Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1854-08-09
Scotch Boys Traditions.

have seen at least two men who fought al
CullOden, one on the side of the King, the Other
on that of the Prnce,-~and, with these, not few
who witnessed the battle from distance. | have
conversed with an aged woman that had convers-
| ed, in turn, with an aged man who had attained
to mature manhood when the prosecutions oil
Charles and James were at their height, and re.
membered the general regret excited by the death
Of Renwck My eldest maternal aunt--the mo-
ther of cousin George remembered old John
Feddes, turned ofninety at the time and Johns
buccaneering expedition could not have dated la
ter than the year 1857. have known many
who remembered the abolition of the hereditary
Jurisdictions and have listened to stories of exc
cutions which took place on the gallows-hills of
burghs and sheriffdoms, and Of witch -burnings
perpetrated in town Links and baronial Laws
And have felt strange interest in these glimps-
es Of past so unlike the present, when thus pre-
sented TO the mind as personal "reminiscences, or
as well-attested traditions, removed from the o.
rignal witnesses by but single stage. All, for
instance, which have yet read of witch burnngs
has failed to impress me so strongly as the recol
lectons of an old lady WHO in l722 was carried
in her nurses arms,-fOr she was almost air in
fant at the time,-to witness a witch execution
in the neighborhood of Dornoch, the last which
took place in Scotland. The lady well remem-
bered the awe-struck yet excited crowd the light
ing of the fire, and the miserable appearance of
the poor fatuous creature whom it was klndled to
consume, and who seemed to be so little aware of
her situation, that she held out her thin shriveled
hands to warm them at the blaze. have
heard described, too, by man whose father had
witnessed the scene ,an execution which took place,
after brief and inadequate trial, on the burgh-
galows of Tain The supposed culprlt, Strath-
carron Highlander, had been found lurking about
the place, noting, as was supposed, where the
burghers kept their cattle, and was hung as spy !;
but they all, after the execution, came to deem
him innocent, from the circumstance that. when
his dead body was dangling in the wind, white
pigeon had come flying that way, and as 1t pass
ed over, half-encrcled the gibbet. My
grandfather's recolections Of CullOden were mere
Iy those of an observant boy of fourteen, who had
witnessed the battle from distance. lhe day,
he has told me, was drizzly and thick; and on
reaching the brow of the hill of Cromarty, where
he found many Of his townsfok already assembled,
he could scarce see the opposite land. But the
fog gradually cleared away first one hill top came
into view, and then another; TIL at length the
long range of coast, from the opening OF the great
Caledonian valley TO the promouory OF Burghead,
was dimly visible through the haze. little af-
ter noon there suddenly rose a round white cloud
from the moor of Culloden, and then second
round white cloud beside it. And then the two
clouds mingled together, and went rolling slant
ways On the wind towards the west ; and he could
hear the rattle of the smaller firearms mingllng
with the roar of the artillery. And then, in what
seemed an exceedingly brief space of time. the
cloud dissipated and disappeared, the boom of the
greater guns ceased, and sharp intermittent pat
ter of musketry passed on towards lverness. But
the battle was presented to the imagination, IN
those old personal narratives, in many diverse
form. have been told by an ancient woman.
who, on the day ofthe fight, was engaged in tend
ing some sheep on solitary common near Mum
lochy, separated from the moor of Culloden by
the Firth, and screened by lofty hill, that she
sat listening in terror to the boom of the cannon
but that she was still more scared by the con'inu-
Gus bowling of her dog who. sat uprigh on. his
launches all the time the firing lasted. with his
neck stretched out towards the battle, and "iook
ing as if he saw a spirit" "-Hugh .Miller's "INy
School and Nh !SchoolaaSterS."