The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. V] O F S C O T L A N D 269
thrown awav' b\' the reckless chief, who desired nothino- more
than to have the lands which remained to his family erected into
a barony, which was granted to him along with the empty
honour of being entitled to carr}- a man in chains upon his
escutcheon, together with the motto of
" Virtutis gloria merces."
The historian of the abbots of Dunkeld relates a curious anec-
dote connected with the death of this chief of the clan
Donnachie. It seems that Robert had some dispute with Robert
Forrester, of Torwood, regarding the lands of Little Dunkeld
which the laird of Strowan claimed, but which had been feued
by the bishop
of Dunkeld to Torwood. Robert Reoch had
consequently ravaged these lands, but upon one occasion, on his
way to Perth, he was met near Auchtergaven b}- Torwood, and a
conflict immediate!)- took place between the parties, in which
Robert was mortall}- wounded on the head. But the hard}' chief,
heedless of the consequences, and having bound up his head with
a white cloth, is said to have ridden in that state to Perth, and
there obtained from the king the new grant of his lands of
Strowan, as a reward for the capture of the master of Atholl,
and on his return to have expired in consequence of the
wound which he had received.
Notwithstanding that the remaining possessions of the family
of Strowan had been erected into a baron}', the}' were surrounded
by far too many powerful neighbours to be able to retain them
long. The greater part of the territories which once belonged
to them had alread}' found their wa}' into the possession of the
grasping barons in their neighbourhood, and being unable, in
point of strength, to cope with them, every opportunit}' was
taken still farther to reduce their alread}' diminished possessions.
Accordingly, some generations afterwards, the earl of Atholl,
taking advantage of a wadset which he possessed over Strowan's
lands, which in those da}'s was not an uncommon mode of
acquiring property, succeeded in obtaining possession of nearly
the half of the estates which remained to them ; and notwith-
standing the manifest injustice of the transaction, the Robertsons
were never afterwards able to recover possession of their lands,
or to obtain satisfaction against a nobleman of so much power