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GEORGE, the second Marquis of
Huntly, before he succeeded to the marquisate, was captain of the Scots
Gens-d’Armes to Lewis XIII. of France, was a staunch adherent of Charles I.,
and was beheaded by the Covenanters on that account on the 30th March 1649.
Lewis, the third Marquis, was restored to his honours and estates by Charles
II.; and his successor, George, the fourth Marquis, was elevated to a
dukedom, as Duke of Gordon, on 1st November 1684. The Duchess, who was a
daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, retired to a convent in Flanders, and in
1711 excited no small attention by sending to the Dean and Faculty of
Advocates a silver medal with a head of the Chevalier de St George on one
side, with the British Isles and the- word Reddite on the other. This medal
they accepted, and a deputation who waited on her Grace to return their
thanks, expressed a hope that she would soon have an opportunity to
compliment the Faculty with another medal on the Restoration. Of Alexander,
the second Duke, who was a zealous adherent of the Stuart cause in 1715, the
following anecdote is related: A Protestant tenant, having fallen in
arrears, had his stock seized by the steward and advertised for sale. The
farmer, having waited on his Grace and told his sorrowful tale, had the
satisfaction of receiving an acquittance of the debt. As he was withdrawing,
he expressed a wish to know what the pictures and statues were that adorned
the ducal hall. “These,” said the Duke, “are the saints that intercede with
the Saviour for me.” “My Lord Duke,” replied the tenant, “I went to little
Sawney Gordon and muckle Sawney Gordon, but had I not come to your Grace’s
self, I and my bairns would have been turned out o’ house an’ ha’; would it
not, then, be better for your Grace to go directly to the one Mediator
Himself? ” It has been asserted that this was the means of converting his
Grace to the Protestant faith; but whilst it is probable that such a
conversation may have had its effect, yet it is more likely that this
important change was brought about by his Duchess, who was a daughter of the
Earl of Peterborough, and who brought up her numerous family in the
Protestant religion.
But to return to Ruthven Castle. By an Act of 1685, “the Castle and Burgh of
Barony” were appointed “to be called St George’s Castle and Burgh, with a
weekly market and six yearly fairs and a fair at Bellamore” (Biallidmore).
The proposed change of name appears never to have been adopted, and in
reference to this Dr Anderson of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
writes me as follows:—
“The entry you refer to occurs in a Ratification of the Marquisat, Earldom,
and Lordship of Huntly in favour of George, Duke of Gordon. It occurs first
as ‘Kingussie-beg, with the Burgh of Barony of Ruthven and weekly mercat
there on Friday.’ It again occurs further on in the document as ‘The said
lands and Lordship of Lochaber and Badenoch—upon the resignation of Robert,
Earle of Southesque, . . . together with the clause of novodamus of the said
haill lands, &c., . . . and the clause ordaining the Castle of Ruthven to be
called now and in all time coming St George’s Castle, and the Burgh of
Barony of Ruthven to be called now and in all time coming St George’s Burgh,
and the new erection of ane weekly mercat there upon Friday—and six free
faires yearly to be holden there . . . [the names by which they were to be
called are not filled in the blanks], each standing for the space of three
dayes, and, moreover, two free faires yearly to be holden on the lands of
Bellamore.’ It seems to me to be merely reciting from a previous deed. At
all events, it is not an Act of Parliament, and the probability is that the
proposal to change the name was never carried out. There are two of the
proposed changes just before it—viz., the Bogue to be called Gordon Castle,
and the Burgh of Barony of Inverlochie to be called now and in all time
coming Gordon’s Burgh.”
In the same year (1685) a ratification was granted to the Duke of Gordon of
the lordship of Badenoch, specifying the lands comprehended therein; of the
patronage of the kirk of Kingussie; and of the burgh of barony of Ruthven,
with a weekly market in the burgh on Friday. In 1689, General Mackay of
Scourie, who had that year been appointed by William and Mary “Major-General
of all forces whatever within our ancient kingdom of Scotland,” placed a
garrison of the royal troops in the castle under the command of John Forbes,
brother of Culloden. Soon afterwards a detachment of the army of Graham of
Claverhouse laid siege to the castle, and the garrison being in want of
provisions, capitulated on the condition that their lives should be spared,
and that they should be allowed to return to their homes on parole.
“In the end of May or beginning of June about sixty of the Clan Grant, under
their Captain, John Forbes of Culloden, marched into Mackay’s camp, bringing
the intelligence that the Castle of Ruthven in Badenoch, which they had
lately garrisoned, was now a smoking ruin. On the 29th May, Dundee had
summoned the Castle to surrender; and a few days later, after a sharp
encounter, the defenders, weakened by want of provisions and succours,
yielded to Keppoch. The garrison were allowed to march out with the honours
of war, but the Castle was given to the flames.”
In an Act of that year it is mentioned that “the house of Ruthven was burnt
in the second week of June 1689, by Viscount Dundee.”
The following letter, addressed by “Lieutenant Mackay of the garrison of
Badenoch to the Dutches of Gordone,” is, says Dr John Stuart, “very
characteristic, as evincing the amount of regard paid by the Highlanders of
Badenoch to a Royal Order as compared with that which they were ready to
accord to one from their feudal superior ”:—
“Ruthven Castle, the id day of Januarie, 1691.
“May it please your Grace,—
“The king my master haveing wrytten to severall cheifes of clans, and among
the rest to the laird of Clunie, to raise a companie for reduceing of the
rebels (as your grace may perceive by the inclosed copie of his letter), I
cannot but own that Clunie has showen himself very forward; only his kinsmen
out of respect and reference to your grace, and the family of Huntly, to
whom they are vassalls, refuse obedience without your grace’s order; and
seeing the McPhersons are a considerable family, and that ther carrage
heerin may be leading and exemplar to others, I wer much wanting to the
dutie I ow your grace, and the family your grace represents, as a friend and
a wel wisher, and to my master as a subject, especiallie in the statione I
now hold, if I did not by ane expresse, aquaint your grace wher the matter
strikes at. Give me leave then, with that submisione suits my mean qualitie
and statione, to suggest to your grace that it seemes convenient for his
majestie’s service, your grace send forthwith your positive order to your
bailies in this country to raise a companie of wel-armed men, in termes and
for the ends expressed in his majestie’s letter. Your grace sees the matter
requires hast, and the sooner the bearer is dispatched with your grace’s
order, the mor you show your affection to ther majestie’s government. In all
things that may concerne the welfare of your illustrious family [I shall be
ready] to aquit myself as becomes, Madam, Your Grace’s most humble and
affectionatt servant, Alexander Macky.”
The following “vindication” by the Macphersons to the Duke of Gordon in
1699, with reference to what is described as “one of the most wicked,
malicious, and notorious lyes” which could be invented by the “serpentine
witt ”of M'Intosh of Borlum, the Duke’s bailie in Badenoch at the time, is
certainly remarkable for its pungency and force of language:—
“Whereas we are informed that William M'Intosh of Borlum, Baillie of
Badenoch, hath reported one of the most wicked, malicious, and notorious
lyes that his serpentine witt could invent, or the devell could indyte to
him, to witt, that the country men of Badenoch, of the name of M'Phersone,
and particularly the fewers, hade sent message to him with John M'Pherson,
younger of Dalrady, declairing that thair only ground of quarrell with him,
and accuseing him of malversationes, wes be reason of his close noticeing
his grace the Duke of Gordone’s interest against them, and in particular his
marches with the saids fewers; and if he did forbear so to doe, that he
would be as acceptable to them as any baillie that ever they hade, and now
seing such a pernicious and malicious lye (which certainly wes never hatcht
or contrived without the concourse and inspiration of the father and author
of lyes) might tend to the raiseing sedition twixt the superior and his
wassells, and to the utter and quite depriving of the wassells of there
superior’s countinance and favor, and might incite him to enmitie against
them (which certainly wes their malicious enemie’s designe), theirfoir, and
in confutation of the said hellish intension, we have thought fite to
declair, lykas we underscribers do hereby declair, upoun our soul and
conscience, and as we hop to be saved at the great day of judgment, that we
never sent any such message to him, nor so much as talked of any such matter
to the said John M'Pherson or any else. Lykeas, I, the said John M'Pherson,
hereby solemnly swear upon my soul, and as I expect to be saved, that I
never receaved any such message from the country, or any one of them, nor
did deliver the samen to the said baillie, nor hade the least ground to doe
it from them, neither did I it of my own accord.
Wm. M'Phersone of Noid.
R. M'Phersone of Crathiecroy.
Malcome M'Phersone of Breakachie.
J. M'Pherson of Balchron.
Alex. M'Phersone of Phones.
J. M'Pherson of Cullinlind.
J. M'Phersone of Ardbrylache.
J. M'Pherson of Weaster Glenbenchor.
J. M'Pherson, younger of Dalraddie.
E. M'Phersone in Dellifour.
J. M'Pherson of Pitmean.
J. M'Phersone of Pitterhirne.
A. M'Phersone of Kyllihuntly.
A. M'Pherson, Stramasie.
Johne M'Phersone of Dalradie.
Alex. M'Pherson of Etterishe.”
Shaw, who had when a youth attended the school of Ruthven, and had seen the
last castle entire, thus describes it:—
“It stood on a green mount, jutting into a marshy plain. The mount is steep
on three sides, and tapering to the top, as if it were artificial; the area
on the top, about an hundred yards long and thirty broad; the south wall was
nine feet thick, through which the arched entry was guarded by a double iron
grate, and a portcullis ; the other walls were sixteen feet high, and four
thick, and in the north end of the court were two towers in the corners, and
some low buildings, and a draw-well within the court.”
Such was the old castle to which it is said Queen Mary frequently resorted
to enjoy the pleasures of the chase. Spottiswood mentions in his history
that the Queen “took the sport of hunting the deer in the forest of Mar and
Atholl in the year 1563.” Barclay in his ‘Defence of Monarchial Government’
gives the following interesting particulars :—
“The Earl of Atholl prepared for her Majesty’s reception by sending out
about two thousand Highlanders to gather the deer from Mar, Badenoch,
Murray, and Atholl, to the district he had previously appointed. It occupied
the Highlanders for several weeks in driving the deer to the amount of two
thousand, besides roes, does, and other game. The Queen, with her numerous
attendants, and a great concourse of the nobility, gentry, and people, were
assembled at the appointed glen, and the spectacle much delighted her
Majesty, particularly as she observed that such a numerous herd of deer
seemed to be directed in all their motions by one stately animal among them;
they all walked, stopped, or turned as he did— they all followed him. The
Queen was delighted to see all the deer so attentive to their leader, and
upon her pointing it out to the Earl of Atholl, who knew the nature of the
animal well, having been accustomed to it from his youth, he told her that
they might all come to be frightened enough by that beautiful beast.
‘For,’ said he, ‘should that stag in the front, which your Majesty justly
admires so much, be seized with any fit of fury or of fear, and rush down
from the side of the hill, where you see him stand, to this plain, then
would it be necessary for every one of us to provide for the safety of your
Majesty, and for our own; all the rest of those deer would infallibly come
with him as thick as possibly they could, and make their way over our bodies
to the mountain that is behind us.’ This information occasioned the Queen
some alarm, and what happened afterwards proved it not to be altogether
without cause; for her Majesty having ordered a large fierce dog to be let
loose on a wolf that appeared, the leading deer, as we may call him, was
terrified at the sight of the dog, turned his back, and began to fly thither
whence they had come; all the other deer instantly followed. They were
surrounded on that side by a line of Highlanders, but well did they know the
power of this close phalanx of deer, and at speed; and therefore they
yielded, and opposed no resistance; and the only means left of saving their
lives was to fall flat on the heath in the best posture they could, and
allow the deer to run over them. This method they followed, but it did not
save them from being wounded; and it was announced to the Queen that two or
three men had been trampled to death. In this manner the deer would have all
escaped, had not the huntsmen, accustomed to such events, gone after them,
and with great dexterity headed and turned a detachment in the rear ;
against these the Queen’s stag-hounds and those of the nobility were loosed,
and a successful chase ensued. Three hundred and sixty deer were killed,
five wolves, and some roes ; and the Queen and her party returned to Blair
delighted with the sport.”
Ruthven Barracks, of which the ruins now exist, were built in 1718 by the
government of the day on the site of the old castle for the purpose of
overawing the people of Badenoch after the Rising of “ Mar’s Year.” With
regard to its garrison and their intercourse with the inhabitants of
Badenoch, various legends survive. Indeed certain families are still pointed
out as bearing names that connect them with the English soldiers. A singular
league between one of its officers and Macpherson of Banchor forms an
amusing story. Even in its degradation the mound of Ruthven long continued
to be regarded as a rendezvous for the surrounding country, and it was to
its summit that the people of the district flocked to hold high jubilee when
the news arrived of the victory of Waterloo.
In MacGibbon and Ross’s able and interesting work, ‘ Castellated and
Domestic Architecture of Scotland,’ the existing ruins are thus described:—
“The building as it stands is entirely of the eighteenth century. Not a
vestige of any earlier work can now be traced. . . . The approach is by a
steep slope up the south-east side of the hill. There are here traces which
may perhaps have been formed in connection with older works. A separate
entrance led to the central court, between the main building and the
out-buildings to the west. The whole platform was surrounded with a wall, of
which only some portions now remain. It is not over two feet thick, and in
this respect, as well as its want of durability, it presents a striking
contrast to the walls of enceinte of the early castles. The main building
consists of a courtyard, seventy-five feet long by forty wide, surrounded
with buildings, those on the north and south sides being barracks, three
storeys in height, for the troops, and those on the east and west sides
being enclosing walls with a series of open arched recesses on the inner
sides. These were intended to support a wide platform (in the position of
the old parapet-walk) on which guns might be worked. The principal entrance
is in the centre of the east wall, and the access to the platform of the
wall was by outside stairs at the north and south ends. Access to the
platform of the west wall was obtained by a wide open staircase facing the
principal entrance. The portion to the stable-court was under this
staircase. The barracks contained two rooms on each floor with a central
staircase. The windows are all towards the courtyard—the opening in the
outer walls on each floor being loop-holes for musketry-fire. The enclosing
walls are all similarly loop-holed. The outside faces of the walls are
enfiladed from two towers at the north-east and south-west angles of the
quadrangle, exactly on the same principle as in the old Z plans. The
north-east tower appears to have contained the guard-rooms, and the
south-west tower the kitchen. The latrines were at the north-west and
south-east angles. Between the quadrangle and the detached building to the
north there is a large level grass-grown court suitable for drill. The
northern building has walls one storey high, with wide doorways, above which
there seems to have been a great loft in the roof approached by an open
staircase in the centre. These out-buildings were probably the stables, with
hay-loft above. The walls are loop-holed on the ground-floor like those of
the barracks, and have large windows in the gables. The small rooms
adjoining the stables were probably guard-rooms and harness-rooms. In this
eighteenth-century barrack we find a complete departure from almost all the
ideas which prevailed in earlier times. We also see here the more complete
carrying out of some of the ideas of which we have met with some partial
examples, as at Mar Castle and Corgarff.”
When the Rising of the ’45 broke out, the company of the royal forces
stationed in the barracks of Ruthven at the time joined Cope on his march to
Inverness, the barracks being left in charge of Sergeant Molloy and fourteen
men of the 6th Regiment of foot. So well adapted was the place for purposes
of defence that the sergeant’s party, small as it was, successfully resisted
the first attempt to oust them made by 200 of Prince Charlie’s followers.
Early in the following year, however, a more determined attack to obtain
possession of the barracks was made by 300 of the Prince’s adherents on
their way to Culloden, under the command of Gordon of Glenbucket; and
although the small band of Royalists were obliged to yield, yet for three
days they made so gallant a defence that they obtained an honourable
capitulation, and the dauntless sergeant was soon preferred to the rank of a
lieutenant.
The account of the defence of the barracks on the occasion given by the
gallant sergeant in a communication to his general is worth quoting:—
“Honoured General,—This goes to acquaint you that yesterday there appeared
in the little town of Ruthven above 300 men of the enemy, and sent proposals
to me to surrender this redoubt, upon condition that I should have liberty
to carry off bag and baggage. My answer was, ‘ That I was too old a soldier
to surrender a garrison of such strength without bloody noses.’ They
threatened hanging me and my men for refusal; I told them I would take my
chance. This morning they attacked me about twelve o’clock (by my
information) with about 150 men. They attacked ‘fore-gate’ and ‘sally-port,’
and attempted to set ‘ sally-port ’ on fire with some old barrels and other
combustibles, which took place immediately ; but the attempter lost his life
by it. They drew off about half an hour after three. About two hours after,
they sent to me that two of their chiefs wanted to talk to me. I admitted,
and spoke to them from the parapet. They offered conditions—I refused; they
desired liberty to carry off their dead men—I granted. There are two men
since dead of their wounds in town, and three more they took with them, as I
am informed. They went off westward about eight o’clock this morning; they
did the like march yesterday, in the afternoon, but came back at nightfall.
They took all the provisions the poor inhabitants had in the town, and Mrs
Macpherson, the barrack-wife, and a merchant of the town, who spoke to me at
this moment, and who advised me to write to your honour, and told me that
there were 3000 men all lodged in the corn-fields west of the town last
night, and their grand camp is at Dalahinny. They have Cluny Macpherson with
them prisoner, as I have it by the said information. I lost one man, shot
through the head, by foolishly holding his head too high over the parapet. I
expect another visit this night, I am informed, with their peteraroes; but I
shall give them the warmest reception my weak party can afford. I shall hold
out as long as possible.
“I conclude, honourable General, with great respect, your most humble
servant, Molloy, Sergeant.'”
The last historical incident in connection with Ruthven Castle, as the
building continued to be called, was the meeting of the remnant of Prince
Charlie’s followers after the battle of Culloden. In the expectation that
the Prince would still make a stand, Lord George Murray and the other chiefs
who remained with the army retired to Ruthven Castle, where, including
Cluny’s men, there assembled a force of from 2000 to 3000 men. The Chevalier
Johnston, who was an eyewitness of what occurred at the time, writes in his
‘ Memoirs ’ of the ’45 as follows :—
“I arrived on the 18th at Ruthven, which happened, by chance, to become the
rallying-point of our army, without having been previously fixed on. There I
found the Duke of Athol, Lord George Murray, the Duke of Perth, Lord John
Drummond, Lord Ogilvie, and many other chiefs of clans, with about four or
five thousand Highlanders, all in the best possible disposition for renewing
hostilities, and for taking their revenge. The little town of Ruthven is
about eight leagues from Inverness, by a road through the mountains, very
narrow, full of tremendously high precipices, where there are several passes
which a hundred men could defend against ten thousand, by merely rolling
down rocks from the summit of the mountains. Lord George Murray immediately
despatched people to guard the passes, and at the same time sent off an
aide-de-camp to inform the Prince that a great part of his army was
assembled at Ruthven; that the Highlanders were full of animation and ardour,
and eager to be led against the enemy; that the Grants and other Highland
clans, who had till then remained neutral, were disposed to declare
themselves in his favour, seeing the inevitable destruction of their country
from the proximity of the victorious army of the Duke of Cumberland; that
all the clans who had received leave of absence would assemble there in a
few days; and that instead of five or six thousand men, the whole of the
number present at the battle of Culloden,—from the absence of those who had
returned to their homes, and of those who had left the army on reaching
Culloden on the morning of the 16th, to go to sleep,—he might now count upon
eight or nine thousand men at least, a greater number than he had at any
time in his army. Everybody earnestly entreated the Prince to come
immediately, and put himself at the head of this force. We passed the 19th
at Ruthven without any answer to our message, and in the interim all the
Highlanders were cheerful and full of spirits, to a degree perhaps never
before witnessed in an army so recently beaten, expecting, with impatience,
every moment the arrival of the Prince; but on the 20th Mr M'Leod, Lord
George’s aide-de-camp, who had been sent to him, returned with the laconic
message, ‘ Let every man seek his own safety in the best way he can.’ This
answer, under existing circumstances, was as inconsiderate in Charles as it
was heart-breaking to the brave men, who had sacrificed themselves in his
cause. However critical our situation, the Prince ought not to have
despaired. On occasions when everything is to be feared, we ought to lay
aside fear; when we are surrounded with dangers, no danger ought to alarm
us. With the best plans we may fail in our enterprises; but the firmness we
display in misfortune is the noblest ornament of virtue. This is the manner
in which a Prince ought to have conducted himself, who, with a rashness
unexampled, had landed in Scotland with only seven men.”
It has been supposed that the inconsiderate orders to disperse given by
Prince Charlie were due to bad advice. After receiving his despairing and
heart-breaking message, the officers assembled at Ruthven, held a brief
council of war, and resolved to set fire to the building to prevent its
falling into the hands of the Royalists. They then, we are told, “took a
melancholy leave of each other,” apparently realising that the “day of dool
” on dire Culloden had rendered all their sacrifices and enthusiastic
devotion to the cause of him whom they had regarded as their rightful king
altogether in vain, and that nothing awaited them but absolute ruin and
lifelong exile from their native hills, or perhaps even death on the
scaffold.
1. .
“The moorland wide, and waste, and brown,
Heaves far and near, and up and down—
Few trenches green the desert crown,
And these are the graves of Culloden!
2.
What mournful thoughts to me they yield,
Gazing with sorrow yet unhealed
On Scotland’s last and saddest field—
O, the desolate Moor of Culloden!
3-
Ah me! what carnage vain was there!
What reckless fury, mad despair! .
On this wide moor such odds to dare—
O, the wasted lives of Culloden!
4-
For them laid there, the brave and young,
How many a mother’s heart was wrung!
How many a coronach sad was sung !
O, the green, green graves of Culloden!
5-
What boots it now to point and tell,
Here the Clan Chattan bore them well,
Shame-maddened, yonder Keppoch fell—
Lavish of life on Culloden.
6.
Here Camerons clove the red line through
There Stuarts dared what men could do,
Charged lads of Athole, staunch and true,
To the cannon-mouths on Culloden.
7.
7In vain the wild onset—in vain
Claymores cleft English skulls in twain—
The cannon fire poured in like rain,
Mowing down the clans on Culloden.
8.
Through all the glens, from shore to shore,
What wailing went! but that is o’er—
Hearts now are cold, that once were sore
For the loved ones lost on Culloden.
9-
The Highlands all one hunting-ground,
Where men are few, and deer abound,
And desolation broods profound
O’er the homes of the men of Culloden.
10.
That, too, will pass—the hunter’s deer,
The drover’s sheep, will disappear;
But when another race will you rear,
Like the men that died at Culloden?” |
