284 Notes 071 Sport and Travel i 



savage who had brutality enough to conceive in- 

 genious plans of murder, and strength enough to 

 carry them out, might do so with impunity as far 

 as law was concerned, and he would always find 

 men enough to back him. The history of that 

 castle whose ruins you see at the head of Loch 

 Assynt is but one continuous succession of parricides 

 and fratricides, I have a dim recollection of one 

 Macleod, who possessed it, having died quietly in 

 his bed, after being turned out of it by his relations ; 

 and he is specially recorded as having been ' impotent 

 of ane leg.' Either the impotency of his leg pre- 

 vented his pressing forward in the fray, or his 

 consciousness that his means of escape were imperfect 

 caused him to beat an early retreat, but he is the 

 only member of the family who was served with a 

 writ of ejectment without having its efficacy secured 

 by a dirk. 



When you go to Durness you will see the 

 tomb of an excellent specimen of the west country 

 Highlander of the seventeenth century, — one Mac- 

 Murshoo vie - ean - Mohr, who, determined that 

 posterity should appreciate his character to its full 

 value, composed the following epitaph on himself, 

 which is still to be seen (I quote from memory) : — 



' Donald Mak-Murshov Hier lyis lo, 

 Vas ill to his Friend, var to his Fo ; 

 True to his maister in veird and vo.' 



I have much matter in my head against this 

 Donald, but you may read the principal traditions 



