INVERNESS-SHIRE. 107 



years to recover therefrom, and to this day the 

 natives speak of the incursion as " The Great 

 Raid." In 1581 there appeared in the person of 

 the reigning John Grant, known as " Big John 

 of the Castle," a chieftain remarkable alike for his 

 personal strength and his influence with his neigh- 

 bours. Many are the tales still extant of his 

 extraordinary strength, one being to the effect that 

 when challenged to combat in Edinburgh by a 

 very strong Englishman, he shook hands with him, 

 as was customary at the outset of combats, and then 

 and there by pure force he squeezed the hand of the 

 Englishman into such a jelly that it ended the fight, 

 a feat, however, which within the last sixty years 

 has been imitated by a noted Cornish wrestler. On 

 another occasion when Big John of the Castle was 

 in London, he proved himself a man of resource as 

 well as of sinew, for on some gentleman referring 

 with a sneer to "the fir candles" still in use in 

 Glen Urquhart, Big John at once made a wager with 

 the scoffer that he would produce from his Highland 



