[808] ’Very near the house of Maclean stands the castle of Col, which was the mansion of the Laird till the house was built....  On the wall was, not long ago, a stone with an inscription, importing, that if any man of the clan of Maclonich shall appear before this castle, though he come at midnight, with a man’s head in his hand, he shall there find safety and protection against all but the king.  This is an old Highland treaty made upon a very memorable occasion.  Maclean, the son of John Gerves, who recovered Col, and conquered Barra, had obtained, it is said, from James the Second, a grant of the lands of Lochiel, forfeited, I suppose, by some offence against the state.  Forfeited estates were not in those days quietly resigned; Maclean, therefore, went with an armed force to seize his new possessions, and, I know not for what reason, took his wife with him.  The Camerons rose in defence of their chief, and a battle was fought at Loch Ness, near the place where Fort Augustus now stands, in which Lochiel obtained the victory, and Maclean, with his followers, was defeated and destroyed.  The lady fell into the hands of the conquerors, and, being found pregnant, was placed in the custody of Maclonich, one of a tribe or family branched from Cameron, with orders, if she brought a boy, to destroy him, if a girl, to spare her.  Maclonich’s wife, who was with child likewise, had a girl about the same time at which Lady Maclean brought a boy; and Maclonich, with more generosity to his captive than fidelity to his trust, contrived that the children should be changed.  Maclean, being thus preserved from death, in time recovered his original patrimony; and, in gratitude to his friend, made his castle a place of refuge to any of the clan that should think himself in danger; and, as a proof of reciprocal confidence, Maclean took upon himself and his posterity the care of educating the heir of Maclonich.’  Johnson’s Works, ix. 130.

[809] ’Mr. Croker tells us that the great Marquis of Montrose was beheaded at Edinburgh in 1650.  There is not a forward boy at any school in England who does not know that the Marquis was hanged.’  Macaulay’s Essays, ed. 1843, i. 357

[810] It is observable that men of the first rank spelt very ill in the last century.  In the first of these letters I have preserved the original spelling.  BOSWELL.

[811] See ante, i., 127.

[812] Muir-fowl is grouse. Ante p. 44.

[813] See ante, p. 162, note 1.

[814] ’In Col only two houses pay the window tax; for only two have six windows, which, I suppose, are the laird’s and Mr. Macsweyn’s.’  Johnson’s Works, ix. 125.  ’The window tax, as it stands at present (January 1775)...lays a duty upon every window, which in England augments gradually from twopence, the lowest rate upon houses with not more than seven windows, to two shillings, the highest rate upon houses with twenty-five windows and upwards.’ Wealth of Nations, v. 2. 2 .1.  The tax was first imposed in 1695, as a substitute for hearth money.  Macaulay’s England, ed. 1874, vii. 271.  It was abolished in 1851.