historian is
of opinion that the Clan Quhele of Wyntoun were the Camerons, who appear
to have about that period been often designated as Macewans, and to
have gained much more recently the name of Cameron, i.e. Wrynose, from a
blemish in the physiognomy of some heroic chief of the line of Lochiel.
This view of the case is also adopted by Douglas in his Baronage, where
he frequently mentions the bitter feuds between Clan Chattan and Clan
Kay, and identifies the latter sept in reference to the events of 1396,
with the Camerons. It is perhaps impossible to clear up thoroughly this
controversy, little interesting in itself, at least to readers on
this side of Inverness. The names, as we have them in Wyntoun, are
"Clanwhewyl" and "Clachinya," the latter probably not correctly
transcribed. In the Scoti Chronicon they are "Clanquhele" and "Clankay.
Hector Boece writes Clanchattan" and "Clankay," in which he is followed
by Leslie while Buchanan disdains to disfigure his page with their
Gaelic designations at all, and merely describes them as two powerful
races in the wild and lawless region beyond the Grampians. Out of
this jumble what Sassenach can pretend dare lucem? The name Clanwheill
appears so late as 1594, in an Act of James VI. Is it not possible that
it may be, after all, a mere corruption of Clan Lochiel?

The reader may not be displeased to have Wyntoun's original rhymes [bk.
ix. chap. xvii.]:

A thousand and thre hundyr yere,
Nynty and sex to mak all clere--
Of thre scor wyld Scottis men,
Thretty agane thretty then,
In felny bolnit of auld fed,
[Boiled with the cruelty of an old feud]
As thare forelderis ware slane to dede.
Tha thre score ware clannys twa,
Clahynnhe Qwhewyl and Clachinyha;
Of thir twa kynnis ware tha men,
Thretty agane thretty then;
And thare thai had than chiftanys twa,
Scha Ferqwharis' son wes ane of tha,
The tother Cristy Johnesone.
A selcouth thing be tha was done.
At Sanct Johnestone besid the Freris,
All thai entrit in barreris
Wyth bow and ax, knyf and swerd,
To deil amang thaim thare last werd.
Thare thai laid on that time sa fast,
Quha had the ware thare at the last
I will noucht say; hot quha best had,
He wes but dout bathe muth and mad.
Fifty or ma ware slane that day,
Sua few wyth lif than past away.

The prior of Lochleven makes no mention either o