Oft’ times these handsome gentlemen appeared in the garb of old Gaul.
In the year 1843 we were, though but a boy, at a fair at Cawdor Castle. Readers of Shakespeare’s Macbeth will have often found Cawdor mentioned therein; the village of Cawdor is but a few miles from Culloden Moor. While we were there the old Highland people, in their broken English, were declaring that the Stuarts 19 were collecting arms, and that the Clans were going to join them; those gentlemen wore the Highland garb, and were highly respected. They had lived in Cawdor for some years; one ox them built a Hermitage of wicker-work on high bank of river, which remains entire and in good repair to the present day.
Long ’ere Her Majesty the Queen
Had visited of Aberdeen,
’Ere she in castle did abide
’Mong glorious hills on the Dee side,
Or visited each Highland glen,
Or won the hearts of Highland men,
Here oft’ was seen in celtic dress
Two Stewarts brave in Inverness,
Well worthy of the poet’s lyre.
They claimed Prince Charlie as grandsire,
And that they also did combine
Stuart with Royal Polish line,
Their names Sobieskie, Stuart,
They won many a Highland heart,
But Royal order did go forth
To build Balmoral Castle North,
Then wondrous change was quickly seen,
All hearts were captured by the Queen.