Domestic annals of Scotland : $b from the revolution to the rebellion of 1745Chambers, Robert
History
Domestic annals of Scotland : $b from the revolution to the rebellion of 1745
Chambers, Robert
Scotland -- History -- 1689-1745
In one of the letters on second-sight, written to Mr Aubrey from
Scotland about 1693–94, reference is made to the seer Archibald
Macdonald, who has already been introduced in connection with instances
occurring in Skye. According to this writer, who was a divinity student
living in Strathspey, Inverness-shire, Archibald announced a prediction
regarding the unfortunate Earl of Argyle. He mentioned it at Balloch
Castle (now Castle-Grant), in the presence of the Laird of Grant, his
lady, and several others, and also in the house of the narrator’s
father. He said of Argyle, of whom few or none then knew where he was,
that he would within two months come to the West Highlands, and raise a
rebellious faction, which would be divided in itself, and disperse,
while the earl would be taken and beheaded at Edinburgh, and his head
set upon the Tolbooth, where his father’s head was before. All this
proved strictly true.
Archibald Macdonald was a friend of Macdonald of Glencoe, and
accompanied him in the expedition of Lord Dundee in 1689 for the
maintenance of King James’s interest in the Highlands. Mr Aubrey’s
correspondent, who was then living in Strathspey, relates that Dundee’s
irregular forces followed General Mackay’s party along Speyside till
they came to Edinglassie, when he turned and marched up the valley. At
the Milltown of Gartenbeg, the Macleans joined, but remained behind to
plunder. Glencoe, with Archibald in his company, came to drive them
forward; and when this had been to some extent effected, the seer came
up and said: ‘Glencoe, if you will take my advice, you will make off
with yourself with all possible haste. Ere an hour come and go, you’ll
be as hard put to it as ever you were in your life.’ Glencoe took the
hint, and, within an hour, Mackay appeared at Culnakyle, in Abernethy,
with a party of horse, and chased the Macleans up the Morskaith; in
which chase Glencoe was involved, and was hard put to it, as had been
foretold. It is added, that Archibald likewise foretold that Glencoe
would be murdered in the night-time in his own house, three months
before it happened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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