History of the Mackenzies, with genealogies of the principal families of the nameMackenzie, Alexander
History
History of the Mackenzies, with genealogies of the principal families of the name
Mackenzie, Alexander
Mackenzie family; Scotland -- Genealogy; Seaforth, Earls of
This sketch of the great chief cannot better be closed than in the
words of one already repeatedly quoted: "It was said of him by an
acute observer and a leading wit of the age, the late Honourable
Henry Erskine, the Scotch Dean of Faculty, that 'Lord Seaforth's
deafness was a merciful interposition to lower him to the ordinary
rate of capacity in society,' insinuating that otherwise his
perception and intelligence would have been oppressive. And the
aptness of the remark was duly appreciated by all those who had
the good fortune to be able to form an estimate from personal
observation, while, as a man of the world, none was more capable of
generalizing. Yet, as a countryman, he never affected to disregard
those local predilections which identified him with the County
of Ross, as the genuine representative of Kintail, possessing an
influence which, being freely ceded and supported, became paramount
and permanent in the county which he represented in the Commons
House of Parliament, till he was called to the peerage on the 26th
October, 1797, by the title of Lord Seaforth and Baron of Kintail,
with limitation to heirs male of his body, and which he presided
over as his Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant. He was commissioned, in
1793, to reorganise the 78th or Ross-shire Regiment of Highlanders,
which, for so many years, continued to be almost exclusively composed
of his countrymen. Nor did his extraordinary qualifications and
varied exertions escape the wide ranging eye of the master genius
of the age, who has also contributed, by a tributary effusion, to
transmit the unqualified veneration of our age to many that are
to follow. He has been duly recognised by Sir Walter Scott, nor
was he passed over in the earlier buddings of Mr Colin Mackenzie;
but while the annalist is indebted to their just encomiums, he may
be allowed to respond to praise worthy of enthusiasm by a splendid
fact which at once exhibits a specimen of reckless imprudence
joined to those qualities which, by their popularity, attest
their genuineness. Lord Seaforth for a time became emulous of the
society of the most accomplished Prince of his age. The recreation
of the Court was play; the springs of this indulgence then were
not of the most delicate texture; his faculties, penetrating as
they were, had not the facility of detection which qualified him
for cautious circumspection; he heedlessly ventured and lost. It
was then to cover his delinquencies elsewhere, he exposed to sale
the estate of Lochalsh; and it was then he was bitterly taught
to feel, when his people, without an exception, addressed his
Lordship this pithy remonstrance - 'Reside amongst us and we shall
pay your debts.' A variety of feelings and facts, unconnected with
a difference, might have interposed to counteract this display of
devotedness besides ingratitude, but these habits, or his Lordship's
reluctance, rendered this expedient so hopeless that certain of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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