Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...
Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...
Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...
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<strong>of</strong> rare plants. Sir Walter Scott, in The Lord <strong>of</strong> the Isles, was moved to write <strong>of</strong> them: "A scene so rude, so wild as this/Yet so<br />
sublime in barrenness."<br />
John MacLeod was born John Wolrige-Gordon, 10 August, 1935, the second son <strong>of</strong> Captain Robert Wolrige-Gordon, MC. His<br />
(40 minutes younger) twin brother, Patrick, was to become a Tory MP. The boys' mother was the daughter <strong>of</strong> Dame Flora MacLeod<br />
<strong>of</strong> MacLeod, the 28th clan chief, who named John as her heir in 1951, when he changed his name to MacLeod <strong>of</strong> MacLeod. The<br />
clan traces its origins to the 13th century, when Leod, the son <strong>of</strong> a Norse king, gained possession <strong>of</strong> much <strong>of</strong> Skye.<br />
After Eton, John went to McGill University, Montreal, <strong>and</strong> the London Academy <strong>of</strong> Music <strong>and</strong> Dramatic Art, where he was a<br />
contemporary <strong>of</strong> Janet Suzman <strong>and</strong> Donald Sutherl<strong>and</strong>; he then began a career as an actor.<br />
Dunvegan <strong>and</strong> its surrounding 30,000-acre estate were, however, to become his life. To mark his 21st birthday there was a clan<br />
gathering at Dunvegan attended by MacLeods from all over the world; the Queen <strong>and</strong> Prince Philip also made an appearance. John<br />
<strong>and</strong> his twin brother received gold watches from the United States MacLeods; opal cufflinks from the Australian MacLeods; silver<br />
spoons from the Vancouver MacLeods.<br />
John took over at the castle when he was 30, Dame Flora continuing to live as his tenant in the south wing for another 12 years; on<br />
her death, in 1976 at the age <strong>of</strong> 98, he succeeded as the 29th clan chief.<br />
Money had long been a problem. According to historians, the decline began with the 22nd chief, known as the Red Man, who was<br />
suspected <strong>of</strong> murdering his wife <strong>and</strong> who had generated animosity by failing to support the Jacobite uprising <strong>of</strong> 1745. The 25th chief<br />
was forced to let out the castle <strong>and</strong> work in London as a clerk.<br />
Dame Flora had had to sell <strong>of</strong>f large tracts <strong>of</strong> the estate, <strong>and</strong> MacLeod decided to open Dunvegan to the public, turning it into one <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>Scotl<strong>and</strong></strong>'s most popular tourist attractions. The castle boasts many items <strong>of</strong> interest, including portraits by Raeburn <strong>and</strong> Z<strong>of</strong>fany,<br />
Flora Macdonald's stays <strong>and</strong> Rory Mor's drinking horn, from which each new MacLeod chieftain must quaff a litre <strong>of</strong> claret to prove<br />
his manhood (when his turn came, John MacLeod managed it in one minute 57 seconds).<br />
In 1996, in an attempt to raise money, MacLeod dem<strong>and</strong>ed that two cr<strong>of</strong>ters running a salmon-farming business paid for access to<br />
the sea, invoking a 17th-century feudal law to claim ownership <strong>of</strong> the foreshore. He wanted £1,000 a year for crossing the beach<br />
<strong>and</strong> £54 for every ton <strong>of</strong> salmon l<strong>and</strong>ed.<br />
MacLeod was a genial man who was genuinely distressed by the controversy which had surrounded him for the past seven years.<br />
His great love was music: he had a fine singing voice which can be heard on a CD <strong>of</strong> Scottish folk songs called MacLeod <strong>of</strong><br />
Dunvegan, <strong>and</strong> each year he held a chamber music festival in the drawing room at Dunvegan.<br />
John MacLeod married first, in 1961 (dissolved 1971), Drusilla Shaw. He married secondly, in 1973 (dissolved 1992), Melita Kolin, a<br />
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