[46] We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. Kirkpatrick Sharpe for this unique copy of the “Tripatriarchicon,” from which the above extracts were made. [47] It is exceedingly remarkable that the greater part of the Author of “Waverley’s” prototypes were natives of this district. CHAPTER IX. =Legend of Montrose.= (_Plot of the Tale._) There can be little doubt that the Author of “Waverley” has taken the grounds of this Tale from the following interesting story, related in a critique on the “Culloden Papers,” in the _Quarterly Review_, which is said to have been written by the Great Novelist’s _other self_, Sir Walter Scott. “The family or sept of Macgregor is of genuine Celtic origin, great antiquity, and, in Churchill’s phrase, ‘doubtless springs From great and glorious, but forgotten kings.’ “They were once possessed of Glenurchy, of the castle at the head of Lochowe, of Glendochart, Glenlyon, Finlarig, Balloch, now called Taymouth, and of the greater part of Breadalbane. From these territories they were gradually expelled by the increasing strength of the Campbells, who, taking advantage of a bloody feud between the M‘Gregors and M‘Nabs, obtained letters of fire and sword against the former; and, about the reigns of James III. and IV., dispossessed them of much of their property. The celebrated M‘Gregor a Rua Rua, the heir-male of the chief, and a very gallant young man, was surprised and slain by Colin Campbell, the Knight of Lochowe, and with him fell the fortunes of his family. From this time, the few lands which remained not sufficing to support so numerous a clan, the M‘Gregors became desperate, wild, and lawless, supporting themselves either by actual depredation, or by the money which they levied as the price of their forbearance, and retaliating upon the more powerful clans, as well as upon the Lowlands, the severity with which they were frequently pursued and slaughtered. A single trait of their history will show what was the ferocity of feud among the Scottish clans.