Posted on 11/21/2009 8:59:07 AM PST by Dysart
THEY were the words that launched one of the darkest episodes in Scottish history, remembered and resented to this day.
• Clan Campbell murdered Clan MacDonald in Glencoe in 1692
Now the original handwritten order for the massacre at Glencoe "to fall upon the rebels ... and put all to the sword under seventy" goes on show in Edinburgh this week.
Sent to Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, in 1692, the simple 20-line letter triggered the murder of 38 members of the MacDonald clan and is the centrepiece of an exhibition of cultural "treasures" at the National Library of Scotland.
It is on display alongside other literary and historical landmarks, from a handwritten Robert Burns poem recently reclaimed from the US, to a Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The library's chief executive, Martyn Wade, said the exhibition for the year of Homecoming was a rare chance "to see this collection of priceless Scottish treasures."
The Glencoe letter will be exhibited until early January, in low light conditions and with flash photography banned, staff said.
The order, signed by Major Robert Duncanson, came after a proclamation requiring the chiefs of the Scottish clans to take an oath of allegiance to William III before the end of the 1691.
Alasdair MacDonald of Glencoe missed the deadline, providing the authorities with an opportunity to crush his clan. Forty women and children were said to have died after the killings from exposure, after their homes were burned.
The massacre – with the Campbells ordered to attack their hosts after enjoying their hospitality – became a rallying cry for the Jacobite cause, and inspired writers and artists from Sir Walter Scott to The Corries.
Other highlights of the show include On the Battle of Sheriff-Muir, a poem written by Burns in 1790 commemorating a clash between Hanoverian troops and the Jacobites 75 years before. It is the first time the manuscript has been seen since it was bought by the library in the US for £30,000.
Also on show is the Forlani Map, thought to be the first printed map solely of Scotland, along with a copperplate map of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island produced for the 1895 memorial "Edinburgh edition" of his works.
Other items on display range from "The Lyon in Mourning" – Bishop Robert Forbes's collection of Jacobite papers, various early designs for the Union flag, the 1814 Waverley manuscript by Walter Scott and The Adventure of the Illustrious Client by Conan Doyle.
Two months ago, the library showed the last letter of Mary Queen of Scots in its new exhibition space, part of a £2.24 million overhaul to make the national collection more accessible to the general public.
I followed the ‘properties’ link for the image. I wish it were a larger image as it’s very hard to read. It does appear, however to be the back side of a letter, with some of the other side showing through, making it that more difficult to read...
well, dang!
WOW! Thanks.
I heard the MacDonald clan hospitality included plenty of cheeseburgers.
May not be g3 but still of interest to your lists
Amazing! There are some MacDonalds I have to tell about this although it’ll probably rile them all up again.
I thought it was tomato soup.
Interesting. I have been to Glencoe and have a painting of it in my home. My family’s surname is a MacDonald clan name link. If anyone wants to read more about the misery brought on the clans by the English who took over the lands to raise sheep read a small Scottish book called “The Highland Clearances” by John Prebble. I also have a downloaded song called “The Battle of Glencoe” that tells the tale of the Campbell MacDonald history. There is a quote in the beginning of the book that says “Since you have preferred sheep to men let sheep defend you!”
Brobdingnagian Bards (!) sing a little diddy against the Jacobites.
http://www.thebards.net/music/lyrics/Ye_Jacobites_By_Name.shtml
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Thanks Dysart. |
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The Campbells brought Bean with Bacon soup. That soup contained 239 beans.
(One more would have been "too-farty".)
Ping!
How did they know how many beans they needed?
I would enjoy these sorts of exhibits more if they didn’t implicate tax issues that concern me deeply. In the UK, these exhibits have a sinister purpose — it is a tool used by the left to crush the aristocracy. It is on-going; look up the recent sale of a Raphael by the Duke of Northumberland.
Fact is, when you see these collections, what you’re seeing is a piece of the corpse of an ancient historic estate which has been destroyed by inheritance and luxury taxes. For example, Abbotsford was a shrine to Sir Walter Scott (he built it, and loved it), all those manuscripts, and his tartans, and the Raeburn portraits of him, were displayed there by his descendants even before inheritance taxes forced others to do similar things. Now, Abbotsford is just a house and a garden and most of this stuff, owned by the govt as payment in lieu of inheritance tax, is scattered to the winds.
I’m against inheritance tax period, but even if I were willing to accept that that the Duke of Norfolk must pay taxes on the lands given to his ancestors by Edward I on the theory that parliament, as de facto heirs of Edward I can revoke the gift, I think it is monstrous that the Duke of Buccleuch must pay taxes on the painting “Winter.”
That painting came about when Lady Caroline Scott as a toddler rushed in to the room where her brother was being painted. The artist was so enchanted by the sight of the pretty child wrapped up to go out in snow, he painted her on the spot without even promise of pay. The Scott family have to pay huge taxes on this now (in the UK, it’s not just at death, it’s also a luxury tax every year). Some day you’ll see this painting in an exhibit in Edinburgh. And I think that’s bs.
239?
(One more would have been 240.)
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