Excerpt from Charles Grant: Director of the East India Company, and Member of Parliament Charles Grant was the eldest son of a Highland gentle man, named Alexander Grant, belonging to the Urquhart branch of the clan of that name. He was born in March, 1746, at Aldourie, which is beautifully situated on the southern Shore of Loch Ness, whither his mother had gone to stay with her parents, who then resided there. Those were the days when Prince Charles Edward raised his standard in the Highlands of Scotland, and Grant's father with his followers espoused his cause. A short time before the decisive battle of Culloden, Alexander Grant, being in the neighbourhood, went to the christening of his little son, accompanied by thirty of his friends, and a very weird and picturesque scene took place on that occasion. They named him Charles after Charles Edward Stuart and, drawing their swords, they crossed and clashed them over the baby's cradle, thus enlisting him under the banner of the Prince. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.