"We are vara primitive in the Hielands, and we keep to our ain national customs in dress and everything; and we are vara slow to learn, and even when we try we are nae ower successfu' in our imitations, which sometimes cost us dearly enough.

Ye may have heard, may be, of the M'Nab o' that ilk, and what happened him with the king's equerry ?" "I'm not quite certain," said Hampden, "if I ever heard the story." "It's nae muckle of a story; but the way of it was this.

When Montrose came back from London, he brought with him a few Englishers to show them the Highlands, and let them see something of deer-stalking,--among the rest, a certain Sir George Sowerby, an aide-de-camp or an equerry of the prince.
He was a vara fine gentleman, that never loaded his ain gun, and a'most thought it too much trouble to pull the trigger.

He went out every morning to shoot with his hair curled like a woman, and dressed like a dancing-master.

Now, there happened to be at the same time at the castle the Laird o' M'Nab; he was a kind of cousin of the Montrose, and a rough old tyke of the true Hieland breed, wha' thought that the head of a clan was fully equal to any king or prince.