Gaelic to the men at other times. He mentioned drinking with the French soldiers, and being quite friendly when not fighting; liked the Spaniards, from whom he got lots of wine and other good things. Wine was sometimes easier to get than good water. He mentioned the Spaniards torturing French prisoners; spoke much of the sore eyes in Egypt, the dust storms and want of water, and of the hardships and severe discipline in the Peninsula. He could speak Spanish better than English; he was married when he enlisted, and came home after Waterloo; at first he had 6d. a day pension, increased to 1s., and 3d. from the Kinloch Fund; * and lived to be a very old man.

Alexander Achinachy, pensioner, a Lowlander from Banffshire, was still with the regiment as civilian messman in 1851, when I often talked to him. Enlisted in 1810, and had been through the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns. He said that on these campaigns the officers wore nothing of the Highland dress but their bonnets and broadswords, but the N.-C. officers and men always wore it except on fatigue, or when in cantonments, at night on guard. The fatigue trousers were grey, or anything they could get, and were not expected to be in good order. They never wore purses when marching. and fighting, but left them with the heavy baggage, or carried them on the back of the knapsack. The men were generally decent and respectable, of the agricultural class, but some bad characters were among them. There were a few Irish and English, a good many Lowlanders, but the regiment generally was very Highland, far more so than in 1851. Grant's "Romance of War" had been lately published, and I remember telling him some of the incidents in that novel, and he recognised them, and said they were quite true. "Old Alexander" was greatly respected, and it was always said that, little and flat-footed as he was, he had never fallen out or been in hospital during the campaigns.

* Founded in 1812 by William Kinloch, Esq., of Calcutta, and a native of Arbuthnot, Kincardineshire, who bequeathed “the residue of his estate to the Governors and Managers of the Fund instituted in London for the relief of poor and indigent Scotchmen who have lost their limbs or eyesight, or have been otherwise maimed and wounded in the service of their country. About 300 disabled soldiers and sailors are now receiving pensions varying in value from £4 to £8 from that Fund."-Royal Scottish Hospital Report, 1900.

John Downie, native of Glenshee, Perthshire, pensioner with 9d. a day for wounds, increased to 1s. 3d. from the Kinloch Fund, joined 1810; a blacksmith by trade, but determined to enlist, and walked to Edinburgh for that purpose. An English regiment was quartered there. That did not suit him; but meeting a sergeant of the Gordon Highlanders, he took the shilling from him for seven years' service, and was soon sent to the 1st Battalion in Portugal. A good scholar, both in English and Gaelic, he kept a journal, which was unfortunately lost with his knapsack at Waterloo, where he was picked up insensible the day after the battle. His heroes were Wellington, "Fassiefern," Cameron the pipemajor, and Private Norman Stewart, and of these he had many tales to tell. There was no talk of teetotalism in these days, but moderation was expected. "Where is your fortitude, man?" the colonel would say to one who pleaded in excuse for being drunk that he seldom tasted liquor at all. Downie said that the night before Waterloo some took a desponding view of the situation-the retreat of the Prussians and the strength of Napoleon's army, and spoke of their great losses at Quatre-Bras. "Comadh co dhiubh," said a Lochaber man, "thug sinn buaidh, dh' aindheoin co' theireadh e " (no matter, we licked them, say what they may); and they began to speak cheerfully of what they would do in Paris, but the French prevented his seeing their capital by putting a bullet in him, which he carried with him to the grave. He had been wounded twice before by both bayonet and bullet. On one of these occasions, when he was making his way to the rear with a wounded comrade, they came on a man M'Intosh, who was one of the Duchess of Gordon's recruits; he was sitting on a dead horse, and, pointing to his leg shattered by a cannon ball, said, in Gaelic, "What can I make of that?" "Mind, lad, ye got a kiss from the Duchess o' Gordon for that," was the rather unfeeling reply. Downie had a great contempt for the Spanish soldiers. "Clarty deevils," he called them, but thought very highly of the Portuguese troops. great respect for the French army, and in 1870 was surprised at their being defeated by the Germans. "They can't be the same sort that fought against us in Spain," he said. Dis

He had a

charged after Waterloo, he first kept a small school in Glenshee; when afterwards many people left the glen owing to the introduction of sheep-farming, he entered the post office service at Alyth, where he was highly respected. He had always been a very religious man, and could read his wellthumbed Gaelic Bible without spectacles at the age of 93; he died at a still greater age.

Peter Stewart, pensioner. His parchment discharge. mentions the actions of Vittoria, Maya, Donna Maria, Bayonne, Hillette, Garris, Aire, Orthes, Toulouse, Waterloo, his Peninsular medal having clasps for Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse. At some place in Spain the sentries had got into trouble from the spare ammunition being stolen. One night, Peter being sentry over it, a calf appeared, and kept getting nearer and nearer to the ammunition carts. It had rather odd action, and Peter challenged, when the creature answered with a prolonged "Bo," which had something of the human voice about it. He fired; it fell; "Bo noo, ye beggar," said Peter, and a Spaniard in a calf's head and hide was his bag. He said if he had his choice, he preferred close quarters and the bayonet to shooting and being shot at. He was in the Duke of Gordon's and afterwards in the Duke of Richmond and Gordon's service in the deer forest of Glen Fiddich; and when the Duke built him a new house, he named it after what he said was by far the toughest fight he had ever seen-Maya -and by that designation he was afterwards generally known. When the Queen visited the Duke of Richmond at Glen Fiddich, his Grace presented " Maya" to Her Majesty, who, after speaking to him of his services, gave him a sovereign. Afterwards the Duke said: "Well, Peter, I suppose you will put the Queen's sovereign on your watch chain." I'll hae a dram to her health oot o't first." When old and infirm, the Duke took a house for him at Banff to be near the doctor, and there he died. His son is a gamekeeper on the Gordon

estates.

Reminiscences of Private William MacKenzie, Onich, who enlisted at Fort-Augustus, and served with the Gordons from Egmont-op-Zee to Waterloo; from notes by his grandson, the Reverend Dugald MacDonald, Episcopal Church, Oban:

"In Holland William was up to the waist in water and got his powder wet. In the tussle there, they used their fists when grappling.

'At one fight, a piper named M'Lachlan had both legs broken, but continued to play Cogadh na Sith' till he fainted from loss of blood.

"He also mentions the incident of the piper's bag being spoiled at Fuentes d'Onor, as mentioned in the text from the account of another man.

"On the retreat to Corunna, some of them ground little bits of horse flesh between stones to squeeze out the blood, and ate it raw, as the old Highlanders used to do with a deer's liver when benighted in the chase. He mentioned the incident of the child on its dead mother's breast, as told in the text from other accounts. When the treasure was thrown away on the retreat, he said some of the men picked up gold doubloons as they passed and put them in their hose, which lamed them.

'At an engagement where his company had to stand long under fire of the enemy close in front, his Celtic impatience could not stand the strain, and he in his excitement shouted 'Hurrah, fhearaibh, bitheamaid aca' (hurrah, men, let us be at them). His comrades, mistaking his voice for that of their officer, charged at once and routed their opponents. William was tried by Court-martial for this breach of discipline, but in consideration of the circumstances was pardoned. He mentioned that at one place the men used stones to hurl down on the enemy, their ammunition being exhausted (probably Maya). Though very strong, he was the shortest man in the battalion but one, being 5 feet 5 inches. In crossing the Nive he was carried off his legs by the stream, when Colonel Cameron rode to him, told him to catch his stirrup, brought him to land, and gave him a biscuit from his haversack and a drink of wine from his flask.

He spoke of Fassiefern' as the finest soldier possible, but very strict. Men must turn out with arms and accoutrements clean, no matter how short the halt might be. He would allow no excuse for drunkenness or dirt. William thought him too hard on those who were 'heavy on the dram.' He lived to nearly a hundred, and would often say to the boys and their

mothers, If I was young again it's not sitting by the fire at home I would be, but with the lads with the yellow tartan (gillean a' bhreacain bhuidhe), telling his young friends they should join the Gordons.'

The veterans were generally very reticent as to their adventures, unless specially drawn out. One said, "If I was to tell people the hardships we endured and the sights we saw, they would not believe me."

I have often seen it stated both that the Highland regiments were not largely composed of Highlanders, and that they did not wear the Highland dress on active service. The three kilted regiments who fought throughout the great French war were recruited much in the same manner; more than once it appears from the remarks of 92nd men, as at Minorca, at Orthes, at Ghent, that they had brothers and neighbours in the 42nd and 79th, and that the regiments were delighted when they met to talk of mutual homes. Anyone who knows the Highlands intimately must be aware that there is hardly a respectable family who cannot tell you of an ancestor who was in the army of that period; there were many from the Lowlands also in these regiments, but the Highland element must have been very strong. I myself met a Chelsea pensioner of the 42nd, about 1863, a Waterloo man, who, though himself a Lowlander from Renfrew, spoke Gaelic with ease, and when asked how he came to know it, replied that he learned it in the regiment.

With regard to the dress, the orders, and the statements of those present, show that the Gordons wore the kilt during every campaign they took part in, though after the Egyptian campaign of 1801, when their clothing was worn out, they came home in anything they could get, white, blue, and grey breeks! There is not much in the orders on active service as to officers' uniform, but from what there is, and incidentally, it appears that they wore the kilt in all the campaigns up to and including Sir John Moore's. In Wellington's campaigns. they wore grey or blue pantaloons and shoes with gaiters; and the reason given for this by the late Sir John MacDonald was that officers were encouraged to ride as much as possible, in order that they might be able at any moment to take a message