y, after having agreed to pay in future a small sum of
black-mail, in consideration of which Rob Roy not only undertook to
forbear his herds in future, but to replace any that should be stolen
from him by other freebooters. Mr. Abercromby said Rob Roy affected to
consider him as a friend to the Jacobite interest and a sincere enemy to
the Union. Neither of these circumstances were true; but the laird
thought it quite unnecessary to undeceive his Highland host at the risk
of bringing on a political dispute in such a situation. This anecdote I
received many years since (about 1792) from the mouth of the venerable
gentleman who was concerned in it.

NOTE 16

This celebrated gibbet was, in the memory of the last generation, still
standing at the western end of the town of Crieff, in Perthshire. Why it
was called the kind gallows we are unable to inform the reader with
certainty; but it is alleged that the Highlanders used to touch their
bonnets as they passed a place which had been fatal to many of their
countrymen, with the ejaculation 'God bless her nain sell, and the Teil
tamn you!' It may therefore have been called kind, as being a sort of
native or kindred place of doom to those who suffered there, as in
fulfilment of a natural destiny.

NOTE 17

The story of the bridegroom carried off by caterans on his bridal-day is
taken from one which was told to the author by the late Laird of Mac-Nab
many years since. To carry off persons from the Lowlands, and to put them
to ransom, was a common practice with the wild Highlanders, as it is said
to be at the present day with the banditti in the south of Italy. Upon
the occasion alluded to, a party of caterans carried off the bridegroom
and secreted him in some cave near the mountain of Schiehallion. The
young man caught the small-pox before his ransom could be agreed on; and
whether it was the fine cool air of the place, or the want of medical
attendance, Mac-Nab did not pretend to be positive; but so it was, that
the prisoner recovered, his ransom was paid, and he was restored to his
friends and bride, but always considered the Highland robbers as having
saved his life by their treatment of his malady.

NOTE 18

This happened on many occasions. Indeed, it was not till after the total
destruction of the clan influence, after 1745, that purchasers could be
found who offered a fair price for the estates forfeited in 1715, which
were then brought to sale by the creditors of t