An excerpt from Select Works of Tobias Smollett
circa 1766
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Mr. Cameron of Lochiel, the chief of that
clan, whose father was attainted for having been concerned in the last
rebellion, returning from France, in obedience to a proclamation and act of
parliament passed at the beginning of the late war, paid a visit to his own
country, and hired a farm in the neighbourhood of his father's house, which had
been burnt to the ground. The clan, though ruined and scattered, no sooner
heard of his arrival, than they flocked to him in from all quarters, to welcome
his return, and in a few days stocked his farm with seven hundred black cattle,
which they had saved in the general wreck of their affairs: but their beloved
chief, who was a promising youth, did not live to enjoy the fruits of their
fidelity and attachment.
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Editor's Notes:
The "Select Works of Tobias Smollett," which included a memoir of
Mr. Smollett's life and writings by Sir Walter Scott, was
published in 1851. A well traveled and written gentleman the
18th century novelist Tobias George Smollett (1721-1771) was born
at Dalquharn House on the family estate of Bonhill in the
Vale of Leven, near the village of Renton (Dumbartonshire.) A new family
home, the famed "Cameron House" (named after the
"crooked" peninsula of land at Loch Lomond on which it
is located, not a Cameron family connection) was built in
1763. It now contains a small museum on Tobias Smollett. This
short but rather interesting excerpt is dated circa 1766, the year
of Smollett's final visit to his native Scotland. The
Cameron of Lochiel to whom he refers was John Cameron of Lochiel,
XX Chief, who died in 1762, a mere three years after returning to
Scotland. |
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