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[A. Drysdale]
92 Harrowdene Rd. Wembley, M'sex
3.9.32
Sir,
Though fully conscious how occupied you are I venture to write on a point in your Montrose.
You state that Cas. Campbell was sacked & burned in 1645. This is the general belief (cf. Scott's Tales of a Grandfather).
But Drummond's Memoirs of Lochiell seems to me to imply distinctly that the castle was only insulted, not assaulted, at this time.
Of course Drummond may be wrong even if his informant should have been Lochiel himself in his anecdotage.
What I venture to request is in few words a reference to some contemporary record, or probable record, of the event, which I may
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consult in the British Museum.
Though ill-equipped for such research I have, without success consulted a number of old writers, eg. Sir Jas. Balfour records the grant by Parliament on 27.12.1645 of 20,000 merks in aid of the distressed in Dollar (but not the apprysing of the woods of Hairshaw for the same purpose, of which I have read elsewhere). No mention of Cas. Campbell (But Argyll would be expected to repair his own property).
Firth's Scotland & the Protectorate quotes Monk's letter to Cromwell, 29.7.1654, on the burning of the castle by Glencairn's men.
Willcocks in his Great Marquis repeats the current belief that the castle was sacked on both occasions.
