Scottish Clans

The great tribal wars between Picts (Gaels) and Scots, Highlanders and Saxon Lowlanders, are matters of history, as well as of song and story. Sir Walter Scott, while young in public life, wrote:

But mountain chief and faithful clan are now only an interesting feature of the historic past. The word "clan" signifies family, and a clan was a certain number of families governed by a lineal descendant of the parent family. But jealousies and deadly feuds arose between the Highland and the Lowland Clans, between Picts and Scots. Only the threatened invasion of a common foe united them at last. In 842 A. D., Kenneth MacAlpine, King of the Scots, was made King of the Picts (Gaels), and they henceforth became one people. But in the lowlands the patriarchal form of government gave place, in time, to the feudal system, the only difference being that the feudal baron was not allied by blood to his followers, and that he did not inherit his land, but obtained it as a grant from the King in lieu of military service. The Highland Clans resisted the feudal system, and no power was ever able to obtain entire or permanent possession of their country. Forty native kings succeeded Kenneth MacAlpine (842), until James VI. of Scotland became James I. of England (1603). One hundred and four years later (1707), when the last chieftain of the Highland Clans signed the "Act of Union" with England, he exclaimed, "Here endeth Auld Lang Syne." But the end of Clanship had not come even then. In 1715 and 1745 the rising of the Highland Clans made England tremble. But in 1745 they rose for the last time. The battle of Culloden (1746) was as fatal to the Clans as to the Royal House of Stuart. In 1748 three legislative acts were passed which effected a lasting change in the Highlands. First, the use of the Tartan, which had for centuries been the dress of the Celtic Clans, was forbidden under the penalty of long imprisonment or exile. Second, the carrying of firearms was forbidden under a like penalty. Thirdly, the exercise of inherited jurisdiction was forbidden all over Scotland. This completely checked the power of the Clans. But Clanship was still strong in the hearts of the people, and an outbreak was feared at every change of State policy. To William Pitt, Lord Chatham (1708-1778), is due the final disbanding of the Highland Clans. His sagacious mind suggested the forming of them into Highland Regiments, which plan, when carried out, was successful in converting these high-spirited but mistaken rebels into the bravest and most loyal soldiers of the British Crown. The privilege of wearing the "tartan colors" of their forefathers and their natural instinct for war brought thousands of hardy Highlanders into the British Army. For instance, the "42d," the famous "Black Watch" (so-called from the color of their tartan, black and green) represents chiefly the Clan Campbell, the largest and one of the most important of the ancient Clans; the 93d, the Clan Gordon, etc. Wherever invincible soldiers are required the Highlanders but ask a chief whom they can trust to say, "Follow me," and, suiting the action to the word, from every man comes back the cry, "I follow."