A History of Moray and Nairn

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DA
• H4-1

The County Histories of Scotland

MORAY AND NAIRN

\

A HISTORY

OF

MORAY AND Nairn

BV

CHARLES RAMPINI, LL.D.

SHERIFF-SUBSTITUTE OF THESE COUNTIES

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MDCCCXCVII

All Rig^kts reserved

A

PREFATORY NOTE.

In its endeavour to tell the story of the old province
of Moray with accuracy, and at the same time in
popular language, the present volume follows strictly
in the lines of the previous volumes of the series. But
it differs from its predecessors in the arrangement
adopted. It appeared to the writer that by treating
the Province, the Bishopric, the Earldom, &c., as separate
subjects, he would be able to lay before the reader a
more sharply defined picture of their nature, progress,
and influence than if he had employed the more ordinary
narrative form. He is far from maintaining that such
an arrangement is in all instances the best. But in the
case of Moray and Nairn the sequence of events seemed
to lend itself to this disposition — the historical impor-
tance and interest of the one having, roughly speaking,
ceased, or at least begun to wane,, before those of the

other waxed.

6

388122

\

VI PREFATORY NOTE.

In a work of this kind there are necessarily many
matters of detail which are not to be found in books,
and which are only to be obtained from persons having
the requisite local knowledge. The author desires to
express his grateful acknowledgments to the many in-
dividuals — with not a few of whom he was personally
unacquainted — who have so courteously assisted him in
this way. To the Earl of Moray ; to Captain A. H.
Dunbar, younger of Northfield, who, in addition to
much valuable information about his own family, did
him the additional favour of reading over the chapters
on the Bishopric and Earldom ; to Captain Edward
Dunbar-Dunbar of Sea Park and Glen-of-Rothes, the
greatest local authority on the old social life of the
district ; to the late Rev. Dr Walter Gregor for access
to his unrivalled store of local folk-lore ; to Mr George
Bain, the historian of Nairnshire ; to Dr James Mac-
donald and Mr Hugh W. Young of Burghead ; to
Mr J. Balfour Paul, Lyon King-of-Arms ; to Sheriff
Mackay ; to the Rev. Dr Cooper of Aberdeen ; to
the editors of the local papers ; and to many others
who, he hopes, will accept this general recognition
of their assistance, he is under great obligations.
To the relatives of the distinguished men whose
lives are sketched in outline in the last chapter he
has a similar acknowledgment to make. From Miss
C. F. Gordon Cumming, and her brother Colonel

W

PREFATORY NOTE. Vll

William Gordon Gumming, he obtained many inter-
esting facts, now for the first time published, relative
to the career of their brother Roualeyn, the well-known
lion-hunter. To Mrs M*Kenzie, Ellonville, Inverness,
he is indebted for access to the home -letters of her
brother Golonel Grant of Househill, the distinguished
African traveller. To Miss Brown, Muirton, Craigel-
lachie, he owes almost all that is new in the sketch of
her uncle. General Sir George Brown, G.C.B. ; and a
similar remark applies to the facilities placed at his
disposal by Mr W. R. Skinner of Drumin, for the pre-
paration of the memoir of his relative William Marshall,
— one of the greatest, and certainly the most modest, of
Scotland's musicians. The plan of Elgin Cathedral
and Precincts is from a drawing prepared by George
Sutherland, Esq. He has finally to acknowledge his
indebtedness to Mr J. D. Yeadon, bookseller, Elgin ;
Mr W. Harrison, bookseller, Nairn ; and other local
authorities, for much assistance in the compilation of
the Bibliography.

^

CONTENTS.

I.

THE PROVINCE OF MORAY.

The province of Moray : its boundaries, designation, and inhabitants
— Prehistoric annals, and their teaching — Stone circles of Clava
— The Pict of Moray ; his religion and his social polity —
Burghead — The Pictish kings — The Columbite Church — The
Picts and the Scots — Disappearance of Pictavia, and independ-
ence of Moravia — The Scandinavians in Moravia — The battle of
Torfness and the death of Duncan — Sueno's stone near Forres —
Macbeth — Malcolm Ceannmor — The Maormors — Moravia under
David I. — Thanes and earls — The partition of the kingdom into
counties wipes out the old provincial delimitations — The modern
province of Moray ......

PAGE

II.

THE BISHOPRIC OF MORAY.

The bishopric of Moray founded by Alexander I. — The churches of
Bimie, Kinneddar, and Spynie the cathedrals of the bishops of
Moray — Elgin Cathedral — The constitution of the chapter — The
early bishops of Moray — The raid of the Wolf of Badenoch — The
Castle of Spynie — The power of the bishops — Bishop Forman —
The restored cathedral —The rank and duties and emoluments

CONTENTS.

of the dignitaries — Patrick Hepburn, the last Roman Catholic
bishop of Moray — The Protestant bishops : Guthrie, Mackenzie,
Aitken, Falconar — The cathedral allowed to fall into decay —
John Shanks, the Cobbler — The priory of Pluscarden — The
Abbey of Kinloss . . . . . '5^

III.

THE EARLDOM OF MORAY.

The men of Moray a danger to the State — They are driven to the
hills, and the Laigh granted to foreign settlers — The freemen of
Moray loyal to Bruce — The castle of Elgin — King Edward's
peaceful conquest of Scotland — The battle of Stirling — John,
Earl of Buchan, Edward's lieutenant in Moray — Bannockbum —
Randolph, first Earl of Moray — The Randolphs — The Dunbars :
"Black Agnes of Dunbar" — The Douglases — The Stewarts —
The Gordons : ** The Cock of the North " — The Stewarts again :
*• The good Eari of Moray," " The bonnie Eari of Moray "— Eari
Francis, the Arboriculturist — The earl and the sheriff . - ^^9

IV.

COUNTY FAMILIES OF MORAY AND NAIRN.

The story of the Gordons properly belongs to Aberdeen and Banff—
The Grants: the first settlement of the family in 1316 — They
make many acquisitions of property — And in 1694 obtain a
charter from William and Mary consolidating their estates —
Sheumas nan Creach — ^John, the fifth Laird — The romance of the
seventh Laird — Montrose and the Grants — **The Highland
King"— The battle of Cromdale— The '15 and the '45— Culloden
— ** The good Sir James " — Later lairds — The Duffs: their origin
and acquisitions of property — William Duff of Dipple —Peers of
Ireland — The later earls — The Gordons of Gordonstoun: **Sir
Robert the Wizard "—The second Sir Robert— The Kinnairds of
Culbin : the Culbin sands — The lairds of Cawdor : Cawdor
Castle — Later fortunes of the family — The Roses of Kilravock —
The Brodies of Brodie ...... 169

\

CONTENTS. XI

V.

THE TOWNS OF MORAY AND NAIRN.

Elgin : not the natural capital, but made so because of the cathedral
— The town's debt to the church — Its appearance — Its progress
under the earldom — The Earl of Dunfermline, Provost — The
incorporated trades — Political corruption — The unincorporated
trades — Findhom and Lossiemouth, and the Continental trade —
Education — Forres — Nairn ..... 263

VI.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.

Population of Moray and of Nairn — Census of occupation — Climate,
soil, and physiographical poation — The Moray floods — Geology —
Progress of agriculture — Timber — The Morayshire Farmers' Club
and its good offices for agriculture — The housing of the rural
population — Rural "ploys": the penny wedding — Lyke- wakes —
"Rants" and " tweetles "—Shinty and "the bools"— Food and
drink — The care of the poor — Eastern's eve — Beltane — Michael-
mas — Hallowe'en — Hogmanay — Superstitions — The fisher-folk —
Modern characteristics of the counties .... 285

VII.

DISTINGUISHED MEN OF MORAY AND NAIRN.

Florence Wilson — Lachlan Shaw — Isaac Forsyth — William Leslie —
James Grant — Provost Grant — Sir Thomas Dick Lauder —
Cosmo Innes — Charles St John — Dr George Gordon — William
Hay — William Marshall — Roualeyn George Gordon Gumming
— William Gordon Gumming — Constance Frederica Gordon
Gumming — ^James Augustus Grant — Sir George Brown . 353

LIST OF BOOKS RELATING TO MORAY AND NAIRN . '4^7

LIST OF MAPS OF MORAY AND NAIRN .... 430

INDEX ........ 431

LIST OF MAPS.

MORAVIA SCOTIiE PROVINCIA, ex Timothei Pont ]

\ In pocket at begin-
scedis descripta et aucta per Robert Gordonium > ning^ of volume

d Strathloch j

From Blaeu's Great Atlas, 1654.

ANCIENT LIMITS OF MORAY . . . Facing title -page.

PLAN OF ELGIN CATHEDRAL AND PRECINCTS . . /. 86

From Drawing by George Sutherland, Esq.

( In pocket at end
MORAY AND NAIRN . ^ ^

(In}
X 01

of volume.
From the Ordnance Survey.

I.

THE PROVINCE OF MORAY

I.

THE PROVINCE OF MORAY.

THE PROVINCE OF MORAY : ITS BOUNDARIES, DESIGNATION, AND IN-
HABITANTS — PREHISTORIC ANNALS, AND THEIR TEACHINC3 — STONE
CIRCLES OF CLAV A—THE PICT OF MORAY : HIS RELIGION AND HIS
SOCIAL POLITY — BURGHEAD — THE PICTISH KINGS— THE COLUMBITE
CHURCH — THE PICTS AND THE SCOTS — DISAPPEARANCE OF PIC-
TAVIA, AND INDEPENDENCE OF MORAVIA — THE SCANDINAVIANS
IN MORAVIA — THE BATTLE ,OF TORFNESS AND THE DEATH OF
DUNCAN — SUENO'S STONE NEAR FORRES — MACBETH — MALCOLM
CEANNMOR — THE MAORMORS— MORAVIA UNDER DAVID I. — THANES
AND EARLS — THE PARTITION OF THE KINGDOM INTO COUNTIES
WIPES OUT THE OLD PROVINCIAL DELIMITATIONS — THE MODERN
PROVINCE OF MORAY.

From the days when authentic history begins, the province of
Moray was one of the great territorial divisions of the country ;
and it continued to be so through the long years of the suc-
cessive kingdoms of the Picts and the Scots, until the country
was finally consolidated into feudal Scotland in the early part
of the twelfth century.

The province of Moray embraced an area of about 3900
square miles. It was bounded on the east by the river Spey ;
on the west by the great dorsal ridge of Drumalban ; on the
north by the Dornoch Firth and the river Oykel ; and on the
south by the range of mountains known by the name of the
Mounth. It thus included the two modern counties of Moray

4 THE PROVINCE OF MORAY.

and Nairn, the whole of the midland district of Inverness-
shire, all but the outlying portion of Cromarty, and more than
two-thirds of Ross.

The word Moray is an old locative plural of the word tnuir^
the sea, and its meaning is therefore " in " or " among the
seaboard men." In Gaelic the dative locative is very often
raised to the nominative in place-names.

No territory could have a more appropriate designation ;
for the Moray Firth — the sea here referred to — is the key to
its history. To it are due in great measure those exceptional
advantages of climate and soil which at various times have
attracted Picts, Scots, Norsemen, and Saxons to its shores.

The earliest inhabitants of these parts of whom we have
any accurate historical knowledge belonged to the great nation
to which the Romans gave the nickname of Picts, or the
Painted People, from their habit of dyeing their bodies with
woad. The word occurs no earlier than in the writings of
the writers of the second century, but it can hardly be
doubted that it was in use by the Romans at a much earlier
period.

The name by which the Picts designated themselves was
Cruithneach ; and the early chronicles of the race — the com-
pilation, it need hardly be said, of long after-ages — deduce
their history from a certain Cruithne, a hero of Scythian or
Thracian descent, belonging to a tribe which called itself
Agathyrsi, who in the days of the great exodus of the Aryan
race landed in Orkney with his seven sons, and from thence
overran the whole of the mainland north of the Firths of
Forth and Clyde. His children subsequently divided the
land into seven provinces, most of which are readily identified,
and in one or other of these Moray was certainly included.
If any reliance is to be placed on etymology, it possibly
formed part of the territory of King Fidach, and the little

THE PICTS OF MORAY. 5

Stream called the Fiddich, which runs into the Spey near
Craigellachie, may yet preserve the memory of its most ancient
chief.

That the Picts of Moray belonged to the Gaelic or Gaid-
helic, and not to the Welsh or British or Brythonic, branch of
the Celtic people is also undoubted. When we reach his-
torical times we find them invariably siding with their Celtic
brethren. In those early days, when blood was thicker than
water, a common origin implied a common policy against all
foreign aggression.

What history fails to tell us of the early inhabitants of the
district is supplied in some degree by its prehistoric annals.
It is impossible, of course, to say to what degree of civilisation
they had attained at any particular date. But the unwritten
chronicles of tumulus and barrow preserved in local museums,
or noticed in the journals of antiquarian societies, prove this
at any rate, that their progress in culture and the arts was
identical with, and certainly not behind, that of other parts of
northern Britain ; that Moray had its Stone, Bronze, and Iron
ages like the rest ; that the proficiency it attained in the arts
of agriculture, of spinning and weaving, of forging metals — in
short, of peace and war — was equal to that of its neighbours ;
that, in a word, before the age of history begins, the inhabi-
tants of the province had left barbarism far behind, and had
reached a standard of civilisation of which it had no reason to
be ashamed.

The general result of the inquiries of scholars may be taken
to be this : that the Pict of Moray of the second and third
centuries was no mere naked, ignorant savage, but one who
had made considerable progress in the culture of the age. In
religion he had long ceased to be a polytheist. There was
only one stage, and that a short one, between his pantheism
and monotheism. He believed in the immortality of the soul.

6 THE RELIGION OF THE PICTS.

His priests or magi were a caste by themselves. The
" demon-like Druids," to use the oddly complimentary though
historically inaccurate expression of one of the earliest Pictish
chroniclers, were men of learning and influence.

** Necromancy and idolatry, illusion,
In a fair and well-walled house,
Plundering in ships, bright poems.
By them were taught.

The honouring of sredhs and omens,
Choice of weather, lucky times.
The watching the voice of birds,
They practised without reserve. "

The nature of their religion is as yet, and probably will
always be, matter of speculation only. But relics of their
religious worship, whatever it may have been, are not wanting
in Moray. At Viewfield, in the parish of Urquhart, not far
from the town of Elgin, is an incontestable stone circle. In
Nairnshire these are still more abundant. Examples of them
may be found at Moyness, Auldearn, Urchany, Ballinrait,
Dalcross, Croy, Daviot, and the upper reaches of the river
Nairn. In the valley of the Nairn no less than thirty sites of
such circles are known, and the existence of many others is
to be inferred from the place-names.

By far the most interesting of these prehistoric remains are
the stone circles of Clava. Situated on the south bank of
the Nairn, on a piece of uncultivated ground nearly opposite
Culloden Moor, they consist of two concentric rings of stand-
ing-stones, six to twelve feet high, surrounding a group of
cairns, originally seven or eight in number, of which two only
now remain sufficiently entire to show the nature of their
structure. Those of them which have been opened appear
to have been stone -built circular chambers, erected for the

STONE CIRCLES — CUP-MARKED STONES. /

«

purpose of containing the cinerary urns whose remains were
found within them.

As for the stone circles themselves, it is impossible to
avoid the conviction that they had a meaning of their own.
What that meaning was cannot yet be said to have been
accurately ascertained. Their size, their equidistance, their
remarkable coincidence with the points of the compass, seem
to imply that they were something more than a mere set-
ting to the graves of the mighty dead that lay within them.
They may have been, according to the most commonly ac-
cepted theory, a sun-dial indicating the hours of the day.
But why a mere sun-dial should be placed in such close con-
nection with a burial-ground has as yet to be explained. A
more legitimate inference, considering their proximity to these
burial-cairns, and keeping in view the veneration with which
the Picts regarded their dead, is that they had some religious
signification. What that was no one so far has been able to
discover. There is less difficulty in arriving at a conclusion
as to their antiquity. Cremation was a typical characteristic
of purely pagan burial, and, looking to the character of their
contents, they probably belong to the Bronze age — the age
before iron came into use, and after stone implements had
ceased to be exclusively manufactured.

Another relic of prehistoric days, and another also of " the
enigmas of archaeology," are the stones with cup -markings
found in many parts of the district. According to Mr
Romilly Allen, a greater number of these have been discovered
in Nairnshire than in any other part of Great Britain. Moot-
or doom-hills, too — the " fairy hillocks " of long after-ages —
are very common throughout all the district.

The social polity of the Picts seems to have rested on a
basis no less enlightened tban that of their religious belief.

8 THE SOCIAL POLITY OF THE PICTS.

The scandalous slander that credited the Caledonian Pict
with a community of women is now entirely exploded. The
Celtic family was in all probability based on the monogamic
tie ; and in the Celtic family is to be found the germ of all
his gentilitian and national peculiarities. The clan system,
which in after-ages became the distinguishing characteristic
of the Celtic race, was not yet established; but its embryo
existed. In the presence of a common danger all the families
in a community combined under the leadership of the chief,
whose ability to lead constituted his sole claim to supremacy.
His weapons, his chariot, his horses, his implements of war-
fare generally, were the product of skilled and often of highly
artistic workmanship. As for his mode of warfare, it was
such as our troops had to contend with in the case of the
Kaffirs of Cape Colony in 1852, and in that of the Zulus
in 1879.

During the Roman occupation of Britain, which began in
A.D. 79 and lasted till a.d. 409, — or three hundred and thirty
years in all, — the northern Picts, to whom the inhabitants
of Moray and Nairn belonged, seem to have been known
under different names. Before the time of Severus these
various tribes were merged in the general appellation of
Caledonii ; in Severus's time they were called the Dicalidonse.
But each tribe had also its own separate name. Ptolemy, the
Alexandrian geographer, writing in the second century, calls
the tribe who occupied the district between the Moray Firth
and the Tay the OifKOfuifyot or Vacomagans, and adds that
they possessed four towns — ^Pannatia, Tamia, Pteroton Strato-
pedon (the Winged Camp), and Tuessis. Pannatia and
Tamia have been assigned to such different sites as Inverness
and Buchanty on the Almond in the one case, and Braemar
and Inchtuthill, an island on the Tay, in the other. Tuessis

f \

TOWNS OF THE NORTHERN PICTS — BURGHEAD. 9

is almost universally admitted to have been somewhere on
the banks of the Spey, about Fochabers. As for the Winged
Camp, though its exact site cannot be said to be established
beyond the reach of argument, the general opinion is that if
not actually on the shores of the Moray Firth it was not far
off them. A strong effort has been made to identify it with
Burghead, a little village recently erected into a burgh, about
nine miles west of the town of Elgin. Opinions may differ as
to whether this effort has been successful or not, but the strik-
ing physical features of the locality lend considerable weight
to the notion that Burghead was from the earliest times a
native Pictish stronghold.

As Burghead is, as we shall see in the sequel, both the
most interesting and the most ancient inhabited place along
the whole seaboard of the Moray Firth, it may be proper to
describe it. The town, which consists of a single street
running north and south, is situated on a headland about a
third of a mile in length. The abrupt and fractured cliff
which terminates it is evidence that at one time this headland
extended farther out to sea. Its greatest height is about 80
feet ; its breadth at the extremity some 400 feet, but it widens
out as it descends into the plain, till its diameter extends to
about 1 150 feet. This promontory may be said to command
the whole of the Moray Firth from the mouth of the Beauly
Firth (the ^stuarium Vararis) on the west to the mouth of the
Lossie on the east, and the Ord of Caithness on the north.
On its western side is a wide circular bay, sufficiently cap-
acious for a mighty fleet. It is a haven safe from the winds
of all quarters. In ancient times a belt of forest and peat,
now submerged, stretched along its eastern shore. Now a
small but weather-proof harbour, erected in 1809 and deep-
ened in 1882-87, is its principal feature.

lO BURGHEAD.

Nature itself seems to have intended this headland for a
fortress. A beacon -fire lit on its summit could have been
instantly answered from the hill-tops of what now comprise
eight Scottish counties. And what nature intended, man has
carried out. The whole crest of the headland was, till the
beginning of this century, a piled-up mass of ancient fortifica-
tions. In 1793, when General Roy's celebrated work, 'The
Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain,' was pub-
lished by the Society of Antiquaries of London, their extent
and character were still distinctly manifest, and a plan of them
will be found in his book. But when once the demon of
improvement has laid its destructive grasp upon a community,
nothing, however old, however venerable, is safe from its
clutches. About 181 8 the proprietors of the land resolved
to fill up a small bay where the herring-curing stations now
stand. " The whole of the north-west ramparts were hurled
down the hill and deposited in the bottom of the bay, the full
waggons running down and carrying up the empty ones. No
less than a height of 1 8 feet of ramparts, and the whole upper
surface of the high fort, now lie below a line of curing-stations.
Its cross ramparts were hurled each into its foss, and are now
built over, and the many coins, battle-axes, and spear-heads
then found, gone to any English tourist who came that
way." 1

Nothing now remains but a rampart about 400 feet long
on the eastern side of the promontory. It is locally known
as the " Broch Bailies." But this rampart is of so extra-
ordinary a construction, and has given rise to such different
conjectures, that some account of it is necessary. It is about
25 feet high; about 60 feet wide at the base, and about 24
feet at the top. It is composed of alternate layers of logs and

^ *' Notes on the Ramparts of Burghead." By Hugh W. Young. * Pro-
ceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,' vol. xxv. p. 445.

V

ROMAN MILITARY STATION AT BURGHEAD. II

Stone. The wood is oak, probably from the neighbouring oak-
forest of Duffus ; and the logs are joined by cross-pieces, also
of oak, riveted together by iron bolts. The stone is freestone,
but not the native freestone of the district ; and the founda-
tions are large boulders resting on a beach of rolled pebbles.
It is undeniable that this rampart has many points of resem-
blance with the walls of some of the Gaulish cities which
Caesar found in France.

Upon this fact, and upon the discovery of another very
curious reHc of antiquity close at hand, and of various objects,
resembling Roman manufacture, found among the ruins, it has
been maintained that the Romans not only visited Burghead,
but established there a military station of something more than
a merely temporary character. This theory was first brought
prominently forward by General Roy in the work already
referred to. In his younger days he had been one of the
engineers connected with the survey of Scotland of 1 748, and
while thus engaged he had been led to the conclusion that
the traces of Roman occupation were both more numerous
and more widely diffused than was generally supposed. His
preconceived ideas were confirmed in a most remarkable
manner by the appearance in 1757 of a work entitled *De
Situ Britannise,' which the editor, Charles Julius Bertram,
attributed to Richard of Cirencester, a Westminster monk of
the fourteenth century. This work revolutionised all the pre-
vious knowledge of scholars. It maintained that, instead of
the Roman occupation of North Britain, even between the
walls, being that only of a camp, the Romans had in the reign
of Domitian accomplished the entire conquest of Scotland east
of the Great Glen, and between the walls of Antonine and the
Moray Firth. Out of the territories of the Caledonians a great
province had been carved and named Vespasiana. Roads had
been cut and military stations erected throughout the length

12 PTOROTON AND THE PTEROTON STRATOPEDON.

and breadth of this wide tract. The province had even at-
tained the distinction of a capital called Ptoroton, which was
situated on the coast somewhere near the mouth of the Varar.
As the estuary of the Varar of Ptolemy was either the
Beauly or the Moray Firth, there was a strong presumption
that Ptoroton was no other than Pteroton Stratopedon, the
Winged Camp of the Alexandrian astronomer. Presumption
gave place to demonstration when remains of an important
stronghold and a Roman well or bath were actually foimd in
situ.

General Roy was a man of great ability and considerable
learning, and with ' extraordinary powers of induction. It
derogates in no way from his well-deserved reputation that his
predilection for everything Roman was stronger than his
critical faculty. He had been dead nearly sixty years before
his assertions were called in question. But in 1852 the first
note of suspicion was .sounded, and in 1869 the bubble was
finally burst. The work of Richard of Cirencester was an
audacious forgery. There was no province of Vespasiana;
there were no Roman roads consular or vicinal ; there was no
Ptoroton. None of these existed save in the imagination of
their author, Charles Julius Bertram.

This discovery does not necessarily demolish the theory
that Burghead may have been a Roman station. For the
evidence of its remains is still left. But it places many in-
superable obstacles in the way. It shifts the burden of prov-
ing that these remains are Roman upon those who assert
this ; and to this day it can hardly be alleged, with any de-
gree of confidence, that this burden has been discharged.

If it were possible to show by any direct evidence, for ex-
ample, that the Romans had been at any time in those parts,
the difficulty might not be so great. But there is absolutely
no evidence. Tacitus, no doubt, states in his *Agricola'

A

THE ROMANS IN THE MORAY FIRTH. 1 3

that in a year fixed by scholars as a.d. 86, the Roman fleet
made the periplus of Britain. The Orkneys were discovered,
and Thule — probably the mainland of Shetland — was seen.
There is no improbability, but very much the reverse, that
in this circumnavigation the Romans sailed into the Moray
Firth — and sailed out again. The next possible theory is that
the district may have been visited by LoUius Urbicus, the
imperial lieutenant of the Emperor Antoninus Pius. But
Julius Capitolinus, who is our only authority, goes no further
than stating that the emperor " even subdued the Britons by
LoUius Urbicus, and, driving back the barbarians, built another
wall of turf." Where that barrier was, and who the Britons
were that his general chastised, are nowhere specially men-
tioned. The only other explorer of these northern regions
was the Emperor Septimius Severus. We have full accounts of
his expedition, which certainly extended beyond the Grampians,
in the works of Dion Cassius as abridged by Xiphilin, and of
Herodian, in Greek ; and in those of Spartian, Eutropius,
and others in Latin. The object of the emperor's expedition
was the punishment of the Caledonian or Pictish tribes, whose
repeated attacks upon the northern wall had been for long a
source of much annoyance to the Roman garrison. The task
was more difficult than he expected. His progress was dis-
puted inch by inch. The enemy with whom he had to con-
tend was not only a race of warlike proclivities, but one which
had made considerable advance in the art of war. They were
inured to fatigue, hunger, and cold. They would run into the
morasses up to the neck. They could live for days in their
desolate wastes without any other food than roots or leaves.
They were armed with bucklers, poniards, and lances with
metal balls attached to their lower ends, which they shook to
frighten their enemies; and they fought from chariots. It
cost the emperor 50,000 men, and it took him three long

14 THE KINGDOM OF THE PICTS.

years, to force his way "to the extremity of the island,"
wherever that may have been. The conquest he intended
was never achieved. His death at York in 2 1 1 put an end
to it for good, and his successors never repeated the ex-
periment. Such is the gist of the accounts we have of his
expedition. From first to last there is not a word of the
establishment of any fortified station in Moray — not even a
word of his ever having visited the district.

We shall have occasion later on to consider the character
of the antiquities of Burghead, great and small. Meantime
it is enough to say that though the legend of the Roman
occupation of this remarkable locality is improbable, it is by
no means an impossibility.

For four centuries after this we know nothing of Pictish
history. But in the seventh century we find the Picts in pos-
session of one of the four kingdoms — and by far the largest —
into which Scotland was at that time divided. With the excep-
tion of a small territory occupied by the Irish nation of the
Scots, known as the kingdom of Dalriada — a territory which
may roughly be described as coextensive with the limits of
the modern county of Argyll, — the whole of the north of
Scotland from Duncansbay Head to the Firth of Forth was in
their hands. It was divided by the great mountain-chain of
the Mounth between the northern and the southern Picts.
It seemed as if the Picts were destined to be the dominant
race, and at no distant period to gain possession of the whole
of Scotland.

From the earliest times there had always been a strong line
of demarcation between the Picts on the north of the Gram-
pians and those on the south. The northern Picts were purely
Gaelic in race and language. The southern Picts, though their
main body was Gaelic also, were not so purely so. The
country between the Firths of Forth and Tay was in the

^.

TRIBAL DIVISIONS AND COMBINATIONS. IS

hands of the tribe of the Damnonii, who belonged to the
other branch of the nation ; and thus a British interest
had been introduced amongst these southern Picts, from
which those on the other side of the mountains were entirely
free. But both sections prided themselves on their descent
from Cruithne, the eponytnus of their race, and differed only
as the families of brothers descended from one parent stock
differ from one another. Broken up as they were into tribes
and septs, they still acknowledged a common origin and a
common interest. And though each tribe {tuath), and " great
tribe" {mortuath), which was a combhiation of tuaths, and
province {coictdh\ which was formed by the union of two or
more mortuaths, had a ri or kinglet of its own, both divisions
of the people accepted the necessity of a paramount chief
(ardri\ who exercised authority over the whole nation.

Such was the origin of the kingdom of the Picts. Their
kings were elected sometimes from the one, sometimes from
the other, branch of the nation. At first the seat of govern-
ment oscillated between the north and the south of the
Mounth, as the northern or the southern Picts had for the
moment the ascendancy. But in the end the capital of the
kingdom was settled at Scone, and here their kings were
crowned sitting on the block of red sandstone which now
supports the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey.

The Pictish Chronicle contains a list of the Pictish kings
from "Cruidne, filius Cinge," the "father of the Picts in-
habiting this island, who reigned a hundred years," to Brude
or Bred, the last of the line, who reigned one year only.
The monarchy extends from mythic times till the year 844,
when Kenneth MacAlpin conquered Pictavia, and constituted
the Scots — the race to which he belonged — the predominant
factor in the history of the country.

Although it is impossible to take this list seriously, so far

1 6 THE PICTISH LAW OF SUCCESSION.

at least as it relates to the earlier kings, it has always been
regarded as sufficiently authentic to deduce certain infer-
ences from it, which, confirmed by statements in other
ancient records, show that a very peculiar law of succes-
sion prevailed amongst these Pictish kings. The right of
sovereignty lay in the females of the original royal blood,
and not in the males. This rule was no* doubt adopted to
counteract the laxity of morals which prevailed amongst the
males. Even if the mother had married into another tribe,
she could transmit to her children a portion of the blood
of the original ancestor of the line. The tribe, whether of
the northern or the southern Picts, who thus secured the
eldest female descendant of Cruithne, the first king of the
nation, secured also the sovereignty of the whole. His
children were adopted into their mother's tribe, and the
old family names of Brude, Drust, Nechtan, Talorgan, and
Gartnaidh, bestowed upon them, were at once the evidence
and the guarantee of their royal descent.

It is not till we reach the sixth century that we find
ourselves on firm historical ground with regard to those
ancient kings. When this is actually the case, we are brought
face to face with another very interesting subject of inquiry
— the introduction of Christianity into northern Scotland.
Between the years 556 and 586, Brude, son of Mailcu
(Malcolm), who belonged to the northern branch of the
nation, was king of the Picts. He was a very brave and
powerful prince, who had successfully repulsed the attacks
upon his kingdom of the Scots of Dalriada, slain their king
Gabhran, and attached certain insular portions of their terri-
tory to his own dominions. He had his fort and palace at the
eastern end of Loch Ness — probably on the summit of Craig
Phadrick, — and there he lived surrounded by his warriors and
fortified in his paganism by a crowd of attendant Magi.

COLUMBA AND THE NORTHERN PICTS. 1/

He was at the very height of his glory when, in the ninth
year of his reign (a.d. 565), he received a visit from Columba.
The defeat of the Scots, who were nominally at least a
Christian people, had drawn the saint^s attention to Pictavia ;
and in 563 he crossed over from Ireland, determined to
effect the conversion of its inhabitants, and to obtain, if
possible, some concessions in favour of a conquered race,
to which he himself belonged. It took him two years,
however, to reach the Pictish king's stronghold.

When at last he did so, it was to receive a most inhospi-
table reception. The doors of the fortress were shut in his
face. But when the saint signed them with the sign of the
cross, they immediately flew open of their own accord. Filled
with alarm, the king and his councillors advanced to meet*
Columba and his companions, and addressed them in con-
ciliatory and respectful language. "And ever after, so long
as he lived, the king held this holy and reverend man in
very great honour, as was his due."

But the king's conversion was not effected without diffi-
culty. Columba had to overcome the determined opposition
of his Magi. So virulent was their resistance that he had
to invoke the aid of miracles. In the end the question re-
solved itself into a struggle for pre-eminence in supernatural
power. It was the story of Moses and the priests of Pharaoh
over again. It ended, of course, in the saint's decisive vic-
tory. It was difficult to resist a man who could raise a child
from the dead, who could make a stone from the river float
on its surface like an apple, who could overcome a storm and
a darkness interposed to prevent his departure, and could
even force Broichan, the chief of them all, to liberate a little
Scottic female slave with whom he " cruelly and obstinately "
refused to part. The king's conversion was followed, nomin-
ally at least, by Christianity being declared the State religion.

B

1 8 INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO MORAY.

But many long years were to ensue before it was anything but
a name in the kingdom of the northern Picts.

In time, however, the seed sown by Columba began to
germinate. Churches were erected, religious foundations en-
dowed; the rites of paganism fell into desuetude, and a
healthy Christian spirit was engendered among the people.
The evidence of this is to be found in the dedications and
place-names which still exist in the locality. No one, how-
ever, can say how long the process took, or who were the
agents by whom it was effected.

Very little of it, if any, was the work of the saint himself.
When he left King Brude's palace he probably proceeded
eastward to Buchan by sea. At least this is the inference
to be deduced from Adamnan's story of Broichan's invoking
a storm of fog and darkness to impede his departure. But,
not very long after, a little Christian colony was planted a
couple of miles east of Burghead on a plot of particularly
fertile ground, which still goes by the name of the College of
Roseisle ; and at much the same time a church was erected at
Burghead itself. Two miles yet farther east, at a place called
Unthank, was another small settlement of holjr brethren. At
any rate, at both of these, ecclesiastical buildings of very early
date are known to have existed.

One is almost inclined to think that it was intended to
make Burghead the seat of the new religion within the
province. There was already a Pictish stronghold here to
protect the church which was actually established in its midst
And there was perhaps another, though a less practical, rea-
son. Adamnan, in his Life of Columba, tells of a miraculous
dream which happened to his mother Eithne shortly before
the birth of the saint. An angel appeared to her, bringing
her a certain robe of extraordinary beauty. After a short
time he demanded it back, and having raised and spread

\

THE "ROMAN WELL" AT BURGHEAD. 19

it, he let it fly through the air. It was lost to her for ever.
But as it sped away she could see it widening and widening,
till it overshadowed mountains and plains and forests. The
angel comforted her for its loss by assuring her that her son
was destined to encompass a countless number of souls within
his garment and bring them home to God. An Irish memoir
of St Columba, supposed to be as old as the tenth century,
still further amplifies the legend. The garment was splendid
beyond all the colours of this world, and it seemed to " reach
from Innsi-mod to Caer-nam-brocc." Innsi-mod is Inishymoe,
k place on one of the islands in Clew Bay, on the west coast
of Ireland. As for Caer-nam-brocc, both Dr Reeves, Bishop
of Down, the editor of Adamnan's Life, and Dr W. F. Skene,
the author of * Celtic Scotland,' identify it with Burghead.
Be this as it may, there is every reason to believe that
the church of Burghead was an ecclesiastical foundation of
the highest importance. The number of fragments of stone
crosses found about and around it — fragments to which the
best authorities are now almost unanimous in assigning a
post-pagan origin — go far to prove this.

Still stronger evidence, however, is to be found in the
existence, a short distance to the eastward of its site, of a
very curious structure which locally goes by the name of
the Roman Bath or Well, but which the same authorities
believe to have been a baptistery. It may at once be ad-
mitted that it bears a considerable resemblance to an old
Roman bath, such as have been found at Chester, at
London, on Hadrian's Wall, and at Dijon in France. As,
however, no Roman occupation of the locality can be held
to have been satisfactorily established, while no one disputes
the existence of a very early Christian church, the prob-
abilities seem to lean towards its Christian origin.

It is a cistern or reservoir hollowed out of the solid rock.

20 STONE CROSSES.

Its four sides are very nearly about the same dimensions, or
between lo and ii feet. The depth of the basin is 4 feet
4 inches, and the height of the chamber, from the ledge
upwards, between 11 and 12 feet. Two steps lead down
into the basin. Even without its present arched roof, which
was erected in 18 10, it reminds one, in its gloom, its silence,
and its construction, of nothing so much as a tomb. And
when we consider that the rite of immersion was held in the
early days of Christianity to be typical of dying to the world,
and that baptisteries were usually constructed so as to re-
semble the tomb of our Lord, with whom, in the words of
St Paul, "we are buried by baptism," a strong presumption
arises in favour of this having been its purpose. It in no
way militates from this theory that it does not actually
adjoin the site of the church. The baptism of adults,
which never took place except at the festivals of Easter,
Pentecost, and Epiphany, was always by immersion, and
necessitated the existence of either a river, a pool, or a
spring. On the promontory on which the church was situ-
ated there is none of these. The nearest place where
living water could be obtained was the spring, now covered
by this cistern; and, after all, it was only a few hundred
yards off.

It would be absurd to attempt to assign any date to this
remarkable structure, or to the stone crosses which have been
exhumed in the locality. The age of stone crosses is from
the eighth to the eleventh centuries. During that lengthened
period Celtic workmen had assuredly reached a standard of
excellence sufficiently high to equal the work of the Roman
soldiers even of the third century.

As if to add still further to our perplexities, there were
discovered, in the course of the improvements which took
place upon Burghead and its harbour between the years 1805

THE STONE BULLS OF BURGMEAD. 21

and 1809, certain boulder slabs, each incised with the figure
of a bull, of a kind entirely new to Scottish archaeology.
Fragments of six of these early sculptures are in existence.
But if a statement of the late Mr Robert Carruthers in his
* Highland Note-Book' may be rehed on, no fewer than
thirty have been found in all. Those which remain agree
in this, that the stones on which they are cut are flat, water-
worn, sandstone boulders, picked up, it would seem, on the
adjoining shore ; and that they are of small size, varying in
length from 27 to 30 inches, and in thickness from 3 to 6
inches.

In order to adapt them to the theory of Roman occupa-
tion, which was the one exclusively in vogue in the first
half of the present century, it was suggested that they " were
trophies carved by the Romans, as we strike medals in com-
memoration of any signal victory." This theory, though it
received the sanction of the Society of Antiquaries of London,
was soon seen to be untenable. And of late another has
been brought forward by the eminent archaeologist Dr
James Macdonald, which, though not yet of universal
adoption, is in many respects more reasonable than the
other.

According to this authority these incised slabs were com-
muted votive or piacular sacrifices, such as were practised
in all parts of Britain within Christian times. They are
true " substitutory offerings made in grateful commemoration
of a benefit received, rather than as an atonement of sin," ^
similar to the ex votos common to this day in Roman Catholic
countries.

A curious superstition, prevalent till within the most recent

^ **Burghead as the Site of an early Christian Church." By James
Macdonald, LL.D. ' Proceedings of the Glasgow Archaeological Society,'
vol. ii., N.S., 1891.

22 TRACES OF THE COLUMBITE CHURCH IN MORAY.

years amongst the fisher people of the Moray Firth, may still
preserve the sentiment embodied in this suggestion — the feel-
ing that a sacrifice, or its symbol, was due either to a
protecting saint or to Divinity itself for escape from some
threatened danger, or for preservation from the ordinary
perils of this mortal life. No fisherman of any of the fish-
ing villages along the coast would ever venture to sea at
the beginning of a New Year until blood had been shed.
Amongst old-fashioned people a sheep was often killed for
the purpose. In later and more degenerate days the person
who first drew blood in a quarrel with a neighbour was
believed to have discharged the obligation, and secured for
himself good luck in the fishing for all the subsequent year.

Though Burghead was probably, as we have suggested,
not only the first but the most important seat of the early
Christian Church within the province, it was far from being
the only one. It might seem strange, if we did not know
the jealousy with which his memory was regarded in after-
ages by the Roman Catholic Church, that Columba, to
whom Moray owed its Christianity, should not have been
adopted as the patron saint of the province. But this he
never became. Three places only within it, so far as we
know, have specially venerated his name. At Petty and
Kingussie in Inverness-shire there are two undoubted dedi-
cations to him, though it is impossible now to say whether
they were the foundations of the saint himself or of his
disciples. And the little village of Auldearn, near Nairn,
till the year 1880 perpetuated his name in the annual
"ploy" that went by the name of St Colm's Market.

The only other traces of the Columbite Church within the
district are certain place-names in Nairnshire believed by local
antiquaries to be referable to St Evan or St Ewan, a corrup-
tion of St Adamnan, " Little Adam " — Columba's biographer.

k

THE PICTS AND THE SCOTS. 23

and one of his successors in the abbacy of the monastery of
lona — to whom also the church of Cawdor was dedicated;
two old Celtic church bells — one at Inch, near Kingussie, the
other at Cawdor — which bear his name ; and a spring at Burg-
head called St Aethan's Well, which is supposed to be a
corruption of St Aedan or Aidan, a monk of lona, and after-
wards first bishop of Lindisfarne, another of Columba's dis-
ciples.

From this time till the expulsion of the Columbite clergy
from the territories of the northern Picts by King Nectan in
717, we know nothing further of the Columbite Church.

About three years before St Columba's mission to King
Brude, as we have seen, hostilities had broken out between
the Picts and their neighbours the Scots. These "Irish
vagabonds " {Hiberni grassatores\ as Gildas calls them, first
make their appearance in history in the year 360 as one of
the barbaric assailants of the Roman province in Britain.
They were then in alliance with the Picts. But an alliance
between two tribes both bent upon the same design — the
possession of the land — was not likely to be of long con-
tinuance ; and in the days of King Brude they finally came
to blows. The Pictish king was successful. He drove his
enemies across Drumalban and confined them within Dal-
riada, where by this time they had established a kingdom
of their own. The Scots, however, were irrepressible, and for
the next two hundred years the hostilities between the two
races were unceasing.

On the whole, the Picts were most frequently victorious.
Indeed for a whole century — between 741 and 841 — they
actually ruled over Dalriada, and seemed to be in a fair way
of becoming the future kings of Alban itself. But in 839
Fortune declared against them. Kenneth MacAlpin, a Scot
by race, though of Pictish descent on the mother's side.

24 MORAVIA AN INDEPENDENT PRINCIPALITY.

invaded Pictavia and defeated the Picts with great slaughter.
Five years later we find him in undisputed possession of both
Dalriada and Pictavia. And within fifty years after this the
name of Pictavia disappears from history, and in its place we
have the independent principality of Moravia and the kingdom
of Alban.

The tract of country embraced within these two states con-
sisted of the whole midland and north-eastern districts of
Scotland east of Drumalban and between the Firths of Dor-
noch and of Forth. The boundary between them was a
line drawn a little to the eastward of the course of the
river Spey, and descending in a south-easterly direction to
Lochaber. In short, the old limits of Moravia remained
unchanged till towards the end of the tenth century, when
the Norsemen succeeded in substituting the Moray for the
Dornoch Firth as its northern boundary.

The exact date when Moravia became an independent prin-
cipality cannot be given. Still less can we be sure to which of
its Maormors it owed its freedom. But the family which raised
it to the highest pitch of glory was that to which Macbeth
belonged, and whose most distinguished member was Ruadri,
son of Morgan, who claimed to be a descendant of Angus,
one of the seven sons of Cruithne. This family, according
to the Irish Annals, is first heard of in history somewhere
about the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh
century. Nor does it finally fade into oblivion till the reign
of David I. The Scottic kingdom of Alban lasted for about
a hundred and sixty years, or from 844 to somewhere about
1004, when the name became merged in that of Scotia during
the reign of Malcolm MacKenneth. During the whole of
this period its kings were of the race of its founder, Kenneth
MacAlpin, and, with a brief exception, alternated between
the descendants of his two sons, Constantin and Aedh.

THE SCOTS AND THE NORSEMEN. 2$

With this preliminary explanation we may now resume the
narrative.

It would be a mistake to suppose that the final success of
the Scots was due entirely to their unaided superior manhood.
Kenneth MacAlpin's victory was brought about in great mea-
sure from his alliance with a race which for some time past
had been menacing the western coasts of Scotland, and in
the days of his father Alpin had already inflicted a crushing
defeat on the unfortunate Picts. This was the people whom
our earlier historical writers insisted on calling by the generic
term of Danes, but whom we, with fuller knowledge, now
separate into their proper divisions of Danes and Norwegians,
or Norsemen. These Scandinavian invaders were now acting
the part towards the Scots which the Scots themselves had
in earlier ages assumed towards the Picts. For the moment
they were their allies. Later on they were destined to be
their most formidable foes.

The story of the Norsemen in Scotland has not yet been
written. When it is, it will be found that the chapter
which deals with Moravia is not the least interesting portion
of the narrative. But the facts are few, the presumptions we
are compelled to make are many. And even these are based
in too many instances on no higher evidence than the mis-
leading testimony of place-names, and the existence of certain
customs and superstitions, which we may assert but cannot
always prove to be of Scandinavian origin.

The Scandinavian invaders of Scotland of the eighth,
ninth, and tenth centuries belonged to two distinct nations,
and were known to the earlier annalists by two distinct
names. The one was the Finngaill, the white or fair-haired
Galls (or strangers). The other was the Dubhgaill, the black
or dark-haired Galls. The former were Norwegians, the latter
were Danes. Another name for the Norsemen was Lochlan-

26 THE VIKINGS.

nach, the people of Lochlann — the Lochlin of Ossian's poems.
The Scandinavian assailants of Moravia belonged, so far as
we know, exclusively to the first of these races. They came
at first as Vikings — in other words, merely to harry. Not
until the very end of the ninth century can we trace any
disposition on their part to colonise the districts which every
year, or nearly every year, they visited with their hostile fleets
of dragon-ships, cutters, and shells.^ The name of Viking —
the man of the vik or bay — is derived from the great Wick,
the bulge-shaped indentation at the foot of the Scandinavian
peninsula, washed by the waters of the Skaggerack and Cat-
tegat, from whence, according to tradition, the first of his
kind emerged. Whether that was its original habitat or not,
Vikingism, like other bad practices, spread like a conflagra-
tion. It became a regular pursuit even amongst the highest
in the land. As soon as a lad of noble birth had attained
the age of manhood — and Norsemen became of age as soon
as they could wield a sword or hurl a spear — he was given
a ship and sent on a viking cruise to gain wealth and to
see the world. It was what the " grand tour " was in the days
of our grandfathers, with this difference, that in the one case
parents sent their sons abroad to win money, and in the
other to spend it. And at the period at which we have
now arrived all Scandinavia, wheresoever situated, — Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Pomerania, the Shetland, Orkney, and
Western Islands — Iceland alone excepted, — sent out swarms
of plunderers, who, if they did not always adopt the name,

^ The dragon-ships {drakes)^ so called from the head and tail of a dragon
that they bore at prow and stern, were warships, and had often as many as
seventy benches of rowers, of four rowers to each bench. The cutters
{karves) bore the heads of wolves and had never more than fifteen benches.
The shells (sneckas) were used merely as transport for their war-horses.
Readers of Ossian will remember the expression **King of Shells," so
often applied to the heroes of Lochlin.

\

TERROR OF THE NORSEMEN. 2/

had adopted the practice, and were feared for their courage,
their cruelty, and their rapacity, as their ancestors were said
to have feared their fabled opponents — the giants and other
monstrous beings of old.

It would be ludicrous, if it were not pitiful, to read the
descriptions given by contemporary annalists of these formi-
dable invaders. Their fears transformed them into a demon
host of whose coming heaven itself did not disdain to warn
them. Horrible lightnings, dragons in the air, flashes of fire
glancing to and fro, heralded their advent. Like clouds of
stinging hornets, their swift galleys glided into bay and creek.
Like hordes of fierce and angry wolves, their warriors, clad in
suits of glistening mail, with crested helmets on their heads
and double-edged swords three feet long in their hands, over-
ran the country in all directions, "plundering, tearing, and
killing not only sheep and oxen, but priests and Levites, and
choirs of monks and nuns." Woe to the enemy who fell into
their pitiless hands ! His conqueror would carve " the blood-
eagle " on his back, hewing his ribs from his backbone, and
casting his warm heart and lungs to the winds. Or, dash-
ing out his brains with a stone, he would offer him as a sac-
rifice to Thor, the God of War. Or, hastily strangled, he
would fling him on the funeral pyre of some brother warrior.
Or, mutilated and blinded, he would leave him to drag out
a miserable existence as a coward and a ntthing.

With the Norseman it was different. Death, which through
the teachings of Christianity his victim had now learned to
fear, had no terrors for him. On the contrary, he courted
it. For with him it was not "after death the judgment,'
but "after death the guerdon." Life might be a painful
fight, but eternity was a painless one. All day long in Val-
halla the warriors might struggle and combat. But every
evening their wounds were healed, and they awoke each

28 RAVAGES OF THE NORSEMEN.

morning to renew with redoubled zest the martial exercises
of the previous day. For with the Norseman to fight and to
live were synonymous terms.

Their first appearance on the Scottish coasts is supposed to
have been in the year 798, when they harried the Hebrides.
In 802, and again in 806, they ravaged lona, slaying on the
latter occasion sixty- eight of the monastic family there. In
the following year they settled on the mainland of Ireland.
A short time later two Norse kingdoms — the one with
Armagh, the other with Dublin, for its capital — were estab-
lished there ; and it was from the latter of these that the great
wave of Norse supremacy which began to sweep over Moray
so early as the end of the ninth century appears to have
come.

So far as we know, the earliest occasion when the Norse-
men did a little harrying in Pictland on their own account
was in 871, when Olaf the White, King of Dublin, attacked
the southern part of Pictavia, and carried " a great prey of
Picts and Angles and Britons into captivity in Ireland."
But it was Olafs son, Thorstein the Red, who first con-
quered Moravia. An expedition undertaken by him in the
year 874 resulted in his possessing himself of the whole ter-
ritories of the northern Picts. He retained them, however,
only for one whole year. The following year, the Annals of
Ulster tell us, he was treacherously slain by the men of
Alban. Until Skene pointed it out, this expedition of
Thorstein's was generally believed to have been undertaken
in concert with Sigurd, first jarl of Orkney and Caithness,
brother of the celebrated Rognvald, Jarl of Moeri, Harold
the Fair - haired's friend and counsellor, and consequently
the uncle of a still more famous Norseman, Hrolf, the con-
queror of Normandy, to whom we owe our Norman kings.
But Sigurd's invasion of Moray was certainly at least ten

\

BURGHEAD A NORSE BROCH. 29

years later. It is, however, impossible to give the actual
date.

In the Icelandic * Flateyarbok,* after stating that Sigurd
made an alliance with Thorstein, which we have seen is a
mistake, the Saga-writer goes on to say that Sigurd, now
become a great chief, " conquered all Caithness, and much
more of Scotland — Maerhaefui [Moray] and Ross — and built
a borg on the southern borders of Maerhaefui."

This "borg" is believed by the best authorities to have
been erected on the promontory which the writer of the
Orkneyinga Saga so often refers to under the name of Torf-
ness, " on the south side of Baefiord." And though by some
Torfness is identified with Tarbetness, the more general
opinion is that it is no other than the sandy spit on which
now stands the town of Burghead, already so frequently
mentioned. That a broad belt of torf or peat once existed
on the western side of its wide semicircular bay, is clearly
proved from the character of its submerged remains ; and the
fact that no other is to be found on what to the Norseman,
at least, was " the southern boundary of Moray," lends con-
siderable colour to the supposition that Torfness and Burg-
head are identical.^ Still more conclusive, perhaps, is the
circumstance that Burghead is to this day locally known by
the name of the " Broch." And though the proof falls short
of demonstration, it can hardly be reasonably doubted that
this most interesting locality was the headquarters of the
Norsemen during their early attempt to establish a foothold
in Moray.

^ It was to Torfness that Einar, the nephew and successor of Sigurd
Egstein, first jarl of Orkney and Caithness, who introduced the use of
peat as fuel among the Orcadians, and thus earned the name of Torf-
Einar, sent for a supply of fuel during a period of great scarcity in the
Orkneys. Einar was very probably first made aware of its usefulness by
his uncle Sigurd, who may himself have learned it when living at Burghead.

30 MAELBRIGD THE MAORMOR.

How long Sigurd reigned in Moray is uncertain. But his
rule cannot have been long, and it certainly was not peaceful.
The Moray Maormors were not men of a character to bear
without impatience a rider on their back. In the end they
succeeded in throwing him off. The holder of the dignity
for the time was Maelbrigd, son of Ruadri or Rory, whose
possible claim to have been the founder of the indepen-
dent principality of Moray has been already referred to.
According to the Scandinavian Sagas, he was surnamed the
Tooth, from a protruding buck-tooth, which certainly did
not detract from the ferocity of his visage. This Maelbrigd
was destined to be the Norsemen's bane. One day he and
Sigurd arranged to meet at a certain place, with forty men
on horseback apiece, to settle some differences between
them. Sigurd had no very high opinion, however, of his
adversary's good faith. Accordingly, he directed that two
of his men should bestride each horse. As soon as they
came in sight Maelbrigd's quick eye detected the deception.
He pointed it out to his followers. "There is no help for
it," he said. " Sigurd has dealt treacherously with us. But
let us each kill our man before we die." Then they made
themselves ready. The jarl saw what they were about
Bidding his men dismount, he divided them into two
bodies. The one he ordered to advance and break their
battle; the other he bade go round and attack them from
behind. "There was hard fighting immediately, and it was
not long before Maelbrigd fell and all his men with him."

The Norsemen were as elated as if they had won an hon-
est victory. Cutting off the heads of their foes, each man
hung one to his saddle-straps. To Sigurd was allotted that
of Maelbrigd. And with these ghastly trophies dangling by
their horses' sides they galloped home in highest glee. But
on the way Sigurd, meaning to give his horse a kick to

V

V

EKKIALSBAKKI — THE BATTLE OF SKITTEN. 3 1

quicken its pace, brought the calf of his leg in contact with
Maelbrigd's projecting tooth. It scratched him slightly. On,
however, he rode, thinking nothing of the accident. As he
proceeded home he began to feel his leg getting painful.
Soon it commenced to swell. Ultimately it mortified. Be-
fore many days were over he was dead. And he was
" howelaid " at a place called Ekkialsbakki.

A fierce fight has ensued amongst archaeologists as to the
site of Ekkialsbakki. While Worsaae and Dr Anderson
think that it was situated on the banks of the river Oykel,
which formed the northern boundary of the province of
Moray, Skene places it on the river Findhom, and even
suggests that the sculptured pillar near Forres known by
the name of Sueno's Stone may have been intended to
mark the grave of the Norse jarl. The first of these theories
seems the more correct.

After this comes another great void in Moravian history.
When next we can make sure of the records, another Sigurd,
surnamed the Stout, is the Jarl of Caithness and Orkney.
His relations with the ^loray men are not a whit more ami-
cable than were those of his predecessors. We find him
marching forth to battle against Finleikr or Finlay, who had
succeeded his brother Maelbrigd in the maormorship of the
district. The battle took place at Skitten, about five miles
north-west of Wick, and was long and fierce. Finleikr's
troops outnumbered those of Sigurd in the proportion of seven
to one. But Sigurd had an ally more powerful than a host
This was a magic banner, bearing the device of an ink-black
raven soaring on the wings of the wind. It was the gift of
his mother, a sorceress of transcendent skill. She and her
maidens had spent many weary hours over its fashioning,
and it was woven about with spells and enchantments. The
man who carried it in battle would die, but so long as the

32 NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF MORAY.

Standard waved aloft the Norwegians would be victorious.
And so, of course, it came about. Then occurred the inevitable
reprisals. Sigurd followed up his victory by overrunning the
province north of the Firth. In 989 we find him in posses-
sion of Moray, Ross, and Sutherland, and a portion of Dal-
riada on the other side of Drumalban. The effect of this
victory was to establish the Moray Firth as the northern
boundary of Moray for all time coming.

The next noteworthy incident in Sigurd's history is the
resistance he made some years later to the attempt of
Malcolm MacKenneth (i 005-1 034), King of Scotia (as the
kingdom of Alban with the addition of the Lothians had now
come to be called), to wrest his hardly acquired dominions
from his grasp. The attempt was unsuccessful. Malcolm
found it more to his advantage to enter into an alliance with
Sigurd than to fight him. He conferred the earldom of
Caithness upon him, and he gave him his daughter in
marriage. A few years later — in 10 14 — Sigurd was killed
at the battle of ClontarfT (Cluantarbh) in Ireland.

Besides the daughter whom he married to the redoubtable
Scandinavian jarl, Malcolm had another, named Bethock or
Beatrice, who at an early age became the wife of Crinan, lay
abbot of Dunkeld. Each of these daughters had a son to
their respective husbands. The son of Sigurd was named
Thorfinn; the son of Crinan was named Duncan. The
emulation between these two cousins was destined to embroil
all the north of Scotland, and to create complications which
lasted for nearly half a century.

Sigurd died when his son Thorfinn was only five years old,
but his grandfather Malcolm, with whom the boy was a great
favourite, at once took steps to provide for him. He con-
ferred on him the districts of Caithness and Sutherland with
the title of earl. Fifteen years later, when the last of his

\

THE BATTLE OF TORFNESS. 33

brothers of the first family died, — for Sigurd was a widower
when he married King Malcolm's daughter, — he succeeded to
the jarldom of Orkney and Shetland. From that time for-
ward he owed a divided allegiance — to Scotland for his earl-
dom, to Norway for his jarldom. As for his cousin Duncan,
he seems to have been a youth whose ambition was ever
greater than his judgment. He had hardly succeeded to his
grandfather's throne than we find him in hostilities with
Thorfinn. His cousin's succession to the Scandinavian jarl-
dom, which had occurred a few years before his own succes-
sion to the Scottish throne, seemed to have raised doubts in
his mind whether an allegiance divided between two mon-
archies could possibly be loyal to either. To put an end to this
state of uncertainty he determined either to recover possession
by force of arms of the earldom of Caithness and Sutherland
or to make Thorfinn pay tribute for it. The struggle lasted
for a considerable period. The Norsemen were, as a rule,
successful ; and in the end they gained a decisive victory.

The scene of this momentous fight was Torfness — in other
words, Burghead; and the date is the 14th August 1040.
It is the only battle of real consequence that ever took
place in Morayshire. The army of the Scots far out-
numbered that of their antagonists. It consisted of levies
drawn from every part of the kingdom, from west and east
and south, even from the distant and unknown region of
Cantire, and it included amongst other provincial troops
the men of Moray under Macbeth, son of Finlay, now
become their maormor, and one of the most distinguished
generals of the Scottish king. It was supported also by a
large body of Irish auxiliaries. This formidable host was
led by King Duncan in person. As for its opponents, the
Saga gives us a striking picture of their leader Thorfinn — a
huge, sinewy, uncomely, martial-looking man, sharp-featured,

c

34 DEATH OF DUNCAN.

dark-haired, sallow, and of swarthy complexion, with a gold-
plated helmet on his head, a sword at his belt, and a spear
in his hands; but it tells us little more about them. We
need not linger over the details of the battle. For us they
are of little interest. "The fight ended," says the Saga-
writer, "with the flight of the king, and some say he was
slain."

Slain undoubtedly Duncan was. We have it on the author-
ity of Marianus Scotus, of Tighernac, and of all . the later
chroniclers. And his general, Macbeth, was his murderer.
Local tradition has it that Bothgauenan,^ the place where the
older chroniclers tell us he was killed, is Pitgaveny, at the
head of the once wide and beautiful Loch of Spynie, about a
couple of miles north-east from Elgin ; and that the tragedy
occurred as the king was resting after his nine miles' ride
from the battlefield. It is not unlikely to be true. Tradition,
however, cannot help us to settle the mystery of the crime.
Skene's suggestion that Macbeth had possibly some claims
upon the Scottish throne through his wife Gruach, daughter
of Boede, the descendant of an elder branch of Dimcan's
family, and that these claims were in the eyes of many pre-
ferable to those of King Duncan, is exceedingly probable. If
so, the slaying of King Duncan may not have been, in the
estimation of those days, murder ; but it is difficult, notwith-
standing, to regard it as anything less than treason.

The mystery that enshrouds the whole affair is deepened
by the result. Macbeth becomes King of Scotland, and from
that date the Norsemen cease from troubling. Thorfinn joins
forces with Macbeth, and accompanies him south on his
victorious march as far as Fife. How this extraordinary
state of affairs was brought about we can but conjecture.

^ Bothgauenan (Bothgowan) and Pitgaveny are believed to be only
different forms of the same word, which means the smith's bothy.

V

EARLY VIKING OCCUPATION OF MORAY. 35

What alone is certain is, that an agreement of some sort
was entered into between them ; and that from this date no
further hostilities took place between the native princes and
the Scandinavians. But, before leaving the Norse period of
Moravian history, something remains to be said concerning
the character and extent of the earlier Viking occupation,
or attempted occupation, of the southern seaboard of the
Moray Firth.

There is no reason to believe that it was at any time
acquiesced in by the inhabitants. At the best it was always
precarious. Brushes, more or less serious, between the in-
vaders and the natives were frequent. Of this we can have
but little doubt. That these reached the importance of a
pitched battle is, however, a different matter. The great
struggle at Kinloss in the reign of Malcolm II., when "the
Danes" took the castles of Elgin and Nairn and put their
garrisons to the sword, which is to this day a fondly cherished
belief in certain quarters, rests on no higher authority than
that of Hector Boece, whose information is based on the
fabulous Veremund or John Campbell. The whole story is a
fiction from beginning to end. The absurd local tradition that
the town of Elgin was founded by Helgi, son of the celebrated
" Burnt Njal," and one of Jarl Sigurd Hlodverson's warriors,
and that it still bears his name, is quite as worthy of credence.

Close to the town of Forres stands a very remarkable
sculptured pillar which goes by the name of Sueno's Stone.
There is nothing approaching it, either in style or in execu-
tion, in any other part of the province. If not the finest, it
is almost the finest, in Scotland. Its workmanship is Celtic,
and of the highest type of Celtic art. It has a story to tell,
and seems to tell it very clearly. There are men standing
arrayed in line of battle, with swords in their hands; there
is an army apparently on the march ; there is a battle ; there

36 SUENO'S STONE.

is a victory; there are slaughtered men and fettered cap-
tives; there are veiled and hooded figures that look like
priests praying, and above them is a gigantic cross. Most
people would say that it was a record of fierce fight and
glorious victory. Yet no one so far has been able to con-
nect it with certainty with any local event for which we have
the voucher of history. It stands there, by the side of a
commonplace nineteenth-century field — brown in spring and
green in summer, — gaunt, solitary, frowning — an object of
mystery to this age, and in all probability to future ages.

Theories about it, of course, are abundant. Worsaae, for
instance, would have us believe that it was erected to com-
memorate the treaty of peace concluded between the Danish
king Svend Tveskjaeg and King Malcolm . II., and " the
expulsion • of the Danes from the coasts of Moray " ; and
this interpretation, though it bears its own refutation on the
face of it, has been repeated by most of the local writers who
have noticed it. Others, with a show of greater probability,
think that it records some incident in the career of Swein
Asleifson, the last and greatest of the Orkney Vikings, who
was certainly in Moray in the reign of Donald, King of Alban
(889-900). Skene, as we have seen, is of opinion that it has
nothing to do with any one of the name of Sueno at all, seeing
that this name " is no older than Hector Boece," and that it
may refer to the great battle at Ekkialsbakki between Sigurd
and Maelbrigd, though to give plausibility to this conjecture
he is compelled to read it from bottom to top. Others,
adopting an entirely different view, maintain that its meaning
is purely mystic. It is a relic of the early Christian Church,
and is intended to represent the battle of life and the triumph
of good over evil.

We must leave each of these classes of theorists to make
good its own position. We would only add that, if it has any

SCANDINAVIAN SETTLEMENTS. 37

historical significance at all, it is, considering its Celtic origin,
more likely to have been intended as a record of the men
of Moray over the Norsemen than of the Scandinavians over
the Celts.

But the fertile Laigh of Moray was unquestionably more
than a mere battlefield to the Norsemen. They had certainly
settlements within its borders, and beyond them too. For in
Nairnshire the traces of their existence are both more numerous
and more certain than in the sister county. If the borg at
Torfness was, as is very probable, the Norsemen's principal
stronghold, their other settlements must all have been in its
immediate neighbourhood, or sufficiently near to be able to
rely on the protection which it afforded. And this appears
to have been the case. The Orkneyinga Saga speaks of
" a trading-place in Scotland in the days of Swein Asleifson "
which it calls Dufeyrar, which was certainly in the immedi-
ate vicinity. For Dufeyrar means the eyri or sandy spit of
Duffus, which is the parish within which Burghead is situ-
ated. As for the others, they seem to have been farther
westward. The little fishing village of Mavistoun, between
Forres and Nairn, now extinct, is said to have once been
known as Maestoun, which in Norse would mean the " town
of the maidens."

Nairn was certainly a Scandinavian settlement. The names
of the people in the fisher-town there are still almost exclu-
sively Norse. Main, Manson, and Ralph are undoubtedly
Magnus, Magnusson, and Hrolf. As a rule, however, local
surnames and place-names aid us little in our inquiry. They
are remarkably few in number. But this need not surprise
us. Moray was a settled district before the Norsemen made
its acquaintance, and its various localities had already names
of their own. One thing, however, is especially noticeable,
and that is, that on the whole seaboard of the two counties

k

38 MACBETH.

of Elgin and Nairn there is absolutely not a single place-
name ending in thorpe or by^ the two unmistakable terminals
of Danish origin. The inference is obvious. It was the
Norwegians, not the Danes, who had designs upon the
possession of the district.

Macbeth's reign as King of Scotland lasted from 1014 to
1057. He had a difficult game to play, but he played it like
a man. The Irish and Pictish additions to the *Historia
Britonum ' speak of him as " the vigorous Macbrethack." The
* Duan Albanach * calls him " Macbeathadh the renowned." In
another old chronicle he is described as ^^felicts memoriceJ'^

But Macbeth, in the opinion of many, was a usurper, if not
something worse, and he had to take a usurper's risk. Hence
we find that he was never strong enough to stand alone.
Without the aid of his ally Thorfinn he would never have
maintained his position, and Thorfinn's assistance was only
purchased by the cession to him of a large portion of territory
on the east coast, extending as far south as Fife, or at any rate
as the Firth of Tay. Even with this help he must have had
an anxious time of it. Shakespeare's picture of him, tortured
with apprehension and remorse, may not be so fictitious after
all. For we find him in 1050, if not making a pilgrimage
to Rome in person, at any rate distributing prodigal largesse
among the poor of the imperial city. Great men in those
days did not take such journeys or send such contributions
except to obtain absolution for sins of so scarlet a dye that
they could not be washed away by the ordinary means of
cleansing at their command.

He returned to Scotland only to find himself plunged into
a sea of troubles stormier than he had left. His absence had
made his enemies bolder. Not content with plotting, they
now meditated action. Siward, Earl of Northumberland,
whose sister, or cousin, the murdered Duncan had married,

Y

DEATH OF MACBETH. 39

was in arms to defend the rights of Duncan's young son
Malcolm. His first effort on behalf of his kinsman ended by
his driving Macbeth from the English part of his possessions.
There was a great battle at Scone. If the prophecy of St
Berchan is to be credited, it seems to have been a night

attack : —

** On the middle of Scone it will vomit blood,
The evening of a night in much contention."

The men of Alban loyally supported their king de facto ;
so did his Norwegian allies. There was a tremendous
slaughter. Thorfinn's son was killed, so was Earl Siward's,
as also was his nephew. But whichever side gained the
victory, the campaign ended by Malcolm being placed in
possession of Cumbria.

This, however, was but the beginning of troubles. Next
year Earl Siward died. Malcolm, whose ambition had by
this time been whetted by his previous success, resolved
to make a further effort to regain his father's kingdom. In
1057 he was in a position to carry out his designs. He
invaded Scotland, chased Macbeth across the Mounth, and
finally slew him in battle at Lumphanan in Mar on 15 th
August 1057.

This did not, however, end the struggle. Macbeth's friends
immediately proclained Lulach, son of Gillacomgan, his suc-
cessor. There are various opinions as to his relationship to
Macbeth, but he seems to have been his cousin. Whatever
may have been the connection, he inherited nothing of his
predecessor's character. The poor half-witted creature was as
little fitted to hold the reins of government as Richard Crom-
well. He was slain at Eassie, in Strathbogie, seven months
afterwards; and Malcolm, surnamed Ceannmor or Great
Head — a name which Scotsmen hold in affectionate remem-
brance to this day — succeeded to the crown of Scotia.

40 THE. SUCCESSORS OF MACBETH.

The memory of Macbeth, like a ruthless ghost, still haunts
the district of which he was, without dispute, the hereditary
ruler. The site of the spot where he is said to have met the
three witches is even now the subject of lively local dispute.
A piece of uneven heather-carpeted land, now thickly planted
with Scotch firs, whose red stems and cheerless foliage cast a
sort of eerie gloom over the scene quite in keeping with the
story, known as the Hardmuir, which the traveller by the
Highland Railway cannot fail to notice on his journey
between Brodie and Nairn, is most commonly credited as
Shakespeare's famous "heath." There is a tradition, too,
that Macbeth's castle was at Forres and not at Inverness,
and a green mound adjoining the town, surmounted by a very
modem ruin, where a castle unquestionably once stood, is
pointed out to strangers as its site. Moreover, the surname
of Macbeth still lingers in the locality. If Shakespeare and
Holinshed between them have done nothing else for Moray,
they have, at least, indissolubly localised the legend of Mac-
beth with the district immediately surrounding " Fores."

Macbeth and Lulach the Fatuous were the first and last
kings that Moray gave to Scotia. Things might have been
different if Macbeth's successor had been such a one as him-
self; for Macbeth was a popular monarch, and had a strong
personal following. But the Moravian dynasty was like the
seed sown in stony ground. When Malcolm's sun arose
it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered
away. And with it disappears, for a time at least, the
glory of Moray.

It is important to keep in view the actual position of affairs.

Malcolm succeeded Lulach as Ardri or sovereign ruler of
Scotia — the district to the east and south of the Spey. But
whatever rights he may have claimed over the independent
principality of Moray, which adjoined it, were at first nominal

V

TOSHACHS AND MAORMORS. 41

only. On the other hand, Macbeth, and Lulach after him,
had been, in the words of one of the old chronicles, "kings
of Moravia and Scotia." The title of king, however, was
only applicable to their authority over Scotia. Within Moray
their proper designation was merely that of maormor. The
little that is known of the nature and extent of this office
may be summed up in a few words. From primitive times,
as we have seen, Celtic Scotland had been divided into
tribes, "great tribes," and provinces. The heads of these
various divisions all went by the generic term of ri or regu-
lus. But the correct name for the chief officer of a tribe
was toisech or toshach, and of a "great tribe," maormor.

Maormor means the great maor or mair ; but the meaning
of the word maor in Celtic times is still matter of uncertainty.
We can but guess at it from the knowledge we possess of the
functions attached to the office as we find it later on in the
days of feudalism. For officers bearing the name existed till
comparatively recent times. Sir John Skene, in his work
* De Verborum Significatione,' says a mair is an officer or
executor of summonses, and adds that he is otherwise called
Prceco J^egi's, the king's crier or herald. In the Act 1426,
c. 99, the mair is described as the " king's sergeant," and
entitled to bear a " horn and a wand." All persons possess-
ing rights of jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases, such
as kings, sheriffs, earls, and thanes, had mairs to summon
those amenable to their authority to their tribunals. To the
mair also was committed the duty of carrying out the decrees
of the court ; of arresting and poinding the personal estate
of fugitives and of law-breakers ; of discharging, in fact, the
most of the duties which now fall to a messenger-at-arms
or a sheriff-officer.

The tendency of ancient times was to constitute every
office of emolument or distinction, however insignificant, a

42 THE MAORMORS OF MORAY.

hereditary one. Thus in the Culdee Church there were
hereditary co-arbs or abbots. The office of sheriff was herit-
able. The Lords of the Isles had their hereditary physicians
— the Beatons of Mull. The Macrimmons of Skye were the
hereditary pipers of the Macleods of Dunvegan ; and attached
to the lordship of Brechin there were actually hereditary black-
smiths.

We need not be astonished, therefore, to learn that there
were hereditary maors in connection with the various jurisdic-
tions above mentioned. These officers were termed mairs-of-
fee. Sometimes they were remunerated for their services by
fees, which they were entitled to levy themselves — from which
one gathers that the office was closely akin to that of coroner,
with which it is occasionally found combined. But, as a rule,
each mair-of-fee had in addition certain lands annexed to his
office ; and it was doubtless these which rendered the appoint-
ment so much sought after.

Arguing from these premises, it may be fairly enough
assumed that the Celtic maor was, like the mair in feudal
times, an executive officer of the ri tuath, or toshach; that
the maormor held the same relation towards the ri mortuath ;
and that both these offices came in time to be hereditary, and
carried with them the possession of certain lands assigned to
them in remuneration for their official services.

In a wide area like the province of Moray there were
many tuaths, and therefore many maors. But there seems
to have been only one mortuath and one maormor. And
this office was hereditary in the family to which Macbeth
belonged. We know as a fact of five who preceded him.
The first is Ruadhri, or Rory, the father of Maelbrigd,
whom the Norsemen called Tonn, or Maelbrigd of the
Tooth. Maelbrigd had a son called Malcolm. But the
dignity did not at once descend to him. His brother

V

MALCOLM CEANNMOR'S INVASION OF MORAY. 43

Finleikr was elected. Then came Malcolm's turn. After
him came Gillacomgan, Malcolm's brother. And after him
Finleikr's son Macbeth. The succession is thus in strict
accordance with the rules of tanistry. It is father to son,
son to brother, uncle to nephew, and cousin to cousin.
And after Macbeth's death, when the office descended to
Lulach, it was another instance of cousin to cousin.

It not unfrequently happens that a subordinate office,
especially if it is an executive one, comes in time to super-
sede that from which it derives its authority. Thus the
hereditary stewards of the Scottish kings became in time
the kings themselves, and the mayors of the palace the
kings of the Franks. This seems to have happened in the
case of the maormors also. At the period at which we
have now arrived the maormor of Moray was not only its
hereditary prince, but an independent one as well.

No period of Moravian history is more obscure than that
which followed the accession of Malcolm Ceannmor. The
chaos is so complete that any connected narrative is almost
impossible. On Lulach's death Thorfinn, who had all along
been Malcolm's ally — one might almost say his partner —
seems to have made an attempt to continue his feeling of
opposition to Ceannmor. But Thorfinn was slain in battle,
possibly in the great fight at Lumphanan in 1057, and thus
the greatest obstacle to Malcolm's intended pacification, or
— to give it its proper name — conquest of the district, was
removed. In 1078 a further step was taken in the same
direction. Malcolm invaded Moray with a great army, de-
feated Lulach's son Maelsnectan, who was then its maormor,
and "won his mother and all his best men, together with
all his treasure and cattle." Maelsnectan himself escaped
with difficulty, and in 1085 — seven years after — he died in
the old stronghold of Deabhra in Lochaber which had been

44 THE SAXONISATION OF SCOTLAND.

his father's residence, without making any attempt to regain
his kingdom. This was Malcolm's last effort to bring the
men of Moray under his subjection. He was slain in battle
in 1092, after a glorious but uneasy reign of thirty -five
years.

During the successive reigns of his brothers, Donald Bane
and Eadgar, we hear of no further attempts to bring Moravia
under Scottic rule. The district continued to be governed
by its native rulers. To Maelsnectan had succeeded Angus,
Lulach's grandson by his daughter, who was killed in battle
in the beginning of the reign of David I. His death brought
the direct line of Moray maormors to an end.

But aspirants to the dignity still remained. Two families
— the one called MacHeth, whose founder, Wymund, claimed
to be the son of Angus, the other known as that of Mac-
William — disputed for the pre-eminence. And the struggle
continued till the pretensions of both were extinguished by
King Alexander 11. in 1222.

King Eadgar, Malcolm Ceannmor's son, died in 1107.
By his testament he divided his kingdom between his two
brothers, Alexander and David. To the one he bequeathed
the districts north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, to the
other those on the south of them. Alexander's share thus
included the whole of the kingdom of Scotia, with the single
exception of the Lothians.

Alexander I. died in 11 24, and at his death his brother
David succeeded to his possessions. David therefore is the
first king of all Scotland. In his reign the processes, first
of Saxonisation, and secondly of feudalisation, which had
been going on uninterruptedly from the time of Malcolm
Ceannmor, assumed concrete form. The old Celtic polity
was obliterated, civilisation settled down into modern shape,
and the progress of the nation was directed into the channels

V

THANES. 45

in which it continued to run for the whole remaining period
of its history.

We shall have occasion in the sequel to consider this
subject in fuller detail. Meantime it may be sufficient to
note the more important changes which had ensued in the
district with which we are concerned before the conclusion
of the reign of David I. in 1153.

These%consisted of the establishment of burghs, the erection
of a diocese of Moray, the conversion of the toshach into
the thane, and of the maormor into the earl. As the his-
tory of the first two of these will be fully narrated in the
chapter specially devoted to them, we may confine ourselves
at present to the last two.

Malcolm Ceannmor's marriage in 1069 to Margaret, sister
of Eadgar the Atheling of England, had been the means of
introducing into Scotland a flood of Saxon notions, Saxon
offices, and Saxon titles.

Amongst these were the office and title of thane. The
gesith or thegn was, in early England, one whom the king
selected as his comrade. He was his companion in arms
and his companion at the board. And as he lived by his
bounty, he was expected in return to do his master loyal
service with every faculty of mind and body which he
possessed.

It was natural that on the members of such a corps (THite
the king should bestow all the good things at his disposal.
Very soon they had absorbed all the more confidential offices
connected with his Court and person. These offices could
not be maintained without expense, and grants of public
lands soon followed to remunerate them for their services.
From this to their establishment as an order of local nobility
was but a step ; from this to their absorption of the highest
offices of State was but another. As the system was based

46 THANAGES.

on military service, it contained the germ of what afterwards
became feudalism. But in England the process of develop-
ment from Saxon thanedom to Norman feudalism was a
gradual one. The one grew into the other naturally and
insensibly. The Conquest only put the copestone on a
fabric the foundation of which had been laid centuries
before.

In Scotland it was different. The introduction of thane-
dom was no natural growth of the soil ; it was an exotic forced
upon it from without. Whether it was Malcolm Ceannmor
himself, or whether it was one of his successors, who intro-
duced it, is uncertain. But at any rate it came into existence
somewhere about this time.

The Scottish thane had little in common with the English
thegn except his name. It was hardly to be expected that the
king would choose his companions from the rude chiefs of
semi-barbarous tribes. But any system which would attach
these brave but troublesome potentates more firmly to his
person and dignity was a distinct advance in civilisation.
And this was effected by constituting the toshachs into a
body of local nobility, by intrusting to them the administra-
tion or stewardship of the Crown lands, and by recompensing
them for their services by grants of territory. And on this
footing the name and the office continued till after the death
of Alexander III., when the name was given up ; and by con-
verting the thanages into baronages, the dignity was placed
on a standard more in consonance with the feudalism of
the day. In the province of Moray there were thanages of
Dingwall, Moyness, Dyke and Brodie, Cawdor, Moravia or
Moray, Kilmalemnok, and Cromdale. Whether these exhaust
their number or not it is now impossible to say.

The principle of comradeship, which, as we have seen,
underlay English thegndom, was not, however, lost sight of

\

THE FIRST EARLS. 47

in the new polity, which had come in with Malcolm Great
Head.i

In England the thegns had supplanted the old Eorls,
They were destined to be themselves supplanted by the new
earls which the Conquest and the establishment of feudalism
introduced into England.

In the time of Malcolm Ceannmor feudalism, though it had
begun to exist in England, had not reached Scotland, nor,
considering his relations with Eadgar the Atheling, was it
likely that it would do so for some time to come. It is
no strained assumption, therefore, that the earls whom Malcolm
Ceannmor created — if indeed he did create them — were in-
tended to resemble the old Saxon thegns^ whose office was
based on the principle of sodality, rather than the Norman
earls, whose distinction was founded on the possession of
lands and the military service attached thereto. The Latin
equivalent of earl is comes or companion, which shows that
the sentiment of comradeship underlay both dignities. In
England, however, sentiment had already given place to ne-
cessity; and the existence of the earl was grounded rather
on his ability to support a certain number of men-at-arms
who would fight the king's battles, than on the feeling of
personal friendship with which his sovereign regarded, or
professed to regard, him.

In Scotland it was otherwise. The first earls had no terri-
torial connection. The title was a personal one only. Up
to the time of David I. the earls appended " comes " to their
names ; and that was all. They were not earls of this place
or that, but the comites^ the comrades, of their king.

^ It is hardly necessary to remark that Malcolm's title of Ceannmor
(Great Head) was due to the wisdom, courage, and success which had
raised him to be the great head of his people, and had nothing to do
with any physical peculiarity.

48 " THE SEVEN EARLS OF SCOTLAND."

In selecting the persons upon whom he chose to confer the
distinction of being styled his companions, it was only natural
that the king should not go outside the class who held the
highest rank within their respective districts. In northern
Scotland there was none so exalted as the maormors — the
old independent native princes — or who exercised a greater
influence over them. Hence we find that " benorth the
Firths " the maormors were the first earls of Scotland.

It is impossible to assign a definite date to the creation
of the dignity. But there are the strongest grounds for
believing that thanedoms and earldoms came into existence
about the same time, and as parts of the same system. The
two offices seem to have differed only in degree. Much the
same duties were assigned to each. The earl was bound to
protect the interests of the Crown as well as of the thane,
— the only distinction being in the extent of the area of
their respective jurisdictions. Neither of the offices was
originally based on either a hereditary or a territorial founda-
tion, although later they became both.

The first earls were certainly the maormors of the seven
provinces of Scotland, of which Moray was one. But in the
time of Alexander I. we find traces of a mysterious body
which goes by the name of the Seven Earls of Scotland, and
seems to have exercised functions similar to the Witenagemot
of the Saxon monarchs of England. The names of the
members of this enigmatical corporation — for such it ap-
pears to have been— cannot be identified in all cases with
the descendants of the native rulers of the old seven pro-
vinces, for there is no representative of the maormors of
Moray amongst them, and there are others who belong
to districts which never achieved the importance of inde-
pendent maormorships. While, therefore, it is impossible
to assert that they were in any sense representatives of

THE PROVINCE IN LATER TIMES. 49

these old territorial divisions, it is equally impossible to
resist the conviction that their number was originally fixed
with reference to these ancient jurisdictions.

The partition of the kingdom into counties {vice-comitatus)
or shires, with the sheriff or shire-reeve as their titular head
— a division which took place somewhere about the time of
David I. — wiped out the old provincial delimitations of the
country.

From this time, therefore, the province of Moray as an
actual historical entity ceases to exist. The name, however,
survived, and is not yet fallen totally into disuse ; only, hence-
forward the limits of the so-called province of Moray were
those attributed to it by its historian Lachlan Shaw. It in-
cluded " all the plain country by the seaside, from the mouth
of the river Spey to the river of Farar or Beaulie, at the head
of the Frith ; and all the valleys, glens, and straths situated
betwixt the Grampian Mountains south of Badenoch and the
Frith of Moray, and which discharges rivers into that Frith."

D

II.

THE BISHOPRIC OF MORAY

II.

THE BISHOPRIC OF MORAY.

THE BISHOPRIC OF MORAY FOUNDED BY ALEXANDER I. — THE CHURCHES
OF BIRNIE, KINNEDDAR, AND SPYNIE THE CATHEDRALS OF THE
BISHOPS OF MORAY — ELGIN CATHEDRAL — THE CONSTITUTION OF
THE CHAPTER — THE EARLY BISHOPS OF MORAY — THE RAID OF THE
WOLF OF BADENOCH — ^THE CASTLE OF SPYNIE — THE POWER OF THE
BISHOPS — BISHOP FORMAN — THE RESTORED CATHEDRAL — THE RANK
AND DUTIES AND EMOLUMENTS OF THE DIGNITARIES — PATRICK
HEPBURN, THE LAST ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF MORAY — ^THE
PROTESTANT BISHOPS : GUTHRIE, MACKENZIE, AITKEN, FALCONAR —
THE CATHEDRAL ALLOWED TO FALL INTO DECAY— JOHN SHANKS,
THE COBBLER — THE PRIORY OF PLUSCARDEN — THE ABBEY OF
KINLOSS.

The death of Eadgar, son of Malcolm Ceannmor, in 1107,
had been followed, as we have seen, by the partition of his
kingdom between his two brothers, Alexander and David.

Alexander was the younger of the two ; yet to him, prob-
ably on account of his more energetic temperament, Eadgar
had bequeathed the more important portion of his principality
— the whole of the kingdom of Scotia, — leaving to David
only the region south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, with
the title of Earl of Cumbria.

Alexander's father had been a soldier; his mother had
been a saint. He himself combined the characters of both.
Whilst to his enemies he was "terrible beyond measure,"

54 FOUNDATION OF THE BISHOPRIC.

"fierce and implacable," "a right high-hearted and right
manly king," towards the Church he was humble and sub-
missive, "most zealous in building churches, in searching
for relics of saints, in providing and arranging priestly vest-
ments and sacred books ; most open-handed, even beyond his
means, to all new-comers, and so devoted to the poor that he
seemed to delight in nothing so much as in supporting, wash-
ing, nourishing, and clothing them."

One of his first cares on succeeding to the Crown was to
provide for the spiritual wants of his kingdom. There was
at this time but one bishopric within its borders — that of
St Andrews. It was a very ancient foundation, dating from
the beginning of the tenth century ; and being the only one,
its bishops were accustomed to call themselves Episcopi
Scottorum, But one bishopric was clearly not sufficient for
so large a country as Scotland beyond the Firths. Alex-
ander accordingly determined to create two others. The
one was the bishopric of Dunkeld; the other was that of
Moray. The first in order of foundation was the bishopric
of Moray.

If any definition of its original limits ever existed, it pro-
bably perished, like so many other old writs and titles, in
the great fire of 1390. It is unlikely, however, that its
boundaries ever extended farther north than the Moray Firth.
For in 11 28 we find David I. — Alexander's brother and suc-
cessor — establishing a bishopric of Ross, with the Firth for its
eastern boundary.

Beyond the facts that it was founded in 11 07 — the first
year of Alexander's reign — and that its first bishop was a
monk of the name of Gregorius, we know almost nothing
about it.

In the Laigh of Moray — the low-lying district between the
mouths of the Spey and the Findhorn — there were in those

V

THE CHURCH OF BIRNIE. 55

days three churches of more than ordinary importance, all
lying close together, and none of them more than five miles
from the town of Elgin. These were Birnie, Kinneddar, and
Spynie. Each of these churches was in turn the cathedral of
the early bishops of Moray.

The church of Birnie, when it became the cathedral of the
newly-erected diocese, was probably, like all the early Celtic
churches, a building of wood and wattle. But the present
quaint old parish church, which succeeded it, is undoubtedly
a very ancient structure, and is possibly, after that of Mort-
lach in Banffshire, the oldest place of worship still in use in
the north of Scotland. The date of its erection was certainly
not later than 1150, and possibly not much earlier. Its walls
are built with square ashlar-work of freestone. It has a nave
and a chancel, connected by a handsome Norman arch. And
in it is still preserved an old square-sided Celtic altar-bell of
malleable iron, riveted and covered with bronze, known as
the Ronnell bell, similar in character to that of St Fillan's at
Glendrochat, and of many others found in different parts of
Scotland. The peculiar sanctity of this venerable church is
recognised in the old local saying that to be thrice prayed for
in the kirk of Birnie will " either mend ye or end ye.'*
According to Lachlan Shaw, the historian of Moray, the
word Birnie is derived from brenoth, a brae or high land,
which very accurately describes the nature of the ground on
which the church stands. Birnie seems to have been the
cathedral of the diocese during ihe rule of its first four
bishops — that is, up to the death of the English bishop
Simon de Toeny in 11 84. After that, for a short time,
possibly for not much more than a quarter of a century,
Kinneddar — a name which, according to Shaw, is derived
from Cean Edir, "the point between the sea (the Moray
Firth) and the loch (the Loch of Spynie) " — takes its place.

S

56 THE CHURCH OF KINNEDDAR — ST GERVADIUS.

The distance between Bimie and Kinneddar is about eight
miles from south to north as the crow flies. Why the old
bishops removed their see from the sunny slopes of the
Mannoch Hill to the bleak shores of the Moray Firth is a
matter of which we must be content to remain in ignorance.
But if sanctity of locality had anything to do with it, there was
much to justify the change. For Kinneddar, for at least two
centuries before this, had been regarded as one of the most
holy places within the diocese.

Hither, somewhere about 934, had come a certain Irish
Culdee or Deicola (a servant of God), burning with zeal to
preach the Gospel to the benighted dwellers of these parts.
His name was Gervadius or Gemadius. Like all of his order
at first, he was an ascetic and an anchorite. Selecting one of
the many caves which the winds and the waves had scooped
out of the soft freestone of the Lossiemouth rocks, he took up
his residence there — his bed the damp rock, his food the
bread of charity, his drink the water of a spring which trickled
down above his solitary cell. But his work was blessed. He
managed to associate with himself " many other fellow-soldiers
in Christ," and at last, under angelic direction, he established
an oratory at "Kenedor." And here, after his death, the
church of Kinneddar was erected. In 1842 the founda-
tions of this church were still said to be visible in the
centre of what is now the kirkyard of the parish church of
Drainie.

More fortunate than others of his kind, his memory is
not yet forgotten in the district. A picturesque tradition
relates how on stormy nights he used to pace the shore be-
neath his cell, lantern in hand, to warn passing vessels off
the rocks ; and, with admirable propriety, the corporate seal
of the newly-constituted burgh of Lossiemouth and Bran-

BISHOP BRICIUS. 57

derburgh has embodied the story in its armorial bearings.
But the very promontory on whose "braeside" he found a
home — it is named Holyman Head in ancient charters — has
been nearly all quarried away in recent years; and with it
" St Geraldine's " home and fountain. Up to 1870 the former,
indeed, still existed, and was secluded from the intrusion of
the profane by a " Gothic door and window." But a drunken
ship -captain broke them down, and the quarryman's pick
soon after completed the destruction of the sanctuary. The
episcopal residence of the bishops of those times — the
" Castle " of Kinneddar, as it came in after-years to be called
— was only a few yards distant from the church. Nothing
remains of it, however, but a small and shapeless block of
ancient masonry, from which no idea of its size or its archi-
tecture can be obtained.

Sometime between 1203 and 1222, during the rule of
Bishop Bricius, the sixth bishop, the episcopal seat was re-
moved to Spynie. Bricius is the first of the bishops of
Moray who is anything more to us than a name. A scion
of the house of Douglas, and closely connected with the
powerful family of De Moravia, he had been Prior of Lesma-
hago, and had travelled both in England and on the Con-
tinent. An enlightened and energetic prelate, Bricius may
be said to have laid the foundations of the glorious future
of the bishopric. To him is attributed the creation of a
chapter of eight secular canons, and the establishment of a
constitution for the cathedral, based upon, if it was not a
literal transcript of, that of Lincoln.^ His benefactions to

^ The * Registrum Moraviense ' contains no special constitution for the
Cathedral of Elgin, but only a copy of the ** Constitutiones Lyncolnienses."
It is plain from the future history of the cathedral that these were adop-
ted in toto as its rule of government.

58 THE LOCH OF SPYNIE.

the church were large; his benefactions to his own family
were greater. The one blot upon his reputation is his
character for nepotism.

Spynie was certainly a pleasanter place of residence than
bleak Kinneddar. It was about three miles farther inland,
and had a more genial climate. The little knoll on which
two hundred years later was erected the magnificent baronial
residence of the bishops of Moray, and under the lee of
which Bishop Bricius proceeded to build his cathedral,
stands on the shores of what was at the time the finest
lacustrine sheet of water in the kingdom.

The old loch of Spynie, before the costly drainage oper-
ations of the early part of this century converted it into an
almost stagnant pool of some 120 acres, was a wide expanse
of water stretching from the Moray Firth up to within two
and a half miles of Elgin, varying at different periods of its
history from four to six miles in length, and covering an
area of more than 2000 acres. Its convenience was only
equalled by its beauty. Ships from all parts of the world
could land their goods right beneath the castle walls. Its
waters were full of salmon, sea-trout, and pike. Its surface
was covered with islets which went by the old Norse name
of holms — Long Holm and Lint Holm and the Picture
Holm, Tappie's Holm and Skene's Holm, and many another.
Majestic swans sunned their gleaming breasts on its waters,
or shed their snowy plumage on its emerald eyots, or fed
upon the "swan-girss" that grew by its shores. Bulrushes
edged its banks, bitterns boomed from the surrounding
swamps, wild geese and ducks, herons and coots, sought
out its quiet pools, otters haunted its shores ; and in spring
the black-headed gull {Larus ridibundus) laid its green eggs,
delicate as those of plovers, amongst the reeds and rushes

THE CHURCH OF SPYNIE. 59

that grew in graceful luxuriance on its sides. The high
ground that surrounded it became covered with prosperous
farms basking under the genial protection of their ecclesi-
astical landlords. A thriving village uprose beneath the
castle walls. Ferry-boats with brown sails plied between it
and Covesea. A foot-walk known by the name of the Long
Steps — formed by placing large blocks of, stone in the water
and covering them with a flat pavement — bridged its upper
end. The once solitary loch became the scene of much busy
traffic and wellbeing. All this is changed now. A dreary
marsh, bisected by the county road from Elgin to I^ossie-
mouth, has replaced a scene of almost ideal beauty. Yet to
this day there are those who cling to the hope that the
avenging sea will break down the barriers which now exclude
it, and the prophecy of William Hay, a local poet, will be
fulfilled :—

" The Loch o* Spynie's comin' back, an* spite o' sinfu' men,
Bullsegs will wave their nigger pows, and geds will bite again ! "

No traces now remain of the cathedral church of Spynie ;
but within the last forty years an old Gothic gable — plainly
the fragment of an ecclesiastical edifice — might have been seen
standing in mournful isolation on a spot adjoining the present
site of the kirkyard, which lies on the southern slope of the
hill. Whether this belonged to Bishop Bricius's cathedral, or
whether it was a fragment of a post-Reformation structure,
has never yet been determined.

It appears that Bricius was hardly established in his epis-
copal seat before he was desirous of having it altered. We
find him at Rome in 1215, attending the Lateran Council
there, and pestering Pope Honorius III. to consent to its
transfer to Elgin. Spynie, he said, was a solitary place; it

6o ESTABLISHMENT OF ELGIN CATHEDRAL.

was not safe ; the clergy had great difficulty in procuring the
necessaries of life ; divine worship was much obstructed. A
much better situation would be the Church of the Holy
Trinity near Elgin, a building of whose existence we now
learn for the first time. Convinced by the bishop's repre-
sentations, the Pope wrote to King Alexander II. recommend-
ing him to accede to the bishop's request, provided he was
himself satisfied with its propriety. But it was not till two
years after Bishop Bricius's death that the transfer actually
took place.

It was during the incumbency of his successor and kinsman,
Andrew de Moravia (1222-1242), that the Cathedral of Moray
was finally established on the banks of the Lossie. This
bishop had all his predecessor's ecclesiastical ambition, with
a much greater share of wisdom and prudence. He is sup-
posed to have been the son of Hugh de Moravia, Lord of
Duffus, and before his elevation to the bishopric he had
been parson of Duffus. The site of the present cathedral
was at that time occupied by a church dedicated to the
Holy Trinity. Though not within the boundaries of the
burgh, but merely ^^juxta Elgyn,*\ it was the only place of
worship available to the burghers. It was a handsome and
spacious building, with transepts, choir, and nave. It had
only lately been erected; for the gable of it, which still re-
mains, shows that it may have been built any time between
1 1 80 and the beginning of the thirteenth century. In ad-
dition to this it was situated on a piece of low-lying, shel-
tered, and very fertile land, close to the river Lossie, and
in convenient proximity to the town of Elgin. The selection
of this church as the cathedral seat of what was even then
one of the greater dioceses in Scotland, was thus abundantly
justified.

ITS DEDICATION. 6 1

Hither accordingly, on a brilliant summer's day in July
1224, repaired a stately procession of bishops, priests, and
regulars, with sacred banners and solemn chants. Entering
the holy edifice, High Mass was sung; the Papal Bull was
read ; the impressive ceremony of consecration was performed
by Gilbert, Bishop of Caithness; and when the imposing
pageant was over, the Church of the Holy Trinity had been
transformed into the Cathedral of Elgin. The sacred lamp
had been lighted which was to blaze forth to after-ages as the
" Lantern of the North."

Bishop Andrew immediately began the secular alterations
necessitated by the church's augmented dignity. Very little,
if any of it, was demolished, but the whole edifice was doubt-
less considerably enlarged. The transepts of the old building
were retained, and the southern one is standing to this day.
If the choir and nave were proportionate to these, it must
have been a structure of ample size and of very considerable
beauty. There is a tradition that Andrew de Moravia lived
to see the completion of his work. One would fain hope
it is true. Yet when Master Gregory the mason, and Master
Richard the glazier, and many another master of his craft,
had lavished all the gifts of his art upon its adornment,
much remained for after-ages to do.

Bishop Bricius had done his best to establish the temporal
power of the bishopric upon a solid foundation. Andrew de
Moravia continued his predecessor's work. Still further to
increase its dignity, he proceeded to add thirteen new canons
to the eight — or ten, the number is not certain — endowed by
Bishop Bricius, making twenty-three in all ; and of this number
the chapter consisted for more than two hundred and fifty years,
until it was increased to twenty-four during the incumbency of
William de Spynie in the end of the fourteenth century.

62 THE CHAPTER.

Dealing with the chapter as finally constituted, we find the
canons divided into two classes. Eight of them, in addition
to their prebends, had offices of dignity in connection with the
cathedral. The remaining sixteen had none.

The eight dignified clergy who resided permanently within
the college, their duties as parish ministers being discharged
by vicars, were : —

1. The bishop. As bishop he had no spiritual pre-emi-

nence in the chapter. His place there, as well as
his stall in the choir, was assigned to him solely in
virtue of his prebendary of the lands of Ferness,
Lethen, Dunlichty, and Tullydivie (in Edinkillie).

2. The dean, whose church and prebend was the church

of Auldearn.

3. The precentor, who had for prebend the churches of

Lhanbride and Alves.

4. The treasurer, with the churches and parishes of ELin-

neddar and Eskyl for his prebend.

5. The chancellor, who was provided for by the churches

and parishes of Strathavon, and Urquhart in Inverness-
shire.

6. The archdeacon, whose endowment was the churches

and parishes of Forres and Logie.

7. The sub-dean, who had the altarage of Eryn (Auldearn),

the chapelry of Invernairn (Nairn), and the church
and parish of Dolles, now Dallas.

8. The succentor, who had the churches and parishes of

Rafford and Fothervaye.
The prebends of the remaining canons, who were in resi-
dence only for a certain time each year, were : —

9. The churches and parishes of Spynie and Kintrae. The

last was one of the most ancient foundations in the

\

THE CHAPTER CONTINUED. 63

diocese. An " old church " is mentioned as existing
there in the days of Bishop Bricius.

1 o. The churches of Ruthven ^ and Dipple.

11. The church and parish of Rhynie^ (now in Aberdeen-

shire).

1 2. The churches of Dumbennan and Kynnore.

1 3. The church and parish of Innerkethny.

1 4. The churches of Elchies and Botarie.

15. The parsonage tithes of the parish of Moy.

1 6. The churches and parishes of Cromdale and Advie.

17. The churches of Kingussie and Insh.

1 8. The churches of Croy and Dunlichtie.

19. A hundred shillings of the altarage of St Giles of Elgin,

to which was afterwards added the vicarage of the
same.

20. The parsonage tithes of Petty and Brackla in Nairn-

shire.

21. The tithes of Boharm and Aberlour in Banffshire.

22. The church and parish of Duffus.

2 3. The church and parish of Duthil.

24. The chapelry of the Blessed Virgin in the Castle of
Duffus, erected into the prebendary of Unthank in

1542.

Such was the chapter, and such were the sources from
which its benefices were derived.

We shall have to consider the value of these benefices later
on, when the bishopric had reached its utmost height of wealth

^ The old parishes of Ruthven and Botarie (or Pittarie), which formerly
belonged to Banffshire, have changed both their name and their county.
They now form the united parish of Cairnie, in the north-west of Aberdeen-
shire.

^ The parishes of Essie (Banffshire) and Rhynie (Aberdeenshire) were
united at a very early period.

64 EXTENT OF THE DIOCESE.

and magnificence. Meantime it is sufficient to say that the
splendid basis on which Bishop Andrew established his college
was largely due to his own personal exertions and to the mun-
ificent endowments of his relatives and friends.

From the list we have given of the prebends we obtain a
fairly accurate idea of the extent of the diocese as it was in the
days of Andrew de Moravia. It will be observed that they
were situated in the modern counties of Aberdeen, Banff,
Elgin, Nairn, and Inverness. With trifling variations, incident
to the subsequent establishment of conterminous bishoprics,
its boundaries remained the same to the end of the chapter.
" It seems," says Professor Cosmo Innes, " to have extended
along the coast from the river Forn,^ its boundary with Ross,
to the Spey. Bounded by Loch Aber on the south, it included
the country surrounding Loch Ness, the valleys of the Nairn
and Findhorn, Badenoch and Strathspey, the valleys of the
Avon and Fiddich, and all the upper part of Banffshire, com-
prehending Strathyla and Strathbog in Aberdeenshire, but not
extending into the district of Einzie and Boyne." In short,
its limits were almost identical with those which Lachlan Shaw
assigns to the province, in the later and more restricted signifi-
cation of the word, and slightly more contracted than those of
the earldom when it was granted by Robert the Bruce to his
"dear nephew" Thomas Randolph nearly a hundred years
later.

What must have rendered the work of Andrew de Moravia
easier was the favour in which he stood with his king. Alex-
ander II. not only gave the land on which it was erected, but
afterwards endowed the cathedral with a chaplaincy for prayer
for his own soul and those of his predecessors, especially for

^ The water of Forn or Forne was the old name of the whole of the
streams now known as the Farrar, Glass, Beauly, Affaric, Deabhaibh, and
Cannich, from Caimcross or Carnchoite to the sea.

BISHOP ANDREW DE MORAVIA. 6$

that of King Duncan his ancestor. And, sometimes alone,
sometimes with his queen, Marie de Couci, he visited Elgin
at various times both before and after the death of the bishop.
He was there in 1221, and again in 1228. He spent his
Yule there in 1231, and we find him back in 1244. To these
repeated visits Moray, and especially the country around
Elgin, owes much. The Priory of Pluscarden, the Maisondieu
of Elgin, the Greyfriars' and Blackfriars' monasteries in the
same town, were all founded during his reign. Religion — and
in those days religion was equivalent to civilisation — never had
a truer friend than this pious, well-meaning, and often much
harassed king. As for Bishop Andrew, he is a prelate of
whom we would gladly have known more. There are few
names more illustrious in the history of the diocese. He
died in 1242. Where he was buried is not even recorded.

The next three bishops — Simon (1242-1251); Ralph, a
canon of Lincoln, who seems to have died before consecration ;
and Archibald (i 253-1 298) — have left no traces of their in-
cumbencies beyond the fact that the last seems to have se-
lected the Castle of Kinneddar as his usual place of residence.

During this period the cathedral had its own share of
vicissitudes. In 1244 it received some considerable injury —
no one knows exactly what; in 1270 it was seriously damaged
by fire. Each of these events seems to have been seized upon
as a fitting opportunity to add to its beauty and its convenience.
After some considerable fluctuation of opinion, the most com-
petent judges are now prepared to admit that to the first of
these dates may be referable the choir central aisle, nave,
outer south aisle, and the two west towers ; and to the latter
the choir aisles, south-west porch, perhaps the two buttresses
north and south at the east part of the choir, and the chapter-
house.

The next bishop, David, was also a member of the house

£

^ BISHOP DAVID DE MORAVIA.

%

of De Moravia. He was consecrated in 1299 and died in

1325. He lived in stirring times. The country was in the

throes of the War of Independence. Robert the Bruce was

striving thew and sinew to rescue his native country from

English supremacy. Every man was a politician in those

days. David of Moray was a strong partisan of the patriotic

party. Hailes tells us that he preached to the people of his

diocese that it was no less meritorious to rise in arms to

support the cause of Bruce than to engage in a crusade

against the Saracens. If a churchman has a right to meddle

in politics at all, these remarkable utterances of a minister of

the Gospel of peace need no apology. David has another

claim to the grateful recognition of his countrymen. He is

said to have been the founder of the Scots College at Paris.

Little as we know about him, that little seems to impress his

personality upon our imagination. He stands out amongst

all the vague, visionary, and venerable figures of the earlier

holders of the see, a strong, commanding, and chivalrous

individuality, like all the other recorded members of his

race.

The next of the bishops of Moray whose career deserves
attention is Alexander Bur or Barr, who held the see from
1362 to 1397. During his incumbency occurred the most
lawless raid to which the Cathedral and its precincts were
ever exposed.

Robert II., the first of the Stewart kings, died in 1390.
By his first wife, the daughter of Sir Adam Mure of Rowallan,
he left four sons and six daughters. The eldest of these sons
succeeded him on the throne as King Robert III. The
second, Alexander, was invested with the lordships of Badenoch
and Buchan, which had been part of the inheritance of the
Comyns, and in addition to these he held the earldom of
Ross in right of his wife, Euphemia, the widow of Walter

THE "WOLF OF BADENOCH." 6j

de Leslie. He was also his brother Robert's seneschal or lieu-
tenant for the whole of the kingdom north of the Forth.

The name by which he is best known in history — the Wolf
of Badenoch — describes him to the life. Cruel, vindictive,
and despotic, — a Celtic Attila, as he has been called, — he
resembles one of those half-human, half-bestial barons de-
picted in Erckmann-Chatrian's romances, who were the terror
of France and Germany during the middle ages.

By his wife, the countess, he had no children, and he had
accordingly left her to live with another woman, — a certain
Mariot, daughter of Athyn, — who had already borne him
several sons. The outraged countess applied to the bishops
of Moray and Ross for redress, and in 1389 they, as con-
sistorial judges, pronounced at Inverness decree of adherence
in her favour against her husband, ordering him at the same
time to find security for his future good behaviour towards
her in the sum of ;^2oo. This was more than the Wolf could
brook, and he determined upon revenge. He seized upon
some lands belonging to the Bishop of Moray in Badenoch.
The bishop promptly excommunicated him. All the savagery
in his nature was now roused. Sending out the fiery cross,
he gathered his fierce caterans together, — " wyld wykkyd
Hieland-men " Wyntoun calls them, — and swooping down from
his stronghold of Lochindorb, he burned the town of Forres,
the choir of the church of St Lawrence there, and the manse
of the archdeacon in the neighbourhood of the town. Intox-
icated with success, he resolved on still further reprisals.
Tramping over the twelve miles of heather and holt which
in those days separated the towns of Forres and Elgin, he
arrived in the cathedral city one morning early in June 1390.
It was the day of the feast of the Blessed Abbot Botulph.
The honest burgesses were awakened from their peaceful
slumbers by the noise of crackling timbers and blinding clouds

68 BURNING OF ELGIN CATHEDRAL.

of smoke. The whole town was in flames. Meantime the ruth-
less incendiaries were at work on the public buildings. The
parish church of St Giles was blazing, the hospital of Maison-
dieu was in a similar condition ; so were the eighteen noble
and beautiful manses of the canons situated within the precinct
walls, " and, what is most grievously to be lamented, the noble
and highly adorned church of Moray, the delight of the
country and ornament of the kingdom, with all the books,
charters, and other goods of the country placed therein."

For such an outrage no punishment would have been too
great. We may well believe that if the Church had had the
power to inflict a sentence upon the miscreants commen-
surate with the enormity of their offence, it would not have
failed in its duty. But the Wolf was already an excommuni-
cated person. No human authority, not even that of the
Pope himself, could do him further harm.

Alexander cared as little for excommunication as he did
for its symbol — the blowing out of a candle. His vengeance
accomplished, he rode off chuckling and uninjured.

The popular tradition, that before his death, which occurred
on the 2oth February 1394,^ he repented of his crimes, and
actually did penance for his sacrilege, rests on no higher
authority than that of the clerical scribe who wrote the
*Qu8edam Memorabilia' — an unauthoritative chronicle of
events in Scottish and English history between the years
1390 and 1402 — appended to the Chartulary of Moray.
None of the old historians mention it. Fordun says nothing

^ Considerable doubt has recently been thrown upon the assertion that
the tomb in Dunkeld Cathedral so long believed to be his is really that
of the Wolf of Badenoch, in a paper by Mr Robert Brydall on " The
Monumental Effigies of Scotland," in the * Proceedings of the Antiquarian
Society,' May 13, 1895, vol. xxix. pp. 377, 378. Mr Brydall maintains
that the tomb is that of another Dominus de Badenoch, who died on 26th
July, year illegible, and that the armour is that of the fifteenth century.

^.

BISHOP bur's petition TO KING ROBERT III. 69

about it ; neither does Wyntoun ; neither does the ' Liber
Pluscardensis.' It is hardly likely that an event which would
have so imminently vindicated the authority of Mother Church
should have been omitted by such devoted churchmen. Until
further confirmation is obtained we must set down the story
as one of those pious fibs which, unfortunately, are not un-
common in the writings of ecclesiastical chroniclers, whose
zeal for the honour of their subject was often in inverse pro-
portion to their own veracity.

This wanton outrage, besides ruining the bishop, nearly
broke his heart. The petition which he shortly after (2d
December 1390) addressed to King Robert III. to aid him
in the rebuilding of his cathedral is pitiful in its pathos. It
was the supplication of a man, he said, so weakened by age,
so impoverished by depredations and robberies, so altogether
broken down, that he could scarcely keep himself and his few
poor servants in life. Yet aged and debilitated as he was,
he ventured to appeal to the king to assist him in the re-
erection of his church (^^ pro retnedio re-edificationis ecdesicB
mecB^^). It had been the special ornament of the country,
the glory of the kingdom, the delight of strangers, the praise
of visitors. Its fame was known and lauded even in foreign
lands on account of tfie multitude of its servitors and its most
fair adornments ; and in it, he thought he might say, God was
duly worshipped. He would not refer to its lofty belfries, to
the rich magnificence of its internal decorations, to its wealth
of jewels and relics, to the zeal with which he and his canons
had laboured in its behalf. All he would do would be to
commit the matter into the hands of his most religious and
gracious prince, feeling confident that, for the sake of justice,
for the proper service of God, and for the advancement of the
holy and orthodox faith, the king would grant his most humble
and earnest prayer.

70 RAID OF ALEXANDER.

Something came of it, we cannot doubt; for twelve years
later — William of Spynie (i 397-1406) being then the bishop
— we find the chanonry again in a state worth despoiling.

"These were the days," says the 'Registrum Moraviense,'
"when there was no law in Scotland; when the strong op-
pressed the weak, and the whole kingdom was the prey of
freebooters (totum regnum fuit unum latrocinium) ; homi-
cides, depredations, fires, and other misdeeds remained un-
punished, and Justice, deported beyond the limits of the
kingdom, shrieked aloud."

Translated into sober prose, the meaning of this impas-
sioned burst of rhetoric is, that in 1402 another band of
Highland robbers had dared to lay their impious hands on
the. patrimony of the Lord's anointed.

The leader of this new troop of marauders was Alexander,
third son of Donald, Lord of the Isles. In July he made a
foray upon the chanonry, carried off everything he could lay
his hands on, and made off with his booty, after burning down
the greater part of the town of Elgin. In October he re-
turned with a great company, meaning to make a clean sweep
of everything portable which he had been unable to remove
on the former occasion. This time the bishop and his canons
were ready for him. Meeting him at the precinct gate, they
pointed out to him that the chanonry had enjoyed the priv-
ileges of a sanctuary ever since its foundation ; that its viola-
tion would entail upon him and his followers the pains of
excommunication ; and, in short, so worked upon the feelings
of " Alexander and his captains " that, " their hearts returning
to them," they " confessed their fault, and earnestly begged
to be absolved." Then the bishop, clothing himself in full
pontificals, proceeded to the great west doorway of the cath-
edral, and first there, and afterwards in front of the great
altar, solemnly absolved them from their crimes.

N

RESTORATION OF THE CATHEDRAL. 7 1

The price paid for their absolution was, we are told, a great
sum of money. And as an enduring memorial of the triumph
of the Church, a cross, now known as the Little Cross, to
distinguish it from the town cross, was erected at the east end
of the High Street, to mark the spot where the immunities of
the chanonry began. This time the entry in the cathedral
chartulary is ample and complete as the victory.

For many years after this the restoration of the cathedral to
its pristine, and more than pristine, glory, was the lifework of
every holder of the office.

Monteith, in his * Theatre of Mortality,' tells us that on the
tomb (now unfortunately demolished by the fall of the great
steeple in 1711) of Bishop John Innes, who succeeded
William of Spynie in 1407, it was recorded "that he began
[the restoration of] this distinguished edifice, and for seven
years " — that is to say, during the whole course of his incum-
bency — "sedulously continued the buildings." He died on
the 25th April 1414. And when^ on the i8th May following,
the chapter met to elect his successor, before proceeding to
the weighty business on hand, they solemnly passed the self-
denying ordinance that if any of its members was promoted
to the bishopric, he should be bound to devote a full third of
his benefice to the restoration of the cathedral.

To Bishop John Innes also we owe the erection of the
Castle of Spynie. It is, after the cathedral itself, the most
splendid ruin in the county ; and considering the date of its
construction, it must have been, when finally completed, the
most magnificent specimen of domestic architecture in the
north of Scotland. The bishops of Moray were not only
great spiritual princes, but great temporal lords. Hence
Spynie is both a palace and a castle ; but when first begun,
the principal purpose which it was intended to serve was
that of a residence for the chief ecclesiastical magistrate of

. •

72 THE PALACE OF SPYNIE.

the diocese. It was nearly seventy years later before it was
thought necessary to convert it into a fortress.

The present building consists of a large strong keep at the
south-west corner of an extensive quadrangle, finished at each
of its three other comers with smaller towers, surrounded by
the ruins of other buildings, which appear to have been of
an unusually fine and commodious description. These in all
probability consisted of reception-rooms, offices, and servants*
rooms ; and the remains of arches, which at one time con-
tained large traceried windows, justify the tradition that the
enclosure also included a chapel.

The gateway in the eastern wall of the courtyard is unique

in its way. There is nothing like it in Scotland. In general

design and in the style of its mouldings it closely resembles

'•■ the architecture of France or England. The probable ex-

(planation of this is, that it was the work of those foreign
builders who were at the time engaged in restoring the
cattedral, and whose masons' marks are still to be seen on
its pillars and walls. This gateway is the oldest remaining
jl part of the building, and bears the arms of Bishop John

Innes. It was defended by a portcullis, and the small stair
by which access was gained to the battlements from which the
portcullis was worked is still to be seen.

The keep, however, is the most interesting portion of the
itf building. It was built by Bishop David Stewart, who died

in 1475, ^^^ i^ still goes by the name of "Davie's Tower."
According to the legend, the Earl of Huntly, with whom the
bishop had a protracted feud, had threatened to pull the
proud prelate " out of his pigeon-hole." To this the bishop
retorted that he would build him a house out of which the
earl and his whole clan would not be able to drag him. He
seems to have kept his word. As a tower of defence and
offence there are few castles so admirably constructed as that

I'

i' '

ii

ITS INTERNAL ARRANGEMENTS. 73

of Spynie. The keep is so placed as to form a main defence
on the landward side — from which attack was most to be
apprehended — to the rest of the buildings ; and " it is pro-
jected in such a manner beyond the enceinte as to protect it
on the east and north." Its walls are loj^ feet thick; it
contained six storeys ; and the height of the corbels which
carried the battlements is 70 feet from the ground.

Its internal arrangements are commodious and complete.
The basement is divided into two compartments, one of which
has evidently been the wine-cellar, for there is a hatch in its
south-east corner for hoisting up supplies to one of the small
chambers adjoining the great hall ; and in the southern and
western walls of this cellar are two splayed port-holes for
guns, with an aperture to the exterior 6 feet wide and 2 feet
high. On the floor above this is the great hall, 42 feet long
by 22 J^ feet wide. It is a very handsome apartment, with
vaulted roof and large windows, and stone seats in their deep
bays. The upper storeys were occupied by sleeping-rooms,
and in the massive eastern wall was a series of five vaulted
chambers, each 6 or 7 feet wide, placed one on the top of the
other. These, however, have all now disappeared.

Seen as we see it now, a bare and utterly neglected ruin,
with no signs of life about it but the daws cawing round its
battlements, and the sheep nibbling the rank grass at its base,
it needs an effort of imagination to picture what it was in the
days of its glory. Yet for two hundred years and more — till it
ceased to be the residence of the bishops in 1686 — it must have
been the vivifying centre of most of the political, social, and
religious life of the district. Busy brains worked in its cell-
like chambers ; furious passions, uncontrolled ambitions, paced
the floor of its majestic hall ; dark plots were hatched within
its courtyard. Its ruins are haunted by the ghosts of great
names and great reputations — sometimes for good, sometimes

74 BISHOP LYCHTON.

for evil. Here the wise Forman taught himself those diplo-
matic arts which enabled him to settle a dispute between the
King of France and the Pope of Rome, and ultimately re-
warded him with the primacy of the kingdom. Here the
licentious Hepburn told his filthy tales and trolled out his
merry songs. Here the notorious Earl of Bothwell, his
nephew, learned in his boyish days to look upon principle and
morality as but empty names. Here Douglas, the first Protes-
tant bishop, indulged, if we may believe his detractors, his
unbridled tastes for the pleasures of the table.

A pleasant place of residence it must have been in those
dim and distant days — for dim and distant, indeed, they
appear to us when we try to read their history on the spot.
The air was pure ; the soil was dry and warm ; the site com-
manded a wide and smiling prospect. In front was the quiet
loch; in the middle distance, to the north and north-west,

9

Stretched the fertile plains of Kinneddar and Duffus ; beyond
them was the sea, with the dim shores of Ross and Cromarty
and the truncated cone of Morven framing the landscape like
a picture. Towards the south the scene was no less happy
and restful. There flowed the placid stream of the winding
Lossie ; there rose the noble towers and steeple of the great
and grave cathedral; there smoked the chimneys of the
peaceful little town of Elgin ; while surrounding the frowning
walls of the castle itself, enclosed with a high and strong stone
precinct wall, were ten acres of garden-ground, of grassy plots,
and of shady walks, the remains of which are still to be seen
in the avenue of old trees on the side adjoining what was once
the loch.

Bishop Innes was succeeded by Henry de Lychton or
Leighton, who was translated to Aberdeen in 142 1, and when
bishop there was appointed one of the commissioners to Eng-
land to obtain the release of James I. Then comes Columba

BISHOP JOHN OF WINCHESTER. 75

de Dunbar (1422-23-1435), Dean of Dunbar, younger son of
George, tenth Earl of March, and nephew of John Dunbar,
Earl of Moray. He held the bishopric for upwards of twelve
years. We hear of his obtaining a safe -conduct from King
Henry VI. of England to pass through his dominions with
a retinue of thirty servants, on his way to Rome in 1433, and
of his attending the Council of Basle in the following year.
He died at Spynie in 1435, ^^^ ^^^ buried in the aisle
of St Thomas the Martyr, now called the Dunbar aisle, at
the northern extremity of the transept of the cathedral, where
his recumbent figure in episcopal robes may be seen to
this day.

At length we come to a real and vivid personality in John
of Winchester, Clericus Regis, who succeeded Bishop Dunbar
in April 1437. He was an Englishman, as his name denotes,
and he came to Scotland as one of the suite of King James I.,
when that unfortunate prince returned from his dreary nine-
teen years' captivity in England in 1424. His favour with the
king stood him in good stead. He was successively appointed
Prebendary of Dunkeld, Provost of Lincluden, and finally
Lord Clerk-Register. James trusted and confided in him as
he trusted and confided in few men. He employed him in
numerous and weighty affairs gf State. He visited him in his
Castle of Spynie. Nor did the bishop's influence cease when
the unfortunate king fell beneath the daggers of Sir Robert
Graham and his followers in the Blackfriars' Monastery at
Perth in 1437. During the minority of his son, James II.,
he was trusted with various embassies to England. He died
in 1458, after a longer tenure of office than almost any of his
predecessors, and was buried in the St Mary's aisle of the
cathedral. It is recorded that during his incumbency the
lands pertaining to the church were erected into the barony of
Spynie with full right of regality and the little village of the

76 THE STEWART BISHOPS.

same name that had grown up beneath the castle walls was
erected into a burgh. The temporal influence of the bishops
of Moray was growing even more luxuriantly than their
spiritual.

From this time forward till the suppression of Roman
Catholicism in the middle of the sixteenth century, we find
the bishops of Moray occupying a place amongst the greatest
in the land. There is hardly one of them who did not
combine the functions of the politician with those of the cleric
to his own personal advantage, and in a lesser degree to the
exaltation of his office, though not always to the interests of
his diocese. Lords High Treasurer, Lords Clerk -Register,
Keepers of the Privy Seal, Ambassadors, — we shall find in-
stances of them all in the bishops that are to come. After
the Reformation the bishops sank into mere spiritual chief
magistrates. During at least the last century and more of the
four hundred and fifty years when Roman Catholicism was the
religion of the kingdom they were princes, not only of the
Church, but also of the State.

That the bishopric of Moray was one of the great prizes of
the Church is shown by the men who held it. With few
exceptions they belonged to the great governing families either
of the district or of the realm. Representatives of the Doug-
lases, Inneses, Dunbars, Hepburns, and others are to be
found among them. Nor was royalty itself indisposed to find
in its cathedral seat a comfortable provision for relatives or
connections of its own. The register of the diocese includes
the name of four Stewarts who were either allied to or off-
shoots from the royal family of Scotland.

James Stewart, the first of the four, is said to have belonged
to the family of the Stewarts of Lorn. The connection of
that family with the royal Stewarts was as follows : Alexander,
fourth High Steward of Scotland, and Regent in the minority

BISHOP DAVID STEWART. J7

of Alexander III., had as second son Sir John, who married
the heiress of Bonkyll. His eldest son. Sir James of Per-
sham, had as third son Sir Robert of Maorfneath, whose
eldest son. Sir John, married the heiress of Lorn. The
eldest son of this marriage was also a Sir Robert, and it is
probable that one of his sons was James Stewart, Bishop of
Moray. Bishop James Stewart held the see for only two
years. He was succeeded in 1461 by David, who is said
to have been his brother, and who, as the builder of the
great tower of the Palace of Spynie, bulks more largely in
modern eyes than almost any other of these medieval prelates.

Bishop " Davie " is a man of whom we would gladly have
known more. His troubles with the Earl of Huntly have
been already referred to. For some offence, probably con-
nected with the non-payment of certain dues claimed by the
Church, Huntly had incurred ecclesiastical censure; and if
there were no reprisals, there were at any rate threats in
abundance. But the power of the Church was even greater
than that of the king's lieutenant-general, and the earl had
to yield. With bare head and bended knee he made his
submission to the bishop in the Cathedral of Elgin on
20th May 1464, obtained absolution, and received the kiss
of peace, — not, however, it may well be believed, without
paying heavily for the privilege. Bishop David Stewart died
in 1475, ^"^ was buried beside his brother in the aisle of
St Peter and St Paul in the south transept of the cathedral.
His antagonist the Earl of Huntly, who predeceased him
by five years, lies not a stone's throw off under the east
window of the Gordon aisle, where are buried so many
generations of that powerful family.

The next bishop, William Tulloch, who was translated
from Orkney to Moray in 1477, was Keeper of the Privy
Seal, and seems to have been much more of a politician

78 BISHOP FORMAN.

than a cleric. He was one of the ambassadors sent to
Denmark in 1468 to negotiate the marriage between the
king, James III., and " the Ladey Margarett, eldest daughter
to Christierne, first of that name, K. of Denmark and
Nouruay and Suethland" — an alliance which first placed
the Orkney and Shetland Islands in the possession of the
Scottish Crown. He died in 1482.

After him comes another scion of royalty, Andrew Stewart,
third son of the Black Knight of Lorn by Jane Beaufort,
widow of King James I. But beyond the facts that he was
consecrated in 1482 and died in 1501, nothing is known
about him.

Andrew Forman, who followed him, however, was one of
the most remarkable men of his day. Shrewd, supple, fertile
in resource, with an argument ready for every emergency,
not too painfully scrupulous when it was necessary to make
concessions to the frailties of our imperfect nature, a perfect
believer in expediency, with an unerring perception of where
his own interest lay, and with a deep-rooted confidence in
himself, despite a hot temper and a brusque manner, he
rose to high place and preferment by sheer dint of character
and mother wit. He was in the fullest sense of the word
the architect of his own fortunes. He was no aristocrat
though he came of gentle birth, being descended, according
to Keith, from the Formans of Hatton, a respectable Ber-
wickshire family. But he owed nothing to his connections.
Without influence, acting and thinking independently — and
perhaps in some cases only for himself — he stands forward
as one of the most accomplished and successful diplomatists
of his age.

We first hear of him as Protonotary Apostolic in Scotland
in the year 1499. Two years after that he was postulated
to the see of Moray, and in that capacity was one of the

X

HIS EMBASSIES. 79

commissioners sent to England to negotiate a marriage be-
tween King James IV. and Margaret, Henry VII. 's eldest
daughter, and at a later date to arrange the terms of the
treaty of peace between the two nations, necessitated by that
event. In the same year he was put in full possession of
the bishopric, holding at the same time in commendam the
priories of Pittenweem in Scotland and Cottingham in Eng-
land. Another friendly embassy to England followed in
1 510. By this time, however, the clouds were gathering.
Henry VIII/s relations with his "dearest brother of Scot-
land " were becoming strained in consequence of the impor-
tunate demands made upon him in connection with certain
jewels and monies claimed by his sister Margaret which
Henry declined to surrender, and latterly he had shown
himself disposed to interfere in Scottish politics in a way
more active than pleasant.

Under these circumstances it was thought advisable by
James IV. 's advisers to renew and confirm the ancient league
and alliance between France and Scotland, which diplomatic
courtesy always affected to believe had existed ever since
the time of King Achaius (Eochaig, son of Aeda Fin, King
of Dalriada), who, though he lived a century before his day,
was said to have been the ally of Charlemagne. Forman
was sent to France to work out the details of the treaty.
He was eminently successful. The league was not only
renewed, but the full rights of citizenship were conceded
to natives of Scotland in France, and to natives of France
in Scotland. Henceforward it was to be a union not only
of hearts but of interests, private as well as political. It
was a great concession for the most civilised nation in
Christendom to make to what was then one of the rudest,
especially when we remember how jealously France confined
her privileges to her own free-born children. Naturally the

80 BISHOP FORMAN AT ROME.

price that Scotland was called on to pay for it was pro-
portionate. It was nothing less than the invasion of
England.

From France Forman went on to Rome, where he was re-
ceived by Pope Julius II. with distinguished favour. And it
was not long before he found the opportunity of doing the
Pope a signal service. For some time past differences had
existed between the French and Papal Courts. These had
now attained to such a height that both sovereigns had taken
the field, and there seemed no other mode of determining
them than by the arbitrament of war. Forman begged and
obtained the Pope's assent to try the effect of mediation.
The result was another triumph for his diplomacy. Each
side dismissed its forces, and at a personal interview which
followed between the French king and the Pope, "all
matters debateable betwixt them" were arranged. In re-
turn for his services Julius appointed Forman Papal legate
for Scotland.

It is in connection with this fortunate visit to Rome that
Pitscottie tells a story which has been repeatedly adduced as
evidence of Bishop Forman's ignorance of Latin, though it
would rather appear to be proof of his want of knowledge of
foreign customs. "Then this bischope maid ane banquett
to the Pope and all his cardinallis, in on of the Pope's awin
palaces, and when they war all sett according to thair custome,
that he who ought the hous for the tyme should say the grace ;
and he was not ane guid schoUer, nor had not guid Latine,
but begane rudlie in the Scottise faschioun saying Benedicite,
believand that they schould have said Dominus, bot they
answeired, Deus in the Italian faschione, quhilk pat the
bischope by his intendment that he wist not weill how to
proceid fordward, bot happened, in guid Scottis in this
manner, *The divill I give you all false cardinallis to, in

FORMAN BECOMES ARCHBISHOP OF ST ANDREWS. 8 1

nomine Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.' Then all the
bischope's men leugh, and al the cardinallis thamselffis ; and
the Pope inquyred quhairat they leugh, and the bischop schew
that he was not ane guid dark, and that his cardinallis had
put him by his text and intendment, thairfoir he gave thame
all to the devill in guid Scottis, quhairat the Pope himselff
leugh verrie earnestlie."

The return which in his turn the French king felt con-
strained to make for the Scottish bishop's good offices fol-
lowed not long after. As the bishop was on his way back to
Scotland in the early summer of 15 13 the archbishopric of
Bruges became vacant. Louis, after having unsuccessfully
supported another candidate, preferred a claim on Forman's
behalf, basing his nomination not on what Forman had done
for him personally, but on the services he had conferred on
religion by inducing his master James IV. to declare war
against the arch-heretic of England. Louis's letter to the
Chapter is dated the 7th August; and on the 2 2d of the
same month James crossed the Border. Little was it then
foreseen that in less than three weeks from that time the
campaign would be at an end, and the brave but misguided
James, with all his chivalry, lying lifeless on the fatal field
of Flodden.

This disastrous event made no difference in Forman's
fortunes. He was appointed to the office, and on the 13th
November he made his solemn entry into Bruges. The
nature of his reception, however, soon made him sensible
that his appointment was not a popular one. Nor did things
improve as time went on. The death of his patron. Pope
Julius IL, made matters still more difficult. Accordingly,
when in 15 14 Leo X., coveting the archbishopric for his
nephew, Cardinal Abo, proposed that he should exchange it
for St Andrews, which had become vacant by the death of

F

82 THE EMBELLISHMENT OF THE CATHEDRAL.

the Scottish primate at Flodden, Forman eagerly jumped at
the proposal. Leo issued a bull appointing him to the office,
and Forman, though he must have known that this was ultra
vires of his Holiness, discovered that he had no conscien-
tious scruples in accepting it. There was some clamour, of
course. The Chapter, rightly resenting the Pope's interfer-
ence, placed obstacles in the way. But through the good
offices of Louis of France and the Regent Albany matters
were ultimately arranged. Forman was inducted, and held
the see for eight years. He died in 1522, and was buried at
Dunfermline.

During the incumbency of his successor, James Hepburn,
third son of Adam, Lord Hailes, and brother of Patrick, first
Earl of Bothwell (15 16-1524), the bishopric appears to have
reached its utmost height of wealth and magnificence.

Seventy years of steady and continuous work had been
required to make good the structural injury to the cathedral
caused by the Wolf of Badenoch in 1390. When this was
accomplished there yet remained much to be done in the
way of embellishment and decoration. Each succeeding
bishop strove to outvie his predecessor in adding something
to its glory and its splendour. In Bishop Spynie's time the
cathedral tower was begun ; in Bishop Columba de Dun-
bar's (1422-1435), the large Alpha window was inserted in
the western gable, and to the same period is referable the
exquisite carving of the western doorway; Bishop David
Stewart in 1462 restored the chapter-house, and dedicated it
to the Passion. In 1507, the central tower having fallen,
Bishop Forman began its re-erection on a still more mag-
nificent scale. Though it was not completed till 1538, dur-
ing the incumbency of the last Roman Catholic Bishop of
Moray, the credit of the work is due to its originator. By
the pious labours of the^ successive prelates the Cathedral

THE CATHEDRAL DESCRIBED. 83

of Elgin had become not only the largest but the most
splendid specimen of ecclesiastical architecture in the north
of Scotland.

It was built in the orthodox form of a Jerusalem or Passion
cross; its length from east to west over walls is 282 feet;
and it consisted of —

1. A choir, 100 feet long by 70 broad, terminating in a
rich gable with octagonal turrets at its angles, pierced by two
tiers of five lancet lights and a large rose-window (locally
called the Omega window) above. It was divided into three
aisles for five bays (or 80 feet) of its length. The remaining
portion of 80 feet, which was screened off from the rest, was
one-aisled only, and at its extremity was the site of the high
altar,^ approached by a short flight of wide and spacious steps.
Three bays of the southern aisle were known by the name of
St Mary's (now more commonly called the Gordon) aisle :
in one bay of the northern aisle was also a small chapel,
where masses were long wont to be sung for the soul of
Thomas Randolph, first feudal Earl of Moray.

2. A transept, 90 feet long by 25 broad, consisting of a
single aisle supported by four massive columns. Its north end
went originally by the name of the aisle of St Thomas the
Martyr ; but it is now better known by that of the Dunbar
aisle, as being the burial-place of so many of that distin-
guished family. The corresponding end of the southern
extremity was dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. The
doorway in this southern gable is of exceptional interest,
from the bold character of its dog-tooth ornamentations.
At the crossing of the nave and transept roofs rose the

^ The site of the high altar is now occupied by a monument erected in
1868 to the memory of the Rev. Lachlan Shaw, the historian of Moray,
one of the collegiate ministers of Elgin from 1734 to 1777, who is buried
somewhere near the spot.

84 DESCRIPTION OF THE CATHEDRAL.

great tower. This tower fell twice — first in 1506, and again
in 171 1. After the first fall it was rebuilt, as has been
already mentioned, by Bishop Forman and his successors.
It was square in form, with side-lights in each face and a
corner turret at the north-west angle, and was topped with
a lofty steeple. Its height is believed to have been 198
feet. After its second fall it was not restored.

3. A nave. Excluding the western porch, its length is
exactly 100 feet and its breadth 60. It is five-aisled, with
a porch at the extremity of its northern and southern sides
respectively. Its plan is unique, or nearly so, in Great
Britain. The five aisles are separated by rows of slender
clustered columns, which must have added immensely to its
effect, by giving it an appearance of unusual width and light-
ness. The grand entrance to the cathedral was by the western
door. The exterior carving of this porch is of the richest
description. Above it was the great window locally known
as the Alpha window, and this was flanked by two massive
square towers 84 feet in height.

4. The chapter-house occupies its proper place to the north-
west of the building. As the ground-plan of every cathedral
is intended to represent a cross, so the shape and position
of the chapter-house are designed to represent the drooping
head of our crucified Saviour. It is octagonal in construc-
tion, is 37 feet broad and 34 feet high, and is supported
by a clustered shaft with elaborately carved capitals 9 feet
in circumference supporting the central groining of the roof.
Stone seats surround the walls — one for each of the grave
dignitaries who formed the Chapter. That of the dean, its
head, is more elevated than the rest. It is the most richly
decorated part of the whole structure, and is lighted by
seven windows of great beauty. The chapter -house is at-
tached to the choir by a small vestibule, off" which is the

THE STORY OF MARJORY GILZEAN. 85

small chamber containing what seems to have been a piscina,
locally known by the name of the Lavatory, in connection
with which an interesting story is told.

In the early part of the eighteenth century there lived at
Drainie a young woman of remarkable beauty of the name
of Marjory Gilzean. In 1745 she married, against the wishes
of her parents, who occupied a respectable position in life, a
soldier of the name of Anderson, a native of the neighbouring
village of Lhanbryde, and left the country with him. Three
years later she reappeared in Elgin carrying an infant in her
arms, her beauty all gone and her mind unhinged by trouble
and the privations incident to the hard life of a soldier's wife.
Her husband was dead ; her parents were either dead or
would have nothing to do with her. Homeless, friendless,
and penniless, she could find no other shelter than the ruins
of the cathedral. The Lavatory was then in good repair, and
here she took up her quarters, cradling her child in the piscina
and depending, on charity for the support of herself and her
son. When the boy was old enough he was sent to school
as a pauper — that is to say, a boy who in return for his
education cleaned out the schoolroom and performed what-
ever other menial duties might be required of him. His
schooling finished, he was apprenticed to an uncle — a stay-
maker in his father's village of Lhanbryde. But he was
badly used, and in the end he ran away. Finding his
way to London, he enlisted in a regiment under orders for
India. His good conduct, his indomitable perseverance,
and his aptitude in acquiring a knowledge of the oriental
languages, soon brought him promotion. Having amassed
considerable wealth, he retired from the army with the rank
of major-general; and after living some years in Elgin,
died in London in 1824, leaving his whole fortune — about
;^7o,ooo — to build and endow the "Elgin Institution for

86 THE "COLLEGE" OF ELGIN.

the education of youth and support of old age " — the richest
and most useful charity in the county.

Outside the precinct wall of the cathedral was an irregular
quadrilateral area, surrounded by a wall 12 feet high. Its
circumference is said to have been 900 yards ; but it was
probably considerably greater, for it is difficult to see how
within such circumscribed limits there was room for the
large number of ecclesiastical buildings which it certainly
contained. This area was called the Collegium. Here stood
the manses and gardens of the twenty -four canons — the
bishop's town -house being counted as one of them, — and
the lodgings of the vicars and inferior clergy. A paved
causeway ran in front of them, and in the circuit wall were
five gates, each defended by a portcullis. Until the begin-
ning of the present century a large portion of this wall
remained, and, with a little trouble and investigation, its
boundaries might have been easily delineated. Nowadays
its correct limits must be largely matter of conjecture.

Few places have suffered more from modern neglect than
the old and venerable College of Elgin. Of its circuit wall
there exist but two fragments — one a shapeless block of de-
cayed masonry in a field within the grounds of the house
now called the South College ; the other attached to the
only one of the ports which still remains. This port is
known by the name of the Pann's Port, from pannis or
pannagium, a Low Latin word signifying the meadow-land
outside it. It was the eastern gate of the college, and is,
fortunately, in a fair state of preservation. It is in the
form of a Gothic arch. The grooves in which the chains
of its portcullis slid are still distinctly visible.

Persons but recently deceased could remember when there
were four of these old manses existing — the dean's, the
archdeacon's, and those of the prebendaries of Duffus and

THE MANSES WITHIN THE COLLEGE. 8/

Unthank. Now the first two alone remain. They have
been converted into modern residences, and go by the name
of the North and South College respectively. But for their
massive walls and a certain air of gravity which seems to
cling around them, one might almost be inclined to doubt
their venerable antiquity, so much has their appearance been
altered by modem improvements. The two others have long
since been levelled to the ground; but their position is
ascertained, and drawings of them are to be found in Rhind's
* Sketches of Moray.'

The situation of the remainder of the manses within the
college cannot be stated with absolute accuracy. Six of
them, we know, stood within what are now the grounds of
the North College. These were the dean's, the treasurer's,
and the manses of Bodtery, Inverkeithny, and Croy. Spynie
manse occupied the site of a little old house set back from
the street, with a small courtyard in front, adjoining Unthank
manse, at the foot of North College Street. Advie manse
stood where Advie House now stands in South College
Street ; and Moy manse was in the immediate vicinity. The
vicar of Elgin had his official residence within what are now
the grounds of Grant Lodge. And here also was the bishop's
manse or town-house.

The builder of this residence is supposed to have been
Bishop John Innes, and the date of its erection about 1407 ;
but its south wing, as a stone turret upon it seems to indicate,
was erected by Bishop Patrick Hepburn in 1557. Judging
from its size, it can never have been intended to be more
than a mere 'temporary lodging for the bishop, when his
presence on the spot was required in connection with the
business of the diocese or the great festivals of the Church.
It was for long the residence of Alexander Seton, who was
Commendator of Pluscarden after the Reformation, and Pro-

88 THE DEAN — THE ARCHDEACON.

vost of Elgin for a considerable period. When he was made
a peer by the title of Earl of Dunfermline, it acquired the
name of Dunfermline House. It ultimately came into the
possession of the Seafield family, and was gifted to the town
in 1885 by Caroline, Countess- Dowager of Seafield.

Among the dignitaries who occupied these manses there
was much diversity both of rank and of duties.

The Dean (decanus) was the head of the Chapter, and had
the greatest responsibility. All the canons, vicars, and chap-
lains connected with the cathedral were under his control.
To determine all causes relating to the Chapter, to punish
the delinquencies of the vicars and clerics, to instal the canons,
to conduct the services of the church and to give the bene-
diction in the absence of the bishop, to inspect, and if need
be to correct, any irregularities in the books, vestments, and
ornaments of the prebendal churches, were among his mani-
fold duties. In return for this he was entitled to an honour
and a reverence which were awarded to none of the other
dignitaries of the Chapter. All members of the choir, great
and small, were enjoined to bow to him in his stall as they
entered or left the church. Without his leave no member of
the choir was to absent himself from the precinct even for
a single night. When he entered or passed through the choir
or chapter-house every one was to rise to his feet. Matins
and vespers were not to begin until he was seated in his stall,
or had sent a message that he did not intend to be present.
And the same rule was to be observed with the sprinkling of
holy water, and with the procession and collect in Lent at
compline.

Next to the dean in capitular rank came the Archdeacon
{archidiaconus). In old charters and local records he is
sometimes, though improperly, called the Archdean — a term,
according to Professor Cosmo Innes, in all probability derived

V

THE CHANTER — THE CHANCELLOR. 89

from "Arsdene" or "Ers-dene," which was the vernacular
form of th*e word.^

The special function of the archdeacon was to administer
the whole jurisdiction of the bishop, and he was by law as
well as by practice the judge in the episcopal court In
a diocese where the business was heavy, as in Moray, he had
the right of delegating his legal duties to a deputy who went
by the name of the Official

The Chanter or Precentor, though of less exalted position,
was quite as useful an official within his own peculiar sphere.
To him was intrusted the superintendence of the whole
musical services of the cathedral. He had to admit and to
instruct the choir, and to keep them in order ; to correct the
music-books, and to see that they were properly bound. The
" sang schules " over which such officials presided, often, and
indeed as a rule, did more than afford a mere musical educa-
tion to their scholars. Many of them at the Reformation
were converted into the grammar-schools of their respective
burghs.

The duties of the Chancellor were bewilderingly multifarious.
He was rector of the theological school — in other words, the
head of the ecclesiastical training college. The preaching in
the cathedral also was under his charge. It was his particular
province to see that nothing approaching heterodoxy should
be promulgated from the pulpit. He was at times to preach
to the choir, at others to the Chapter, and on certain great
festivals of the Church to the people. He was to correct the
books containing the legends of the saints and to see to their
binding. He was to look after the readers and servants. He

^ The only one of the archdeacons of Moray who rose to any distinction
was John Bellenden, who by command of King James V. translated Boece's
* History of Scotland * from Latin into the vernacular. It was published in
1 541. In the title-page he is designated as " Archdene of Murray." He is
termed by Sir David Lyndsay * ' a cunning clerk that writeth craftily. "

90 THE TREASURER.

was to have the custody of the Chapter seal, and to see it
safely locked up in the treasury under double locks. He was
to write the letters and draw up the charters of the Chapter,
and to have the supervision of the theological library. His im-
portance may be estimated by the multitude of his functions.

To the Treasurer belonged the care of the ornaments, the
relics, and the other treasures of the cathedral ; the keeping
in order of the clocks ; the providing of the Communion
elements ; of the lights, wine, coals, incense, and the necessary
utensils of the church ; the supply of straw for the chapter
floor and of rushes at the great festivals ; the providing of
mats for the choir and in front of the various altars ; the pay-
ment of the wages of the church servants, et multa alia que
longum est enarrare.

Each of these chief dignitaries had his deputy. There was
a sub-dean, a sub-chancellor, a sub-chanter, and so on. Very
probably the care of his deputy was not the least onerous of a
dignified cleric's duties.

But if their functions were heavy, their emoluments were
great. The revenues enjoyed by the various members of the
Chapter were derived from two sources — from the profits
accruing to them from the lands in which they were invested
in virtue of their offices, and from certain pecuniary payments
due to them in respect of the discharge of their ecclesiastical
functions. The one was called their temporality, the other
their spirituality. Their income from the land was payable
partly in money, partly in kind. Hence the difficulty — one
might almost say the impossibility — of conveying to the
modern reader anything like an accurate idea in pounds,
shillings, and pence of the actual value of their benefices,
from whatsoever source derived. But something like an
approximate notion may be obtained.

Beginning with the bishop, who of course was the most

i.

THE EMOLUMENTS OF THE BISHOP. 9 1

highly remunerated member of the Chapter, the first point to
be ascertained is how the bishopric of Moray stood as re-
garded emoluments in relation to the other bishoprics of
Scotland. In 1256 it stood fourth. In a taxatio or valua-
tion of that year preserved in the * Registrum Aberdonense/
the relative values of the principal sees are given as follows : —

1. St Andrews .... ;£8o23

2. Glasgow .... 4080

3. Aberdeen .... 161 1

4. Moray . . . . . 141 8

These figures, however, give us no idea of the actual income
of the bishop. They show only the net sum on which the
various bishoprics were liable to be assessed.

One might not unreasonably suppose that in the Chartulary,
which is such a mine of information as to everything relating
to the diocese, we would find data that would enable us to
arrive at a satisfactory estimate of the bishop's income, at least
at some period of the bishopric's existence. But this is not
the case. There are, indeed, certain documents — apparently,
from the character of their handwriting, of the end of the
thirteenth century — which bear upon the subject. But they
do nothing more than enlighten us as to particular items of
his revenue.

The first of these is a return seemingly prepared for the
purpose of estimating the rents due to him from the four
deaneries of the diocese — Elgin, Inverness, Strathspey, and
Strathbogie. The Dean of Elgin was the only one of these four
dignitaries who had a seat in the Chapter. The others were
rural deans only, whose jurisdiction over the clergy of their
respective districts was "made up of a delegation of the
general pastoral authority of the bishop and of the jurisdiction
of the archdeacon." What the exact nature of their functions
was we need not here stop to inquire. No doubt .within his

92 THE bishop's RENTAL.

own district every rural dean was a dignitary of very con-
siderable importance. But whatever he may have been, the
document now under consideration shows that he had to pay
pretty smartly for his position. The bishop's share of his
emoluments was a tenth ; and the result was as follows : —

Valuation.

Bishop's tithe.

Deanery of Elgin

£33^ 16

£33 16

Deanery of Inverness

273

27 6 4

Deanery of Strathspey

150

14 19 8

Deanery of Strathbogie

146

16 12

£92 14

The return which follows gives the amount of the procur-
ations due to the bishop. Each church in the deanery was
taxed in a certain sum for the purpose of entertaining the
bishop in his annual visitations. This was called a procur-
ation. The amount levied on the four deaneries came to
about j£S,

Another return gives the amount of the synodical dues
payable to the bishop ; but these only came to a small sum
yearly, apparently to little more than ^£4.

The only other paper in the register which throws any light
upon the matter is the rental prepared by Master Archibald
Lyndesay, the chamberlain, in 156 1. It shows the value of
the temporality of the bishop at a time when it had reached
its apogee of wealth and magnificence. At this date the
bishop was lord of no less than nine baronies — Spynie, Kin-
neddar, Bimie, Rafford, Ardclach, Keith, Kilmyles, Strath-
spey, and Moymore, in the four shires of Inverness, Elgin,
Nairn, and Banff. Every feu-duty, every mart, mutton, lamb,
capon, dozen of poultry, boll of oats and barley, all multures,
grassums, rights of service, upkeep of mills — in short, every
return in labour, money, or kind which he could claim from

THE bishop's MENSAL CHURCHES. 93

his tenants, is set forth in this elaborate document. The
result, after deducting what was actually expended by the
bishop himself, was as follows : —

1. The "haill ferme and teind victualls" of the bishopric
amounted to 77 chalders, 6 bolls, 3 firlots, and 2 pecks, with
10 bolls of wheat. It is noted that "in tymes bypast" these
had been much greater, " extending to fourscore and fourteen
chalders or thairby " ; but inundations, " the sanding of the
lands by watteris," and " the wound and povertie of tennentis
and truble of this tyme," had reduced the return to the sum
above stated.

2. Money, "the salmond comptit thairwith," ;^2 633,
7s. 3^d. As for the "procurations and synodals," which
could formerly be computed at ;^8o a-year, nothing had been
got from them for three years past.

In addition to the various sources of revenue ^bove men-
tioned the bishop had at least another. The fruits of certain
churches and parishes were appropriated to his special main-
tenance. From these he derived what would now be called
his table-allowance. It was in keeping with his state. The
mensal churches of the bishopric of Moray were no fewer than
twelve in number, and consisted of the churches of Elgin,
St Andrews, Dyke, Ugstoun, Rothemaye, Keith, GrantuUy,
Dulbatelauch or Wardlaw, Rothiemurcus, Davit, Tallarcie,
and Inverallan.

The incomes of the other canons were on the same mag-
nificent scale. The sources, too, were similar. In a greater
or less degree each had his tithes, his " maills and duties," his
payments in money and in kind, his Easter offerings, his dues
on marriages, baptisms, and funerals — these last the heaviest
and most oppressive of all. Certain churches, too, known as
common churches, were assigned to provide a general table-
allowance for the Chapter. They are stated to have been —

94 THE PREBENDS OF MEMBERS OF THE CHAPTER.

Artendol, Ferneway, Aberihacyn, Logykenny, Kyncardin,
Abirnethy, Altre, Ewain, Brennath. Some of these are
recognisable under their modern names ; others can only
be guessed at. In addition to his manse and garden within
the collegium, each had also his " croft " outside the precinct
walls. These crofts varied in size, probably according to the
rank of the dignitary, from 2 to 4 acres, and embraced in all,
perhaps, some 50 or 60 acres. The names of places in the
vicinity of Elgin still preserve their memory. The lands of
Dean's Haugh were part of the croft of the dean ; Moycroft
was that of the parson of Moy ; a " tail " of land now within
the grounds of South College is still known as the Sub-
Chanter's Croft ', and so on.

From a collation of the original records of the valuation of
1 561, the late learned editor of the *Registrum Moraviense,'
Professor Cosmo Innes, who was himself Sheriff of Moray, has
given details of the values of the prebends of the various
members of the Chapter, so far as this was possible from
his imperfect materials. These we may thus abridge : —

The dean had in victual 31 chalders, 5 bolls, i firlot, and
3 pecks ; of kain wedders no; of kain oats, 6 bolls ; of
capons, 24. From the sale of his marts he derived 26s. 8d.
The value of his teinds " sett for money " was jQi 14, 13s. 4d. ;
that of "the temporal landis mailis" ;^i4, os. lod.

The full particulars of the sub-dean's income do not seem
to have been available; but he had for the parsonage of
DoUas 5 chalders, 2 bolls, and 3 firlots of victual, and the
altarage of Auldearn brought him in ;^4o more.

The chanter had 18 chalders of victual and 180 merks of

«

money.

The rental of the chancellary of Moray (only a portion, it
must be kept in view, of the chancellor's revenue) was ;^ioo.

That of the archdeacon was jQi^6^ 13s. 4d.

• '^■Zia

BISHOP ALEXANDER STEWART. 95

The sub-chanter had 335 merks from the profits of the
kirk of Rafford, and ;^4o from that of Ardclach.

The prebend of the parson of Duffus was valued at 16
chalders of victual and ;^i52, los. of money ; that of Moy at
80 merks; that of Kinnoir at ;^ioo ; Advie and Cromdale
at 40 merks ; Rhynie at 80 merks ; Kingussie at ;^8o ; Dipple
at j£gS, 3s. 4d. and 2 chalders 4 bolls of victual; Spynie
at 200 merks ; the vicarage of Elgin at 2 chalders of victual
only, "the resoun thair is na payment maid nothir of woll,
lamb, nor utheris dewties payit to vicaris in tymes bypast,
quhilk had wont to be sett in assedatioun for four score
merkis."

We need not pursue the subject further. Nor, indeed, beyond
a few fragmentary notices of special endowments to this or
that parsonage or chaplainry, has the Chartulary much more to
tell. Sufficient, however, has been said to show that, taking
into account the poverty of the country generally and the
immense difference between the purchasing power of money
in those days and in our own, Mother Church at the end
of the sixteenth century was no injusta noverca to her secular
children.

After the death of Bishop James Hepburn, Robert Schaw, a
son of the Laird of Sauchie, in Stirlingshire, succeeded him.
He was " a man of great virtue," and perhaps for that very
reason has left behind him no history worth recording. He
held the see for three years only — from 1524 to 1527.

His successor, Alexander Stewart, was the son of Alexander,
Duke of Albany, younger brother of King James IH., and of
Catherine Sinclair, daughter of William, Earl of Caithness and
Orkney. Albany having divorced his wife on the convenient
ground of propinquity, in order to marry Cecilia, the daughter
of Edward IV., and thus to secure the English king's aid
in his treasonable designs upon the Scottish crown, his son

96 BISHOP HEPBURN.

was rendered illegitimate. Albany's ambition was frustrated.
He neither succeeded in marrying the princess nor in be-
coming king of Scotland. But his cruel conduct towards his
wife clouded his son's whole future life, and forced him to
adopt the Church as a profession. In due time he became
Prior of Whitherne, Abbot of Inchaffray, and Abbot of Scone
in commendam. Finally, in 1527 he was promoted to the see
of Moray, and died in 1534.

Patrick Hepburn, the next Bishop of Moray, and the last
Roman Catholic holder of the see, was a man of a very
diflferent type. He was the son of Patrick, first Earl of
Bothwell, and consequently nephew of his predecessor in
the see. Bishop James Hepburn. He succeeded his uncle
John, by whom he had been educated, as Prior of St Andrews
in 1522; he was secretary from 1524 to 1527; in 1535 he
was promoted to the see of Moray, and he afterwards received
the rich abbacy of Scone in commendam. All his family had
been clever men, and in talents he took after his family. He
was one of the commissioners who negotiated the marriage
of Mary Stewart with Francis, the Dauphin of France, though
he was not one of those who assisted at its celebration. But
his licentious life and the gross obscenity of his manners and
conversation have marred his reputation. History and tra-
dition have handed him down to us as not only the last but
the worst of the old bishops of Moray. The memory of his
irregular life still survives in the district. No doubt many of
these tales are exaggerated, and there is no need to repeat
them here. But authentic history records that he had at any
rate^ten illegitimate children by four different mothers, and all
these he managed to provide for at the expense of the Church.
In truth he was the greatest dilapidator of Church possessions
that the bishopric had ever known. Wise in his generation,
he saw that the Reformation was not a thing to be opposed,

THE REFORMATION IN MORAY. 97

by spiritual weapons at any rate; and he had been but a
short time in possession of the see when he began a system of
alienation of the Church lands, in order to provide for his own
future maintenance and that of his numerous family. The
feu-<:harters and assedations granted by him occupy many
pages of the Chartulary, and as the most were granted to the
surrounding proprietors on easy terms, he was able, when the
storm did burst, not only to brave but to defy the Reforma-
tion. It was of little consequence to him that the General
Assembly deprived him of his spirituality. So long as they
were unable to take his temporality from him, he cared not a
whit And that they were never able to do. Shutting him-
self up in his palace of Spynie, he carried on his wild, merry,
unprincipled life to the end, and died there — not, however, in
the odour of sanctity — on the 20th June 1573.

The year 1560 had seen the triumph of the Congregation.
Mary of Guise, who had latterly been the sole obstacle to its
success, died on the i oth June. The Estates met in August ;
and on the 17th they approved the Confession of Faith as
containing the only " hailsome and sound doctrine, grounded
upon the infallible truth of God's Word." This was followed
up by Acts prohibiting any other form of belief or worship,
and making the celebration or attendance at mass a highly
criminal offence. "On the morning of the 25th of August
1560," says Burton, "the Romish hierarchy was supreme: in
the evening of the same day Calvinistic Protestantism was
established in its stead."

The change from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism in
Moray was attended with none of the friction which might
reasonably have been expected to ensue in a district which
owed so much in the way of material advantage to the old
religion. Nor was there any solution of continuity in the
episcopal succession. Within two months after Bishop Hep-

G

98 THE FIRST PROTESTANT BISHOP OF MORAY.

bum's death his Protestant successor had been elected.
The " licence " to the Chapter " to cheis a bishop of
Moray" is dated the 12th August 1573; and the "con-
secration of the bishop" took place on the sth February
following. The person on whom the choice of the Chapter
fell was George Douglas, a natural son of Archibald, Earl
of Angus. He held the bishopric for sixteen years, and is
buried in the chapel of Holyrood.

On his death in 1589 James VI. seized the opportunity to
convert the bishopric into a temporal lordship. Alexander
Lindsay, on whom the king conferred it in 1590 with the title
of Lord Spynie, was a brother of Alexander, Earl of Crawford.
He was an old and intimate friend and boon companion of the
king. He had accompanied his master to Norway on his
venturesome matrimonial expedition in quest of the King of
Denmark's daughter, and there he had fallen ill James pro-
ceeded to Denmark, leaving Lindsay behind. But he did not
forget his sick comrade. To cheer him in his sickness, and
to make up to him for all he had endured in his service, he
wrote him a long gossipy letter, in which he promised that on
his return to Scotland he would, with the consent of Parlia-
ment, "erect you the temporality of Moray in a temporal
lordship, with all honours thereto pertaining." " Let this,"
he adds, " serve for cure to your present disease ; " and he
dates this genial characteristic letter from the "Castell of
Croneburg [Elsinore], quhair we are drinking and dryving
our in the auld maner." This promise he religiously ful-
filled.

The year 1592 saw the abolition of Episcopacy, and
the establishment of Presb)^erianism as the religion of the
State. This condition of affairs, however, was of short con-
tinuance only. James's sufferings, when king of Scotland,
at the hands of his Presbyterian masters, as they made

/- \

JAMES VI. AND PRESBYTERIANISM. 99

him feel that they were, had been too galling to engender
in him any particular love either for them or for their doc-
trines. Accordingly, he was hardly seated on the English
throne when he began to have grave and heart -searching
doubts as to the orthodoxy of their teaching on such im-
portant subjects as his ecclesiastical supremacy and the
Presbyterian form of Church government. Very soon he
discovered that a Scottish Presbytery "as well agreeth with
a monarchy as God and the Devil." From that moment
his conscience would give him no rest until Episcopacy
was revived. * With characteristic impetuosity he set about
the work at once. The story of his efforts to achieve his
object — of his squabbles with the Presbyterian party, of his
attempts to win over this or that of its leaders, of his dis-
putations, public and private, of his wheedlings and coaxings
and flatterings — is one of the most amusing chapters of our
annals. He succeeded, of course. Presbyterianism was as
yet a plant of too young and weakly a growth to be able to
withstand the efforts of a king backed by all the bishops and
clergy of the Church of England, and in due time it yielded
to their united efforts. Episcopacy was restored in 1606.
The king was delighted. His first care was to provide the
new bishops with robes befitting their resuscitated dignity,
and to fix their social position. He would have been glad if
he could have stopped there, and let the bishops shift for
themselves in finding the means to support their blushing
honours ; but that was out of the question. The new digni-
taries gave him no peace until they had forced him to take in
hand the difficult question himself, and in the end he was
compelled to do so.

Among others, Alexander Douglas, the Bishop of Moray
(1606- 1623), appHed to him for a restoration of his tem-> ^
poralities. James was forced to open negotiations with his^

lOO LORD SPYNIE.

" dear Sandy." Lord Spynie had to make a virtue of neces-
sity. He surrendered his lands for the sum the king offered
him, though with a very bad grace. But being a sharp man
of business, he refused to accept the royal obligation in the
shape of his kingly word ; he insisted on getting the bishop's
bond also. Lord Spynie's death from the wounds sustained
in a street brawl in 1607, between his nephew the Master of
Crawford and the young Lord of Edzell, was the cause of
much subsequent litigation over this edifying transaction.
Spynie's representatives were obdurate ; the poor bishop had
nothing wherewith to pay ; and it ended by the Crown having
to satisfy the claim.

Bishop Douglas's successor was John Guthrie, minister of
Edinburgh. The fifteen years during which he held the see
(162 3- 163 8) were years of trouble and confusion. James VI.
was dead. The Covenanters were in arms against their king,
Charles I., and their cause was distinctly prospering. At last
in 1638 their triumph came. Guthrie, with others of his order,
was cited to appear before the General Assembly that met at
Glasgow in the autumn of 1638, to answer to crimes and mis-
demeanours, not one out of ten of which had any foundation
save in the imagination of their enemies. From the * Letters
of Robert Baillie,' who was one of his judges, and not one of
the most bigoted, we learn what the charges were against
Guthrie. " Moray," he writes, " had all the ordinary faults
of a bishop, besides his boldness to be the first to put on his
sleeves in Edinburgh" — in other words, to wear the proper
dress of his order. For these offences he was deposed.
More fortunate than some of his brethren, he was "not at
this tyme excommunicat." He continued the even tenor
of his ways, teaching and preaching with exemplary assiduity
just as if no such sentence had been pronounced against
' him, and living a quiet domestic life with his wife and

BISHOP GUTHRIE. lOI

family in the castle of Spynie. Foreseeing the troubles
that were likely to ensue, he had six months previously
taken care to "furnish it with all necessary provisioun, men
and meit, ammvnition, pudder and ball." But nothing was
further from the bishop's intentions than actual resistance.
The leaders of the Tables, however, thought differently.
Accordingly in July 1640 they directed General Monro
" to take order " with the redoubtable old churchman.
" Therevpon," says Spalding, " Monro resolues to go to
sie the bischop and the hous of Spynnie. He takis 300
mvskiteiris with him, with puttaris and peicis of ordinance,
with all vther thinges necessar, and leaves the rest of his
regiment behind him lying at Strathbogie abyding his re-
tume. Be the way, sindrie barronis and gentilmen of the
countrie met him and convoyit him to Spynne. The bischop
of Morray (by expectatioun of many) cumis furth of the place,
and spak with Monro, and presentlie but more ado, vpone
Thuirsday i6th July, randeris the hous well furneshit with
meit and mvnitioun. He deliveris the keyis to Monro, who
with sum soldiouris enteris the houss, receavit good inter-
tynnemint. Thaireft^r Monro mellis with the haill armes
within the place, plunderit the bischopis ryding horss, sadill
and bryddill; bot did no more iniury, nor vsit plundering of
anything within or without the houss. He removit all except
the bischop and his wyf, sum barnes and seruandis, whome
he sufferit to remin vnder the gaird of ane capitan, ane liveten-
nand, ane serjand and 24 mvskiteiris, whome he ordered to
keep that houss, quhill forder ordour came from the Tables,
and to leive vpon the rentis of the bischoprik, and onnawayes
to truble the bischopis houshold provisioun, nor be burden-
abill vnto him. Bot the bischop vsit the thrie commanderis
most kyndlie, eiting at his owne table, and the soldiouris wes
sustenit according to directioun forsaid. Monro haueing thus

102 RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF EPISCOPACY.

gottin in this strong strenth by his expectatioun, with so litele
panes, quhilk wes nather for scant nor want given ower, he
returns bak agane to Strathbogie trivmphantlie."

In September Monro returned to Edinburgh, taking with
him the Bishop of Moray, whom he brought a captive at his
victorious chariot-wheels, " up the streitis and presentit him
to the Estates," who "incontinent causit waird him in the
tolbuith of Edinburgh, where he remaint with a havie hart "
till November 1641, when he was released on bail. He
retired to his native county of Forfar, and died there " in the
time of the great rebellion," sometime before the restoration
of Charles II.

The year 1641 saw the Covenant burned by the hand of
the common hangman, and Episcopacy re-established for the
last time. The first bishop under the new regime was Murdoch
Mackenzie (1662-1677), who, according to Keith, was "de-
scended from a younger son of the laird of Gairloch, the first
branch of the family of Seaforth." It is very difficult to arrive
at a proper estimate of his character, so hardly, and, as it
seems, so uncharitably has this prelate been dealt with by the
Covenanting writers of his time. The charge which has been
most persistently pressed is that of an absorbing avarice.
Wodrow, who is especially prejudiced against him, declaims
as to his hypocrisy in preaching about the deceitfulness of
riches "while he was drawing the money over the board to
him." And Alexander Brodie of Brodie, one of the leading
Covenanters in his diocese, expresses himself to the same
effect.

Yet whatever his shortcomings may have been in this
respect, there was much that was strong and attractive about
him. His sturdy common-sense, his courage in giving expres-
sion to his own opinions even when he knew that these were
in opposition to the views of the majority of his hearers, are

BISHOP MACKENZIE. IO3

well exemplified in the proceedings of the General Assembly
of 1656. An Act had been introduced "for promoving pie-
tie." Mackenzie had the manliness to object to it. He did
not see, he said, why masters of families or parents should be
bound under high ecclesiastical pains and penalties to "ex-
plain, catechiz or scriptur " those under their charge. And if,
he went on, in terror of the Act, they were so " impudent " as
to say they had discharged their duties when in point of fact
they had not, he could not understand why they should be
censured, removed from office, or debarred the sacrament.
The fault was not theirs. It was that of the Act or of the
men who made it.

Wodrow tells an amusing story of Bishop Mackenzie in the
days when he was the parish clergyman of Elgin. "As a
minister," he says, "he was famous for searching people's
kitchens on Christmas day for the superstitious goose, telling
them the feathers of them would rise up in judgment against
them one day." In due time, after sixteen years of Episcopal
work in Moray, there comes the rumour that Mackenzie is to
be translated to Orkney, which was not only a richer benefice,
but was then, as now, famous for the excellence of its geese.
Brodie, whom nothing could restrain from interfering in other
people's affairs, must needs speak to the bishop on the sub-
ject " I askd at him, if he wer to remov to a fatter benefice :
Orkney was twice as good. He said, *A goose was good,
and the fatter the better.'" A man who could thus make
good-humoured reference to a story against himself cannot
have been altogether without good points. Robert Baillie
describes him as a "bold, weel- spoken man." And even
Brodie admits the strength of his personal influence over
his flock, which went so far as to induce them to receive the
communion kneeling. His kindness to a boat-load of poor
Nonconformist prisoners taken at Bothwell Brig, who were

104 BISHOP AITKIN.

shipwrecked in Orkney on their voyage to the West Indian
" plantations," to which they had been sentenced to be trans-
ported, is one of the most creditable and best remembered
incidents of his career.

The truth seems to be that Bishop Mackenzie was a man
much in advance of his time. He probablv owed this to his
history. His life had been full of changes and chances. We
first hear of him as chaplain to the troops taken over to
Germany by Lord Reay and the Baron of Fowlis to assist —
not for conscience' sake only — Gustavus Adolphus in his
crusade against Papacy known as the Thirty Years' War.
From that he passed to a quiet country cure — that of Contin
in Ross-shire. From Contin he was transferred to Inverness
( 1 640-1 645), and from there to Elgin. His elevation to the
bishopric of Moray took place in 1662 ; in 1678 he was pro-
moted to Orkney ; and he died, according to Keith, at Kirk-
wall in 1688, the year of the Great Revolution.

James Aitkin, who succeeded him, was an Orcadian — the
son of Henry Aitkin, sheriff and commissary of those islands.
His education was begun at Edinburgh and finished at
Oxford. He was chaplain to the Marquis of Hamilton while
he was the king's commissioner to the General Assembly of
1638, and must have witnessed, and perhaps condemned, its
treatment of the bishops. His next appointment was that of
minister of Birsay, a parish on the mainland of Orkney ; and
Keith records that in that obscure sphere he won the general
esteem of all classes. In 1650, when Montrose landed in
Scotland on that last expedition of his, which ended -in
his defeat and capture before it could be said to have
begun, Aitkin was deputed by his brethren of the Presbytery
to draw up a declaration in their name expressing their
loyalty to the Crown and their resolution to adhere to their
allegiance. For this he and all the other signatories were

BISHOP FALCONAR. IO5

promptly deposed. Aitkin was excommunicated, and an
order for his apprehension issued. He had, however, a friend
at Court His kinsman, Sir Archibald Primrose, was clerk to
the Council, and gave him private notice of his danger.
Aitkin, leaving his family behind him, fled to Holland, where
he remained for the next three years. He returned to Scot-
land in 1653, and sending for his family, lived in hiding in
Edinburgh, like so many others of his cloth, until the Restora-
tion in 1660.

No sooner had the king got his own again than Aitkin
emerged from his concealment. Thomas Sydserf, who had
been Bishop of Galloway, was the only survivor of the old
Scottish bishops. He at once went up to London to offer his
congratulations to his restored king. Aitkin accompanied him.
He was not yet of sufficient importance to be promoted to a
bishopric, but his long devotion to the royal cause was not
suffered to go unrewarded. He was presented by the Bishop
of Winchester to the rectory of Winfirth in Dorsetshire, and
in that pleasant seclusion he spent the next seventeen years
of his life. In 1677 ^^ was consecrated Bishop of Moray.
Three years later he was translated to the see of Galloway.
The vicissitudes of such a life would have been worth re-
cording. Unfortunately no memoir of him exists.

The memory of none of the Protestant bishops is more
cherished than that of Colin Falconar, who occupied the see
from 1680 to 1686. He was a native of the district. His
father, William Falconar, was proprietor of Downduflf, a small
estate on the banks of the river Findhorn. His mother was
Beatrice, daughter of Dunbar of Bogs, — now part of the San-
quhar estate near Forres, — and one of the many families of
that name who claimed kinship with the old Dunbar Earls
of Moray. The Falconars of Downduflf were cadets of the
family of Falconar of Halkerton, — the ancestors* of the Earls

I06 THE LAST BISHOPS OF MORAY.

of Kintore, — who were also proprietors of the lands of Lethen
in Nairnshire. Hence on both sides Colin Falconar could
claim connection with the landed gentry of the district.

His career is in striking contrast to that of his two im-
mediate predecessors. Before his promotion to episcopal
rank he had taken no further part in public business, nor
seen any more of the world than was to be found in the
path of a conscientious parish minister. His first charge
was that of Essil in the Speymouth district ; his next was
that of Forres, where his arms, impaled with those of his
wife, Lillias Rose, granddaughter of William Rose, eleventh
Baron of Kilravock, are still to be seen on a stone built
into the back wing of the Free Church manse of the town.
As minister of Forres he also held the titular rank of Arch-
deacon of Moray. But his first see was not that of the
district where he had spent twenty-seven of the most useful
and hard-working years of his life, but the wild, half-Highland
diocese of Argyll. This appointment, however, he held for
only a few months. In July 1680 he was translated to
Moray, and died at Spynie on nth November 1686 in the
sixty-third year of his age. Personal piety and the blessed
art of peacemaking were his principal characteristics. He
is said to have healed more feuds among the landed gentry
of the district than any other bishop of the diocese either
before or after him.

With Colin Falconar the list of the Bishops of Moray may
be said to have practically come to in end. There were,
indeed, two bishops after him, — Alexander Rose, descended
from the family of Kilravock, consecrated in March 1686 ;
and William Hay, of the family of Park, a cadet of the old
knightly family of Hays of Lochloy in Nairnshire, conse-
crated in February 1688. But the one was translated to
Edinburgh after he had been little more than half a year

ABOLITION OF PRELACY. lO/

Bishop of Moray; and the other suffered the common fate
of the order, and was ejected at the Revolution. The Errol
MS.^ describes Bishop Hay as a man "of very mild and
gentle temper, willing neither to persecute Papists nor Pres-
byterians; so he neither approved of the rigour of penal
laws against the one, nor allowed his clergy to vex the
other. And they having once asked him, *What, then,
shall we do? for the schismatick preachers will prevail,'
he said, 'Excel them in life and doctrine/"

The Act finally abolishing Prelacy was passed in 1689,
and with it Bishop Hay's episcopal functions ceased. He
might perhaps have been allowed to continue in the incum-
bency of St Giles, the parish kirk of Elgin, if he had con-
sented to pray for William and Mary by name. But this
his conscience would not allow him to do, and in October
of the same year he was deprived of his benefice. He
retired to Inverness, and lived for sixteen years afterwards,
a martyr to disease and ill-health. He died on 19th March
1707 in the sixtieth year of his age. A monument, which
may possibly have been intended to adorn the walls of the
old High Kirk there (replaced in 1770 by the present build-
ing), describes him as "a prelate of primitive piety and of
the highest eloquence, and everywhere the faithful champion
of the Church and of the royal dignity." ,

The bishopric of Moray lasted 581 years in all. During
the whole of that long period its influence upon the district
had been one distinctly for good. To it Moray owes almost
everything — its high standard of civilisation, the growth of
its towns, its unbroken peacefulness, all those memories
and traditions which are its proudest inheritance. Until
within very recent days Elgin had all the quiet, all the
stateliness, all the amenity of a cathedral city. Little of

^ Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 297.

I08 DECADENCE OF THE CATHEDRAL.

that exists now. What alone distinguishes it from other
provincial towns of Scotland is the ruins of its cathedral.

The sure and steady decadence of that once magnificent
structure is a story as painful as it is discreditable. It
reached its lowest depth in the beginning of the present
century, when it was saved from utter dissolution by the
pious efforts of an obscure cobbler. Its present ruined
condition is due much more to the indifference of those
whose duty it was to protect it, than to religious or political
fanaticism, or to the vicissitudes of troublous times.

No doubt the storms of the Reformation had not suffered
it to rest unscathed. In 1567 or 1568, during the regency
of the Earl of Moray, the Privy Council issued an order in
which, after stating that it was necessary that "provisioun
be maid for the enterteining of the men of weir quhais
services cannot be sparit," "it was appointed that the lead
should be taken from the cathedral churches in Elgyne and
Aberdeen, and sauld and disponit upon for sustentation of
the said men of weir." Young, the annalist of Elgin, suggests
with considerable probability that the spire of the great steeple
and the steeples of the two western towers were made of wood,
and that it was their leaden roofing which was removed. But
removed some lead assuredly was, and this lead was sold and
placed on board a ship to be conveyed to Holland. Tradition
asserts that it never reached its destination. The ship, its
crew, and its cargo were lost on the voyage, and the sacrilege
was atoned.

In 1569, the political atmosphere being for the moment
more serene, an attempt was made to repair the damage. The
bishop and some of the canons intimated that they were
willing to **pay ane ressonabill contributioun, for mending,
theking, and reparaling of the Cathedrall Kirk of Moray " ;
and the Privy Council, never unwilling to countenance any

DEMOLITION OF SCREEN. I09

project of the kind so long as it was not to cost the national
exchequer a farthing, accordingly published an edict directing
the "Abbot of Kinloss, the Prior of Pluscarden, the Dean,
Canons, Parsons, and Vicars and utheris beneficit men within
the boundris of the said Diocie of Murray," to go and do
likewise, under pain of being denounced rebels and put to
the horn. But nothing came of it, notwithstanding the heavy
penalty attached to disobedience of the order, and the gradual
decay of the structure went on unchecked.

In 1637 the roof- tree of the choir was destroyed by a
violent wind-storm. In 1 640 Gilbert Ross, minister of Elgin,
aided and abetted by the lairds of Innes and Brodie and
others, all ardent Covenanters, without authority from pres-
bytery or council, in an outburst of bigotry demolished the
rich timber screen which separated the nave from the
choir. It had survived the Reformation nearly " sevin scoir
yearis," and its merits as a work of art might have saved
it. In its very beauty these intemperate bigots probably
detected a snare and a delusion. "On the wast syde," says
Spalding, "wes painted in excellent cuUoris, illuminat with
starris of bright gold, the crucefixing of our blessed Saueour
Jesus Christ. This peice wes so excellentlie done, that the
cullouris nor starris never faidit nor evanishit, bot keipit
haill and sound as thay were at the beginning notwithstand-
ing this college or channourie Kirk wantit the roof sen the
refourmatioun, and no haill wyndo thairintill to saif the
same from storme, snaw, sleit, or weit, quhilk myself saw,
and mervallous to consider. On the vther syde of this
wall, towardis the east, wes drawin the day of judgement
Aluayes all is throwne doun to the ground. It wes said
this minister causit bring hame to his hous the tymber
thairof, and burne for serving his keching and vther vses :
bot ilk nicht the fyre went out that it wes burnt, and could

no JOHN SHANKS.

not be haldin in to kyndle the morning f5nre as vse is ;
whairat the servandis and vtheris mervallit, and thainipone
the minister left of and forboor to bring in or burne ony
more of that tymber in his hous. This was markit, spred
throw Elgyne, and crediblie reportit to myself."

In 1 71 1, on Pace Sunday, the great tower fell. "It had
probably," says Young, " been undermined by masons of the
town removing stones from it." Some children and people
had been walking about it in the morning, but it fell during
breakfast-time and no one was hurt. For more than a century
afterwards the ruins were used as a quarry ; the precinct wall
fell ; the churchyard became overgrown with weeds, and
littered with every kind of rubbish.

And so things continued till the year 1824, when a certain
John Shanks, " an idle gossiping creature," who had been a
" drouthy cobbler " in the High Street of Elgin, was for some
services rendered to the winning party at a parliamentary
election appointed to the keepership of the cathedral. He
was a thin, lank, spider-like being, with a quiet earnest enthu-
siasm in his manner, who dressed habitually in a red Kil-
marnock bonnet, short breeches, and rig-and-fur stockings,
— "a sort of Old Mortality," says Billings, "whose delight
it was to labour among ruins and tombs." No sooner
was he appointed than he set vigorously to work to clear
away the accumulated rubbish. With his own hands he
removed nearly three thousand barrowfuls of litter. The
Morayshire Farmers' Club, hearing of the good work he
was doing, sent him horses and carts to carry away the
sweepings. When he had finished his labours he had not
only made the place tidy and approachable, but had laid
bare the traces of its original plan, the elevations at the
high altar, the stairs at the western gate, and discovered many
tombs and ornaments buried deep within ' the waste. But, as

/

THE PRIORY OF PLUSCARDEN. Ill

he said to Lord Cockburn, who made his acquaintance in
1838, "the rubbish made an auld man of me." He died on
the 14th April 1841, aged eighty-three. A stone, now built
into the precinct wall of the cathedral, bearing an epitaph
written by Lord Cockburn, preserves, in language not one
whit too strong, the memory of his pious work. " For seven-
teen years," it says, " he was the Keeper and the Shower of
this Cathedral, and while not even, the Crown was doing any-
thing for its preservation, he with his own hands cleared it of
many thousand cubic yards of rubbish, disclosing the bases of
its pillars, collecting the carved fragments, and introducing
some order and propriety. Whoso reverences the Cathedral
will respect the memory of this man."

The Reformers had, on the whole, dealt gently with the
cathedral. They had shown no desire to injure it except when
the exigencies of the political situation rendered it necessary
to take advantage of its riches. So long as nothing more than
the abolition of Roman Catholicism was aimed at, so long as
Prelacy should continue an institution of the State, the pre-
servation of the cathedral as the chief church of the diocese
was, if not an absolute necessity, at any rate in the highest
degree expedient.

And it was the same with the other religious edifices within
the bishopric, which belonged not to the secular clergy but to
the regulars. They all ceased to exist, no doubt, as institu-
tions, but the buildings themselves were uninjured. "The
rooks were driven away, but their nests were not harried."

Of these establishments one of the most important was the
Priory of Pluscarden. Six miles south-west of Elgin is an
oval valley, or rather basin, completely surrounded by fir-clad
hills. Those on the north are called the Heldon, those on
the south the Kellas, hills. A little stream — the Lochty or
Black Bum — runs through it from end to end. The soil is

112 ITS ASPECT AND ARRANGEMENTS.

fertile, the air is pure, the surroundings in the highest degree
attractive. The first things the traveller observes as he enters
this peaceful valley are the mined tower and sharp roofless
gable of what has evidently been an important religious edifice.
The rest of the building is invisible, concealed under a rich
growth of dark ivy, or screened from sight by the thick foliage
of magnificent old trees. This valley is what was known in
medieval days as the vale of St Andrew, and the ruins are
those of the Priory of Pluscarden. Few more picturesque
exist in Scotland. They remind one of Dryburgh in much
the same way as those of Elgin Cathedral remind one of
Lincoln, and for the same reason^ They both belong to
very nearly the same period.

Though the hand of time has dealt hardly with the building,
the remains that still exist bear unmistakable evidence that no
priory in the kingdom was better furnished with all the com-
forts and conveniences for a monastic life. There was a choir,
used as a chapel, with a suitable vestry ; there was a Lady's
chapel, a calefactory, a refectory, and a spacious cloister-court.
On the second floor were the dormitories, and perhaps also a
scriptorium. The prior's house stood apart from the main
building, and close beside it stood the mill of the monastery.
There may have been other buildings within the precinct wall
— a guest-house at any rate — but of these there are now no
distinguishable traces. Nothing that would conduce to the
material wellbeing of the inmates seems to have been omitted.
Spacious vaults for the storage of fuel and provisions ; a
kitchen with a great fireplace at the eastern end, and two
windows opening into the refectory, one large for the heroic
feasts of festival days, the other smaller for everyday repasts ;
pantries, cellars, and " awmries " ; a lake which may have
done service as a fish-pond; and a spacious garden full of
all manner of vegetables and fruit-trees, some of the latter of

THE MONKS OF PLUSCARDEN. II3

which are alive to this day. In one of the walls are still to
be seen the recesses where the monks placed their beehives.

In addition to all this the monks possessed broad acres,
granges, rights of fishing, multures, casualties, and all those other
pertinents of land which in those days made heritable property
the most desirable of all earthly possessions. An abstract of
the rental of the priory at the time of the Reformation shows
an annual income of ;^796 of money and 2274 bolls of
victual, besides 468 barrels or 39 lasts of salmon, not counting
such trifles as the customary dues of " muttons, kyddis, and
pultries."

The owners of this great estate were a community of
monks who followed the rule of the monastery of the Vallis
Caulium (Val des Choux) in Burgundy. It was a combina-
tion of Carthusian strictness with Cistercian relaxation. The
monks met together at certain stated periods in the calefac-
tory and refectory, but at other times led a life of the most
absolute seclusion and solitude. The only other monas-
teries of the order known to have existed in Scotland are
Beauly in Ross-shire and Ardchattan in Argyll. All the
three were founded in the same year (1230). The rule,
which had only received the papal sanction twenty-five years
before, was for the moment the fashion. Pluscarden owed
its establishment to the king himself (Alexander II.), —
Beauly and Ardchattan to the piety of private founders.

The head of the monastery was the prior, and he had
sixteen monks under his rule. As for the lay brothers and
fratres adscripti, their number must have been considerable ;
for a monastery established by royal munificence was not
likely to be deficient in anjrthing that would conduce to its
comfort or importance.

At first the priory was independent of the bishopric. But
in 1233 the bishop took the house under his protection, and

H

114 "REFORMATION" OF PLUSCARDEN.

the thin edge of the wedge was introduced, which ended a
century later in his successors claiming and extorting full
visitorial, institutional, and deprivatory rights over it

As for its history, it is unfortunately too similar to that
of many another religious house in Scotland. For a time
its influence was entirely for good. But with its increasing
riches came an increasing relaxation in the morals of its
inmates. And before what is called its reformation — a term
which, however, has nothing whatever to do with its morality
— the irregularities of profession which prevailed within it
were, if we may trust tradition, considerable. But it was
no worse than other religious houses in the district. Within
its nearest neighbour, the Priory of Urquhart, which was
distant eleven or twelve miles farther east, the same state
of affairs existed, if indeed things there were not somewhat
worse. It was a house that belonged to the Benedictines
or Black Monks, and was an older establishment than
Pluscarden, having been founded by David I. — that "sair
sanct for the croun" — in 1124-25, after his succession to
his brother Alexander's share of the kingdom.

It was not, however, the laxity of discipline that prevailed
in either, but the diminution of the number of their inmates,
that was put forward as the plea for the union of the two
houses which subsequently ensued. In the middle of the
fifteenth century the monks of Pluscarden were reduced to
six, those of Urquhart to two. On the 12th March 1453-54
Pope Nicholas V. published a bull uniting the two houses,
with the assent of their respective priors. The buildings
of Pluscarden were the larger and the more commodious.
But Urquhart was a cell of Dunfermline — an abbey whose
heads were sufficiently powerful to exercise a considerable
influence in affairs both secular and ecclesiastical in the
kingdom. This consideration prevailed. The Black Monks

THE * LIBER PLUSCARDENSIS/ II5

displaced the White Monks, and continued in possession
of the properties of both until the secularisation of the re-
ligious houses which ensued after the Reformation. Such was
the manner and such were the circumstances under which
the Priory of Pluscarden was reformed. Its last ecclesias-
tical head was Alexander Dunbar, of the family of Dunbars
of Westfield, heritable sheriffs of Moray, who died in. 15 60.

Much of our interest in this establishment arises from the
fact that within its walls the * Liber Pluscardensis ' was com-
piled. Based largely on Bower's * Scotichronicon,' which in
its turn is founded on Fordun's * Chronica Gentis Scotorum,'
it is nevertheless in many respects the narrative of an eye-
witness to the events which it relates ; and as such it has
been accepted as one of our most valuable authorities for
early Scottish history. Like the * Scotichronicon,' it closes
with the death of King James I., though it was apparently
intended to have been brought down to a later period. The
writer's name is nowhere given. Internal evidence, however,
points to its having been written about the year 1461 by
Maurice Buchanan, a cleric, who had been treasurer to the
Dauphiness of France, the Princess Margaret of Scotland.

Within what is now the town of Elgin were two other
religious houses — those of the Greyfriars, who were Obser-
vantines of the Franciscan order, and of the Blackfriars, who
were Benedictines. The monastery of the Greyfriars was at
the time of the Reformation a comparatively modern struc-
ture, having been built by Bishop John Innes (140 7-1 4 14)
in substitution for an older building on a different site.^ The
other was contemporary with the cathedral itself.^ Both were
allowed to fall into decay, and beyond the fact of their

•

^ Its long'ruinous chapel is now being restored by the Marquis of Bute.
* The date of its foundation is given by Spottiswoode ( ' Religious
Houses,' chap, xv.) as 1233 or 1234.

Il6 THE ABBEY OF KINLOSS.

existence they have no history. The same fate befell the
preceptory of the Maisondieu, which was built in the time
of Alexander II., and rebuilt after its destruction by the
Wolf of Badenoch.

A few miles north-east of Forres, on land whose principal
characteristics are its flatness and fertility, stand the ruins
of the Abbey of Kinloss. The legend of its foundation is
not unlike that of Holyrood.

King David I., while hunting one day in the vicinity of
Forres, lost his way in the hopeless tangle of a very thick
wood. He was alone; the thicket appeared impenetrable;
outlet he could find none. In his emergency he betook
himself to prayer. His petition was answered by the ap-
parition of a white dove, which, flying gently before him,
at last guided him to an open spot, where he found two
shepherds tending their flocks. They offered him the shelter
of their humble dwelling for the night. In his sleep the
Virgin appeared to him and directed him to erect a chapel
on the spot where he had been so miraculously preserved.
Before he left in the morning he had marked out, with his
sword, on the greensward the limits of the building he meant
to erect. As soon as he got back to the Castle of DufRis,
where he was for the moment residing, he sent for archi-
tects and masons; and on the 20th June 1150 the founda-
tions of the Abbey of Kinloss were laid.

The monks whom he placed there belonged to the Cis-
tercian Order, for which he had a very strong predilection;
and in their hands it remained till it was suppressed along
with the other religious houses at the Reformation. Long
before that time, however, it had grown over-rich and over-
luxurious, and one can hardly say that its fate was undeserved.

The only one of its abbots who achieved distinction worth
recording was Robert Reid, who ruled it from 1526 to 1540.

ABBOT REID. II7

He was a very wise, learned, cultured, and generous prelate ;
and his sudden death at Dieppe in 1558 — not without sus-
picion of poisoning — on his way home from France, where
he had been sent as one of the commissioners from Scotland
to witness the marriage of Mary Stewart with the Dauphin,
is a well-known story. He was President of the Court of
Session and one of its ordinary judges in 1554; and being
the first person who "mortified" a sum of money "towards
founding a college in Edinburgh for the education of youth,"
he may, as Keith says, "be justly reckoned as the founder
of its University."

It is, however, with his connection with Kinloss that we
are more particularly concerned. Even in that obscure
sphere of influence he found an outlet for his unwearied
and enlightened energy. Moray, with its genial climate, has
long been famous for its gardens, and especially for its
orchards. It owes this taste in great degree to Abbot Reid.
He brought a gardener from France who was an expert in
the planting and grafting of fruit-trees — a man who in his
younger days had been a soldier, and had lost a leg in a
sea-fight with the Spaniards at Marseilles. How many of
the 123 varieties of pears and 146 varieties of apples which
are still to be found within the district — including such local
celebrities as the pear called "the grey guid-wife" and the
oslin apple — we owe to the abbot and his one-legged
gardener we cannot tell. But the memory of both the one
and the other is surely more worthy of grateful remembrance
than that of many another whose "storied urn or animated
bust" once adorned the great cathedral of Elgin.

Abbot Reid was also a great patron of the fine arts, and
we are told how he invited the celebrated painter Andrew
Bairhum to Kinloss, and employed him for three years in
painting altar-pieces for the three chapels in its church, which

Il8 THE LIBRARY OF THE ABBEY.

were dedicated to the Magdalene, St John the Evangelist,
and St Thomas of Canterbury respectively. He erected a
spacious fire -proof f library, too, within the abbey, and fur-
nished it with many a valuable tome. And on his return
from Rome, carrying with him the papal bull which con-
ferred upon him the abbacy, he induced his friend, the
celebrated Piedmontese scholar Ferrerius, to accompany him
to Scotland, and installed him at the abbey, where he spent
the next five years of his life in the instruction of the
monks and in the preparation of certain literary works, some
of which yet survive. Amongst these is a life of Thomas
Crystall, who was abbot from 1504 to 1535, and another of
his friend and benefactor, Abbot Reid.

III.

THE EARLDOM OF MORAY

III.

THE EARLDOM OF MORAY.

THE MEN OF MORAY A DANGER TO THE STATE — THEY ARE DRIVEN
TO THE HILLS, AND THE LAIGH GRANTED TO FOREIGN SETTLERS
— THE FREEMEN OF MORAY LOYAL TO BRUCE — THE CASTLE OF
ELGIN — KING EDWARD's PEACEFUL CONQUEST OF SCOTLAND — THE
BATTLE OF STIRLING— JOHN, EARL OF BUCHAN, EDWARD'S LIEU-
TENANT IN MORAY — BANNOCKBURN — RANDOLPH, FIRST EARL OF
MORAY — THE RANDOLPHS — THE DUNBARS : "BLACK AGNES OF
DUNBAR" — THE DOUGLASES — THE STEWARTS — THE GORDONS:
*'THE COCK OF THE NORTH" — THE STEWARTS AGAIN: **THE
GOOD EARL OF MORAY," "THE BONNIE EARL OF MORAY" — EARL
FRANCIS, THE ARBORICULTURIST — THE EARL AND THE SHERIFF.

About the time of Malcolm Ceannmor, as we have seen, the
title of maormor as the head of the district disappears, and
that of earl takes its place.

But it is not until we reach the fourteenth century that we
meet with anything approaching to the modern conception of
the dignity of the earldom. The feudalisation of the province
was a gradual process, which took more than two hundred
years to effect.

During the greater part of this period the Men of Moray, a
warlike and impetuous race, were a thorn in the side of the
Scottish kings. By alliance with others of their kind they had
become a powerful body — a great tribe, in fact, consisting of

122 THE MEN OF MORAY.

many different clans, yet all in sqme way or another connected
with the Lorn Kings of Dalriada, from whom their first
maormors had sprung. Attempts to introduce law and order
amongst them had hitherto been in vain. With Celtic tenacity
they clung to their old wild ways, and cherished their old
warlike habits as if these constituted a moral code of infallible
excellence. They were seriously retarding the progress of
national civilisation, and not only so, but rapidly becoming a
danger to the State.

At length in the reign of Malcolm IV., surnamed "the
Maiden" (1153-1165), a serious effort was made to grapple
with the evil. The young king — he was only twenty-four
when he died — is said by Fordun to have invaded the district
of Moravia, and to have removed all the inhabitants " from
the land of their birth, as of old Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon, had dealt with the Jews, and scattered them through-
out the other districts of Scotland, both beyond the hills and
on this side thereof, so that not even a native of that land
abode there. And he installed therein his own peaceful
people." There is undoubtedly some truth in this story,
though it is unnecessary to believe it in its integrity. An
attempt at the plantation of Moray was certainly made in
1 160, with some degree of success. The Men of Moray were
driven behind the hills. The fertile lands of the Laigh —
betwixt the Spey and the Findhorn — were granted to foreign
settlers, and many families were then founded who subse-
quently rose to high name and estate within the district
As examples we may instance those of De Moravia, whose
history will be referred to in the sequel, and of the Inneses,
who became in after- years the hereditary enemies of the
Dunbars. The charter is still preserved which grants the
lands of " Incess," from whom the family afterwards took its

THE PLANTATION OF MORAY. 1 23

surname, " et Ester-Urecard " (Easter Urquhart) to Berowald
the Fleming In 1165. Such settlements, however, were along
the seaboard only.

It may well be believed that the extruded inhabitants left
nothing undone to harass the foreigners who were now in
possession of the lands that had once been their own. From
this time, probably, the terror of the Gaelic-speaking people
which prevailed through all the subsequent history of Moray
took its rise. From this time it became an article of faith
with all the inhabitants of the district, in the words of the
local proverb, " To speak weil o' the Hielands, but to dwell
in the Laigh." The periodical visits of the Highland cater-
ans were, it may almost be said, the one and only cause
of misery the people of Moray had in the future. In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the evil had reached its
height. "Morayland, quhair all men taks thair prey," is a
phrase that occurs in a letter of the period (1645) written by
Lochiel, the head of the Clan Cameron. It is the testimony
of an expert.

The wise policy of the Maiden King's advisers was scrupu-
lously persevered in by his successors. At the beginning of
the thirteenth century the freemen of Moray had become, as
we shall presently, see, a body of sufficient importance to
have their grievances represented in the highest quarters.

The year 1290 saw the death of Margaret the Maiden
of Norway, the unfortunate child who died on her voyage to
Scotland to take possession of the crown, to which she had
succeeded as heir to her grandfather, Alexander III. Her
death plunged the nation into all the troubles of a disputed
succession. Of the thirteen competitors for, the crown, the
two between whom it soon became apparent the choice
would ultimately lie were John Balliol, Lord of Galloway,

124 THE GREAT COMPETITION.

who claimed in right of his wife, Devorgilla, a daughter
of Margaret, eldest daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon,
grandson of King David; and Robert Bruce, Lord of An-
nandale, who was a son of Margaret's younger sister Isobel.
Meantime, until their respective claims could be adjusted, the
affairs of Scotland were administered by a council of regency,
consisting of six persons who had been appointed guardians
of the kingdom on the death of King Alexander in 1286.

The rival claims of the two competitors naturally produced
differences amongst the guardians. Two of their number,
William Fraser, Bishop of St Andrews, and John Comyn,
Lord of Badenoch, were keen partisans of Balliol. It ended
by their getting the upper hand of their colleagues and virtu-
ally assuming the supreme power.

The arbiter to whom both parties agreed to refer their
claims was Edward I. of England; and in 1291 the pro-
ceedings in the great competition began. Edward's first step
was to induce parties to acknowledge him as Lord Superior
of Scotland, and as such entitled to adjudicate in the matter
before him. And that done, the pleadings began.

Amongst the papers lodged in process is an " appellatio " or
appeal by Donald, Earl of Mar, on behalf of himself and of
the fi*eemen or Crown tenants of Moray. It is a powerful
protest in aid of Bruce's pretensions against the illegal acts
of the two guardians and their substitutes. Not only had
they " destroyed and depredated " the lands of the peaceful
inhabitants of Moray, the earl's friends and adherents, but
they had burned towns and granaries full of corn, had carried
away the produce of the country, "and cruelly murdered
men, women, and little children." It was alleged that this
was all the fault of the guardians. If they had not permitted
such excesses, they had suffered the perpetrators to go un-

EDWARD I. IN MORAY. 12$

punished. There was no use to appeal for redress to the men
who ought to have been the protectors of the people. Ac-
cordingly this " appellatio " was laid before the Lord Superior
of the kingdom, who was now the special protector and de-
fender of the country. No special notice seems to have been
taken of this document. But as showing on which side the
sympathies of the Men of Moray lay from the first, it is of
considerable importance to local history.

The story of BallioFs submission to Edward, of his despic-
able acceptance of the sovereignty as a fief of the English
Crown, of his coronation at Scone on St Andrew's Day in the
year 1292, of Edward's continued interference in Scottish
affairs, of BallioPs citation and appearance before the English
Parliament to answer, like a common delinquent, to a charge
preferred against him by one of his own subjects, of his
resentment of the indignity, of his attempt to reassert the
independence of his country, of his renunciation of fealty to
Edward, of the English king's advance into Scotland to bring
his recalcitrant vassal to his knees, of the defeat of the Scot-
tish army at Dunbar in May 1296, of Balliol's submission in
the churchyard of Strathcathro, holding the white wand of
penitence in his hand, of his deposition at Brechin, and his
subsequent confinement in the Tower of London, — these
belong not to local but to national history.

What has a more especial interest for us is Edward's sub-
sequent march to the north of Scotland to rivet the fetters
of his suzerainty upon the paralysed limbs of the men whom
he now considered as his Scottish subjects. Fortunately
we possess in the Norman-French journal of a person who ac-
companied the expedition a reliable itinerary of his progress.
On the 25th July 1296 Edward with his army crossed the
Spey, and encamped on a manor called Rapenache, " in the

126 THE KING ENTERS ELGIN.

country of Moray." This manor of Rapenache cannot now
with certainty be identified, but local research has fixed upon
the lands of Redhall, near the old ferry of Bellie, where they
slope down towards the church of Speymouth, as the spot
where Edward passed his first night in the county.

Striking his camp next morning at daybreak and following
the course of the via regia — the broad king's highway — which
then, as now, traversed the country from the Spey to the Ness,
passing by the priory of Urquhart, the manor of Lhanbride,
and the fiat wooded lands round Fosterseat, the English army
crossed the bum of Linkwood near its confluence with the
Lossie, somewhere about the place now known as the Waulk-
mill, and then, turning northwards through the Maisondieu
lands and the Spittalflat (the Leper Hospital field), entered
" la cite D'eign " (Elgin) as evening approached. Here he
found " bon chastell et bonne vtlle,^^ and accordingly made
up his mind to remain a couple of days.

The castle stood on the top of a little hog-backed eminence
— ^^ CO His leviter et modice edituSy* originally called the Castle-
hill, but now known by the name of the Ladyhill, situated at
the western extremity of the High Street. It commanded a
wide and enchanting prospect. It stood in the centre of a
flat, almost circular, basin, surrounded by low hills — a basin
round which the placid Lossie twisted and twined in a succes-
sion of curves graceful as the coils of a serpent. Immediately
below it, on the north, in the midst of a fertile haugh adjoin-
ing the river, stood the monastery of the Blackfriars, em-
bowered in gardens and orchards. A little distance off, to-
wards the east, clustered the quaint gables and thatched roofs
of the good town of Elgin, and behind them the imposing out-
line of its great and grave cathedral. Between these two
points the eye caught, or fancied it caught, at times the glint

THE CASTLE OF ELGIN. 1 27

of the sea or the misty outline of the Cromarty hills. Towards
the east the principal object of attraction was the hospital of
the Maisondieu, while away to the south-west the landscape
was obscured by a belt of thick wood, buried amongst whose
leafy retreats, invisible, yet by some strange magnetism
making its existence felt, stood the beautiful priory of
Pluscarden.

Some sort of a royal residence must have existed on the
site for a considerable period before this, for Elgin was a
king's burgh in the time of David I., and a castle of Elgin is
mentioned as existing as early as the time of Malcolm the
Maiden. William the Lion, Alexander 11. , and Alexander
III. had all resided within it. But whether this was the
structure in which Edward took up his quarters, or whether it
was an older and perhaps wooden building, we do not know.
Nor does the melancholy fragment of wall which still surmounts
the Ladyhill give us much help in forming an idea of what
this old stronghold was like. Yet from other sources we learn
that the epithet of the old journalist was not misplaced. It
was " bon chastell " even in an age which could produce such
structures as Bothwell and Dunstaffnage.

It occupied a space of about 240 feet in length and 150
feet in breadth. It was enclosed by a high wall, with, in all
probability, towers at its angles, and a crenelated parapet like
those of other fortresses of the day. The space within this
wall was divided into two courts (pallid) by a transverse wall.
In the outer one, where the principal gateway was, stood the
men's barracks and the storehouses. In the inner one was
the keep— a building of three or four storeys in height, com-
prising on its various floors dungeon, hall, armoury, and
sleeping - apartments ; and probably also a range of wooden
buildings containing a hall, wardrobe-room, and royal chamber.

128 THE LADYHILL— FLORENTIUS VOLUSENUS.

Here also was the chapel, dedicated to the Virgin, from which
the height takes its modem name. Long after the castle had
been abandoned as a residence, this chapel seems to have
been used as a place of public worship. It was certainly in
existence in the sixteenth century, though in what condition
cannot be stated with accuracy. And though not a single
stone of it now remains, it is still remembered by scholars as
the prototype of the Temple of Tranquillity of Florence Wilson,
better known as Florentius Volusenus (i 504-1 546), the only
philosophical writer of any distinction which the district has
produced, and the author of an admirable treatise, * De Animi
tranquillitate,* which, however, has never received the amount
of attention which its ethical and literary merits deserve.

As for the castle itself, it was very near the end of its exist-
ence. Two years after this, or thereabouts, — the date can only
be approximately given, — when the Scots had regained the
upper hand, it was razed to the ground, like Inverness and
many other of the northern strongholds. But by whose hand
and under what circumstances it was demolished remains, and
probably must for ever remain, a mystery.

A curious tradition, which is also told of the Castle of
Lochindorb in Cromdale, preserves the memory of its English
occupation, and of its recovery by the Scots. It is said that
the "pestilence long hovered over it," in the shape of "a
dark blue vapour," until it was " by one sudden great exertion
pulled down and buried in the hill."

Edward remained in Elgin from Thursday the 26th to
Sunday the 29th. He had a magnificent reception. He was
met on his approach to the city by the local and municipal
authorities, with Sir Reginald le Chen of Duffus, the sheriff, at
their head, and a band of minstrels " playing on tabors, horns,
cymbals, sackbuts, trumpets, and Moorish flutes." He trans^
acted a good deal of business, too, during his four days' stay.

KING EDWARD'S STAY IN ELGIN. 1 29

He received the submission not only of the burgesses and
community of Elgin, and of the bishop and clergy of the
diocese, but of many knights and gentlemen of distinction.
Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, one of the ablest statesmen
of the time, who had been one of the guardians of the king-
dom, also presented himself and took the oath of fealty.
Altogether his visit to Elgin was attended with very satisfactory
results. Things, indeed, looked so propitious that he made
up his mind that there was no need for him to prosecute his
journey farther. Not a cloud, even though it were no bigger
than a man's hand, obscured the political horizon. All
Scotland lay bound and shackled at his feet. So serene,
indeed, was the outlook, that Edward determined to summon
a Parliament. It was at Elgin that the writs summoning
the memorable Parliament that met at Berwick on the
28th August were issued. This done, the king proceeded
to garrison all the northern strongholds — Elgin, Forres,
Nairn, Inverness, Dingwall, and Cromarty — with English
troops ; and having thus taken effectual measures for the
continual peace of the district, he and his army, with the
banner of St Cuthbert at their head, set out on their home-
ward journey.

The Parliament of Berwick was the high -water mark of
Edward's success. One has only to glance over the Rag-
man Roll to see how complete was his almost bloodless
conquest of the kingdom. Scotland had become an English
garrison. Edward had trodden down — he believed he had
stamped out — ^its nationality. From the date of that memor-
able parliament he thought he could sleep in peace. He was
destined to be rudely awakened.

In the spring of the following year (1297) an alarming
rebellion broke out in the southern districts of the kingdom.
The moving spirit of this insurrection was William Wallace,

I

I30 SIR ANDREW MORAY.

son of Malcolm Wallace of EUerslie, a country gentleman of
no great estate. But he had for his associates such men as
Sir Andrew Moray of Pettie and Bothwell ; Sir William
Douglas, better known as " William Longleg," seventh Baron
of Douglas ; James the Steward of Scotland and his son ;
Sir Alexander Lindesay ; Sir Richard Lundin ; and Wishart,
Bishop of Glasgow, who by this time had apparently repented
of his submission to England in the previous year. Very
soon the rebellion spread to the north. In a short time all
the country from Inverness to Aberdeen was on fire. The
royal castles were attacked) and their keepers were slain or
captured. Duffus, the residence of Sir Reginald le Chen,
the sheriff, was burned, as were also the castles of Forres
and Elgin.

The leader of this new and alarming outbreak was Sir
Andrew Moray, a son of Andrew Moray, a younger brother
of Sir William Moray of Bothwell, the head of the family.
Sir William was at that time a prisoner in England, but his
brother Andrew was a staunch supporter of the patriotic
cause. His death, which occurred before that of his brother
Sir William, took place ere he had achieved any distinc-
tion. The prestige which attaches to the name of Andrew
Moray as the right hand of Wallace in promoting the inde-
pendence of the kingdom is due, therefore, not to Andrew
Moray the elder, as is commonly asserted, but to his son,
Sir Andrew Moray.

These Morays derived their surname, though not their
origin, from a family which was one of the noblest in the
north. Freskinus de Moravia, its founder, Lord of Strabrok
in the county of Linlithgow, was one of those settlers whom
King David I., by a large grant of territory, had introduced
into the district from the south. His elder son, Hugh, is
the first authentic ancestor of the Earls of Sutherland ; while

THE BATTLES OF STIRLING AND FALKIRK. 131

his younger son, Andrew, holds the same relation to the
more locally important family of De Moravia of Duffus and
Pettie in Inverness-shire. Somewhere about the middle of
the thirteenth century a Walter Moray of Pettie had married
the heiress of the Olifards of Bothwell, and had thus added
these wide and valuable estates to his own.

The outcome of the fires thus kindled at either extremity
of the kingdom was the battle of StirHng (nth September
1297). The English were routed completely. Surrey, the
English commander, took to flight. Scotland for the moment
was free. But Wallace's satisfaction was chastened, for his
brave comrade and colleague in the wardenship of the king-
dom, Sir Andrew Moray, met a soldier's death in the fight.

The disastrous defeat of the Scots, however, at the battle
of Falkirk in the following year (1298), brought Wallace's rule
to a termination, and he had to flee the country. It was a
crushing blow, but the Scots had no intention of discontinu-
ing the struggle. They immediately chose as governors John
Comyn of Badenoch, better known as the Red Comyn, and
John de Soulis, and the fight for freedom went on as before.

In 1303 matters had reached such a height that it was
plain that if Edward was to retain his suzerainty he could
only do so by force of arms. Collecting a great army — an
army so great that resistance was impossible — he entered
Scotland, burning, pillaging, and devastating wherever he
went. From Edinburgh he proceeded to Aberdeen, and
from thence by Banff" and Elgin to Kinloss. At this point
he turned southward and struck into the heart of Moray.
Scouring the hills and plains, he at last reached Lochindorb.

This old stronghold of the Comyns, Lords of Badenoch,
whose owner was, as we have seen, for the time being the
senior guardian of the kingdom, is situated in Cromdale,
about seven miles from Grantown. It is erected on an

4 -t

132 LOCHINDORB REDUCED.

island, partly artificial, about a Scottish acre in extent, in
the middle of the wild Highland loch of the same name,
which is about two miles long by three-quarters of a mile
broad. The castle, judging by its existing ruins, was built
in the usual quadrilateral form of such structures of the
period, and enclosed by walls 7 feet thick and 20 feet high.
It had four round towers, one at each of its corners, 23 feet
in diameter and two storeys high. These towers were the
living-rooms of the garrison. The courtyard within the quad-
rilateral walls served as a place of security for the stores, the
horses, and the cattle of the garrison. On the whole of the
southern and on part of the eastern sides of the castle was
an outer enclosing wall, which must have added immensely
to its strength.

The reduction of Lochindorb was effected without diffi-
culty. And here Edward took up his quarters for a month,
occupying himself in receiving the submission of all the
chiefs and prominent men of the district. Having fortified
the castle and placed a garrison in it, he turned his steps
southward, and took up his winter quarters at Dunfermline.

All went well with him for a time after this. Comyn, the
one governor, after a last expiring effort of resistance in the
neighbourhood of Stirling, submitted to Edward, and was
readily admitted into favour. As for John de Soulis, the
other, he was absent in France. By the end of 1304 the
subjection of Scotland was complete, and Edward was able
to hold his Christmas at Lincoln "with great solemnity and
rejoicing."

The following year, however, was to see the renewal of
trouble. The great struggle for Scottish independence had
now been going on for ten years — ever since the revolt of
John Balliol. Hitherto the Fates had been unpropitious to
^Scotland. Do as she would, she could not prevail against

4

ROBERT THE BRUCE. 1 33

Edward's diplomacy and England's wealth. The next eight
years were to see the turn of Fortune's wheel. But they
were years of such " vassalage," of such anxiety, and of such
suffering to the Scots, that nothing but a firm and abiding
faith in the justice of their cause and of their ultimate
success could have made them tolerable to those who were
the principal actors in the drama.

Fortunately, in Robert the Bruce, the grandson of the un-
successful candidate for the crown in the days of the "great
competition," his countrymen had a leader who was capable
of piloting them to victory. He was now thirty-two years of
age. His father, a quiet unambitious man, who had been
Earl of Carrick in right of his wife, had on her death in
1292 resigned the earldom in favour of his son when he
V was only eighteen years of age. His grandfather died in
1295. But it was not till Bruce had attained the ripe age
of thirty (1303-4) that he came into full possession of the
whole of the family estates, which, besides the earldom of
Carrick and the lordship of Annandale, embraced a con-
siderable extent of property in England. Prior to this — in
1297 — he had, in obedience to a summons from the warden
of the Western Marches, taken an oath of fealty to Edward.
Soon after, however, he renounced his allegiance on the
ground that it had been extorted from him. Edward im-
mediately confiscated his estates and marched westward to
punish him. On hearing of this Bruce burned his castle
of Ayr, where he was then living, and retreated to Carrick.

Then comes the battle of Falkirk, at which Bruce was not
present, though after it was past and over he allowed himself
to be appointed one of the regents of the kingdom. His com-
mand, however, was a nominal one only. The true Governor
of Scotland during the period prior to his coronation was, as
we have seen, John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch.

134 BRUCE VISITS MORAY.

In 1300 Edward, still bent on bringing his vassal to his
senses, devastated his paternal estates in Annandale with fire
and sword. But by some means a reconciliation between the
two was effected, and shortly after Bruce was restored to favour
and summoned to Court.

In 1305, while still residing in England, he received an
urgent message from Wallace beseeching him to come and
take possession of the crown. It was impossible for Bruce
at the moment to accept. But in 1306, after Wallace's
execution, he managed to escape, and on 25 th March of
that year he was solemnly crowned at Scone as Robert I.
of Scotland. Amongst those who were present on that occa-
sion were his four brothers — Edward, Thomas, Alexander,
and Nigel ; his nephew, Thomas Randolph ; and David de
Moravia, Bishop of Moray. After his coronation Bruce
marched northwards, and in the course of his progress he
is said to have visited Moray. Here he was among friends.
The Crown tenants of Moray, as has already been men-
tioned, were staunch supporters of his grandfather. As for
the bishop, he had not only assisted at Bruce's coronation,
but he was the friend and relative of Sir Andrew Moray,
Wallace's colleague in the generalship of the Scottish armies.

Yet if he had many friends in the district, he had like-
wise powerful enemies. Prominent amongst these was John,
Earl of Buchan, better known as the Black Comyn, to
distinguish him from his cousin the Red Comyn, Balliol's
nephew, the former guardian of the kingdom, whom Bruce
had stabbed, but did not murder, in the church of the
Franciscans at Dumfries, only a few months before. His
wife Isobel was the daughter of Duncan Macduff, tenth
Earl of Fife. Husband and wife were on notoriously bad
terms. Buchan was a mainstay and prop of English suprem-
acy; his wife was as strong in favour of Scottish inde-

THE BLACK COMYN. 1 35

pendence. Things had lately brought their differences to a
height. In virtue of a right claimed by her father^s family,
the countess had stolen away from her husband and had
placed the crown on Bruce's head at Scone. Incredible
as it may appear, Buchan had himself denounced her to
Edward. And it was not only with his cognisance, but at
his instance, that she was now undergoing the terrible and
extraordinary punishment which Edward had invented for
her crime. A " kage " of timber was erected outside one of
the turrets of Berwick Castle, and in this the unfortunate
woman was incarcerated. Here she remained for seven
wretched years, till the death of her husband admitted of
her imprisonment being changed to one more tolerable.

Buchan was custos of Moravia — in other words, Edward's
lieutenant in those parts. We may be sure that it was not
want of will that had hitherto prevented his taking the field
against King Robert. The family to which he belonged
were themselves competitors for the crown. Though their
claim could scarcely be said to have been seriously enter-
tained, the antiquity, nobility, and importance of the family,
which had come over from France, it was said, with William
the Conqueror, rendered them formidable opponents. Their
pretensions, however, had at all times been greater than their
influence. And they lacked that which had all along been
the source of the Bruces' strength — their sympathy with the
aspirations of the people to achieve their independence.

It was not till the year 1307 that Buchan essayed to try
conclusions with Bruce. He was unsuccessful. Edward
Bruce, the king's brother, met him at Inverurie and defeated
him with considerable loss. Buchan was not inclined to take
his discomfiture as decisive. Next spring (May 1308) he
sent out a thousand of his men, who were stationed at Old
Meldrum, to attack the king. Bruce was lying sick on his

136 THE INDEPENDENCE OF SCOTLAND ACHIEVED.

bed ; but on hearing of the assault he rose from his couch,
and, calling for his arms and his horse, led his men in
person against his persistent foe. This time even Buchan
could not pretend to misunderstand the result. His troops
were chased off the battle-field and pursued as far as F5rvie.
After that the earl retired to England, where he died in
13 1 2-1 3, and so ceased from troubling. The year 13 14 saw
the battle of Bannockburn and the triumph of the national
cause. The independence of Scotland was achieved, and
Robert Bruce was king in fact as well as in name.

Amongst his earliest acts was the erection of the province
of Moray into an earldom, and the bestowal of the dignity
on his nephew Thomas Randolph. It was a judicious step ;
for faithful though the district had been to him and his, some
of the old leaven of turbulence which had characterised it
through all its past history still remained, and for the moment
it had no territorial head. Not, perhaps, that there was much
to fear. Hitherto the predominating influence in the district
had been the families of Comyn and De Moravia. But
Buchan, the fugleman of the Comyns, was dead. As for
the family of De Moravia, which had at one time shown
equally strong English proclivities, there was little to be
apprehended from it. About a century before the family
had been split into three great branches. The elder branch
— the descendants of Hugo, elder son of Freskinus, Lord of
Strabrok — had since 1232 been Earls of Sutherland; and
Kenneth, the existing earl, was destined to be the father-in-
law of Bruce's daughter Margaret. The next branch — the
descendants of Andrew, the second son of Freskinus — had
been represented by Sir Reginald le Chen of Duffus, who
had been sheriff of the county and an influential advocate
of the English cause. But Sir Reginald had now been
dead about two years, and any danger from his influence

V

THE EARLDOM OF MORAY. 1 37

was consequently at an end. As for the younger branch —
the descendants of WiUiam, the founder's youngest son —
they were now represented by Sir Andrew Moray of Both-
well, the posthumous son of that Andrew Moray who was
killed at the battle of Stirling, and who, as the brother-in-
law of Bruce and the warden of the kingdom during the
minority of his son David II., was destined to add still
further to the lustre of the family name. His death in
1238, at the early age of forty, was one of the most severe
blows to which the party of freedom and national inde-
pendence had to submit. As political factors in local his-
tory, therefore, the supremacy of these two powerful families
was at an end. From this time forward the successive
holders of the earldom of Moray take their place.

The earldom of Moray has been held by seven different
families: by the Randolphs from 1314 to 1346; by the
Dunbars from 1373 to 1429; by the Douglases from 1429
to 1455; by the royal family of Stewarts from 1457 to
1470; by an illegitimate branch of the Stewarts from 150 1
to 1544; by the Gordons from 1549 to 1562; and by
another illegitimate branch of the royal Stewarts, in the
possession of whose descendants in the female line it still
remains, from 1562.

Taken as a whole, few earldoms in Scotland can boast of
a bede-roll of names more eminent in the annals of their
country. Randolph, the first earl, " Black Agnes of Dunbar,"
"the Good Earl of Moray," and "the Bonnie Earl of Moray"
are not merely local magnates, but " household words " in
Scottish history. The connection of some of these Moray
earls with the monarchy — a connection which, though one of
blood, was not always one of interests — helped, no doubt, to
bring this about. It placed them in the front of their time
and forced them toiead the van in battle. Hence the history

138 THOMAS RANDOLPH, FIRST EARL.

of the earldom follows more closely than that of many others
the history of the kingdom. Hence, also, it embraces a
wider scope, and has consequently a wider importance, than
that of the bishopric. The bishops of Moray might at times,
indeed, wield the labouring oar, but it was the earls who held
the tiller of the ship of State. Yet, so far as the district is
concerned, the history of the bishopric is by far the more
interesting of the two.

Thomas Randolph, first Earl of Moray, was the son of the
king's eldest sister Isobel and of Sir Thomas Randolph of
Strathdon, who had been grand chamberlain of Scotland
from 1273 to 1296, during the reign of Alexander III. He
was one of the earliest associates of his uncle. But after
Bruce's defeat at the battle of Methven in 1306 he had
deserted his cause and sworn fealty to Edward. In 1308 he
was restored to favour. From that moment his loyalty to his
uncle never swerved : he became one of his most trusted
generals. Brave to rashness, his brilliant exploits were the
wonder and the admiration of the camp. Yet he very nearly
cost Bruce the battle of Bannockburn. By some unaccount-
able oversight, he had neglected to intercept a troop of Eng-
lish horsemen who were stealing forward under shelter of the
trees of the New Park, in the direction of Stirling Castle,
which it was the object of the enemy to capture. Bruce im-
mediately galloped up to him and reproached him for his
carelessness, adding, with stinging reproach, that " a rose had
fallen from his chaplet." Randolph at once started in pursuit
He came up with the English at a place now known as
Randolph's Field. A fierce fight ensued. He and his little
band were in imminent danger. Sir James Douglas, his great
rival, besought the king to let him go to his assistance, and
with difficulty obtained it. But he had not gone far when he
saw, from the number of empty saddles that met his gaze and

RANDOLPH'S CAREER. I39

from other tokens, that the tide of fortune had turned, and
that the English were on the point of discomfiture. He im-
mediately called a halt. "Randolph is winning," he ex-
claimed ; " we must not spoil his victory." Then he withdrew
his men and returned to the king.

Randolph's career after the battle of Bannockburn was no
less glorious. Age and sickness and the sufferings he had
endured were beginning to tell upon the king. It was to his
nephew, and after him to the devoted Douglas, that he in-
trusted the completion of his work. Again and again Ran-
dolph, sometimes alone, at others accompanied by the king
or Douglas, invaded England, devastating the northern parts
with fire and sword. Berwick was taken ; the " Chapter of
Mitton " was won ; Edward himself had to fly from Billand
Abbey to escape being captured. Wherever there was work
to be done it was on Randolph that the burden fell. And
sometimes the work was of a kind that one would scarcely
have thought to be suited to a rough soldier like him. Thus
in 1324, when it was thought necessary to send an embassy
to Avignon to put matters right with the Pope, it was Ran-
dolph who acted as ambassador. He succeeded so well that
he obtained for his uncle the recognition of his royal style
and dignity, which the Pope had hitherto withheld. It was
Randolph, too, who, with the assistance of the Earl Marshal
and three churchmen, concluded a treaty with France, and a
renewal of the ancient alliance between the two nations. And
when the king died in 1329, it was Randolph who, in terms
of the Act of Settlement, became the guardian of the realm
and of the infant heir. Three years later, on the 28th of July
1332, his illustrious career was closed by the hand of death.

The charter erecting the earldom is in the most ample
terms. It grants "to our dear nephew Thomas Randolph,
Miles^ in full county and regality, with jurisdiction in the

I40 THE CHARTER OF ERECTION.

four pleas of the Crown and all other inferior pleas, with the
great customs of our burgh of Inverness, and the cocket of
the same, with the manor of Elgin, which is hereby created
the capital mansion of the county of Moray," and with all the
other mansions, towns, thanages, advocations, lakes, forests,
moors, marshes, roads, ways, stanks, mills, fishings in salt water
and fresh, rights of hawking and hunting, and the innumer-
able other pertinents of heritable property in those days,
" all the lands from the water of Spey where it falls into the
sea, including the lands of * Fouchabre, Rothenayk, Rothays,
and Bocharme,' thence following the course of the Spey to
the marches of Badenoch, including the lands of * Badenach,
Kyncardyn, and Glencarni,* thence following the march of
Badenoch to the march of Lochaber, including the lands of
*Louchabre, Maymer, Logharkech, Glengarech, and Glenelg,'
thence following the march of Glenelg to the sea towards the
west, thence by the sea to the marches of northern Argyll, from
these marches to those of Rossie, from the marches of Rossie
till you come to the water of Fome, and from the water of
Fome to the eastern sea." The territory so conceded in-
cluded lands within the four modem counties of Banff, Elgin,
Nairn, and Inverness, and covered a tract of no less than
2550 square miles. It was a princely donation. It was
conferred ujJon a no less princely man.

Four miles and a half from Forres, on a rising ground not
far from the river Findhom, surrounded by an umbrageous
forest, stands the castle of Darnaway, the Morayshire seat of
its ancient earls. The wide expanse of greensward in front
of it, dotted with old timber-trees — some of which are ashes,
now, alas ! waning to decay — has long been the theme of
local admiration. As the old couplet says —

** Darnaway green is bonnie to be seen,
In the midst of Morayland."

DARNAWAY CASTLE. 141

As for the castle itself, though built at an unfortunate period
of British architecture — the commencement of the present
century — it contains a suite of well-proportioned rooms,
suited to the requirements of such a residence ; while from its
commanding position extensive views are obtained across the
Moray Firth, reaching to the hills of Sutherland and Caith-
ness. Attached to it is an ancient hall, said to be able to
hold one thousand men, with an open roof of fine dark oak
similar to those of the Parliament House and of the Tron
Church of Edinburgh — a style of roof which, though not un-
common in the larger castles and early public buildings of
Scotland, such as the Parliament Houses of Stirling and Lin-
lithgow, and the castles of Doune, Dirleton, and Tantallon,
has few remaining examples nowadays. Tradition has it that
this roof and this hall are the remains of the castle that
Thomas Randolph unquestionably built on this site.^ Tra-
dition is wrong, of course, as it generally is in matters of
detail. The Exchequer Accounts inform us that they were a
portion — the only portion now existing — of the castle built
by Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray, about 1450. It is,
however, a very interesting old building, and full of historic
memories.

Thomas Randolph, by his countess Isobel, daughter of Sir
John Stewart of Bonkyl, had a family of four children — two
sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Thomas, succeeded
him in the earldom, but enjoyed it for only twenty-three days.
He was killed at the battle of Dupplin on the 12 th August
1332. The career of his brother John, the third earl, was full
of vicissitudes. The times were troublous, and his position
compelled him to share in the troubles of the times. After

^ A very ancient chair, not unlike the Coronation Chair in Westminster
Abbey, is still shown to visitors as Earl Randolph's chair. Its authen-
ticity, however, is doubtful.

142 JOHN RANDOLPH, THIRD EARL.

the battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, at which the English
avenged Bannockburn, he escaped to France, where he re-
mained till the spring of 1335. On his return to Scotland
he was appointed co-regent of the kingdom with Robert the
Steward. Shortly afterwards he was taken prisoner by the
English governor of Jedburgh Castle and carried oflf into
England. His place as one of the guardians of the kingdom
was taken by Sir Andrew Moray. He regained his freedom
in 1342, having been exchanged for the Earl of Salisbury.
The few remaining years of his life were mostly spent in the
exciting pursuit of Border warfare. He was slain at the
battle of Neville's Cross near Durham on the 17 th October
1346. His wife was that Lady Euphemia de Ross who sub-
sequently by papal dispensation married King Robert II. ;
but he left no family, and with him the line of the Randolphs,
Earls of Moray, comes to an end.

When John Randolph was in exile in France, Moray had
again to receive a royal and unwelcome visitor.

Edward of Windsor, better known as Edward III., who
had succeeded to the crown of England on the deposition of
his father, Edward of Carnarvon (Edward II.), in 1327, had
taken up the heritage of animosity towards Scotland, be-
queathed to his descendants by Edward I. at his death in
1307. Though David II., the son of Robert the Bruce, was
king de facto^ Edward preferred to regard John Balliol's son,
Edward, as king de jure. And by his efforts Edward Balliol,
during King David's residence in France, had been crowned
at Scone as king of Scotland on 24th September 1332. But
even when David, after his return from Chateau Gaillard, was
captured at the battle of Neville's Cross in 1346, and con-
veyed a prisoner to the Tower of London, the nation at large
still refused to acknowledge Edward Balliol as their sovereign.
Five times during his reign, which lasted fifty years, Edward

"BLACK AGNES OF DUNBAR." I45

for nineteen weeks during his absence. The story is better
told in the ' Book of Pluscarden ' than in any other of the old
chronicles, except perhaps the * Chronicle of Lanercost.'

"In the year 1337, on the 15th day of the month of
January, Dunbar Castle was besieged by Sir William Montagu,
Earl of Salisbury, and the Earl of Arundel, the leaders of the
English king's army ; and though they were there half a year,
and assailed that castle with divers engines, they could in no
mse prevail against it. Nor was there any other captain in
command therein but the Countess of the Marches, commonly
called Black Agnes of Dunbar, who defended the besieged
castle admirably; for she was a very wise and clever and
wary woman. She indeed laughed at the English, and would
in the sight of all wipe with a most beautiful cloth the spot
where the stone from the engine hit the castle wall. The
king of England, however, hearing that they had no success
whatever there, sent a large army to reinforce them ; but this
column was broken, put to flight, and destroyed by Sir
Laurence Preston, who, however, was himself wounded in
the mouth with a spear, and died on the field of battle without
the knowledge of his men ; and through anger at his death all
the prisoners were straightway put to the sword."

Wyntoun adds an additional graphic touch. "As thai
bykeryd thare a day," he says, William of Spens was shot
dead by an arrow discharged from the battlements.

" And than the Mwntagw can say,
* This is ane off my Ladyis pynnys,
Hyr amowris thus till my hart rynnys. ' "

It is impossible to say definitely what was the exact nature
of the title by which Black Agnes's husband claimed to be
Earl of Moray. In all probability it was based merely on
his ¥rife's inheritance of the earldom lands. That he called
himself Earl of Moray, however, is certain. The name of

K

144 THE FAMILY OF DUNBAR.

had placed himself in a perfectly untenable position by his
acceptance of the earldom from William. He had not only
become the Conqueror's vassal, but he had alienated himself
as well with his own relations with the people of the district.
He joined with his people and Malcolm Ceannmor in sup-
porting the cause of Edgar the Atheling, with the natural
result — he was unsuccessful. It ended by William depriving
him of his earldom and Gospatric taking refuge in Scotland.

Malcolm received him kindly, and in 1072 "bestowed
upon him Dunbar, with the adjacent lands in Lothian."
Gospatric made no attempt to return to England, but settled
down for good and all on the lands his generous kinsman had
endowed him with ; and taking their name from their posses-
sions, according to the custom of the period, the family which
he founded was known by the name of Dunbar from, that time
forward. In due course they " conquest " great possessions
both in Lothian and on the Borders, and became Earls of
March — that is, of the Marches.

But it was accident that connected them with Moray.
Randolph, the first earl, it may be remembered, left two
daughters. Agnes, the elder of the two, was a truly remark-
able person. It was an age of heroic women. King Robert's
sister Christina, who defended Kildrummie ; Philippa, Queen
of England ; the Countess of Salisbury ; and the Countess of
Montfort, have each and all of them earned a reputation which
in those days was seldom conceded to any of their sex. Agnes
was no beauty. She was masculine in feature and swarthy
in complexion ; but she managed to secure a husband, and
a distinctly eligible one, in Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March.

"Black Agnes of Dunbar," as from that time she was
called, is one of the most famous heroines in Scottish history.
Every one knows how gallantly and manfully, if the expression
may be allowed, she defended her husband's castle of Dunbar

"BLACK AGNES OF DUNBAR." 145

for nineteen weeks during his absence. The story is better
told in the * Book of Pluscarden ' than in any other of the old
chronicles, except perhaps the * Chronicle of Lanercost.'

"In the year 1337, on the 15th day of the month of
January, Dunbar Castle was besieged by Sir William Montagu,
Earl of Salisbury, and the Earl of Arundel, the leaders of the
English king's army ; and though they were there half a year,
and assailed that castle with divers engines, they could in no
wise prevail against it. Nor was there any other captain in
command therein but the Countess of the Marches, commonly
called Black Agnes of Dunbar, who defended the besieged
castle admirably; for she was a very wise and clever and
wary woman. She indeed laughed at the English, and would
in the sight of all wipe with a most beautiful cloth the spot
where the stone from the engine hit the castle wall. The
king of England, however, hearing that they had no success
whatever there, sent a large army to reinforce them ; but this
column was broken, put to flight, and destroyed by Sir
Laurence Preston, who, however, was himself wounded in
the mouth with a spear, and died on the field of battle without
the knowledge of his men ; and through anger at his death all
the prisoners were straightway put to the sword."

Wyntoun adds an additional graphic touch. "As thai
bykeryd thare a day," he says, William of Spens was shot
dead by an arrow discharged from the battlements.

((

And than the Mwntagw can say,
* This is ane off my Ladyis pynnys,
Hyr amowris thus till my hart rynnys.

> >>

It is impossible to say definitely what was the exact nature
of the title by which Black Agnes's husband claimed to be
Earl of Moray. In all probability it was based merely on
his wife's inheritance of the earldom lands. That he called
himself Earl of Moray, however, is certain. The name of

K

146 THE DUNBAR EARLS.

Patrick, Earl of March and Moray, not only appears as wit-
ness to royal charters in and after July 1358, but charters
granted by himself in that capacity exist.

George, who succeeded him in the earldom of March, was
not his son, as is commonly stated — for Black Agnes left no
issue — ^but his cousin, and at the same time his wife^s nephew.
He was the eldest son of Sir Patrick Dunbar by Isabella,
younger daughter of Thomas Randolph. He seems to have
made no claim to the earldom of Moray.

On George's death his younger brother, John Dunbar,
succeeded him as Earl of March. Whatever may have been
the nature of his two immediate predecessors* right to the
earldom of Moray, John Dunbar's is beyond all cavil. For on
the 9th March 1373, a year or two after his marriage to
Marjorie, daughter of Robert II., he received from the king a
charter confirming the earldom upon himself and his wife,
their heirs -male and the longest liver of them, with the
exception of the lands of Lochaber and Badenoch, which
were specially reserved for the king's son, Alexander Stewart

"This man," says Pitscottie, "was married upon King
Robert II.'s daughter, and promoted to be Earl of Moray;
for it returned again to the king's house by reason that it failed
in the heir-male of Randal; and this was the first Dunbar
that bruicked the lands of Moray." This statement, however,
must be qualified, at least to the extent that if Patrick
Dunbar's title was a mere assumption, it received something
very closely approaching to royal recognition.

John Dunbar's death occurred in 1390, and was the result
of a wound received by him at a tournament in Smithfield,
London, when fighting with the Earl of Nottingham, E^rl-
Marshal of England, whom he had come specially from Scot-
land to encounter. He left two sons, and a daughter, Mabella,
who was married to Robert, sixth Earl of Sutherland.

ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, EARL OF MORAY. 1 47

Little is known of Thomas Dunbar, his eldest son, who
succeeded him. He was taken prisoner at the battle of
Homildon in 1402, and is supposed to have died in England.
After his death his daughter Euphemia married Sir Alexander
Cumyn of Altyre.

Earl Thomas's successor was another Thomas, his son ; and
then the earldom passed to the cousin of the latter, James
Dunbar, who was also the proprietor of the lands of Fren-
draught, in Banffshire, in right of his mother, Maud Eraser of
Lovat. When James L, after his long captivity in England,
was permitted by the English king to return to Scotland in
1424, certain Scottish nobles of high rank were sent to
England as hostages for his ransom. The Earls of Moray,
Thomas and James, were successively of their number. When
Thomas was released in 1425, his cousin James seems to have
taken his place. He remained in England for about three
years. He was murdered at Frendraught in August 1429.

The next name which appears on the earldom lists is
that of Archibald Douglas, who married Earl James's second
daughter, Elizabeth. He was a brother of the Earl of
Douglas of the day, and sided with him in his hereditary
hostility to James II. The Angus or younger branch of
the family, on the other hand, took the part of the king, and
its head was appointed leader of the royal army. The feud
between the two branches of the family culminated in the
battle of Arkinholm in 1454-55. The Douglas branch was
defeated, and ^^ Archibaldus pretensus comes Moravice^^ as
an old record calls him, was killed. Douglas's title to the
earldom was, like so many others both before and after, in
right of his wife only.^ After his death, Lindsay informs us,
" he was convict and forfalt for les majestic^ and the earldom
returned to the kingis handis again."

^ Pitscottie's Chronicles, vol. ii. p. 63.

148 "THE GOOD EARL OF MORAY."

Shortly afterwards James II. conferred it on his son David,
who, however, died in nonage in 1470, and is thus known in
history as the " little Earl of Moray/*

For thirty-one years thereafter no Earl of Moray existed.
But on the 12th June 1501 James IV. conferred the earldom
on James Stewart, his illegitimate son by Jean or Janet,
daughter of the second Lord Kennedy. His life was spent
in comparative obscurity, and he died in his castle of Dar-
naway on the 12 th June 1544, having held the earldom for
exactly forty-three years to a day.

The next Stewart who enjoyed the title was a man of
a very different type. There are few greater problems to the
student of our national history than James Stewart, Earl of
Moray from 1562 to 1570. And few historical personages
have suffered more from the malice of their enemies and the
mistaken eulogies of their friends. While to some he is " the
Good Earl of Moray," the patriot, the sincere reformer, the
wise holder of the helm of the State, to others he is the in-
carnation of hypocrisy and self-seeking, a disloyal subject, the
evil genius of his sister — a traitor to queen and country, to
everything and everybody but himself. Some day, perhaps,
his life will be written as it ought to be written, with calm
judicial impartiality and a due weighing of the exceptional
difficulties of his time and surroundings. Until that time
arrives his virtues or his vices must remain as much a matter
of controversy and individual opinion as the guilt or innocence
of his sister Queen Mary.

He was the natural son of King James V. and of Margaret
Erskine, the daughter of the fourth Lord Erskine and fifth
Earl of Mar, and he was born in the year 1533. The king,
with a view to their providing, had destined all his illegitimate
sons to the Church, and accordingly, when James was only
three years of age, he was presented to the Priory of St

JOHN GORDON, EARL OF MORAY. 149

Andrews. It was an office of great emolument and of the
highest dignity. The Prior of St Andrews preceded all
other ecclesiastical dignitaries of equal rank. If wealth and
place and gorgeous vestments had attractions for him, James
Stewart might well have rested content with his first pre-
ferment; but he was possessed of an inordinate ambition,
which even aimed — so at least his enemies asserted — at the
highest office in the realm. From his youth upwards his
career is that of a man bent on absorbing to himself all power
and all authority in the State. And if the methods he em-
ployed to attain his object were often tortuous and unjusti-
fiable, they only show the difficulties that beset his path. He
gained his object ultimately, as most men do who allow
nothing to obscure the goal of their aspirations, in fact if
not in name. As Regent, he had the supremacy, the in-
fluence, almost the prestige, of a king. None of his pre-
decessors had ever exercised such absolute power or enjoyed
such unfettered control. Yet he was not satisfied. The
Regent Moray could never forget, and he certainly never
forgave, the accident of his birth.

From an early age he coveted the rich earldom of Moray.
In 1549, when he was a lad of between sixteen and seventeen
years of age, the earldom was for the moment in the gift
of the Crown. James, who by this time had conceived a
sincere aversion to a clerical life, solicited his sister for it. It
was refused, to his infinite chagrin and disappointment, on
the advice of the queen -mother, Mary of Guise, who re-
commended the prior to continue in the Church; and
shortly after it was conferred on John Gordon, tenth Earl
of Huntly. The charter in his favour is dated 1 3 th February

1549-

The new Earl of Moray belonged to a family which, during

the last two hundred years, had become a feudal power of the

ISO THE GORDONS.

first importance in the north. It was of Anglo-Norman origin,
and took its name from the lands of Gordon in Berwickshire,
where it had been planted in the reign of David I. It first
made its appearance in the north in the early part of the
fourteenth century as the proprietor of the lands of Strath-
bogie in Banffshire. James II. conferred upon it the earldom
of Huntly. Now the Gordons, Lords of Strathbogie and
Earls of Huntly, were a power as great in the north as were
the Earls of Argyll in the west — as useful at times to the
Crown, and at others as troublesome.

In addition to his Lowland estates, which yielded him a
goodly revenue " over all the district now beyond the Cale-
donian Canal and the lakes it unites," " the Cock of the
North " kept princely state in his Castle of Strathbogie ; ^
and events afterwards revealed that its sumptuous furnish-
ings shamed those of the royal palace. He had the flourish-
ing town of Aberdeen, with its university and cathedral, by
way of capital. Here he seems to have had a small fleet
with which he kept up foreign communications, as little
under restrictions from the Court of Holyrood as those of
the King of Norway or Denmark might be.

George Gordon, the earl of the day, was one of the most
accomplished men of his time. He was also a great politician.
In 1536 he had been one of the regents of the kingdom during
James V.'s absence in France in search of a wife. As a staunch
supporter of the ancient league between the two kingdoms, he
had been one of the three Scottish earls whom the King of
France in 1545 decorated with the Order of St Michael. He
was commander of the Scottish forces at the disastrous battle
of Pinkie in 1547, and had been taken prisoner and carried
off" into England; but he had effected his escape, and had
returned to his native country.

^ Now called Huntly Castle.

QUEEN MARY VISITS MORAY. 151

It was probably in return for his services and sufferings
that the earldom of Moray was conferred on him. Soon
after, however, we find the new earl under deep suspicion
with the Government. He was seemingly playing a game
of his own, which assuredly was not to the liking of the
party which now held the reins of power. The Reformation
had come. The Lords of the Congregation had gained the
upper hand. And the Lord James, the former Prior of St
Andrews, was their leader. Queen Mary, now a widow, had
returned to Scotland. But as a Catholic, while the Govern-
ment was Protestant, she was a mere cipher in her brother's
hands. Huntly, after some dallyings with the Protestant
leaders not wholly to his credit, was now understood to be
the head of the old Catholic party. Overt action on his part
was out of the question. But secret negotiations, plottings,
and intrigues were not only possible but probable. Moreover,
he had a son, a certain John Gordon, "a comely young gentle-
man, very personable, and of good expectations," though he was
not the heir, whom it was said the queen " loved entirely."

A quarrel which this same comely young gentleman, the
earl's fourth son, had with Ogilvie of Findlater was the
proximate cause of his father's undoing. It was far from
the actual cause, however. The real causes were the earl's
unpopularity with the leaders of the Protestant party and the
Lord James's enmity towards him. The result of young John
Gordon's tussle with Findlater in the Edinburgh streets had
been his imprisonment. But "Scotch prisons," as Burton
remarks, "were ever notorious for their unretentiveness of
prisoners of his rank," and in a short time he was once
more at liberty.

In August 1562 the queen, accompanied by her brother
the prior, started on a royal progress towards the north.
The queen's Master of the Household, who accompanied

152 A ROYAL PROGRESS.

the expedition, kept a diary of the journey written in French,
and it is of much interest to local readers. The royal party
arrived at Elgin from Aberdeen on the 6th of September, and
remained there till the 8th. After dinner that day the queen
went on to Kinloss, and stayed at the abbey two whole days.
She found the accommodation there exceptionally good. On
the loth she went on after dinner to Darnaway, where she
supped and slept, and next morning held a council. Then
she went on into Nairnshire. On the nth she. dined at the
castle of Moyness, now non-existent, as the guest of John
Dunbar of the family of Westfield, heritable sheriffs of Moray.
Passing through Nairn, she continued her journey to Inver-
ness, where she was refused admission to the castle, and had
accordingly to take up her quarters in a private house in
Bridge Street long known as the "Wine-Shop." She stayed
four days there, and then proceeded to Kilravock. From
thence she made her way back to Aberdeen.

An invitation which she received in the course of this
expedition to visit Huntly at Strathbogie had been declined.
Huntly was given to understand that so long as his son
was a fugitive from justice it was impossible to accept it,
and it was required that the lad should again " enter himself
in ward." This was more than the haughty Gordons could
stand. The outcome of the business was that Huntly with
his Highland host took the field against his sovereign. At
the fight at Corrichie he met his death — smothered, it was said,
in his armour. His son, who had so largely conduced to his
undoing, was tried for treason and beheaded at Aberdeen.
The earFs body was taken to Edinburgh and sentence of
forfeiture pronounced against it.

The opportunity which James Stewart had waited for during
the last thirteen years had now arrived. The power of the
house of Huntly was broken, at least for the time. The prior

LATER YEARS OF "THE GOOD EARL." 1 53

obtained the coveted prize. He was created Earl of Moray
by the queen at Aberdeen on ist June 1566.

He had still four years of life before him — four busy years,
crowded with affairs of the highest political consequence, vivid
with interest. His opposition to the Darnley marriage, his
retreat to France in 1567, his almost immediate return and
appointment to the regency, his defeat of his sister at Lang-
side in 1568, his struggle with and victory over the Hamilton
faction, and, last and saddest and most dramatic scene of all,
his assassination by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh in the streets
of Linlithgow on 21st January 1570, rivet the imagination and
appeal to the sympathies or the antipathies of the student as
the career of few of our historical personages succeed in
doing. If he had not been cut off at such an early age —
he was only thirty-seven when he was murdered — who shall
say that he might not have attained the secret goal of his
ambition, the crown itself, — changed the whole course of his
country's history, and proved himself the greatest sovereign
for good or for evil that ever sat on Scotland's throne.

Little is known of his connection with the county, beyond
the fact that he once held a privy council at Elgin, when
amongst other business the revenues of Pluscarden Priory
were discussed. The local historian of the day had other
things to think about. What concerned him far more was
a quarrel which had broken out between the two powerful
families of Dunbar and Innes, and bade fair to develop
into a healthy hereditary feud. These two families were
the largest holders of property of the rank of landed
gentry in the county. The Inneses predominated in the
east, the Dunbars in the west. What caused the quarrel
is not very clear. It may have been, as Young the local
historian supposes, mere jealousy of each other's influence.
But on the 6th January 1554 the slumbering ashes of dis-

154 FEUD BETWEEN DUNBARS AND INNESES.

cord were fanned into flame. On that day the Inneses, to
the number of eighty persons, all armed, came to the
cathedral of Elgin during vespers, "and of ancient feud
and forethought felony" cruelly invaded Alexander Dun-
bar, Prior of Pluscarden ; David Dunbar, Dean of Moray ;
and other laymen, with purpose to slay them "in presence
of the holy sacraments." The Dunbars on their part had
come to church that evening with like deadly intent
Their object was the slaughter of William Innes of that
ilk and his servants. Which side came off best is not
certain. At any rate the battle was not decisive, for we
find both parties subsequently invoking the arbitrament of
the law. Twenty years of litigation, however, had not
settled their differences. And in 1577 the smouldering fire
of dissension broke out afresh. On the i8th October of
that year a band of Inneses — John Innes, brother-german
of Robert Innes of Invermarkie, John Innes alias Long
John, Andrew Innes alias Kow-the-gegat, Andrew Innes
alias the Scholar — with their followers and others, all " boden
in feir of war with corslets, head-pieces, swords, and shields,
made a night attack on the manse of Alexander Dunbar,
Dean of Moray, situated within the precinct — now known
as the North College" — slew Andrew Smyth, the dean's
servant, broke open the stable door and cut the halters of
four of the horses, intending to carry them away. The dean,
roused from his sleep by the disturbance, came out of his
chamber in his dressing-gown, unarmed save for the dirk
which he always carried. One of the John Inneses — ^we are
not told which — immediately attacked him with his sword,
wounding him severely both in his head and in his hands.
" And the said John, not satisfied with his blood, most
cruelly, horribly, and without mercy slew Elizabeth Dunbar,
the dean's daughter, a girl of thirteen years old, killing her

THE "BONNIE EARL OF MORAY." 1 5$

with a thrust of his sword in her breast, and left her dead
on the ground."

This was going a little too far even for a family feud.
The Inneses were indicted, fled from justice, declared rebels,
and put to the horn. This only made matters worse. Seven
months afterwards they paid the dean another nocturnal visit.
They went to his country house at Carsehillock and carried
off forty sheep — wethers, ewes, and lambs. The king at
once granted a commission to the sheriffs of all the northern
counties and other local authorities to apprehend the rogues,
to destroy their nests, and by every possible means to bring
them to justice.

Nothing came of it. Not an Innes could be found. By
this time both parties were pretty tired of the strife. When,
therefore, mutual friends interposed to appease their dissen-
sions, they readily availed themselves of their good offices.
Arbiters were appointed to settle their differences, and in due
time they issued their decree arbitral. What its terms were
is of no concern to us now. What is of more importance,
and infinitely more surprising, is that both parties abode by the
award, and that the thirty years' blood-feud was then and there
finally brought to an end. A more instructive illustration of
the state of society in those days can hardly be found.

To the "Good EarF' succeeds the "Bonnie Earl" of
Moray, who is chiefly remembered as the victim of one of
the most appalling tragedies in the whole range of our annals.

James Stewart, eldest son of Sir James Stewart of Doune,
afterwards Lord Doune, was, like more than one of his pre-
decessors. Earl of Moray by courtesy only. He had married
Elizabeth Stewart, eldest daughter of the Regent, and his only
claim to the title was in right of his wife. He was one of the
handsomest men of his time. An old chronicle describes him
as a sort of Amadis — " comely, gentle, brave, and of a great

IS6 HIS PICTURE AT DARNAWAY.

Stature and strength of body." " A comely personage, strong
of body as a kemp or champion," is the remark of another
observer.

The picture of him at Darnaway — the only authentic portrait
of him, so far as we are aware, taken during life — represents
him as a young man of three- or four-and-twenty. The head is
particularly small in proportion to the body. The shoulders
are sloping, but the ill-fitting doublet seems to cover a broad
and deep chest. The shape of the face is remarkable, owing
to the steep slope of the jawbones, which end in a remarkably
delicate and exceptionally pointed chin. The hair is of a
deep auburn, almost inclined to red, and is thrown back over
a high and narrow forehead. A strand of hair, parted from
the head above the ear, hangs down like a ringlet rather more
than an inch below the side of the face, resembling the side-
whiskers of twenty or thirty years ago. The eyes are dark
brown, the eyebrows small, the nose long and sensitive and
slightly turned up at the point. The upper lip is covered
with a boyish moustache ; the mouth is small, and the under
lip of almost girlish delicacy. The ears are prominent, and
he wears ear-rings — a couple of linked golden rings to which
is suspended a small square jewel. The dress is plain but
rich. The doublet is crimson, close-buttoned down the front,
with a velvet band of the same colour across the shoulder.
He wears a square, apparently lawn or muslin, collar, trimmed
with an inch-wide border of lace. And over his right shoulder,
fastened behind the neck with a handsome jewel, is a narrow
white satin embroidered scarf, — the queen's gift to him, ac-
cording to tradition. What strikes the observer most is the
effeminacy of his face and complexion, and the sweet, almost
sad, gentleness of the expression.

There is one other picture of him known to be in existence.
It is hidden away out of sight in the charter-room at Doni-

HIS PICTURE AT DONIBRISTLE. 1 57

bristle. It is as repulsive as the Darnaway picture is pleasing.
It represents the naked body of the Earl as it appeared after
death, gashed with wounds, horrid with clotted blood and the
blue shades of decomposition.^ Tradition has it that it was
painted by order of Lady Doune, his mother, after his murder,
and sent to the king at Holyrood. It is in all probability
the original of the banner which was sent round amongst his
tenants in the north to inflame their minds and induce them
to take vengeance upon the cruel Huntly.

The story of the murder of the Bonnie Earl of Moray
belongs more properly to the history of Fife than to that of
Moray. Yet it may not be out of place to narrate it here.
Song and legend have embalmed it for all future ages, and
transformed a mere private and personal difference into a
historical event of the first importance.

Though he had never taken any prominent part in public
business, he was a great favourite with the people and the
Kirk. He was a still greater favourite, at any rate in certain
quarters, at Court. If the scandal of the day is to be believed.
Queen Anne had a warmer regard for him than her jealous
lord and master, James VI., approved of. There was probably
nothing to justify his suspicions. But to James, who certainly
was not an Apollo, and who yet had a very good opinion of
his own personal attractions, it was no doubt irritating to listen
to the queen's loud and repeated expressions of admiration of
the earl "as a proper and gallant man." Certain it is that
the handsome lad did not stand so well in the grace of the
king as of the queen. But the reason for this was in all
likelihood of a different character.

^ There are two cuts on the face — one at the top of the nose, right side,
another at the side of the nose below the left eye ; two on the right breast ;
one on the left breast lower down than those on the other side ; four on the
right side of the body ; and a severe one on the right thigh. The picture
bears the inscription : " 1591, Feby. 7. God revenge my cavs. ^Eta 24."

158 MORAY AND HUNTLY.

Moray, though not a relation, but merely a connection by
marriage, of the late regent, had been inoculated with all his
father-in-law's hatred of the Huntly family. And the Earl of
Huntly of the day was a persona gratissima at Court The
king's abhorrence of his uncle the regent, apd of all associated
with him, had thrown him into the arms of his opponent
James was one of those weak men who never can see two
sides of a question. Like Philip of Spain, after he had
taken up an idea he adhered to it as religiously as if it had
been an article of faith. There was certainly no reason
why Moray should have taken up his father-in-law's quarrej;
there was still less for James to have so earnestly espoused
the cause of the opposite party. But, reason or no reason,
this was the position of things in the beginning of the year
1592. If it is incorrect to say that any hereditary feud
existed between Moray and Huntly, it cannot be denied that
their personal relations with each other were anything but
friendly.

There had been some trouble between the two about certain
fishings on the Inverspey, and litigation had ensued in which
Moray had been successful. There had been further differ-
ences between them in connection with a certain "Johne
Grant, sometime tutor of Ballindalloch," and his accom-
plices, " commitaris of slauchter and utheris odious crymes,"
whom Huntly, by virtue of his commission of lieutenancy,
had gone to apprehend, but whom Moray had "reset" in
his castle of "Tarn way." And out of these events had
sprung raids and plunderings and slaughters amongst the
various clans and families in the north, which bade fair to
develop into a healthy feud between the chiefs.

Rightly or wrongly, the king had taken it into his head
that Moray was to blame. The crafty Huntly had left no
means untried by himself or his friends to poison his mind

THEIR DIFFERENCES. 1 59

against him. Thirlestane the Chancellor — that "puddock-
stool of a nicht," as Bothwell called him — was equally
unfavourably disposed towards him. And now the poor
weak king was firmly convinced that Moray was a disloyal
subject, — that he was in sympathy with Bothwell, and knew
more of that consummate scoundrel's traitorous designs than
it was safe for any loyal subject to know. Yet in granting
a commission, as he " incontinent " did, to Huntly to pursue
with fire and sword "the Earl Bodowell and all his par-
takers," he never intended — at least so Sir James Melville
assures us — that Huntly should make use of it to avenge
his personal quarrel with Moray. Still less was he minded
that it should be employed as the instrument of a deed of
treacherous savagery. For James, though weak as water,
was not cruel, and he had a shuddering horror of blood-
shed. Moreover, Moray had powerful friends who were
doing all they could to bring about a pacification, and
James was too great a coward not to feel the outburst of
popular indignation, perhaps of personal violence, towards
himself, that would have resulted if he had shown himself
insensible to such considerations. Though, as the sequel
will show, there was much that was suspicious in the king's
conduct, — though it cannot be doubted that his sympathies
were with Huntly, and that Huntly believed he was doing
his majesty acceptable service in ridding him of a trouble-
some subject, — it has never yet been proved that James was
an actual participator in the Earl of Moray's murder, any
more than it has been proved that his mother was an active
participator in that of Darnley. It suited the popular party
in the State to assume that it was so both in the one case
and in the other. The research of three hundred years has
as yet been unable to make out a conclusive case against
either the son or the mother.

l6o MURDER OF THE "BONNIE EARL."

Huntly, once armed with his commission, lost no time in
acting upon it. Moray was for the moment living at his
mother's house of Donibristle near Aberdour, bent on keep-
ing out of mischief, and not without a lingering hope that
his differences both with Huntly and with the king might
speedily be appeased. The old grey house stands close to
the sea -shore, and, like so many of the castles along the
shores of the Firth of Forth, was provided with a tower
and beacon-light to ward off the approach of danger. But
on the evening of 7th February 1591-92 the beacon was
unlighted. There was nothing to fear. The earl was within
doors with his friend Dunbar of Westfield, the heritable
Sheriff of Moray, and a few servants. There was no one
else in the house. It was towards the gloaming, — at any
rate, it was still " on fear daylight." ^ All of a sudden
the house was surrounded with armed men. It was the
earl's mortal enemy Huntly, with some scores of his re-
tainers. A rough voice summoned the house to surrender.
The demand was refused. The doors were locked, and
what preparations were possible were made for a defence.
It was plain that the inmates meant to sell their lives
dearly. Darkness was beginning to fall. Meantime the be-
siegers were busy piling straw and other combustibles around
the building. Before long the house was in flames. There
was but one hope of safety for the imprisoned inmates, and
that was to break through the ring of flames and smoke that
surrounded them. But in attempting to do so, Dunbar of
Westfield and some of the servants were killed. Moray
succeeded in passing it in safety, and made his escape to
the shore. Here, hidden among the rocks, he might have
eluded the vengeance of his enemies, for the night was
dark in the extreme and the flames of the conflagration were

^ James Melville's Autobiography,

HIS BODY EXPOSED IN LEITH KIRK. l6l

dazzling. But unfortunately, in forcing a passage through the
burning belt, the tassels of his hood — his knapskuU-tippet-^
were set on fire, and their light betrayed him. He was dis-
covered, pursued, and slain. Gordon of Buckie struck the
first blow. But it is said he compelled Huntly to plunge
his own dagger into his victim. In those suspicious days
no man was safe even from his fellow-conspirators. "Ah,"
exclaimed the wounded man to Huntly as the felon blow
descended on his cheek, "you have spoiled a bonnier face
than your own."

After the tragedy the party returned peaceably to Inver-
keithing, where they spent the night. But as soon as might
be next morning Huntly, still no doubt under the impression
that he had done a commendable action, sent Gordon, the
Goodman of Buckie, to Edinburgh to tell the news there.
The tempest of indignation which followed the announce-
ment surprised and terrified the messenger. Fast as horse
and boat could carry him he returned to Huntly, whom, on
his arrival, he found at dinner. The earl immediately rose
from table and ordered his horse, and, without taking time
even to pay his reckoning,^ he galloped off towards Perth,
en route for the north, where, surrounded by his family
and clansmen, he knew he would be in safety.

Meantime every hour increased the excitement in Edin-
burgh. The Privy Council met at once, and deprived Huntly
of all his commissions of lieutenancy and justiciary. The
earl's disfigured body and that of his fellow-victim Dunbar
of Westfield were brought over by Lady Doune, his mother,
from Donibristle, and exposed in the kirk of Leith, that all
men might see with their own eyes the cruel character of
the murder. The streets sounded with " comoun rymes and
sangs" calling for vengeance upon the perpetrators of the

^ David Moysie's Memoirs, p. 185.

L

1 62 INDIGNATION EXCITED BY THE DEED.

outrage. From every pulpit there came " th6 public threaten-
ing of God's judgments " against all who directly or indirectly
were implicated in the affair. For by this time the notion
had got abroad that there were others of even higher rank
than Huntly connected with the business. It was whispered,
and more than whispered, that the king himself was " linking
on it." Strange stories began to be circulated, — ^how that on
the day of the murder Huntly had been with the king and
had taken leave of him under pretext of going to a horse-
race at Leith ; how that next morning James had fixed the
scene of his hunting about Wardie and Inverleith, where he
could see the still burning embers of Donibristle ; how that
after the meeting of the Privy Council he had at a meeting
with some of the Edinburgh clergy taken pains "to cleere
himself" from all participation in the affair, alleging that
" his part was like David's when Abner was slain by Joab,"
and had even desired his clerical visitors "to cleere his
part before the people " — as if a man who knew himself to
be innocent had need of any one's advocacy ! Nor as time
went on were the suspicions of the people diminished. A
proclamation of a raid for the pursuit of Huntly had indeed
been made about the nth of February, and an "armey
appointit" to convene at the burgh of Perth on "the
tenth day of Marche instant" for that purpose. But no
one took it seriously. Every one knew, too, that Huntly's
"entering himself in ward" within Blackness Castle, as he
did that very day, was a mere form, and possibly, as really
turned out to be the case, was a matter of arrangement
between him and the king. No one was surprised, there-
fore, when, after a few days' confinement there, he was
"freed quietlie be his majestic, and past therefra to the
castell of Fyndheavin, quhair he remanit in companie
with the Erie of Crafurde a certane tyme, and thereafter

MARRIAGE OF THE "BONNIE EARL'S" SON. 163

was freed simpliciter, or upone cautin never fund."^ Seven
years later — on the 17th April 1599 — James advanced him
to the rank of marquis. And so the incident ended for
the time.^

But it had an extraordinary sequel. The " Bonnie EarFs "
son James, who succeeded him, not only married, by the
express desire and indeed instrumentality of the king. Lady
Ann Gordon, the daughter of his father's murderer, but, no
doubt to reconcile him to such an unnatural union, obtained
in 161 1 a grant of the earldom of Moray in favour of himself
and his heirs-male. The new charter is proof, if proof were
needed, that the Bonnie Earl had never any real claim to the
title.

This James was a quiet unobtrusive man, who neither
courted nor attained notoriety. He died at Darnaway on 6th
August 1638, and was buried next day in the little secluded
kirkyard of Dyke, without any pomp, according to his own
directions.

The fourth earl, also a James, was as retiring as his father.
He was a Royalist, as was natural. But he lived in the
country, and took no part in public affairs. He died in 1653,
and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Alexander.
This earl lived in stirring times and shared in their vicissi-
tudes. He was fined by Cromwell for his Royalist proclivi-
ties. But when the king had got his own again he received
compensation for his sufferings by being appointed to various
offices of importance. A Lord of the Treasury in 1678; he
was Secretary of State in 1680, High Commissioner of the
Parliament of Scotland in 1686, and Knight of the Thistle

* Mo3^ie's Memoirs.

' The popular view of the affair, we need scarcely remind our readers,
is that adopted in the well-known, and in all probability contemporary,
ballad of the "Bonnie Earl of Moray."

1 64 THE FOREST OF DARN AWAY.

in 1687. When the Revolution came, the sunshine of his
prosperity once again departed, and he was deprived of all
his offices. He retired to Donibristle, and died there in 1700.

Since then there have been nine Earls of Moray, exclusive
of the present holder of the title.

Francis, the ninth earl (bom 1737, died 18 10), bitten by
the prevailing mania of the day, was a great arboriculturist,
and it is recorded that two years after his succession he had
planted thirteen millions of trees at his three seats of Doime,
Donibristle, and Damaway, and of these a million and a half
were oaks. The oak forest at his Morayshire seat is one
of the features of the district. Parts of it, no doubt, are very
ancient, for a forest of Darnaway existed as early as the
fourteenth century; and the old Gaelic name of the parish
of Edinkillie, in which two-thirds of it are situated, is said to
signify **The face of the wood." But the greater part of the
forest as it now exists was the pious bequest of Earl Francis
to his successors — a bequest for which some of them have
had reason to be thankful.

Following its sinuosities, the forest extends to nearly twenty-
six miles — or about the distance from Forres to Inverness —
and encloses some thousand acres of arable land. The value
of the woods in 1830 was ;£"! 30,000. For many years a
considerable trade was carried on in oak bark, which at one
time is said to have reached a price of ;£'i6 per ton. But
of late years this manufacture has largely been given up,
owing to the fall in prices. The worth of oak-bark is now
only about ^(^4 a-ton, which scarcely pays the cost of manu-
facture. The old and mistaken practice of eradicating the
firs in the forest and replacing them with oaks is now fortu-
nately abandoned ; and such of the old firs as still remain —
forest giants many of them, hoary with age — are protected
with wise and loving care.

THE EARL AND THE SHERIFF. 1 65

The earldom estates in the province of Moray are now
shrunk to small dimensions, embracing an area of only about
21,669 acres in Elginshire and 7035 in Inverness-shire. It
is a curious coincidence, that while the most valuable, though
not perhaps the most extensive, estates of the Earls of Moray
are now situated in Fife, those of the Earls (now Dukes) of
Fife are to be found in Moray.

Before leaving the subject of the earldom it may be proper
to explain, so far as this is possible with the very meagre
materials at our command, the relation between the two offices
of comes or earl and of vice-comes or sheriff.

There can be little doubt that Scotland borrowed the name
of sheriff, as it borrowed those of thane and earl, from Saxon
England. When the Anglo-Saxon constitution was at the
height of its maturity the gemot (meeting) or county court of
the shire — which in England was synonymous with county —
was presided over by the earl in person, either alone or in
conjunction with the bishop. The principal executive local
office of the shire, under its head the earl, was the scir-gerefa
or sheriff. And at its half-yearly courts he was always present
in his capacity of assessor to the earl. But as years went on,
and as the emergencies of the times rendered the absence of
the earl more frequent, the sheriff became the presiding officer
of the gemot as the deputy or vice-comes of the earl. Such
were the functions of the sheriff in Anglo-Saxon England ; and
such are the functions of the sheriff in England to this day.
He is a mere executive officer whose duties are to see the
orders of the superior courts of justice, holden within the
county, carried into effect.

But in Scotland it was different. In Scotland the Saxon-
isation of the kingdom, which was the be-all and end-all of
Malcolm Ceannmor's legislation, was perfected by him and his
immediate successors in theory only. Officers might, indeed.

1 66 THE EVOLUTION OF THE OFFICE OF SHERIFF.;

be appointed with Anglo-Saxon titles. Their functions may
have been intended to correspond with those of similar officials
in England. But the royal authority was too weak, the
districts to which they were assigned were too much wedded
to their own old customs to accept them except in name.
What was to be the nature and extent of the authority of the
thanes, earls, and sheriffs who came into existence about this
period was a matter which time alone could decide. The
natural process of evolution was left to do its work.

It is impossible with any degree of certainty to trace — at
least in its earlier stages — the evolution of the sheriff from
a mere local executive office, the vice-comes of the earl, into
a royal office embracing both executive and judicial authority
of the most extensive order. It is impossible to say when,
or in what way, his connection with the comes and his courts
was dissevered. But if the establishment of shires — "that
is," according to Sir John Skene, " a cutting or section, like
as we say a pair of scheirs quairwith claith is cutted " — took
place, as is generally believed, about the time of David I., the
establishment of sheriffs or shire-reeves must have taken place
at the same period.

By this time a new element had come into play. Saxon-
isation had given place, or was giving place, to feudalisation.
The authority of the Crown was increasing. The notion
underlying the dignity of the earldom was no longer the
Saxon one, that the earl was the comrade of the king, but
the Norman one, that he was the mties^ the soldier of the
sovereign.

The rights, — the jurisdiction of the earl within the comitatus
— his regality, as they were called, — were still conceded in
fact as well as in theory. But from this time forward he
enjoyed the rights and he held his lands as a fief of the
Crown. The loose bonds which had hitherto attached him

THE "shires" of MORAY. 1 67

to his monarch were tightened. From being, like his native
predecessors, a more or less independent power, bound merely
by contract to discharge certain obligations towards his sover-
eign, he had now become a dependent authority, whose
failure to perform his duties might imply — as in after years
it often did imply — forfeiture of his rank and possessions.

In England, as we have seen, the shire was coextensive
with the county. In Scotland there might be as many shires
within the county as the king chose to create. Within the
comitaius of Moray there were two — the shires of Elgin and
Forres, and of Nairn. ^ Morayshire, a term more commonly
used, and seemingly more agreeable to its inhabitants, than
Elginshire, is both historically and legally inaccurate. Look-
ing back upon the distinguished history of the province,
however, there is much to be said for its preference.

In England the tendency was to depreciate the office of
sheriff; in Scotland the reverse was the case. It may be that
the king's sheriff was at first a mere executive officer whose
duties were to collect the Crown dues, to execute Crown
writs, and to act as coroner within the regality of the earl.
But by degrees his claims to an authority, at first co-ordinate
with, and very soon superior to, the earFs rights of regality,
were asserted ; and till these were finally swept away after the
Rebellion of 1725 by the Act 20 George II. c. 50, 1767, there
was a subacute rivalry between the two, which was manifested
in the constant process of replegiation that went on between
the two tribunals.

In accordance with the sentiment of the times the office of
sheriff was a heritable one. And there was no impropriety in
conferring it, as in other districts of Scotland it often was con-
ferred, on the earl himself. But in Moray this was never the

^ The word shire was also locally given to much smaller tracts of
territory.

1 68 HERITABLE SHERIFFS OF MORAY AND NAIRN.

case. The offices of comes or earl and vice-comes or sheriff
are never found in combination.

The first heritable Sheriff of Morayshire whose name
appears on the records, though, of course, there had been
many before him, is Alexander Douglas, who held the office
in 1226. The first heritable Sheriff of Nairnshire of whom
we learn is Andrew, Thane of Cawdor, who died in 1405.
These two examples show, if further proof were necessary,
how fallacious is the argument which seeks to connect the
office of sheriflf with that of the earl. Neither of those
persons was Earl of Moray, nor had any pretensions to the
dignity. Both were, however, feudal officers of high dis-
tinction. The Thane of Cawdor was constable of the king's
castle of Nairn. As such he enjoyed the confidence of the
king. It was probably to this, and to this only, that he
owed his appointment as sheriff of the shire.

IV.

COUNTY FAMILIES OF MORAY

AND NAIRN

IV.

COUNTY FAMILIES OF MORAY

AND NAIRN.

THE STORY OF THE GORDONS PROPERLY BELONGS TO ABERDEEN AND
BANFF — THE GRANTS : THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE FAMILY IN
13 16 — THEY MAKE MANY ACQUISITIONS OF PROPERTY — AND IN
1694 OBTAIN A CHARTER FROM WILLIAM AND MARY CONSOLIDAT-
ING THEIR ESTATES— SHEUMAS NAN CREACH— JOHN, THE FIFTH
LAIRD — THE ROMANCE OF THE SEVENTH LAIRD — MONTROSE AND
THE GRANTS — "THE HIGHLAND KING" — THE BATTLE OF CROM-
DALE — THE '15 AND THE '45 — CULLODEN — "THE GOOD SIR
JAMES" — LATER LAIRDS — THE DUFFS: THEIR ORIGIN AND AC-
QUISITIONS OF PROPERTY — WILLIAM DUFF OF DIPPLE — PEERS OF
IRELAND — THE LATER EARLS — THE GORDONS OF GORDONSTOUN :
"sir ROBERT THE WIZARD" — THE SECOND SIR ROBERT — THE
KINNAIRDS OF CULBIN : THE CULBIN SANDS — THE LAIRDS OF
CAWDOR : CAWDOR CASTLE — LATER FORTUNES OF THE FAMILY —
THE ROSES OF KILRAVOCK — THE BRODIES OF BRODIE.

The three families which have exercised the most powerful
influence upon local events in Morayshire are the Gordons,
Earls and Marquises of Huntly and Dukes of Gordon ; the
Grants, Lairds of Grant and now Earls of Seafield ; and the
Duffs, Earls now Dukes of Fife.

The Gordons were beyond comparison the most important
of the three. But though they have had for generations their
principal seat, Gordon Castle, and their last resting-place, the
Gordon Aisle in the cathedral of Elgin, within the county.

1/2 THE FAMILY OF GORDON.

their position as lieutenants of the north brought them so
much more closely in contact with the affairs of the adjoining
counties of Banff and Aberdeen that their story more properly
belongs to them than to Moray.

So often, indeed, were they out of touch with public
opinion in Elginshire, especially in matters of religion, that,
according to the local saying, now happily inapplicable —

** The Gordon, the gool,^ and the hoodie-craw
Were the three worst ills that Moray e'er saw."

If the district about the mouth of the Spey was the
appanage of the Gordons, the strath or valley of the Spey
belonged as exclusively to the Grants.^

In length of run the Spey holds the fourth place among
Scottish rivers. The Tay comes first with a course of 120
miles, the Tweed second with a run of 105, then the Forth

^ Chrysanthemum segetum, the yellow marguerite.

^ In the Introduction to the * Seafield Book ' (p. xxi), to which the
following pages are so lai^ely indebted, the editor, Sir William Fraser,
remarks: "The wild district of Strathspey had so long been peopled
exclusively by the clan, that no landowners held possessions there who did
not bear the name of Grant. When, about the middle of last century,
Baron Grant of Elchies proposed to sell his estates in Strathspey, Sir
Ludovick Grant was anxious to secure them, either for himself or for one of
the clan. In a letter to his law agent he wrote that he wished to preserve
all the lands between the two Craigellachies in the name of Grant. These
two rocky eminences are conspicuous objects in Strathspey. The upper
or western Craigellachie forms the dividing boundary between Badenoch
and Strathspey, and was the rendezvous of the Clan Grant in time of war.
The lower Craigellachie stands at the confluence of the Fiddich with the
Spey, and forms the point of contact of the parishes of Aberlour, Knock-
ando, Rothes, and Boharm. The upper Craigellachie is generally sup-
posed to have furnished the crest of the Grant family, which is a moun-
tain in flames. When the chief wished the clan to assemble, fires were
kindled on both Craigellachies, hence the name * Rock of Alarm.' The
war-cry of the clan was, ' Stand fast, Craigellachie,' and their armorial
motto is the same."

STRATHSPEY — ^JOHN LE GRANT. 1 73

with one of 104, and after it the Spey. According to Sir
Thomas Dick Lauder, its length is about 96 miles. It takes
its rise in Badenoch, about 16 miles south of Fort Augustus,
and drains, according to the same authority, not less than 1300
square miles of country. Lachlan Shaw, in his history of the
province, thinks it obtained its name " from the Teutonick or
Pictish word spe {sputum)^ because the rapidity of it raiseth
much foam or froath." Be this as it may, few rivers have a
worse record.^ Fierce, sudden, treacherous, and implacable,
it is the fitting accompaniment of the wild country through
which it runs.

The strath of the Spey is one of the most characteristic
examples of the longitudinal valleys of Scotland. Its trend
is from north-east to south-west; and, as Shaw observes, it
is "inclosed to the north and west by a ridge of hills
which, beginning in the parish of Urquhart near the sea,
run above Elgin, Forres, Inverness, and Lochness to Locha-
ber. And to the south and east a part of the Grampian
Mountains runneth along Strathspey and Badenoch, and
several glens jutt into these mountains, which shall be
described in their proper place."

To this magnificent tract of Highland country there
came in the reign of Robert the Bruce, from Stratherrick
in Inverness-shire, a certain John le Grant, who in 13 16
obtained a grant of the lands of Inverallan on the west
side of the Spey, close to the modern village of Grantown.
These were the first lands on Speyside acquired by its

^ The tract * De Situ Albaniae,' a MS. of the twelfth century, describes
it as ** magnum et mirabile flumen quod vocatur Spe, majorem et meliorem
tocitts Scocie. " Shaw ( * History of Moray, 'p. 11) quotes this passage in-
correctly. He makes the writer, whoever he may have been, speak of the-
"magnum et miserabile flumen" — an epithet, however, not far from the
truth.

174 THE GRANTS AND THEIR ACQUISITIONS.

future lords. Their next purchase, which was made about
a century later, was a parcel of lands lying to the west of
their existing possessions, called Freuchie, from the Gaelic
fraachach^ a word said to mean heathy or heathery. Here they
erected a manor-house, which in due time — ^possibly some-
where about 1536 — was rebuilt or enlarged, and converted
into a fortalice, and from that time became the principal
seat of the family. From this time also the lands of
Freuchie were occasionally known by the name of Balla-
chastell, the town of the castle.

Their next acquisition was a large tract of wild country
in the north-west of Inverness-shire. In 1509 they became
the proprietors of the lands of Urquhart, Corrimony, and
Glenmoriston. In 1540 they feu-farmed the lands of Strath-
spey from Patrick, Bishop of Moray, and in 1609 those of
Abernethy in the parish of Duthil from James, the son and
successor of the Bonnie Earl of Moray. These were their
principal possessions, but they were not their only ones.
'* Earth-hunger " was so marked a characteristic of the family,
that whenever a parcel of land in the vicinity of any of
their more important messuages was in any way capable of
acquisition, the Grants became its proprietors as a matter
of course. And whenever they had acquired a new estate,
their first care was to get it erected into a barony. Thus
in 1493 t^^y obtained a grant of barony of the lands of
Freuchie from James IV., and similar charters for the
lands of Urquhart and Corrimony from the same monarch
in 1509. James VI. erected their lands of Cromdale into
a barony in 1609. Similar concessions were granted to
them at various times for the lands of Mulben, Cardells,
and others. Towards the end of the seventeenth century
their holdings had become so extensive that they felt justi-

THE AUTHORITY OF THE GRANTS. I/S

fied in applying to the Crown for a recognition of their
territorial importance. Accordingly in 1694 they resigned
all their vast possessions into the hands of the Crown, and
in return obtained from William and Mary a charter con-
solidating and uniting all their estates into "one whole and
free regality," with jurisdiction to the said regality "of free
regality, free chapel and chancery and justiciary, and all
other privileges, immunities, profits, and duties pertaining
thereto," including the power to appoint a bailie or baiUes
of regality "to set, affirm, hold, and continue courts within
the said regality for administration of justice civil and
criminal, to appoint officers of court, to call before them,
try, and condemn delinquents and felons, repledge them
from other jurisdictions, and to sit as judges in all actions
civil and criminal except lese majeste and treason ; * con-
stituting' the town formerly called Castletown of Freuchie
into a burgh of regality, to be called the town and burgh
of Grant" (now Grantown), with "a market-cross to be
erected therein, and proclamations to be made thereat,"
with right of market and all other usual privileges; ordain-
ing the castle and manor-place of Freuchie to be the prin-
cipal messuage of the family, and to be called in all time
coming Castle Grant ; entailing the lands upon Ludovick
Grant their then possessor and his heirs, and granting the
designation and arms of Grant of that ilk to all such heirs
of entail.

The consideration for all these extended honours and
privileges was a certain pecuniary reddendo^ and "the con-
stant fidelity and loyalty which the said Ludovick Grant
and his predecessors had manifested towards their majesties
and their service, and their progenitors, in times of peace
and war." These words were not entirely terms of courtesy.

176 THEIR LOYALTY.

though they sound oddly coming from the supplanters of
the old line of Scottish kings. Yet in a sense they were
true. The Grants had always been loyal to the sovereign
— in their own way.

In the reign of James III. John Grant (1485- 1528), the
heir and grandson of Sir Duncan, first of Freuchie (1434-
1485), headed the Clan Grant in its march southward to
aid the king in his war against England; and even before
he succeeded to the family estates he seems to have taken
a prominent part in the public affairs of the district He
was one of those heads of clans whom James IV. thought
of sufficient importance to attach to his interests ; and he
certainly rendered signal service to the Crown, not only, in
preserving peace within his own domains, but in bringing
freebooters in other districts of the country to justice.

The defeat of James IV. at Flodden once more threw
the Highlands into anarchy. Rebellion broke out The
Islesmen flew to arms and made a raid into the laird of
Freuchie's country of Urquhart, carrying off, with other un-
considered trifles, " pots, pans, kettles, * nops ' [napeiy],
beds, sheets, blankets, coverings, fish, flesh, bread, ale,:
cheese, butter, and other household stuff", valued at upwards
of ;;^ioo." Freuchie, indeed, obtained a decree of repara-
tion against the heads of the marauders. Whether he
gained anything by it may be doubted.

The next important service to the Crown rendered by
the Grants was the aid they gave the queen's lieutenant,
the Earl of Huntly, in suppressing the insurrection of the
Camerons, Erasers, and other Highland clans in 1544. But
James, third Laird of Freuchie (152 8- 1553), who was then
their head, had to pay dearly for his loyalty. Another raid
on Glen Urquhart ensued, and a large amount of property
of the usually miscellaneous character was carried offl It

•->

"SHEUMAS NAN CREACH." \^^

was a raid much talked about and long remembered in the
locality. In Highland song and story this laird of Freuchie
is still known as "Sheumas nan Creach," or James of the
Foray. Yet the name may have been derived from his
own plundering propensities. Certain it is that he made
no pretensions to superior virtue in this respect.

There is a curious story told of this " Sheumas nan
Creach," which may or may not be true. It is said that
on one occasion he and his friend Huntly, the head of the
Gordons, made a raid into Deeside to avenge the murder
of Freuchie's brother-in-law, Gordon of Brachally. There
was a great slaughter, and many children were made
orphans. Huntly, a kind-hearted man, picked out the
most promising of them, male and female, to the number
of between sixty and eighty, and carried them with him to
his castle of Strathbogie. To feed all his hungry little
flock, he had a long wooden trough constructed, and this
he filled with provisions. On either side of it he ranged
the children, then bade them fall to with mouths and
hands, which they did with right goodwill. One day
Freuchie arrived when the children were at their mid-day
meal. The earl invited him to go and see the orphans
"lobbing at their troch." The sight is Said to have so
affiected the laird that, turning to Huntly, he told him that
as he had been instrumental in the destruction of their
parents, it was only fair that he should also aid in the
maintenance of their offspring. Sweeping away the sitters on
the one side of the trough, he ordered them to be taken to
Strathspey ; those on the other side he left with Huntly ; and
by a summary process of nomenclature not uncommon in
those days, no sooner had Freuchie's quota arrived on Spey-
side than they found themselves converted into Grants, while
those who remained behind became from that day Gordons.

M

178 THE FOURTH LAIRD OF FREUCHIE.

John Grant, fourth laird of Freuchie (1553-1585), who
succeeded his father, Sheumas nan Creach, was also drawn
within the dangerous whirlpool of public affairs. His rela-
tions with the Huntly of the day were as friendly and
intimate as had been those of his father and grandfather.
He was present as one of Huntl/s party at Holyrood on
the night of the murder of Darnley; and after the queen's
escape from Lochleven on 2d May 1568 he, with his chief
Huntly, openly espoused her cause as against that of the
Earl of Moray the Regent. But the party of the Kirk
was too strong for them, and after the battle of Langside
both the one and the other had to acknowledge Moray's
supremacy.

The principal incident in the history of John, the fifth laird
(i 585-1 622), is the dissolution of the friendly relations be-
tween the Grants and the Huntlys which had lasted for so
many generations. Politics and religion were in those daj^
so closely interwoven that anything like agreement was im-
possible between two men who held such opposite views in
matters of faith. The discovery of Huntl/s treasonable cor-
respondence with Spain in relation to the Armada led to his
taking up arms with others of the northern nobility against
the Government. His rebellion was speedily suppressed.
The earl himself was taken prisoner, and the powers which he
and his predecessors had exercised as king's lieutenants in the
North taken from him. The justiciary powers of which he
was deprived were conferred by the Convention of Estates on
certain commissioners, of whom the laird of Freuchie was one.
Huntly's murder of the Bonnie Earl of Moray a year or
two later once more brought the laird of Freuchie to the
front. At the head of his clansmen, and in conjunction with
the Mackintoshes, he took an active part — ^and in true High-
land fashion — in the work of vengeance. Mutual raids be-

THE FIFTH LAIRD OF FREUCHIE. 1 79

tween the two contending parties, murders, housebreakings,
spuilzies, were the order of the day. The north was "sa
wrakit and schakin lowis " that these and other similar crimes
went on with "far greitair rigour nor it war with forreyne
enemyis." Things got so bad that the Earl of Argyll had
to be sent to introduce order into the district. But in the
choice of a new lieutenant for the North the Government had
not been very fortunate. Argyll's defeat at Glenlivet, very
much owing to his own headstrong rashness, only intensified
the difficulties of the situation. At length in 1597 the Gor-
dian knot was cut by the solemn farce of the reconciliation
of the three insurgent earls — Huntly, Angus, and ErroU — to
the Kirk, and their restoration to their titles and estates. Two
years later Huntly was created a marquis. Moved by this
signal mark of royal favour, the Grants, the Mackintoshes,
the Forbeses, and others of the neighbouring clans who for
the last two years had been his most deadly enemies, thought
it desirable to renew their amicable relations with the now
almost omnipotent "Cock of the North." Yet no one be-
lieved that such a pleasant and peaceful condition of things
could endure ; and it was not long before the Grants and the
Gordons were at loggerheads again. We may, however, leave
their tedious quarrels to the oblivion which they deserve.

Yet though he never rose to first rank as a politician, or
indeed as anything else, this John Grant was a personage in
his day. Strange though it may appear, he has earned the
reputation of being a great peacemaker, and he stood high
in the royal favour. In more respects than one he was a
man after the king's own heart. Witchcraft he professed to
abominate as heartily as his sovereign. *And he shared the
king's views as to episcopacy. So highly was he esteemed
by the king, that James is said to have made him the offer
of a peerage. " Then wha'U be Laird of Grant ? " is reported

l80 SIR "JOHN SELL-THE-LAND."

to have been the laird's reply. He died on the 20th Septem-
ber 1622.

His wife, Lady Lillias Murray, daughter of the Earl of
TuUibardine, survived him for the long period of twenty-one
years. She was a woman of intelligence and culture far in
advance of her times. A great reader, the possessor of a
good library, a poetess, or at any rate a lover of poetry, she
was besides a lady of much vigour of character. Taylor the
Water Poet, who visited Ballachastell in 1618, describes her
as "being both inwardly and outwardly plentifully adorned
with the gifts of grace and nature." But what perhaps de-
lighted the " Penniless Pilgrim " even more, was the splendour
and heartiness of his entertainment. " There stayed there four
days," he says, " four earls, one lord, divers knights and gen-
tlemen, and their servants, footmen, and horses; in every
meal four long tables furnished with all varieties; our first
and second courses being threescore dishes at one board, and
after that always a banquet ; and there, if I had not forsworn
wine till I came to Edinburgh, I think I had then drunk my
last."

The next laird, the son of the preceding, also a John
(162 2- 1637), resembled his father in his peacemaking propen-
sities only. His public life is unimportant. But the affairs
of his own district gave him plenty to do. The raids of his
friends and those of his own clan kept him in constant hot
water, and more than once seriously compromised him.
These, however, were the least of his troubles. His life was
blighted by pecuniary difficulties, brought about in large meas-
ure by his profuse style of living and open-handed generosity.
Yet he was hardly the spendthrift he is so often alleged to
have been, and scarcely deserves the sobriquet of Sir John Sell-
the-land which tradition has bestowed upon him. He died in
1637, and was buried in the Abbey Chapel at Holyrood.

THE SEVENTH LAIRD OF FREUCHIE. l8l

James, seventh laird of Freuchie (1637-1663), was com-
pelled by force of circumstances to take as prominent a part
in public business as any of his predecessors. And no laird
of Freuchie had ever a greater disinclination for the work.
An imperturbable good nature, a strong predisposition for
a quiet easy life, and, above all, an extra share of Scotch
" canniness," were his chief characteristics. By means of
these useful qualities he managed to steer his bark safely
through all the perplexities of his times, and succeeded in
escaping the shipwreck of his fortunes that so many of his
contemporaries made.

Before he came of age he had seen more of life than any
previous laird of Freuchie. He had travelled abroad. He
had seen camps and service. He had experienced all the
joys and sorrows of a love affair of the most romantic order.
Scarcely was his father dead when he broke away from all the
traditions of his family and declared himself a Covenanter.
And a Covenanter in faith he seems to have remained to the
end, though his Royalist proclivities forced him into opposi-
tion to their political action. So long as the Covenanters
aimed at nothing more than a reformation of religion James
Grant was their faithful servant. The moment they preferred
their self-interest to their loyalty, the Laird of Freuchie cut
himself adrift from their counsels and joined the party of the
king. He attached himself publicly to the Covenanters in
1639 ; he as publicly withdrew from their company in 1645.

Perhaps an incident that intervened within these six years
may have had something to do with his change of politics.
This was his marriage.

On the walls of the entrance-hall of Damaway Castle hang
two portraits which at once attract the notice of the visitor,
as much from the fluent grace of their execution as for the
attractiveness of their subjects. The one is that of a richly

1 82 TWO PORTRAITS.

dressed lady in early matronhood. The other is that of a
young girl of thirteen or fourteen. The child's picture is par-
ticularly fascinating. The fair silken hair, the dark eyes, the
purity and delicacy of her complexion, the quaint dress, the
tight bodice, the collar standing out from the neck like the
wings of a flying-fish, the emerald jewel in her hair, the rich
necklace, the jewelled cross suspended from her beautifully
shaped throat, enlist and rivet the interest of the beholder.
Both pictures are dated 1626, and bear the well-known inscrip-
tion of the Flemish painter, Cornelius Janssen. The portrait
of the lady is that of Lady Anne Gordon, daughter of George,
first Marquis of Huntly, who murdered her husband's father,
the Bonnie Earl of Moray ; and the child is her only daughter,
Mary Stewart. The resemblance to her grandfather, the
Bonnie Earl, is most striking. She inherits not only his
beauty but his peculiar shape of countenance. There is an-
other portrait of Mary Stewart in existence. It hangs in the
large portrait-room at Castle Grant. Few would at first sight
recognise in the ringleted, full-faced matron in lace-bordered
hood and tippet the ethereal child of the Damaway picture ;
yet the two are the same. Only in the one case she is repre-
sented as the daughter of James, Earl of Moray, and in the
other as the wife of James, seventh laird of Freuchie.

The Laird of Freuchie's marriage with Lady Mary Stewart
was as romantic in its ciicumstances as, but more fortunate
in its termination than, his previous love affair with Lady Jane
Fleming, the daughter of the Earl of Wigtown. There had
been a long courtship, for the alliance had been opposed, first
by the lady's father, and after his death by her brother. But
Lady Mary's affection surmounted all obstacles. Some of her
letters have been preserved. They are full of pathos, and
breathe undying constancy. "Absolutlie and only yours"
(the last word spelled ^^yours^'^ ^^youriSy^ and ^^yowrs " in the

LADY MARY STEWART. 1 83

same letter) is the manner in which she subscribes herself.
A prettier picture of love braving all difficulties is hardly to
be found outside the pages of fiction.

At last in 1640 the steadfastness of the lovers was rewarded.
Lady Mary's brother, the Earl of Moray, had occasion to go
to England. Before going he established his sister in a house
at Elgin. He " gave order," says Spalding, " for keiping of
hir house in honorabill maner. He gave to hir the haill
jewellis and goldsmith work belonging to hir defunct mother.
But he keipit her poiss^ himself" No sooner was he gone
than the lovers married. The ceremony was performed by
the minister of Abernethy, who for having celebrated it with-
out proclamation was suspended by the Synod of Moray " from
his chairge for the space of three Sabbottis."

Lady Mary, in virtue of her Stewart blood, was a staunch
Royalist. In virtue of her connection with the Gordons she
was also a staunch Roman Catholic. * Her views on both
these subjects were faiths which could not be shaken; and
being a woman of strong individuality, she soon obtained a
powerful influence over her easy-going husband. Though she
was never able to undermine his Protestantism, she succeeded
in altering his political views. From the day of her marriage
the unseen hand that guided his future was that of the Lady
Mary his wife.

An old MS. volume of anecdotes preserved amongst the
Grant records gives a graphic picture of this extraordinary
woman. It describes her as an extremely bold and peculiar
person. Strangely credulous, she was a profound believer in
witchcraft. Having lost several of her children in the begin-
ning of her married life, she took it into her head that they
had been bewitched, and sent for an Italian pricker to discover
who were the culprits. The only result of his operations was

^ Pose — that is, her treasure.

1 84 MARY GRANT AND LORD LEWIS GORDON.

to cause the death of many innocent persons. Her Roman
Catholic convictions, of which she does not seem to have
made any secret, brought upon her a sentence of excommuni-
cation from the Synod of Moray. It does not appear to have
harmed her even in the slightest degree. A woman who could
successfully defy the thunders of so potent an ecclesiastical
court must have indeed been a remarkable person.

There is the highest probability, though there is nothing
more, that she had something to do in bringing about an
alliance which had undoubtedly much effect upon the future
fortunes of her husband. This was the marriage of his sister
Mary with Lord Lewis Gordon, third son of the Marquis of
Huntly. Freuchie's relations with his cousins of the house
of Gordon were for the moment extremely strained, and he
did not approve of the match. But Lord Lewis (who, it
need scarcely be observed, is not the hero of the well-known
Jacobite ballad) had the laird's mother and wife on his side,
and they succeeded in overcoming his objections. It is said
that Mary Grant's acquaintance with him began in a very
romantic way. Owing to the part he had taken in the
troubles of the period, he was for a time in hiding in a cave,
which to this day goes by his name, in a rocky glen near
Castle Grant. Mary having discovered this, visited him in
his retreat, and herself carried supplies to the fugitive. Her
kindness to him led to their marriage. It turned out both a
happy and a prosperous one. Lord Lewis succeeded his
father as third Marquis of Huntly, and in 1684 his and
Mary Grant's son was created by Charles II. first Duke of
Gordon.

After this marriage we find the Laird of Freuchie acting
generally in concert with the Gordons, though with no extra-
ordinary zeal, throughout the remainder of Montrose's gallant
but futile campaign in the Highlands.

MONTROSE ENTERS ELGIN. 1 85

Between the battle of Inverlochy (now Fort William) on 2d
February 1645, in which he so signally defeated the forces of
Argyll, and thus had the Highlands at his mercy, and the dis-
banding of his forces by his master Charles I.'s express com-
mand on 2d June 1646, the province of Moray, including the
district of Strathspey, not only saw a good deal of Montrose,
but engrossed a considerable share of his attention.

After the battle of Inverlochy Montrose proceeded north-
wards to Inverness, and from there turned his course towards
Elgin, " chargeing all maner of men " on his way " betwixt 60
and 16 to ryse and serve the king and him his majesteis
liuetenand wnder pane of fyre and suord." Sundry of the
Moray men " cam in to him.^' With those who stood out he
was as good as his word. The Laird of Ballindalloch's three
houses, " Petcash, Foyness, and Balnadalachs," were plundered
and burned ; so were the " places " of Grangehill, Brodie,
Cowbin, Innes, and Redhall. The lands of Burgie, Lethen,
and Duffus were plundered but not burned ; so was the little
village of Garmouth. And the salmon-cobles and nets beside
it were " cuttit and he win doun, quhairby the water of Spey
culd not be weill fishet." These proceedings naturally " bred
gryte fier." The " Committe of Elgin " — a local body to whom
the Estates had intrusted the safety of the district — took to
flight, and many of the townspeople, with their "wyves,
bames, and best goodis," followed their example.

On the 19th February Montrose entered Elgin. The very
night of his arrival he received a valuable recruit in the person
of Lord Gordon, Huntly's eldest son, who, " being in the Bog "
(Gordon Castle), " lap quiklie on horss, haueing Nathanell
Gordoun, with sum few vtheris, in his company ; and that
samen nicht cam to Elgyn, salutit Montrose, who maid him
hartlie welcum, and soupit joyfuUie togedder." His brother-
in-law, the Laird of Freuchie, had already joined the Marquis

1 86 DEATH OF LORD GRAHAM.

en route, and sent him 300 men. Every hour of his stay in
Elgin brought him some fresh auxiliary. Now it was " Lodo-
vick Gordon," with whom we are better acquainted as Lewis
Gordon, the Laird of Freuchie's brother-in-law ; now it was
the Earl of Seaforth, the Laird of Pluscarden, or Sir Robert
Gordon of Gordonstoun — the very men who had constituted
the " Committe of Elgin," and who had so dastardly taken to
flight a few days before. But their adhesion was not able to
save the town from punishment Montrose indeed, on pay-
ment of 4000 merks, consented to spare it from being burned.
But he would not exempt it from being plundered. The con-
genial duty he committed to the Laird of Grant's contingent,
who, accustomed to such work, did it heartily and thoroughly.
They plundered the town pitifully, says Spalding. They left
nothing " tursabill " (removable) uncarried away ; and they
broke down beds, boards, "insicht, and plenishing."

Leaving them to their grateful labours, Montrose with the
main body of his army marched on to the Bog of Gicht He
brought with him all his new allies. Such recruits as the
members of the Elgin Committee, he rightly considered, could
not be trusted any further than he could see. His short stay
at the Bog was one of the saddest experiences of his life ; for
here he lost his eldest son, Lord Graham — a bright boy in
his fifteenth year — who had accompanied him during the
whole of his anxious and exhausting campaign. He was
buried in the kirk of Bellie. But the exigencies of the
times left the bereaved father little leisure for sorrow. Four
or five days after his arrival at the Bog he was on the
march again. On the 9th March he was in the neighbour-
hood of Aberdeen, receiving a deputation from the towns-
people, promising them to do the city no harm if only he
received the levies of men, arms, and horses which he de-
manded as being necessary for the king's service. On the

THE kirk's forces SURPRISED. 1 8/

15th he was at Kintore, waiting to hear the result of the
negotiations which were then in progress between himself and
the Aberdonians. To Nathaniel Gordon he had committed
the task of treating with the town's authorities. He was
accompanied by a party of gay and gallant cavaliers, decked
in their richest apparel, amongst whom was Donald Farquhar-
son of Braemar, one of the bravest soldiers in his army. As
the little band was "at their merriment" within the town,
fearing no evil, they were suddenly surprised by Sir John
Hurry, the commander of the Kirk's forces. Farquharson
was slain ; others were captured ; Gordon and those who
escaped lost their horses, and had to return to Kintore on
foot. It is to Montrose's eternal credit that he did not, as
many commanders of his time would have done, avenge this
misfortune on the innocent burghers of the city.

Hurry's dashing exploit was followed by another equally
daring, which, however much it may have been applauded in
those days, is not likely to receive the same approbation in
our own. The death of the young Lord Graham had left
Montrose with only one son remaining. He was " a young
bairn about fourteen years, learning at the schools" in the
pleasant little town of Montrose, " attended by his pedagogue
in quiet maner." With an almost incredible cruelty Hurry,
knowing full well the grief which then afflicted the marquis,
hastened down to Montrose, seized the poor lad and his
tutor, and sent them close prisoners to the castle of Edin-
burgh. Thus in less than a fortnight Montrose had lost both
his children. It was enough to put him beside himself.

However much he suffered — and, with his keen affections
and his intense loathing of anything approaching to treachery
or ungenerous conduct, his sufferings must have been intense
— he never for a moment lost his self-control. Like William
of Orange under very similar circumstances, he held on his

1 88 DEFECTION OF LORD LEWIS GORDON.

tranquil path, subordinating all his own feelings, all his own
sorrows, to the higher claims of duty. He had one object
before him — to assert the supremacy of the king, and, as
the corollary of this, to punish the districts where that
supremacy was denied. Swooping down upon Kincardine-
shire, he burned the burgh of Stonehaven, the town of Cowie,
and the lands of Dunnottar. Then, crossing the Grampians,
he fell in with General Hurry's forces at Fettercaim, about
seven miles from Brechin, and chased them across the Esk.
More he could not do at the time. It was wonderful that
with a Highland army he had been able to effect so much.
In actual battle his "Redshanks" might be gallant enough,
but on the march there was no keeping them in hand.
Already the Laird of Grant's men had given him the slip.
We find Montrose writing to the laird from Kintore on the
1 6th March that not only were his men "lyke to Jacob's
dayes, bade and feu," but that they had all played the run-
away. And the rest of his force was little more reliable.

Amongst those who deserted him at this critical juncture
was Lord Lewis Gordon. The cause of his defection has
never yet been satisfactorily explained. But there is reason
to believe that it may have been influenced, at least in some
degree, by his father, the Marquis of Huntly, who, chafing
under the supposed slight put upon him by the king in virtu-
ally superseding him in his lieutenancy of the north by the
appointment of Montrose as royal lieutenant for the whole of
the kingdom, was for the moment sulking in his camp. It is
only fair to add that the young Lord Lewis's retirement was,
like that of his father, temporary only.

We cannot follow Montrose through all his Highland cam-
paign, vivid though it is with enthralling interest. It was the
most brilliant chapter in his brilliant career. His almost
audacious attack on Dundee with only a portion of his army ;

*'COLKlTTO/' 189

his enforced withdrawal in the very moment of victory ; his
masterly retreat across the hills, after a march of three days
and two sleepless nights, to the lonely depths of Glen Esk ;
his sudden emergence from his refuge ; his startling appear-
ance on the Braes of Balquhidder; his threatened descent
upon the Lowlands ; his unexpected, almost electrifying, re-
appearance in the north, — are beyond the scope of these pages.
We must resume the narrative only when we find him once
more within the boundaries of the province.

By the end of April he was at Skene in Aberdeenshire, short
of powder, short of men, short of everything but courage.
But his prospects were distinctly brightening. He had been
joined by Lord Aboyne, Huntly's second son. He had
effected a reunion with Lord Gordon, who had brought with
him 1000 foot and 200 horse. About the same time Alastair
Macdonell, the celebrated " Colkitto," ^ of whom we shall
hear more in the immediate sequel, also rejoined him with his
division. And when Lord Aboyne shortly afterwards by a
brilliant exploit had procured for him twenty barrels of gun-

^ Alastair MacChoUa Chiotach, to give him his proper designation, was

the son, as his name denotes, of Coll the Left-handed, so called from his

power of wielding his broadsword with either Iiand indiscriminately.

** Colkitto," to give him the name by which he was popularly designated,

though it really belonged to his father* was perhaps the most intrepid

general in Montrose's army. In Highland story and legend he appears

as a veritable hero of romance. He had a hereditary feud against the

Campbells, and it was that which in great measure led to his taking

service under Montrose. With Lowlanders, however, his fame rests

chiefly on the fact that his name forms the theme of a well-known line in

Milton's poem in justification of the word * * Tetrachordon " as the title

of one of his political treatises. " Why is it," asks the poet, that the word

** Tetrachordon " is

" harder, sirs, than Gordon,
Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp ?
Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek
That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp."

Though Milton did not know it, the three names Colkitto, Macdonnel,
and Galasp (Gillespie) all belonged to the same person.

I90 HURRY'S MARCH TO AULDEARN.

powder from the ships lying in the harbour of Aberdeen, he
conceived himself to be in a position to give battle to the
army of the Covenanters.

Hurry on his part, having effected a union with the
northern Covenanters, was equally prepared. At Inverness
he had been joined by the Earls of Seaforth and Sutherland,
the Frasers of Lovat, the Brodies, Roses, and other local
families of Moray and Nairn with their retainers, and he was
now at the head of a force of about 3500 foot and 400 horse.
Montrose's strength was undoubtedly smaller, though the dis-
crepancy was in all likelihood very much less than is generally
stated.

The battle which was to decide the campaign was now
imminent. Both sides were anxious to fight. The only
question was. Which was to be the aggressor? It ended
by Hurry leaving Inverness with the object of attacking
Montrose.

He was aware that the royal forces were encamped a
little above the village of Auldearn, about two and a half
miles south of the town of Nairn. The distance between
Inverness and Auldearn is some sixteen miles. Hunys
intention was to surprise Montrose at daybreak, and ac-
cordingly he left Inverness in the middle of the night of
Thursday the 8 th May 1645. No sooner had he set out,
however, than the rain began also. So heavy was the down-
fall that the powder in the men's muskets got "poysonedL"
Between four and five miles from Auldearn, accordingly, they
turned down to tTie seaside to fire off their damp charges.
But, as ill luck would have it, " the thundering report of
the voUie and the suddain changeing of the wynd" carried
the news to the ears of some scouts who had been sent
out from Montrose's leaguer before daybreak. But for this
the surprise would have been complete. As it was, there

THE VILLAGE OF AULDEARN. I91

was only time to get two regiments drawn up under arms
before Hurry and his troops came in sight.

Facing the visitor as he approaches the scene of the
battle from Nairn, is an irregular, almost semicircular slope.
At the right extremity stands the church, and below it a
piece of terraced ground, from which a wide view can be
obtained of all the country round. The village of Auldearn
now lies in the hollow beneath this terrace, its single street
bisecting the valley in a straight line. But in those days
it followed more closely the undulation of the ground, and
instead of lying north and south, lay more nearly east and
west.

Beginning at the left end of the hamlet, and stretching
across the slope towards the west, was a turf or feal dike,
now superseded by a belt of trees. The main body of his
infantry, and, according to Mr S. R. Gardiner,^ the whole
of his cavalry, Montrose concealed behind this dike. His
left flank, consisting of about 200 horsemen under Lord
Gk)rdon, he stationed at the western extremity of the slope.
He had no right flank and no centre, but he placed a few
men and cannon in front of the houses of the hamlet. The
remainder of his troops he ordered to take up their position
on the low ground to the north-west of the church, and
the command of these he intrusted to Alastair Macdonell.
In front of these was a tolerably level stretch of ground
dotted with bushes, gradually sinking into a morass caused
by the Kinnudie Burn, which came running down the
western declivity of the slope. It was "a stronge ground,
and fencible against horsemen." To render it more so, Mac-
donelFs first care was to pile up brushwood in front of his
position. Thus protected, he would fight at very considerable
advantage.

^ The Great Civil War, vol. ii. p. 224.

192 THE BATTLE OF AULDEARN.

Montrose's plan of battle was to persuade the Covenanters
to attack this position first, and when they were thus en-
gaged to fall upon them with his main body. To induce
the enemy the more readily to believe that he was present
at this point in person, he gave Macdonell the royal standard.
Such was the disposition of the royal forces. A modem
writer has pointed out the striking resemblance it bore to
the Duke of Marlborough's plan of battle at Blenheim.

Before noon on Friday the 9th May the battle began as
Montrose had designed, by a vigorous assault from one of
Hurry's regiments and two of his troops of horse, on Mac-
donell's forces. Stung by the taunts of the Covenanters,
who charged him with cowardice in thus fighting under
cover, Colkitto, in the teeth of Montrose's express pro-
hibition not to leave his defences, advanced into the open.
Here, however, his raw troops would not fight As the
balls whizzed past their ears they ducked their heads in
terror. Some of the officers had actually to shoot one or
two of them to prevent the panic becoming general Mac-
donell's troops were forced to retreat towards the houses,
but they fought their ground step by step. Colkitto sur-
passed himself in deeds of valour. He broke two swards;
his targe was covered with the pikes of his enemies, any
one of which "could have born doun three or four ordin-
ary men," but with a stroke of his broadsword he managed
to disengage them by threes and fours at a time.

Standing on the terrace below the church, Montrose had
witnessed Colkitto's mortifying blunder. He now rode off
to place himself at the head of his troops, to retrieve the
situation if that were possible. He had not gone far before
he was joined by an orderly, who whispered to him that
Macdonell was entirely routed,

" What ! " exclaimed Montrose aloud, " Macdonell gaining

THE BATTLE OF AULDEARN CONTINUED. I93

the victory single-handed ! Come, my Lord Gordon, is he
to be allowed to carry all before him and leave no laurels
for the house of Huntly?"

The gallant youth needed no second order. Dashing
out of his place of concealment, at the head of his little
troop of horse he spurred down the slope and advanced to
Macdonell's assistance. It was noticed as a novelty in the
style of fighting of the day that Gordon forbade all shooting
of pistols and carbines by his troopers, and ordered them
"only with their swords to charge quyt throwgh ther
enemies." His charge was successful. After an obstinate
resistance he managed to disperse the right wing of the
Covenanters, driving them off the field with the loss of four
or five of their colours.

Montrose lost no time in following up Lord Gordon's ad-
vantage. Drawing his main body of foot from their ambush, he
prepared td lead them in person against the main body of the
Covenanters, who had now united with their second division,
and were forming into line with a view to a general advance.

At this moment a very extraordinary accident threw them
into disorder. Major Drummond, who, at the head of the
mounted levies of Moray and Nairn, was stationed in front
of the infantry, suddenly wheeled round his horse, broke
through their ranks, and made off. Montrose's quick eye
saw his advantage at a glance, and he immediately ordered
a charge. The veterans of Hurry's army, "all expert and
singularly well-trained soldiers," fought manfully, and " chose
rather to be mown down in their ranks than retreat." But
the new levies who had joined Hurry at Inverness fled for
their lives. The pursuit was continued for miles, and the
carnage that ensued was fearful. Hurry's loss has been
estimated at 800 men; that of Montrose was probably not
a fourth of that number.

N

194 MONTROSE MARCHES EASTWARD.

The announcement of the result of the fight was almost
immediately followed by a storm of indignation on the part
of the Covenanters. Considering Hurry's own great and
well-deserved reputation, and his undoubted numerical supe-
riority, it was incredible to the leaders of the party that
such a crushing defeat should have been the result. Very
soon whispers of foul play began to get abroad. It was
asserted that Sir John Hurry had a secret imderstanding
with the enemy ; that several of his officers, especially Major
Drummond, were equally compromised; that, in short, the
non-success of the forces of the Covenant was the result of
treachery of the basest kind. Yet, though Hurry himself
not long after joined the party of the Royalists, and was
ultimately hanged by Montrose's side in 1650, and Major
Drummond, shortly after the battle, was convicted of having
spoken to the enemy before his disastrous movement, and
shot, the treason of these two distinguished officers has
never yet been satisfactorily established. The withdrawal
of their confidence from him by the leaders of the Cove-
nanting party may have had a more powerful influence upon
Hurry's future conduct than his supposed Royalist pro-
clivities, even though he had undoubtedly in days gone by
fought by the side of his sovereign at Marston Moor.

After his brilliant victory Montrose marched eastward,
taking signal vengeance on all the local gentlemen who had
supported the cause of the Covenant. The Laird of Calder's
house and lands in Nairn were burned, and his goods plun-
dered. The Earl of Moray's lands shared the same fate.
And in this way, desolating the country as he advanced, he
proceeded to Elgin. He arrived in the little grey town on
the evening of Sunday the nth May, and stopped there till
the Wednesday following. His object was to terrorise the in-
habitants out of what he considered their disloyalty. Whether

MURDER OF JAMES GORDON. 195

he succeeded in this or not, he at least left no means untried
to accomplish it. His three days' stay in Elgin was the
cruellest experience the burgh had as yet undergone. The
houses of the leading Covenanters were burned and plundered
right and left. The vengeance he took upon it is not for-
gotten to this day.

There was a special reason for his severity towards the
burgh. Shortly before the battle of Auldearn, James Gordon,
son of George Gordon of Rhynie, an Aberdeenshire pro-
prietor — " a werie hopfull and gallant youth," only eighteen
years of age — had been wounded in a skirmish while passing
through Moray, not far from Spynie, and conveyed to a
labourer's cottage hard by till his friends could remove him.
Here, as he lay in his bed, he was attacked by " a party from
Elgin " under the command of a son of the Laird of Innes
and a certain Major Sutherland, and cruelly murdered. The
horror inspired by the deed was extreme. And the incident
had been used at Auldearn with good effect in stimulating the
ardour of the soldiers. Now that the battle had been fought
and won, summary retaliation for the cowardly act had become
an actual duty. The lands of Milltown, belonging to Major
Sutherland's wife in life-rent, were burned, and a like fate was
accorded to the town of Garmouth, which belonged to the
Laird of Innes. No one who had in any degree been con-
cerned in the murder was exempted from punishment.

Still breathing out threatenings and slaughter, Montrose
went on to the Bog of Gight. From thence he proceeded
to Banffshire, meting out to the Covenanters there the same
measure of retribution he had inflicted on those of Nairn
and Moray. Then came the battle of Alford, in which he
signally defeated the forces of " Lieutenant -General Major
Baillie," the Covenanters' only other general. But "dearly
was that victory purchased by Montrose"; for while in the

196 MONTROSE'S LUCK DESERTS HIM.

very act of seizing Baillie by the sword-belt, George, Lord
Gordon, "the too forward heir of Huntly," as Napier calls
him, " fell in the dust to rise no more." He was buried
amidst universal regret in the aisle of St John the Evan-
gelist, in the "cathedral church of the old town" of Aber-
deen.

The battle of Alford was followed by Montrose's crowning
victory of Kilsyth (15th August 1645), when he again van-
quished the army of the Covenant From this point his good
luck seems to have deserted him. His crushing defeat at
Philiphaugh on the 13th of September 1645 annihilated all
his chances of success. From that moment to the end of
his career Montrose was a doomed and discredited man.

One seeks, but seeks in vain, for any traces of the Laird of
Freuchie during all these stirring and dangerous times. With
characteristic caution, he seems to have kept aloof from taking
any active part in the " troubles." Yet his sympathies were
unquestionably on the side of the Royalists.

And when, after the battle of Philiphaugh, Montrose again
made his appearance in the Highlands, we find him installed
at Ballachastell, and from there writing to Huntly, with whom
he was now acting in concert. But the laird's advocacy of
the royal cause seems to have gone no further than according
the rites of hospitality to its unfortunate general. Urge as he
might, Montrose could not persuade him to overt action.
Huntly was equally unsuccessful; so also was the Laird of
Pluscarden, and George, Earl of Seaforth.

The king's surrender to the Covenanters after the battle of
Naseby only confirmed the laird in his determination to keep
himself aloof from danger. Montrose was actually at Strath-
spey when he received Charles I.'s commands to disband his
forces and " to repaire himself abroad." And though the
laird subsequently appears to have sent renewed testimonies

A ROYALIST PLOT IN MORAY. 1 97

of his loyalty, and even offers of service, to Queen Henrietta
Maria and Prince Charles at St Germains, and received
grateful replies, it may be doubted whether he had any real
intention of endangering his own safety had he been called
upon to put his loyalty to the proof.

As time went on he began to see still more clearly the in-
convenience, not to say the peril, of his Royalist leanings.
He got into trouble with the Kirk ; he was in imminent
danger of getting into trouble with the Parliament. He was
called upon by Argyll, who now ruled the party of the Cove-
nant, to furnish a levy of twenty-three men for his regiment,
and was glad to purchase a discharge by paying ^£40 Scots
for each trooper.

In 1649 ^is perplexities were at a height. Montrose was
engaged in making preparations for a last attempt to vindicate
the supremacy of his master. A party of ardent Royalists
had been formed in Moray to co-operate with him, and
rumour connected the laird with the plot. General Leslie,
who was then in Huntly's territory, wrote to the laird, en-
treating him to persuade his brother-in-law. Lord Lewis
Gordon, to have no dealings with the insurgents, evidently
meaning his letter as a hint to the laird himself. There is
something almost piteous in the worried tone of Freuchie's
reply. " Truly," he says, speaking of the conspirators, " I
know not their intentiones, naither am I privie to them, and
I am sorie of their rashnes, being ignorand of their wages.
For my owin pairt I resolue (God willing) to keip kirk, king,
and state be the hand, to quhom I wishe a suddent happie
agreement." The suppression of the rising before Montrose's
expedition landed in Scotland must have been to the harassed
laird a happy relief.

But though Freuchie would have nothing to do with re-
placing Charles I. on the throne, he was ready enough to give

198 CHARLES 11. LANDS AT GARMOUTH.

public expression of his devotion to the monarchy by joining
with the Estates in welcoming Charles II. to his native shore.
When the king landed from Holland at Garmouth, at the
mouth of the Spey, on the 3d July 1650, there is little doubt
that the Laird of Freuchie was among those who greeted his
arrival.

The story of the king's reception is thus graphically given
by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder in his work on the Morayshire
Floods : " The vessel which brought Charles to Scotland
could not come into the harbour, but rode at anchor in the
bay whilst a boat was sent to land the king. The boat could
not approach the shore sufficiently near to admit of Charles
landing dry-shod," whereupon a man of the name of " Milne,
wading into the tide, turned his broad back to the king at the
side of the boat, and resting his hands on his knees, very
quietly bade his majesty * loup on.' * Nay, friend,' said the
king, smiling, though somewhat alarmed at the proposal ; * I
am too great a weight for so little a man as you.' * Od ! I
may be little of stature,' replied Milne, looking up and laugh-
ing in Charles's face, *but I'se be bound I'm strong an' sturdy,
and mony's the weightier burden I've carried in my day.'
Amused with the man, and persuaded by those around him
that there was no danger, the king mounted on Milne's back
and was landed safely on the boat-green." The descendants
of this man, who have been distinguished ever since by the ap-
pellation of King Milne, were in possession of their celebrated
ancestor Thomas Milne's property at least as late as 1830.

The actual spot at which the king was set ashore is now
part of the village of Kingston, — a name derived, not, as the
historian states, because it was the landing-place of the king,
but from certain wood-merchants from Kingston-upon-HuU,
who purchased the timber of the forest of Glenmore from the
Duke of Gordon in the early part of the present century.

THE LAIRD OF FREUCHIE AND MORAY LEVIES. 1 99

On his arrival at Garmouth the unfortunate king was taken
to a house in the village which was only demolished in 1834,
and there, as a condition precedent to his recognition, was
forced to sign the Solemn League and Covenant. His miser-
able experiences as a covenanted king belong to national rather
than to local history.

Sometime after Charles II. 's landing we find the Laird of
Freuchie appointed to the colonelcy of the infantry to be
levied in Moray and Nairn, and on the laird's own lands,
to oppose Cromweirs progress into Scotland. But the laird
was too long-headed to associate himself with any project
which might bring him into trouble, and we find him ac-
cordingly handing over the command of these levies to his
brother Patrick with the title of lieutenant -colonel, and so
washing his hands of the business. No doubt he foresaw
more clearly than his neighbours that Cromwell's progress
was not possible to be prevented, at least by such untrained
and undisciplined troops as a local levy was able to provide.
At the same time, it would have incurred suspicion had he
absolutely refused the proffered command. Whatever else
the laird may have been, he was beyond doubt the incar-
nation of " canniness and caution."

Yet when the occupation of Scotland by the troops of the
Commonwealth actually ensued. General Monck had so little
confidence in his loyalty that he stationed, at any rate for a
time, a garrison in Ballachastell. The laird, indeed, was
allowed to retain his arms for defensive purposes, and was
also permitted to have six horses and his breeding mares
above the value prescribed by law. But in return for these
privileges he was compelled to give bonds in large sums for
the peaceful behaviour of himself and his tenants.

In 1662 came the Restoration. And once again we find
the laird siding with the party, for the moment, in power.

2CX) "THE HIGHLAND KING."

Nobody really trusted him. His policy had been all along
too much like that of the Vicar of Bray to commend itself
to any side. Yet he was clever enough to escape, if not
suspicion, at any rate prosecution. And he was even able
to persuade Charles II. that, as was possibly true, he had
been a consistent Royalist all his life. It is said the king
intended to confer upon him the titles of Earl of Strathspey
and Lord Grant of Freuchie and Urquhart, and that the
royal intention was only frustrated by the laird's death at
Edinburgh in September 1663 before the warrant could be
signed.

The next Laird of Freuchie was his son Ludovick (1633-
1 7 1 6), widely known through all the surrounding district by
the title of "the Highland King." He owed the nickname
to the Duke of York, afterwards James II. In 1681 the
duke came to Scotland as Lord High Commissioner for his
brother Charles II., and in that capacity presided over the
sittings of the important Parliament which declared the
National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant
to be unlawful, and imposed a Test, which was a solemn
profession of Protestantism as contained in the Confession
of Faith, on all persons holding office either under the
Crown or under corporations. In this Parliament the Laird
of Grant sat as one of the members for Elginshire. He
had no objections to the principles of either the Declara-
tion or the Test. But at one of the meetings at which
the latter measure was under discussion he ventured to
dissent from the view of the majority, that the Test should
be offered "to the electors of commissioners for shires to
the Parliament"; and not only voted against it, but desired
that his dissent should be recorded. On this the duke,
rising from his seat, is said to have exclaimed, "Let his
Highland Majesty's protest be marked." The tradition may

"TAKING order" WITH NONCONFORMISTS. 201

or may not be true, but there is nothing improbable in the
story. For by this time the influence which the Lairds of
Grant were able to bring to bear upon public affairs was
not only considerable, but every day saw it extending.

The abolition of the Covenant and the imposition of the
Test were almost immediately followed by the adoption of
stringent measures against all suspected of Nonconformity
in any degree. On the 30th December 1684 a commission
was appointed to " take order " with the Nonconformists of
the north. The commissioners were the Earls of Errol and
Kintore and Sir George Monro of Culrain. Their powers
gave them authority to prosecute all persons guilty of church
disorder and other crimes in all the bounds betwixt Spey and
Ness, including Strathspey and Abernethy, and their first
meeting was appointed to take place at Elgin on 2 2d
January 1685. Their arrival in the Episcopal town was
attended with every circumstance of dignity and solemnity.
Lord Duffus with a troop of militia, both horse and foot,
the sheriffs of the neighbouring counties, the entire body
of the clergy, accompanied by their elders and "bedrals,"
and all the heritors of the district, assembled to do them
honour. According to Wodrow, the first act of the com-
missioners was to cause " erect a new gallows ad terrorem^^
and though happily they had never any cause to use it, no
doubt it had the desired effect. None of the Presbyterians
of the district had been present at Bothwell, or had been
guilty of anything inferring the capital punishment which
would have ensued on a conviction for " rebellion." But, on
the other hand, there were few against whom charges of neglect
of ordinances, or of attending conventicles, or of intercommun-
ing with outed ministers, could not be successfully brought.
Altogether about 250 persons of all classes of society passed
through the commissioners' hands. Ministers like James

202 "THE CURATES."

Urquhart, John Stewart, Alexander Dunbar, and George Mel-
drum, who had preferred to relinquish their cures rather than
submit to what they considered the oppressive acts of an op-
pressive Government, merchants, tradesmen, portioners, many
women of every rank in life, had to suffer fine or imprison-
ment for conscience* sake. But it was chiefly upon the landed
gentry of Moray and Nairn, who were almost to a man favour-
ably disposed towards the Covenanters, that the hand of the
commissioners fell most heavily. The " curates," as they were
called, who had been imposed upon the parishes at the res-
toration of Episcopacy, were very far from being acceptable
to the more intelligent classes of the community. Not only
were they looked upon as renegades, but they were men of
greatly inferior character and ability to those whose places
they had taken. It was dissatisfaction with their new spirit-
ual pastors rather than any deep-rooted objection to Epis-
copacy which had driven the landed gentry into opposition
to the Government. Most of them were staunch Presby-
terians, and had as little leaning towards any other creed
as the commissioners themselves.

This was especially the case with the Laird of Freuchie.
No sounder Protestant, no more faithful Presbyterian, ex-
isted within the province, yet both he and his wife were
cited to appear before this inquisitorial commission. The
charges against them were, that they had had dealings with
outed parsons, and had withdrawn from the ordinances, or,
in other words, had given up attendance at the parish kirk.
The first of these charges they would seem to have success-
fully refuted; the second they confessed. Both were found
proved against them, and the monstrous fine of ;^42,5oo
— the heaviest fine inflicted by the commission — was im-
posed upon the laird for his own and his wife's delin-
quencies. At the same time a fine of ;;^4o,ooo was

THE MORAY LAIRDS FINED. 203

inflicted on Brodie of Lethen, the Laird of Grant's father-
in-law, for similar offences, and other members of the same
family shared the same fate. His brother, David Brodie
of Pitgaveny, was fined ;^i8,72 2 and imprisoned in Black-
ness. Another brother, James Brodie of Kinloss, was fined
200 merks. His cousin, Francis Brodie of Milton, was
fined ;^i 0,000, and Francis Brodie of Windiehills 5000
merks. The young Laird of Brodie, who no more than
his late father, Lord Brodie, the well - known Judge of
Session, would " keep his own parish church," was fined
;^2 4,000 Scots. The Brodies, however, had themselves
to blame for this severity. For years past they had taken
an active part in the propagation of Covenanting principles
in the north.

In the following year (1686) the Laird of Freuchie's fine
was remitted, largely in consequence of his services to the
Government subsequent to its imposition. But he had cause
to remember the commission all the days of his life ; for it
riot only cost him ;^2 4,000 to get his fine remitted, but he
had to advance his father-in-law ;^3o,ooo to assist him in
the payment of his.

The death of King Charles II. on 6th February 1685 cut
short the work of the commission. But the accession of
James II., far from diminishing the sufferings of the country,
only tended to aggravate them. If the Government of Charles
had chastised the Nonconformists with whips, that of James
II. chastised them with scorpions. "The killing-time" was
in full force; and James Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount
Dundee, the executioner of the Government, was at the height
of his bloody labours.

And to trouble in connection with religion was soon to be
added trouble in connection with the occupation of the throne.
On the 5th November 1685, William, Prince of Orange, who

204 CLAVERHOUSE VISITS DUFFUS.

had married Mary, the daughter of James II., landed at
Torbay to assert the rights of Protestantism as against the
re-establishment of Roman Catholicism, with which the three
kingdoms were now threatened. It was followed by the flight
of his father-in-law. And on the 4th April 1689 the Conven-
tion of the Estates of the realm, then sitting in Edinburgh,
found and declared that King James, being " a profest Papist,"
and having infringed the laws and liberties of the nation in
connection with Protestantism, and for other high crimes and
misdemeanours, which were narrated at length, had " forfaulted
the right to the Crown, and the throne had thus become
vacant." This was succeeded a few days later by an offer of
the crown of Scotland to William and Mary, then King and
Queen of England, France, and Ireland. Their subsequent
acceptance of the offer completed the Revolution in Scotland.

To all these proceedings the Laird of Grant had been a
consenting party. His Protestant convictions had forced him
to sacrifice the loyalty which he and all his ancestors had so
freely accorded to the old race of Scottish kings. From this
time forward he was as devoted an adherent of William and
Mary as in days past he had been of the Stewarts.

Towards the end of April 1689 Dundee began his famous
campaign in the Highlands on behalf of the late King James
II. Sometime during its course he appears to have visited
the now ruined Castle of Duffus, about five miles north of
Elgin, as the guest of its proprietor, James, second Lord
Duffus, a Jacobite of the staunchest order. An old servant
of the family, who only died in 1760, had a lively recollection
of his visit. She used to tell how she brought the claret from
the cask in a timber stoup and served it to the company in
a silver cup. Dundee she described as a swarthy little man,
with keen lively eyes and black hair tinged with grey, which
he wore in locks which covered each ear, and were rolled

THE BATTLE OF CROMDALE. 205

upon strips of lead twisted together at the ends. His death
at the battle of KilHecrankie on the 27th July 1689 was a
blow from which the Jacobite cause never recovered. It did
not, however, put an end to the campaign. It dragged its
slow length along, first under Colonel Cannon, and afterwards
under General Buchan, till the following spring, when it was
brought to a decisive close by the battle of Cromdale.

It shows to what a vanishing-point the hopes of the rebels
had come, that such an insignificant affair should put an end
to a movement which at first threatened to be so dangerous.
The Jacobite force under General Buchan numbered no more
than 800 men ; the Government troops under General Living-
stone amounted to only 1200 horse and foot.

On the night of the 30th April 1689 General Buchan and
his Highlanders, on their march towards the country of the
Gordons where Buchan hoped to obtain reinforcements, en-
camped on the Haughs of Cromdale, a stretch of flat land
on the southern bank of the river Spey about a mile south-
east of the village of Grantown. When passing Ballachastell
in the course of the day, they had been observed by Captain
John Grant of Easter Elchies, the commander of the garrison
posted there. He immediately sent to inform General Liv-
ingstone, who with his little army, of whom 300 belonged to
the Clan Grant, happened to be posted at no great distance.
Livingstone at once put his force in motion. It was two
o'clock in the morning before he arrived at Ballachastell. His
men were tired with the eight miles' march; the hour was
late ; the night was dark. But Captain Grant, taking the
general to the top of the tower of the castle, pointed out to
him the enemy's force, and advised an immediate attack,
offering himself to be their guide. Livingstone called his
officers together and sent them to their respective detachments
to inquire if the men were able to bear a little more fatigue.

206 HAMISH THE PIPER.

Having received an enthusiastic answer in the affirmative, he
had refreshments served out, and gave the order to march in
half an hour. Their first intention was to cross the river at
the ford below Dalchapple, but they found it guarded by
ICO of the enemy. Leaving a small detachment to engage
their attention, they proceeded to another ford about a quarter
of a mile lower down, and here they crossed without difficulty.
The surprise which ensued was complete. Four hundred of
General Buchan's troops were killed or taken prisoners, and
but for a dense fog which rested on the summit of the hills
and prevented Livingstone's dragoons from following up their
advantage, the carnage would have been much greater.

Such was the battle of Cromdale. Though the Laird of
Grant was not himself present, his clansmen, with a consider-
able degree of propriety, chose to regard the victory as their
own. And the well-known song which commemorates the
event is regarded to this day by members of the clan as only
a fitting tribute to their prowess. To this day it is said that
the spirit of Hamish the piper, who in their hour of direst
extremity encouraged his countrymen to fight, and who after-
wards died by a random shot as he was plajdng their coronach,
is still to be seen hovering over the Haughs, terrifying the
farmers, as they return from the Grantown market, with his pale
and blood-stained countenance, and beckoning to them, with
shadowy hand, to follow him to the spot where his slaughtered
comrades lie.

During the whole of this anxious campaign the Laird of
Grant had not only acted loyally with, but had been of in-
valuable service to, the Government. And the grant of
regality conferred upon him four years later was only the
fitting record of his services. But with the termination of the
military operations came also the termination of the laird's
military career. From that time to his death he continued to

"THE PROCESS AGAINST THE EGYPTIANS/* 207

serve the Government, but in a way better suited to his
abilities. In his place in Parliament, in his office as sheriff,
no one did more useful work; though it is said that as an
executive officer of justice he was somewhat inclined to take
the law into his own hands. There is a tradition that on one
occasion " a gentleman of the name of Macgregor, driving a
* spraith ' from the laird's country," was apprehended and
carried prisoner to Inverness. Influential friends of the
prisoner threatened the laird that if Macgregor was convicted
a Grant's head should fall for every finger on both his hands.
The laird's reply was, that if found guilty the man should hang
though a hundred heads should be lost on both sides. Mac-
gregor was convicted and sentenced to death. But on his
way to execution there came an express with a reprieve.
Without opening the paper the laird inserted it between Mac-
gregor's neck and the rope, and promptly hanged both at the
same time.

Another famous trial of the day in which the laird was also
interested was " the process against the Egyptians," tried
before the sheriff of Banff on the 7th November 1700 and
following days. Patrick Broune, Donald Broune, James
Macpherson, and James Gordon were indicted as being the
leaders of a band of gipsies who for some time past had
been going " up and doune the country armed," " oppressing
the lieges in ane bangstrie (disorderlie) manner," and not only
thieving themselves, but acting as " receptors of thieves."
"It was quite a familiar sight at a market in Banff, Elgin,
or Forres, or any other town in the district, to see nearly a
dozen sturdy gipsies march in with a piper playing at their
head, their guns slung behind them and their broadswords
by their sides, mingling in the crowd, inspecting the cattle
for sale, and watching bargain-making, in order to learn who
were receiving money." The band numbered about thirty

208 JAMES MACPHERSON.

in all, and included women as well as men. Hitherto they
had successfully defied the law. It was now to be decided
whether they or the law was the stronger.

The proceedings began by the Laird of Grant taking ex-
ception to the jurisdiction of the court in the case of the
Brounes, on the ground that they were tenants of his, and
that in virtue of his right of regality he was entitled to re-
pledge them from the sheriffs authority. The objection was
repelled. The case went to proof, and all the four panels
were found guilty and sentenced to death. Public opinion,
however, did not ratify the sentence, and without the con-
currence of public opinion few sentences in those days could
be carried into effect. The personal popularity of Peter
Broune, the leader of the band, and of James Macpherson
was so great that their fate excited considerable sympathy.
Peter Broune, through the Laird of Grant's influence, obtained
a reprieve on his signing an act of voluntary banishment for
life from Scotland, and it is thought that Donald Broune also
escaped. The laird's failure to make a similar effort on behalf
of Macpherson exposed him to considerable obloquy. Ac-
cording to a broadside of the period —

'* The Laird of Grant, that Highland saint,
Of mighty majesty,
Did plead the cause of Peter Broune
But let Macpherson die."

But Macpherson had influential friends of his own, who, if
they had chosen, might have exerted themselves as warmly
in his behalf as the laird did in behalf of the Brounes. For
though born of a gipsy mother, he is said to have been the
illegitimate son of a member of the family of Invereshie. He
is described as having been a man of great strength and
beauty of person, distinguished by his skill in the use of arms,
and not without a knowledge of more useful arts, such as

THE "HIGHLAND KING" ABDICATES. 209

medicine. He had, in short, many of the qualifications for
a popular hero; and as such he has been accepted by tra-
dition. Readers of Burns will remember the pathetic lines
which the poet wrote to the tune which Macpherson is said
to have composed in, prison while under sentence of death ;
and Sir William Fraser, the editor of the 'Seafield Book,'
states that Sir Walter Scott intended to " introduce him into
the pages of fiction." But the whole romantic story of his
behaviour on the way to execution — how

** Sae rantingly, sae wantonly,
Sae dauntingly gaed he ;
He play'd a spring, and danc'd it round,
Below the gallows-tree ; "

how he offered his cherished violin to any one in the crowd
who would accept it, and finding none who would accept it,
finally broke it across his knee — has no substantial basis. The
fact that a similar tale is told of another masterful highwayman
in Ireland, who was also a Macpherson, does not tend to
induce credence in the pathetic ending of the Banffshire
gipsy.

Though he was not a very old man, the anxieties of the times
had told upon the laird, and in 1 7 1 o he resolved to resign the
leadership of the clan in favour of his son Alexander. His
abdication of the chieftainship is one of the most striking,
and at the same time most touching, incidents in his career.
On the day appointed for the ceremony all the members of
the clan, "gentlemen as well as commoners," appeared at
Ballintome, their ordinary place of rendezvous, all "wearing
whiskers," by Alexander Grant of Grant's order, all in kilts
" with plaids and tartans of red and green," and all under
arms. When the men were drawn up in order the old laird
addressed them for the last time. He told them that owing
to his years he was no longer able to command them as

o

i^.

■ :< >

2IO THE 'IS IN MORAY AND NAIRN.

formerly, and he had therefore decided to hand over the
leadership to his son, who, he said, they would see, promised
as well as, if not better than, he did. Then turning to his son,
" My dear Sandy," he said, " I make you this day a very great
present — namely, the honour of commanding the Clan Grant,
who, while I commanded them, though in troublesome times,
yet they never misbehaved, so that you have them this day
without spot or blemish. I hope you will use them as well as
I did, in supporting their public and private interests, agree-
ably to the laws of liberty and polity as are now happily
established in our lands. God bless you all."

This was the last public act of the Highland King. He
died six years afterwards, in November 1 7 1 6, and was buried
beside his father in the Abbey Church of Holyrood.

His son Alexander, who succeeded him, was Laird of
Grant for only three years (17 16-17 19). He was a cultured
and accomplished man, who began life as a lawyer and ended
it as a brigadier-general. As a member of Parliament for
Inverness-shire he was one of the Commissioners appointed
to bring about the Treaty of Union with England, and in
consequence incurred much odium with the Elgin people,
who were almost to a man opposed to the measure. He kept
himself and his clan loyal through all the perplexities of the
Old Pretender's attempt to regain the crown for the Stewarts,
and died in 1 7 1 9, after a short though honourable and useful
life.

The Rising of 1 7 1 5 never seriously endangered the loyalty
of either Moray or Nairn. A few of the gentry in both coun-
ties were induced to join it. But on the whole the district
stood firm in its adherence to the Hanoverian cause, though
it suffered severely from the exactions of both parties. There
was scarcely a man of any means who had not cause to regret
the forced levies of arms, horses, or forage which were made

THE TOWN CLERK OF FORRES, 211

Upon him. Looking at the evidence we possess, it would
almost seem as if the Government demands upon the loyalty
of the district were heavier than those of the " rebels."

Amongst those who espoused the cause of the Old Pre-
tender, none was more enthusiastic than the Laird of Altyre.
Whether he was acting on his own or by superior authority
does not appear, but on 14th September 1715 he sent a party
of Highlanders to the house of Robert TuUoch, town clerk of
Forres, who wakened him out of his sleep, dragged him from
his chamber, and forced him to proclaim James VIII. at the
town cross of the burgh. For this he was promptly suspended
by the town council. But on the ist May 17 16 he presented
a petition to the council, fortified with the depositions of
witnesses, praying for reinstatement in his office on the ground
that he had been compelled to act "contrair to his inclina-
tion." The eloquent appeal which he made on that occasion
is not yet forgotten. He pled the penury to which he had
been reduced by the loss of his office, his previous faithfulness
in the discharge of his duties, the fact that the town was then
in possession of the rebels, his well-known loyalty to King
George, his alarm at being "waukened" in the middle of the
night, and his sufferings in being " trailled by force " to the
cross " as if he had been ane malefactor." " 'Twas ill argu-
ing," he said, " with a Highlander's dirk at yer throat." It is
satisfactory to think that his eloquence was successful, and
that the council " in one voice reponed him " on his taking
" the Abjuration and the other oaths appointed by law."

Alexander Grant's younger brother James (171 9- 1767), who
succeeded him as sixteenth laird, married Anne Colquhoun,
the heiress of Luss, and was the first baronet of his family.
The circumstances under which he obtained the dignity were
peculiar. His father-in-law, Sir Humphrey Colquhoun, was
anxious that the title should descend to his son-in-law failing

212 THE GRANTS IN THE '45.

the heirs-male of his own body. Accordingly in 1704 he
resigned his baronetcy into the hands of the Crown, and
obtained from Queen Anne a new patent regranting the
baronetcy to Sir Humphrey and his sons to be bom, and
failing them, conferring the dignity on James Grant and
the heirs-male of his body by Anne Colquhoun. On Sir
Humphrey's death in 17 18 James Grant succeeded to the
dignity, and became Sir James Colquhoun of Luss. In
1 7 19 his brother Alexander died, and James succeeded to
the estates of Grant. He immediately dropped the name
and arms of Colquhoun of Luss and resumed his paternal
surname of Grant. This was in terms of a clause in the
entail executed by Sir Humphrey Colquhoun, which provided
that the estates of Luss should never be held by a Laird
of Grant. For a time also he dropped the title of baronet,
but he afterwards resumed it, and continued to hold it till
his death.

Though Sir James Grant was alive at the breaking out
of the Rebellion of 1745, it was his son Sir Ludovick
(176 7- 177 3) who controlled the action of the clan through
all that difficult time. In spite of many temptations, and
still more difficulties, the Grants adhered to their traditionary
policy of loyalty to the Government in possession. And
though they had more than once occasion to complain of
the way in which they were treated by King George's officers,
their steadfastness to the Hanoverian cause was never for a
moment in doubt

Ludovick Grant's first intimation of the Rising was con-
tained in a letter which he received from Robert Craigie
of Glendoick, the then Lord Advocate of Scotland. It was
dated the 5th August 1745, and it informed him that "the
Pretender's eldest son" had embarked "near to Nantz, in
Bretagne, on board a French ship of 64 guns," attended

CHARLES EDWARD IN THE HIGHLANDS. 213

with "another of 25 guns, having on board 70 gentlemen
guards and 300 volunteers, with arms and ammunition, with
a design to land in Scotland, where it was expected he
would be joined by the Highlanders." Mr Grant was re-
quested to keep a sharp look-out, and endeavour to discover
if there were any motions in the Highlands in consequence
of these reports. The information was somewhat exagger-
ated, but there was a solid basis of truth in its contents.
Before it was written Charles Edward had been already
twelve days on Scottish soil. On the 23d July he had
landed, after a long and tedious voyage of over a month,
on the secluded little island of Eriskay, one of the Hebrides,
between Barra and South Uist, and he was now in the
Moidart district of Inverness-shire. A few days later Sir
James Grant received a letter from the Prince himself, dated
Kinlochiel, August 22, 1745. In that letter, which was the
same as he addressed to other heads of clans, the Prince,
after remarking that Sir James could not be ignorant of his
having arrived in Scotland, of his having set up the royal
standard, and of his firm resolution to stand by those who
would stand by him, expressed the hope that he would see
Sir James "among the most forward." The laird, without
unsealing the latter, handed it to the Marquis of Tweed-
dale, then Secretary of State. Meantime, until the clan was
actually called out by the Government, he advised his son
to remain passive, only taking up arms if their own lands
were in danger.

By this time Sir John Cope was on his way north to
meet the rebels. Ludovick Grant at once wrote him offer-
ing the assistance of his clan. The offer was not accepted,
and the Grants were left to defend their own country as
best they could. The result was a certain coolness between
them and the royal officers, which, though it never interfered

214 THE JACOBITES OF MORAY.

with their loyalty, prevented them from co-operating heartily
with the royal troops to the end of the campaign. As no
enemy made his appearance, Sir John Cope, after remaining
some little time in Inverness, resolved to embark his troops
at Aberdeen for the south.

A curious incident of this march to Inverness is recorded
by a local historian. On the morning of his arrival at Nairn
the wife of a fisherman presented her husband with a .son,
who, in commemoration of the event, was christened John
Cope Main. Descendants of this infant are still to be found
among the fishing community of Nairn. They still bear the
name of Main Cope, or Coup.

The startling success of the Prince' which almost imme-
diately ensued, his capture of Perth on the 4th September,
which it is said he entered with only a guinea in his pocket,
his triumphant entry into Edinburgh, his defeat of Cope at
the battle of Prestonpans on the 2ist of the same inonth,
and his subsequent march towards London, did little t6
shake the loyalty of Moray and Nairn. A Jacobite piarty
was indeed formed, but it embraced few men of note within
the district. The magistrates of the burghs, the ministers
of religion, all who had any stake within the dounty, with
very few exceptions, remained faithful to their posts. This
was in great measure owing to the influence which ^uch men
as the Lord President, Duncan Forbes of CuUoden, the Laird
of Grant, the Earl of Findlater, the Laird of Kilravbck, and
others of the county gentlemen, were able to exerts In-^the
Gordon district about Fochabers and Enzie, where Roinan
Catholics abounded, the Prince no dOubt- had many ad»
herents. Though the duke himself remained neutral, his
brother Lewis, the hero of the pathetic Jacobite balliad,
had thrown himself soul and body into the Prince's caiise.

But it was not until the Prince actually made his appear-

CHARLES EDWARD'S MARCH TO THE NORTH. 21 5

ance in the district that the Government had any cause
for alarm. Then indeed their apprehensions were justified.
For the Prince's personal influence had hitherto been found
almost irresistible.

The failure of the Rising had indeed been practically
assured by the retreat from Derby (5th December 1745);
but the fears of the Government were not yet allayed. Not
until the "unnaturall rebellion," as they chose to regard it,
was finally stamped out, did they consider that they could
sleep in safety. The end of the campaign, accordingly, was
marked by an activity on the part of the Government which
had been sadly wanting at the beginning.

The scene now changes to the north.

After the battle of Falkirk (17th January 1746) the sup-
pression of the insurrection had been committed to the Duke
of Cumberland; and on 31st January he left Edinburgh,
with a strong force, with the object of finally extinguishing it.
The Prince's army was for the moment engaged in a vain
attempt to capture Stirling Castle ; but on learning of Cum-
berland's advance it made a precipitate retreat to Crieff.

Here the Prince divided his troops into two columns.
With the one, which was composed entirely of Highlanders,
and was under his own command, he took the Highland
road through Blair AthoU to Inverness. The other, which
was to follow the coast -road by Montrose and Aberdeen,
he committed to the charge of Lord George Murray.

On the 1 6th February the Prince slept at Inverlaidran,
near Can* Bridge, then part of Morayshire. His hostess
was Mrs Grant of Dalrachny, whose husband was a strong
Hanoverian. Here he met with but sorry entertainment.
His Master of the Household, finding himself short of bread,
ordered his servants to bake some; but Lady Dalrachny
stopped them on the plea that she could not allow any

2l6 THE PRINCE AT MOY HALL.

such thing to be done in her house on a Sunday. Not
content with this, "she spoke some imprudent and imper-
tinent things to Mr Gib — viz., *What a pack ye are! God
let me never hae the like of ye in my house again,'" &c.
Next day the Prince went on to Moy Hall in Inverness-shire,
where he received very different treatment. While there he
had a narrow escape from being captured.

It having come to Lord Loudoun's ears that the Prince was
travelling with a very slender escort, he sent a party to take
him prisoner " in his bed at Moy Hall." Old " Lady Mac-
intosh," however, the mother of his hostess and the Prince's
constant " benefactrice," who was then living at Inverness,
heard of this, and at once despatched " Lachlan Macintosh,"
a boy of " about fifteen years of age," to warn the Prince of
his danger. On his way the lad fell in with Lord Loudoun's
troops. He found it impossible to pass them without risking
discovery, and accordingly lay down " at a dyke-side " till they
had gone by. Then, taking a short cut, he " arrived at Moy
about five o'clock in the morning ; and though the morning
was exceedingly cold the boy was in a top sweat, having made
very good use of his time." The scene that ensued is graph-
ically described by Mr Gib, the Prince's Master of the House-
hold : " Mr Gib upon the alarm, having been sleeping in his
clothes, stept out, with his pistols under his arm, and in the
close he saw the Prince walking, with his bonnet above his
nightcap and his shoes down in the heels, and [young] Lady
Macintosh [his hostess] in her smock - petticoat, running
through the close, speaking loudly, and expressing her anxiety
about the Prince's safety." Fortunately the alarm had been
given in time. The Prince "marched two miles down the
country, by the side of a loch," and there he hid till the danger
was over.

Meantime Lord Loudoun's men were on their way back to

THE ROUT OF MOY. 217

Inverness. They had been put to flight by a very clever
stratagem. When they had come within a mile or so of
Moy they were perceived by a blacksmith and four other men,
who were keeping watch on the moor " with loaded muskets
in their hands." As the party approached, the five men fired
their pieces and shot " Macleod's piper, reported the best of
his business in all Scotland, dead." Then raising their voices,
they pretended to summon the Prince's army to their assist-
ance, "calling some regiments by their names." The dark-
ness favoured their deception, and Lord Loudoun's party,
imagining that the Prince's whole army was in the neighbour-
hood, immediately beat a retreat. Such was the incident
known in Highland history as the Rout of Moy.

On the 1 8th February the Prince was at Castlehill. The
same day his army entered Inverness, Lord Loudoun and his
men marching out the moment they saw the Highlanders
approaching it.

Lord George Murray, with the Prince's second column,
had by this time got no farther than Elgin. According
to a complaint presented at a later period to the Gov-
ernment by Sir Richard Gordon of Gordonstoun, " the
rebells came into the shire of Murray upon i6th February
1746, where great numbers of them remained until the nth
Aprill thereafter, both inclusive." Sir Robert, who was a firm
adherent of the established form of Government, seems to
have fared badly at their hands. He himself was taken
prisoner and conveyed from Gordonstoun to Elgin, where he
was detained for ten days, and then sent on to Inverness.
In his absence Lord George's troops played havoc with h's
property. They requisitioned his forage; they set their
horses to eat his "pease -stack"; they shot his pigeons;
they turned Lady Gordon and her children and servants
out of the house, and quartered themselves within it ; they

2l8 CHARLES. EDWARD'S VISIT TO ELGIN.

carried off his "pork, hams, dry fish, books, &c." Horses
they were particularly anxious to obtain. But Sir Robert was
able to save his " labouring horses " by secreting them in a
cave at Covesea. Though his complaints were louder than
those of his neighbours. Sir Robert was probably no worse
off than many another gentleman of the shire. Before many
days were over the whole district between the Spey and the
Ness was in the Prince's hands, and his Highlanders, after
their wont, "took toll " of friend and foe indiscriminately.

On the nth of March the Prince marched eastward into
Moray, where he spent eleven days. For the most of the
time he lived in Elgin, but before returning to Inverness he
paid a short visit to Gordon Castle.

In Elgin he lodged in Thunderton House, " a noble-looking
mansion with a square tower and balcony," now converted
into a temperance hotel. It was a house with a history.
Originally known as "The King's House," for some cause
not now ascertainable, it had come in later times to be called
"The Sheriff's House," from its having been the towt\-houSe
of James Dunbar of Westfield, heritable Sheriff of Moray.
At the time of the Prince's visit it was occupied by Mrs
Anderson of Arradoul, a daughter of Archibald Dunbar of
Newton, whose first husband had been Robert Gordon, 'grand-
son of Sir Ludovick Gordon of Gordonstoun, and whose
second had been Alexander Anderson of Arradoul in Enzie.
She was now a widow for the second time. Mrs Anderson
was ardently devoted to the Jacobite cause. It is said that
she carefully preserved the sheets in >which the Prince had
slept, and at her death, which occurred twenty-five years later,
was buried in them. Here the Prince was seized with a,
feverish cold, and for two days was in serious danger. But
after bleeding — -the usual remedy of the day-^had been .ap-
plied, he recovered, which, as a contemporary writer expressed
it, " caused a joy in every heart not to be expressed."

THE PRINCE AT KILRAVOCK. 219

The Prince returned to Inverness on the 25 th March.
On Saturday the ,12 th April he paid a visit to Kilravock.^
The laird was none of his adherents ; on the contrary, he was
a strong supporter of the Government. But the Prince was
kindly received and remained to dinner. The Prince charmed
his host and hostess by his affability. He asked to see their
children, kissed all the thiree of them, and praised them for
their beauty. Then perceiving an old violin, he asked the
laird to play him a tune: Kilravock, who was an accom-
plished musician,^ played an old Italian minuet, remarking,
when he had concluded, that he believed it was a favourite
with his Royal Highness. " That it is so, Mr Rose," returned
the Prince, "is certain ; but how ye come to know this I am
at a loss to guess." " That, sir," replied Mr Rose, " will serve
to show you that whatever persons of your rank choose to do
or say is certain to be noted." " I thank you, sir," said the
Prince, courteously, " for your observation." While dinner
was being prepared the laird asked the Prince to walk out
and see his grounds. Observing the laird's workmen busily
planting, the Prince remarked, " How happy you must be, Mr

^ This date is assigned on the authority of the following entry in the
Prince's Household-Book : ** To Lady Kilrac's servant and Mrs Donin's
do., 2s." Hitherto it has been generally assumed that the incident
occurred the day before Culloden — namely, Tuesday the 15th April.
Family tradition, on the other hand, assigns it to the Monday .(14th April).
But as all accounts agree as to the details of the visit, and as these seem
irreconcilable with the behaviour of a general who well knew that on the
following or next to following day he was about to fight the battle which
was to decide the campaign, we have preferred to adopt the date given
by the generally very accurate Mr James Gib, the Master of the Prince's
Household.

^ See the " Kilravock Papers" in Professor Cosmo Innes's * Sketches of
Early Scottish History,' p. 465. A ** dancing set" of the ** Ewie wi'
the crooked horn" (the whisky-stiU), "a strathspey hitherto imperfectly
known," is given in Captain Simon Eraser's * Airs and Melodies of the High-
lands of Scotland and the Isles ' as having been ** formed a century ago by
three neighbouring gentlemen in Nairnshire, eminent performers— Mr Ross
of Kilravock, Mr Campbell of Budyet, and Mr Sutherland of Kinsteary. "

220 THE HANOVERIANS ENTER MORAY.

Rose, to be thus peacefully engaged when the whole country
around you is in a stir." The laird's reply to this pregnant
observation has not been recorded.

The party at dinner consisted only of the Prince, his secre-
tary. Hay of Restalrig, and his host and hostess. It took
place in what is now the parlour of the old castle. Forty of
the Prince's attendants dined in the large hall adjoining.
The short passage between the two rooms was guarded by
two of the Prince's officers with drawn swords.

When the cloth had been removed, the laird requested the
Prince to allow these gentlemen to go to dinner, observing
" that his Royal Highness might be satisfied that he was quite
safe in this house." " I am well assured of that," repUed the
Prince ; " desire the gentlemen to go to dinner."

As the Prince and his host sat over their wine, the secre-
tary suggested that the laird's famous punch-bowl, which was
said to be able to contain sixteen bottles of liquor, should be
filled. It was promptly done, " and the Prince in gay humour
insisted that as Mr Hay had challenged the bowl, he should
stay and see it emptied." The prudent secretary, however,
declined to do more than take a single glass; and shortly
after, the Prince and his party took their leave and returned
to Inverness.

Meantime the Duke of Cumberland, who had been watch-
ing the Prince's movements as a cat does a mouse, was on
his way to meet him. His march from Aberdeen had been
delayed by the flooded state of the Spey, but on the very day
of the Prince's visit to Kilravock he succeeded in fording it a
little east of Speymouth manse, with the loss of only one man.
That night the duke slept at the manse of Speymouth. " The
rebels," says the minute-book of the kirk-session of Speymouth,
" retreated at his approach."

On Sunday the 1 3th he passed through Elgin without stop-

^^^^^KJJIl^,

THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND AT NAIRN. 221

ping, and encamped that night on the Moor of Alves. The
duke himself took up his quarters at the manse. Next day
the march was resumed. Between Findhorn and Nairn the
duke's forces sighted "a body of the rebels, who at once
took to flight," and as Ray, a volunteer officer in the duke's
service, expressed it, "we had a fine hunting -match after
them." As they approached Nairn, Lord John Drummond
with a strong party of the Prince's troops attempted to op-
pose the duke's entrance to the town. There was a short
tussle, but it was speedily brought to a close by the appear-
ance of the main body of the Hanoverian army. This was
the only fighting which took place during the Rising either
in Moray or Nairn. The duke's forces, which numbered
about 7000 foot and 2000 horse, with a train of artillery,
then entered Nairn. The little town was totally unable to
supply accommodation for so large a body of men.

Part of the troops were lodged in the tolbooth and other
buildings. The old Buffs bivouacked on the haugh on the
east side of the river ; but the main body had to march to
Balblair, about a mile west of the town, where they formed a
camp. The officers for the most part found quarters within
the town. The duke himself was accommodated within Kil-
ravock's town-house in the High Street. The manse. Rose of
Clava's town -house (now the Caledonian Hotel), and the
houses of the principal inhabitants, had all their quota of
welcome or unwelcome guests. The long narrow street was
ablaze with the gay uniforms of the soldiers, and guards
patrolled the town from its one end to the other.

Next day (Tuesday the 15th) was the duke's birthday, and
he accordingly remained at Nairn, with the double purpose of
resting his men and celebrating the anniversary. The wild
revelry of the festivities which took place is not yet forgotten
in the district. While Cumberland's troops were thus en-

222 THE PRINCE AT CULLODEN.

gaged, those of the Prince were employed, twelve miles
distant, in selecting a position for the battle which both
parties were well aware was imminent. The Prince with
his whole force, numbering about 5000 men, had marched
out from Inverness to CuUoden the day before. Here they
spent the night, the Prince sleeping at Culloden House, the
property of Lord President Forbes, and the men bivouacking
on the parks around. Next morning (Tuesday, 15 th April)
the Prince led his army to Drummossie Moor. It is a wild
shelterless waste on the borders of Nairn and Inverness-
shire, about a mile and a half south of the mansion-house
of Culloden. The river Nairn runs through it on the south.
On the opposite side of the river is a narrow boggy haugh;
and beyond this a high abrupt ridge, sloping down towards
the north — an outwork, so to speak, of the great Highland
region behind.

Obviously this moor was the destined battle-field. The
only question was, which was the best position for the Prince's
troops to take up. Lord George Murray and others of his
more experienced officers were of opinion that they should
avail themselves of the natural advantages of the ground and
encamp on the ridge ; but the Prince overruled them. Such
a position, he thought, would leave Inverness exposed, and
Inverness he conceived to be the key of the situation. It
was a fatal mistake, as afterwards turned out ; but there was
no gainsaying the Prince's opinion. A site on the other side
of the river was accordingly selected, almost in a straight line
south of Culloden House. Later on in the day it was
suggested by Lord George Murray that a night attack on
the duke's camp at Nairn might be a successful enterprise.
There was a good deal of discussion about it; but the
Prince was keen for it, and though the troops were in a
half-famished condition, owing to the failure of their supply

V

NIGHT ATTACK AT NAIRN. 223

of breads it was finally resolved upon. Towards nightfall
the expedition started in two columns. The first, consist-
ing of the clans, was under the command of Lord George
Murray; the second, composed chiefly of Lowland regi-
ments, was led by the Duke of Perth. The Prince with
his staff was between the two. The two columns were to
pursue their march by different routes, so as to threaten the
English army from different sides. But the attack was to be
made simultaneously, and the hour fixed for it was two o'clock
in the morning. The darkness of the night, however, the
roughness of the road, and the exhaustion of the men from
want of food, hindered the march, and at the hour appointed
for the assault Lord George was still three miles from the
Duke of Cumberland's camp. A halt was called and a hurried
consultation took place. "The roll of a distant drum indi-
cated that the English camp were on the alert." It was
decided to give up the attack and retrace their steps. The
Prince, who was in the rear, was very angry when he learned
the decision, and military writers have agreed with him in
calling in question the propriety of Lord George Murray's
judgment. There was, however, no help for it, and with the
depressing consciousness that a bold and hopeful design had
miscarried, the hungry, jaded army once more took the road
to Culloden.

At five Cumberland's troops were in motion. The duke
had slept at Balblair the night before, so as to be ready to
start with his soldiers. And as he had learned from his spies
that some sort of an attack upon Nairn had been intended, he
had taken care to see that not only was each man's arms and
ammunition ready by his side in case of a hurried call, but
that he had been provided overnight with a liberal allowance
of brandy, biscuit, and cheese.

If tradition is to be trusted, the duke called in at Kil-

224 THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN.

ravock in passing. The laird came to the gate to receive
him.

" You have had my cousin Charles here," is said to have
been amongst the duke's first observations.

" Not having an army, sir, to keep him out," replied the
laird, " I could not prevent him."

"You did perfectly right," returned the duke, "and I
entirely approve of your conduct."

By this time the Prince's wearied troops had succeeded in
reaching Drummossie, and had taken up their position a little
farther west from the one selected on the previous day. It
was a cold boisterous morning, with intermittent showers of
snow and sleet, which caught the Highlanders in their faces.
But the field looked like a review. Many of the ladies of the
neighbourhood had ridden out to see the fight. By eleven
both armies were in sight of each other.

Shortly after, the battle began. There was one heroic
charge of the Highland clans in the teeth of a blinding hail-
storm. They succeeded in breaking the first rank of the
enemy. But the galling fire of Cumberland's rear rank and
of that of a strong body of men under Colonel Wolf, stationed
en potence — that is to say, in flank — was too much for them,
and in a few minutes the Highlanders lay dead in piles three
and four deep.

Such was the battle of Culloden ; and such was the end of
an enterprise which at first appeared likely to change the
history of the kingdom. The Hanoverian succession had
escaped, but it had escaped almost by a miracle.

Amidst all "the distemper of the times," in spite of re-
peated temptations, Ludovick Grant had been able to maintain
the loyalty of his clan. The Grants had taken no prominent
part in the struggle, but they had been very useful in preserv-
ing order within their own district, and in lending a moral, and

\

THE "GOOD SIR JAMES." 225

even at times an actual, support to the Government. Still,
Ludovick Grant had done little deserving of any special recog-
nition at its hands, and in fact he received no other reward,
for his services than thanks.

On the death of his father, Sir James, in 1747, Ludovick
Grant succeeded to the family estates, and also to the baron-
etcy in terms of Queen Anne's re-grant of 1704. He resigned
his seat in Parliament, which he had held for twenty years, in
1 76 1, and died at Castle Grant on the i8th March 1773,
after an illness of only eight days.

The next laird, James Grant (1773-1811), was Sir Ludo-
vick's only son. He "was one of the most amiable of his
race, and is still affectionately remembered in Strathspey as
' the good Sir James.' " Though when he first succeeded to
the Grant estates he found them much encumbered in conse-
quence of the demands made upon his predecessors in con-
nection with the troubles of his times, and was forced to sell
a considerable portion of his lands, he was able to found the
village of Grantown as the capital of his Strathspey estates ;
he tried to establish a similar one, to be named Lewistown,
for his properties in Glen-Urquhart ; he raised a regiment of
Fencibles to assist in defending his country when France
declared war against Britain in 1793,^ and in the year follow-
ing another regiment for more extended services, which was
embodied at Elgin, and soon afterwards incorporated with
the 4 2d or Black Watch ; he was appointed Lord Lieutenant
of Inverness in 1794, and in 1795 General Receiver and
Cashier of Excise in Scotland. His sister Penuel married
Henry Mackenzie of the Exchequer in Scotland, the author
of *The Man of Feeling'; and, armed with a letter of in-
troduction from him, Robert Burns visited Castle Grant in

^ A portrait of Sir James as colonel of the Grant Fencibles will be found
in Kay*s * Historic Portraits,* vol. i.

226 LAIRDS OF GRANT BECOME EARLS OF SEAFIELD.

1.787. The poet found Strathspey "rich and romantic," and
described Lady Grant, who was the daughter and heiress of
Alexander Duff of Hatton, as " a sweet pleasant body."

The nineteenth Laird of Grant was Sir Lewis Alexander
(1811-1840), eldest son of "the good Sir James." He was
an advocate of the Scottish Bar ; was provost of Forres, like
his father and grandfather before him ; and member of Parlia-
ment for Morayshire. In October 1 8 1 1 he succeeded to the
title and estates of Earl of Seafield, as heir of line, in right of
his grandmother, Lady Margaret Ogilvie, daughter of the fifth
Earl of Findlater and second Earl of Seafield. On his suc-
cession to the peerage, King George IV. advanced his sisters
to the same rank which they would have attained had their
father lived to be Earl of Seafield. And of Lady Anne, the
eldest of the seven, an amusing story is told.

In 1820 an election of a member of Parliament for the
Elgin Burghs took place. The candidates were Mr Farquhar-
son of Finzean, who was supported by Lord Seafield, and
General Duff, who was backed by Lord Fife. The burghers
of Elgin were strongly in favour of General DufF. Lord Sea-
field with his three sisters, Anne, Margaret, and Penuel, were
then living at their town house, Grant Lodge, Elgin. The
ladies, especially Lady Anne, were keen politicians. The
interest they took in the struggle was strongly resented by
the people of Elgin. They could scarcely appear in the
streets without being annoyed by the rabble.

Meantime the excitement in the election increased daily,
and before long both sides began to adopt tactics which
were as unusual as they were unjustifiable. The Grants
began by attempting to kidnap two of the most prominent
of General Duff's supporters. The Fife party retaliated by
seizing Robert Dick, one of the town council, who belonged
to the Grant interest, and carrying him off* to Sutherland.

THE RAID OF ELGIN. 227

The Grants replied by capturing the acting chief magistrate
and transporting him across the Firth to join his fellow town
councillor. The position of affairs was growing so serious
that the ladies at Grant Lodge began to have grave fears
as to their own safety. Accordingly a messenger was
despatched to Strathspey to inform the clansmen of the
treatment to which Lady Anne and her sisters were being
subjected. What followed reads like a legend of the seven-
teenth century. The fiery cross was sent round, and in
a very short time an army of Grants, some hundreds
strong, was marching to the deliverance of the sisters of
their chief.

When they saw the dreaded Highlanders actually entering
the grounds of Grant Lodge, the fears of the burghers were
of the most abject nature. The Fife tenantry were no doubt
in the town, armed with bludgeons, old swords, and all the
other weapons they could command. But even these pro-
tectors were not sufficient to allay their terrors. The
vagaries of the hot Celtic blood when roused were too
well known in the past. If they got drunk, if they imagined
themselves insulted, as they were sure to do, nothing short
of the sack of the town was to be apprehended. So critical
was the situation that it is said the provost of Elgin slipped
into Grant Lodge by a back entrance and besought Lady
Anne on his knees to spare the town, and send the High-
landers back to Strathspey. His entreaties, backed by a
deputation consisting of the sheriff of the county and all
the parochial clergy, were successful.

After Lady Anne had received assurances that the peace
of the community would be preserved, and that she and
her sisters would be subjected to no further molestation at
the hands of the townspeople, she consented, and accord-
ingly that afternoon her bodyguard left. The Elgin people.

228 THE FAMILY OF DUFF.

however, were not satisfied. Nothing could persuade them
that the Highlanders were not lurking in the woods, mean-
ing to return as soon as darkness fell. They determined
to illuminate the town, so that no stranger could enter
without being perceived, and to watch all night. No enemy,
fortunately, appeared. After the election, which of course
resulted in the return of Mr Farquharson, the Seafield can-
didate, the kidnapped town councillors were restored to their
afflicted families; and so the incident, which is known in
local history as "the Raid of Elgin," ended.

The Lairds of Grant who have succeeded to the title have
worthily maintained the ancient traditions of their family. In
1858 a peerage of the United Kingdom was bestowed upon
John Charles, twenty-first Laird of Grant and seventh Earl
of Seafield, with the title of Baron of Strathspey. The
present Earl of Seafield is the twenty -sixth chief of this
loyal and ancient clan.

No reliable work on the history of the Duffs, Earls now
Dukes of Fife, exists beyond the Memoirs of the Duff
family compiled by William Baird of Auchmeddan, a con-
nection of the family, rather more than a century ago. The
materials, therefore, for a sketch of their career are meagre
in the extreme. This is the more to be regretted, because
the story of a family which has risen by successful prosecu-
tion of the arts of peace has an interest for modem readers
which is often found wanting in those of others which have
achieved their distinction through the arts of war.

The history of the Duflfs is really one of the fairy tales
of commerce.

After an obscure though honourable existence for more
than four hundred years as small landowners, farmers,
lawyers, merchants, and general traders in Banffshire and

1%.

"CREELY DUFF. 229

Morayshire, they are suddenly ennobled without having
rendered any special services to Government, and without
passing through any of the intermediate steps which are
the usual precedent to a peerage. From that moment they
are found in possession of a social and political influence
capable of competing on equal terms with that of the Lairds
of Grant, whose predominance in the district had been the
outcome of the careful labour of generations. In little more
than a hundred and fifty years they have distanced all rivals,
and are able to aspire successfully to a connection with
royalty itself.

Gentry the Duffs have always been. There is a tradition
in the family that they are in some way or other descended
from Macduff, Thane of Fife, and the legend has been per-
petuated by their adopting Macduff as their second title.
But their descent had never any influence on their fortunes.
The position which they have attained they owe to their own
industry, frugality, and sagacity — in short, to those qualities
which go to make up the successful man of business.

The first of the family of whom we hear is John Duff,
who was proprietor of the lands of Muldavit, near Cullen,
and died in 1404. Its next noteworthy member is Adam
Duff (i 598-1 674) of Clunybeg, in the parish of Mortlach,
Banffshire, who was " a very shrewd and sagacious man," and
as farmer, merchant, and trader "dealing in all country
produce," accumulated considerable wealth. His frugality
is said to have been so great that he made his own creels
for carrying manure ; hence the nickname of " Creely Duff,"
by which he is still known in local history. He was a great
Royalist, and was fined by the Covenanters in consequence.
His two sons, Alexander and John, fought under Montrose,
and had their own share in the troubles of the times.

Alexander made a rich marriage and got 100,000 merks

230 ALEXANDER DUFF OF BRACO.

(;£'5ooo) of tocher with his wife, who was a daughter of
Alexander Grant of Dallachie. He was wadsetter of the lands
of Keithmore, and died in 1700.

Alexander Duff of Braco succeeded his father Keithmore,
but survived him only five years. He had an extra share of
the family shrewdness and carefulness of money.^ He had
spent some years in the office of a Writer to the Signet in
Edinburgh, and when he returned to the country in 1675, he
was possessed of a stock of legal knowledge, mainly of feudal
law, which he found very useful to him in the future. Close
to his father's property of Keithmore lay the estate of Bal-
venie, an ancient barony which had belonged to the Comyns,
the Douglases, and the Atholls respectively, and was now the
property of Arthur Forbes, a brother of Alexander Forbes of
Blacktown. Forbes had been at one time a trooper in the
Guards ; but he had managed to " adjudge " the property,
which was heavily burdened, from Lord Salton, its last pro-
prietor. To obtain the means to do so he had himself
borrowed largely. And among his creditors were Keithmore
and his son Braco. Forbes was not only a man of no capital,
but his business capacity was small. Keithmore and his son
had long coveted the property ; and by dint of buying up all
his other creditors' debts, they were soon in a position to
treat him as he had treated Lord Salton. In 1687 Balvenie
was adjudged to Braco, and although Forbes attempted to set
aside the transaction, his death, seven or eight years later, left
Alexander Duff in undisputed possession of the estate. Braco
was for many years the representative of Banffshire in the

^ An amusing story of his parsimony was told by his nephew, Duff of
Hatton. * * A sturdy beggar having heard that he had picked up a half-
penny from the street of Banff, came up to him craving an alms and saying,
* God bless ye, Braco ; gie's a bawbee, an' if ye winna gie's a bawbee o'
your ain, gie's the bawbee that ye fand.' * Find a bawbee for yoursel',*
says Braco."

WILLIAM DUFF OF DIPPLE. 23 1

Scottish parliament, and was a strong opponent of the Union.
He was a man of vehement impulses, and it is said that on
one occasion he drew his sword and drove one of his friends
into a corner, threatening to "head him like a sybow" for
venturing to differ from him on some political matter. He
died in 1705.

It was, however, Keithmore's second son, William Duff of
Dipple, who was the true founder of the greatness of his family.
At the eastern extremity of the High Street of Elgin, close
to the Little Cross, is a small, harled, whitewashed house, with
gabled attic windows, and the date 1694 inscribed on one of
them. This was Dipple's office for the last nineteen years of
his life. His business was principally that of a banker and
money-lender, but he had a large interest in the active trade
which then existed between Holland and this district. There
was hardly a cargo of "Aberdeins or Elgin pladin, allmed
leather, salmond, tallow, winter foxes, otters," or other " country
product " shipped at Findhorn, or a consignment of Rhenish
wine, sack, tobacco, spices, " muslen," or " mowrning creapp "
landed there, in which Dipple was not concerned. He, his
uncle William Duff, provost of Inverness, with whom he learned
his business and whose partner he afterwards became, and Sir
James Calder of Muirtoun, are said to have carried on almost
all the foreign trade north of Aberdeen. His investments in
land were on the same extended scale. They were almost all
in Morayshire, to which he was much attached, and for the
most part in the neighbourhood of Elgin. The lands of
Dipple, Pluscarden, Coxton, Quarrywood, and Sheriffmill were
all purchased by him ; nor did these exhaust the list of his
acquisitions.

In 1 7 1 8 he succeeded to the estate of Braco under very sad
circumstances. On the death of his brother William it had
descended to his son, also a William Duff. He was a man

232 WILLIAM DUFF OF BRACO.

of considerable culture, who loved books, and had studied the
Civil Law at Leyden. But he had fallen victim to the snares
of a pretty face, and had married "Helen Taylor," a very
honest, respectable woman, though she "had wrought a har-
vest with John Dumo, at Premnay, for which she had got
four merks and a pair of shoes." Helen did her best to
make him a good wife. But she was no companion for a
man of his tastes. He tried for a time to find solace in
foreign travel, but without avail. He returned to Scotland in
1 7 1 6, and two years later committed suicide in the castle of
Balvenie.

Dipple had started in life with a younger son's patrimony
of only jCsoo ; but he had used it to such advantage that at
his death in 1722 the rental of his heritable property was
;^65oo a-year, and not only were his estates unencumbered,
but he left behind him ;£^3 0,000 in cash.

None knew better than his only surviving son, William,
who succeeded him, and in his early years had been wont to
scour the country on his "powney" collecting his father's
debts, how to employ this vast fortune. But if he made
largely, he expended freely, purchasing political influence
wherever it was to be found, and at whatever price it was
to be obtained, within the district. He had a taste for mag-
nificence and building. The melancholy associations now
connected with the old castle of Balvenie induced him to
build a new one at a spot lower down the Fiddich. And
he also, between the years 1740-43, erected DufF House,
close to Banff, at a cost of ;£^ 7 0,000 — an enormous sum
in those days — as the principal seat of the family.

In 1735 ^^ obtained the reward for which he had been
quietly working all his life. He was created a peer of Ireland
with the title of Lord Braco of Kilbryde, Co. Cavan. Twenty-
five years later he was advanced to the dignity of Viscount

THE DUFFS RAISED TO THE PEERAGE. 233

Macduff and Earl Fife in the same peerage. He died in
1763, aged sixty-six.

James, second earl (17 29-1 809), inherited all the character-
istic traits of the family. He was as keen a politician, as
extensive and as judicious a purchaser of land, as bent on
securing local influence, and as indifferent to the cost, as
his father. He was a great agriculturist and improver, and
planted about 14,000 acres of barren ground. George III.
conferred a peerage of the United Kingdom upon him with
the title of Baron Fife. But as it was limited to the heirs-
male of his own body, and he died without issue, the title died
with him.

Alexander Duff of Echt, the third earl, was the younger
brother of Earl James. He was an advocate of the Scottish
Bar, and succeeded to the peerage when he was seventy-
eight years of age. He held it for only two years, and
was succeeded in 181 1 by his son James, who was born in
1776.

James, the fourth earl, was a major-general in the Spanish
army during the Peninsular War, and was wounded at Talavera.
In 1827 he was advanced to the dignity of a peer of the
United Kingdom with the same title which had been pos-
sessed by his uncle. But, as in the case of the previous
Baron Fife, the English honours expired with him. This
earl was as ardent a politician as his two immediate pre-
decessors, and as unscrupulous in the means which he used
to attain his object. During the contested election of 1820,
which ended in the '* Raid of Elgin," he presented rings,
dresses, shawls, and bonnets to the wives of all the tradesmen,
and spent enormous sums in the entertainment of the lower
classes in the town. He mixed much in the fashionable world,
and was a personal friend of George IV.

He was succeeded in the Irish peerage by his nephew,

234 THE GORDONS OF GORDONSTOUN.

James, fifth earl of Fife, who in 1857 was created Baron
Skene in the peerage of the United Kingdom. He died in
1879.

His son, Alexander William George, sixth earl, was created
an earl of the United Kingdom in 1885, and advanced to the
dignity of Duke of Fife and Marquis of Macduff in the same
peerage on the occasion of his marriage with the' Princess
Louise, eldest daughter of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, on the
27th July 1889.

A family which, though it never attained to historic rank,
has impressed itself strongly on local history and tradition, is
that of the Gordons of Gordonstoun. Its founder was Sir
Robert Gordon of Kynmonowie, second son of the twelfth
Earl of Sutherland, whose wife, a daughter of the Earl of
Huntly, was divorced by her first husband, Bothwell, to
enable him to marry Mary Queen of Scots. Sir Robert
was the first person created a Baronet of Nova Scotia
by Charles I. in 1625, an honour which was accompanied
with a grant of 16,000 acres of land in that colony, but for
which he had to pay 3000 merks, or about £166 sterling.
He was a gentleman of the bedchamber to the king, and was
afterwards sworn of the Privy Council, and he is well and
meritoriously known in literature as the author of a ' History
of the Earldom of Sutherland.' His daughter Catherine
married Colonel David Barclay of Ury, and was the mother
of Robert Barclay, the author of the 'Apology for the
Quakers.'

It was, however. Sir Robert, the third baronet, who is
responsible for the very peculiar, indeed eerie, interest which
attaches to the family name. His fame as a wizard was as
widely spread over the north of Scotland as was that of Major
Weir over the south. The popular conception of his char-

SIR ROBERT "THE WIZARD." 235

acter is nowhere better expressed than it is by William Hay,
the local poet, in the " Lintie of Moray " : —

** Oh ! wha hasna heard o' that man o* renown,
The wizard, Sir Robert of Gordonstoun ?
The wisest o' warlocks, the Morayshire chiel,
The despot o* Duflfus an' frien' o' the Deil !
The man whom the folks o' auld Morayshire feared,
The man whom the friens o' auld Satan revered.
Oh ! never to mortal was evil renown
Like that o* Sir Robert of Gordonstoun ! "

Wild and picturesque legends cluster round his name. Like
Michael Scott, it was thought that he had learned "the
art that none may name" in Italy, and, like him, had lost
his shadow in acquiring it. In a lower chamber, still
pointed out, of his mansion-house of Gordonstoun,^ he is
said to have fitted up a forge, and here night after night
for seven long years he sat watching the glowing embers,
until at length his patience was rewarded by the appearance
of a live salamander. From this creature he tortured many
an unearthly secret. But his choice familiar was the arch-
enemy of mankind himself. Often in the long winter even-
ings the belated traveller on his way to Elgin would see
the windows of the house lighted up, and would hear
sounds of ribald merriment proceeding from within which
made him shake in his shoes. And when the wine had
mounted into the heads of both, his guest would change
himself into a coal-black charger ; his host would mount
on his back ; the next moment they were on their way
through the window to join the revels of the witches in
the old kirkyard of Birnie, seven or eight miles distant.

* The house was greatly enlarged in 1730. It now consists of a central
block with two wings, each with comer turrets, the whole forming one
edifice, whose principal characteristics are its great size, its great ugliness,
and its still greater gloom. It is about five miles north of Elgin. It faces
the north, and is almost buried amongst magnificent old trees.

236 "THE WIZARD'S" DEATH.

On more than one occasion Sir Robert is said to have
put the fiend's friendship to the test One winter night,
having occasion to go to Elgin, he determined, by way of
short cut, to cross the Loch of Spynie, which was then
frozen over. But his old coachman, Alexander Philip, re-
monstrated with him, calling his attention to the fact that
the ice was so thin

*' that it maunna be pressed,
For it yields to the wecht o' the water-fowl's breast."

Sir Robert's only reply was to bid his servant sit steady
and not look behind him. The man obeyed till the vehicle
had almost touched land, when his curiosity overcame him.
He gave a quick look round. He saw a big black " corbie "
fly off the back of the carriage. The next moment carriage
and horses alike were hopelessly bogged.

More blood-curdling, however, than any of these is the
legend of Sir Robert's death. He had sold his soul to the
devil, and on a certain night at the stroke of midnight, as
he was sitting drinking with his boon companion the parson
of DufFus, the fiend appeared to take possession of his
prize. But Sir Robert, in anticipation of his visit, had put
the clock half an hour back, and pointing to the dial,
ordered his enemy to be gone till the time was up. No
sooner had he retired than, on the advice of his friend the
parson, who assured him that if he could gain the kirkyard
of Birnie he would be safe from the fiend's clutches. Sir
Robert ran out, and taking a back-way in the hope of de-
ceiving his enemy, who would no doubt take the direct
road by Elgin, he set off at full speed for the sanctuary.
On his way he met the parson of Birnie, who was retiim-
ing from a clerical meeting at Alves, and asked him if
he was on the right road to his destination. Having been

^

THE REAL SIR ROBERT. 237

assured that he was, Sir Robert divested himself of his
coat and waistcoat, and again began to run. Very soon
after he had parted with Sir Robert the parson was met
by a black, gruesome-looking figure seated on a black horse
foaming at the mouth, with two blood-hounds running by
its side. On being asked if he had met any one on the
road, the parson replied in the negative, and the rider
continued on his way. He had scarcely been gone many
minutes when unearthly shrieks were heard piercing the
cold and silent air. At that moment the horse and its
rider reappeared, and across his saddle-bow hung the dead
body of Sir Robert, with one hound hanging on to his
throat and the other to his thigh. "So you thought to
deceive me," said the fiend; "but I have not missed my
game. Had you told me the truth, no harm would have
befallen you. As you have lied to me, prepare for a similar
hunt at the same hour to-morrow." At twelve the next
night the sound of a bugle was heard; the parson bolted
out of his house, and next morning was found dead in a
ditch at some distance from the manse.

Such is the legendary Sir Robert. But legend has in
this, as in so many other instances, done its subject grievous
injustice. The real Sir Robert was one of the most accom-
plished men of his day. Born in 1645 ^^ 1646, the eldest
of a family of five sons and two daughters, he appears to
have had his education abroad. He may have studied, and
in all likelihood did study, at one of the Italian universities,
where the occult sciences were then much cultivated. Cer-
tainly it was neither in Scotland nor in England that he
acquired that knowledge of chemistry — or, as we should
now call it, alchemy — and mechanics, which distinguished
his after-life, and is said to have brought him the honour
of a correspondence with the celebrated philosopher Robert

238 HIS LIBRARY.

Boyle. His education completed, he returned to Scotland,
bringing with him the greater part of that magnificent library
whose several transmissions form one of the most curious
incidents in bibliopolic history. It numbered nearly 3000
volumes — a large number for the library of a private gentle-
man in those days — and among its contents were many rare
and costly works, chiefly in the departments of theology and
history. It was purchased by Constable in 1801 for a very
small sum. It was sold by him shortly afterwards to John
Clerk, afterwards Lord Eldin, for a not much higher price.
It was repurchased by Constable from Clerk for ;;^iooo
and a pipe of port, and was finally dispersed in London
in 1 8 14 by J. G. Cochrane, a bookseller in the Strand,
when it realised ;;^i53o. In the catalogue of this its final
sale there is, strange to say, hardly a single work on any
subject relative to "the black arts"; "but it is believed,"
says Mr Thomas Constable, "that before the sale some
curious works had been withdrawn."

We catch a pleasant glimpse of Sir Robert in London in
1686, in the diary of that valiant and most amusing soldier
of fortune. General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries ; and
it is curious how, indirectly, it corroborates the popular
idea of the baronet^s close-fistedness. The general has just
arrived from Russia, and is "doing" London, and noting
each day in his diary how he has spent his time. On the
1 6th May 1686 he writes: "At night we did meet with
some friends at a taverne, and were very merry, where, con-
trar to expectation. Sir Robert Gordon payed the schott"
And, incidentally also, the same acute observer gives us an
inkling of the business which had brought Sir Robert to
England. "According to my ordinary custome," he writes
under date April 22, 1686, "I went, and waited on the
king at his walking in the Park. The king caused try a new

V

HIS PUMP. 239

invention of the pumpe made by Sir Robert Gordon ; but
some things breaking therein, it took no effect." The king
was James II., who had been Lord High Admiral of Eng-
land ; and the " pumpe " was " a curious machine for raising
of water" on board ship, which was subsequently "tried in
the fleet and highly approved of, and found far to exceed
anything of that kind then known, both for the facility of
working and the quantity of water it discharged." Oddly
enough, in two letters from no less a personage than Samuel
Pepys, Secretary to the Admiralty, we learn more about
the ingenious invention of the Morayshire laird. It never
made his fortune — as no doubt, like other inventors, he
expected it would do — and the Admiralty never purchased
the secret. But the king paid all the expenses of the ex-
periment, and there the matter apparently ended.

It says a good deal for Sir Robert's common-sense that he
never seems to have placed any faith in those vain imagin-
ings about the philosopher's stone and the transmutation
of metals with which the other alchemists of his day — not
even excepting his friend Robert Boyle — deluded themselves.
On the contrary, anxious though he was to make money, he
endeavoured to do so only by the legitimate exercise of his
talents, and by the ordinary modes of business. Throughout
the whole of his life he appears to have had a keen eye for
the main chance. In 1679, while he was yet only "younger
of Gordonstoun," we find him chartering the good ship
Penelope of Pittenweem from Alexander Atcheson, its skipper,
for a voyage to Drunton (Trondhjem) in Norway with grain,
returning with a cargo of " daills " (deals). And in the same
year he entered into an agreement with Magnus Prince,
" present Thresour of Edinburgh," for the sale of 500 bolls
of bear at the price of five merks per boll — payment to be
made, half in cash, and half in sack, French wine, and iron.

240 THE SON OF "THE WIZARD."

And prosperity seems to have attended all his speculations,
or he must have been an excellent manager of his patrimonial
estate ; for he was able not only to support a considerable
family, but to purchase from the ancient family of Gumming ,
of Earnside the lands of Garbity, Inchberry, and Ely, and the
valuable fishings in the Spey thereto belonging — properties
which continued in his successors' possession until 1812,
when they were excambed with the Duke of Gordon for part
of the lands of Roseisle.

Much of the stigma which attaches to the legendary Sir
Robert is due to his being so constantly confounded with
his son and successor, whose Ghristian name was the same.
Gloomy, austere, litigious, and irascible, his whole life, if we
may believe tradition, was a protest against all the Chris-
tian virtues. He was always in hot -water with somebody.
He quarrelled with his neighbour, Dunbar of Newton, and to
spite him ploughed up the sand on a piece of poor ground
whenever the wind was in the east, that it might blow upon
his neighbour's land ; but as the west is the prevailing " airt "
in those parts, Newton was able to repay him with interest.
He detested his wife ; and relying on a superstition of those
days, that if a man wished his wife to die he had only to erect
a pigeon-house, he built no fewer than four dovecots upon his
land, but without success.

These, however, were mere eccentricities compared to his
treatment of his inferiors. It was in his relations with his
tenants and dependants that his real character was disclosed.
In 1740 we find him calling the minister of Dufifus a liar.
In 1 75 1 he thrashed John Gow's wife for trespassing on
his land. And in a memorial to the Court of Session in 1 740,
by the friends of Alexander Leslie, a tenant on his estate,
we get a glimpse of the manner in which he exercised his
baronial jurisdiction. "Leslie was dragged and carried a

BARONIAL AUTHORITY IN THE OLDEN TIME. 24I

prisoner to Gordonstoun," it says, " and put in a prison, which,
in place of being a civil prison, is a most nasty dark vault,
with an iron grate, having neither door, window, nor chimney,
and where he lies in a cold and most miserable condition,
and is in much danger of his life, for if it were in winter-time,
he behoved to have a foot or two of stones for keeping him
from the water, because the vault is underground about two
feet. . . . The following facts are informed on, which if
necessary can be proven — viz., Janet Grant, servant to James
Forsyth in Crossbill, was without reason put into the pit at
Gordonstoun, who died in a short time after coming out.
Margaret Collie, spouse to Alexander Grant in Muir of
Drainy, was incarcerated without any warrant, for taking the
head of a ling out of a midden or dunghill, which the woman
thought was good for curing the gout. James Marshall,
James Robertson, and William Robertson, three skippers in
Covesea, a fisher-town of Sir Robert's, were apprehended and
kept in the stocks a whole night without any just cause
assigned, and had not the privilege of a house, but were con-
fined in the open air in a back-close, in a wild and stormy
night ; and the said James Marshall was thereafter put another
time in prison, in a nasty pit far below ground, where he
lay several days, and a short time thereafter died, and upon
his death-bed declared the imprisonment to be the reason of
his death, which happened about a fortnight thereafter ; and
James Marshall his son was also imprisoned without any cause,
and died also some time thereafter."

The claim which Sir Robert preferred against the town
council of Elgin for the losses he alleged to have sustained
during the Rising of 1745-46 has been already referred to.
A more important litigation was that which he instituted after
the death of William, Earl of Sutherland, in 1766, with the
view of establishing his claim to that peerage. It is undeni-

Q

242 THE KINNAIRDS OF CULBIN.

a.ble that Sir Robert was heir-male of line ; but after a long
and learned discussion it was finally decided that the peerage
descended to females as well as to males, and that Lady
Elizabeth Sutherland, the earPs infant daughter, was entitled
to the dignity.

Sir Robert died in 1772 at an advanced age. He was
survived for many years by his wife, a daughter of Sir William
Maxwell of Calderwood. She was a very eccentric person,
and during the latter years of her life lived in the little seaside
village of Lossiemouth. It is said that in anticipation of an
invasion by the French she had her garden wall coped with
broken glass embedded in strong lime. Her faith in this
impregnable rampart was fortunately never shaken.

Sir Robert's two sons, Robert and William, successively
succeeded to the baronetcy. On the death of the latter in
1796 the estates passed into the family of the Cummings of
Altyre, whose present representative is Sir William Gordon
Gordon-Cumming, Baronet.

The name of Kinnaird is no longer to be found amongst
the county families of Morayshire. The family disappears
from local history in the end of the seventeenth century, under
circumstances almost unexampled in the history of this or
any other nation.

The Kinnairds of Culbin, in the parish of Dyke, near
Forres, came originally from Perthshire. In 1400 Thomas
Kinnaird of that ilk married Giles or Egidia, who was heiress of
line of Richard de Moravia, the first proprietor of Culbin, and
the seventh son of the famous Freskinus de Moravia, the
ancestor of so many distinguished families on both sides of
the Moray Firth. Giles Kinnaird's eldest son succeeded on
his father's death to her Perthshire possessions. To her
second son Giles left her Morayshire estates. And from

THE BARONY OF CULBIN. 243

1460, when he obtained a charter of confirmation, to 1698
the lands and barony of Culbin remained the property of
the Kinnairds.

It was one of the best estates in the county. The extent
was about 3600 acres. There were sixteen fair-sized farms
upon it, each tenant paying ;^2oo Scots in money, with 40
bolls of wheat, bear, oats, and oatmeal, in kind ; and there
were numerous small crofts besides. The salmon -fishings
also were extremely valuable. And such was the fertility of
the deep, rich, alluvial soil, the produce of the fine silt carried
down by the Findhorn in times of flood for unnumbered ages,
that it was known by the name of the "Granary" or "Girnel"
of Moray. No matter what other estates suffered from late
frosts or protracted droughts, the crops of Culbin never failed.
It is said that one year a heavy crop of barley was reaped
though not a drop of rain had fallen since it was sown. The
rental of the estate in 1694 was ;£2'j2o Scots, 640 bolls of
wheat, 640 bolls of bear, 640 bolls of oats, and 640 bolls of
oatmeal, in addition to the value of the salmon-fishings, or
something not far off ;^6ooo sterling. The mansion-house
was in keeping with this handsome income. It was a large
square building of dressed stones embosomed amongst rows
of shady trees, with a prolific garden, a spacious lawn, and a
most fruitful orchard. In right of its barony the lands of
Culbin were entitled to carry a dovecot, and accordingly one
stood on a little eminence hard by the house. There was a
church too in the immediate vicinity, erected on what still
goes by the name of the Chapelhill. Nothing that could
conduce to the comfort or convenience of the lairds of
" Coubine " was wanting.

The spectator, standing on the top of the Cluny Hill at
Forres, sees before him, stretching along the low coast west-
ward from the mouth of the Findhorn, a wide expanse of what

244 THE CULBIN SANDS.

looks like undulating sandy dunes, which at once attracts his
attention. On closer inspection he finds that these dunes
are an accumulation of dome-shaped sandhills, most of them
presenting a steep face towards the east with a counter-slope
towards the west, much like the form of hill known as crag
and tail in the Scottish Lowlands. Those close to the shore,
and those farthest inland, are covered more or less completely
with bent grass [Carex arenaria)^ the only green thing that
flourishes in their desolate wastes. But between them is a
middle ridge of hills higher than the rest, some of them
reaching an elevation of 120 or 150 feet above sea -level,
which has evidently been the "highway of the great sand-
drift." This higher ridge of hills is in constant motion.
The sand is of such extreme lightness and fineness that the
merest breath of wind sets it moving. A slight breeze raises
the whole surface into a whirling tempest of sand. The result
is that the aspect of the scene is continually changing. A
night's gale may level a sandhill 1 00 feet high, or convert a
ravine with precipitous sides into a monotonous plain. An
amusing instance of this occurred more than a century ago.
A party of smugglers had landed a contraband cargo and
had hidden it at the base of one of the sandhills, meaning to
remove it on the morrow. When they returned at daylight
this particular sandhill had disappeared : the whole face of
the landscape was altered. And though since then repeated
searches have been made, the smugglers' cache has never been
found.

Under this sandy waste — which is now almost three miles
in length and two in breadth, and covers 3600 acres, but which
two hundred years ago was very much greater — lies buried the
old barony of Culbin. The great sand-storm which hid it out
of sight for ever occurred in the autumn of 1694.. It was
only the finishing stroke of a process which had been going

THE SAND-STORM OF 1694. 245

on for many years before. For some time previously the old
coast-line had been gradually breaking up ; and the drift from
this and from the great sandhills of Maviestoun, three or four
miles farther west, had been encroaching on the lands of
Culbin. But the final act in the tragedy came like a thief
in the night. A sand-storm unexampled for severity came
suddenly sweeping down from the west. "A man plough-
ing had to desert his plough in the middle of a furrow.
The reapers in a field of late barley had to leave without
finishing their work. In a few hours the plough and the
barley were buried beneath the sand. The drift, like a
mighty river, came on steadily and ruthlessly, grasping field
after field and enshrouding every object in a mantle of
sand. Everything which obstructed its progress speedily
became the nucleus of a sand-mound. In terrible gusts the
wind carried the sand amongst the dwelling-houses of the
people, sparing neither the hut of the cottar nor the man-
sion of the laird. The splendid orchard, the beautiful lawn,
all shared the same fate. In the morning after the first night
of drift, the people had to break through the back of their
houses to get out. They relieved the cattle and drove them
to a place of safety. A lull in the storm succeeded, and they
began to think they might still save their dwellings, though
their lands were ruined for ever. But the storm came on with
renewed violence, and they had to flee for their lives, taking
with them such things as they could carry." ^ To add to their
miseries, the sand had choked the mouth of the Findhorn,
and its dammed -back waters were now flooding field and
pasture. When at length they were able to return to what
had once been their homesteads, not a trace of their houses
was to be seen. A desert of sand had replaced a smiling

^ The Culbin Sands ; the Story of a buried Estate. By George Bain,
Nairn, p. 21.

246 THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ESTATE.

landscape. The great estate of Culbin had disappeared for
ever. Yet traces of it have from time to time reappeared.
About a hundred years ago another furious sand-storm ex-
posed the greater part of the mansion-house. The provident
cottagers of the neighbourhood immediately seized upon it,
and carried its stones to build their dwellings. Then came
another storm, and again it disappeared beneath the sand.
At a later period one of its chimneys was seen rising above
the sand. A man more courageous than the rest mounted
to the top of the sandhill and called down through the open
chimney. His call was answered by a ghostly voice. The
man turned and fled. Shortly after the chimney disappeared
during a night of blinding drift. Since then there has been
no further reappearance of the house. But traces of its
once fruitful orchard have occasionally been seen. Many
years after the estate had been destroyed the branches of
a cherry-tree in full blossom were seen protruding from the
side of one of the sandhills under which the orchard lay
buried. An old man, who died about fifty years ago at the
age of eighty, used to relate that in his younger days he
had seen an apple-tree appearing above the waste. Once
it budded and blossomed and finally bore fruit. Now the
only vestiges of the estate are the sandy furrows, which on
the level spaces among the sandhills still show the rigs formed
by the heavy oxen-drawn plough of former days.

The almost total destruction of their lands completed the
ruin of the Kinnairds, which had been for some time impend-
ing. The young laird, Alexander Kinnaird, with his wife, the
widow of Hugh Rose of Kilravock, and their son, an infant of
a few months old, had escaped with their lives, but their
means of subsistence were gone. On the 17 th July 1695 we
find him petitioning Parliament for relief from cess, on the
ground " that the best two parts of his estate of Culbin, by an

THE RUIN OF THE KINNAIRDS. 247

unavoidable fatality, was quite ruined and destroyed, occa-
sioned by great and vast heaps of sand (which had overblown
the same), so that there was not a vestige to be seen of his
manor-place of Culbin, yards, orchards, and mains thereof,
and which within these twenty years were as considerable as
many within the county of Moray." The relief was granted
him. And in further sympathy with his misfortunes Parlia-
ment passed the Act (c. 30, i William and Mary) still in
force, prohibiting under severe penalties the pulling of bent,
juniper, or broom, to which cause it assigns the sand-drift.
Two years later the laird had to apply to the court for a
personal protection against his creditors. And in the year
following (1698) he disposed of the small portion of his
estates which still remained to him to Alexander Duff of
Drummuir, the grandson of Adam Duff of Clunybeg, the
predecessor of the Fifes, " with my goodwill and blessing."
Three months after this he was dead. His wife soon followed
him to the grave. Their infant son was taken charge of by a
faithful servant, who took him to Edinburgh, where she sup-
ported him and herself by needlework. The boy when he
had grown to man's estate enlisted. Shortly after, he was
recognised by a half-brother of his mother's. Colonel Alexander
Rose, who procured him a commission. He rose to the rank
of captain, and died without issue in 1743.

Of late years an attempt to reclaim parts of the Sands of
Culbin, principally on the south and west sides, has been
made by the adjoining proprietors, with considerable prospect
of success. About 5000 acres of waste have been planted.
And though it is to be hoped the " desert may yet rejoice and
blossom as the rose," the immediate effect of their operations
has been to transfer the land so reclaimed into an immense
rabbit-warren, to the serious detriment of the young and, as
yet, struggling plantations.

248 THE THANES OF CAWDOR.

Of the county families of Nairnshire the most important
are the lairds of Calder or Cawdor; the Roses, barons of
Kilravock; and the Brodies, thanes, now lairds, of Brodie.

Before the age of the chroniclers the thanes of Cawdor were
personages in the county.

At what period the old Celtic toshach, the administrator
of the Crown lands, the collector of rents, the magistrate and
headman of the district, received the Saxon title of thane
cannot be accurately ascertained. It was, however, certainly
not before the time of Malcolm Ceannmor, and probably not
much later.

The first thane of Cawdor of whose existence we are assured
as a historical fact is Donald, who in 1295 was one of the
inquest on the extent of Kilravock and Geddes. Next comes
William, who in 1310 obtained from Robert the Bruce a
charter granting him the dignity in heritage on payment of
twelve merks yearly, on the same conditions as it was
held by his ancestors in the reign of his predecessor King
Alexander III.

For nearly a century after this we know nothing of Cawdor
or its thanes. But in 1405 we find a precept of sasine by
Robert, Duke of Albany, in favour of Donald of Cawdor as
heir of his father, Andrew of Cawdor, of the offices of sheriff
of Nairn and constable of the castle. The document bears
to be granted by the duke as lord of the ward of Ross, which
he held as grandfather of the young Countess Eufam, who had
become a nun. How or by what title the Earls of Ross
claimed to hold the superiority we cannot here stop to inquire.
But in 1475 th^ ^i"g ^^d got his own again, and from that
period the thanage appears to have been always held from the
Crown direct.

But the first thane of Cawdor who is anything more to us
than a mere empty name is William the sixth in succession,

WILLIAM, SIXTH THANE OF CAWDOR. 249

who* held the dignity from "1442 to 1468. He owed his
success in life to the favour in which he stood with his king,
James II. In early youth he had been his personal attendant
— his "well-beloved squire " (dilectus familiaris scutifer noster).
In later years he "was advanced to offices of still greater
importance and dignity. When, after the fall of Archibald
Douglas at Arkinholme in 1455, the king came north to set
matters right in the district of which Douglas had claimed to
be earl in right of his wife, James took the Thane of Cawdor
with him. He found that the rebellious earl, with a view to
his own defence, had fortified the castle of Lochindorb, and
was in the act of doing the same to the castle of Darnaway,
when his death occurred. To the Thane of Cawdor the king
committed the destruction of Lochindorb, a service for which
he received the sum of £2^. But he himself continued the
repairs to the castle of Darnaway, and converted it into a
hunting-seat. And when the thane had successfully accom-
plished his work, James, in reward of his services and fidelity,
appointed him his chamberlain for " beyond the Spey."
Three years before this the king had granted the thane a
licence to erect a castle of his own. Hitherto, according
to Lachlan Shaw, the thanes of Cawdor, "as constables of
the king's house, resided in the castle of Nairn," which
stood beside the river on the site near the bridge now
known as the Constabulary Gardens. They had, however,
a seat of their own at Old Cawdor, half a mile north from
their present seat. The remains of this older castle were
visible in Shaw's day, but have since entirely disappeared.

In terms of the king's grant, the new castle was to be
a house in accordance with the thane's augmented dignity.
It was to have stone walls. It was to be ornamented with
little turrets. It was to have a fosse and a drawbridge, and
all things necessary for its defence. It was to carry with it

2 so CAWDOR CASTLE.

all the privileges and rights to which castles of this import-
ance were entitled " according to the custom of our reign."

The thane seems to have taken the fullest advantage of
this licence. Yet the castle of Cawdor as we have it now is
something very different from the keep which the king's grant
authorised the thane to erect. The keep, indeed, still remains
a stern and stately memorial of the fifteenth century. But
the buildings which surround it are of a couple of centuries
later, when the estates had passed into other hands, by whom
the castle was enlarged, and indeed remodelled.^

The castle stands on the steep and rocky bank of the
Cawdor 2 Bum, a tributary of the Nairn, and has been cut off
from the level ground on the landward side by a dry ditch,
some parts of which still remain. The keep, the oldest part
of the structure, is 45 feet in length and 34 feet in width, and
occupies the highest and most central point of the site ; and
its walls are sufficiently deep to admit of numerous wall-
chambers, which were used as bedrooms and garde -robes.
Round this are grouped, so as to form two sides of a square,
the additions of more recent times. The composition is ex-
ceedingly good, and the whole appearance of the building as
it now stands is picturesque in the highest degree.

Few castles in Scotland have been more embellished by
tradition. The legend of its foundation reads like a story
from the Sagas. The thane, it is said, unable to decide
on a site for his house, determined to commit its situation
to destiny. Binding the coffer containing the treasure which
he had accumulated for its erection on the back of an ass,

^ "The building of the work at Calder" began in 1639 and finished
in 1643. In 1684, and again in 1699, it received further additions and
improvements.

2 The earliest form of the word is Kaledor, and it is said to be derived
from caly sound, and dor, water, and therefore means the sounding or calling
water. The name is strictly appropriate to the locality.

THE LEGENDS OF CAWDOR CASTLE. 251

he drove it forth to find a place for his new house. The
ass set out in the direction of the Cawdor Bum till it
came to a hawthorn-tree. It stopped and looked at it,
then it went on. A few yards farther on it came to a
second hawthorn, against which it rubbed itself and passed
on again. But when it came to a third hawthorn-tree on
the banks of the stream, it stopped and lay down with its
burden. And round this tree the thane, recognising the
finger of fate, proceeded to build his castle. The hawthorn-
tree with the coffer beside it still stands in the lowest vault
of the keep to mock the incredulity of modern times. Visi-
tors, however, are no longer permitted to cut a chip from
its gnarled stem, nor expected to drink to "the toast of
the hawthorn-tree — prosperity to the house of Calder." The
first and second hawthorn-trees, which were within 100 yards
of the present site, seem to have been gifted with an almost
miraculous vitality. The one lived to the commencement
of the present century, the other to the year 1836.

This, however, is not the only legend connected with the
castle. Another relates how the thane, like a second Samson,
carried the iron gate of Lochindorb on his shoulder to Cawdor
to serve as the door of his donjon in the old keep. A third,
more pertinaciously asserted than either of the preceding,
claims the house as the scene of Duncan's murder by Mac-
beth. A chamber in the castle is still pointed out as the
room in which he met his death, and a series of wretched
daubs on the whitewashed walls of the apartment are referred
to in corroboration of the ridiculous story.

William, the next thane (i 468-1 503), resigned the thanage
in 1492 on the occasion of his son John's marriage with
Isobel, daughter of Hugh Rose of Kilravock — a union which
was intended to put an end to an old feud that existed
between these two neighbouring families. Unfortunately the

252 MURIEL OF CAWDOR.

marriage had not the desired effect. When John Cawdor died
in 1498 (for he predeceased his father) the old thane and
his daughter-in-law were at daggers drawn. And the fact that
he left no sons but only two infant daughters — Muriel and
Janet, probably twins — did not tend to ameliorate the situation.

The surviving sons of Thane William determined to dis-
pute the right of their nieces, and a lawsuit was commenced.
Early in the proceedings Janet Cawdor seems to have died.
This was immediately followed by a challenge of her sister
Muriel's legitimacy. But after lasting nearly four years the
dispute was terminated by a decision vindicating her birth,
and thus establishing her right as heiress to the thanedom.

From her birth the child had been a prize in the matri-
monial market sufficiently valuable to excite the cupidity of
the foremost in the land. At her father's death Archibald,
second Earl of Argyll, a powerful man in the country and
at Court, had solicited and obtained from King James IV.
a gift of the marriage and ward of John of Cawdor's heirs.
He determined to make use of it by bestowing the poor
infant and her broad acres upon his third son, Sir John
Campbell.

Meantime Muriel was living at Kilravock with her mother's
relations. The first step towards effecting the marriage was
to get the child into Argyll's possession. Accordingly in
the autumn of 1499 ^^^ ^^^ sent Campbell of Inverliver
with sixty men to bring the child to Inveraray. The Roses
had no serious objections to urge against her removal, es-
pecially as they were told she would soon be amongst them
again. But before she left, old "Lady Kilravock," her
grandmother, took the precaution to brand the child on
the hip with the key of her coffer so as to preserve incon-
testable proof of her identity should this be ever challenged.
Inverliver accordingly departed with his charge. But when

"'TIS A FAR CRY TO LOCHAWE ! " 253

he had got the length of Daltulich, in Strathnairn, he learned
that he was being pursued by MurieFs two uncles, Alexander
and Hugh, with a larger force than he had under his com-
mand. He ordered six of his men to take the child and
gallop on for their lives. Then he took a sheaf of corn,
dressed it in some of little MuriePs garments, and placed
it under proper guardianship in his rear. That done, he
faced round and waited till the Calders came up. There
was a sharp fight, in which eight of Inverliver's sons were
killed. But their brave father continued the conflict till he
was sure the child was out of reach of her uncles' clutches.
Then he retired, leaving the fictitious child to her pursuers.
"Tis said," says Lachlan Shaw, "that in the heart of the
skirmish Inverliver had cried, * 'S f hada glaodh o' Lochow !
'S f hada cabhair o' chlan Dhuine ! ' [*Tis a far cry to Loch-
awe ! Far is help from the Clan Duine !], which has become
a proverb signifying imminent danger and distant relief."

The little Muriel was safely conveyed to Inveraray, and
in 1 5 1 o, when she had completed her twelfth year, was
married to Sir John Campbell. The year after his marriage
she resigned all her possessions into the hands of the Crown.
A new charter in favour of Sir John Campbell and his wife
was immediately issued, uniting all the lands of Cawdor
"with the castle and fortalice into one thanage and free
barony." From that moment the husband of the " little
red-haired lass," as an old record calls her, assumed the
title of Sir John Campbell of Cawdor. And thus the High-
land family which still possesses the lands supplanted the old
line of the native thanes of Cawdor. In 1524 Sir John and
his wife came north and settled permanently in Nairnshire.

The new thane was a man of vigour and energy, and did
much to strengthen his position and to extend the influence
of the family. But he was essentially a Highlander, and his

254 SIR JOHN CAMPBELL OF CAWDOR.

Celtic methods of compassing his ends occasionally led him
into trouble with the law courts. By a transaction with the
last male representative of the old Cawdors he acquired the
heritable sheriffship of Nairn, and died in 1566, leaving a
large family both of sons and daughters. His wife survived
him for many years.

Space does not permit of our following the fortunes of the
family in detail. Nor indeed is this necessary for our purpose.
For the Cawdors, though important factors in local affairs, as
a rule abstained from mixing themselves prominently in pol-
itics. Only once do we find them in any danger, and that
was during the Rising of 17 15. Unlike his neighbours, Sir
Hugh Campbell, the fourteenth thane (1654-17 16), espoused
the Jacobite cause. But his death a few months later pre-
vented any evil consequences accruing to the family by his
action.

In 1726 John Campbell, sixteenth thane and old Sir Hugh's
grandson, married Mary, daughter of Lewis Pryse of Gogirthen,
in North Wales. She brought her husband "a small estate
in land among the Welsh highlands." This connection had
a considerable effect upon the future fortunes of the family.
John Campbell took up his permanent residence in Wales,
leaving his Scottish properties to be managed by a factor. But
his love for his old home was never obliterated, and to his
death, which occurred in 1777, he never ceased to take the
warmest interest in his tenantry and estates.

As a member of Parliament John Campbell rose to con-
siderable eminence in the political world. He was for some
years a Lord of the Admiralty, and became a Lord of the
Treasury in 1746. When the Act abolishing heritable juris-
diction was passed, he lost not only his sheriffship, but his
office of constable of the king's castle. For this last, how-
ever, he received ;^2ooo as compensation. Hearing £rom

KILRAVOCK CASTLE. 255

his factor that the Act abolishing Highland dress was causing
much dissatisfaction amongst his tenantry, he suggested that
"they might be very agreeably accommodated by wearing
wide trousers like seamen, made of canvas or the like. Nan-
keen might be the more genteel. But I would have the cut
as short as the philabeg, and then they would be almost as
good [as kilts] and yet be lawful." The laird's thoughtful
suggestion does not appear to have been adopted.

Since this thane's time the Cawdor family have continued
to make Wales their principal residence. In 1796 they were
ennobled as Barons Cawdor of Castlemartin in Wales, and in
1827 they were advanced to an earldom in the peerage of the
United Kingdom. The present holder of the title is the
second Earl and twentieth Thane of Cawdor.

On the opposite bank of the Nairn, and a little more than
a mile farther west from Cawdor, stands another old castle —
the castle of Kilravock — very similar in character, and scarcely
if anything less picturesque. Both consist of square keeps,
surrounded at a later period by extensive buildings. Both are
perched on banks overhanging running water. Both are now
surrounded by fine old trees. The resemblance between the
two is not entirely accidental. The castle of Cawdor was
finished in 1454, the "house of fence" of Kilravock was
begun in 1460. And both in the seventeenth century were
enlarged to their present size.

The word Kilravock indicates the cell or chapel dedicated
to some now forgotten saint, and tradition points out the site
of the present pigeon-house as the place where it stood. But
the charm that legend so liberally lends to Cawdor is wanting
in Kilravock. No picturesque fables cluster round its erec-
tion. No wild or exciting stories of the past cling like lichens
to its grey walls. Our interest in Kilravock, unlike our in-

2S6 THE ROSES OF KILflAVOCK.

terest in Cawdor, springs not from the building, but from its
possessors. For the history of the Roses of Kilravock is
unique in Scottish history. No other family can show a longer
or a more direct descent. For six hundred years and more
there has always been a baron of Kilravock, son succeeding
father in the possession of the family estates without the in-
terposition of any collateral heir, almost every one bearing the
Christian name of Hugh, and none but one ever rising to
higher social rank. As for the character of this remarkable
family, the description given by the Rev. Hew Rose, minister
of Nairn, the biographer of the house, if slightly coloured, is
not far from the truth : " They were of singular ingenuitie and
integritie, plain and honest in their dealings, lovers of peace,
kindly and affectionate, given to hospitality, temperate and
sober. ^ They were rather backward then precipitant in med-
dling and undertakings, which, if anie think, hindered the en-
larging of their patrimony, yet made them take safer course
for preservation of what they had. They were exposed to
many troubles, through which God carried thdm in the way
of suffering. . . . Religion, justice, truth, mercie, and the ex-
ercise of the fear of God, are surer preservers of a familie
then all the other methods and measures in the world."

Living a life of quiet, unobtrusive, honourable usefulness,

passing their

" silent days
In shadie privacie, free from the noise
And bustle of the world,"

their story scarcely falls within the scope of this book. Yet
there is probably more to be learned from the lives of such
men as Kilravock the Tenth (154 3- 1597), who lived through

^ The Roses had a hereditary love of and proficiency in music. A
strathspey entitled "Barain Chill - reathaig, " "The Ancient Barons of
Kilravock," is given in Captain Simon Fraser's * Collection of Highland
Music. *

THE BRODIES OF BRODIE. 257

all the troublous times of Queen Mary's checkered reign in
peace and amity with men of all parties and of both religions,
who could sign himself in the midst of a hot debate between
himself and two turbulent neighbours, " Hucheon Rose of
Kilravock, ane honest man, ill-guided betwixt them both,"
and even aver that such persons were the best friends he
could have, " for they made him thrice a-day go to God upon
his knees, when perhaps otherways he would not have gone
once " ; of Kilravock the Sixteenth, whose demeanour towards
Prince Charles Edward and his " cousin " the Duke of Cum-
berland, already related, was the perfection of good breeding,
and was recognised as such by both the one and the other ;
and of many another honest, homely, unaffected scion of the
line, than from the lives of others, nobler, more notorious,
mot^ successful, but infinitely much less gentlemen, whose
career it has been our duty to depict in the preceding pages.

The Roses of Kilravock are of Norman descent, and belong
to a family which came over with William the Conqueror.
They first settled at Geddes in 1230; in 1293 they became
proprietors of the neighbouring lands of Kilravock ; and in
1295 we find them in possession of the baronies of Kilravock
and Geddes, the first of which they still possess.

The historical importance of the family of Brodie of Brodie
rests essentially upon the part they took in vindicating the cause
of the Covenant against the encroachments of Episcopacy in
the seventeenth century. But for that their career would
have been no different from that of many another ancient
county family, and would have neither required nor deserved
any special notice here.

In the year 1645 Montrose, on his way towards Moray to
vindicate the royal authority, caused burn "the place of
Broddie, pertening to the Laird of Broddy." In that con-

R

2S8 THE THANES OF BRODIE.

flagration all the old papers which would have enabled us to
trace the career of the family from its beginning were destroyed.
But if Lachlan Shaw's suggestion is to be adopted — and he
gives it as nothing more than an opinion — the Brodies " were
originally of the ancient Moravienses, and were one of those
loyal tribes to whom King Malcolm IV. gave lands about the
year 1160, when he transplanted the Moray rebels." The
family, according to the same authority, took their surname
from their lands. The ancient name of their property is
Brothie, softened into Brodie. " In the old Irish, broth signi-
fies a ditch or mire. And the mire, trench, or ditch that run-
neth from the village of Dyke to the north of Brodie House
seemeth to have given to this place the name of Brodie."

That the Brodies were of native origin, and that they soon
acquired a predominant position amongst the local families,
is very likely. It is undoubted that there were thanes of
Brodie in the thirteenth century. We hear of a Malcolm
who was in existence in 1285 ; of a Michael who got a grant
of the thanage of Brodie and Dyke from Robert I. in 131 1 ;
and so on. And as the castle which they erected has, in its
older portions, all the characteristics of fifteenth - century
architecture, we may rest assured of the antiquity and im-
portance of the family.

Passing over traditions of only local consequence, the first
time that the family history comes in contact with national
history is in 1640, when we find the young laird of Brodie
taking part along with Mr Gilbert Ross, " minister of
Elgynne," and the " young Is^ird of Innes " in the destruction
of the painted screen "dividing the kirk of Elgin fra the
queir." This act of bigoted Philistinism, which has already
been recorded in its proper place, gives us the key to the
character of a man who, of all his family before and since,
is the most notorious. Accident possibly even more than

THE FOURTEENTH LAIRD OF BRODIE. 259

merit led to his being mixed up in some of the most moment-
ous political transactions of his time. But for this his record
would have been no more worth the sketching than that of
any other conscientious but narrow-minded religious politician
of the day.

Alexander Brodie, fourteenth Laird of Brodie, was born in
161 7. His father died when he was fifteen years of age,
and his mother some time after married again. This may
have had something to do with his early marriage, which took
place when he was only eighteen years of age. It was a very
happy union so long as it endured. But it lasted for only
five years. His wife, who was a daughter of Sir Robert Innes
of Innes, died in 1640, leaving the young widower, who never
married again, with a son and a daughter. Perhaps it was
his wife's early death that led him to think of more serious
things. But from this time to the end of his life his thoughts
were occupied with religion and religious politics. Yet be-
yond the escapade already referred to he took no prominent
part in public matters until the year 1643, when he was chosen
as member of Parliament for the county of Elgin. Then he
began to interest himself in politics. He served on parlia-
mentary committees ; he became a ruling elder of the Kirk ;
he soon began to be looked upon as a rising man.

In 1649 Charles I. was beheaded. The Scottish Parlia-
ment at once proclaimed his son king at the Cross of Edin-
burgh, declaring, however, that until he gave satisfaction to
the kingdom in the matter of religion, with special reference
to the maintenance of the Covenants, he should not be ad-
mitted to the exercise of his royal powers. In order to
obtain the necessary assurance the Estates resolved to send
commissioners to the king, who was then residing with his
brother-in-law, the Prince of Orange, at The Hague. Brodie
was chosen as one of them. The others were the Earl

26o CHARLES II. IN HOLLAND.

of Cassilis, George Wynrame of Liberton, and Alexander
Jaffray, Provost of Aberdeen. They were accompanied by
two ministers of religion, Mr James Wood of St Andrews
and Mr Robert Baillie of Glasgow. The commissioners'
mission was unsuccessful. The king would not accept the
terms they offered. This was in March 1649. In June of
the same year Wynrame and Brodie, probably in recom-
pense of their services, were appointed Lords of Session.

In September Wynrame was again sent to Holland to urge
the king to comply with the request of the Estates. The
letters he sent home graphically describe the straits to which
the king was reduced. He had not " bread for himself and
his servants," Wynrame writes in November 1649, and "be-
twixt him and his brother not ane Inglish shilling ; and worse
yet if I durst wryte it." France was neither able nor willing
to help him. The Prince of Orange was in no better case.
Charles stood out as long as he could, but in the end he had
to succumb. In the beginning of 1650 he wrote to the
Estates begging them to send over commissioners to treat
with him. This request was acceded to ; and in the spring
the commissioners appointed by the General Assembly and
the Estates set out on their mission. Brodie was again of
their number. It was plain to the Commissioners from the
first that the king's acceptance of the Covenant was the assent
of the lips only. But they were as anxious to secure their
king as he was to escape from his present "prisone," as
Wynrame called it. And the matter was very soon settled.
Charles landed in Scotland on 23d June 1650. His corona-
tion and his renewal of the Solemn League and Covenant
took place at Scone on 5th January 1651. On the 3d Sep-
tember he was worsted at Worcester by the forces of the
Commonwealth, and once more driven into exile.

Cromwell's success at Dunbar on the same day the year

DEATH OF LORD BRODIE. 26 1

before (3d September 1650) had placed all Scotland in his
power. But months before that the disturbed state of the
country had dislocated every description of business. The
Court of Session sat for the last time on 28th, February.
Brodie's actual experience as a judge had lasted exactly four
months. He at once returned to the north and to civil life,
having formed a resolution never under any circumstances to
accept office under English rule. This resolution, however,
he was not able to keep. According to his diary, he fought
hard against the temptation for many a long year. But "after
much resistance and reluctancy" he succumbed, and in
January 1658 took his place amongst the English judges.
The Restoration occurred in 1660. Brodie and his col-
leagues were superseded. In January 1661 his career as an
administrator of justice was brought to a final close.

But he never actually lost the favour of the king. Charles
could not perhaps forgive what must have seemed to him
like time -service. But his inherent good nature would not
admit of his treating him with discourtesy. Though he
was never employed in public business again, he was not
deprived of the privilege of kissing the king's hand whenever
he went to London. Towards the end of his life we find
him beginning to persuade his conscience to things which,
rigid Presbyterian as he had always posed as being, he had
hitherto thought sinful. Over and over again his carnal
mind led him into admissions which in his heart of hearts
he believed to be wrong. He was loud in his denunciations
of Prelacy because the ministry of the bishops was not
lively, and because he objected to churchmen holding civil
place and office. But he was not opposed to a liturgy, and
he had no serious objections to the office of bishop, though
he was constantly lamenting that such things were calculated
to be a snare to him. His whole life was a pitiful attempt

262 HIS CHARACTER.

to conform to a doctrine and to principles which he could
not curse with his heart, whatever he did with his lips. He
was to all outside appearance a pillar of the Covenant in
the North. None but himself, however, knew how unstable
was its foundation. He died in 1680 — a well-intentioned, but,
so far as one can judge from his diary, a very miserable man.

His son James, who succeeded him, followed in his father's
footsteps. He was if anything more pronounced in his ad-
herence to the Covenant. His stubborn Nonconformity led
to his being fined in the enormous sum of ;^24,ooo Scots
in 1685, as were also others of his relations. But the
same temptations which beset his father afflicted him. " The
world," he writes in his diary, "has been my idol, and the
love of it and covetousness the root of much evil, and the
Lord justlie may punish in this." Yet to these sorely tried
and much-to-be-pitied men Presbyterianism owes much. In
what degree the history of the district would have been
modified if they had yielded to their snares we cannot tell.
Still less can we estimate their actual worth to the locality.
More interesting, perhaps more instructive, than any such
speculations, is the study of their characters, to be found
in the sincere and fervid diaries in which from day to day
father and son in succession had recorded their temptations,
their triumphs, their lapses, their remorse, and their hopes.

On the death of James Brodie in 1708 the estates passed
into the possession of his cousin, George Brodie of Asleisk,
who had married his fifth daughter. He died in 1715, and
was succeeded by his son James, who enjoyed the estates
for only five years. His younger brother Alexander, after-
wards Lyon King-at-Arms for Scotland, followed him. On his
death without offspring the estates reverted to a collateral
branch — the Brodies of Spynie — whose descendants still
worthily maintain the honour of the family name.

Ik.

V.

THE TOWNS OF MORAY AND

NAIRN

V.

THE TOWNS OF MORAY AND

NAIRN.

ELGIN : NOT THE NATURAL CAPITAL, BUT MADE SO BECAUSE OF THE
CATHEDRAL — THE TOWN'S DEBT TO THE CHURCH — ITS APPEAR-
ANCE — ITS PROGRESS UNDER THE EARLDOM — THE EARL OF DUN-
FERMLINE, PROVOST — THE INCORPORATED TRADES — POLITICAL
CORRUPTION — THE UNINCORPORATED TRADES"^ FINDHORN AND
LOSSIEMOUTH, AND THE CONTINENTAL TRADE — EDUCATION —
FORRES — NAIRN.

If there had been no cathedral on the banks of the Lossie,
Elgin would probably never have been the capital of the
county. Burghead, the site selected for this purpose by the
earliest inhabitants of the district, had greater historical claims
and much greater natural advantages ; and after Burghead
came Forres. Elgin might have remained a mere provincial
town, and the whole history of the district would have been
different.

There is probably hardly another town in Scotland whose
legendary origin is so absurdly fictitious. " A variety of
etymologies," says the writer of the account of the parish
in the * New Statistical Account,' " have been given of the
name; but the most probable derives it from Helgy, general
of the army of Sigurd, the Norwegian Earl of Orkney, who

266 FOUNDATION OF ELGIN.

conquered Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, and Moray about
the beginning of the tenth century." Lachlan Shaw, the county
historian, though he does not accept this preposterous story,
is of opinion that " it was a considerable town with a royal
fort when the Danes landed in Moray about anno 1008."
There is not the slightest evidence to justify either the one or
the other of these statements. Elgin was probably founded
somewhere towards the end of the eleventh century; but
when, or why, or by whom, there is absolutely nothing to
show.

It is certain, however, that it was one of the royal burghs
in the reign of Alexander I. For in his charter conferring
the Earldom of Moray on his nephew, Thomas Randolph,
King Robert the Bruce reserves to his burgesses of Elgin,
as well as to those of Forres and Inverness, the same liber-
ties they had enjoyed in King Alexander's reign. In 1151,
David I., who had succeeded to his brother Alexander's
right in the kingdom " benorth the Forth" on his death
in 1 1 24, granted to the Priory of Urquhart an annual pay-
ment of twenty shillings, " out of the ferme of my burgh and
waters of Elgin " {de firma burgi met et aquarum de Elgin).
And contemporaneously, or very nearly so, with this, came
also the concession of a free " hanse.*' Under this grant
the burghers acquired the right of free trade within the
burgh, and the privilege of associating in defence of their
prerogatives.^

Possessed of these important privileges, the burgh was

^ Though not in every case the founder, David I. is entitled to be re-
garded as the father of all, or nearly all, the royal burghs in Scotland.
The code of Burrow Lawes, bearing his name, ** made at New Castill, upon
the Water of Tyne," and intended to be applicable to all royal buighs
within the kingdom, shows a fostering care for institutions whose future
usefulness and importance few at that time were able adequately to
foresee.

IT OWES ITS IMPORTANCE TO THE CHURCH. 267

placed in a position to make its own way in the world. And
it seems to have made good use of its advantages. For a
century later, when it was proposed to change the seat of the
diocese, a very large church was required for its spiritual
wants. The Church of the Holy Trinity, which in 1224
became the cathedral, was probably not within the actual
burghal limits. It is described as being only ^^juxta ElgynJ^
But we hear of no other within the town ; and it is difficult
to believe that more than one was required.

The transference was the making of the burgh. The
burgesses soon saw that their surest and swiftest road to
prosperity lay in the patronage of the Church. The Church
on its part was quite ready to aid them. And thus the rise
of the two — the burgh and the bishopric — went on har-
moniously, rapidly, and simultaneously, till the Reforma-
tion parted them, and converted fast friends into deadly
enemies.

Towns fostered into importance by the Church are com-
moner in England than in our own country. But whether
situated north or south of the Tweed, they have all the same
characteristics. The traces of ecclesiastical influence are
manifest everywhere. They are to be seen in their institu-
tions, their habits of thought, their local industries, their
buildings. Handicrafts of all descriptions flourish within
them, and constitute the greater part of their trade. The
town becomes famous for the excellence of its masons, car-
penters, glovers, weavers,^ shoemakers, and the like. The
Church with her riches requires and engrosses the services
of every craft which can in any way minister to her material
comfort. The craftsmen profit in their turn. There is ease

^ **He sets wide like a Moray weaver" is an old proverbial saying
applied to a man who is able to make a given quantity of material go
farther than his neighbours.

268 A LITTLE CATHEDRAL CITY.

and wellbeing everywhere. But as there is no necessity for
extraordinary exertion, there is no real inducement to progress.
There is no commerce, no manufactures, no wealth, for there
is neither the need nor the energy to produce them. And
when the support of the Church is withdrawn, the fortunes of
the burgh are almost certain to wane.

It is only within recent years that Elgin has awakened from
the sedative effects of ecclesiastical influence. Till the middle
of the eighteenth century, at any rate, it was

'*a monkish-looking town,
Most reverend for to view, sirs."

" Within the memory of some still alive," says Professor
Cosmo Innes, " it presented the appearance of a little cathedral
city very unusual among the burghs of Presbyterian Scotland.
There was an antique fashion of building, and withal a certain
solemn drowsy air, about the town and its inhabitants, that
almost prepared the stranger to meet some Church procession,
or some imposing ceremonial of the picturesque old religion."
All that is changed now. Not a single one of its quaint old
public buildings remains. The parish church of St Giles, —
a building erected in 1224 to take the place of the Church
of the Holy Trinity, converted into the cathedral, — a huge,
ungainly, yet most interesting specimen of Gothic architecture,
which stood in the middle of the High Street, and the Town
House, with its heavy double forestairs and its rude old
tolbooth tower, have been removed. "The irregular tall
houses standing on massive pillars and arcades, the roofs
of mellow grey stone, broken picturesquely with frequent
windows, the tall crow-stepped gables, are poorly exchanged
for the prim and trim square modern houses and shops."
Much, indeed, has been gained in the way of increased con-
venience and healthfulness. But the charm which springs

iJ&-

ELGIN AND ITS FEUDAL SUPERIORS. 269

from picturesque architecture, and from associations and
memories of the past, is lost for ever.

Though the rapid rise of Elgin is largely due to ecclesi-
astical patronage, this was not the only source of its prosperity.
To its feudal superiors, who were, first, the kings, and, after-
wards, the Earls of Moray, the burgh was under heavy obliga-
tions. David I. was much in the district, and most of the
religious foundations in the vicinity owe their origin to his
generosity. William the Lion (i 165-12 14), his grandson,
who succeeded him, was also frequently in Elgin, and as
Richard, the Bishop of Moray, had been his chaplain, the
bishopric was considerably enriched on these occasions. His
son, Alexander 11. (12 14-1249), was a still greater benefactor
to the district. Revisited Elgin in 1221 and in 1228. In
1 23 1 he spent his Yule here. And in 1234 he granted to
the burgh its charter of free guild, " as other burghs possessed
it," and thus completed the tale of its municipal privileges.
On the establishment of the earldom a new superior was
interjected between the Crown and the burgh, and hence-
forward we find few traces of royal interference with civic
affairs.

The documents still preserved in the town's " cageat " prove
this at any rate, that the transference of the superiority pro-
duced no detrimental effect on the prosperity of the burgh,
as was too often the case in other burghs in Scotland.
If indeed there had been any conflict between the bishopric
and the earldom, the result might have been otherwise. The
town would certainly have suffered. Fortunately for the burgh,
the bishops and the earls in Roman Catholic days were always
good friends ; and the rise of Elgin went on unimpeded.

This was especially the case during the earldom of the
Dunbars. Many members of that distinguished family held
high office in the Church — one of them, Columba Dunbar,

270 THE DUNBAR EARLS AND THE BURGH.

even attaining, as we have seen, to the bishopric. Hence we
find during their tenure of the dignity numerous concessions
and indulgences to the town of Elgin.

Thus in 1390, John Dunbar, Earl of Moray, "in con-
sideration of the many hardships and devastations the Burgh
had sustained since the death of his two uncles, Thomas and
John Randulph, Earls of Moray," grants to the town a charter
of exemption from the " excise or duty on ale brewed within
it," which hitherto had been payable to the " Constable of our
castle of Elgin " ; and warrants the grant by allowing the
burgh to retain the " ferme " due to him in case " they were
anyways troubled or molested thereanent." In 1393-94,
Thomas Dunbar, the second earl of the family, grants to his
aldermen and bailies of the burgh and the burgesses thereof
"all the wool, cloth, and other things that go by ship out
of the haven of Spey uncustomed." Three years later, in
1396, he ratifies Alexander II.'s charter to the guildry, and
by another deed formally takes the town under his protec-
tion, and enjoins all his judges to do the burgesses ready
justice whenever they complain to them.

So in like manner, in 145 1, when Archibald Douglas assumes
the earldom, we find him confirming the town's charter of
guildry in the same ample terms as his predecessor, Eiarl
Thomas, had done in 1396. And other charters of various
earls are extant ratifying in equally liberal phraseology the
existing privileges of the town.

At various times, as we have seen, the earldom was in
abeyance through the failure or forfeiture of the line which had
hitherto held it, At such periods the superiority of the buigh
and of the burgh lands reverted to the Crown. The necessary
consequence of such interregnal periods was to compel the
burgh to apply to the Crown for a renewal of its privileges.
This was the case in 1594, after the murder of the Bonnie

PROVOSTS OF ELGIN. 27 1

Earl of Moray. A charter of King James VI., dated the 2 2d
March of that year, grants to the burgesses — ^the provost,
bailies, and community — of the burgh " all and whole the said
burgh of Elgin, with all and singular the lands, tenements,
yards, tofts, crofts, annual rents and dues belonging to the
same, within the bounds and marches thereof."

The terms of the charter of 161 1, granting the earldom to
James, son of the Bonnie Earl, seem to have necessitated a
further application to the Crown to define the rights of the
burgesses. Accordingly in 1633 Charles I. issued a charter to
the burgh, commonly known as the town's Great Charter, in
which, after regranting to the burgesses "all and haill the
town of Elgin " with the lands pertaining thereto, he in-
corporated " the said burgh " and " the said lands " into
" one free and intyre burgh royal now and in all tyme
coming, to be called the burgh of Elgin, and ordained one
sasine to be taken for the whole."

This deed constituted the town's present title, and with it
the modern history of the burgh may be said to commence.
From this period the list of the municipal rulers is consecutive
and complete. Previous to this we know scarcely anything
about them.

The first provost of whom we hear is Thomas Wysman, who
held the reins of civic affairs in 126 1. A certain Walter, son
of Ralph, is said to have been provost in 1343. Then comes
a gap of nearly two hundred years. The names of only four
provosts are recorded during the sixteenth century.

But about 1606 we find one of the most distinguished
statesmen of the day occupying the civic chair. This was
Alexander Seton, Earl of Dunfermline and Chancellor of the
kingdom. The son of George, seventh Lord Seton, Mary
Queen of Scots' "truest friend," he was her majesty's "god-
baime," and had received from her as a "god-bairne gift"

2/2 ST GILES ELECTED PROVOST.

the lands of Pluscarden. At first intended for the Church,
he had taken holy orders in Italy ; but the outbreak of the
Reformation had induced him to abandon ecclesiastical pur-
suits, and he joined the Scotch Bar in 1577, when he was
about twenty-two years of age. In 1586 he was created an
Extraordinary Lord of Session by the style of Prior of Plus-
carden, in room of James Stewart, Lord Doune, the father of
the Bonnie Earl of Moray. The following year the lands of
Urquhart and Pluscarden were erected into a barony and
granted to the prior. And on the i6th February 1588 he
was appointed an Ordinary LfOrd of Session under the title
of Lord Urquhart. Five years after this he was promoted to
the President's chair of the court ; he was created a peer with
the style of Lord Fyvie ; and finally, in 1605, was advanced to
the office of Chancellor of the kindgom, and promoted to the
earldom of Dunfermline. He was one of the commissioners
of the Treasury, called from their number the Octavians. He
was also one of the commissioners for a treaty of union with
England in 1604, and the king's commissioner to Parliament
in 161 2. He died in 1622. During the days of his con-
nection with Moray he resided in the bishop's town house,
within the cathedral precinct, which from that circumstance is
often known by the name of Dunfermline House.

There is perhaps only one other Provost of Elgin who can
vie with Lord Dunfermline in distinction. This was St Giles,
the patron saint of the town. The burgh records state that
on the 3d October 1547 he was duly elected provost for a
year ; and tradition has improved the story by asserting that
the council, under his chief magistracy, passed an edict to the
effect that no widow should marry without the consent of the
provost and magistrates !

Under Alexander II.'s charter of guildry, and its ratification
by the Earls of Moray, the trades of Elgin were entitled to

THE CRAFTS AND THE GUILDS. 2/3

form themselves into corporations. Six crafts took advantage
of the privilege. These were the hammermen, the glovers,^
the tailors, the cordiners (shoemakers), the weavers, and the
squarewrights or carpenters. So long as Roman Catholicism
endured, these guilds were in the happy position of having no
history. Fostered by the Church, each craft pursued the even
tenor of its way, jealously protecting its monopoly, carefully
attending to its pecuniary interests, priding itself on the skill
of its members, exercising a severe but wholesome discipline
over its journeymen and apprentices. Each craft had its
assigned position in the parish church of St Giles — its patron
saint, its separate altar, its priest and confessor. Each craft
was a corporation, a trad^ protection society and benefit
society combined. It had no thoughts, no ambitions, no
inclinations, beyond its own narrow limits. Absorbed with
its own concerns, it had neither the time nor the desire to
occupy itself with other and wider affairs.

The abolition of the old religion changed all this. The
Reformation, though to all outward appearance it was only a
change of creed, was actually a revolution. Old principles
and prejudices, old modes of looking at things, old customs
and habits, were swept away in a flood of new ideas. There
was not a single nook or cranny of national thought or senti-
ment into which the new notions did not penetrate. Before
a hundred years were over there was a new Scotland as
different from the old as light is from darkness.

^ In the burying-ground of Elgin Cathedral, on a tombstone dated 1687,
bearing the glove and shears, the emblems of his craft, and marking the
"burial-place of John Geddes, Glover Burges in Elgin, and Issobell
M*Kean, his spous, and their relations," is the well-known epitaph : —

" This world is a cite full of streets,

And death is the mercat that all men meets ;
If lyfe were a thing that monie could buy,
The poor could not live and the rich would not die."

Mercat is here used in its old legal sense of a fine or redemption-money.

S

274 THE INCORPORATED TRADES — THE CONVENERY.

The guilds of Elgin could not fail to be aflfected by the
change. Suddenly wakened out of their old, quiet, sleepy
ways, they became aware of their importance as factors in
municipal life. Hitherto they had been more or less identified
with the body of the burghers. Now they discovered that
they and the general body of the citizens were not one but
two.

This discovery was immediately followed by an effort to
improve the strength of their position. The six incorporated
trades resolved to form themselves into a convenery to protect
their privileges. Accordingly in 1657 articles of condescend-
ence were entered into between the town council of the burgh
and the crafts, recognising their existence as independent
corporations, and making regulations for the management of
their respective bodies. The magistrates, however, still re-
tained the right of nominating the deacons of each craft from
a leet of three presented to them. In 1700 the trades ad-
vanced a stage further. They claimed, and in 1705 were
accorded, the right to nominate their own deacons. And
in 1706 the trades placed the copestone on their influence,
by obtaining the right to be represented at the council
board by three of their members — the deacon-convener and
two others selected by the town council from the deacons
of the six incorporated trades.

The result of these successive changes was to place a
very considerable amount of political influence in the hands
of the crafts. The election of a member of Parliament for
the Elgin Burghs — which then consisted of Elgin, Cullen,
Banff, Inverurie, and Kintore — rested in the respective town
councils of these burghs, each of whom chose a del^ate,
A majority of the votes of those delegates carried the elec-
tion. The admission of the trades' representatives placed

POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE TRADES. 275

in their hands the fifth part of the representation of the
burgh.

No one nowadays will dispute that the concession thus
granted to the trades was a step in the right direction. It
was a practical extension of the franchise to a class which
had not hitherto possessed it. But under the close system
which then prevailed it was not likely to be conducive of
harmony. The miserable petty squabbles that ensued, the
bickerings that took place between the democratic craftsmen
and the more conservative town council, soon produced a
state of things which threatened to become intolerable.
Matters culminated in the memorable election of 1820,
which resulted in the Raid of Elgin. The Fife party had
the representatives of the crafts on their side; the Grants
relied chiefly on their influence with the other members of
the town council. But the corruption, the bribery, the treat-
ing that were practised by either side to compass its ends
would scarcely now be credited. The deacons of the crafts
were the special objects of attack, because, in the then
state of matters in the council, their votes carried the day.
James Cattanach, the deacon of the wrights, received from
Lord Fife a parcel said to contain a psalm-book ; but every
one of its three hundred psalms consisted of a one-pound
note. On the other hand, Deacon Steinson received from
the Grants "a well-biggit close" — a property only disposed
of a few years ago by the last heir of his name. One only
of the trades' representatives to the council seems to have
preserved his self-respect. It is recorded of Alexander
M*Iver, the deacon of the shoemakers, that he refused
;^2ooo, and the liferent of a farm for himself and his son.
An Act of George II. attempted to deal with the evil,
but with little success. It was not till the passing of the

2/6 THE BREWSTERS OF ELGIN.

Reform Act in 1832 that this disgraceful state of things
was brought to an end. By that Act the right of election
was taken away from the town council, which had hitherto
so shamefully abused it, and placed directly in the hands
of the people. And Peterhead was added to the list of
the electing burghs. By extending the scope of the fran-
chise, it was intended to intensify the difficulties of corrup-
tion. The Act had the desired effect. The town councils
were reduced from being political factors of the highest
importance to their proper sphere of administrators of muni-
cipal affairs. As for the trades' guilds, they sank at once
into mere friendly societies; and as such they continue to
this day. They had outlived their usefulness. The days
when society had need of hammermen to forge its armour
and to shoe its horses, of glovers to make its gauntlets and
to provide its buff jerkins and buckskin breeches, of weavers
to manufacture its linens and its homespuns, were past. The
unfreemen — the merchants — had driven them oflf the field.
Free trade was the logical concomitant of reform.

The six incorporated trades formed the aristocracy of trade
within the burgh. They did not, however, exljaust the list
of its industries.

In the seventeenth century the brewsters of Elgin were
an important fraternity. In 1687 there were no less than
eighty private brewers within the town. William Douglas,
who was then the principal innkeeper, is said to have brewed
within three months as much as 4000 gallons of ale and
400 gallons of aqua vitae. As the population of the burgh
was in those days only about 3000, the consumption must
have been considerable. Long before this, however, the
citizens had acquired a reputation for " drouthiness." In
the statutes of the cathedral of 1238 there is a special
prohibition to the vicars against frequenting taverns "in

^

.4

THE ALE-TASTERS. 277

a crowd, as is the custom of certain laics," under the
penalty of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquor the
following day. In the middle of the seventeenth century
we have the first authentic notice of a very useful class of
public functionaries, the tasters of ale, who probably had
existed for some time previously. Their duty was to test
the quality of the drink supplied to the citizens. Unfortu-
nately the manner in which they discharged their important
functions was not always satisfactory. In 1547 complaint
was made to the town council "that they sae filled their
bellies that they lost the very taste o' their moos, and
were consequently unable to pronounce a discreet opinion
thereon." To remedy this, the council increased their
number to eight, in order that there might always be one
at least who had the proper judgment of his senses. Much
about the same time, too, the town council attempted to
grapple with what was fast becoming a serious "skaith" to
the community — the manufacture of ale of inferior quality
by the " browster wives " of the town. It was enacted that
if any of these worthies made " a washy or evil ale," she
should be fined "in ane unlaw of aught shillings, and be
placed upon the cock stule." Ale continued to be the
beverage of the district till quite modem times, when whisky
unfortunately took its place. At the present day the manu-
facture of whisky is by far the most important, one might
almost with truth say the only, industry of the district. In
the year ended 30th September 1896, there were twelve dis-
tilleries in active operation within the two counties of Moray
and Nairn. Three new ones were fast approaching comple-
tion in Morayshire, while large additions were contemplated
to those now at work. The quantity of proof-spirit distilled
within the same period was one and three-quarter millions of
gallons; and the amount of malt used was 97,000 quarters.

278 THE FOREIGN TRADE OF MORAY.

The quality of the spirit produced, by the Speyside distilleries
in particular, is of the highest order, owing to the remarkable
perfection to which the process of distillation has been carried,
the special suitability of the waters of the Morayshire burns
and rivers, the use of peat in the malt-kilns, the quality of the
barley used for malting, and above all to the fact that malt,
and malt alone, and neither sugar nor unmalted grain, nor
any other substitute, is used in its manufacture. As yet there
seems no prospect of diminution in the Morayshire whisky
trade. Every year, indeed, sees an increase over the one
preceding.

The withdrawal of ecclesiastical influence from the burgh
was not immediately followed by a decline of its fortunes.
On the contrary, Elgin seemed to awaken to a new life.
There can be no doubt that an amount of energy pervaded
all classes, which, had it lasted, might have placed the little
town on a much higher level amongst the burghs of Scot-
land than it now possesses. We have already shown how
the local trades, released from the fetters of ecclesiasticism,
attempted to assert themselves, and how ignominiously they
fell. The same result attended the foreign trade of the
district.

The trade with the Continent, especially with Holland,
which the necessities of the Churchmen had fostered, and
probably engendered, assumed what may be considered a
surprising importance in the seventeenth century. Findhom,
a little village a few miles north of Forres, at the mouth of
the river of the same name, was the principal seat of the
trade. It was built on a sandpit forming the eastern horn
of a sheltered and most picturesque bay, and has more
than once experienced the Biblical fate of the house built
on sand. The trade itself was in the hands of a class who,
as a rule, have not shown much inclination to business.

*;-i.

LOSSIEMOUTH. 279

It was ostensibly carried on by men like William Duff of
Dipple ; his uncle, William Duff, Provost of Inverness ; and
William King of Newmill, Provost of Elgin. But nearly all
the landed gentry in Moray and Nairn — such as the lairds
of Innes, Kinsteary, Muirtown, Clava, and Kilravock ; Brodie
of Brodie, Lyon King-at-Arms ; Sir Robert Gordon of Gor-
donstoun, premier baronet of Scotland ; and Dunbar of
Thunderton, heritable sheriff of the county — were directly
or indirectly engaged in it, a condition of things almost
without a parallel in any other county in Scotland. The
produce which these well-born traders exported was the
salmon, herring, and cod-fish which they caught in the
waters attached to their estates, and occasionally the sper-
maceti and blubber of whales stranded on their lands. In
return, they imported Holland muslins, lawns, ribbons, and
silks, foreign wines, spices, cucumbers, and capers — mate-
rials for the adornment of their wives and daughters, and
for their own material enjoyment. And what they did not
require themselves they were always ready to sell to their
neighbours at a good profit. When the enterprise was at
the height of its prosperity the greater part of the trade of
the north of Scotland was in their hands.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century the magistrates
of Elgin made an attempt to get possession of this trade by
diverting it from Findhorn to Lossiemouth, a village which
was then, as now, their property. In 1687 they procured a
Crown right to erect a harbour there. In 1703 they began
to build it, and in due time it was erected. But by this
time the trade had begun to dwindle. Soon it disappeared
altogether. Findhorn became the ghost of its former self.
Of Lossiemouth it could be said that it existed only. Now,
by a fortunate conjunction of circumstances, — the establish-
ment of a golf-course, its unrivalled air, its excellent sands for

28o EDUCATION IN ELGIN.

bathing, its erection into a burgh, the deepening and improve-
ment of its harbour, — Lossiemouth bids fair to become an
important watering-place, and the prosperity which has been
so long delayed is likely to come to it at last

Perhaps the most valuable legacy which the Church be-
queathed to Elgin was its zeal in the cause of education.
In the time of Bishop Bricius (1203-12 2 2) we first hear of
a school in connection with, and within the precincts of, the
cathedral. It was called the Sang Schule, and was instituted
for the education of youths intended for the service of the
Church. In it they were instructed in the Church services,
and received the elements of what would now be termed a
liberal education. But when Roman Catholicism was abol-
ished, the sang schule did not become, as so many schools
of similar name and origin did become, the grammar-school
of the burgh — for this reason, that in 1488 the cathedral
authorities had established a grammar-school for the burgh,
and within its boundaries. It was, of course, controlled by
the Roman Catholic Church till the Reformation. But as it
was specially designed for the education of the children of
the burghers, the scheme and scope of its teaching wefe quite
different from those of the cathedral institution.

The sang schule disappeared either with or before the
Reformation. The grammar-school continued to be the
only available establishment for the education of the youth
of the district until the year 1620, when King James VI.
granted a charter to the magistrates and town council of the
burgh, establishing a school for teaching music and other
liberal arts in connection with the grammar-school, and " morti-
fying " the property of the old hospital and preceptory of tjie
Maisondieu to the town for its support and maintenance. In
1659 this supplementary school was converted into an English
school, in which sacred music was also taught. And so things

FORRES. 281

continued till the year 1800, when the two schools were amal-
gamated into the Elgin Academy, and new and commodious
buildings erected for its use. These gave place in the year
1887 to the present handsome building. Now there are six
schools in Elgin and its suburbs ; and in all of them the
old reputation of the burgh as a scholastic centre is worthily
maintained. There are few county towns in Scotland where
better education is to be had. In all, except the Academy,
instruction is now gratis.

The antiquity of Forres is probably greater than that of
Elgin. At any rate, long before the time of Alexander I. we
hear of such a place existing. It was in the town of Forres,
according to Fordun, that King Donald, son of Constantine
(892-903), died, not without suspicion of poisoning. It was
in the same town, according to the same authority, that King
Dufif (961-965) was murdered, and his body hid "under the
shadow of a certain bridge near Kinloss." As for Macbeth's
connection with the district, on which its modern fame so
largely depends, it is hardly necessary to remark that it rests
only on the unreliable basis of tradition and the equally
doubtful evidence of Hector Boece, " the learned Mr Raphael
HoUinshead," and Shakespeare.

Its existence as a royal burgh, however, cannot be carried
back to an earlier period than the reign of Alexander I. (1107-
II 24). It is therefore contemporaneous with Elgin, Nairn,
Inverness, and the other northern burghs. Like them, too,
it has lost its original charter. The title under which it now
exercises its municipal privileges is a charter of novodamus
by King James III., dated in 1496. Proceeding upon the
narrative that its older charters had been " destroyed, burnt
by fire, annulled through the devastations of war, and other
accidents," it of new erects it into a royal burgh, " with all the

282 FORRES.

rights and privileges it had hitherto enjoyed.' This charter
was subsequently ratified by King Charles I. in 1641.

Like these other royal burghs, Forres had also its royal
castle. There is authentic evidence of its existence in the
time of William the Lion (i 165-12 14). It stood on a slight
eminence on the west side of the town, girt about by the
little gently-flowing Mosset burn. But the ruins which now
surmount that eminence are not those of the ancient castle,
but of a modern structure ; and no trace of the old " fort,"
as Lachlan Shaw calls it, exists.

Much about the same time, too, we first hear of a church
at Forres. In later times this church formed part, possibly
the most important part, of the prebend of the archdeacon
of the diocese. And, along with the other principal churches
in the diocese, it was placed by Pope Innocent II. under the
spiritual protection of St Peter, and of himself as Vicar of God
on earth. Yet, notwithstanding all these marks of distinction,
Forres neither has, nor has ever had, any history. There are,
indeed, a few noteworthy incidents connected with it, some
of which have been already related. But they had never any
real, vivifying influence on the affairs of the district ; and their
chief importance lies either in their own picturesqueness, or
in the indirect light they throw upon the inclination of local
sentiment and opinion.

The word Forres is said to be derived from two Gaelic
vocables — -far uis^ near water; and the name is singularly
appropriate to its position. The little village of Findhorn
was the port of Forres, as Leith is the port of Edinburgh.
The importance of both the one and the other is now un-
fortunately a thing of the past. Forres is still, however, one
of the brightest and pleasantest places within the county.
And with its picturesque surroundings, its unrivalled climate,
and its other natural advantages, there is nothing to prevent

^

NAIRN — ITS MODERN ASPECT. 283

its ultimately attaining to that position amongst the burghs
of Scotland for which its original founders, whoever they may
have been, destined it.

The old name of Nairn was Invernarne — the mouth of the
river Nairn, the water of alders. The alder-tree still forms
the appropriate badge of the stream. Till comparatively
recent times there was a dense thicket of these bushes ex-
tending for several miles up the river; and it is said that
wherever its banks remain undisturbed this homely and
characteristic tree immediately makes its reappearance.

The early history of Nairn is precisely similar to that of the
other royal burghs in the north. It owes its foundation as a
royal burgh to Alexander I., whose services to Scottish civil-
isation in this respect have hardly yet been adequately appre-
ciated. But, like its neighbours of Forres and Elgin, it lost
its charter of erection, if any such ever existed, "through
turbulencies, occasion of war, and divers depredations and
incursions of Irish [Celtic] rebels, and through the negligence
of the custodiers of the same " ; and it now holds its extensive
burghal privileges, with its right of free port and harbour,
under a charter of ratification and confirmation granted by
King James VI., dated the i6th October 1589. Like them,
too, it early placed itself under the tutelage of a patron saint.
What St Giles was to Elgin, and St Lawrence to Forres, St
Ninian was to Nairn — a powerful protection in more believing
days than ours, and a guarantee of antiquity and respectability
in our own. But Nairn differs from most other Scottish burghs
of so remote an origin. Not a single trace of antiquity is to
be found within it. Any one visiting it for the first time would
undoubtedly set it down as one of the most modern towns in
Scotland. Its trig villas, its High Street with its handsome
banks and its shops with plate-glass windows, its wide beach

284 THE FISHING POPULATION. .

with rows of bathing-machines, its crowded golf-links, its gen-
eral air of energy and pfogress, have dissociated it entirely from
the past. From a historical point of view this is perhaps to
be regretted. Yet it is impossible to refuse to the citizens the
credit due to their worldly wisdom, or to withhold the praise
to which they are entitled for transforming a sleepy old-world
town into a thriving, fashionable watering-place.

Yet the old history of the town was very interesting. Stand-
ing on the dividing line between the Highlands and the Low-
lands, it could not fail to be affected by both Celtic and
Saxon influence. There is an old story, probably apocry-
phal, that James VI., in conversation with the envoys of some
other nation, referred to it as a town so long that the inhabi-
tants of the one end of its then single street did not under-
stand the language of those at the other. There was doubt-
less some basis of truth in the remark, if it was ever made.
For the Celts had as little sympathy with the Saxons as the
Jews had with the Samaritans ; and both races no doubt pre-
ferred to live only with and by themselves. To-day, though
no such line of delimitation exists between these two races,
Nairn still consists of two separate and distinct communi-
ties. The fishing population, which in its names, and in a
lesser degree in its customs, yet shows traces of its Scandi-
navian origin, has its habitat at the mouth of the river close
to the sea. The rest of the citizens, Lowlanders and Hi^-
landers combined, cluster round the more southerly extremity
of the burgh. Less marked, indeed, in its outward features,
and therefore not so readily recognisable, it is nevertheless a
parallel case to Edinburgh and Newhaven. The peculiar and
interesting traits of the fishing community of Nairn would well
repay a patient and sympathetic study.

VI.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

i

I

i.

%

■ r"

tJ .1

VI.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.

POPULATION OF MORAY AND OF NAIRN — CENSUS OF OCCUPATION —
CLIMATE, SOIL, AND PHYSIOGRAPHICAL POSITION — THE MORAY
FLOODS — GEOLOGY — PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE — TIMBER — THE
MORAYSHIRE FARMERS' CLUB AND ITS GOOD OFFICES FOR AGRI-
CULTURE — THE HOUSING OF THE RURAL POPULATION — RURAL
*' ploys": the PENNY WEDDING — LYKE-WAKES — ** RANTS " AND
"TWEETLES" — SHINTY AND "THE BOOLS " — FOOD AND DRINK —
THE CARE OF THE POOR — EASTERN'S EVE— BELTANE — MICHAELMAS
— HALLOWE'EN — HOGMANAY — SUPERSTITIONS— THE FISHER-FOLK—
MODERN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COUNTIES.

At the census of 1891 the population of Elginshire was
43,453, and that of Nairnshire 10,019. This was a decrease
on the previous decennial period of 335 in Elginshire and of
436 in Nairnshire.

The population in both counties is of a mixed origin.
Some descendants of the early Celtic inhabitants of the dis-
trict are possibly yet to be found. The name Macbeth is
not an uncommon one in the neighbourhood of Forres ; and
along the seaboard to this day there is a strong survival of
pure Scandinavian blood. But in Moray and Nairn alike
the bulk of the present population is of foreign origin — the
descendants of settlers who, from the time of the twelfth
century downwards, have been intruded upon, and in the end
have almost entirely obliterated, the original inhabitants.^

Most of these settlers came originally from the Lowlands of
Scotland, and were of Saxon origin. But the physical con-

288 INHABITANTS OF MORAY.

figuration of the country was such, that it had attractions for
both Lowlanders and Highlanders.

In both counties an extensive range of low hills, stretch-
ing along the seaboard from east to west, divides the plain
country from the hills. This range has been from earliest
times, and in some degree still continues to be, the bisecting
line between the two races. But in the mountainous part of
Elginshire the Celtic settlers were always few in comparison
with those who established themselves in the similar district
of Nairnshire. The result is, that in 1891 there were in the
former county only twelve persons who spoke nothing but
Gaelic, and 2263 who spoke both Gaelic and Englis]).. * In
Nairnshire the number was proportionately greater. The
exclusively Gaelic speakers numbered 53, the Gaelic and
English speakers 2487 — a very great difference, looking to
the extent of the population of each county.

The Boundary Commissioners appointed under the Local
Government (Scotland) Act, 1889, made certain alterations
on those parts of Moray and Nairn that were partly within
adjoining counties, with a view to straighten their marches.
Giving effect to these, the present areas of the two counties,
including foreshore and water, are : —

Acres.

Elginshire

•

313,077

Nairnshire

•

105,949

The census of occupations of 1891

showed the following

results : —

In Elginshire there were —

Males.

Females.

Engaged in agricultural pursuits .

5,539

457

Engaged in industrial pursuits

4,558

1,242

Professional persons

820

569

Domestic servants .

79

3,417

Engaged in commercial pursuits .

1,064

26

No occupation and non-productive

8,308

17,392

Total

20,368

23,103

V

AGRICULTURE THE PRINCIPAL INDUSTRY. 289

In Nairnshire there were —

Engaged in agricultural pursuits
Engaged in industrial pursuits
Professional persons
Domestic servants
Engaged in commercial pursuits

Males. Females.

1,443 159

858 269

169 138

II 602

181 4

No occupation and non-productive 1,622 3,699

Total . . 4,284 4,871 1

The number of males engaged in agricultural pursuits in both
counties is thus far in excess of those employed in other
avocations. In other words, farming is the principal industry
in hbth:

And thus it has always been. Relatively small though
these counties are — the one ranks in extent as the eighteenth,
and the other as the twenty-ninth, county in Scotland — they
have from the first, but especially of recent years, occupied a
front place in the agriculture of Scotland. This position they
owe to their exceptional advantages in the way of climate,
soil, and geographical position. And to these sources are of
course to be attributed in great degree the peculiar character-
istics of the people.

The general aspect of the two counties is, first a sea-
board plain, diminishing in depth from east to west, from
the mouth of the Spey to the mouth of the Nairn; then a
range of low hills, whose highest peak is only 1797 feet high,
dividing the lowlands from the wilder region behind; and
lastly, a tract of more or less highland country, full of glens
and straths running from south to north, through which the
four rivers of Moray and Nairn — the Spey, the Lossie, the

^ The difference between these totals and the totals of population already
given arises from the fact that between the date of publication of the first
and second volumes of the Census Report the Boundary Commissioners
had made the alterations mentioned above.

290 PHYSICAL CONFIGURATION OF MORAY.

Findhom, and the Nairn — find their way into the Moray
Firth.i

From an agricultural point of view this seaboard plain is
worth all the rest of the two counties put together. That
portion of it which lies within the county of Moray is known
by the local name of the " Laigh of Moray." The part of
it which lies within Nairnshire has no distinctive appellation.
It is a tract of rich alluvial country formed of the detritus
of the four rivers above mentioned. Here are to be found
the kindliest soils, the most genial climate, the most pros-
perous farms, and the heaviest crops within the district. The
agriculture of this region has a competitor only in the fertile
fields of East Lothian.

The Laigh of Moray is about thirty miles in length, and
from five to twelve miles in breadth. Slightly undulating
towards the east, it is almost a dead level between Alves and
Kinloss, its most fertile portion. It is not by any means a
picturesque piece of scenery. Yet it is not without an attrac-
tiveness of its own. The beauty of a district depends greatly
upon its adaptation to the purpose which it is intended to
subserve. The well-to-do farms, the rich fields, the general
air of ease and wellbeing that prevails, constitute a landscape
which, though neither grand nor impressive, is undoubtedly
pleasing.

On the southern side of the range of hills already re-
ferred to — a range which has no distinctive appellation, but

^ There are two well-known, repeatedly quoted, and for their time
remarkably accurate, descriptions of the county of Moray. The one is
by John Leslie, Bishop of Ross (b. 1526, d. 1596), in his * De origine,
moribus, et rebus gestis Scotorum libri decem ' ; the other is by Sir Robert
Gordon of Straloch (b. 1580, d. 1661), who furnished the geographers
Blaeu of Amsterdam with much of the information contained in their
celebrated Atlas.

THE "LAIGH OF MORAY" — CLIMATE. 29 1

is known by the names of the various districts it passes
through — lies the great strath or valley of the Spey. Off this
diverge various smaller straths, full of natural beauty, and
some of them almost as fertile as the Laigh. There are no
deer-forests in the county, though roe-deer are to be found in
many of the woods ; but the moors carry heavy stocks of
grouse and hares, and in the lower ground snipes, pheasants,
and partridges, and the farmer's curse, the too abundant
rabbit, abound.

The inhabitants of these smaller dales are, to the student
of social life and manners, by far the most interesting in the
county. Old customs, old-world ways of looking at things,
still prevail amongst them. Something of the prejudices —
one should perhaps rather say of the conservatism — which,
till the commencement of the present century, obtained all
over the country in things agricultural, is still to be found
among these farmers and crofters. Yet, looking to their less
genial climate, and in some parts less kindly soil, the rate
of progress is possibly as well maintained as in the more
favoured Laigh.

The climate of both counties has always been one of their
strong points. It is an old saying that Moray has forty days
more summer than any other part in Scotland. If sunshine is
the test of summer, this is possibly true. But alike in Moray
and Nairn the climate is exceedingly variable, the pendulum
swinging from extreme cold in winter to extreme and even
distressing heat in summer. In Elgin, owing to the fact that
the town is built in a basin surrounded by hills, the sum-
mer climate is very relaxing. But the average temperature
throughout the year is about 48°, and the average rainfall
from 25 to 28 inches.

The prevailing winds are from the west and north-west.

292 WINDS AND RAINFALL.

and from these quarters comes also the heaviest rainfall.
The climate in the hill regions is both colder and more
variable than in the lowlands. The rainfall is also greater.
The moisture-charged clouds from the north and west sweep
over the plain, but are arrested and broken by the hills in
the southern and south-western districts of the two counties.
Hence it follows that in the Laigh the farmers have often
more sunshine than they desire, especially in the months of
June, July, and August. The old local distich —

** A misty May and a drappy June
Sets Moray up and Spey doun,"

is of universal application. The greatest misfortune that
can befall this region is drought, and unfortunately it is of
too common occurrence. This, however, is counteracted in
great measure by the depth, the richness, and the recupera-
tive power of a large proportion of the soil.

A striking instance of this occurred on the now buried
estate of Culbin near Forres. On one occasion, it is said,
no rain fell for nine months, yet the harvest of that year was
as prolific as any of its predecessors. In the famine which
prevailed over the whole kingdom towards the end of the
sixteenth century, owing to excessively cold and extremely
rainy seasons, the Laigh continued so productive as to be
able to spare a large quantity of corn to alleviate the . suffer-
ings of other districts. It is said that people came from
Forfarshire to buy meal at the enormous rate of j£iy los.
for the boll of 150 lb. weight, though this implied a carriage
of over a hundred miles across the Grampians.

If drought is the chief bane of the lowlands, floods are
infinitely more so in the uplands, and in the districts irrigated
by the four great rivers. The " Moray Floods," as they are

THE MORAY FLOODS. 293

called, though they prevailed over the whole north-east of
Scotland as far south as the river Esk in Forfarshire, of the
3d and 4th August 1829, have acquired something more than
a local reputation, not only from their destructive effects, but
from the fact that their story has been embalmed for all future
ages by the graphic pen of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder.

They owed their origin to the cause already indicated —
the breaking of a great mass of moisture-laden cloud against
the mountain barrier in the southern district of the counties,
in which are situated the springs of all the local rivers.
Hence the area of inundation was chiefly in the lands ad-
joining the Nairn, the Findhorn,^ the Lossie, and the Spey.
But it spread more or less beyond these boundaries, and
did damage from which the district did not recover for many
a year to come.

These extensive floods were preceded by a lengthened
period of extreme drought and of unusual heat, extending
over the greater part of the months of May, June, and July.
In the earlier part of the season the drought was so great
that many of the recently planted shrubs and trees perished.
In the latter part, the most eloquent indication of approach-
ing misfortune was the extreme variability of the barometer.
Waterspouts both on sea and land were also not uncommon ;
at one place two suns were seen. These unusual occurrences
excited wonder rather than apprehension. Few saw in them
the forerunners of a calamity which was to be as disastrous
as it was unprecedented.

The rain commenced in the upper country on Sunday
evening the 2d August, and continued with only a partial
subsidence till Tuesday the 4th. The "serious rain," how-

^ In the plain of Forres it covered a space of more than twenty square
miles.

294 THEIR COMMENCEMENT.

ever, as one of the witnesses called it, did not commence
till the morning of the 3d, when it began to fall, accompanied
by a violent north-east wind, with such force and rapidity
that to many it seemed as if the windows of heaven were
opened and the days of the Deluge were about to find their
modern counterpart Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, himself an
eyewitness, thus graphically describes the scene : " The noise
was a distinct combination of two kinds of sound — one a
uniformly continued roar, the other like rapidly repeated
discharges of many cannons at once. The first of these
proceeded from the violence of the waters ; the other, which
was heard through it, and as it were muffled by it, came
from the enormous stones which the stream was hurling
over its uneven bed of rock. Above all this was heard
the fiend -like shriek of the wind, yelling as if the demon
of desolation had been riding upon its blast. The leaves
of the trees were stripped off and whirled in the air, and
their thick boughs were bending and cracking beneath the
tempest, and groaning like terrified creatures impatient to
escape from the coils of the watery serpent. There was
something heart-sickening in the aspect of the atmosphere.
The rain was descending in sheets, not in drops, and there
was a peculiar and indescribable lurid or rather bronze-like
hue, that pervaded the whole face of nature as if poison
had been abroad in the air."

The rainfall between five o'clock on the morning of the 3d
and five o'clock on that of the 4th August is estimated at 3^
inches. Taking the average of the years from 1826 to 1878,
one-sixth of the annual allowance of rain fell within these
twenty-four hours. The rivers rose to a height unprecedented.
The flood -line on the Findhorn was at one spot no less
than 50 feet above the ordinary level. Its tributary, the

THEIR EXTENT. 295

Divie, rose to 40 feet, and foamed past beneath the bridge,
a column of water of neariy 976 square feet, with a velocity
apparently equal to that of a swift horse. The Nairn was
also very much swollen. The Lossie overflowed its banks
to such an extent as to inundate all the low ground around
Elgin. The Spey, on the other hand — ^within Morayshire at
least — was scarcely affected at all. But in the more mountain-
ous districts which it traverses it attained an unexampled force
and altitude. In every case the increased volume of these
rivers was in exact ratio to their more or less close connec-
tion with the hill district behind.

Within a few hours, bridges like that across the Spey at
Fochabers, which had been erected only about twenty-five
years before at a cost of ;^i 4,000, buildings and houses whose
stability seemed assured by their venerable antiquity, dis-
appeared as though they had been built of cards ; the natural
landmarks of the locality were obliterated ; the face of the
country was changed. Every dry scar on the mountain-side
had become a torrent. The farmer saw his land "sailing
off to ocean by acres at a time " ; the landowner saw his
ancestral woods swept away before his eyes ; the poor crofter
watched his humble homestead as it floated out to sea, carry-
ing with it the carefully gathered "plenishing" of many a
laborious year. The loss and suffering were universal and
immense. The incidents recorded of this disastrous inunda-
tion are beyond the wildest conceptions of fiction. At Dun-
phail the total destruction of the mansion-house was only
averted by the bank on which it was built falling in within
one yard of the foundation of its east tower. In the neigh-
bourhood of Forres a man stood for a whole day on the roof
of his house before he could be rescued. A woman attempt-
ing to wade across a submerged bridge was swept off" her feet.

296 INCIDENTS OF THE FLOODS.

and was floating down the river, " supported by the buoyancy
of her outspread drapery," when she was fortunately caught
and rescued. At Broom of Moy a cottage was seen standing
in the midst of the waters with its western side nearly gone.
A boat put off to inspect it. On arriving at the cottage all
was silent, and it was supposed that all had been drowned ;
but on looking through a hole in the partition, the inmates —
consisting of an invalid old man, his wife, nearly as infirm,
and a boy — were discovered roosting like fowls on the beams
of the roof. At another cottage a young woman was found
sitting up to her neck in water, with the dead body of her old
aunt in her arms. A man who had been saving the furniture
of a poor neighbour fell over a bridge and was carried down
by the stream, and then cast on the bank by the mere force
of the torrent.

" What did you think of when you were in the water ? "
demanded a bystander.

"Think of?" replied the other. "I was thinking how I
could get out, and how I could catch my bonnet"

A shepherd in Glen Feshie was asleep in his cottage, with
his children beside him, when he was awakened by the tre-
mendous noise of the waters. Springing from his bed, he
found himself standing in two feet of water. Quick as thought
he lifted his children, one after the other, from their beds, and
carried them, half-asleep and all unconscious of their danger,
to the top of an adjoining hill. When the morning broke the
river was dashing all round them, and cataracts falling from
the rocks on every side. Shivering, starving, and naked,
exposed to all the buffets of the tempest, they were kept
prisoners on " their cliff of penance " till the evening of the
following day. At the little loch of Loch-na-mhoon, near
Aviemore, a small island, composed chiefly of the matted
roots of aquatic plants, was torn from its moorings, driven

DAMAGE DONE BY THE FLOODS. 297

across the lake, and stranded on the steep bank of its southern
shore. The tenant's wife at Dalraddy, near Loch Alvie, on
opening the door on the Tuesday morning after the flood had
subsided, found lying in a heap at the back of her house a
handsome dish of trout, a pike, a hare, a partridge, a dish of
potatoes, and a dish of turnips, all brought down by the stream,
and one of her own turkeys ; and in one of the houses in the
village of Rothes a salmon of 6 lb. weight was caught.^ A
widow on Speyside saved her life and that of her children by
making a raft " of the bit palings and bits of moss-fir " that were
lying about, and floating out to sea, as she said, " on a brander."
Proper data are unfortunately wanting as to the damage
done by the flood; but it must have been enormous. The
Duke of Gordon's loss was estimated at ;£'i6,494; Lord
Cawdor's at ;^82 3o ; that of Mr Gumming Bruce of Dunphail
at ;£'5ooo ; and other landowners suffered proportionately.
But it was on the poorer classes that the blow fell heaviest.
Most of them lost all they had — their houses, their stock,
their land, their meal-kists, their little store of " picture-books,"
as one of them called his bank-notes. What the flood of the
3d and 4th of August had spared, a supplementary flood on
the 27th of the same month appropriated. Though 671
families, or about 3019 individuals, were relieved in Moray-
shire alone by what was called the Flood Fund — a public
subscription which was immediately started, and which real-
ised ;^i47o — the unrelieved suffering must have been great.
And who can estimate the grief and misery occasioned by the
loss of those who were nearer and dearer to the survivors than
all their earthly possessions put together ?

The geology of the district is in conformity with its physical

^ "Floods in Morayshire in August 1829." * Elgin Literary Magazine,'
June 1830, p. 414.

298 GEOLOGY OF MORAY.

character. Speaking generally, the level seaboard plain is
composed of sandstone heavily coated in places by diluvium ;
the uplands consist of hill-masses of granite and gneiss. It
was long supposed that the Laigh of Moray belonged exclu-
sively to the Old Red formation ; but the discovery of fossil-
iferous remains usually associated with the Triassic system has
led geologists to doubt this. These fossiliferous remains are
of a high order and of peculiar interest. While those first dis-
covered were allied to the Crocodilia, those of more recent
detection are Dicynodonts, and have been found nowhere else
in Europe. One at least is new to science — the extraordinary
creature which has been named Elgina viirabilis. The result
is that the age and character of the Elgin sandstones are still
unascertained.

The principal elevations of this sandstone tract are given by
Mr Patrick Duff ^ as follows : Covesea Hill, 288 feet ; Quarry-
wood Hill, 280 feet; Pluscarden Hill, 776 feet; and Dallas
Hill, 850 feet. , For * building purposes they are unrivalled.
Their texture is fine; their durability, owing to the large
admixture of silica, is above the average ; while in tint they
vary from a warm pink to a delicate cream. Each quarry —
and the whole of the Laigh is full of quarries — has its own
distinctive shade and its own distinctive character. There are
few places in Scotland which can compete with Morayshire,
and especially with the district around Elgin, in the abundance,
the beauty, and the quality of its building material.

Scattered about amongst the Elgin sandstones are patches
of oolite, but whether in situ or not is still a debatable
question. There is also a band of what has been called,
for want of a better name, cornstone, running right across
the county. Though not a true limestone, it has been burned
in various parts of the district as lime.

^ Sketch of the Geology of Moray, p. 2.

VARIETIES OF SOIL. 299

Amongst the most picturesque features of the district are
the red banks of the river Spey between Orton and Fochabers.
They consist of more or less vertical cliffs, containing a large
proportion of ferruginous matter, and give added interest to
an already interesting landscape.

The extensive sandy deposits along the seaboard of the
two counties have been already referred to, when telling the
story of the Culbin Sands.

There are practically no minerals either in Moray or in
Nairn. Galena was discovered at Lossiemouth about thirty
years ago, and works erected at considerable expense ; but
the enterprise did not pay, and had to be discontinued.

Owing to the peculiarities of its geological structure, there
is a great variety of soil in Morayshire. Sand, clay, loam,
and peat, each of them extending over a considerable area,
are to be found within it. The parishes of Speymouth,
Urquhart, St Andrews Lhanbryde, Drainie, the eastern part
of Spynie, the greater part of Elgin, and the lower lands of
Birnie and Dallas, belong largely to the first of these. The
greatest extent of clay soil is found in Duffus, part of Spynie,
and Alves. Loam is the most extensively diffused of all.
In the parishes of Duffus, Alves, Spynie, Kinloss, Forres,
Dyke, the lowlands of Rafford and Edinkillie, it constitutes
the predominant factor. Nairnshire is almost entirely com-
posed of it, and the hilly district of Knockando largely
consists of clay-loam.

In comparison with the other classes of soil, the extent of
peat is inconsiderable, and it varies greatly in quality, from
pure peat to a friable moss. In the lowlands this mossy soil,
which is chiefly found in the lowest grounds, is a mere surface
formation resting on an under soil generally composed of
sand. It is the pest and the worry of the agriculturist. It
exudes in hot weather a sulphurous and offensive smell, which

300 PEAT — THE "MORAY PAN."

poisons the grain, tarnishes silver with a leaden hue, and in a
short time corrodes the kitchen utensils, whether of copper
or of iron.

The peat districts of the county were at one time much
more extensive than they are now. A wide belt of peat and
submerged forest stretched in Scandinavian times to the west-
ward of the promontory on which the burgh of Burghead now
stands. From this is derived the name of Torfness by which
it is known in the Sagas.

Leslie, whose admirable * Survey of Moray and Nairn ' is to
this day an authority, assuming the acreage of Moray to be
407,200 acres — an estimate far above its actual area — thus
distributes the various classes of soil amongst the agricultural
land : —

Acres.

Sandy soil ..... 39>50o

Clayey soil ..... 18,500

Loam ...... 45)82o

Peat and moss .... 1,700

Uncultivated soil, lakes, marshes, water-
courses, and roads .... 301,680

407,200

This estimate was made in 181 3. But much of the land
here set down as waste has since been reclaimed. Indeed it
is the general opinion of farmers that most of the reclaim-
able land, or land that will repay the cost of reclamation,
within the two counties, has been brought under cultivation.
Much of this land, too, has been utilised for pasture. But as
a comparative estimate of the prevalence of each of the
different kinds of soil within the county, it is not very far
from the mark even at the present day.

The " Moray pan," or the " Moray coast pan," is a name
given to a peculiarly aggravating species of subsoil which
prevails in certain districts of the lowlands. Towards the

REVOLUTION IN AGRICULTURE. 301

sea this pan is of a hard gravelly nature, easily broken. In
the more inland districts, however, it is composed of gravel
and clay so tightly cemented together that a considerable
effort is required to penetrate it. As a rule, however, the
subsoil of the Laigh is of a light, kindly, gravelly nature, and
to this natural system of drainage the district owes much of
its extraordinary fertility.

The enormous advance which has been made in the cultiva-
tion of the soil within the two counties, especially in Moray
— an advance which is almost a revolution — is the growth of
the last sixty or seventy years only. Up to that time the
farmers of Moray and Nairn had made no further progress
in agricultural knowledge than they had at the time of the
Reformation. Within the memory of men still living the
old tenures, the old modes of cropping, the old primitive
implements, the old customs, the old comfortless style of
living, which were common over all the north of Scotland,
were to be found in both. Oats and barley were the staple
crops. The breeding of cattle of a very indifferent description,
and worth only from j£^ to ^^ a-head, was thought to pay
better than cereals. Wool and mutton were of little import-
ance. It was only in the upland districts that sheep-breeding
was cultivated. The sheep were always of the blackfaced
breed, and never fetched more than 12s. or 14s. apiece. Up
till 1782, at least, fencing was never dreamed of. The whole
area of both counties lay open to the trespasses of all the
stock within them. Anything approaching to scientific manur-
ing was absolutely unknown. The rate of wages for men-
servants was from j£g to ;^io per annum, and for women
from ^£4 to ;^5, exclusive of board. The farms, even the
best of them, were irregularly laid off and cropped. Northern
farming, in short, was a precarious struggle with the soil and
the elements, in which it was possible, but nothing more, for

302 ARABLE AREA OF MORAY AND NAIRN.

industry and frugality to hold their own. All this is changed
now. There has been no radical alteration in the system of
farming pursued. The change has been in the adoption of
better and more enlightened modes of cultivation. Farms
have doubled their size and their value, as well by increasing
their arable land, and by rendering it more prolific, as by
adding to their pasturage. In 1813, when Leslie wrote his
* Survey,' there were few that stretched to 300 acres arable : a
certain proportion extended to between 140 and this number,
but the great majority were from 60 to 120. Now there are
several where the arable land is from 400 to 500 acres, and
the average may be stated as something about 200.

In 1857 the arable area of Moray was 30,311. In 1870
it was 100,450 acres in Moray and 24,443 in Nairn. In
1 88 1 it was 105,226 acres in the one and 26,359 in the
other. Between these eleven years, therefore, the increase
was about 434 acres per annum in Morayshire and 174
acres in Nairnshire.

The introduction of shorthorns soon after the year 1830;
the adoption of artificial manures ; the wonderful advance
that has been made, especially since 1857, in the way of
squaring up farms, forming drains, fencing, renovating farm-
steadings, and building farmers' dwelling-houses and ser-
vants' cottages, have put an entirely new aspect on things,
have increased the valuation of the counties and the rates of
servants' wages, and brought their agriculture into a condition
which compares favourably with that even of the Lothians.

A considerable lumber trade is still carried on in Moray-
shire. It is undoubted that at an early period there existed
large natural forests at Darnaway, Longmorn, and other parts
of the county. They were then inter regalia^ and the Crown
appointed its own keepers. But of these no remains now
exist. The woods which now embellish the county are of

THE LUMBER TRADE. 303

purely modern growth, and owe their origin to such en-
lightened proprietors as the Dukes of Gordon, the Earls of
Moray, the Lairds of Grant, the Earls of Fife, the Cummings
of Altyre, the Brodies of Brodie and Lethen, and the Grants
of Elchies. The soil and the climate assisted their efforts.
When Chalmers wrote his * Caledonia,' he estimated the
extent of the trees in the Strathspey district alone at
nearly 20,000 acres. At first the timber was conveyed
from Strathspey to Garmouth, from which it was exported
to the Scottish and English markets in small quantities by
means of the coracle or curach^ a circular boat of ox-hide
identical with the bull -boat still in use among the Omaha
Indians. These boats held only one person, and were
guided by a paddle. The timber was attached by a noose
to the navigator's leg — a primitive and hazardous mode of
proceeding. About 1730, when the York Buildings Com-
pany purchased the timber of the Abernethy woods from
the Duke of Gordon, a new method of transportation was
inaugurated by Aaron Hill the poet, who was then its
secretary. Rafts were constructed on which the timber,
in lots of from j[^2o to ;^3o in value, were floated down
the river. Each voyage, including the return journey by
land, lasted for a week, and, including the wages of the
fioater and his one hired hand, cost about two guineas.
Now river-transit has been entirely abolished. Good roads
and traction-engines enable the timber to be removed from
the woods, wherever they are situated, with an expedition
and at a cost which would have seemed incredible to our
grandfathers.

Much, perhaps most, of the improvement which has en-
sued in the development of their resources is undoubtedly
due to the establishment of farmers' clubs within both the
counties. Useful, however, as has been the work of the

304 THE MORAYSHIRE FARMERS' CLUB.

Nairnshire Farmers' Society, it is thrown into the shade by
the exertions of the Morayshire Farmers' Club. This ener-
getic and enlightened association, which still exists in full
vigour, was instituted in January 1799. It was the out-
come of the meeting of " a few friends " held at Pearey's
Inn, Elgin, on 14th December 1798. Nothing further was
at first intended than to establish a monthly farmers' dinner,
to be held on the first Friday of each month (Friday being
the weekly market-day), except during the harvest months
of August, September, and October. The dinner-hour was
to be four o'clock ; the cost was never to exceed eighteen-
pence a -head; and no member was to be permitted to
spend more than another 2s. on drink. "The bill was to
be brought in by Mr Pearey at six o'clock each day."

These dinners were soon popular, and before many
years were over the Farmers' Club had become an institu-
tion. At each monthly meeting a question affecting the
agricultural interest of the district, arranged beforehand, was
discussed, and the decision of the meeting recorded in
the minutes. This was possibly at first the club's most
useful function. As it consisted of almost all the land-
owners and tenant-farmers in the county, with a sprinkling
of outside members — such as the principal lawyers, doctors,
and clergymen of the town — the new notions and the new
processes recommended had an extended circulation. What-
ever else it was not, the club was certainly practical. It
introduced new implements of agriculture; it bought stud-
horses for the use of the district; it instituted shows; it
gave premiums for excellence in almost every department
of agricultural life. What was of even more importance
was, that it strove to instil a hopeful spirit into the agri-
cultural community. Its minutes, though they may have
occasionally to record periods of extraordinary agricultural

^

OLD IMPLEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE. 305

depression, never take a desponding view of things. Those
who know anything of the farming community will readily
understand how useful an institution which could take a
cheery, sensible, moderate view of the situation, whether the
needle inclined to fair or foul weather, must be to a class
so dependent on the variations of the barometer.

To the non-agricultural mind the radical nature of the
change that has ensued cannot be better appreciated than
by contrasting the old implements of agriculture, the old
dwellings of the people, their old habits, customs, and usages,
with the new. When the century was young the wooden
plough, with its yoke of from six to eight oxen, whose
natural inactivity was goaded into life by the gaudtnan with
his long iron -pointed spur or spear, was still in common
use. The harrows with wooden tines, which the ploughmen
sitting over the fire fabricated in the long winter evenings,
had not yet been abandoned. The flail had not given place
to the threshing-mill, nor the hook to the reaping-machine.
The fanners with their complicated system of wire riddle
and sieves had not ceased to exist. The kellachy a conical
wicker basket suspended on a square frame with wheels —
the lineal successor of the old circular creels hung on horses
— was still employed to convey manure to the fields. Oxen
had not been superseded by horses for the ordinary opera-
tions of the farm.

"Prior to the year 1760," says Leslie, speaking of the
old farms in the district,^ "in the dwellings of the tenants
there were neither floors, ceilings, nor chimneys. In a few
of them the low wall was rudely reared of stones and clay
mortar, and had a small glass window; in one only of the
apartments was there any plaster, and it was raked over the
walls in the most artless manner. A loft, on which the roof

^ Leslie's Survey, pp, 58, 59,
U

306 THE OLD FARMHOUSES.

rested without any side-wall, distinguished a very few of the
most respectable habitations. There was in general but one
fire (which served all domestic occasions) in the apartment
where the servants and master, with his wife and maiden
daughters, lived and fed together. In the higher parts of
the district the walls of the office -houses were constructed
of stones without mortar, in some cases with alternate courses
of stone and turf; and the whole buildings were tightly
thatched with sod covered with straw under a rope netting
of the same material, at once the sign of poverty and thrift.

"In the lower parts of the country the dwellings of the
tenants were more generally of turf, and in a less stormy
climate they were for the most part thatched only with
sod : they had no windows, or only a small aperture shut
by a board upon hinges like a door. In most cases they
consisted but of one apartment divided by a timber bed-
stead, one end of which was closed in by a cupboard, which
served also for the larder. The dwelling-house and bam
were permanent buildings ; the cowhouse and stable were
generally rebuilt every summer, their old walls being turned
into the dunghill. In the more stormy quarters of the
district the house and offices were arranged in two lines^
or so constructed as to have the doors mutually sheltered
by the opposite building from the penetrating blast or the
drifting snow ; but in the low parts of Moray the turf hovels
were placed in all the irregularity that chance might exhibit."

In the little village of Garmouth, at the mouth of the Spey,
are still to be seen specimens of a curious style of building
peculiar to the locality. The material of which they are com-
posed is a species of concrete. On a foundation of rounded
weather-worn stones from the beach are erected walls built
entirely " of clay made into jnortar with straw " and daubed
over with lime. It was. a warm and comfortable style of

" PEAT-FUTHERERS." 307

building, even though there was a tendency in the walls, if
not very strongly and carefully constructed, to warp from the
perpendicular. It is needless to say that it is now entirely a
thing of the past.

With improved housing both of master and of men came
an improved style of living. The kerosene -oil lamp has
superseded the old "fir-candle"^ as an illuminant. Coal
has taken the place of peat as fuel.

Not so very long ago, certainly within the first half of
the present century, the use of peat was habitual among
the lower classes even of the town of Elgin. It used to
be brought down from the surrounding hills in light carts
made of rods and bars, by persons who went by the name
of " peat-futherers," and who sometimes, it was said, com-
bined with this industry another of a more illicit order. A
portrait of one of these worthies is given in a song by a
local poet, James Simpson, better known by his nom de
plume of " Davie Dow," which was very popular in its day : —

** He wore a braid bonnet o' bonnie sky-blue,
A hammel-spun coat o' the vera same hue,
Wi' breeks o' that ilk, an' queetikins ^ too,

An' a plain gabby carl was he :
He'd a cow an' twa stirkies that low'd i' the byre,
An' a marey that car'dna for moss or for mire.
Wi' my fa la, &c.

He'd a handy wee cairt made o' gweed fir rungs,
Wi' a stiff timmer axtree an' tough tye slungs,
An' it whistled an' shrieked like a thousand tongues,
An' was heard ower muir an' lea ;

^ The rude iron frame which held the fir-candle is locally known by the
name of " the peer [poor] man," from the fact that when a vagrant begged
and obtained food and shelter for the night he was expected to make him-
self useful in return by holding the fir-candle while the household discharged
their usual nightly tasks.

^ Cuttikins, spatterdashes or gaiters.

308 THE OLD RURAL LIFE.

Besides he had an auld peat-barrow,
Wi' a couterless plough, an' a tineless harrow.
Wi' my fa la, &c.

Now Robbie's feal housie stood far up the hill,
Wi' few neebors near't, sae he thocht it nae ill
To stow in his pantry a canty bit still.

On whilk he did practise a wee ;
An' the drappie he brewed was the pure mountain-bead —
For the Elgin an' Forres fouk likit it gweed.
Wi' my fa la, &c."

It is often said that the old primitive rural life was as
cheerless as it was comfortless. This is an entire mistake.
The pleasures of the country districts might be simpler
than those of the inhabitants of the towns, but they were
more numerous, more natural, and more hearty. Every
event in a man's or a woman's life furnished an occasion
of rejoicing to the whole neighbourhood. Every old festival
day of the Church, though what it was meant to symbolise
had been forgotten for generations, was rehgiously observed
as an opportunity for merry-making. Every incident in the
secular or in the agricultural year served as an excuse for
social enjoyment. And if no plausible plea could be found,
the dance or the convivial meeting went on without one.
Few know how merry rural Scotland was before the days
of the school board and the parish council.

The penny wedding of Morayshire, as of other parts of
Scotland, was a kindly intended effort to give a young couple
in whom the district was interested a sum of ready money
with which to start housekeeping. The mode adopted was
for the friends of the bride to provide food, drink, and
music for the company, which sometimes numbered as
many as 300 or 400 persons, and for each guest to
pay not only for all that he ate and drank, but to con-
tribute his share to the remuneration of the fiddlers. Tlie

THE PENNY WEDDING. 309

profits accruing to the young people were often from ;^2o

The customs observed at penny weddings were of im-
memorial antiquity, and were as scrupulously adhered to
as if they had been religious rites, which some of them
undoubtedly were, albeit of pagan origin.

They began with the "booking." This was the giving
in of the names of the intended spouses to the session-
clerk, in order to the proclamation of the banns. The
session -clerk was generally the dominie, and in addition to
his fee for proclamation, there was usually a further claim
made upon the bridegroom for "ba'-mony" for the school
children. It was seldom refused, for non-compliance with
it entailed an inconvenient penalty. By ancient custom —
the school children asserted by law — the boys were entitled
to meet the bride as she came out of church, to snatch a
shoe off her foot, and to keep it as a pledge till their de-
mands were satisfied. On one occasion not so many years
ago this was actually done.

After the "booking" came the "bidding." Three weeks
or so before the marriage the bridegroom and his best-man,
and the bride and her bridesmaid, called on their respective
friends and verbally bade them to the wedding. This part
of the ceremony is in vogue among the fisher-people to this
day ; and the invitation of the bride is in some cases attended
with the gift of an apron to wear on the occasion.

The actual festivities lasted four days. They began the
night before the marriage with the ceremony of foot-washing.
The friends of each party met in the respective houses of
the bride and bridegroom, and amidst much horse -play,
smearing of legs with grease and soot, and copious libations
from the tappit-hen — a green glass bottle holding four quarts
of whisky — this very ancient usage was duly complied with.

310 ITS CEREMONIES AND CUSTOMS.

In the tub in which the bride's feet were washed a wedding-
ring was thrown and scrambled for by all the company, male
and female. The fortunate finder was sure to be married
within the year.

The following day the bridal party proceeded to the manse
— where in those days the rdigious ceremony was always per-
formed — in two separate processions, that of the bride and
that of the bridegroom. The bride was escorted by two
young men. The rest of the company followed three by
three— one woman and two men, then two women and one
man. A horse and cart with the bride's "plenishing" —
her chest of drawers and her store of linen — brought up
the rear. The first person the party met, whoever he might
be and however urgent his business, was bound to stop and
drink a glass of whisky to the prosperity of the bride from
a bottle which one of the young men of the party carried
with him. This was called "first-footing." The same cus-
tom was observed with the bridegroom's party.

After the religious ceremony had been completed, the
bride and bridegroom with their friends proceeded on foot
to their future home, preceded by a piper. About 200 yards
from the house the young men formed a line, with the object
of "running the keal." This was nothing more than a race.
The prize of the winner was a kiss from the bride before she
entered her dwelling.

When the bridal party reached the homestead they found
it surrounded by a joyous company, who fired off pistols and
guns, waved flags, and scrambled for coppers as it approached.
At the doorway an old woman stood waiting with a plate
of bride's-cake in her hand, which she crumbled and threw
over the bride as she crossed the threshold.^ As many as
the house would hold were allowed to enter. The rest were

^ This was the Roman confarreatio.

•<A'

"THE SHAMIT REEL." 3II

accommodated in the adjoining cottages, or in some bam
near by. The wedding feast followed. The first course con-
sisted of broth with shreds of meat and fowl boiled in it ; the
second of boiled and roast meat and other substantial cates.
The whole was washed down with copious libations of whisky.
When all had dined heartily, two men who had been selected
as managers of the feast went round the company, plate in
hand, to collect the "lawin*," which was always is. a-head.^
According to the strict code of rustic gallantry, every lad paid
for his lass.

As soon as dinner was over the bridegroom took his
wife by the hand and led her to the green in front of the
house, to dance the "shamit reel." The best -man immedi-
ately advanced and claimed her hand. The bridegroom
selected the bridesmaid as his partner. Her partner then
asked the bride what was to be "the shame spring." She
was expected to answer, " Through the warld will I gang wi'
the lad that lo'es me," or some other equally appropriate air.
The music then struck up and the dance proceeded, the rest
of the company looking on in silence till its close, when
the performers were rewarded with repeated rounds of ap-
plause. It was a terrible ordeal for a young girl to go through,
and well deserved its name.

Dancing amongst the young, and toddy-drinking amongst the
old, now became general, and continued for the rest of the
day and evening. Any of the lads who chose to give the
fiddlers a halfpenny could have his favourite tune played.
He then selected the girl he wished to honour, and took the
floor with her. As many other couples as the room could
hold were allowed to join in the dance. After the fiddlers had
played the tune over about a dozen times — which was the

^ In olden times is. Scots was equal to id. sterling. Hence the origin
of the name penny wedding.

312 LYKE- WAKES.

regular allowance — they paused. The lads called out " Kiss-
ing-time ! " and proceeded to salute their partners. The air
was then repeated once or twice more, and the dance ended.
The observances of the. day were concluded by the bedding
of the young couple and the ceremony of throwing the stock-
ing. This was the culminating-point of interest in the whole
of the proceedings; for the fortunate person who, in the
fierce scramble that ensued, succeeded in getting possession
of the bride's stocking when she flung it off her, was assured
of being the next bride or bridegroom in the place.

The third day was devoted to eating, drinking, and gener-
ally making merry. On the evening of that day those of the
guests who had long distances to go generally took their
departure. But on the fourth day, which was always a Sunday,
as many of the young couples' friends who still remained and
had not succumbed to the fatigues and dissipation of the
previous days, accompanied them solemnly to church. And
.in this proper and seemly manner the festivities of the penny
wedding ended.

Lyke-wakes prevailed in the country districts till about
forty years ago. When a death occurred, the first thing to
be done after the corpse had been dressed was to lay it
out on two chairs at the side of the room. The next
was to stop the clock, and to shut up the cat to prevent
its walking over the dead body, — for if this occurred, the
first person who saw it or touched it would infallibly lose
his sight, be attacked with epilepsy, or suffer some other
misfortime. Iron in some form — a rusty nail, a knife, a
knitting-needle — was thrust into the meal-girnel to prevent
its contents from going bad. Then a table was laid out,
a . white cloth spread over it, and a Bible and Psalm-
book, a plate with tobacco and pipes, and a snuff-mull,

FUNERALS. 313

placed upon it. All day long, from early morn till eight
or nine o'clock at night, up to the day of the funeral, the
house was inundated with condoling friends, each of whom
was offered, and never refused, a dram. And every night
when they had gone the wake began. On the first night the
relatives of the dead man watched alone. After that they
took the duty in turns, assisted by their friends. At first
there was reading of the Bible and singing of psalms. But
when it approached the short hours the " books " were shut,
pipes were lighted, the whisky-bottle and bread and cheese
were produced, and the company settled down to tell stories
and otherwise to enjoy themselves. The presence of the
de^d body had little effect in checking their merriment.
There was seldom anything approaching indecorum; but
when the morning broke and the doors were opened to admit
new visitors, the scene that met their eyes could hardly by
any stretch of courtesy be called edifying.

On the day of the funeral no service took place either
within the house or at the grave. Indeed, as was once said,
"a funeral was scarcely the place for a minister to be at."
On returning from the interment the company sat down to
the " drudgy " or " dredgy." ^ Originally instituted as a last
homage to the dead, it soon degenerated into a mere coarse
drinking-bout. " I am sure," says Burt, in his * Letters from
the North,' "it has no sadness attending it, except it be
for an aching head next morning." No trace of this unseemly
custom now exists.

Both lyke-wakes and penny weddings were from the first
a source of irritation to the Reformed Church ; for lyke-wakes

^ The name is derived from the expression "Dirige nos, Domine,"
forming part of the old Roman Catholic service for the burial of the
dead.

314 THE CHURCH AND OLD CUSTOMS.

were not only a direct legacy from Roman Catholicism,^
and therefore savoured of idolatry, but both too often
resulted in unseemly scenes, occasioning a "great increase
in Church scandal."

Again and again we find the Church interfering. On
the 1 6th April 16.76 "the Lord Bishop and brethren of the
Synod of Murray " passed a resolution limiting the number
of persons attending these gatherings, and prohibiting all
" piping, dancing, and fidling at pennibridells within doors,"
and all "obscene lasciviousness and promiscuous dancing"
either within or without the house, under pain of public
censure and pecuniary mulct. Finding these measures in-
sufficient, they were compelled to have recourse to the
secular arm. Among the statutes "revived, ratified, and
enacted by the provost, bailies, and common council of
the burgh of Elgin upon 14th March 17 15," is one for-
bidding all inhabitants "within the burgh" from promising
" to goe to any lyke-wake unless they be in relation to
the defunct, or called by his friends, under the pain of ten
pounds Scots." And many other illustrations of this
policy might be given.

But all-powerful as the Kirk regarded itself, in this
matter clerical authority was powerless. General Assemblies
might denounce, presbyteries and kirk - sessions might
threaten, these customs were too deeply rooted in the
affections of the people. It was a stand-up fight between
the Church and the people; and in the end, though the
Church had the State at its back, the people won.
Custom is always stronger than statute. Indeed, as every
wise legislator knows, the truest sanction of any statute is
that it embodies a custom which commends itself to the

^ The reading of the Bible and the singing of psalms were nothing
more than the bits which were wont to be said for the dead.

AMUSEMENTS OF THE PEASANTRY. 315

instincts of the people. And thus, notwithstanding all
the thunders of the Church, the "silver brydells" and
lyke-wakes continued, until they were abrogated with the
consent of the people themselves, who saw their repugnance
to modern feeling and intelligence. Yet no candid person,
looking back not upon what they became but what they
were at first intended to be, will dispute that the sentiment
which underlay them was not only not reprehensible, but
rather commendable in a very high degree.

The long evenings of winter afforded ample opportunities
for social enjoyment, and they were extensively taken advan-
tage of. " Forenichts," ^ as they were called, from their taking
place between twilight and bedtime, were work-parties, where
the women brought their wheels and their stockings, where
the old wives told "feart" stories, and the old men played
cards. And so the hours would pass till it was time for the
young men to come in from their work. The whole party
then sat down to a comfortable supper of kail and cakes ; and
often a dance wound up the evening.

Dances, called " rants " and " tweetles," were also favourite
amusements. The " auld grannie " in Grant's inimitable
" Penny Wedding," ^ comparing the dull present with the
merry past of her youth, instances both of these as being
among the many good things that had passed away : —

" But now the times are altered sair,
There's little pastime to be seen
When we go to the country fair,
Or to the market on the green.

The tweedles an* the pleasant rant,

Sae common as they used to be,
Are changed for politics and cant,

And fondness for the barley-bree. "

^ Forenicht is the time between twilight and bedtime.
2 The "Penny Wedding," by John Grant, p. 19.

3l6 COCK-FIGHTS AND GAMES.

The rant was a generic term applied to any uproarious
merry - meeting at which dancing took place. The
"tweetle" was a public assembly much frequented by
young people, who each paid a halfpenny for every dance
(reel) in which they indulged.^

The last school cock-fight in Morayshire took place at
New Spynie about seventy years ago. Before that time
they were universal all over the district, and eagerly
anticipated as one of the most important events of the
social year. They took place on Eastern's E'en (Shrove
Tuesday), locally known as Brose Day, from the fact that
the regulation supper of that day was a particular kind of
brose, made of the skimmings of broth, oatmeal, and eggs.

The fight took place in the village schoolroom, the floor
of which had been carefully sanded over for the occasion.
Each "loon" brought in his cock under his arm, and was
accompanied by his parents and acquaintances. The
schoolmaster presided, receiving in return for his services
a small fee called the "cock penny" from each competitor.
The Jugies, or cocks that would not fight, also fell to him
as his perquisite. The boy whose cock won was proclaimed
king, and he was looked upon as the hero of the "toun"
till next Shrove Tuesday.

The games most popular among the people were shinty
and bools (bowls). In the records of the kirk-session of
Kinneddar for the year 1666 there are numerous entries
referring to the profanation of the Sabbath by persons
playing a game which is there called the "Chew." This
is nothing else than shinty played with a chew — the fisher-
man's name for the cork float of their nets — instead of
the usual wooden ball. The clubs were in every case of

^ A description of the tweetle will be found in the * Elgin Literary
Magazine ' for Januaiy 1830, p. 274.

BOWLS AND GOLF. 317

home manufacture, and were generally made from the
wood of the alder -tree. "Bools," on the other hand,
was played with heavy iron balls. At Nairn on New
Year's Day (Old Style) there was an annual match of
both games played on the links by the fishermen. It
was the principal amusement of the year, and was
eagerly looked forward to. Long before the reintroduc-
tion of golf, which has lately added so much to the
attractions of Lossiemouth and Nairn, the game was
played on the links of Nairn. On the loth June 1797
the magistrates of that burgh met to roup the grass of
the links for the ensuing three years. One of the con-
ditions of the "set" was, that the gentlemen of the town
or others should not be prohibited from "playing golff or
walking on the whole links at pleasure, or in passing to
and from any part of the sea -shore." In Moray there are
still more ancient traces of its existence. In the minute-
book of the kirk-session of Elgin is an entry dated 19th
January 1596, to the effect that on that day Walter Hay,
goldsmith, " accusit of playing at the boulis and golff upoun
Sondaye in the tym of the sermon," compeared, "and hes
actit himself fra this furth vnder the paynes of fyve lib.
nocht to commit the lyik outher afoir or eftir none the
tym of the preaching."

In no respect has there been a greater advance than in the
food of the agricultural community. The farm-servant of the
present day, who has been known to object to second day's
broth, and is for ever finding fault with his ample allowance
of fresh milk, would turn away with disgust at the food which
satisfied his brother hind of a hundred years ago. Kail,
nettles, and mugwort, boiled together and thickened with oat-
meal, was a favourite soup. " Raw sowens " and " brose "

3l8 KILNS AND MILLS.

were used instead of porridge. The farmer and his family
fared hardly better than his hinds. Oatmeal was the staple
food, and it was all the sweeter if it was the produce of
his own land, dried at his own kiln, and ground at his own
mill.

Many of the farmers had kilns of their own. Their con-
struction was of the simplest order. On the top of the walls,
rafters, called "kebbars," were laid a few feet distant from
each other. Across these was placed a layer of pieces of
wood, often small fir-trees split in two, which went by the
name of " stickles," and above this a layer of straw to form
the "bedding" of the kiln. The open space beneath was
known as the kiln-logie, and in this the fire was kindled, an
opening being left in the wall for the purpose. The utmost
care was required to regulate the fire to prevent the whole of
this combustible erection being in a blaze. The kiln was one
of the greatest attractions of an old-time farm, and many were
the superstitions connected with it. Few would venture into
one after dark, in case of meeting the ** kiln-carle," who was
believed to have his home in the logic. Even if he did not
make his appearance, the rash intruder was certain to see
some other " feart " thing. Once a man who was drying his
grain during the night saw a cat run past him and go right
through the furnace.

Mills, too, had their uncanny visitants ; but these had none
of the savage characteristics of the kiln-carle. The fairies who
made use of them were, as a rule, welcome guests. They
never failed to pay their " multure " by leaving behind them
a little fairy meal, which ensured the girnel being full for some
years to come.

Bread was the generic term of all the various varieties of
what are now called cakes and bannocks of the meal of oat
or bear. " Mixed bread " was composed of equal parts of

"BREAD," BANNOCKS, AND BAKING. 319

both ; " pease-bread " and " bean-bread " when pease-meal or
bean-meal was added. "Thick bread" was fired on both
sides on the girdle ; " hard " or " fact bread " was fired on one
side only, and then placed in front of the fire to be fully
baked. "Fat bread" was when a little cream was mixed
with the leaven ; " watered bread " where the cake had only
been washed over with cream or butter-milk. The diifer^nce
between bread and bannocks was, that in the one case the
mixture was rolled out on the baking-board, and in the other
was kneaded with the knuckles only.

There was no art of domestic economy which required
greater attention than the operation of baking. The slightest
negligence might entail serious results. If a woman did not
keep her girdle full, she would have to wait for her bridegroom
on her marriage-day. If she took it off the fire with the
" bread " upon it, the bread would not last. If she burned
the cakes, she would be made to weep before they were eaten.
The same thing would happen if she sang when she was
baking. It was unlucky in the highest degree to count the
cakes in a " baking," or to turn them twice on the girdle, or
to lay them flat instead of on edge when they were taken off"
the fire. No man would care to marry a woman who let any
of the meal fall on the floor. She was certain to bring him
trouble from her unthriftiness. It was worse than bad
manners, it was positively unlucky, to begin to eat your
wedge of cake from the " croun " or thick end of the " quarter ";
and to lay cakes on the " man " or wooden trencher on which
they were commonly served, right side up — that is, in the
same way as they lay on the girdle — was a direct insult to
your guest.

" Old people looked with much reverence on meal as well
as bread. To abuse in any way either the one or the other
was regarded as profane. To trample underfoot the smallest

320 PRIVATE DISTILLATION.

quantity of meal or the least piece of bread was considered a
mark of one devoid of a proper spirit. To cast an3rthing of
what was called " meal-corn " into the fire was set down as
nearly allied to crime. Every particle of meal and every
crumb of bread had to be carefully swept up and thrown out
in such a place as to be picked up as food by some of God's
creatures."^ A similar custom prevails in Sweden to this
day.

Another very common appendage of a northern country
farm was a still. Private distillation for home consumption
was only abolished in 1820.^ Before that time whisky was
as legitimate and ordinary a product of a farm as the manu-
facture of meal : ^ —

*' A cogie o' yill an' a pickle oatmeal,
An' a dainty wee drappie o' whisky,
Was oor forefathers' dose for to swill doun their brose,
An' keep them aye cheery an' frisky."

In the beginning of the present century there was a fanner
of the better class who lived in a glen on the confines of Banff-
shire and Elginshire. He had five daughters, all of whom, in
accordance with the simple style of living which then pre-
vailed, were not above " putting their hands to the plough."
In addition to their more legitimate duties within doors, they
took their own share of the outside work of the farm on such
special occasions as sheep-shearing, corn-winnowing, and the
cutting and drying of the peats. From the lint and the wool
produced upon it they made their own underclothing, and spun

^ Kilns, Mills, Millers, Meal, and Bread. By Rev. Walter Gregor,
M.A., LL.D. London : David Nutt. 1894.

2 By the Act of i George IV. c. 74, sec. 17. By the 2d section of the
same Act all distilleries of spirits were obliged to be licensed.

^ Whisky was certainly manufactured in Scotland in the sixteenth cen*
tury, but for three hundred years it was the drink of the poorer classes
only. Beer, claret, and brandy were the only drinks of all who aspired to
be looked upon as gentry.

THE POOR — "GENTLE BEGGARS." 321

the material for their own dresses. In addition to this, each
received from her father six bushels of barley annually, and
the use of the bothy for a week to convert her grain into
whisky. Such was the " pin-money " which young ladies were
allowed in those days.

Before the time of the Poor Law the poor of each parish
were supported by its inhabitants. The care of the indigent
was primarily the duty of the kirk-session, who did the best
they could, by collections at the church doors, by fees for
the use of the pall or mortcloth, by the fines of persons
under discipline, and other similar expedients, to alleviate
the misery of the deserving. But as these were insuffici-
ent, much remained for private charity to do. It says a
good deal for the people that claims for assistance were
seldom if ever refused. The tendency was rather the other
way. Many who in our days, at least, would have been
regarded as falling within the provisions of the stringent
laws against mendicancy which then existed, obtained a re-
lief which they did not deserve.

In Morayshire, as in other parts of Scotland, there existed
within the memory of the last generation a class of persons
who were known as " gentle beggars " — persons who at
one time or another had occupied a fair social position,
but, in most cases through their own fault, had fallen upon
evil days, and who, though they were too proud to work,
were not too proud to beg. They went about from mansion-
house to farm, from manse to croft, claiming food and
lodging, and everywhere demanding, and as a rule receiv-
ing, both of these of the best. They were great nuisances,
and sometimes ingenious expedients were resorted to in order
to get rid of them. On one occasion, in the beginning of
this century, one of these gentry came to a manse in the
neighbourhood of Elgin. He was informed by the clergy-

322 FAIRS AND MARKETS.

man's wife that her husband was from home, but that of
course he could have bed and lodging for the night.

" Only I am afraid," said his hostess, " that I cannot offer
you such a good supper as you might expect. To tell you
the truth, I have only roast and boiled."

This did not sound so bad, and the gentle beggar ex-
pressed himself as satisfied. But when the supper was
served it consisted of a roast "yellow haddie" and boiled
"sowens." He never came back again.

As for the poor of a lower order and less exacting kind,
everything was done to spare them the mortification of feel-
ing their poverty. It is difficult nowadays to realise the
kindly feeling which prevailed towards them. In almost
every district where a family had come to misfortune a
collection was instituted to put them on their feet again,
if that were possible. Two young men were selected to
go from house to house ringing the "Thiggars' Chant";
and if this was not successful, the various members of the
family were ungrudgingly welcomed at the firesides of their
more prosperous neighbours.

It is hardly to be wondered at that, in a district where
the power of the Roman Catholic Church was once so
strongs the social observance of the old Church festivals died
hani« and in some instances is not even jet eztiocL What
helped tv> perpetuate it was the £ftct that in connection
with most of them a fair was held in the neiglibcxiring
^^ burfv>w-tvHin ^' — an e^rent of the h^best interest and im-
portance in countnr eye:k Elgin. Fones^ and Nairn had
e«cK six fciirs in the year: the moce impoitant
sttcK as Findh^^nK lhjinbr\\k\ jukI Gumooth in
shite* and Auktodurw j^jhI Owvivv in X^Lintshiie — bad
nvAtkets v>f their v>>r:\.

IV this dAv, Kv\ the v\\i Chcrch fccivjt^ 51

OLD CHURCH FESTIVALS. 323

to the country-people ; perhaps we should rather say as mile-
stones, marking the progress of the rural year : —

" First comes Candlemas,"^

says the old country rhyme,

** And then the new meen [moon],

Then the Tuesday after that.
That's Fastern*s E'en. "2

Again-

" If Candlemas Day be fair and clear,
The half o' the winter's to gang an' mair ;
If Candlemas Day be dark and foul,
The half o' the winter's past at Yule."

Another rhyme runs thus —

** Eastern's E'en's meen oot.
And the next meen hicht ;
Then the Sunday after that,
That's Pace 8 nicht."

These rhymes, however, were no more peculiar to the district
than were the observances of the feasts they commemorated.

On Eastern's E'en (Shrove Tuesday) the great feature of
the evening's amusement was the baking of the " sautie
bannock." This was a thick cake composed of eggs, milk,
and oatmeal, with a little salt; and, as with the Christmas
plum-pudding of modern times, every one present was ex-
pected to assist at the operation. Like it, too, all sorts of
"unconsidered trifles" were dropped into the mixture, each
article indicating the fortune of the person in whose share it
was subsequently found. The girl who got the ring would
be married the first ; she who captured the halfpenny would
assuredly marry a rich bachelor ; she who found the farthing
would have to be contented with a widower. The button
meant that her husband would be a tailor ; the piece of

^ The 2d February — the Purification of the Virgin Mary.
2 Shrove Tuesday. ' Easter.

324 BELTANE — MICHAELMAS.

straw, a farmer; the piece of cloth, a clothier; the nail, a
blacksmith, — and so on. The baker of the cake had to
maintain perfect silence through all the operation. Every
means was attempted to make her speak. If she did,
another took her place.

When the cake was baked, it was cut into as many pieces
as there were unmarried persons in the room and placed
in the apron of the baker. She was then blindfolded and
placed with her back against the door. The lads and lasses
then passed before her and received each a piece of bannock
at her hands. According to what was discovered in it, his
or her fate was sealed.

Beltane, or May Day, was a festival in the district within
the memory of men still living. There was no May-pole as
in England, but "Beltane bannocks" were an institution.
They were thick kneaded cakes of oatmeal, " watered " with a
thin batter made of milk-and-cream, whipped eggs, and a little
oatmeal. On May Day about noon the young folks went to
the rocks and high ground and rolled them down hill. If
one broke, its owner would die before next Beltane. After the
rolling, the bannocks were solemnly eaten, part being always
left on the ground for the " cuack " or cuckoo. A little bit was
taken home, too, to be dreamed upon. It was the only cere-
monial bannock in which eggs formed an essential constituent.

On Beltane Day all the cattle in the district were put out
to pasture.

Michaelmas (September 29), the Feast of St Michael and
All Angels, was not a festival for which the peasantry of
Moray could be expected to have any special regard ; for it
was by the bright light of the Michaelmas moon that their
Highland neighbours made those fierce raids upon their
homesteads which, till comparatively recent days, was their
principal bane. Hence the local saying, that the High-

HALLOWE'EN AND YULE. 325

landers "paid their daughters' tocher by the light of the
Michaelmas moon."

The Michaelmas Market in Nairn was an occasion of more
than ordinary rejoicing. The old ryhme with which the
children collected their fairings on Michaelmas, eve, though
probably not peculiar to the district, is pretty enough and
venerable enough to be quoted : —

** To-night's the market evening —
To-morrow's the market-day, —
And we shall get our fairings,
And we shall march away.

The cock shall crow.

The hen shall lay.

The drum shall beat,

An' the pipe shall play,
For to-morrow is the merry, merry market-day. "

Hallowe'en, or All Saints' Eve (October 31), was observed
in Moray and Nairn as sedulously and with much the same
ceremonies as in the other parts of Scotland. It is the
longest lived of all the Church festivals. To this day the
children of Elgin visit all the grocers' shops in the town,
and receive their customary toll of nuts and apples.

The Reformation abolished Christmas as the greatest festival
of the Christian year, but it could not abolish it as an occasion
on which to make merry. The ceremonial fare consisted of
two kinds — the Yule bread, and a sort of sour cake usually
called "sour. poos." The one was a thin bannock of oat-
meal — the only difference between it and any other bannock
being that it had to be cut into four quarters before being
placed on the girdle. This was probably symbolical of the
cross. The other was a cake the leaven of which had been
moistened with water poured off "sowens," which gave it a
peculiar acid flavour. It was essential that both these kinds
of cake should be baked during the night — at any rate, before

326 THE YULE BREAD — HOGMANAY.

daybreak on Christmas morning. In Garmouth the Yule bread
had to be baked " before the deil gweed [went] by Binns " —
a hill in the immediate vicinity. As the " deil " was popularly
regarded as an early riser, this compelled the household to be
astir betimes. In baking the Yule bread, a cake had to be
prepared for each member of the family. What happened
to that cake in the course of the day — whether it broke or
whetRer it remained whole till the proper time for its con-
sumption arrived — was emblematic, of the fate of the owner
during the coming year. The old superstition, that on
Christmas eve exactly at twelve o'clock every living thing
" voices " its meed of joy on the birth of our Saviour, was
an article of faith in every Morayshire homestead. The kindly
custom, too, of giving the whole of his stock a supper of un-
threshed corn was also religiously observed by the farmer.
And to guard them from the malign influence of witches,
fairies, and other powers of evil who were especially industri-
ous at this season, he never omitted to hang up branches of the
rowan-tree over the door and above the walls of the byre.

But none of the old festivals of the Church had so strong
a hold on the affections of the people as had that of the
essentially pagan festival of Hogmanay — the last night of the
year. It was the climax of the " daft days." New Year's
Day itself was only its corollary.

In rural Moray it was, and is, though sadly shorn of its
picturesque features, the saturnalia of the year. There was
no exemption from its influence. The sternest precisian, the
veriest churl, was bound to be jolly on Hogmanay. Even an
elder of the Church might get drunk on that occasion without
damage to his reputation. In its conception it was not so
much a season of unbending and relaxation as an occasion
for the exercise of such social virtues as charity, hospitality,
and brotherly kindness.

THE **THIGGARS' CHANT." 327

On Hogmanay night the young men of the district went
from door to door, visiting their friends, demanding admission
at farm and cottage alike, under the pretext that they were
collecting alms for the poor. When a band was heard ap-
proaching, the " guidwife " of the house armed herself with
a besom, advanced to the door, and responded to the knock
by bringing her broom "over the head" of the leader, to
signify her intention of defending the homestead against the
troops of masterful beggars who in days not long bygone had
been in the habit of oppressing the countryside. To show
that their intentions were of a different character, the band
then struck up the "Thiggars' Chant," which ran as
follows : —

** The gweed New Year is noo begun,
Besouthen,^ besouthen !
An* a' the beggars begin to run,
An* awa* by southron toun !

We wish ye a' a gweed New Year,

Besouthen, besouthen !
Wi' werth o' health an' dainty cheer,

An' awa' by southron toun !

Rise up, gweed wife, an' be na swear,

Besouthen, besouthen !
An' deal yer fordels ^ to the puir.

An' awa' by southron toun !

It's nae for oorsels that we come here,

Besouthen, besouthen !
But to crave yer charity to the puir.

An' awa' by southron toun !

We beg you meal — we beg you maut,

Besouthen, besouthen !
We beg for siller to buy them saut.

An' awa' by southron toun !

^ Besouthen, to the southward — pronounced " Be soothie in."
^ Fordels, things prepared in readiness for future use.

328 DEARTHS.

If meal an' maut wi' you be scant,

Besouthen, besouthen !
We'll kiss the maidens afore we want,
An' awa' by southron toun !

If ye hae plenty an' winna gie,

Besouthen, besouthen 1
The deil will get ye when ye dee,

An' awa' by southron toun !

Oor shoon are made o' the red coo's hide,

Besouthen, besouthen !
Oor feet are cauld, we canna bide,

An* awa' by southron toun I "

The door was then thrown open, and the company invited
to enter in the following verses : —

" Come in, come ben, ye* re welcome here,
Besouthen, besouthen !
Ye'U get a share o' oor New Year cheer.
An' awa' by southron toun !

There's plenty here, baith but an* ben,

Besouthen, besouthen !
An' something in the tappit hen,

An' awa' by southron toun I "

Yet if there was more mirth and jollity than at present,
there was also occasionally more suffering. Periods of
scarcity were not uncommon. Chambers, in his * Domestic
Annals of Scotland,* records eight instances of severe dearths
— two in the sixteenth, four in the seventeenth, and two in
the eighteenth century — prior to 1740. There were simimer
dearths and there were winter dearths. A heavy rainfall,
a cold season, a poor harvest, entailed untold misery on
man and beast. The food supply of the country districts
depended almost entirely on the growth of cereals. The
thousand and one substitutes which modern enterprise has
introduced were unknown. The country had to rely on its

PRIVATIONS OF THE PEOPLE. 329

own produce and on nothing more. When the oats and
barley of Moray failed, the privations of the people, especially
in its upper reaches, were intense. Meal, which was the staff
of life, had to be imported with infinite labour and at infinite
cost from Perthshire, from Forfarshire, even from the Lothians.
There were times when the country people, to keep them-
selves alive, had to bleed their cattle in the byre to make
their scanty supply of meal more nourishing: 1782 was one
of those years. The harvest was so late that in some districts
the farmers were shearing at Christmas, and little remained
of last season's meal. Two old spinsters at Orton managed
to keep body and soul together during the winter on the milk
of a goat and the dust that remained at the bottom of their
girnel. A woman in Dundurcas, with a numerous young
family, "was often a week without any food beyond an egg
and a turnip." A minister of a small rural parish now incor-
porated with its larger neighbour suffered such privations that,
telling his housekeeper to do the best for herself, he locked
the manse door and set out for Edinburgh ; nor was he ever
seen in the district again. In one case a well-to-do farmer,
who was known to be in the act of stocking his girnel, had
the door of his house broken open as he was sitting down
to supper, and the sacks carried off before his eyes and in his
own carts. Though the men were known, the farmer did
not dare to prosecute them. Potatoes were introduced for
the first time into Morayshire between the years 1728 and
1740, and were for long after regarded as a mere luxury. In
1854 Morayshire ranked as the sixteenth among the potato-
growing counties in Scotland, and Nairnshire as the thirty-
first. Turnips as food for cattle were a still later importation ;
but in Morayshire their value was almost immediately recog-
nised. In 1857 there were 12,757 acres under this crop; in
1 88 1 the acreage was 16,659 — an increase of 3922: and

330 DISAPPEARANCE OF OLD SUPERSTITIONS.

the cultivation still goes on in very much the same ratio. In
Nairnshire, on the other hand, there has been a marked
decrease. In 1884 Morayshire stood ninth, and Nairnshire
twenty-fifth, among the turnip-growing counties of the king-
dom.

Whenever a rural and secluded community awakes to a
sense of its material importance, its first tendency is to
depreciate everything antiquated, however cherished it may
hitherto have been. The old lore and prejudices of its ances-
tors are cast aside as being unsuitable to its altered condition.
The rush of new ideas sweeps away the old customs, the old
superstitions, the old follies of the district, as the March
gales sweep away the snows of winter. Half a century of
progress, and scarcely a trace of them remains.

This has been the case in both Moray and Nairn. Yet
from the few vestiges which still survive it may be asserted,
with some degree of certainty, that the superstitions of these
two counties differed in no essential degree from those preva-
lent over the rest of the north of Scotland. It is scarcely
possible at this time of day to detect in them any traces of
distinct racial origin. On the other hand, there are few to
be found in other districts of Scotland which have not at one
time or another existed in this locality. It cannot, perhaps,
be claimed for these counties, at any rate after Roman Catholic
days, that they ever led the van in civilisation. On the con-
trary, they seem to have formed even from the first a sort of
backwater, in which all the old useless lumber of ignorance,
prejudice, and superstition found a sure haven. But the
change which has come over them since their exceptional
natural advantages as a farming district have come to be
recognised, not only by the rest of the country but by their
own inhabitants, has had this effect, that it has placed almost

DOMESTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 33 1

insuperable obstacles in the way of those who are curious as
to the constitution of their old life. There are few parts of
Scotland where it is more difficult to acquire anything beyond
a mere superficial knowledge of the old inhabitants of the
district Yet even now a bulky volume might be written on
the domestic superstitions of the district. There was not a
single act of everyday life which was not trammelled with
rules, the slightest breach of which might entail consequences
of the most serious nature. To acquire them was an educa-
tion which required a lifetime. Hence the most mischievous
apostles of superstition were the "auld wives" — male and
female — of the hamlet. And as the ratio of coincidences is
much greater than is generally supposed, they never wanted
a well-authenticated instance to prove the truth of their asser-
tions. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that what
is often regarded as a mere superstition is, like a proverb, very
often merely a reduction into concrete form of the experience
of many previous generations. Such, for instance, may have
been the belief that if a landed proprietor's first child was a
girl, the estate might soon lack an heir ; and that a child born
after its father's death is always kind to its mother. Equally
reasonable is the idea that a child's face should always be
covered up in the cradle, otherwise it will grow up pale or
"like the colour of the sun." There may be sound sense,
too, in never allowing very young children to eat any animal
food except the white flesh of a fowl ; and in the conviction
that much rocking of the child in its cradle caused water in
the head. There is much, too, to be said for the belief that
a small thin neck in a new-born child is a sign of a short life ;
and that if a child keeps its hands closed when it sleeps it
will turn out close-fisted or " grippy " in after-life.

There is a certain amount of common-sense, too, in the
credence that a child's clothes should never be left out of

332 DOMESTIC SUPERSTITIONS.

doors at night to dry ; and that a woman after having been
churched should not return to her own home without par-
taking of meat and drink. The church was often a long dis-
tance from the homestead, and a drink of " mulled porter,"
which was the correct thing on such occasions, or a bite of
bread and cheese, must often have been to the weak and
tired woman a very welcome refreshment. The same is the
case with the belief that it is unlucky for a woman, before
churching, to perform any domestic office, such as drawing
water or taking meal from the gimel. And there is doubtless
a useful moral lesson conveyed in the saying that it is un-
lucky to look at one's own face in a glass.

But it is difficult to explain such apparently absurd notions
as that the first time an infant is taken out of doors it should
wear a red thread round its neck ; that if a child's first tooth
appeared in the upper jaw it would be short-lived; that
when a child was taken out to be baptised, bread and cheese
should be carried along with it to prevent its ever after suffer-
ing from hunger ; that it was unlucky to put a baby into a new
cradle ; that the cradle should be placed at the back of the
apartment with its head towards the door ; that it was equally
unlucky to rock a cradle lightly ; that if a mouse crept over a
child's feet it would stop its growth ; that some frightful dis-
aster would happen to the infant if it was shown its face in a
looking-glass before it had got its teeth ; that harelip is pro-
duced by a mother stepping over a hare's lair during the
period of pregnancy ; that during the same period a woman
should not put a stitch into any garment she is wearing ; that
a live coal should always be put in the water in which one
washes his feet, otherwise a corpse will soon be in the house ;
that to dream of rats or mice means an enemy ; that a woman
with child should not clean her feet, though muddy with
walking, before going into church, otherwise her infant will

THE "DEAD-CANDLE." 333

have club-feet ; that if the combings of hair, when thrown into
the fire, smoulder away, death will ensue by drowning ; that
one might as well keep a corpse in the house overnight as the
water in which his feet have been washed ; that one should
never tie her garter before tying her shoes ; that " a mole on
the back abeen the breath " signifies death by drowning ; that
it is ominous of death to laugh, whistle, or sing before break-
fast ; that bees die before a death ; that it is unlucky to walk
along the middle of a road at night, seeing that the " foregang "
of a funeral always does so ; that you should never cross a
road to meet a friend ; that if the cattle on first being let out
after spring ran wildly through the fields, scraping up the
earth with their hoofs and throwing it over their backs, a
death would ensue in the family before the year was out ; that
if horses were restless in their stalls during the night, the place
is haunted by a spirit ; that " neid fire " — the fire produced
by rubbing together two pieces of stone — is a cure for dis-
eases in cattle ; and such other vain imaginings.

The belief in the "dead-candle" was one of the most
deeply-rooted superstitions of the district. When a death
was about to occur in a house, a mysterious light was seen
issuing from the cottage and winding its way slowly but
surely in the direction of the churchyard. Equally im-
plicitly believed in was the notion that if a death was
not communicated to the bees the moment it had occurred,
they would die immediately after. A custom as old as
classical times was that of throwing a coin into the grave as
the coffin was being lowered into it. It was not, however, to
pay the deceased's ferry across the Styx, but to acquire for all
time coming the ground in which it was buried. Salt is to this
day laid on a body the moment life has departed ; and, as in
other parts of Scotland, a " spale " or " waste " on a burning
candle indicates an approaching death.

334 HOLY WELLS — WITCHES.

A superstition closely resembling that of the " nuggle " or
" shoopiltee " of the Shetland Islands, and the " echuisque "
of the Highlands, and possibly a relic of the old pagan prac-
tice of river-worship, is that of the water-horse. It is a kelpie
which assumes the form of a black horse, and haunts the
vicinity of water. There is hardly a loch within the two
counties where it has not been seen. It is always ready to
allow itself to be mounted. Sometimes it shows itself saddled
and bridled. But if any one unthinkingly jumps on its back
he immediately finds himself as if glued to it, and it is ten
chances to one if the next moment he does not find him-
self struggling beneath the dark waters of the loch. It has
this remarkable property, too, that though it seems only
able to accommodate one person, it can carry any num-
ber on its back. To " sain " oneself, or to make the
sign of the cross, was sufficient to release one from its
clutches.

Another long-lived superstition w.as a belief in the effi-
cacy of certain holy wells as a cure for disease. The well
of St Mary at Orton, another well of the same name in
Elgin, the Braemou or Braemuir well at Hopeman, and
others, were all believed to be blessed with curative
powers. To drink or to wash in their waters was a
remedy which — such is faith — seldom proved to be other-
wise than infallible. Like the pilgrimages to holy places,
such as the Chapel of Grace in the parish of Kinneddar,
they resembled the other superstitions of the district in being
a relic of Roman Catholic days.

Witches and warlocks were as plentiful a crop in Moray
and Nairn as in other parts of Scotland. The treatment
they received, too, was the same. The wretched creatures
who fell under the bane of local ill-will or local ignorance

THE ORDER POT. 335

were imprisoned, tortured, and done to death, often with
fiendish cruelty.

In a piece of hollow ground to the eastward of the
cathedral there existed, within the memory of persons yet
alive, the stagnant remains of what was once a deep pool
oif water. The place is still known by the name of the
Order Pot — an evident corruption for Ordeal; for it was
here that, in the days when witchcraft was a capital
offence, many a poor old woman, guilty of no other
crimes than poverty and old age, underwent the ordeal by
water. The pool is referred to in a retour of 2 2d May
1604' as nunc destructa^ and the ground now forms part
of a nurseryman's garden. The Order Pot was believed
to have a subterranean connection with the Lossie, and an
old prophecy predicted that some day —

* * The Order Pot and Lossie grey
Would s,weep the Chan'ry Kirk away. "

But the cathedral still stands, though in ruins, to mock
the prediction.

It is only by looking back upon the absurdities that,
till the present century had reached its meridian, were
articles of faith amongst even the most intelligent persons,
that one can gain an adequate conception of the rapidity
of modern intellectual progress.

Fifty years ago and less, when a child did not seem to
thrive, it was universally believed that its heart had been
turned. A wise woman was sent for. She came bringing
with her a heart-shaped piece of lead. The little patient's
breast was exposed. Then the witch, taking the leaden
heart in her hand, turned it round and round over the
child's body, as one winds up a watch with a key, con-

^ Under the Act 1563, Queen Mary.

336 WITCHCRAFT.

eluding the farce by assuring the anxious parents that the '
heart underneath was now acting in accord with the one '^
she was moving. Then she pocketed her fee — alwa]^ a '-
liberal one — and departed.

Much about the same period a clay image, or cof^s creagh^
nearly life-size, was found under a dripping bank of the -
river near the town of Nairn. It was so placed that the
water dropped over its heart. AVhen broken open it was
found full of needles and pins. It had been placed there
by a notorious witch of the day, who had been hired by a
girl to compass the death of a man who had slighted her.
When the clay dissolved the man would certainly die. He
was only saved from that fate by the accidental discovery
of the image. Once a beggar woman, known to be a
witch, praised the beauty of the child of a countrywoman
who had given her an alms. The child immediately screamed
violently. It was plain the witch's evil eye had fallen upon
her. As soon as she was gone, the child's mother and
grandmother tied their aprons together, and holding them
out in the form of a circle, passed first the child, and then
a peat, three times through the circle, in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost The peat was then
thrown on the fire and burned, and the child laid in its
cradle. As the last fragments of the peat were consumed
the infant fell into a quiet peaceful slumber, and the anxious
mother knew that the spell had been removed.

When a cow had been bewitched there was a sure mode
of discovering the witch. This was to put a quantity of new
pins into a pot, then to pour a little of the coVs milk over
them, and allow the whole to simmer but not to boiL Ten
to one the person who had bewitched the animal would enter
the cottage on some " thieveless errand " and lift the pot off
the fire.

*>.

WITCHES AND THEIR WAYS. 337

A witch had a fair daughter who loved a fisherman. He
f ; played her false. The mother and daughter then took a
"cog" — a circular wooden bowl — and carried it to a spot
from which the faithless lover's boat could be seen as it
passed on its homeward way. In a short time the witch
bade her daughter go to the point of the headland and
see if the boat was visible. She came back in a few
moments, saying that as it passed the headland it was over-
turned, and the crew were struggling in the water. Pointing
to the tub, the witch bade her daughter observe that the cog
was floating bottom upwards. But the man escaped. As
soon as he discovered who was the cause of his mishap he
determined to take steps to protect himself from further mis-
chief. Entering the witch's cottage, he fell upon her and
proceeded to draw blood " abeen [above] her breath " — that
is, he cut her on the forehead in the shape of a cross. The
man suffered no further inconvenience, but the woman bore a
black band on her forehead to her dying day.

Witches had the power of transforming themselves at will
into the shape of certain animals. But the form of. a hare
was that which was most commonly assumed. One of the
innumerable stories illustrative of this is fathered on James
Brodie, the celebrated Laird of Brodie, whose career has been
already referred to. He was out shooting one day when
he saw a hare in front of him. This hare was the most amus-
ing animal of its kind he had ever encountered. He fired
at it half-a-dozen times, but always missed it; and every
time he missed, the creature sat and looked at him with a
calm imperturbability which was aggravating in the extreme.
At last the truth dawned upon him. The hare was a witch.
He drew a sixpence from his pocket, loaded his gun with
it, and fired. It hit the hare in the thigh, but it limped away
before he was able to reload. He followed its trail by the

Y

338 THE FISHER-FOLK OF THE COAST.

blood which dropped from the wound. It led him to the
cottage of a woman who had an evil reputation in the district.
Entering the house, he found the woman lying in bed.
" Turn down the blanket," said the laird, " till I get my six-
pence out of your hip." The woman refused, but he would
not be denied. At last she consented. The laird reclaimed
his sixpence and went away rejoicing.

Such stories might be multiplied indefinitely. Of course
no one nowadays admits the existence of witchcraft; yet
few amongst the peasantry will be found to disbelieve tales
founded on the evidence of their mothers and grandmothers.
The utmost that can be expected from them is the admission
that the age of witchcraft, as of miracles, is past.

On the 24th June 1736 witchcraft ceased to be a crime
inferring the penalty of death, and the punishment of persons
pretending to exercise the art was limited to a year's imprison-
ment, with exposure on the pillory. But if the Parliament of
Great Britain was disposed to leave witches and warlocks
alone, this was very far from being the intention of the
Church, For long afterwards it continued to deal with such
persons as "charmers," and amenable to ecclesiastical dis-
cipline.

A strong line of demarcation has always existed between
the agriculturists of the inland districts and the fisher-people
of the coast. This is due in some measure to their different
racial origin, but infinitely more so to the diversity in their
pursuits.

Most of the social institutions which characterised the agri-
cultural community — such as penny weddings, lyke- wakes,
the observance of Hallow E'en, Fastem's E'en, and Hog-
manay — were adopted by the fisher-folk, and lingered longer
amongst them than farther afield. But in addition there were

V

THE "BURNING OF THE CLAVIE. 339

Others proper to themselves which, with the intense conserva-
tism of their nature, they still cherish lovingly, and with which
they as yet show little intention to dispense.

Of these we may instance two, — the " burning of the clavie "
among the fishermen of Burghead, and the "casting of the
cavel" among the fishermen of Nairn. Both are remanets
from the days of the Norsemen, and may possibly be older
stilL

The burning of the clavie has been often described.

On Old Yule night, as dusk comes on, the youth of the
village proceed to the shop of one of the local merchants
and procure a couple of strong empty barrels and a supply
of tar. A hole is formed in the bottom of one of them, and
into this the end of a strong pole some five feet long is inserted
and nailed into position. The other barrel is now broken up
and placed within the first ; the tar is poured over it, and the
whole set on fire by a burning peat. The blazing clavie is
then carried in procession round the old boundaries of the
burgh — in olden times it used to visit also all the fishing-
boats in the harbour, — and this perambulation completed,
it is taken to the top of a little eminence called the Doorie
and set upon a stone structure erected by the superior of
the village for the purpose. After burning for about twenty
minutes the barrel is lifted from its socket and rolled down
the western slope of the hill. A furious rush is now made
to capture the blazing fagots, which are carefully preserved,
to keep off misfortune from their possessors, till the following
year.

The whole scene is singularly weird and impressive. The
dark, sullen, northern night ; the wreathing smoke of the
smouldering beacon; the twisting streams of fire rushing
down the sloping hill ; the eager upturned faces of the spec-
tators — bronzed and bearded fishermen, white-haired old

340 "CASTING THE CAVEL."

women, and bright-eyed children; the rush, the scuffle, the
shouts, the screams, the laughter of the crowd in its efforts to
secure the smoking embers, make up a picture which, once
seen, is not readily forgotten.

This interesting custom has been the object of a vast
amount of antiquarian research, but with little proportionate
result. It is generally conceded that it is symbolical of
the winter solstice, when the sun, as was believed, sinks
beneath the ocean. But nothing absolutely certain is known
about its origin. Similar customs have been found in Brit-
tany and in Wales ; and till within recent years an almost
identical rite was in use on Old Yule night in Lerwick, the
capital of the Shetland Islands. Even the meaning of the
word " clavie " is matter of doubt. Those who r^ard Burg-
head as having been a Roman station derive it from the word
clavus, a nail, and support this opinion by the fact that the
barrel containing the tar is nailed on to its supporting pole.
A more probable derivation, however, is from the Celtic claibh^
a basket, thus indicating the form of the burning tub.

It is perhaps impossible to claim for the custom of '' casting
the cavel " an assured Norse origin, though it is most common
in those parts of Scotland which were visited by the dragon-
ships of the Vikings. It certainly, however, existed in Scan-
dinavia from the earliest times, and is still to be foimd in
some districts of Sweden.

On a calm summer evening, as the holiday visitor lounges
about the quay at Nairn, watching the fishing-boats with their
brown sails coming lazily round the point of the pier, or per-
haps lost in admiration at one of those gorgeous sunsets, of
which, one is almost inclined to think, Nairn has the monopoly
in the north of Scotland, he may suddenly find himself accosted
by a grey-haired old fisherman who civilly requests him to do
him and his mates a favour. He is conducted a few steps

" CAPLAKEN." 341

forward to a spot where he finds himself confronted by six
slithering heaps of freshly caught fish, their glistening scales
reflecting all the greens and yellows and russets of the waning
sunlight. Five of these heaps are the share which belongs to
the crew ; the other is that of the boat. In front of these is
ranged a row of six stones. Each of them the stranger is
asked to lift in succession, and to place at one of the heaps.

This method of partition by lot was at one time common
all over the north of Scotland. Leslie, in the glossary ap-
pended to his * Survey of Moray,' explains the word " keavle "
as "the part of a field which falls to one on a division by
lots." Bellenden, in his ' Chronicles,' speaks of all " the
landis of Scotland being cassin in cavyll amang the nobyllis
thereof," when King Fergus was resident in Argyle. The
custom is also recognised in the old Burrow Lawes of King
David I. (c. 59), and in the general code of regulations for
the " societies of merchands " within Scotland, commonly
called the Statutes of the Gild (c. 43), agreed to by the repre-
sentatives of the various then existing crafts at Berwick-
upon-Tweed in 1283-84. The word is said to be derived
from an old Suevo-Gothic root meaning a twig or rod. The
use of the stone is, of course, only a local substitution.

Another usage — now, however, extinct — believed to be of
Scandinavian origin, was the custom called "caplaken." It
was a gratuity given to the skippers of merchant vessels trading
from Moray Firth ports, and, as appears from old charter-
parties, it often took the form of a new boat. Laken is said
to be a Danish word meaning the crest or ornament for a cap
presented by the crew of a Viking ship which had made a
successful voyage to its leader. In this sense the word is still
used in a children's game in Westmoreland, and is also found
amongst the fishermen of the little village of St Combs in
Buchan.

342 " TO-NAMES."

To-names,^ or, as the word is locally pronounced, " tee-
names," are common, though not so much so as in the fish-
ing villages farther east along the coast because less necessary.
" A to-name or * title,' as the fishermen call it, is a kind of
* eke-name ' — that is, a nickname, but holding a position be-
tween a surname and a nickname." In a small community
where the list of surnames proper is limited, and where inter-
marriage prevails, it is often difficult to distinguish between
persons whose Christian names and surnames are identical.
Hence the necessity for some distinctive mark. The to-name
supplied this. It may be a name adopted from a person's
physical peculiarities, or from the place of his home, or from,
his occupation ; but it serves its purpose to distinguish him
from others of the same individual and gentilitian appellation.
Such to-names, when once adopted, are recognised by custom
as forming part of their owners' legal designations, and often
descend to their children. In time they may even supersede
the original surname. Hence, as a recent writer has remarked,^
the to-name is the result of " a process precisely similar to
that which originated surnames " in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. Amongst to-names of the Morayshire and Nairn-
shire county towns and villages are to be found, with others
less original, " Gilp," " Willochan," " Bo," " Scottie," " Bailie,"
"Bochel," "Buchan," and " Duggin." As yet it has not
become necessary to adopt such polysyllabic combinations as
" Jock's -Wuirs-Williamie's-Wullsie," which the same writer
instances as existing in the village of St Combs.

Superstition, rife though it was amongst the agricultural
community, was even more so among the fisher- people of

^ German, Zunatne,

2 Dr Cramond of Cullen, in an article on to-names in * Scotsman,'
September 1889.

SUPERSTITIONS OF THE FISHER-FOLK. 343

the coast. The same prejudice against clergymen, the same
objection to taking women or cats on board when engaged
in anything connected with their fishing, the same inexpli-
cable aversion to certain surnames, the same dislike to calling
certain things and places by their proper names, which pre-
vails in other fishing communities in Scotland, are found in
Moray and Nairn. Salmon, for instance, could never be
mentioned on board a boat except by the name of "Spey
codling," or a horse except as the "four-footed beast."
Swine, even in the shape of ham or bacon, was as accursed
a thing to the Morayshire fishermen as to the Jews. The
mere accidental utterance of the word would immediately
be met with a cry of " Cauld iron ! " ^ and a rush to lay
hold of anything made of that metal that was handy, if it
was even the heel of their boot. The "Tam o' Ron,"
near Garmouth, one of their landmarks, was always spoken
of as "the bank o' red yird."

Reading over the long list of their prejudices, one might
be inclined to think that they spent all their time, both on
sea and land, looking out for presages of good or ill luck.
It was unlucky to shoot their nets on the larboard side of
the boat; it was unlucky to see a salmon leap in front of
the boat; it was unlucky to whistle when on board; it
was unlucky to taste food before the fish were taken ; or
to leave the creel which contains the line mouth upper-
most after it had been cast ; or the " baler " except on its
face; or not to draw blood from the fish the first time
the lines were hauled; or to take a dead fish into a boat
before the line was shot ; or to pick up a dead body at
sea ; or to clean the fish - scales off their fishing - boots
before Saturday night ; or to meet a cat or cock in going

^ The same prejudice exists in all the fishing villages along the northern
side of the Firth of Forth.

344 UNLUCKY TIMES AND SEASONS.

to the fishing; or to carry a parcel for a friend; or to go
to sea for the first time in the season before blood had
been shed; or for a fisherman's wife to comb her hair
after sunset, if her husband's boat was at sea; or to launch
a boat with an ebbing tide; or to use a boat which had
"drowned" a man. On the other hand, it was lucky to
dream of a white sea — that is, a sea covered with white-
crested waves. It betokened a good catch the next time
the boats were out.

There were unlucky hours, days, months, and seasons.
It was unlucky to be born between midnight and one. in
the morning, for such a one saw " feart " things, such as
ghosts and apparitions, which others escaped. On Tues-
day no one would venture to pare his nails for fear of the
witches getting possession and making an improper use of
the parings. Wednesday and Saturday were particularly
unfortunate for young fisher -girls to enter upon domestic
service. It was the peculiarity of Friday that it always
went "against the weather of the week" — that is, that on
that day a change in the weather was sure to ensue.
Work begun on Saturday saw seven Saturdays before it
was finished. Work begun on Monday, on the other
hand, was speedily accomplished. Sunday was always a
lucky day; but no ship would put out of port on that
day before " the blessing was pronounced " — that is,
until morning service had ended. All unnecessary work
done on Sunday was unlucky. To yoke a horse or clean
a byre would bring its own punishment with it. But "an
oatmeal Sunday " always made " a barley week " ; or in
other words, if Sunday was fine, all the rest of the week
was bound to be indifferent weather.

So with times and seasons. The first Monday and the
first Friday of every quarter were particularly unlucky, and

CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR. 34S

no one would have ventured to give fire out of his house
at those times, for then the witches and fairies held high
revel. On Handsel Monday (the first Monday in the year)
people always lay in bed till after sunrise, for up to that
hour all the powers of evil were abroad. For six weeks
before Christmas the house must never be without water,
or a mermaid would carry away the one whose duty it was
to supply it. The same rule applied to the period be-
tween Christmas and New Year. This week was the
Sabbath of the year, when all living beings were bound to
rest from their labours and give themselves up to enjoy-
ment.

"At ween Yule an' Yearsmas
Auld wives shouldna spin,
An* na hoose should be waterless
Where maidens lie within."

It was most important that blood should be shed on
Christmas morning. Some of the more old-fashioned
people even killed a sheep as a sort of sacrifice. It was
proper, too, that every shed and outhouse about the
place — the byre, the stable, and the pig -stye — should be
cleaned out before evening. And both on Christmas and
on New Year morning, something — no matter what — was
bound to be brought into the house before anything was
taken out of it, or there would be nothing but "putting
out" all the ensuing year. With this object peats were
often laid outside the night before, to be taken in the first
thing in the morning. A custom analogous to the Yule
log in England was prevalent in some of the Moray Firth
villages about a hundred years ago.

It was usual on the last night of the year to garland the
"crook" of the house — the chimney, the couples, and the
joists — with seaweed {Fucus nodosus) gathered at ebb-tide.

346 " CHARMING."

No one would waken another on New Year's morning in
case he brought him bad luck. But early rising was none
the less a virtue. The one who succeeded in drawing the
first water from the well — "the flower of the well" — on
that morning, was certain of good luck all the rest of the
year. It was unlucky if the first person one saw on New
Year's morning was of dark complexion, and lucky if he
•was fair. A present of fish that day was an omen of
good fortune. He who landed the first fish on New
Year's Day would have the most luck in his village during
the ensuing year. But the first fish that fell off the line
when hauling the first shot that morning was always
allowed to fall back into the sea. To secure it was cer-
tain to bring bad luck.

Few traces of the older customs which so excited the
wrath of the Reformed Church as relics of "idolatry" —
that is, of Roman Catholicism — remain. But edifying
instances of the manner in which they were regarded are
to be found in the records of the kirk-sessions of the mari-
time parishes. On the 15th May 1664 the kirk -session of
Speymouth ordained " that none [of the salmon - fishers]
cast fire into their nets, and if any should do so, they
should be censured as * charmers.'" On the i6th January
1670 the skippers of Stotfield were cited before the kirk-
session of Kinneddar for the idolatrous custom of carrying
lighted torches round their boats on New Year's Eve. On
the 1 8th September of the same year intimation was made
to the congregation from the pulpit that no person should
go "to the superstitious place called the Chappell of
Grace"; and so on.

Judged by this standard, it must be admitted that the
fisher-people of the coast were a veritable thorn in the flesh of
the Kirk. In the inland districts the community was on the

GUISING. 347

whole amenable to ecclesiastical influence. But the seagoing
folk had views of their own, and acted on them in a way
which was not always agreeable to their clerical masters. It
was difficult to persuade a fisherman that gathering bait or
picking up wreck was a transgression of the Sabbath; that
"piping, dancing, guising, sporting, and singing of super-
stitious popish and heathen songs " were unbecoming " Chris-
tian gravitie and sobrietie " ; that " dressing in the clothes of
the opposite sex" by man or woman, for the purpose of
" guising," even when it was the case of a young boy who on
Hogmanay " roped himself in straw," as was till very recently
the practice of the Yule mummers in Shetland, was " a scan-
dalous transgression." The Church got its way for the time,
perhaps. The delinquents were always ready to express
"unfeigned repentance" for their offences, and even when
they could not help themselves, to "make pecuniary satis-
faction." But the terrors of the Church were unable to
subdue their hereditary independence of character, or to
expel the spirit of liberty, mirth, and enjoyment which had
been bequeathed to them by their Scandinavian ancestors.
Even when expiating their offences at the kirk door in sack-
cloth and ashes, they felt like the hero of the old ballad —

" There's nae repentance in my heart —
The fiddle's in my airms ! "

The superstitions and peculiar customs of the Moray. Firth
fishermen are perhaps more curious than useful. Their
weather-lore, again, embodying as it does the experience of
generations of keen-eyed observers, is both the one and the
other.

The weather in spring was always carefully noted. If the
last ten days of February and the first ten days of March were
fine, a dry season might be expected. If March came in

348 WEATHER LORE.

"like an adder's head, it would go out like a peacock's tail."

Again —

" As mony mists in March ye see,
As mony frosts in May will be. "

It was as important to observe the day on which a storm
broke out as the quarter from which it came. If a storm
began on Monday, it would last throughout the week. If
there was a fair day at all, it would be Friday. A storm
rising on Saturday was called a " blatter," and would " never
see Monday morning." Rain coming from the south or south-
east was called a " dreepie " : the wind generally veered to the
west or north-west, and seldom failed to blow a strong breeze.
From sun and moon, from the shape of the clouds, from
the appearance of meteors and other celestial phenomena,
important inferences might be drawn. When the sun had a
glaring colour at rising, a breeze was known to be approach-
ing. If it had a ring around it, a change of weather was indi-
cated ; but it took longer to come than that presaged by a
similar circle around the moon. Such a lunar ring had
different local names. It was called a " broch " (brooch), a
" moon-bow," " the ring," " the rim," or " the wheel," and the
old rhyme ran : —

" The brighter the wheel is,
The sooAer the breeze is ;
The dimmer the wheel is,
The farrer the breeze is."

An opening in the circle showed the quarter from which the
breeze would blow.

A mock-sun was called a " falcon " or " sun-dog," and
according to its position portended fair or foul weather.

" A falcon before,
The gale is ower ;
A falcon behind,
The gale ye shall find."

k

THE "FISHER-FOLKS OF MAVISTOUN." 349

The waxing and waning moons were powerful influences for
good or for evil. If the new moon came in on a Saturday
during harvest, very bad weather might be anticipated. One
such moon, it was said, was enough in seven years. But, as
a rule, the new moon brought as good luck as the waning
moon brought evil. If a chimney or any piece of clothing went
on fire during the waxing moon, it was an augury of riches ;
if during a waning moon, a death in the household was not
far off. No animal was ever killed for family use during a
waning moon. Full moon was the proper time for all such
work. If a pig was killed in "the first of the moon,"
the fat would all melt away in the cooking. Eggs should
always be set either at full moon or before it, and never before
six o'clock in the evening. Meteors or falling stars were a
sign of bad weather, and the wind always blew in the direction
to which they moved. The "dancers" (aurora borealis)
generally prognosticated stormy weather, except when towards
the north and in frost. Cumulus clouds were known as
" toors " (towers). The point of the horizon from which they
were seen to rise indicated the point from which the wind
would blow. Cirrus clouds went by the name of " cat's hair "
or "goat's hair," and always meant breezy weather. It is
curious to find a corruption of the name which the Medi-
terranean sailor gives to St Elmo's fire in use among the
Moray Firth fishermen. There can be no doubt, however,
that "corbie's aunt" or "covenanter," applied to the phe-
nomenon, is none other than the "corpo santo" of the
Maltese sailors.

A few miles east of the town of Nairn there existed till
almost eighty years ago a little fishing village called Mavis-
toun. The Boeotian simplicity of its inhabitants is to this day
a byword. " The fisher-gouks of Mavistoun " is a line that
occurs in a poem by a now forgotten local bard. If a tithe

350 STORIES OF THE MAVISTOUN FISHERMEN.

of the stories still current among the Nairn fishermen about
them have any foundation in fact, they were the most super-
stitious, the most ignorant, and the laziest of their kind. At
the trial of the famous witches of Auldearn one of the women
confessed that whenever they wanted fish they had only to go
to Mavistoun and repeat the following incantation, —

** The fishers are gane to the sea,
And they'll bring hame fish to me ;
They'll bring hame intil the boat,
But they'll get nane but o* the smaller sort," —

to get from the terrified fishermen as many as they wanted.
Once it is said a fisherman found a horse-shoe on the beach.
It was the first that had ever been seen in Mavistoun, and
all the wise men in the little community gathered together
to examine it. One of them at last hazarded the opinion
that it was a bit of the moon — in fact, a new moon. This
view was promptly contradicted by the man who, being the
oldest, was regarded as the wisest among them. "A moon
it was," he believed ; " but it could not be a new moon,
otherwise it would be up in the sky. For himself, he had
often wondered what became of the old moons. This settled
it. The old moons fell to the earth, and this was one of
them."

On another occasion a cow — an animal all but unknown
among fishing communities — found its way to Mavistoun.
The day was hot, and, in search of a cool place, it entered
one of the huts. A fisherman was at work within mending
his lines. Seeing the creature had cloven hoofs, horns, and a
tail, the poor man thought he was in presence of the arch
enemy of mankind himself, and immediately sprang upon the
rafters and made his escape through the roof. Soon after
this another cow strayed into the village. It was resolved
to capture it. But how to secure an animal which few of

THE SKIPPER AND THE ROWAN-TREE. 35 1

them had ever seen before was the problem. At last one of
them, pointing to its tail, observed that nature itself had
shown them how to bind it. So the cow was immediately
tethered by that appendage.

Their infallible barometer was the rowan-tree of the village.
On awakening in the morning the skipper would ask the
youngest of his crew, " Boy, hoo's the roddan ? " If the
answer was, "The roddan's noddin'" — that is, that a light
breeze was agitating its branches — he would at once give
orders to prepare for going to sea. But if the reply was, " The
roddan's doddin' " — that is, jogging from side to side, indicat-
ing that a strong wind was blowing — no power on earth would
prevail on him to fly in the face of Providence and face the
dangers of the deep. These stories, which in the neighbour-
hood are still firmly believed, will give an idea of the reputa-
tion acquired by the famous " fishers of Mavistoun."

Enough has probably now been said to show how thoroughly
old Moray — the Moray that expired hardly a hundred years
ago — differed from the Moray of the present day.

If from a purely picturesque and sentimental point of view
there is much to regret in the disappearance of the past,
there is surely more ample cause for rejoicing in the appear-
ance of the present. Whatever else can be said of it, it
cannot be alleged that Moray has lagged behind in the im-
provement of its principal — one feels almost inclined to say
its only — local industry. Shrewd, keen-witted, possessing in
an exceptional degree the perfervidum ingenium Scotorum, the
extraordinary advance that its inhabitants have made in agri-
culture, especially within the last half-century, is surely a good
augury of what may be expected from them in the future.

The main obstacle to the county's ever attaining a higher
measure of prosperity than that which it now possesses.

352 MODERN PROGRESS IN MORAY AND NAIRN.

appears to be its indifference to employing other methods of
enrichment than those of which its forefathers made use.
Stare super antiquas vias is a good rule in theory, and gen-
erally in practice. Yet one is inclined to think that "the
narrow paths in which our fathers trod " might in these latter
days be exchanged with advantage for the broader roads of
modem life, and that a more extended knowledge would
lead to a wider appreciation of the benefits of our everyday
extending civilisation. If Moray could introduce new indus-
tries, it would undoubtedly reap an equivalent profit Few
counties in Scotland are more amply endowed by nature.

Within its more circumscribed limits Nairnshire, and espe-
cially the town of Nairn, has shown a greater inclination to
march with the times. They have ventured more — some
people may even think they have ventured too much. But
with communities, as with individuals, the rule of "Never
venture never win " holds good. Energy and enlightenment
are the only factors of success.

VII.

DISTINGUISHED MEN OF MORAY

AND NAIRN

VII.

DISTINGUISHED MEN OF MORAY

AND NAIRN.

FLORENCE WILSON — LACHLAN SHAW — ISAAC FORSYTH — WILLIAM
LESLIE — JAMES GRANT — PROVOST GRANT — SIR THOMAS DICK
LAUDER — COSMO INNES — CHARLES ST JOHN — DR GEORGE GORDON
— WILLIAM HAY — WILLIAM MARSHALL — ROUALEYN GEORGE GOR-
DON GUMMING — WILLIAM GORDON GUMMING — CONSTANCE FRED-
ERICA GORDON GUMMING — ^JAMES AUGUSTUS GRANT — SIR GEORGE

BROWN.

Few names of distinction in literature, science, or art, illus-
trate the earlier annals of the district. So long as Roman
Catholicism was predominant, the Cathedral of Elgin was, as
we have seen, the " Lantern of the North," the vivifying
centre of culture and intelligence for the whole of the king-
dom north and west of Aberdeen. But from the time of its
abolition till the commencement of the present century, the
records of both Moray and Nairn are exceptionally barren in
persons who have risen above mediocrity either intellectually
or socially. The genius of the people seems to have run in
more material and practical channels.

The one writer of eminence that Morayshire has produced
is the medieval scholar Florentius Volusenus, or, to give
him what is supposed to have been his real name, Florence

3S6 FLORENCE WILSON.

Wilson. And even his is a reputation which never extended
much beyond the cultured and scholastic circles of his own
time. It may be doubted if one in a thousand of his fellow-
countrymen of the present day has read a line of his works,
or even heard his name. Yet the mere list of those with
whom he is known to have been in relations either of friend-
ship or of business, points to an eminence which was no more
to be obtained without merit three centuries ago than it is
in our own day. He was the protege of no less than four
Cardinals of different nations — Wolsey of England, Lorraine
and Du Bellay of France, and Sadoleto of Italy. He was
the confidential correspondent of Thomas Cromwell, after-
wards Earl of Essex. Boece, Vaus, Gavin Dunbar, and John
Bellenden had the highest opinion of him, and took an
interest in his fortunes. Stephen Gardiner, the celebrated
Bishop of Winchester; Fisher, Bishop of Rochester; Fox,
Bishop of Hereford; and William Pigot, Henry VIII.'s
ambassador, were amongst the number of his friends.
Bartholomew Anneau, Principal of Trinity College, Lyons,
went out of his way to eulogise his virtues and his learning
to his countryman, the Regent Arran. Conrad Gesner, the
"Pliny of Germany," had the same opinion of his merits.
George Buchanan, who knew him intimately, loved him as
a brother, and lamented his untimely death in an epitaph as
pathetic as it is elegant : —

* * Hie musis, Volusene, jaces carissime, ripam
Ad Rhodani — terra quam procul a patria !
Hoc meruit virtus tua, tellus quae foret altrix
Virtutum, ut cineres conderet ilia tuos. "

As it is, his fame rests not on his philosophical works, on
which probably he set the greatest store, but on his * Dialogus
de Animi Tranquillitate ' — a book which seems to have been
the recreation of his " leisurable hours," and whose attractions

LACHLAN SHAW. 357

for us rest rather on its easy style, its calm philosophy, its
tender and loving sympathy for weak and erring humanity, and
its just observations of men and manners and things, than on
its elegant Latinity and its wide learning.

In 1775, more than two hundred years after the death of
Florence Wilson, the bibliography of the district received its
next important -contribution by the publication of Lachlan
Shaw's * History of the Province of Moray.' Though not
himself a native of Moray, its author had many qualifications
for becoming its historian. He was bom close to its borders ;
almost the whole of his long life had been spent within it ;
while his position as a parish minister, first in Nairnshire
and afterwards in Elginshire, had brought him in contact
with all classes of the community in both counties. He
was the son of Donald Shaw, a respectable farmer at Rothie-
murchus in the county of Inverness, who claimed to be a
descendant of the old family of the same name who in the
thirteenth century settled on the lands of Rothiemurchus
as tenants of the bishops of Moray, and ultimately became
the proprietors of the estate. Born probably in 1686, he
received the rudiments of his education at Ruthven in Bade-
noch, then the only school of any importance on the whole
course of the river Spey. In 1712 he was parish school-
master at Abernethy, and in 1716, after having completed
his theological studies at the University of Edinburgh, he
became minister of the parish of Kingussie. From King-
ussie he was, in 1719, transferred to Cawdor, and from
thence, in 1734, to Elgin, where he spent the remaining
forty years of his life. In 1774 he resigned his charge,
and died on 23d February 1777, in the ninety-first year of
his age and in the sixty-first year of his ministry.

Defective though it is, in many respects, Shaw's * History

358 THE PIONEERS OF PROGRESS.

of the Province' is still our best authority on the subject
The faults of the work are not so much those of the author,
whose zeal and diligence are beyond all praise, and who
had qualified himself for the task by many years of personal
exploration through the district, and of patient study of local
records, as of the imperfect state of historical and archaeo-
logical science in his day. No book, however, has suffered
so much at the hands of incompetent editors. The second
edition, which was published in 1827 by John Grant, book-
seller in Elgin, is so disfigured by extraneous additions and
intolerant bigotry that the original text cannot be distin-
guished; while the editor of its third and last edition, pub-
lished in Glasgow in 1882, has rendered the confusion which
prevails as to the early history of the province more con-
founded by adding an undigested mass of lengthy notes,
intended to correct the errors of the original, compiled from
the works of authors amongst whom Richard of Cirencester
holds a distinguished place.

About the commencement of the present century the
dormant energies of the people seem to have quickened
into life ; and from that time forward both counties have
contributed their own share of persons who have achieved,
if not distinction, at least a meritorious position in all the
varied spheres of human activity.

It was in Elgin that the symptoms of reviving energy
first became apparent. Within the old cathedral city there
was a little knot of clever, pushing, far-sighted men, who,
though seemingly bent on nothing more than advancing
their own interests, or indulging their own individual tastes
and proclivities, were really by their enlightened energy
and example doing the whole of the community an incom-
parable service. Though most of them never attained to

ISAAC FORSYTH. 359

more than a local reputation, they were in reality the pioneers
of returning progress. Few who know anything of the history
of the district will refuse to such men as Isaac Forsyth,
bookseller and farmer, the originator of the first local cir-
culating library, to James Grant, the founder of the first
local newspaper, to Provost Grant, the promoter of the
first local railway, to William Leslie, the historian of local
agriculture, and to their little band of fellow - workers, the
credit due to their exertions and example. They had much
to contend with. They had to fight against ignorance, preju-
dice, and inveterate obstinacy. They had to teach their
countrymen the latter-day gospel of hard work, patriotic
pride, and self-reliance.

Scarcely any of them owed anything to fortune. Isaac For-
syth, the son of a small merchant in Elgin, had no education
beyond what he received at the " sang-schule " of the burgh.
James Grant's father was the driver of the mail-coach between
Banff and Elgin, and was even still more badly off in the
matter of early instruction. Provost Grant was the son of a
small farmer. The only one who had any pretensions to
social position, or enjoyed any of the advantages which
social position confers, was William Leslie, who was the son
of the proprietor of the estate of Balnageith, near Forres, and
had at least the benefit of a university education.

Isaac Forsyth's career, though perhaps the least interesting,
was certainly not the least useful, of the four. He was born
in 1768, and he died in 1859.^ He was one of the founders,
and for long the secretary, of the Morayshire Farmers' Club ;
he helped largely to induce the Government to assume the
care of the ruins of the cathedral ; and the local works which

* His elder brother, Joseph, is a much more widely known person.
His imprisonment at Valenciennes, and his 'Remarks during a Tour in
Italy,* at one time attracted considerable attention.

360 THE REV. WILLIAM LESLIE.

from time to time he published, and which to this day, except
as regards their historical information, are still accepted as
authorities, did much to attract public attention to a district
of Scotland which till then was practically unknown. Two
of these books still locally bear his name. The one, a
* Survey of the Province of Moray, Historical, Geographical,
and Political,' published in 1798, is called "Muckle Isaac" ;
the other, an * Account of the Antiquities, Modern Build-
ings, and Natural Curiosities of the Province of Moray,
worthy of the attention of the Tourist, with an Itinerary of
the Province,' of which the first edition appeared in 18 13,
and the second, " adjusted to the passing time," was pub-
lished in 1823, is, from its smaller size, known as "Little
Isaac."

The joint author of the former and the sole author of the
latter work was the Rev. William Leslie, minister of St
Andrews-Lhanbryde, a man whose talents and eccentricities
have kept his name alive to the present day. An original
both in mind and manners, stories about him are innumer-
able. It is said that in the original MS. of " Little Isaac "
he hazarded the bold suggestion that St Paul the apostle
might have been the cause of the introduction of Christianity
into Moray. No such statement, however, occurs in any of
the published copies of the book.

Leslie's great work, his * General View of the Agriculture of the
Counties of Nairn and Moray, with Observations on the Means
of their Improvement, drawn up for the consideration of the
Board of Agriculture and internal Improvement,' which was
published in 18 13, is by far the best description we possess
of the agricultural condition of the district, and the habits and
customs of the peasantry, at the end of the eighteenth and
beginning of the present century.

MINISTERIAL CERTIFICATES. 36 1

But of all his literary productions the most characteristic,
as they are also the most amusing, are the certificates which,
in the course of his ministerial duties, or out of the sheer
benevolence of his heart, he from time to time composed.
Very many of these exist, and are to be found among the
treasures of collectors of local literary curiosities. We must
confine ourselves to two examples. The one is a beggar's
" token " : —

To all his Majesty's loving subjects who can feel for a fellow-
sinner in distress, I beg to certify that the bearer, W J ,

is the son of my old Bellman, a man well known in the neighbour-
hood for his honest poverty and excessive sloth. The son has
inherited a full share of his father's poverty and a double portion
of his improvidence. I cannot say that the bearer has many active
virtues to boast of ; but he is not altogether unmindful of Scrip-
tural injunctions, having striven, and with no small success, to
replenish the earth, though he has done but little to subdue the
same. It was his misfortune to lose his cow lately, from too little
care and too much here caff [chaflfl ; and that walking skeleton
which he had used to call his horse has ceased to hear the op-
pressor's voice or dread the tyrant's load. The poor man has now
no means of repairing his loss but the skins of the defunct and the
generosity of a benevolent public, whom he expects to be stimu-
lated to great liberality by this testimonial from theirs, with
respect, &c.. Will. Leslie.

Darklands, 29/A Dec, 1829.

The other is to a woman, who was a competitor for a prize
given by the Duke of Gordon to the domestic servant who
had remained longest in one situation : —

Lhanbryd Glebe, Aug. ^isty 1836.

By this writing I certify and testify that K B came into

my family and service at the term of Whitsunday Eighteen hun-
dred and fifteen, and without change has continued to the date
hereof : being a useful canny servant at all work about the cows.

362 JAMES GRANT.

the dairy, the sick nurse, the harvest — hay and com — the services
of the parlour and bedchambers, and of late years mainly the
cook, that in my regards she merits any boon that our club has
to bestow, having in 181 5, in her teens, been a comely tight lass,
tho' now fallen into the sere, and but little seductive, though a
little more self-conceited now than she was then — as much perhaps
a good quality, when not in excess, as a fault

Will. Leslie.

This excellent and eccentric man, who had been fifty years
the minister of his parish, and who preached regularly and
never had an assistant till towards the end of his ninetieth
year, died in 1839, aged nearly ninety-two.

James Grant, the historian of the newspaper press, and
the founder of the first newspaper in the north of Scotland
between Aberdeen and Inverness, was born in the last years
of the eighteenth century. His father, who died from the
result of a driving accident when James was quite a boy,
left a family of four sons and one daughter. The poor widow
had a severe struggle to maintain so large a flock. Anything
except the merest elementary instruction for her children was
beyond her means. But there was " good grit " in the lads ;
and one after another, when he had come to reasonable age,
set about educating himself. James, as soon as he was fit
to do anything for himself, was apprenticed to a baker. But
all his spare hours were spent in reading. John, the second
son, the author of the inimitable " Penny Wedding," followed
in his brother's footsteps. He taught himself literary com-
position ; he taught himself drawing — the plates in the " Penny
Wedding," though rough in execution, are brimful of char-
acter; he was keenly ambitious; he ultimately succeeded
in establishing a bookseller's and publisher's business in
London ; and if death had not checked his career, he might
have equalled, and perhaps outstripped, the success of his
elder brother.

THE 'ELGIN COURIER/ 363

But James, the first-born, was destined to be the pride
and glory of the family. He was little more than a lad,
working at his trade of baker, when, encouraged by the
acceptance of some articles he had written for the ' Statesman,'
a London evening paper, and the * Imperial Magazine,' a
respectable London monthly, it occurred to him to start
a newspaper in conjunction with his brother John. John
was to attend to its business affairs ; James was to be its
editor. The idea seemed sheer midsummer madness. There
were already two papers in the North of Scotland — the
* Aberdeen Journal,' founded in 1746, and the * Inverness
Courier,' founded in 181 7 — and these were ample to supply
the very meagre needs of the district. No one, either in
Moray or Nairn, wanted anything more. And the obstacles
to success were numerous. Elgin was an obscure little
town of only 5000 inhabitants, much more curious about
its own affairs and those of its neighbours than of the con-
cerns of the nation ; the stamp duty was sevenpence. More
fatal than either of these considerations was the fact that
neither James nor John had a penny of capital. But the
two pushing brothers managed to find some one who had ;
and in the year 1827 the * Elgin Courier' was started. His
sister, the youngest of the family, who assisted James in his
bakery business in the little shop at the head of Lossie Wynd,
used to tell in after-years how she sold her brother's loaves
and papers over the same counter. The paper was not
at first the success the brothers anticipated. Three years
after its establishment the circulation was only 216. In
another three years its profits had risen to between ;£^4oo
and jCS^^ a-year. But even this rate of progress was not
sufficient to make it a paying concern; and in 1833 James
Grant severed his connection with it, and set off to London
to seek his fortune in literature, which had now become the

364 NEWSPAPERS OF MORAY AND NAIRN,

ruling passion of his life. His departure accelerated the ruin
of the * Courier.' In 1834 it finally collapsed. The presses,
types, &c., were bought by one person, the copyright by
another.

Out of the ashes of the * Elgin Courier ' sprang the * Elgin
Courant,' which was almost immediately started by the pur-
chaser of its stock-in-trade. And this respectable paper, which
had adopted its name and its principles from the * Edinburgh
Courant,' then the most influential newspaper in Scotland,
continued to be the sole organ of public opinion in Elgin till
1845, when another paper appeared under the title of the
' Elgin and Morayshire Courier.' The latter carried on a some-
what precarious existence till 1874, when it was purchased by
Mr James Black, the then proprietor of the * Courant,' and the
two were amalgamated under the name of the * Elgin Courant
and Courier.' In 1892 it was sold by Mr Black to its present
proprietors. As the only exponent of Radical principles
within the two counties, it enjoys a very considerable circula-
tion. Its almost immediate success was the means of attract-
ing other competitors into the journalistic field. In 1855 ^^®
* Elgin and Morayshire Advertiser ' was started. But it had
never much root, and in 1870 or 187 1 it withered away. In
1880 the ' Moray and Nairn Express,' an offshoot of the * Aber-
deen Journal,' was founded to propagate Conservative prin-
ciples in the district. Its circulation has gone up by leaps
and bounds, till it is now larger than any other weekly paper
in the county. Of late it has adopted the name of *The
Northern Scot ' as a sub-title, and probably before long the
old local name will be merged in the more ambitious appel-
lation. The only other newspaper in Elginshire is the * Forres
Gazette,' founded in 181 7 by John Miller, and now the
property of and conducted by his son, Mr James D. Miller.

The first newspaper started in Nairnshire was the * Mirror,

ELGIN MAGAZINES. 365

which appeared in 184 1. It is said to have received its
name from the happy inspiration of Mr Falconer, the sheriff-
substitute of the county, who hit upon it when gazing on his
own shrewd kindly face in a looking-glass one morning when
shaving. It was merely a monthly paper at first, but latterly
it was issued fortnightly. In 1853 it met its first and only
rival in the shape of the * Nairnshire Telegraph.' The follow-
ing year both papers were combined under one management.
Its present editor and proprietor is Mr George Bain, the
author of a ' History of Nairnshire ' — one of the best county
histories extant. The only other paper in Nairnshire is a
little weekly sheet, called the ' St Ninian Press,' established in
1892 by Mr John Fraser, bookseller, Nairn.

James Grant's subsequent career in London must be
sketched in very few words. His first appointment was on
the parliamentary staff of the * Morning Chronicle.' But
though it brought him five guineas a-week, his work was
distasteful to him; and accordingly in 1835 he left it. Next
year he obtained something more to his liking, in the editor-
ship of the * Monthly Magazine,' a periodical of large circula-
tion and high literary repute, which had been founded about
a quarter of a century before by Sir Richard Phillips. Maga-
zine work had always had attractions for him. Even when in
Elgin, in the midst of his laborious duties on the 'Courier,'
he had found time to publish the * Elgin Annual' and the
* Elgin Literary Magazine.' Every line of the first, except a
few poems contributed by friends, and almost every line of the
second, was written by himself. His powers of production
seemed limited only by the exigencies of food and sleep. His
editorship of the * Monthly ' brought him, for the first time, into
connection with a young writer who was at that time known,
if he could be said to be known at all, under the nom de plume
of " Boz." " Boz " had contributed some sketches of London

366 THE 'MORNING ADVERTISER.'

street life to the magazine before it had come into Grant's
management; and the new editor thought them very good.
But he had not the slightest idea who he was. With some
difficulty he discovered that his name was Charles Dickens ;
that he lived in Furnival*s Inn ; and that he was a parlia-
mentary reporter on the staff of the very paper he had so
recently quitted. He wrote to him, asking on what terms
he would continue his contributions to the magazine. The
young man replied to the effect that he was very busy writing
a serial for Messrs Chapman & Hall — it turned out to be the

* Pickwick Papers ' ; that this work occupied the most of the
time he could spare from his duties as a parliamentary reporter ;
and that if he was to continue his sketches, he could only do
so at the rate of j£S, 8s. a sheet. This was only half a guinea
a page, but it was more than Grant could induce the pro-
prietor of the magazine to give. In less than six months after
this, " Boz " was able to command a hundred guineas a sheet
from the proprietors of any of the leading periodicals of the
day.

After he had been for a considerable time editor of the

* Monthly,* Grant found himself in a position to make a
venture on his own account. He purchased from Captain
Marryat the * Metropolitan Magazine,' a periodical which had
been started by Thomas Campbell and Tom Moore, and to
which he had been for some time a contributor. It was a
fairly successful speculation. When he disposed of it some
years later, he was able to sell it for the same price as he had
given for it. Once more he betook himself to newspaper
work. There was then a daily metropolitan paper, called the
'Morning Advertiser,' which had been started in 1794 as the
organ of the licensed victuallers of London, and was managed
by a committee of the body. The paper had for some
time been going back, and it was deemed necessary by the

k.

THE * CHRISTIAN STANDARD/ 367

managing committee that an effort should be made to redeem
its position. In October 1850 it was resolved to double the
size of the paper — a step which involved an additional ex-
penditure of ;;^i 0,000 a-year — and to appoint a new editor.
Grant was chosen. The result abundantly justified this
decision. In four years the circulation went up from 5000
to 8000, and the yearly profits from ;;^6ooo to ;^i 2,000.
More gratifying still was the fact that the paper, which had
hitherto circulated only amongst public-houses and luncheon
bars, was now to be found on the reading-room tables of almost
every West End club in London.

At first he seems to have rejoiced in his freedom from
the trammels of editorial harness. But he had worn it so
long that he soon began to feel uncomfortable without it.
Regular methodical work had become the very essence of his
existence. He felt he could not live without it. Accord-
ingly, "chiefly to please himself," and, in some degree, to
propagate his own religious opinions, he established a weekly
religious paper, which he called the 'Christian Standard.'
But after a time he gave it up. Yet to the end of his days
he continued his connection with journalism by contributing
a weekly letter to the * Dumfries Standard,' and another to a
local paper in Wales. He died in London in 1879, ^t the

»

age of seventy-four.

Few men had lived a more laborious life. Heavy and
exacting as were the duties of his profession, they very far
from exhausted his energies. All his days, in addition to
his contributions to periodical literature, he had gone on
writing books. Novels, sketches, recollections more or less
biographical, religious works, flowed, one after another, from
his almost too facile pen. Some were large, some were
small ; some were good, some were indifferent ; some repre-
sented a certain amount of research, others were dashed

368 THE "PROVOST OF SCOTLAND."

off currente calatno. Their tale amounts to over sixty ; they
constitute almost a small library of themselves. Of all his
works, his * History of the Newspaper Press, its Origin,
Progress, and present Position,' of which the first two volumes
were published in 187 1, and the third and concluding volume
in 1872, will probably be longest remembered. It is a
contribution to the literature of the subject by a fair and
open-minded expert, and contains many personal touches of
great interest.

If to one James Grant the district owed its first newspaper,
to another it owed its first railway. This was James Grant,
solicitor and banker (1801-1872), who from 1848 to 1863
was Provost of Elgin, and who for his energy, his public spirit,
and the success which, ultimately at least, attended all his
enterprises, was known by the sobriquet of " the Provost of
Scotland." In conjunction with his brother John he founded
in 1840 the Glen Grant Distillery at Rothes, an establishment
which has now an output of 290,000 gallons a-year. But it
was his work in connection with railway enterprise which
earned for him the regard of his fellow-citizens. To this he
devoted the best years and the best energies of his life ; and
before his efforts were crowned with success he had many a
hard battle to fight.

The relations of the municipality of Elgin towards the
harbour of Lossiemouth have been already referred to. On
the 25 th November 1844, according to its minutes, a com-
munication was received by the town council "from Mr
James Grant, banker, for forming a railway from Stotfield
(Lossiemouth) harbour to Elgin, and from Elgin to Rothes."
The project was favourably received. An Act of incorporation
for the Morayshire Railway, dated i6th July 1846, was
obtained; and on loth August 1852 its first portion — from
Lossiemouth to Elgin, a distance of five and a half miles — was

THE MORAYSHIRE RAILWAY. 369

opened for public traffic. The second Act of the Morayshire
Railway, which was intended to open up the district of Rothes,
Craigellachie, and Strathspey, was procured in 1856. About
the same time another company stepped into the field. This
was the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway. There
was already a line between Aberdeen and Keith — the Great
North of Scotland — and another between Nairn and Inverness
— the Inverness and Nairn Railway. The new company pro-
posed to occupy the still unoccupied space between Keith
and Nairn, and thus to complete the line between Aberdeen
and Inverness. As communication would be thus provided
between Elgin and Orton, there was no further necessity for
the Morayshire Railway constructing a second line between
these two places. The Morayshire Railway accordingly de-
cided to limit its exertions to the construction of a line
between Orton and Rothes — a distance of three and a half
miles. On the 23d August 1858 this line was opened for
public traffic, and on the same day communication was
established between Elgin and Orton by the opening of the
Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway. The original
design of the Morayshire Railway was thus effected.

But as, through the instrumentality of the Inverness and
Aberdeen Junction Railway, the Morayshire Railway had been
saved the expense of the construction of its Elgin and Orton
section, it felt it was justified in a further extension of its
scheme. It accordingly proceeded with the construction of a
line from Rothes to Dandaleith — a distance of three miles.
An important step had thus been taken towards the attain-
ment of what had been from the first its ultimate object —
the "tapping" of the great Highland district of Strathspey.
Very soon, however, disputes began to arise between the
Morayshire Railway and the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction
Railway. Before long these became so acute that the Moray-

2 A

370 RAILWAY ENTERPRISE IN THE NORTH.

shire Railway conceived it had no option but to cut itself
entirely adrift from a line which had now become an active
opponent. In i860 it accordingly applied to Parliament for
powers to construct a direct line from Elgin to Rothes, and
thus to connect its two sections. The Inverness and Aberdeen
Junction Railway naturally objected to this, and a furious
fight began. It was then that Provost Grant's real work
commenced. He threw himself heart and soul into the
struggle. Any one watching him would have thought it was
a personal matter he was battling for. And so it was in a way.
For the Morayshire Railway was the child of his own brain,
and its interests concerned him as much as if he had been
its sole proprietor. And when he returned to Elgin after
having won the victory, he was accorded a reception such as
had been bestowed on no public man within the memory of
any one then living. This, the third section of the Moray-
shire Railway, was constructed with great rapidity, and was
opened for public traffic little more than a year after it had
obtained its Act.

The year 1861 was one of great energy in the promotion
of railways in the North. It gave birth to the Highland
Railway, a line originally intended only to connect Perth with
Forres. And it also saw the passing of an Act promoted by
the Great North, for the construction of what was called the
Strathspey Railway, whose object was the establishment of
direct communication between Dufftown and Abernethy.
Neither of these trenched directly on the province of the
Morayshire Railway. On the contrary, the latter was actually
extending the Morayshire Railway's original scheme of ot)en-
ing up the Strathspey Highlands. It was plain that if the
Morayshire and the Strathspey Railways could come to
terms, there was a much better chance of the idea being
carried out than if each had contented itself with working

GREAT NORTH OF SCOTLAND RAILWAY. 37 1

on its own account. An arrangement was speedily arrived at ;
and in 1861 the Morayshire Railway, on the suggestion of
its indefatigable founder, applied to and readily obtained from
Parliament the necessary authority to bridge the river Spey at
Craigellachie, and thus to effect a connection there with the
Strathspey Railway. The great viaduct of 51 chains which it
proceeded to erect cost between ;^i 2,000 and ;£^i 3,000. Its
last rivet was clinched on the ist June 1863 ; and on the ist
July of the same year the Craigellachie Junction Railway, as
it was called, was opened for public traffic. On the same day
the Great North of Scotland Railway, in connection with the
Keith and Dufftown and Strathspey Railways, under the par-
liamentary agreement between all the companies, commenced
to work the whole system of the Morayshire railways. This
arrangement continued till the 30th September 1880, when
the Morayshire Railway was finally merged in the Great North
of Scotland Company.

The total capital authorised by Parliament for the con-
struction of its various sections amounted to ;^i86,i33.
The total length of its lines was twenty-two miles. Mr Grant,
who had been its secretary and law agent from its inception,
was in 1855 appointed its chairman, and retained that position,
for seventeen years, till his death in 1872.

The impulse thus given to progress, intellectual, material,
and social, by the four men whose careers we have now
sketched, soon extended beyond their immediate spheres.
Any one who has the patience to peruse the minute-book of
the Town Council of Elgin will readily perceive the rapidity
with which it ramified into the quicquid agunt homines of the
Roman poet. A spirit of inquisitive energy had been gener-
ated which was never thereafter to be quenched. From this
time Moray and Nairn have been able to hold their own with
other districts in Scotland.

372 SIR THOMAS DICK LAUDER.

It is impossible, with the limited space at our disposal, to
signalise all those who, profiting by this example, proceeded
" to hand on the lamp of life." We must content ourselves
with briefly mentioning those who have most materially added
to the lustre of the district.

Many of them were not even natives of Moray, but merely
connected with it by ties of affinity, office, or inclination.

Such, for example, was Sir Thomas Dick Lauder (1784-
1848), who wrote the history of the Morayshire Floods of
1829 — one of the most graphic, and at the same time
elaborate, descriptions of such catastrophes in literature. He
was an East Lothian man, the son of Sir Andrew Lauder,
Bart, of Fountainhall, and a descendant of the famous Scotch
judge Lord Fountainhall, equally famous for his * Decisions '
and his * Historical Observes.' But he had married the
daughter and heiress of George Cumin, the proprietor of
Relugas, an estate near Forres, at the junction of the Devon
and the Findhorn, "one of the most beautiful spots in
Scotland." And here, after retiring from the army, he lived
till 1 83 1, when he removed to another of his family seats,
the Grange House, near Edinburgh. Although a man of
great mental and bodily activity, the quiet life of a country
gentleman seems to have suited him better than that of a
soldier. At any rate it was at Relugas that he developed all
those varied accomplishments which led Lord Cockburn to
say of him that he could have made his way in the world " as
a player, a ballad-singer, a street fiddler, a geologist, a civil
engineer, or a surveyor, and easily and eminently as an artist
or a layer-out of ground."

It was, however, his literary talent which in the end gained
him his greatest distinction. His first production was a paper
on " The Parallel Roads of Glen Roy," read before the Royal
Society of Edinburgh. A sketch which he contributed to

COSMO INNES. 373

*Maga/ of "Simon Roy, gardener at Dunphail," had the
honour of being mistaken for one of Sir Walter Scott's.
And his historical romances, * The Wolfe of Badenoch ' and
*Lochandhu,' were distinctly framed on the model of the
work of the Great Magician, whose friend he was, and for
whom he had, like most other people, the profoundest ad-
miration. Both these books are very clever, very bright,
very vigorous, and rich in local colouring, and as such
deservedly find many readers at the present day. Unfortu-
nately, however, their " history " is hardly to be relied on ;
and as literary compositions they are undoubtedly inferior to
his two later works, *The Morayshire Floods' and * Scottish
Rivers,' which are masterpieces of picturesque description and
narrative.

Another equally warm friend to Moray, and equally uncon-
nected with it by birth, was Cosmo Innes, who was its sheriflf
from 1840 till 1852. Morayshire was the country of his fore-
fathers. His father was a scion of the house of Innes of
Innes, — one of the oldest families in the district, — and was at
one time proprietor of the estate of Leuchars, near Elgin.
But he sold it to the Earl of Fife, and took a seventy-six
years' lease of the estate of Durris on Deeside from the
Earl of Peterborough. In this estate he embarked all his
means, building a mansion-house and otherwise improving
it. But on the death of Lord Peterborough, the Duke of
Gordon, as next heir of entail, brought an action of reduc-
tion of the lease. A decision adverse to the tenant ensued ;
and in 1824 Mr Innes was ejected from a place to which he
was much attached, on which he had spent his whole fortune,
and which he fondly hoped was to be the home of himself and
his successors for many a generation.

It was at Durris that, on the 9th September 1798, the

374 HIS LITERARY WORK.

future Sheriff of Moray and Nairn was born, the youngest
but one of a family of sixteen children.

It is, however, with his connection with the two counties
of Moray and Nairn that we are more immediately concerned.
His marriage to Miss Rose of Kilravock in 1826 had con-
firmed him in his hereditary liking for the district. His
appointment to the sheriffship put the crowning touch on
this. "Of all his appointments," says his daughter, Mrs Hill
Burton, in her Memoir of her father, " this was the one which
caused him most pleasure."

His best talents were always at the service of his beloved
Moray. No man did more to illustrate its history, or to give
it the prominence which it merited, but which, till he took its
records in hand, it had never adequately received. In his
introduction to the * Registrum Moraviense,' which he edited
for the Bannatyne Club, he for the first time told, as it de-
served to be told, the history of the bishopric and the con-
stitution of its collegium. In his * Legal Antiquities' he for
the first time explained in language that was intelligible, and
with an authority which was undoubted, the nature of its early
rulers, its maormors, its toshachs, and its thanes. In the
Cawdor and Kilravock books which he edited for the Spald-
ing Club he related the story of two of its principal families ;
and in his * Sketches of Early Scotch History ' he amused
himself and his readers by describing the old home-life of
the country gentry in both the one county and the other.
With the exception of his private letters, there are hardly
any of his writings so genial, so picturesque, so thoroughly
charming, as his descriptions of the Campbells of Cawdor
and the Roses of Kilravock.

It is to be regretted that his correspondence has never
been published. His letters are admirable, because they
reflect the man. They disclose his untiring industry, his

HIS PRIVATE LETTERS. 375

keen intelligence, his unflinching resolve never to take a thing
on trust, but to probe every matter to the core ; his worries
and his pleasures, his intense kind-heartedness, his wide
capacity for friendship, his sunny philosophy, his deep
religious spirit. "Your philosophy," he writes to his friend
Captain Dunbar-Dunbar of Sea Park and Glen of Rothes,^
" I approve, but find it rather hard to practise. I suppose
most men do. But there are minds more sunny than others,
just as one man's digestion is better than another's. At any
rate, I am not inclined to think a man has little feeling
because he is not always in the dumps." "I left a jolly
party at 11 last night," he says in another letter to the
same correspondent, " in the middle of Lancashire (where
I sat beside Mrs Gaskell, the writer of the remarkable
Lancashire books), and I was in court here at 11 this
morning, and now we are in the dust and clang and shuffling
of witnesses and bullying of counsel of a trashy jury trial.
It isn't pleasant just now, but I know that, like the succession
of seasons, like the alternation of night and day, it is good
and needful for man's health — sometimes work, sometimes
play." " I notice what you say about money," he remarks
in another, "and the loss of it, with great interest. If you
have plenty and never bother your head with it, you have
more than the philosopher's stone could give. You defend
yourself so well that you can afford to forgive the impertinence
(if I really committed it) of insinuating that you were too
much taken up with that * secret curse.' Alas ! the man who
throws love of mammon in another's teeth is always a poor

^ The well-known writer of * Social Life in former Days, chiefly in the
Province of Moray,' of which the first series was published in 1865 and
the second in 1866 ; and of * Documents relating to the Province of
Moray,' published in 1895, which is a sequel to his two preceding works.
All these books are of great value to the student of local and social
history.

376 HIS LOVE OF THE COUNTRY.

devil who has no mammon to love." " I am horribly over-
worked still," he writes in January 1867. "Nonsense! I like
work, and never am so well as when working hard. Black
thoughts will cross the sky at times, but in general I make fair
weather well enough. I have no business to write to my
friends when the blue devils have a grip of me." " My phil-
osophy is never to get old, and it holds good to a certain
point 1 "

In another letter to the same friend he gives his impressions
of London and Paris : " I hope I may find you in town about
the end of this month. You will come back learned in
London — a learning I have never got. It is the worst place
for any sustained and consistent work I ever tried. Nothing
but necessity of business — an appeal case to fight, or a
volume of Acts of Parliament to edit, in the Tower (of old)
and Museum and Chapter House and State Paper Office —
ever kept me steadily and soberly occupied in London. Paris
is much better. There are more men (and women) to sym-
pathise with any intelligent study, and the evening talk whets
the appetite for a new dish of work in the morning." His
love of the country, especially of Moray, and his fondness for
sport, come up again and again in these charming and char-
acteristic letters. " You fellows living always in the country,"
he says, writing from Ullapool, where he is spending his
autumn vacation, " have no idea how this wild free life de-
lights a man shut up in a town for most of his life. For my
part, too, I have a good deal of the savage instinct of sport in me,
and used long ago to say that next to a charter-hunt came the
pleasure of a wild chasse. Now that charters have been all
turned out, the wild taste prevails, and I turn any faculties I
have, to grapple with the beasts and birds and fishes."

It was his innate love of sport which led to his intimacy

CHARLES ST JOHN. 377

with another good friend of Moray, whose writings were the
first to make the wealth of its natural history known to the
world. This was Charles St John (1809- 1856), a retired
Treasury clerk, the son of General the Hon. Frederick St
John, who was the second son of Frederick, second Viscount
Bolingbroke, whose * Wild Sports and Natural History of the
Highlands,' ' Tour in Sutherlandshire,' and * Natural History
and Sport in Moray ' are classics of their own peculiar kind.
In the Memoir which he prefixed to the last of these works,
Innes describes in his own genial way his introduction to
its author. "I became acquainted with Charles St John,"
he says, "in my autumn vacation of 1844, while I was
Sheriff of Moray. He was then living at Invererne, below
Forres, and I used to shoot sometimes on an adjoining
property. We had some common friends, and messages
of civility had passed between us, but we had not met;
when one day in October I was shooting down the river-
side and the islands, in the Findhbrn, making out a bag
of partridges laboriously. It was a windy day, and the
birds going off wild spoilt my shooting, which is at best
uncertain. While I was on the island, two birds had gone
away wounded into a large turnip -field across the river.
I waded the river after them, and was vainly endeavour-
ing to recover them with my pointers, when a man pushed
through the hedge from the Invererne side, followed by a
dog, making straight for me. There was no mistaking the
gentleman — a sportsman all over, though without any * get-
ting up' for sport, and without a gun. I waited for him,
and on coming up he said he had seen my birds get
up, and offered to find them for me if I would take up
my dogs. When my pointers were coupled, he called * Grip,'
and his companion, a large poodle with a Mephistopheles
expression, began travelling across and across the drills,

378 INNES AND ST JOHN.

till suddenly he struck the scent, and then with a series
of curious jumps on all fours, and pauses between, to
listen for the moving of the birds, he made quick work
with bird No. i, and so with bird No. 2. I never saw
so perfect a dog for retrieving, but he was not hand-
some. After this introduction St John and I became fre-
quent companions. I soon found there was something in
him beyond the common slaughtering sportsman ; and he
must have discovered that the old sheriff had some tastes
with which he could sympathise. The remainder of that
season we were very much together, and often took our
exercise and sport in company."

If it was a happy introduction for Innes, it was a lucky one
for St John. It led to his becoming a popular writer, under
the kindly old sheriffs fostering auspices. " On one occasion
we went together to join a battue at Dunphail ; but the weather
was too bad, and after waiting some hours without taking our
guns out of their cover, St John and I returned to Knockomie,
a cottage of relations of mine near Forres, who have made it
my second home for many years. We travelled in St John's
dog-cart through steady heavy rain. I was well clothed in a
thick topcoat, and he in a pea-jacket of sealskins of his own
shooting, so that there was no suffering from the weather as
we drove down through the shelter of the Altyre woods ; and
the way was shortened to me by my companion telling story
after story of sport and adventure, or answering with wonder-
ful precision my questions about birds, beasts, and fishes.
He stayed with me that night, and when we were alone after
dinner, I broached a subject which had often come into my
head since we were so much in each other's society. Why
should he not give the world the benefit of his fresh enjojnnent
of sport — his accurate observation of the habits of animals ?
At first he ridiculed the idea. He had never written anything

ST JOHN'S *WILD SPORTS.' 379

beyond a note of correspondence — didn't think he could
write, &c., &c. But at length he listened to some argument.
It was very true he had too much idle time, especially in
winter — nothing he so much regretted as that he was an idle
man. He had some old journals that might be useful. He
would note down every day's observations, too. In short, he
would try his hand on some chapters next winter. And so it
came to pass that during next winter I was periodically
receiving little essays on mixed sport and natural history,
which it was a great pleasure to me to criticise ; and no one
could take the smooth and the rough of criticism more good-
naturedly than St John. As these chapters gathered size and
consistency, it became a question how to turn them to account,
and this was solved by accident. At that time I was in the
habit of writing an article occasionally for the * Quarterly,' and
I put together one on Scotch sport, using as my material some
of St John's chapters. The paper pleased Mr Lockhart. * It
would itself be sufficient,' he said, *to float any number.
Whether the capital journal laid under contribution be your
own or another's I don't know, but every one will wish to see
more of it.' I received the editor's letter at Knockomie, and
next day the reading of it to St John served for seasoning, as
we took our shooting lunch together beside the spring among
the whins on the brae of Blervie. Our course was now plain.
I divided the money produce of the * Quarterly ' article with
St John, who rejoiced greatly in the first money he had ever
made by his own exertions ; and on my next visit to London
I arranged for him the sale of the whole chapters, the produce
of his last winter's industry, which Mr Murray brought out in
the popular volume of * Wild Sports and Natural History of
the Highlands.' "

St John's Hfe was much happier after he had, through
Innes's assistance, found occupation for his idle hours.

380 'NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT IN MORAY.*

The *Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands'
was followed by his *Tour in Sutherlandshire/ in which he
gave his recollections of his life at Rosehall, before " he had
discovered the region best suited to his taste and happiness,
in the Laigh of Moray." Once found, however, it became his
home. His first residence in the county was at Invererne,
whose neighbourhood " to the basin of Findhorn — the resort
of innumerable wild -fowl ; the sandhills of Culbin, so curi-
ous, almost so marvellous ; the * Black Forest,* stretching
away behind Brodie and Dalvey; the *01d Bar,' where the
seals love to sun themselves on the land ; the mouth of the
Muckleburn, the favourite haunt of the otter, — made it a most
desirable " habitation for a naturalist and sportsman like him.
But after spending a short time at Nairn, and afterwards
in Edinburgh, he in 1849, ^^^ the sake of the education of
his children, took up his quarters in Elgin, where, in the old
Archdeacon's Manse — the "South College," as it has come
to be called — he spent the latter, and perhaps the happiest,
years of his life.

His best - known work, * Natural History and Sport in
Moray,' was a compilation from his journals and letters, and
was edited after his death by his friend the old sheriff. It
is a perfect mine of wealth to the local naturalist, especially
as regards the birds of the province of Moray ; it is a perfect
delight to every lover of nature. There are no immutable
canons of literature, and there can be none till fashion is
deprived of having any say in the matter. So long as it
does not offend against the common rules of taste and
grammar, a simple, breezy narrative of personal adventure
and experience will always have greater charms for most
men than the more elaborate productions of those who
have got their knowledge of life only through the cobwebbed
windows of a library. St John's book belongs to this class.

DR GORDON OF BIRNIE. 38 1

It is the production of an intelligent, educated, observant,
unaffected gentleman. Hence its wide and deserved
popularity.

St John, though, from the vogue which his writings
obtained, the best known, was far from being the only,
naturalist of Moray in those days. There were then, as
now, students of nature as zealous as himself.

Prominent among them was Dr George Gordon of Birnie.
His line was different from that of St John. It was more
extended, more all-embracing, perhaps also more scientific.
And there was nothing of the sportsman about him. He was
simply a student. But he had the same sympathy with
nature, and the same habits of accurate observation ; and his
career was equally useful and estimable. The son of the
minister of Urquhart, he was born in 1801 ; was licensed
in 1825; was ordained minister of Birnie in 1832, and
after fifty-seven years' ministry in this little country parish,
whose population at last census numbered only 402, and whose
church is only seated for 211 persons, resigned his cure
in 1889, and died in Elgin in 1893. It is difficult for those
unconnected with the district properly to understand the
place this most estimable and venerable man held in the
estimation of the community. He owed it at least as much
to his exceptional graces of character as to his high scientific
attainments. He was, within his own limited sphere, one of
the most remarkable and interesting of men. His whole
long life of ninety -three years was devoted to his native
district, to which he was passionately attached. He had
studied it — its archaeology, its natural history, its geology, its
fossiliferous remains, its botany, its folk-lore, and its people
— as no one had ever done before him, bringing to the task
a mind singularly acute, singularly judicious, and singularly

382 DR GORDON OF BIRNIE.

free from prejudice. The result was that he had come to be,
and was universally regarded as being, an encyclopaedia of
local lore and tradition, whose rich stores were at the dis-
posal of every one who chose to seek them. Of a tall
commanding presence — he was at least 6 feet high — ex-
ceptionally strong and healthy, walking, even in advanced
old age, with something like the spring of youth, with keen,
piercing black eyes, rugged features, concealed yet not en-
tirely hidden by a shaggy growth of venerable white beard, of
courtly manners, with an expression in which it was hard
to say whether kindliness or dignity was most predominant,
always carefully and neatly attired in clerical black, he was
one of the most noticeable features in the streets of Elgin
during the last three years of his life. His career was singu-
larly deficient in incident; but no man had made a better
use of his time and of his abilities. He was an exemplary
parish minister; he became the friend, and sometimes
even the instructor, of such men as Darwin, Agassiz, Hugh
Miller, Murchison, Lyell, Geikie, Ramsay, Huxley, Lubbock,
Yarrell, and Hooker — in short, of all the most distinguished
scientists of his day. Huxley named one of the most extra-
ordinary reptilian fossils which have been found north of
the Grampians — the Hyperodapedon Gordoni — after him.
Professor Judd paid him a similar compliment in connection
with his discoveries of a new form of Dicynodonts ; and the
services he rendered in other branches of science have been
acknowledged by such men as Dr Joass, Macgillivray, and
Harvie - Brown. The walls of his homely old - fashioned
manse at Birnie, half hidden among luxuriant trees and
shrubs, and in summer bright with clustering roses, had
received as many distinguished visitors as the college hall
of many a great university. As for his tiny little church,
venerable in containing the Ronnell bell, and as having been

"WILLIE" HAY. 383

built on the site of the first cathedral of the diocese, it had
seen almost as many archaeological pilgrims, under his hospi-
table guidance, as the great "Lantern of the North" itself.
Dr Gordon was the most unassuming of men, and the greater
part of his lifelong labours in the cause of science was
utilised by others rather than by himself. A few papers in
the * Zoologist,' the ' Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,*
and other scientific periodicals, and a small work, the * Collec-
tanea to the Flora of Moray,* published in 1839, were all that
issued from his own pen. A list of his writings, by Professor
Trail, will be found in the * Annals of Scottish Natural
History,* No. 10, April 1894. It is to be regretted that they
have not been collected in a more abiding form. Dr Gordon
was mainly instrumental in founding, in 1836, the Elgin and
Morayshire Literary and Scientific Association, to whose
museum — one of the best provincial collections in Scotland —
he from time to time gifted his more important scientific
treasures. In geology and zoology it is particularly strong.
It owes this, in great measure, to George Gordon.

Moray has as yet given birth to no poet, though, like
other districts of rural Scotland, it has had its own share
of rhymesters and poetasters. Prominent among them is
William, better known as "Willie** Hay, to whom local
partiality has accorded a higher rank than his writings appear
to deserve. He was of humble extraction. Born in Elgin
in 1794, he is said to have been the son of Harry Hay,
a sheriff officer, and of " Meggie ** Falconer, a well - known
vendor of apples and gooseberries, who kept a stall in the
High Street. The records of his early life are scanty, but
he seems to have been employed by Dr Robert Paterson of
the H.E.I.C.S. as stable-boy, and by him introduced to Mr
John Anderson, the rector of the Academy, who, recognising

384 "WILLIE'' HAY.

his abilities, undertook the charge of his education. In 181 1,
on the recommendation of Mr Anderson, he was engaged by
the mother of the Rev. Dr Gordon of Bimie to assist him and
his brothers with their lessons. The following year he ob-
tained the situation of resident tutor in the family of Mr Gum-
ming of Logic. Logic is a picturesquely situated place near
Forres, on the banks of the Findhorn. The scenery around
is in the highest degree beautiful, and there is perhaps a
greater number of country gentlemen's seats in its immediate
vicinity than in any other part of the county. Here for the
first time the clever, gawky lad was introduced to refined
and cultured society. Amongst other constant visitors to
Logic was Mr (afterwards Sir) Thomas Dick Lauder, who was
a near neighbour of Mr Cumming's, and his " literary tastes
and intellectual powers," we are told, "proved of lasting
benefit " to the young student. This was probably the hap-
piest period of Hay's life. But of course it could not last
His ambition was to enter the Church, and accordingly in
1 8 1 9 he gave up his situation and proceeded to Edinburgh to
complete his education. His first object was naturally to
take his degree. It was a process that took time. In order
to support himself he took to private teaching. He soon
managed to get employment. For the next few years his life
was a very laborious one. But he was of an independent
spirit, and succeeded in holding his own with Fortune. In
due time he entered upon his divinity course, but soon dis-
covered that his theological studies were anything but con-
genial to him. After a rather prolonged period of indecision,
he ultimately relinquished his ambition of " wagging his head
in a poopit," and resigned himself to an existence which he
designed to divide between literature and tuition.

He had attended Professor Wilson's class of Moral Phil-
osophy, and had taken a high place in it. And it was accord-

THE EDINBURGH MORAYSHIRE SOCIETY. 385

ingly to him that he turned for assistance in carrying out his
views. " Christopher North," of * Blackwood's Magazine '
fame, became his patron. Hay in his turn became Wilson's
literary henchman. He contributed to * Maga ' on his own
account a translation of George Buchanan's Latin poem of the
"Franciscans," and between 1835 and 1837 about a dozen
translations from the Greek ; but he did a great deal of work
for Wilson otherwise, of which no record remains. Through
Wilson he procured an introduction to Mr William Blackwood,
and some years afterwards went abroad as secretary to his son
Alexander, and as tutor to the late Mr John Blackwood, the
second youngest son of the founder of the firm.

In 1838 he paid his last visit to Morayshire, and died on
the 2 2d July 1854, after a long illness, aggravated by the
affliction of total blindness.

It is almost entirely to his connection with the Edinburgh
Morayshire Society^ that Hay owes his reputation. This
association, which was founded on 14th February 1824 for
the purpose " of affording relief to occasional objects of mis-
fortune or distress from the county, persons visited with any
sudden calamity, or in such pressing exigencies as to be fit
objects of the Society's bounty," and which in 1875 was
amalgamated under its present appellation of the Edin-
burgh Morayshire Club with the Edinburgh Morayshire
Mechanics' Society, instituted in 1837 or 1839, was in the
habit, like other societies of its kind, of following up its
annual business meetings with a dinner, at which Spey-
side whisky was drunk, a haggis from the Gordon Arms
at Elgin was consumed, a ram's-hom mull from Manbeen

^ The London Morayshire Club, a somewhat similar institution, which
now does a great deal to promote education in the county, was founded
in 1813; fell into abeyance; was reconstituted in 1872, and has attained
sufficient importance to have had its "Annals" published in 1894, by
James Ray and W. Calder Grant.

2 6

386 THE LAUREATE OF THE SOCIETY.

was passed round the table, and the members present spent
a jolly evening in talking over their early recollections of
" Morayland," in drinking patriotic toasts, and singing songs
in its honour. Of this Society Hay became a member
in 1828. Being a devoted " Morayshireener " — to use his
own phrase — and at the same time of a very convivial
nature, he soon became a favourite at these gatherings.
And having produced one or two songs which took the
fancy of the members, he was ultimately elected its Laureate.
From that time he felt it incumbent upon him to com-
pose a song for every recurring anniversary meeting. " It
was amusing," says his friend Dr William Rhind^ in his
* Recollections of William Hay,* reprinted from the * Elgin
and Morayshire Courier,' and published in 1855, "to watch
the enthusiasm with which he performed the duties of his
high and mighty function of bard. First of all he had
to seek about for a fit subject of a song — perhaps months
before the meeting ; then he had to pitch upon an air
to which to adjust the versification. Often did he croon
this air over and over. . . . Then the composition of the
verses went on by fits and starts. A stanza or two, in
the enthusiasm of the moment, might be communicated to
an acquaintance — then a sough would go abroad of the
nature of the coming song; but he was very chary of
showing the completed piece to any but his most inti-
mate friends till the appointed evening of meeting. Then,

^ William Rhind, surgeon (1797 -1874), the son of a fanner at Inverlochty,
Elgin, practised first in London, then in Elgin, and ultimately in Edinburgh.
He was the author of many useful works on Natural History, Geol<^y,
Zoology, Geography, and other branches of science. In 1872 he edited a
periodical called the 'Ephemera,' which, however, lasted for only a year.
But the book by which he is best remembered is his * Sketches of the Past
and Present State of Moray,* with illustrations by Donald Alexander, pub-
lished in 1839— now one of the rarest, and consequently most expensive,
of local books.

*THE UNTIE O' MORAY/ 387

when the proper time arrived, the Laureate was called upon,
and he rose with great solemnity, taking the little manuscript
book of his song from his pocket, but prefacing the perfor-
mance with an extempore prolegomenon and a pinch of
snuff. . . . On several occasions the song of the evening pro-
duced so much enthusiasm that it was taken up and sung
repeatedly in the course of the night and morning's revel,
while the productions [of previous years] were ever afterwards
stock songs of the Society, and were sung, as a matter of
course, at all the meetings." These songs, which are entirely
devoid of anything but local interest, were afterwards col-
lected, along with those of other " bards," in a volume entitled
'The Lintie o' Moray,' of which the first edition, edited by
Mr George Gumming, W.S., the secretary of the Society, was
published in Forres in 1851, and the second in Elgin in
1887.

Hay always regarded his contributions to * The Lintie ' as
his best productions, probably on account of the rapturous
reception they invariably received. But, like other authors,
he was the worst possible judge of his own works. His
translations from the Greek for ' Maga,' and above all a series
of graphic sketches of scenes and characters of rural life,
which originally appeared in the * Ephemera,' but were after-
wards published in a volume under the title of * Tales and
Sketches by Jacob Ruddiman, A.M., of Marischal College,
Aberdeen,' are infinitely superior from a literary point of view.
The * Tales ' in particular, though old-fashioned and conven-
tional in style, are full of admirable touches, and show keen
powers of observation. It is to be regretted, for the sake of
poor "Willie" Hay's reputation, that they have never been
reprinted.

Hay's life, on the whole, was a wasted one. Utterly desti-
tute of self-reliance, and tinged with a melancholy which he

388 WILLIAM MARSHALL.

owed perhaps to his delicate health, he never gave his talents
fair play* But, happier than many more distinguished and
more talented than himself, he left behind him a large circle
of devoted friends, and his memory is still kindly remem-
bered in his native city, and beyond it

Whatever may be the estimate of its literary children, there
can be no doubt that one of the most eminent musicians of
Scotland was born within the boundaries of the old province
of Moray. This was William Marshall of Keithmore,
whom Bums — a by no means easily-satisfied critic — pro-
nounced " the first composer of strathspeys of the age." His
career is as interesting as it was extraordinary. Bom in 1748
of humble parentage, he entered the service of the Duke of
Gordon at the age of twelve, under the house-steward at
Gordon Castle. The conscientiousness with which he dis-
charged his duties, and his excellent manners, brought him
speedy promotion, and he rose to be butler and ultimately
house-steward. He left Gordon Castle in 1790, and shortly
after took the large farm of Keithmore from his Grace. Four
years later the duke appointed him factor for the Auchindoun
district of his estates. This office he held till 181 7, when,
feeling old age approaching, he resigned both the office and
the farm, and retired to Newfield Cottage at Dandaleith, near
Craigellachie, a house he had built two years previously as
a retreat for his declining years. And here he died on the
29th May 1833, and was buried in the kirkyard of Bellie,
near Fochabers. He had married at the age of twenty-five,
and had a family of five sons and one daughter, all of whom
rose to social rank and position very different from that
from which their father had started. Three of his sons,
through the influence of the Gordon family, got commissions

HIS MECHANICAL ABILITIES. 389

in the army ; another died a major in the East India Com-
pany's service. His only daughter married Mr John Mac-
Innes, an extensive farmer and factor at Dandaleith.

Though it is as a musician that Marshall is chiefly remem-
bered, he was a remarkable man in many other respects. He
was entirely self-educated, but he managed to acquire a good
knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, optics, architecture,
and land-surveying ; and he had even taught himself a little
law. As a mechanician he was extraordinarily expert. A
wonderful clock, made by his own hands, which showed the
months and days of the year, the moon's age, the time of
the sun's rising, the signs of the zodiac, with the sun's place
for each day in degrees and minutes, which was an everlasting
calendar, and did many other astonishing things, and which
required winding only once in four or five weeks, is still to
be seen at Gordon Castle. Another, less intricate in its
mechanism, but interesting from the fact that its motive
power is a finely regulated jet of water, is preserved at his
Grace's hunting - lodge of Glenfiddich. No one ever tied
flies more neatly, handled a rod or a gun better, or wrote
a more beautiful hand. He was skilled in falconry, and used
to train hawks for the duke. He loved, and was proficient
in, all outdoor sports. Few could match him in leaping or
running. As for dancing, he excelled in it, and kept it up
till he was eighty years old.

His taste for music was very early manifested, and,
fortunately for him, it was fostered by the duke and the
other members of the ducal family. As a violin-player his
masterly bowing was only equalled by his correctness of ear.
"His style was characterised by fulness of intonation, pre-
cision, and brilliancy of expression, equally removed from
vulgarity and false ornament on the one hand, and over-refine-

390 MARSHALL AS A VIOLINIST.

ment of touch on the other ; and so inspiring was the effect,
that when he played reels or strathspeys, the inclination to
dance on the part of old and young became irresistible."
Once when dining with a party of friends a blind fiddler
came by and played underneath the window. One of the
company, advancing towards it, asked the man to hand
up his fiddle, as there was a "loon" inside just beginning
music, whom they wished to hear perform. He did so,
and Marshall played some of his strathspeys in his own
inimitable style. The old man listened in silence. " Na,
na ! " he said, when his instrument was handed back to
him ; " yon was nae loon : yon could be nane but Marshall
himseP."

It was not till he was well advanced in years that Marshall
could be induced to collect his compositions for publication.
He had been often begged to do so by the Duke of Gordon
and others, but his modesty forbade his acceding to their
requests. At last he yielded to the persuasions of the
duchess. "If it was not," said the duke to Marshall,
laughingly, "that you have submitted to the behests of a
lady, I should have been mightily offended." In 1822,
accordingly, his first volume of * Scottish Airs, Melodies,
Strathspeys, and Reels' appeared. It was dedicated to the
Marchioness of Huntly, and contained about 175 tunes of
different kinds, many of which had been previously printed
on single sheets for local use. A modest note to the title-page
informed the public that several of the strathspeys and reels
which it contained had been published by other collectors with-
out his permission. " Of this," he said, " he did not much
complain, especially as he had not till now any intention to
publish them himself." His only complaints were, their not
mentioning his name as their composer, " which, for obvious
reasons, were by some neglected; and in particular, their

MARSHALL AND THE GOWS. 39 1

changing the original names given by him to other names,
according to their fancy. And this being not generally known,"
he went on, he thought it necessary to "apprise the public
that this work is entirely his own composition, and cannot be
claimed by any other person whatever." Foremost among
these offenders was Nathaniel Gow, the son of the celebrated
Neil Gow, who, in one or other of the six collections of reel
tunes published by him, had helped himself without acknow-
ledgment to much of Marshall's work. In the * Glen Collec-
tion of Scottish Dance Music,' the first part of which was
published in 1891 and the second in 1895, the editor
observes : " Nathaniel Gow paid particular attention to
Marshall's work. * The Countess of Dalkeith,' * Honest men
and bonny lassies,' * Johnny Pringle,' *Look before you,'
*Look behind you,' 'The Doctor,' *The Duchess of Man-
chester's Strathspey,' and * The North Bridge of Edinburgh,'
were not the names originally bestowed by the composer upon
his tunes, but were those given them by Gow, who at the same
time suppressed Marshall's name. Not confining themselves
to altering names, the Gows tinkered some of their victim's
tunes. A notorious instance is ' Miss Dallas,' which is found
in Gow's fourth collection as * The Marquis of Huntly's Snuff-
Mill, or the Royal Gift,' and asserted to be a composition of
Neil Gow's. One or two notes are altered, the main difference
being that the tune is lowered one note from G to F major."
Marshall, however, was not the man to give himself much
trouble about such treatment. The labour of composition
was for him its own reward. He continued writing reels and
strathspeys to the end, happy if his melodies gained the
approbation of his wife, his severest critic, and of his cultured
patrons at the castle. In 1845, ^ft^'" ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ twelve years
dead, appeared the second volume of his compositions, con-
sisting of 81 airs, jigs, and melodies, named, for the most

392 MARSHALL AS A COMPOSER.

part, after his own private friends, or the friends of the ducal
circle.

During the course of his long life of eighty-four years, Marshall
is credited with having written 114 strathspeys, 84 reels, 21 jigs,
3 hornpipes, 2 marches, and 38 slow airs, — " the whole form-
ing," says Mr Glen, in the introduction to the work already
quoted, "a collection of melodies which, for variety and
beauty, are unsurpassed by any other Scottish composer."
Many of them have acquired a national reputation. Many,
too, have been wedded to immortal verse. To Marshall's
" Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey " Burns set the words " O'
a' the airts the wind can blaw." For " The Marquis of Huntly's
Strathspey" Skinner wrote his admirable verses beginning
" Tune your fiddles, tune them sweetly " ; and to " Mrs Hamil-
ton of Wishaw " Thomson adapted his exquisite lyric, " My
love is like the red, red rose."

A large number of his compositions were the more or less
impromptu outcome of some incident in the domestic history
of the family to which he owed so much, and to which he was
so much attached. " When the late Duke of Gordon, then a
young man, and Marquess of Huntly, set out on his Conti-
nental tour, a very tender scene took place at the castle. The
elder branches embraced him, and expressed their grief in
tears and murmurings. The younger children clung to their
brother's knees and arms, and in sharper notes gave vent to
their feelings. Marshall was present during this scene, and
taking up his violin, immediately produced his beautiful air of
* The Marquess of Huntly's Farewell.' In this air he endeav-
oured in the first part to imitate the grief of the parents, and
in the latter bars the wailing of his young sisters," interspersed
with the cheery rejoinders of the young Marquis. Nor is the
element of humour wanting ; for it is said that Lord Huntly,
overcome by the pathos of the scene, was at last constrained

THE GORDON CUMMINGS OF ALTYRE. 393

to take a very hasty leave and to make a precipitate retreat
down the stairs of the castle ; and this Marshall imitates in
the series of runs with which the measure closes. Much in
the same way Nathaniel Gow afterwards imitated the cries of
the Edinburgh fisherwomen, mingled with the chiming of the
music-bells in his celebrated air of " Caller Herrin'." In like
manner, when the new bridge over the Spey, erected in 1 8 1 5
by Mr Simpson of Shrewsbury, after a design by Telford, was
finished, Marshall celebrated the event in the admirable strath-
spey which he called "Craig Elachie Bridge"; and many
other examples might be cited.

A portrait of Marshall's handsome, venerable, and most
kindly person, by Moir, painted at the request and at the ex-
pense of George, fifth Duke of Gordon, and from which the
well-known engraving is taken, once hung in the hall of Gordon
Castle. It was afterwards presented by his successor, the late
Duke of Richmond, to Marshall's son-in-law, Mr Maclnnes,
and is now in the possession of a descendant. Miss Cruick-
shank of Dufftown. Another relative, Mr W. R. Skinner
of Drumin, possesses the valuable violin by Stanier, presented
to Marshall by the duke, and which is said to have cost ;£^ioo
over a century ago.

The province of Moray has contributed its fair share of
distinguished travellers to the history of the country. In
Morayshire more than one member of the family of Gordon
Gumming, and in Nairnshire Colonel Grant of Househill —
" Grant of the Nile " — have won for themselves a name and
conferred reputation on the district, by extending our know-
ledge of the habitable globe.

Sir William Gordon Gordon Gumming of Altyre and
Gordonstoun, second baronet of the line, had by his two
marriages a family of sixteen sons and daughters. All his

394 ROUALEYN GORDON GUMMING.

sons were born sportsmen, and most of them had a strongly
developed taste for foreign travel, and an unusual talent for
observing and describing what they had seen. Alexander
I^ENROSE, the eldest, who succeeded to his father's title, was
the friend of, and almost as good a naturalist as, Charles St
John. But it was his younger brother, Roualeyn George,
who first brought the name of Gordon Gumming prominently
before the world.

He was born in 1820. Having, after he left Eton, selected
a military career, he went out to India and joined the Madras
Cavalry. But the climate did not agree with him, and soldier-
ing he soon found too slow for him. He sold his commis-
sion and started off on a hunting expedition. This brought
him many trophies but no money ; and ere long he returned
to his home in Scotland, where he had not long to wait
forgiveness from his idolising relations. Shortly after his
return his father bought him a second commission — this time
in the Cape Mounted Rifles. One would have thought there
was a sufficiency of excitement to be found in such a life in
those days. Roualeyn was of a different opinion. To one
to whom from his boyhood salmon-fishing in Morayshire and
roe- and deer-stalking in the noblest forests of Ross-shire and
Sutherland were second nature, the trammels of civilised life
were as irksome as boots and shoes to the negro soldier.
There was then a practically unknown world in South Africa
beyond the limits of Cape Colony. Roualeyn resolved to
go and explore it. If he did not win fortune, he would at
least have the excitement which was as necessary as food or
drink to his daring, ardent nature. A second time he sold
his commission, and with the proceeds purchased a com-
plete hunter's kit, and in 1843 left Grahamstown for the
interior, with the intention of combining the callings of trader
and hunter.

\^

HUNTING ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 395

His first expedition was only as far as the Vaal river. His
second was to Kuruman in Bechuanaland. He had little of
anything that seemed like sport to a born Nimrod like him-
self, till he had once again crossed the Vaal river. Already
the larger game were retreating before advancing civilisation.
But once in the country of the Bechuanas his most eager
hopes were satisfied. Antelopes, oryxes, lions, buffaloes,
gnus, rhinoceroses, giraffes, zebras, and other animals
abounded. It was a hunter's paradise. Advancing as far
as the Bamangwato mountains — the first white man "who
had ever penetrated so far into the interior," where " his axe
and spade had to pioneer the way which others have since
followed" — he bagged his first elephant, after a dangerous
encounter, and visited Sicomy, the chief of the district, who,
in daily apprehension from an attack of the Matabele, was,
with his tribe, at that time in hiding among the wild caves
and secluded retreats of those rocky mountains.

In the course of this expedition he fell in with a poor Bush-
man who had in his youth been captured by Dutch Boers at
a massacre of his countrymen, and had absconded in con-
sequence of their cruel treatment. This diminutive creature
had been named Ruyter by his Dutch masters. His affection
was gained by the present of a suit of clothes and a glass of
gin. He remained the faithful companion of all Roualeyn's
subsequent wanderings, and ultimately accompanied his master
home to Scotland. Roualeyn also, during this excursion, made
the acquaintance of Dr Moffat, the great missionary, and of
his son-in-law, Dr Livingstone, whose hospitality he enjoyed,
and whose friendship he secured. In after years, when the
" Lion Hunter's " hairbreadth escapes and feats of sportsman-
ship, hitherto unparalleled, had begun to be discredited by a
certain section of the British public, Livingstone went out of
his way to bear testimony to the veracity of his much-maligned

396 LIFE ON THE "VELDT."

brother Scot, affirming that he had not told the half of his
adventures to his incredulous countrymen.

After having been absent for more than a year, Roualeyn
returned to Grahamstown. But he did not stay long there.
He was eager to return to the wild, free, roving life which
suited him so well, and which he loved. He longed to be
once more scouring the "Veldt" on horseback, in his old
grey kilt and Badenoch brogues, potting the "boks" when
they came at nightfall to drink at the fountains, passing sleep-
less nights on the watch for lions, pitting his manhood against
the bravest bulls in a herd of elephants, living on coffee and
the brandered flesh of the animals that he slaughtered, sleep-
ing at night, wrapped up in a blanket, by the side of his
ox-waggon home. His third expedition was again to the
Bamangwato country, where he bagged his fifteenth elephant,
but found the lions too numerous to be agreeable. It did
not last long. In February 1847 ^^ was back again at
Grahamstown, with a store of ivory and ostrich - feathers,
which he sold for something like ;^iooo — a sum which
went a long way to recoup him for the expenses of his
previous excursions.

On the nth March he was off once more. This time he
took the route from the military station of Colesberg across
the Vaal river, through the territory of the chief Mahura, to
the Maritsani river. Ultimately he came to the valley of the
river Limpopo, which now forms the northern boundary of
the Transvaal. This expedition was less fortunate than its
predecessors. Two of his horses were killed and consumed
by lions. One of his party was seized by the neck by a lion
and killed before it could be driven off. And so fatal were
the attacks of the tsetse-fly upon his stock that he had to
send a messenger to Livingstone's camp for help to return to
Colesberg.

cumming's last expedition. 397

Roualeyn^s fifth and last expedition (March 1848) was
again to the Limpopo region. On this occasion he had the
advantage of being accompanied by a friend — a Mr Orpen,
" a mighty Nimrod," son of the Rev. Dr Orpen of Colesberg.
Starting from Colesberg with three waggons "well-manned
and stored," the travellers in due time reached the Vet river.
Here they were rejoiced at the sight of one of the most
wonderful displays that Roualeyn had ever witnessed during
his varied wanderings. "On my right and left the plain
exhibited one purple mass of graceful blesboks, which ex-
tended without a break as far as my eyes could strain : the
depth of these vast legions covered a breadth of about 600
yards." Scarcely had they passed when another troop,
numbering thousands, cantered by. The whole country
was alive with game. Zebras, blue wildebeests, hartebeests,
buffaloes, sassabys, elands, abounded. Lions, too, were met
with, and afforded brilliant sport. Roualeyn shot his hun-
dredth elephant. The " cruise " bade fair to be amongst
the most glorious of his experiences. But in the midst of
all these bright prospects Mr Orpen was nearly killed by
a leopard, and Roualeyn was prostrated by an attack of
rheumatic fever.

From that time till its conclusion, though far from barren
in results, it was more or less a chapter of accidents. One
misfortune seemed to follow another. The horse of the Bush-
man "boy," Ruyter, was ripped up by a buffalo, — Ruyter
himself having a narrow shave for life. The stock suffered
much from want of water. Fourteen of the horses and fifteen
head of cattle died. The Boers were unfriendly, and were
reported to be contemplating an attack. It was possibly,
therefore, with something like a feeling of relief that at sun-
down on the 1 8th March 1849 — exactly a year since they
had started — the travellers with their waggons entered the

398 HIS COLLECTIONS.

town of Colesberg and took up their quarters opposite the
old barracks.

Gordon Cumming's wanderings had now lasted five years.
He was far from being satiated with African sport or tired
of his adventurous life. But his health was not so good as it
had been. He felt he had been overtaxing his powers. His
nerves and his constitution had been considerably shaken by
rheumatic fever and the strength of the scorching African
sun.

On the 7th June he set sail for England, taking with him
his faithful Ruyter, the Cape waggon which had been his
home all those years, and his invaluable collection of sport-
ing trophies. Altogether his impedimenta weighed upwards
of 30 tons.

Once at home, he was brought face to face with the ques-
tion of how he was to maintain himself. Notwithstanding some
fairly profitable ventures as a trader, he had not succeeded
in making his fortune. He had no fixed income, and it was
necessary for him to live. The only project he could hit
upon to provide the requisite means was to exhibit his col-
lection. In this business he spent the remainder of his life.
For a time he went about the country with it, visiting several
of the chief cities of the kingdom, everywhere drawing large
audiences by the vivacity of his descriptive lectures and the
novelty of his exhibits. It was one of the greatest attrac-
tions of London in 1851 — the memorable year of the first
Great Exhibition. But some eight years before his death he
gave up this roaming, and settled down with his collection at
Fort Augustus, where he erected a large hall for its reception.
Travellers by steamer up and down the Caledonian Canal have
nearly an hour's detention at the Fort while the vessel passes
the locks. This interval Gordon Gumming ingeniously turnM
to advantage. When the steamer stopped, a tall, strikingly

*FIVE YEARS OF A HUNTER'S LIFE.' 399

handsome figure, clad in full Highland dress, and followed by
two magnificent white goats, was seen standing on the bank.
His picturesque appearance naturally led tourists to ask who
and what he was. When they were told that it was the famous
African hunter, and that his collection, which was hard by, was
open to the inspection of any one who chose to pay a small
fee for admission, there were few who did not avail themselves
of this pleasant way of passing an hour, which many would fain
have prolonged. He himself lived in the grim old Fort, and
there he died on the 24th March 1866, at the comparatively
early age of forty-six. His funeral was a very striking one.
The whole population of the little village, and Highlanders
from many a distant glen, with whom he was immensely pop-
ular, followed his coffin, on which were laid his sword, his
Bible, his Highland bonnet, and his plaid, carried in proces-
sion, his piper at the head, to the steamer by which it was to
be conveyed to Inverness. From thence it was taken by rail
the same day to Elgin, and finally laid at rest in the quaint
old burying-ground of Michael Kirk, Gordonstoun, four miles
from Elgin, where so many of his family lie.

Few modern books of travel have produced so great a sensa-
tion as his * Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Far Interior
of South Africa,' which was published in 1850 by John Murray
of London.^ Its graphic and vigorous diction, its wealth of
incident and adventure, the intense love of nature — of streams
and mountains and woods, of beasts and birds — which per-
vaded it, rendered it immediately popular. And it, almost
for the first time, introduced the reading world to a portion of
the globe which, fortunately or unfortunately, has since then
engrossed, and still engrosses, so large an amount of the atten-
tion of his countrymen. Yet his book, eloquent. as it is, but

^ It was reprinted in 1893. I^ ^^5^ ^ condensed edition of it appeared
under the title of * The Lion-Hunter of South Africa. '

400 COLONEL GORDON GUMMING.

feebly disclosed the profound depths of its author's character.
The fearlessness of his nature, his courage, his daring — in a
word, his manliness — could hardly, when the truthfulness of
his narrative was at length reluctantly conceded, be gainsaid.
But the warmth of his affections, his chivalry, his tender-
heartedness, the deep strain of romance and poetry which he,
no doubt, inherited from his Celtic ancestors, and which led
one who knew him well to say of his utterances on his death-
bed that they were like " a page of Ossian," were known to
few outside his family circle. He was a thoroughly natural
man. His eccentricities of dress and manner in his later
years were not the affectations they appeared to the public,
but the distressing result of sunstroke while lying fever-stricken
on the African desert. Controlled within more conventional
limits — if this had been possible to such a man as he — the
life-work of Roualeyn Gordon Cumming might have been of
greater benefit to his country, and his name and fame thereby
rendered more enduring than, as things turned out, they are
in the future likely now to be.

His brother William, now Colonel Gordon Gumming,
who was nine years his junior, had all Roualeyn's love of
sport, and a great deal of his adventurous energy. But with
him, the soldier has always predominated over the traveller,
and the sportsman been subordinated to the more imperious
demands of duty. He joined the East India Company's
service in 1846 as ensign; was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant in 1853, and to that of captain in 1858. From
an early period of his career he was intrusted with duties
of a responsible character. In 1856 he was appointed
Deputy Bheel Agent, and Political Assistant to the Agent
of the Governor - General at Maunpore. But it was in the
anxious times of, and subsequent to, the Mutiny that his

MISS C. F. GORDON GUMMING. 401

varied abilities found their fullest scope. In 1858 he
accompanied the Southpoora field force to the hills as
Political Officer; and during that year he was no less than
four times in action. In 1859 he was appointed Political
Agent for the Bheel district. Here he was the only white
man in a territory as large as Yorkshire. He not only
managed to uphold the authority of "John Company," but
he succeeded in organising an effective police force from
the wild men among whom his lot was for the moment
cast. In 1 86 1 he joined the Bombay Staff Corps, and
not long after retired with the rank of lieutenant - colonel.
Having returned home, he was in 1872 appointed to the
command of the 6th Volunteer Battalion of the Gordon
Highlanders; and in 1881 he received the honorary rank
of colonel. In his delightful book, *Wild Men and Wild
Beasts,* which was published in 1861 by Messrs Edmondston
& Douglas of Edinburgh, he describes, with admirable point,
simplicity, and vigour, some of his most notable experiences
in camp and jungle.

But it is their sister, Miss Constance Frederica Gordon
CuMMiNG, the twelfth child of Sir William's first marriage,
who has most largely contributed to the literary reputation
of the family. Miss Gordon Gumming stands in the fore-
front of lady-travellers of the day. In the course of her twelve
years' wanderings she has seen more of the world than falls to
the lot of most of her sex. Her voyages have extended from
the Hebrides to the Himalayas, to Ceylon, the Fiji, Friendly,
Navigators, and Society Islands, to California, Japan, China,
to the Hawaiian volcanoes, to America, and to Egypt. The
results of her travels have been recorded in ten admirable
works, which have obtained a wide and deserved reputation.

Of late years her energies have been devoted to the promo-

2 c

402 "WORK FOR THE BLIND IN CHINA."

tion of a novel and interesting phase of mission work, which
she has explained at full length in her * Work for the Blind in
China.' The story of her connection with this may be thus
briefly stated : She had finished her long travels, and had
taken her ticket home from Shanghai, when she was per-
suaded to cancel her passage and to proceed to Peking. Here
she found herself a guest at the London Mission. Under the
same roof there was lodging a young Scotch colporteur named
Murray, whose arm had been torn off" in his father's saw-mill
near Glasgow, and who, from the time of his arriving in China
eight years previously, had been possessed by a great longing
to help the very numerous and totally neglected blind. Four
months before Miss Gordon Cumming's arrival, Murray had
succeeded in perfecting a very simple system of representing
the 408 sounds of Mandarin Chinese by making Braille's
embossed dots represent Numerals, and then merely number-
ing the sounds. By this means blind persons are enabled,
after a very short period of instruction, to read and write
their own language correctly.

When the success of this method had been fully proven,
Mr Murray set himself to consider whether the same benefits
might not be extended to illiterate and poor sighted persons.
In a very short time he solved the problem. By using black
lines, plainly visible to the eye, instead of the embossed dots
he had devised for the fingers of the blind, he substituted a
new and very simple system of characters for " the bewildering
idiographs " employed by the Chinese, and has thus rendered
it possible for the most ignorant persons to attain in a few
weeks a fluency in reading which even educated Chinamen
cannot attain after six or eight years of constant practice.
And this system is available for all illiterate persons in all the
provinces where Mandarin Chinese is in use — in other words,
in four-fifths of the empire.

THE CAXTON OF CHINA. 4O3

The first anxious experiment in this greatly enlarged de-
velopment of Mr Murray's first invention may be narrated in
Miss Gordon Cumming's own words : " When after consider-
able difficulty Mr Murray had succeeded in getting these
symbols cast in metal printing-type, he gave it to some of
his blind pupils, asking what it was. After a moment's ex-
amination they said, * Why, it's our own type — only you have
used lines instead of dots. Why have you done this?'
* Because you, blind pupils, are henceforth going to print
books for the sighted, and you are going to teach t?iem to read
and write.' And this is precisely what they are now doing — a
beautiful and pathetic work, likely to prove of incalculable
value in mission work." Murray's invention of the Numeral
type is as yet but a small acorn, but it is capable of develop-
ing into a widespreading tree of life, and I look forward to
a time when Murray's name will be held in honour as the
Caxton of Christian China."

Whether Miss Gordon Cumming's sanguine aspirations will
ever be realised time alone can show. Meantime the work is
being vigorously carried on with very hopeful results ; and it is
scarcely to be wondered at that Miss Gumming, whose whole
life has been dedicated to the propagation of knowledge,
should find in labour such as this a fitting object for her
enlightened energy.

James Augustus Grant,. the companion of Speke in his
last expedition — that in which the centuries-old problem of
the sources of the Nile was once and for ever set at rest
— was, like so many other distinguished Scotsmen, a son
of the manse. The fourth and youngest son of the Rev.
J. Grant, parish minister of Nairn, he was born on the
nth April 1827, and educated at the grammar-school of
Aberdeen and at the old Marischal College there. Here

404 COLONEL GRANT "OF THE NILE."

he picked up a knowledge of chemistry, mathematics, and
the natural sciences, which was to serve him in good stead
in after years. Through the good offices of Mr James
Augustus Grant of Viewfield, a retired Indian civilian and
convener of the county, one of his father's elders, whose
name-child he was, he obtained in 1844 a cadetship in the
E.LC.S., and in 1846 was commissioned to the 8th Native
Bengal Infantry. For the next dozen years his life was the
ordinary one of an Indian soldier. He was present with his
regiment at the two sieges of Moultan in 1848, and at the
battle of Gujerat in 1849. In 1853 he was appointed its
adjutant, and remained so until 1857, when his regiment
having mutinied, he was attached to the force under Sir
Henry Havelock and Sir James Outram for the relief of
Lucknow. He was wounded while commanding the rear-
guard, and was blockaded in Lucknow for two months. On
23d October 1858 he proceeded on sick certificate to
England. It was the greatest piece of luck that ever befell
him. It transformed what bade fair to be an ordinary though
an honourable career into an extraordinary one, and brought
him in due time fame, honour, and reputation.

On the 8th May 1859 Captain Speke arrived in England
from his second African expedition, in which he had dis-
covered (30th July 1858) the great Victoria Nyanza Lake —
" a lake big enough to hold any three counties in Scotland,"
as Grant afterwards described it — which, rightly or wrongly,
he thought was likely to turn out to be the true source of
the Nile. The following day Speke called on Sir Roderick
Murchison, the President of the Royal Geographical Society,
showed him his map, and communicated to him his surmises.
Sir Roderick at once accepted his views, and knowing his
ardent desire to prove to the world that he was right, said to
him, "Speke, we must send you there again." "From that

k

speke's third expedition. 405

day," says Speke, " my third expedition in Africa may be said
to have commenced." Soon the project took shape. The
Government agreed to give ;^2 5oo towards the expenses of
the expedition; Speke undertook to make good the rest,
" whatever it might cost." Grant, as soon as he heard that
the expedition was definitely decided upon, volunteered to
accompany it. He and Speke had been friends since 1847.
They were both Indian officers of the same age, and equally
fond of field sports. They had gone tiger-shooting on the
Sarda together in 1854, and their friendship remained un-
broken. Grant's offer was at once accepted. Speke himself
was agreeable, and " it was only Christian charity," so the
Geographers said, " to provide him with a companion." He
was accordingly appointed as second in command, but there
were sundry restrictions put upon him. Speke and not he
was to write the account of the expedition. He was to divulge
nothing of its progress or of its results either in private letters
or through the press; and all his collections, sketches, &c.,
were to go to the Geographical Society. Lastly, he was, more
or less, to bear his own expenses.

To most men such conditions might have appeared almost
intolerable. Grant never gave them a moment's thought.
His ardent love of adventure, his friendship for Speke, his
desire to see a new world and a new life, prevailed over all
other considerations. He applied for and obtained the neces-
sary leave. Later on, when the expedition had actually started,
he began to feel the irksomeness of his obligations. " So dis-
gusting," he writes to his sister on 30th September i860,
"that I can't send you any of my poor little views; but I
must be patient." "Now, I must conclude," he says in
another letter (March 6, 1861), "hoping I've mentioned
nothing the Geographers would be displeased at me for
writing, for they are dreadfully touchy should any of their (!)

406 'A WALK ACROSS AFRICA.'

information be made public." And many other such passages
might be cited from his correspondence.

Urged by Speke, however, Grant ultimately did write a
book — * A Walk across Africa ; or, Domestic Scenes from
my Nile Journal,'^ — published in 1864 by Messrs W.
Blackwood & Sons. It was, perhaps, none the less attrac-
tive that it was a simple narrative of his ovm personal ex-
perience, and that it carefully eschewed all references to
the geographical part of the expedition.

The travellers left England on the 30th April i860 in
the Forte, bearing the flag of Admiral the Hon. Sir Henry
Keppel, K.C.B., which had been commissioned to convey
Sir George Grey, the newly appointed Governor of the Cape,
to his colony. The interest which Sir George took in the
expedition turned out to be of inestimable value to the
explorers. It procured them a grant from the Colonial Legis-
lature of ;£^3oo to purchase mules for the expedition ; and
it also provided them with a contingent of eleven Hottentot
soldiers, part of the Governor's bodyguard, who, however, did
not turn out so valuable an acquisition as was at first supposed.

On the 25th September i860 — a lucky day, for it was
the anniversary of Havelock's entry into Lucknow — the
travellers, having completed their arrangements, left Zanzi-
bar for the mainland of Africa, and on the 2d October the
expedition actually started. It consisted of 301 souls, all
told ; and they had, in addition, for the first thirteen stages,
an escort of twenty-five Beloochee soldiers.

^ Its odd title is thus explained in the preface : ** Last season Sir Rod-
erick [Murchison] did me the honour to introduce me to her Majesty's First
Minister, Viscount Palmerston, and on that occasion his lordship good-
humouredly remarked, * You have had a long walk, Captain Grant. ' The
saying was one well fitted to be remembered and to be' told again ; and my
friendly publishers and others recommended that it should form the leading
title of my book. "

THREE YEARS OF PERIL. 407

The history of this expedition and its results — up to the
present time the most memorable and important of all the
mid-African journeys of exploration — are so well known that
it is unnecessary to repeat them here. It was full of incident
and excitement. For three years the two leaders saw never
a white face but their own. They carried their lives in their
hands. They had to contend with difficulties innumerable,
with sickness, with starvation, with savage treachery, with
savage suspicion, with the desertion of their servants, with
the plunder of their property, with want of means. Both of
them suffered severely from the effects of the deadly climate.
But Grant, on the whole, was the more unfortunate of the
two. In March 1862, when Speke left Karagw^ to proceed
to Uganda, Grant was in such a wretched state of health that
he had to be left behind, and ' it was not till the end of May
that the two met again at the court of the famous king
M'tessa. In July he was still so much of an invalid that he
was unable to accompany Speke to the Victoria Nyanza,
and thus lost the honour of sharing his discovery, and seeing
the waters of the main branch of the White Nile come tum-
bling over the Ripon Falls. But he never lost heart. His
letters home are full of an almost boyish light-heartedness.
Everything is new, everything is charming. It was with diffi-
culty, and only after having experienced its effects, that he
was brought to believe in the unhealthiness of the climate.
"We jog on," he writes from Mburiga to his sister (Nov-
ember I, i860), "in that dreaded of countries, Africa, in the
most easy way, feeling after our dinners as comfortable as if we
had our legs under your table drinking * Brackla.* " ^ Home-
sickness, in the aggravated form from which so many travellers

* The Brackla Distillery, four miles from Nairn, is the only one in the
county, and was founded in 181 2 by Captain William Eraser. Its annual
output is between 130,000 and 140,000 gallons.

408 DEATH OF CAPTAIN SPEKE.

suffer, never seems to have attacked him. But his thoughts
dwelt long and lovingly on the old country and the old life ;
and nothing delighted him so much as to find in some rural
scene a resemblance to the Findhom or the Conan, or in some
everyday incident the analogue of what might be witnessed at
Cawdor or Nairn. " To-day," he says, writing from Zanzibar
on the loth September, " I went through the slave-market.
You have seen at common markets at home, fellows going
about hawking things and saying, *A Sheffield razor, only
6d.,' or any other call. Well, this is the way they do with
slaves here. The creatures are either led by the hand or
they follow their owners, who keep calling out, * A fine slave,

&c., only ' If a purchaser comes forward, the creature

is felt and examined in every part of his or her body, and
so on. They are dressed out as your servant lasses or lads
would be for a feeing-market — />., they have washed in the
morning, their woolly heads shine, find a cloth covers their
loins. There is nothing depressing in the sight of the throng,
except their sad looks. Boat-loads pass here daily for the
market, huddled together like pigs at a fair."

Grant landed in England on 17th June 1863. He found
himself a much more important personage than when he had
left it. But he was not the man to traffic upon his reputation,
and, except for the fame it brought him and the society into
which it introduced him, his long "walk across Africa" never
profited him much. In 1864, indeed, on the death of his
friend Speke by the accidental discharge of his own gun, he
was offered the consulate at Fernando Po, but he did not
accept it. He preferred going back to India to finish his
term of service, and thus secure his pension. In 1865 he
was appointed second in command of the 4th Goorkha
Regiment, then stationed in the Himalayas. In 1868 he
took part in the Abyssinian Expedition, and did yeoman

LAST OF THE OLD-SCHOOL EXPLORERS. 409

service in connection with its Intelligence Department. In
the same year he retired from the army. In 1872 he pur-
chased the estate of Househill, close to Nairn. For the next
twenty years of his life his time was spent mainly between
London and his north-country home. He died on the nth
February 1892.

He was, as a writer in * Blackwood's Magazine ' called him,
the " last of the old school of African explorers " — men who
were determined to make the name of Englishman respected
and trusted, as well as feared, among the savage tribes with
whom they came in contact. In private life he was genial
and kindly, and, in his later years, very retiring in his dis-
position. The warmest and most sympathetic of friends,
especially to the young and to those to whom he thought
he could be of assistance, exemplary in all the relations of
life, the most sincere of Christians, his death at the com-
paratively early age of sixty-five, and before he had attained
to the full fruition of those honours which his meritorious
services to science and civilisation so well deserved, was a
distinct loss not only to his friends but to his country.

The soldier of the highest distinction that the province has
as yet produced is General Sir George Brown, G.C.B., who
commanded the Light Division in the Crimea. He was the
third son of Mr George Brown, factor for the Morayshire estates
of James, fourth Earl of Seafield. He was born at Linkwood,
an old-fashioned, ivy-mantled country-house about a mile from
Elgin, on the 3d July 1790; and here also he died on the
27th August 1865.

There never was any doubt as to what young George's line
in life was to be. Even as a " loon " at the Elgin Academy
his soldierly inclinations developed themselves. He is said
to have mustered a corps of schoolboys like himself, drilled

4IO SIR GEORGE BROWN.

them regularly, and indeed made so serious a business of the
affair that lessons were neglected. Superior authority had to
interpose, and the amateur regiment had to be disbanded.
He was not, however, the first soldier in the family. His two
elder brothers were already in the army ; and he had an uncle
— his father's younger btother John, afterwards major-general
and deputy quartermaster-general at the Horse Guards — who,
perhaps, was primarily responsible for the outbreak of military
ardour which had so seriously attacked all the Linkwood lads.
It was certainly his uncle John who smoothed the path for
George's joining the service, as he had doubtless also done
for his two elder nephews. He took him with him to England
when he was a mere child of eleven or twelve years of age,
placed him at the Military College then housed at Great
Marlow, and finally got him a commission in the 43d Regi-
ment before he had completed his sixteenth year.

Fortune befriended him from the first. He had hardly
joined when he was ordered on active service. In 1807 he
was present at the siege and capture of Copenhagen. In 1808
he was sent with his regiment to the Peninsula, and had the
good luck to be present at most of Wellington's famous battles.
More than once he was in imminent personal danger. At
Oporto he was struck on the breast with a spent ball, but it
never gave him the least inconvenience. At Talavera he was
wounded in both thighs. At Busaco he was engaged in a
hand-to-hand encounter with one of Massena's staff, and only
disabled him with a sword-thrust after a desperate conflict.

During the brief peace of 1 8 1 4 he was sent to America with
the reinforcements under General Ross, and saw the last scenes
of the American war. Nearly forty years of peace ensued.
But he had got his foot so firmly planted on the ladder that
his promotion went on unchecked. In 1826 he was ap-
pointed to the command of the 2d battalion of the Rifle

THE COMMAND OF THE "LIGHT DIVISION." 4II

Brigade. In 1841 he was made deputy adjutant - general,
with the rank of major-general. Ten years later he was
promoted to the rank of lieutenant - general, and appointed
Adjutant - General of the Forces. That office he held till
December 1853.

His subsequent career belongs to national history. For-
tunately, in his " Memoranda and Observations on the
Crimean War, 1854-55," written in 1857, and in his sub-
sequent "Notes on Mr Kinglake's Second Volume," com-
piled in 1863, in which he traversed, in language more plain
perhaps than pleasant, many of the historian's statements,
especially his strictures upon himself, both of which were in
1879 published as a pamphlet by his relations "for private
circulation only," ^ we possess from his own pen a succinct
narrative of his connection with this momentous struggle.
From this brochure we learn that as soon as he knew that
war in the East was inevitable and that Lord Raglan had
been appointed to the command of the British contingent,
he went to the Horse Guards and placed his services at the
Commander-in-Chiefs disposal. His offer was promptly ac-
cepted, and he was ordered to proceed at once to Gallipoli.
Scarcely had he landed when Lord Raglan nominated him to
the command of the ^* Light Division," which "consisted of
the 7th, 23d, 33d, 19th, 77th, and 88th Regiments, together
with the 2d battalion of the Rifle Brigade, a troop of horse-
artillery, and a battery of 9-pounders, the whole divided into
two brigades," under Generals Airey and Buller, both of whom
were his personal friends. With this division he proceeded to
the Crimea, and took part in the battles of Alma and Inker-
man. In the former, the grey horse which he rode received
no less than seven wounds and had four balls in him. In the

^ Elgin. Printed at the * Moray Weekly News ' office, by James Watson,
1879.

412 THE ATTACK ON THE REDAN.

latter, which has been called the " Soldiers' Battle " — though
why, Sir George always professed he was never able to under-
stand — he was unfortunately wounded himself in the arm, and
he had to go to Malta to recruit. But a fortnight's rest put
him to rights again, and in less than a couple of months
he was back at his work. He arrived in time to take part
in the ill-advised expedition to Kertch, and received much un-
merited odium for the part he was, as he says, "reluctantly
compelled" to take in burning some of "the best houses"
in the town. Meantime the siege of Sebastopol was dragging
its slow length along. On the 1 8th June — " Waterloo
Day " — a combined attack by the French and English forces
on the Malakoff and Redan forts had been arranged for.
The French were to attack and take the Malakoff. When
that was done the English were to assault the Redan. To
General Brown was assigned the command of the British
troops. The complete failure of the French attack on the
Malakoff rendered the carrying out of the other part of the
programme impossible. This was the last operation of im-
portance in which Sir George took part. On the 23d he
became so ill that he was obliged to be removed on board
ship. On the 30th — two days after his chief Lord Raglan
had died — his condition had become so grave that his
medical adviser ordered him home "to save his life." He
improved, however, so rapidly on the voyage, that on his
arrival in England he "found himself entirely free from
disease, and fully expected to be in a state to return to the
Crimea after a few weeks' rest — an expectation which subse-
quently proved to be correct." He had " scarcely got down
to the country " when he found himself superseded " by the
promotion over my head of an officer who had been little
more than two months with the army, and who was just ten
years junior to me as a general officer ; and this, too, notwith-

PERSONAL TRAITS. 413

Standing that an order had been previously sent out, directing
me to assume the command of the army on Lord Raglan's
demise." Into the merits or demerits of his supersession this
is not the place to enter. It is sufficient to say that he felt
this treatment keenly, and that in the pamphlet already re-
ferred to he attributed it to " the indiscretion," the only one,
so far as he knew, he had ever committed, " of speaking my
mind with too much freedom to the Secretary for War — a
circumstance which that self-confident functionary does not
seem to have forgotten or been disposed to overlook."

He was certainly not the man to conceal his real senti-
ments. This is abundantly plain from his narrative. Over
and over again he criticises the action of the authorities at
home with a freedom which, coming from one who knew so
well what he was talking about, could have been anything but
agreeable, had his views — as in point of fact they did — ever
come to their ears. He had, besides, certain peculiar notions
of his own which he never concealed, and which certainly
did not add to his popularity. One of these was a perfect
horror of all newspaper correspondents. Another was a
partiality for soldierly smartness in the appearance of his
men, which led him to interfere in what to others seemed
entirely insignificant details of their dress and accoutrements.
For this he has often been stigmatised as a martinet. But as
in his opinion smartness was essential not only to discipline
but to health, his views were probably more enlightened
than those of his critics. Nothing could better illustrate his
peculiar notions, as well as the honest, outspoken character
of the man, than the manner in which, in his " Memoranda
and Observations," he refers to the Duke of Newcastle's
celebrated despatch to Lord Raglan recommending the army
" to let their beards grow, after the fashion of the East " ! —

" His lordship, as may be supposed, was greatly averse to

414 A QUESTION OF BEARDS.

the introduction of such an innovation, for which there was
not the smallest reason or necessity, and rightly pointed out
that although English gentlemen travelling in these countries,
as his Grace had done, might, without inconvenience and
with impunity, be permitted to exercise their fancies by
adopting the customs of the country in that and in other
respects, the soldiers of the army, and the lower orders of the
people of England in general, associated notions of personal
cleanliness with the act of shaving their beards, and that the
introduction of such a practice as he proposed would only
be to give encouragement to filthy habits which would impair
the discipline and injure the health of the troops, without
adding in any .manner whatever to their comfort or efficiency."
Notwithstanding Lord Raglan's objections and remonstrances,
the duke's recommendation was given effect to. " The con-
sequence was, as might have been expected, that every one
followed his own fancy; that all the smartness and soldier-
like appearance, both of officers and men, were soon lost
sight of; that the latter became slovenly and dirty in their
habits to an extent that injured their health, and greatly
aggravated the diseases with which they were shortly assailed ;
and all this without in any manner improving their military
qualities or adding in any respect to their comfort!"

Superseded though he had been. General Brown's services
were of too valuable an order to pass without reward. And
his retirement for a time from active duty, necessitated by
the state of his health, brought with it an ample crop of
honours and dignities. He was thanked by the Queen in a
despatch from the Secretary for War. He was created a
G.C.B. and a K.H. The Sultan of Turkey bestowed on him
the Order of the Medjidie of the first class, and the Emperor
Napoleon gave him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.
His own countrymen, too, did their part in showing him

HIS RETURN TO ELGIN. 415

honour. On his return to Elgin in 1855 ^^ was entertained
at a public banquet in the Assembly Rooms — the most splen-
did entertainment of the kind that had ever been given to a
public man in the county. The event was rendered all the
more memorable by the fact that only an hour or two before
the dinner the Defiance coach had arrived in the town bring-
ing with it the news of the fall of Sebastopol.

Later on — in i860 — when his health was once more fully
restored, Sir George was appointed to the command of the
forces in Ireland, an office which he held till about two
months before his death. It was a fitting conclusion to an
honourable and distinguished career.

Such are a few of the modern "worthies" of Moray and
Nairn. It is a record of which the old province has no need
to be ashamed.

LIST OF BOOKS

RELATING TO

MORAY AND NAIRN.

AGRICULTURE,

f< Donaldson, James, Factor. General View of the Agriculture of
the Counties of Elgin and Moray lying between the Spey and
the Findhom. Drawn up for the consideration of the Board
of Agriculture and Internal Improvement. London : Printed
by Clark, 1794.
O Henderson, Andrew. Prize Essay on the Description of Live
Stock, and System of Management best calculated for the
County of Moray. Addressed to the members of the Moray-
shire Farmers' Club. Elgin : R. Johnston, 1823.
Highland and Agricultural Society's Transactions —
Y Description of the Parish of Bimie. 2d series, vol. ii. p. 308.
f The Geology of Moray. 2d series, vol. iii. p. 417.
i Report upon Potato Disease. 3d series, vol. ii.
Report on Weight of Turnip Crop in Moray. 3d series,
vol. vi.
y^ Leslie, Rev. William, Lhanbryde. General View of the Agriculture
of the Counties of Nairn and Moray, with observations on the
means of their improvement, drawn up for the consideration
of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement.
London : Sherwood, Keely, & Sons, 1813.
o Skirving, John. Hints for the Consideration of Farmers on
taking Land in the North of Scotland. Second edition.
Elgin : A. C. Brander, 1832.

2 D

4l8 LIST OF BOOKS RELATING TO

ANTIQUITIES.

O Antiquarian Remains at Salterhill. Elgin : Printed by Russell.

y Bain, George. The Clava Cairns and Circles.

o Cathedral Series (Scotland). No. lo. Elgin. The, Builder. Vol.

Ixvi. No. 2665 (March 3, 1894).
K Clark, William. A Series of Views of the venerable and magnifi-
cent ruins of Elgin Cathedral, engraved from very accurate
drawings taken on the spot. To which are added a Ground
Plan of the Building and correct Table of Measurements
taken by Mr Robertson, architect, with a Descriptive and
Historical Account of the Cathedral from its erection in 1224,
by Mr Isaac Forsyth. Elgin : Isaac Forsyth, 1826.
Cooper, Rev. James, D.D. —
XThe Church and Convent of the Greyfriars, Elgin. Transac-
tions of the Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society, 1890, pp.

45-53.
X Saint Gerardine. A Chapter in the Ecclesiastical History of

Moray. Aberdeen : W. Jolly & Sons, 1895.
)(^ The Parish Church of Bimie, in thp County of Elgin, with an
Account of its recent Restoration, and a Sermon preached
on Sunday 22d February 1891, being the day of its Reopen-
ing for Divine Service. Elgin : ' Moray and Nairn Express '
Office, 1 89 1.
V Cordier, Rev. Charles, Minister of St Andrew's Chapel. Anti-
quities and Scenery of the North of Scotland. Banff, 1880.
Y^ Cramond, W., A.M., LL.D., F.S.A. (Scot.) Life in Elgin 350 years

ago. Elgin: 'Courant' and 'Courier' Office, 1896.
><^ Duff, Patrick, Esq. Sketch of the Geology of Moray. Elgin :

Forsyth & Young, 1842.
c Dunbar, Archibald Hamilton, yr. of Northfield. Notes on the
Earldom of Dunbar, March, and Moray. Proc. Soc. Antiq.
Scot, 1887-88.
X Easterton of Roseisle. Reprinted from *The Reliquary and

Illustrated Archaeologist,' October 1896.
^ Elgin Almanac. Extracts from Ancient Records. 1853.
y Further Excavations at Easterton of Roseisle. ' Illustrated Archae-
ologist,' vol. ii. No. I (January 1896). London : Bemrose &
Sons, 1896.
X Gregor, Rev. Walter, M.A., LL.D., Pitsligo. Kilns, Mills, Millers,

Meal, and Bread. London : David Nutt, 1894.
A Innes, C, formerly Sheriff of Moray. Antiquities of Moray :
Elgin Past and Present. A Lecture delivered on 23d October

MORAY AND NAIRN. 419

Pi.l!lTiq[[jvn^S— continued.

i860 for the benefit of the Elgin Literary and Scientific Asso-
ciation, and printed at their request. Elgin : R. Jeans,
Printer, i860.
>(, Laing, William. Ancient Customs, Social and Local. Nairn, 1889.
^ Longmuir, John, A.M., LL.D. Speyside : its Picturesque Scenery
and Antiquities ; with occasional notices of its Geology and
Botany. Illustrated with Engravings and a Map. Aberdeen :
Lewis and James Smith, i860.
Macdonald, James, LL.D., F.S.A. Scot. —

y Burghead as the Site of an Early Christian Church ; with
Notices of the Incised Bulls and the Burning of the Clavie.
From the Proceedings of the Glasgow Archaeological
Society, vol. ii., N.S., 1891.
y^ Is Burghead on the Moray Firth the Winged Camp of
Ptolemy? (Reprinted from the * Archaeological Journal,'
vol. xlviii., for Private Circulation.) Exeter : William
Polland & Co., 1892.
r Historical Notices of " The Broch," or Burghead, in Moray,
with an Account of its Antiquities. (Reprinted for Private
Circulation from the Proceedings of the Society of Anti-
quaries of Scotland, vol. iv.) Edinburgh, 1868.
^ Manual of the Antiquities, A. Distinguished Buildings and
Natural Curiosities of Moray ; with an Outline of the
Geology and Mineralogy of the County. Second edition.
Adjusted to the Passing Time. Elgin : Printed by R.
Johnston for Isaac Forsyth, Elgin, 1823.
y^ Murdoch, James. The Spey : Its Scenery and Antiquities, with
occasional remarks on its Geology and Botany. Second
edition, with a Map and Illustrations. Elgin : J. M*Gillivray
& Son, 1862.
X Notes on Burghead, Ancient and Modem, with an Appendix,
containing Notices of Families connected with the place at
different periods, and other information. (For Private Circu-
lation.) Elgin: Printed at the * Courier' Office, by Jeans &
Co., 1868.
)^ Records of the Monastery of Kinloss, with Illustrative Docu-
ments. Edited by John Stuart, LL.D., Secretary of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1892.
Young, Hugh W., F.S.A. (Scot.), of Burghead —
X The Burning of the Clavie. (The Reliquary and Illustrated

Archaeologist, vol. i. No. i. January 1895.)
:: Discovery of an Ancient Burial-place and a Symbol-bearing
Slab at Easterton of Roseisle.

420 LIST OF BOOKS RELATING TO

BIOGRAPHY.

X Ane Account of the Familie of Innes, compiled by Duncan Forbes

of CuUoden, 1698, with an Appendix of Charters and Notes.

Aberdeen : Printed for the Spalding Club, 1864.
^ Bain, John, Master Mariner. Life of a Scottish Sailor ; or. Forty

Years' Experience at Sea, Nairn : W. Harrison, 1897.
o Grant, James (of * Morning Advertiser,' London, and formerly of

Elgin). Life of Mary Queen of Scots. Printed by and for

J. Grant, 1829.
O Grigor, John, M.D. Blind Saunders : a Sketch of the Life of

Alexander Main Mackintosh, Nairn, with quotations from his

Religious Rhymes. Inverness : Melvin Brothers.
o Life of Mahomet. By Episcopal Clergyman at Duflfus.
o Macandrew, Major-General Isaac Forsyth, Bengal Staff Corps.

Memoir of Isaac Forsyth, bookseller in Elgin, 1768- 1859.

London : Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1889.
^ Macdonald, Rev. Geo. Isobel Hood's Memoirs and Manuscripts :

To which is added an Appendix containing Notices of the

Little Kirk, Elgin, and of the Rev. Dr Bayne's connection

with that Church. Aberdeen : Geo. Cornwall, 1843.
^ Memoir of Cosmo Innes. Edinburgh : William Paterson, 1874.
XRampini, Charles, LL.D. Florence Wilson: Article in 'Scottish

Review,' October 1889.
yC Seafield, In Memoriam of 8th Earl. 1884.
y Taylor, James. A Memoir of Florentius Volusenus, read on the

presentation of a copy of ' De Animi Tranquillitate Dialogus '

to the Elgin Literary and Scientific Association, February 5,

1 86 1, and printed at their request. Elgin : Printed by R.

Jeans, 1861.
6 Wilkin, A. G. Peter Laing, an Elgin Centenarian. Reprinted

from the * Evening Gazette.' Elgin : Melvin & Yeadon,

1887.

FICTION,

Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, Bart, of Fountainhall —
c Lochandhu : A Tale of the Scottish Highlands. 3 vols.

Edinburgh, 1825. Second ed. Elgin : James Watson.
o The Wolfe of Baden och. A Historical Romance of the four-
teenth century. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1827. Glasgow ; T.
Morison, 1886.

MORAY AND NAIRN. 42 1

Fiction — continued.
Y^ Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, Bart, of Fountainhall. Legendary

Tales of the Highlands. 3 vols. London, 1841. — With Six

Illustrations. Glasgow : T. Morison, 1881.
X Ruddiman, Jacob, M.A. (William Hay), of Marischal College,

Aberdeen. Tales and Sketches. 1828.

HISTORY AND GENEALOGY,

X Bain, George. History of Nairnshire. * Nairn Telegraph' Office,

1893.
X^ Book of the Thanes of Cawdor, A : A Series of Papers selected

from the Charter Room at Cawdor, 1236-1742. (Spalding

Club.) Edinburgh, 1859.

X Diary of Alexander Brodie of Brodie, The, 1652 -1680, and of
his son, James Brodie of Brodie, 1680- 1685, consisting of
Extracts from the existing Manuscripts, and a republication
of the volume. Printed at Edinburgh in the year 1740.
Aberdeen : Printed for the Spalding Club, 1863.

"^ Documents relating to the Province of Moray. Edited by E.
Dunbar - Dunbar of Glen of Rothes. Edinburgh : David
Douglas, 1895.

X, Dunbar-Dunbar, E., late Captain 21st Fusiliers —

Social Life in Former Days, chiefly in the Province of Moray.
Illustrated by Letters and Family Papers. Edinburgh:
. Edmonston & Douglas, 1865.
/^Second Series. Edinburgh : Edmonston & Douglas, 1866.

X Edward I. of England in the North of Scotland, being a Narrative
of his Proceedings in that part of the Kingdom, with His-
torical and Topographical Remarks. By a Member of the
Literary and Scientific Association of Elgin. Elgin : Robert
Jeans, 1858.

>( Genealogical Deduction of the Family of Rose of Kilravock, A,
with Illustrative Documents from the Family Papers, and
Notes. Edinburgh, 1848.

O Genuine and True Journal, A, of the most Miraculous Escape of
the young Chevalier, from the Battle of Culloden to his land-
ing in France. Edited by Edmund Goldsmid, F.R.H.S.,
F.S.A. (Scot.) Edinburgh : E. & G. Goldsmid, 1885.

y Gordon, C. A. A Concise History of the Ancient and Illustrious
House of Gordon. Aberdeen : C. Wyllie & Son, 1890.

\ Grant-Duff, M. E. Morayshire. ' Westminster Review,' vol. xii.,
N.S., July and October 1857.

422 LIST OF BOOKS RELATING TO

History and G^.m'E.M.OGY^continued.
>( Jeffrey, Alexander, jun. Sketches from the Traditional History

of Burghead. Printed by J. M*Gillivray & Son, 1863.
y^ Macdonald, Rev. M., D.D., Ormond College, Melbourne (formerly
of Nairn, N.B.) The Covenanters in Moray and Ross. 1875.
Second edition. Inverness : Melvin Brothers, 1892.
X Macneill, Rev* John G. History of Cawdor, with Biographical
Notices of its Ministers from 1567 to 1893. Illustrated. 1893.
XMacphail, Rev. S. R., A.M. History of the Religious House of
Pluscarden Convent, of the Vale of Saint Andrew, in Moray-
shire. With Introduction, containing the history and a de-
scription of the present state of the mother-house of the
Order of Vallis Caulium (Val des Choux) in Burgundy.
Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier, 1881.
V Shaw, Rev. Mr Lachlan —

The History of the Province of Moray. Edinburgh : William

Auld, 1775.
New edition, brought down to the year 1826. Elgin : Printed
by and for J. Grant, 1827. ^

New edition. Enlarged and brought down to the present time
by J. F. S. Gordon. 3 vols. Glasgow : Thomas D. Mori-
son, 1882.
^ Survey of the Province of Moray, A, Historical, Geographical, and
Political. Elgin: Isaac Forsyth, 1798.
Young, Robert, F.S.A. (Scot.) —
X Annals of the Parish and Burgh of Elgin, from the Twelfth
Century to the Year 1876, with some Historical and other
Notices illustrative of the Subject. Elgin: J. Watson, 1879.
V The Parish of Spynie, in the County of Elgin : An Account
of its Civil and Ecclesiastical State, from the earliest re-
corded Period to the present time. With Notes illustrative
of the Subject. Elgin : James Black, 1871.

MISCELLANEO US,

6 Alves, the late Robert, M. A. Sketches of a History of Literature.
Containing Lives and Characters of the most Eminent Writers.
To which is added a short : Biographical Account of the
Author (bom in Elgin). Edinburgh : Printed by A. Chap-
man, 1794.
Autobiography of a Bawbee, The. A Contribution to the Question
of Church Finance. Edited by Patrick Playfair. Edinburgh :
James Gemmell, 1885.

MORAY AND NAIRN. 423

Miscellaneous — continued.
Bain, George —

y A Walk to the Culbean Sands ; or, the Story of a Buried
Estate. ' Nairn Telegraph' Office, i882.
Descriptive Guide to Nairn and its Neighbourhood. * Nairn
Telegraph ' Office.
o Book of the Bazaar, The, Elgin Parish Church, 1895. Elgin :

James Watson, 1895.
' Cruickshank, Brodie, M.D. —
^ Nairn as a Health Resort.
)^ Place-Names of Nairnshire. 1897.
>( Davie, F. From Elgin to Ben Macdhui. Elgin : James D.

Yeadon, 1893.
y Elgin, and a Guide to Elgin Cathedral. By the old Cicerone.
[Generally believed to be James Sinclair, late Postmaster,
Elgin.] London : Triibner & Co., 1866.
O Elgin Annual. Date 1833.

C Elgin Cabinet. Elgin : Printed at ^ Courier' Office, November 187 1.
C Elgin Magazine, The, No. i, February 1867. Printed at Elgin

* Courant ' Office.
C Ephemera, The. A Series of Essays and Miscellaneous Pieces.
Elgin : R. Johnston, 1823.
Grant, James —
. ^ Elgin Literary Magazine, The, being a Series of Original Tales,
Essays, &c. From July 1829 to June 1830. Conducted by
the Editor of the Elgin ^ Courier.' Elgin : J. Grant, 1830.
>^ Walks and Wanderings. (Contains loss of the fishing-boats at
Stotfield in December 1806, and other things about Moray.)
London : Saunders & Oatly, 1839. 2 vols.
:' The Newspaper Press : Its Origin, Progress, and Present
Position. 2 vols. London : Tinsley Brothers, 1871.
The Metropolitan Weekly and Provincial Press. Third and
concluding Volume of the History of the Newspaper Press.
London : Routledge & Sons, 1872.
■, The Elgin Annual. With Illustrations.

Note. — James Grant, the historian of the Newspaper Press, Editor of
•The Morning Advertiser,' and founder of the 'Elgin Courier' (the first
newspaper in Moray and Nairn), was the author of over sixty works.

y^ Grant, John. The Penny Wedding. Six Illustrations by John
Grant, Engraved by J. Glendale. London : Grant & Co.,
1876.

6 Gray, John. Mutual Improvement Societies, how to popularise
them. Elgin: Printed at * Courant' Ofifice, 1870.

424 LIST OF BOOKS RELATING TO

Miscellaneous — continued,
Great North of Scotland Railway. Opening of Moray Firth Coast

Railway, Saturday, ist day of May 1886. Programme and

Description of Country. Elgin : Printed at the ' Courant '

and * Courier' Office, 1886.
o Grey Friar, The, A Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art.

Elgin : James Watson. [10 Nos. — Sept. 1876 to June 1877 —

and extra Christmas Number, " Sackcloth and Sack."]
X Hunter, Robert, and C. Innes. Report of the Burgh of Elgin,

from Local Reports from Commissioners on Municipal Cor-
porations in Scotland.
c Joint Meeting of Scientific Societies at Elgin, July 1881. 49 pp.
y Journal of Excursions of the Elgin and Moray Literary Society.

Elgin, 1884. 53 pp.
X Kandich, E. Valerius : A Day Dream in the Elgin Cathedral

Edinburgh : William Paterson, 1887.
/ Knox, A. E., M.A., F.L.S. Autumns on the Spey. With Four

Illustrations by Wolf. London : John Van Voorst, 1872.
X Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, Bart. Highland Rambles. 1853.
/Laurie, S. S. Dick Bequest Report. Printed by T. Constable,

1865.
o Laws and Regulations of the Elgin and Morayshire Literary and

Scientific Association. (Instituted at Elgin 26th October

1836.) Revised up to 1882. Elgin : Printed at the * Courant '

and 'Courier' Office, 1882.
\ Lectures on the Mountains and the Highlands and Highlanders

as they were and as they are. London : Saunders, Oatly,

& Co., i860.
\ Legend of Vanished Waters (Loch Spynie). In * Scottish Review.'

Paisley : Gardner, 1884.
\ Mackenzie, William Ross. A Century of Wit and Wisdom in

North-Eastem Scotland and the Highlands, being Original

Sketches, Stories, and Tales of more than One Hundred

Worthies and Celebrated Characters. Elgin : 1888.
X Mackintosh, H. M. Round about Nairn.
\ Mackintosh, Lachlan. Elgin Past and Present : A Guide and

History. With Illustrations. Elgin : Black, Walker, &

Grassie, 1891.
- Macleod, John, H.M.I.S. Technical Education. Reprinted ft om

the Elgin * Courant ' and * Courier,' 1893.
Martin, John, Anderson's Institution, Elgin —

. On the Northern Drift. In 'Edinburgh New Philosophical

Journal,' vol. iv. No. 2. Edinburgh : A. & C. Black, 1856.
\ The Culbin Sands.

MORAY AND NAIRN. 425

MisCELLAi^EOVS— continued.
X Matheson, D. The Celtic Place-Names of Moray : A Lecture.

Elgin : James Watson, 1886.
o Memorial Record of Jessie B. Grogan (born at Elgin). Glasgow,

1886.
X New Statistical Account, The, No. 36. Counties of Inverness and

Elgin. Edinburgh : Blackwood & Sons, 1842.
X Pirie, James. A Walk round the Boundaries of Morayshire.

Reprinted from * Banffshire Journal' of September 1874.

Banff: 'Journal' Office, 1874.
X Pozzi, James. Guide to the Ruins of the Elgin Cathedral. To

which is added, The History of Marjory Gilzean, Mother of

General Anderson. Ninth edition. Elgin, 1887.
X Ray, James, and W. Calder Grant. Annals of the London

Morayshire Club. London : Charles Skipper & East,

1894.

^ Recollections of William Hay (of * Lintie of Moray' connection).

Elgin : Published by Robert Jeans, 1855.
c Registers of Moray. Several years.

o Round-Table Club, The ; or. Conversations, Scenical, Scientific,
Historical, and Social. By James Brown, Editor. Elgin :
Printed for the Author, by James Black. 1873.
X Russell's Morayshire Register, and Elgin and Forres Directory,
for 1850. Dedicated (by Special Permission) to the Right
Hon. the Earl of Fife. Elgin : Printed and Published by
Alex. Russell, ^Courant' Office.

o St Giles' Chronicle and Historical Intelligencer. Vol. i., May
1835 to April 1836. Elgin : A. C. Brander.

Sclanders, Alex., M.D. Sanitary Medical Notes during Thirty
Years' Residence in Nairn.

X Scotch Castles and Local Types. Paper Read by H. T. Donald-
son at the Nairn Literary Institute, February 10, 1888.
Nairn : ^ Nairnshire Telegraph ' Office.

^ Simpson, James. The Major. A Biographical Sketch.

X Sketches of Moray. Edited by William Rhind, Esq. The Illus-
trations drawn and etched by D. Alexander, Esq. Elgin ;
Forsyth & Young, 1839.

X Statistical Account of Elginshire, The. By Ministers of the Gospel.
Edinburgh : W. Blackwood & Sons, 1842.

^ Statutes and Regulations of the Elgin Institution. Elgin : Printed
by A. C. Brander, 1834.

X Stewart, Wm. Grant. Highland Superstitions and Amusements.

C Swan, Rev. J. S. Flashes from Old Lanterns. Essays. Elgin :
Printed by Watson, 1882.

426 LIST OF BOOKS RELATING TO

M ISCELLANEOUS — continued.

Voice from the Prison, A. Voyage on the River of Life. By a
Working Man. Elgin : Printed at the *Courant' Office, i860.

)( Walk Round the Boundaries of Morayshire, A, with Map specially
prepared from Ordnance Survey. By a Pedestrian. * Banff-
shire Journal * Office, 1877.

% Watson, J. and W. Morayshire Described : Being a Guide to
Visitors. Containing Notices of Ecclesiastical and Military
Antiquities ; Topographical Descriptions of the Principal
Country Residences, Towns, and Villages, and Genealogical
Notes of the Leading Families in the County. With Map
and Illustrations. Elgin : Russell & Watson, 1868.

NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT

Gordon, Rev. George, Bimie —
y Collectanea, for a Flora of Moray. Elgin : Printed by Rus-
sell, 1839.
o List of Fishes in the Moray Firth. From the * Zoologist,' 1852.
c Fauna of Moray, The (from the * Zoologist,' 1884, &c.) With
Appendices to the Present Date, Mammalia, Aves et
Reptilia. Elgin : J. & J. A. Watson, 1889.
Y Harvie-Brown, J. A., and Thomas E. Buckley. The Vertebrate
Fauna of Scotland. Sixth and seventh vols. A Fauna of the
Moray Basin. Edinburgh : David Douglas, 1895.
Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, Bart, of Fountainhall, F.R.S.E.—
y An Account of the Great Floods of August 1829 in the Province
of Moray and adjoining Districts. Elgin : Forsyth & Young.
With an Introductory Note by the Rev. G. Gordon, LL.D.,
and Extracts of a review of the work in * Blackwood's
Magazine' for August 1830. Elgin: J. M*Gillivray
& Son, 1873.
With an Introductory Note by Miss Lauder. Elgin : R.
Stewart, 1873.
St John, Charles —
G Short Sketches of Wild Sport and Natural History of the

Highlands. London, 1846.
>^ Natural History and Sport in Moray. Edinburgh : Edmon-
ston and Douglas, 1863.
Thomson, Robert —

-' List of Plants in the Parish of Ardclach. Published in the
* Transactions of the Northern Association of Literary and
Scientific Societies,' vol. i. part 5. 1892.

MORAY AND NAIRN. 427

Natural History and ^-90^^— continued.
Thomson, Robert —
o Rarer Flora of Ardclach. ^ Transactions of Northern Society,'

vol. ii. part i. 1893.
^ List of the Macro-Lepidoptera found in the Parish of Ard-
clach. Reprinted from the 'Annals of Scottish Natural
History.'
w Thornton, Colonel T., of Thomville Royal, in Yorkshire. A Sport-
ing Tour through the Northern Parts of England and Great
Part of the Highlands of Scotland. Illustrated. London :
Vemer & Hood, 1804.
o Watson, James. Some Local Wild Birds to be found in the
vicinity of Elgin. Elgin : J. & J. A. Watson, 1889.

POETRY AND MUSIC,

o Alves, Robert (born at Elgin), Poems by. Edinburgh, 1782.
o Christie, Alexander, Knockando. Mountain Strains, or the
Humours of Speyside. Elgin : Printed by J. M'Gillivray,
1852.
Collection of Sacred Hkrmony for the Church of Scotland, A,
Consisting of Tunes, Doxologies, &c., sung in St Giles'
Church, Elgin. Edited, partly composed, and arranged by
W. J. P. Kidd. Elgin, 1842.
t Donaldson, Wm. The Queen Martyr, and other Poems. Elgin :

Printed by J. M'Gillivray & Son, 1867. 142 pp.
^ Eraser, William, Lossiemouth, Poems by. Elgin : Printed by J.

M*Gillivray & Son, 1880. 16 pp.
o Gordon, W., Nairn, Original Poems by. Elgin : Johnstone, 1828.
c Gordon- Keith, John. Elgina, an Historical Poem. Edinburgh,

1820.
o Horn, James, of the Fen, Poems by. Elgin : Printed at the
*Courant' Office.
V Lin tie o' Moray, The, being a Collection of Poems, chiefly com-
posed for and sung at the Anniversaries of the Edinburgh
Morayshire Society. From 1829 to 1841. Forres, 1851.
New Edition, edited by Charles Rampini, Advocate, F.S.A.
(Scot), Sheriff- Substitute of Inverness, Elgin, and Nairn.
Elgin : James Watson, 1887.
o Mackay, Elizabeth D., great-granddaughter of the celebrated
Flora Macdonald. Poems and Hymns. Elgin : P. Mac-
donald, 1843.
O M*Kenzie, Peter, Lhanbryde. Snowball-Castle Poems. 1866.

428 LIST OF BOOKS RELATING TO

Poetry and yivsic-^continued,

Marshall, William. Collection of Scottish Melodies, Reels, Strath-
speys, Jigs, Slow Airs, &c., for the Pianoforte, Violin, and
Violoncello ; being the Genuine and Posthumous Works of.
Vol. ii. With Memoir. Edinburgh : Alex. Robertson.
Murdoch, James (known as " Cutler Jamie")* The Autobiography

and Poems of. Elgin : James Black, 1863.
Ogilvie, David, Poems by. Elgin, 1886.
Simpson, James —

The Rustic Plowman, or Poetical Effusions. Elgin : Printed

by Russell, 1836. 96 pp.
The Apprentice Printer's Poems. Elgin : James Black,
c Smith, John. Random Rhymes by a Young Bard. Elgin, 1876.
^ Strachan, John, messenger-at-arms, Forres. Walter and Emma ;
or, A Tale of Bothwell Bridge. With other Poems. Forres,
1829.
Tester, William Hay Leith ("La Teste"), Poems of. Elgin:
Printed by Jeans & Grant, 'Courier' Office, 1865.
Seventh Edition. Elgin : Printed by J. M*Gillivray & Son,

1883.
Ninth Edition (Jubilee Edition). Elgin : J. M*Gillivray &
Son, 1887.
v^ Uncle Peter [Frank Sutherland]. Sunny Memories of Moray
Land. Dedicated to the Gentlemen of the London Moray-
shire Club. Elgin : Printed at the * Courant * Office, Jan. 1883.

RELIGION AND ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.

Brichen, David, D.D., minister of the United Parishes of Dyke
and Moy, in the county of Moray, late of Artillery Street, '
London. Sermons on Various Subjects. 2 vols. London :
T. Hamilton, 18 12.
y^ Cramond, William, A.M., LL.D., F.S.A. (Scot.), schoolmaster of
Cullen. The Church and Parish of Bellie. Reprinted from
the Elgin * Courant' and * Courier,* 1896.
> Craven, Rev. J. B., Kirkwall. History of the Episcopal Church
in the Diocese of Moray. London : Skeffington & Son.
Kirkwall : William Peace & Son, 1899.

Eight Lectures delivered in the Free Churches of Elgin and Forres
in the year 1844 by Local Ministers.

Inventories of Ecclesiastical Records of the Presbyteries of Strath-
bogie, Aberlour, Abemethy, Elgin, Forres, and Nairn. Mis-
cellany of the New Spalding Club, vol. i. pp. 246-287.

k

MORAY AND NAIRN. 429

Religion and Ecclesiastical Xyyairs— continued,

D Munro, John, Knockando. An Inquiry into the Principal Ques-
tions at issue between the Baptists and Pedobaptists on the
Subjects and the Mode of Baptism, Edinburgh : Printed for
George Maitland, Elgin^ 1825.

6 Old Elgin, and the Eventful Career and Fate of a Modem Chapel.
Reprinted from 'Banffshire Journal,' November 15, 1859.
Banff: 'Journal' Office, 1859.

^ Popery and Presbyterianism. Seven Lectures by Ministers of
the U.P. Church. Elgin : Printed by Robert Jean, 185 1.

Y Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis e Pluribus Codicibus Con-
sarcinatum, circa A.D. MCCCC. ; cum Continuatione Diploma-
tum Recentiorum usque ad A.D. MDCXXiii. Edinburgi,
MDCCCXXXVii. (Bannatyne Club. Edited by Professor Cosmo
Innes.)

o Rose, Hew. Meditations on Interesting Subjects, 1660. Published
at Inverness, 1761.

o Ross, Andrew, M.A., preacher of the Gospel, Pluscarden. Dis-
courses on Various Subjects. Elgin : P. Macdonald & Geo.
Wilson. Forres : James Gill, 1849.

>^ Sketch of the History of the Congregational Church, Elgin.
Elgin : Jeans & Grant, 1866.

^ Thomson, James. Recollections of a Speyside Parish Fifty Years
Ago, and Miscellaneous Poems. Elgin : Moray and Nairn
Newspaper Company, Limited, 1887.

LIST OF MAPS OF MORAY AND NAIRN.

Moravia Scotiae Provincia, ex Timothei Pont scedis descripta et
aucta per Robert Gordonium ^ Strathloch, 1654. Printed in
Blaeu's Atlas.

The Shires of Moray and Nairn. By H. Moll. 1725.

Moray and Nairn in * Geographia Scotiae.' By Kitchin. 1749.

Moray and Nairn. In F. Thomson's Atlas. 1832.

Moray and Nairn. Ordnance Survey. 1875-76.

Philip's Handy Atlas of the Counties of Scotland, i860 and 1882.

Royal Scottish Geographical Atlas of Scotland. By J. G. Bar-
tholomew. 1895. Where a full Bibliography of Atlases of
Scotland is given, pp. 16-18.

V

INDEX.

Aberdeen, visit of Mary, Queen of

Scots, to, 152 — Montrose at, 187.
Agnes of Dunbar, Black, the story of,

144, 145-
Aitkin, James, Bishop of Moray, 104,

105.

Alban, the kingdom of, 24.

Alexander I., parentage and character
of, 53 — foundation of the Bishopric
of Moray by, 54.

Alexander II., interest in Elgin Cathe-
dral manifested by, 60, 64, 65 —
foundation of Pluscarden Priory by,
ib.

Alford, Montrose's victory at the battle

of, 195-
Andrew de Moravia, establishment of

Elgin Cathedral by, 60 — energy of,

61, 64.
Arkinholm, the battle of, 147.
Auldearn, St Colm's market at, 22 —

Montrose's victory at the battle of,

190 et seq,

Badenoch, Wolf of, excommunication

of the, by the Bishop of Moray, 67

— destruction of Elgin Cathedral by,

68— death of, ib.
Bain, Mr George, the ' History of

Nairnshire ' by, 365.
Balblair, Cumberland's forces at, 221.
Ballachastell, the seat of the Clan

Grant, 174.
Bellenden, John, Archdeacon of Moray,

89.
Bertram, C. J., Richard of Cirencester

and, 12.
Birnie, the church of, description of,

55-
Bishopric of Moray, foundation of the,

by Alexander I., 54 — its original

limits, ib, — the cathedral churches of

the, 55 et seq. — the great power and
value of the, 76 et seq. — the first
Protestant occupant of, 98 — effect
of abolition of prelacy on, 107 — total
duration of, ib, — influence of, 108.
Black Agnes of Dunbar, the story of,

144. 145.
Brackla distillery, 407.

Bricius, Bishop of Moray, activity of,
57 — causes the transference of the
cathedral church from Kinneddar to
Spynie, and from Spynie to Elgin,
57. 60.

Brodie, Alexander, fourteenth Laird of
Brodie, 259 — his inconsistency and
hypocrisy, 261, 262.

Brodies of Brodie, early traditions of,
258 — first appearance of, in history,
ib. — vandalism of, at Elgin, ib.

Brown, General Sir George, early life
of, 409 — war experiences of, 410 —
command of the ' ' Light Division "
in the Crimea by, 411 — accoimt of
the supersession of, 412 — personal
traits of, 413— triumphant return to
Elgin, 415.

Bruce, King Robert the, candidature
of, supported in Moray, 124 — early
career of, 133 — his friends and
enemies in Moray, 134 — elevation
of Moray into an earldom by,
136.

Brude, King of the Picts, the conver-
sion of, 16 et seq.

Buchan, Isobel, Countess of, cruel
punishment of, 135.

Buchanan, Maurice, writer of the
'Liber Pluscardensis,' 115.

Bur, Alexander, Bishop of Moray,
petition of, to Robert III. concern-
ing the restoration of Elgin Cathe-
dral, 69.

432

INDEX.

Burghead, identification of, with the
Winged Camp of the Picts, 9 — de-
scription of the town, 9 et seq. — the
ancient ramparts of, 10 — the " Broch
Bailies," ib. — alleged Roman mili-
tary station at, 11 — early Christian
settlement at, 18 — identification of,
with Caer-nam-brocc, 19 — descrip-
tion of the so-called * * Roman well "
at, ib, et seq. — the meaning of the
stone-bulls of, 21 — curious super-
stition among the fishers of, 22 —
probable identification of, with the
** borg " of Torfness built by Sigurd,
29 — the battle of Torfness, 33 — de-
scription of the burning of the clavie
at, 339 et seq.

Burns, Robert, visit of, to Castle Grant,
226.

Bute, Marquis of, restoration of the
Greyfriars' chapel at Elgin by the,

"5.

Caledonii, a general name for Northern
Picts, 8.

Campbell, Sir John, usurpation of the
thanage of Cawdor by, 253 — heri-
table Sheriff of Nairn, 254.

Caplaken, the ancient custom called,

341-
Cavel, casting the, the custom of,

340.

Cawdor, early history of, 248— the old
castle of, 249 — the keep as it now is,
25o^the origin of the name, ib. —
legends connected with, 251 — the
Campbells of, 252.

Cawdor, William, sixth Thane of, 249.

Charles Edward, landing of, 1745, 213
— advance to Inverness of, 215 —
narrow escape of, at Moy Hall, 216
— futile march on Nairn of, 223.

Christianity, introduction of, into
Moray, 17, 18.

Clava, the stone circles of, 6.

Claverhouse, Graham of, visit of, to
Duffus Castle, 204.

Clavie, the burning of the, 339 et seq,

**Colkitto," the, bra very of Alastair
Macdonnel or, at the battle of Cul-
loden, 189 et seq.

Columba, the story of, at the court of
King Brude, 17 — a legend concern-
ing, 18, 19 — traces of, in local place-
names, 22, 23 — expulsion of the
clergy of, by King Nectan, 23.

Comyn, John, the Black, hostility of,
to Bruce, 134 — cruelty of, to his
wife, 135 — defeat of, by Edward
Bruce at Inverurie, ib, — defeat of,
by Robert the Bruce at Old Mel-
drum, 136.

Comyn, John, the Red, defeat of, by
Edward I. at Lochindorb, 132.

Corrichie, the battle of, 152.

Counties, the division of Scotland into,
49.

Craigellachies, associations of the two,
with the Clan Grant, 172.

Cromdale, the battle of, 205.

Cruithne, 4.

Culbin, the ancient estate of, 243 — pres-
ent-day appearance of, 244 — the
great sandstorm of 1694, 245.

Culloden, the battle of, 224.

Cup-markings, frequency of, in Nairn-
shire, 7.

Dalriada, the kingdom of the Scots,

23-
Darnaway, visit of Mary, Queen of

Scots, to, 152 — the great forest of,

164.
Darnaway Castle, the situation and

history of, 140, 141.
David, Bishop of Moray, founder of

the Scots College at Paris, 66.
David I. , unification of Scotland under,

44 — changes introduced into Moray-
shire in the reign of, 45 et seq. —

foundation of Kinloss Abbey by,

116.
David II., capture of, at Neville's

Cross, 142.
Dicalidonae, ancient name of Northern

Picts, 8.
Dickens, Charles, James Grant of

Elgin and, 365.
Dicynodonts, the discovery of, in the

Elgin sandstone, 298.
Donibristle, the murder of the Bonnie

Earl of Moray at, 160 et seq,
Douglas, Archibald, Earl of Moray,

death of, at Arkinholm, 147.
Duff, the early history of the &mily of,

228 et seq.
Duff, Alexander, of Braco, 230.
" Duff, Creely," 229.
Duff, William, of Braco, elevation of,

to the Irish peerage, 232 — creation

of, as Viscount Macdtm and Eari

Fife, 233.
Duff, William, of Dipple, great trade

connections formed by, 231.
Duffus Castle, visit of Graham of

Claverhouse to, 204.
Dunbar, Black Agnes of, the stoiy of,

144, 145-
Dunbar, the beginnmg of the family

of, 144 — a thirty years' feud between

the families of Innes and, 153 «^ seq.

Duncan, King, parentage of, 32— de-

feat of, by Thorfinn, 33— murder of,

by Macbeth, 34.

i

INDEX. 433

Dunkeld, foundation of the bishopric dignitaries connected with, 88 et seq,

of, by Alexander I., 54. — the bishop's revenue, 91 — mensal

churches, 93 — values of the pre-

Earls, differences between the early, in bends, 94 — the effect of the Refor-

England and Scotland, 47 — the mation on, 108 — destruction caused

maormors and the Scottish, 48 — the to, by the bigotry of Covenanters,

Seven, of Scotland, ib. 109 et seq, — the labours of John

Edinburgh Morayshire Club, the, 385. Shanks at, no.

Edinkillie, meaning of the name, 164. ' Elgin Courant,' history of the, 364.

Edward I., the progress of, through ' Elgin Courier,* history of the, 363.
Morayshire, 125 et seq. — hostile ad-
vance of, through Morayshire, 131 — Falconar, William, Bishop of Moray,
capture of Lochindorb by, 132. 105, 106.

Edward III., spoliation of Moray by, Falkirk, the battle of, 131,

T43. Fidach, King, 5.

Ekkialsbakki, the burial-place of Sig- Findhom, former importance of, 278.

urd, theories as to the site of, 31. Fisher folk, superstitions existing

Elgin, destruction of, by the Wolf of among the, of Moray and Nairn,

Badenoch, 68 — spoliation of, by 338 et seq, — the Mavistoun, 349.

Alexander of the Isles, 70 — erection Floods, the Moray, description of, 293

of the Little Cross at, 71 — the mon- et seq.

asteries of the Greyfriars and the Forman, Bishop Andrew, character of,

Blackfriars, 115 — visit of Edward I. 78^embassies to France and Eng-

to, 126 — description of the old castle, land, 79 — a visit to Pope Julius II.,

ib, et seq. — allegorical allusions to, 80 — Archbishop of Bruges, 81 —

by Florentius Volusenus, 128— Ed- Archbishop of St Andrews, ib,

ward's reception in, ib. — burning of Forres, description of Sueno's Stone

the castle, 130 — visit of Mary Queen near, 35, 36— destruction of, by the

of Scots, 152 — harrying of, by Mon- Wolif of Badenoch, 67 — burning of

trose, 186— renewed spoliation of, the castle of, i3o^the antiquity of,

by Montrose, 195 — proceedings of 281 — origin of the name, 282 — his-

the Commissioners appointed to toric remains, ib.

"take order " with nonconformists, * Forres Gazette,' founding of the, 364.

201 — Charles Edward at, 218 — an Forsyth, Isaac, the services of, to Elgin,

election raid at, 226 <?/j^^.— fictitious 359, 360.

history of, 266 — obligation of, to Forsyth, Joseph, imprisonment of, at

the Church, 267 — Cosmo Innes's Valenciennes, 359.

reflections on, 268 — the feudal Eraser, Mr John, the ' St Ninian Press '

superiors of, 269 — the Dunbars and, established by, 365.

270 — the provosts of, 271 — St Giles Freuchie, the original seat of the

the provost of, 272 — the crafts and Grants, 174.
guilds of, ib. et seq. — the brewsters

of, 276 — the ale- tasters of, 277 — Garmouth, burning of, by Montrose,

education in, 280 — foundation of 195 — landing of Charles II. at, 198.

the Academy, 281. Gervadius, St, the foundation of Kin

Elgin Cathedral, establishment of, 60 neddar Church by, 56— a tradition
— its dedication in 1224, 61 — the concemin|f, /^., 56.
constitution of the Chapter, 62 et Golf, antiquity of, at Nairn, 317.
seq. — extent of the diocese, 64 — Gordon, Dr George, of Birnie, remark-
patronage of Alexander II., ib. — able ability of, 381 — friendship of,
early vicissitudes of, 65— account of with eminent scientists, 382 — the
the destruction of, by the Wolf of literary work of, 383.
Badenoch, 67 et seq, — further de- Gordon, John, Earl of Moray, short
spoliation of, by Highland robbers, account of the pedigree of, 149 —
70 — partial restoration of, by succes- enmity of Lord James Stewart to,
sive bishops, 71 — progress made by 150 — death of, at the battle of
successive bishops in restoring, 82 — Corrichie, 152.
description of the complete build- Gordon of Gordonstoun, Sir Robert,
ings, 83 et seq. — a romantic story reputation of, as a wizard, 234 et
attaching to, 85 — the Collegium, 86 seq. — the real character of, 237 — the
— the manses attached to, ib.^ 87 — " pumpe " invented by, 239 — the evil
duties and degrees of the various reputation of his son, 240.

2 £

434 INDEX.

Gordon, the connection of the family Grant, Ludovick, eighth Laird of

of, with Moray, 172. Freuchie, nicknamed " the High-

Gordon Gumming, Col. William, mili- land King," 200— arbitrary conduct

tary and sporting career of, 400, 401. of, 207, 208 — the scene at the ab-
Gordon Gumming, Miss C. F., extent dication of, 209, 210.

of the travels of, 40T — 'Work for Grantown, the origin of, 175.

the Blind in China ' by, 402. Great North of Scotland Railway, 369,
Gordon Gumming, Roualeyn, short 370, 371.

military career of, 394 — lion-hunting Gregor, Rev. Walter, 320.

of, in South Africa, 395, 396 — last ex- Gregorius, the first bishop of Moray,

pedition of, 397— the collections of, 54, 55.

398 — 'Five Years of a Hunter's Life' Guthrie, John, Bishop of Moray, cita-

by, 399 — character of, 400. tion of, before the Glasgow General

Gordons of Gordonstoun, the pedigree Assembly, 100 — trials of, loi, 102.

of the, 234.

Gospatric, the history of, the founder Hay, "Willie," early career of, 383,

of the house of Dunbar, 143. 384 — connection of, with Christopher

Grant, history of the invasion of North, 385 — the Edinburgh Moray-
Strathspey by the clan, 173 et seq. shire Club and, ib. et seq, — the

— services to the Crown rendered by "Lintie o' Moray" by, 387 — other

the clan, 176 et seq. — loyalty of the literary efforts by, ib, — character of,

clan, during the '45, 212. ib, et seq.

Grant, James Augustus, early life of, Hepburn, Bishop Patrick, the ability

403 — experiences of, in the Indian and licentiousness of, 96 — defiance

Mutiny, 404^-offer of, to accompany of the Reformation by, and death

Speke, 405 — 'A Walk across Africa ' of, 97.

by, 406 — illness of, in Africa, 407 — Highland Railway, the, 370.

subsequent military career of, 408 — Huntly, growth of the power of the

character of, 409. earldom of, 150.

Grant, James, ** Provost of Scotland," Hurry, Sir John, victory of, at Aber-

the Glen Grant Distillery founded deen, 187 — cruelty of, to Montrose,

by, 368 — great services of, to rail- ib, — alleged treason of, 194.

way enterprise in the north, ib,

et seq, Innes, Cosmo, connection of, with
Grant, James, the ' Elgin Courier ' Moray, 373 — * Registrum Mora-
started by, 363 — editor of the viense ' by, 374 — private letters of,

* Monthly Magazine,' 365 — editor 375 — intimacy with Charles St John,

of the * Morning Advertiser,* 366— 377 et seq,

versatility and energy of, 367 — 'His- Innes, John, Bishop of Moray, erec-

tory of the Newspaper Press ' by, tion of the Castle of Spynie by, 71

368. et seq.

Grant, James, the Good Sir James, Innes, the origin of the family of, 122

founder of Grantown and of the — a thirty -years' feud between the

Grant Fencibles, 225. families of Dunbar and, 153 et seq.

Grant, James, third Laird of Freuchie, Inverlochy, Montrose's victory at, 185.

"Sheumas nan Creach," 177. Inverness, visit of Mary, Queen of
Grant, James, seventh Laird of Scots, to, 152.

Freuchie, romantic marriage of, Inverurie, defeat of the Black Comyn

182 — neutrality of, in the campaigns at the battle of, 135.

of Montrose, 196 et seq.

Grant, John, author of the ' Penny James VI., conversion of Spynie into

Wedding,' 362. a temporal lordship by, ^ et seq, —

Grant, John, fourth Laird of Freuchie, attitude of, to Presbyterianism, 99.

presence of, at Holyrood on night of Julius Capitolinus, 13.

Damley's murder, 178.

Grant, John, fifth Laird of Freuchie, Kilns, superstitions connected with,

great contemporary reputation of, 318.

179. Kilravock, Prince Charles at, 219 —
Grant, John, sixth Laird of Freuchie, supposed visit of Cumberland to,

"Sir John Sell-the-land, " 180. 224 — the interest of the castle of,

Grant, Lady Anne, a famous election 256 — the antiquity of the Roses of,

at Elgin and, 226 et seq, ib.

INDEX.

435

Kilsyth, Montrose's victory at the

battle of, 196.
Kinloss, the legendary battle of, 35.
Kinloss Abbey, legend regarding the

foundation of, 116 — Robert Reid,

the one distinguished abbot of, 117

— visit of Mary, Queen of Scots, to,

152.
Kinnaird, the family of, 242 — its ruin,

246.
Kinneddar, the church of, sanctity of,

56 — foundation of, by St Gervadius,

ib,

" Laigh of Moray," the, 290 et seq.

Lauder, Sir Thomas Dick, historian of
the Morayshire floods, 372.

Leslie, Rev. William, literary work
and eccentric character of, 360
et seq.

' Liber Pluscardensis,* 115.

Little Earl of Moray, the, 148.

Lochindorb, the Wolf of Badenoch's
stronghold at, 67 — capture of, by
Edward L, 131 — description of, id.
— capture of, by Edward IIL, 143.

Lockhart, John Gibson, encourage-
ment given to Charles St John by,

379.
LoUius Urbicus, 13.

London Morayshire Club, the, 385.

Lossiemouth, the erection of a harbour

at, 279 — present prosperity of, 280.
Lulach, the successor of Macbeth,

short reign and murder of, 39.
Lumphanan, death of Macbeth at the

battle of, 39.

MacAlpin, Kenneth, the triumph of,
over the Picts, 23 — alliance of, with
the Norsemen, 25.

Macbeth, the murder of Duncan by,
34 — troubled reign of, 38 — defeat of,
at Scone by Siward and Malcolm,
39 — death of, at the hands of Mal-
colm at Lumphanan, id. — legendary
associations concerning, 40.

Macdonnel, Alastair, or **Colkitto,"
the bravery of, at the battle of
Auldearn, 189 et seq.

Mac Kenneth, Malcolm, alliance of,
with the Norseman Sigurd the
Stout, 32.

Mackenzie, Henry, 225.

Mackenzie, Murdoch, Episcopalian
Bishop of Moray, 102, 103, 104.

Macpherson, James, the execution of,
208, 209.

Maelbrigd, the Maormor of Moray,
fight between Sigurd and, 30.

Main Cope or Coup, origin of the
fisher name, 214.

Malcolm, victory of, over Macbeth at
Scone, 39 — slaughter of Macbeth by,
at Lumphanan, id. — succession of,
to the throne as Malcolm Canmore,
id. — invasions of Moray by, 43, 44
— death of, id.

Maormor, meaning of the term, 41,
42.

March, Earldom of, Moray united
with the, 146.

Marshall, William, the career of, 388
— mechanical genius of, 389 — musi-
cal genius of, 390 — Gow's plagiar-
isms from, 391 — list of compositions
by, 392.

Mary, Queen of Scots, royal progress
north of, 152.

Mavistoun, the extinct fishing village
of, 37 — the " fisher-gouks " of, 349.

Miller, Mr James D., editor of the
'Forres Gazette,* 364.

Milne, King, the story of the Gar-
mouth family of, 198.

Montrose, victory of, at Inverlochy,
185 — entry of, into Elgin, id. — cam-
paign in the north, 186 et seq. — the
battle of Auldearn, 189 et seq. —
subsequent reprisals in Moray and
Nairn, 194 — destruction in Elgin,

195-

Moravia, the boundaries of the princi-
pality of, 24.

Moray, the province of, ancient boun-
daries of, 3 et seq. — derivation of the
name, 4 — early Pictish inhabitants,
id. et seq. — prehistoric relics, 6, 7 —
the Romans in, 10 et seq. — introduc-
tion of Christianity into, 17, 18 —
attacks of the Norsemen on, 28 —
the reign of Sigurd in, 30 — the only
great battle in, 33 — the independ-
ence of, under Canmore, 40 — in-
vasions of, by Malcolm, 43, 44 — end
of the direct line of maormors in, 44
— changes introduced into, by David
L, 45 et seq. — the creation of thanes,
id. — list of thanes in, 46— the end of
the ** province" of, 49 — foundation
of the Bishopric of, by Alexander L,
54— the effect of the Reformation in,
97 et seq. — the condition of, in the
twelfth century, 122 — the "planta-
tion " of, by Malcolm IV., id. — the
beginning of Highland hostility to,
123 — sympathy of, with the claims
of Bruce, 124 — the presence of Ed-
ward 1. in, 125 et seq. — hostile in-
cursion of Edward L and capture of
Lochindorb, 131 — spoliation of, by
Edward HI. , 143 — the Good Earl of,
148, 149 — the two shires of, 167 —
the three most important families in,

436

INDEX.

171 — the Gordons and, 172— a royal-
ist plot in, 197 — visitation of the
Nonconformity Commission, 202 —
the foreign trade of, 278— the popu-
lation of, 287 — the Celtic element in,
288 — the area of, ib. — census of
occupations in, ib, 288 — the Laigh
of, 290 — climate, 291 — rainfall, 292
— account of the floods, 2g$efseg, —
the geology of, 298 — the soil of, 299
— the peat of, 300 — recent advance
of, in agriculture, 301 — arable area
of, 302 — lumber trade of, 303 — the
Morayshire Farmers* Club, 304 —
former agricultural methods in, 305
—old farm-buildings in, 306 — use of
peat in, 307— old rural life in, 308 —
description of an old-time penny-
wedding in, 309 ei seq. — lyke-wakes
in, 312 — the old peasantry of,
315 — former amusements of the
people of, 316 — the farm kilns of,
318 — old beliefs in, 319 — private
stills in, 320 — the " gentle beggars "
of, 321— old Church festivals in, 323
et seq, — Hogmanay rejoicings in,
326— cases of crop-failures in, 329 —
old superstitions in, 330 et seq, —
witches in, 334 et seq, — the fisher-folk
of, 338 — the '* burning of the clavie,"
339 — "to- names," 342 — supersti-
tions among the fishers of, 343 etseq,

Moray, Earldom of, the creation of,
136 — the families that have held it,
137 — some famous names connected
with, ib, — the family of Dunbar and,
144 et seq,

Moray, Sir Andrew, account of the
pedigree of, 130 — support given to
Wallace by, tb, — death of, at the
battle of Stirling, 131.

Moray, the Little Earl of, 148.

* Moray and Nairn Express,' founding
of the, 364.

Morayshire Club, the Edinburgh, 385
— the London, ib.

Morayshire Farmers' Club, the, 304.

Morayshire Railway, the establishment
of the, 368 et seq,

Moy, narrow escape of Charles Edward
at, 216 — the Rout of, 217.

Moyness, visit of Mary, Queen of Scots,
to, 152.

Nairn, evidence of, being a Scandi-
navian settlement, 37 — arrival of
Sir John Cope at, 214 — Cumberland's
entry into, 221 — futile advance of
Charles Edward on, 223 — Sir John
Campbell secures heritable Sheriff-
ship of, 254 — early history of, 283 —
St Ninian and, ib, — recent progress

of, 284 — the Michaelmas Market in,

325.
Nairnshire, large number of cup-
markings in, 7 — traces of Norse m-
fluence in, 37 — no Danish evidences
in, 38— the chief families of, 248 —
the population of, 287 — the Celtic
element in, 288 — census of occupa-
tions in, 289 — general configuration
of, ib, — climate of, 291 — the Floods
of '29, 293 et seq, — the soil of, 299
— advances in agriculture in, 301 —
arable area of, 302 — Farmers' Society
of, 304 — the Michaelmas Market
in Nairn, 325 — the crops of, 329 —
old superstitions in, 330 et seq, —
witchcraft in, -^"^^ etseq. — the custom
of "casting the cavel" in, 340 —
fisher superstitions in, 343 et seq. —
the fishers of Mavistoun, 349 — the
energy and progress of, 352.

* Nairnshire, History of,' Mr George

Bain's, 365.

* Nairnshire Telegraph,' the, 365.
Neville's Cross, the battle of, 143.
Norsemen, alliance between the Scots

and, 25 — the invasions of Moravia
by the, 26 et seq, — account of the, 27
et seq, — early appearances of, in
Scotland, 28 — attacks on Moravia
by Thorstein and Sigurd, z^.— sud-
den end of the influence of, in Scot-
land, 34.

Olaf the White, the Norse king of
Dublin, 28.

Old Meldrum, defeat of the Black
Comyn at the battle of, 135.

Ossian, references to the Scandina-
vians in, 26.

Palmerston, Lord, anecdote of, and
Grant of the Nile, 406.

Pannatia, an ancient Pictish town, 8.

Paris, foundation of the Scots College
at, by Bishop David de Moravia, 66.

Penny wedding, description of an old-
time, in Morayshire, 308 et seq,

Philiphaugh, the battle of, 196.

Picts, early divisions of the, 14 — nature
of the government among the, 15 —
Scone, the capital of the, ib, — the
mythical kings of the, ib, — the law
of succession among the, 16 — the
dawn of real history concerning the,
ib. — Brude, king of the, ib. et seq,
— early quarrels of, with the Scots,
23 — final overthrow of the, by Ken-
neth MacAlpin, ib.

Picts of Moray, the, 4 — ^the religion
of, 6 — relics of, ib. et seq, — social
polity of, 8 — the towns of, ib, et seq.

INDEX.

437

— opposition shown by, to the ad-
vance of Sevenis, 13 — four blank
centuries in the history of, 14 —
tribal divisioifs among the, ib, —
nature of government among the,
15 — introduction of Christianity
among, 17, 18.

Pitgaveny, the reputed scene of King
Duncan's murder, 34.

Pluscarden Priory, foundation of, by
Alexander II., 65 — situation of, 11 1
— description of, 112 — the monks of,
113— the history of, 114 — the * Liber
Pluscardensis,* 115.

Pteroton Stratopedon, an ancient
Pictish town, 8, 12.

Ptolemy, the geographer, 8.

Ptoroton, the mythical Roman, identi-
fied with the Winged Camp, 12.

Railway, establishment of the Moray-
shire, 368 et seg. — the Inverness and
Aberdeen Junction, 369 — the Great
North of Scotland, id.f 371 — the In-
verness and Nairn, 369 — the High-
land, 370 — the Strathspey, id,

Randolph, John, third Earl of Moray,
adventurous career and death of, at
Neville's Cross, 142.

Randolph, Thomas, first Earl of
Moray, story of, at Bannockburn,
138 — brilliant services of, 139 — the
munificent charter granted to, id, —
the family of, 141.

Rapenache, the place where Edward I.
Sf)ent his first night in Morayshire,
126.

Reformation, the effect of the, in
Moray, 97 et seq.

Raid, Robert, a distinguished abbot
of Kinloss, 116.

Rhind, Dr William, ' Recollections of
William Hay ' by, 386.

Richard of Cirencester, 11, 12.

Roman Well of Burghead, description
of the so-called, 19, 20.

Romans, Burghead a reputed military
station of the, 11 — the expedition of
Severus, 13 — LoUius Urbicus in the
North, id. — theories regarding the
presence of, in the Moray Firth, id.

Ronnell bell, the, in the church of
Bimie, 55.

Rose of Kilravock, the antiquity of
the family of, 256.

Roseisle, early Christian settlement at,
18.

Ross, Rev. Gilbert, a covenanting
vandal, 109.

Roy, General, * Military Antiquities of
the Romans in North Britain ' by,
10, II, 12.

Scandinavians, the invasion of Scot-
land by two distinct races of, 25.

Scone, the capital of the Pictish king-
dom, 15 — defeat of Macbeth at, 39.

Scotia, the subsumption of the name
of Alban in that of, 24.

Scots, first appearance of the, in his-
tory, 23 — the limits of their king-
dom, 24 — triumph of the, over the
Picts, 25.

Scots College at Paris, foundation of,
by Bishop David de Moravia, 66.

Seton, Alexander, Chancellor of Scot-
land, provost of Elgin, 271.

Severus, the expeditions of, beyond the
Grampians, 13.

Shanks, John, a notable keeper of
Elgin Cathedral, no, in.

Shaw, Lachlan, career of, 357 — the
' History of the Province of Moray *

t>y. 358.

Sheriff, the history and evolution of
the office of, 165 et seq, — the heredi-
tary, 167.

Sigurd, invasion of Moravia by, 28 —
probable foundation of Burghead by,
29 — strange death of, 30, 31.

Sigurd the Stout, victory of, at Skit-
ten, 31 — establishment of the Moray
Firth as the northern boundary of
Moray, 32 — alliance with Malcolm
MacKenneth, id. — death of, id,

Siward, Earl of Northumberland,
contests of, with Macbeth, 38, 39.

Skitten, battle of, between Finlay of
Moray and Sigurd the Stout, 31.

Speke, Captain, the third expedition
of, 404 et seq, — death of, 408.

Spey, the river, and its strath, 173.

Speymouth, the Duke of Cumberland
at, 220.

Spynie, the beauty of the old loch of,
58 — prophecy concerning, 59 — no
traces remaining of the old church
of, id, — conversion of the Bishopric
into a temporal lordship of, 98.

Spynie, Palace of, erection of the, by
Bishop Innes, 71 — description of the
building, 72 et seq. — David's Tower,
72 — associations connected with, 73,

74-

St Giles, election of, to the provost-
ship of Elgin, 272.

St John, Charles, friendship of, with
Cosmo Innes, 377 et seq. — *Wild
Sports and Natural History of the
Highlands ' by, 379 — other works
by, 380.

* St Ninian Press,' the, 365.

Stewart, Alexander, Bishop of Moray,

95-
Stewart, Bishop David, the keep of the

438

INDEX.

Palace of Sp5mie built by, 76, 77-^
feud with the Earl of Huntly, ib,

Stewart, Francis, ninth Earl of Moray,
planting of Damaway forest by,
164.

Stewart, James, the Bonnie Earl of
Moray, two pictures of, 156— the
Queen's favour for, 157 — the feud
of, with Huntly, 158 et seq. — his
brutal murder, 160 et seq,

Stewart, Tames, the Good E^l of
Moray, controversies concerning,
148 — inordinate ambition of, 149 —
created Earl of Moray, 153 — assas-
sination of, ib»

Stewart, Lady Mary, romantic mar-
riage of, 183 — character of, ib.

Stone Bulls of Burghead, description
of the, 21.

Stone-circles, prevalence of, in Moray
and Nairn, 6, 7.

Sueno's Stone, near Forres, account
of, and theories concerning, 35, 36.

Tamia, an ancient Pictish town, 8.

Taylor, John, the Water Poet, visit
of, to Ballachastell in 1618, 180.

Thanes, the conversion of toshachs
into, by David I., 45 et seq. — differ-
ence between English and Scottish,
46 — the Morayshire, ib.

Thorfinn, the son of Sigurd the Stout,
created Earl of Caithness, 32 — vic-
tory of, at Torfness, over King

Duncan, Q3 — description of, ib. —
alliance of, with Macbeth, 38 — de-
feat and death of, 43.

Thorstein the Red, invasion of Moravia
by, 28.

Toeny, Simon de. Bishop of Moray,

55.
Torfness, the battle of, 33.

Tuessis, an ancient Pictish town, 8.
Tulloch, Robert, a town-clerk of For-
res, story of, 211.

Unthank, early Christian settlement

at, 18.
Urquhart, Priory of, union of, with

Pluscarden, 114.

Vacomagans, Ptolemy's account of

the, 8.
Vikings, nature of the, 26.
Volusenus, Florentius. See Wilson,

Florence.

Wilson, Florence, the chapel of Elgin
Castle alluded to by, 128 — dis-
tinguished testimony to the eminence

of. 356.
Winchester, Bishop John of, great

temporal power of, 75, 76.
Witchcraft, instances of, in Moray and

Nairn, 334.

Young, H. W., " Notes on the Ram-
parts of Burghead " by, 10.

"JAN 91^^^

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.