Just as intriging are the sheer numer of baskets absent from the field of Culloden after the battle. In other words, despite the massive numbers of fallen Scots, others retrieved their baskets and hid them away. Those that were recovered, perhaps 150 or so, were taken as war trophies or chopped up/destroyed. A large grouping of them were made into an iron fence surrounding some aristocrat's estate, the ultimate insult! I'm glad this survivor came into my collection![/QUOTE]
"...frequently a family heirloom-often in its second or third hilting-the Highlanders 'sword was far more than just a weapon. The great symbolic value of these arms was not lost upon the Duke of Cumberland. A bounty was paid from the royal purse of one shilling for every broadsword picked up from the battlefield".
"Scottish Swords from the Battlefield
of Culloden"
E. Andrew Mowbray, 1971
Text and photos from records
of Lord Archibald Campbell, 1894
This is EXACTLY what the clans dreaded, and why I believe the precious heirlooms were carried away by clansmen. Of the 190 swords recovered from the field, 150 of them were given to the master of ordnance, John Hay, 4th Marquis of Tweeddale...........who then had points broken off and hilts removed, taking these amazing blades made into a travesty of poor taste of a fence at his estate at Twickenham House.
The house was later demolished (1888) and the blades sold to a scrap dealer, then later acquired by Lord Archibald Campbell, who wrote this in 1894.
Images of some of the blades from the terrible fence, and in an article about a Stirling hilt believed of Walter Allen, found alone and with damage to the pommel ring believed from said removal.
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