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him and to Margaret is boundless. Ewen hands over to Alastair Macpherson of Pitmain an Association which owes a great debt to his leadership. We will miss his ever cheerful handling of our meetings, but we still always have the benefit of his and Margaret's presence and of Ewen's jokes and musical skills! We send a heartful thank-you to them both.

      Our proposed visits abroad have been postponed this year for a number of reasons. Eliza's arrival made us put off our visit to Australia, and my removal from retirement (a temporary removal!) has made us put off our trip to South Africa and Malawi. But (old age permitting!) we will hope to revive plans for these visits later.

      We were fortunate to be at the USA Annual Gathering at Salt Lake City, which was well attended and very well managed by the Utah contingent, headed, of course, by Richard Barnes and his parents Elva and Dick. Yet again we salute the great enterprise and growth of the USA Branch, and cherish the close connection that exists between all its members and ourselves and our home based members and our Clan House and Museum. Many Clan Associations do not have this cohesion, and it is to my mind the very essence of the success and strength of our Association that our bonds with all our overseas Branches are so close. Our new Chairman Alastair and his wife Penny were also at Salt Lake. What a team they will be to manage us, supported by our new Vice-Chairman Larry Lee McPherson from Michigan, together with his wife Lillas.

      It is sad to have to note that in July 1997 Arlena MacPherson (the widow of the first USA Chairman Robert "Piobair") died in Massachusetts. We send our sympathy to their daughter and son, Susan and Bruce, who have both been to Scotland with their parents in past years. As Susan said to me in July the credit for the early sound foundation and continuing spirit of the USA Branch owed very much to Arlena as well as to Robert. We will sadly miss her great welcomes at their Belchertown homes.

      I close with my own and my family's tribute to one of the most stalwart of all our members, Archie (A. I. S. Macpherson, Master of Surgery), who died in April 1997. His full obituary is within this edition of Creag Dhubh. His influence and his wisdom have been the very substance of the development of our Association and the Museum at Newtonmore. And we will all have countless visions of him in past happier days before his suffering of recent years. We recall so well his joy in all that he did, and his impish sense of humour. I was honoured to be asked to speak about him at his funeral, and at the end I said this:- "Let us then now and for always cherish our own pictures and memories of this fine man. Outstanding surgeon, proud Highlander, all round sportsman and most loyal Clansman and friend. We salute him and we say farewell." We all know that his work and dedication to our Clan and Association will live on in our history and in their future development. He will indeed be sadly missed.

      From all of us at Blairgowrie we send good wishes for a happy and rewarding 1998, and all that it may bring to all our Cousins at home and abroad.

WILLIAM MACPHERSON OF CLUNY
Blairgowrie.
20 November 1997

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at the Annual General Meeting and John Macpherson from Montrose was appointed the first Chairman. On the Sunday, there was a moving ceremony at the Cairn site when a bench was dedicated in memory of John MacPherson of Paisley Lastly, we were very fortunate that Alan and Margorie Macpherson- Fletcher kindly offered Balavil House as the venue for tea on the Sunday afternoon because for the first time in many years Ewan and Zandra Macpherson of Glentruim were sadly unable to act as hosts at Glentruim.

      A few weeks after the Rally, Penny and I were fortunate to be able to join Cluny and Sheila at the United States Branch AGM held in Salt Lake City. Richard Barnes and his family organised an enjoyable schedule of events for all those participating, and for my part it was particularly instructive to see at first hand the enthusiastic way in which the US Branch handled its affairs.

In his 1997 message, Cluny paid tribute to Ewen's outstanding contribution as Chairman over the past three years. As his successor, I would particularly like to echo these sentiments because, as Vice-Chairman, I was able to see at first hand just exactly how much time and effort Ewen put into the Clan's affairs during his tenure in office.       Looking ahead, we need to focus on the future direction of the Clan Museum in Newtonmore and no doubt there will be much discussion on this subject. In the meantime, Penny and I and the Pitmain family would like to send you our very best wishes for 1998.

ALASTAIR MACPHERSON OF PITMAIN

      The second of these events is the 50th Anniversary of the Association's New Zealand Branch, which, according to Creag Dhubh No. 1, was formed as the Southland Branch after a meeting convened by Daniel Macpherson, Waianiwa, who became its first Chairman. It is fitting that Daniel's son, Ron, is the present Branch Chairman. The Golden Anniversary celebrations are described in the Branch's Annual Report and the accompanying photo. Congratulations, New Zealand!

      The third event is the 50th Anniversary of the East of Scotland Branch, which was formed in 1947 under the Chairmanship of the late A. I S. Macpherson, and was very active for many years. Unfortunately in this case we must also say farewell to the Branch, which is closing as part of the re-organisation resulting in the formation of one large Scottish Branch.

      We also have to say a sad farewell this year to one of the outstanding clansmen of this generation, in the person of the above A. I. S. (Archie) Macpherson, who died last April. A full obituary is to be found in the 'Deaths' section of this issue, but I should like to add

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my own personal tribute to his memory as a man of great courage, determination and foresightedness.

      We have a new Chairman this year, Alastair Macpherson of Pitmain, and I know that you will join me in welcoming him to the job, and will look forward to meeting him and his delightful family at the next Gathering in Badenoch.

      About 100 members and guests attended the Reception by Cluny and Lady Cluny in the Balavil's dining room, followed by the Highland Ball. The Kennedy Brothers Band played for the dancing, which took place on a smaller floor than usual, under the ever genial Master of Ceremonies, Andrew Gillies. An excellent supper meal was enjoyed, featuring 'deep-fried haggis'!

      Next morning at 10.30 a.m. Newtonmore Village Hall was well filled with clanspeople attending the Annual General Meeting. Among items discussed and approved were the possibility of setting up a separate Trading Company and the replacement of the existing Scottish Branches by one large Branch covering the whole of Scotland. Vice-Chairman Alastair Macpherson of Pitmain was unanimously elected Chairman (proposed by Cluny and seconded by Lord Macpherson of Drumochter) and was presented with the Cromag of Office by retiring Chairman Ewen S. L. MacPherson. Larry Lee McPherson was unanimously elected Vice-Chairman (proposed by Robert McPherson, U.S.A. Branch Chairman). The remaining officers were re-elected by acclamation. In closing the meeting, Cluny proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Ewen for all his hard work during his term of office, particularly in connection with the great success of the jubilee Gathering and the erection of the Cairn in memory of Ewan of the '45.

      Following the AGM a brief meeting of the new Scottish Branch was held, at which John Macpherson, Montrose, was elected Chairman and Shelagh Noble, Edinburgh, Vice-Chairman.

      The noon-time lunch by the Badenoch Branch of the Association at Newtonmore School was again much appreciated by members, who enjoyed Scotch broth followed by haggis, neeps and tatties.

      Clansfolk soon gathered at the Eilan to attend the Newtonmore Games, with the highlight being the Clan March, led onto the field by the Grampian Police Pipe Band. Although this year's contingent of kilted clansmen was smaller in number than last year's record turnout for the Jubilee Gathering, the 70 members marched on as proudly and strongly as ever, with banners flying and swords held high. They were well received by the large crowd attending the Games, and the Clan tent was very popular after the parade disbanded!

      A 'Happy Hour' followed later at the Clan Museum.

      In the evening the customary Ceilidh was held, again at the Balavil Hotel. On this occasion Rod Clarke wittily performed the role of fear-an-tighe, ably assisted by 'Tokyo' Bill Macpherson. Proceedings opened with the strains of the pipes, played by Hugo Macpherson. Next came Ruth MacPherson, from Pitlochry, a fine singer, accompanied at the piano and also on the clarsach by Duncan Sinclair. Rod Clarke and 'Tokyo' Bill showed their knowledge of Scottish songs in duets, with Bill at the guitar. Andrew Gillies provided his contribution to the entertainment with amusing stories. Young Donald Mackintosh (9) showed his budding talent on the chanter. He was followed by Richard Barnes, who played recorder solos and recited a poem of his own composition.

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      Iain Macpherson Middlemass, an accomplished jazz pianist, gave us several versions of familiar Scottish tunes! Next came Donald Macpherson, appropriately disguised with night-cap, gown and candle, for his recital of Burns' 'Holy Willie's Prayer'. Evan Cattanach's fine tenor voice was heard in Scottish songs. It was good to have him back again at our Ceilidh. Ian Robb provided a telling monologue on the subject of' Rumour'. Finally, Alan, Younger of Cluny, recited a poem by Montrose.

      This excellent evening's entertainment was followed by the usual informal 'Ceilidh after the Ceilidh', which continued until the voices were too hoarse to sing any more!

      A clear, bright Sunday morning saw a good turnout of clanspeople at the church service in St Columba's, Kingussie. The lessons were read by Cluny and Alastair of Pitmain, and Rev. Norman MacAskill preached an appropriate sermon on the subject of 'Time'. One group of members drove out to Gaskmore House Hotel for lunch, and another group enjoyed a picnic lunch beside the Cairn site at Shanvall.

      In the afternoon the crowd gathered at the Cairn site for the dedication of a new bench donated by his family to the memory of the late John MacPherson of Paisley, a former Chairman of the West of Scotland Branch (see'Deaths' in "Creag Dhubh" 1997). Alastair of Pitmain spoke warmly of John's service to the Clan Association, and John's son thanked Alastair for his kind remarks.

      Following this ceremony, the company dispersed to Balavil House, where afternoon tea was served on the verandah, at the kind invitation of Mr and Mrs Allan MacphersonFletcher, helped by family members. Tours of the interesting and historic house were appreciated by guests.

      The Gathering concluded on Monday with the usual walking tour conducted by Sandy Macpherson, on a route with the rather macabre title of 'The Coffin Road'. Rod Clarke has kindly supplied a description of the walk in a separate article.

      Warning us that it might not be true, Sandy told us of such a party that once bore a coffin along a long, rough dusty road on a hot Highland day. After traversing many miles, the burial party came to a place of refreshment, a pub if you insist, and repaired within it to refresh themselves, standing the coffin against the wall in the entry. After a period of time had elapsed (time was not a very precise quantity in those days), they resumed their trek and after a while reached the churchyard where they found the minister waiting, somewhat perturbed at their tardiness. After expressing their apologies, they suggested that the minister proceed with the burial ceremony. But the minister was perplexed saying, "Gentlemen, what would you have me do with this grandfather's clock?"

      We all groaned a bit at that and asked of the route we were to follow. Sandy replied, "In due time." The mystery persisted but we carefree vagabonds cared not a whit -- we

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revelled in the glory of the sunshine and moderate temperature that graced Badenoch that day. We boarded the cars that would take us to the actual start of the walking portion of the expedition and headed off up the Laggan road. On reaching that village, we took the right fork of the road which parallels the course of the River Spey and continued westward. After proceeding for a mile or two, we turned left on a side road that took us to a spot in the shadow of the Black Craig not far from Dùn DàLàmh, the iron-age fort we visited in 1995. This spot was where St Michael's Catholic Church once stood.

The Lost Parish of St Michael's
      Today the place is just another vacant field surrounded by bushes and trees. Once it had been the sacred place of worship for the Roman Catholic community that dwelled on the upper reaches of the Spey not so many years ago. St Michael's church wasn't ancient in the normal sense of things are in the Highlands having been erected in the 1840s to principally serve the now deserted township of Crathie that lay just north of the Spey at the mouth of Glen Markie. Before then and since, St Michael's was razed in the 1950s, Kingussie was the nearest church available to the Catholics of Upperspeyside. Actually St Michael's still exists in the sense that the monks of Pluscarden Abbey in Morayshire, five miles southwest of Elgin, are said to to re-erecting it there.

      Pluscarden Abbey is ancient, having been founded by King Alexander II as a Vascaulian order in 1230. It was damaged by 'proud Edward's'army in 1303 when they swept north and west to the shores of Loch Ness and the Abbey was burned by the'Wolf of Badenoch', Alexander Stewart, in 1390 as part of his foray against the Archbishop of Elgin. If the truth were to be known, some of your ancestors might well have been part of the Wolf's army when this deed was done because he was their feudal overlord and, as such, one did pretty much what he desired.

      I've not visited Pluscarden myself but I hope to do so someday soon. According to the Collin's Encyclopedia of Scotland (John and Julia Keay, Editors, 1994), Pluscarden was taken over by the Benedictines in 1454 but fell into disuse after the Reformation. In 1897 it was purchased by John Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. His son returned the ruins to the Benedictines in 1943 who began to restore it to the status of an abbey in 1948. This was finally achieved in 1974 and today it operates as an active religious community and a centre for spiritual renewal and retreat. Only a hour or so drive from the Museum, we are told that a visitor will be rewarded with the sight of a grand cruciform church and abbey buildings which contain some original frescos and magnificent modern stained glass. In addition, we might learn the present status of St Michael's.

As far as the original St Michael's is concerned, there is hardly anything to suggest what had once stood there. There is a small grove of yews and Sandy told us that if one scrounged in the undergrowth he might find the odd roofing slate or a nail or two to hint of its previous importance. Surprisingly, there were no grave markers to be seen; perhaps when it was desanctified any graves that might have been there were relocated to one that was sanctified. It was clear that we would have to look further for our coffin road. To that end, we reboarded our cars and proceeded westward toward Sherramore, a farm that lies just north of the road.

On To A Bridge Over No Water
      Just to the north of the road that one takes to Sherramore is Loch Spey which was created by the British Aluminium Company when they dammed the River Spey just to the west of Glen Markie. The dam was designed to store water for the production of electric power but was a contributory cause for the demise of Crathie township. Meta Humphrey Scarlett tells us in her book, In the Hills Where I Was Young, that Crathie was the last of the Badenoch townships to be abandoned in this century where earlier thirty families had lived. Loch Spey flooded the winter pastures for the sheep and although British Aluminium talked about plans for mixed farming and the production of timber

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for sale, "the old died and the young moved away ... Power from the glens did not necessarily mean power for the glens."

      Loch Spey becomes a river again just before reaching Sherramore, the place where we were to leave our vehicles and begin the walk. In arriving there we passed one of the Wade bridges remarkably well preserved for its two centuries of use. However, it gets precious little use nowadays because it sits out in the middle of a field just to the south of the River Spey. It would appear that in building the dam some miles to the east, the course of the river was straightened leaving the bridge with no reason to exist any longer except to prompt questions and photographs by the curious.

Where the Waters Flow Backwards
      At Sherramore we left the cars by the side of the road and entered a field that sloped upward to the south and west. The grass and wild flowers were profuse and frequently we encountered marshy ground caused by runoff from recent rains. Clearly this was no coffin road but Sandy maintained the aura of mystery putting off questions with a terse, "Wait and see."

      Presently, we came to a stream that appeared to be flowing SOUTHWESTWARD, away from the Spey, not toward it as one would expect because the land was increasing in elevation in the direction of flow. Here indeed was a mystery. At this point, Sandy told us the story of Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche (KOIN-ach OW-er FEEO-sachie), meaning 'Sallow-complexioned Kenneth the Soothsayer' in English. He was also known as 'The Brahan Seer' because he was said to have the power of'second sight', the ability to look into the future and predict strange happenings which were quite incredible at the time he made them in the mid 17th century.

      Most of what we know about Coinneach Odhar's predictions were set forth in Alexander Mackenzie's book published in 1877, The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer. As one might imagine, it was a best seller in its day and is still in print. Although modern scholars have disputed much of what Mackenzie wrote, the Seer's predictions seem to have a ring of truth to them, as least enough of one to make one wonder. For our purposes here, the prediction of interest is that he foretold that 'one day the waters of the Spey would flow into the Atlantic Ocean.'

      Now everyone at the time knew that, because of Drumalban -- the'continental divide' for Scotland -- the waters of the Spey must run into the North Sea. And here we were, standing to the cast of the divide and witnessing the waters running southwestward towards the Atlantic. The prophecy had been fulfilled when the British Aluminium Company tunnelled through Drumalban so that the excess waters of Loch Spey would flow into Loch Laggan and from there to the hydroelectric facilities situated near Fort William. With that mystery cleared up we could now seek the coffin road that would take us to our destination.

Following the Coffin Road Across Drumalban
      Walking southward for a half-mile we reached that road albeit we could have taken it right away from Sherramore had we not been led to the mouth of the mysterious tunnel. In fact, the road appears to be along the centreline of the tunnel which I judged later to be about two miles in length. It was all up-hill, of course, until we had crossed Drumalban and then even I had to admit that it was slightly down-hill. And that was a blessing for across the crest we encountered a magnificent view of Loch Laggan, with the spires of Ardverikie towering like a Bavarian Castle on the far shore and its two islets -- the Isle of the Kings and the Isle of Dogs -- lying close by. It was too glorious a sight to squander and it was here that we paused to eat the lunches that we brought with us.

      Before we finished our picnic we heard a strange sound in the distance which seemed to be coming from just over the lip of the slope. Presently the source of the noise appeared -- a bicyclist came into view, pedalling away in his lowest gear, perspiring in warm sun and panting from the exertion. He was a holidayer from some nearby cottage, out for a ride and 'doing his thing. We waved and spoke encouraging words but he just smiled and kept on pedalling along the road we had recently walked.

St Kenneths Churchyard, Devoutly Preferred to Any Other       With our inner needs satisfied by food and rest, we resumed the trek along the coffin road. Our route took us downhill in a southeasterly direction until we joined the Fort William road at Kinlochlaggan where the Pattack Water flows into the Loch. This is a road well-travelled by fast-moving automobiles and we were somewhat apprehensive as we picked our way along its northern shoulder. Presently we came in view of our destination -- St Kenneth's Churchyard.

      St Kenneth's lies just a hundred yards or so off the highway but unless you knew it was there you wouldn't notice it. It is walled and heavily tree shaded with an ancient aura about it. We entered through wrought-iron gates and before us lay many grave markers, relatively well-kept. Off to the right are the ruins of a chapel, heavily overgrown with ivy and other vegetation. The whole, a venerable site, indeed.

      St Kenneth was one of St Columba's companions on his first visit to King Brude at Inverness and is said to have founded several monasteries in Scotland. Sir James Skene in his Celtic Scotland relates that he "dwelt at the foot of a mountain in the Drumalban range, referring no doubt, to the Church of Laggankenny at the eastern end of Loch Laggan. . ." Lachlan Shaw in his The History of the Province of Moray (published in 1775) tells us that the full name of the Laggan church was "Laggan-Choinnich, meaning the laggan or hollow of Kenneth. The new church is at Laggan Bridge but the old church was at the nearest end of Loch Laggan where the ruins are still to be seen."

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      If the church was in ruins in 1775, it really must be ancient although probably not contemporary with St Kenneth himself; he lived in the 6th century AD. Shaw goes on to say that the place "was mentioned in 1239 as Logynkenny." This date is more than a hundred years before the ancestors of the people who would call themselves Macpherson came to the area from Lochaber.

      Alexander Macpherson relates several stories about St Kenneth's in his Glimpses ... He wrote that St Kenneth's is featured in the old Scottish ballad of 'Sir James the Rose' where Sir James, faced with imminent death at the hands of friends of a good squire be has slain, asks to be buried at Loch Laggan. Macpherson tells us that St Kenneth's was "'devoutly preferred to any other"' grave site in the area and that relates a curious tradition connected with the building of the chapel which may provide another clue to its age.

      The legend holds that the chapel "was built by Allan nan creach (Allan of the Plunder), 12th chief of Clan Cameron who lived in the 15th century, a contemporary of Christopher Columbus. The tale is too long to be told here in full but it relates how Allan, concerned that the proceeds of his plundering had greatly diminished, consulted a witch to determine the reason. The witch suggested an unorthodox approach for finding out -- roasting a live cat on spit before a fire. Allan followed the consultant's advice and learned from the leader of an army of cats who come to rescue their brother that Allan's poor performance of late was punishment for pillaging his neighbours' property. To obtain forgiveness for his sins, he must build seven churches. Not wishing to do battle with the rescuers, he released his victim and began immediately to build the prescribed number of churches, one of which was the one at St Kenneth's.

      We all seemed to be thoroughly impressed by the serenity of the scene. Tokyo Bill had brought his pipes along and played a stirring rendition of 'Flowers o' the Forest', a most appropriate tune for the occasion. Then, with the mysteries solved, it was time to retrace our steps to Sherramore. The return leg was achieved without incident, rejoicing again in the beauties of the route we walked. Have you noticed that the time of the return always seems shorter than the outward leg? Soon we were back at the cars and back we drove to a pint at the Glen for some or the 'sack' for others. It was a grand trek, as always, and we are already thinking of where Sandy might lead us next year. You can be sure that it will be most interesting and enjoyable.

Promotion:
Glasgow-born Alastair McPherson has been appointed Managing Director of ScotRail. Mr McPherson, who was educated at King's Park School, Glasgow, and the Universities of Glasgow and Birmingham, was previously commercial director of Nation .4 Express, which holds a seven-year franchise of ScotRail.

Candidate:
Association Secretary Bruce J. S. Macpherson polled a respectable 3,045 votes as a Liberal Democrat candidate for Renfrewshire West in the UK Parliamentary election last May. He was not able to topple the incumbent in this strongly-held Labour seat, but as this was only his first foray into national politics, it surely won't be his last!

Fort Ticonderoga: The Association has contributed a stone to a Cairn being erected at Fort Ticonderoga, MY, in memory of the men of the Black Watch who fought valiantly in the Battle of Carillon there in 1758.

Achiever:
Sue Lindsay, grand-daughter of John P. McPherson, first local Chief of the New Zealand Branch, and daughter of Leona and Alister Lindsay, has been named New Zealand Young Executive of the Year, accepting the accolade from the Prime Minister in Wellington. Her marketing career started in the animal health and pharmaceutical industries. She studied at Lincoln University and managed the family farm at Centre Bush for five years. Miss Lindsay will represent New Zealand at the world finals of the Young Business Achiever Award in China next year. Congratulations, Sue!

Appointment: Robert J. Macpherson, architect son-in-law of Hon. Vice-President Ewen S. L. MacPherson, has moved from Aberfeldy to London, with his wife Ailsa, after receiving an appointment with a prestigious architectural firm there, and will be involved in the design of the new St Paul's Music School. Scotland is sorry to lose you, Robert and Ailsa, but we wish you both well!

Piping Award:
Famed piper Donald MacPherson, from Balbeggie, has been awarded the Balvenie Medal for services to piping, at the prestigious Glenfiddich Championships, held annually at Blair Castle. A formidable competitor in his day, Donald was a pioneer of the modern bagpipe sound.

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Storyteller: Well-known Scottish storyteller George MacPherson, of Glendale in Skye, took part in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Edinburgh last October. One of his folk-tales, titled "Eyesight", was read to the Heads of State during the opening ceremonies. George was, however, somewhat dismayed to find that his story was to be read by an English actor, John Thaw! George, who was one of the participants in last year's Jubilee Ceilidh (see Creag Dhubh No. 49) also took part in this year's Scottish International Storytelling Festival in Edinburgh.

To Major Angus and Valerie Macpherson, in Edinburgh on 14th June 1997, a son, Alasdair Duncan Hervey, a brother for Tom, Lachlan and Fiona, and fourth grandchild for Sir Thomas and Lady Macpherson of Biallid.

Macpherson -- Peers. On 17th May 1997, Robert Macpherson, elder son of Gerald and joy Macpherson, was married to Emma Peers at the Church of St Anthony and St George, Duncton, W. Sussex. The bride's attendants included the groom's sister, Ailsa, as chief bridesmaid, assisted by Emma's five nieces and nephews, all appropriately wearing a hint of Macpherson tartan. Zornow -- Clarke. On 20th September 1997, in Marian, New York, Leslie Jean Clarke married Mark Douglas Zornow. Leslie is the daughter of Donald L. Clarke of Pittsford, New York. Both father and daughter are members of the Clan Association and have attended past International Gatherings. She is Vice-President of the Bank of Finger Lakes. Mark and Leslie reside in Canandaigua, New York.

Dorothy Campbell Reid Cattanach died at Speyside Nursing Home, Aberlour on 6th September 1997, at the age of 90. She was the beloved wife of the late Evan Cattanach, ex-Provost of Kingussie, and mother of Evan, Douglas, Dorothy and the late Joyce, dear sister of Eileen, and a much loved grandmother and great-grandmother.

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Scott Bruce Gillespie, much loved son of Rod and Hazel Gillespie, of Queensland, Australia, brother of Andrew and Erin and brother-in-law of Darren Mortensen, was tragically killed on 8th July 1996, while, it seems, on his way to a hospital to seek medical care. Scott was studying Electrical Engineering and had nearly completed his Bachelor of Computer Science degree at the University of South Queensland in Toowoomba.

Isabel Sinclair Lamond (née Macpherson) died on 15th December 1996 after a short illness. Isabel was the first lady Chairman of the New Zealand Branch, and during her term in office made her second visit to Scotland with her sister Athole at Rally time. Scotland and the clan were very dear to Isabel's heart , and she derived great pleasure in having met Cluny and fellow clansfolk on the first occasion when all Branches were represented. She willingly made her home available for meetings. Although of later years due to failing health she was unable to attend some gatherings her interest never flagged.

Winifred McCann died on 5th May 1997 in Wellington, New Zealand. She had, with her husband and life-member son Ewen, been a staunch supporter of dancing and piping in that area, and though too far away to attend the New Zealand Branch events, she remained deeply interested in happenings both there and in Scotland.

Archibald Ian Stewart Macpherson, ChM, FRCS, FRCSE, died on 20th April 1997 in Edinburgh at the age of 83, after a long period of ill-health. His death was a great loss to the Clan Macpherson Association, for he was a Past Chairman (1969-73), Hon. VicePresident, and Convener of the Museum Advisory Committee. He was also a great Highlander, a distinguished surgeon, and a promiment personality in many walks of life.

      The fourth of the five sons of Sir Stewart and Lady Macpherson, he was born on 10th August 1913, quite deliberately in the family home in Newtonmore, for his mother had come back from India where his father was a High Court judge, to ensure he was indeed a true Highlander. The whole family distinguished themselves in the fields of athletics, sport, scholarship, business and public service, and Archie no less so. Educated at Edinburgh Academy and Fettes, he had been destined for Oxford University to continue his classical studies, but had a late change of mind and decided to study medicine instead. At Edinburgh University he captained the rugby, cricket and fencing teams, and gained a half-blue for hockey while "crocked" for rugby. He later continued to play cricket, and represented his country many times as an opening batsman. He was also no mean golfer, and many remember his lightness and precision of foot as a Highland dancer.

      After graduating MB ChB, from the University in 1936, he turned to surgery, and in 1940 became a Fellow at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and prize-winner, all at an early age. As a resident gynaecologist he was not required by the forces at the outbreak of war, and entry into the Royal Army Medical Corps was further delayed by a skiing accident in the Highlands until 1942. He served in North Africa and Italy, and was commanding a Surgical Field Hospital in Austria with the rank of LieutenantColonel when his military service ended.

      He sought further experience overseas, and was elected to a Rockefeller Foundation Research Scholarship in 1948 at the University of Columbia in New York. In 1949 he returned to Edinburgh where he remained for the rest of his career as a surgeon and lecturer. In research he was a pioneer in freezing techniques, in the use of plastic substitutes and in transplants of the peripheral organs. He was the author of many papers on surgical subjects, and was much in demand overseas as a teacher and examiner.

      Somehow he found time to perfect his skills on the bagpipes and in that too he excelled, becoming a judge of both piping and Highland dancing at Highland Games. He did not marry, and lived in Edinburgh with his mother until her death in 1976 in her 101st year. Latterly he took up permanent residence in the old family home in Newtonmore.

      Archie's role in the Clan Macpherson Association cannot be overstated. He was also

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very active in the Clan Chattan Association, of which he was a Past Chairman (1961-70), elected Vice-President and Council member, He was extremely proud of his own Clan, and of Clan Chattan, and of his Gaelic and Highland heritage, and was a stickler for getting things right. His drive and determination were largely responsible for the formation of the Clan Museum as it is today. His guidance and wise counsel were vital in the Association's well-being, and his presence at Council and Committee meetings and at our Annual Gathering, all of which he attended almost to the end despite physical infirmity, will be greatly missed. Few will match his contribution.

Robert Cresser Macpherson died at Helmsley, Yorkshire on 2 1st August 1997 at the age of 92. Robert was the eldest son of John and Daisy (Cresser) Macpherson, and was married to Marjorie Sclater, who pre-deceased him by a year. They had two children, Ian Bruce and Moira Cresser, and three grandchildren. After a war-time career as a photographer in the R.A.F. Robert returned to work with the Midland Bank, where he became Manager of the Bank's Investment Department at its Head Office in London. He retired to Gullane where he enjoyed playing golf, and later moved to Helmsley to be nearer his daughter Moira. He was very proud to be a Macpherson, and gained much pleasure from his membership of the Association.

Mrs Grant McPherson of Oakville, Ontario, Canada, died on 11th October 1997. Mrs McPherson was the mother of the Chairman of the Canadian Branch, and we extend our sympathy to Ian McPherson and his family.

      Since then I have visited the latest monument, one with a most unusual background, not with particularly Macpherson associations, but nevertheless of great interest.

      In the district of Laggan the River Markie flows into the Spey very close to the dam which forms the Spey reservoir. About a mile up the Markie there was an old burial place, called Reballich or Raplaich, traditionally reserved for suicides, unbaptised children and sometimes for those born out of wedlock. The inhabitants of the nearby village (now deserted) of Crathie gave its name to a malediction, "May you go to Reballich". Obviously it was not a place of high local repute, being unconsecrated ground.

      The last official burial was reputed to have taken place in the middle of the 17th century, when a soldier of Montrose's army was buried there by the women of the village, no men being available to dig the grave.

      Since that time the area has become very overgrown and was in danger of being lost in the planting of a new forest. Through the action of a former minister of the Church in Laggan this problem was averted but the site had considerable difficulties of access due to a high deer fence.

      A few years ago the Laggan Community Association approached the Roman Catholic priest in Kingussie to see if the burial site could be consecrated. Father Vernon Cameron Boutilier, who had recently arrived from Cape Breton in Canada was very sympathetic to the suggestion and the ground was duly consecrated by him. Later, at his instigation, a metal plaque arrived from Canada, inscribed in English and Gaelic, "Here lie God's holy and beloved innocents."

      A well built stone cairn about five feet high was constructed by local volunteers and the plaque was fixed as a permanent memorial.       This latest Badenoch cairn must be unique in its purpose and sentiment and forms an interesting and moving memorial to the past.

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      In 1976 Alastair succeeded his grandfather, Colonel A. K. Macpherson of Pitmain M.VO., who led the Clan March at the first Clan Gathering in 1947, as Senior Chieftain of the Clan. In 1972 Alastair had married Penelope Harper, whose father Freddy was a tea planter in Ceylon and whose family came from the Trossachs, whilst Penelope's mother came from the Orkneys. Alastair and Penny live in Putney, London and have three children. Isabella, aged 24, was educated at North Foreland Lodge and Edinburgh University, from which she graduated with an honours degree in History of Art. She now works as an account executive with the advertising agency M. & C. Saatchi in London. Alexander, aged 21, is at Oriel College, Oxford, reading English, having been an Oppidan Scholar at Eton College. Charlie, their younger son, is in his final year at Eton.

      The Macphersons of Pitmain also live at Achara House near Appin in Argyll, where they spend their holidays and as much of their time as possible. They have a farm there.

      Apart from his legal career, Alastair has been a non-executive director of a number of public companies, including Smith & Nephew plc, Britain's leading healthcare group,

the conglomerate Thomas Jourdan plc and the financial services company Johnson Fry plc. He is also on the Committee of Management of the Highland Society of London, the board of the naval charity The White Ensign Association, and is a member of the London Committee of Cancer Research.

      Alastair's interests range from golf, shooting and fishing to a passion for rhododendrons. He is much looking forward to his three years as Chairman of the Association and is determined to follow his predecessor's fine example and keep the jubilee spirit going in the years up to the Millennium.

      One page is particularly of interest to learners dealing with the "Speaking our language -- Series 1" with books and tapes that are to be recommended. Hugo's Scottish Gaelic in Three Months (more like three years for some of us!) covers grammar and audio tapes. It is well laid out and will encourage serious and not so serious to gain a mastery of the language. Two videos and book of interviews are both available to accustom the learner to Gaelic spoken at normal speed and to its accents.

      Songs from "Mire Mara" and "Dòtaman" on video are easy enough for the learner. There are two books of old Gaelic tales in Gaelic and English collected in the West Highlands over a hundred years ago . . . and wonders too many to enumerate.

      A sample copy of Cothrom (pronounced caw-ram), the bilingual magazine of the Gaelic learners' association, can also be bought for three pounds. There is no other quarterly in the world like it for the learner or the hero/heroine who has mastered the language or has been lucky enough to be brought up with it. It positively oozes with stories on all things of interest to learner and fluent speaker. Four copies annually of "Cothrom" cost about the price of three or four of the sample volume shown in the catalogue. But the choice exists.

      The organisation that puts out "Cothrom" (meaning "opportunity", "fair play", "justice") will also be delighted to answer readers' problems on language learning. The advertisements are well worth reading as they lead the way into the world of the Gael. Back copies can be got.

     "Cothrom "13 even lists a world wide list of telephone contact numbers for all interested in local Gaelic learning facilities, not only in Scotland but also in Australia, Canada, England, over twenty of the states in the United States and in Wales.

     The address of this Gaelic learners' and supporters' association from which "Cothrom" can be got quarterly with its parallel columns in Gaelic and in translation to English is:

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      Born in 1866 to the supervisor of an asylum outside Bristol, McPherson was educated at Clifton College and the Royal College of Science in Dublin. Only in 1887 did he proceed to Christ Church with a scholarship in the Natural Sciences, taking his First in 1890. Dean Liddell later noted that McPherson 'fully justified our choice by his industry and good conduct.' It was perhaps decanal discretion -- or Liddell may have been unaware that it was here that McPherson first attracted the nickname 'The Wild One' and ran up large debts paid by generous brothers. McPherson by his own admission 'did best at beagling', but also rowed for the 'House Toggers' and received caps for soccer and rugby. Such versatility was to prove an enduring quality.

      After teaching in various schools and as a Senior Extension Lecturer for the university, McPherson went to Egypt in 1901 and for some years held posts in the Ministries of Education and Agriculture. At the outbreak of World War One, he enrolled as a Red Cross officer, though nearing fifty, and served in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign before joining the ultimately victorious army in Sinai and Gaza. From 1918 to 1920, McPherson found himself commander of the Cairo secret police at a time of nationalist fervour and uprising in Egypt. Eventually leaving public service with some relief, he spent a large portion of his long retirement engaged in scholarly enquiry into the customs of old Egypt. McPherson, who never married, died and was buried in Cairo in 1946.

      How can we begin to unravel the enigma of McPherson? In each of his various careers we can observe different aspects of what was clearly a multifaceted personality. Indeed, it is our privilege that McPherson's dynamism extended to a profile output of letters home, some 26 bound volumes by the end. These formed the principal source of his biography and we can often allow him to speak, as it were, for himself.       Most noteworthy about McPherson's arrival in Egypt 95 years ago was his immediate warming to the people:
          I think I shall like the Egyptians, they are a fine, good-tempered, rather noble-looking lot . . .       McPherson began a teaching post at a school in Cairo for the sons of the emerging Egyptian elite and soon became deeply engrossed in a different way of life. It is not hard to see why he never felt part of what he termed 'the insular British set'. In the period to the Great War, we have accounts of meetings with the Grand Qadi, or senior religious judge of Egypt, and attendance at various mystical Islamic rituals. There was also, for instance, a weekend hunting trip to the country with Egyptian friends. McPherson describes how
           I spotted a hornet's nest and fired both barrels of my fowling piece into it ... we had an exciting chase for nearly 2 miles, this time however being the hunted parties . . .

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      Educational pursuite remained McPherson's priority: in 1905, his distinction as a scientist was acknowledged in a commission to take magnetic observations in Sudan during a total eclipse. We may note that this library contains a copy of McPherson's English-Arabic Vocabulary Of Scientific Terms, published in 1912, an early attempt to standardise the new language of science developing in Arabic. It was, of course, his rapid mastery of this complex language which enabled our subject to enter so energetically into the life of Egypt: he was soon and often designedly mistaken for a native. One tale of later years offers an unconventional clue to the educational purposes McPherson fulfilled with his Arabic. An Egyptian accused of planting bombs was asked who had taught him so dangerous an art. It was none other than the former Chemistry teacher, Joseph McPherson, who remarked wryly that it was

            very gratifying to me to learn that my poor attempts at teaching were not thrown away, that one diligent pupil did not forget what he was taught.

      As well as educationalist, McPherson was a great traveller. 'Rather out of sorts' one December, he relates that his 'inclination turned to a bicycle ride'. There ensued a 100 km cycle across the desert to Suez. Indeed, McPherson coined his own term, vagabondage, for his numerous journeys around the Mediterranean. For him, every country teemed with peoples, languages and histories and his appetite for all three was immense. On his journey through Turkey in 1919, McPherson not for the last time found himself witness to the dramas of history. He had arrived in Adana in southern Turkey only shortly after the massacre of 30,000 Armenians and found there was an atmosphere of terror. It was sadly but harbinger of a great and rarely acknowledged holocaust of the twentieth century.

      McPherson proceeded more sedately by train and boat to his final destination of Istanbul, then still the seat of the government of the Ottoman Sultan 'Abdul Hamid.' One incident there is particularly revealing of McPherson's character: inquisitive, tolerant, resourceful. Examining the mihrab or niche towards which Muslims direct their prayer in a mosque, McPherson discovered that thousands of worshippers had gathered behind him in preparation for the day's final prayers. Since a discreet departure was out of the question, McPherson resolved to join the movements of the Muslim prayer under the watchful eyes of a nearby imam. 'There is nothing I object to, or that I think anyone could object to, in the prescribed prayer.' Between each of the 25 sets of ritual movement a period was alloted for personal recitation of prayers and McPherson characteristically thought 'it was only honest to recite what I knew of Koran, but my supply ran short and had to be supplemented with Pater Nosters, Ava Marias, Credos' and so on. But eventually

even these failed at last to come to my mind quickly enough to keep my lips in the necessary perpetual motion and I was grateful to my memory for the Christ Church grace . . . Joseph McPherson's is the most unlikely appreciation on record of the length of that particular House ritual.

      Six years later, McPherson would visit Turkey again in a very different capacity. A year after the outbreak of war, McPherson finally persuaded the authorities to enroll him as a Red Cross officer bound on a hospital ship for the killing grounds of the Dardanelles. The chief surprise of his wartime letters is the extraordinary enthusiasm they express for the experiences of war. He writes, for example,'I enjoyed my walk immensely among the whistling bullets.' Yet I suspect McPherson's style often represents a peculiarly British stoicism in the face of horrors which he could portray with equal power. At one stage he recalls that his main duty was 'to hold legs and arms in position while they were being amputated.' Elsewhere he mentions the bizarre beauty of gunfire on hills which 'reminded me of (Mount) Etna as I once saw it' or 'the lurid magnificence of the sun, setting over the plains of Troy, an appropriate blood red.' McPherson was finally wounded by what he termed 'a good dose of shrapnel' and returned to Egypt.

      Restlessness soon overcame our subject and he obtained a commission in the Camel

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Transport Corps, the logistical arm of the Sinai army that eventually numbered some 30,000 camels and 25,000 men. Here he displayed fully his understanding of local sensitivities to the point of openly deploring the recruitment tactics of certain English officers. Although it would be naive to imagine that tensions never existed between McPherson and his Egyptian men, it is clear that his command did not display the brutality too often suffered by those unsung heroes of the Great War. Under extremely arduous conditions, the army proceeded to the edges of Palestine and the Turkish stronghold of Gaza. Once again, we can discern grand events of history in McPherson's account. For this was a decisive moment of the Middle Eastern twentieth century: the beginning of British victory in Palestine, the consequence of war which made possible Zionist ambitions and one of the unwitting foundations of the bitterness of Arab-Israeli conflict. McPherson himself was unable to resist seeing the campaign as a 'Crusade' and evinced great disappointment when another injury -- this time from a bullet -- forced him to return to base in Cairo.

      Back in Cairo, over the next six years McPherson was to achieve his greatest and, I think, least desired notoriety. First placed in charge of political prisoners, he was rapidly promoted to the rank of Bimbashi or Major and appointed Acting Mamur Zapt -- or head of the Secret Police in Cairo. It was not a post that McPherson found fulfilling: though elements of the work appealed to the adventurer and perhaps performer in him, he described it as 'that nightmare full of weird interest' -- 'the lurid gulf in my life'. Apart from the usual problems of crime and corruption, McPherson found himself thrust into the politics of the Egyptian nationalist uprising, stoked by nearly four decades of British occupation and the depredations and brutalities of the war period. It was a movement he was, like many of his time, perhaps incapable of understanding. No more than others could he see that imperialism which had shaped his life would within decades have been abandoned or thrown off. Yet in the mean time, McPherson pursued his new role with the same vigour as all his others.

      It will come as no surprise that eccentricity was one of the chief qualities which McPherson brought to the office of Mamur Zapt. In charge of nationalist political prisoners, he formed a football team from them. As detective, he relished opportunities for personal observation in disguise as a 'Cairene carter', 'Armenian Jew of means' or 'low-class Greek'. But McPherson's penchant for decisive and sometimes violent action also suited him to the demands of the time:

            there was so much to do outside, suppressing riots with the troops, searching houses for bombs, arms and seditious matter; rounding up cafés and restaurants, and after establishing a cordon, searching all present. . .       Though a paternalist by nature, he was all too aware of the role of colonial insensitivity in stoking protest. The pressures of responsibility and numerous threats to his life meant that the end of life as head of the Secret Police came as a relief. McPherson continued on public service in a variety of freelance roles until 1924, when he pronounced himself 'free as the sea' and retired.

      Freedom, however, was a strenuous concept for McPherson. He withdrew to a house in an oasis outside Cairo, surrounded by the growing families attached to his cook and his faithful servant, Gad. Here, McPherson found more time for his beloved riding in the desert and could recoup energy for the next bout of Mediterranean travelling. In the Greek islands in 1925, he decided to climb Mt Pelion, following the example of Jason and armed only with 'a mountain staff, cheese and bread in my pockets and a flask and box of bugpowder and map of Thessaly' Reaching the summit, he drank the health of the clan of McPherson 'under the eyes of the Olympians.'

      The main feature of McPherson's retirement was his scholarly enquiry into the liturgies of the Eastern churches and, especially, the moulids or Muslim and Christian saints-days of Egypt. The old customs had been an object of his interest for many years, and McPherson gradually gathered together his years of experience and learning, in a ----------------------------------------------------------------24--------------------------------------------------------------
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volume entitled The Moulids Of Egypt, published in 1941. Writing the Foreword, Professor E. E. Evans-Pritchard affirmed that 'Major McPherson has paid to the people of Egypt the debt which he freely acknowledges he owes them for the hospitality and kindness he has enjoyed at their hands for close on half a century.'

      In his vehement condemnation of those attempting to suppress the popular celebrations, McPherson, by now in his seventies, offers a clue to his view of a changing world. He rails against modernity and particularly materialism's

            subsitution of mechanical cacophonies for human melodies, of amorphous skyscrapers for shapely dwellings, or sordid materialism for the disinterested pursuit of beauty, of frenzied rush and blazing light for gentle living. in short, a new cult of savagery . . .

      It is perhaps here that we see one kind of explanation for the McPherson enigma: beneath the colonial exterior and robust man of action, there is more than a little of the romantic. In one respect our subject represents a generation of Christ Church men who thought that to rule the world was their due; in another, he embodies that spirit of enquiry and that urge for novel experience which led so many to travel abroad and, often, to stay forever. McPherson had romanticism's yearning for the past, its urge to wander and need for solitude. He once commented that rather than enjoy a gregarious meal at Christmas 'I would infinitely rather another year take a handful of pistachio nuts out into the desert and make my dinner of them under an old pyramid.' Even war had a certain high romantic drama for McPherson. 'I think! he wrote, 'it is my fundamental nature to love vagabondage and liberty! In these qualities, perhaps, may lie the key to McPherson's character.

      The wildcat crest is charged on the shoulder with a "Bell", signifying the maiden name of the armiger's wife, and the "Balance scale" commemorates his career as a former Chief Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police. The motto is a Gaelic rendering of "Touch not without a glove".

      Ewen MacPherson was Chairman during the highly successful and well organised Jubilee celebrations and is currently an Hon. Vice-President of the Clan Macpherson Association.

      The principal charge is a black "Galley, sails furled, oars in action", on a gold field.

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      The upper portion of the shield is blue and "indented" to suggest the mountains or British Columbia. The two cross-crosslets from the Cluny Arms are placed on either side of the Eagle, which represents the armiger's service in the R.C.A.F. during World War II.

      The gold wildcat crest is placed upon a coronet of Maple Leaves and Pacific Dogwood (the provincial flower) and holds a Balance Scale to signify Ian's profession as a lawyer. He is a graduate of the Institute of International Air Law, McGill University, Montreal.

      Ian McPherson is a Life Member of the Canadian Branch of the Association.

      Nancy and I then went to Bulawayo in a luxury bus which seemed to glide over the

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road. As we had lived in Bulawayo for seventeen years we had plenty of visits to make, and our seven day stay was not long enough. We returned to Harare and then on 27th November I flew to Lilongwe, Malawi to visit Ewen and Jenny Macpherson on their tobacco farm / cattle ranch at Namitete where they have a highly organised selfcontained business. Almost all essentials and building materials for Ewen and his family plus a permanent work force are produced. Ewen and Jenny's oldest son Duncan and his wife, also Jenny, who were at the Jubilee Rally on their honeymoon, moved into their new house built with almost all Namitete produce. While I was there they hosted a dinner for a gathering of friends who are members of the St Andrews Association and meet annually for dinner. The party went on until late.

      As plans and arrangements had been made for Nancy and myself to visit friends in Cape Town I had to return to Harare. On our journey south we broke our journey at Johannesburg to attend a wedding anniversary. Cape Town has changed a great deal since we were there last in 1968, and the city has encroached on the harbour. We found ourselves having lunch almost where the Union Castle Mailships used to sail from when we used to go to the UK on our holidays. It was quite like old times to be having champagne on Table Mountain as the sun went down and see the lights come on all over the city. After ten days in Cape Town we travelled to Potchefstroom by Trans Lux bus to meet Fiona, Henry and our grandsons. It has become a Christmas tradition as Henry's parents live there. Henry, his brothers and sisters and all the grandchildren hire out chalets in the holiday camp. It is a real Christmas celebration and "Rosser" gathering.

      On 29th December we left for Harare, by car this time, stopping off at Tshipise Warm Baths holiday chalets for two days, then on to Harare, arriving on Hogmanay. Then came the highlight of our holiday, a four day cruise in a houseboat on Lake Kariba. This was a holiday of a lifetime. Every evening after the boat was tied up we would go game viewing in the tender we towed with us, and we saw elephants by the hundred, hippo, antelope and crocodile so near one could almost touch them and, of course, birds of all kinds.

      Then for the last time it was back to Harare for last minute shopping visits, not a few parties, then home to Newtonmore, arriving on 25th January after an excellent holiday.

      Archie Peebles had been caretaking the Museum in our absence and it was safe and secure. We had three months to get ready for the season and to "recover" from our wonderful holiday.

      Visitor numbers were down, probably the lowest for the last five seasons. From 1st October 1996 to 30th September 1997 there had been 2,237, but due to the extended period during October another 253, making the season's total 2,490, who had donated through the boxes £1,268. Sales up to the end of September were £2,868 and in October £238, a season's total of £3,106.

      Nancy had the garden looking good again, with flowers by courtesy of David Barrie, my brother-in-law. Thank you, Davie! Nancy receives many compliments on the flower show and she works hard to achieve it.

      I have to acknowledge the following presentations:
            (1) 600th Anniversary of the Battle of The North Inch, 21st September 1996. Presented by the Clan Davidson Association.
            (2) Letters from a Highland Township, by Elizabeth and Ian Macpherson. Presented by Ewen S. L. MacPherson.
            (3) Waltzing Matilda, by Richard Magoffin, Australia's foremost authority on the song. Presented by Edna Macpherson Sabato, Australia.
            (4) The Urlar's Jubilee Scrapbook. Presented by Jack W. Raines, Editor of the Urlar, U.S. Branch, C.M.A.             Watchman Against the World, by Flora McPherson. The remarkable journey of Norman McLeod and his people from Scotland to Cape Breton Island to New Zealand. Presented by Ewen S. L. MacPherson.

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           (6) Antrin Thochts on Aulden Days. By Gordon Macpherson.
           (7) Large coloured photograph of the gathering which attended the unveiling of the memorial cairn at Glentruim. Presented by Jérôme LeRoy-Lewis and framed by Mrs Margaret MacPherson of Talla Shee.
           (8) "The Jemima Forrest Macpherson Family Contribution, 1939-1945 World War." Produced as a 50th Year of Remembrance tribute to Jemima Macpherson by her son Neil.
           (9) Arms of Ewen S. L. Macpherson. Presented by R. G. M. Macpherson, Canada.
           (10) Be Happy. Mostly by a Laird. Presented by Lt.-Col. B. D. Mackenzie, Almond Bank, Perth.
           (11) The Holy Bible. Presented by A. Wilson, Ladybank, Fife.
           (12) Napkin Ring with Ancient Macpherson Tartan, Loudon Briggs, Phoenix. Presented by Loudon R. Briggs, Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A.

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      My father, J. C. E. Campbell, CBE, was the family historian. He spent many years researching the family of his paternal grandmother -- the Tolmies. Sadly, in 1991, as the result of a car accident, he died before writing the planned account of his findings. I

undertook to do so, but was hampered, regretfully, by having paid little attention when he had talked enthusiastically about the fruits of his research. Thus I was mystified to find in his office, soon after his death, a collection of nineteen early copies of Creag Dhubh, dating back to 1950, and wondered at their significance. Despite my earlier disinterest, I did know the names of our many ancestors and Macpherson was not one of them. Even now, six years down the track of my own research and from a total of 1,600 names on my computer program, Family Tree Maker, I have still not discovered one single related Macpherson.

      The name, however, is well known to us. My mother suggested that my sister and I should attend the Emily McPherson School of Domestic Economy; I gave birth to our first son at the Jessie McPherson Community Hospital; and my father and husband were both associated with McPherson's Ltd, a prominent Melbourne engineering company These three institutions were named after family members of Thomas McPherson who was born in Kingussie and emigrated to Australia in 1852. He established an iron and machinery merchant business in Melbourne. His son, William, continued and developed the business and endowed the School and the Hospital, naming one after his wife and the other after his mother. He was Treasurer, then Premier of the State of Victoria and received a Knighthood for his political, business and philanthropic services. I concluded that in this family perhaps lay my father's interest in the Clan and stored the Creag Dhubhs at the back of a drawer.

      Reading through my father's Tolmie file I learned that my great-grandmother, May Ann Tolmie, had been born in Melbourne in 1840. The Immigration Entitlement Certificates of her parents, held at the Mitchell Library in Sydney, contained the following information:-- Ewen and Catherine Tolmie had arrived in Sydney, by the ship St George, in November 1838; Ewen was a shepherd; native of the Parish of Laggan, Inverness; son of Donald Tolmie, mason and May McDonald; he was 22; in good health; Presbyterian; could read and write; and complained of the Surgeon Superintendent. Catherine, as a laundry maid, had been four years in the service of the Duchess of Bedford; she was a native of the Parish of Alvie; daughter of Murdoch Campbell, tailor and Anne Fraser; was 23; in good health; Presbyterian; and could read and write.

      Further reading revealed an extensive account of Ewen Tolmie's subsequent life in Australia. He had prospered as an inn-keeper and gold dealer, to the extent that he returned to Scotland to educate his young family at Inverness and Elgin, then returned to Victoria and took up the Pastoral Lease of a large sheep grazing property at Mansfield and died there in 1883. However, I was anxious to learn more about his Scottish background. To this end, while visiting Scotland in 1996, my husband and I spent some time exploring the Laggan, Newtonmore and Kingussie area. I wanted to find Tolmie graves. A helpful young man in the Laggan Churchyard suggested we also look in the small burial ground at the foot of Cluny Castle. There, in easy to read lettering, was a memorial to DONALD TOLMIE, MASON, WHO DIED A T CROFT 1844. While I was occupied noting down the inscription, taking photographs and wondering if this was the Donald named on Ewen's Immigration Certificate, my husband was reading the other memorials. Many of them were MACPHERSONS. The 'penny dropped'! This was the undoubted reason for my father's interest in the Clan.

      On our return to Australia, I retrieved the collection of Creag Dhubhs from the back of the drawer and read each one avidly. I felt an extraordinary attachment to the Clan Macpherson as I continually wondered why Donald Tolmie was buried in, what appeared to be, the private burial ground of the Chiefs of the Clan. In the 1969 edition, a reference was made to an article in the earlier 1967 Creag Dhubh concerning the graveyard of Cluny, by Dr Alan G. Macpherson. Exactly what I needed, but unfortunately the 1967 edition was missing from my collection. I immediately wrote to the Curator of the Clan House Museum, asking if he would be kind enough to send me a photocopy of the Cluny graveyard article.

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      Shortly afterwards, I received a reply from the then Chairman of the Clan Macpherson Association, Ewen S. L. MacPherson, acting for the Curator, Andrew MacPherson. I was thrilled with the enclosed photocopied article, which contained the exact information I had been hoping for. As an added bonus, Ewen put me in touch with Dr Alan G. Macpherson, the Clan Historian and Genealogist and writer of the article. In subsequent correspondence, Alan has provided me with many more names, dates and places for my family tree. He has given me the names and marriages of Ewen's siblings and the fact that the name of a John Tolmey in Gaskmore appears on the Muster Roll of Macpherson of Cluny's Jacobite Regiment. He has also very generously sent me a copy of his comprehensive study titled An Old Highland Parish Register -- Survivals of Clanship and Social Change in Laggan, Inverness-shire, 1775-1854. It has provided me with a marvellous picture of the community in which the Tolmies lived, plus a detailed appraisal of the Tolmie family in the parish. Most importantly, Alan has confirmed that Donald Tolmie in Croft is my direct forebear and he has explained the reason for Donald's burial at Cluny. I will quote what he said:
          'You ask for my opinion on the burial of Donald in Croft in the Cluny graveyard (so-called). I don't think you should think of that place as a private burial place where no one had the right to bury unless they had permission from the Macphersons of Cluny. Its proper name is Cladh Tornan, referring to one of the early Celtic missionary saints; I'd judge it to be very ancient, and more extensive than the area now enclosed within the wall. It was, in that sense, a country burial place of a kind once very common throughout the Highlands. Certain families probably had an ancient right to bury there, and I'd guess that the Tolmies in Balgown, next door to Cluny, must have done so, despite the absence of inscribed stones. The earliest record we have of Donald is his marriage to Marjory Macdonald in 1805, and you will recall that he was resident in Balgown when he married her. The Macphersons of Cluny originally buried at Lagganchynich at the head of Loch Laggan; then when Donald ban Macpherson, Younger of Cluny, was murdered at Kingussie in the 1550's the family began to bury at Old St Columba's in Kingussie: I think old Lachlan of Cluny, in June 1746 after the burning of his son's new house by the Government troops, was the last to be buried there; the first of the family to be buried at Cladh Tornan was his second son, Major John Macpherson, who asked to be buried there and was so buried in 1770. His stone is no longer identifiable. Laggan folk, including some of the local Tolmies, had been burying there long before that as an ancient right similar to the right of ancient possession by which they traditionally held their shares in the land."

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      To add to that material and thanks to Ewen's recommendation, I also have a copy of Mrs Meta Humphrey Scarlett's marvellous account of the past in Badenoch -- In the Glens Where I Was Young and also Alexander Macpherson's Glimpses of Church and Social Life in the Highlands. These works have provided me with the perfect backdrop for my ultimate Tolmie Family History. Furthermore, incredibly, on page 2 of Mrs Scarlett's work, is a description of the very group of Highlanders which included my forebears, Catherine and Ewen Tolmie, as they departed from Kingussie on St Columba's Fair day, bound for Oban, to board the ship St George and thence start the long journey to Australia. Shipping records show that the St George departed from Oban on 4th July 1838 and, travelling via the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in Sydney on 15th November. On board were 321 immigrants, which included 48 McPhersons, 42 McDonalds; 26 McBains; and 19 Camerons. Two adults and eight children died on the voyage.

      Our family has a treasure in the shape of a small wooden box. On the silver plaque attached, the following words are engraved:

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INTRODUCING ISAMU TAKAMA (MACPHERSON) A Japanese Branch of the Clan Macpherson By Alan G. Macpherson Early in April 1996, when I called at Talla-Shee to report on my search for a printer of choice to produce A Day's March to Ruin for the Association, Ewen the Chairman handed me some correspondence from Mr Isamu Takama of Nara, Japan, with an invitation to see whether I could help. Apart from its unusual source, it was typical of the many requests that come in asking for help in tracing Macpherson ancestry. All that Mr Takama could provide to start such a search was that his great-grandfather, Matthew Townsend Bethune Macpherson, died aged 47 on the 1st May 1897 at Yokohama and was buried in the Foreigners' Cemetery there. The inscription on his gravestone recorded that he was the son of "the late Colonel Ronald Macpherson". Mr Takarna, who is a member of the Japan-Scotland Society, had gathered details of Matthew Macpherson's business connections and social activities in Japan; the motive behind his enquiry, as it transpired, was to write a commemorative account of his ancestor's life for presentation to the Yokohama Foreigners' Cemetery authorities on the centenary of Matthew's death, according to Japanese custom.

      Who, then, were Matthew Townsend Bethune Macpherson and his father, Colonel Ronald Macpherson? Correspondence between St John's and Nara (June 1996) brought further information, elicited from James McIntosh of the St Andrew Society of Edinburgh (June 1994), that the International Genealogical Index (LDS) included entries that one, Matthew Townsend Bethune and his wife Jane Forbes baptised a daughter, Christina Barbara Bethune, in Inverness -- town or county? -- on 18th February 1819 and that she married Ranald MacPherson there on the 9th April 1841. Prior to the Clan Gathering in August 1996 I was able to confirm that these events occurred in the Parish

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of Inverness, and to add that the IGI also listed the baptism of a Ranald Macpherson, son of John Macpherson and Christian Macdonald on the 4th June 1817 in the parish of Portree, Isle of Skye. A visit to New Register House, Edinburgh, after the Gathering, to consult the Old Parish Register for Inverness -- the source of the IGI listings -- provided the additional information that on the 9th April 1841 "Ranald Macpherson, Lieutenant in the Madras Artillery presently residing in Inverness and Miss Christina Bethune, Inverness [were married] by Rev. Dr Rose." Lieut. Macpherson was evidently on furlough from his regiment or was about to join it in Madras when he met and married Miss Bethune.

      But was Lieut. Ranald Macpherson the boy baptised in Portree to John Macpherson and Christian Macdonald? I had already recognised the boy's parents to be John Macpherson, chamberlain or chief-factor to Lord Macdonald at the estate office in Portree and eldest son of the Rev. Robert Macpherson (1731-1791), the famous chaplain to Fraser's Highlanders during the Seven Years' War in North America, and Christian Macdonald, daughter of Allan Macdonald of Gallovie and Mary Macpherson, a daughter of Lewis Macpherson of Dalraddie, Cluny's Major in the'Forty-Five Rising, and Unah Macpherson, Cluny's youngest sister. A quick look at my copy of the Macpherson of Banchor Manuscript Genealogy, compiled in 1875 by Mr John Macpherson, barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, London, and High Court of Bombay, eldest grandson of John Macpherson and Christian Macdonald and senior representative of the Macphersons of Banchor, confirmed that their fifth child and fifth son was indeed Lieut. Ranald Macpherson. The Banchor Genealogy provides a brief account of Ranald Macpherson's career:

      Entering the Royal Artillery he attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. At the time of his death, which took place at Barganny House, Singapore, on the 6th December 1869, he held the important post of Lieutenant- Governor of the Straits Settlements [Malaya]. Colonel Macpherson was twice married. By his first wife Christina Bethune, on 9th June 1840 (sic, 1841?) daughter of Matthew Townsend Bethune, M.D., he had issue seven sons and two daughters.... Christina Bethune died at Bath 3rd October 1866. Only nine days before his death, Colonel Macpherson married secondly at Singapore on the 27th November 1869 Minnie, daughter of William Napier of Spring Grove, Middlesex, and grand-daughter of Professor Napier of Edinburgh. By her he had no further issue.

      His third son and fourth child was Matthew Townsend Bethune Macpherson (b. 9 Aug. 1849), Dr Matthew Bethune's namesake and Isamu Takama's great-grandfather.

      All that remained to satisfy Mr Takama's quest was to determine where his greatgrandfather was born. An enquiry to the Oriental and India Office Collections of the British Library in November 1996 elicited the information that Matthew Macpherson was born on the 9th August and baptised by James Beecher, chaplain, on the 7th November 1849, his father then "Lieutenant, Madras Artillery and Superintendent of Convicts, Penang", his parents then residing on Prince of Wales Island, the British name for Penang Island.

      Penang was ceded to the British East India Company in 1786, three years after the end of the American Revolution and two years before the founding of the penal colony at Botany Bay, and served as a cosmopolitan trading centre and major port of call for shipping on the India-China run. It would have been a natural step for a young man launching into a career in colonial commerce to move from Penang to a similar location in Japan after that country was opened to foreign trade in 1867, so it is not surprising to find Matthew Macpherson at the major trading port of Kobe in 1869, shortly after his twentieth birthday, working as a clerk with Mourilyan, Heinmann & Co., agents for the North China Insurance Co. and the Imperial Fire Insurance Co. One of his fellow clerks was A. W Gillingham. British colonial life involved more than commerce, however, and on the 19th October he was one of four founding members of the Kobe Cricket Club.

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      The following year he became associated with the Kobe Regatta and Athletic Club. By 1872 he was a partner in Messrs Browne & Co., agents for the China Fire Insurance Co., the Union Insurance Society of Canton, and the British and Foreign Marine Insurance Co., and sub-agents for the Phoenix Assurance Co. at Kobe. He is on record in 1877,1878 and 1881 in business correspondence with the famous and influential Jardine and Matheson Company of Hong Kong, quoting Japanese rice, sugar and copper prices and reporting shipping movements and purchases of Bombay yarns. At the end of 1881 he moved to Yokohama as a representative of Messrs Browne & Co. where he remained until his death. In 1892 he was a committee member of the St Andrew's Society of Yokohama. In 1896, the year he was President of the Society and the year before he died, he was joined in business by his two sons, Ryokichi Sakamoto and Masataro Sakamoto. In the year of his death he was a member of the Yokohama General Chamber of Commerce. After his death his son Ryokichi left Browne & Co. and worked for the Victor Electric Company of America.

      Ryoichi Sakamoto (1899-1976), from his parentage was half-European, but as he married Kiyo Tada of Akita in northern Honshu Isamu and his siblings are quarter European and largely Japanese in culture. Isamu, his sister Yuriko, his older brothers Yoshio and Noboru, and his younger brother Takeshi all took the name Sakamoto, but in 1963 Isamu adopted his wife's surname when he married Yasuko Takama to accommodate family requirements. His two sons, Minoru (b. 11th March 1964) and Tsuyoshi (b. 29th March 1967) both go by their mother's surname. Noboru, who died in 1986, left two sons, Hiroshi and Eiji Sakamoto, born respectively in 1962 and 1966; both are married, and Hiroshi has a daughter, Tsubasa and a son, Kazua (as well as an older stepdaughter). Takeshi has a son, Takeo Sakamoto, who is married. Minoru Takama married Miki Itokawa in 1987; they have a daughter, Yui and a son, Yuki, Isamu's grandchildren. Born in 1932, Isamu is a vintage Honda motorcycle enthusiast, an avid sports fisherman, and a rugby football fan. He is also a connoisseur of Scotch whisky!

      The whole family by male descent from Matthew Macpherson, if it had followed Scottish and Highland tradition, would have retained the surname Macpherson, a connection of which Isamu is fully cognisant and immensely proud. A patrilineal descendant of the Macphersons of Banchor with the blood of Macpherson, Cameron, MacIntosh and Macdonald chiefs, the Bruces and the ancient Celtic kings of Scotland in his veins, he is now a member of the Clan Association and hopes to visit Badenoch and Skye in the not too distant future.

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      His poems and stories reflect his keen observation of places and people he has met during his lifetime of travelling throughout the whole of the North East; the crofts and glens, and of course its trout filled rivers. The short story, "The Puddock Prince . . ." deserves particular mention as it won the 1994 Doric Writing Competition. This is a delightful well-written fairy tale, which flows from scene to scene with deft touches of humour and authentic idiomatic language.

Antrin Thochts, 'Occasional Thoughts', poems in the Doric language of the North East, published in 1995. Antrin Thochts on Aulden Days, published in 1996, relates W. Gordon's recollections of his early life in Huntly. He was born in Granary Street, Huntly

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and returned in retirement to live in the same street. His father, William, was the veterinary surgeon in the town for over 40 years.

      W. Gordon, a great-grandfather, is interested in his roots. His Family Tree records a long affiliation with Huntly, Rhynie and Inveravon. Grandfather, James, a cattle dealer, died young from an accident, and the family at one time owned 'McPhersons Hotel' (now The Richmond Arms) at Rhynie. Great-great-grandfather, Duncan, married Anne Christie of Mortlach at Inveravon in 1781 and is known to have been in residence at Craighead of Mornish in the glen of the Bum of Tervie the following year when a daughter was born.

      It was verbally handed down to Gordon that great-grandfather, Duncan, "moved as a 'herd-loon' from the Braes of Glenlivet" to the croft Windseye (pronounced Wins-ee), in the Parish of Auchindoir, a short mile from Rhynie. S. W. Sillett in Illicit Scotch describes how in October 1815, Duncan took such violent exception to the seizure of two casks and thirty gallons of wash that, in the gauger's own words, "he threatened me with immediate death if I offered to destroy any more, at the same time beating and bruising me to the effusion of blood, so far as medical aid was necessary". Could this be the reason for the move East?

      The nearby Glenlivet area was unquestionably the centre for the illicit distilling of whisky. Dr Alan G. Macpherson's extensive records show that the Register of Sasines for Banffshire, 1600-1780, lists that a Patrick McPherson alias McVillie was in Wester Corries/Achvaich area of Glenlivet in 1682 and that his sons were William and Duncan. Whether Patrick McVillie's father was a William, or whether the eponymous William existed a generation or two earlier, it is now impossible to say. The Glenlivet folk were Catholic by tradition and it is known that Abbé Paul Macpherson of the Scotch College in Paris [Rome?] was a Glenlivet man (mid 19th c.). These McWilliams were a true sept of the Macphersons, using the patronymic eventually as their surname.

      Although Gordon has been told that his people hailed from Glenlivet, his family seem to have been Presbyterian, which is probably true of the Burn of Tervie folk generally and the connection with the Glenlivet Macphersons should therefore be treated with some caution. However, it is possible that they were connected to another known whisky smuggler, Robbie Macpherson, of Glenrinnes. If we could trace the family back into the late 17th century it might be possible to establish a connection with Sir Aeneas Macpherson of Invereshie's clan genealogy which he compiled up to 1705. It does have reference to Badenoch Macphersons who settled further down the Spey in Banffshire, in the parishes of Mortlach, Boharn and Botriphnie, and were associated with the farms of Towie, Knockan and Delmanny.

      W. Gordon McPherson, a sprightly and witty grand old man of the Clan, who enjoys the uisge-beatha of Glenlivet is a prolific writer to the national newspapers. Topics range from politics to the bikini and no less than three of his letters appeared in The (London) Times in 1996. It was at his suggestion, acknowledged by The Times, that a summary of the daily news now appears on the back page of that paper.

      Thanks to his generosity and that of Bennachie Publishing, Oldmeldrum, W. Gordon's two books now stand on the shelves of our Library in the Clan Museum.

      I had a marvellous childhood living on the sea-shore in Wellington, the Capital City. Later, the family, now with three girls, Martha added, moved to the Hutt Valley, twelve miles north of Wellington, where we became firmly entrenched for many years. I enjoyed

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singing in the local Presbyterian Church choir, taught Sunday School, sang at school concerts and appeared in many local shows. I played sport, including tennis, and represented Hutt Valley in the New Zealand netball championships.

      In my teens I developed a keen interest in modern music and before long was singing with several of the local dance bands. Later, in the early war years, I was invited to join the Art Rosaman Dance Band, a fully professional group performing weekly over the New Zealand Radio Network's largest station, 2YA. This band consisted of ten very talented musicians, half of them imported from Canada. On top of this contract I was also asked to join the Laurie Paddi Dance Band which was playing six nights a week at Wellington's top cabaret, the Majestic. From the cabaret we also presented a weekly latenight cabaret show "live" on the local radio station.

      I welcomed the opportunity to become "resident vocalist" with two such professional groups and to work full-time in the cabaret and radio atmosphere.

      It was a very hectic period of my life, especially the continuing problem of having to appear on stage six nights a week in full evening gowns. The Majestic Cabaret was a glamorous, well-run night spot which attracted thousands of N.Z. and overseas servicemen and women. American Navy, Army and Marines and other Commonwealth and foreign service personnel with their colourful uniforms poured into the Cabaret every night. I found it very emotional during those war years standing up singing the

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sentimental songs popular at that time. At one stage there were 29 American ships in our Wellington harbour and 29,000 American troops camped in Wellington and in the surrounding farming areas.

      While at the Cabaret I was invited to join the newly-formed Radio 2YA Camp Concert Party to travel around New Zealand to entertain N.Z. and overseas servicemen and women wherever they were stationed. So started a mad whirl of three to four camp concerts a week for the next five years and, of course, all the girls in the concert parties appeared in full evening gowns. We went to visiting hospital ships, large military/naval/ air force camps, hospitals, American Marine, navy and army camps, WAAC camps, gave charity war concerts and went to dozens of small gun emplacement sites all round the N.Z. coastline.

      Life was frantic with rehearsals, singing and travelling -- trains, army trucks, jeeps and the ferry to the South Island and, of course, clambering up to those remote gun-sites on their rocky outposts.

      Early in this period of war-time concerts I was honoured to be named "New Zealand's Sweetheart of the Forces." After all these years I'm still moved to tears when I hear old recordings of camp concerts and the compere introducing me -- "and here she is, New Zealand's Sweetheart of the Forces -- Jeannie McPherson", followed by those tremendous welcoming roars that they gave me.

      There were many sad times with troops leaving for overseas, visiting wounded in local hospitals and going on board overseas hospital ships in Wellington harbour. Sad, but exciting times they were, working for so long with all that outstanding professional talent in the N.Z. Camp Concert Party.

      After the war I was given a four weeks' contract to tour N.Z. with the top Australian radio personality Jack Davie. It was great fun singing and clowning on the stage with the Australian master. After this tour I was offered a contract to sing in Australia with the Colgate-Palmolive Radio production unit. This organisation, with a staff of 150 people, produced a whole array of musical and quiz shows for weekly radio network playing in Australia and New Zealand. The permanent orchestra of 35 musicians was a delight to sing with and it helped that the musical director was a New Zealander, Denis Collinson.

      However, at the end of my six months' Australian contract, my husband had to return to N.Z. to produce the New Zealand Parliamentary Broadcasts. Living on my own in Australia was not an idea that appealed long-term so at the end of my contract I happily returned to my Wellington home and husband. It was a marvellous experience in Australia but I was grateful to return to N.Z. and resume my stage and radio work and go on tour with some of the top N.Z. instrumental groups.

      During this period I also recorded several commercial discs and many series of programmes with the original Wurlitzer Organ in the old Embassy Theatre in Wellington, N.Z. The organist was Findlay Rob.

      Several years later a young BBC producer, Jack Dobson, came to N.Z. to produce several series of radio programmes: "Variety Magazine", "Time to Sing", "Wizards of Quiz", etc. As the featured artist in these entertaining shows I thoroughly enjoyed working on them. It was great fun visiting farmhouses, going on board overseas ships and performing in small country halls.

      I'm afraid I've had to ignore so many events and funny stories in a long career of entertaining in N.Z. and overseas but I hope my story has been interesting to the people in my birth place, Scotland.

      Something I should have mentioned is that all through my singing career, in my stage shows and in broadcast programmes, I've always included a Scottish number, e.g. "Toorie on his Bonnet", "Will You Go, Lassie, Go", "Loch Lomond", "A Gordon For Me", etc.

      Even now, singing as I do occasionally for local community groups, I will always include one of my Scottish numbers.

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P.10, paragraph 2: General Guest's letter to Lord Lovat, urging him to assist Cluny to form his company quickly in a bid to be appointed Major of Lord Loudoun's Highland Regiment was stymied by Cluny's receiving a letter from Loudoun, congratulating him on his captaincy. Loudoun's letter has not survived, but Cluny replied as follows:

          My Lord
           I have the honour of your Lops [Lordships] letter and will not be wanting to use my best endeavours to execute punctually your Lops Commands.
           I beg leave to return your Lops Complements of Congratulation, And to Inform you that I have not had the honour to serve in the Army before, So that the Dice as your Lop proposes most [must] settle the Rank I am to have in the Regt. -- I shall acquaint your Lop of my success in Recruiting by first or second post. I am wt. great regard and attachment, My Lord,

Pp.38-40: In mentioning Ewan of Cluny's mother, Jean Cameron, and his early appearance in public and family affairs, I should have related his reputation for being "determin'd and resolute with uncommon calmness" to an anecdote which the Rev. Thomas Sinton (1856-1923) communicated to Alexander Macpherson, author of Glimpses, concerning her (pp.317-8). Be it noted that Sinton spent his youth at Nuide where his father, Thomas Sinton, was tacksman in the 1860s:

           Upon the death of Duncan Macpherson of Cluny in 1722, without male issue, the succession to the chiefship and to the Cluny estates was for a time a matter of contention among his kinsmen. In order to bring their rival claims to a settlement, all the heads of families concerned agreed to meet at the Inn of Garvamore, and to produce such proofs of descent as they could respectively show. Among those who appeared at Garvamore was Lachlan, the son of William of Nuide. Shortly after Lachlan set out from home, his wife, Jean Cameron of Lochiel, a lady of great force of character [my emphasis], convinced of the right of her husband to succeed to the chiefship, directed a trusted henchman to saddle her horse and accompany her to Garvamore. When they reached the Inn she alighted, told the man to hold her horse in readiness, and then immediately entered the house, and proceeded to the chamber where the rival kinsmen were assembled. All, of course, rose to receive the Lady of Nuide who, taking advantage of the confusion, swept all the documents

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on the table into her apron, and hastily withdrew, closing the door upon the astonished claimants. Without a momen't loss of time her servant placed her in the saddle, and giving her the reins, she galloped off in the direction of Nuide. Having arrived there, she ordered her eldest son and heir (afterwards Ewen of the '45) to mount and ride back with her to Cluny, and there the spirited lady took up her abode that night. "Agus", added Mr Sinton's aged informant, "fiach co chuireadh a mach i?" -- "And who could then oust her?"²

Ewen was then about sixteen years of age.

      The anecdote, which comes to us through three intervening minds, is factually inaccurate on some points and suspect in others. There was no dispute about the succession to the chiefship: Lachlan's father, William of Nuide, had been accepted by the leading clansman as heir to Duncan of Cluny as early as 1689, and Lachlan himself had led the clan in the 'Fifteen Rising. What was really a matter of contention was the fate of the Estate of Cluny, consisting at that time of the 3-plough daughland of Cluny, the 2-plough half-daughland of Biallidbeg, and the 4-plough daughland of Gask