292 Four-in-Hand in Brziain. 



court's amusement, just as bears and bandogs were 

 pitted against each other in those godless days. Every- 

 body has read in the " Fair Maid of Perth " the graphic 

 account of one of these savage battles between thirty 

 picked men of the Clan Quhele and as many of the 

 Clan Chattan, on the North Inch of the city — that beau- 

 tiful meadow in which Agricola saw a striking resem- 

 blance to the Campus Martius. The story is historically 

 true, the battle having actually taken place in the reign 

 of Robert III., who had in vain tried to reduce the 

 rivals to order. As a last resort it was suggested that 

 each should select his champions and fight it out in the 

 presence of the king, it being shrewdly hoped that the 

 peace of the community would be secured through the 

 slaughter of the best men of both sides. The place 

 chosen was prepared by surrounding it with a trench 

 and by erecting galleries for spectators, for the brutal 

 combat was witnessed by the king and his court and by 

 many English and French knights, attracted thither by 

 the novelty of the spectacle. The contestants, armed 

 with their native weapons — bows and arrows, swords 

 and targets, short knives and battle axes — entered the 

 lists, and at the royal signal butchered each other until 

 victory declared in favor of Clan Chattan, the only sur- 

 vivor of its opponents having swam the river and es- 

 caped to the woods. The few left of the conquering 

 party were so chopped and carved and lopped of limbs 

 that they could be no longer regarded as either use- 



