those of the Town
Council wlio were favourable to Colonel Grant were carried across the
Firth to Sutherlandshii-e in an open boat, frightening the poor bodies out
of their lives. Lady Anne contrived the escape of one of her g rooms
' Gcucral Sir Patrick (irai.t. Governor of the in the military service of his country, his earliest
Koval Jlo^i.ital, ehel3e.-v, who h.is, .U the age of 7S, canii'ai-n from Strathspey to Elgin remains still
furiHHhed an account of this episode with his own vivi.Uy impressed on his memory. W ith a touch ot
hand. .\t the time of the raid to Elgin he was his youthful e.ithusiasm, Sir Patrick s.ays, " It was
only a hoy of fifteen years. But although in tlie my first campaign, and I look back to it with nn-
intervening perinrl lie has risen to high distmctiuii mixed dilight.