536 APPENDIX OF NOTES. 



land genealogy have the choice of admitting that they obtained the 

 title of Donachie as descendants of the " gracious Duncan " slain "by 

 Macbeth, or of accepting from the historian of the " martial achieve- 

 ments of the Eobertsons of Strowan" this account of the great 

 progenitor, from whom the family took their Celtic patronymic, 

 " Duncan, second son of Angus, Lord of the Isles, in the Gaelic 

 language was called Donoch Eavir Machines na Coalich that is, 

 Duncan, the fat or corpulent son of Angus of Cowel, and his poster- 

 ity were called Clandonachy." They had their share in the wild 

 history of the Celtic tribes in Scotland, and produced one remark- 

 able chief in comparatively modern times Alexander, known as 

 the poet-chief. When a youth of eighteen or so, he fought under 

 Dundee at Killiecrankie. He appeared again in "the fifteen," 

 bringing 500 followers to Mar's army. He was taken prisoner at 

 the battle of Sheriffmuir, but he escaped, and joined the Jacobite 

 refugees in France. When a third opportunity opened in " the 

 forty-five," he was approaching eighty years of age, and not well 

 fitted for field duty, but he appeared on the scene, and his cor- 

 respondence shows much zeal and activity in the cause. 



There is an octavo volume with the title " Poems on various sub- 

 jects and occasions, by the Honourable Alexander Eobertson of 

 Struan, Esq. Mostly taken from his own original manuscripts. 

 Edinburgh : Printed for Charles Alexander, and sold at his House 

 in Geddes Close, where subscribers may call for their copies." It is 

 understood to have appeared about the year 1750, but the absence 

 of date, and the other peculiarities of the title, may have been caused 

 by the risk to those concerned in the publication of a work full of 

 Jacobitism left by one of the chiefs of the insurrection. It was 

 noticed for other defects besides its politics a lubricity of a broad 

 frank character, beyond the licence of the age. The chieftain poet 

 belonged to a set of scholars who Avorshipped the classical models. 

 Whatever followed these was deemed legitimate literature ; and as he 

 addressed himself to Chloris, Strephon, and Lydia, he treated them 

 as they had been accustomed to be treated by his masters. These 

 effusions at the same time mix oddly with others more congenial to 

 Scotland and the period, " The hundred and nineteenth psalm 

 paraphrased, addressed to my worthy friend Duncan Toshach of 

 Monyvard," and " An ode to the Trinity in the time of temptation." 

 There is a later edition of these poems stripped of their offensive 



