Nearly seventy years after his death, the roguish laird still cast a spell over the farm-folk of the Highlands.
In 1803, William Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy and their friend Samuel Coleridge travelled to Scotland, taking in beautiful Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. They begged bed and board from a startled Scottish farmer, and at breakfast the following morning (it was Saturday August 27th) the Macfarlanes told them in their slow English about Rob Roy.
Sir Walter Scott tells the story of how a distinguished Scottish professor nearly became Little John to Scotland’s Robin Hood.
Early in the Jacobite Rising of 1715, Rob Roy MacGregor and his band of rebels marched into Aberdeen, and Rob called to see Professor Gregory, a kinsman and a distinguished Professor of Medicine. He hoped to enlist his support for a cause which, whatever its merits, was open treason — and to enlist his little son, James, too.