Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-26
The Oldest Man ia Great Britain.
 TPau Mall Hozatta

[Pall Mall Gazette.I
 Hugh Macleod, crofter, More6eld, parish of Loeh Broom, county of Ross, Scotland, | was born in the adjoining parish of Assynt, | township of Elphin, Sutherlandshire, on the
 24th day of November, 17S3, so that he Is l nov in his 107th year. He is still, as his likeness shows, 'tas straight as lamp-post." l" l He say he gets up in summer between five ] and six A. M., and goes to bed at nine P. M. In winter he rises at eight A. M., and retires at tea P. M. ''I had" he says, ito dropt the croft, as could not cultivate it at last, but I still clt my own fire (pests), and carried home on my back creelful of peats (eighty- four pounds) yesterday" Continuing, he states: ''I take porridge and milk for
 breakfast, as I always did throughout nay life; potatoes and herrinSs and fish and nut
 ton (salD when I can get it." While in this
 humor he observed that he had grown fond
 of tea, which was absolutely unknown in on chewing ''thn twist" That extrsordi- nary vitality and strength are still left to him is proved from the fact that he carries home his turf in loads of three-quarters ot 8 hundred- weight, distance of nearly mile, | one-fourth of which is up very steep as- cent and over 8 stony, rugged foot-psth. Like his father, who was a weaver, he WIS | himself craftsman alEo-a carpenter and joiner, and in this capacity he went much about the Western isles, where we heard 8 great deal about British empire. making l from the mouths of men fresh ''from the l fields of battle gory, from amidst the tolls of war;" and bearing on their bodies too 1 evident marks of that proud fact. For the first seventeen years of his life, being also | the last of the last century, well as the most eventful period of European history, l he is veriteble walking encyclopaedia of l historic lore "You have also met many man who had been pressed into the navy?' 1 "Yes" he said, "I have-men who were
 afoat with Rodney, Duncan, and Nelson 1 lads of my own acquaintance. They, or i some of them, were present at St. Vincent, 1 Camperdown and the Nile. But the most of people whom I met then were those who ] were taken away to fill the ranks of the l SeyenIy-eighth, Seventy second, and Seven i ty-frst Highlanders, all from the county of 1 Ross, to contend with equal success against l Turk, Tartar, Hindu, American, Indian, or l Frenchman-many thousands of them where | not as many tens could be got now"
 l Our friend in his day gave very palpable l and tangible proofs that he was possessed of | other courage than that which Highlanders l generally possess. Scott says:
 1 The Highlander whose red cIaymore
 l Has turned the tide on NIaiGa's shore
 Will, on a Friday morn, look paie,
 1 If asked to tell a fairy tale
 But at the disruption QS43), though every 1 soul in his township, and also in the parish except less than half-a-dozen went over | to the Free Church, Hugh stood out for the establishment firm as Cape Wrath; and Erasmus himself might feel proud of him as an expounder of his principles Now, few or none, except Scotchman, and especially Highlander, can appreciate the great amount of moral eourage-courage far above | that which wins battles-which it was l could take up such position. For the peo- pie there are all divided into Presbyterian sheep and goats, and there are no other | hoeks of Romish, Episcopalian, Wesleyan, l or Congregational animals into which stray sheep could run to hide itself. All the l same, he has ever been man who pursued l a transparently blameless and honest cours l of life; and as 8 theologian, which every 1 Scotsman must necessarily be more or less, l just as an Irishman must bs a politician, he has and had few equals. That he is and 1 ever was fine specimen of his class, clan, | and race-broad- -shouldered and six feet in | his stockings-goes without saying it; yet l this is the breed that landlordism generally. I and the Duke of Argyll particularly, would l dearly like to exterminate in the Caledonian land. There are three other centensriaus in the same parish, but Hugh is the patriarch of them all, which fact proves beyond doubt
 that Loch Broom is the finest sanitorium in the British Isles. It is thirty miles from a
 railway station. Having now no family re-