[Scottish National Memorials Contents]
PORTRAIT of Viscount Dundee, half-length, life-size. A version of the ‘Airth portrait,’ in the possession of Lieutenant-Colonel T. P. Graham of Airth (engraved in line by W. Banks and Son in the first volume of Mark Napier’s Memorial and Letters of Claverhouse), of which various versions exist, such as those in the possession of the Earl of Stair, of Sir George Clerk, Bart. of Penicuik, and of Mr. J. Maxtone Graham of Cultoquhey. There is a scarce, unsigned, contemporary engraving from the ‘Airth Portrait’ [J. M. G.]
(342) Lent by the DUKE OF MONTROSE.
JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE, Viscount Dundee, and Jean Cochrane, his lady. Drawn by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, the former from the Leven Portrait, and the latter from an original in his own possession. Engraved by W. H. Lizars. An early impression, before the addition to the plate of the facsimiles of the autographs and Dundee’s signet-ring. Hand-tinted by Sharpe. From the Laing Collection. These portraits are reproduced in the second volume of Napier’s Memorials and Letters of Claverhouse. Hill Burton’s opinion on the portraits of Montrose and Dundee has been already quoted (p. 97).
(344) Lent by WM. MACMATH.
The two most valuable of the portraits of John Grahame of Claverhouse are the half- length, known as the ‘Leven Portrait,’ in the possession of Lady Elizabeth Leslie Melville Cartwright, probably painted by a Dutch artist, when he was a cornet in the Royal Guard of William Prince of Orange, whose life he had saved at the battle of St. Neff, and the three-quarter length in the possession of the Earl of Strathmore, engraved in Lodge, usually attributed to Lely. Mr. Mark Napier (Memoirs of Viscount Dundee, vol. ii. Preface, pp. xx, xxi) considers that, though the latter work may have been painted by Lely the year before his death, when Captain Graham was in London, along with Lord Linlithgow, in the summer of 1679, after the battle of Bothwell Bridge, yet that the watch in the hand, etc., seem to indicate an officer of a higher rank than Claverhouse had attained at the time, and he suggests that it may be the work of Kneller, and painted about 1688, when he was Major-General and commander of the whole cavalry of Scotland. Through the courtesy of the South Kensington Department we are enabled to reproduce the Leven portrait, from the photograph taken when the work was shown in the Exhibition of National Portraits, 1868. (See Plate XVI.) [J. M. G.]
BONE WHISTLE, with silver end, and label engraved, ‘Belonged to Viscount Dundee.’
(340) Lent by the BARONESS WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY.
SWORD, which belonged to Claverhouse, and which he used at Killiecrankie. The light double-edged blade is 30 ¼ inches in length and 1 3⁄16 at the junction, with plain finger-guard. The wooden grip, swelling in the middle, is 3 ½ inches in length. A silver label attached is inscribed:- ‘The sword of John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee’; and on the other side ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.’ – ‘Gilliecrankie, 16th July [O.S.] 1689.’ The battle was fought not on the 16th but on the 27th of July. Dates were all reckoned by the Old Style long after that period in Scotland. (See Fig. 85.)
(341) Lent by J. S. FRASER TYTLER.
ANDREA FERRARA SWORD, which belonged to Claverhouse. The double-edged blade is 33 ⅛ inches in length and 1 ⅜ broad at the junction. On one side there are seven small crowned heads, and the word ‘ANDEA’; and on the other, seven similar heads and the word ‘FARARA.’ The silver basket-hilt is an elaborate combination of war trophies. The grip is 3 ½ inches in length. (See Fig. 86.)
(343) Lent by the DUKE OF MONTROSE.
Portion of CLAVERHOUSE’S HELMET, ornamented with scroll-work running between perpendicular bands. Its genuineness is thus certified on a label:- ‘I certify this is a part of the helmet of Viscount Dundee, killed at the battle of Killiecrankie A.D. 1689, and buried in his armour within the church of Blair-Athole. The same place being required for an interment, the grave was opened about 1794. Some remains of the armour were found, and the gravedigger sold them to a party of tinkers travelling through the country, who bought them for the sake of the brass nails it contained. My father (General Robertson) heard of it, but all he could recover was this part of the helmet. Lude, 6th Febr 1854. [Signed] James A. Robertson, Major, 82nd Reg.’ Compare with Napier’s Memorials and Letters of Claverhouse, vol. iii. p. 655, n. 1.
(345) Lent by WILLIAM McINROY.
PISTOL, which belonged to Claverhouse, and which was found on his body after the battle of Killiecrankie. It has been preserved by the Stirling-Grahams of Duntrune, the representatives of the Claverhouse family. The steel barrel, which is 10 ½ inches long, it inlaid, and ornamented with engraved silver hoops. The steel stock is also engraved, and the butt is lobated. Altogether, this is a beautiful pistol.
(347) Lent by JOHN EDMUND LACON.
Claverhouse has not been without apologists. So early as 1691 The Grameid, a Latin Epic in six books, was written by James Philp, a relative and admirer. It was printed (for the first time) for the Scottish History Society in 1888. Of recent defences the most thorough-going is that of Mr. Mark Napier, who contended that Claverhouse was not killed outright at the beginning of the battle of Killiecrankie, but that he lived to dictate, if not to write, that account of it to James the Seventh which has generally been regarded as spurious. It is probable that fresh light will be thrown on this point in a forthcoming Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.
In his Burial March of Dundee, the late Professor Aytoun has these verses –
‘Open wide the vaults of Athol,
Where the bones of heroes rest –
Open wide the hallowed portals
To receive another guest.
• • • • •
‘Sleep in peace with kindred ashes
Of the noble and the true,
Hands that never failed their company,
Hearts that never baseness knew.’
But the story of the helmet shows that the bones of the restless warrior were not allowed to rest in peace, even in ‘the vaults of Athol’; and Mr. Mowbray Morris, who claims Claverhouse as an ‘English Worthy,’ relates that, ‘in 1852 some bones, believed to be his, were removed from Blair to the Church of Saint Drostan in the parish of Old Deer, in Aberdeenshire; and eleven years later a window of stained glass was placed in the same church, bearing, on a brass plate in the window-sill, this inscription: “Sacred to the memory of John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, who died in the arms of victory, and whose battle-cry was – King James and the Church of Scotland!” ’ Nevertheless, a tablet has just been placed (September 1889) in the church of Blair Athole, on which is inscribed:- ‘Within the vault beneath are interred the remains of John Graham, of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, who fell at the battle of Killiecrankie, 27th July 1689, aged 46.’ ‘The interest which gathers round the last exploits of Claverhouse.’ says Dean Stanley, ‘which glorifies the pass of Killiekrankie, and which has enkindled all the fury of chivalrous defence in his behalf even within our own time, – is purely and exclusively Episcopalian. He is the hero of the fallen cause. He was lamented by the Episcopalian party as the last of the Grahams, the last of the Scots, the last (in their eyes) of all that was greatest in his native country.’1
ANDREA FERRARA BROADSWORD, used at Killiecrankie.
(346) Lent by W. MURRAY THREIPLAND.
CAMERONIAN FLAG. On this straw-coloured silk flag there is an open Bible with the words, ‘VERBVM DEL’ There is also a thistle surmounted by a crown, round which are the words and date – ‘NEMO ME IMPVNE LACESSET 1689.” The motto is:- ‘FOR RE[FOR]MATION IN CHURCH AND STATE ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF GO[D] AND OUR COVENANTS.’ The letters are gilt and have black edges. From the date and the reference to the Covenants, there can be little doubt that this was the banner of the gallant Cameronian Regiment which was raised at the Revolution, and which so valiantly defended Dunkeld in August 1689. An interesting account of the formation of the Regiment and of the defence of Dunkeld will be found in Crichton’s Life and Diary of Lieut.-Col. Blackader, 1824, chaps, IV. and V.; see also Carter’s Historical Record of the Twenty- sixth or Cameronian Regiment, 1867, pp. 3-14. The flag, which has been recently strengthened by a lining of silk, was long in the possession of the Govans – an old Renfrewshire family. The late Mr. Govan, who died upwards of twenty years ago, valued it very highly, and used to point out with pride its blood-stains. His daughter – the last of the family in direct line – was married to the present owner.
(380) Lent by JOHN DENHOLM.
MANUSCRIPT VOLUME of Covenanting documents. This duodecimo is bound in vellum, with a flap in front, and the greater part of it has been very carefully written in a plain, legible hand. The beginning of the first of the six documents which it contains is gone. The second paper, which is post-Revolution, begins thus:- ‘We in the poor society of Tindwall being in part refreshed to hear of any of our ffellow sufering bretheren now after so many sore revillings, con fusions, wanderings, declinings, temptations, tamperings, and sad distempers, occasioned partly by the fattall and cuning endeavours of Mr. Linning, Mr. Boyd, and Mr. Shields, and their accom plishes, who never ceased since the arrival of the Prince and Princes of Orange,’ etc. The third paper, which is also post-Revolution, is entitled:- ‘Some causes of the Lords contraversie holding forth some few steps of the present defections to be joyned with the causes of our first solemn fast after the Revolution.’ The fourth, which is likewise post-Revolution, is entitled:- ‘The Protestation, apologetick declaration, and admonitory vindication, of ane poor, wasted, misrepresented remenant of the sufering, anti-Popish, anti-Prelatick, anti-Erastian, anti-sectarian, trew Presbetieran Church of Scotland, united together in a generall corespondence.’ This declaration is dated 6th November 1695. Copies were to be affixed that day on the market-cross of Sanquhar and on ‘other patent places of the kingdom.’ The fifth document is:- ‘A letter togither with some questions and articles to be proponed to entrents of societys by Mr. James Renwick.’ The last paper is entitled:- ‘ssom causes of the Lords contraversie holding out som steeps of the present defection.’ These documents are valuable illustrations of the scrupulous tenacity with which the ‘Society People,’ the ‘Hillmen,’ or ‘Cameronians,’ as they were termed, adhered to ‘the controverted and despised truths’ of their time. A summary of the second paper will be found in Faithful Contendings Displayed, 1780, p. 464, et seq.; and the fourth is printed in Testimony-bearing Exemplified, 1791, pp. 305-311. (See Fig. 87.)
(435) Lent by J. B. DALZELL.
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1 Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland, 187a, p. 49.