Given at Culloden House, 19 April 2008
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Circle Of Gentlemen bid you a warm welcome to Culloden House.
For those of you who have never been here before this is the very house where the Prince stayed the night before the battle of Culloden. And as you can see its not your average bed and breakfast establishment! Today Culloden house opens its doors to us all in the custom of old highland hospitality.
History has made this house what it is and the management passionately believe that it is time to remember as Culloden truly was the battle that changed the world. In modern times it is all too easy to forget your culture and your history but we need to fight to keep it alive .
For being here today, I give you my thanks.
Culloden house in 1746 was owned by Lord President Duncan Forbes, a man who did more than to undermine the Jacobite uprising in 1745-46 than anyone else in Scotland. Forbes used any means at his disposal, with Highland chiefs being blackmailed or bribed not to get involved, and in the end, many powerful clans stayed out of the rising. Had Forbes not been as influential as he was, Charles Edward Stuart might have marched to London at the head of 30,000 men and retaken the throne for the House of Stuart .
Although Forbes was a government supporter, he was disgusted at the actions of Hanoverian army following Culloden and tried in vain to stop the punishment and cruelty being meted out to the innocent and guilty alike. Forbes was dismissed by The Duke Of Cumberland as "the wittering old woman who dares to speak to me of compassion."
The old woman that was Forbes probably saved the Hanoverian line from oblivion and rather than repay him he was ignored by a dismissive, thankless government and left a disillusioned, penniless man.
Culloden and Forbes nonetheless were famous for their hospitality. A guest was once quoted as saying "few leave sober at any time and many cannot leave at all!"
The Circle Of Gentlemen wish today to extend to you this same hospitality.
Unlike Lord Forbes, we cannot offer champagne from a silver coconut shell, but some complementary fine wine, company and music await us.
It seems ironic that a party of modern day Jacobites should be entertained in the home of Charles greatest enemy in Scotland, but i like to think that Forbes -given his treatment - would have a wry smile on his face.
Welcome to The Lament For Culloden.
I am your most humble servant,
Matthew John Donnachie