MacVean's system.
It is singular how tradition, which is sometimes a sure guide to
truth, is, in other cases, prone to mislead us. In the celebrated
field of battle at Killiecrankie, the traveller is struck with one of
those rugged pillars of rough stone, which indicate the scenes of
ancient conflict. A friend of the author, well acquainted with the
circumstances of the battle, was standing near this large stone, and
looking on the scene around, when a highland shepherd hurried down
from the hill to offer his services as cicerone, and proceeded to
inform him, that Dundee was slain at that stone, which was raised to
his memory. "Fie, Donald." answered my friend, "how can you tell such
a story to a stranger? I am sure you know well enough that Dundee was
killed at a considerable distance from this place, near the house of
Fascally, and that this stone was here long before the battle, in
1688."--"Oich! oich!" said Donald, no way abashed, "and your honour's
in the right, and I see you ken a' about it. And he wasna killed on
the spot neither, but lived till the next morning; but a' the Saxon
gentlemen like best to hear he was killed at the great stane." It is
on the same principle of pleasing my readers, that I retain Crookstone
Castle instead of Cathcart.
If, however, the author has taken a liberty in removing the actual
field of battle somewhat to the eastward, he has been tolerably strict
in adhering to the incidents of the engagement, as will appear from it
comparison of events in the novel, with the following account from an
old writer.
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