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.
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