Chapter XVIII: SIMON of Beaufort succeeded his father, as fourteenth Lord Lovat,

after, as has been stated, many years of fierce contest concerning his rights. He had an elder brother, named Alexander, who, according to report then current, died young in Wales, and without issue. His younger brothers were named Hugh, John, Thomas, and James. The cause of Alexander's flight to Wales forms one of the best known legends of the family. There are various versions of it, but I shall give that most commonly related by old people in the district of the Aird: Alexander arrived, somewhat late, at a wedding at Teawig, near Beauly. His appearance was the signal for the piper to strike up the tune, "Tha Biodag air MacThomais," some of the lines of which run:

Tha biodag air Mac Thomais,
Tha biodag fhada, mhor, air;
Tha biodag air Mac Thomais,
Ach's math a dh' fhoghnadh sgian da.

Tha biodag anns a chliobadaich,
Air mac a bhodaich leibidich;
Tha biodag anns a chliobadaich,
Air mac a bhodaich romaich.

Tha bhiodag deanadh gliogadaich,
'Si ceann'lt ri bann na briogais aig';
Tha bucallan 'n a bhrogan,
Ged 's math a dh' fhoghnadh ial daibh.

It was whispered to Alexander that the piper selected this tune to cause merriment at his expense, and the youth, to turn the jest against the piper, determined to rip open the bag of the pipes, with his dirk. But in doing so, his foot slipped, and he fell heavily towards the piper with the naked dirk in his outstretched arm. The piper was fatally wounded, and Alexander, who had been an extreme partizan of the Jacobites, believed that were he tried for the murder of the piper, the hostility of Sir George Mackenzie, of Tarbat, would inevitably secure a sentence of death against him. He fled to Wales, where he was befriended by Earl Powis, under whose protection, it is said, he lived on, married, and had issue, while his next younger brother, Simon, enjoyed the title and estates. Mr. John Fraser, of Mount Pleasant, Carnarvon, not long ago, laid claim to the chiefship, title and estates, on the ground that he is a lineal descendant of this Alexander, and although he lost his case in one trial, he is still gathering evidence, with the view of having it re-opened and further pushing his claim.

For his share in the Jacobite rising of 1745, Simon, fourteenth Lord Lovat, was beheaded on Tower Hill, April 9th, 1747. Lord Simon's faults were not few, but he has been a much maligned man; his vices have been flaunted before the world, his virtues have been obscured. In extreme old age he gave up his life on the scaffold; and his fate, believed by some to be richly deserved, by others has been characterized as martyrdom. He left three sons, Simon, Alexander and Archibald Campbell Fraser.