I A Gossip on a Sutherland Hillside 255 



a man with two, so they ran back to Lairg to look 

 for their gear, and they saw the heap in the road, and 

 set to work to fit themselves. " That's mine, Donald !" 

 " Gie me my brogue, Rory ! " " What, are ye to walk 

 off wi' my hose, Rurich ? " and so at last they went 

 wild to think that Chisholm was going over the hill 

 all the time, and they could not suit themselves 

 without breaking the commandment, and taking their 

 neighbour's goods, and the bluid got hot, and the 

 skean-dhus lap out, and sixty-and-six Guns lay in 

 the white moonlight with the red bluid bubbling out 

 of them. Sair broken was the clan for many a day 

 — and that's the story of the fox-hunt o' Lairg.' 



' Well, Donald, I can well believe it ; but that is 

 a very different version of the story of Chisholm of 

 Cairn Vaduc from the one I have generally heard. 

 But the Clan Gun took a deal of breaking ; they 

 seem to have fluctuated in the oddest manner 

 between Sutherland and Caithness : when times were 

 tolerably quiet, they put themselves under the pro- 

 tection of the Earl of Caithness, and cultivated their 

 oats and kail in peace ; but the moment there was 

 any chance of a row, they went over to the Earl of 

 Sutherland, and fought for him through thick and 

 thin. The consequence of this trimming policy was, 

 that whenever there was a good understanding 

 between the two Earls, which happened about once 

 in a generation, and never lasted much over eight- 

 and- forty hours, they combined their forces, and 

 offered up as many of the luckless Guns as they 



