The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer (Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche)Mackenzie, Alexander
History
The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer (Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche)
Mackenzie, Alexander
Precognition; Prophecies
Lockhart in his Life of Scott, in reference to the Seaforth prediction,
says:—“Mr. Morrit can testify thus far—that he heard the prophecy quoted
in the Highlands at a time when Lord Seaforth had two sons alive, and in
good health, and that it certainly was not made after the event”; and he
goes on to tell us that Scott and Sir Humphrey Davy were most certainly
convinced of its truth, as also many others who had watched the latter
days of Seaforth in the light of those wonderful predictions.
The late Duncan Davidson of Tulloch, Lord-Lieutenant of the County of
Ross, on reading our Second edition, wrote to the author, under date of
May 21, 1878, as follows:—“Many of these prophecies I heard of _upwards
of 70 years ago, and when many of them were not fulfilled_, such as the
late Lord Seaforth surviving his sons, and Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie’s
accident, near Brahan, by which Miss Caroline Mackenzie was killed.”
Tulloch was, he said, during the latter years of Lord Seaforth, a regular
visitor at Brahan Castle, and often heard the predictions referred to
among members of the family. The letter is in our possession, and it
was published, during Tulloch’s life, and by his special permission, in
Mackenzie’s _History of the Mackenzies_, p. 267.
An attempt was recently made to sell the remaining possessions of
the family, but fortunately, for the present, this attempt has been
defeated by the interposition of the Marchioness of Tweeddale and Mrs.
Colonel Stanley, daughters of the present nominal possessor of the
property. At the time a leading article appeared in the _Edinburgh Daily
Review_ giving an outline of the family history of the Seaforths. After
describing how the fifth Earl, with the fidelity characteristic of his
house, “true as the dial to the sun,” embraced the losing side in “the
Fifteen”; fought at the head of his clan at Sheriffmuir; how in 1719
he, along with the Marquis of Tullibardine, and the Earl Marischal,
made a final attempt to bring the “auld Stewarts back again”; how he
was dangerously wounded in an encounter with the Government forces at
Glenshiel, and compelled to abandon the vain enterprise; how he was
carried on board a vessel by his clansmen, conveyed to the Western Isles,
and ultimately to France; how he was attainted by Parliament, and his
estates forfeited to the Crown; how all the efforts of the Government
failed to penetrate into Kintail, or to collect any rent from his
faithful Macraes, whom the Seaforths had so often led victorious from
many a bloody conflict, from the battle of Largs down to the Jacobite
Rebellions of 1715 and 1719; and how the rents of that part of the
estates were regularly collected and remitted to their exiled chief in
France, with a devotion and faithfulness only to be equalled by their own
countrymen when their beloved “bonnie Prince Charlie” was a wanderer,
helpless and forlorn, at the mercy of his enemies, and with a reward
of £30,000 at the disposal of many a poverty-stricken and starving
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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