Lord Elpus on the Whisky Trail
Lefay's
Regiment of Foot was raised during 1744 by Sir Morgan Lefay, Lord Elpus, at his
own expense. The officers generally
came from his family or by purchase by the sons of nearby landowners.
The sergeants were drawn from his household retainers and those of his
neighbours while men from these estates, ale houses, prisons and poorhouses made
up the rank and file. There were
few former soldiers and fewer veterans and mostly these came from the prisons
and ale houses.
Sir Morgan decided on the traditional colours of his coat of arms for the uniform; purple facings and gold lace. And for the Regimental symbol at the centre of the colours he chose the family Fleur de Lys in gold.
Sir Morgan was well known at court for telling everyone who
would listen that he could trace the family tree back to Arthurian times and
even claimed descent from an ancient legendary family from pre-history.
He is also known for despising anyone he did not deem to be English
particularly the Irish, Welsh and Scots.
He just about tolerated Germans, at least in the hearing of the King and
his advisers.
The regiment formed quickly and their training was completed
as they marched north to join Cumberland’s Army but arrived just too late for
the battle at Drumossie Moor. On
arrival the regiment was assigned peace keeping duties on the West Coast and
keeping Wade’s Military Roads open and free from trouble.
Sir Morgan has received orders to escort the Excise Man,
Clarence Sales, to Braevar in Glen Affahr to collect the taxes due from Clan
MacItallop. He decided to show the
flag on this the first visit by the redcoats to the glen and sent the Colonel’s
Company under the command of his nephew Captain Gideon Shandy.
Lt Courtleigh Manners carries the King’s Colour and Lt Fairleigh Lowe the
purple Regimental Colour. He has Lieutenant Grant MacPhee with a small force of
Government highlanders and Cornet Horace Cope’s troop of Dragoons.
A highlander from the rival MacFauls clan has told him,
“Aye, they’ve hi the still in glen.
It is well hid an’ it sits about a fermer’s but an ben (farm house) near
a wee lochan (pond) an’ some stanin’ stanes.
Only wan wummin in the glen kens the hale recipe.
Mak sure yi git the richt wan.
So mind ye go careful fur the glen is hauntit an’ cursed wi’ gooliies,
gaisties (night creatures) and bogles (ghosts) and ither weird beasties
(creatures). Oh aye, dinnae upset the weird sisters or ye’ull git a curse on yer
heid. An’ watch oot fur the White Lady o’ Braevar!”
Being a civilised man Lord Elpus listened politely and then dismissed the
man and most of his story as the ravings of a whisky sotted, untrustworthy
knave. He did take note that he
needed to search for a hiding place near a small house, that stands by a pond
and some standing stones.
Clan MacItallop
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Clan Banner | Clan Battle Flag |
Clan MacItallop have lived a fairly isolated life in their
remote Glen Affahr for centuries.
They did not participate in the Jacobite Risings mainly because their remoteness
meant that they were all over by the time that the Clan Chieftain Lachlan
MacItallop of that Ilk heard of the raising of the standard,
So the clan continued raising
sheep, hunting haggis and drinking their own potent Glen Affahr Single Malt
whisky (with the secret ingredient).
In fact they were largely forgotten, even by the Excise Men who always
arrived to collect taxes but left empty handed the next day after a dram or two
of Glen Affahr whisky having forgotten why they were in Glen Affahr.
They always remembered the hangover, though, and never came back.
It is now 1747 and a detachment of the English Lord Elpus Regiment has
been sent to collect the taxes and whisky duties from the clan.
The distillery is set back in the glen near the foot of Ben
Affahr with an ample supply of water and a small mineral mine for the special
ingredient. The settlement of
Braevar is the home of a minor clan chief, Icann MacItallop.
The distillery itself, the storehouse, the distiller’s house and the Auld
Hoose where the whisky is stored and the mine shaft to the secret ingredient
along with a few cottages make up the settlement.
The secret recipe is not written down but passed down through
the female line of the MacItallop family.