bled twice a year, a practice that we know nothing of to-day.

His son, the second Alexander, succeeded his father as professor in the same chair in 1755, holding the position for forty-one years. He also was succeeded by his son, the third Alexander, 1773-1859, who filled the chair for eight years, leaving it to prosecute his studies at Paris. He was not considered to be as able a man as his father or grandfather.

There was therefore the peculiar circumstance of men of three generations of the

same name and family holding the same exalted and important position covering a period of eighty-eight years, also this other peculiar thing: Four generations of the same family practising surgery over a period of about one hundred and forty years, all of them able and noted.

"So sleeps the pride of former days,
So glory's thrill is o'er,

And hearts that once beat high for praise,
Now feel that pulse no more."
Bridgeport, Conn.

Clan Badge: Wild Myrtle (Roid) or Fir Club moss (Garbhag an t-sleibhe).

The Septs and Dependents entitled to use the MacArthur Tartan are: Arthur, MacCartair and MacCarter.

The war-cry is "Eisd! O Eisd!" (Listen! O Listen).

The arms of the clan is a shield azure, a silver cross or chory between three antique crowns, or: Crest, two laurel branches in orle: Motto, "Fide et Opera."

While many clans appear to have flourished and immensely increased their power and possessions under the early feudal system, there were others whose fortunes were very different. Like a plant with a worm at the root, they wilted and did not thrive. In some cases, like that of the Bissets, they seem to have been snuffed out by some great feud or disaster; in others they became chiefless, broken men, without a common cause, and therefore ineffectual in the page of history; and in many instances they subsided to the position of mere septs of another clan. No more striking instance of contrasting fortunes of this sort could perhaps be cited than that of the clans MacArthur and Campbell. In their case the original position and chiefship appear to have been exactly reversed, the MacArthurs, who were originally the main stem and chiefs of the clan, having become in course of time something like a sept under the protection of their younger offshoot.

In this connection the whole question of the origin of Clan Campbell is discussed by Skene in his well known work on the Highlanders of Scotland. All students of Highland history are aware of the theory according to which the name of Campbell is made out to be originally

[THE END.]

De

Norman-French, and the ancestor of the family to have been one of the Norman notables who"came over with the Conqueror." Against this theory Skene points out that no such name as De Campo Bello appears in the Roll of Battle Abbey, Doomsday book or other record of that time. This fact would not necessarily render the theory of Norman descent untenable, but there is further the evidence of the old Gaelic genealogies to show that the family was originally understood to be of Celtic origin. The old theory was similar to that of a Norman origin for the Clan MacKenzie, which has been shown by actual documents to be impossible. Campo Bello, it is said, acquired the first property of the clan in Argyllshire by marriage with the heiress of a certain Paul O'Duibne. This, Skene declares, is the common form which family tradition has taken in the Highlands in cases where the chiefship has been usurped by the oldest cadet of the family. He cites the oldest Gaelic genealogies to show that the Campbells were descended in the male line from this very family of O'Duibne, and in support of his statement that the Campbells were originally a cadet branch, he points out that the MacArthurs of Strachur, as "the acknowledged descendants of the older house," have at all times disputed the chiefship with the Argyll family.

At the first appearance of the race in history, in the reign of Alexander III, it is divided into two great families, distinguished by the patronymics of MacArthur and MacCailean Mor. MacCailean Mor, ancestor of the Campbells of to-day, first appears on the historic page as witness to

the charter of erection of the Burgh of Newburgh by Alexander III, in 1266. At that time he is believed to have been Sheriff of Argyll, an office created by Alexander II in 1221. But till the reign of King Robert the Bruce, according to Skene, the family possessed no heritable property in Argyll. The MacArthurs, on the contrary, were possessors of very extensive territory in the old earldom of Garmoran, and were clearly, in power as well as in seniority, at the head of the clan. As early as 1275 Cheristine, only daughter of Allan MacRuarai, granted a charter "Arthuro filio domini Arthuri Campbell militis, de terris de Mudewarde, Ariseg, et Mordower, et insulis de Egge et Rumme." In the early years of the following century MacArthur embraced the cause of King Robert the Bruce, and was rewarded handsomely out of the lands of the defeated MacDougals. He was made keeper of Dunstaffnage, and granted a considerable part of Lorne. To these possessions his descendants added Strachur, in Cowal, on the shore of Loch Fyne, as well as parts of Glenfalloch and Glendochart.

It was in the days of Robert the Bruce that the MacArthur chiefs reached the climax of their fortunes, and it is interesting, in view of later events, to enquire what was their actual ancestry. Herein lies a point of much more interest, with much better foundation of history to support it, than may have been commonly supposed.

According to the legendary account of the Highland clans in early Gaelic manu-` scripts, given by Skene in Appendix VIII of his Gaelic Scotland, Cailean Mor, from whom the modern chiefs of the Campbells take their patronymic, and who is known to have been slain in the famous pursuit on the Sraing of Lorne, was the grandson of Dugall Cambel or "Crooked Mouth," from whom came the name of Campbell. Dugall's great-great-grandfather was Duibne, whose daughter, according to the legend of Norman descent from De Campo Bello, carried the chiefship to a family of that name; and Duibne was great-grandson of Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, son of Ambrosius.

Here we have a link which may well startle the student of Highland history an actual claim in early manuscripts that the Clan Arthur and the Clan Campbell

are descended from the famous Arthur of British history, whose deeds have formed the favorite subject of romancer and poet almost from his own time till the present day. The claim is, however, by no means so strange or so entirely unlikely as it looks. Elsewhere in his Celtic Scotland Skene has shown that the actual historic Arthur fought his battles, not in the south of Wales, as modern readers of Tennyson, Swinburne and Matthew Arnold are apt to suppose, but in the Lowlands of Scotland and on the fringes of the Highlands, on Loch Lomondside, and the northern district of Northumberland. The pages of Nennius, the historian of those early centuries, remain as undoubted evidence of this fact. It can be easily shown how all subsequent Arthurian literature has had Nennius for its original, and also how the popular tales of the deeds of Arthur have followed the Cymric, British or Welsh language as it ceased to be spoken in the Scottish Lowlands and early princedom of Strathclyde, and came to have its chief seat in Wales and Cornwall. The present writer has shown elsewhere, from documentary evidence, that, as son of Eugenius, or Owen ap Urien, King of Reged, or the Lennox, in the sixth century, St. Kentigern or Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, was grand-nephew of this historic Arthur, and the fact may be taken to show how not at all unlikely is the claim of the ancient Gaelic manuscripts for an Arthurian origin of the Clan Arthur and Clan Campbell. There are many enduring memorials of the great King Arthur in Scotland, including some two hundred place names, from Arthur's Seat in Midlothian to Ben Arthur in Argyll; but surely, none of these is so interesting as the memorial remaining in the name of the ancient Highland clan which had its seat under the shadow of Ben Arthur itself on the shore of Loch Fyne.

The causes which led to the decadence of Clan Arthur and the ascendancy of Clan Campbell, though they are to some extent obscure, might be well worth the pains of the historic antiquary to trace. It has already been mentioned that the MacArthur chief took arms in the cause of King Robert the Bruce. So did the chief of the Campbells, Sir Neil, grandson of the famous Cailean Mor, from whom the later Campbell chiefs have all been known

as MacCailean Mor. Both of these chiefs earned the gratitude of the king, and both were generously rewarded with lands of Bruce's enemies. But Sir Neil Campbell had another reward which was bound to bear still greater fruit in years to come. This was the hand of a sister of the Bruce, and there can be no question that the royal relationship gave the Campbells a rise in influence which nothing else could have done. To this marriage, indeed, typical of many others by which the Campbells afterwards advanced their fortunes and increased their estates, may probably be ascribed the real foundation of the subsequent greatness of that house. It was not very long afterwards when the Campbell chiefs began to show the leadings of their ambition. In the reign of Bruce's son, King David II, MacCailean Mor made the first effort to secure the chiefship of the clan. The attempt was resisted by MacArthur, who procured a charter declaring that he held his lands from no subject, but from the king alone, and the MacArthurs continued to maintain this position till the time of James I, Bruce's greatgreat-grandson.

Down till the time of that king, and even later, the feudal dependence of the Highland chiefs upon the Crown remained in many cases more nominal than real. The Lords of the Isles, we know, still at intervals claimed to be independent sovereigns. In the reign of James II, the Lord of the Isles made an independent treaty as a sovereign prince with the King of England, and, in the interests of the defeated Earl of Douglas, his lieutenant, Donald Balloch, invaded and harried the shores of Clyde. Later still, the MacGregors, with the proud boast, "My race is royal," declared that they would hold their lands by no "sheepskin tenures," but by the strength of their own right arm and the ancient coir a glaive or power of the sword. It was to put an end to this ancient allodial and irresponsible tenure, which constituted a grave danger to the State, and to establish uniformly in its place the system of feudal tenure under which each chief should acknowledge that he held his territory from the Crown, and should become answerable to the Crown for the administration of law and for the defence of the realm, that King James I summoned his famous early parliament at Inverness. The Highland chiefs were called to attend

that Parliament, and among those who came was John MacArthur, chief of the name. Bower, the continuator of Fordoun's Chronicle, describes MacArthur as "a great chief among his own people and leader of a thousand men"; but MacArthur's hour had come. Along with a considerable number of others, whose independence and turbulence the King considered a danger to the State, MacArthur was seized, imprisoned and beheaded. All his property was forfeited to the Crown, excepting Strachur, and some of his lands in Perthshire, and so great was the blow thus struck at the family fortunes that the MacArthurs never again appeared as makers of history in the North.

The act of King James I effectually cleared the way for the ambition of the house of MacCailean Mor, which from that time remained in undisputed possession of the honors of the chiefship of the race. Soon afterwards their position was made still further secure by their being raised to the rank of the nobility, and from century to century, by means of advantageous marriages and shrewd tactics, they continued to raise themselves in power and influence. At the same time, the MacArthurs sank to the position of private gentlemen, and though they never ceased to claim the honors of the chiefship, they never found themselves in a position to make that claim effectual. A number of them remained for centuries about Dunstaffnage, but where their chief had once been hereditary keeper they had become merely tenants to the Campbells. Among others of the race were the MacArthurs, who, from father to son throughout a long line, remained hereditary pipers to the MacDonalds of the Isles. Several anec

dotes of these MacArthur pipers are recorded by Angus MacKay, piper to Queen Victoria, in his work on pibroch music. The last of the race, who was for many years piper to the Highland Society, and a composer of many pieces still held in high esteem, died about the middle of last century in London.

It is sad to think that a clan which could boast descent from so great and romantic a figure as the King Arthur of British history, should thus so completely melt and die away from the proud ranks of Highland chiefship. By special permission of the Editor of Scottish Country Life.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF ROBERT BURNS

Robert Burns

BY JOHN MACMASTER, PHILADELPHIA
(For The Caledonian)

The world to-day its homage pays
To one of humble birth and line.
He sings to us his sweetest lays
And charms us with his notes divine;
Each land to-day to Scotland turns,
And claims a share in Robert Burns.

This was the birthday of a soul

Flung far into the world's advance, He sang of manhood's future goal

In words that did the soul entrance;
The subtile touches of his hand,
The heart alone can understand.

Whene'er be moved his magic wand
Familiar things were new,
Touched secret springs at his command
And visions bright appear in view.
Time like the snow-flake on the river
Was here and then was lost forever.

In lowly cot with low refrain,

In poverty began life's fight. But reaching manhood's full domain He soared into new worlds of light. We catch his fire and spirit strong; And crown him king of Scottish song.

The cotter, type of Scottish men,

He saw at home on bended knee;
Hope springing with exultant wing
From honest men of low degree,

He flashed his genius o'er the whole,
And held aloft a noble soul.

He saw mankind as "unco' weak,"

With balance scarce adjusted right.
Temptations strong, a cold world bleak,
Yet in life's battle win the fight.

The soul might be by tempest driven
Yet have its anchor fixed in heaven.

When chill November's surly blast

Made all the fields and forests bare;

On some old age was creeping fast;
"Old age and want, oh, ill matched pair."
When all the sky was overcast
His heart was moved to share the

blast.

Not free from blame in pleasure's ring,
With care and reason left behind,
The loosened passions madly swing;
Craving control of soul and mind;

Those loosened reins prove him to be
A part of our humanity.

"Green grow the rashes, O! Green grow the rashes, O!

The sweetest hours that e'er I spend
Are spent amang the lasses, O!"

It is a difficult matter to touch on any Burns topic which is not already hackneyed, but those who, year in and year out, have attended celebrations on the "twentyfifth" must agree with the writer that often the heroines of Burns' poesies are neglected when the toast list is compiled. Poets may be said to be gifted, but they receive much inspiration from the environment in which they are domiciled, and also from the characters and personages with whom they come in contact. The streams of the Burns country, the bonnie Doon, the gurgling Ayr, and sweet Afton gave Burns inspiration, just as the charms of Jean, or Mary, or Nannie served to inspire those emotional sonnets of Scotia's bard. So let us toast the bonnie, buxom Scottish lasses immortalized in verse by Scotland's greatest literary genius.

"There's ae wee faut they whiles lay tae me. I like the lasses, God forgie me."

Burns wrote about many fair charmers, but it should not be taken for granted that he was in love with them all; it was just a poet's way of expressing regard for their good qualities or worth. When the heroine of "It was upon Lammas Night" expressed delight at having "a sang aboot her in prent," Burns naively remarked, "Oh, ay, Anna, I just wanted tae gie ye a cast wi' the lave."

Burns' first poetical effort was composed at the early age of fifteen, while harvesting in the fields of Mount Oliphant. The lassie was was Nelly Kilpatrick, "a bonny, bonny, sweet, sonsie lassie," from whose little soft hands young Rabbie picked the thistles, the while his pulse beat a furious ratan. There is not much merit in the lines

"O, once I lo'ed a bonnie lass,
Ay, and I love her still,"

but they serve to mark the date when love and poetry began with Burns. While Burns' parents still had the lease of Mount

Oliphant, Robert was sent to the neighboring village of Kirkoswald, close to Maybole. Here he studied mensuration under Hugh Rodger assiduously, until one day a comely wench, Peggy Thomson, appeared in the adjoining garden.

"Like Proserpine. gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower,"

and upset the course of his study. Kirkoswald was at that time a noted smuggling place, and here it was that Burns learned "to mix his glass." Here, too, dwelt the many characters of "Tam o' Shanter," for though this classic was composed at Ellisland, many years later, Burns remembered the old world village of his youth and its quaint characters. The last resting places of Tam and Soutar, of Kirkton Jean and Cutty Sark may be seen in Kirkoswald kirkyard, for they were characters in real life.