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The clans in the Scottish highland were eih warring wi yin anither that wis how the clans increased their territory and settled
disputes/ But war though it may seem glorious has a hidden cost...................
Legend tells of the Earl of Huntly ( chief of the clan Gordon) entertaining his friend the Laird o Grant in his castle at Huntly.
They had a massive feast with all the usual courses, pigeon and swan and stuck pig, no eat up your vegetables for these nobles.
When the feast was done the Earl of Huntly invited his friend to watch something very exciting, something he had never seen
before.
Grant watched as the remains of the feast were cleared away, he was lead to a balcony which over looked the kitchen and the
servants were throwing the scraps from the tables into a large tub usually used to feed pigs with. "What can this be?" asked
Grant, " is it for the dogs? It can't be the pigs, what would be so unusual about that!"
All the scrap in the barrel a large woman took a silver whistle from her apron and blew. The piercing noise was the signal for the
iron gates leading into the kitchen to be drawn back.
A hoard of ravenous children poured in, kicking biting and scratching at each other in order to get to the pig swill first. The
noises they were making could have been made by a pack of hungry dogs.
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Grant was devastated to see children treated in this fashion but he knew he must caw canny ( be careful) with the Gordon. He asked where the children had come from and was told they were children from a raid he and Gordon had carried out the previous summer. Grant then told Gordon that he was impressed that he had had the charity to feed these young people but that he had done it long enough, he insisted that from that night on it would his responsibility to care for these two hundred children.
Orders were given that they be removed to Grant castle immediately where they were well fad and given new clothes. Then the Laird asked the people of his clan to take these orphans in and raise them as their own. Grants people did this and all the children had new parents and a new name, that of Grant
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