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[1933?]
66, Holland Road, W.14.
Tel. Western 3450.
Sept. 16th
Dear Mr. Buchan
You are certain to have your attention called to "Challenge to the Highlander", by A.A.W. Ramsay, M.A., Phil.D., published by Murray, as it is much more a "Challenge to Montrose", & also, in part, "Challenge to John Buchan", & I am hoping you will take up the glove.
I haven't the authority necessary for a counter attack, & I don't know who Ramsay is nor anything about it. But as you may not have time to read the whole book, may I tell you the points that struck me as answering themselves, even from within its own pages?
I. (a) Ramsay bases Montrose's whole career on his vanity. Snubbed by Charles, he joins the Covenanters, where he is neglected - & so "his hunger for being 'lifted up above the rest' drove him inevitably into the King's camp."
That is on page 19 of the book.
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(b) On page 21, the Covenanters "wrote to Montrose & offered him the chief command of the expeditionary force which they were about to send to England--- Montrose refused. ---He left Scotland & joined the King's camp" - where, as is shown on the same page, he stood very little chance of getting noticed.
II. (a) In every battle described in Montrose's campaign of '44-'45, it is stated that his forces were either "equally matched" with the enemy's, or that "he must have had the advantage in numbers." (p. 36)
(b) On page 122, in another essay, the people's reaction from the discredited Argyll to the dead Montrose is shown thus - "oh for the invincible spirit that snatched victory in the face of any odds!"
III (a) On p. 44, his wife is described as, during his exile, "living in Scotland, silent, placid, as cold to his fate as if he were a stranger."
(b) She had died before he left Scotland
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An inaccuracy of date only matters I think when, as here, it is used to build up a case.
An indifferent wife in Scotland while Montrose is abroad is a false statement, stated in order to show Montrose as essentially unlovable.
But whether she loved him or not, she was cold only because she was dead.
IV. On p. 48, he is described at his execution. "All that was left of him was his courage & integrity & he dared not let anyone lay a finger on these."
His courage then was cowardice - the fear of not keeping up a pose.
The motives of courage are frequently obscure; few have the simple courage of the beast, nor is it generally thought of the most valuable quality.
But to say of a man who went bravely to his death that he did not "dare" to be coward, is to throw a stone at his unguarded face, even though it be three hundred years since he passed those crowds in Edinburgh.
Yours ever
Margaret Monsell (Irwin)
