The Lyon in Mourning, Vol. 1: or a collection of speeches, letters, journals, etc. relative to the affairs of Prince Charles Edward StuartForbes, Robert
History
The Lyon in Mourning, Vol. 1: or a collection of speeches, letters, journals, etc. relative to the affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
Forbes, Robert
Charles Edward, Prince, grandson of James II, King of England, 1720-1788; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Sources
The Prince ate of our roasted eggs, some collops, plenty of bread
and butter, etc., and (to use the words of Mrs. MacDonald) 'the deel
a drap did he want in's weam of twa bottles of sma beer. God do him
good o't; for, well I wat, he had my blessing to gae down wi't.'
After he had made a plentiful supper, he called for a dram; and when
the bottle of brandy was brought, he said he would fill the glass for
himself; 'for,' said he, 'I have learn'd in my skulking to take a
hearty dram.' He filled up a bumper and drank it off to the happiness
and prosperity of his landlord and landlady. Then taking a crack'd
and broken pipe out of his poutch, wrapt about with thread, he asked
Kingsburgh if he could furnish him with some tobacco; for that he had
learn'd likewise to smoke in his wanderings. Kingsburgh took from him
the broken pipe and laid it carefully up with the brogs, and gave him
a new clean pipe and plenty of tobacco.
The Prince and Kingsburgh turn'd very familiar and merry together,
and when the Prince spoke to Kingsburgh, he for the [Sidenote:
_fol._ 210.] most part laid his hand upon Kingsburgh's knee and used
several kind and obliging expressions in his conversation with the
happy landlord. Kingsburgh remarked what a lucky thing it was that
he happened to be at Mougstot (Sir Alexander MacDonald's house),
and that it was all a matter of chance that he was there, for he
had no design of being there that day. And then he asked the Prince
what he would have done if he had not been at Mougstot. The Prince
replied, 'Why, sir, you could not avoid being at Mougstot this day;
for Providence ordered you to be there upon my account.' Kingsburgh
became so merry and jocose that putting up his hand to the Prince's
face, he turned off his head-dress which was a very odd clout of a
mutch or toy; upon which Mrs. MacDonald hasted out of the room and
brought a clean nightcap for him.
Both Kingsburgh and his lady said that the Prince's face and hands
were very much sun-burnt. But they declared he had not a spot of the
itch upon him, though a silly report had been raised by his malicious
enemies that he was scabbed to the eye-holes. His legs, they said,
were hacked in some parts, which was occasioned by his walking and
sleeping so often in [Sidenote: _fol._ 211.] wet hose. Mrs. MacDonald
used the freedom to put up the sleeve of his gown and of his shirt (a
very coarse dud), 'and there,' said she, 'I saw a bonny, clean, white
skin indeed. The deel a lady in a' the land has a whiter and purer
skin than he has.'
[Sidenote: 30 June]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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