Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/305

Rh ingratiating manners secured him the esteem not only of the settlers, but the native Indian tribes. But this career of prosperity was interrupted by ill health, so that he was obliged to return to his native country in 1768, bringing with him his wife and daughter, the latter having now reached the age of thirteen. A few years after, Mr. M'Vicar was appointed barrack-master of Fort Augustus. Unfortunately for him, he had been obliged to leave America in such haste as to have no opportunity to dispose of his property; and on the breaking out of the American war, the whole was confiscated by the new republican government, so that he was reduced to his limited pay of barrack-master. At the same station of Fort Augustus was the Rev. James Grant, the military chaplain, an accomplished scholar of amiable manners, and connected with some of the most respectable families of the district, between whom and Miss M'Vicar an acquaintanceship, of kindred disposition, ripened into permanent affection. Soon afterwards they were married, in consequence of the appointment of Mr. Grant, in 1779, to the parish of Laggan, in Inverness-shire, a union from which the subject of our memoir received her literary name and designation.

On becoming the wife of a Highland minister, Mrs. Grant addressed herself in good earnest to become useful among the people of the parish. But a difficulty opposed her progress at the outset. Although a Mac, she was not a Highlander; and she was ignorant of Gaelic, that most essential of passports to a Highland heart. Undeterred, however, by an obstacle which few Lowlanders have ever surmounted, she commenced the study of that most difficult of all languages, and made such progress, that she was soon able to converse readily with the people in their own beloved tongue. In the woods of America she had been early trained to the labour of such a necessary task, by mastering the old Saxon Scotch of Blind Harry's "Wallace." Along with the Celtic language she studied the manners and feelings of the Highlanders, and was soon able to identify herself with the people among whom her lot had been cast. They, on their part, appreciated these kind labours of a stranger with true Highland enthusiasm, and felt that she was their own countrywoman in heart and soul, as well as in tongue and lineage. In this way tranquil years passed on in Laggan, and Mrs. Grant, the mother of twelve children, seemed little likely to commence a new life as an authoress, and obtain distinction in the literary world. But such was her weird, and stern misfortune and necessity were to be the instruments of its accomplishment. After four successive deaths in her family, her husband died, and she was left a helpless widow, with eight children dependent upon her exertions, while the manse, so long her happy home, must be left to the successor of her husband. In taking account also of her worldly affairs, she found that she was worth less than nothing; for the scale of Highland and clerical hospitality by which her household had hitherto been regulated, rather exceeded than equalled the amount of stipend, so that she found herself somewhat, though not greatly, in debt. But strong in her trust on that Providence which had been with her from earliest infancy, she confronted her new necessities, and her first step was to take charge of a small farm in the neighbourhood of Laggan. This expedient soon failed, and in 1803 she removed to the neighbourhood of Stirling. Something was necessary to be done, and that speedily; but the great difficulty lay in the choice. At last the friends of Mrs. Grant suggested the idea of authorship. She had written many verses which they had greatly admired in manuscript, and these, collected into a printed volume, might be equally acceptable to the public at large. Her poems, indeed,