Original and genuine Narrative, now first published, of the remarkable Blockade and Attack of BLAIRCASTLE, the House of JAMES, Duke of ATHOL, by the Forces of the Reels in the Spring of 1746. (Concluded from p. 333.)

ROM that time Lord George made

FRO

no attempt to have any intercourse with the garrison; but, from all the measures he took, seemed to place all his hopes in reducing it to surrender by famine, having probably heard of the store of provisions being scanty; for the better execution of which design, he easily found means, by his great superiority in number, to block up the Castle so very closely, by men up to the walls, wherever they could not be annoyed from it by musketry, particularly round that part where the scaffold guard was posted, heaving up stones from time to time among them, with coarse jokes, especially against Sir Andrew, of whose peculiarities they seemed to have been very well inform ed*, that it was indeed impossible to receive any sort of supplies into it. It is also probable that he had some expectation of hastening a surrender, by setting fire to the Castle, or putting the garrison in great dread of it, by firing at it red-hot bullets, from 2 field-pieces which he had brought with him, and placed a little to the eastward of Blair-village, behind a wall, in which he made two embrasures.

All his efforts, however, for that purpose, at different times, proved ineffectual, as all the red-hot bullets, which lodged in the rafters of the roof, or other solid timber in the Castle, did not set them on fire, but only charred, or burned black what was around them; and either falling out of themselves, or being otherwise got hold of, were caught up in an iron ladle from the Duke of Athol's kitchen, and tossed into tubs of urine, for better was

ter could not be bestowed in quenching them. To Lord George's disappointment in his attempts against the north front of the house was attributed the removal of his field-pieces in a night, before his breaking up the blockade, to a nearer position on the south side of the back of the Castle; from whence however their shot produced no greater effect than the for

mer.

However determined the commandant was, (and whatever military talents he might want, those of zeal and natural courage were surely none of them) as well as his garrison, to make the most intrepid efforts rather than submit to any capitulation; yet if the rebels could have kept up the close blockade for a short time longer, the garrison, after being reduced to eat horse flesh, must have tried the last resource, by an attempt in the night time to break thro' the blockade and try to join the King's troops at Castle Menzies. The garrison could then have issued from the Castle, only by a door, under the annoyance of an enemy so near; and must have afterwards been exposed to their attacks on all sides, with very superior numbers, during a march of about 10 miles, mostly across a country, very mountainous and without roads. This was indeed a very desperate project; but it would have been attempted, and, whatever had been the issue, it would have merited the highest honours of fame.

The event, however, turned out to be decisive in behalf of the garrison, without its being reduced to the last extremities, and even without any loss, excepting that of the outposts as before mentioned.. But it suffered one alarm of danger, which, had it not proved to be false, must have been of the most decisive effect. It was, that in a week after the commencement of the blockade there was distinctly heard such a noise of knocking, seemingly underneath the ground floor of the

Castle,

Castle, as if miners were hard at work in forming a mine to blow it up; a measure to reduce or destroy the garrison, which indeed seemed to be very practicable, had it been thought to be so by Lord George Murray. For his men were in the complete and undisturbed possession, not only of the bowling-green and the range of officehouses forming its north side, but also of the high wall making that to the west, in the center of which was the bowl-house before mentioned; from the back of which a subterraneous passage or gallery might have been easily dug out to the center of the ground under the castle, and a chamber or mine there formed large enough to hold a sufficient number of barrels of gun-powder for blowing up the Castle: previous to which a summons, with a threatening instantly to spring such a mine, if the commandant did not capitulate, ought certainly to have appeared to Lord George the most probable measure for obtaining success. -And the opportunity for executing such a measure seemed indeed so inviting, that its not being attempted by Lord George (who was born in Blair Castle, and perfectly well acquainted with its topography, as well as a man of known sagacity) can hardly be supposed to have proceeded from its not having occurred to himself, or to any one of his most intelligent officers; but rather to the want of workmen capable of executing such a work, however clumsily. Certain however it was, that had it been attempted, and even discovered by the garrison, before being completed, and the mine charged, it was impossible to have interrupted it otherwise than by opening and running down a counter mine from the ground-floor of the Castle. But the whole of that mighty alarm was found to be caused by nothing more than a soldier's cutting a block of wood which lay on a floor in one of the uppermost rooms, with repeated strokes of an axe; which occasioned a

pretty general merriment in the garrison.

However, the smallness of the present quantity, with the certainty of an approaching want of provisions for men, and of horse provender, were circumstances constantly in view; and as no probability of the rebels being forced to give up the blockade soon could be foreseen, nor any mode devised of sending intelligence by the commandant to the Earl of Crawford, then supposed to be at Dunkeld, or Perth, as the general officer, commanding some British cavalry, &c. with a body of Hessian troops lately brought from Flanders; until Mr Wilson, the Duke of Athol's gardener, a loyal, stout, and sensible man, offered to perform that service, which being accepted, and a letter prepared by the commandant, stating matters to Lord Crawford, with references to Wilson, who was to destroy the letter if in danger of being taken, he was allowed to take his choice of one of the officers' horses in the Castle; and about one o'clock in the morning of the 29th March, (as far as can be recollected) a soldier being placed at each of the front windows; and the officer with the platform-guard, prepared to make a discharge against any sentries of the rebels who should attempt to stop or take Mr Wilson; the great door was then unbarricadoed and opened without noise; on which he slipt out, unperceived by the rebels, and having got on horseback, passed along westward to the small bridge over the brook, at the upper end of the pond, and from it had proceeded slowly to the bottom of the avenue which led up to the high road, when being discovered and fired at from each side, a discharge was instantly made from the platform guard and from most of the windows of the Castle, at the places where the rebels had been observed to fire; with which the affair ended; every one hoping that Mr Wilson had made his escape, un

til next morning, when the identical hose he rode was seen near Blair-village, mounted by a Highlander; which caused much concern in the garrison, as it was concluded that poor Wilson had been made a prisoner, and no intelligence gone to Lord Crawford.

Before this time, the question whether the young Highland horse of Capt. Wentworth, which had been hardily bred on the Highland hills, but hastily put into the bottom of Cumming's tower, and shut up from all communication with the Castle as has been said, could be still alive, or not; as having been left without either forage or water. It was therefore thought that he could not have outlived 9 or 10 days at most; which in the sequel will be only found to prove that the English and the Lowland Scotchmen were no judges of the constitution of a Highland horse bred on bleak and barren hills.

After the apparently most unlucky fate of Wilson, no hope of relief remained but from the chapter of accidents, especially with the soldiers, who used frequently to say among themselves, that Sir Andrew's good luck would certainly help them out in some way or other. For they had heard many strange stories about him, as of his never having been sick or wounded, nor in any battle that the. English did not win; and they were therefore the less surprised, when, at break of day, on the 1st of April, not a single Highlander could be seen; and soon after Macglashan's maid Molly, who had brought down the summons, came to congratulate her old friends, that Lord George, and all his men, as she called them, had gone off, in the night, for Dalnacardoch and Badenoch: adding, that she believed the Highlanders had been afraid of being surrounded by Lord Crawford with the King's black horse from Dunkeld : but it was afterwards said, with more probability, to have been in consequence of an

order suddenly received by Lord George Murray to join the forces of the pretended Prince of Wales near Inverness; and in expectation of being soon after attacked by the Duke of Cumberland, then marching from A

berdeen.

Notwithstanding the certainty of the rebels having broken up their blockade in the right time, and marched off in such haste; all particulars of which were speedily reported to the commandant; yet as he was purblind, and could not have the evidence of his own eyes, nor would trust to the eyes of others, he positively ordered that the garrison should be kept shut up till further orders; and those orders were not given for its releasement until next morning, the 24 of April, when an officer having arri ved on horseback from the Earl of Crawford, he informed the commandant, that his Lordship, with some çavalry, might be expected in an hour, as accordingly happened; and the gar rison being drawn out, his Lordship was received by the commandant, at the head of it, with this compliment, "My Lord, I am very glad to see you, but, by all that's good, you have been very dilatory, and we can give you nothing to eat." To which his Lordship answered laughingly, with his usual good humour, "I assure you, Sir Andrew, I made all the haste I possibly could; and I hope that you and the officers will do me the honour to partake with me of such fare as I can give you." His Lordship did ac cordingly entertain, afterwards, in the summer-house of the garden, Sir Andrew and his officers, with a plentiful dinner, and very good wines; and returned in the evening to Dunkeld.— Whence it is supposed that Lord Crawford had made a handsome report to the Duke of Cumberland, in favour of the garrison, as public thanks were soon after given to it by his Royal Highness for its steady and gallant de

fence

fence of Blair-Castle, and the match

It was then learned that, although Mr Wilson had got a fall from his horse, which was frightened by the fire at him, yet he had on foot made his escape from the rebels, arrived early next day at Dunkeld, and wait ed on Lord Crawford with his dispatch:

and it was further understood that his Lordship had spared no pains to prevail on the commandant of the Hessians to advance with them against the rebels in Athol, but without effect; so great was their terror of being attacked, in the pass of Killicranky, with swords, by the wild mountaineers, as they considered them, who had twice beaten the King's troops with fire-arms, as they had heard.

One remarkable incident at the end of the blockade still remains to be told which is, that after Sir Andrew's general jail-delivery of the garrison, in the morning of the 2d April, some officers hastening to see the poor dead horse of Capt. Wentworth, it being the 17th day of his confinement, they had no sooner opened the door and entered, than they were precipitately driven out, laughing, to avoid the animal, who was wildly staggering about. That fine stout animal having received the most proper care and best treatment by order of his master, soon became in excellent condition; and, as it is believed, was then sent to England by Capt. Wentworth, as a present to one of his sisters +.

*He died an old Lieutenant General, in 1771, aged 84, having served as a cornet in the 2d regiment of Dragoons, or Scotch Greys, when commanded by Lord John Hay at the battle of Rami. lies, 12th May O. S. 1706.

The 25th regt. having re-embarked at Burnt Island in autumn 1746 for

SIR,

Languages.

To the Editor.

IF you think the annexed Synopsis of the Gaelic and Latin languages worthy of a place in your useful Miscellany, you may insert it, and oblige, Sir, Your's &c.,

14th March 1808.

MILO.

GAE

Williamstadt on the Meuse, and marched thence to join the allied army, arri

ved about an hour before the battle at

Raucoux, near Liege, on the 11th Oclowing campaigns, re-embarked in the tober, and having served the two folend of November 1748, (a peace being concluded) at Williamstadt for Kinsale in Ireland, and the division of the regi ment in which was Lieut. Melville, who had been promoted to that rank after the battle of Lafeldt on the 2d July destination, before May 1749, above s 1747, did not arrive at Kinsale, their months from their embarkation; having suffered contrary winds, and three violent storms, driving them with distress twice into English ports, and once with shipwreck on the coast of Lower Normandy, about 4 leagues from Caen; and a march of several days to Cherwhence, after a stay of more than a month, burg, they were taken on board by an English transport, and carried to the Isle of Wight, whence after a stay of about 6 weeks, the division was re-embarked at Cowes for Kinsale in a third transport, which also, being taken with a storm near the Land's end, was driven into the port of Falmouth, and could not put to sea again for several weeks. Thus it happened that a voyage, which might be performed by a ship with a fair wind in less than a week, consumed be. tween 5 and 6 months.