of Kirkconnel, relative to the Duke of
Perth: according to another account, the course which the Duke pursued
was the following:--

He is said to have been wounded in the back and hands in the battle, and
to have fled with great precipitancy from the field of battle. He
obtained, it is supposed, that shelter which, even under the most
dangerous and disastrous circumstances, was rarely refused to the poor
Jacobites. The exact spot of his retreat has never been ascertained; yet
persons living have been heard to say, that in the houses of their
grandfathers or ancestors, the Duke of Perth took refuge, until the
vigilance of pursuit had abated. The obscurity into which this and other
subjects connected with 1745 have fallen, may be accounted for by the
apathy which, at the beginning of the present century existed concerning
all subjects connected with the ill-starred enterprise of the Stuarts;
and the loss of much interesting information, which the curiosity of
modern times would endeavour in vain to resuscitate, has been the
result.

Tradition, however, often a sure guide, and seldom, at all events,
wholly erroneous, has preserved some trace of the unfortunate wanderer's
adventures after all was at an end. As it might be expected, and as
common report in the neighbourhood of Drummond Castle states, the Duke
returned to the protection of his own people. To them, and to his
stately home, he was fondly attached, notwithstanding his foreign
education. On first going from Perth to join the insurrection, as he
lost sight of his Castle, he turned round, and as if anticipating all
the consequences of that step, exclaimed, 'O! my bonny Drummond Castle,
and my bonny lands!'

The personal appearance of the Duke was well known over all the country,
for he was universally beloved, and was in the practice of riding at the
head of his tenantry and friends, called in that neighbourhood 'his
guards,' to Michaelmas Market at Crieff, the greatest fair in those
parts; where thousands assembled to buy and sell cattle and horses. He
was therefore afterwards easily recognised, although in disguise.

"Sometime after the battle of Culloden," as the same authority
relates,[264] "the Duke returned to Drummond Castle, where his mother
usually resided; and lived there very privately, skulking about the
woods and in disguise; he was repeatedly seen in a female dress,
barefooted, and bare-headed. Once a party came to search the castle
unexpectedly;