WILLIAM AND MARY.

33

monument was erected over Ills grave; and the church itselfhas long disappeared. A rude stone on the field of battlemarks, if local tradition can be trusted, the place where hefell.* During the last three months of his life he had approvedhimself a great warrior and politician; and his name is there-fore mentioned with respect by that large class of persons whothink that there is no excess of wickedness for which courageand ability do not atone.

It is curious that the two most remarkable battles that per-haps were ever gained by irregular over regular troops shouldhave been fought in the same week; the battle of Killiecrankie,and the battle of Newton Butler. In both battles the successo.f the irregular troops was singularly rapid and complete. Inboth battles the panic of the regular troops, in spite of the con-spicuous example of courage set by their generals, was singu-larly disgraceful. It ought also to be noted that, of theseextraordinary victories, one was gained by Celts over Saxons,and the other by Saxons over Celts. The victory of Killie-crankie indeed, though neither more splendid nor more im-portant than the victory of Newton Butler, is far more widelyrenowned; and the reason is evident. The Anglosaxon and theCelt have been reconciled in Scotland, and have never beenreconciled in Ireland. In Scotland all the great actions of bothraces are thrown into a common stock, and are considered asmaking up the glory which belongs to the whole country. Socompletely has the old antipathy been extinguished that no-thing is more usual than to hear a Lowlander talk with com-placency and even with pride of the most humiliating defeatthat his ancestors ever underwent. It would be difficult toname any eminent man in whom national feeling and clannishfeeling were stronger than in Sir Walter Scott. Yet when Sir

* The-tradition is certainly much more than a hundred and twentyyears old. Tho stone was pointed out to Burt.

Macaulay, History . V . 3

cnAP

XIII.

1689 .