The Sun.
London, England, 1826-10-13 00:00:00

cnotus we shall speak below. The circumstances were
also divided into four parts common to both species of
compositions, viz. Titulus, Cantus, Sabah*, and
Apparatus, viz. the title,Qf the play, the music, the
dancing, and the scenery.
The difference between Tragedy and Comedy was
much as now, except that the interest of the tonna was
greatly enhanced by the fact that. it was-for the most
part founded in truth, and was confined entirely to
Kings, Princes, and Noblemen. Another distinction
is that well known one of the Cothurni and the
Socci, and therefore needs no further comment.
Every play was, according to Horace, to corteist of
not more or less than five acts; and moretwir, the
Romans deemed it improper to place'ruore than three
persons on the stage at once. Between revery settle
chorus appeared, which might have one or, many
speakers, and these speakers were Male or female,
according as the object of their. song was limas
or female. The song always was ' pertinent t*
so much of the play as was passed, or covertly bal•
mated what was to follow. The introduction of acts
was an invention, in order that the' attention 'of the
audience might not be wearied by incessant **ra-
tion ; and between them the chorus appeared, and
sometimes hunting, fencing, and other kinds of sport,
were then interposed. These interludes ware termed
Diludia. All these kinds of plays were called Pal-
liatce, when acted after the Grecian manner, and-To-
gatce, when done after the Roman manner.
Now, supposing the Theatre filled, and the actors
on the stage, if the matter performed was particularly
pleasing to the audience, they expressed their feelings
by excLiming ,Rene,' recte, pulchre, and if carried to a
very great extent, they were then said Fravere tub.
sellia, in allusion to which expression Virgil has this
line—

Et eantu venire rumpunt lama cicada,
to i►►timate the noise made by a large assembly of grass-
hoppers. In the absence of positive information, we
may conclude that their disapprobation was expressed
by hissing and groaning, and other means applicable to
the object of their warfare ; and on this occasion the
teen, frangere subsellia might perhaps with more truth
be applied.

NOTICES OF THE CLANS.

THE MASERS.

In spite of the lofty pretensions which the High.
landers arrogate to themselves, to a pure Celtic origin,
there is scarcelya name of any eminence among the
Clans, but refutes the assertion. " The Grants," of
whom we lust treated, bear the indelible stamp of Norman
ancestry. And the azure field of fmiseit marks out the
" Frasers" as a branch from the same root. No truth
can be clearer than that Teutonic Barons effected settle-
ments, and atchieved conquests in the Highlands; Whilst
the era of these events may generally be traced with Much
certainty, than the traditionary tales of our countrymen will
allow. The family of Fraser make a distinguished figure
in our national annals in very remote ages in East Lothian
and Peebles-shire; and rose to eminent luitre as Lords
of Oliver Castle. This branch were the head of the name,
and its Chiefs were High Sheriffs of the County of Tweed-
dale, as early as the reign of Malcolm IV. styled the
Maiden ; though in a donation of his Majesty to the Abbey
of Kelso, there is this remarkable clause " Pratcipio etilllll
" ut prtedicta ecelesia de Inverlattian in qua prim* mete
" corpus filii mei post obitum suum quievit." Sir Gilbert
Fraser was the proprietor of the extensive domains of
Oliver Castle in the reigns of Alexander IL and 111. He
was the father of three eminent sons : Sir Simon—one of
the arbiters for determining the Bailors succession to the
throne ; Sir Andrew of Caithness, dominus Touch,and
Sheriff of Stirling; and William, of St. Andrew's
and Chancellor of the Kingdom.
Sir Simon was the father of that gallant patriot of the
same name, the friend and companion of Wallet* and
Bruce, and doomed like the first to expiate his attachment
to liberty on the block, A.D. 1306. In him perished tlra
direct male line of the ancient 'Primers : his deughtertme.
ceding to his mates. Sir Andrew, hie uncle,now became
the head of the family; and we find him settled in Caith-
ness (a district then included in Inverness-Shire) in 1206.
From him the family of Lovat deduce their direct descent,
through his eldest son Simon, who married Margaret, one
of the heiresses of the Earldom of Caithness; and froth
the latter they also derive their patronyniic of " Mae.
shimi." This Simon had a brother Sir Alexander, (Cham-
berlain of Scotland) who married the Princess Mary Binee
about 1316, and whose succession terminated in a female.
It is from an inattention to the era and characteristics
this Knight, that the disputed precedency of the Lovat
and Saltoun Families hay its source. We shall endearonr
to condense in as few words as possible, a question which
ha. been already put at rest by legal proofs, in a late pub-
lication.—Anderson's Ilidory of Fraser*, 38, 39.
The Frasers, of Philorth,
,claiin as their ancestor Alex-
ander Fraser, of Cowie and Durris, whom they assume to
hare been Sir Alexander the Chamberlain, and the brother
of Sir Simon the patriot, executed in 1306; unfortunately
for this theory, the very authority on which it is Wilt—
(Barbour's Bruce) makes it clear that " Sir Alexander
Fraser" and his " brother Simon " were alive in 1308, at
the battle of Inverury ; and consequently this " Simon "
and the Knight of the tame name, must have been different
persons. This fact is further proved by a legal document
in the possession of Lord Arbuthnot. In the next place,
--iris said Sir Alexander Fraser, the Chamberlain, had a
son William, who was the immediate progenitorof this
spectable branch of the Fraser.. Here again we are mot
by the fact, that Sir Alexander's succession terminated in
a female before 1355, (Reg. Meg. Sig.); and that he was
only married to the Princess Mary (who died before 1324)
in 1316. Long before this period, Alexander Frazier,
of Collie and Dorris, was dead ; for William Piasters
the son of the late Alexander Fraser " swore fetiltY to
Edward I.; at Ferael, contiguous to the quarter where
the family estates lay, on reth July 1296; and he succeeded
his father in the properties of Collie and Dorris, as maybe
seen by the grant to him, in Robertson's Index, of thee*
lands, where it is added,—" quilk thanedom of Collie was
Alexander Fraser his father's." Here it cannot escape
observation, that Alexander of Collie is not even after his
death termed a Knight; a title which it has been legally
proved in the abovenientioned work, Sir Alexander the
Chamberlain held from 1308 to 1332, when he was killed;
whilst it is impossible to ['bow he ever possessed the
estate of Collie or Cowie. Thus, the Frasers of Philorth
are unhookedfrom the main or even collateral Oliver Castle
lies ; whilst the Lovuts are directly descended of the ,not
branch after the Great Sir Simon Fraser the pat4o.t
—and es such are the head of the name. That thefrWri,
of Philorth are of most respectable lineage, cett*l,„"
doubted ; but when they may have sprung from ,the
Fraser, of the South, is buried in the darkness of 6tiiitetttre.
That the above Sir Alexander, Ora Krnglrt,
.4!".
younger than his brother SiMon it demonstrated 'by his
succeeding his father in the ineonsideloble estate of Touch
in Stirling, whilst the the rest dormant in the north fell to
Simon.
Of the House of Lore
shell say nothing. The
world are already in possession of •accidents,," of
partaken of the moving
7oen ol their'intnalia, Thar
appear to have
etty much the same ratio as other
tdlyienashotvi /tax.
Lei is)li:d.
political chariot, in
tirsbut we derive at least one lesson fribm
the 1717 ands;f
thankfulness for Hying at a period when
his life,—tliar,u • n alike' to poor and to rich,
of hearing of their noted Lord of
despotts
eau wantonly sport with the
eedne petty re. "" • It
view%land Hiettels
WWI we take retroept.t.
perpetrated, net
ow many cruelties havebeers
lives or property of his inferiors.tive oflamirtable to think,
the chief, but even by many persons ishasa names were
hardly known beyond their tributary wilds.—lnvernete
Courier.