Another celebrated member of this distinguished family, Lord
Strathallan, was not spared to witness the total ruin of all his hopes.
He fell at the battle of Culloden. The impression among his descendants
is, that, seeing the defeat certain, he rushed into the thick of the
battle, determined to perish. In 1746 Lord Strathallan's name was
included in the Bill of Attainder then passed; but, in 1824, one of the
most graceful acts of George the Fourth, whose sentiments of compassion
for the Stuarts and their adherents do credit to his memory, was the
restoration of the present Viscount Strathallan to the peerage by the
title of the sixth Viscount.
It is with regret that we take leave, amid the discordant scenes of an
historical narrative, of one whose high purposes and blameless career
are the best tribute to virtue, the noblest ornament of the party which
he espoused. Modest, yet courageous; moderate, though in the ardour of
youth; devout, without bigotry; and capable of every self-sacrifice for
the good of others, on the memory of the young Duke of Perth not a
shadow rests to attract the attention of the harsh to defects of
intention, unjustly attributed to the leader of the Jacobite
insurrection.
FOOTNOTES:
[207] Genealogy of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Drummond. By a
Freind to Vertue and the Family.--Unpublished.
[208] The office of Thane or Seneschal was, to be the _Giusticiare_ or
guardian of that country; to lead the men up to the war, according to
the roll or list made out; and to be collector for the Athbane of the
kingdom for the King's rents in that district. The Athbane was the
highest officer in the kingdom--Chief Minister, Treasurer, Steward. The
Thanes were next to the Athbanes, and were the first that King Malcolm
advanced to the new title of Earls.--See Lord Strathallan's Genealogy of
the House of Drummond.
[209] Genealogy of the House of Drummond, 139.
[210] Amongst his other literary efforts, Drummond of Hawthornden left a
MS "Historie of the Family of Perth."
[211] Lady Willoughby D'Eresby is heiress to the estate of Perth, and
representative in the female line of the Earldom of Perth in Scotland
and of the Dukedom in France. At the same time that the Dukedom of Perth
was created, the last Earl's brother was created Duke de Melfort. His
descendants are, therefore, the male representatives of the Earldom of
Perth, and George Drummond Perth de Melfort in France is now claiming
the title. (Letter from Viscount Strathallan, to whose courtesy I am
indebted for this information.)
[212] "Reducing."--Editor
[213] Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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