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Unpublished Letters of Simon 12th Lord Louat. 3G7
of life has hardly passed away as yet in the outer isles, and the
literary, one might say the ceremonial, beauty of it, as well as its
social charms, are happily described and illusti-ated by Mr Carmichael
in an interesting paper entitled "Grazing and Agrestic
Customs in the Outer Hebrides" which he furnished to the
Crofters' Commissioners, and which is printed in the A])pendixto
their Report
The argument might be pursued and pressed on other grounds,
on patriotic as well as on linguistic grounds, but for the [)r(;sent I
have, perhaps, said enough. A thorough and systematic investigation
of our Gaelic dialects is of the highest importance. Many
members of the Gaelic Society of Inverness are, from early train-
ing, special 02)portunity, and interest in the subject, peculiarly
fitted to deal with it. I beg most earnestly to recommend it to
their attention.
21sT April 1886.
On this date the Secretary (Mr William INIackenzie) read
(1) a paper entitled "Some Unpublished Letters of Simon, 12th
Lord Lovat," contributed by Donald Cameron of Lochicl ; and (2) a
paper on " Granting Diplomas of Gentle Birth, ike, by Scottish
Kings—Case of Lieut. -Colonel Monro of Obsdale, 1663," by Mr
Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, M.P.
Lochiel's paper was as follows :
SOME UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF SIMON 12th
LORD LOVAT TO LOCHIEL OF THE '45.
The interest which attaches to all that concerns the history,
or illustrates the character of the celebrated Simon Lord Lovat
renders it unnecessary to offer to the members of the Gaelic
Society of Inverness any apology for the following cont'-ibutions
to a study of the public and private life of tliat extraordinary
man. The following extracts are t-aken from a packet of letters
given some years ago to the writer of this paper through the
coTu-tesy of the representative of a family allied to his own as well
as to that of the author of the letters. By far the greater number
of documents contained in the packet consist of letters addressed
by Lord Lovat to the Lochiel of '-to, and are almost all
of a private nature, reference to to[)ics connected with current
political events being few and far between. It is, indeed, probable
that in the stormy period immediately succeeding the date of most
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