Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

;MONTROSEMONTROSEThe church became a collegiate charge shortly before he took possession of the island of Inchbrayock, andthe Revolution, the inhabitants agreeing to tax themselveserected an earthwork to protect his men. The samefor a stipend to the second minister. This was afternoon a French vessel, which was coming in withduring the time of the last Episcopal clergyman, David troops, was run on shore out of reach of the Hazard's''Lyell, who had been a presbyterian, but had conformed. guns, her cannon were dragged to land and mounted atHe does not seem to have found his conscience quite easy the island, and the fire opened from these at last compelledunder the change, or at any rate must have harpedthe government ship to surrender. The 'Hazard'uncomfortably over it, for, some ' days before his death, proved for a time serviceable to Prince Charles Edward,as he was walking in the links about the twilight, at a but early in the following year she was driven ashore atpretty distance from the town, he espyed, as it wer, a the Bay of Tongue and lost to the Jacobites, as was alsowoman all in white standing not far from him, who a large sum of money then on board. Admiral Byngimmediately disappeared, and he, coming up presently came to avenge her capture, but had to confine himselfto the place, saw nae person there, though the links be to sinking the long boat of a French vessel that wasvery plain. Only casting his eye on the place where lying off the coast. In 1746 the Duke of Cumberlandshee stood, he saw tuo words drawn or written, as it passed through the town — the site of the househad been with a staff upon the sand, "Sentenced and where he slept being now occupied by the Nationalcondemned ; " upon which he came home pensive and Bank—and a garrison was posted at the place, notwithstandingmelancholy, and in a little sickens and dyes.'which, on 10 June (the anniversary ofOn 21 Dec. 1715 the vessel in which the Chevalier had the old Chevalier's birthday), the Jacobite ladies showedsailed from France made its appearance off Montrose, their constancy by wearing white gowns, while the boyswhere probably a landing would have been made had it made bonfires along the streets. The officer in commandnot been for the appearance of a ship which was suspectedof the station overlooked the matter, as he hadto be a man-of-war. On this account sail was no wish to punish ladies and children, but Cumberlandmade to the northward, and the actual disembarkation with his usual vindictive cruelty had him deprived oftook place at Petekhead. In the following year, however,his commission, and threatened to cause the children towhen all hope of success had vanished from the be whipped at the cross to frighten them from theirminds of the Jacobites, their forces in the retreat from bonfires, a threat which he is actually said to have hadPerth reached Montrose, where previous arrangements carried into execution in some cases, it being allegedhad been made for James to escape to France. Though that one of the culprits so treated was Coutts, afterwardsthe matter was kept a profound secret, a rumour of it the great London banker.had got spread abroad among the soldiers, and in order In 1773 Montrose was visited by Dr Johnson andto allay suspicion, the royal baggage had to be sent Boswell on their way from Edinburgh to the Hebrides.forward with the main body of the army during a night 'We found,' says Boswell, 'a sorry inn where I myselfmarch towards Aberdeen. James himself had his usual saw another waiter put a lump of sugar with his fingersguard paraded before the door of the house where he into Dr Johnson's lemonade for which he called himwas, as if for his departure, but slipping quietly out by " Rascal !" It put me in great glee that our landlorda back door, he joined the Earl of Mar, and both passed was an Englishman. I rallied the Doctor upon this,through the gardens to the water's edge, where a boat and he grew quiet. . . . Before breakfast [the nextwas ready to carry them on board ship. The house morning] we went and saw the town-hall, wliere is awhere he had spent the day—and which is said to have good dancing-room and other rooms for tea-drinking.been the same as that in which the Marquis of Montrose The appearance of the town from it is very well ; butwas born—has long been gone. It was the town house many of the houses are built with their ends to theof the Duke of Montrose, and stood behind Peel's street, which looks awkward. When we came downmonument at the S end of High Street. It was from it I met Mr Gleig, a merchant here. He wenthere that James wrote to the Duke of Argyll expressing with us to see the English chapel. It is situated on ahis regret at the misery caused by some of his pretty dry spot, and there is a fine walk to it. It isoperations, and teUing how he had left a sum of really an elegant building, both within and without.money to make good the losses sustained. 'Among The organ is adorned mth green and gold. Dr Johnsongave a shilling extraordinary to the clerk, saj'ing,the manifold mortifications I have had in this uufortunatexpedition, that of being forced to burn "He belongs to an honest Church." I put him inseveral villages, etc. as the only expedient left me for mind that Episcopals were but dissenters here ; theythe publick security was not the smallest. It was were only tolerated. "Sir," said he, "we are here asindeed forced upon me by the violence with which my Christians in Turkey.'" The Doctor himself records hisrebellious subjects acted against me, and what the}', as impression briefly. 'We travelled on to Montrosethe first authors of it, must be answerable for, not I which we surveyed in the morning, and found it wellhowever, as I cannot think of leaving this country built, airy, and clean. The town-house is a handsomewithout making some provision to repair that loss, I fabric with a portico. We then went to view thehave therefore consigned to the Magistrats of the English chapel, and found a small church, clean to asum of desiring and requiring of you, if not as an degree unknown in any other part of Scotland, withobedient subject, at least as a lover of j'our country, to commodious galleries ; and what was yet less expected,take care that it be employd to the design d use, that I with an organ.' The town in those days seems to havemay at least have the satisfaction of having been the had a number of beggars, for in the passage immediatelydestruction and ruin of none, at a time I came to freeremarks that when he had proceededfollowing, Johnsonall.' The letter was given to the officer left in command thus far he had opportunities of observing what he hadof the army, General Gordon, with instructions to fill never heard, 'that there are many beggars in Scotland,'up the blanks with the name of the town and the sum, though, to their credit be it said, that they solicitedbefore forwarding it to the Duke of Argyll, the money 'silently or very modestl}'.' The English Episcopalbeing the amount left over after providing for the subsistenceChurch that is mentioned is St Peter's, which wasof the army.founded in 1722, but was unfortunately bm'ned downFor a short time in 1745 the Royalists had their in 1857, just after it had been repaired.quarters here, but they were driven out by the Jacobites, Except a visit from Burns in 1787, and another fromwhose influence in the neighbourhood seems then to have the Queen, who took train to Perth from a temporarybeen considerable. The 'Hazard,' a sloop-of-war of 16 station near the present Victoria Bridge, on her returnguns and 80 men, was then sent to regain the position, from Balmoral in 1848, the town may be said to haveand entering the basin commanded the town vnth her no later history. Although since the latter part of lastguns, so that the anti-Government party were compelled century it has had less increase of population and lessto retire. Captain David Ferrier of Brechin, the growth of trade and industry than most towns of itsJacobite deputy-governor, was not, however, so easily class and in its position, it has yet thriven in a steadydispossessed of his prize, for entering the town at night way that is perhaps better than sudden bursts of pro-54