Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/225

Rh in bringing about the union, when the succession was settled, as a proof of his sincerity and faithfulness to his majesty, as if his majesty had been ignorant of the attempts that had been made to dissolve "that treaty, and of the hearty repentance that Marr himself had professed for the hand he had in bringing it about. Of his willingness to serve the king in the same capacity in which he served the queen, and with the same faithfulness, provided it did not interfere with services that he could turn to a more special account, we see no reason to doubt, and perhaps it had been not the worst policy of the king to have taken him at his word, and continued him in his place. Kings, however, are but men, and we do think he must have been something more or something less than man, w : ho, situated as the king then was, could have looked on Marr, as he then presented himself, without a goodly mixture of suspicion and contempt. Which of the two predominated in the king's mind, history does not say, but the letter was certainly passed over without notice ; and in consequence Marr durst not present a flaming address which he had procured from the disaffected clans, some one about the court having moreover told him that the king had been apprized of this address, and was highly offended, believing it to have been drawn up at St Germains for the purpose of affronting him. Though his proffers of service were not accepted, and though he was not on terms of much familiarity, he still continued to hang about the court, carrying on, at the same time, a close correspondence with the disaffected, both in Scotland and England, particularly in Scotland, till the beginning of August 1715, when the habeas corpus act being suspended, as also the act against wrongous imprisonment in Scotland, and warrants made out at the secretary of state's office for the immediate apprehension of all suspected persons, he thought it no longer safe to appear among his fellows, and with general Hamilton, a major Hay, and two servants, after being at court to pay his compliments to the king, took ship in the river, all of them being in disguise, and on the third day after landed at Newcastle, where they hired a vessel which set them ashore at Ely in Fife. Here they were joined by the lord lyon king at arms, Alexander Erskine, and other friends, along with whom they proceeded to Kinnoul, and on the 20th arrived at his lordship's castle of Braemar, where all the Jacobites in that county were summoned to meet him.

Under the feudal system, we may notice here that hunting possessed much of a military character, and was often made the pretext for the superior calling out his vassals, when hunting was but a small part of the object in view; and we find the kings of Scotland frequently calling out lords, barons, landward men, and freeholders, with each a month's provisions and all their best dogs, when the purpose was to daunt the thieves of the particular district where they were summoned to hunt. Often, during the previous years, had this expedient, joined with that of horse-racing, been resorted to, for collecting together the friends of the exiled family ; and it was, on this occasion, again employed by Marr. It was but a few days that he had been at Braemar, when, under this pretence, he was waited on by a vast number of gentlemen of the first quality and interest, among whom were the marquises of Huntly and Tullibardine; the earls of Nithsdale, Marischal, Traquair, Errol, Southeske, Carnwath, Seaforth, Linlithgow, &c. &c. ; the viscounts of Kilsyth, Kenmure, Kingston, and Stormont; the lords Kollo, Duffus, Drummond, Strathallan, Ogilvy, and Nairn; a number of chieftains from the Highlands, Glendaruel, Auldbair, Auchterhouse, Glengarry; with the two generals, Hamilton and Gordon, and many others of inferior name. To these gentlemen, previously prepared for the purposes of faction, Marr opened at large his whole scheme. He declaimed, with well affected sorrow, particularly upon his own misconduct, and the guilty hand he