Dear Sir

I have this day met with one of the Keepers of the Register Office my Acquaintance (the other as formerly mentioned being either lazy or not so knowing about the Records &^c.) who has been unwell some time; he shewed me the Register of the Privy Council Anno 1563 wherein the Gregors are stiled Rebels, he informs me that there are a number of similar Orders of the same nature against them, when the Argyle Family, who appear to have been their great Enemies having always been present & most frequently the principal antagonists of the Macgregor Clan: whether these Animosities have proceeded from rivalship, Family private feuds it is now very difficult to account for there being such a mixture of traditional stories handed down that the truth is realy [sic] or rarely to be come at especialy so far distant from the present Times.

The Magazine referr'd to by the Vindicator of the Macgregors inserted in the London Chronicle is the Weekly Magazine by Ruddiman, who makes an Extract of that passage in your Tour beginning with the Discription [sic] of Lochlomond &^c. concluding with the enumaration of the aged people mentioned in your last Edition in 4^to.1 without giving any Introduction, conclusion or reflection on either side. ––––– I should think it is scarcely worth your notice to be further concerned about this private Family Quarrel, for it's probable by too minutely dipping into this personal difference some Families may be brought in that ^would not be so very agreable at this day to them, but if what has already been sent does not so fully satisfy you I shall endeavour to get as particular Extracts as can be had from the Register, As the Acts of Council are many since the period mentioned above & all in the similar stile with the intended design of rooting out the Clan Gregor or MacGregor.

I wait your further orders which shall endeavour [sic] with pleasure to execute being

Dear Sir
Dear Sir your most obed^t. Serv^t.

GPaton

Custom house Edinburgh
25 March 1776.

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Editorial notes

1. See Pennant's letter to Paton on 3^rd February 1776. The extract referred to by Paton is that from Pennant's Tour in Scotland 1769 (Warrington: 1774), pp.243-46, which was published under the title: 'Description of LOCH-LOMOND. From Pennant's Tour.' in The weekly magazine, or, Edinburgh amusement, vol. 30, (Sep 28, 1775): 7-8. The passage in question came under attack in a letter printed in the London Chronicle for 25^th January 1776, for its account of an alleged massacre of the Colqhuhouns by the MacGregors in the early-seventeenth century.