John Major tells us that it was a civil war fought for the
spoil of the famous city of Aberdeen, and he cannot say who won--only
the Islanders lost more men than the civilized Scots. For him, its chief
interest lay in the ferocity of the contest; rarely, even in struggles
with a foreign foe, had the fighting been so keen.[22] The fierceness
with which Harlaw was fought impressed the country so much that, some
sixty years later, when Major was a boy, he and his playmates at the
Grammar School of Haddington used to amuse themselves by mock fights in
which they re-enacted the red Harlaw.
From Major we turn with interest to the Principal of the University and
King's College, Hector Boece, who wrote his _History of Scotland_, at
Aberdeen, about a century after the battle of Harlaw, and who shows no
trace of the strong feeling described by Mr. Hill Burton. He narrates
the origin of the quarrel with much sympathy for the Lord of the Isles,
and regrets that he was not satisfied with recovering his own heritage
of Ross, but was tempted by the pillage of Aberdeen, and he speaks of
the Lowland army as "the Scots on the other side".[23] His narrative in
the _History_ is devoid of any racial feeling whatsoever, and in his
_Lives of the Bishops of Aberdeen_ he omits any mention of Harlaw at
all. We have laid stress upon the evidence of Boece because in Aberdeen,
if anywhere, the memory of the "Celtic peril" at Harlaw should have
survived.
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