[125] “Whilst the lowlands and the coast of Moray, which had already been partitioned out among the followers of David, would have presented comparatively few obstacles to such a project, it is hardly possible to conceive how it could ever have been successfully put into execution amidst the wild and inaccessible mountains of the interior. It appears, therefore, most reasonable to conclude, that Malcolm only carried out the policy pursued by his grandfather ever since the first forfeiture of the earldom; and that any changes that may have been brought about in the population of this part of Scotland--and which scarcely extended below the class of the lesser _Duchasach_, or small proprietors--are not to be attributed to one sweeping and compulsatory measure, but to the grants of David and his successors; which must have had the effect of either reducing the earlier proprietary to a dependant position, or of driving into the remoter Highlands all who were inclined to contest the authority of the sovereign, or to dispute the validity of the royal ordinances which reduced them to the condition of subordinates.”--Robertson’s _Early Kings_, vol. i. p. 361. [126] Almost the same ceremonial of inauguration was observed at the coronation of Macdonald, king of the Isles. Martin says, that “there was a big stone of seven feet square, in which there was a deep impression made to receive the feet of Mack-Donald, for he was crowned king of the Isles standing in this stone; and swore that he would continue his vassals in the possession of their lands, and do exact justice to all his subjects; and then his father’s sword was put into his hands. The bishop of Argyle and seven priests anointed him king, in presence of all the heads of the tribes in the isles and continent, and were his vassals; at which time the orator rehearsed a catalogue of his ancestors.”--_Western Islands_, p. 241. [127] Sir R. Gordon’s _History of the Earldom of Sutherland_, p. 36. [128] The chiefs at Bannockburn were Mackay, Mackintosh, Macpherson, Cameron, Sinclair, Campbell, Menzies, Maclean, Sutherland, Robertson, Grant, Fraser, Macfarlane, Ross, Macgregor, Munro, Mackenzie, and Macquarrie. After the lapse of five hundred years since the battle of Bannockburn was fought, it is truly astonishing to find such a number of direct descendants who are now in existence, and still possessed of their paternal estates. [129] Tytler’s _Hist. of Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 185. Robertson’s _Parliamentary Records_, p. 115. [130] Vide the Deed printed in the Appendix to Tytler’s _History_, vol. ii. [131] Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 380. [132] This is the date assigned by Sir Robert Gordon, but Shaw makes it more than a century later, viz., in 1454. [133] Sir R. Gordon, p. 47.--Shaw, p. 264.