Edinburgh, Tuesday, August 25th, in the forenoon, 1747. I visited Mrs. Cameron, Dr. Archibald Cameron's lady,[165] who told me
Reading edition
Edinburgh, Tuesday, August 25th, in the forenoon, 1747. I visited Mrs. Cameron, Dr. Archibald Cameron's lady,[165] who told me
25 Aug. 1747
[fol. 374.] That it was a common practice amongst the red-coats after Culloden battle, dispersed up and down the Highlands, to raise the bodies of man, woman, and child out of the graves for greed of the linen, or whatever was wrapped about them, and after they had taken that off them to leave the bodies above ground. She herself had two children that died at that time, and she was advised to bury them privately in some remote heathy brae, to prevent their being taken up again; but she could not think of burying them in any other place than where their forefathers were laid, and therefore she was obliged to bribe a serjeant to keep the fellows from digging up the bodies again.
She and her poor children behoved to take to the hills, no houses being left in the whole country about them. Mrs. [fol. 375.] Cameron said she never saw the Prince in his skulking, nor knew not where he was.
Robert Forbes, A.M.