Note 275 — PART THIRD. HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND REGIMENTS.

Culloden Papers, No. CCXLIII. “On this occasion the Duke of Cumberland was so much struck with the conduct of the Highlanders, and concurred so cordially in the esteem which they had secured to themselves both from friends and foes, that, wishing to show a mark of his approbation, he desired it to be intimated to them, that he would be happy to grant the men any favour which they chose to ask, and which he could concede, as a testimony of the good opinion he had formed of them. The reply was worthy of so handsome an offer. After expressing acknowledgments for the condescension of the commander-in-chief, the men assured him that no favour he could bestow would gratify them so much as a pardon for one of their comrades, a soldier of the regiment, who had been tried by a court-martial for allowing a prisoner to escape, and was under sentence of a heavy corporal punishment, which, if inflicted, would bring disgrace on them all, and on their families and country. This favour, of course, was instantly granted. The nature of this request, the feeling which suggested it, and, in short, the general qualities of the corps, struck the Duke with the more force, as, at the time, he had not been in Scotland, and had no means of knowing the character of its inhabitants, unless, indeed, he had formed his opinion from the common ribaldry of the times, when it was the fashion to consider the Highlander ‘as a fierce and savage depredator, speaking a barbarous language, and inhabiting a barren and gloomy region, which fear and prudence forbade all strangers to enter.’”—Stewart’s Sketches, i. p. 274-5.