HIGHLAND CHIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 10

HIGHLAND CHIEF.

AN ENVOY OF EMPIRE. ' LORD LOVAT'S CAREER. STORY OF A FAMOUS HOUSE. (By JOHN NORTH.) There is not a Highland heart in the Dominion of New Zealand that will not be stirred with pride and the "perferviduni ingeniuin Scotorum" to learn that Lord Lovat has arrived here, an envoy of Empire, entrusted by the Imperial Parliament with a mission that is equally important to England and New Zealand. Call it Highland claunishness if you likej I prefer to think of it as pride of race, but there is no true Highland Celt alive who has not a pride°in the House of Lovat, and in the able and distinguished head who has come to us on a high Imperial mission. As a Highlander born and bred on the borders of Lord Lovat's vast Highland estates,' r can claim to express farily the thoughts and opinions of my fellow Highlanders in regard to the House of Lovat and its present head. Our guest then, is the greatest and most popular of .all great Highland chiefs alive tor day—alas! they are a fast diminishing band. To-day the wealthy stranger from England or America reigns in the mansions and- on the estates where once the Highland chiefs lorded it in a kindly", patriarchal style. Highlanders have seen their chiefs and chieftains pass away thus with deep but unavailing regret, but they cling all the more faith° fully and lovingly to the chiefs who still remain, of whom Lord Lovat, chief of the clan. Fraser, is the greatest. A Kindly Landlord. He is a great landowner in the Highlands, holding more territory than any other in county of Inverness. How many shooting lodges—really mansions—he owns I cannot say here, but in' my own particular district he owns five. The family seat is Beaufort Castle, near Beauly, twelve miles from Inverness. On his estates live a very large number of tenant farmers and crofters, and of my own personal knowledge I can affirm that they live .happy and contented. There is no suggestion of rack-renting or oppression on the Lovat estates. As far as is practicable in these modern days, the' 'old' kindly patriarchal syst"-~>. prevails. Any tenant with, any grievance is.certain" of a

patient and courteous hearing from the chief himself or his representatives, who, of course, take their cue from their employer. There would never have been any Highland agrarian trouble had all lords and lairds managed their estates as Lord" Lovat does, and treated their tenants with the kindly consideration which has become a tradition of the family. % A Long Pedigree., It is impossible within the limits of a newspaper article to give more than a suggestion of the great part played by the Lords of Lovat in the history of Scotland- and the Highlands. The founder, as has been said, had his demesne in Tweeddale, in the south of Scotland. He was Sir Simon Fraser, and the name of Simon has steadily descended from one generation to another of the chiefs ever since, the present Lord Loyat being Simon Joseph: A descendant of the first Sir Simon, who fell in the bloody battle, of Halidon Hill, came into possession in 1338 of the tower and fort, of Lovat, long held until then by the Bassets. In 1431 the chief was created a Lord of Parliament under the name oi Lord Lovat, so that the title is now almost 500 years old. The most notable of-all the old Lords of Lovat was Lord Simon of the "45," who was executed in London, an old man of over SO, perhaps not so much for his part in the Rebellion as for his flagrant duplicity. He pretended sympathy with both sides, denounced' the one to the other, but Nemesis overtook him, and he met his end bravely, quoting as he ascended the scaffold the old.Latin phrase: "Dulce et decorum pro patria mori." A Tragedy and Its Consequences. The present Lord Lovat is not, however, descended directly from Lord Simon of the "45." After the Rebellion the estates and honours passed to the Frasers of Strichen, Aberdeenshire, from when the present house of Lovat is descended. The romance which has irradiated the story of Lovat for five centuries still clings around it, and middle-aged Highlanders still delight to tell the story of the Lovat Claimant, a gentleman who, forty years ago, laid claim in the court to the dignities and estates of Lovat. The story he told recalled another story of long ago—a story handed down as a tradition anion" the Highlanders to this day. Lono-, Ion" ago some Gaelic satirist had written a song lampooning the house of Lovat. One verse, often quoted, might be rendered thus—the Thomas referred to was then Lord of Lovat:— The son of Thomas wears a flirk, And groat and long the dirk is He wears a sword, although a knife Were fitter for such birkies. A feeble satire —but set to music it was as wrath-provoking for the young Master of Lqyat as "Lillibulerp" was for

James 11. He was present at a wedding in the Beauly district when-one piper in a spirit of bravado otruck up the tune, ' Furious, the master rushed out. His instruction was, it is said, to ripttie bag of the piper, but he pushed too hard and the piper fell dead. In alarm he fled for his life and" settled in Wales. There, the claimant affirmed, he married, and tlio . claimant as his alleged descendant petitioned the Courts to restore to. him' all \ the honours of the barony. The case excited profound interest; but the result : was that the holder of the title, the present lord's father, was confirmed in his. tenure, and there is never likely to bo another claimant. The dispossession of the present house for any reason what- \ ever would be profoundly,regretted by all classes of Highlanders, who knew ito lords of Lovat best. An Honourable Career. . Popularity seems to be an appanage of the house. The late Lord Lovat was, al Highlanders thought, the very beau ideal of a Highland chief. They rejoiced at his success in the great law case, and they mourned sincerely his tragic death shortly afterwards. The worry, , and-j anxiety were past, and he had joined a shooting party on the Moyhall Moors, owned by his brother chief, the Mackintosh of Mackintosh. And there a shooting accident occurred on the moor, and he was fatally shot. It can he said with: out the least suspicion of exaggeration that his death cast a gloom over tlio whole Highlands where ho was so much beloved. That was in ISS7. The present lord was then a boy of IC. When his education was finished he entered the Army, from which he resigned after a few years. But when danger • threatens ■or war rages, be sure that the Lord ot Lovat will be there. During the South African war he conceived the idea or countering the Boers with their own tactics.' Ho raised the famous Lovat :, Scouts, a splendid body of athletic, keeneyed mountaineers, mounted on hardy Highland ponies, that could climb like , goats and live on the scantiest of herbageThe work the Lovat Scouts did during that war—is it not written in the military chronicles of that period. During the late war Lord Lovat served in Galupoli, France and Flanders with distinction : and retired with the rankk of majorgeneral. For many years he has taken the keenest interest in all Imperial questhe British race. His main purpose is to study .he question of immigration froffl this end, and Npw Zealanders can rest v - assured that the matter will* be deal' with intelligently, sympathetically end impartially, with a sole eye to the wdfare, not of New Zealand alone.or Eng' land alone, but of the whole Empire ami-s. the whole British race. .'.' . r _£ - .