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THE HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK

THE

HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK

OR

SKETCHES AND ANECDOTES

ROBERT CARRUTHERS, LL.D.

NE^W EDITION

INVERNESS : PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE COURIER OFFICE

PREFACE.

MANY years ago the late Dr Carruthers contem
plated publishing a second edition of the Highland
Note-Book. It has been out' of print almost from
the year of its publication in 1 843 ; but, though the
author subsequently made many alterations and cor
rections in manuscript, he seems to have long ago
abandoned the idea of republication. In answer
to a letter from a publisher who asked permission
to issue an edition at his own risk, Dr Carruthers
wrote as follows on January 7, 1 877 : —
" The Highland Note-Book has long been dead and
buried. It will not do to revive it. To adapt it to the
present times it would require to be re-writteri, and it
is not worth it. I have always refused, and must con
tinue to refuse, any proposed reprint of it."
The copyright has expired, and on one occasion
it was pointedly mentioned that it is now compe-

tent to any one to reprint and publish the pleasant
little volume, which afforded much pleasure to
a past generation. In fact re-publication was
then meditated. In these circumstances, it has
been considered better in the interests of the book,
that, if republished at all, it should appear with
the alterations, partial though they be, which Dr
Carruthers made when, long before 1877, he was
pressed to bring out a new edition. We need
hardly state that, as regards the names of people,
the circumstances of proprietorship of land, the
mode of travelling in the Highlands; and a hundred
other matters of detail, the Highland Note-Book
is no longer a book of reference, except as relating
to the past. The changes are so numerous that,
in themselves, they form a striking comment upon
the history of the Highlands, even in so short a
period as forty-one years.
To have supplemented the text with footnotes,
bringing up information to date, would have spoiled
the pleasure of reading the Note-Book, which owes
its popularity to the charm of the author's style,
the quaint lore he collected from many sources,
and the abounding love he entertained for the un
changing beauty of Highland scenery.

PREFACE. HI.
The reader must always bear in mind that the
Highland Note-Book was written nearly half a
century ago.
Inverness, 1884.

CONTENTS.

Mountain Scenery —
The Fall of Foyers ....
The Falls of Kilmorack
Inverness a Hundred Years Since
Inverness to Gordon Castle and Kinrara
Culloden House and Literary Relics
Kilravock Castle ....
Cawdor Castle, Nairnshire .
Fort-George and Nairn
Macbeth's Witches ....
Darnaway Castle and Forest
Elgin, and John Shanks
Gordon Castle, the Seat of the Duke of Richmond
Kinrara Cottage and Rothiemurchus
Cullen House . ' 
Duff House, near Banff
Miscellaneous Notes —
Planting Oaks . . . .
Old Trees 
Woodcocks ... . .
Struggle betwixt an Eagle and a Deer .
Burghead — Ancient Well
The Seven Disastrous Years
The Witches of Kintyre
The Bold Outlaw ....
Game — Destruction of Vermin
Melancholy Fate of a Poor Strolling Player
The Wardlaw Manuscript .
Early Gardening in the Highlands

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CONTENTS.

The Stirrup-Cup .
A Powerful Priest ....
Early Administration of Justice
Comfort and Honesty of the Highlanders
A Daring Feat 
The Beauly Fishings 
Singular Fact in the History of the Frasers .
Witchcraft— The Earl of Bothwell
Plague and Famine .....
A Spendthrift— Abuse of Wine
Great Highland Funeral
The Medical Art in the North
A Barbarous Murder — Touching the Dead Body
Old Saying Verified . . .
Great Marriage ......
Spectral Illusions — Superstition .
Great Ship and a Naval Hero
Montrose —The Civil Wars ....
Portraiture of Montrose, a Prisoner
Scottish Military Adventurers
The Citadel of Inverness ....
State and Splendour of the Lovat Family
Trial of Witches ....
Horse Races in Inverness
Family Feuds, &c. .....
Loyalty of the Frasers — Conversation between Charles II
and Lord Lovat .....
A Clerical Joke .... . .
A Successful and Romantic Adventure .
Striking Reverse of Fortune 
Slaughter at Inverness Fair — The Battle of the Cheese
A Grateful Englishman . ...
Effects of Brandy .... .
Scotsmen in London in the 1 7th Century
Tour to Perthshire, &c 
Dunkeld 
Larch Plantations at Dunkeld
Perth 

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CONTENTS.

Vll.

Lynedoch — " Bessy Bell and Mary Gray "
Dunblane 
Doune ... ....
Deanston Cotton Works
Blair-Drammond Moss
Stirling and Bannockburn ....
Donibristle Park, &c. .....
Inchcolm 
A Ramble among the Scenery of Burns .
A Tour from Inverness to Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland
shire ........
Stafford House, London
Belleville House . . . .
MoyHall 
Taymouth Castle during the Queen's Visit
Iona  . .
Staffa ........
St Kilda 
A Journey Southwards .....

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4°3

HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK,

MOUNTAIN SCENERY.
THE FALL OF FOYERS.
An English lover of the country, and of all its delicious
sights and sounds, has written a book, called " A Day in
the Woods." The subject is inspiring: what is so fitted
to call forth delightful emotions as a day spent in the
wild woodlands? A long, long day in summer, about
the middle of July, from sunrise, when morn is on the
mountain tops, and on the trees — all in motion — twink
ling with dew-drops, and exhaling their wild aroma —
every bush and branch rife with birds, and the waters
dimpled with the liveliest light, till sunset lingers among
the hoary trunks and stems — the ash rising in grace, the
Venus of the wood, and the oak its Hercules ; and the
long level shadows are stretched on the greensward,
" Thick inlaid with patines of bright gold."
Then, too, the birds ply their tasks, but in a soberer

2 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
mood: the blackbird pours his prolonged strain; in the
fields and woods of England, the nightingale is heard
over all her compeers, like a Malibran or Grisi, among
the boughs. The brooks and rivers have a fuller and
more solemn sound, audible in the deepest recesses of
the calm wood, where the fly " winds his sullen horn."
The trees are lighted up in spots and patches, as in Cuyp
and Watteau's pictures (Claude is too radiant and lustrous
for our northern clime, and Poussin — the learned Poussin
¦ — is too uniformly green); and we see the woodman strike
off into one of his narrow direct paths, having trimmed
his copses, growing fresh among the standard trees and
the fern, where they grow best; and now looking home
wards, for " Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes,
From between two aged oaks. "
We leave the plough in the back-ground, and the
shepherd on his hill or meadow. But we may glance at
the fallow-deer and roe, trooping at the whistle of then-
keeper, with their soft sparkling eyes, or browsing on the
spray of the trees. We may tell of the ring-dove, or the
glossy pheasant; the jay and kites, that " swim sublime,
in still repeated circles;" and of the social, noisy, indus
trious rook:" Sounds inharmonious in themselves, and harsh;
Yet heard in scenes where peace for ever reigns,
Please highly, for their sake. ''
" Beautiful exceedingly" must be a day in the woods,
enjoyed or described by one touched with the fire of
nature; and to such alone can it be intelligible. The
great sacred poet of England held that the words of

MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 3
divine revelation could only be appreciated aright by
those to whom divine assistance had been rendered :
"Those written records pure,
Though not but by the Spirit understood. "
Warburton termed this declaration a strong proof of
Milton's enthusiastic spirit. It is not the less true; and
it is equally certain that the living records of the Deity —
the open volume of creation — can only be fully under
stood by the aid of a faculty not vouchsafed to all.
Wordsworth's truculent hero, Peter Bell, to whom a
primrose by a river's brim was simply a yellow primrose,
nothing more, was not singular in this respect. He
saw only the superficies of things, and had no dreams of
hidden beauty. There are many, however, with whom
the love of nature is a latent quality, only awaiting cir
cumstances to develop it. They may not have been
familiar with rural objects in that season of life when the
strongest impressions are made; or they may have been
engrossed with stormier passions and the cares of the
world. In them the power is sleeping, not dead; and
to all these the picturesque writings of William Howitt,
Miller, Jesse, and others, are a treasure above all price.
They come home to them more closely than the lofty
didactic pseans of the poets; they open up details not
within the scope of Thomson, or even Cowper; they in
dividualise and appropriate the glorious invocations and
apostrophes of Byron, Shelley, and Wordsworth; they
reconcile us to a world that, with all its ills and griefs,
has so much of beauty and interest at our very doors.
A naturalist is almost always a cheerful, contented man.
Gilbert White was happier at Selborne, chronicling the

4 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
migration of the swallows and the blossoming and ripen
ing of his plants, than he could have been in possession
of the see of Durham. We love the whole race of
naturalists, especially the amiable expounders and painters
of nature, and would bestow on them all the wish of Sir
Thomas Overbury's fair and happy milkmaid " that they
may die in the spring, and, being dead, have good store
of flowers stuck round about their winding-sheet."
A day among the mountains — far in the hills — is a
passage in a man's life more touching and memorable
than a day in the woods. In the latter, we scarcely ever
lose sight of the cheerful haunts of men, or their occupa
tions. Our sensations are unmixed with terror. The
animals and objects around us excite the genial sym
pathies and impulses of our frame; our emotions are not
forced into one channel, or overpowered by one master
feeling or passion. Alone among the mountains, we
are reduced to utter insignificance; our sympathies are
choked; the soul is thrown back on itself. The scene
is strong with the original, primeval impress of nature,
untouched by man or his works. We seem to stand
directly in the presence of the Almighty, stripped of all
flatteries and disguises; the bold outlines and peaks of
the hills, cleaving the silent motionless air, appear as His
handwriting, legible in their majestic character, and ap
palling in their sternness and solitude. Such as we now
see them, they were beheld by the "world's grey fathers,"
bond and free, in the earliest periods of creation. The
eagle still builds his nest among the cliffs; the torrent
still flashes down the ravine; the birch tree, or the pine
waves over the precipice; and the lake, visited by the
red deer and the solitary water-fowl, still beats its banks,

MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 5
reflecting the grey rock and the cloud — all utterly care
less and unconscious of man, who seems an alien, an in
cumbrance to the scene. The conquerors of the world
subdued nations; but the mountains, like the banners of
heaven, were impregnable. Woods are perishable and
evanescent; they flourish and fade; they
" Fall successive, and successive rise;'-
are cut down or reproduced in their deciduous beauty
and leafy splendour : the mountains remain unchanged
amidst the mutations of time. Many an eye, now dim,
has gazed on them in silent wonder and admiration;
many a prayer, from hearts smote with reverence, or fear,
or penitence, the " late remorse of love," or of humble
adoration, has been breathed at their base ! They re
main, from age to age, types of the Everlasting, fulfilling
their high destiny of awakening, purifying, and exalting
the human mind. Nothing but the sea — the vast illimit
able ocean^ — can compare in sublimity with wild moun
tain scenery.
A range of mountains is sometimes as varied in shape,
colour, and shade, as a forest of old trees. Let us place
ourselves in the heart of the Glengarry country, or the
wild Monaliadh mountains, in Inverness-shire. First you
have, directly above the black foaming stream, or the glen
of soft green herbage, a ridge of brown heathery heights,
not very imposing in form or altitude; then a loftier
range, with a blue aspect; a third, scarred with snow, and
serrated, perhaps, or peaked at their summits; then a
multitudinous mass, stretching away in the distance, of
cones, pyramids, or domes, darkly blue or ruddy with
sunshine, the shadows chasing one another across their

6 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
huge limbs, revealing, now and then, the tail of a cata
ract, a lake, or the relics of a pine forest, once mighty in
its gloomy expanse of shade, in the olden time. A pano
rama of mountains, as if instinct with life and motion!
To call such a scene dull or uniform — such a vast assem
blage of Titanic forms, warring with the elements, or re
flecting their splendour — as unlovely or unattractive, is a
sacrilege and desecration of the noblest objects in creation.
Dear are the homes, and warm the hearts, hid among
these wild fastnesses! You look, and at the foot of a
crag, on the moorland, from which it can scarcely be dis
tinguished, you discern a hut : its walls are of black turf;
window, or chimney, it has none, save rude apertures;
yet, pervious to all the blasts that blow, like hurricanes,
in the trough of these mountain ranges, the hut stands,
and the peasants live and bring forth in safety. You
enter, and find the grandmother, bent double with age,
or the grey-haired sire, the only inmate of the house.
The husband has gone to dig turf, or to perform some
other out-of-doors occupation; the children are over the
hill, bare-foot, to school; and the wife or daughter is at
the shearing — a fertile valley among the mountains, where
all the neighbours take their cattle, in summer, to graze.
Poor is the hut in which the stranger is not offered some
refreshment, and is greeted, in few words of broken Eng
lish, with a cordial welcome. In cottages like these,
amidst the veriest gloom and poverty, still subsist a high-
souled generosity, stainless faith, and feudal politeness,
spontaneous and unbought; and from these huts have
sprung brave and chivalrous men, who have carried their
country's renown into many a foreign land. The vices of
the poor Highlander are, in reality, the vices of his chief,

MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 7
or landlord; he is wholly dependent on the latter, and
his devotion to him is unquenched and unquenchable:
the mould of his character, his feelings, and fortunes, are
in his chiefs hand. Some hundreds of young, vigorous
Highlanders, have this season emigrated to Australia — a
pastoral country suited to their habits and inclinations —
but never without the most poignant regret and distress.
The pibroch is played' at their departure; and the old
Gaelic chant of the exiles, Cha til sinn tulidh — " We re
turn no more" — sounds as melancholy now among the
deserted glens as it ever did at the period of the great
emigration to America at the close of the last century.
We leave the ruined castle of Invergarry and the
" Rock of the Raven," which forms the motto, or gather
ing-cry of the clan Macdonell ; cross Loch-Oich, where
two magnificent wild swans until lately kept watch and
ward for twenty years ; and strike off from Fort-Augustus
to the Fall of Foyers. The road is seldom used — for
there is a better on the opposite side of Loch-Ness ; but
those who love to cope with Nature in her "sullen fits"
will find the old road " full of matter." It is a dreary,
unmitigated, stern seclusion. Not a soul did we meet for
miles. The morning had been wet, and dense heavy
mists hung about the hills, slowly gathering up their fleecy
wings, and shifting from one height to another. At length
the sun shone out brightly, and two grey eagles, young
but strong, sailed past with a most imposing clang as they
pierced the air. Up, up, from ridge to ridge, the road
winds; the mountains rise, tier behind tier, from the
valley, hemming in the rough line engineered by General
Wade, who seldom drew aside a road to humour man or
horse; now opening on a bleak moor, and a little dark

8 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
loch, or tarn, known to the angler, and full to the brim,
level with its treeless banks; now descending by a sharp
angular turn into a small green glen, where a burn dashes
over its rocky bed, fringed with long fern, juniper bushes,
and the lovely birch tree. The birch is the grace and
ornament of the Highland landscape. The woods and
lawns of England would not lose more in picturesque
effect, if denuded of the lofty oaks and sycamores which
impart to them their massive beauty and arborescent
riches, than would the remote parts of Scotland, if stripped
of their garlands and wildernesses of birch. The trees
are often small, mere "shrubs at random cast;" but are
so graceful with their pendent branches, trembling leaves,
and white bark— so beautifully do they relieve the brown
wastes and towering heights — that nothing in nature can
be conceived more graceful or pleasing. The "prophetic
eye of taste," to use an expression of Lord Chatham,
could not have wished a more winning or graceful accom
paniment to the lakes and mountains.
There are glens in the Highlands possessing, in their
sheltered seclusion, all the richness and warmth of the
sunny South. Glen-Urquhart has been termed the Tempe"
of Scotland; and Glen-Morriston, with its numerous falls
and pools, and its richly wooded sides, is scarcely inferior.
In a sunny day you feel as if in a wild Elysium. Bees,
birds, and waters, sing and murmur around you, and you
seem to have the whole to yourself —"Far in the sun and
summer gale." Woods and verdure only meet the eye.
The ground is too scanty and uneven for tillage, but the
pasture is luxuriant. The goats and cattle graze among
the rocks; the cottages on the heights — peasants' nests —
repose in light, and you conclude in your heart, where

MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 9
every harsh and worldly feeling is hushed, that the sky
could not bend over a more delicious prospect. Even
Johnson, with all his town-bred, and old English pre
judices, acknowledged — he could not but feel — the influ
ence of such a scene; and in one of the most picturesque
sentences he ever wrote, has thus recorded his sensa
tions : —
"As the day advanced towards noon, we entered a
narrow valley, not very flowery, but sufficiently verdant.
I sat down on a bank, such as a writer of romance might
have delighted to feign. I had, indeed, no trees to
whisper over my head, but a clear rivulet streamed at my
feet. The day was calm, the air was soft, and all was
rudeness, silence, and solitude. Before me, and on either
side, were high hills, which, by hindering the eye from
ranging, forced the mind to find entertainment for itself."
Near this spot Johnson spent a night : his entertain
ment was, of course, humble; but the daughter of his host
was not " inelegant either in mien or dress," and delighted
her guest by telling him how much he honoured her
country by coming to survey it.
"She had been at Inverness to gain the common
female qualifications, and had, like her father, the English
pronunciation. I presented her with a book which I
happened to have about me, and should not be pleased
to think that she forgets me."
This "latter spring" in the affections of the old
moralist is a pleasing episode in his tour. The book, as
the faithful Boswell records, was — Cocker's Arithmetic!
" Why, sir, if you are to have but one book with you
upon a journey, let it be a book of science. When you

IO HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
have read through a book of entertainment, you know it,
and it can do no more for you; but a book of science is
inexhaustible." The maxim is just, but, like many others,
easier to believe than to follow. We prefer Shakspeare,
or Bacon's Essays, or Wordsworth's Excursion, or a spell
at the first six books of Paradise Lost — ¦
" Pasturing on from verdant stage to stage.''
Somewhat more than half-way to the Fall, we come to
the inn, or change-house of Whitebridge, a small but
decent hostelrie, which is welcome as the shining fore
head of a star in that gloomy wild. Having seen your
horse cared for — and oats as well as hay can be had —
you should walk over the hills to the south, a distance of
five miles, to see the Vale of Killin, a Highland Paradise,
which has not inaptly been termed "The H appy Valley."
It is an extensive shealing, encompassed by steep moun
tains, producing the richest pasture, and frequented for
summer grazing by all the crofters and their cattle. Many
a Celtic beauty here trims her snood, and trills a song to
please her swain. The plain, two miles in length, is
dotted all over with temporary huts; some hundreds of
cows are kept from June till August, and the land flows
with milk, if not with honey. The verdant turf is sacred
from the plough, rastrosque intacta; a high mural rock
bulwarks it in on one side, with lesser subsidiaries of the
same character; and a lake, with a stream oozing out of
it, waters and encloses the other side. Fragments of
Celtic song and music have been preserved by this rural
carnival in the Vale of Killin ; and an eminent composer
of these national melodies derived some of his sweetest

FALL OF FOYERS. 1 1
strains from this pastoral source. We passed some hours
in " The Happy Valley,"
" Aa Idlesse fancied in her dreaming mood,"
and should not be pleased, as Johnson says, to think that
certain inmates of the summer huts should forget us !
Scenery of a sterner character awaits us — for the lofty,
light grey rocks, partly yellow with lichens, which enclose
the river Foyers, now come in sight. Some fields of
arable ground intervene, and nothing can be more dis
similar than the complexion of that mossy stream im
mediately above the Falls, and the appearance it presents
below them. " It was the excessive loveliness of some
of the scenery there," says Professor Wilson, " that sug
gested to us the thought of going to look what kind of a
stream the Foyers was above the Falls. We went, and
in the quiet of a summer evening found it
' Was even the gentlest of all gentle things.'"
It winds peacefully among corn fields, green glades
sloping from the birchen heights, and fairy nooks of
pasture bounded by hedgerows. Nature delights in
contrasts. Smiles mingle with tears, grief with gladness,
mercy with severity. Such seeming contradictions are
part of her system. Shakspeare knew well the power of
contrast (What in the whole arcana of nature did he not
know?) in heightening effect, when he prefaced the mur
der of Duncan with the sweetly touching description of
the castle, where the temple-haunting martlet loved to
build; and when he makes Shylock redeem his nature
from utter sordidness and cruelty by one burst of tender
ness and good feeling.

12 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
" Tubal. One of them showed me a ring that he had of your
daughter for a monkey.
"Shylock. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal: it was
my turquoise ; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor: I would not
have given it for a wilderness of monkeys."
Ali Pasha was a man of extremely mild manners and
appearance, though he went on sacking, burning, and
slaying, whenever it suited his purpose. Oliver Cromwell
played some fantastic tricks, in mirth, with the pen and
ink which he took up to sign the death-warrant of Charles.
Napoleon indited orders for the theatres of Paris, amidst
the mounting flames and crashing ruins of Moscow; and
such moral contrasts, such blendings of opposite qualities,
are constantly going on and pervading all nature. The
river Foyers, then, without further dalliance or digression,
presents " The torrent's smoothness ere it dash below."
The first fall is only about twenty feet; but a bridge
of one arch — an aerial looking structure — spans the tor
rent, and the spot is wild and luxuriant. The river rolls
on amidst rocks for about a quarter of a mile, till it is
precipitated at the Great Fall through a narrow aperture,
and descends in one body, thundering down in foam.
The descent has been described as two hundred feet: it
is not one hundred by measurement. But so vast is the
cavern that lowers around, perpetually wet, and drenching
the spectators with spray, so awful is the noise, so striking
and rugged the rocks, that you feel the spirit of solitude
could not have chosen a more majestic temple. We saw
the Fall in perfection, owing to the previous rains. The
whole depth of the vale was covered with spray, rising

FALL OF FOYERS. 1 3
like an exhalation; and the sun's rays, shining through
the vapour, made a splendid rainbow — a double arch,
one high up, stretching from the top of the gloomy cavity
to the surface of the waters — the other directly over the
foaming surge below, mixing with it, as it seemed, yet
preserving its beautiful distinctness and continuity. But
let us listen to the noblest description of a waterfall that
ever was written: it is in Childe Harold. Substitute
Foyers for Velino — the word is not quite so euphonious —
and the stanzas apply as well to the great Scottish Fall as
to the " Cascata del marmore" of Terni: —
" The roar of waters ! — from the headlong height
Velino cleaves the wave- worn precipice ;
The fall of waters ; rapid as the light
The flashing mass foams, shaking the abyss ;
The hell of waters ! where they howl and hiss,
And boil in endless torture ; while the sweat
Of their great agony, wrung out from this
Their Phlegethon, curls round the rocks of jet,
That gird the gulf around, in pitiless horror set,
" And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again
Returns in an unceasing shower, which round
With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain,
Is an eternal April to the ground,
Making it all one emerald. How profound
The gulf! and how the giant element
From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound,
Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent,
With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent
" To the broad column which rolls on, and shows
More like the fountain of an infant sea
Torn from the womb of mountains by the throes
Of a new world, than only thus to be

14 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Parent of rivers, which flow gushingly,
With many windings, through the vale. Look back !
Lo, where it comes like an eternity,
As if to sweep down all things in its track,
Charming the eye with dread — a matchless cataract !
" Horribly beautiful ! But on the verge,
From side to side, beneath the glittering morn,
An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge,
Like Hope upon a death-bed, and unworn
Its steady dyes, while all around is torn
By the distracted waters, bears serene
Its brilliant hues, with all their beams unshorn :
Resembling, 'mid the torture of the scene,
Love watching Madness with unalterable mien.''
Of all our late poets, Wordsworth was most thoroughly
imbued with the spirit of the mountains. By gazing for
more than half-a-century on the calm and majestic aspect
of his native vales and rocks, he imbibed, in his inmost
soul, their sublime and natural simplicity. Their various
forms and colours were painted on the retina of his mind,
as with a pencil of sunbeams. The very diffusiveness of
his style and diction is in perfect keeping : it breathes of
the long-drawn solitary vale, stretching away in its entire
calmness, under a trail of bright and sunny clouds. There
is no intrusion of incongruous thoughts or objects — no
affected point or epigram. All nature seems to listen
while he speaks, as one commissioned to deliver her
oracles and responses to the human heart. Campbell
spent some of his early and fresh years among the wild
secluded scenes of the Hebrides; but he was then a
student, treasuring up knowledge, rather than writing
from a full mind of what he witnessed and felt. Traces

FALL OF FOYERS. 1 5
of his residence in the Highlands abound in his works:
they are beautiful, but transient — delicately distinct and
vivid, as the features cut on an ancient cameo, but not
colouring the whole of his mind, or influencing the direc
tion of his genius, as in the case of Wordsworth. The
older bards of England saw mountain scenery chiefly
through the spectacles of books. Spenser must be ex
cepted; for, pastoral like, he describes himself at his
wild Irish residence, Kilcolman Castle, as keeping his
flock under the foot of the mountain Mole, amongst the
shade of green alders, by the shore of Mulla. Shakspeare
drew Arden Forest from his recollection of Charlecote
Park; but, assuredly, he never sojourned among the hills.
Even Malone could not trace his steps beyond the Severn
or the Tweed. Milton had passed "the Pyrenean moun
tains and the Po;" but he soon returned to "blow a
dolorous and a jarring blast." The tempest passed over;
and he sat in his little parlour, in the Artillery Walk,
painting in imagination the scenes of Paradise, and blessed
with visions of angels ascending and descending: after
wards he led his divine eremite into the wilderness, where
the woods and mountains appeared
 " More fresh and green,
After a night of storm so ruinous ;"
but he discoursed as the poet and the scholar, familiar
with all human learning, but not as one familiar, from
habitual study, with the volume of nature. Dryden and
Pope were yet more artificial — but how rich are the gifts
that genius confers on her votaries ! Their solitude she
peoples with forms of loveliness and delight — their abodes,
"in populous city pent," she irradiates with visions of

1 6 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
nature, finer than even a Claude or Salvator Rosa could
transfer to canvas.
Coleridge numbers the antechamber of the Fall of
Foyers among the five finest objects in Scotland. Southey
visited the Fall, in company with the late Mr Telford;
the one surveying like an engineer, and the other like a
poet, the line of the Caledonian Canal, with its tributary
streams and valleys. The Laureate does not seem to have
been inspired by the Fall. Burns burst forth into volun
tary numbers on witnessing the scene; but Burns did
not always shoot with the bow of Ulysses, and his heart
was amidst his Lowland braes even when he stood on the
Green Point of Foyers.
" Prone down the rock the whitening sheet descends,
And viewless Echo's ear, astonished, rends. "
Viewless Echo's ear ! A poor and cold conceit to re
present the thunder of the torrent in that depth profound.
But the poet ends vigorously and picturesquely —
" Dim seen through rising mists and ceaseless showers
The hoary cavem, wide surrounding, lowers.
Still through the gap the struggling river toils,
And still below the horrid cauldron boils. "
Dr Charles Mackay, in his " Legends of the Isles, and
other Poems," dedicates two fine sonnets to the spot : —
"THE VOICE OF FOYERS.
i.
" Wet with the spray of this transcendant river,
Upon this crag with mosses cover'd o'er,
I love to stand and listen to the roar
Of waters bursting down the rocks for ever —

FALL OF FOYERS. 1 7
Dash'd into rainbows where the sunbeams quiver. —
The sound of billows as they beat the shore,
Or thunder leaping on the hill-tops hoar,
Till the firm earth beneath its footstep shiver,
Is not more awful than thy flood, 0 Foyers !
Roaring 'mid chasms like an escaping sea.
Alone, and silent, in thy presence vast,
Awed, yet elated, the rapt soul aspires,
Forgetting all its meaner longings past,
To hold high converse, intimate, with thee.

II.
" Yes ! all unmindful of the world without —
My spirit with thee, and mine eyes in thrall
To thy great beauty, swathing me about —
To me thy voice breathes peace, majestic fall !
Envy and pride, and warring passions all —
Hatred and scorn, and littleness of mind,
And all the mean vexations of mankind,
Fade from my spirit at thy powerful call.
I stand before thee, reverent and dumb,
And hear thy voice discoursing to my soul
Sublime orations tuned to psalmody —
High thoughts of peril met and overcome,
Of Power, and Beauty, and Eternity,
And the great God who bade thy waters roll. "

" FOYERS BEFOEE THE FALL.
" Ere this commotion wakens in thy breast,
Or these stern rocks call forth thy hidden powers,
How gently, Foyers, thou passest all thine hours !
Now loitering where the linnet builds its nest, B

IS- HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Or in green meadows where the cattle rest,
Lingering, and singing to the birken bowers,
. And heather-bells, and all the woodland flowers
That bare their bosoms to the fragrant west.
So the great minds that soar to heights sublime,
And win in peril all the world's applause
By thoughts of wisdom and courageous deeds,
Are aye the same that, in a calmer time,
Conform them to the sweet domestic laws,
And sport with happy children in the meads."
"The Fall of Foyers," says Wilson, "is the most
magnificent cataract, out of all sight and hearing, in
Britain. The din is quite loud enough in ordinary
weather ; and it is only in ordinary weather that you can
approach the place from which you have a full view of its
grandeur.* When the Fall is in flood, to say nothing of
being drenched to the skin, you are so blinded by the
sharp spray smoke, and so deafened by the dashing and
clashing, and tumbling and rambling thunder, that your
condition is far from enviable, as you cling, ' lonely lover
of nature,' to a shelf, by no means eminent for safety,
above the horrid gulph. In ordinary Highland weather
* The approach is now much easier than it was when the Pro
fessor visited the Fall. The late Lord Colchester made a tour to
the Highlands, after his release from the toils of the Speakership
and his elevation to the peerage, in 1827 or 1828 ; and, when at
Foyers, proposed that a subscription should be entered into, for
making a better descent to the Fall. His lordship subscribed five
pounds himself, and about fifty were procured, with which an
excellent path, sinuous, and showing all the beauties of the place
at different points of view, has been constructed, under the able
direction of the Parliamentary Inspector of Roads (Mr Joseph
Mitchell, C.E. The office of " Parliamentary Inspector of Roads"
has long been extinct in the Highlands).

FALL OF FOYERS. 1 9
— meaning, thereby, weather neither very wet nor very
dry — it is worth walking a thousand miles for one hour
to behold the Fall of Foyers. The spacious cavity
[Coleridge's ' antechamber'] is enclosed by ' complicated
cliffs and perpendicular precipices' of immense height;
and though, for a while, it wears to the eye a savage
aspect, yet beauty fears not to dwell even there, and the
horror is softened by what appears to be masses of tall
shrubs, or single shrubs almost like trees. And they are
trees, which on the level plain would look even stately ;
but as they ascend, ledge above ledge,, the walls of that
awful chasm, it takes the eye time to see them as they
really are, while on our first discernment of their charac
ter, serenely standing among the tumult, they are felt on
such sites to be sublime."
Emerging from the cavity of the Fall, by the zig-zag
path cut out of the crags, and overhung with birch,
mountain ash, and alder trees, we see, from the natural
terrace or elevation of the road, the spacious bosom of
Loch-Ness, into which the troubled Fall has poured its
waters — the blue mountain of Mealfourvonie, shaped like
a dome — a St Paul's in the wild — and, descending to
wards the south, groves of weeping birch, and green fields
won from the waste. A landscape of soft serene beauty
has succeeded to the Alpine grandeur of the Fall. Its
murmurs are still heard, but its terrors have vanished:
the sun is shining joyously over all the wide scene — lake,
verdure, wood, and rock.
About two miles from the Fall is the Pass of Inver-
farigaig — a true mountain road, winding up between
tremendous shattered rocks, among which single trees
shoot out from the fissures, and wave, like streamers,

20 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
over the stupendous solitude. On the summit of the-
highest rock is one of those puzzling remains of antiquity
— a vitrified fort. The country above is a long level
moorland, varied by clumps of birch trees, small lakes,
which afford delicious trout, and numerous druidical
circles — " The lone sepulchral cairn upon the moor."
The road onwards to Inverness is one of singular
beauty. High rocks are on one side, and the lake on
the other ; both fringed luxuriantly with birch, sparkling
and fragrant, like an avenue leading to some baronial
mansion. The road was planned by Wade; and the
Government never laid out money to better advantage.
Five hundred soldiers were employed in constructing the
different lines, under the command of proper officers;
and one of the latter (Captain Burt) has described, in
letters written about the year 1730, the danger which the
men occasionally experienced in scrambling along giddy
precipices, and blowing-up rocks. The miners were
sometimes hung by ropes over Loch-Ness, from the
heights above, like Shakspeare's samphire gatherers at
Dover Cliff. Finer roads are not now in Britain. The
ascents are sometimes steep and abrupt, and are over
hung by tremendous crags ; but the surface is sufficiently
wide, and as smooth as a college green at Oxford. We
pursued our way in silence along the shores of the mag
nificent lake, catching glimpses now and then, through
the trees, of its bright waters, and rejoicing that we could
still derive so much happiness from a day spent among
the mountains.
The Glasgow steamers, which now traverse Loch-Ness

FALL OF FOYERS. 21
twice a day, have made the world familiar with its
scenery. The impression to the steamboat tourist of
so large a sheet of water, walled in by high rocks
and unrelieved by islands, is stern and imposing. The
grounds of the old house of Foyers — the house is
ruinous, but the trees are finer than ever — vary this
aspect at one point; and towards the eastern extremity
is Aldourie, where Sir James Mackintosh was born,
also a beautiful spot. On the edge of Loch-Dochfour,
joining Loch-Ness, the house of Evan Baillie, Esq.
— a handsome villa in the Italian style, with terraced
gardens — forms an attractive object. But by far the
most striking adjunct to the solitary grandeur of Loch-
Ness is the ruined Castle of Urquhart — a stronghold of
early days, crowning a projecting rock or promontory on
the western side of the loch. The ruins are still massive
and extensive. Urquhart Castle was the last of the
Scottish fortresses that surrendered to Edward I. It was
forced in 1303, when the Governor, Alexander de Bois,
and his garrison, were put to the sword. Thirty years
afterwards it was successfully maintained against the
Baliol faction. These are two proud circumstances in
the history of the Castle, enough to awaken the perfer-
vidum ingenium Scotorum of such of our countrymen as
sail beneath its 'ancient keep and turrets. The lake here
is about a hundred and twenty fathoms deep.

HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.

THE FALLS OF KILMORACK.

From the Fall of Foyers to the Falls of Kilmorack is a
step — not from the sublime to the ridiculous — but from
the sublime to the beautiful. The one is stern and grand;
the other soft, picturesque, and wildly graceful. The
road is also pleasant ; and within the twelve miles from
Inverness to the Falls are objects worthy of note and
commemoration. Three miles from the town, close by
the edge of the Beauly Firth, is the house in which Dun
can Forbes, of Culloden, is supposed to have been born.
The estate of Bunchrew was long in the possession of the
family of Forbes ; and when it fell into the hands of the
Lord President, he used it as a favourite retreat in the
summer and autumn months, when he could escape from
his professional labours. Here he planted, drained, and
improved ; and here he raised a noble wood round the
old family mansion. He did also, what few of his day
were found to imitate ; he applied himself, at Bunchrew,
to the study of the Hebrew language, and is said to have
read the Bible in the original tongue eight times. Pre
sident Forbes had a fancy, common to some speculative
philosophers of his time, that in the Scriptures, if inter
preted according to the radical import, or root of the
Hebrew language, might be found a complete system of
natural philosophy, as well as of religious instruction. In
one of the treatises which he wrote on this subject, he

FALLS OF KILMORACK. 23
states that the loadstone and its effects are frequently (at
least six times) directly spoken of in the Bible, and that
the reason and cause of the mysterious phenomena of
magnetism are clearly to be gathered from the sacred
volume ! The ancient mansion-house at Bunchrew, in
which the Lord President pursued these abstruse studies,
and which he was fond of showing to " those he loved,"
has been transformed into a modern dwelling-house ; the
moat has been filled up, and the draw-bridge removed-
A solitary arch, at the entrance to the house, remained
until 1839, but is now in ruins. We do not envy the
feelings of the Scotsman who can pass this spot — the tide
murmuring at his feet, and the lofty trees waving over
him — without reverting, with pride and admiration, tp
the clear honour, the open heart, and profound intellect
of Duncan Forbes. In him, it has been truly said, Scot
land possessed, even after she ceased to be a separate
kingdom, at least one statesman whose principles were as
pure as his understanding was enlightened.
Captain Burt describes Bunchrew House as " a good
old building ; and near it (he adds) there is a most
romantic wood, whereof one part consists of heights and
hollows; and the brushwood at the foot of the trees, with
the springs that issue out of the sides of the hills, invite
the woodcocks, which, in the season, are generally there
in great numbers, and render it the best spot for cock
shooting that ever I knew." At this period the public
road passed by the side of the house, near the Firth, and
the wood extended uninterruptedly to the hills.
There is a tradition that the first hats ever worn by
the Town Council of Inverness, in place of the old blue
bonnets, were presented to them by President Forbes one

24 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
day after dinner, at Bunchrew ! He had brought the
hats with him from Edinburgh ; and so highly were they
cherished, that they were only worn on Council days,
being all the intermediate time carefully locked up at
home. Before this time, there were four hats in Inver
ness, those of the two ministers, the Provost, and the
Sheriff. The first tradesman who wore a hat was the
Deacon of the weavers, Mr Young ; and as the country
people stared at him with amazement, the Deacon used
to exclaim, in a humorous sort of fury — "What am I but
a mortal man like yourselves?"
The district of the Aird succeeds to Bunchrew, and is
one of the richest in the Highlands, abounding in corn
fields and gentlemen's seats and parks. The neighbour
ing vale of Beauly is a still more beautiful expanse of
water, wood, and dale — resembling some of the scenes of
Cumberland and Westmoreland — and girdled round with
mountains, spotted with crops and pastures, in variety of
colour almost rivalling the hues of a Turkish carpet. If
Captain Burt, who says that a wheat field was as great a
rarity in Inverness-shire as a nightingale in any part of
Scotland, or a wild-cat in Middlesex, could now re-visit
this spot, he would be tempted to lift up his hands, and
bless — not General Wade — but that spirit of industry and
intelligence which has enabled the agriculturist to baffle
all the obstacles raised by our northern soil and climate.
At the bridge of Moniack the tourist should turn to
the left, and pursue, for half-a-mile, the windings of a
romantic burn that descends here from the hills, with
occasional falls in its course, through a finely-wooded dell
richly planted, and abounding in exquisite, though con
fined views. The spot seems a very nest of Highland

FALLS OF KILMORACK. 25
beauty. Paths are cut on each side, affording delightful
walks and glimpses of the little glen, its trees, shrubs,
and crags, and of the open country beyond the firth.
Near the burn is the residence of its owner — James Baillie
Fraser, Esq., the distinguished Persian traveller, now a
zealous rural improver, and whose " Highland home"
may challenge comparison, in natural beauty, with any of
the Oriental scenes of his early wanderings.*
The ruined Priory of Beauly should also be visited.
It is an interesting monument of the monastic times,
when the crosier staff was stronger than the sceptre. A
few lofty and venerable trees form an avenue to the
sacred edifice. One of these, a beech tree, measures
thirteen feet in circumference; a gigantic plane-tree is
still larger, and there are some fine elms and ashes.
Gray properly designates the elm as rugged ;\ its trunk is
generally covered and disfigured with excrescences. We
are afraid we cannot, notwithstanding their appearance,
cherish the idea that these fine trees ever waved over the
inmates of the Priory, though they may have braved the
summer's heat and winter's storms for more than a cen
tury. The healthy period of the ash and elm does not
exceed a hundred and twenty or thirty years ; and it was
in the year 1571, at the dissolution of the monasteries,
after the Reformation, that a grant of the lands held by
* Mr Fraser died in 1856, and was succeeded by his sister, Mrs
Fraser, late of Culduthel.
f " Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep."

26 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the Priory was conferred upon Hugh, Lord Fraser of
Lovat. The monks of Beauly were of the Cistercian
order; and, by their rules, none but the superior and
procurator were allowed to go without the precincts of
the monastery. They endeavoured to compensate for
this by an ample range at home ; the mouldering walls
and old fruit trees that surround the building at a
considerable distance show that their possessions were
extensive. The area of the Priory is now used as a
burying-ground, and contains the ashes of many of the
chiefs and other members of Highland families, as the
Frasers, the Chisholms, and the Mackenzies of Gairloch.
Of all church-yards in the Highlands, the small seques
tered burying-grounds up among the hills, like pinfolds,
apart from all human habitations, seem to us the most
striking and affecting. Yet, in the church-yard of Beauly
— where priest and warrior mingle together under the
shade of walls consecrated by the piety of our ancestors,
and once regarded with superstitious awe and veneration
— we are moved by the genius of the place, and figure to
ourselves, alternately, the austere devotion and penance
of the solitary monks, and the savage heroism and com
bats of the chiefs.
The burial of a Highland chief in Beauly Priory so
late as 1817 was marked by that enthusiasm and excess
which once unhappily distinguished such scenes. On
this occasion the tenantry and people repaired to a
neighbouring granary to celebrate the dirge; the lairds
and tacksmen (or principal leaseholders) occupied the
upper floor, while the humbler classes were congregated
below. Claret flowed in streams; and the whisky was
so plentiful that the women of the village carried it off in

FALLS OF KILMORACK. 27
pails. As the fiery beverage operated on the ground-
floor, the men began to envy their feudal lords above,
and they made an attempt to storm their quarters. They
were repulsed; and, in revenge, they cut off the flaps of
the gentlemen's saddles, to make brogues to themselves.
A heavy fall of snow set in on this wild unhallowed
revelry, and some of the clansmen while straggling home
fell to rise no more. Such excesses are fast disappearing.
The funeral of Glengarry, for example, in 1828, was
orderly and decorous; and he sleeps by his native Loch-
Oich, the acknowledged Last of the Chiefs of the ancient
mind and manners.
The Falls of Kilmorack are situated about a mile and
a-half to the west of Beauly. The first view of them ex
cites no great surprise. We see a considerable breadth
of water broken into numerous cascades of from four to
eight feet in height, with steep overhanging banks, clothed
with birch trees and plants. On a nearer approach, the
beauty of the spot gains upon the spectator; he visits the
clergyman's garden and summer-house, and from this
point the river, pent between precipitous banks, and roll
ing over a ledge of rocks, has a striking appearance.
The banks are rich with foliage; and it is this exuberance
of vegetation, joined to the towering height of the rocks
above the dark convulsed river, that lends its chief glory
to Kilmorack. The author of the " British Naturalist"
compares the spot to a zoological and botanical garden
of Nature's own preparing, in which there are very ample
collections. The beauty of the scenery continues unde-
minished for about three miles : a glorious accumulation
of rock and water and foliage — forms and tints of endless
variety — with a succession of small waterfalls, gorges, and

28 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
dark linns or pools, silent as death. On the opposite side
of the river, Lord Lovat has formed a fine series of walks
and drives. His mansion-house, Beaufort Castle, is in
the immediate neighbourhood. It is but an indifferent
building, with no pretention to castellated honours (the
old Lovat residence was destroyed after the Forty-five),
but some exquisite pleasure-grounds and flower-gardens
have been constructed under the eye of Lady Lovat.
This accomplished lady has lately introduced the playful
and picturesque squirrel to the woods of the district.
The river Beauly is famous for its salmon fishing, and
rents, we believe, at ^1600 per annum. As Kilmorack
is at the head of the run, and only a short distance from
the sea, the pool below the Fall is thronged with fish;
and the curious may here, as at Glenmorriston, witness
the frequent and arduous attempts of the fish to leap the
rock and pass the Fall. They sometimes light upon the
rock and are captured. This suggested to the former
lairds of Lovat the well-known feat with which they used
to regale their visitors: a kettle was placed upon the flat
rock beside the Fall, and kept full of boiling water. Into
this the fish sometimes fell, in their attempts to ascend,
and being boiled in the presence of the company, were
presented to dinner. This was a delicacy in the gastro-
nomical art unknown to Monsieur Ude. Meg Dods
states, that a fish boiled. in the pickling kettle, when,
perhaps, some dozens of cut fish are preparing for the
London market, is superbly done, meltingly rich, and of
incomparable flavour. Such a treat is to be procured
only at the fishing stations; at which, Mrs Margaret
slyly remarks, assizes and presbyteries are always held.
The Kilmorack kettle was, we have no doubt, inferior to

FALLS OF KILMORACK. 29
this charmed cauldron; yet it must have been a luxury
of no ordinary description to sit on the rock, by the side
of the chief, and partake of a voluntarily cooked salmon.
The conversation of old Lord Lovat would have been a
piquant sauce to the fish; for he had travelled and seen
much, and possessed a rich vein of humour and caustic
observation.* Leaving the Falls, the road leads to Strathglass, through
superb mountain scenery. The high banks are covered
* Simon, Lord Lovat, to his other qualities, added inordinate
vanity. In 1736 he erected a monument (still extant) in the old
church of Kirkhill, within a few miles of his residence, to the
memory of his father, in which he took occasion to say of himself,
that, " both at home and abroad, by his eminent actions in the war
and the state, he had acquired great honours and reputation. " Sir
Robert Munro, who fell at Falkirk, being on a visit to Lord Lovat,
they went together to view this monument. Sir Robert, upon
reading the inscription in a free manner, said, "Simon, how came
you to put up such boasting romantic stuff?" To which the wary
old lord replied — "The monument and inscription are chiefly for
the Frasers, who must believe whatever I, their chief, require of
them ; and their posterity will think it as true as the Gospel ! "
Lovat's strain of moralising is as rich and peculiar as his notions
of morality. To his friend, "the dear Laird of Culloden," he
writes as follows, 10th April 1731 : —
" I am much indisposed since I saw you at your own house; many
marks appear that shew that the tabernacle is failing — the teeth are
gone ; and now the cold has so seized my head, that I am almost
deaf with a pain in my ears; those are so many sounds of trompette
that call me to another world, for which you and I are hardly well
prepared ; but I have a sort of advantage of you, for if I can but
dye with a little of my old French belief, I'll get the Legions of
Saints to pray for me; while you will only get a number of drunken
fellows, and the innkeepers and tapister lasses of Inverness, and Mr
Macbean, the holy man," &c.

30 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
with birch trees, ascending to a great height, with oc
casionally rocks, fir plantations, and mountain paths, to
vary the scene; and the river, foaming and breaking into
numerous falls, below. The rocks sometimes project into
the bed of the stream, forming sphinx-like and fantastic
figures. This magnificent tract, which extends about
three miles, is termed "the Dream," a name that seems
to harmonise with the wild beauty of the landscape.
The true orthography, however, is the Drhuim, signifying,
in the Gaelic language, a ridge.
In the river, at this point, is a small picturesque island,
named Eilean Aigas, on which Lord Lovat has erected a
handsome residence, occupied by the eminent statesman,
Sir Robert Peel, the year preceding his death. The house
of Eilean Aigas is a small, low, crow-stepped building, in
the old Scottish style; but, passing from the little porch,
decorated with bows, horns, and deers' heads, the visitor
is surprised to enter a long sost of gallery apartment,
seventy feet in length, hung with crimson damask, and
covered with pictures, arms, and curiosities. The in
terior of the house is fitted up with great taste. The
collection of Highland antiquities rivals that of Captain
Grose, so humorously described by Burns, and adds not
a little to the interest with which the solitary mansion,
with its rustic bridge and foaming waterfall, is viewed, in
the midst of scenery the most splendid for variety, rich
ness, and magnificence. The island contains about fifty
acres — rock, wood, and field — and is composed, like the
whole of the rocks of this river, of a mass of conglomer
ate. It is bounded on the north by lofty crags, which
overhang one branch of the river, which flows through
the deep gorge on that side, and on the east by similar

FALLS OF KILMORACK. 3 1
eminences, but of less height, where the bridge, which
communicates with the mainland, is placed. On the
south and west, the sides slope to the river, which, from
a rock above the bridge, called Craig Dhonnaich (Duncan
Crag), forms a deep, still sheet of water, with scarcely any
current, as far as Erchless Castle, the seat of the Chisholm,
about five miles distant. This calm flow of the stream
forms a fine contrast with the succession of broken falls
and rapids which continue, without intermission, from the
island to Kilmorack.
The island is generally wooded with birch and oak,
and at one period it was covered with very fine oaks,
some of which were of large girth, measuring about
twenty feet in circumference. These were all exchanged
with the laird of Stray, for some houses in Inverness,
and cut down about forty years since. Several of the
third-rate class of their progeny still, however, exist. The
soil is so favourable to the growth of the oak (which is
indigenous to the glen) that some of the young trees,
after being thinned, were found in 1838 and 1839 to
have grown in one season about five feet. On a small
point of land, at the western extremity of the island, is a
green knoll, surrounded by the ruins of a wall, which
marks the spot where the Lords of Lovat had a shealing,
from a very early period ; and there Alexander, the sixth
lord (who was of a retired and studious character, and
infirm constitution), spent his last days, and died in 1557.
His house was called Tigh Eilean Aigas, the house of
the island Aigas. When Simon, Lord Fraser, after
marrying the Dowager Lady Lovat, was apprehensive
of an attack from her brother, the Earl of Tullibardine,
he retired with the lady into this retreat, which was only

32 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
accessible by boat. In the pursuit, which was raised at
the instance of the Athol family, a herald was sent north
from Edinburgh to summon Lord Simon to appear in
court ; but such was the dread of the officer for the still
remaining feudal power of a Highland chief that he dared
not enter the island to deliver the charge, but left it ex
posed in a cleft stick, on the north bank of the river, in
sight of the house ! At the disarming, after the battle of
Culloden, several of the arms of the clan Fraser were
buried at the foot of the rock fronting the house of Mr
Fraser of Eskadale, which is still called Craig nan Arm,
or the Crag of the Arms. The island is much frequented
by roes, and occasionally by red deer : of the former, as
many as eight or ten may sometimes be seen together
from the walks, and even from the drawing-room windows
of the present house. Partridges, pheasants, and a few
woodcocks breed in it. Some fine walks have been
made, and conduct the visitor to the most picturesque
points, where the river is seen dashing away between
piles of grey rock and masses of foliage, which in summer
present every combination of form and colour. The spot
is altogether a fairy island. About six miles from the
Falls of Kilmorack is Erchless Castle, the seat of The
Chisholm — a fine old tower, built about three centuries
since, and standing by the river side, surrounded by hills.
A wild, noble country stretches beyond in the upper
section of the strath, once famous for its pine forests,
and still well wooded. Here, as in the West Highlands,
" The proud Queen of Wilderness hath placed
By lake and cataract her lonely throne."
The loch and glen of Affric, and the rough mountain

FALLS OF KILMORACK. 33
road towards Kintail, present scenes of rude sublimity
and lonely splendour. Glen-Farrar and Glen-Cannich,
in the same district, are equally wild and striking.
The following legendary tale is told in Strathglass,
and is tinged with the colours of Celtic poetry and
imagination. The story is of the same class with Wash
ington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," and it shows how
universal tales of this description once were, peopling
alike the forests of Germany, the wildernesses of the New
World, and the glens of Scotland. Among the braes of
Strathglass is a small round knoll, overgrown with birch,
and watered by the romantic river Glass. The spot goes
under the name of the Beatha Og, or Young Birch, and
has long been celebrated as a chosen abode of the
fairies. One New-Year's Eve, or Hogmanay (vide Burns,
or Jamieson's Dictionary), when the people of the vale
were making merry with pipe and dance, two trusty
swains went for some whisky to assist in prolonging the
festivities. On their way home, while they carried an
anker, or ten gallons, in a cask, slung over their shoulders
in a woodie (a twisted bundle of birch twigs), they had
occasion to pass- through the Beatha Og, when suddenly
they heard music, proceeding as if from under the ground.
They looked round, and observing an opening on the
side of the hill, they boldly entered. In a twinkling, our
adventurous Highlanders found themselves among a set
of happy-looking beings — male and female — all dancing,
many of the group being old acquaintances, whom they
had, years before, assisted to carry to the grave. Drink
was offered them, and the foremost of the two partook of
the unblest cheer. His companion suspecting all was not
right, refused to participate, and endeavoured to prevail

34 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
on his friend to return home. Donald, however, seemed
obstinately wedded to the dance and the good things
before him, and refused to stir. The other departed
alone, and gave a narrative of the whole adventure to his
neighbours at the wedding. They searched for him
everywhere, listening at every point and tree; but, instead
of unearthly minstrelsy, they heard only the waving of the
silvery birches, and the gentle rippling of the streanL
Daylight came, and the search was renewed, but in vain.
Years slipped away, without bringing any tidings of the
lost man, and the whole strath mourned for him. At
length, exactly seven years afterwards, on the new year's
eve, the people were again met to welcome in the coming
year. The companion of the lost man walked forth in
the direction of the Beatha Og, to grieve for the fate of
his friend. As he strolled pensively along, he started at
hearing the sound of fairy music — the same that had
before led him astray — and he made up to the spot.
There was the same opening in the brae, and, entering
it, he found the same merry party, with his long-lost
friend dancing like a true Highlander. The mirth and
hilarity of the party seemed ominous; and the man,
therefore, pulled out his skeandhu, and, fastening it in
Donald's coat, began to pull him away. Now, it is a
well-known fact, in fairy lore, that, amongst their other
good qualities, steel and iron have the power of depriving
fairies of all potency over the human person. Donald
was, accordingly, extricated from the hands of the good
folk, but not before he had expressed his surprise at
the hastiness of his friend in wishing to leave so merry a
party, upon his arrival at home, the joy of his family
may be easily conceived; nor was Donald's astonish-

FALLS OF KILMORACK. 35
ment less, at finding the stir that had been made about
his absence. His girls had grown to be almost women >
the roses on his wife's cheek had been nipt by time and
grief, and several of his neighbours had died. Upon
feeling the shoulder on which he carried the whisky, he
found that the woodie, by the weight of the cask press
ing it for so long a period, had sunk down to the bone,
and that some bread and cheese, which he took with
him, had crumbled into dust. Yet the seven years of
fairy bliss appeared short as a dream !

36 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.

INVERNESS A HUNDRED YEARS
SINCE.

The early records of the Highland capital show that
Inverness was, in a great measure, a town of Lowland
people, customs, and manners. The Celtic population
mingled little in trade; but seem to have occasionally
plundered and annoyed the industrious burghers. Little
intercourse was maintained betwixt Inverness and the
neighbouring districts — owing to the hostility of the
clans, and the want of roads and other means of com
munication. A remarkable instance of this occurs in the
Town Council books, of comparatively a modern date.
Little more than a century ago, a deputation from the
Council was sent to Dingwall — just twelve miles distant
by the ferry, or twenty-one by the mail road — to ascertain
and report what sort of a place it was ! This expedition
of discovery was intrusted to Bailie Thomas Alves. The
first notice of the subject appears in the Town Council
Book, under the date of nth June 1733, when Mr
Alexander Fraser was Provost. The appointment of
Bailie Alves to visit the town of Dingwall is recorded,
and his duty is described to be " to report the state and
condition thereof, and of the common good and trade."
Accordingly, it appears, the bailie undertook the office,
and discharged it with all fidelity. Under the date of

INVERNESS A HUNDRED YEARS SINCE. 37
'" 20th August," in the same year, it is stated, that
"Bailie Alves reported that, agreeable to the appoint
ment on him by the last sederunt, he went to Dingwall,
and examined the state of the burrow, and made report
thereof; which report was, that they had no prison, that
they had a lake close by the town, in the middle of the
parish, which keept people from kirk and market for
want of a bridge; that they had no trade in the town,
though there was one or two that were inclined to carrie
on a trade, but could not, for want of a harbour; and
that the state of the building of the town was very
ruinous. And as he had been two days from home, the
Council ordained the treasurer to make payment to him
of the sum of eight pounds Scots monie." We fancy we
see the worthy bailie returning to his joyful family, after
he had been " two days from home," exploring the re
cesses of Dingwall, and his cordial reception by his
brother magistrates and councillors, who received him
like another Captain Ross returned from the north, and
presented him with eight pounds Scots, or thirteen shil
lings and fourpence ! It ought to be remembered, how
ever, that this sum, a hundred years ago, was double its
present value.
If the people of Inverness regarded their countrymen
of Dingwall with a mingled feeling of curiosity and pity,
they themselves were considered in much the same light
in the south. At least we find that, when some of the
Presbyterian clergy fell under the displeasure of King
James VI., that erudite master of "kingcraft" determined
to banish them, and they were, accordingly, transported
to Inverness ! Of this number was the Rev. Mr Robert
Bruce, who was banished here in 1605, and again in

38 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
i62r. This pious minister is said to have "wonderfully
illuminate'd this dark and remote country;" but his in
fluence had not been very lasting, for Inverness was a
stronghold of Episcopacy; and, in 169^ when a Presby
terian minister was appointed to the parish church, the
Magistrates posted armed men at the church door, to
prevent his entering the sacred edifice. As it was ob
vious that the authorities, like Hudibras,
"Build their faith upon,
The holy text of pike and gun,"
the Government resolved to combat them with the same
carnal weapons, and they sent a regiment to the town to
support the Presbyterians. A principle of loyalty, or
Jacobitism, was at the time in question usually associated
with Episcopacy; and, accordingly, we find the Magis
trates of Inverness were then furious Tories. When
George I. was proclaimed in the town, the Sheriff — Sir
Robert Munro — was thwarted in the execution of his
duty by the authorities, who openly, at the market cross,
heaped imprecations on the King. A few Whigs illu
minated their houses, but the incensed Magistrates en
couraged a mob to break the windows. At an earlier
period, we find them resolute in support of Church and
King. In the Council Book of 1649, there occurs an
intimation that the Council had raised a company of
soldiers to oppose that "perfidious army of Sectaries,
now lying in the bowels of the kingdom, under the com
mand of that wicked tyrant, Oliver Cromwell." Next
year the indignation of the Council led them to a most
magnanimous resolution, as appears from the following
entry: —

INVERNESS A HUNDRED YEARS SINCE. 39
" Three gallons of the best aqua-vitae, ordered by the
Council to be distilled, and six pairs of the tfest white
plaids to be made, and sent south, to be bestowed by the
town's commissioner in Parliament on such as he may
think proper."
This was really a tempting bribe or reward ! Laing,
in his history of Scotland, relates that several of the
Scottish peers were bribed to support the union with
England — a sum of ^20,000 having been granted for
this purpose by Harley"s Administration, and placed at
the disposal of the Earl of Glasgow. So small were
some of the portions given, that Lord Banff was bought
over for £ 1 1 . 1 2s. If so paltry a douceur could purchase
a peer in the days of Queen Anne, we need hardly
wonder that, at the period of the Commonwealth, a good
dose of the "best aqua-vitae," and a pair or two of the
" best white plaids," should have had the effect of warm
ing the loyalty of a member of the lower Parliament, and
keeping him steady in his attachments ! When Cromwell
had been gathered to his fathers, and monarchy was
again restored, we find tlje Town Council of Inverness
participating in the gaiety which followed the Restora
tion. Horse-races, as we have seen, were then estab
lished, even in this northern region.
Various entries are scattered throughout the town
books relative to witchcraft — that cruel and debasing
superstition, then characteristic both of England and
Scotland. When the Monarch (James VI.) wrote against
demonology it is not surprising that his subjects believed
in its existence. The latest entry in the Inverness
Council Book on this subject is dated in 1695, when it
is recorded that the Magistrates applied to the Privy

40 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Council for a commission to try witches. Long after this
time, trials for witchcraft continued to disgrace the courts
of justice; and at so late a date as 1727 a woman was
burned at Dornoch for the same "heinous crime:" and
this in the days of Newton and Locke, of Pope and Addi
son, when the genius of Great Britain was putting forth
all its energies in art, science, and literature ! Improve
ments, indeed, travel slowly; and it is long before the
truths of philosophy, and the triumphs of reason, become
part of the common national belief.
The accounts of the town treasurer disclose some of
the habits and peculiarities of the citizens a century ago.
The Magistrates seem all to have been zealous wine-
bibbers, and claret was the favourite beverage. From
1730 to 1760 the price of claret, port, and sherry, was
from 14s. to 20s. per dozen. In 1765 they had risen to
26s., at which they remained stationary for about thirty
years. Port does not appear among the common pota
tions till a late period.
Many of these convivialities took place, in summer,
out of doors. Montrose, we have seen, was received by
the Magistrates at a table spread at the Cross. The Judges
upon circuit, or distinguished strangers, were similarly
entertained; and on the King's birthday it was long the
custom for the Magistrates and their fellow-citizens to
assemble at the Cross to hold an ovation in honour of
the reigning sovereign. Another scene of festivity was
the Island in the Ness, about half-a-mile up the river,
and belonging to the town. A bridge on each side now
renders this fine woodland retreat accessible to all, but it
was then approached only by boat; and a salmon-dinner
here, on a public gala-day, was a memorable event. The

INVERNESS A HUNDRED YEARS SINCE. 41
pictorial effect of these out-of-doors festivities has been
very felicitously described by a gentleman of the town,
Mr Angus B. Reach : —
"The revels of the Inverness Magistrates," he says,
" were frequently, we find, at least in the summer time,
held al fresco. The 'town carpet,' an article in great
request, and the town's table were brought out, we pre
sume, to the Cross, the feast was spread, the bonfire
blazed, and the scene must have been one of surpassing
picturesqueness. Behind the revellers rose a lofty irre
gular pile, built after the Flemish fashion, with all the
striking variety of outline which characterised erections of
the kind. There were its high, antique, and crow-footed
gables, the projecting turnpikes, the numberless variety of
pepper-box turrets, and the overhanging bartizans and
galleries, rising one over the other, rudely constructed of
ponderous and blackened beams of oak; and, perchance,
crowded with the dames of highest degree in the place,
attired in the stately costume of the age, and 'raining
bright influence' on the revellers below. Yes, there the
merry-makers would sit grouped round the table, portly
rubicund personages, decorated with the three-cornered
hat, the full bottomed flowing wig, the voluminous huge-
sleeved coats, the long lace ruffles at breast and wrist,
and the heavy jack-boots then worn; or some of the elder,
perhaps still clinging to the sober doublet and trunk hose,
and the broad bonnet of a still earlier period; and the
long antique drinking glass would go round, till the shouts
and the blithesome cheers of the wassailers cleft the sunny
air; and near, in all the conscious dignity of place, would
be posted the town officers, now and then, at a nod from
their superiors, inviting some substantial citizen to join

42 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the feast, and quaff a bumper to the House of Hanover;
and grouped around would stand those of the towns
people not of sufficient consideration to be entitled to do
more than respectfully look on — there would be the me
chanic in his shirt-sleeves and apron, the prentice boys,
bare-headed and open-mouthed, wondering if ever they
should attain to such dignity as they saw before them —
here might be the smart bonnet and feather of some be-
dirked and bepistoled Highlander, watching, with some
what of a look of contempt, the feasting of the Sassenach ;
while a dark-browed severe-eyed man next him thought
he could foresee a time when such needless extravagance
would be restrained, and sternly turns to rebuke the
modest, blue-eyed girl, who, with her fair clustering locks,
bound by the emblematical snood, her gay kirtle, and
smartly-laced bodice, and the empty water-stoup standing
unheeded before her, had loitered on her way to the
river to watch the grand doings about Clach-na-cuddin.
"It does honour to the taste of our forefathers, how
ever, that they not unfrequently forsook the town for the
good greenwood, and the town's carpet for one of nature's
providing. On the grand occasions of the Judges' visits,
and when the entertainments were on the most extensive
scale, the 'Isle' was the scene of the revelry. With the
embowering branches of the oak and the birch weaving a
living canopy over them, and the pleasant sound of the
running stream in their ears, the 'lords' doffed their robes
and cares of office together, and, attended by their busy
entertainers, held sylvan court, like the banished monarch
in the Forest of Ardennes. There they watched the
fishermen, as, with shout and laugh, the nets were drawn
down the rapid flashing stream, or the silent depths of

INVERNESS A HUNDRED YEARS SINCE. 43
some clear still pool were dragged for the finny inhabi
tants; and when the salmon were dispatched, the drink
ables were forthcoming, and the whole party got as merry
as ever were Robin Hood and his foresters. For one of
these occasions we read (after a long enumeration of good
things) that there was provided 'a hogshead to make punch
in.' A hogshead ! How modern vessels used for similar
purposes shrink into significance before a hogshead —
tumblers, how puny ! how contemptible ! even the lordly
punch-bowl must hide its diminished head. Volumes
could not have spoken more forcibly of the degeneracy
of the human species, than an entry such as this. The
only wonder is, how the river was crossed after the hogs
head was empty."
Darker traits of character and manners mingle with
these notices of civic revelry. Public executions seem to
have been very prevalent, and personal mutilation and
cruelty were by no means uncommon. Sums were occa
sionally given to the hangman to " buy a razor for cutting
a thief's ear," or an axe to cut off a culprit's hand. At
the same time, the Council were very tender of the repu
tation of a class of professional gentlemen often attacked
— in 1644 they made stringent resolutions against such
"as scandalise or calumniate the writers!" About this
period a woman came from Morayshire and established a
school in the town. The Magistrates were alarmed at this
innovation on the vested rights of the parish teacher.
They did not expel the intruder, but they passed a re
solution that "Margaret Cowie should not be allowed to
teach beyond the Proverbs."
The impulse given by Cromwell's citadel and his
soldiers seems to have died away when the garrison was

44 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
removed. The town was at a low ebb at the period of
the Union, and it was long after this, we are told, before
wheat and grass seeds were sown, or potatoes planted in
the northern counties. The houses were neither sashed
nor slated, and few of the ceilings were plastered. There
was here and there a shop up a pair of stairs, kept by
three or four merchants in partnership, and stored with
small goods and wares. Fish and game were plentiful,
and sold cheap. Smuggled tea, brandy, and claret, were
also abundant; but, in 1744, the Town Council seem to
have been struck with a fit of self-denial and patriotism;
for they entered into strong resolutions against the use of
tea and brandy, which, they said, "threatened to destroy
the healths 'and morals of the people." The Councillors
bound themselves to discontinue the use of these " extra
vagant and pernicious commodities in their own families."
The old pier was built in 1675; in 1696 the Guildry
established a manufactory of plaiding, and in 1744 the
same incorporation set on foot a linen manufactory, but
neither of these concerns lasted longer than a few years.
In 1740 the Magistrates advertised for a saddler to come
and settle in the town. Two trades are found in all com
munities, tailors and shoemakers ; and, accordingly, they
appear in the annals of Inverness. The shoemakers, how
ever, would seem to have been a little camstairy by times ;
for, in 1698, complaints having been made against those
in the burgh, the Town Council took up the matter with
a high hand, and engaged " two able shoemakers to come
from the south." There seems to have been only one
baker in the town in 1763, and not a very good one;
for that year the treasurer enters in his book, " By cash
paid Simon Fraser, baker, for going to Edinburgh to im-

INVERNESS A HUNDRED YEARS SINCE. 45
prove, £60" (Scots). The tailors were prevented from
cabbaging by an ingenious process thus described by
Captain Burt. —
" I shall give you a notable instance of precaution
used by some of the men against the tailor's purloining.
This is, to buy everything that goes to the making of a
suit of clothes, even to the staytape and thread; and
when they are to be delivered out, they are, all together,
weighed before the tailor's face. And when he brings
home the suit, it is again put into the scale with the
shreds of every sort, and it is expected the whole shall
answer the original weight."
Many a joke has been uttered by Englishmen, at the
expense of the Scottish character, for cleanliness; and
Dr Johnson would have delighted to find that, in 1 746,
as appears from the town records, the streets of Inverness
were, for the first time, swept at the public expense, by
command of the Duke of Cumberland ! Captain Burt .
says he asked one of the Magistrates one day why the
streets were not cleaned, when the worthy functionary
replied — " there will soon be a shower." It was not till
after the Union that a regular post to Edinburgh was
established ; and for fifty years the letters were carried by
foot-runners, who came only once a-week. Here, how
ever, we have the germ of civilisation and commerce — the
dawn of a better day. The rebellion threw back trade
in Inverness, but it proved a salutary, though rough
medicine. The power of the chiefs was broken down,
law and justice were felt and acknowledged ; with peace
came liberty and order and their attendant public pros
perity. Parliament, out of the funds of the confiscated
estates, opened up the country by the formation of

46 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
excellent roads ; and as few towns in the kingdom were
so backward as Inverness, so few have made more rapid
progress. Its situation eminently qualifies it for extended
trade ; and we hope shortly to see woollen manufactures
and other branches of national commerce flourish amid
scenes where feudal apathy or oppression long lingered,
to chill every impulse of public spirit and social improve
ment.

CULLODEN HOUSE AND LITERARY RELICS. 47

INVERNESS TO GORDON CASTLE
AND KINRARA.
T
CULLODEN HOUSE & LITERARY RELICS.
" One of the pleasantest things in the world," says
Hazlitt, " is going a journey; but I like to go by myself."
To the first declaration, we subscribe simpliciter; to the
second, we beg leave to enter a protest, or at least to
propound some exceptions. In all pedestrian excursions,
from the time that our first sire and his consort " through
Eden took their solitary way," down to the time when
Wordsworth and his philosophic pedlar paced the dales
of Westmoreland, " With no appendage but a staff,
The prized memorial of relinquish'd toils,"
the company of a friend has been held to impart a
delightful zest to all rural wanderings, reveries, and
adventures. Man is essentially a social animal, as is
well known to Mr Owen and other philanthropists; and
in travelling he does not surely change his nature. To
stop and chat at every brook and stile; to compare notes
on the varying phases of men and things; to moralize in
concert by the side of some time-worn tower or rushing
water, -contrasting them with scenes on which we have

48 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
haply gazed before; and dwelling on by-gone friends and
days — the golden spoils of memory — to travel thus, in
social joy and union, and with reflected pleasure, is well
worth, even for one day's journey, all the secret lofty
imaginations which the heart of man poetical, bound on
solitary inquest, can conceive. But are these awakenings
of the inner man — the overflowings of the divinus afflatus
— necessarily excluded by such companionship? Cer
tainly not. No two friends travelling together are always
cheek by jowl, or talking incessantly. Gibbon studied
Horace while marching with the Hampshire militia.
Byron and Hobhouse, we are told, were sometimes a
mile asunder when in Greece; and even Dr Johnson and
his bride sought different tracks while journeying to the
altar. Each wanderer has leisure to pursue unmolested
the current of his own thoughts; pauses and intervals of
expressive silence intervene, while either is "i' the vein;"
and these self-communings over — the spirit of romance
being exorcised — both resume their friendly converse.
" Each with the other pleased, they glad pursue
Their journey beneath favourable skies. "
On a fine sunny morning of September we left the
Highland capital, in the company of a friend, to ruminate
on the field of Culloden. The day was fine — a brilliant
gem set in a dull watery waste — and the road, if not
-highly picturesque, is pleasant. It winds along the
eastern shore of the Moray Firth, whose waters lay
before us, calm and glassy as a soft sheltered inland
lake. On the opposite side are the hills of Ross-shire,
with their numerous creeks and bays, and the lofty
mountain of Ben-Wyvis — a huge pile of rock like a Hon

CULLODEN HOUSE AND LITERARY RELICS. 49
couchant — with a mantle of light fleecy clouds about his
shoulders. Down the Firth, about a dozen miles from
the town, the bastions of Fort-George, built on a low
projecting promontory, break finely on the eye. In
certain states of the atmosphere a curious mirage, or
natural phenomenon, may be witnessed here : the pro
montory and its buildings seem elevated, or to have
changed places ; and the objects are greatly enlarged in
size. Similar appearances have been witnesssd on other
coasts, and are accounted for by the existence of different
parallel strata of air of unequal density.
But first in our journey, a few hundred yards from
the eastern extremity of the town, terminating a mountain
ridge, we have The Crown, a property belonging to Mr
Fraser of Abertarff. In the mansion-house are some
family portraits, including one of Lord Lovat of the
Forty-five. In his younger days, Simon was an agreeable
smooth-looking personage. He was greatly altered when
he sat for Hogarth's picture, and appeared of a monstrous
size, for he usually wore as many clothes as the custom of
the stage has bestowed upon the grave-digger in Hamlet,
The Crown is supposed to derive its name from the hill
having been once the site of a royal fortress, which was
destroyed by Malcolm Canmore, and another erected near
it on the present Castle-hill of Inverness. At the Crown,
Macbeth must have murdered the "gracious Duncan,"
if the murder took place near this town; but antiquaries
seem now to agree that it was committed in a black
smith's hut near Elgin. Shakespeare, however, has
eclipsed the light of history, and invested the Castle-
hill of Inverness with an interest that can never perish.
The bard was no porer over the conflicting statements of

5° HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK. »
historians: he found in his well-conned copy of Holin-
shed's Chronicles the statement of Boece, that Macbeth
murdered Duncan in Inverness; he knew that ancient
castles were usually built on lofty and commanding situa
tions; and from his rich and prodigal imagination, he
clothed the scene with surpassing interest and beauty.
" This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses. ".This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his lov'd mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, buttress,
Nor coigne of vantage, but this bird hath made
His pendent bed and procreant cradle. Where they
Most breed and haunt, I have observed the air
Is delicate."
This is the triumph of poetry over history; of imagination
over fact. Wherever the words are read, a picture is
presented to the eye and- the heart. We drink in the
sweet breath of heaven, and watch the martlet, or
swallow, wheel around his pendent bed in the old turrets
of the castle.
The ancient town of Inverness is said to have stood
near the Crown, that the burghers might enjoy the pro
tection of the castle; and when the latter was destroyed,
the people gradually moved westward to be under the
wing of the new fortress. Seven hundred years and more
have passed since Malcolm Canmore's day; and if we
may judge of the people by their sovereign, their intel
lectual condition must have been poor indeed. Malcolm
was unable to read the prayer-books and missals of his

CULLODEN HOUSE AND LITERARY RELICS. 51
Queen; but he had them gorgeously bound, and fre
quently kissed them, to express his veneration for what
he could not understand! It would be interesting to
get a glimpse of the social condition and employments of
the citizens in those rude and barbarous times; to see
them in their huts, clustered round the old castle; and
to hear them at their fire-sides. The inhabitants of In
verness are supposed at that time to have been chiefly
Saxons or Flemings; they early cultivated trade; and in
1280 they were famed for ship-building. The numerous
Druidical circles around the town — at Leys, Culloden,
and other places — show that the population had been
considerable even at a very early period. The Crown
now looks over a peaceful and fertile scene; and a young
and flourishing plantation is springing up around it.
In an hour we stood by Culloden House. The
mansion of the laird is a handsome modern structure,
befitting the residence of a country gentleman, with a
large garden and a spacious lawn. It is sweetly situated
amidst trees, and looks out on the sea. In the heart of
a small pond, at one side of the house, there is a four-
feet statue of a Highland piper, the "very model," as
Winifrid Jenkins says, of those genial figures occa
sionally met with at wealthy tobacconists' doors, and
coloured after nature in the same fashion. The pro
prietor should remove this tawdry gimcrack. It is as
bad as the little Mercury which, perched on a pillar, and
gilt and glittering like a maypole, spreads its tiny wings,
and blows its trumpet — a penny whistle — over the crags
at Clachnaharry, the scene of a clan fight, near Inver
ness. The next improvement will be a jumping Jack on
the green point at the Fall of Foyers.

52 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
In Culloden House there are a number of pictures,
good, bad, and indifferent. The family portraits are
numerous. They are thus noticed by Mr Burton in his
life of President Forbes : — " Duncan was the name of
the first member of the family who possessed Culloden.
He was Provost of Inverness, and died on the 14th of
October 1654, aged 82. He enjoyed the name of Grey
Duncan, and his title to be so called is fully attested by
his portrait, where a large grisly beard conceals the lower
part of his bold, broad, honest face. Round the room,
where this portrait occupies the highest station, are
ranged those of his descendants, and it at once strikes
the stranger that seldom, in the ancestral representations
of Scottish families, does one see so fine a cluster of
open, handsome, ingenuous countenances. Perhaps this
may partly arise from a usual characteristic of such
portraits — the sinister-looking moustache of the seven
teenth century being absent from this group, in which
there is no medium between the rich, full, uncultivated
beard of Grey Duncan, and the clean-shaven faces of the
next generation."
The portrait of the Lord President, whose memory
lends a never-dying lustre to this spot, is a fine painting,
and from it and from Roubiliac's statue, " we can see,"
as Mr Burton remarks, "that nature, by a harmony of
mental and corporeal qualities not often exemplified,
represented the excellences of his mind with singular
precision, in a countenance which has scarcely been ex
celled for the united expression of open honesty, firm
ness, intellect, and gentleness." The best picture in the
collection is that of a Magdalen, an exceedingly fine
original production of the Italian school, in which there

CULLODEN HOUSE AND LITERARY RELICS. 53
is a great predominance of the silvery tint so much ad
mired by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The gracefulness of the
position — the arms meekly folded across the bosom — the
long, dishevelled hair — the streaming, up-turned eye, and
gentle, bloodless, brunette features — all these, finely and
tenderly portrayed, render this a beautiful, impressive pic
ture. The painter's name has not been preserved. The
Ettrick Shepherd says of some of the sweet lyrics of his
native land — " The song is saved — the bard is lost ;"
and a similar fate too often befalls the painter.
In the drawing-room there is- a very old production,
said to be by Titian, of the Flight into Egypt. Joseph
is drawn a good deal like a German peasant, and a
number of angels fly before the group, and lead the way.
Some English nobleman, it is said, offered the late Laird
of Culloden two thousand guineas for this picture. If
such an offer was ever made, it must have been to fill
a niche or blank in some chronological gallery of art, and
not from a desire to possess a fine-finished painting. A
relic of another kind is here seen. Prince Charles break
fasted in Culloden House on the morning of the battle,
and left his walking stick — a fine hazel shoot, with a
curiously carved head. It is, of course, carefully pre
served. In one of the bedrooms there is a good picture of a
cat stealing salmon — a luscious, tempting bonne bouche —
watched and intercepted by a grinning, imp-like monkey,
the very personification of mischief. Puss is sorely beset;
and, as the old housekeeper remarked, "fairly between
the deil and the deep sea." In the upper bedrooms are

54 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
several good Italian prints, including one of Vandyke's
Belisarius. There is also a painting of Patrick Murdoch,
the friend of Thomson; and any one may, from the first
glance, see the fidelity of the other painting of him in the
Castle of Indolence, in the stanza beginning —
"And oft by holy feet our hall was trod."
Murdoch was a good-natured, jolly Church of England
parson. He was for some time tutor to President Forbes's
son; and hence the introduction of his portrait to Cul
loden House, as well, perhaps, as the intimacy which sub
sisted betwixt his friend the poet and the family of Forbes.
What a gay and jovial place Culloden must have been
in the days of " Bumper John," the elder brother of
Duncan Forbes! There was always a pipe of claret at
the doors for all comers, and the house was one unvaried
round of social festivals. "It is the custom of that house,"
says Captain Burt, "at the first visit, or introduction, to
take up your freedom by cracking his nut, as he terms it,
that is, a cocoa shell which holds a pint, filled with cham
pagne, or such other wine as you shall choose. You may
guess from the introduction at the contents of the volume.
Few go away sober at any time; and, for the greatest part
of his guests, in the conclusion they cannot go at all."
The portrait of Bumper John, in the family collection,
shows a ruddy and lively countenance, but the wine does
not seem to have blown him to the size of a gross toper.*
* "The types of true hospitality in a Scottish farmer's house of old
were said to be an anker of whisky always on the spiggot, a boiler
with perpetual hot water, and a cask of sugar with a spade in it.
Culloden's hospitalities were of a more aristocratic order, and the
custom. of the house was to prize off the top of each successive cask

CULLODEN HOUSE AND LITERARY RELICS. 55
The Moor of Culloden — the battle-field — lies eastward
about a mile from the house. After an hour's climbing
up the heathy brae, through a scattered plantation of
young trees; clambering over stone-dykes, and jumping
over moorland rills and springs, oozing from the black
turf and streaking its sombre surface with stripes of green,
we found ourselves on the table-land of the moor. We
should premise, however, that there are some fine glimpses
of rude mountain scenery in the course of the ascent.
The immediate vicinage of Culloden House is well wooded;
the Firth spreads finely in front; the Ross-shire hills
assume a more varied and commanding aspect; and Ben
Wyvis towers proudly over his compeers, with a bold pro

of claret, and place it in the corner of the hall to be emptied in
pailfuls. The massive hall table, which bore so many carouses, is
still preserved as a venerated relic, and the deep saturation it has
received from old libations of claret, prevent one from distinguishing
the description of wood of which it was constructed. When Duncan
was in the North, he appears generally to have lived at Bunchrew,
and, besides his participation in the jovialities of Culloden, he had
occasional hospitalities to distribute in a peculiar circle of his own.
Examining an old account, one of many of which lie among more
valuable papers, the items of several charges for claret bought in
individual dozens, some at 16s. and some at 18s., show a sum of 40I.
spent in this manner in the course of a month." — Burton's Life of
Duncan Forbes. We have also seen this account. The wine was
ordered from two Inverness merchants by the President, most likely
to entertain parties of his own, after his arrival in the North, and
that he might not draw too largely on his brother the laird's cellar.
We may add that the present Culloden House is not the structure of
1745. The old vaults, however, remain, and in one of these seven
teen Highland officers were put in confinement, after the defeat at
Culloden, preparatory to their being taken out and shot in a body
near a large stone in the wood.

56 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
nounced character. Ships were passing and re-passing
before us in the Firth, the birds were singing blithely over
head, and the sky was without a cloud. Under the cheer
ing influence of the sun, stretched on the warm, blooming,
and fragrant heather, we gazed with no common interest
and pleasure on this scene.
On the moor, all is bleak and dreary — long, flat, wide,
unvarying. The folly and madness of Charles and his
followers, in risking a battle on such ground, with jaded,
unequal forces, half-starved, and deprived of rest the pre
ceding night, has often been remarked, and is at one
glance perceived by the spectator. The royalist artillery
and cavalry had full room to play, for not a knoll or bush
was there to mar their murderous aim. Mountains and
fastnesses were at hand, to which they could have re
treated; but a fatality had struck the infatuated bands of
Charles ; dissension and discord were in his councils ; and
a power greater than that of Cumberland had marked
them for destruction. But the grave has closed over
victors and vanquished —
" Culloden's dread echoes are hush'd on the moors,"
and who would waken them with the voice of reproach,
uttered over the dust of the slain.
A guide to conduct us — to point out the scene of con
flict, and to retail the traditionary memorabilia of the
peasantry — seemed desirable; and we were fortunate
enough to get an excellent cicerone in a small crofter, who
lives on the very spot where the battle was hottest, and
the slaughter most ruthless. No man need desire a better
chronicler of Culloden than honest James Macdonald.
This trusty Highlander knows every inch of the ground.

CULLODEN HOUSE AND LITERARY RELICS. 57
He points out where the different clans were marshalled;
where the Duke and Prince respectively stood ; describes
the onset, how the clansmen scrugged their bonnets (vide
licet Chambers) when they rushed into the melee, and
how they shrieked, and stamped, and charged in vain. It
is true, James was not present himself, being still a stout,
brawny, broad-shouldered wight, not passing more than
sixty years. But the battle has been the talk of his whole
life. His father and all his kin of that generation were
there; and James, being a man of some scholarship,
though he makes sad work with the moods and tenses,
has mastered the substance of " Mr Home's book," as he
politely designates the ponderous tome of the Scottish
dramatist (which was lent him by the laird), as well as the
lighter pages of Mr Chambers's narrative in Constable's
Miscellany. We took some pains to convince James that
the latter work was not written by Mr Constable, though it
goes under his name; but in vain. The worthy crofter,
however, gives the decided preference to Mr Home's
book, because it has a big plan, showing how all the clans
stood in the battle. One of James's own ancestors was
slain on the field. The unfortunate clansman had once a
dream that he was to possess a "free land on Culloden
Moor." The young adventurer came; he joined him,
and in the battle of Culloden an English soldier (accord
ing to his kinsman) cleft his head with a sword, and he
fell "as flat as possible /' thus obtaining the promise of his
dream — "a free land on Culloden Moor."
The most interesting memorials of the contest are the
green grassy mounds which mark the graves of the slain
Highlanders, and which are at once distinguished from
the black heath around, by the freshness and richness of

58 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the verdure. One large pit received the Frasers, and
another was dug for the Mackintoshes. The zeal of cer
tain relic-hunters has sent the pick-axe and shovel deep
into these receptacles of mortality to extract bones; and
a district road has been carried right through the head of
one of the largest heaps. The rich, dark loam thrown up
on each side, shows how well the soil has been manured
by the carnage; but James Macdonald says the bones
were all re-interred. We repeated Collins's beautiful ode,
written in 1746 —
"How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blest?
When spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than fancy's feet have ever trod.
"By fairy hands their knell is rung ;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung :
There honour comes — a pilgrim grey,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay ;
And freedom shall a while repair
To dwell a weeping hermit there."
The enthusiasm of the poet has lent too bright a halo
to the scene. What would he have said of those who
could desecrate the peace and sanctity of the grave? The
victors interred their own slain in a cultivated enclosure
hard by, which now forms part of the farm of James
Macdonald. Near it is a small spring, known by the
name of the Well of , the Dead; and here a tall and power
ful Highland leader, Macgillivray of Dunmaglass, fell at
the head of his troop. He was a remarkably handsome,
athletic man, with a skin white as drifted snow; and, ac-

CULLODEN HOUSE AND LITERARY RELICS. 59
cording to our guide, was beloved by a lady of the land,
equally gifted by nature. After the close of the battle,
when Dunmaglass lay among the slain, the lady, with her
father, came to mourn over the body, and see it borne
off the field. This tale sanctifies the little well. It is a
genuine fragment of romance in real life — a copy of the
"fierce wars and faithful loves" of Tasso and Spenser.
A considerable portion of the moor has now been
cultivated: inclosures, pastures, and arable land diversify
the surface of the long bleak 'plain, and a better class
of cottages is supplanting the black huts. The boggy
marshes which impeded the English artillery; the small
spring at which the wounded stooped to drink; the tree
at which Charles Edward stood when the conflict began,
are still to be seen. A broad flat stone, a huge boulder
of conglomerate, at which the Duke of Cumberland
halted, is a conspicuous object on the moor. We can
trace parts of the important stone wall which for a space
defended the right of the Highland army, but which the
Argyleshire Campbells broke down, when they rushed, like
a flood, on the Jacobite clans. The position of the dif
ferent armies may be clearly ascertained on the spot, and
we can easily picture the short fierce struggle — the meagre,
sinewy, half-clad enthusiastic Highlanders, and the heavy
comfortable Southron soldiers, arrayed in the military cos
tume of the day — the long coats, cocked hats, and white
gaiters. Their heavy dragoons, too, in ample red drapery,
trunk square-toed boots, large holster pistols and carbines,
mounted on fine sleek horses of great power, must have
seemed as if they could trample down the whole clans
north of the Tay.
After the defeat of his forces at Culloden, Charles

6o HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
retreated through Strathnairn — a district possessed by the
clan Mackintosh, of whom their leader, and every indi
vidual of rank, had fallen in the action, and came in the
afternoon to the house of Fraser of Gortuleg. Lord
Lovat was also in the house, and the number of their
retainers rendered it necessary to place the children of
the family in a small apartment between the Prince's
chamber and another, but which had communication with
both. The whispers of the children, afraid to speak out,
produced a suspicion in the mind of Charles that he had
been betrayed, and at length he exclaimed, with agitation
— " Open the door — open the door." One of the chil
dren having complied with his request, the unfortunate
Prince presented a countenance so strongly marked with
terror, that its features were indelibly impressed upon the
minds of his juvenile beholders. One of them described,
in vivid terms, the fair oval face and blue eye, distended
with fear and agitation, of the tall handsome young wan
derer. Seeing his mistake, Charles Edward gave way to
the following touching exclamation — " How hard is my
fate, when the innocent prattle of children can alarm me
so much" — words which Mr Fraser remarked long dwelt
in all their memories, and often moved the household to
tears. Charles was too much agitated to think of sleep.
He changed his dress, and taking a glass of wine, left the
house at ten o'clock at night for Invergarry, the house of
Macdonell of Glengarry.

In a garret-room in Culloden House was discovered,
some time since, amongst a mass of lumber, a pair of old

CULLODEN HOUSE — LETTER OF ALLAN RAMSAY. 6 1
saddle-bags, into which had been thrust a number of
letters, accounts, and other written papers, chiefly relat
ing to the times of the celebrated President Forbes, and
his son, Mr John Forbes of Culloden. Two or three
literary letters were in this collection; and these were
kindly placed at our disposal by the late proprietor, D.
G. Forbes, Esq. of Culloden. It is well known that, in
the midst of his public cares and professional pursuits,
Duncan Forbes cultivated a taste for literature and the con
versation of authors. He was the friend and patron of
Allan Ramsay and of Thomson. The following communi
cation appears to have been addressed to him by Ramsay,
when the President (then Lord Advocate for Scotland)
was in London, attending to his parliamentary duties. It
is written in a humble, dependent tone, which our respect
for the genius of the author of the "Gentle Shepherd"
leads us to regard with something like mortification. We
think of Johnson living in proud poverty, on fourpence
halfpenny a-day; and of Burns following his plough, or
witnessing the downfall of his most cherished hopes with
a manly, independent spirit, which no misfortune could
bend to subserviency. Such humble solicitations were
the less necessary from Ramsay, at the date of this ad
dress, as, by that time, he had mastered his early diffi
culties, and was able, the same year, to build a theatre,
and to send his son to Rome, to study the art of painting.
Yet let us recollect that Allan Ramsay lived in an age of
adulation — that his early training was peculiarly defec
tive, and that authors had not then learned the important
truth, that their best patrons are the public. The narra
tive with which Ramsay accompanies his letter is curious
and interesting, as connected with the origin of the Por-

62 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
teous mob. The circumstances described are well known,
particularly since the publication of " The Heart of Mid-
Lothian." We may add, that Duncan Forbes, as Lord
Advocate, conducted the prosecution against Porteous;
and when, after the mob had inflicted summary justice
upon this intemperate functionary, the Government of
the day, instigated by Queen Caroline, proposed in their
indignation to unseat the Provost of Edinburgh, to de
prive the city of its gates, and to disband the City Guard,
Duncan Forbes stood forward nobly in their defence.
We cannot, even at this time of day, read some of his
speeches upon that occasion, without a lively awakening
of that amor patrice for which we Scotsmen are remark
able. "Shall the metropolis of Scotland," asked the
eloquent Lord Advocate, " the residence of an illustrious
race of kings, who made it their greatest glory to dignify
this noble city; shall such a place as this be stript of her
most valuable privileges — her guards and her gates — for
the sake of some unknown offenders, and a Scotsman
calmly behold the havoc ? I glory, my Lords, to with
stand so rigorous a procedure, and judge it my greatest
honour to stand up in defence of my native country,
when it is exposed to loss and infamy." But we have
detained the reader too long from Allan Ramsay. We
preserve the original spelling of the letter : —
" Edinburgh,- Aprile 15th, 1736.
"My Lord, — I wish I could light upon any oppor-
tunitys wherein I might shew my readyness to serve, and
shew my gratitude for the regards that you have honoured
me with. Will ye give me something to do? Here I
pass a sort of half-idle, scrimp life, tending a trifling trade,

CULLODEN HOUSE — LETTER OF ALLAN RAMSAY. 63
that scarce affords me the needful. Had I not got a
parcell of guineas from you, and such as you, who were
pleased to patronise my subscriptions, I would not have
had a gray groat. I think shame (but why should I,
when I open my mind to one of your goodness?) to
hint that I want to have some small commission, when
it may happen to fall in your way to put me into it.
Bookselling, good for nothing — poetry, that's failed me ;
or, rather, my admirers have ceased to ferly —
" Frae twenty-five to five-and-forty
My Muse was nowther sweer nor dorty ;
My Pegasus wad break his tether,
E'en at the wagging of a feather,
And throw ideas scour like drift,
Streeking Ms wings up to the lift.
Then, then my saul was in a low
That gart my rhimes sae raffan row ;
But eild and judgment 'gin to say
Leave aff your sangs, and learn to pray."
"I hope to do something yet that may chance to
please ; and, if I still have a place in your indulgence,
I'll be " Your lordship's humble, happy servant,
" Allan Ramsay.
"A true and faithful Account of the Hobleshew that hap
pened in Edinburgh, Wednesday the 14th of Aprile
1736, at the hanging of Wilson, housebreaker.
"On the Sunday preceding, viz., the nth, the two
condemn'd criminalls — Wilson and Robertson — were
taken, as usual, by four sogers, out of prison, to hear

64 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
their last sermon; and Wilson, who was a very strong
fellow, took Robertson by the headband of his breeks,
and threw him out of the seat, held a soger fast in each
hand, and one of them with his teeth, while Robertson
got over and throw the pews, pushed o'er the elder and
plate at the door, made his escape throw the Parlt. Close,
down the back-stairs, got out of the Poteraw Port before
it was shut, the mob making way and assisting him; got
friends, money, and a swift horse, and fairly got off,
nae mair to be heard of or seen. This made them take
a closer care of Wilson (who had the best character
of them all, till his folly made him seek reprisals at his
own hand), which had gained him so much pity as to
raise a report that a great mob would rise on his execu
tion day, to relieve him, which noyse put our magistrates
on their guard, and may be made some of them unco
fley'd, as was evinced by their inviting in 150 of the
regiment that lyes in the Canongate, who were all drawn
up in the Land Market, while the criminall was conducted
to the tree by Captain Porteous, and a strong party of the
city guard. All was hush, psalms sung, prayers put up
for a long hour and upwards, and the man hanged, with
all decency and quietness. After he was cut down, and
the guards drawing up, to go off, some unlucky boys
threw a stone or two at the hangman, which is very
common, on which the brutal Porteous (who, it seems,
had ordered his party to load their guns with ball) let
drive, first himself, amongst the innocent mob, and com
manded his men to follow his example, which quickly
cleansed the street, but left three men, a boy, and a
woman, dead upon the spot, besides several others
wounded, some of whom are dead since. After the

CULLODEN HOUSE — LETTER OF ALLAN RAMSAY. 65
first fire, he took it in his head, when half up the Bow,
to order another voly, and killed a taylor, in a window
three storeys high, a young gentlewoman, and a son of
Mr Matheson the minister's, and several more were
dangerously wounded; and all this from no more pro
vocation than what I told you before — the throwing of a
stone or two, that hurt nobody. Believe this to be true;
for I was an eye-witness, and within a yard or two of
being shot, as I sat, with some gentlemen, in a stabler's
window, opposite to the gallows. After this, the crazy
brute marched, with his ragamuffins, to the guard, as if
he had done nothing worth noticing; but was not long
there, till the hue and cry rose from them that had lost
friends and servants, demanding justice; he was taken
before the council, where there were abundance of wit
nesses to fix the guilt upon him. The uproar of a mob
encreased with the loudest din that ever was heard, and
would have torn him, council and guard, all in pieces, if
the magistrates had not sent him to the Tolbooth by a
strong party, and told them he should be try'd for his
life, which gave them some satisfaction, and sent them
quietly home. I could have acted more discreetly, had
I been in Porteous' s place.
" To the Honourable Duncan Forbes
of Culloden, His Majesty's Advocate
for Scotland, Membr. of Parlt.,
London. ''

The author of "The Seasons" was very intimate in
the family of President Forbes of Culloden ; and there

66 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
are still some relics of this interesting connection in the
present mansion-house. Several of his books are in the
library, with his name, in his own handwriting, on the
title-page ; amongst which are some stray volumes of
Theobald's Shakespeare. There are also at Culloden two
original portraits— drawings in India ink — of Thomson
and Armstrong, which are marked on the back "J. Paton,
delin." An engraving from this drawing of Thomson is
prefixed to the splendid edition of his works by Murdoch,
published by Millar, in 1762. It represents the poet as
" more fat than bard beseems" — coarse, and double-
chinned. The limited circle of Thomson's personal
associates seems to have been bound together by the
strongest and most affectionate ties ; it consisted of the
poet himself, Sir Andrew Mitchell, Dr Armstrong, John
Forbes, Patrick Murdoch, Lord Lyttelton, Millar the
publisher, and a few others less intimate. They seem to
have lived a jolly life, and to have relaxed from their
studies with great zest and cordiality. A tavern life was
then in vogue, as in the days of Addison, even amongst
literary men; and though we should have thought it
strange to hear of Wordsworth or Moore or Rogers meet
ing together once or twice a-week at the Bohemia Head,
the Rainbow, the Bedford Arms in the Piazza of Covent
Garden, or the Three Pigeons at Richmond, invitations
of this sort were common enough, as appears from the
Culloden papers, with Thomson and his friends. Authors
then hung loosely upon society, and were not, as at pre
sent, hafted into the domestic routine of ordinary rules
and observances. The following short letter (which we
copy from the original at Culloden House) would scarce
have been worth publication, were it not, in some de-

CULLODEN HOUSE — THOMSON THE POET. 67
gree, illustrative of Thomson's careless, social, and hearty
character. "Richmond, Aprill the 25th, 1736.
"Dear Jock, — I am willing to inform you, before
you leave France, that your salmon are very salt, and
that we often drink your health with more than devotion
— with love. Had I time, I have many things to say to
you, but must defer them till another opportunity. Here
are some, and Peter among the rest, who are heartily,
heartily yours. "j. Thomson.
"A. Monsieur Smith, banquier,
pour faire tenir a Monsieur Forbes
de Culloden, a son arrivee k
Boulogne sur mer.''
Who but Thomson would have thought of sending
such a letter through the post-office to his friend in
France? Yet the very ridiculousness of the epistle — its
hurried brevity and naivete — would amuse his corre
spondent. This John Forbes, we have no doubt, sat for
the picture of the "joyous youth" in Thomson's Castle
of Indolence. In^)ne of his letters, the poet styles him
"the dearest, truest, heartiest youth that treads on
Scottish ground." " My affection to him," he adds, " is
not fanned by letters, yet it is as high as when I was his
brother in the virtu, and played at chess with him in a
post-chaise." The sudden death of Thomson, in the
blaze of his fame and in the very prime of life, after he
had surmounted all his early difficulties, seems to have
fallen like the shock of an earthquake on this attached
band of friends. "This blow," writes Dr Armstrong,

68 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
" makes a hideous gap; and the loss of such an agreeable
friend turns some of the sweetest scenes in England into
a something waste and desolate." Mitchell said he was
almost sunk with the stroke; and Lyttelton and all his
friends are described as being in great grief. Shenstone,
who expected to have seen him at the Leasowes, mourned
his sudden death, and characteristically resolved to "erect
an urn in Virgil's Grove to his memory." "We have
lost, my dear Forbes," says Patrick Murdoch, "our old,
tried, amiable, open and honest-hearted Thomson, whom
we never parted from but unwillingly, and never met but
with fresh transport— whom we found ever the same
delightful companion, the same faithful depository of our
inmost thoughts, and the same sensible, sympathising
adviser. Let us ever cherish the memory of our dear
friend; profit by the inimitable lessons he has left us;
and love one another with that affection which united
the little circle of his bosom friends." To have inspired
such feelings of disinterested regard and affection, and to
have died thus deeply and sincerely mourned by a body
of highly-accomplished and discerning men, was almost
equal to being the author of the Seasons, or, still better,
the Castle of Indolence! Genius is> far from being an
enviable gift to its possessor. The variable temperament
— the wayward impulses-^the burning mind overpowering
the frail physical frame, and unfitting it for the rude
shocks and casualties of the world, are often its con
comitants; while, tracked by envy, reviled or pitied by
the prudent and cold-hearted, and soured by disappoint
ment, the man of genius pursues his irregular and meteor
like course. Justice is at length done him; but it is too
often delayed till he is beyond the reach of praise or

CULLODEN HOUSE — THOMSON THE POET. 69
censure. The fates had kindly shaped a better destiny
for Thomson. To the same purport as the foregoing ex
tracts, is the following letter of Dr Armstrong to Mr
Forbes, in which the sorrow and regret of the writer are
heightened by a -slight dash of that spleen which charac
terised Armstrong: — "London, Sept. 3rd, 1748.
" My Dear John, — God grant you the continuance
of your health; and may you prosper in every thing while
you live ! It comforts me not a little that, besides your
natural right to outlive me, there are other circumstances
in your favour; for, of all mortifications, the loss of a
dear friend, with whom one has been often happy, is to
me the most insupportable. The loss of such an agree
able friend as poor Thomson is so much the more shock
ing, that it was unexpected by everybody. He died of a
malignant nervous fever, that came upon the back of a
tertian; and I had no notice of his being in any danger
till I saw it in the most formidable shapes. It is certain,
nature was oppressed in him with a great load of materials
for a disease, not to be easily thrown off by a constitution
so much worn as his was; and if he had straggled
through that fever, there are many reasons to believe
that it must almost unavoidably have been followed by
some lingering disease much worse than a speedy death;
this is the most comfortable light in which I can view
this shocking loss. Besides, I think him greatly to be
envied, to have got fairly rid of this rascally world, and
to have left it so universally regretted. We are to be
pitied that are left behind; and if it was not for a very
few friends whom I have still remaining, and who I have

70 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
reason to hope will live as long as I, life would soon
become too tedious and melancholy to be supported. I
have often been tempted to wish that nature had made
me a little more callous; but then we should lose sensa
tions, too, that give, perhaps, the most exquisite pleasure :
there is even a luxury in melancholy; and I do not know
whether it is not best to indulge it at first, and give it
full vent, that it may exhaust itself, and leave the mind
restored to its natural serenity, after those heavy clouds
have fallen. I am always, my dearest friend, your most
affectionate " John Armstrong.
" To John Forbes, Esq. of Culloden."*
Armstrong lived more than thirty years after this
period. He visited Inverness and Culloden in the sum
mer of 1764, and died in London in 1779, leaving, to the
great surprise of his friends, a sum of ^3000 behind
him ! Indeed, all Thomson's personal associates were
successful in life. John Forbes, though so gay in his
youth as to disturb, with some forebodings, the last days
of his father, the Lord President, lived afterwards much
in retirement; and, in thirty years, not only cleared the
estate of all incumbrances, but added to it by several
contiguous purchases. Among the family papers there
is a bundle of documents tied up together, and inscribed
by John Forbes, " Bonds of my Father retired." Lyttelton
became a lord, as well as a popular author. Patrick
Murdoch lived to a hale old age, edited his friend
Thomson's works, and wrote his life, by which he gained
both fame and money, and finally died Rector of Stradis-
* Culloden Papers, p. 307.

CULLODEN HOUSE — DR ARMSTRONG. 7 1
hall, in Suffolk. Mitchell became the English Ambassa
dor to Berlin, was knighted, and was so much a favourite
with the Great Frederick, as to have slept in his tent
generally during the Seven Years War. There is an
anecdote told of this excellent man, which will bear re
peating. After the affair at Port Mahon, Frederick said
to Sir Andrew that the English had made a bad campaign.
" Sire," replied the Ambassador, " with God's assistance,
we hope to make a better next year." "With God's
assistance, say you, sir? I did not know you had such
an ally." " We rely much upon him," added Sir Andrew,
" though he costs us less than our other allies." Amidst
all their business and their honours, this " little circle"
of friends must often have reverted to the untimely death
of their companion Thomson, to whom they were so
tenderly attached, and must have been gratified at his
daily growing fame. He, indeed, has left an imperishable
name behind him; and the associations with which he
has clothed some of the " sweetest scenes '' in England
will continue as long as the seasons roll on in their
appointed course.
" Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore
Where Thames in summer wreaths is drest,
And oft suspend the dashing oar,
To bid his gentle spirit rest !"

John Armstrong, author of " The Art of Preserving
Health," and other works well known in their- day, was
the intimate friend of Thomson, Mallet, Lyttelton, &c.

72 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
He was a native of Roxburghshire, his father being
minister of the parish of Castleton, on the banks of the
River Liddel. Armstrong was a sharp sarcastic man, of
great powers of wit, pleasantry, and imagination. Thom
son has thus sketched him in the "Castle of Indolence" —
' ' With him was sometimes join'd in silent walk
(Profoundly silent, for they never spoke),
One shyer still, who quite detested talk :
Oft stung by spleen, at once away he broke,
To groves of pine, and broad o'ershadowing oak ;
There, inly thrill'd, he wander'd all alone,
And on himself his pensive fury wroke,
Nor ever utter'd word, save when first shone
The glittering star of eve — ' Thank heaven the day is done.' "
Like Smollett, Armstrong was an unsuccessful physician
in London; and probably, like him also, he was soured
in temper by this circumstance. In 1760, Dr Armstrong
was honoured by the distinguished appointment of physi
cian to the forces in Germany; and the following caustic,
yet humorous letter, addressed to John Forbes of Cul
loden, appears to have been written at this time, during
his residence abroad : — "Bremen, May 13th, 1761.
" My Dear John, — I thank you for your kind post
script to Peter's letter (the Rev. P. Murdoch), which, if it
was beat out into the gold-leaf of French compliment,
would cover half a sheet of paper very decently. It
gives me much pleasure to find, by Peter, that you are
all well, and the young family thriving apace, both in
body and mind. Master Arthur writes an honest, plain,
distinct hand, like his father's; and I thank him for his

CULLODEN HOUSE — DR ARMSTRONG. 73
share of the postscript. I am much obliged to Mrs
Forbes for the honour she does me sometimes after
supper. It is a long time since I have met with any
common acquaintance of ours to fill a bumper with to
both your healths and prosperity, but nobody can wish
it more devoutly. I long for a happy end to these broils,
that we may touch glasses again. But not in either
Rhenish or old Hock. By all that's crabbed, sharp, and
ungenial, they are of those vials of wrath that our name
sake of Patmos threatens us with, and I desire you'd
never taste them, except when you have an unquenchable
desire for them. No, no; stick to Claret and Burgundy,
my dear, while you live. In hoc signo vinces. In the
public cellars of this good town of Bremen, to which our
hospitals are retreating, they have the twelve apostles,
every one of them ready to burst with I don't know how
many tuns of Rhenish and old Hock; and they say
Judas holds the best, which shows what a rascally liquor
it is — a bleak, uncomfortable, snarling, butcherly dog,
that tears the honest bowels, and flays one's very inside.
Oh, the deuce take the whole currish generation! But
for fear of turning your hair into the quills of the porcu
pine with my execrations, I must break off. I am ever,
my dearest J. Forbes, your most faithful and affectionate,
" John Armstrong.
" To John Forbes, Esq. of Culloden."

74 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.

KILRAVOCK CASTLE.
We now resume our tour. Eastwards, a few miles from
Culloden, the three houses of Cantray, Holme, and Kil-
ravock, stand pleasantly and picturesquely side by side
on the banks of the Nairn. The first is a handsome
modern mansion: the grounds were laid out by the
grandfather of the present proprietor; and it is worthy of
remark that, though this gentleman had resided chiefly
in London, he astonished his neighbours by the judgment
and spirit with which he entered upon a course of exten
sive agricultural improvement. His mantle seems to
have descended on his grandson, who is an enthusiastic
agriculturist. The mansion-house of Holme was built by
the late Colonel Hugh Eose. The lawn in front de
scends close to the river, and is about fifty acres in
extent; the walks are finely laid out; and the present
proprietor, General Sir John Rose, continues the system
of improvement and embellishment begun by his prede
cessor. The whole valley thus wears a smiling aspect.
The tourist may be justified in lingering some time
among the ancient woods and pleasant walks of Kil-
ravock. The castle is a large irregular pile, with a strong
square tower, built, according to Shaw's History of Moray,
in 1460, by a patent from the Earl of Ross. The struc
ture altogether resembles a French chateau — high-roofed,
and blending the manor-house with the castle. The
Roses of Kilravock are of great antiquity. Hugo de
Roos was the proprietor of Geddes in 1230 — as appears
from his signature to the original charter of Beauly Priory
— and the present proprietor is, we believe, the seven-

KILRAVOCK CASTLE. 75
teenth Hugh Rose of Kilravock. The family appear to
have been always great planters; and accordingly, to this
day, there has descended a goodly collection of venerable
trees, and a wood, denominated " the birch ward," which
is " hoar with antiquity." We were amused with an
anecdote illustrative of the woodland taste and propen
sities of the family. One laird, some two or three gene
rations ago, wishing to raise money, was at last driven to
consent that part of the timber on the estate should be
sold. A purchaser came, and the laird accompanied him
to the wood, where the aged oaks and ashes stood, like
ancient members of the family, with their old familiar
faces. The man of business pointed to one fine clump.
"We must not cut that," said the laird; "they were
planted by the Black Baron." The parties moved on, and
another lot was selected. "We must pass over them,"
added the laird; " they were planted by Sonsy-Sides, the
eleventh Hugh." Another choice was made. " It will
never do to meddle with them," said the tenacious pro
prietor; "they were planted by the Fair Baron." An
other was pitched upon, but they were also sacred —
they were the Black Baron's; he was married several
times, and every one of his wives planted trees. After
various rebuffs — "Upon my word," said the merchant,
" I think there is no use trying any more." " I believe
you are right," replied the laird; and they returned
to the house, all idea of the sale being abandoned.
And here still flourish some of the Black Baron's oaks,
tossing their gnarled branches with patrician dignity over
the birches and underwood, and challenging the admi
ration of passers-by. When Burns the poet visited Kil
ravock in 1787, he particularly admired one of these

76 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
trees, and it now bears the name of Burns 's Oak. We
made a sort of measurement of it, and its girth near
the ground is about fifteen feet. The tree stands con
spicuously on a knoll by the side of one of the paths.
In the upper part of the wood there are some magnifi
cent beeches, which are connected with recollections of
another great man, Duncan Forbes. The President was
attached to a member of the family of Kilravock, Miss
Mary Rose (to whom he was afterwards married), and a
large fragment of rock, lying at the edge of the beech
avenue — grey and covered with moss — is pointed out as
the place where the lovers used to meet. It has been
said that Duncan Forbes wrote and addressed to this
lady the verses beginning —
" Ah ! Chloris, could I now but sit
As unconcerned as when
Thy infant beauty could beget
No happiness nor pain."
It is a pity to dispel this pleasing illusion. The verses,
however, were not written by Duncan Forbes, but by Sir
Charles Sedley, and are included in a comedy by him,
entitled " The Mulberry Garden," published long before
the birth of Forbes. The fair fame of the President can
afford to want this sprig of laurel.
In one of his letters to Mrs Rose, Kilravock, Burns
mentions the beautifully wild scenery of the place — the
venerable grandeur of the castle — the spreading woods —
and the winding river, gladly leaving his unsightly heathy
source, and lingering with apparent delight as he passes
the fairy walk at the bottom of the garden. Time has
only lent new interest and beauty to the scene. The

KILRAVOCK CASTLE. 77
family, by whom the poet was received with courteous
and refined hospitality, has been scattered and depressed;
and the present representative of the house is in India.
The castle, however, has fortunately, for the last nine
or ten years, been occupied by an English lady, Mrs
Campbell, who has evinced no less taste than munificence
in adorning the ancient chateau, and heightening the
natural beauties of the spot. In addition to many sub
stantial improvements in building, draining, planting,
&c, which have been carried into effect by this lady, a
new approach has been formed from the east, winding
up by the river side, and another carriage road to the
castle has been made from the west, superseding the
stiff, abrupt, straight road which formerly led down to it.
The lawn has been extended and improved — unsightly
walls and encumbrances have been displaced — and a
flower garden has been constructed, of the most exquisite
description — the smooth shaven turf (on which no leaf or
twiglet is suffered to intrude) being studded with beds of
dahlias and other rich exotics, flaunting in their summer
array. At the bottom of this floral retreat, which forms
a continuation of the lawn, is the " fairy walk" to which
Burns alluded. It is shaded by splendid lime and beech
. trees, and a chestnut of great dimensions, such as Salvator
Rosa would have delighted to paint. "The chestnut,"
says good old tree-loving William Gilpin, "in maturity
and perfection, is a noble tree, and grows not unlike the
oak. Its ramification is more straggling; but it is easy,
and its foliage loose." Gilpin speculates as to the chest
nut being ever indigenous in Great Britain; but we concur
in the justice of a remark made by an enthusiastic natu
ralist, Mr William Laidlaw, that " it is not easy to suppose

78 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
any tree to be indigenous in a climate where it does not
ripen into fruit." This beautiful tree must, however,
have been early introduced into Scotland — it adorns
many of our old baronial residences; and it has been
remarked that the beams and projections of many of the
wooden houses which had stood for ages in the ancient
part of the Scottish capital, and which were pulled down
some years since, were found to be of chestnut. The
roof of the Parliament House in Edinburgh is constructed
of it. Under its leafy canopy, and resting on its noble
trunk, we think the chestnut worthy the forests of Spain
and the Appenines; and its introduction to this country
does credit to the taste of our ancestors. As we sauntered
in this dale at Kilravock at sunset, with the old tower
jutting out above, and the river murmuring below, we
could not help wondering that Burns had not been in
spired to dedicate to Kilravock one of his immortal
lyrics. King James stopped at Kilravock in his progress to
the north in 1589, and he is said to have inquired of the
venerable laird of that day, how he could live amongst
such turbulent neighbours. The laird replied that they
were the best neighbours he could have, for they made
him thrice a-day go to God upon his knees, when perhaps
otherwise he would not have gone. The King honoured
the laird with the name of " Father," and desired he
might be covered in his presence. This venerable pro
prietor (who died in 1597, at the age of ninety), would
seem to have been somewhat of a humourist, as in a law
paper still existing, a submission between him and two of
his neighbours, he signs his name in the following fashion :
— " Hutcheon Rose of Kilravock, ane honest man, ill-

KILRAVOCK CASTLE.

79

guided betwixt you baith." At the period of the Rebel
lion, the old castle received a visit from Prince Charles
Edward, two days before the battle of Culloden, and,
according to the tradition of the family, his deportment
was highly engaging. He asked the number of Mr Rose's
children, and on being told three sons, he requested to
see them, praised their looks, and kissed each of them on
the forehead. Having walked out with Mr Rose previous
to dinner, and observed people employed in planting
trees — a trait of the family character — Charles remarked,
" How happy must you be, Mr Rose, in being thus peace
fully engaged, when the whole country around you is in a
stir." Incidents of this kind relieve the sterner features
of " grim-visaged war." The laird, however, was a staunch
friend to the Hanover succession. A drinking cup of his
has been preserved, on which is engraved his name, and
the date 1746, with the addition of — "The year of our
deliverance. A bumper to the Duke of Cumberland."
He received the visit of Prince Charles, he said, because
he had not a force to resist him; and the Duke of Cum
berland, who called next day at the castle, on being in
formed of the circumstance, had the manliness to say
that Mr Rose did quite right. If the Duke had extended
the same consideration to the poor Highlanders, after the
battle of Culloden — and they were as completely con
trolled by their chiefs as the laird was in this instance by
the Prince and his followers — his name would have gone
down to posterity in colours less sanguinary and repulsive.

80 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.

CAWDOR CASTLE, NAIRNSHIRE.
The Thane of Cawdor was a "prosperous gentleman,"
even centuries before Shakespeare embalmed his name;
and here, in his ancient castle — low lying, among hill,
and wood, and water — are traces of the early grandeur
and importance of the family. The approach to the
castle winds up by the side of the burn, among some oak
and ash trees, that extorted admiration from Dr Johnson
himself, in his memorable journey of 1773. A large
gable, with crow-foot windows, first attracts the eye, and
turning to the right we have the ancient tower, approached
by a drawbridge and moat (the latter filled up), on each
side of which are three fine elm trees, forming an avenue
to the castle. The tower, which is a square building,
with turrets on each corner, stands on a rock, about
twenty feet above the bed of the stream; it was built
about the year 1400, as the royal licence granting permis
sion to build it is dated 1393. Crossing the drawbridge,
there is an arched entrance, surmounted by a bell, which
leads to a square paved court. Four holes are on each
side of the massive wall, doubtless made for observation
or defence. The tower is eighty feet in height, though
from its position it appears to be higher. It is built on
the solid rock, part of which forms the kitchen floor. In
the lowest apartment of the tower is the " donjon-keep,"
in the centre of which grows a hawthorn tree, the object
of a curious and superstitious regard. The thane who
founded the castle is said to have consulted a seer as to
the site of his intended building. The wise man coun
selled him to load an ass with coffers full of gold, and to

CAWDOR CASTLE. 8 1
erect his castle with the money, at the third hawthorn
tree at which the ass should stop. The advice was fol
lowed; the castle was built round the tree, enclosing the
precious stem — and here it still remains, many a genera
tion having pledged to the toast of "Freshness to the
Hawthorn-tree of Cawdor Castle." The donjon is about
ten feet in height, and the tree reaches to the top : there
is no doubt that the walls must have been built around it.
An old iron chest lies beside the tree, which is said to
have borne the precious burden of gold. Two other
ancient hawthorn trees grew within a few score yards, in
a line with the castle — one in the garden, which fell about
forty years since, and the other at the entrance to the
castle, which was blown down, after a gradual decay, in
1836. Some suckers are now springing from the vener
able root, and are carefully enclosed by a wooden fence.
A wing was added to the castle in 1 510. In one of
the apartments of this new erection is a carved stone
chimney-piece, . containing the family arms, and several
grotesque figures, among which are a cat playing the
fiddle, a monkey blowing a horn, a mermaid playing the
harp, a party of huntsmen, with hounds, pursuing a hare,
&c. One of these rude representations is that of a fax
smoking a tobacco pipe. On the stone is engraved the date
1 5 10, at which time that wing of the castle, as we have
mentioned, was erected. Now, it is generally believed
that tobacco was first introduced into this country by Sir
Walter Raleigh, about the year 1585; and it is singular
to find the common short tobacco pipe thus represented
on a stone bearing date 15 10. There can be no mis
take as to the date, or the nature of the representation.
The fox holds the " fragrant tube" in his mouth, exactly

82 'HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
as it is held by its human admirers; and the instrument is
such as may be seen every day with those who patronise
the "cutty pipe." Old Aubrey, the chronicler, thus de
scribes the introduction and progress of the "great plant"
in England — ¦
" He (Raleigh) was the first that brought tobacco into
England, and into fashion. In one part of North Wilts
(Malmesbury Hundred) it came first into fashion by Sir
Walter Long. They had first silver pipes. The ordinary
sort made use of a walnut shell and a straw. I have heard
my grandfather, Lyte, say, that one pipe was handed from
man to man round the table. Sir W. Raleigh, standing
in a stance at Sir Robert Poyntz's Park, at Acton, took
a pipe of tobacco, which made the ladies quit it till he
had done. Within these thirty years, 'twas scandalous for
a divine to take tobacco. It was sold for its weight in
silver. I have heard some of our old yeomen neighbours
say, that, when they went to Malmesbury or Chippen
ham Walks, they culled out their biggest shillings to lay in
the scales against the tobacco. Now the customs of it
are the greatest his Majesty hath."
The custom of smoking tobacco soon made extensive
progress in England; for about the year 1604, King
James published his treatise against it, entitled " A
Counterblast to Tobacco," in which he states that some
gentlemen bestowed ^300 and ^400 a-year on the pre
cious weed. James gravely states in his book that " an
unctuous and oily kind of soot was found inside some
great tobacco takers, that, after their death, were opened !"
Additions were made to Cawdor Castle in 1667, 1672,
and 1674, which ultimately formed another complete
wing, corresponding with that of 15 10. At the same time

CAWDOR CASTLE. 83
two gardens, one on each side of the castle, seem to have
been constructed; and in one of them are two fine walnut
trees, one of which measures twelve feet in circumference.
In favourable years these trees produce and ripen fruit.
The interior of Cawdor Castle is well calculated to
deepen the impression made by its external appearance,
of feudal power and rude simplicity. The walls of the
original fort, or tower, are nine feet in thickness. Below
is the dungeon, with its hawthorn tree, and the kitchen;
above these are two well-sized rooms, reached by a narrow
winding staircase, and protected by an iron door, which
grates gloomily and heavily on its hinges — a memento of
departed times; a third compartment, arched, is above
the former; and a fourth, called the "Cape-house," is at
the top. In the latter, the grieve, or steward, used for
merly to sleep, and when he wanted to assemble the
people to work, he blew a horn from the leads of the
castle. In the lower rooms are recesses scooped out of
the enormous walls, which probably served as sleeping
places. The walls of the more modern apartments are
not plastered, but hung with tapestry, said to have been
wrought by Lady Henrietta Stuart in the sixteenth century.
Fortunately no attempt is made to transform the castle
into a modern-looking residence, or to divest it of its pro
per and becoming character. The Earl of Cawdor and
his family occasionally reside in it, but all that is vener
able is preserved; the old tapestry still covers the walls;
the antique high-backed chairs and curious mirrors still
remain. . A series of family portraits are contained in the
castle. In the ancient vaulted apartment, a bed used to
be shown, wherein King Duncan was said to have been
murdered by Macbeth. This tradition, fabricated by an

84 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
old housekeeper, was long a source of interest; but in
1815 a fire broke out, owing to the jackdaws building up
one of the chimneys communicating with the kitchen, and
the. famous bed was destroyed.
The scenery surrounding the castle is of the most
romantic description. Cawdor Burn dashes over a rocky
bed, about a hundred feet below the wooded walks. The
sides of the rock are steep, and are clad with a profusion
of foliage — natural oak, birch, hazel, and holly. Rustic
bridges have been thrown over the stream, presenting the
most interesting points of view, where the water struggles
on far below, scooping out caves from the adjoining rock,
or where a wide expanse of foliage conducts the eye to the
distant shores of the Moray Firth. At one part a little
hermitage has been erected, from which the course of the
burn is seen to much advantage, with all its subsidiary
attractions. Planting has progressed extensively here within the
last century. The oldest part of the plantations is de
nominated, par excellence, the Wood of Cawdor, and is a
triangular space of five hundred and twenty acres, situated
between two burns. In the centre of it is the old oak
forest, fringed with birch. The oaks are full-grown, from
stools cut in 1 73 1. They are of goodly, but not gigantic
dimensions, running from eight to twelve feet in circum
ference, and covering altogether, with their massive trunks
and spreading branches, about two hundred acres. Lord
Cawdor, with good taste and feeling, has not yet permitted
the axe to sound among these monarchs of the forest. In
immediate connection with this wood are plantations,
begun about 1796, of fir and larch, filled up with oaks,
occupying six hundred and fifty acres; and, in other

CAWDOR CASTLE. 85
parts of the estate, above two thousand four hundred
acres have been planted, chiefly since 1806. In the
whole of this woodland extent, the trees planted have
been as follows: — Oaks, 152,000; larch, 1,000,000; Scots
fir, 14,000,000; spruce, 17,500. Interspersed with these
are a few horse-chestnuts, walnuts, ash, elm, and beech.
New plantations are projected. This year about sixty
acres will be added, and in 1842 no less than four
hundred acres. That planting is as profitable as orna
mental to an estate, may be illustrated by one striking fact.
Part of the fir plantations at Cawdor, about six hundred
acres, were planted thirty years ago, on land not worth
sixpence per acre, and this wood, we believe, was lately
estimated to be worth the princely sum of ^12,000! A
cheap and simple plan seems to be followed at Cawdor,
under the able auspices of Mr Stables, the factor, and his
auxiliary, the forester. The plants are reared on the
estate, and the cost of manual labour in planting the
seedlings is from 8s. to 10s. per acre. The labourers
proceed, generally, thirty-six in a row, each provided with
a small spade or dibble, and carrying the plants around
them in an apron. The same person who uses the spade
inserts the plant, and it is done with surprising celerity.
The dibble is thrown forward, the plant put in, and the
foot brought up to close the ground ere one has time
almost to mark the operation. Every succeeding year
adds value to property of this description, and we rejoice
to find proprietors so eager in pursuit of this interesting
and important species of cultivation.
We had the pleasure of looking .over a very ancient
charter preserved among the deeds at Cawdor Castle. It
is a grant of lands made by King Alexander II. of Scot-

86 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
land, at Forres, in the year 1236. In all accounts of the
possessions of the Cawdor family mention is made of a
certain English or Flemish proprietor named "Horstrot,"
from whom the Thane of Cawdor is said to have pur
chased the lands of Both and Banchor. Our genealogists
and antiquaries have not been able to find any other trace
of this person with the uncouth name, who is reported to
have obtained Macbeth's estates in Nairnshire. And, in
truth, no such person existed. The name is a blunder,
first committed by the worthy Lachlan Shaw, in his
" History of the Province of Moray," and since copied
by innumerable local chroniclers. The original deed is
plain enough — the dust of six hundred years has not de
faced the clerk-like handwriting, nor much decayed the
venerable bit of parchment. There the name stands
" Gilbert Hostiarius" [Latin, ostiarius, door-keeper], one
of the powerful-. family of the Ostiarii, or hereditary door-
wards of the King, who held large possessions in Mar,
especially about Kincardine O'Neil. In charters they
are called indiscriminately Ostiarii or Hostiarii, in English
door-ward, which in time became corrupted to the common
surname of Durward. The male line of this family is not
yet extinct, and there is an old tradition that the bell of
a church in Mar rings of itself when a Durward dies.
Having removed the nondescript "Horstrot" from the
lands and history of the Thanes of Cawdor, we shall, with
the friendly aid of an excellent antiquary — Cosmo Innes,
Esq., whose knowledge of ancient charters and antiquities
is only exceeded by his liberality in communicating his
stores to others — subjoin a translation of the deed, with
some explanatory notes : —
"Alexander, by the grace of God, King of Scots, to

CAWDOR CASTLE. 87
all good men of his whole land, greeting. — Be it known
to all present and to come, that I have given and granted,
and by this my charter confirmed, to Gilbert Hostiarius,
for his homage and service, the lands of Both and of
Banchory, in the Bailliary of Invernarn. To have and
hold to him and his heirs of me and my heirs, in fee and
heritage, by its right bounds and with all its just per
tinents, in wood and plain, in lands and water, in meadows
and pastures, in moors and marshes, in stanks and mills,
with soc and sac, with pit and gallows, with thol and
them, and infangandtheif, and with all other rights justly
pertaining to the said lands, freely, quietly, fully, and
honourably — by the service of the tenth part of one
soldier, and doing forinsec service, as belongs to the said
lands; saving always my grants of alms. In presence of
these witnesses — Walter Fitz-Alan, Steward, Justiciar of
Scotland; Walter Cumyn, Earl of Menteith; Malcolm,
Earl of Angus ; Henry de Balliol ; Alan Hostiarius ;
Walter Byset; David Mareschal. At Foreys the 2 2d day
of July, the year of the reign of our lord the King twenty-
two." The parties witnessing the deed are known in Scottish
story, and we may picture the group assembled in the
pleasant castle of Forres. Alexander II. — an active and
judicious prince — was then in the prime of life, in his
thirty-eighth year. He succeeded his father, William the
Lion, in December 12 14, and hence the month of July,
in the twenty-second year of his reign, was in 1236.
Alexander laboured earnestly to secure equal and just
laws, and he expired in the island of Kerrara, in 1249,
while endeavouring to compel the Lord of the Isles to
do that homage to the Crown of Scotland for the Hebrides

88 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
which he used to render to the King of Norway. Walter
Fitz-Alan, the High Steward, was also Great Justiciar of
Scotland proper, north of the Forth, from 1231 to 1240.
Walter Cumyn, or Comyn, married the heiress of Men
teith, and in her right became Earl of Menteith. He
was a stirring, ambitious member of a family then per
haps the most powerful in the kingdom. Henry de
Balliol had been Great Chamberlain of Scotland, but
resigned that office in 1234. Alan Durward was the head
of the great family and held the office from which he
derived his name at the date of the charter. Walter
Byset, or Bisset, was of the Bissets of Lovat and Strath -
errick — a great but unfortunate race — one of whom about
this time founded the priory at Beauly. King Alexander
made other grants on the occasion of his visit to Forres.
On the very next day to the above (July 23) he granted a
charter to Richard de Moravia of lands in the adjoining
parish of Dyke, to which most of the same persons were
witnesses. [See Register of the Bishopric of Moray.]
The lands granted in the Cawdor charter lie on the
brae between Cawdor and the Findhorn. Both is usually
called " Highland Both," to distinguish it from the magna
domus lapidea of Both, which the old Deans of Moray re
joiced in and inhabited, beside their benefice of Auldearn,
and which has, we believe, come down in a lineal male
descent to the family of one of them. Some of the
ancient terms of the charter may be new to part of our
readers. The Baillia or Bailliary may be held to have
included all jurisdictions. In the ancient books and rolls
of Exchequer the accounts of Sheriffs and others were en
tered as Ballivi ad extra. The terms sac and soc express
in different ways a jurisdiction in litigious suits. Soc is

CAWDOR CASTLE. 89
the district of that jurisdiction; sac is short for sacu, A.S.
suit. The right of pit and gallows implied full jurisdic
tion in matters criminal, and the more valuable part of it,
the amercement, escheat, &c, of the party convicted and
justified. Thol (or toll) and Them was the power of levy
ing toll and warranty. Infangandtheif was the right of
justifying thieves taken within the jurisdiction, with the
same valuable concomitant as in the right of pit and gal
lows. It is distinguished from Utfangenetheif which ap
plied to the jurisdiction of those caught beyond the bounds.
The service of a tenth of one soldier, or man-at-arms, was
perhaps the measure of contribution to the king's host
within the country. The Great Steward held his office
and lands from King David, by the service of five men-
at-arms. The term forihsec service has puzzled anti
quaries. It was probably the service in utwer or distant
expeditions. The castle of Forres, once occupied by the " gracious
Duncan," and by so many of our early sovereigns, now
exists only in history or in the pages of Shakespeare.
The poet elevates it into a palace with a " room of state,"
" a park with a road leading to the palace," &c, but the
area of the green hill on which it stood shows that the
structure was of limited extent. It was, however, a royal
fort, and would possess some rude elegance as well as
strength, while its situation, overlooking a beautiful wooded
plain, must always have commanded admiration.
The following account of the descent of the Cawdor
estates to the Campbell family is given in Anderson's
Guide to the Highlands : —
" Thane William, who completed the keep, lived till
about the year 1500 ; his son John married Isobel Rose,

90 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
daughter of Kilravock, and, dying in 1494, left one post
humous child, a daughter, named Muiriel, or Marion.
Kilravock intended this heiress for his own grandson, her
first cousin; but Kilravock being pursued in a criminal
process for robbery, in joining Mackintosh in spoiling the
lands of Urquhart of Cromarty, Argyle, the justice-general,
made the process easy to him, got the award of Muiriel's
marriage of the king, a.d. 1495, and she was sent to In-
verary in the year 1499. In the autumn of that year,
Campbell of Inverliver, with sixty men, came to receive
the child, on pretence of sending her south to school.
The lady Kilravock, her grandmother, that she might not
be changed, seared and marked her hip with the key of
her coffer. As Inverliver came with little Muiriel to Dal-
tulich, in Strathnairn, he was closely pursued by Alex
ander and Hugh Calder, her uncles, with a superior
party. He sent off the child with an escort of six men,
faced about to receive the Calders; and, to deceive them,
a sheaf of corn, dressed in some of the child's clothes,
was kept by one in the rear. The conflict was sharp, and
several were killed, among whom were six of Inverliver's
sons. When Inverliver thought the child was out of
reach, he retreated, leaving the fictitious child to the
Calders. And Inverliver was rewarded with a grant of
the £20 land of Inverliver. It is said, that in the heat
of the skirmish, Inverliver cried, 'Sfada glaodh 0' Lochow,
'S fada cabhair 0' chlan Dhume, i.e., "Tis a far cry to
Loch-Awe, and a distant help to the Campbells' — now a
proverb, signifying 'Imminent danger, and distant relief
Subsequently (in 15 10) this heiress was married to Sir
John Campbell, third son of Argyle; and thus the family
name of Calder was lost, and the after-additions to the

CAWDOR CASTLE. 9 1
castle were reared by the Campbells, whose coats of arms
are inserted at the several dates in the walls."
On digging lately in a field near Cawdor, a skeleton
was found with the remains of a rope round its neck,
which proved to be the relics of Callum Beg, a notorious
sheep-lzfter (i.e., thief), who was hanged some centuries
ago by order of " the laird." The name of Callum Beg
will be familiar to many readers, as Sir Walter Scott
adopted the cognomen, and applied it in the novel of
Waverley to the page of Fergus M'lvor. Callum was a
dependent of the Laird of Cawdor; and the latter, it is
said, interfered on many occasions in behalf of his hope
ful retainer, when the latter had the misfortune to forfeit
his life or liberty by forays on the neighbouring estates.
One day Callum was brought into the presence of his
feudal superior, having been caught with the stolen pro
perty in his possession, which proved to be a good fat
sheep. The laird had a kindness for Callum, and knew
not well how to act. At length he ordered the culprit
and the sheep to be put into the " donjon keep" of the
castle, at the same time giving directions that the people
who lodged the complaint should be amply regaled on
bread and ale. While the latter were indulging in this
repast, the laird slipt out and inquired of Callum if he
had a good knife. Being answered in the affirmative —
"then," said he, "I shall send you customers for your
wedder." Callum took the hint and killed the sheep.
He cut it into small morsels, and threw the whole out of
an aperture in the dungeon, constructed rather for air
than light, at the outside of which there was a pack of
hounds, by whom the sheep was speedily devoured.
Time having been allowed for the accomplishment of

92 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
this feat, the laird took his chair of state, and summoned
that "obdurate thief," Callum Beg, into his presence,
together with the stolen property and the witnesses. The
door of the cell was forthwith opened and the clansman
produced, but not a vestige of the sheep could be found.
Upon this hint the justice spake, charging the witnesses
with conspiring against that honest man, Callum Beg, and
accordingly setting the prisoner free ! Callum, however,
was not always so fortunate. On one occasion he fell
into the hands of the Laird of Kilravock, and was com
mitted to durance vile. His natural chief, the Thane of
Cawdor, hearing of the jeopardy in which Callum was
placed, repaired to the mansion of his friend on the first
day of the new year, and seated himself on the great
stair in front of the castle. The usual greetings having
passed, the Laird of Cawdor was invited into the house;
but he replied that he had a new year's gift to ask, and
unless it were granted he would not enter the house, or
partake of his neighbour's hospitality. "I shall grant
you every favour in my power," replied Kilravock, " but
the life of Callum Beg." "That," rejoined the other,
" is the very request I came to make, and, being denied,
it is unnecessary for me to stay." The laird accordingly
departed, and Callum Beg was — hanged.

FORT-GEORGE AND NAIRN.
Having spent some hours in surveying Cawdor Castle
and grounds — tracing the windings of the burn, sitting
in the hermitage, and exploring the wilderness of wood
land charms that clothes the precipitous banks and ex-

FORT- GEORGE AND NAIRN. 93
tended grounds — the tourist may turn his steps to Fort-
George. Bleak and barren is the country around the
fort; and the appearance of the sandy peninsula on which
it is erected is as unprepossessing as can well be con
ceived. When we state that Fort-George is a regular and
capacious fortification, covering ten acres of ground,
capable (if in complete repair) of accommodating two
thousand men, and that it was erected after the " Forty-
five," at ah expense of ^160,000, we believe we have said
all that the "gentle reader" may demand. Instead of
being used as a general penitentiary for the northern
counties (as was lately intended) the fort is only a peni
tentiary for a very limited portion of her Majesty's army,
who are here called upon to exercise the virtues of patience
and solitary meditation !
The town of Nairn is remarkable for one circumstance
— the Gaelic language is spoken at one extremity of it,
and the English (or rather the Lowland Scotch) at the
other. The Celtic population keep together, apart from
the dwellings of the Sassenach. This would seem to be
an old distinction, for there is a tradition that King James
the Sixth boasted one day to his English courtiers that he
had one town in Scotland — the town of Nairn — which was
so long that the inhabitants at one end of it could not
understand the language that was spoken at the other end.

MACBETH'S WITCHES.
"How far tit called to Forres?" So solemnly repeated •
Johnson, when, with his fidus Achates, the Laird of Auch-
inleck, he drove over the heath where Macbeth did not

94 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
meet the witches. They had mistaken the spot, and ex
pended their enthusiasm some dozen leagues away. "How
far is't called to Forres?" we repeated on the self-same
spot, where, if tradition may be in aught believed, the me
morable rencontre took place. The sun shone brightly
over the level moor, and the little clump of pines, and
not another "inhabitant o' the earth" was in sight. It
was until lately a dreary place, and looked, as Robert
Hall said of the vicinity of Cambridge, like nature laid
out, but corn fields and thriving plantations now vary its
surface. The heath is situated a little to the west of the
town of Forres. A small knoll is pointed out, under the
name of "Macbeth's Hillock," as the place where the
Thane was accosted by the weird sisters. The latter have
not faded away altogether into thin air. They have not
buried their book, like Prospero, or disappeared, like
Michael Scott, after he had cloven the Eildon Hills in
twain. Circumstances have occurred which induce a sus- -
picion that they still " round about the cauldron go," and
evince their predilection for the blasted heath, in con
tempt of Picturesque Price and Sir Henry Steuart of
Allanton. Far back in the abyss of time, two of the hags
are said to have been tried and convicted at Forres, and
condemned to be rolled in barrels, provided with sharp
iron spikes, from the top of Cluny, a high hill in the im
mediate vicinity of the town. The sentence was duly
executed, and the lacerated bodies of the witches were in
terred on the road-side east of Forres, where two gigantic
stones, called "The Witch Stones," mark the unhallowed
spot. Anathemas were fulminated against the hill of
Cluny, dooming it to perpetual barrenness, and against
all who should dare to disturb the stones. Ages rolled

MACBETH S WITCHES.

95

on; many forgot, and more contemned the malediction;
at length the people resolved to plant and adorn the hill
of Cluny. The spot is indeed a beautiful one, command
ing one of the most extensive prospects in Britain, in
which the mighty waters of the sea are interposed betwixt
a range of magnificent hills, and a fine expanse of plain,
rich with woods, streams, and cottages. On the summit
of the hill is a monument to the memory of Nelson. For
some time the plantation prospered, and was like to form
a lasting ornament to the place. One day, however,
nobody could ascertain how or wherefore, a fire broke
out, and in a few hours almost every shoot and sapling
was consumed or blasted; and, instead of the green shady
boughs and leaves which graced the scene, nothing was
seen but gloomy charcoal spar, and other marks of deso
lation. This was the first prank of the witches, but it was
not the last. The hill was again planted, again the shoots
and stems put forth their gay and glorious garniture, and
again the same calamity occurred. Rewards were offered,
and punishment threatened to malicious boys and needy
stick-gatherers; but no incendiary could be discovered.
Other attempts at cultivation were made, but invariably
with the same result. The young people still had hope,
but the sage and considerate shook their heads, and
thought of Macbeth's witches, and the unrepealed curse
of barrenness! Notwithstanding these startling occur
rences, a gentleman lately attempted to break one of the
Witch Stones, to furnish materials for building ; but the
inhabitants rose en masse, and insisted on the stone being
replaced in its ancient site, where it remains at present,
bound together with iron bars. To crown this super
natural machinery, a fire broke out spontaneously a short

96 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
time since in the moss of Inshoch (which forms part of
the celebrated heath), which, we were assured, "looked
for a' the world like the cauldron itsel';" and a strange
serpent was seen flying about in the air ! Still, the lairds
are resolved to cultivate the blasted heath; and the
people of Forres have begun to plant once more their
favourite hill of Cluny, trusting rather to close observa
tion and a better police, than dreading the " skyey in
fluences" of superstition. We hope the witches will at
last, like Cybele, take the pine-tree under their protection.
A notice of the " blasted heath," from the pen of Miss
Martineau (who visited the Highlands in 1838) occurs in
the notes to Knight's Pictorial Shakespeare.
" Common superstition," says the accomplished writer,
"assigns the Harmuir, on the borders of Elgin and Nairn,
as the place of the interview between Macbeth and the
weird sisters. A more dreary piece of moorland is not
to be found in all Scotland. Its eastern limit is about
six miles from Forres, and its western four from Nairn,
and the high roads from these places intersect it. ' This-
' blasted heath' is without tree or shrub. A few patches-
of oats are visible here and there, and the eye reposes on
a fir plantation at one extremity ; but all around is bleak
and brown, made up of peat and bog-water, white stones
and bushes of furze. Sand-hills and a line of blue sea,
beyond which are the distant hills of. Ross and Caithness,.
bound it to the north ; a farm-stead or two may be seen
afar off; and the ruins of a castle rise from amidst a few
trees on the estate of Brodie of Brodie, on the north-west.
There is something startling to a stranger in seeing the
solitary figure of the peat-digger, or rush-gatherer, moving
amidst the waste in the sunshine of a calm autumn day j

macbeth's witches. 97
but the desolation of the scene in stormy weather, or when
the twilight fogs are trailing over the pathless heath, or
settling down upon the pools, must be indescribable.
" Boece narrates the interview of Macbeth and Ban-
quo with the weird sisters as an actual occurrence ; and
he is repeated by Holinshed. Buchanan, whose mind
was averse from admitting more superstitions than were
necessary to historical fidelity, relates the whole scene as
a dream of Macbeth. It is now scarcely possible, even
for the imagination of the historical student, to make its
choice between the scene of the generals, mounted and
attended by their troops, meeting the witches in actual
presence on the waste of the Harmuir, and the encounter
of the aspiring spirit of Macbeth with the prophets of its
fate amid the wilder scenery of the land of dreams. As
far as the superstition is concerned with the real history,
the poet has bound us in his mightier spells. The witches
of Shakespeare have become realities."

DARNAWAY CASTLE AND FOREST.
Let no man visit the Highlands of Scotland in quest of
the picturesque, without seeing the banks of the Find-
horn, and its tributary stream, the Divie. From its first
oozings out of the Monaliadh mountains to its junction
with the sea, the Findhom is a truly Highland and
romantic river. It dashes along over channelled rock
and bush, breaking down every barrier, as the chieftain
of old on its banks, the hardy Randolph, the friend of
Robert Bruce, forced his way through the midst of his
enemies with sword and targe; and, like the same chief-

98 HIGHLAND NOTE-JBOOK.
tain reposing, after his toils, in his domestic circle, wel
comed by his own people with gentle speech, song, and
gratulation, its waters sometimes love to rest in calm,
waveless pools and cave-like recesses, where the birch,
the young oak, and the hawthorn, seem to bend over
him in peace and triumph. First, we may counsel the
tourist to repair to the excellent inn at Forres. He may
then sally forth, en cavalier, on a sure-footed pony.
Highland ponies, like Spanish mules, can traverse very
difficult tracks; or, what is still better, let the traveller
task his pedestrian powers to accomplish one of the most
delightful feats he ever adventured upon. If the party
be a family one, or our tourist be one of those enviable
personages who roll along in their own carriage, the said
vehicle may be employed the greater part of the way, and
the short journeys on foot, where it is necessary to alight,
be considered only as a relish to the rest of the expedition.
There are various routes by which the tourist may
proceed to view the scenery of the Findhorn. He may
go direct by the fishermen's houses above Sluie, up the
south side of the river, through the plantations, on by the
Esses and by Logie to Randolph's Bridge, and to Dalt-
lic'h, a distance of five or six miles. Or he may travel on
the same side by the Grantown road, until he reaches the
road leading down to Cothall, where the fine scenery
commences on the south side. Leaving Cothall, he pro
ceeds through St John's Mead until he reaches the station
opposite the Heronry at Darnaway. He may then pace
on to Sluie Pool, and to Dalflich, where the scenery,
particularly at Murnachy and Ledintich, is remarkably
wild and beautiful. The course of the river is broken by
numerous falls; the rocky banks are of great perpendi-

DARNAWAY CASTLE AND FOREST. 99
cular height, and the woods form the most beautiful
groups and vistas — particularly the weeping birch, which
here grows to a gigantic size. The historian of the
Morayshire Floods — Sir Th'omas Dick Lauder — has made
the world familiar with this romantic valley. He long
dwelt in one of its loveliest spots, Relugas, which he
adorned with exquisite art. The damage inflicted by the
terrific floods of 1829 was great, but not irrecoverable.
Taste and nature have repaired the breaches then made,
and the walks and pleasure grounds of Altyre, Relugas,
and Dunphail, are still as freshly wild, and almost as at
tractive as in their days of former glory.
About four miles from Forres we turn from the road,
and enter the woods of Darnaway. The castle is not
visible from the high road, being embosomed among
trees, and hid by rising grounds. We soon reach it
through a delightful wooded drive. Darnaway Castle is
a large modern mansion, erected about forty years ago,
in the castellated style. It is built with light freestone,
from a quarry on the estate. The old castle was pulled
down, with the exception of the hall, to make way for the
new structure — an act for which Jonathan Oldbuck, if his
power had been absolute, would have mulcted the Earl
of Moray of at least one year's rents. It was one of the
finest specimens of the old feudal castle in Scotland, and
should have been suffered to grace the plains with its
venerable appearance. The new structure stands on the
site of its predecessor — a precipitous mount, which over
looks the whole vale or low country of Moray. This
view includes the neat and comfortable town of Forres,
the Torrie hills, the tower and woods of Burgie, the
woods of Altyre, the handsome Gothic church of Raf-

100 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
ford, bounded in the distance by the valley leading to
the ruined Abbey of Pluscarden. Turning round, we see
the Moray Firth, the remote mountains of Sutherland and
Caithness, the peninsula of Easter Ross, and the Bay of
Cromarty. Farther westward the eye ranges over the
country in the neighbourhood of Nairn, the distant moun
tains above Strathglass and Strathconon, the gigantic
mountain of Ben-Wyvis, and the blue serrated hills run-
ing from Loch-Ness. In the south-west the Cairngorm
summits are distinctly seen — a steadfast and majestic
landmark amidst the wide-spread scene below.
The immediate environs of this baronial pile are well
described in an old couplet which still floats over the
country — " Darnaway green is bonny to be seen
In the midst of Moray-land. "
On the green, directly in front of the castle, are a few
old timber trees, and amongst them some ashes. As the
ash is the latest of all our trees in getting into leaf in
spring, and the first to relinquish its leaves in autumn, it
is now seldom found on lawns or pleasure grounds. Our
ancestors had not an opportunity of studying Price on the
Picturesque; yet we, love to see the bold spiral stem of
the ash, and its light, easy, sweeping branches, wherever
they may be found, and though their glory, like the sum
mer of this northern clime, be uncertain and transient.
The castle is surrounded by a considerable extent of
ground, that appears to have been laid out with the ulti
mate intention of being thrown into a deer-park, for
which, from its varied and undulating nature, it is well
adapted.

DARNAWAY CASTLE AHD FOREST. 10 1
We enter the castle by a lofty flight of steps. In the
€ntrance-hall are a few family pictures, the most interest
ing of which is a portrait of the Earl of Moray who was
murdered by the Marquis of Huntly, in the year 1592,
and who was known by the name of " The bonnie Earl of
Moray." The only modern painting in this hall is a full-
length, in the Highland dress, by Watson Gordon, of the
Hon. John Stuart, the present earl's second son..
We pass from the modern rooms into an apartment
such as few castles can boast of — Randolph's Hall, a
state-room, about a hundred feet long, forty broad, and
ninety high. This hall is of great antiquity. It was built
by Randolph, the first Earl of Moray, the friend, and
nephew, and fellow-warrior of Robert Bruce, and after
wards Regent of Scotland, who died in 133 1. The walls
of the hall are cased on the outside with the same stone
as the new castle, and it is plastered and whitewashed
inside, and lighted with modern windows! These sins
against good taste resemble the barbarous anachronism of
the old players (Garrick among the number), who used
to represent Lear and Macbeth in a tie-wig, and the cast-
off court dresses of the nobility. The oak roof of this
ancient hall still remains untouched; and it is impos
sible to enter the vast apartment, looking down its ex
tensive area, and up to its magnificent roof, dim with age,
recalling, at the same time, its warlike founder and his
compatriots, BruCe, the Black Douglas, and others, who
must often have sat within its walls, without experiencing
a thrilling sensation approaching to awe and fear. Ran
dolph was a brave soldier, as his conquest of Edinburgh
Castle and his conduct at Bannockburn testified. He
was also, as Regent, a just, but a severe judge. " Having

102 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
on one occasion sent his coroner before him to Ellan-
donan Castle, in the Highlands, to execute certain thieves
and robbers, that officer caused their heads to be hung
round the walls of the castle, to the number of fifty. When
Randolph came down the lake in a barge, and saw the
castle adorned with these grim and bloody heads, he said,
' He loved better to look upon them than on any garlands
of roses he had ever seen.'" Doubtless his hall at Darna
way was sometimes adorned with such garlands! The
last historical association connected with this apartment
is the circumstance of Mary Queen of Scots holding a
council here, in her progress to the north, in the autumn
of 1562. The hall still contains a few relics of the olden
time. There is a carved chair which belonged to Ran
dolph, with a thistle rudely cut on it; also a few massive
oaken tables that may have borne a banquet, spread even
for the nobles of Robert Brace. Across one of the win
dows are placed the colours of the Sutherland Fencibles
Regiment, torn and shattered at the engagement of Vinegar
Hill; of this corps the late Lord Moray's brother was some
time commander.
We have lingered too long amidst the gloom and
vastness of this old hall, and, as the sun is now shining
brightly over the trees, we shall take a plunge into the
woods — the Forest of Darnaway. A noble forest ! Enter
ing it at a point called Dorsella, the tourist may pass over,
in a circuitous line, until he quits the woods at Earlsmill,
a circle of twenty miles — an extent of woodland which,
as surrounding the residence of any one nobleman or
gentleman in Scotland, is, perhaps, unexampled. The
absolute value of the woods of Darnaway, in 1830, was
;£i 30,000. The annual increase in growth, of oak and

DARNAWAY CASTLE AND FOREST.

103

fir, exceeds, in a threefold ratio, the amount of timber
thinned and copsed every year; and as the system pur
sued is, for every fir that is cut down to plant two oaks,
in the course of fifty years the whole forest of Darnaway
will be one mass of oak. From the year 1767 to 181 o,
Francis, the tenth Earl of Moray, planted the following
trees: — Oaks, 1,114,260; ash, elm, beech, &c, 727,290;
Scotch fir, 10,346,000. Forming a total of trees planted
in those forty-three years of 12,187,550. The present
forester has, since the spring of 1829, planted of oaks
alone, 491,000. If we add the trees planted during the
same period on Lord Moray's other Scotch estates of
Doune and Donibristle (which exceed ten millions), we
may safely conclude that, with respect to plantations, the
Earls of Moray have been among the most patriotic im
provers in Britain, and have sedulously acted on the prin
ciple of the elder Dumbiedikes — "Aye be sticking in a
tree; it will grow while you are sleeping." The value of
the oak thinnings (the timber bringing from 2s. to 4s. the
square foot, and the bark about £fi or £*j the ton) must
form a handsome annual income; and, owing to the shel
ter of the older plantations, the trees planted of late years
make more progress than those which were planted at an
earlier period. The situation of the forest is from one
hundred to five hundred feet above the level of the sea,
and the climate is admirable. The soil is also peculiarly
adapted to the growth of the oak, of which the abundance
of ferns it produces is a sure index. Wherever ferns
grow rank, oak trees thrive well. Edward I., when in the
rule of Scotland as its over-lord, bestowed forty oaks
from Darnaway on the High Church of Caithness.
The oak copses of England have often excited our

104 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
admiration, and this mode of forest management appears
to have been practised at Darnaway at least a hundred
and sixty years ago. On the bank by the river there is a
superb range of oak-stools, from twenty to thirty feet in
girth, from each of which spring four or five or more
trees, once copse shoots, every one now possessing a
noble trunk, and tossing his high branches in the air
with true patrician dignity. Copses are highly profitable
to the owner. Suppose a hundred acres of wood planted
fifty years ago; the proprietor determines to copse it, and
he proceeds thus — he cuts down the whole of the wood,
with the exception of a tree at every hundred feet dis
tance: these remaining trees are called standards: the
trees cut down are called stools, from which spring up
vigorous shoots, that are, in this country, thinned at the
end of five years, leaving upon each stool five or six
suckers. The latter, in the course of twenty years, arrive
at the growth for cutting, giving from four to six inches
in diameter, which again form another growth of copse-
wood. Thus, in every twenty years, the proprietor has a
crop of oak timber. The copse is obviously not so
picturesque or impressive as a grove of old oaks in full
prime, yet it affords beautiful woodland paths and glades.
In its dismantled state it may appear forlorn; but (as
Gilpin observes) one winter only sees it in disgrace : the
next summer produces luxuriant shoots, and two summers
more restore it almost to perfect beauty.
A disagreeable visitant is sometimes found here in
summer — the snake. It measures from two to three feet
in length, but is sometimes as long as five feet. On being
discovered, snakes glide out of sight among the ferns or
heath; but if accidentally trod upon, they make a dart at

DARNAWAY CASTLE AND FOREST. 105
the intruder. The men engaged in the wood one day
went in a body to a spot where the snakes abound, and
came upon a considerable number of them basking on a
sunny bank. They attacked them with their rods and
switches, and killed fourteen, one of which, on being
opened, was found to contain eighteen young ones, all
of which gave undoubted signs of vitality, by each en
deavouring to make a way for itself in the grass. These
serpent intruders on the sylvan solitude are generally
harmless; it requires the heat of a tropical climate to
ripen the snake into venomous activity.
In 1 841 about seventeen miles of walks were con
structed in Darnaway forest, under the superintendence
of the Honourable John Stuart, which, for variety, extent,
and grandeur of scenery, have few parallels even in this
picturesque region. Every description of landscape is
presented. Here we have hills and dales changing as
suddenly and completely as the strains of a pibroch —
close masses of wood, succeeded by open views of culti
vated land, meadows, distant spires, the sea, farm-houses,
and cottages — now a bare rock, and the River Findhorn
foaming below, with a few solitary, pendent birches, and
perhaps a roe-deer — now softly-swelling, retired spots
and sunny glades that would suit for scenes in Kent or
Devonshire. On the west bank of the river is an ancient and in
teresting object, a heronry. From time immemorial —
most probably since the days of Randolph, first Earl of
Moray — a colony of herons has congregated on the spot.
Their nests are built on the branches of some old oak
trees, overhanging the dark and rapid stream. As many

106 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
as forty nests are on one tree, and there are from two to
three hundred birds. In the bed of the river, the birds
may be seen, with their tall figures, long necks, and blue
wings, fishing patiently for food, or rising slowly up to
begin their flight. When the stream is swollen by the
autumn floods, the herons, debarred their usual employ
ment of fishing in its stony bed, repair to the shores of
the firth for food. Their number here is on the increase,
probably because the noble proprietor is anxious to pro
tect the once royal birds in their present inglorious re
tirement, and because the river and firth afford abundance
of small trout and fry. On the opposite bank of the
Findhorn is a steep, precipitous bank of light sandstone,
with numerous holes and fissures, in which some scores
of jackdaws have taken up their abode. These light in
fantry sometimes make war on the stately ranks of the
herons, occasioning a din and turmoil that resound
through the forest like the noise of artillery, and they
sometimes find their way into the tree-rocked nests and
steal the eggs.
Another picturesque point here is formed by what are
termed the Esses, or salmon leaps, where the rocks in
the bed of the river suddenly converge, leaving narrow
passes and falls, up which the fish try to ascend. Num
bers are caught by a process which we have not seen
elsewhere. Men sit on the crags, each with a long pole,
to which is attached a hook. The vibration of the pole
tells when a fish is caught, and in a moment it is snatched
out of the water, and deposited in the basket. This mode
of fishing, with the peculiar sort of hook used, has been
practised for centuries in the River Findhorn, and only

DARNAWAY CASTLE AND FOREST. 107
one man (who had fished on the same crag for forty-seven
years) has lost his life by accident while pursuing his pis
catory vocation.
In one spot, perched on a high green bank, is a soli
tary church, where a congregation of Scottish Dissenters
has assembled for upwards of a hundred years. On a
calm summer Sunday, the door is thrown open, and the
sound of the psalm-singing mingles in a solemn and pleas
ing tone with the noise of the burn and the notes of
the wood-pigeon. Scenes of this kind have a peculiarly
Scottish character; they remind us alternately of the old
Covenanters who assembled on the hill side, and of the
deep religious feeling which still pervades the scattered
dwellings of our rural population.
In 1839 a young lady — Miss Lydia B. Smith, Down
House, Dorsetshire — took leave of Darnaway in the fol
lowing beautiful stanzas : —
THE STRANGER'S ADIEU TO MORAY-LAND.
Farewell, a long and fond farewell, to thee, sweet Moray-land !
To thy wild rivers deep and clear — thine ocean-belted strand ;
Green Darnaway, whose forest leaves now wear their wintry hue,
With heavy heart the stranger bids thy varied charms adieu !
With heavy heart i Ah no ! By many a token priz'd and dear,
The thought of thee shall lighten care through every coming year ;
For, link'd with thy familiar name, where love with beauty vies,
From their rich treasure-caves will still a thousand memories rise !
The Findhorn's sweeping waters rolling on in kingly might,
Now slumbering calm, now flashing by, in many a line of light ;
The giant rocks that tower above, which the cragsman dares not
scale,
Where the Alpine fir and gnarled oak sigh hoarsely in the gale !

108 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
The woodland glens, where bound the graceful roe-deer in their
pride —
The wild romantic banks which fringe the winding Divie's side—
The castles where the Highland chief rules now in peaceful power,
All — all will ever present seem in Fancy's musing hour !
Too soon in Randolph's ancient hall the echoes mute will be,
Which late were waken'd by the sounds of festive mirth and glee ;
On Damaway's high battlements the banner cease to wave,
Which, free as flowed its silken folds, a generous welcome gave !
The stranger who, with lingering steps, must from these scenes
depart,
Takes the lovely picture home, in light and shadow, to the heart;
And with many a wishful look behind, as slow she waves her
hand,
Sighs forth—" A long farewell to thee, thou bonny Moray-land."

ELGIN, AND JOHN SHANKS.
An excursion from Inverness to Elgin is not merely a
ride of forty miles. It is a complete change of scene and
people. You lose sight of the old landmarks of the
Highlands; the bold undulating hills disappear, and long
sloping valleys or flat plains succeed. A richer or more
genial soil takes the place of our light argillaceous land;
the woods are of greater breadth of trunk and shade, and
are scattered more profusely, though with less of the pic
turesque than our silvery birches, amidst grey crags and
detached clumps of oak or ash. The Gaelic language —
which, as Lord Cockburn once humorously said, " is too
great a happiness for any man to acquire in this world : he
must be born to it" — those accents of the mountain tongue
give place, in the mouth of the peasantry, to the broad

ELGIN, AND JOHN SHANKS. 109
Lowland dialect immortalised by Burns and Scott; while
the shrewd glance, round countenance, and open bearing
of the country people speak a race of Gothic and not of
Celtic origin.
Morayshire is distinguished for the amenity of its
climate, and in productiveness is scarce behind the vale
of Clyde or the plains of the Lothians. There is an old
proverb, too, which assigns to it forty days more of fair
weather in the year than any other part of Scotland.
In the immediate vicinity of the town of Elgin there
is a number of neat cottages and villas, which give a strik
ing look to the place. It is not unlike Cheltenham, where
there are many garden-houses even in the heart of the
town, each with its shady plants, trailing shrubs, or bushes
in front. Many of these buildings are erected on feus
belonging to the Guildry of Elgin, who thus derive a con
siderable income from property which, thirty years ago,
was almost valueless. Indeed, it is calculated that the
buildings which have sprung up within this period are of
more actual value than the whole of the previously exist
ing town.
The natives of Morayshire are strongly imbued with
the amor patrice, or local attachment, characteristic of our
countrymen. They never forget the claims of their native
soil; and an interesting instance of this is afforded by
General Anderson's endowment for the support of old
age and the education of youth. Some eighty years ago,
a little ragged boy, named Anderson, left Elgin, where he
burrowed in a hovel amidst the ruins of the Cathedral
with his indigent widowed mother. He put himself ap
prentice to a tailor at Leith, got a smattering of education,
but, tired of sedentary employment, became a cabin boy,

IIO HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
and afterwards engaged on board an East Indiaman.
Truly and feelingly does the old Scottish ballad say —
" Little did my mother think
That day she cradled me,
What countries I should travel in,
Or what death I should dee. "
Anderson became a private soldier in the Company's ser
vice, and rose gradually, by good conduct, till, having
signalised himself at Seringapatam, he was elevated to the
rank of major-general, and received £16,000 of prize
money, which formed the nucleus of a princely fortune.
General Anderson owed little to Elgin but his birth,
yet the successful wanderer did not forget his native spot.
Conscious of the defective education of his own friendless
youth, and of the griefs that beset helpless poverty, he
bequeathed the sum of ,£70,000 to found an institution
in Elgin, for the threefold purpose of supporting a certain
number of old men and women; for establishing a school
of industry, and placing the pupils apprentice to some
useful occupation; and, thirdly, for educating the children
of parents who, though in narrow circumstances, are still
able to maintain and clothe their offspring. Thus sprang
the noble building, with its tower, dome, and Ionic
pillars, which arrests the attention of the stranger by its
capaciousness and elegance; and thus was endowed a
charity calculated to confer benefits of the most pure and
lasting description. Two hundred children are educated,
forty of whom reside within the walls. Five old men and
women are inmates of the institution. They are clad in
warm and decent apparel, and have no employment but
reading their Bible, knitting a stocking, or pursuing some

ELGIN, AND JOHN SHANKS. 1 1 1
other light voluntary occupation. Their daily routine of
existence may be compared to that of the couple described
by Prior. —
" They ate, and drank, and slept ; what then ?
They ate, and drank, and slept again."
The ruined Cathedral of Elgin is, in extent, richness
of architecture, and magnificence of design, inferior only
to Melrose Abbey; and its late beadle, old John Shanks,
who was gathered to his fathers on the 14th April 1841,
was worthy of being its chosen and delighted conservator.
His unwearied enthusiasm in clearing away the rubbish
which encumbered the area of the Cathedral and obscured
its architectural beauties, may be gathered from the fact
that he removed, with his pick-axe and shovel, two thou
sand eight hundred and sixty-six barrowfuls of earth. Be
sides disclosing a flight of steps that led to the grand
gateway of the edifice, tombs and figures which had
long lain hid in obscurity were unearthed, and every
monumental fragment of saints and holy men was care
fully preserved, and placed in some appropriate situation.
The carved stones which he fell upon, in the course of
his excavations, seemed all familiar friends. They were
his companions for many years, and it was amusing to see
how he looked upon the sculptured remains of a mitred
bishop, or caressed the effigy of a dog, which " the old
Duke of Gordon considered the most natural he ever saw
in stone." In the chapter-house he took peculiar pride
and pleasure; and he would sometimes slyly hint, as he
pointed out a poor priest with the gag in his mouth, or
the rich man in torment, that none of those who had ever
interfered, or obstructed him in his improvements, had

112 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
prospered ! He went on from day to day, and from year
to year, in his work of restoration. The chapter-house,
with its beautiful pillar, and groined roof, and bishops'
stalls — the sacristy and piscina — the effigies of priest and
warrior — and all the long glories of the sacred edifice,
from the great gate to the apprentice aisle, were kept with
exquisite order and neatness. It was said by Livy, the
Roman historian, that, by gazing on antiquities, the mind
itself becomes antique; and this was strikingly evinced in
the case of John Shanks. From daily intercourse, he
seemed to look upon the sacred relics as living beings
amongst whom his lot was cast; and he walked about the
ruins, satisfied that his duty, and his worship of the past,
were of a high and elevated character. The engineer of
Napoleon, when he surveyed the route of the Simplon,
or Telford, when he saw the last chain of the Menai
Bridge suspended, was not more happy than John Shanks,
when he gazed down the vast pile, trim and smooth, and
adjusted in all its parts as carefully as a lady's boudoir,
and surveyed, in silent admiration, the work of his hands.
The self-complacency of the old man was fostered by the
admiration and applause of all strangers. He had re
ceived from his fellow-townsmen a fine silver snuff-box,
with a view of the Cathedral engraved upon it; and his
praise had been sung by a gentleman well known for his
classical attainments, Mr William Hay, Edinburgh. The
Barons of Exchequer seconded John's zeal, by granting
sums of money for the preservation of the Cathedral.
The grants, however, were not always so liberal as the
ancient cicerone desired, and he one day complained to
the late Lady Alloway, that the Barons were rather stingy.
" Indeed, John," said the good-humoured lady, " I think

ELGIN, AND JOHN SHANKS. 113
you would be the best Baron of Exchequer yourself;"
and John was by no means disposed to controvert so
flattering an opinion. The old man never forgave Lord
Brougham for passing through Elgin, in 1834, without
going to see the Cathedral, which he had specially cleaned
up and prepared for the occasion; and he also grieved
that Sir Walter Scott had never been led to that part of
Scotland, as he was sure that, if he had, the Cathedral,
and perhaps himself, would have gone down to posterity,
"like a speat," in one of the Waverley Novels.
The following is an instance of John's peculiar humour :
— When the repairs of the transept were going on, he
thought it would be an excellent joke to have one of his
old saints elevated to the highest place, and christened
"The Wolf of Badenoch." This was accordingly done;
and John used to point out "The Wolf" to admiring
strangers, with the same sort of holy glee and triumph
that we may suppose the Bishop of Moray did when that
ferocious character was forced to make " submission
meet," in sackcloth and ashes, at Perth. The "Wolf,"
it will be recollected, was compelled to this humiliation
for his conduct at Elgin, by a Papal Bull; and, on his
bare knees, he begged pardon of God and the Church,
before King Robert III., and all the Scottish nobility and
clergy assembled for the purpose. So memorable a char
acter could not be omitted from John Shanks's gallery
of curiosities, and the ruse succeeded admirably with all
but the initiated few.
John Shanks was bora in. Elgin in 1758, and conse
quently at the time of his death he was in his eighty-third
year. In his youth he served an apprenticeship to a
shoemaker, who was then the keeper of the Cathedral, H

114 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
and in this way the seeds of early ambition, afterwards so
fully developed, were sown ! He was at one time Serjeant
in a company of the Morayshire Volunteers; and after
wards he was engaged to stand at the door of the " Little
Kirk," to take up " the offering." At this time John was
a high-powdered grave official. At length he was destined
to be a door-keeper at the entrance of a very different build
ing, and which was associated with very different religious
feelings. He now became " Bishop of Moray," and was
soon as sincere a worshipper among the mutilated images
of the ancient faith, as when a functionary at " Ronald
Bain's Little Kirk." His friends used to point out the
contrast between the enthusiasm which he evinced in his
new calling, and the stern Presbyterian air with which he
stood at the kirk door; but John was confident that Pro
vidence had designed him for the Cathedral — not to
promote superstition, but to spread a taste for beauty and
architecture over the land. So faithfully did he discharge
his duty as keeper of the ruins, that little now remains
but to preserve what he accomplished — to see that no
fresh rubbish accumulates, and that the progress of decay
is resisted by timely and judicious repair. As old John
was drawing to the close of life his mind wandered in
delirium, and he imagined that his countryman, Mr Hay,
who had celebrated him in verse, stood visibly before
him. The honour was too great to be ever forgotten!
and we hope that few numbers of Blackwood's Magazine
will issue from the press ere Mr Hay does honour to this
ancient worthy of his native town, by writing his epitaph,
to be duly inscribed on a " carved stone," placed within
the walls of his beloved Cathedral !
We may here add a word about the keeper of Melrose

ELGIN, AND JOHN SHANKS. II 5
Abbey, now the most celebrated cicerone in Scotland.
Johnny Bower is as great a curiosity as John Shanks, but
he has not been so active in removing rubbish. The pas
sage in Sir Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel —
" If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright,
Go, visit it by the pale moon-light,"
has been a mingled source of wealth and trouble to
Johnny Bower. The "Englishers" are determined to
see the Abbey only by moon-light, though Sir Walter used
good-humoredly to confess that he had never himself be
held the rains at such a time. The lines were a mere
poetical flourish! We met a gentleman last summer
(Major James G. Burns, son of the poet), who could
scarcely credit this declaration of Sir Walter, and ap
pealed on the subject to Johnny Bower. "It's quite
true," said the little man, "he never got the key from
me at night; and, if ever he got in, he must have speeFd
the wa's/ " We learn from Mr Washington Irving's sketch
of Abbotsford, that the worthy beadle has now fallen upon
an excellent substitute for the moon to gratify the " Eng
lishers." This is a great double tallow candle, stuck
upon the top of a pole, with which he conducts his visi
tors about the rains on dark nights — so much to their
satisfaction, that Johnny begins to think it even preferable
to the moon itself. " It does na' light up a' at once, to
be sure, but then you can shift it about, and show the
auld Abbey, bit by bit, whilst the moon only shines on
one side." Honest John Shanks despised all such ex
pedients, which, he said, were beneath any man who had
done what he had done for ancient architecture, or who
had a proper knowledge of history!

Il6 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
GORDON CASTLE, THE SEAT OF THE
DUKE OF RICHMOND.
Gordon Castle, near the village of Fochabers, in the
ancient province of Moray, is a mansion of the modern
school. This is to be regretted; for the old, rude, and
varied Gothic, with its round towers and battlements,
would harmonise better with the associations connected
with the spot and the family that so long possessed it.
In building Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott is said to have
made a romance of stone and mortar; it sets all the
orders of architecture, as his genius set the canons of
criticism, at defiance; yet its appearance is highly im
posing. Gordon Castle is too regular; but its great
height (four very lofty storeys), and its length (in all
nearly six hundred feet), render it dazzling and over
powering at first sight. It was designed by Baxter, a
Scottish architect of eminence. The situation is splendid.
Around the town of Elgin the scenery is rather tame; but
as you approach the Bridge of Spey, blue hills, finely
mapped and dotted on the horizon, begin to peep forth,
and to impart a sterner and more impressive character to
the landscape. It is like bringing John Balfour of Bur-
ley, or some old Cameronian veteran, down to a plain
filled with gilded courtiers and youthful beauty. The
river itself is no great ornament to the scene. There is
too much of the bare shingly beach exposed — for the
Spey is a stream that must have ample room for his
winter floods; and the red freestone scaur on the op
posite bank is a poor substitute for the grey cliffs, lined
with Alpine shrubs and plants, which girdle in many of

GORDON CASTLE. 117
the Highland valleys. The Spey, though a bad master,
is an excellent servant. It not only waters a long tract
of country, but it produces abundance of exquisite trout
and salmon. The Duke of Richmond receives yearly
about £6000 for the fishings of the stream — a revenue
worth nearly all the feudal privileges of the former pos
sessors of the estate.
In the castle are some works of art. Marble full-
length copies of the Venus " that enchants the world,"
and of the Apollo, by Italian sculptors, and busts of some
of the ancients, by Harewood, ornament the hall. There
are also three busts by Campbell — the Dukes of Welling
ton, Gordon, and Bedford. The most valuable painting
in Gordon Castle is a three-quarters portrait of an old
man, by Rembrandt : it is full of dark kindling energy
and expression. The most glittering and imposing pic
ture in the castle is a full-length of the late king, in his
coronation robes, by Lawrence. It was presented to the
late Duke of Gordon by William IV, and the gift is said
to have provoked some envy and regret with the Duke
of Devonshire and other titled amateurs, who longed to
possess the splendid prize. There is another chefd'auvre
of English art — a piece by Landseer, containing portraits
of the Duke of Gordon, the Duchess of Bedford, &c,
-with dogs and dead game on the ground. Sir Joshua
Reynolds has contributed three pictures, full-lengths of
George III. and his Queen, who usually go together on
-canvas, as they went together in life, and a portrait of
•the celebrated Duchess of Gordon. The latter is peculi
arly soft and expressive, and seems to unite the qualities,
rarely blended in one countenance, of great beauty, in
telligence, and sensibility. The Duchess was a remark-

Il8 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
able woman — " charming, witty, kind, and sensible," as
Burns eulogistically styles her ; and she appears to have
been the idol of the wits, poets, artists, and men of fashion
of the day. Several productions of Sir Peter Lely — soft
and dreamy, with " the sleepy eye of love " — of Teniers,
Wouvermann, Angelica Kauffman, and other artists, lend
grace and interest to the ducal mansion.
The grand charm of Gordon Castle must ever be its
situation, its woods and parks, affording, within the wall
and paling, a range of seven or eight miles. These have
all the exuberance of the finest sylvan scenes in England,
as seen in Hants or Nottinghamshire, or as described in
Ivanhoe. The lime trees are particularly fine, and one is
of such immense growth and spreading foliage, that his
Grace might dine a regiment under its boughs. The late
Duchess of Gordon was fond of this tree, and had its
branches propped up that she might enjoy a " spacious
circuit for her musings " within its shade. It is now en
closed by a fence, to protect it from the cattle. The cir
cumference of this noble tree at the points of the branches
(which all rest on the ground) is 317 feet. Opposite the
dining-room is a large and massive willow tree, the history
of which is somewhat singular. Duke Alexander (father
of the late Duke, " the last of his race "), when four years
of age, planted this willow in a tub filled with earth. The
tub floated about in a marshy piece of ground, till the
shoot expanding "burst its cerements," and struck root
in the earth below. Here it grew and prospered, till it
attained its present goodly size. The Duke regarded the
tree with a sort of fatherly and even superstitious regard,
half believing there was some mysterious affinity be
tween its fortunes and his own. If an accident hap-

GORDON CASTLE. II9
pened to the one by storm or lightning, some misfortune
was not long in befalling the other. The tree, however,
has long survived its planter — the duke, at a ripe old age,
yielded to the irreversible destiny of man; but his favourite
willow, like the cedar-tree of the prophet, has reared its
head among the thick branches, and is flourishing. Duke
Alexander was a man of taste and talent, and of superior
mechanical acquirements. He wrote some good charac
teristic Scotch songs, in the minute style of painting local
manners, and he wrought diligently at a turning lathe!
He was lavish of snuff-boxes of his own manufacture,
which he presented liberally to all his friends and neigh
bours. On one occasion he made a handsome gold
necklace, which he took with him to London, and pre
sented to Queen Charlotte. It was so much admired in
the royal circle, that the old duke used to say, with a
smile, he thought it better to leave town immediately for
Gordon Castle, lest he should get an order to make one
for each of the Princesses ! His son, the gay and gallant
Marquis of Huntly, was a man of different mould — he
had nothing mechanical, but was the life and soul of all
parties of pleasure. There certainly never was a better
chairman of a festive party. He could not make a set
speech; and on one occasion, when Lord Liverpool asked
. him to move or second an address at the opening of a
session of Parliament, he gaily replied that he would
undertake to please all their lordships if they adjourned
to the City of London Tavern, but he could not under
take to do the same in the House of Lords. He excelled
in short unpremeditated addresses, which were always
lively and to the point. We heard him once on an
occasion which would have been a melancholy one in

120 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
any other hands. He had been compelled to sell the
greater part of his property in the district of Badenoch,
to lessen the pressure of his difficulties and emancipate
himself, in some measure, from legal trustees. The
gentlemen of the district resolved, before parting with
their noble landlord, to invite him to a public dinner
in Kingussie. A piece of plate, or some other mark
of regard, would perhaps have been more apropos, and
less painful in its associations; but the dinner was given
and received. Champagne flowed like water—the High
landers were in the full costume of the mountains, and
great excitement prevailed. When the Duke stood up,
his tall graceful form slightly stooping with age, and his
grey hairs shading his smooth bald forehead, with a
general's broad riband across his breast, the thunders of
applause were like a warring cataract or mountain torrent
in flood. Tears sparkled in his eyes, and he broke out
with a hasty acknowledgment of the honours paid to
him; he alluded to the time when he roamed their hills
in youth, gathering recruits among their mountains for
the service of his country — of the strong attachment
which his departed mother entertained for every cottage
and family among them — and of his own affection for
the Highlands, which he said was as firm and lasting as
the Rock of Cairngorm, which he was still proud to
possess. The latter was a statement of fact: in the sale
of the property the Duke had stipulated for retaining that
wild mountain range called the Cairngorm Rocks. The
effect of this short and feeling speech — so powerful is the
language of nature and genuine emotion — was as strong
as the most finished oration could produce.
Gilpin has denounced the hawthorn tree as having

GORDON CASTLE. 121
little claim to picturesque beauty, and as a poor append
age to nature. The worthy recluse of the New Forest
had never visited Gordon Castle; for if he had witnessed
the gigantic hawthorns which mingle in the avenue, and
on the distant and shrubby grounds, with the deep masses
of the holly, and the alder, and the ash, and the oak, he
would have recanted his censure. Some of these fine
trees are ten and twelve feet in girth, and tower up with
their white blossoms to a great height. Duke Alexander
exercised much judgment in laying out the grounds, so
that the various parts might harmonise. Subsequent
improvements have heightened the effect of the whole ;
the woods have been judiciously thinned in some places
— new paths and drives are made in the park and lawn —
a rich flower garden is added — and walks extend from
side to side, on height and hollow, which present rich
and magnificent panoramas of sylvan beauty. The Spey,
winding in the distance through the woody amphitheatre,
gives additional interest to the scene. Much of this
luxuriant beauty is owing to the excellence of the climate
and the soiL A gentleman at the castle informed us that
he kept a register of the flowering shrubs, that he might
compare it with another kept by a friend in Devonshire,
and he found the most delicate plants were nearly as
early in the north as in the garden of England. This
delightful amenity must have tended to the growth of the
huge forests which in early times covered the country.
In the hall of the castle there is an immense plank, ap
parently six feet in breadth, round as a shield, on which
there is the following inscription, cut in a brass plate : —
"In the year 1783, William Osborne, merchant of

122 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Hull, purchased of the Duke of Gordon the forest of
Glenmore, the whole of which he cut down in the space
of twenty-two years, and built, during that time, at the
mouth of the River Spey (where never vessel was built
before), forty-seven sail of ships of upwards of 19,000
tons burden. The largest of them, 1050 tons, and three
others but little inferior in size, are now in the service of
his Majesty and the Hon. East India Company. This
undertaking was completed at the expense, for labour
alone, of above ;£ 70,000. To his Grace the Duke of
Gordon this plank is offered, as a specimen of the growth
of the trees in the above forest, by his Grace's most
obedient servant, " W. Osborne.
" HuU, September 26, 1806."
The Duke of Richmond has added greatly to the pro
ductiveness and value of the estate. Every year his Grace
is extending his rural improvements, executed with all the
skill and completeness of modern science.
The sum at which the Duke of Gordon sold the
forest of Glenmore (the finest fir-wood in Scotland) was
;£io,ooo. It was contiguous to the noble woods of
Rothiemurchus, which thus formed a region of great wild-
ness, intersected by lakes, which for centuries reflected
the endless forests of pine that clothed its broken steeps
and silent recesses. In obedience to the law of nature,
the Glenmore forest is fast replenishing itself. " No
thing," says Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, with the spirit of a
poet, as well as the observation of a naturalist, " nothing
could be more savagely picturesque than that solitary
scene when we visited it some years ago. At that time
many gigantic skeletons of trees, above twenty feet in

GORDON CASTLE. 1 23
circumference, but which had been so far decayed at the
time the forest was felled as not to be useful for timber,
had been left standing, most of them in prominent situa
tions, their bark in a great measure gone, many of them
without leaves, and catching a pale, unearthly-looking
light upon their grey trunks and bare arms, which were
stretched forth towards the sky, like those of wizards, as
if in the act of conjuring up the storm which was gathering
in the bosom of the mountains, and which was about to
burst forth at their call."
In England and Scotland deer parks are far from
being rare, for the animal is evidently on the increase in
Great Britain; but we believe there are few places where
may be found pasturing together the ancient red deer of
the Highlands, the fallow deer, and the roe deer. This
interesting sight may be witnessed in the grounds sur
rounding Gordon Castle; and to persons cooped up in
towns, and unaccustomed to the royal chase, it wears an
air of strong attraction and delight. There is something
indescribably striking in the appearance of the antlered
herd feeding on their rich pastures, or bounding about
in all the poetry of motion, with their graceful figures,
branching horns, and soft sparkling eyes, which seem
lighted up by intelligence. The picturesque appearance
of the deer is greatly heightened by his almost preter
natural acuteness of hearing and smelling: he stops at
every whisper,, erects his head, tosses his antlers, and
seems to catch the most faint and distant sounds. At
the same time some are slowly ruminating on the grass,
the fawns duly following their dams, and others are seen
darting off, unhunted, to the woods. The red deer in
the forest are said to take the precaution of establishing

124 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
one of their number as a sentinel or outpost when danger
is anticipated; and should the sportsman happen to be
abroad, the alarm is speedily communicated, and the
herd gird up their loins for instant flight. Their de
parture is announced by a noise like the rushing of a
winter flood or cataract. "Forest deer," says Gilpin,
"though pasturing at large, seldom stray far from the
walk where they are bred; and the keeper who is studi
ous that his deer may not travel into the limits of his
neighbours, encourages their fondness for home by feed
ing them in winter with holly, and other plants, which
they love, and browsing them in summer with the spray
of ash. When he distributes his dole, he commonly
makes a hollowing noise to call his dispersed family to
gether. In calm summer evenings, if you frequent any
part of the forest near a lodge, you will hear this hollow
ing noise resounding through the woods; and if you are
not apprised of it you will be apt to wonder each evening
at its periodical exactness. Deer feed generally in the
night, or at early dawn, and retire in the day to the shelter
of the woods. Their morning retreat is thus picturesquely
described : — ' The day pours in apace,
And opens all the lawny prospect wide ;
The hazy woods, the mountain's misty top,
Swell on the sight; while o'er the forest glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning, gaze
At early passengers.'"
The deer park at Gordon Castle contains one hundred
and thirty-five fallow deer, thirty-seven very large red
deer, and four roe deer. In the forest, outside the park,

GORDON CASTLE. 125
there are some hundreds of the large red deer, and a
great number of roes — too many in the opinion of the
farmers, some of whom have to watch their crops by
night from the depredations of this nimble plunderer. In
England, as Gilpin relates, the farmer sometimes has re
course to stratagem to effect his purpose. Deer are
particularly offended by disagreeable smells. The people,
therefore, smear the ropes with tar, which they set up with
fences, and throw foetid substances into their nightly fires,
to disseminate the odour in the smoke.
Deer-stalking is now the most common way of hunting
the red deer. The sport is well known; and we confess
the caution it requires, watching hour after hour in glen
and corrie, and winding silently on all fours among the
heather and bushes, seems to render this amusement very
tame when compared with the famous hunting matches
of old, "with hound and horn;" it appears somewhat
akin to the practice of angling, for deer-stalking requires
fully as much patience and philosophy as the piscatory
art. If the angler has often to be content with a nibble,
the deer-stalker is frequently obliged to be satisfied with
a sight; for when, after many a toilsome straggle and
ascent, he has neared the herd, and levelled his rifle,
some unexpected incident may rouse the deer, and away
they fly, as fleet as wind, to cliff and fastness. An Eng
lish lady, who resided some years in this country, and
contracted a love for Highland sports, used to be fond of
deer-stalking, and actually spent many a day and night in
the heights above Glenmorriston, regardless of wet and
cold, in pursuing this amusement. We have more than
once sat at "good men's feasts" where venison killed by
the hand of the fair hunter was served up at the. table,

126 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
and a knowledge of the circumstance seldom failed to
impart a zest to the meat better than the finest sauce!
This feminine intrepidity and gallantry reminds us of an
anecdote of Mary Queen of Scots during her tour in the
north in 1562. "I never saw the Queen moved or dis
mayed," says old Randolph, "nor ever thought I that
stomach to be in her that I find. She repented nothing,
but that, when the lords and others at Inverness came in
the morning from- the watch, she was not a man, to know
what life it was to lie all night in the fields, or to walk
upon the causeway with a jack and knapsack, a Glasgow
buckler, and a broadsword!" Her son, King James, was
of a very different spirit and temper.
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder relates the following circum
stances illustrative of the habits of the deer: —
" We believe that a red deer stag, having the whole
forest before him, would, even in the rutting season,
rather fly from a man than stay to assault him. But
the matter is different when he is confined within the
boundary of a park, however extensive it may be, for
then an old stag becomes ferocious. We remember a
circumstance which happened to a friend of ours in the
park of Cullen House. The gentleman had seated him
self under a large tree at the extremity of the park, in
order to sketch a distant view of the house. He was
intently occupied in his subject, when he was suddenly
alarmed by a sound of pawing and stamping, and on
looking up he beheld a huge stag, with a royal head,
stooping his horns, and retreating slowly back in order
to give greater effect to the charge he was about to make
against our unfortunate friend. In one instant the gentle
man had thrown down his sketch book and drawing

GORDON CASTLE. 12 7
utensils, and in the next he sprang at a horizontal bow
over his head, and coiled himself up into the tree, with
an agility that very much surprised himself. The stag,
though thus disappointed, was not so easily put off; for
he walked to and fro under the tree like a sentinel, turn
ing his eye upward every now and then; and this he
continued during two or three hours, till at last, becom
ing tired of his watch, he sulkily retreated, and left our
friend to gather up his sketching materials, and to
retreat over the park wall, without waiting to finish his
drawing. "The elasticity of the horn of the red deer is re
markable. The late Duke of Gordon showed us two
heads, which were linked together by the horns in a
very singular manner. The wife of one of his Grace's
keepers was one day alarmed by a very unusual noise
near her cottage. On going to the door, she was sur
prised, and somewhat terrified, to behold an immense
stag, with his head down, and pushing at another which
lay dead on the ground. Her husband being absent, the
woman did not dare to approach them, but ran into the
house in a state of alarm. The cottage stood on the
edge of a sloping bank; and the live stag, having the
advantage of the declivity, gradually pushed the dead
body of the other downwards, till he reached the level
ground below, where he could push it no farther, and
where he remained, chained by the head. The woman,
who had ventured to take occasional stolen glimpses at
what was going forward, informed her husband, the
moment he returned home ; and the keeper, on hurrying
to the spot, was surprised to find that, in the desperate
rush which the two infuriated animals had made at each

128 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
other, he that survived had driven his horns fairly through
between those of his opponent, and that, after they had
so passed between them, their instantaneous expansion
to their natural stretch had irrecoverably fixed them, one
within the other, whilst, at the same time, one of the dog
antlers, by taking a diagonal direction under the throat,
had divided the jugular vein, and thus produced the
death of the vanquished. The gamekeeper soon re
venged his fate ; for, after cutting the throat of the con
queror, he separated the two animals, by decapitating
both, and carried the united heads to Gordon Castle,
where they found a place in the duke's museum."
The spacious park around Gordon Castle, at one ex
tremity of which the deer are kept, on a fine sunny slope,
unites imperceptibly with the lawn, and can boast most
of the properties which such an appendage to a baronial
mansion should possess. It is of dimensions suited to
the size of the family residence; the grass is smooth as
velvet, intersected with carriage roads and footpaths, and
it is ornamented with forest trees, disposed singly and in
clumps, that have few rivals in Scotland. Dr Johnson
admitted that there were about Fochabers " some timber
trees and a plantation of oaks." The timber trees must
have been a row of ash trees which stand near where the
public road then passed. They have lost none of their
beauty since the date of Johnson's memorable journey:
they measure from ten to fifteen feet round the trunk,
and as high as eighty feet, while some of them are as
wide as sixty feet at the spread of the branches. There
is no chestnut like the famous one at Castle Leod; but
the horse-chestnut, now in full flower and rich with its
massy green drapery of leaves, is here in great perfection :

GORDON CASTLE. 1 29
one of them is fourteen feet four inches in circumference,
and sixty-six feet high. We have mentioned the noble
lime tree; and the hollies, alders, and white poplars are
reckoned the finest in Britain. One of the Scots firs
towers to a height of eighty-six feet. In girth, a poplar
tree is twelve and a-half feet; the silver fir, eight and
a-half; the Scots fir, ten and a-half; the Portugal laurel,
nine; the walnut, ten. A common willow is eleven feet
inscircumference, and fifty-six feet in height. There are
elms and beeches of enormous growth, and sycamores, at
present in the shadowy aromatic pride of summer —
"That breathe in whispers on the gentle wind,
Through vast cathedral groves, and leave a calm behind. "
The oaks are comparatively inferior. Hawthorns are in
termixed, on the distant and shrubby grounds, with the
holly and alder; and one beautiful specimen of the com
mon thorn, which scents all the neighbouring air with its
profusion of blossom, is seven and a-half feet round the
trunk, and thirty-six feet high. This is the finest haw
thorn we ever saw. The birch tree rears its graceful
stem fifty-five feet high, and attains to six feet eight
inches in circumference. It adds greatly to the beauty
of the border walks and opening vistas; but we prefer
meeting with the natural birch, though of humbler size,
on the sides of our mountains, or fringing solitary lakes.
We could readily extend this note of the productions of
the British sylva which adorn Gordon Castle; but as our
readers may not be disposed to travel in quest of trees,
or to wait for a description of them, we shall only detain
them by noticing some hollies, which are, perhaps, un
equalled in the kingdom. One of these is six feet four

130 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
inches in circumference; another, six feet three; and
several are five feet and upwards. The following is the
extent of three of the largest clusters : — The first contains
seventy trees, the average girth of which is two feet two
inches; the second cluster contains forty-five; and the
third, twenty-eight trees.
But who can convey an idea of the impression pro
duced by the whole of this arborescent abundance? The
massive dignity of the forest trees — the variety of trunk,
branches, leaf, and flower — their waving or undulating
motion — and their alternations of light and shade — with
the green shaven turf, where hares and leverets are seen
couching or running about in unrestrained freedom : the
whole forms a picture of primitive beauty and calm de
light that completely fills the imagination.

KINRARA COTTAGE & ROTHIEMURCHUS.
We have alluded to the late Duchess of Gordon. This
gay, good-natured lady, tired of the glitter of fashion, in
which she had shone "the observed of all observers,''
built a romantic cottage, and spent the latter years of her
life, at Kinrara, on the banks of the Spey, east of the
village of Kingussie. She expired in London, whither
she had gone on a farewell visit ; but she was interred,
by her own express desire, in a solitary burying-ground
by the river side, about a mile from the cottage. Built
in a hollow of the hills, and imbosomed in its native
woods, with its cultured walks, trim garden, and trailing
vines, Kinrara rises like a paradise in the wild, peopling
the spot which, but a few years since, was tenanted by

KINRARA COTTAGE AND ROTHIEMURCHUS. 131
the fox and wild-deer, and resembling rather, with the
surrounding scenery, the creation of some eastern tale
than a sober reality. In front of the cottage is a long
deep vale, washed by the Spey, whose dark and rapid
waters contrast finely with the masses of white pebbles
accumulated on its shores, and the light woods on its
banks. In the distance are the lofty Grampian and
Cairngorm hills, their blue summits undulating against
the clear sky.
In Rothiemurchus — for so the district is named, and
the name is not unknown to Scottish minstrelsy — nature
has executed all her works on a scale of splendour and'
profusion. The hills are clothed from base to summit
with natural wood— oak, birch, and fir. Lakes are
spread in the low-lying vales and forest, well stocked
with fish, and literally covered with wild fowl, while
straggling parties of deer occasionally shoot out their
branching horns from their solitary heights and ravines.
Even the ground on which we tread is strewn with sweets.
Wild rasps and blaeberries are met with among the tufted
heather, and juniper bushes — a noble underwood to the
forest — afford the poor peasant a sort of exhilarating be
verage — a succedaneum for whisky.
Timber is yearly cut in the woods of Rothiemurchus
to the value of several thousand pounds, and though every
lover of the picturesque, as well as prudent calculator,
would wish to stay the axe of the woodman, the forest is
still one of the most valuable in Scotland. Circumstances
have condemned its proprietor (Sir John Peter Grant) to
the legal courts of India, where he presides with dignity
and honour. His feelings, on parting from this fair do
main, must have been somewhat similar to those of Sir

132 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
William Blackstone, when he left his native fields and
rustic muse "for wrangling courts and stubborn law."
The breadth of wood and shade in Rothiemurchus,
with the extensive saw-mills and dams for floating the
timber, strongly recall the idea of an American forest.
The names of some of the roads or paths, however, mark
their Highland locality, for on inquiring of the gentleman
who accompanied us, we learned that the path we were
then traversing was called, in the language of the country,
"Rathad mor na mearlach," or the big road of the thieves.
"It was by this road," said he, "that the Lochaber men
used to come to lift the cattle."
The men of Lochaber were famous in the olden time
for their boldness and dexterity in cattle lifting, and levied
heavy contributions from all their neighbours. An old
clansman, who died some years since at a very advanced
age, never ceased to lament the change which had taken
place in this respect within his own recollection, by which,
he thought, the glory of the Camerons had been sorely
tarnished. It is related of this devoted follower, that,
when informed of his chief (Lochiel) being restored to his
family honours, he exclaimed, "Thank God, we shall have
the old times back again!" Donald, by a very natural
species of logic, concluded that, as the chief had been
restored to his honours, the clansmen would also be rein
stated in theirs.
The most beautiful of the lakes here is that known by
the name of " Loch-an-Eilan." The Great Magician him
self could not have conjured up a lovelier spot. Hemmed
in by rock and wood, the former towering to a great
height, the latter dipping into the water, Loch-an-Eilan
realises the poetical image of a mirror set in a deep and

KINRARA COTTAGE AND ROTHIEMURCHUS. 1 33
gorgeous frame. Art has also been combined with nature
to heighten the romance of the scene. In the centre of
the lake is a small island, crowned with a ruined fortress,
roofless, and crumbling to decay. The island is so small
that the castle seems to rise directly out of the water, as
if called up by a Prospero to aid the meditations of the
poet, and crown the labours of the draughtsman. And a
fine painting of the scene has been executed by one of
our best Scottish artists — Mr Horatio Macculloch. As
the wall facing the northern shore is still entire, intercept
ing even the slightest sound, an admirable echo is here
formed, and the firing of a gun produces a fine effect. It
is first repeated from the ruined castle, and afterwards
echoed back from every rock and mountain that girdles
in the lake, the final repercussion dying away like the
faint irregular sound of distant thunder. It is strange
that of the castle no memorial is to be found: Grose and
Pennant are silent on the subject, and even the voice of
tradition has failed. What a comment is this on the
mutability of human affairs! In the very spot, too,
where, doubtless, the lords of Badenoch once triumphed,
an eagle has built her nest. She has long been a denizen
of the ruined tower, and still remains.
An object of a very different, but perhaps not less in
teresting nature — for strongly do the sympathies of man
cleave after his kind — may be seen, " from morn to dewy
eve," flitting along the banks of the lake — a poor crazy
woman, whose husband was, a few years since, killed by
the falling of a fragment of rock. Poor Betty had cooked
her frugal meal, swept in her fireside, and was anxiously
awaiting her husband's return, when the latter was borne
into the house a lifeless corpse. The spectacle was too

134 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
much for the feelings of the young and faithful wife. She
sank down in a state of insensibility, and though she
gradually recovered, by the kind attention of her neigh
bours, reason had fled, and she never awoke to a con
sciousness of her loss. An American gentleman who was
travelling lately in the Highlands, and who happened to
encounter the poor maniac in her wanderings, was so
much touched by her pitiable condition, and so much
interested by the story of her fortunes, that he declared
he would erect a monument to her memory, if informed
of her death. He could not, he said, have believed that
such genuine fidelity and affection existed !
The Cairngorm mountains, which sentinel Loch-an-
Eilan, have long been famed for the beautiful species of
rock crystal with which they abound. There are two
sorts, one of a light cherry colour, and another of a deep
port-wine hue. Both, to the uninitiated, appear alike
attractive, but it is only the former which finds customers
in the market; and even this has lamentably decreased in
value. The numerous importations of similar stones from
the Brazils have rendered the Cairngorm gems compara
tively valueless in the eyes both of lapidaries and ladies,
and they have, accordingly, fallen into what Jeremy
Taylor calls the "portion of weeds and outworn things."
Time was when the Thane of Fife derived a handsome
sum annually from an Edinburgh artist for these bare
rocks, and when a farmer could procure from a titled
virtuoso no less than a hundred pounds for one choice
specimen. Vast numbers of these rock crystals have been
dug up lately — more than will supply the demand for
years. Gems are chiefly found at the foot of hills, among the

KINRARA COTTAGE AND ROTHIEMURCHUS. 135
sand and pebbles washed down by the rain or mountain
streams. At Cairngorm, however, the shepherds used
frequently to find them in the native rock. They
watched by moonlight, and having recognised the angles
at which the beams were reflected, they marked the spot,
and rose next morning with the sun to dig for the antici
pated treasure. According to popular testimony and be
lief, a splendid brilliant is seen at night by the side of
Loch-Avon, one of the wildest of the Cairngorm scenes,
which wooes the approach of the shepherds, but has
hitherto mocked all their endeavours to obtain it. One
night a man was let down the precipice by means of
ropes, but in endeavouring to reach the glittering prize
he had nearly lost his life. We suspect, however, that the
whole is a delusion. Gems of the most precious descrip
tion are only visible at a few yards distance, either in
darkness or when light is falling on them; and, in all
probability, the far-famed diamond of Cairngorm is only
some phosphorescent meteor.

136 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.

CULLEN HOUSE.

The little town of Cullen, in Banffshire, lies out of the
way of summer tourists, yet a day may be very pleasantly
spent in its neighbourhood. There is a line of rocky
beach to wander along, studded here and there with
huge boulders of red sandstone, and echoing to that finest
of all monotonies — worth a thousand trombones and
brazen bands — the ever-sounding sea. Then, close to the
town are the park and pleasure-grounds of Cullen House
— nearly four hundred acres of policies, lawn, and gar
dens — where winding walks of hill and glen, old trees,
flower-beds, and fountains make up a series of living pic
tures that charm by their beauty and variety. We have
thus the rough sea and the barren rocks contrasted with
the pomp and richness of cultivation, and each producing
the different trains of feeling and association that spring
from art and nature. The greater part of the town is
new, clean, and well-kept, with an excellent inn and
assembly rooms, erected about twenty years ago by the
Earl of Seafield. But near the beach is the old Sea Town,
occupied by the fishermen, which has a primitive and
antique appearance. The fresh robust complexion of the
fishing population shows that they inhale health from
the sea-breezes, and, we believe, the men, if industrious,
are tolerably well remunerated for their dangerous and

CULLEN HOUSE. 1 37
adventurous labours. They still live apart from the other
inhabitants — intermarry only with their own craft — and
in customs, dress, and sentiments, are as stationary as the
Chinese or the Hindoo castes. This exclusiveness pro
bably dwarfs the mind, as well as confines the worldly
prospects of the fishers, for though we have examples of
genius bursting through every obstacle among mechanics
of all kinds, and among the rural classes, we do not re
collect its ever appearing, in the shape of literature or
science, in the humble natives of a fishing town. The
names of the inhabitants of the Sea Town are almost as
limited as those of Dandie Dinmont's generations of
terriers; and the minister of Cullen, in his statistical
account of the parish, affords an amusing illustration of
this in the case of several families who bear the classic
name of Addison. To distinguish the parties nicknames
are invented, and we have Alexander Addison, Saunders;
Alexander Addison, Kitty's Sawney; Alexander Addison,
Drodlie; James Addison, Kitty's Jamesie; James Addi
son, Tatie Fiddler; James Addison, Bubbly; William
Addison, Sheepy ; William Addison, May's Willie, &c.
The hardy little community of fishers make about one-
third of the entire population of Cullen, and carry on the
herring and the deep sea white fishing with energy and
perseverance. Having taken a survey of their boats and
cottages, clustered together like the huts of a confederated
tribe, and having, with all sincerity, repeated the burden
of the song, " Weel may the boatie row," we bent our way
towards the baronial residence in the neighbourhood, long
the seat of the Earls of Findlater and Seafield.
Cullen House is an ancient irregular mass of build-

138 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
ing, erected at different periods, as taste or convenience
directed, and part of it was once a monastic edifice. The
remains of the conventual structure may be seen in the
vaults and lower apartments. The exterior is plain and
dingy, with rough-plastered walls, that bear no traces of
antiquity or grandeur; but the extent of the whole pile
and its commanding situation, on a rocky peninsula, with
a deep ravine on two sides, and the water of Cullen flow
ing sixty feet below the back walls, render it imposing and
aristocratic, in spite of the want of architectural beauty.
The approach from the town is through a young planta
tion, and in front, terminating the view, are seen two con
spicuous mountains, or one divided into two (like the
Eildon Hill on the Tweed), which are a vast ornament to
the place. Their round blue summits form striking fea
tures in the open country, and redeem it from the charge
of tameness and want of interest. About a quarter of a
mile from the house is the south or grand entry — a hand
some piece of architecture of Ionic order.
On the lawn are some fine clumps of trees, but the
beauties of the place are below; so crossing a bridge
thrown over the ravine, we soon diverged from the car
riage road into a serpentine walk, and found ourselves
by the side of a sheet of water, in which are three small
islands, with several swans and aquatic birds. A flower
garden opens its beauties to the sun — a small figure of a
triton throws up water from its " wreathed horn" — and in
the shade of the neighbouring wood is a hermitage, in
which is placed the presentment of a hermit — a Scotch
one, for he wears a large broad bonnet — about the size
of life, and suitably coloured and dressed. This some-

CULLEN HOUSE. 1 39
what startling and grotesque figure is represented as
poring over a book, in which is inscribed the poem
written by Burns in the Hermitage at Friar's Carse, be
ginning— "Thou whom chance may hither lead,
Be thou clad in russet weed. "
A wooden hermit is probably as agreeable as a living
one, seeing that if divested of all social sympathies man
becomes a mere cumberer of the ground. But having no
special regard for either, we quitted the cell to look
round on the beauties of the spot It is one of those
places that Price or Gilpin would have delighted to de
scribe — "a detached piece of scenery, having an air of
comfort and seclusion in itself, and at the same time
forming a rich foreground to the near and more distant
woods and to the remote distance." The day was warm
and sunny, the water looked peculiarly fresh and spark
ling, the flowers filled the whole air with their fragrance,
and the old elm and beech trees threw their ample
shadows on the soft dressed banks and greensward. A
few old-fashioned architectural ornaments would improve
the spot — a terrace, balustrade, or vases — for extreme sim
plicity is not suited to ornamented ground, and in this
respect some ancient mansion-houses have greatly the
advantage of the modern. There is here a small bridge
covered with ivy, and this, though it would appear insig
nificant elsewhere, adds greatly to the beauty of the scene.
From this picturesque hollow or dell there is a beautiful
drive of about three miles to the top of the Bin Hill — -
the double eminence already alluded to — and in the

140 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
course of this road are some exquisite glimpses of the
country and the sea, with a rich abundance of oak and
beech. We now began to be convinced of the beauties
of the pleasure grounds and park at Cullen, of which no
proper conception can be formed from the front of the
building or its approaches. The undulating ground opens
up new prospects at every turn, and the wooded heights
and dells present various picturesque combinations of
form and colour, and of light and shade. The garden
at Cullen House is on rather an ambitious scale : it is of
great extent, and is surrounded with a high brick wall
(brick, as the English say, has a warmer look than our
stone), and, besides a copious supply of fruit trees, has
a range of hot-houses, a pinery, and a green-house. In
the latter is a splendid collection of exotics, particularly
heaths. Adjoining the garden is a deer park, extending
to the Bin Hill, and containing a goodly herd of deer,
certainly one of the most interesting features about the
mansions of the nobility.
We began now to be anxious to have a glance at the
interior of the house, and to read the history of the family
in the portraits of its various members. An old house, the
seat of an old family, is sure to be enriched with these
memorials, which seem to make former ages, in their
antiquated appearance, pass in review before us. The
painter and the novelist are the true resurrectionists : they
evoke the dead and forgotten, and make Time " rebuild
his ruins, and act over again the lost scenes of existence."
On entering the lobby we found several pieces of sculp
ture — colossal busts of Caracalla and Adrian (characters
certainly not well matched in point of virtues); a copy

CULLEN HOUSE. 141
from Canova's Venus; a statue, "in small life," of the
late Hon. Mrs Grant and her daughter, finely executed
in Italy; busts of the present Lord Seafield, Col. Mac-
gregor, and Mr Dunn; a noble alabaster vase; plaster
casts of Pitt and Fox; and a collection of small Egyptian
antiquities — blue Lilliputian figures and broken urns —
obtained by the late Master of Grant in the course of his
travels. The dust of death has truly settled on these
sepulchral fragments, for the young and kind hand that
gathered them is now as cold as the tombs of the Pyra
mids! On the walls of the grand staircase are several
large paintings — one a light airy mythological picture of
Galatea, Tritons, and Nereides, from the fresco painting
in the Farnese Palace, by Agostino Caracci ; a stag hunt
and landscape; Mutius Scajvola burning his hand before
Porsenna; Achilles and Patroclus, &c. The most valu
able picture here is a portrait of Jamieson, the great
Scottish artist, by himself. Jamieson sits in his painting-
room, the walls of which are hung round with pictures;
he wears a broad-brimmed hat, and has his pallet in his
left hand. To the circumstance of the hat there hangs a
story which is a little apocryphal. Jamieson went to Edin
burgh in 1633, and Charles the First sat to him. At this
time the painter, it is said, was in ill-health, and the king
allowed him to remain covered in his presence, in com
memoration of which honour Jamieson ever afterwards
represented himself in his portraits with his hat on ! This
story is probably as authentic as that of the Highlander
who, having shaken hands with Prince Charles, never
afterwards profaned the honoured hand by washing it!
It is certain, however, that Jamieson was fond of painting
himself with his hat on; and an exquisite painter he was:

142 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
he had the true feeling of art, and his broad thin trans
parent manner produces the most delicate yet striking
effects. The rooms in Cullen House are well filled with
works of art, and the principal apartments being large and
richly furnished, with drapery and chandeliers, present a
handsome and brilliant appearance. The larger pictures
are mostly copies from the old masters — from Guido,
Raphael, Guercino, Corregio, Caracci, Rubens, Domeni-
chino, &c. — but they are very exquisite copies. There is
a genuine Vandyke, a portrait of the Duke of Hamilton,
and we wish it were hung by the side of Jamieson's por
trait. The Scottish artist possesses the manner of Van
dyke, but has not all his substance. The face and hands
of this portrait of the Duke of Hamilton are unrivalled
by all but Vandyke himself, and to give them prominence
the skilful painter (knowing where his strength lay) has
subdued his background and darkened the body of his
picture. Among the other originals are a little wood
scene, by Watteau; Christ raising Lazarus, by De Witt;
Dutch Boors, by Ostade; the Virgin, Infant Christ, and
St John, by Carlo Maratti — the latter a very fine picture.
There is a head of an old monk, or ecclesiastic, full of
life and energy, and another nameless portrait of a lady,
the perfection of maiden coyness and grace; the figure is
simply dressed, with a narrow red band over the neck and
bust. The youthful bloom and beauty of this unknown
are inimitable. —
" Her course and home we knew not, nor shall know,
Like the lost Pleiad seen no more below."
The very housekeeper had nothing to tell of her !* There
* Mr Montgomery has a fine poem on a similar circumstance — the

CULLEN HOUSE. 1 43
is an enamel miniature of Mary Queen of Scots, said to
be a copy from Zucchero, the original being presented to
Lord John Hamilton, son of the Earl of Arran. This
picture was presented in 1779 by the Countess of Find-
later and Seafield to her husband, " to remain in his
family," as an inscription on the back of the frame re
cords. The face is pale and soft, but full in the features,
" Incognita : on Viewing the Picture of an Unknown Lady." The
following verses form part of the effusion : —
Her joys and griefs alike in vain
Would Fancy here recall ;
Her throbs of ecstasy or pain
Lull'd in oblivion all ;
With her, methinks, life's little hour
Pass'd like the fragrance of a flower,
That leaves -upon the vernal wind
Sweetness we ne'er again may find.
Where dwelt she? — Ask yon aged tree,
Whose boughs embower the lawn,
Whether the birds' wild minstrelsy
Awoke her here at dawn?
Whether beneath its youthful shade,
At noon, in infancy she play'd? —
If from the oak no answer come
Of her all oracles are dumb.
The dead are like the stars by day,
Withdrawn from mortal eye,
But not extinct, they hold their way
In glory through the sky :
Spirits, from bondage thus set free,
Vanish amidst immensity,
Where human thought, like human sight,
Fails to pursue their trackless flight.
— Montgomery's Poet. Works, vol. Hi., p. 154-

144 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
and we were impressed with a conviction (though we
could give no reason for the opinion) that it was really a
likeness of Mary.
In the large dining-room are several portraits of the
family of Findlater and Seafield — a family which dates its
descent from the Earl of Angus in the time of Malcolm
Canmore. The first Earl of Findlater was, however,
raised to the peerage by Charles the First. James, the
fourth Earl, was a distinguished lawyer and statesman,
and was created Earl of Seafield and Viscount of Reid-
haven in 1701. He was the Scottish Secretary of State
during the reign of William the Third, and was appointed
Chancellor by Queen Anne. He was also President of
the Court of Session. It is a curious fact that this noble
man, though mainly instrumental in carrying the Union
between England and Scotland, was, seven years after
wards, very nearly dissolving it. Like many Scottish
patriots of the day, he was incensed at the malt-tax being
extended to Scotland; and in 17 13 his lordship, in the
House of Peers, moved that a bill should be brought in
for dissolving the Union, but, at the same time, preserv
ing the Queen's prerogative in both kingdoms, and " an
entire amity and good correspondence betwixt England
and Scotland." This was an exact counterpart to the
conduct of Mr O'Connell ; but the Earl was better sup
ported in his rash scheme: the votes on his motion were
equal, 54 on each side; but there was a majority oi four
proxies against it, and it was happily lost. The grandson
of this peer (James, third Earl of Seafield) seems to have
been a remarkable man. He was one of the Trustees for
the Improvement of Fisheries and Manufactures and for
the Management of the Forfeited Estates in Scotland,

CULLEN HOUSE. 1 45
and he was the first to introduce into the North the cul
tivation of potatoes and turnips, the enclosure of fields,
the manufacture of flax, and other agricultural improve
ments. The natives of Cullen would hardly consent to
plant potatoes or turnips, though their landlord presented
them with the seed ! There is a fine portrait of this
patriotic nobleman, painted when he was abroad, at
Rome, by an artist named Massucci. He is represented
as an invalid, in nightcap and dressing-gown (like Rom-
ne/s picture of Cowper, and not unlike in the features),
and the drawing and colouring seem correct and finely
finished. Beside it is a portrait by Allan Ramsay, of a
certain Lady Sophia, wife of the predecessor of the
patriotic Earl, who was a clever and famous housekeeper,
and who made some exquisite linen — tablecloths, &c. —
which still exist in their original beauty of texture and
design. There appears to have been with this lady, as
with the second wife of honest Micah Balwhidder in the
"Annals of the Parish" a perpetual "booming of the
meikle wheel, and such a birring of the little wheel, for
sheets and napery, that the house must have been many
a day like an organ chest." In like manner, too, the
"outcoming" was manifest, for Lady Sophia added
greatly to the riches of the family by her active and
prudent management. She seems, from her portrait, to
have been lively and spirited, with firm compressed lips
(admitting no idle thought or fancies) and in all respects
a perfect pattern for notable ladies. In this dining-room
are two immense wild-ox horns, turned by Alexander
Duke of Gordon, and mounted with gold; and a superb
French clock, a recent acquisition of the family. In a
lumber-room of the eminent banking establishment of
K

146 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Coutts, London, there was lately discovered a large box
addressed to the Earl of Findlater and Seafield ; it had
been locked up for seventy years, why or wherefore is
unknown, but most probably at first for security, as valu
able plate is sometimes deposited in banks ; it was sent
to the proper owner, and proved to be this really magni
ficent clock, which forms one of the richest ornaments in
the apartment.
The church of Cullen is situated near the mansion-
house, and is a very antique and even venerable edi
fice, built in the form of a cross, and surrounded by the
old church-yard, shrouded in trees. It was founded by
Robert Bruce, who also granted to it, in perpetuity, a sum
of five pounds Scots (no very munificent gift by modern
currency and computation), for the support of a chaplain
to pray for the soul of his Queen. The Reformation
fortunately left the chapel untouched. Several curious
black-letter inscriptions still ornament the walls, and one
magnificent monument, of the date 1554, to the memory
of the Baron of Findlater and his lady, is one of the
richest Gothic tombs of that age to be met with in the
kingdom. The inscription and allegorical designs are as
fresh as if newly chiselled. Other elegant monuments
have been erected to the memory of different members
of the noble family, and their finely-carved oak gallery,
bearing date 1602, is an imposing feature in the church.
The whole is kept in excellent order, and has been
recently subjected to a thorough and tasteful repair.
There is another relic of antiquity worthy a visit — the
Castle-hill, which rises two hundred feet above the level
of the sea. It appears to have been once a vitrified fort,
or beacon station; and from its proximity to the sea,

CULLEN HOUSE.

147

would be well-adapted both to announce and to repel
the incursions of the Danes. It is now a mere holiday
green mound, whence the natives may gaze around them,
recalling the vicissitudes of time, and thankful that they
live in a calmer and happier period.

I48 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.

DUFF HOUSE, NEAR BANFF.

The great attraction of the town of Banff is Duff House,
the seat of the Earl of Fife, which lies close to the old
burgh, and by the liberality of its present possessor, is
made a sort of appendage to it — presenting the citizens
with miles of beautiful walks, open at all hours, and a
rich collection of paintings and works of vertu, enshrined
in a mansion of great beauty and magnificence. Duff
House has none of the rough strength of old castle
walls and beetling towers. It is a modern building, on
a smooth plain. The architect was our distinguished
countryman, Robert Adam — the friend of David Hume,
Robertson, and Adam Smith — whose residence of three
years in Italy confirmed his enthusiasm and his love of
Roman architecture. A " liberal curiosity," as Gibbon
the historian mentions, carried Mr Adam into the heart
of Dalmatia, to visit and examine the Palace of Dioclesian,
and perhaps no British architect was ever more deeply
imbued with that classic spirit which shed grace and ele
gance on the purer ages of the Roman empire. Adam
was made architect to King George III. in 1762, and
afterwards represented his native county of Kinross in
Parliament. Duff House, we should suppose, must be
about eighty years old, as at that time Adam was in the
zenith of his reputation. His design was a splendid one.

DUFF HOUSE. I49
The present building was merely the centre of his plan ;
but having expended some ^80,000 on this part of the
structure, William Lord Braco left the completion of the
house to some more wealthy successor. The wings, it
is said, would cost fully £1 00,000 more. There is an
excess of rich Corinthian ornaments about the building,
and back and front are the same, with the exception of
the latter possessing an outer stair. The fluted pilasters
and entablature are exquisitely chiselled out of the dark
freestone, and invite a careful scrutiny. With a defect
in taste, which we are surprised the Earl tolerates, a
cluster of small servants' apartments has been built at
one side of the house, which mars the fine effect of the
entrance fafade, and should be removed to some less
conspicuous situation. The unsightly contrast which they
present to the classic front, is as mortifying as the sensa
tions which a traveller describes on witnessing, as he
entered the majestic city of Rome, an inscription on the
walls — " Buy Turner's Blacking."
We need not describe at length the interior of the
building, which has recently been done in a local work,
entitled " Summer Excursions in the Neighbourhood of
Banff." Besides the vestibule and staircase, there are
about twenty apartments thrown open, and each is
crowded with pictures, gems, or books. The most
valuable of the former is a portrait by Titian, of the
Constable de Bourbon — a breathing and life-like pro
duction, which seems to animate the canvas, and in its
vivid colouring to defy decay. Painting, it is said, steals
but a single glance from Time, but what a glance has
Titian here snatched from oblivion ! There are also a
few Vandykes — one of Charles I., and another of Straf-

T50 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
ford — the King and his Minister, and both equally un
fortunate. A curious picture of a philosopher moralising
over a skull, by Quentin Matsys, the blacksmith of Ant
werp, is remarkable for distinctness and briUiancy of
execution. Paintings by Murillo and Velasquez exhibit
the Spanish school ; and specimens are also found of the
Dutch and Flemish masters. The British school is re
presented by Kneller, Lely, Reynolds, Raeburn, &c. A
portrait of Mrs Abingdon, by Sir Joshua, exhibits all the
grace and airiness of his pencil, with that tone of high
life, apart from affectation, which marked him out as the
painter of refined and intellectual society. Mrs Abingdon
was a beautiful but frail actress, who, like poor Nell
Gwynne, enjoys a painful pre-eminence. The religious
societies should really petition Parliament to prevent
these witching immortalizations of frailty ! If great artists
could confine their labours to works worthy of posterity —
to represent only warriors, statesmen, wits, poets, philoso
phers, and beauties with whom no painful associations
rest, a picture gallery would form the handmaid of virtue
as well as art, and become the instructor of generations.
But true it is, that those who live to please, must please to
live, and while wealth is allied to pleasure, vanity, and
affectation, it can never fail to command the acquisitions
and resources of skill and genius. A greater number of
crowned heads look from the walls of Duff House than are
usually met with in private collections. Here we have an
old portrait of Henry IV, painted on an oak pannel, and
another of Henry VII., looking as dry and niggardly as the
jealous and covetous monarch himself. Henry VIII. struts
in full length, his legs firmly set apart, his arms a-kimbo,
and his small pig-eyes glistening with pampered self-will

DUFF HOUSE. 151
and voluptuousness. This portrait is said to be from the
pencil of Holbein, and was purchased at the sale of Sir
Joshua Reynolds's pictures : if we may trust our recollec
tion of Holbein's works at Windsor Castle, it is too good
for the artist and his times. Queen Elizabeth displays
her love of pomp and finery, but none of the likenesses
of this monarch seem to do justice to her capacity and
energy of mind. Her brother, Edward VI., the mild
boy-monarch, and her unfortunate rival and contem
porary, Mary Queen of Scots, are also here; but we
doubt the genuineness of the paintings. Mary's son,
James I., displays his low, shrewd, conceited features,
and ungainly padded figure, and his Queen, the young
Anne of Denmark, is by his side. The activity and
spirit which James displayed in the affair of his marriage,
and his declarations to his subjects respecting it, are
among the most amusing incidents in his history. " I
was alane," he told the Council, "without father or
mother, brother or sister, king of this realm, and heir
apparent of England ; this my nakedness made me to be
weak, and my enemies stark, for ae man is as no man."
Hence, he resolved to marry; he went to Denmark, and
was united to the Princess Anne, and he wrote home to
the Lords of Council to give them a good reception on
their return; for, he said, "a King of Scotland, with a
new married wife, will not come hame every day," and
he concludes his garrulous address with a pious ejacula
tion — " Thus recommending me and my new rib to your
daily prayers, I commit you to the only all-sufficient."
Never did monarch possess less of dignity than King
James, and yet he valued himself highly on his learning
and his Kingcraft. Passing over Charles I. and Henrietta

152 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Maria (one smiling in melancholy thoughtfulness and the
other in vacant prettiness), and also the portly Queen
Anne, we come to three interesting portraits of the last
of the Stuarts, by Gavin Hamilton, namely, the Chevalier
of 1715, Prince Charles of 1745, and the Cardinal of
York, in whom the male line closed. Prince Charles is
represented as large and gross, after indolence and de
bauchery had destroyed both his body and mind ; but
below the picture is enclosed in a frame a memento of his
young and promising days — a piece of the plaid which
he wore about the time of the fatal Culloden, which was
presented to the Duff family by the spirited lady of Mac
kintosh, called Colonel Ann, one of the heroines of the
Jacobite ladies of Scotland. We shall notice only two
more of the royal portraits — one of Charles of Sweden,
with his " frame of adamant and soul of fire," and two of
Napoleon. Their features are as well known as their
history, but a coloured representation of Napoleon, as he
lay on the morning after his decease, in all the majestic
serenity of death, conveys an affecting picture both to
the eye and imagination. " O eloquent, just, and mighty
death !" as Sir Walter Raleigh quaintly but finely ex
claims; "whom none could advise thou hast persuaded;
what none hath dared thou hast done; and whom all
the world flattered thou only hast cast out of the world
and despised; thou hast drawn together all the far-
stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition
of man, and covered all over with these two narrow
words, Hicjacet — here lies !"
Every one has heard of Macpherson, the famous free
booter, who " played a spring " beneath the gallows tree
on which he was executed at Banff. His sword is pre-

DUFF HOUSE. 1 53
served at Duff House, and as it has come down from the
Laird of Braco to his descendant, Lord Fife, the history
of the sword is well authenticated. It is a most formid
able weapon, requiring both hands to wield it, and nearly
six feet in length. Such a sword could only be used on
grand occasions, when Macpherson and his brother " Egyp
tians " appeared in all their strength to harry a market,
or defend a drove of lifted cattle. The target of the free
booter was also preserved by Laird Braco, but no one
would accept Macpherson's violin, on which he performed
his rant, or pibroch, immediately before his execution.
He then broke the violin in pieces, and threw away the
fragments, after which he ascended the ladder, and met
his death with the bold spirit of one who " lived a life of
sturt and strife." There was a dash of poetry in this clos
ing scene of the freebooter, and Burns has given it a
deathless interest. The musical reiver was son of a
beautiful gipsy girl, by some wild Macpherson of Inver-
eshie. He was one of a band of gipsies who went about
armed, committing enormities, but, like Robin Hood,
never oppressing the poor. At length he was seized at a
Keith market, tried by the Sheriff of Banff, and executed
at the cross there on the 16th of November 1700. A
gentleman of the town collected all the particulars of
Macpherson's life, trial, and death, for Sir Walter Scott,
thinking they might prove the groundwork of a novel, and
it is to be regretted that the illustrious baronet did not take
up the subject. The mixture of Celtic and gipsy blood
in the freebooter, his wild exploits and escapes among
the Scottish hills and vales, his reputed generosity, his un
rivalled powers as a musician, and his strange wild death,
would afford materials for a powerful and stirring story.

154 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
The park and pleasure grounds of Lord Fife extend
about two miles, from the bridge of Banff to that of Alvah,
accompanying the River Deveron on its winding course.
There is the usual variety of high and low ground — hang
ing woods — clumps of beeches — openings of the distant
landscape — the cultivation of art and the wildness of
nature. On the summit of a little woody thicket is the
family burying-ground, a Gothic Mausoleum, erected, as
an inscription tells us, on the place where stood a chapel
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin by King Robert Bruce
in 1324. The adjacent grounds were also devoted by his
royal charter for the building and support of a Carmelite
monastery; and some of the crumbling bones of the friars
were dug up on the spot, and enclosed in an urn raised near
the Mausoleum. A summer-house or temple stands near
the same place, on which it is said King Robert Bruce re
ceived the homage of his subjects and dispensed justice.
This is claiming a high antiquity and dignity for the little
green mound; but the king may at least have visited the
spot, while sojourning for a day or night with his white-
robed Carmelite friars; and it would be a pity to lose so
venerable and interesting an association. The upper part
of the river is wild and rocky, and at Alvah the water is pre
cipitated into a narrow chasm, over which a fine one-arch
bridge has been thrown, above fifty feet high, resembling
the one at the Upper Fall of Foyers. The richly wooded
banks, the rocks, bridge, and deep pool below, seen on a
fine still morning or evening, form a romantic and inter
esting picture. Nature is usually very bountiful to such
wild nests of beauty. There is not only the waterfall
making perpetual verdure, but plants and shrubs spring
from every crevice in the rocks — mosses and lichens cover

DUFF HOUSE. 1 55
the higher fragments of stone — the water shapes out caves
and recesses, overhung with birch (delicious resting places
for the trout), and the very sun and shadows seem more
bright and solemn in the secluded chasm. Walks extend
on both sides of the river, presenting different aspects of
the country and grounds, but a loftier background is
wanting to complete the landscape. Near the house,
flower-plots are profusely scattered, and it says much for
the people that, though the grounds are open night and
day, no injury is done. At first, some mischievous hands
were at work, but the good-natured Earl told his gardener
when such petty devastations took place to plant more
and to say nothing to him about it ! This was true
dignity, and it has its reward; for the crowds of happy
families strolling here in the summer evenings and on
the Sunday afternoons must administer the most exquisite
pleasure to the mind of him who spreads the cheap but
bountiful repast. Every native of Banff must be a lover
of fine walks and flowers — they are familiar to him every
day of his life — they all seem to take advantage of their
privilege — and we know not that Father Mathew himself
could devise a better auxiliary to temperance and moral
purity of mind.

156 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

PLANTING OAKS.
Oak plants have two seasons of growth — spring and
Lammas, or May and July. The yearly growth of the
plant, before being cut, is from nine to fourteen inches ;
and there are few more interesting sights in the interior,
or on the skirts of a wide far-sweeping forest, than these
embryo monarchs of the wood in their earthern recesses,
shooting forth their dark green leaves and tiny stems —
hereafter, perhaps, to be charged with the naval thunders
of Britain. In most plantations there is a loss of about
eight per cent, on the plants, from frost, or other causes ;
and the great object of the forester is to accelerate and
secure their growth the first year. On this head we can
give a useful hint from the experience of Darnaway. One
hundred and fifty acres have, within the last two or three
years, been planted there, without a single instance of
loss ; and this has been achieved by a very simple pro
cess, which merits the name and the honours of a dis
covery. It is merely putting a small quantity of lime into
the hole in which the plant is laid. About four bushels of
lime will suffice for an acre : it is thoroughly mixed and
incorporated with the mould before the plant is inserted.
The effect of the lime is to push on the growth of the

PLANTING OAKS. 157
plant in its first and most precarious stage : new fibres
begin to form and ramify from the tap-root, and not only
is the growth of the plant secured, but it is advanced in
a double ratio, compared with the ordinary system, where
no lime is used. We saw this process in operation about
two years ago, and were not a little anxious as to the re
sult of the lime. We had great faith in the sagacity and
practical knowledge of Mr Cutlar, the forester; but we
confess we had a doubt that liming the plant would force
it on prematurely, and that, after a brief season of re
markable growth, it would be found deficient in stamina,
and decline as rapidly as it had risen. Experience and
observation have dispelled these fears. The plants are
thriving steadily and vigorously on the most exposed
parts of the forest; and the dangerous period of their
existence being over, there seems no doubt that they will
continue to assert and maintain their superiority of growth
over their brethren of the forest.
Another mode of planting has been tried at Darnaway,
by which a considerable saving may be effected. This is
simply by making an artificial bed for the plant. A pit
is dug, to the depth of fourteen inches, and in it is laid a
piece of wood, to serve as a floor. The pit is filled up
with ten or twelve inches of earth, and the acorn is sown.
At the end of a year the shoot is lifted out entire, and
carried to its destined situation in the forest, like seedling
firs, without one fibre being injured. The root is found
to have turned up on the board, and hence no cutting is
required. In the ordinary way of casting pits the expense
of planting is about jQx. 6s. a thousand : by this mode it
will not exceed five shillings. Such has been the progress
made in planting waste lands in the north, that at present

158 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
nearly one-half of the labour of the country arises from
plantations. Land which, if brought under the plough,
would not be worth ten shillings an acre, is found to
return three times that amount, if judiciously planted,
while places which could never be made arable, are
rendered productive, and the country is rescued from
that reproach of barrenness and ragged sterility which,
time out of mind, has afforded mirth to the more
favoured inhabitants of the fertile south.

OLD TREES.
Two of the finest trees in Scotland — a chestnut and
an ash — are to be found in our northern region. The
chestnut (castanea vdsca) is at Castle Leod, in the imme
diate vicinity of Strathpeffer Spa, Ross-shire. It is about
two hundred years old, ninety feet high, the diameter of
the trunk is eight feet six inches, and that of the head
one hundred and eighty feet. One of the branches was
thrown down by the great storm of October 1838. The
situation of this tree is worthy of its noble appearance.
Castle Leod is an ancient residence of the Cromarty
family (now represented by John Hay Mackenzie, Esq.),
and is situated on a fine alluvial plain, at the foot of high
hills. The chestnut is fenced round to protect it from
the cattle, and beside it are some aged ash trees, inter
mixed with the lighter foliage of the wild cherry and the
birch. A laburnum, at three feet from the ground,
measures eleven feet in girth — a size rarely attained by
this tree. Another chestnut of large dimensions, some
plane and beech trees, also ornament the spot. During

OLD TREES. 159
the sunny days in October nothing can be finer than the
appearance of this wooded lawn, in all its variety of form
and colour.
At Earlsmill, Morayshire, is the largest ash in this
country. It is about eighteen feet in girth, three feet
from the ground. In the interior of the trunk is an
immense cavity, six feet high, and eleven feet in dia
meter. One large branch, thirty feet long, was broken
off by a storm, some years since, and another now lies
upon the ground, like an amputated limb, slightly at
tached to the parent stem. The tree stands by the side
of a burn, near the mill, where it must have formed an
object of interest for considerably more than a century.
Though shorn of part of its vast bulk and leafy honours,
the Earlsmill ash is still fresh in spring and summer, and
extends a great mass of shade. A beech tree of nearly
equal dimensions stands a little higher up the burn,
looking proudly from a grassy knoll. It is fifty feet high,
seventeen feet in circumference at three feet from the
ground, and its close, bushy head is ninety-three feet in
diameter. There is generally an air of comfort about a
mill-house in a rural district. The sacks of meal and
flour speak of peace and plenty; the sound of the dizzy
ing mill-wheel carries with it agreeable associations; there
is often a group of healthy, good-humoured rustics about
the door, lingering at sunset, ready with song and jest;
and the situation is usually one of a picturesque cast, in
some sheltered nook, by the side of a pure running
stream. The two fine old trees at Earlsmill, which must
have been seen and admired by many generations of lads
and lasses, now gone to dust, form an interesting accom
paniment to the rustic landscape we have alluded to.

160 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
The hawthorn is a long-lived tree; and at Cawdor
Castle is one which, as we have already described, must
be about four centuries old. In the parish of Boleskine,
on the banks of Loch-Ness, is a yew tree, which, accord
ing to immemorial tradition, has existed since the wars of
Fingal ! It is about fourteen feet in circumference, and
thirty-three feet high. This is much inferior in dimen
sions to the yew trees seen in many English church
yards ; and at Fortingal, in Perthshire, there is still part
of one which measured fifty-three feet in circumference !
Still, our mountain yew is a venerable and interesting
relic. From its native hill-side it looks over a wide scene
of solitary magnificence, recalling those days when the
yew tree was what the oak is now, the emblem of British
skill and valour, and when Scotland was a rude but inde
pendent kingdom.

WOODCOCKS.
Small birds of the crane kind, as the woodcock, curlew,
snipe, &c, migrate hither, as is well known, in winter,
and in spring retire to the mountains of Sweden, Poland,
Prussia, and Lapland, to breed. This may be termed
the general economy of nature, but it is not invariable.
Of late years the woodcock has been found to breed
frequently in the Highlands. One summer's day, as some
labourers were thinning a plantation on Lord Cawdor's
estate in Nairnshire, they discovered two woodcocks'
nests, each containing four eggs. The birds were sitting
on the eggs, and did not quit their nests till the men had
approached within a few yards of them. One was built

WOODCOCKS. l6l
on the ground between two trees, and the other on the
top of a rock. In both cases a number of young birds of
the same species were fluttering around, from which it
would appear that there had been a former incubation.
The eggs are rather larger than those of a pigeon, and in
colour resemble the plumage of the bird.
In May one year, eight woodcocks were seen on the
wing at Coul, in Ross-shire, the seat of Sir George S.
Mackenzie; three of them flying close to one another in
the same direction. The exact time of their having eggs
is not ascertained; but the young are rather late of appear
ing, and attain a good size before they take flight. As
the woodcock pierces the moist ground with his bill in
search of insects, on which he feeds, it is evident that the
whole bill could not be opened so as to be able to seize
anything; and it may not be generally known, that there
is a curious provision for this in the anatomy of the bird.
When pressure is made on the upper part of the bill, on
the forehead, about half-an-inch of the end of the upper
mandible opens, so that when the bird pushes its bill so
far down as to press the forehead on the ground, it opens
when it feels its prey; on drawing out the bill it closes,
and brings the insect along with it.
Woodcocks' nests are also plentiful in the forest of
Darnaway. They are invariably found on dry soil, the
dryest spots in the forest, but the bird feeds on marshy
ground. Near Conan House, in Ross-shire (the seat of
Sir Francis Mackenzie), they are also met with, generally
with three eggs; but at Darnaway the usual number is
four or five.

1 62 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
STRUGGLE BETWIXT AN EAGLE AND
A DEER.
The gamekeeper of the late Sir Hector Mackenzie of
Gairloch, in passing through the forest one day, observed
an eagle — almost as noble looking a bird as any described
by the poet-naturalist Wilson, or Audobon — in the act of
attacking a roe-deer, its talons being firmly fixed in the
neck of the animal. The hapless denizen of the forest
evidently quailed before the bird of Jove, "the terrors of
its beak and lightning of its eye" being enforced by still
more palpable signs of supremacy. Unwilling, however,
to yield without a struggle, the roe plunged forward to
reach a lake close by, when the eagle, to prevent it, laid
hold of the; stump of an old tree, and endeavoured to
push back its adversary. The roe at length triumphed;
it burst into the lake, carrying in also the eagle, who clung
to it, though one of its talons had been torn off in the
struggle. At this moment, Macdonald, the gamekeeper,
who was anxiously watching the issue of this singular con
test,, lifted his gun, and at one shot terminated the struggle
of the desert-born antagonists, and put an end for ever to
their gyrations.

BURGHEAD— ANCIENT WELL.
On the shores of the Moray Firth, in the parish of Duffus,
stands the small, but neat and thriving, fishing station of
Burghead, with its harbour jutting out into the main — its
line of boarded herring sheds below — and its fair clean

BURGHEAD — ANCIENT WELL. 1 63
stone nouses, nearly all built within the last twenty years,
clustering along the steeps that overlook the sea.. It is
really a perfect model of a fishing town, and judging from
the comparative bustle at its harbour, and the influx of
visitors and inhabitants of late years, we suppose it is
rising fast into riches and repute. But modern as all
about Burghead appears, excepting its everlasting hills
and waves, the promontory is said by antiquarians to have
formed a station for the Romans, when that wonderful
people colonised our rugged strands. To the north is a
perpendicular rock, which the Danes surrounded with a
rampart of oaken logs, or stakes, portions of which have
been frequently dug up, together with hatchets, and
quantities of burned grain. In digging at the time of the
erection of the harbour, the worthy proprietor informed
us his men found about thirty small figures of bulls cut
in stone; and being not a little puzzled guessing at the
signification of these sculptures, he sent one of them to
the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. This learned body
decreed that the bulls were trophies carved by the
Romans, as we strike medals, in commemoration of any
signal victory. Another scrap of Roman antiquity was
dug up by the workmen — a small brass coin — which an
eminent antiquary said was one of the tokens in common
use among the Roman soldiers to note their allowances
of wine. But by far the most curious and antique object
at Burghead is a large well cut out of the solid rock, like
a chamber, to the depth of about twenty feet, and twelve
feet square. You descend to the spring by a flight of
twenty-six steps, cut also out of the rock, which have been
much worn by footsteps, supposed to be those of the
Roman soldiers, and their successors, the Danes; for it

164 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
is plausibly conjectured that this gigantic well must have
been the one used in days of yore by the soldiers of the
garrison. Ten times the present population of Burghead,
daily frequenting the spring, would scarcely, perhaps in
centuries, have made such an impression on these steps
of massive rock. The well was discovered about fifteen
years ago, when some improvements on the pier were in
progress. A want of water was severely felt by the
labourers, and as they were one day lamenting the scar
city of this cheap but invaluable element of nature, an
old man suggested that they should dig in a certain spot,
where, according to immemorial tradition, a well would
be found. They resolved to try, and immediately com
menced operations; but after excavating to the depth of
ten or twelve feet on the side of the hill, they got tired of
the project, and desisted. The late Duke of Gordon,
who was one of the proprietors of the harbour, hearing
the story of the well, told the men to dig away, and not
to mind a day or two's labour. They accordingly set to
again, and at length succeeded, at the depth of from
twenty to thirty feet from the surface, in finding the long-
hidden well, and verifying the truth of the old tradition.

THE SEVEN DISASTROUS YEARS.
From 1697 to 1704 were years of almost absolute sterility
in the north of Scotland; and many a touching tale is told
in Morayshire, and along the coasts of Aberdeen and
Banff, of the scenes of distress and death to which the
famine gave rise. In the parish of Kininvie, only three
smoking cottages were left; the inhabitants of the others

THE SEVEN DISASTROUS YEARS. 165
having all died during this heavy visitation. From poverty,
and the awful prevalence of mortality, the ordinary rites
of Christian burial were denied to the poor, large holes
being dug in many places, into which the bodies were
-consigned. One maiden lady in Garmouth, whose name
is still gratefully embalmed in the traditional recollections
of the peasantry, provided shrouds and coffins for such as
wandered to her door to die; and so anxious were the
poor to avail themselves of this last privilege, that they
husbanded their little stock of meal, and journeyed far
and near, that they might close their eyes secure of decent
interment. Within the same period, a calamity of a dif
ferent nature occurred, which has entailed a still more
lasting misfortune on many proprietors of the soil. Be
twixt Findhorn and Nairn, below the latter place, is a
£hain of sand-hills; and the people on the west coast
having plucked, for fuel, the broom and bent grass with
which they were covered, the wind, which in this part of
the country blows from the west three-fourths of the year,
caught the sand, and blew it like chaff upwards of twenty-
five miles along the shore. Thousands of acres were, in
this manner, overlaid. In some places it is not above a
foot in depth; but in vales and hollows it lay so deep
that many gardens were completely ingulfed, and apples
might be seen shooting up from the topmost branches,
and rolling upon the sand. In the parish of Duffus about
fifteen hundred acres were rendered useless; but the pro
prietor afterwards obtained some compensation in a grant
of ^200 from Government. The estate of Coulbin,
which, in the assessed books of that period, was valued
at ;£i2oo Scots, shared the same fate, and is still totally
useless, though the lands might be now worth from

1 66 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
^1500 to ;£i8oo sterling. One gentleman of our ac
quaintance has, by patient digging and trenching, rescued
about three hundred acres of good land from the grasp
of this destroyer; but, partly from the extent of the evil,
and partly from the benumbing tendency of the entail
laws, many hundreds of acres yet attest, in their dreary
sterility, the calamitous effects of the " seven disastrous
years."

THE WITCHES OF KINTYRE.
If it be true that the Gaelic language, which was once so
universally spoken, has at last taken up its abode in the
Highlands of Scotland, as a sanctuary wherein it may
expire, it may, with equal credibility, be affirmed, that
the ancient traditions and supernatural legends, which
cheered the firesides of our forefathers during the dreary
nights and stormy blasts of winter, have also lingered
longest, and are still most fondly cherished, among the
solitary hills and glens of the north. Many of these tra
ditions are serious and pathetic, but by far the greater
number are ludicrous and supernatural. Men are more
easily moved to smiles than tears; and, in the spirit of
this maxim, which we verily believe to be true, we shall
tell an old story, still current, and still firmly believed by
many " douce and sponsible folk" in the district of Kin-
tyre, in Argyllshire. Once upon a time, "whereof the
memory of man runneth not to the contrary," a weary
traveller was benighted among the wilds of Kintyre. He
looked long and anxiously on all sides for the shelter of
some cottage, and at length espied a light issuing from a

THE WITCHES OF KINTYRE. 167
bothy at no great distance. He instantly repaired to the
spot, lifted the latch, and entered; but, contrary to the
laws of hospitality, then so religiously observed in the
district, all shelter there was peremptorily denied him.
The traveller, however, like Bailie Nicol Jarvie, waxed
valiant in the Highlands, and insisted upon remaining
with his reluctant hostess, who was alone in the house.
During the altercation another female made her appear
ance, joined her neighbour gossip, and was equally de
termined that the stranger should be excluded. A third
next came in sight, and also voted against the Sassenach.
But the traveller was not to be daunted; and, seeing that
all remonstrances were in vain, the defeated trio sat
down, and composed themselves. They proceeded
leisurely to dress, as if for a journey, each pulling out
a mutch, or cap, which she carefully adjusted at a small
mirror indented in the wall. When this important opera
tion was concluded, the first cried out, " Off for London,"
and away she darted, as fast as the witches that sallied
out after poor Tam o' Shanter. The second followed in
like manner; but as the third was about to attire herself
in her precious head-gear, our traveller, who, as we have
already hinted, was a man of mettle, snatched the cap out
of the hands of the virago, clapt it on his cranium, and,
roaring out " Off for London," soon rose far beyond the
inhospitable dwelling and the wilds of Kintyre. " A
change came o'er the spirit of his dream." In sober
prose, the traveller was wholly unconscious of the dura
tion of his flight, and encountered nothing till he found
himself sitting, " cheek by jowl," with his former com
panions of the cottage, in a spacious wine-cellar of
London. Each of the witches (for so on earth call we

1 68 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
¦ them) sat jollily on a cask, quaffing the juice of Bur
gundy, and discoursing about their "cummers" of the
glen. Our traveller, nothing loth, set to after the same
fashion, and speedily forgot all his hardships and mishaps
in copious libations of the generous liquid. At length
the ladies, having gratified their hearts' desires, once more
mounted their caps, and exclaiming " Off for Kintyre,"
disappeared in a twinkling. The traveller went to follow
their example, but, alas ! his cap was nowhere to be found.
He looked about him in all directions, fumbled in his
pockets, searched everywhere, but all to no effect. He
fell asleep; morning came, and with it came the master
of the wine vaults. What could our poor friend say for
himself? Large quantities of wine had been abstracted
(for the witches could carry as well as drink) ; and here,
evidently, was one of the felonious Bacchanals, caught in
the very fact. He was committed to "durance vile,"
tried, and condemned. His judge, unfortunately, was
no believer in witchcraft (it had not been Sir Matthew
Hale), and no hope was held out to the unlucky man of
the mountains. At length the fatal day came — cold,
drizzling, and foggy; and the lanes and alleys of the city
sent out their motley crowds to witness the " throw-off."
At this critical juncture our traveller happened to pull out
his handkerchief, when lo ! the magical cap also appeared.
He said nothing; but when that celebrated personage,
Jack Ketch, was crawling about him, like a huge spider,
intent upon his duty, he modestly requested to die with
his own cap on. Assent was instantly given, when the
culprit, duly accoutred, roared out "Off for Kintyre;"
and away he went, gallows and all, over the uplifted heads
of the wondering Cockneys! Whether this last chapter

THE BOLD OUTLAW. 1 69
be found in the Newgate Calendar, we know not; all we
can say is, that it is firmly believed in Kintyre. It is
further added that the lucky aeronaut settled in that dis
trict — that he built himself a cottage out of the wood of
the gallows (thus deriving his life from what proves the
means of death to others), and that he lived long and
happily — the usual end of all such wonderful narrations.
From a similar legend the Ettrick Shepherd composed
his admirable ballad of the Witch of Fife, in the " Queen's
Wake;" but we give the Highland story exactly as we
have heard it related.

THE BOLD OUTLAW.
About the centre of Loch-Quoich, under the shadow of
two high mountain terraces streaked with snow, is a
small island, scarcely more than half an acre. in extent, on
which are seen a few birch trees. It is about a quarter
of a mile from the nearest mountain, and is as solitary as
the heart of hermit or recluse could desire. On this spot
resides a Highlander, now old and stern, who bids defi
ance to all the civil powers, and lives a free denizen of
nature. Some forty years ago, Ewen Macphee, a fine,
sprightly, athletic Highland lad, enlisted in a regiment of
which his proprietor was an officer. He was promised,
or was led to believe, that he would soon be preferred in
the army. He went through his exercises with correctness
and regularity, but preferment came not; and Ewen, de
liberately, one day marched out of the ranks, and betook
himself to the hills. His retreat was discovered, and two
files of soldiers were sent to apprehend him. With the

170 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
concurrence of the late Glengarry, Ewen was seized,
handcuffed, and carried off a prisoner. As the party
proceeded through Stratherrick, the dauntless. Highlander
watched a favourable opportunity, made a tremendous
leap over a precipice, and bounded off from his escort.
The party discharged their muskets after him, but with
out effect, and, breaking off his handcuffs, by dashing
them against a rock, Ewen was again a free man among
the wilds. He established himself on Lochiel's property
in Corrybuie — an out-of-the-world retreat — where he lived
unmolested for many years, hunting, fishing, and rearing
goats, without any man daring to make him afraid, or
presuming to speak of rent. As a companion was want
ing to soften or enliven his solitude, Ewen wooed, won,
and ran ^with a damsel oi fourteen, now his wife, and
the mother of five children. At length, however, the law
prevailed for a time, and the adventurer was ejected from
Corrybuie. He submitted quietly, and took refuge in
this little island in Loch-Quoich, where he deems himself
safe and impregnable. With turf and birch trees he
raised a. hut, and found, or made a boat, to enable him
to communicate with the mainland. He has about fifty
goats, which he quarters on the neighbouring hill, and his
gun and rod, we suppose, supply him with fish and game.
In winter the situation of this lonely family must be
awful. Ewen's strong, muscular, and handsome frame
is still clad in the Highland costume; and he never
ventures abroad without his dirk by his side. Some of
the tenants fear him from his daring character, and
others reverence him for his supposed witchcraft, or
supernatural power, which is firmly believed in the glen.
In this way a boll of meal now and then, and perhaps a

THE BOLD OUTLAW. 171
sum of money, finds its way to the lonely island, and the
home of the outcast is made glad in winter. He believes
himself that he is possessed of a charmed life, but a
loaded gun is constantly at his bed-side during night, and
his dirk is ever ready by day, to supply mortal means of
defence. When Mr Edward Ellice visited Glenquoich,
after purchasing the property, Ewen called upon him,
like a dutiful vassal in the old feudal time, doing homage
to his liege lord, and presented some goats'-milk cheese
as a peace-offering. His terms were simple, but decisive.
He told Mr Ellice — not that he would pay rent for his
island, but that he would not molest the new laird, if the
new laird did not disturb him in his possession ! The
grizzled aspect, intrepid bearing, and free speech of the
bold outlaw struck the Englishman with surprise, and Ewen
instantly became a sort of favourite. It is probable he
will not again be disturbed ; for the island is not worth a
shilling to any person but Ewen Macphee ; and it would
be cruel to dispossess even this daring and desperate
man, now upwards of sixty years of age. The situation
of his family, growing up in wild neglect and barbarism,
is the most painful circumstance in Ewen's singular story.
His wife is still, comparatively, a young and agreeable-
looking person; and as she had some education, it is
probable she may teach her children a knowledge of their
letters, and some outline of Christian duty and belief.
Of this, however, the people of the glen are wholly
ignorant. The few who have intercourse with Ewen
represent him as strongly attached to his family ; and of
this we had, indirectly, a sort of proof. On the clay we
were in the glen one of Ewen's children had died — died
in his solitary Patmos, which was destitute of neighbourly

172 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
aid or consolation. Overwhelmed with grief, the old
man took his boat, and crossed to a shepherd's hut,
begging the shepherd to assist him in making a coffin for
the dead child, as he could not steady his hand under
the blow of this calamity. " One touch of nature makes
the whole world kin," says Shakespeare. The assistance
was freely given ; some birch staves were formed into a
coffin, and the child will, in a day or two, be interred in
a spot exactly suited to Ewen's tastes and character ; for
the ancient church-yard used by the simple people of
Glenquoich is also an island, small in extent, which rises
out of the waters of the Quoich, near its junction with
the lake. This incident is in keeping with the whole
history of this wild unconquered Highlander, one of the
last types of a fierce and hardy race, in whose nature
strong passions were mingled, both for good and for evil.

The above notice was extensively copied into the
English newspapers, and it is creditable to the benevol
ence of the public that sums of money, amounting to
about ^"27, were remitted to Macphee. In February
1842 — about three months after the date of our visit —
Macphee was bereft of his property, which consisted of
sixty goats. He had pastured them on the farm of Mr
Cameron, Corrychoillie; and one day, while Macphee
was absent, Mr Cameron's shepherds, armed with guns
and sticks, drove off the flock of goats, in payment of
grass mail, and as a compensation for the depredations
alleged to have been done by Macphee to Mr Cameron's
sheep. The wife of the outlaw endeavoured to prevent

GAME — DESTRUCTION OF VERMIN. I 73
the men : she followed them alone, from her solitary
island, and with a loaded rifle fired several times at them.
They fled precipitately from the modern Helen Mac-
gregor, but managed to drive the goats before them, and
to secure them within the ancient and venerable castle of
Inverlochy, which has certainly been appropriated to
nobler purposes. Macphee, on his return, vowed signal
vengeance on his despoilers, and Mr Cameron was fain to
pay him for the goats to avert the threatened evil ! The
" outlaw" was afterwards evicted from his island, his
notions of meum and tuum not being consonant with
those of law and civilisation.

GAME— DESTRUCTION OF VERMIN.
The fine Highland property of Glengarry abounds in
game of various descriptions, "but, like most estates of a
similar situation, it has also been subject to the ravages
of vermin. From the lordly eagle down to the stoat and
weasel, those destructive inhabitants of wood and wild
find ample room for excursion amidst the vast unploughed
recesses of the Highland glens and forests. An English
gentleman, Mr Bainbridge (M.P. for Taunton), was
lessee of the Glengarry shootings previous to the purchase
of the property by Lord Ward; and, annoyed by the loss
of game, this gentleman set about a vigorous system of
war and extermination against all his vermin intruders.
He engaged numerous gamekeepers, paying them liberally,
and awarded prizes to those who should prove the most
successful. These rewards varied from ^3 to £$ each,
and the keepers and watchers pursued the slaughter with

174 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
undeviating rigour and attention. The result has been
the destruction, within the last three years, of above four
thousand head of vermin, and a proportional increase in
the stock of game. We were anxious to learn the extent
and nature of the vermin destroyed, and have been
furnished with a complete list by Mr Scott, manager of
the Glengarry estates. To such of our readers as are
fond of natural history, the list which we subjoin will
prove interesting; and it also shows how much may be
done by steady and combined efforts for the protection
of game. The value of our northern shootings would be
immensely enhanced if similar exertions were generally
made, and proper care taken that the heather be burned
only in rotation. The latter system will be found equally
advantageous to the sheep farmer; and if the sportsman
does not get a fair chance, the grouse will in many an ex
tensive range of moor entirely disappear. The following
is the list of vermin destroyed at Glengarry from Whit
sunday 1837 to Whitsunday 1840: — 11 foxes; 198 wild
cats; 246 martin cats; 106 polecats; 301 stoats and
weasels; 67 badgers; 48 otters; 78 house cats, going
wild; 27 white-tailed sea eagles; 15 golden eagles; 18
osprey, or fishing eagles; 98 blue hawks, or peregrine
falcons; 11 hobby hawks; 275 kites, commonly called
salmon-tailed gledes; 5 marsh harriers, or yellow-legged
hawks; 63 goshawks; 285 common buzzards; 371 rough-
legged buzzards; 3 honey buzzards; 462 kestrels, or red
hawks; 78 merlin hawks; 83 hen harriers, or ring-tailed
hawks; 6 ger-falcon toe-feathered hawks; 9 ash-coloured
hawks, or long blue-tailed do.; 143 1 hooded or carrion
crows; 475 ravens; 35 horned owls; 71 common fern
owls; 3 golden owls; 8 magpies.

FATE OF A POOR STROLLING PLAYER. 175
MELANCHOLY FATE OF A POOR
STROLLING PLAYER.
About the latter end of October 1837, when autumn was
fading into winter, and, in the words of William Laidlaw's
beautiful Scottish song,
" When the wan leaf frae the birk tree was fa'ing,"
a poor strolling player, his wife, and two children — a fine
boy and girl — arrived at Lairg, in the county of Suther
land. A more unpromising place for a theatrical exhibi
tion can hardly be conceived. The few inhabitants are
separated on all sides by rugged mountains, which impart
a feeling of utter solitude and seclusion to the scene. A
cluster of cottages, however, lie about the manse, on the
south side of Loch-Shinn, and there are huts scattered
among the hills which, though they at first elude observa
tion, are rife with inmates. The player resolved to try a
performance, but, it being Saturday evening, he deferred
astonishing the simple people till Monday or Tuesday.
He put up at the inn, and the respectable landlord in
formed us that the intelligence and information of the
man made a strong impression on all who heard him.
There is something very agreeable in the conversation
of players. They are generally, even in the lowest ranks,
acute and knowing observers, well versed in the moral
statistics of town and country, admirable in hitting off
little traits of character, and imparting a lively dramatic
interest to their observations. Their profession compels
them to read, and to read Shakspeare, as well as the light

176 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
wit of our comedies. This supplies them with an abun
dant stock of language for criticism and quotation; and it
must be confessed they are seldom sparing of either.
Then there are many eccentric characters on the stage —
old performers, known to the whole fraternity, whose bon-
mots and peculiarities form a circulating medium of never-
failing talk. The player, too, is generally above the frown
or censure of the world, meaning, thereby, the inhabitants
of any given town. He is a bird of passage, a " chartered
libertine," absolved, like the Grab Street authors of a
former age, from the ordinary rules and restraints of
society. He flings himself into the current of conver
sation, careless where it may carry him, whether out of
plummet depth or into shoals and shallows. Generally
it gives a force and piquancy to his fireside dialogues.
But the whole life of a player seems to be an "unreal
mockery." The lights and shades of truth and fiction
meet and mingle in his composition. To the sober busi
ness of the world he is almost a stranger. The scene is
constantly shifting — now rolling in plenty and profusion,
now steeped in poverty to the lips — one day hissed or
neglected, and another day caressed and applauded to
the very echo. What wonder that his character should
sometimes take the motley hue of his existence, and
baffle all the calculations of the moralist? We speak
only of the wandering actor; the stage is adorned by many.
estimable, and not a few great men, whose learning and
talents dignify a profession that, even in its lower grades,
is still intellectual. Pity that even the most obscure of
those who minister to our delight should too often find
life but an " insubstantial pageant," fading into premature
age, sickness, and poverty !

FATE OF A POOR STROLLING PLAYER. 1 77
The poor unknown wanderer we have alluded to was
not destined to gratify the people of Lairg by " fretting
his hour" upon their stage. He set out to rouse the
country and collect an audience, taking with him his son,
to bear him company over the mountains. Neither of
them returned — the play was, of course, postponed — and
day passed after day, without bringing any tidings of the
actor or his boy. The wife and daughter departed, and
the circumstance was forgotten, when, nine months after
wards, in August 1838, on a solitary part of the farm of
Shiness, the bodies of a man and boy were discovered in
a state of great decomposition. The occurrence was
noised abroad, and the mouldering remains were identified
by the people of Lairg as those of the unfortunate stroller
and his son. It has been conjectured that they had lost
their way among the hills, and were overtaken by a storm,
which they had not strength to resist. They had appar
ently sunk down on the ground exhausted, and the boy's
head was supported by his father, who had thrown over
it part of his coat as a protection from the night or the
storm. The man's name and history are unknown — and
thus perished the lone outcast of the drama, with his un
fortunate son, in a land of strangers, amidst the wildest
scenes of nature, and under circumstances as touching as
any which ever drew tears on the stage. What a contrast
to the gay and crowded theatres in which the poor player
had probably performed in his better days ! After all his
bustling toils and dreams of ambition, to be thus cut off
— his boy dying, or dead, within his arms, under the in
clement skies, and his wife and daughter vainly expecting
their return !
" The angel of death in the desert had found him,
And stretched him unseen by the side of the hill. " M

178 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.

THE WARDLAW MANUSCRIPT.

At a public sale one day, amidst the dispersion of goods
and chattels — always a melancholy sight, notwithstanding
the bald jokes and eager faces thrust forward on such
occasions — there turned up a curious, thick manuscript
volume, bearing the stains of age, and a coating of vener
able dust. It fell into good hands, and proved to be a
local history, written by a member of the ancient family
of Fraser. The author was a clergyman of the Episcopal
Church, and resided at Wardlaw, or Kirkhill, about seven
miles from Inverness. He was learned, and had travelled
over France and Italy, yet possessed no small share of
the credulity and love of gossip which distinguish village
chroniclers. Amidst relations of national and historical
importance he mixes up details of local occurrences,
especially of all connected with the honour and glory of
the Clan Fraser. He is also sedulous in recording the
appearance of "blazing stars" and other portents. A
superstitious observance of natural phenomena seems
then to have been very common, and to have touched
even the loftiest intellects. Milton, in his history of
Britain, describing the accession of Edward the Younger
to the throne, remarks that " comets were seen in heaven,
portending not famine only, which followed the next
year, but the troubled state of the whole realm, not long

THE WARDLAW MANUSCRIPT. 1 79
after to ensue." Butler has very happily ridiculed this
superstition, in describing the. formidable beard of
Hudibras — " This hairy meteor did denounce
The fall of sceptres and of crowns ;
With grizzly type did represent
Declining age of government ;
And tell, with hieroglyphic spade,
Its own grave and the State's were made. "
The title of the work is thus formally and pedantically
set forth by its author : — " Polichronicon seu Policratica
Temporum : Many Histories in one ; or nearer the true
genealogy of the Frasers, showing clearlie their original
rise in France, under Carolus II. Emperor, anno Crea-
tionis Mundi, 4874; Incarnationis Christi, 916. With
their translations thence and settlement in Scotland,
under and in the reign of King Malcolm, Anno D. 1057.
With their entry to and right in the Lordship of Twedal,
more .particularly the King's donation and possession to
and of the Lords Frasers of Lovat under King Alexander
the Second, Anno 1250. With their several successes,
matches, branches, allyes, contemporary kings, clans,
countries, abbyes, churches, convents, changes, contin
gencies, alterations of Government in Church and State,
popes, princes, prelates, regents, conflicts and battles,
intestine conflicts and invasions. Purged of error and
phoppish tradition, and written ill one volume by a
Lover of Truth and Antiquity, Master James Fraser,
Ecclesiastes Montis Marise." Mr Fraser states that his
work was " entered and begun at the desire of the House
of Fraser in 1666." He had been two years chaplain in

l8o HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the family of Lovat, and his grandfather, James Fraser of
Phopachy, was, he says, for thirty years major domo to
Simon, the eighth lord, who was served heir in 1578, and
died in 1633. The old volume contains about 400 pages
of very closely written foolscap paper. A considerable
part of it consists of notices of public events, which
appear to be chiefly, in the earlier periods, gleaned from
Fordun and Buchanan, and latterly from the swarm of
unscrupulous royalist writers during the time of the civil
wars and the Commonwealth. Holinshed, Spottiswood,
and others have also been laid under contribution.
These parts of the manuscript are of little or no value ;
but Mr Fraser's genealogy of the Frasers, and his narra
tions of local events, render it of importance as a
Highland chronicle and register of the past. The
minister of Wardlaw seems to have been an industrious
writer and collector. On a blank leaf prefixed to this
volume he gives "A Catollogue of Manuscripts, being
Bookes bound, written, and filled be Master James
Fraser, Pastor Montis Mariae, in divers volumes, ab anno
1660." The list extends to fifty works, chiefly sermons
and theological treatises. Some of the other titles are
attractive, and make us regret that the books are lost.
" A Booke of Jests and Ballads," " A Collection of Songs
and Sonnets," would have delighted our poetical anti
quaries; "Authologia, his Own Life," might also have
supplied curious facts; "Triennial Travels," in three
parts, would have embraced information concerning
England, France, and Italy, in which countries the
Pastor travelled ; " Fraser's Familiars' volume of Letters,"
a " Herbal," a volume of " Experiments of Physic and
Surgery," and "A Catollogue of Books," also promise

THE WARDLAW MANUSCRIPT. 181
much, besides showing the activity and versatility of the
writer ; and we may also regret the loss of three volumes
entitled " Catechumeni," and thus described, " The
benefit of these books is this, to know exactly what
houses, tacksmen, tenants, millers, servant man or maid,
child, or stranger, happened to live in every town and
family within Wardlaw Parish since anno 1662." As the
third volume is said to begin in 1700, there must have
been a register of about forty years or more. " Hiber-
nilogia, a Volume of Irish Verse," and an "Irish
Dictionary," would have "been prizes to the Celtic
student ; and a " Diary of Weather Contingencies," and
" Bill of Mortality, containing all that died, natives and
strangers, for forty-six years," would have been interesting
local memorials. Probably some of these manuscripts
may yet slumber among the archives of the Frasers.
There are many traditions concerning this singular
minister of Wardlaw.* He is said to have left his parish
abruptly, and been absent for seven years, in order that
he might make a journey, by way of penance, to the Holy
Land. He visited the Holy Sepulchre and ascended
* We extract from the Statistical Account of Scotland a notice
relative to the position of Wardlaw : —
"Kirkhill consists of two united parishes, called Wardlaw and
Farnua. Wardlaw is the name of the hill on which the church was
built, and is a corruption of the Gaelic Bartla, that is, ' kindly sum
mit.' Famua or Fearnaie, as it is called in Gaelic, is probably
derived from the word j 'earn, signifying • allar,' because the parish
did, and still does, abound with allar trees. The name of the
united parishes in Gaelic is Onocmhoir, or Mary's Hill. In the
neighbourhood it is called, by way of eminence, 'The Hill,' hence
the English translation of it, Kirkhill." [And hence, we may add,
the chronicler's designation, " Montis Marise."]

152 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Mount Sinai. Whilst asleep one night on the sacred hill
he heard, in a dream, a voice commanding him to return
to his parish, still vacant, and to his flock, who anxiously
longed for him! He obeyed the call, taking with him
part of a thorn bush, which, on his arrival, he planted in
his garden at Phopachy. He was joyfully received by
his family and parishioners, and continued pastor of
Wardlaw till the year 1715, when he must have attained
to a great age. He never conformed to the Presbyterian
worship, but no attempt was made to eject him. But to
begin our extracts : —

EARLY GARDENING IN THE HIGHLANDS.
1450. The Eighth Lord Fraser of Lovat. — This Lord
Lovat planted the first orchard in Lovat, having brought
with him several species of pears and apples from the
south, and helped to plant and enlarge the monks'
orchard in Beauly. He also planted good ashes about
the place of Lovat: one of these called the Meadow Tree,
out of which was sawn, in square, eight great tables, which
I saw, and they were severally disposed among the gentle
men here, one gifted to Sir James Stuart, two in Lovat,
one in Moniack with Strichen, one in Stray, and several
besides." Under the date of 1628, we have a notice of the
orchard at Beauly (most likely that attached to the
Priory) as being very productive. The keeper "often
got six chalders of good fruit off his orchard; and I heard
old men declare (adds the minister) that one tree in that
orchard paid the teind, that is, carried ten bolls of pears,

THE STIRRUP CUP. 1 83
which were shaken and measured in pecks and firlots,
good ripe fruit." Some of the old fruit trees may still be
seen, and the situation of the Priory garden was warm
and genial. The Lord Lovat of 1628 had, according to
the old chronicler, " a singular temper." He would never
rent or rate the salmon fishing of the Beauly or his fine
orchard, but kept both in his own hand and distributed
the produce freely. "He said usually that rivers were
casual and contingent things, depending by a special
providence which the overvaluing of a fishing might
blast." A singular temper truly ! and one never likely to
be very common.

THE STIRRUP-CUP.
It would appear that it is to a Prior of Beauly that
we are indebted for that crowning sign of good fellowship,
the deoch an doruis, or stirrup-cup. Prior Dawson, we
have no doubt was a rosy churchman, moist and merry,
but, at the same time, a friend to youth and education.
We are glad that he outwitted the Munroes ! —
"1510. — At this time George Dawson was Prior of
Beauly, a man of authority, ripe wit, and gravity, whose
hospitality was generally known, and most obliging in
educating gentlemen's children in the Priory, which then
was the only school in our north. There is a certain story
runs upon this Prior Dawson, who at a time falling sick
of a flux, he sent for the laird of Fowlis, his mother's
chief, she being a Munro; and his design was to make a
disposition to Fowlis of the monastery lands of Beauly —
for churchmen then could dilapidate at their pleasure.

184 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
The right of disposition was written and subscribed and
delivered to Fowlis, being present with the Prior and
many of his kindred, sharp gentlemen. One of their
number seeing the paper delivered made a desperate
bitter satire upon this Prior in Irish, wherein something
of his good fellowship and drinking was recited, especially
that ordinary farewell drink at parting, called deoch an
dorrish, which it is said Prior Dawson had invented. The
Prior desired to write the satire and commended the
sharpness of his mother-kin, the Munroes ; ' for which,'
saith he, ' I will help some clause in my disposition to
Fowlis, which will anger twenty.' The paper being given
him he tears it in pieces and cast all in the fire, saying,
'this is to learn you to reflect upon and calumniate a
churchman in your Irish rhymes, and take this for your
pains.' By this trick the Priory of Beauly escaped the
fingers of the Munroes."
The monks of Beauly generally acted as schoolmasters,
as well as religious instructors. Thomas, the ninth Lord
Fraser of Lovat (served heir in 1500, and died in 1524),
had four sons, and these, we are informed, were well edu
cated in the Priory. " After the death of Prior Matheson,
succeeded William Cumming, Prior, a man of great parts
and noble descent, son of the Earl of Buchan, and he
kept an academy for training youth in the Monastery at
Beauly." The same system seems to have been followed
up to the period of the Reformation, and must have been
a great blessing to the families in the north. In 1577,
we find a notice respecting the Priory. The tutor of Lovat
(Fraser of Strichen) in that year ordered that the feu duty
of 300 merks of the Barony and Priory of Beauly should
be ready at the ensuing term, that it might be advanced

A POWERFUL PRIEST. 1 85
to the collector as a confirmation of right and possession ;
but the monks " having been formerly, by order of Parlia
ment, dispossessed and excluded the Monastery, the good
tutor, with advice of the friends, allowed them to keep
their dormitories within the great house, and appointed
so much victual for their aliment (five in number then
alive) now after the alienation of the rents of the Priory."

A POWERFUL PRIEST.
There was once a famous priest at Rosskeen, who
seems to have even excelled Prior Dawson of Beauly.
The name of this jovial and gigantic churchman (who
flourished sometime before the year 1500) was Paul
Fraser, commonly called (as all the parish clergy then
bore the knightly prefix) Sir Paul Fraser. The minister of
Wardlaw says —
" Mr John Fraser, parson of Rosskeen, told me that
in repairing the church of Rosskeen, Sir Paul Fraser's
bones were raised, and that he measured the thigh bone,
which reached from his foot to his hench-joint, such was
the prodigious length of it. The tradition runs there
amongst men, that when Sir Paul lived in Rosskeen his
method of trying the teind lambs was by tying their four
feet and throwing the lamb over the chapel, which if he
could not reach, then the lamb was kept and received by
the cook for Sir Paul's table. He kept open house and
lived splendidly, more like a bishop than a mean chaplain,
and this the clergy of Ross found in their circular visita
tions. His hospitality was singular, his wit had no parallel;
a giant for strength; he guided the whole clergy of Ross,

1 86 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
nay of the north, nor could the Bishop or Earl of Ross do
anything without Sir Paul, being the column or rather
Atlas of the Church and State."

EARLY ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.
" The Ninth Lord Lovat, Anno 1300. — This Lord was
very frugal. He added to his estate the barony of the
Leys and Dalcross from Alex. Paterson, and the barony
of Kinmylies in feu from William TuUoch, Bishop of
Orkney. Lord Thomas lived sometimes at Kinmylies
and kept his courts at Tomnahurich. I saw a decreet of
his court there, anno 15 14, anent the regulation of
victual in its price, servants' wages, clothes, shoes, cattle,
timber, &c, and the town of Inverness modelled their
prices therewith. This paper and the acts of Lord
Thomas's court at Kinmylies I saw with Provost Finlay
Fraser at Inverness."
Did the peer administer justice in the open air on the
top of Tomnahurich Hill ? Such a custom was common
in the early stages of society, and the Hill of Scone and
others are celebrated as being seats of justice. The lady
of this Lord Fraser, according to the Wardlaw Manu
script, extirpated the wolves from Caplach, about four
miles west of Inverness. This spirited dame was
daughter of the Earl of Huntly's brother, Sir Alexander
Gordon of Achindown : —
"This lady was a stout bold woman, a great hunter.
She would have travelled over hills a-foot, and perhaps
outwearied good footmen. She purged Mount Caplach

COMFORT AND HONESTY OF THE HIGHLANDERS. 187
of the wolves. She lived in Phopachy, near the sea, in a
stank-house (house surrounded by a moat), the vestiges
whereof remain to this very day."
Holinshed, the ancient chronicler, mentions that
wolves had become extinct in England about the termin
ation of the thirteenth century. The Scots, however, he
says, "have grievous wolves and cruel foxes." There is a
tradition that the last wolf seen in Scotland was killed by
Sir Ewen Cameron in 1680.

COMFORT AND HONESTY OF THE
HIGHLANDERS.
The following is a little apocryphal, but the circum
stance of the golden chain will remind some of our
readers of a similar incident related by William of Mal
mesbury, of King Alfred. So exact was the system of
police adopted by that great monarch, that he is said to
have hung up golden bracelets near the highways, and no
man dared to touch them. The same is related of one
of the early Irish kings : —
"1573. — The Lord Hugh Fraser suppressed all rav
ages, theft, and robbery, in this corner; so that a man
might lie as safe upon the high road as in his lodging or
inn. He wrote, and also sent to the several respectable
chieftains of clans, declaring that, if a sheep were stolen
out of his country, he would pursue it himself in person,
to their utmost bounds, and carry back — not sheep, but
men — conform to the power which his predecessors had

188 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
from former kings, and which the late good regent had
conferred upon himself. He caused tie a golden chain
to the oaken beam at the stock-ford of Ross, to try if any
durst attempt to steal it, the country was so free from
theft and pilfering, and every man had peace and plenty."

A DARING FEAT.
The following records a daring feat of horsemanship :
" 1573. — At solemn meetings and conventions of the
shire at Inverness, the Lord Lovat frequently trysted with
the nobles and gentry, diverting themselves with manly
exercises — archery, foot-ball, putting of the stone, and
throwing of the bar. In all such he was singular, and
never wanted ten or twelve of his young kinsmen with
him, each more expert than the other, for so he had
trained them at home. The Chapel Yard at Inverness
was their gaming place ; if it was foot-ball, be sure he had
the first or last hale over the rope; if archery, he carried
the arrow ; at racing, he often rode the horse and won
the prize; for he was wonderful nimble, and the only
rider in the north. One day, at tilting, Lovat dismounted
the Laird of Grant and Sheriff Murray, successively — two
very stout men — laying them flat upon the spot. The
affront was so notour that in revenge they pursued him,
being superior in force, for Lord Lovat had but a single
horseman with him. At the edge of Clachnaharry, he
jumped with his horse over a rock, and outran them, for
they stopped and durst not follow. The print and im
pression of his horse shoe was noted and kept clean by a
certain man, for a yearly pension, and severals came to

A DARING FEAT — BEAULY FISHINGS. 1 89
view the feat, it was so very rare. I knew an old man
that saw the mark, which was kept visibly clean till the
Lord Hugh's time, 1636."

THE BEAULY FISHINGS.
Under the same date, the minister of Wardlaw records
the strictness with which the monks guarded their fishings,
though this, like most other things with our chronicler,
tended to the advantage of Lovat.
"The monks of Beauly were very strict keepers of
their own part of the river, below the cruives at Dunbal
loch — nay, so churlish and near, that they would not
permit any to angle with hook or line upon either side.
Sir Walter Reid having both the fishings of Kinross and
Beauly, spent liberally upon them. He sent a gun north
to the Priory of Beauly, that the canons might fright away
such as would offer to angle upon the river, which kept
off severals for a long time ; but it happened that one
Fraser Macbean, vick Thomas, was fishing with an ang
ling rod at Mealoch ford, below Dunballoch, and one of
the Prior's servants lying in ambush t'other side of the
river, shot the gun, and killed the gentleman stark dead
upon the bank — a sad accident — the loss of a pretty man,
and a loss to the monks afterwards. Sir Walter getting
notice of this, was afraid that my Lord Lovat would pur
sue him for the blood of his kinsman, seeing whatever
miscarriage might happen among the monks would be
charged upon him. And, indeed, the slaughter helped
my lord in the bargain of the Priory, there being another
competitor contending for Beauly at the time. Kintail,
like Cushi, cunningly runs apace, but Lovat, like Ahimaaz,

190 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
came first to the King, because he ran by the way of the
plain, and overran Cushi. II. Samuel, chapter xviii.,
verse 23."
The farm of Dunballoch, by Beauly Bridge, seems to
have been early let and cultivated. In 1589, we find the
Countess of Arran (an unprincipled and profligate woman,
formerly married to Lord Lovat) make over to Duncan
MaccuUoch, Altyre, her tack of the town and lands of
Dunballoch, " except so mickle as is occupied by John
Macfinlay, vich Ivfer," for seventeen bolls of farm victual in
the year. The Countess acknowledges in the bond having
borrowed 300 merks from this Duncan MaccuUoch, upon
which, the minister of Wardlaw says — " It was rare to see
a tenant command so much money as 300 merks in those
days, and, not less, to lend it to persons of their quality.
The sum was never paid to the honest man."
SINGULAR FACT IN THE HISTORY OF THE
FRASERS.
1574. — In this year the writer relates that Lord
Lovat, mustering his men at Tomnahurich, near Inver
ness, had eighty "pretty fellows," whose mothers were
pregnant with them when their fathers were slain at the
battle of Lochy in 1544. He adds as follows : — " A sin
gular providence it was, that, by God's blessing, these
eighty widows, whose husbands were killed in that bloody
battle of Lochy, should, in their season, be safely brought
to bed, and each bear a boy; and that these same
children should come to perfect age, surviving many of
their kindred, and all happily meet together at a muster
thirty years after, with their chief!"

WITCHCRAFT — PLAGUE AND FAMINE. 191

WITCHCRAFT— THE EARL OF BOTHWELL.
" 1592. — At this time one Agnes Samson, named the
Wise Wife of Keith, was apprehended as a witch. She
was not one of the common sort, base and ignorant, but
with most remarkable matron-like years, and solid in her
answers. Being examined, she declared that she had a
familiar spirit, who, upon her call, appeared in a visible
form, and solved her of any doubtful matter, especially
concerning the life and death of sick persons ; and when
she called him, her words were — ' Holla, Master ;' for he
had learned her so to do. She further declared that the
Earl of Bothwell moved her to inquire what should be
come of the king, how long he should reign, and what
should happen after his death ; and that the spirit under
took to make away the king, but, failing in his perform
ance, and being challenged, said it was not in his power,
for 77 est homme de Dieu, words that he understood not.
(He is a man of God.) Richard Crawford, another noto
rious sorcerer, made the same confession of Bothwell, for
which he was committed, but afterwards broke ward, and
escaped to England, laying the whole blame of his re
bellion upon the Chancellor."

PLAGUE AND FAMINE.
" 1 60 1. — This summer the plague broke out; none
knew how, or whence. Some supposed it had its rise
upon the Buchan coast, out of a Dutch cask, with onions
and hops, cast ashore. The pestilence spread to the

192 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
North, and raged here the length of Glenelg. None died
there nor in the far Highlands and North Isles. Most of
the people ran to the hills for pure air. The several pits
in which many were buried are yet covered with stones.
Next year was a dearth and famine all the North and
Highlands over. A mildew blasted the barley and the
oats, and the pease never filled to any perfection ; the
straw was blanched, and such corn as it afforded yielded
no meal, but dusted trash, without any aliment for man
or beast. This was called by the vulgar blean ni chaa,
the sidd year, because the corn yielded no meal, but seeds.
There ensued a great mortality."

A SPENDTHRIFT— ABUSE OF WINE.
The " great house," alluded to in the following extract,
stood on the site of the present Town Hall, Inverness.
The mad freak described was like Trinculo's bottle in the
pool — " There is not only disgrace and dishonour in that,
but an infinite loss."
" 1605. — This year my Lord Lovat bought a house in
Inverness from one Alexander Paterson, a great ranger,
who had fallen low and mean from his extravagances.
It is reported that once, having masons upon task, build
ing a staircase to the south end of his dwelling-house, he
called for his wife, in haste, to get some of her maids to
carry water for his mortar. She, a virtuous woman,
keeping her servant maids close at their tasks, peremp
torily denied him the use of them for this purpose. Out
of mere humour, he then caused bring out a hogshead of
claret wine, and poured that among his mortar ! For

GREAT HIGHLAND FUNERAL. 193
that abuse God punished him, and brought him to
poverty and want. He was necessitated to sell that
great house. It lies to the south side of the Cross, is
four storeys high, with oaken fore-stairs or balconies all
round about, a great jam or staircase to the south, and
a great gate entering from the street — many conveniences
and great accommodations in it."

GREAT HIGHLAND FUNERAL.
In the following account of the funeral of Simon Lord
Lovat, there seems to have been a muster of the neigh
bouring Clans : —
"1632. — This great man died the 13th of April, to
the incredible grief of all his clan and kindred. The
Frasers of Lovat resolving to desert their burial place in
Beauly Minster, interred Lord Simon's corpse in Kirkhill,
at the east end of the church, with a pale of curious
timber work above his grave, and erected that aisle and
steeple there as their tomb, which now we see joined to
the church. The funeral was sumptuous and splendid.
Nothing was wanting to make it singularly solemn, re
gular, and orderly. The season was very inviting to the
neighbouring clans to assemble. Mackintosh had 600
men weU-appointed ; the Grants 800; the Mackenzies
900; the Rosses of Balnagown 1000 pretty men; the
Frasers a thousand and more; the Camerons, Mac-
doneUs, and Munroes, were not under 1000, well-
ordered. Such a funeral was never seen or heard of in
our country, computed to be above 5000 foot and horse.
The arable ground all under braird was trod like a com-

194 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
mon foot-road all betwixt Bunchrew and the church of
Wardlaw, yet it was observable that no such fertile fruit
ful crop was ever known upon the same lands as God's
providence sent that year."

THE MEDICAL ART IN THE NORTH.
The following notice of the state of the medical art
in the north of Scotland occurs in the year 1636: —
"Doctors and persons of skill we had not then in the
north; only a few common chirurgeons and traversing
sharltans (charlatans) out of Ireland. There was one Mr
John Sheils, vulgarly termed Dr Sheils, that had past
some experiments in the country, and this feUow was
caUed to Lovat by my lord and lady's desire. And at
first view he confidently engaged to cure her (Lady
Lovat), but quite the contrary. After his long stay in the
family, and using potions and topical applications, she
grew worse and worse." The dissolution of the monas
teries would, in this respect, be a loss to the Highlands,
for the monks were generally skUled in medicine. It is
curious, however, to find Irish travelling doctors at that
time wander so far in quest of practice.

A BARBAROUS MURDER— TOUCHING THE
DEAD BODY.
The practice of compelling suspected murderers to touch
the dead body of the victim, under the impression that it
would bleed afresh at the touch of the guilty person, was

touching the dead body. 195
generally resorted to in ancient times. In the present
case it seems to have been the only evidence on which
the man was committed to prison, and treated with
unheard-of barbarity and cruel neglect. We need say
nothing of the state of Scottish prisons, even down to a
late period they were utterly and universally disgraceful.
In Inverness it was usual, before the arrival of the
Judges on their circuit, to employ the hangman to clean
out the prison with a spade, and afterwards to burn a cart
of peats in it, to dispel the " bad scent."
"1643. — There happened a horrid murder within the
parish of Wardlaw, Kirkhill. Mr Simon Fraser of Fin-
gask had the Mains of Lovat in labouring; and one John
Macian Vohr, his foreman, thrashing straw for one of his
oxen in the barn, usuaUy made great bottles of straw, to
carry upon his back home; and the rogue kept a Hnen
about him, fiUed with barley, which he put in the heart
of the bottle, of straw. One night, going off with a
burden on his back, the satchell dropt out, full of barley,
which Donald Macwilliam, one of Mr Simon's boys, re
marking, said, 'This is not honest; you abuse the trust
which your master gives you.' Fearing to be discovered,
he contrives a plot to dispatch Donald Macwilliam : he
came to Fingask in the evening, and told the young man
that he would put him upon a secret, which he wished to
conceal, for, saith he, I have found a great seal at the
shore, and we will make a good piece of money by him ;
and I have revealed this to nobody but my brother-in-
law, John Mackenzie, in Donaldstown, who is just going
down with me to the place. The poor, innocent young
man, dreading no harm, runs after him, and at the carse,
close by the road, John Mackenzie was lurking till they

I96 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
came. Immediately, Macian Mohr draws his dirk, and
stabs the lad to the heart. Mackenzie cried ' Oh, oh !'
But Macian Vohr says—' John, you give him the next
stab, that you may be as deep in the guilt as I am.' He
stabbed him through the body, tiU he was killed outright.
They carried the body to the carse shore, and laid it upon
a piece of the broken bank, thinking that the sea would
carry it away. Upon the third day, the herdsman dis
covered the dead man, and found it was their neighbour
Donald Macwilliam. The corpse was carried to the
church-yard, and a despatch sent for the Sheriff, Alexander
Chisholm, who convened the whole parish, caused strip
naked the body, and laid it, exposed upon a broad plank,
at the entry of the chapel. The list of the parishioners
being made out, every one was summoned, and touched
the body as he was called, to the number of six or seven
hundred. At length, the murderer, John Macian Vohr,
laid his hand most confidently upon the bare breast, and
I (sitting at the head of the coffin) narrowly observed him;
the greatest wound opened, and a drop of blood gushed
out. We desired he should lay his hand on again, which
he did, and a drop of blood issued from his nose. He
was seized, carried into the church, and, after prayer, ex
amined, and a torture threatened; but no confession.
He was sent into the vault of Inverness, and secured.
No person was missing in the parish but John Mackenzie,
who was seen to go hastily over the burn. He was seen
at the bridge of Inverness, buying ground tobacco, in
papers, and so away through Strathnairn ; and no account
of him for two years. John Macian Vohr, the murderer,
being in the pit at Inverness, laid fast in the stocks, con
tinued there but about a fortnight, and both his feet, from

TOUCHING THE DEAD BODY. 197
the ancles, dropt off, as if by amputation ! He was
brought forth, and had a foot in every hand, like a shoe,
cursmg, and imprecating, and praying God to avenge his
cruel usage, so that many condemned the judge as too
severe. The villain was carried in a sledge through the
streets, and over the bridge, to his own house in Fingask,
where his wife and friends attended him; and he was
prayed for every Sabbath. I myself cured this John
Macian Vohr's wounds, until at last- his stumps were as
strong as man's could be without feet, A contribution
was made for getting him a horse; and he went up and
down the country begging. Mackenzie was nowhere
heard of; but by a rare providence this murder was dis
covered : we were at the Synod of Moray, and, acciden
tally, I happened to be in company with Sir James Stra-
chan, parson of Keith. I described to him the murder
in my parish, and the features and lineaments of John
Mackenzie. ' Truly,' said Sir James, ' that man is in my
parish, under the name of Donald Cailach, or Highland
Donald.' He was recognised. Six or seven pretty men
went together to Keith, late at night, apprehended him ;
but he denied the murder, till he came within sight of
Inverness, and saw the very church and steeple, when he
came to a clear confession, and declared how he and
Macian Vohr contrived the killing of MacwiUiam. Both
were confronted, and tried ; and the sentence of the judge
was, that John Macian Vohr should be brought to the
Castle Hill of Inverness, his head cut off, upon the block,
by the hands of the common hangman, his body buried
. under the gallows, his head put upon one of the pins of the
Tolbooth of Inverness, his right hand cut off and sent to
Wardlaw parish, and put upon a pole, near, and in view

198 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
of the church. John Mackenzie to be brought to that
parish, and his head to be cut off there, on a block fixed
upon the hill of Wardlaw, and that head being cut off, to
be fixed upon the pole below the church, with Macian
Vohr's hand. The which was exactly and accordingly
done, to the great astonishment of the parishioners behold
ing the same. Thus was God's law exerted — ' Whoso shed-
deth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' "
OLD SAYING VERIFIED.
The following is what we should now call a curious
coincidence : —
" 1638. — Now is the marriage of John, Earl of Suther
land, with Mistress Anna Fraser, the Lord Lovat's daugh
ter, going on; and it was notour [notorious] that, two
years before, the Earl passing this way with his first wife,
Lady Jane Drummond, to pay a visit to my Lord Lovat,
at the church style of Wardlaw, riding by, the Earl caught
a fall with his horse, flat upon the shipping rock. His
lady gave a shout, saying, ' God save you, my heart !
You will be either married or buried at this church;' and
so now it happened, by a good Providence, that he was
married to Lady Anna Fraser in the church of Wardlaw,
and consummated a solemn wedding feast at Lovat."
GREAT MARRIAGE.
Weddings and funerals, those great landmarks in family
history, are described with suitable dignity and minute
ness by our local chronicler. There is a circumstantial
fulness in some of his narratives of these events which

GREAT MARRIAGE. 1 99
0
presents every feature of the scene before us. The
degree of comfort and even splendour then enjoyed, and
the resources of the country, would seem to have been
such as few have any conception of; but the minister's
devotion to the house of Fraser may have sometimes led
him to colour his pictures too highly. We subjoin an
account of the marriage of the Master of Lovat in the
reign of Charles I. —
"1642. — The marriage betwixt Hugh Fraser, Master
of Lovat, and Anna Leslie, Lord Alexander of Leven's
daughter, is at length solemnised and consummated at
Holyrood House, April 30, 1642. It may seem an ex
travagant rant to speak of the glory and expense of this
sumptuous wedding feast, where eleven peers were pre
sent, besides general persons, barons, and gentlemen.
All May and most of June were spent in visits and treats
in city and country, those great persons being invited and
regaled by all sorts of relations and acquaintances, even
to the astonishment of such of their retinue as accom
panied them from house to house. About the close of
June, the new-married couple came off from Edinburgh,
accompanied with a noble train of peers and gentlemen —
the Earl of Wemyss, Lords Leven, Boyne, Ruthven, Sin
clair, and, coming through Moray, they were punctually
attended and feasted by all the lairds and gentry. They
paid a visit to old Lady Lovat, and that night to Dalcross,
where they were well lodged and accommodated. The
castle being the lady's own as her mansion-house, it was
proper she should see it and abide a night in it in transitu ;
and herself was heard to say to her friends and convoy
that they were most welcome to her habitation, and they
were most cheerfully treated there at a great rate. Here

200 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the gentlemen of the name of Fraser met them, convoy
ing their young chief in state through Inverness, where
they were most sumptuously treated with all sorts of wines
at the Cross, and tables covered. Provost Forbes ac
quitted himself to purpose. The Cuthberts now were
great at Inverness; they mustered the train-bands of the
town in the streets to keep off the rabble, and attended
those noble persons to take a view of the Castle, which
was then in good order indeed. After this compliment
to the Master of Lovat and his crowd of convoy, at Inver
ness, through the streets, they went over the famous
wooden bridge, where there were 400 young gentlemen
in arms, well-appointed, on the Green, to conduct them
forward. Some of the Lowlanders never saw such a sight
of Highlanders in arms, and all present declared that the
best peer in the nation might be vain and glory in such a
brave guard and attendance, all of his own name. At
Bunchrew, Inverallochy gave them a welcome and genteel
treat. Thence to Lovat, where they arrived at their
journey's end in health and safety. At the gate my Lord
Lovat, with twenty grave gentlemen of his own name,
met them : and pray what could be wanting here for pre
paration and feasting — liquors of all sorts, mirth, music,
and good management of all things. This was a wonder
ful fruit year, and abundance of all kinds, field and garden
fruits, berries and cherries, summer pears and pippins,
such varieties and plenty, that the Lothian and Fife
gentlemen declared they came not to visit the rude High
lands, but the cultivated Canaan ! They admired the
orchards of Lovat and Beauly, and the fishing of the river
and linn was charming. They had hunting, fishing, fowl
ing, archery — good divertisements. Nor was tilting, rid-

SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS — SUPERSTITION. 201
ing, jumping, or combating wanting; for men began now
to learn the use of arms, and, alas ! soon after they got sad
trial of such. The Earl of Sutherland, Balnagown, and
Fowlis came here to visit the Lords, and as there were
good fare and cheer, so there was very jovial facetious
society." SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS— SUPERSTITION.
Appearances such as are here described have often
been observed. Images of ships in the air were seen by
Captain Scoresby in the Greenland Sea during the sum
mer of 1820. Troops of visionary horsemen were seen
in 1 743 at Souter Fell, in Cumberland, by above twenty-
six spectators. Regarding these atmospheric phenomena,
our readers may recollect the fine stanza in the "Castle
of Indolence" : —
"As when a shepherd of the Hebrid-isles,
Placed far amid the melancholy main
(Whether it be lone fancy him beguiles,
Or that aerial beings sometimes deign
To stand embodied to our senses plain) ;
Sees on the naked hill, or valley low,
The whilst in ocean Phoebus dips his wain,
A vast assembly moving to and fro :
Then all at once in air dissolves the wondrous show."
" 1644. — This spring and summer many prodigious
signs, apparitions, spectres, and strange sights, now seen
everywhere, presaging war and revolutions, such as men
fighting in the air, horse and foot retreating and return
ing, all visibly observed. People mustered rank and file
upon our hills, so that the spectators observed their

202 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
clothes, arms, and features, and have often alarmed the
country that Montrose and Maccoll were invading us.
Two of our fleshers, going one morning in to Inverness,
saw an army — foot and horse — marching before them, and
heard the rattling noise of their arms, till they came and
entered into the woods of Bunchrew. Another evening,
three men, going to the ferry of Beauly, saw an army
marshalled — horse and foot, the very colour of their horses
and clothes, kettle-drums, and ensigns apparent — to the
wonder and admiration of many. There were also two
prodigious whales came up the Firth, with a high spring
tide, the one pursuing the other, and fastened both upon
the shallow sands 'twixt Tarradale and Spittle, where
Rory Mackenzie of Redcastle might pretend a property
and save them, but he permitted the whole country to
make prey of them; and to my certain knowledge they
were so big and high, that the people made use of small
ladders to reach their top: the like never seen or heard
of in the Moray Firth. There were also two porpoises
that ran up the River Ness, under the bridge, and reached
the Isle, a mile above the town, where they were kiUed.
Some conjectured that the two big whales were an emblem
of the King and ParUament pursuing one another; but,
alas ! these things portended no good. Another wonder
ful event happened above Beauly, three several evenings,
two parties fighting, so that men saw the glistening of
their swords, slashing at one another."
GREAT SHIP AND A NAVAL HERO.
" 1647. — Two years before this, one Captain George
Scott came to Inverness, and built a ship of a prodigious

GREAT SHIP AND A NAVAL HERO. 203
bigness for bulk and burden— never such a one seen in
our north seas. The carpenters he brought with him to
the north, and my Lord Lovat gave him wood, fir and
oak, in Dalcattack woods. I myself was aboard of her
in the Road of Kessock, April 1645, and many more, to
whom it was a wonder. She set sail the day before the
battle of Auldearn, and among other passengers that
went in her south were Colonel Fraser and his lady,
Christina BaiUie; Hugh Fraser, younger of Clanvacky,
and Andrew Fraser, in Leys; also John and William
Fraser in Leys. This ship rode at anchor in the river
mouth of Nairn, when the battle of Auldearn was fought
in view. Captain Scott enlarged the ship afterwards, as
a frigate, for war, and sailed with her to the Straits, his
brother WiUiam with him. William was made a colonel
at Venice, and his martial achievements in defence of that
State against the Turks may very weU admit him to be
ranked amongst our worthies. He became vice-admiral
to the Venetian fleet, and the bane and terror of Mussul
man navigators. Whether they had gallies, galloons, or
galliasses, or great war-ships, it was all one to him. He
set upon aU alike, saying, the more they were the more he
would kill, and the stronger the rencounter should be,
the greater should be his honour and the richer his
prize. He oftentimes so scourged the Archipelago of the
Mussulmans, that the Ottoman power, and the very gates
of Constantinople, would quake at the report of his vic
tories; and he did so ferret them out of all the creeks of
the Adriatic Gulf, and so sharply put them to it, that they
hardly knew in what part of the Mediterranean they should
best shelter themselves from the fury of his blows. He
died in his bed, of a fever, in the Isle of Candy, in 1652.

204 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
He was truly the glory of his nation and country, and was
honoured, after his death, with a statue of marble, which
I saw, near the Rialto of Venice, April 1659."

MONTROSE— THE CIVIL WARS.
During the struggles of the civil war, Montrose was sup
ported by some of the most powerful of the Highland
clans, but the Frasers were induced by Sir James Fraser
of Brea (the brother of Lovat) to join the cause of the
Parliament : —
"1644. — At this time the Covenanters garrisoned
Aberdeen, and sent the Lothian Kerr's regiment to In
verness, where they garrisoned; and, to the great trouble
and cost of the country, the town was secured round with
an earthen wall, a deep trench, ramparts, and paUisades;
a strong port to the east, another to the south, at the top
of Castle Street; another at the bridge, and the fourth
low at the Church. Every parish came into the town in
course successively till aU was finished, and Inverness
made a considerable strength. The Castle and King's
house they abused, cut down the planting, the stately
ashes and plane trees about the Grey Friars and St
Mary's chapel-yard."
In the country, it is related, fortifications were erected
by Lovat, Culbokie, Phoines, and others. The Mac-
donells mustered at Beauly, and my Lord Lovat " would
sometimes order wheat bread, barrels of beer and ale, and
bottles of aqua vitse to be sent to Macdonell's quarters."
The battles of Inverlochy, Auldearn, Alford, and Kilsyth,
followed; and in April 1644, the undaunted Montrose

MONTROSE — THE CIVIL WARS.

205

crossed the Spey to besiege Inverness. The minister of
Wardlaw says — " He fixed his guns upon the top of the
old CastlehiU, called Castrum vetus, under a hawthorn
tree due east, and battered shot. The river being ford-
able, several of his horse and foot sallied out as scouts
westward to the Aird, and surprised the people of Farnua
sowing their seed." The garrison, we are informed, de
fended themselves most valiantly, "securing the outskirts
of the town, and burning the stone house and kilns near
the bridge-end south-east," to prevent them falling into
the hands of the enemy. At length Montrose was forced
to raise the siege, and he retreated into Ross-shire as
General Middleton was entering from Petty. He was
just in time, for " the trumpets sounded two miles or
more beyond Ness at the nearest end of Petty, which
alarmed Montrose's camp." The minister adds some
what sarcastically — " I shall not deny but Middleton was
weU content that Montrose escaped his fingers." Both
commanders were soon afterwards glad to go south. On
the 22nd of February 1649, the garrison surrendered to
the Royalists. The Mackenzies and Mackays mustered
700 horse and foot, and crossing the Ness " above the
Isle of Inverness," drew up in battalion above- the town,
at Altnaskiach. A message was sent to the garrison
(then commanded by Major Murray, in the absence of
Sir James Fraser of Brea, the Governor), to surrender,
but preparations were made for a defence. A mutiny
broke out among the soldiers of the garrison. " As the
Major returned from the port," adds the chronicler, " he
met one Serjeant John Mackenzie, a pretty man, having
a sword in his hand. The Major, drawing his pistol, shot
him dead through the heart, and he fell instantly upon a

206 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
dunghill midden, and expired gasping. I was myself with
one John Cuthbert, my schoolfellow, close by him, and
got sparkles of his blood upon our clothes." The mutiny
extended, and as the Magistrates were not to be trusted,
the Major and the garrison rode away in haste, leaving
the town to the invaders. The fort and ramparts were
demolished and levelled to the ground.
The ravages committed by Montrose's army in 1646
are strikingly described by the annalist, in a few pictur
esque words:—" Betwixt the bridge-end of Inverness and
Guisachan, sixteen miles, there was not left in my country
a sheep to bleat, or a cock to crow day, nor a house un
ruffled, so severe were the depredations." One country
man seems to have made a firm stand, and the picture
presented by his attitude of resistance is not unlike a
grotesque Dutch painting. —
"Lieutenant William Fraser, vulgarly William Goilach,
stopt the pass and common road above Rindowy, four
men in arms with him. He takes out a strong barrel of
ale from the drinking-house and sets it on the high road,
and rides straddling over it; he breathes the vessel, and
calls to all going by to drink the King's good health.
Not a man, horse or foot, comes near him for two days;
some rode by below him, some above, and never any
came near all the while, he appeared so formidable to
Montrose's people. When he drank a health it was ac
companied with a shot, and there he continued, like a
sentinel, for some days, until the fury was over."
We find the following amusing notice of a rash insur
rection of the Royalists in the north: —
"1649, May 3- — Tne Lord Reay and the Mackenzies
mustered and made a body of 1500, and coming over,

MONTROSE — THE CIVIL WARS. 207
some at Kessock and some at Beauly, crossed the bridge
of Ness upon the Lord's day, in time of divine service,
and alarmed the people of Inverness, impeding God's
worship in that town. For, instead of bells to ring in to
service, I saw and heard no other than the noise of pipes,
drums, pots, pans, kettles, and spits in the streets, to pro
vide them victuals in every house. And in their quarters
the rude rascality would eat no meat at their tables until
the landlord laid down a shiDing Scots upon each trencher,
terming this argiod cagainn, or chewing money, which
every soldier got, so insolent they were."
This rapacious body marched off on Monday following,
and after they had crossed the Spey they were surprised
by Colonel Strachan and Colonel Kerr, commanding two
troops of horse, by whom they were vanquished, almost
without resistance, notwithstanding their numbers. No
less than 400 were killed on the spot, and about 1000
were disarmed and made prisoners.
"Next twenty horse and three companies of foot
were ordered to convey the captives back over the Spey,
and through Moray to Inverness, where I saw them pass
through; and those men who, in their former march,
would hardly eat their meat without money, are now
begging food, and, like dogs, lap the water which was
brought them in tubs and other vessels in the open
streets. Thence they were conducted over the bridge of
Ness, and dismissed every man armless and harmless to
his own house. This is a matter of fact which I saw and
heard."

208 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.

PORTRAITURE OF MONTROSE,
A PRISONER.
The following is a graphic and interesting sketch of a
great man struggling, not only with adversity, but with
ungenerous contumely and contempt : —
" 1650. — We are now to set down the fatal preludium
of one of the noblest generals the age saw in Britain,
whose unexampled achievements might form a history;
were its volumes far bigger than mine, it would yet be
disproportionate to the due praise of this matchless hero.
But now I set down that which I was myself eye-witness
of. The 7th of May, at Lovat, Montrose sat upon a little
shelty horse, without a saddle, but a bundle of rags and
straw, and pieces of ropes for stirrups, his feet fastened
under the horse's belly, and a bit halter for a bridle. He
had on a ragged old dark reddish plaid, and a cap on his
head ; a muskateer on each side, and his fellow-prisoners
on foot after him. Thus he was conducted through the
country (from Caithness), and near Inverness, upon the
road under Muirtown (where he desired to alight, and
called for a draught of water, being then in the first crisis
of a high fever), the crowd from the town came forth to
gaze; the two ministers went thereupon to comfort him.
At the end of the bridge, stepping forward, an old woman.
Margaret M'George, exclaimed and brawled, saying —
'Montrose, look above. View these ruinous houses of
mine, which you occasioned to be burned down, when
you besieged Inverness;' yet he never altered his coun
tenance, but with a majesty and state beseeming him,

SCOTTISH MILITARY ADVENTURERS. 209
keeped a countenance high. At the Cross was a table
covered, and the Magistrates treated him with wines,
which he would not taste till allayed with water. The
stately prisoners, his officers, stood under a forestair, and
drank heartily; I remarked Colonel Hurry, a robust, tall,
stately fellow, with a long cut in his cheek. All the way
through the streets, he (Montrose) never lowered his
aspect. The Provost, Duncan Forbes, taking leave of
him at the town's end, said — ' My Lord, I am sorry for
your circumstances.' He replied — 'I am sorry for being
the object of your pity.'"
The writer then proceeds at some length, and in nearly
the same strain as Wishart, in his memoirs, to describe
Montrose's journey to Dundee, and afterwards to Edin
burgh, where he was executed. He mentions that, at
Keith, the Marquis heard sermon, being on Sunday, a
tent being set up in the fields, and the minister " Master
WiUiam Kinonmond" (who seems to have been a staunch
Whig), preached from the words of Samuel the prophet,
to Agag the king of the Amalekites — "And Samuel said,
as thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother
be childless among women." Montrose heard him patiently
revile him for a long time, but the minister continuing to
indulge in the same invective, he said "Rail on," and
turned his back on him.

SCOTTISH MILITARY ADVENTURERS.
The military spirit of the Scots often led them into
the service of foreign princes, and of this class we have a
masterly specimen in Sir Walter Scott's tale, the " Legend

210 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
of Montrose." Captain Dugald Dalgetty is too mercenary
a character to serve for the whole class, and we have no
doubt that a love for the profession of arms, joined' to
an aversion towards the peaceful pursuits of commerce,
' formed the leading motive with the natives of the High
lands. During the sway of Cromwell, we find a regiment
was raised in the north for foreign service. —
" 1656. — This year the Lord Cranstoun having got a
colonel's commission, levied a new regiment of volunteers
for the King of Pole's [Poland's] service; and it trystetf
well for his management and advantage. The royalists
chose rather to go abroad, though in a very mean con
dition, than live at home under a yoke of slavery. The
colonel sent one Captain Montgomery north in June, and
he had very good luck, listing many for the service. In
August the colonel himself followed after, and residing at
Inverness, sallied out to visit the Master of Lovat, and,
in three days, got forty-three of the Frasers to take on.
Amongst the rest, Captain James Fraser, my Lord Lovat's
son, engages, and, without degradation, Cranstoun gives
him a captain's commission. Hugh Fraser, young Clan-
vachy, takes on as lieutenant; William Fraser, son to Mr
William Fraser of Phopachy, an ensign; and James
Fraser, son to Foyer, a corporal. The Lord Lovat's son
had twenty-two young gentlemen with the rest, who en
gaged by themselves, out of Stratherrick, Abertarff, Aird,
and Strathglass. I heard the colonel say he was vain of
them for gallantry — not so much that they were free and
willing, but valorous. I saw them march out of Inver
ness, and most of the English regiment there looking on
with no small commendation, as well as emulation, of
their bravery."

THE CITADEL OF INVERNESS. "211
This brave Scottish party seems to have been very un
fortunate. Captain Fraser, the son of Lovat, died in
Pomerania, 1657.
" 1670. — This October came to this country my
brother-german, WiUiam Fraser. He went abroad in the
Lord Cranstoun's regiment, for the service of Carqlus
Gustavus, King of Sweden, and after the peace he went
.up to Poland, with other Scottish men, and settled at
Plock, as a merchant, and was married. He had given
. trust and long delay to the Aberdeen's men, and was
necessitated to take the occasion of a ship and come to
Scotland to crave his own. He and young Clanvachy
Hugh are the only surviving two of the gallant crew who
ventured over seas with their chief's son, Captain James.
And he is glad of this happy occasion to see his old
mother and brethren. He continued here among his
friends aU the winter, and returned back in the spring,
never to see his country again. Two of his foster-brothers
ventured with him, Farquhar and Rory — very pretty boys.
We were six brothers mustered one day together upon a
street, and six sisters waiting us in my uncle's house — a
pleasant sight. We were not vain of it, but willing to see
one another in one society. We never were all convened
again. We are here in this world planted in order to our
transplantation, where we shall, I hope, one day meet
never to separate."

THE CITADEL OF INVERNESS.
In order to overawe the Highlanders, Cromwell erected
a Citadel in the Capital of the Highlands, capable pf

212 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
containing about iooo men. The garrison continued
for about seven years, when it was withdrawn, after the
Restoration, and the buildings were suffered to go to
ruin. The form of the Citadel and the other ramparts
may still be traced. A hemp manufactory is now earried
on in part of the interior of this once busy and stirring
scene. Dr Johnson remarks that the English soldiers
" seem to have incorporated afterwards with the inhabi
tants, and to have peopled the place with an English
race, for the language of this town has long been con
sidered peculiarly elegant." We doubt whether any
number of common English soldiers could impart ele
gance of language to strangers; and the English accent
observable here may be as much owing to the fact, that
when the lower orders learn English it is at school, from
books, the Gaelic being the native language. Johnson,
however, is correct in his observation, that what the
Romans did to other nations was, in a great degree,
done by Cromwell to the Scots; he civilised them by
conquest, and introduced, by useful violence, the arts of
peace. This is confirmed by the following extract : —
" 1655. — The Citadel of Inverness is now on a great
length, almost finished. They had first built a long row
of buildings, made of bricks and planks, upon the river
side, to accommodate the regiment; and ramparts and
bulwarks of earth in every street of the town; and also
fortified the Castle and the bridge, and the main court of
guard at the Cross. They bought a large plot of ground
from the burghers, called Carseland, where they built the
Citadel, founded May 1652, and now finished — a most
stately scene! It was five-cornered, with bastions, with a
wide trench, that an ordinary bark might sail in at full

THE CITADEL OF INVERNESS. 213
tide; the breastwork, three storeys, built all of hewn stone
limed within, and a brick wall; centinel houses of stone in
each corner; a sally-port to the south, leading to the town;
and on the north the great entry or gate, called the port,
with a strong drawbridge of oak, called the blue bridge,
and a stately structure over the gate, well cut with the
Commonwealth's arms, and the motto, " Togam Tuentur
Arma." This bridge was drawn every night, and a strong
guard within. Ships or shallops saUing in or out, the
bridge was heaved to give way. The entry from the bridge
into the Citadel was a stately vault about seventy feet long,
with seats on each side, and a row of iron hooks for pikes
and drams to hang on. In the centre of the Citadel
stood a great four-square building, all hewn stone, called the
magazine and granary; in the third storey was the church,
weU furnished with a stately pulpit and seats, a wide bar-
tisan at top, and a brave great clock with four large gilded
dials and a curious ball. South-east stood the great Eng
lish building, four storeys high, so called, being built by
English masons; and the south-west the Scotch building,
of the same dimensions, built by Scotch masons. North
west and north-east are lower storeys for ammunition,
timber, lodgings for manufactories, stables, provision
and brewing houses; and a great long tavern, with all
manner of wines, viands, beer, ale, and cider, sold by one
Master Benson; so that the whole regiment was accom
modated within these walls. All their oak planks and
beams were carried out of England in ships to Kessock
Roads; all their fir logs and spars were sold them out of
Hugh Fraser of Stray's woods: I saw that gentleman re
ceive 30,000 merks at once for timber. Most of their
best hewn stone was taken from Chanonry — the great

214 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
cathedral and steeple, the bishop's castle were razed; also
from the church and abbey of Kinloss and Beauly, the
Grey Friars and St Mary's Chapel at Inverness, and many
more; so that it was a sacrilegious structure, and, there
fore, could not stand. At the digging of the trenches
every man got a shilling sterling wages a day, so that all
the country people flocked to that work, and hardly could
you get one to serve you; and the soldiers made more
money attending it than their daily pay amounted to.
This great work was finished in the fifth year; and Com
missary Coup, who advanced the money to masons, car
penters, and others, told me that the whole expense
amounted to about eighty thousand pounds sterling.
There was a thousand men in the regiment, Colonel
Thomas Firth, governor. They brought such store of all
wares and conveniences to Inverness, that English cloth
was sold near as cheap here as in England; the pint of
claret went for a shilling. They set up an apothecary's
shop, with a druggist's; Mr Miller was their chirurgeon,
and Dr Andrew Moore their physician. They not only
civilised, but enriched the place. They fixed a garrison
at Inverlochy, and carried a bark, driven upon rollers, to
the Loch end of Ness, and there enlarged it into a stately
frigate, to sail with provision from one end of the Loch
to the other — Mr Church, governor, and Lieutenant
Orton, captain of this frigate, and sixty men aboard of
her, to land upon expeditions when they pleased. I
happened myself, with the Laird of Streachin, to be in
vited aboard by Orton, when we were civiUy treated. It
were vain to relate what advantages the country had by
this regiment. Story may yet record it, but I only set
down in the general something of what I was eye-witness."

THE CITADEL OF INVERNESS. 215
The following is a notice of the destruction of the
Citadel. The minister's aUusion to the Thistle growing
over the Commonwealth's Arms is an amusing touch of
nationality : —
" 1661.— In the close of July, by an act of the Parlia
ment, an order is issued out to slight and demolish the
citadels of the kingdom which were built by the English.
This of Inverness had not stood ten years. The first
part they seized upon was the sentinel houses, neat turrets
of hewn stone, curiously wrought and set up on every
corner of the rampart wall, these now all broken down by
the soldiers themselves. The next thing was the Com
monwealth's Arms pulled down and broken, and the
King's Arms set up in their place ; the blue bridge
slighted, the sally-port broken, the magazine-house steeple
broken, and the great bell taken down — all this done with
demonstrations of joy and gladness, the soldiers shouting
' God save the King,' as men weary of the yoke and
slavery of usurpation which lay so long about their necks.
I was an eye-witness of the first stone that was broken of
this famous Citadel, as I was also witness of the founda
tion-stone laid, Anno 1652, in May. This Sconce and
Citadel is the King's gift to the Earl of Moray, to dispose
of at his pleasure. A rare thing fell out here that was
notarly known to a thousand spectators, that the Com
monwealth's Arms set up above the most conspicuous
gate of the Citadel, a great thistle growing out above it
Govered the whole carved work and arms, so as not a bit
of it could be seen, to the admiration of all beholders !
This was a presage that the Scots therefore should eclipse
[triumph]." Next year the garrison stationed at Inverness was re-

216 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
moved. A few of the soldiers, however, settled in the
town, and their descendants still remain. The English
seem to have been popular in Inverness. —
" 1662. — In the beginning of April the garrisons of
Scotland were given up. The regiment at Inverness was
ordered to muster and be ready to march. On the
eleventh 400 of the English removed in arms, rank and
file, with their wives and children, for Leith. Next
morrow other 400 marched, with their arms, com
manders, and colours — to the great grief of all the
English soldiers. Never people left a place with such
reluctancy. It was sad to see and hear their sighs and
tears, pale faces and embraces, at their parting farewell
from that town. And no wonder. They had peace and
plenty for ten years in it; they made that place happy and
it made them so. The Citadel was slighted, and all the
country called in to raze it. I saw it founded — I saw it
flourish — I saw it in its glory and grandeur, and now in
its ruins ! Sic transit gloria mundi !

STATE AND SPLENDOUR OF THE LOVAT
FAMILY.
The Frasers of the seventeenth century seem to have kept
state to the full at their northern domain. The following
is a portrait of a Highland Baron of the first class, in the
seventeenth century. There is no mention of a bard or
piper, but doubtless these indispensable auxiliaries were
retained at home : —
" 1661. — My Lord Lovat and his lady came north
from Edinburgh, July 27; were most sumptuously treated

STATE AND SPLENDOUR OF THE LOVAT FAMILY. 2 17
at Inverness, by the Magistrates, John Forbes of Culloden
being Provost; and at the bridge-end of Inverness was
waited upon with sixty horse, gentlemen of his own name,
and six hundred foot, well appointed, and Hugh Fraser
of Stray, his Lieutenant-Colonel; Hugh Fraser of Foyer,
Major; I, myself, present at that pleasant parade. My
lord came to Lovat in the evening with his friends and
retinue; and I can say there was nothing wanting that
could be necessary for a sumptuous feast and entertain
ment, and that which made that infer splendid was the
convocation of my Lord's friends and allies to welcome
him home to his country. His domestic servants and
attendants were John Allan, his chief gentleman, and
Will White, his page ; Robert Carr, master of the house
hold, and James Fraser, steward ; John Caird, groom ;
WiUiam Innes, groom; John M'Call, stabler; John
Dawson, brewer; William Glass, cook; John Macleod,
his servant; Farquhar Fraser and Alexander Peddison,
¦chamberlains; John Maccallister, a Fraser, porter, &c.
Isabel Fraser alias Forbes, maid of honour; Isabel
Dempster, Marion Reid, Anna Dingwall (nurse), Anna
TuUoch, and Anna Hay, maids. I am the more punctual
to set down the servants' names because I had the con-
-duct and government of this noble family for two years,
until I entered minister at the church of Wardlaw. My
lord spent the remainder of July and most of August in
visits; went over to Brahan, Coul, Fairburn, Dochnaluag;
went to see Fowlis and Balnagown, and Tarbat; and then
visited the Chisholm of Strathglass [This shows that the
title ' The Chisholm' is of pretty old dale], at Erchless; also,
Stray, Culbockie, and Belladrum. And afterwards with
his lady and train went to Stratherrick, visiting Foyer, and

2l8 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
all the numerous families in that country. This I was
witness to, as being his domestic (chaplain)."
Here we have Lovat on another journey, and the ex
tract shows his partiality for the Highland dress, though
nothing is said of any particular sett of the tartan peculiar
to his clan. It also contradicts the common statement
that the first coach ever seen in or about Inverness was
brought by the Earl of Seaforth in 1 7 1 5. It is here shown
that Lovat had a coach at least half-a-century before this
time, and it must have been known to the burgesses of
Inverness. —
"1666. — In the close of May my Lord Lovat took
journey to Glenelg, and, being a nimble footman, resolved
to go in Highland clothes, as agreeing best with the place
and genius of the people, and a garb very becoming the
cast and proportion of his person. He brought with him,
as convoy, both his uncles, Alexander the tutor, and
Thomas Beaufort, and one out of every family of the
name of Fraser — the flower of the country — very well
appointed for gallantry; and he gloried very much in his
men, and encouraged them, as it became a Chieftain
every way. When he came to Glenelg, good John, the
Laird of Macleod, kept his appointment with him, and
gave him a noble welcome, telling his lordship that he
must give him a cheerful reception, with his whole retinue,
for his people would do it, the Master of Lovat being
married to his mother; Beaufort was married to his sister,
and my Lord Lovat was once superior of Glenelg ; and it
was kindly in him to visit the country. They diverted
themselves with varieties of sport and recreation, such as
hunting, stalking, fishing, and archery, which manly exer
cise they both liked well. . . . My Lord Lovat

STATE AND SPLENDOUR OF THE LOVAT FAMILY. 219
returned from the Highlands the beginning of July, and
then got a sudden call south, which he kept secret. Had
no convoy with him but Mr John Mackinnon and Peter
Forbes, two pretty men, his prime servants, and Will
Innes, his groom. Being a little indisposed, he rode in
coach through Moray, but at Spey sent back his coach and
horses with Richard Holmes, his coachman."
The following account of a wedding contract at Dar
naway opens a scene of great festivity and splendour. It
would seem to have been a very jolly affair. There was
an old connection between the noble families of Moray
arid Lovat. Hugh, the second Lord Lovat, according to
our manuscript, married Janet, daughter to the Earl of
Moray, in 1440. The wedding, we are told, "took place
at the Great Hall at Tarn way; there is no such lodging
in Scotland; for to this day that house hath no parallel
within the kingdom. It was built by the Regent, Earl
Thomas Randolph ; Kings have been in it, and King
James said that he had no such court or castle of his
own." " 1662. — In January, my Lord Lovat was invited by
Sir Hugh Calder to witness his espousals and contract at
Tarnway (Darnaway), and, though the storm was great,
would not decline the call. So he gets his uncles, Alex
ander, the tutor of Lovat, and Thomas Beaufort, and his
own train, and we were the first night at Dalcross, where
we were very well treated. In the morning set forward,
and came to Tarnway to dinner, where we got a generous
welcome, and stayed all night.. The Earl waited upon
Lovat to his bedchamber, telling him this was the King's
apartment and bed, where he was to lodge while he stayed
at Tarnway. Next morrow, the Lady Henrietta Stuart

220 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
was solemnly espoused to Sir Hugh Calder of Calder,
and I deemed that she loved my Lord Lovat better, and
had he not been married already, this had been a meeter
match by far. The loves and contract ribbons being dis
tributed in state, we had a most solemn feast — a wedding
rather than a contract dinner. In the afternoon the wits
of the house gave anagrams and acrostics in writ to the
bride, and I judged Lovat gave the most apposite of all
— ' Henreta Stuarta, ane true sweetheart' — which, with
the acrosting pertinent verse, was applauded, the bride
groom, Sir Hugh, the greatest poet in Moray, being the
most competent judge in that case. After a surfeit of
sincere friendship and feasting, my Lord Lovat, the fourth
day takes leave of that noble family of Moray; and at
parting, the final compliment was my Lord Lovat, taking
horse, rides up the scale-stairs of Tarnway, and in the
Great Hall drinks the King's health, with sound of trum
pet and pistol-shot. The meanest drunk bowls of wine,
with snow-balls cast in for sugar. And after many a
loath farewell, sounded good night and joy be with you !
Taking horse at Tarnway, Mr Francis and Sir Hugh
Calder, and others, conveyed my Lord Lovat off to the
high road, and at parting excamb'd (exchanged) servants,
my Lord Lovat leaving Thomas Fraser, Teanikill, with
Calder, who sent his servant, John Campbell of Achin-
down, with Lovat, to attend him at his own house of
Calder, where we were treated at a singular rate. The
kingdom could not afford better wines than was drunk,
and music of all sorts — Adam Smith (master of the
musicians in Moray for virginal, violin, harp, and organ)
was Calder's domestic; Mr William Cumming (an excel
lent learned youth), chaplain in ordinary. And varieties

TRIAL OF WITCHES. 221
of divertisements; in all things the entertainment was
princely, Saturday, Sunday; and on Monday Sir Hugh
Calder himself came to us with an addition of what was
wanting — if any at all — of good cheer and fare. We
spent that day in a charming converse of sport, gaming,
and singing. Next morning Calder convoyed my Lord
from his own house over the river to visit the Baron of
Kilravock and his lady; thence to Coule to see the
Sheriff Rain. He at last added to our train and rode
forward to visit CuUoden; and thence to Drakies, to pay
his respects to the Lord Macdonell; and thence to In
verness in no small state, few or none parting with my
Lord Lovat that once met with him on his journey, he
was so universally beloved and respected of all ranks and
degrees of persons. Such a progress and parade as this
of Lovaf s was in the limits of ten days, through Moray,
aU things considered, was so singular, that such another
I saw not since I came to my native soil from abroad."

TRIAL OF WITCHES.
" 1662. — There came to Inverness one Mr Paterson,
who had run over the kingdom for trial of witches, and
was ordinarily called the Pricker, because his way of trial
was with a long brass pin. Stripping them naked, he
aUeged that the spell-spot was seen and discovered. After
rubbing over the whole body with his palms, he slipped
in the pin; and it seems, with shame and sorrow, being
dashed, they felt it not, but he left it in the flesh, deep to
the head, and desired them to find, and take it out. It
is said some witches were discovered; but many honest

222 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
men and women were blotted and broke by this trick. In
Elgin, there were two killed; in Forres, two; and one
Isabel Duff, a rank witch, burned in Inverness. This
Paterson came up to the church of Wardlaw; and within
the church pricked fourteen women and one man,
brought thither by the Chisholm of Comar, and four
brought by Andrew Fraser, chamberlain of Ferrintosh.
He first polled all their heads, and amassed the heap of
hair together, hid it in the stone dyke, and so proceeded
to pricking. Several of those died in prison, being never
brought to confession. This viUain gained a great deal
of money, having two servants. At last he was discovered
to be a woman, disguised in men's clothes. Such cruelty
and rigour, was sustained by a vile varlet impostor !"

HORSE RACES IN INVERNESS.
After the Restoration of Charles II. the Highland
capital and the neighbouring clans were all loyalty and
gaiety : —
"1662, March 1. — The Magistrates of Inverness set
up the post and pillars for the annual horse-race about
the hill of Tomnahurich, to be run next May; and adver
tisement sent abroad to that effect. The silver cup,
saddles, and sword, are prepared by the town.
" May 24. — The horse-race at Inverness, which had
turned into desuetude for many years before, was now
restored, and brought to its pristine consistency. The
post is set up at the end of the reeds, upon the edge of a
march close upon the road; and the stage posts are also
round about the hill, along the plain. A concourse of

HORSE RACES IN INVERNESS. 223
people flocked to Inverness, to behold the course: the
Earl of Moray, with his vassals, came in the morning;
the" Earl of Seaforth, and my Lord Lovat were, the night
before, at Kinmylies and Muirtown, dieting their race
horses; the Lairds of Grant, Mackintosh, Fowlis, Balna-
gown; the Barons of Moray, the Lord Macdonell, and
the English officers at Inverlochy, and many others. The
Provost and Magistrates of Inverness, with the citizens,
came in procession over the bridge, to their bounded
march; and, with their usual ceremony, hung the silver
cup, with blue ribbons, upon the hooks of the painted
post, the saddle and the sword set upon the top of it.
The matches that run were — the Lord Lovat, Laird of
Grant, Kilravock, and Captain Man. All the riders were
in white, their distinctions being blue, red, yellow, and
green ribbons. The Lord Lovat rode in person, as also
Mr Man. The sign given, near ten of the clock, they
start, and closed at two hours. First, Mr Man seemed
to carry; but the Laird of Grant's horse quite outran him
in a short time. Lovat (who comes short of no rider in
Britain),- cunning enough for them aU, kept close in the
rear till within half-a-mile of the post, and then, to the
admiration of all the beholders, taking the start of them,
like a bird upon wing, outrun them a full quarter of a
mile near, and riding back, gave his congee. Mr Man
was -next, the Laird of Grant third, Mackintosh fourth.
I heard Captain Man aver, that all England over had
never a better horseman than Lovat, nor a swifter four-
footed beast than his brown mare. Thus my Lord
Lovat carried the race, and the best cup, valued at £,1
sterling, and the saddle at £y, both which he delivered
to Will. White, his page. The Magistrates gave the

224 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
nobles a sumptuous treat, and the day's sport was at
end; the rest of it spent in visits and recreations. At
the next day's competition, Bailie Finlay Fraser at Inver
ness carried the cup and sword, with approbation and
applause; and that afternoon the Laird of Grant bought
the horse, paying ^13 for him; and, to my knowledge,
it carried the races at the same place next year."

FAMILY FEUDS, &c.
There are various notices of a feud between Grant of
Glenmoriston and Robertson of Inshes. —
" r664, March 20. — The great barn-yards of Culca-
bock, belonging to Inshes, and three men, were aU set on
fire. Eleven stacks, about ten at night, all irrecoverably
burnt. It made such a dreadful flame, as put Inverness
in a consternation, being so near. This was jealoused
(suspected) to be done by Glenmoriston men, for some
old quarrels with Inshes."
" 1665, August 23. — A meeting happened twixt Glen
moriston and Inshes at Lochend of Ness; differences
were referred to Forbes of Culloden, Provost Ross, and
P. Cuthbert, and were like to close, when Glenmoriston,
for some harsh expressions of Inshes, caused four men to
dismount him; carried him in a boat, conveyed him to
Glenmoriston, where he kept him till October. A des
perate riot, so barbarous no law can sit with it."
" October 4. — John Grant, laird of Glenmoriston, met
the Earl of Moray at Nairn water, being a head court day.
He began to parley with him anent his riot against Inshes.
The Earl caused him to ride with him to Inverness the

FAMILY FEUDS, ETC. 225
next morrow, intending to present him in the Tolbooth.
The unhappy man made his escape that night, and away,
which gross carriage of his aggravates his former guilt."
Grant was afterwards taken prisoner by the Robert
sons of AthoU, but the matter was adjusted. The above
incidents illustrate the violence and insecurity then pre
valent in the North. This is further evinced by a rela
tion of circumstances connected with the purchase of
Bunchrew by Forbes of CuUoden, about the year 1670.
The Forbeses purchased Bunchrew and Ferrintosh from
Simon Fraser of Inverallochy (a collateral branch of the
Lovats), on the occasion of the marriage of Inverallochy
with a daughter of Lord Buchan, when there were some
debts to pay off and new arrangements to be made.
The loss of so much property was looked upon by the
clan Fraser with deep regret, and the minister of Wardlaw
is very lugubrious on the subject : —
" One act of John Forbes of Culloden was the setting
masons to repair the house of Bunchrew, when he de
faced the Lord Lovat's name and arms off the windows
and jambs, and caused put his own. Where 'Simon
Lord Fraser of Lovat' and ' Dame Jane Stewart' were
before, now John Forbes and Jean Dunbar ! He also
built a mill on the burn of Bunchrew, whereas that town
and lands were formerly tied and restricted to the Lord
Lovat's miU of Farnua. But he met with sharp handling
for revenge of this encroachment. Alexander M'WiUiam,
a Fraser, captain of our watch, with his brother John
Fraser, and half-a-score desperate young men, came dis
guised to Bunchrew in a morning, and broke down all the
glass windows of the house, the carved names and stones;
then puUed down the mill, broke the millstones to bits,

226 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
levelling all to the ground, as if there had been no house
there. This atrocious riot galls Culloden to the heart.
The Sheriff of Inverness or the Lord Lovat's bailiff were
the judges competent to try such viUanies, but there he
could expect no favour nor justice. My advice to him at
my own house was freely to pass it over; for if he should
pursue it legally he could get no regulation of these men's
means nor of their persons, being desperate, and would
soon turn outlaws, and might do his lands considerable
mischief; for Highland feuds never die. And, moreover,
it would be no small difficulty (if possible at all) to instruct
the deed or fix upon the actors. Upon mature thoughts
he quite gave it over, and set a tack of his mains in
Bunchrew to Alexander Chisholm, Sheriff-Depute of
Inverness, who now lives at that town and labours the
land." The Forbeses were unpopular with the violent clans
men and royalists, not only for their success as merchants
and as being strangers, but from their steady and zealous
support of the Long Parliament and popular principles
against Charles I. and Charles II. Their enterprise and
intelligence gave them great power in Inverness.
We have no account of the particular commodities in
which the early Inverness merchants trafficked. The ex
port of cattle, fish, and skins, would be the most import
ant trade. They also imported foreign spirits and wines,
cloth, and other necessaries, but the demand could not
be extensive. The minister of Wardlaw records one
transaction. In 1626, John Yeoman, merchant in Dun
dee, and Duncan Forbes, merchant in Inverness, agreed
with Lord Lovat that, on advancing a large sum of

LOYALTY OF THE FRASERS. 227
money, they were to have, for a period of years, the boll
of victual and the barrel of salmon at a certain rate over
the whole lordship. Next year, he says, both victual and
fish rose to about threepence more than they were before,
and in another year the prices were almost double, to the
great gain of the merchants and the loss of the family.
In 1649,' he states that one Paul Collison, merchant,
Aberdeen, bought the Beauly salmon at 9000 merks, or
^500 — a large sum. The Beauly fishing was lately let
at -£1300 per annum.

LOYALTY OF THE FRASERS.
CONVERSATION BETWEEN CHARLES II. AND
LORD LOVAT.
" 1665. Thursday, March 20. — Sir Alexander Fraser
(who had taken the title of Dores) waited upon my Lord
Lovat, and convoyed him to Court, accompanied by the '
Master of Saltoun and Sir Ralph Dalavil; and most op
portunely introduced them to the King, as his Majesty
was going out to St James's from Whitehall, and not
many of his Court with him. His Majesty was pleased
to give them a most gracious reception ; and, after the
custom of kissing his hand, they followed him fast at the
heels until they arrived at the Park. The King tijen,
after his ordinary freedom, inquired into the state of.
affairs in Scotland and the north of England ; and hav-'
ing heard all their narrations most attentively, after a
long pause, the King was pleased to direct his discourse
to Lovat, saying — ' My Lord, I call to mind that, being

228 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
with my army at Torwood, in the park of Stirling, in
1650, falling in discourse with one of my chaplains, Mr
Colville, and asking him what he thought of the camp,
and what clan he thought most loyal, he truly gave me a
most singular account and commendation of the fidelity
of the Frasers, and their loyalty to the Crown. I hope
they continue so ; and if that some corruptions hath
crept in among clans during the late rebellion, that now
the Frasers, with others, have returned to their duty, be
ing fully convinced of the evil of raising arms against
their sovereign ; and that in time the universal and usual
character of a treacherous Scot shall be worn off, and
loyal impressions received.' My Lord Lovat replied —
' Sire, I had the same account from one of my kinsmen,
who was captain of your Majesty's guard that morning at
Torwood ; and I wish we may deserve the encomium
given us by that reverend divine, and may we never cease
to do daily what may confirm it. And I pray God, none
of my name be ever tainted with the least suspicion of
disloyalty; but that I, with them, may ever prove true
and faithful subjects to your Majesty, and that with our
lives and fortunes.' "

A CLERICAL JOKE.
" 1666. — It was a pretty jest and droll of a minister
in our diocese of Moray, Master Gilbert Marshall of
Cromdale, usually termed Jupiter, from his flights and
nimbleness, hearing often of the wonderful fatal year, and
many prodigies to happen in it, would seemingly assent

A ROMANTIC ADVENTURE. 229
to it, and flatter men in their humour, telling it would
prove so by this verse —
" ' In this instant year you'll see a great wonder,
Six shall chase sixty, and sixty six hunder ! '
This proves true in the figures of 1666."

A SUCCESSFUL & ROMANTIC ADVENTURE.
" 1668. — There was a great prize taken from the
Dutch, 1666, which lay at Munlochy mouth — a vast
hulk of about 500 ton, so big that it could not be
carried up to Kessock Roads. At last the Earl of
Crawfurd, ChanceUor, got the gift of this ship from the
King ; and he cited Andrew Forrester to come north this
year and cause carpenters see the vessel, who, finding
her sound and strong, sent for a crew of seamen to
manage her, and he stayed at Inverness until they came
to him. They considered her burden and the fathoms
of water she required, brought her up to the Roads of
Kessock, and completed her with all necessaries and
provisions for a voyage. After this he went aboard of
her and feasted some comrades in Inverness ; and, with
the usual solemnity, baptized this prize under the name
of The New Phoznix Borealis ; and thence Mr James
Sutherland, Will. Trent, and myself, convoyed my dear
Forrester down by sea to Cromarty, when, after paying
some visits, and exchanging tokens of his fraternal affec
tion, we leave him in Porta Salutis. With the first fair
wind next morrow they set sail, and came very safe to
Sharese in Spain (Xeres, in Andalusia?), where I had

230 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
his letters, in one of which he made his will, disposing
all he had to me, as a sign of his sincere love, which I
keep still by me, as a singular thing amongst comrades.
In Porta Nova, the Phoenix was loaded with sherry, sack,
canary, rice, raisins, oil, olives, and spices, and by God's
blessing returned safe, with prosperous gales, to London,
in September thereafter. And being at anchor in Wap-
ping Roads, the King, in his barge, from Greenwich, came
aboard of the Phoenix; and, after a magnificent treat,
knighted Andrew Forrester on the deck, with a volley
of shot, sound of trumpets and hautboys. After this
honour done to a poor Scotch student, the King chose
him for his Under-Secretary when Lauderdale came
down to Scotland as Commissioner to Parliament next
summer, 1669."

STRIKING REVERSE OF FORTUNE.
"1668. The Earl of Traquair's Fall. — A remark
able death this year was that of John Stewart, the old
Earl of Traquair, time, place, and manner considered.
This man was King James the Sixth's cousin and courtier.
Charles I. sent him as High Commissioner down to Scot
land, and he sat as Viceroy in the Parliament, June 1639.
He was early at Court, the haven of happiness for all
aspiring spirits, and this broke him at last — he became
the tennis ball of fortune. What power and sway, place
and preferment, he had then, I need not mention, only
this, keeping then with the Revered Bishops, and tamper
ing under board with the Covenanters, he acknowledged
to be his bane; but whether then by his own misconduct,

THE BATTLE OF THE CHEESE. 23 1
or by paction and resignation of his interest to his son,
or the immediate hand of God upon him, I search not ;
but he proved a true emblem of the vanity of the world —
a very meteor. I saw him, anno 1661, begging in the
streets of Edinburgh. He was in an antique garb, and
wore a broad old hat, short cloak, and panniers breeches ;
and I contributed in my quarters in the Canongate
towards his relief. We gave him a noble, he standing
with his hat off. The Master of Lovat, Culbockie, Glen
moriston, and myself, were there, and he received the
piece of money from my hand as humbly and thankfully
as the poorest supplicant. It is said, that at a time he
had not to pay for cobbling his boots, and died in a poor
cobbler's house."

slaughter at inverness fair— the
Battle of the cheese.
" 1665. — A rude riot and slaughter at a fair in In
verness, called the Kebbock Day. To finish this year's
accounts and observations, among several forerunning
accidents, one shadow is to be noted, which happened
at Inverness, at a grand fair in August 18, being the
feast of the Assumption of the blessed Virgin. Upon
the hill south of the castle, the horse market stands; and
there being some women upon the edge of the brae,
seUing of cheese and bread, ready for such as could not
go far to fetch it, one Finlay Dhu, a townsman, taking
up a cheese in his hand, asked what the rate of it was ?
This being told him, whether designedly, or by negligence,
he let the cheese drop out of his hand, and down the

232 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
hill it runs into the river. The woman told him she
would oblige him to pay ; he (a crabbed feUow) gave her
cross language of defiance. One that stood by, espous
ing the quarrel, held him fast, and took off his bonnet in
pledge, until he should pay the woman. A relation of
Finla/s challenged this man, as it was none of his con
cern. ' Yes,' said he, ' I am concerned as a witness, to
see just things.' To threatening words they go, and from
words to blows, till at length most of the hill market is
engaged in a confusion. This alarms the whole town ;
the guards are called, who come in arms, and Joe
Reed, a pretty man, their captain, runs in betwixt the
parties, to separate them. Several other gentlemen
present offer their mediation; but no hearing. Swords
are drawn, guns presented, and some wounds given.
Provost Alexander Cuthbert is told that his guards
are not regarded; he puts on a steel cap, sword, and
targe, causes ring the alarm bell, and comes straight
to the hill, and many pretty fellows with him. The
people cry for justice ; the guards, being oppressed and
abused, let off some shot, and two men are killed out
right, and above ten wounded. The noise is hushed,
and matters examined : the guard is blamed. The Pro
vost, in a fury, said he allowed and avowed what was
done; for who durst disturb the King's free burgh at a
market time ? The Highlanders keep a-brooding. Two
Macdonells were killed, one Cameron and one Philan
died of their wounds. The open rupture was closed on
both sides with a punctilio of honour ; but a revenge was
promised and vowed. A great many gentlemen — Frasers,
Grants, and Mackintoshes — offered to compose the mat
ter, calling it chance-medley, and extenuating him that

A GRATEFUL ENGLISHMAN. 233
was the cause of the fray. The leading men of the Mac-
donells present were addressed by the Magistrates, and
civilly treated, with a promise of strict examination, and
execution for the blood; but, alas ! it w&spost naufragium,
or a pardon after execution, as the lost party thought.
This rupture burst out afterwards; but the unhappy
fellow that occasions the fray was shapen for mischief,
being marked like a stigma, having one-half of his beard
white, the other half black ! Meanwhile, the wounded
men and the dead corpses were all carried over to this
side the bridge of Ness, as an odium to the town.
Thomas Fraser of Beaufort concerned himself; the par
ishioners of Wardlaw went in to the town, and trans
ported the corpses to their interment at Kirkhill, very
decently, and the other wounded men also that died.
Of all which I was an assisting eye-witness."

A GRATEFUL ENGLISHMAN.
" 1670. — At this time Captain Phineas Pott came
down from London by sea, to buy all the fir woods in
the North for masts. He had visited Strathairdle (Perth.
shire), and found none there: went then to Struy and
Glenstrathfarar, and that old wood pleased him. He
hath already loaded a great ship with masts, in Kessock
Roads, and is providing to load another. Himself, wife,
and family, have lived at Inverness these two years. A
very obliging man, kindly to the clergy; hath brought
much money into the country. His uncle, Commissioner
Pott, overseer of the naval provisions at Chatham, hath
employed him, and is likely to make him his heir. Upon

234 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
a certain night, coming down the Firth, and some com
rades with him, in his painted great cockboat, he was cast
in with a northerly blast upon the shore of Phopachy. I
happened to be there, and some friends with me, and,
hearing the cry, we went out and rescued the boat. Mr
Trent, and Charles Maclean, merchant in Inverness,
were with him, and invited him into my house, very dis
tressed and wet ; got a good fire and provisions for them
that night. In the morning it calmed, and away they
went. But, to consider a grateful man ! He could never
sufficiently requit me that night's lodging ; never saw me
afterwards at Inverness, but still it was a present of a
book or two ; papers of mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves,
ginger. I could aver, one way or other, I had seven
pounds sterling worth of spiceries from that gentleman;
and going away this summer, he gifted me a trunk, carpet,
and Camden's great history."

EFFECTS OF BRANDY.
" 167 1. — A Dutch merchantman of 250 ton, loaded
with wines, brandy, spices, iron, salt, &c, a very rich
cargo, was cast in upon the coast of Strathnaver, where
the Admiralty is not much regarded. All the country
flocked about the shore; the people not knowing then
the strength of brandy, or such foreign liquor, drank to
excess of it; and I heard it said that this very ship's
lading debauched Caithness and Strathnaver to that
degree, that very many lost their lives by their immoder
ation. Mr Robert Gordon, the Earl of Sutherland's son,
being but newly married to Miss K. Mackay, Lord

SCOTSMEN IN LONDON. 235
Reay's daughter, fell accidently with some comrades,
and took a great latitude, drinking liberally even to
excess. At length he got out from them, escaping with
his life, to take some rest. Shortly after these cup-valiant
villains came into the gentleman's chamber, being in bed
with his bride, obliged him to rise, and drink so many
healths in his shirt, standing. The poor, modest, bash
ful lady, had not the confidence to challenge them, or
call her husband to his bed, and with reluctancy they
parted. Robin went away and laid him down, but never
rose. He could get no sleep, fell into a high fever, and
in five days died, to the regret and grief of all who knew
him, being truly the prettiest Gordon alive. She, poor
creature, left a young widow, wept out her eyes, and
lived desolate and disconsolate all her days."

SCOTSMEN IN LONDON IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
We conclude with extracts of a more personal nature,
in which the minister relates some of his adventures in
London, when his loyalty was in full blow, on the eve of
the Restoration. He was in London also at the inaugu
ration of Cromwell as Protector, but his account is copied
from Heath and the " carrion" chroniclers, whom Mr
Carlyle has abused so cordially for their gross misrepre
sentations. There is not one original incident or trait
recorded. The minister's zeal as a royalist and Episco
palian completely blinded him, and the prospect of re
turning monarchy elated him in a similar degree. He
notices the death of Bradshaw, the stern Republican who

236. HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
sentenced Charles I. to death, having often, he says, seen
" John Bradshaw's candle burning at night in his house
in Westminster." It is a pity that his garrulity did not
extend to higher things, and lead him to tell us some
thing original or genuine of Oliver's appearance, his
Court, and times. We extract a few entries, under date
of 1660. —
"Will Trent and I, coming one day from London
Bridge, remarked Thomas Fitch, once Governor and
Colonel to the English regiment at Inverness, whom I
had seen in grandeur and state, now in a private lane,
most deserted, all alone. He knew not us. These
happy changes had brought such snakes to creep up and
down this city obscurely and in disguise — such a cloud
hangs over the sectarian crew."
He appears to have been delighted with the society
of Scotsmen whom he met in London, and he enumer
ates the most conspicuous of the band. Of his various
eminent characters, however, only one attained to cele
brity — John Ogilby, who, from being a dancing-master,
became a popular author, and translated the Iliad, Odys
sey, and iEneid. These translations attracted the youth
ful admiration of Pope, but he afterwards expressed the
utmost contempt for Ogilby's poetry. Dr Fraser here
mentioned was knighted by Charles II. He was of the
Frasers of Durris, in Aberdeenshire, and by his success
as a physician, and a fortunate marriage, was able to re
purchase the inheritance of his forefathers. —
" 1660. — We have a society of loyal true-hearted
Scotchmen jn London at present. Doctor Alex. Fraser,

SCOTSMEN IN LONDON. 237
our King's physician in ordinary, living in King Street,
and goes under the name of the French Doctor; Mr
Duncan Liddel, Professor of the Mathematics once at
Aberdeen, now exiled, and keeps a school in Thames
Street; Mr Samuel Crichton, a great traveller, who has
set up an Academy in St Paul's Church-yard for the
breeding of young gentry — he is one of the completest
men in our age ; Mr John Ogilby, a great poet — he hath
set out an English and Hebrew Grammar, following an
easier method of learning that language than any hath yet
seen — a road which none hath ever yet trode ; Thomas
Sidserf, son to Bishop Sidserf, the only one surviving
prelate in Scotland, is here setting out fine pamphlets to
gratify the gentry ; Mr Samuel Fraser, a great grand
grammarian, hath a school in Black Friars; Jack Rennie,
a merchant-tailor in the Round Court, a discreet obliging
young man; Mr Anderson, called the Universal Traveller,
who hath been now four times at Rome, as Governor to
the English gentry ; Mr James Mowat, who hath been
twice over the Alps, as Governor to the gentry; Mr
Andrew Collace, an exiled minister, who officiates at
Wapping; Mr Blair, a merchant-tailor in Rood Lane,
our landlord ; Mr Gordon, and John his nephew, mer
chant-tailors in that lane ; Mr Mowat, a taverner in that
lane ; Mr Mackenzie, in Black Friars, factor for the
Scotch ; Mr Will. MitcheU, a great student ; Mr William
Chalmers, my intimate ; Mr Andrew Stratton, a depen
dant on Dr Owen; Mr Ludovick Burnet, usher to a
school in Southwark ; Mr Robert Ferguson, a pragmati
cal head, who kindled a fire in our University of Aber
deen, anno 1654— sharp certainly for mischief; Captain
James Johnston, though in Cromwell's guard, yet a true-

238 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
hearted gentleman; Mr John Gordon, come from Poland;
Mr W. Robertson, factor here for the Polonian Scotch ;
Mr Schisholm and Mr Petrie, Scotch merchants; Mr
Andrew Forrester, my comrade. [Forrester was after
wards knighted by Charles II., and he was Under Secre
tary in the Scots Parliament, 1669] &c. I might fill a
volume with the names of Scotchmen at London — mer
chants, scholars, tradesmen, and soldiers."
We wish the minister had given us some account of
London and London life. He parted with reluctance
from his gay and learned friends in the metropolis, and
returned to Scotland by sea, the road by land being, he
says, so pestered with highwaymen that there was no safe
journeying. He accordingly prepared, in April 1660, to
sail with the Scotch fleet, then lying at Gravesend waiting
for a convoy.
"In Thames Street, we take leave of Mr Shusan, a
ribbon-weaver, married to one Betty Fraser. At parting
he bowed a large shilling in his teeth, and gave it me for
a token to drink with his cousin Shusan at the sign of the
Chequers, where he recommended us to go. And so we
glide down the river Thames in a pair of oars boat, and
my two comrades, Godfrey Hartley and Henry Jordan,
convoy us that twenty miles by water to Gravesend,
where landing on the stairs I meet my third comrade,
Will. Waite, having a lady by the hand, conveying her
on board a frigate, her husband, Captain Waite, being
master. Behold he lets go the lady and gets me in his
arms, to the admiration of all present !
"I am now at Gravesend, the dearest place in Eng-

SCOTSMEN IN LONDON. 239
land ; and I record the following passage for the rarity of
it, that my three comrades and fellow-travellers abroad
should, by a happy Providence, encounter and tryst
together in one place, and no design in it. There was
Henry Jordan, my first fellow-traveller, through France ;
Will. Waite, my second, through Italy to Rome ; and my
third and last, the best of all, Godfrey Hartley, with
whom I travelled a long but pleasant pilgrimage from
Rome to London, where now I must leave him, and
much of my heart with him. That night we lodged with
Shusan, at the Chequers, who treated us heartily, nor lost
he anything at our hand. We drunk my bowed shilling
with him, remembering our true friends at London.
Next afternoon intimation was made throughout the
harbour that the Providence frigate was appointed to be
the convoy of the Scotch fleet, and indeed Providence
was still my convoy in all my travels and voyages. Next
morrow by times, Mr Wishart, Mr Blair, Mr Gordon,
Liddell, and several others, arrived down the river in a
pair of oars from London, to give us their last farewell.
At Mr Shusan's Chequers tavern we cheer one another
with many affectionate remembrances ; and after bathing
some choice healths in the best London liquor, we bid
adieu to sack and the Chequers, and after many repeated
sweet embraces, at last we parted. I shall conclude with
the poet —
' How oft our number'd kisses did we tell !
How loth was our sad tongue to say farewell ! ' "
"April 28. — We went aboard of the 'Mary of Dun
dee' lying in the roads off Gravesend, and bound for
Inverness. We were ten passengers in the ship besides

240 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the crew, viz., Duncan Forbes, William Trent, Alexander
Clunes, and John Macfarquhar, merchants in Inverness ;
Henry Bain and James Dunbar, apprentices to Pat.
Ruthven, factor in Inverness ; John Jamieson, merchant
in Burntisland ; James Wilson, in Dundee ; Mr Charles
M'Culloch, apothecary chirurgeon in Tain; and Mr James
Fraser, student and traveller. I have set myself last as
recorder of all the rest. A sign was given of a great gun
shot out of the Providence frigate, our convoy, at which
all the fleet, twenty-two ships, weighed anchor and set
sail with a prosperous gale for the coast of Scotland,
whither God conduct and pUot us all in safety to our
respective harbours and homes. Amen !"

TOUR TO PERTHSHIRE, ETC. 241

TOUR TO PERTHSHIRE, &c.
January 30, 1839. — Left Inverness at half-past twelve
this morning by the south mail-coach. There is generally
•something dreary and uncomfortable, unless to experi
enced travellers, at leaving home at midnight to begin a
journey. "Thick-coming fancies" are apt to take pos
session of the brain. The imagination is ready to present
all that may possibly occur during an absence of even
a few weeks — the calamities that may suddenly befal
those we have parted from — the pangs that may be
suffered — or the disruption of some of those numerous
ties that bind every man to some particular spot of
earth. These reveries are more potent when it happens
(as was the case with us on this occasion) that there is
no other traveUer in the vehicle. The morning was cold,
clear, and frosty ; the windows of the coach studded and
fillagree'd with frost-work. At the end of the first stage,
at Moy, two outside passengers were introduced, byre-
quest of the guard. They took their seats without saying
a word. There was something curious and unaccount
able in the manner of one of the men ; but the other
whispered, "He is quite peaceable; it is a despair-case ;
I am taking him to our asylum." A despair-case ! we
internally exclaimed; very comfortable intelligence. The
Q

242 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
night, however, was piercing cold, and the poor wretch
shivered in every limb. It turned out, as may be con
jectured, that the man was insane, and his companion
was conveying him to the lunatic asylum at Perth. The
unhappy sufferer had been a superior servant in a noble
family in the north, but had fallen into intemperate
habits, in consequence of which his reason was com
pletely overturned. A deep melancholy had settled on
his mind, and he was constantly ejaculating, " I am lost ;
I am lost." A feverish restlessness was one of the
accompaniments of his case; and the keeper said he
never enjoyed an hour's rest at a time. " God of our
fathers, what is man ? " exclaims the poet, lamenting
over the misery and mutations of life ; but in no situa
tion can it be viewed in so affecting a light, as when
suffering that greatest of all evils, and sorest of maladies,
the deprivation of reason.
Daylight broke (though dull as if shining through a
paper-pane) as the coach reached Dalwhinnie. Here
the snow lay deep, and continued along the road as far
as Dalnacardoch, a dreary mountainous district, watered
by the river Garry, black, treeless, and foaming. We
began to feel something of the excitement of a journey
as the day advanced ; and our companions had resumed
their seat on the top of the coach. The sides of the
great Pass of Killiecrankie, the death-scene of Dundee,
were feathered to the summit, and had a most picturesque
appearance. This is, indeed, a splendid pass, precipitous
and wild, yet fertile as an Italian vale, and graced with
cottages, villas, and every variety of natural wood and
foliage. The Pass of Inverfarigaig, on the banks of Loch-
Ness, is a noble scene, but it must yield to Killiecrankie,

DUNKELD. 243
which is equally grand and lofty, and possesses more
variety. The. whole of the road from Blair-Athole to
Perth is varied and striking.

DUNKELD.
The handsome little town of Dunkeld is always a
welcome object to the traveller by the Highland road.
It is like Milton's rustic beauty,
"The Cynosure of neighbouring eyes."
It is the boast and envy of all Perthshire. We know of
no place of equal size which possesses such manifold at
tractions. It is neatly built, encompassed by high hills,
embeUished by the majestic Tay, wooded in every vale
and on every summit (including the classic heights of
Birnam), blessed with a fine climate, and, from its prox
imity to Perth and Edinburgh, commands every facility
of communication, and all the luxuries of a large city.
About three thousand strangers visit the pleasure-
grounds at Dunkeld each season; and the manner of
receiving and disposing of this multitudinous horde of
"the Sassenach" has been so systematised, that a brief
description may not be unacceptable.
There are two great objects of attraction — the cathe
dral and the walks. The first is a fine ruin, but greatly
inferior to many others in the kingdom. It contains a
monument and effigy of the famous Wolf of Badenoch,
who has furnished employment for the pens of historians
and novelists. The shady retired situation of the cathe
dral — its mouldering arches and pillars — and the vener-

244 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
able simplicity of the architecture, strike the eye of the
stranger, but need not detain him long. Having tendered
his gratuity to the old woman, his conductor, and received
in return her curtsey and thanks, he expresses a desire to
see the pleasure-grounds, when he is told that it is neces
sary to procure a guide. There are five regular guides,
distinguished with a sort of blue livery, faced with white.
They receive each nine shillings a-week ; and the money
given to them by visitors is handed over to the head-
gardener, who, after paying the guides, derives, we are
told, about ,£300 per annum from this valuable perquisite.
The guide that accompanied us was a communicative
little man, who talked familiarly of Ossian, "the first
poet in the world, and far before Macintyre, the Gaelic
bard." He was also lavish in his praise of Niel Gow,
the Scottish musician, and of Robert Burns, whom he
characterised truly as " an ill-used man. " " I would
rather be a guide than an exciseman !" said the little
man proudly, pleased with his own ambition —
" That last infirmity of noble mind."
The entrance to the grounds is by a lodge and gate
way. After pacing a few hundred yards on a smooth-
shaven green, bounded by a shrubbery and a few fine
walnut trees, planted by Duke James a hundred and
twenty years since, we come to the unfinished house or
palace, begun by the late proprietor shortly before his
death. The foundations of this magnificent structure
cover an acre of ground ; it was to have cost £150,000,
a sum which the guide, with a proper regard for the
dignity of the house, magnified into half a miUion. Part

DUNKELD. 245
of the buildings was raised thirty or forty feet— other-
parts only a few yards. The duke died; and on the
morning of his death nearly seven hundred workmen
were discharged. And there the unfinished pile stands,
resembling, in its vastness and silence, a Herculaneum
or Pompeii — a city of the dead.
When David Garrick showed Johnson his fine house
and garden, and praised all the beauties of the place, no
doubt expecting a similar eulogium from the stern old
moralist, Johnson replied, "Ah, David, these are the
things that make death terrible !" The Duke of Athole
must have felt a pang at dying in the midst of his magni
ficent plans, and his extensive possessions ; yet, however
we may moralise on a man of seventy-four beginning to
bund a mansion that would take eight or ten years to
complete, his ambition proved a great benefit to the
working classes and the poor around him. It diffused
the elements of comfort over many a family, and gave a
spirit and animation to the town and neighbourhood.
About ;£ 20,000 were expended in the part that has been
done. The trustees suspended this great undertaking;
and they have covered in the works, and coped the walls,
to preserve them till some happier day, when another
duke or heir may resume and complete the original
design. The pleasure-grounds at Dunkeld, on both sides of
the river, are said to exceed fifty miles in extent. The
stranger may wander on by the banks of the Tay, or
climb the hills, till he is satiated with Alpine and wood^
land beauty. The ground under him is a soft green ;
carpeting of turf; and overhead he has the shade of end--
less woods — rows of beeches, larch, and chestnut, inter-

246 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
mixed with Scotch and silver firs. The Gothic-looking
arches of beech are peculiarly fine.
Gilpin correctly describes the Gothic arch as rising
from a lofty stem, or from two or three stems, if they be
slender; which, being bound together, and spreading in
every direction, cover the whole roof with their ramifi
cation. In the close recesses of the beechen or lime
grove, we find this idea the most complete. The lofty
narrow aisle, the pointed arch, the clustered pillar, whose
parts, separating without violence, diverge gradually to
form the fretted roof, find there perhaps their earliest
archetype. The beautiful passage of Cowper is well
known, but it is impossible to resist transcribing it —
" How airy and how light the graceful arch,
Yet awful as the consecrated roof
Re-echoing pious anthems ! while beneath
The chequer'd earth seems restless as a flood
Brush'd by the wind. So sportive is the light
Shot through the boughs, it dances as they dance,
Shadow and sunshine intermingling quick,
And darkening and enlightening, as the leaves
Play wanton, every moment, every spot. ''
The Hermitage at Dunkeld is next seen ; it is about
as like what we may conceive the residence of a hermit
to be, as the cottages of the nobility are like the real
cottages of the poor. Bay windows, painted walls, and
gorgeous mirrors, are curious characteristics of the abode
of a solitary recluse, "his food the roots, his drink the
crystal well." But as a work of art, this hermitage is
perfect of its kind. The guide conducts you through a
narrow path or thicket, to the edge of the river Bran — a
true mountain stream, brawling over its stony bed — which

DUNKELD. 247
falls into the Tay. He opens a door, and you find your
self in a small lobby, in which is .a painting of Ossian in
a rapt study — " His looks commercing with the skies."
Beside the blind bard is his dog Bran, which undoubt
edly (according to the guide) gave its name to the stream.
The picture looks like a feeble copy of the style of West
(feeble enough is the master himself !) but while you are
criticising this presentment of Ossian, the guide manages,
quietly and suddenly, to draw a string. Presto ! the
picture vanishes, the little dark lobby opens, and you
find yourself in a blaze of light in a fine octagonal room,
with a cataract roaring in your ears and before your eyes,
multiplied by numerous mirrors. You look to the ceil
ing, and there you see another cataract, rushing up ap
parently to the sky, with black rocks in "pitiless horror"
set around it. The effect is magical, but the spell is soon
dissolved ; the apartment opens, by a large bay window,
on a real waterfall, and the image of this is reflected by
the mirrors placed on the walls and roof. Here, perhaps,
" The pleasure is as great
In being cheated as to cheat. "
The waterfall is fine. The stream expands considerably
before its descent, and is broken into three divisions,
each pouring down into the dark pool below, where the
rocks close again, leaving only a narrow passage for the
troubled water. There is a variety of natural wood and
plants on the banks, springing out of every cleft, and
overhanging the fall in picturesque profusion. We looked
and looked again at this spot, brooding over the stage-
trick and scene-shifting, till we got half-ashamed of being

248 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
imposed upon, and muttered something about a Drury
Lane or Covent Garden spectacle !
Wordsworth, in his " Memorials of a Tour in Scot
land," in one of his early volumes, is indignant at the
desecration of the Celtic Homer.
" What ! Ossian here, a painted thrall,
Mute fixture on a stuccoed wall ;
To serve an unsuspected screen
For show that must not yet be seen ! "
The conclusion of the poem is in the meditative and
pensive style of that philosophical bard : —
" Vain pleasures of luxurious life,
Forever with yourselves at strife ;
Through town and country both deranged
By affectations interchanged,
And all the perishable gauds
That Heaven-deserted man applauds ;
When will your hapless patrons learn
To watch and ponder — to discern
The freshness, the eternal youth,
Of admiration sprung from truth ;
From beauty infinitely growing
Upon a mind with love o'erflowing
To sound the depths of every art
That seeks its wisdom through the heart ?
" Thus (where the intrusive pile, ill graced
With baubles of theatric taste,
O'erlooks the torrent-breathing showers
On motley bands of alien flowers,
In stiff confusion set or sown,
Till Nature cannot find her own,

DUNKELD. 249
Or keep a remnant of the sod
Which Caledonian heroes trod)
I mused ; and, thirsting for redress,
Recoiled into the wilderness ! "
The guide pointed out, in the course of our rambles,
a pleasing instance of kindness and consideration in the
late Duke of Athole ; an old spreading oak on the. south
side of the river, where Niel Gow used to sit on the sum
mer afternoons, canopied by the branches, composing or
practising his beautiful Scottish melodies. The oak tree
is carefully preserved; and the Duke cut down some
trees on the opposite bank, to throw open to visitors
this rural scene of musical taste and inspiration. Few
violinists enjoy so picturesque a study ; and though Niel
could drink as well as play, and preferred the Tay water
when mixed with a more potent liquid than he found
under the oak tree, he seems to have compounded the
elements of sociality with traits of a higher character,
and to have lived a decent unreproached life.

LARCH PLANTATIONS AT DUNKELD.
Among the objects of interest at Dunkeld are two
enormous larch trees, which are described as the first
planted in this country. They are said to have been
originally set in flower-pots,, and reared as hot-house
plants. The two are nearly equal in size — about a
hundred feet high, and fourteen feet in circumference
near the ground. The story, as to their origin, is dis
credited by some local chroniclers ; and Sir James Na-
smyth, a Tweeddale baronet, disputes with Duke James

250 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
of Athole the merit of being the first who planted larches
in Scotland. The latter, however, has the honour of
being the most extensive and persevering planter, and so
far he was a public benefactor.
Few things are more picturesque or beautiful than a
planting of larch trees, hanging "all their tassels forth"
on a fine morning, by the side of some dark lake or far-
stretching mountain, at once relieving and enriching the
landscape by their light and graceful aspect. The im
prover also finds the wood a profitable investment.
" The result of planting a moor with larches," says Sir
Thomas Dick Lauder, "is, that when the trees have
grown so much as to exclude the sun, and to diminish
the air and moisture on the surface, the heath is soon ex
terminated ; and the soil gradually increasing by the de
composition of the spines or leaflets, annually thrown
down by the larches, grass begins to grbw as the trees
rise in elevation, so as to allow greater freedom for the
circulation of air below — and thus land which was not
worth one shilling an acre, becomes most valuable pas
ture." The Duke of Athole also found that the larch
was little destroyed by snow or storms, so destructive to
pine plantations, owing to its being a deciduous tree, and
its branches small.
A pamphlet has been published, on the Athole system
of planting and rearing larch, by Mr Shiells, planner and
valuer of woods. This gentleman contends for the pri
ority of the Duke of Athole as to the introduction of
larches. A package of plants, he says, having been
brought from Switzerland in a gentleman's portmanteau,
a few of them were reared in the green-house at Dunkeld;
three or four were planted on the lawn behind the man-

DUNKELD. 251
sion-house ; and their vigorous and handsome appearance
suggested to the Duke the expediency of a more general
cultivation of the tree. Accordingly, he early commenced
to form large and extensive plantations. The larch thrives
best when planted in masses; and before his death his
grace had covered ten thousand acres of the Dunkeld
estate, using, at least, thirty millions of the plants, be
sides other trees, to the amount of several millions.
The advantages of this system of rural improvement are
summed up as follows : — One hundred acres of land,
originally worth the annual rent for grazing of only is. 6d.
per acre, with an outlay for planting and thinning of
^553. 10s., will, at the end of thirty years, not only repay
this outlay, and yield, besides, a free profit of £659, but,
at that period, will be received back into the rental of the
estate worth the annual value of 10s. per acre, with a crop
of timber on it of the value of ,£12,350, which is increas
ing at the yearly rate of at least £1000.
It appears that larch timber is suitable for shipbuild
ing. Her Majesty's frigate, "Athole," of twenty-eight
guns, was whoUy built of larch from the forests of Dun
keld and Blair, and has stood service in various climates
with signal success. The late Duke witnessed the launch
of this vessel, which must have been to him a highly
gratifying spectacle. Some men of warm imagination
and poetical fancy may say, "What will become of our
sea-songs, and patriotic speeches — our 'Hearts of Oak,'
and the ' Thunders of our Native Oak' — if the larch is to
supplant the growth of old England's forests in the manu
facture of ships of war?" When Home wrote his tragedy of
"Douglas," the play originally contained the following line :
" Here stands the ash, the monarch of the wood."

252 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Some knowing friends of the dramatist protested against
the supremacy of the ash. It will never do, said they, to
discrown the venerable oak, though the ash is more char
acteristic of a Scottish landscape. You must consult the
long-cherished associations of the British public, and, by
substituting oak for ash, give at once satisfaction to the
audience and dignity to the verse.* The poet saw that
the criticism was just, and at once assented. We have
no fear, however, of the larch supplanting the oak in
building ships of war. But let aU our lairds who may
have steep hill sides and waste land to cultivate, set about
rearing larch. Let them seek out the best plants proper
for the soil and situation (using the spruce fir when the
soil is too moist for the larch); and let them have them
planted in good order and good season. Let them be
well fenced, and in due time properly thinned and
cleared; the whole well ventilated and arranged; not
planted in stiff mechanical lines, but thrown into
clumps and open glades — a forest bold, flourishing, and
graceful. * Perhaps the most interesting association connected with trees,
is that of their being employed in shipbuilding, because, without
ships, mankind must have remained in isolated portions, and could
never have been highly civilised. It is probable, therefore, that in
every country where ships are built, and where the trees employed
are high in the scale of organic beauty, the most intellectual people
of that country will consider such trees as the most beautiful. In
Europe and America, the oak is the tree chiefly used in shipbuild
ing ; and it is, at the same time, unquestionably fuller of variety and
beauty of organic form, and of colour, and light, and shade, than
any other tree of temperate climates ; the oak, therefore, to the
most refined of the inhabitants of these countries, may be considered
m ost beautiful of trees. — Arboretum Britannicum. Part II.

PERTH.

PERTH.

253

The coach soon whirled us into the "Fair City."
There is nothing remarkable in Perth — no great manu
factures or trade — the streets and buildings fine, but no
remains of antiquity, which a stranger expects here, con
sidering that Perth was so prominent a place in Scottish
history. Gowrie Palace, where James the Sixth exhibited
the only instance of courage he was ever known to possess,
has been long since removed. John Knox's Kirk remains
(St John's Church), recalling the memory of that stern
reformer, and of the troubled times in which he acted so
prominent a part. When we entered it, some workmen
were there making repairs. In this church Knox preached
one of his first reformation sermons, and excited the con
gregation in an extraordinary degree by his fervid de
nunciations of the errors of the Church of Rome. The
sacred edifice is in excellent preservation. It requires
no great effort of imagination, while standing within its
walls, to conjure up the circumstances of this memorable
discourse — the people greedily devouring the forbidden
truth, sweet as stolen waters— the thin spare figure of the
preacher, dilated with a sort of preternatural enthusiasm
— his long white beard — his keen eye, and outstretched
hand, holding the audience, as it were, by a spell, while
he thundered forth the torrent of his rude vehement
eloquence, heard with rapture or with fear, but never
neard in vain. The frantic gestures and uncontrollable
enthusiasm of his hearers would be as dew to the
troubled and toiling spirit of Knox; and when he saw
them burst forth to destroy the images in the Catholic

254 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Church, he must have known that from that moment a
spirit had gone forth which could not be quelled by
authority, and that the cause was won.
The environs of Perth, embosomed in the vale of the
Tay, are justly famed for their beauty. The river is
broad and winding, careering, like a monarch, through
his rich dominions. It has been often related, that when
Agricola and the Roman army first saw the river Tay,
and the adjacent plains, with the two Inches, they ex
claimed, " Ecce Tiber! Ecce Campus Martius !" Behold
the Tiber ! Behold the Field of Mars ! The comparison
would not now be considered a compliment to Scotland.
The Tiber is a very ordinary stream, with its yellow
waters flowing through a country in ruins, wasted by
malaria. The Tay flows through a fertile, beautiful,
and improving district, which, if not blest with the blue
skies of Italy, has enjoyed a healthy climate, with the
inestimable boon of free laws and equal privileges; and
thus her hardy and industrious sons have risen to emi
nence in arts and arms — have fertilized and embellished
their country at home, and carried the glory of its name
into foreign lands. So just is the eulogium of the poet —
" Liberal, not lavish, is kind Nature's hand ;
Nor was perfection made for man below ;
Yet all her schemes with nicest art are plann'd,
Good counteracting ill, and gladness woe.
With gold and gems if eastern mountains glow ;
If bleak and barren Scotia's hills arise —
There plague and poison, lust and rapine grow ;
Here peaceful are the vales and pure the skies,
And freedom fires the soul and sparkles in the eyes."
Scone Palace, the seat of Lord Mansfield, is about

LYNEDOCH. 255
two miles from Perth. It is a modern building, erected
about thirty years since. A part of the ancient edifice,
in which the Kings of Scotland used to be crowned, is
enclosed in the present mansion, like a heart preserved
in a casket. On the site of the Coronation Hall are
built a music gallery and billiard room, both together
being about a hundred and seventy feet in length. The
park at Scone contains five hundred acres ; and on the
lawn are two sycamores, one of which is said to have
been planted by James the Sixth.

LYNEDOCH— "BESSY BELL AND
MARY GRAY."
Lynedoch Cottage, long the seat of the late Lord Lyne
doch, stands on the banks of the river Almond, about
six imles from Perth. The house is truly a cottage, but
it opens into a conservatory and flower-garden, kept in
exquisite order, with the river murmuring below. A more
secluded spot can hardly be conceived. The surround
ing grounds consist of green pastoral hills and deUs,
succeeding each other like waves of the sea ; and, though
fertile and cultivated fields are in the distance, not an
other house or cottage is visible. About half-a-mile from
the aged warrior's nest is a spot still more retired, though
famous in Scottish song : it is the grave of the two hero
ines, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray," whose simple and
touching story has been embalmed by some rustic poet,
in a copy of verses that has floated down through genera-

256 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
tions of readers.* In 1645 the city of Perth was sadly
desolated with the plague. Three thousand of the in
habitants died, and numerous parties went to the country
to escape the contagion, and built huts for themselves
among the solitary hills. The grounds near the River
Almond are expressly stated, in a contemporary manu
script, as having been the scene of some of these erec
tions ; and thither, among others, according to the tradi
tion of the country, went Bessy Bell, daughter of the
Laird of Kinvaid, and Mary Gray, daughter of the Laird
of Lynedoch. They were both eminent beauties — the
flowers of Almond Water. The infection was accident-
* Allan Ramsay first published a version of this song in his " Tea
Table Miscellany," 1724; but Allan was more deficient in taste
than genius, and he has destroyed the simple tenderness of the old
ballad. Mr Kirkpatrick Sharpe has recovered the original stanzas,
which are as follows : —
" O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,
They war twa bonnie lasses !
They biggit a bower on yon burn brae,
. And theekit it o'er wi' rashes.
They theekit it o'er wi' rashes green,
They theekit it o'er wi' heather ;
But the pest cam frae the burrows town,
And slew them baith thegither.
" They thocht to lie in Methven kirkyard
Amang their noble kin,
But they maun lie on Lynedoch brae
To beek foment the sun.
And Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,
They war twa bonnie lasses,
They biggit a bower on yon burn brae,
And theekit it o'er wi' rashes."

DUNBLANE. 257
aUy carried to their " bower " by some young gentleman,
who came to visit them in their solitude, and both died,
and were interred on the spot. The dread of contagion
had, no doubt, prevented their interment " among their
noble kin." Lord Lynedoch put an fron railing round
the grave, and planted some yew trees beside it. The
peasantry had long decorated it with flowers, and aU the
lads and lasses made annual pilgrimages to a spot conse
crated by so many tender and affecting associations.
The scene is well calculated to deepen such impressions.
It is at the foot of a high bank, completely sheltered and
Concealed by a wood, but in front of the place where the
fair friends " biggit their bower " is a plot of delicious
greensward, visited by the setting sun, and the river
murmurs past with a ceaseless but gentle flow that gives
a feeling of something like life and animation to the
secluded scene. Many of our old ballads and airs have
a melancholy character, but there is none more touching
than this of Bessy Bell and Mary Gray. It is a romance
of the heart, and on such a subject a few rude verses have
a secure foundation. Even Queen Victoria's progress in
Perthshire will be sooner forgotten than this simple
country story ; and the grave of the unfortunate maidens
will be visited when the royal footsteps have ceased to be
remembered.
DUNBLANE.
Early in the morning we left that comfortable hostelrie,
the Star Inn, Perth, and were on our way to Doune.
Passed the little town of Dunblane — miserable, irregular,
and dirty ; the houses thrown together as if by accident

258 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
or earthquake, and dunghills profusely scattered on every
side. The Cathedral is an extensive ruin. Part of it is
converted into the parish church; and the kirk-session
may sit in the old carved oak seats which served for the
staUs of the monks and abbots. The church beadle
remarked, that the congregation could hardly hear the
minister, owing to the size and construction of the church,
though it is only a part of the old fabric. A drapery of
cloth has been hung round to deaden the sound. It
seems obvious that splendid and capacious churches are
not well adapted for our Presbyterian worship. The
lofty imposing ritual of the Roman Catholics, and, in a
certain degree, that of the Episcopalian Church also,
appeals to the external senses and the imagination. The
congregation have a part to perforin; they repeat the
responses, and are familiar with the prayers. In the
Scottish Church, the congregation have little else to do
but to listen — a fact which the clergy should recollect,
by preparing carefully for their ministrations, and by
speaking in a distinct and audible manner ; and the
circumstance should ever be remembered by our church
architects.
D O U N E.
Doune is a truly Highland village, lying in an amphi
theatre-like plain, girt with blue hills, and watered by the
River Teith. Birch trees are mingled with some fine old
ashes and oaks. To the east, the lofty hiU of Demayet
(which terminates the range of the Ochills) and the turrets
of Stirling melt in the distant sky. On the other hand
are the Grampians, with Benledi and Benlomond. The

D0UNE. 259
Tr.osachs lie within a few miles ; and we can see the
opening clefts and gorges of that fairy land, which, in his
early and happy days, inspired the sweetest strains of the
mighty minstrel. For upwards of a century Doune was
distinguished for its manufacture of pistols. About thirty
years ago the last of the old pistol-makers died, and the
trade here died with him. One of the greatest of the
Scottish cattle markets is held at Doune. On one occa
sion, the drovers and dealers drank the innkeeper dry,
and tempted him to broach some excellent claret, which
the country gentlemen kept for their meetings as an agri
cultural club. The deficiency was not supplied when the
heritors next assembled, and there was a want of wine.
The cause was explained ; it was a damper ; but the old
laird of Blair-Drummond cut short the matter by ex
claiming, " Weel, if the drovers have ta'en to our drink,
we must take to theirs ;" and the party got very merry on
whisky punch. English tourists swarm here in summer,
on their way to the Trosachs. A country toll in the
neighbourhood lets for above ^1100 a-year.
Doune Castle is a magnificent ruin, worthy its com
manding situation. Sir Walter Scott introduces it into
his novel of Waverley; and during the troubles of the
Forty-five, the author of Douglas was confined within its
walls, from which he made a romantic escape, letting
himself down, with some companions, from one of the
windows. The Queen of James the Fourth (a sister of
bluff Harry the Eighth) added greatly to the castle. It
is of prodigious extent ; and the proprietor, Lord Moray,
might easily dress up part of the massive structure,, and
fit it for a summer residence. The old gateway and port
cullis are still preserved. Yet let us be thankful for

260 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the mighty change that has rendered Doune Castle a
ruin ! Our barons no longer need live in narrow rooms,
with huge walls and battlements, and windows like pigeon
holes ; while the meanest shed that covers the peasant and
his family possesses more security than was once enjoyed
in the proudest stronghold of the feudal chief. The pre
sent Earl of Moray has a handsome modern lodge near
the ruins, which is enriched by some beautiful walks and
plantations; and, on his lordship's estate here, are the
classic localities of the Lady of the Lake, the mountain
of Uam Var, Loch-Vennachar, Loch-Achray, and the
royal forest of Glenfinlass, the latter being a grant to the
family, made in 1528, by James the Fifth. The inhabit
ants of Glenfinlass are all Stuarts, descendants of the
foresters at the period of the royal grant. Rob Roy's
paterrial lands are also Lord Moray's property ; and Rob
himself sleeps soundly by the " braes of Balquhidder."
" Bear witness, many a pensive sigh
Of thoughtful herdsman, while he strays
Alone upon Loch-Veol's heights,
And by Loch-Lomond's braes ! "
The bridge over the Teith, at Doune, is well worth a
passing notice. It is a strong sturdy fabric, though up
wards of three hundred years old. On the parapet is the
following inscription, still distinctly legible ; we have mo
dernized the spelling : —
" In God is aU my trust, said Spittel. The tenth day
of September, in the year of God, 1553 years, founded
was this bridge, by Robert Spittel, tailor to the Most
Noble Princess Margaret, Queen to James the Fourth."

DOUNE. 2" 6 1
The worthy tailor was not ashamed of his profession;
for, in addition to his designation in the above description,
he has ornamented the parapet with the characteristic em
blem of a large pair of scissors. There is a tradition in
the district concerning this knight of the shears. There
was a ford, with a ferry-boat, about half way between the
present bridge and Doune Castle, which Spittel had fre
quently to pass. The charge at the ferry was a doit; bu,t
on one occasion Spittel had no smaller coin than a bodle
(equal to two doits), and having been at former times ill
pleased with the inattention of the ferryman, he very
coolly took out his shears, clipped the bodle in two, and
gave one half to the boatman ! The careful tailor waxed
rich and public-spirited. He built two other bridges;
and he founded an hospital in Stirling, from which
widows and orphans are still relieved and supported.
Queen Margaret's tailor was, therefore, no ordinary man.
He placed as a motto on his hospital at Stirling, " The
liberal man deviseth liberal things ;" and he surmounted
it also with his shears, the source of all his liberality. Is
Queen Victoria's tailor as proud of his scissors, or as weU
disposed to devise liberal things ?
We perambulated the vUlage, and found the people
all on the qui vive. A great dinner was to be given that
afternoon to the commissioner, or manager, of Lord
Moray's estates. The tenants had their leases just re
newed; and the arrangements seemed to have been so
satisfactory, that they invited the commissioner to a
public dinner. The innkeeper was as active as "a hen
on a hot girdle," as the Scotch saying is; or as Niel
Blane, the innkeeper in Old Mortality, was on the night
oi the grand feat of the popinjay. His " womankind" in

262 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the kitchen looked unutterable things, as they whisked
about among the pots and pans, and endeavoured to
fathom the mysteries of tarts and puddings. Fowls,
plucked and spitted, garnished the dresser; and a turkey
lay in state close by. A few old men were busy bottling
up the cold punch, with a comic expression of bustle and
anxiety, sitting on low stools, and tasting the beverage
now and then, just to see that it was all right. The
dinner was evidently a great event.
We attended this rural festival, through the courtesy
of the gentlemen acting as stewards. The chair was taken
by Mr Macgregor of Glengyle, the chief of the clan Mac-
gregor, and a fine specimen of the Highland gentleman.
Tenants had come from all quarters : one of them, a
white-headed veteran of ninety-three, represented the
Stuarts of Glenfinlass. The braes of Balquhidder, and
other districts, had sent their good men and true; for
the shield of Lord Moray covers many a strath, mountain,
and glen.
As illustrating the ancient connection between the
Macgregors and the noble family of Moray, the follow
ing anecdote was related : — At a time when the chief
and his clan were in their severest extremity, proscribed
by the Government, the earl exerted himself to obtain
redress for them. As a proof of his confidence, he em
ployed the chief to go to Inverness-shire, to overawe
some of his tenants who had refused to pay their rents.
Macgregor took eleven bold fellows of his clan, and suc
ceeded in his object, believing that, after such a service,
his pardon would be granted. At Aberfeldie, on their
way homewards, an officer of the King's troops arrogantly
demanded why Macgregor's men wore claymores by their

DOUNE. 263
sides, and pistols in their belts ; a scuffle ensued, and one
of the Highlanders laid the sidier derg, or red soldier,
dead at his feet. Macgregor saw the fatal rencounter,
and hurried on his clansmen. At Killin, they were sur
rounded by a party of military, and had to cut their way
through a superior force. They reached Donibristle, the
seat of the Earl of Moray, but the unfortunate affray at
Aberfeldie paralysed the Earl's endeavours to procure a
pardon for the clan Gregor. Soon afterwards, however,
the happy day arrived. Lord Moray became Chancellor
of Scotland, and obtained a full and free pardon for the
proscribed sept; and still further, to mark his sense of
the obligations conferred on him by Glengyle, the chief,
he bestowed on him and his heirs for ever the farm of
"Bridge of Turk," on which very farm the venerable
mother of their chairman, Mr Macgregor of Glengyle,
the chief and representative of the ancient clan Alpine,
then resided.
About eleven o'clock we stole away, glad to breathe
the fresh air. Though the night was chilly, it was mild
for the season ; and the Teith murmured pleasantly
under the arches of old Robert Spittel's bridge, among
the stones and trees. Meetings, like the above, of the
occupiers of the soil and rural aristocracy, must tend very
materially to unite them together in friendly union. No
revolution in the framework of society need be dreaded,
while the whole is thus cemented by kindness, and based
on mutual interest and regard. The Highlanders seem
peculiarly alive to such impressions, owing, perhaps, to
the lingering remains of the system of chiefs and clans.
All that was good in the feudal system, that was kind or
patriarchal, has been preserved; while nearly all that was

264 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
evil has melted away, The poor clansmen were sadly
depressed for many a year ; and some allusions made at
the Doune meeting, relative to the merciless proscription
of the Macgregors, seemed still to rouse the men of the
hills like the sound of a trumpet. Their fathers bore all
patiently. " For right hereditary taxed and fined,
They stuck to poverty with peace of mind."
A better day has dawned on them; and as rural improve
ment continues to proceed, we hope to see them reap
stiU more fully the fruits of patience and industry.

DEANSTON COTTON WORKS.
Within a few hundred yards, facing each other on the
banks of the Teith at Doune, stand two very different
objects, memorials of ancient and modern times — a
ruined castle, and a cotton manufactory. The former,
in its gigantic bulk and wasted strength, bespeaks the
ascendancy and downfall of feudal power and tyranny ;
the latter presents the extreme of civilisation, when art
and luxury have called in the aid of mechanical genius,
and operations the most delicate, subtle, and extensive
are performed with a celerity and regularity that excite
wonder and delight. The revolutions of the planets in
their orbits seem, to ignorant eyes, scarcely more aston
ishing than those marvels of commercial and manu
facturing skill.
Deanston cotton works employ above eleven hundred

DEANSTON COTTON WORKS. 265
persons, young and old, and contain the most perfect
machinery in the kingdom. The first erection took place
in the year 1785, by the Messrs Buchanan of Carston,
four brothers, the eldest of whom was an intimate
acquaintance of Sir Richard Arkwright, and was his first
agent in Glasgow for the sale of cotton twist. The
English had annoyed Sir Richard so much, by invading
his invention, that he resolved to instruct young Scotsmen
in the art, in preference to his own countrymen; and,
among others, Mr Archibald Buchanan (now manager of
the Catrine works, Ayrshire) went apprentice to Sir
Richard, and was the only one who had the privilege of
living in the house with him. Sir Richard was an old
bachelor, and was so intent on his schemes and calcula
tions, that young Buchanan and he often sat for weeks
together, on opposite sides of the fire, without exchang
ing a syllable. The old man, however, was in his other
moods extremely kind and familiar, and recollected his
pupil in after life. The only time that Sir Richard Ark
wright visited Scotland, he penetrated as far north as the
braes of Doune to see the Deanston works. When he
came suddenly on the river, at the old bridge of Teith, he
wasted no ejaculations on the beauty of the landscape,
but, looking at the volume and descent of the water, he
lifted up his hands in ecstacy, and exclaimed — " Zounds,
what a work could be done here !" Sir Richard was
much pleased with the establishment at Deanston; under
the charge of his former pupil, and presented his silver
spectacles to the mother of Mr Buchanan — they are still
carefully preserved by her descendants.
The eldest brother of the Buchanans, in consequence
of the death of his father, was led to engage in cattle

266 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
dealing. He attended the fairs of Doune, and, on one
occasion, having his cattle in a field at Deanston, one of
the number fell over the precipitous bank of the river.
Mr Buchanan was struck with the great body of water in
the Teith, and with its rapid descent; and the idea
flashed across him that this would be an excellent situa
tion for a cotton factory. The scheme was soon ripened
into action. There was a lint mill with a dam upon the
property, and the owner disposed of the mill to him, and
gave him a feu of six acres, along the margin of the
stream. Carding and roving for jenny-spinning were
then the only processes which were driven by power (as it
is termed), and for this purpose the old lint mill was
appropriated, a building being erected close by for the
reception of the jennies. This building is five storeys
high, a hundred and fifty feet long inside, and twenty-
eight feet wide. At first, the Highlanders were shy of
entering this tower of Babel, with its unknown sounds
and sights ; they considered it a sort of prison. From
the respectable manner in which the works were con
ducted, they were gradually reconciled to the employment,
and were quite willing that both themselves and children
should be engaged. Archibald Buchanan was then a fine
athletic young man of eighteen or nineteen, of a social
generous disposition; he mingled with the people, and
thus a number of active young men of the district, of the
better classes, were led to work at Deanston; and so
expert did they become, that as fine yarn was then spun
at Deanston, as has subsequently been made by the best
spinners in Manchester. Some of these young men after
wards made fortunes in business ; and the firm of the
Macphails in Glasgow (extensive spinners and power

DEANSTON COTTON WORKS. 267
weavers) had its origin in one of the family repairing
from Ross-shire to work at Deanston.
In the year 1793, the works at Deanston passed into
the hands of a Yorkshire quaker, a benevolent old gentle
man, named Flounders; and, in 1808, they became the
property of James Finlay & Co. from Glasgow, with
whom Mr Archibald Buchanan had become connected.
The establishment was at this time remodelled, under the
charge of Mr Smith (a nephew of Mr Buchanan), who is
well known for his mechanical as well as his agricultural
inventions and improvements. In 1822 the company
made arrangements with the neighbouring proprietors for
additional water power, by which they acquired a fall of
twenty feet, making the whole fall thirty-three feet. This
required extensive operations. The salmon fishings on
the Teith and Forth were also a source of anxiety ; but
Earl Moray and the other proprietors were exceedingly
liberal, and offered no opposition. In order to protect
the interests of the fishings, care was taken in the con
struction of the dam, to provide for the easy passage of
the salmon, by forming a sloping channel at one side of
the river, having a rise of about one foot in ten. It was
found, however, that the water gained so much velocity
in flowing down this channel, and over the surface of the
dam-dike generally, that, when there was any body of
water in the river, few fish could stem it. It was at last
found, that by placing bars or steps across the channel,
at successive distances of from eight to ten feet, from
bottom to top, the object was secured. The tacksmen
were perfectly satisfied; and similar erections have been
made on the Don and other rivers, under the directions
of Mr Smith of Deanston. The site of the dam is about

268 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
one mile up the river above the works ; and, in order to
convey a sufficient body of water, it was necessary to
form a canal, twenty-seven feet wide at the bottom, and
forty at the surface, in which there flows a depth of water
of six and a-half feet. There is one peculiarity in the
engineering of this dam worthy of notice. The line of
the dike passing obliquely across the river, instead of
running from the inlet to the water-course up the stream,
has a contrary direction, so that ice or any floating debris
is carried past the inlet, and are either carried away, or
lodge in the angle on the opposite side of the river, by
which means no obstruction is offered to the flow of the
water. An extensive plan of enlargement and improvement
was now adopted ; the works were thriving, and machinery
was daily becoming more and more perfect. In this
plan, it was proposed to erect eight water wheels in one
square building, each to be thirty-six feet in diameter,
and eleven feet wide inside, being overshot, and having
the shrouding and buckets twenty-four inches deep. At
present four of those wheels are in operation ; and ped
estals have been erected for two more. They are the
most gigantic looking things we ever saw,
"Sailing with supreme dominion,"
and distributing, by innumerable shafts, the whole of this
vast concentrated power over the different apartments.
Each wheel has a power equal to eighty horses. Yet
there are even larger wheels than those at Deanston. At
the Catrine works (which belonged to the same company)
there are, we believe, two wheels fifty feet in diameter.

DEANSTON COTTON WORKS. 269
The whole of the works are lit with gas; and they
possessed this advantage so early as 1813, before any of
our towns could boast the same brilliant light. Tunnels
are made all under ground, by which communication can
be had with the different departments, without going out
of doors — and every other facility has been adopted for
carrying on the operations. Carts proceed daily to Glas
gow with the produce. The construction of the various
works must have cost an enormous outlay of money, and
a considerable charge annually will be brought against it
in the shape of interest ; but we were informed that the
power being once acquired, the annual expenditure for
management and repairs is small indeed, not exceeding
on the average ^400 per annum. The steadiness of the
stream of the Teith, which flows from Loch Katrine and
five other lakes, renders the command of water extremely
uniform ; and the loss of a few hours' work per day for a
week or fortnight in the driest period of summer, is all
the stoppage the works ever experience. We may here
mention a circumstance that may be useful to our agri
cultural friends. The volume of water flowing in the
canal for the supply of the great wheels amounts to about
three hundred and fifty cubic yards per minute ; yet this
great mass of water, passing along at the rate of three
quarters of a mile per minute, maintains the flow with a
fall not exceeding four inches per mile. This shows that,
with a sufficiently capacious water-way, a very small
amount of fall is necessary to drain a great extent of
country. Shall we attempt to describe the actual pro
cesses of the cotton spinning? Its sounds are still clank
ing in our ears — the hundreds of human beings from
early youth to old age, all intent on their tasks, seem

270 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
before us — and the eternal wheels are revolving, as if they
said, like the voice to Macbeth, " sleep no more ! " But
let us sketch a plain prosaic statement.
The bags of cotton, containing each about three
hundred pounds weight, are laid upon the floor in rows,
taken out, and thrown into a machine called a willow.
This willow is a revolving cylinder with iron teeth, which
divides and breaks down the masses. The materiel is
then conveyed to another machine which used to be
called the devil. Burns, in his admirable Address to the
Deil, expresses a hope that he would take a thought and
mend, in consequence of which he might still have a
chance ! The cotton spinners' devil has experienced
this agreeable reverse of fortune ; for since it has been
improved and remodelled it goes by the name of the
angel. The cotton is then weighed in small portions,
spread out, and put into a machine which determines and
regulates the grist of the thread. Passing through a pair
of rollers, the cotton is struck by iron beaters (as in a
thrashing mill) at the rate of six thousand feet per minute !
The lighter dust is drawn through a revolving wire sieve
by the action of a fanner, and is thus blown to the open
air, ridding all the processes of that annoyance which
used to be so hurtful to health. The cotton is now in
the form of a web, is next wound on roUers, and put to
the carding machines, whereby the fibres of the cotton
are completely separated, and any remaining lumps or
refuse are taken out.
The machines used here are of a peculiar construc
tion, in which a process formerly done by hand is now
performed by mechanism, and for which Mr Smith holds
a patent. By the variously improved construction of this

DEANSTON COTTON WORKS. 27 1
machine, the saving of labour in this process will amount
to about thirty per cent. Some peculiar and beautiful
movements are introduced, but it is impossible to de
scribe them. The next process to which the material
passes, is the drawing machine, wherein the fibres are
drawn into a parallel and longitudinal position, by means
of successive pairs of rollers, the first pair holding the
material, and allowing it to pass with a slow progress,
whilst the second pair lay hold of it, and pull it in the
same way as a man draws straw for thatching. When the
fibres have been sufficiently brought to parallel (which is
done by repeating this process three or four times in the
same machine), the material is carried to what is called a
roving frame, where it is drawn to a much smaller grist,
and then twisted into a thready form, and is wound upon
bobbins. These bobbins are carried to spinning ma
chines, when the grist is still more reduced, until the
thread reaches its desired size, when it is twisted suffi
ciently firm to become thread fit for weaving. The thread
intended for warp is spun upon a machine called a
throstle, which is a modification of Sir Richard Arkwright's
original machine, and at this work a recent American in
vention has been adopted ; it admits of a great velocity
in the twisting process, and consequently produces a
much greater quantity of work in the same time. The
bobbins, by the movements of which the twist is thrown
into thread, go at the amazing velocity of eight thousand
revolutions per minute ! The effect is magical. These
machines are attended by children, chiefly little girls,
who are singularly dexterous; and they are superintended
in divisions by grown up women, one male superintendent
having the general charge of a department. The work is

272 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
light and easy, but requires constant attention, and great
cleanliness and order ; and thus it may be said to form
an excellent school for training the young to habits of at
tention and industry. These little girls follow the em
ployment with spirit and cheerfulness from eight to twelve
hours a day. The yarn intended for woof or weft is
upon the mule jenny, a machine invented by a Mr Cromp-
ton, near Bolton, Lancashire. It is an adaptation of the
twisting process of the old jenny, or meikle wheel of this
country, to the drawing process of Sir Richard Arkwright.
Hitherto such machines have generally been worked by
men of great strength and skill, who acquired high wages,
and were the chief movers in all the combinations of the
cotton trade. To obviate the inconvenience of these
strikes, the attention of mechanical men has been for many
years directed. The machines employed here were invented
by Mr Smith some years ago, for which he holds patents
for the United Kingdom, most of the countries on the
continent of Europe, and for America. The machine is
now being extensively introduced in the trade generally.
Mr Smith has also completed an adaptation of this prin
ciple to mules for spinning wool, and which is likely to be
of vast importance in the present rising state of the wool
len manufactures of our country.
The invention of this machine removes the only lab
orious and slavish employment that remained in the
cotton manufacture, and effects a saving of about fifty per
cent., besides producing an article of superior quality,
and insuring regularity. It has created a demand for
young females' labour, who are better paid than when
they worked under the spinners — the money being thus
more equally distributed. It gives, besides, to this

DEANSTON COTTON WORKS. 273
country an important advantage over the cheap labour of
other countries.
In preparing the warps for the weaving process, from
five hundred to one thousand bobbins are arranged in
regular rows in a wooden frame, and from these the
threads proceed towards a beam, or roller, on which they
are wound, having a peculiarly beautiful appearance, the
threads converging towards the mass like the rays of the
sun from behind a cloud. Being collected, the threads
are passed through a machine, whereby the threads are
stiffened, by being immersed in a paste formed of flour
and glue boiled together with water. Brushes, attached
to mechanism, sweep along the surfaces of threads, laying
all the fibres, and rendering them smooth and uniform.
Fanners are put in rapid motion, and blow heated air
upon the mass of threads, so as to render it perfectly dry
before being placed on the weavers' beam. From this
it is carried to the power loom, where the whole oper
ations are performed by mechanism, the young women,
who attend two looms each, having merely to supply the
woof from time to time, and mend such threads of the
warp as may break in the process. The woof is supplied
in little pirns or cops, formed on the self-acting mules.
Each loom will, on cloth of ordinary thickness, such as a
common calico, produce about thirty yards per day, mak
ing sixty the work of each girl. These looms, to the
number of about three hundred, are arranged in rows,
with alleys between, in a most spacious apartment, which,
when lighted up with gas, has a most magnificent effect.
It seemed to us like entering into an illuminated village ;
and we shall not soon forget the three hundred gas lights,
and fine-looking girls in one apartment. This building is
s

274 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
quite novel in its structure, the roof being composed of
groined arches, supported on cast iron columns, twelve
feet high ; and the rise of the arches being six feet, the
greatest height of the ceiling is eighteen feet. The groins
are in squares of thirty-three feet six inches, and in the
centre of each groin there is a circular opening, eight feet
in diameter, surmounted by a handsome glass cupola
light, affording a most uniform and perfect light for the
operations carried on below. The arches are rendered
water-tight in the most simple manner, by a coating of
pitched coal tar, about a quarter of an inch in thickness ;
and the whole is covered with three or four feet of soil,
intended to form a garden for flowers and other plants.
It is remarkable that, during the intense frost of last
winter, the hardening did not penetrate more than an
inch and a half into this soil, owing, doubtless, to the heat
from below. This building covers, altogether, upwards
of half an acre ; and every individual in the apartment
can be seen from any point The whole is fire proof.
The general order of management at the Deanston works
is very much on the principle of Arkwright — a proof of
the talents of that eminent person. There is a head or
superintendent to each department; every one has his
own alloted part ; and in most cases they are paid by the
piece, not in weekly wages. They receive the amount of
their earnings every Thursday morning (that being the
market day) ; and the youngest individuals about the
works are paid their wages into their own hand, which
seems to give them an idea of personal consequence.
They have aU the privilege of leaving any moment they
choose, without previous warning ; and we were informed
that this is found to insure a more steady, agreeable, and

DEANSTON COTTON WORKS. 275
lengthened service than could be obtained by the firmest
indenture. There is no fine or punishment, excepting for
damage to the works through evident carelessness. The
order of the establishment is preserved by the dismissal
of offending individuals, or their banishment for a limited
period. By " stopping the supplies," every member of
the family is interested in the good conduct of the whole;
and a banished child, man, or friend, finds no rest at
home. The morals of the people are in general very
correct ; no drunkard is permitted about the establish
ment. We inquired of an intelligent medical gentleman
at Doune (Dr Macansh) whether the spinners were as
healthy as the other viUagers. His answer was — " They
are not so robust (owing to their confinement), but their
health is as steady and uniform."
Immediately adjoining the works is a handsome little
village, built and founded by the company, which contains
about twelve hundred inhabitants. The houses are neat,
built in one long street parallel to the water course, and
are two storeys high, with attics. They are most exemplary
patterns of cleanliness ; and to each house is attached a
small piece of garden ground, and a range of grass plot
for bleaching. A school-room is united to the establish
ment, capable of containing two hundred children ; and a
teacher is paid by the company. The young children
generally go to school when about five years of age ; and
as none are admitted into the works until they are nine,
they are mostly good readers, and able to write and
cypher before they enter the works. The children
employed in the works, from nine to thirteen years of
age, must, according to the factory act, work only eight
hours per day, and about three hours are devoted to the

276 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
school-room. The number at this age amounts to one
hundred, and they are divided into relays of thirty-three
each ; so that while two relays are at work, one is attend
ing school. The youth above thirteen years of age, and
under sixteen, are expected to attend an evening school
four nights in the week; and a Sabbath school in the
viUage contains about one hundred and fifty pupils. Thus,
the works at Deanston seem to possess every facility and
recommendation — they have changed the aspect of the
country, beautiful and romantic as it is, by introducing
into it habits of industry, order, and the highest mechanical
genius and dexterity — they cause a circulation of money
to the extent of about £20,000 per annum — they furnish
employment for the people of all ages — they have caUed
forth the spirit and activity of the agriculturists to meet
the ever-recurring demands of the place — and, in all
respects, they are a splendid monument of British enter
prise, skill, and perseverance.

BLAIR-DRUMMOND MOSS.
We next went to see Mr Home Drummond's extensive
improvements on his estate near Doune. His grandfather,
the celebrated Lord Kaimes, set the first example of
agricultural improvement, on a large scale, in this country.
He commenced burning, paring, planting, draining, and
manuring, in a manner which made his neighbours stare
and shake their heads, and with as much eagerness as if
he had nothing else to attend to; yet he was a lord of
session, a philosopher, and an author. The great improve
ment has been in Blair-Drummond Moss, a tract of low-

BLAIR-DRUMMOND MOSS. 277
lying land, extending about sixteen miles east and west,
from Stirling to Gartmore. Underneath this moss, at a
depth of from six to sixteen feet, lay a stratum of fine
clay land ; but the difficulty was how to remove the
superincumbent turf. This has been successfuUy accom
plished to a great extent, and is still in progress. A
command of water was obtained to wash the whole away
into the River Forth ! The water was at first collected
from small brooks, which approached the moss from the
higher grounds, and were carried by embankments to the
summit level. A channel of about three feet wide, and
two feet deep, is cut along the face of the moss, at a level
of about one-third of its depth from the surface. In this
channel the water flows; and persons are stationed all
along the moss, who, with wooden spades, cut the turf into
large pieces, and tumble them into the current of water
below, whence they are carried into a main level, cut in
the clay soil, and flow along, sometimes the distance of a
mile, into the Forth. When this portion is floated away
to a breadth of about twelve feet, a new channel is cut
nearer the level of the clay, in which a second portion of
the moss is floated off; then a third cut is made, when
the lower and last portion of the moss is disposed of,
•excepting about a foot on the surface of the clay, which is
out up, dried, and burned, so as to leave a quantity of
ashes for manure. This system is carried on until about
an acre or more is cleared annually on each possession.
For the first summer, the surface soil is turned over with
a spade, and allowed to dry. The foUowing year a crop
of oats is taken, which grows luxuriantly in the straw,
but the grain is seldom ripened to perfection. The second
crop is better in grain, and the third is abundant both in

278 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
straw and grain. Since the introduction of furrow-draining,
these portions are generally well drained after the third
crop, the ground being too soft previously, and then
follows the usual routine of cultivation. The cost of
floating away the moss, exclusive of the expense attend
ant on supplying the water, averages from ^18 to ^"25
per Scots acre. But we must say something as to the
supply of water, and the great wheel of Blair-Drammond.
When the number of settlers became extensive, there was
a deficiency in the supply of water, especially in the sum
mer months. Lord Kaimes consulted Mr Abercromby,
a well-known engineer of his day, who recommended
that water should be taken from the River Teith, and
carried to the level of the moss. The estimate came to
^4000, and his lordship thought he would try a cheaper
plan. The ingenious Mr Meikle, inventor of the thrash
ing-mill, was consulted, and he gave a design of a water-
wheel, somewhat on the principle of the Persian wheel,
but simpler, which was to be erected nearer to the moss.
This wheel was erected by Mr Meikle about the year
1786; it is twenty-eight feet in diameter, and eight feet
wide. It is driven as an under-shot wheel, having in
verted buckets in the interior circle of the shrouding,
extending to about one-fourth of the width from the
outer margin, at each side. These buckets, raising water
from troughs below, carry it up to the top of the wheel,
when it begins to pour into troughs placed at each side
to receive it, about eighteen feet above the level of the
lower troughs. The water is thence carried in timber
pipes for some distance under ground; and, rising
within Blair-Drummond Park into a canal formed upon
a mound, flows along to the moss. This wheel, when in

BLAIR-DRUMMOND MOSS. 279
full working order — and it must look very picturesque on
a sultry summer's day, surrounded by the tall and ancient
trees — raises about six and a-half tons of water per
minute ! Its operations are seldom interrupted ; and,
working night and day, it supplies upwards of nine
thousand tons of water in the twenty-four hours. Some
years ago, the demand for peats was so great, for the use
of distilleries, that immense quantities were exported from
this moss by the tenants (who are called "Moss Lairds"),
and a sum of not less than ^2000 per annum was thus
realised. This was better than floating away the lower
and better portion of the moss ; but the trade must have
declined, for not above £, 1 000 a year is now made in this
way. The improvements may, altogether, have cost Mr
Home Drummond about ^30 per acre. Ten years rent
will redeem the outlay ; and the proprietor has at once
gained an estate, and removed a nuisance. When Lord
Kaimes commenced these improvements first, he applied
to a neighbouring proprietor, Mr Ramsay of Auchtertyre
(a correspondent of the Poet Burns), to join him in the
improvement. " No, no," said the laird, " I am not so
short-sighted. I shall wait till the coals of Bannockburn
are worked out, and then I shall get a fine price for my
moss as fuel for the good folks of Stirling !" How com
pletely has this worldly wisdom failed ! At Blair-Drum-
mond, above sixteen hundred acres of excellent land have
been reclaimed from the moss, and now exhibit all the
appearance of enclosed fertile pastures and fields, inter
spersed with snug cottages and steadings, where, only a
few years since, all was one dreary, brown, monotonous
morass. The land is portioned off into farms of from
forty to fifty acres (formerly they were much smaller), and

280 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
lets at from £2. 15s. to £3. 3s. per acre. Such of our
readers as are fond of figures and statistics, may readily
calculate how much the spirited proprietor has added to
his fortune, by thus gaining sixteen hundred acres of land
which rents at the above sum. But the works are stiU in
progress; and Mr Home Drummond has purchased ad
ditional moss-land, on parts of which even twenty feet of
morass had accumulated. A copious supply of water,
with a little industry, wiU soon float away the whole of
what cumbers the ground !
The example of the proprietor of Blair-Drummond
has not been lost on his friends and neighbours. On the
same line of moss, the Earl of Moray has reclaimed and
cultivated part of his estate called the Frews; Major
Graham of Meiklewood has secured about two hundred
acres, and the latter accomplished his improvement in a
marveUously short time, by erecting a steam-engine to
convey water to the highest level of the moss; his outlay
was about £4$ per acre. Another proprietor, Mr Erskine
of Cardross (who has about two thousand acres), is now
proceeding with similar improvements. The aspect of
the country is thus undergoing a complete transformation
— the desert is made to blossom as the rose — the cheer
ful haunts of men have displaced the sterile and un
sightly marsh — and a free and healthy atmosphere now
ventilates a district which once almost realised the curse
of the monster Caliban —
' ' As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd
With raven's feather from unwholesome fen !"
One part of this extensive morass is called Moss
Flanders ; and, on inquiring as to the etymology of the

STIRLING AND BANNOCKBURN. 28 1
name, we were told, by a faithful chronicler of the district,
that it originated in this manner : The moss at one period
belonged to Flanders, and floated from that country !
The careful Dutch made the Scottish occupiers pay
tribute for this unlooked-for wind or water-fall; but
Donald being also wise in his generation, having found
out that there was good land beneath, demurred as to
the payment of the tax. Mynheer threatened and
blustered ; but Donald was firm, and told him he might
take back the moss if he liked ! This was an unanswer
able argument, against which no legal or valid objection
could lie; and as the Hollanders have not thought proper
to adopt the proposed course, Moss Flanders continues
Scotch in all but the name.

STIRLING AND BANNOCKBURN.
Drove to Stiriing, a distance of nine miles from
Doune. The Castle of Stirling stands proudly on its
rock, and commands a splendid far-spread view of the
River Forth, and of fields and shores of great luxuriance
and beauty. The character of the rock is basalt and
greenstone, and the same formation may be seen at a
similar angle, cropping out (as the geologists say) at the
Bass Rock, North Berwick Law, Inchkeith, Arthur's
Seat, Salisbury Crags, &c. The natural situation of
Stirling resembles that of Edinburgh (a miniature por
trait), and both are said to be very like ancient Athens.
Dr Clarke, the late distinguished traveller, perceived this
resemblance, and remarked that the surrounding scenery
of Athens is the Highlands of Scotland, with the accom-

282 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
paniment of magnificent works of art. Byron was also
fond of renewing his boyish recollections of the High
lands in the vicinity of " August Athena." Stirling is
almost as famous in early Scottish history as Athens is
in Grecian. It was, in fact, the key to the northern
parts of the kingdom, and was thus, from policy, as well
as pleasure, the chosen scene of kings and nobles, and
even of the Romans. It was the birth-place of James II.,
and here that monarch, with his own hand, murdered the
Earl of Douglas. James III. lived much at Stirling.
James V, the king of the commons, was born and
crowned here; and, the buildings of the castle are chiefly
of his erection. Parliaments were also held in StirUng
Castle. Many a feat of chivalry, joustings, and tourna
ments, took place in the hollow, called the Valley; here
stUl remain the earthern table and seats cut in the fresh
green turf, where the court held its fetes champetres. The
site of the canal, on which they aired in barges, may still
be traced; and the " Ladies' Hill " marks the spot
where the beauties of the court beheld the tournaments —
" And pomp, and feast, and revelry,
With mask, and antique pegeantry."
How changed the scene ! and yet the best part of it- —
the castle, the crags, and the green fields, with the silver
windings of the Forth — are still there. The last of these
royal feasts was the baptism of Prince Henry, son of James
VI., whose early death was so much regretted in England.
Strangers visiting the castle are shown the hull of a sort
of fancy boat, standing on four wheels ; and this is a relic
of the great christening. King James brought all his ludi
crous pedantry into play upon the occasion of this cere-

STIRLING AND BANNOCKBURN. 283
mony. He had personations of Ceres with the sickle in
her hand, Fecunditas holding bunches of the prolific poppy,
Concordia with the horn of plenty, Perseverance with a
staff in her hand, &c. A Moor, with massive gold chains,
drew in a triumphal car, to the sound of trumpets and
hautboys : but the greatest of all James's magnificient de
signs was the above boat, placed upon wheels, and moving
by invisible springs. Her length of keel was eighteen feet,
the masts were red, the tackling and cordage silk of the
same colour, the puUeys were of gold, the sails of white
taffety, and the anchors tipped with silver. There were
six mariners, clad in variegated Spanish taffety : the pilot,
arrayed in cloth of gold, moved the machine at will.
Fourteen musicians were on board. There, too, was
Arion with his harp, Triton with his shell, and Neptune,
clad in sUk, held a trident, and wore a crown. At sound
of trumpet the vessel entered the hall, and discharged her
cargo of sweetmeats in crystal glasses, painted gold and
azure, and made up in the shape of various fishes. When
the banquet was ended, the hundred and thirty-eighth
Psalm was sung, Triton sounded his shell, the pilot blew
his whistle, and the vessel made sail out of the hall ! and
so ended the " right merry and pleasant conceit" of the
British Solomon !
We saw the apartment in the castle which George
Buchanan used as a school-room, when he taught his
royal pupil ; and a severe teacher old George must have
been. Long afterwards, when James was a man, and a
sovereign, he used to wake at midnight in fear and horror,
thinking his stern preceptor stood beside him ! Our
readers may recoUect the characteristic anecdote related of
George Buchanan. When told that he had made James

284 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
VI. a pedant, " A pedant !" echoed the sarcastic old
scholar, " I was glad to make anything of him." Below
the castle wall is a narrow road, called Ballochgeich,
which is memorable for one circumstance. When James
V. travelled the country in disguise, partaking in the
sports, and witnessing the feelings of his subjects, he used
to pass under the soubriquet of " the Guidman o' BaUoch-
geich." Buchanan of Auchmar tells a story of " the
Guidman 0' Ballochgeich,'' which has been often repeated.
The first proprietor of Arnprior, of the name of Buchanan,
a place in Perthshire, where this county inserts itself into
Stirlingshire, eleven miles from Stirling, and in the parish
of Kippen, had requested of a carrier to have part of his
load at a price, when he was told that the articles were
for the King. " Tell him," said Buchanan, " if he is King
of Scotland, I am King of Kippen, and need some of my
royal brother's provisions," compeUing the carrier to
deliver part of the cargo. James, hearing the story, and
relishing a joke, resolved to wait on his neighbouring
majesty of Kippen, and did so one day with a small
retinue. Demanding admittance at the palace of Arn
prior, he was refused by a tall feUow holding a battle-axe,
who told him there was no admission till his master had
finished dinner. " Tell your master," said James, " the
Guidman o' BaUochgeich humbly requests an audience
of the king of Kippen." Buchanan, guessing the quality
of his quest, received his Majesty with the appropriate
honours, and became so great a favourite, that he had
leave to draw upon the carrier as often as he pleased,
and was kindly invited as " King of Kippen" to visit his
brother sovereign at Stirling. Another anecdote con
nected with Ballochgeich is told of James V. Being

STIRLING AND BANNOCKBURN. 285
benighted, he entered a cottage in the moor near Alloa,
and, though unknown, was treated with all possible hospi
tality. When departing next morning, he invited the
guidman (i.e. landlord) to Stirling Castle, and bade him
call for the Guidman o' Ballochgeich. Donaldson (this
was the landlord's name) having availed himself of the
invitation, and doing as directed, gave great amusement
to the court, and was by the King of Scotland created
King of the Moors. His descendants retained the cottage
and a bit of ground, situated on the estate of Alloa, till
lately; and each successive representative of his majesty
was known by the title to which he was the legitimate
heir. Visited the field of Bannockburn. What Scotsman
can resist the genius loci? The colours of Bruce still
seem to wave over the ground, though part of it is
ploughed and tile-drained (we saw the tiles peeping out
at the sloping sides), and the burn of Bannock seems to
murmur shouts of victory. Having exhausted our super
fluous enthusiasm by reciting " Scots wha hae," we went
to the spot where Bruce planted his standard, being re
solved to chip off a shred of the famous bore-stone. The
stone is a little sunk in the ground, and we found it
covered over with iron bars, like a cess-pool, to protect it
from all such thievish marauders as ourselves ! The
scene of the memorable battle is obvious and distinct.
The two armies faced each other at a mile's distance,
with the streamlet running in a narrow valley between
them. The morass in which Bruce dug pits, covering
them over with green turfs, to deceive and entangle the
English cavalry, is still a morass. Gillies Hill, on which
the baggage-men were placed, lies to the right. The

286 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
spot where Randolph, Earl of Moray, with five hundred
foot soldiers, gallantly defeated eight hundred of the
English cavalry on the day before the battle of Bannock
burn, is pointed out by two large stones, said to have
been erected by the soldiers at the time, which stand on
a part of the ground now enclosed for a garden. The
loss at Bannockburn must, by the different accounts,
have been about sixty thousand, one-tenth part Scottish.
If anything can reconcile us to such carnage, it must be
the justice of the conflict on the part of our countrymen.
They were resisting a wanton and atrocious war of exter
mination, and they fought for their independence and all
that was dear to them as individuals or as a nation. The
same feeling consecrates another place near Stirling,
opposite to the castle, where Wallace gained his most
complete victory over the English. Some parts of the
pillars which supported the wooden bridge thrown down
by Wallace are still to be seen, after all the mutations of
five hundred and forty-five years.
A touching memorial of the past is the small dwelling-
house called Beaton's Mill, about a mile from Bannock
burn, where James III. breathed his last, after his defeat
at Sauchie Burn. The King was in fuU armour, and on
horseback. As he was on the point of crossing the Ban
nock, a woman happened to be drawing water, and,
observing an armed man gaUop full speed towards her,
she left her pitcher and ran off. The horse took fright,
and threw his rider. James, bruised by the fall and by
the weight of his armour, was carried into the miller's
house. He felt himself to be dying, and asked for a
priest to whom he might make his confession. Being
asked who he was, he replied, "I was your king this

STIRLING AND BANNOCKBURN. 287
morning." The conclusion of this striking incident we
cannot resist quoting from a local chronicler : — " Some
of the malcontents, who, having observed the King's
flight, had left the battle to pursue him, had now come
up to the spot ; and as they were about to pass, the
miller's wife, wringing her hands, entreated, that if there
were a priest in company, he should stop and 'confess
his majesty.' ' I am a priest,' said one of them, ' lead me
to him.' Being introduced, he found the king lying in
a corner of the mUl, covered with a coarse cloth ; and,
approaching on his knees, under pretext of reverence,
asked him, whether his majesty thought he could recover
if he had surgical relief? James replied in the affirm
ative, when the ruffian, pulling out a dagger, stabbed him
several times in the heart."
What a comment is this on the vicissitudes of fortune,
the barbarity of the times, and the atrocities incident to
civil war ! The burn, the mill, and the cottage, still mark
the spot ; and the death of the sovereign, in so violent and
ruthless a manner, contrasts strongly with the humble and
peaceful character of the scene. Cowper's parallel between
the French philosopher and the cottager weaving bobbins
at her own door, may find a counterpart in that of the
miUer's family and the unfortunate monarch.
From swords we turned to ploughshares — from Ban
nockburn to Drummond's agricultural museum in Stirling.
This establishment is well worth a visit, even by those who
know nothing of farming. There are three large rooms,
each Uke a bazaar, stored with interesting specimens,
arranged in the most beautiful order. There is a depart
ment for the different descriptions of soils, including
minerals, draining, and manures — for plants cultivated

288 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
for their 'roots or leaves, in which the turnip and potato,
with their numerous families, occupy a prominent place
— for plants cultivated for their grains or seeds, in which
every sort of corn is included — for garden specimens —
and for implements and machines of all sizes and descrip
tions, and for all manner of rural purposes. Every speci
men is ticketed, and its locality specified. In the centre
is a fine horticultural stage, which is kept constantly gay
with a succession of flowering, new or rare, plants.
Yearly tickets, of a shilling each, entitle individuals to
daily admission to the museum, while youths and servants
are admitted free — strangers pay sixpence. . The profits
are applied exclusively to the purposes of the museum;
and we can vouch for the willingness with which Mr
Drummond devotes his time and knowledge to unfold
the objects and promote the interests of the institution.
. He says truly, that, to the intelligent and enterprising young
man, desirous of pursuing agriculture as a profession,
or of becoming a land-steward or overseer, such a school
of instruction must be of immense value, as he can have
there, for days, weeks, or months together, opportunities
of minutely examining the specimens, labels, and appro
priate books, and of coming in constant contact with the
most scientific and practical agriculturists of the day.
He is thus afforded the means of storing his mind with
the most valuable facts, in a mode not more inviting than
it is novel and expeditious.
The booksellers' shops in Stirling seem to contain an
unusual number of the cheap publications of the day, not
only " Chambers's Journal," which is found everywhere,
but most of the unstamped London papers, and penny
publications in heaps. We were informed that the lower

STIRLING AND BANNOCKBURN. 289
classes of the town and neighbourhood are great readers.
Certainly, not a tithe of these publications would sell in
Inverness. The London brochures are, in general, filled
with sad trash ; some of them are positively bad, and dis
gusting both as to taste and morality. The good or
harmless, however, predominate ; and we hope they will
soon drive the worthless out of the field. Influential
persons should exert themselves to multiply the diffusion
of useful and instructive treatises, tales, and essays of a
popular character. The London Society, under the aus
pices of Lord Brougham and others, has failed, because
its works are too scientific and abstract. In fact, they
are not read by the class for whom they were intended,
with the single exception, perhaps, of the Penny Magazine,
which, we have no doubt, has done great good. Reading
has now become a necessary of life to all ranks and classes
of the community ; and it is of immense importance to
render this daily aliment of the people wholesome as well
as cheap. The subject of popular literature is, in some degree,
connected with early training and education ; and we may
record here the result of an experiment made by Mr
Smith at Deanston. He obtained ten boys and ten girls
from St Martin's workhouse, London, with a view to ascer
tain how far such children could be made available in
manufactures. Being most probably the offspring of dis
solute or careless parents, living heedlessly in a large city,
and having been also partly brought up in a workhouse,
the children were found to be devoid of family attach
ment, and, of course, not at all under domestic influence.
Mr Smith first placed the boys and girls in separate houses,
under charge of two respectable women; but a sufficient

290 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
control could not thus be maintained over them. He
then distributed them, in pairs, among some of the best-
conducted families in his village. They became more
tractable; but still the domestic or family influence was
found to be not equal to that over children living with
their parents or relations. Some of the boys proved par
ticularly difficult to manage, and every means of induce
ment and reproof was tried in vain. At last, it was re
solved to have recourse to corporal punishment; and Mr
Smith administered the flogging, with his own hand, to
three of the number. This had no effect whatever, as the
irregularities were immediately repeated. He then tried
the effect of sending them home from the manufactory,
to go idle in the village. Two of them returned in a few
days, but the other stood out for three weeks. At the
expiration of this time, however, he also returned and
offered himself to work and attend school, which he did
with steady regularity. The result of the experiment has,
on the whole, not been such as to lead Mr Smith to
extend the mode of supply; but it must have been highly
important to the twenty friendless children. It happened
to be Sunday morning when Mr Smith mentioned to us,
at Deanston, the above practical scheme, and he had the
children called in to his house before going to church.
They were clean and neat in their appearance; and,
standing, the boys in one row and the girls opposite,
they repeated together the Lord's Prayer and the Creed.
Their English accents sounded like voices in a strange
land; but they were heard by friendly ears, and impressed
on one benevolent mind that will continue to watch over
their welfare.
The Forth steamer has now appeared off Stirling,

DONIBRISTLE PARK, ETC. 29 1
by the old towers of Cambuskenneth, and we must
hasten on board. Four or five hours, Deo volente, will
find us at North Queensferry, maugre all the windings of
the Forth, and sinuous enough its course is, for between
Stirling and Alloa the distance is just six miles direct,
while the river caracolles away, in and out, like a High
land terrior scampering by its master's side, on a clear
snowy morning, making the distance nineteen and a-half
miles ! DONIBRISTLE PARK, &c.
Baronial residences, when situated in the country,
should be seen in summer. The sunshine, it is true, can
have no effect on the appearance of stone walls, or the
interior decorations and spacious apartments of a castle;
but what are these to its usual accompaniments of lawn
and park — wide woodland views — old timber trees coeval
with the Reformation — and the whole animal creation
participating in the full enjoyment of the genial season?
These are absent in winter — absent at least in spirit —
and instead of them we have, perhaps, a dreary, mono
tonous, far-extending waste of snow. Wild and desolate
seems to us, in this present stormy morning in January,
the beautiful park of Donibristle, washed by the Firth of
Forth (on the opposite side of which stand the proud
city and castle of Edinburgh), studded with noble forest
trees, and intersected by walks and paths that seem to
stretch away into interminable space.
Donibristle House, the residence of the Earl of Moray,
is a massy pile of the character of the ancient Scottish
manor-house. It was built at various times, and was the

292 ' HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
residence of the Regent Moray, when he was prior of St
Andrews. Here is still preserved a portion of the Re
gent's plate, consisting of two large silver flagons, richly
chased, capable of containing about a gallon each, to
which are attached chains, apparently for the purpose of
slinging round the neck; and a very handsome gold
drinking cup, holding about an English pint, of a circular
form, indented with bold flutings. Out of this cup the
Regent is said to have drank daily; and perhaps John
Knox and his patron sometimes lifted it to drink pro
sperity to the Scottish Kirk, then struggling into exist
ence ! In the apartment where we saw these memorials
of the Regent, is a portrait of the same remarkable man,
taken when a boy. The features are strongly marked,
and present indications of that stern resoluteness of char
acter which distinguished him through his brief, but
eventful life. The character of the Regent Moray has
been variously drawn, according to the principles or pre
judices of historians. His conduct to his sister, Queen
Mary, was harsh ; but having, in the affairs of the nation,
taken the side he did, he was driven to extremities by the
force of events, as well as by the energy of his own mind.
In some points he resembled Cromwell — bold, dark, and
ambitious; a religious, and, at the same time, a warlike
and political leader, trusting, in many cases, that the end
would sanctify the means, and that the sterling ore of his
character would far outweigh the dross with which it was
alloyed. He is judged of by posterity exactly as he was
by his contemporaries, one party lauding him to the skies,
the other execrating him as a sort of demon.
We may here notice some of the other paintings in
Lord Moray's collection. The most curious is a likeness,

DONIBRISTLE PARK, ETC. 293
on copper, of the bold Duke of Burgundy. The most
interesting is a large picture, by Vandyke, representing
Charles the First alighting from his horse — a noble white
charger — and the Duke of Hamilton acting as equerry.
Charles is dressed in a white satin jacket, with long buff
boots, a hat and feather, &c. This is a magnificent pic
ture, full of the most exquisite art and beauty. It was
engraved by Sir R. Strange; and there is a duplicate of
it, by Vandyke, in the Louvre. Here are also portraits,
three quarters size, of Charles and Henrietta Maria, by
Vandyke, and a row of Charles the Second's beauties, by
Lely. These paintings were found by the present Earl
in a lumber-room of the house, huddled in a corner,
through carelessness or for concealment; but when cleaned
and reframed, they made a valuable addition to the fine
drawing-room in which they are now hung. Little does
the artist foresee, while he is labouring away at his can
vass, adding touch to touch, and painfully and elabor
ately bringing out the expression of forgotten features, to
what corner of the world his works may be driven, or into
what temporary neglect they may fall ! The features of
some antiquated warrior or faded beauty — the resem
blance of some mountain or river — re-appear after a cen
tury or two, and the artist enjoys a new grant of fame and
applause. Nay, he inspires others, and perpetuates his
noble art, as the seed of some plants, carelessly wafted by
the wind, settle and impregnate other plants, that in turn
produce their beautiful variety of bud and blossom.
Many relics of Mary Queen of Scots exist, and there
is an interesting one at Donibristle — a fire-screen, wrought
in silk in the most tasteful and beautiful manner. The
long confinement of Mary gave her leisure for these

294 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
feminine employments. It is, perhaps, worthy of men
tion, that the celebrated Duke of Argyll, when a boy,
fell over one of the high windows of Donibristle House :
he escaped to confer important services on his country — to
" Shake alike the senate and the field."
We were struck with a valuable literary curiosity in
Lord Moray's library — a manuscript history of Scotland,
written on vellum of the size of foolscap paper, in the
most distinct and elegant penmanship, the first letter of
each chapter being painted in the bright and vivid
colours usually employed in these tasks by the ancient
monks. The history is in Latin — a copy of Fordun,
which was transcribed and kept in many of the monas
teries — but on the last leaf is the following intimation : —
" This cronicle is sene owre be William Sinclair of Ross
lyn, Knycht, and augmentit, drawin out of thir cronicles
following — the greit cronicle of Scone, callit the Blak
Buik; the greit cronicle of Paslay, called the Black Buik;
ane auld cronicle of Cambuskenneth, ane greit buik
callit the cronicle of Couper, and ane parischement buik
of text hand, limnit with gold, the cronicle of Sanct Col-
umes Inche, with sundrie uther written cronicles, sic as
culd be gottin for the time, verry auld letteres, some in
paper, and some in parischement," &c. At the bottom
of the page may be traced the date 1526; and one Sir
William Sinclair of Rosslyn (there were two or more of
the name) died in 1533. We are aware that these
monkish histories were generally transcripts of Fordun ;
that the " Black Book of Paisley " has been already made
known; and that a Walter Bower, or Bowmaker, abbot
of Inchcolm, made additions to the ancient historian

DONIBRISTLE PARK, ETC. 295
already named, with which antiquaries are familiar. Still
the number of sources from which this manuscript book
seems to have been compiled, suggests the idea that it
may contain particulars not hitherto divulged.
Emerging into the open air from the recesses of the
baronial mansion, we observe a terrace in front, surrounded
by iron rails, that were made by the famous blacksmith of
Antwerp : and they were sent, in payment of the stones
with which the Stadthouse of Amsterdam was built. This
exchange is not a little singular; for we suspect that few
of our tourists who steam it to Holland, and admire the
public buildings of that country, would imagine that the
solid materiel of the Stadthouse was quarried near the
church of Dalgetty, in Fifeshire. In front of the house,
close to the sea, is the spot where the bonnie Earl of
Moray (as he was called) was cruelly murdered, in the
reign of James VI. The monarch sent the Earl of
Huntly to summon him to his presence. Huntly, pro
bably, rejoiced in the errand, as giving him an opportunity
of avenging himself on his feudal enemy, as well as of
pleasing the King. In the course of some differences be
twixt the rival families, a brother of Gordon of Cluny was
killed, by a shot from one of the earl's retainers; and
Huntly, the head of the Gordons, vowed vengeance for
the death of his kinsman. In executing the mission of
King James, he set fire to the house of Donibristle ;
Dunbar, sheriff of Morayshire, who was present, was
slain; but the Earl of Moray escaped, through a sub
terraneous passage cut through a rock, which still exists,
leading from the castle to the sea-side. The crags and
cliffs would have concealed him, but, on leaving the
castle, the silken tassels of his cap took fire, and his ene-

296 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
mies traced this fatal flickering light along the sea-shore.
Gordon of Buckie and Lord Huntly pursued the earl,
found him, and instantly dispatched him with then-
daggers. In his last moments, the bonnie earl stammered
out — " You have spoiled a better face than your own !"
The creations of romance present nothing more striking
than this anecdote. The earl was a great favourite with
the people, and the popular grief for his untimely death
found expression in a rude, but touching ballad, which
Percy has preserved in his Reliques : —
" Ye highlands, and ye lowlands,
Oh ! quhair hae ye been ?
They hae slaine the Earl of Murray,
And hae laid him on the green.
" Now wae be to thee, Huntley !
And quhairfore did you sae ?
I bade you bring him wi' you,
But forbade you him to slay.
" He was a braw gallant,
And he rid at the ring ;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
Oh ! he might hae been a king.
" He was a braw gallant,
And he played at the ba' ;
And the bonny Earl of Murray
Was the flower among them a'.
" He was a braw gallant,
And he played at the gluve ;
And the bonny Earl of Murray,
Oh ! he was the Queenes luve.
" Oh ! lang will his lady
Luke owre the castle downe,
Ere she see the Earl of Murray
Cum sounding throw the towne."

DONIBRISTLE PARK, ETC. 297
According to history, this popular and ill-fated noble
man had been engaged in the treasonable conspiracy of
his relation, the Earl of Bothwell, in December 1591,
which led the king to summon him into his presence.
There is a family tradition, which gives a different colour
ing to the event, more in harmony with the old ballad.
James, it is said, was jealous of the partiality which his
queen evinced for the earl, her majesty having, among
other favours, presented him with a scarf, embroidered
by her own hand, and that the monarch secretly instiga
ted Huntly to perpetrate the murder. In a portrait of
the bonnie earl, preserved at Darnaway Castle (the seat
of Lord Moray, in Morayshire), the earl is represented
as wearing the fatal scarf; which appears to have been of
white satin, embroidered with gold, and fastened with a
rich clasp. The countenance is long, the features delicate
and youthful, and the complexion fair.
Donibristle Park was laid out, about seventy years
ago, by Mr White, a famous improver in his day; it
boasts one splendid avenue of beech trees; and the
approaches wind along, from the lodge to the house —
a distance of three miles. The garden is also very exten
sive, finely diversified with large trees and rare shrubs,
among which are some gigantic evergreens, and a large
tree, which was sent by the late Duke of Atholl in] a
flower-pot. The range of hot-houses and pine stoves
possess attractions gleaned from all climes — orange trees,
the sugar cane, tea plant, coffee tree, India rubber tree,
&c. We were much gratified with a fine specimen of
that rare and beautiful production, the pitcher plant.
This plant abounds in the stony and arid parts of the
island of Java, from which, were it not for this vegetable

298 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
wonder, small birds and quadrupeds would be forced to
migrate in quest of water. At the foot stalk of each leaf
is a small bag, shaped exactly like a pitcher, furnished
with a lid, and having a kind of hinge that passes over the
handle of the pitcher, and connects it with the leaf. This
hinge is a strong fibre, which contracts in showery weather;
and, when the dew falls, numerous little goblets, filled
with sweet fresh water, are thus held forth, and afford a
delicious draught, to the tiny animals that climb their
branches, and to a great variety of winged visitants. But
no sooner has the cloud passed by, and the warm sun
shone forth, than the heated fibre begins to expand, and
closes the goblet so firmly as to prevent evaporation,
precluding a further supply till called for by the wants of
another day. This beautiful and perfect provision of
nature would afford a fine theme for a Thomson or Words
worth. In the house, is a variety of plate, which may be fairly
classed as specimens of the fine arts, being executed by
Benvenuto Cellini, the celebrated engraver and goldsmith
of Florence. Cellini boasted that he fired the shot by
which the Constable de Bourbon was slain: like David,
the French painter (who always wished the anarchists of
the Revolution to grind more red, that is, to use the
guillotine), this artist was of a fierce and irascible disposi
tion; and it certainly is one of the anomalies of nature
how men of this stamp should excel in one of the most
refined arts of peace, in which consummate taste, skill,
and patient application are necessary.

INCHCOLM. 299

INCHCOLM.

John Knox was a rough reformer. Much of the
violence and devastation that took place during his
stormy career was doubtless owing to the "rascal multi
tude," as he termed some of the unscrupulous of the
people; but that great man himself had very sweeping
notions on this score. His idea of religious freedom
sounds strange to modern ears. In one of his letters he
states the following : — " At length they were content to
take assurance for eight days, permitting unto us freedom
of religion in the meantime. In the whilk, the abbey
of Lindores, a place of black monks, distant from St
Andrew's twelve miles, we reformed; their altars over
threw we; their idols, vestments of idolatrie, and mass-
books, we burned in their presence, and commanded
them to cast away their monkish habits." This was
certainly making a dUigent use of their " freedom," but
the poor black monks might have said, with the frogs in
the fable, what is sport to you is death to us. Toleration
is a plant of slow growth, and long afterwards, in England,
Milton found cause to exclaim —
" New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large."
Did the great preacher "reform" the monastery of
Inehcolm, which we now see before us, rising out of the
waters like a vision of the past ? It is an interesting spot :
the little island is not a mile in length, and scarce a
hundred and fifty paces broad; the ruins are extensive,
and it is easy to conjure up the figures of the monks,
counting their beads, amidst the dashing of the waves,

300 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
and within sound of the bells of Edinburgh on a calm
evening. The island half realises the poet's description
of Arqua —

• Which seem'd made

For those who their mortality had felt,
And sought a refuge from their hopes decayed.
It shows a distant prospect, far away,
Of busy cities, now in vain displayed,
For they can lure no further; and the ray
Of a bright sun can make sufficient holiday."
John Kemble, the tragedian, and Crabbe, the poet,
confounded Inchcolm with Iona or IcolmkiU; the blunder
did not say much for their geography, but the names
sound something like each other, and both owe their
celebrity to the same patron saint, Colm or Columb.
One stormy day, in the year 1128, Alexander I., king of
Scotland, was crossing, with his retinue, over at the
Queen's Ferry, and was driven for refuge into this island.
They found one inhabitant in it, a hermit of the order of
St Columb, who supported himself with a cow, and such
shell-fish as he could pick up. The king and his retinue
were forced to remain three days, partaking of the hermit's
simple fare; and the monarch, grateful for his escape,
vowed to erect a monastery in the island. Thus Inch
colm became the seat of monks, and was enriched with
some of the best lands of Fifeshire. It was often plun
dered and burned — but still rose again from its ashes —
and here old Walter Bowmaker, the abbot, who died in
1449, wrote his chronicle of Scottish history, in continua
tion of Fordun. The light in his study would, no doubt,
be familiar to the seamen on the Frith, and some of them
would occasionally beg or buy his prayers, for a soft wind

INCHCOLM. 301
or a favouring gale, as they set out on their voyage; but
what would the old abbot say if he were now to " revisit
the glimpses of the moon," and lift up his eyes, from his
precious vellum leaves, on the steamboats careering around
the island— the crowd of going and returning vessels —
and the new spires and palaces of Edinburgh glittering in
the distance ! The tower of the monastery, the cloisters,
the chapter-house, and part of the buildings, remain to
attest their former grandeur; and these, seen from the
sea, are not unlike the ruins of Iona. The monks would
seem to have been skilled in herbs; for many rare plants
stiU abound here.
The Protector Somerset, in his expedition to Scotland,
during the reign of Edward the Sixth, took possession of
Inchcolm; the monks had fled, and Somerset installed
one of his knights, Sir John Lutterel, as abbot. His in
auguration was something like a military triumph; he had
with him a hundred hackbutters and fifty pioneers, to
keep his house and land; two barks, well furnished with
ammunition, and seventy mariners, to keep his waters.
There is a dash of caustic humour in the way which an
old chronicler describes the state of this military abbot —
" The perfectness of his religion," he says, " is not always
to tarry at home, but sometimes to row out abroad, on a
visitation; and when he goeth, I have heard say, he
taketh always his sumners with him, which are very open-
mouthed, and never talk but they are heard a mile off;
so that, either for love of his blessings, or fear of his curs
ings, he is like to be sovereign over most of his neigh
bours." The time, however, was fast approaching when
the whole fabric of monkish power was to be shaken in
this country. There is certainly something attractive to

302 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the imagination in the outline of the lives of these
recluses — their expatriation from the world, and abstrac
tion from its busy pursuits, their solitary cells, prayers,
and fastings, sacerdotal robes, and illuminated missals.
But we must go back to a period long anterior to the
Reformation, if we wish to find these characteristics
adopted with true sincerity, devotion, and simplicity. In
the early ages, the monasteries were almost the only de
positories of learning in the kingdom; but the progress
of knowledge was fatal to the pretensions of the monks —
their " miracles " ceased to impose upon the multitude,
and their professions of sanctity failed to cover their
cupidity, ignorance, and immorality. Even if the Re
formation had not proceeded with such violence, the
monasteries must have fallen to pieces : the nation would
not have continued much longer to support so enormous
and expensive a power — pierced, as it was, by the shafts
of ridicule, and open to the attacks of reason.
We have wandered away from Inchcolm, and we need
hardly return to it, for little else remains to be chronicled.
The Reformation proved the downfall of the place, as a
religious establishment. In 1580 it would seem to have
been untenanted: in that year the plague was imported
into Leith, by a ship from Dantzic, and the infected
persons were sent to Inchcolm, where many of them
died and were buried. We saw two skulls (probably re
mains of these unfortunates) which were lately found on
the spot. During the late war, batteries were erected at
Inchcolm, as a protection to the Frith of Forth — an in
vasion was then dreaded; but Napoleon was wise enough
to abandon this hopeless enterprise; and that " mighty
tempest," which " hung upon the skirts of the horizon,

INCHCOLM. 303
and to which the eyes of Europe were turned, in silent
and awful expectation," disappeared like a summer
cloud.

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF
BURNS.
The drop-scene of a theatre, in which towers and
temples, stream and tree, rock and sky, are grouped to
gether in elaborate negligence, for pictorial effect, is
scarcely more complete in all its parts than is the land
scape surrounding the cottage in which the poet Burns
was born. Within the space of a few hundred yards are
situated the clay-built hut in which, amidst the stormy
blasts of January, he was ushered into existence — the
ruins of Alloway Kirk — the grave of Burns's excellent
father— the Well,
" Where Mungo's mither hang'd hersel' " —
The Cairn, " Where hunters found the murdered bairn" —
The wooden banks and braes of Doon — the "Brig of
Doon," with its one beetling arch, which Tarn O'Shanter
just crossed in time — the little thatched school-house at
Alloway Mill, where Burns learned to read, and rejoice
over the history of Hannibal and Sir William Wallace —
and, crowning all, the hills of Carrick, and the splendid
monument, erected on the banks of the stream, to the
memory of the poet. Here are materials for a magni
ficent picture. Then the associations connected with the

304 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
spot are more impressive than the objects it displays.
We cannot look without strong emotion on scenes con
secrated by that extraordinary man, who rose from the
ranks of the people in the dignity of native genius— who
gave a new tone and impulse to the literature of Britain,
substituting nature and passion for art and affectation —
who, early trained and disciplined in the stern school of
adversity, grasped at every opportunity of acquiring
knowledge from men and books — and who, when he left
his native vale, burst upon the world as a being of a
higher order, fitted to take his place among the mightiest
minds. The house in which Burns was born is now, as aU the
world knows, an alehouse. It is a low-roofed, one-storey
cottage, thatched, and consists of a "but and ben" —
Anglice, two rooms on the same floor. An additional
apartment has been added at one end, without interfering
with the original structure, erected with his own hands,
by the poet's father. It is close by the road-side, on the
way to Doon-bridge ; and directly opposite, on the other
side of the road, is another thatched cottage, which John
Murdoch, the poet's early and best preceptor, at one time
used as a school-room. Burns's cottage has been inhabited,
for nearly forty years, by John Goudie and his wife, the
latter being a neat, tidy old woman, who keeps the cot-
age as " clean as a new pin," and who shows the recess in
the wall where stood the bed in which Burns was born.
The landlady presented us with her " Visitors' Book," in
which the names of strangers are entered. There were
no less than three hundred and fifty in one month-
September. On a blank leaf of this poetical register is
written an injunction that no person shall insert anything

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 305
in the book but his name, residence, and the date of his
visit. In violation of this injunction, however, or under
forfeiture of the penalty, there are several notices scribbled.
One man records that he drank to the memory of Robert
Burns, Tarn O'Shanter, and Souter Johnny; while another,
who proclaims himself to be an Irishman, intimates to
the world that he dined at the cottage, &c. The absurd
vanity, vulgar wonder, and conceited doggerel, which are
thus poured forth, as if by the motion of travelling, form
one of our national characteristics, as distinctly marked as
that love of seeing sights and monsters, which Shakespeare
has ridiculed, in the Tempest, as one of the foibles of the
English people.
AUoway Kirk is but a poor ruin— not unlike a roof
less barn — and the midnight orgies, which the glorious
Tam O'Shanter witnessed, were confined to small space.
There is room for the "winnock bunker" in the east,
where the principal performer, whom Burns delighted to
honour, sat with his music, but the flights of the dancers
must have been sadly hampered, and the "groaning
trees," through which the Kirk glimmered with its un-
haUowed light, exist only in miniature, or in the fancy of
the poet. The latter elevated and adorned the scenery
which he selected for commemoration, as he invested his
rustic beauties in song with charms which no other person
could discover. Byron says finely of these dreams of the
imagination which colour the sober realities of this work-a-
day world with the hues of romance —
" Think you the honey with those objects grew ?
Alas, 'twas not in them but in his power
To double even the sweetness of a flower."
Burns could scarcely double the sweetness of a Scottish u

306 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
flower. The churchyard around this famous ruin is still
used, and has become fashionable as a burying-ground.
There the ashes of the poet's father rest, after a life of
trouble, misery, and virtue, sorely tried by want and op
pression. The original tombstone had crumbled away,
or been carried off piece-meal ; and it has been replaced
by another plain headstone, on which Burns's just and
beautiful epitaph is engraved —
" O ye whose cheek the tear of pity stains,
Draw near with pious reverence, and attend !
Here lie the loving husband's dear remains,
The tender father, and the generous friend :
The pitying heart that felt for human woe —
The dauntless heart that feared no human pride —
The friend of man, to vice alone a foe :
' For even his failings leaned to virtue's side.' "
In the line which we have printed in italics, the spirit of
the son breaks out, in delineating a similar trait in the
character of the father.
The erection of the Burns Monument must have
greatly altered, as it has embeUished, the scene. It is
a lofty structure, about sixty feet high; on a triangular
pedestal are placed nine Corinthian columns, a cupola,
and a gilt tripod, supported by dolphins. The columns
and architectural decorations of fruit, flowers, and foliage,
are beautifully executed; and the effect of the whole is
decidedly superior to the Mausoleum at Dumfries, or the
Burns Monument on the Calton Hill of Edinburgh. The
enclosed ground near the monument is tastefully laid out
with walks, evergreens, and flowers — a graceful offering at
the shrine of genius, contributed by the willing hands of
the gardeners and florists of Ayrshire — which, in summer,

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 307
fills the air with fragrance, and the whole spot with a
living and inimitable beauty.
Within the pleasure grounds of the monument, in a
small building erected for the purpose, are placed the
statues of Tarn O'Shanter and Souter Johnny, by the
well-known native artist, Thom. There is much comic
humour, and a wonderful power over coarse stone, evinced
in these figures; but our impression at the moment was,
that they should be taken to the ale-house, rather than
exhibited beside the Corinthian columns, cultivated ele
gance, and natural beauty of this spot. The power of
contrast, though great, is not always pleasing. A fine
marble bust of Burns (the gift of Mr Park, the sculptor)
is in the same building.
A vUla close by, of modern date, is in harmony with
the above scene. " Doonbrae Cottage, the residence of
Mr David Auld, stands directly below Alloway Kirk, on
the sloping banks of the river. A picturesque walk, over
hanging the waters of the Doon, has been constructed —
a summer-house and fountain formed — the Well, cele
brated by the poet for its connection with "Mungo's
mither," is enclosed, and its limpid waters gathered into
a cistern — and no man can be more willing to act as
cicerone to the visitors of this enchanting place than its
proprietor. When we saw the spot the woods were bare
with the winds of autumn, and bending beneath its blasts;
but its beauty was faded, not gone, and the scene was in
keeping with our recollection of the chequered career of
the poet, and with his animating description —
" Before him Doon pours all his floods,
The doubling storm roars through the woods."

308 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
From the vicinity of Ayr, Burns's family removed to
Lochlea, near Tarbolton, and, after a residence there of
seven years, to Mossgiel, near Mauchline. In Lochlea
Burns became a freemason and a poet. The books of
the Mason Lodge still remain in Tarbolton, and no man
could be more devoted to the mystic craft than " Brother
Burns."* Near the Mason Lodge is a thatched one-storey
* The records of Tarbolton Mason Lodge commence June 24,
1774. It was chartered about a month before (May 27), and John
Rankin, the hero of Burns's most humerous and unique Epistle, was
one of the original members. In the proceedings of the Lodge, the
poet's name first occurs under date of July 27, 1784, when he acted
as Deputy-Master — the Master of the Lodge, Colonel Montgomery
of Coilsfield, being absent with his regiment. The minute is written
by the Secretary, John Wilson (Doctor Hornbook), who spells the
name of the Deputy-Master "Burns" not "Burness" the family name,
and which the poet and his brother Gilbert retained till April 1786.
The alteration made in the orthography of the name was in all pro
bability prompted by the manner in which it was commonly pro
nounced and writen, as a monosyllable. On the 1st September 1784,
Burns was again at the Lodge, and the minute of the meeting is
wholly in his handwriting. It is n very plain and frugal record of
club expenditure : — " This night the Lodge met, and ordered four
pounds of candles, and one quire of eight-pence paper for the use of
the Lodge, which money was laid out by the Treasurer, and the
candles and paper laid in accordingly." January 24, 1785, "Brother
Robert Burns " presides at the deliberations, and monthly meetings
appear to have been held during the remainder of the year, all of
which he attended. He continues Deputy-Master throughout the year
1786, and was present at fully a dozen meetings. On the 25th of May
in this year he first signs his name " Burns." His Poems, as has
been remarked, were then in the press, and it was necessary that he
should make his choice betwixt "Burness" and "Burns," betwixt the
ancient family orthography and the common pronunciation. He
chose the latter, which Allan Cunningham regretted, and certainly
the original dissyllable is the more sonorous and poetical name. After

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 309
cottage, in which Burns established a Debating Club, and
where he shone, " a bright particular star" among a few
wondering rustics. His mind was now developing itself,
and his genius found vent in these humble scenes of
distinction. Two contemporaries of Burns in this rustic
forum survived until lately, and remembered the fervid
eloquence and daring speculations with which their early
his first flash of brilliant success in Edinburgh, the poet returned to
Mauchline in June 1 787, and on the 4th of July he resumed his duties
as Deputy-Master at Tarbolton Lodge. The 25th of July was a
memorable day in the annals of the fraternity. A deputation of the
Lodge, headed, of course, by the Deputy-Master, went to Mauchline
in order to admit the following gentlemen as honorary members.
Alexander Allison, Barmuir ; Professor Dugald Stewart of Catrine ;
Claud Alexander ofBallochmyle; ClaudNelson, Esq., Paisley; John
Farquhar Gray, Esq. of Gilmilnscroft ; and Dr George Guerson,
Glasgow. Burns's name does not occur again till May 1788 ; he
was present on the 7th, the 23rd, and 28th of that month; and the
last of these entries closes the masonic career of the illustrious Depute-
Master at Tarbolton Lodge. One of the persons admitted as an
"apprentice mason" during Burns's presidency — a stone mason,
named William Drennan — was alive in 1846. He spoke to us with
enthusiasm of the poet's great powers of expression and debate.
While thus noticing humble and unpublished records connected
with Burns, we may add the following entries made by his own
hand in his Family Bible. The volume is a thick folio, entitled,
"Universal Bible;" containing coarse engravings, and a. selection
of notes from Henry, Doddridge, &c, by John Guyse, D.D.
Published by John Reid, Edinburgh, 1766.
" Robert Burns was born at Alloway, in the Parish of Ayr,
Jan. 25th, 1759.
" Jean Armour, his wife, was born at Mauchline, Feb. 27th,
1767. " Sept. 3rd, 1786, were born to them twins, Robert, their eldest
son, at a quarter past noon, and Jean, since dead at fourteen months
old. March 3, 1788 were born to them twins again, two daughters,

310 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
associate used to astonish his compeers. One of these
individuals was in possession of the minutes and records
of the club ; but, in consequence of their containing some
levities and grossness of expression, he burned the whole.
An English gentleman had offered ^40 or ^50 for
them ! Mr Moore's destruction of the Byron autobio
graphy was not more decidedly a sacrifice to principle
and virtue than this holocaust, unknown to fame, of Mr
M'Gavin, Tarbolton.
Close by was the abode of Highland Mary, and Burns's
soul was touched with new and deeper emotions. Mary
was but a poor dairymaid in the proud Castle of Mont
gomery. She was, however, eminently lovely and virtuous,
and the young poet met her daily amidst scenery of the
most beautiful description. The castle stands on a high
bank, wooded and precipitous, and at the foot of it mur
murs a stream, half hid by foliage, near which the lovers
used to meet at gloaming, or twilight. A thorn tree is
still pointed out as the trysting place.
" Who that has melted o'er his lay,
To Mary's soul in heaven above,
But pictured sees, in fancy strong,
The landscape and the livelong day
That smiled upon their mutual love —
Who that has felt forgets the song ?"
Campbell.
Such was the day on which Burns and Mary parted.
who died within a few days after their birth. August 18th, 1789,
was born to them Francis Wallace, so named after Mrs Dunlop of
Dunlop ; he was born at a quarter before seven, forenoon. April
9th, 1791, between three and four in the morning, was born to
them William Nicol, so named after William Nicol of the High

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 311
They stood on each side of the stream ; they laved their
hands in its waters, and, holding a Bible between them,
pronounced their vows to be faithful to each other. The
lovers never met again. Mary fell a prey to disease,
while her vows were yet fresh upon her. The poet mixed
in many scenes — he burst into distinction — mingled with
the fair, the high-born, and the illustrious— and removed,
with other ties, far distant from the wooded banks of the
burn of Failie and the River Ayr. Yet never was the day
nor the scene forgotten. Years afterwards, when he re
sided in the vale of Nith, Burns's wife watched him one
evening in September, striding up and down slowly, con
templating the starry sky. He fixed his eyes on a beauti
ful planet, "that shone like another moon," and he poured
out his soul in that impassioned lyric —
' ' Thou lingering star, with lessening ray,
That lovest to greet the early morn,
Again thou usherest in the day
My Mary from my soul was torn.
O Mary ! dear departed shade,
Where is thy place of blissful rest ;
Seest thou thy lover lowly laid,
Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast ?"
This is the most beautiful and touching passage in all
Burns's life. His after-loves were of the earth, earthy,
but his passion for Highland Mary was as pure as it was
fervent and lasting. It dawned upon him at the most
School, Edinburgh. November 21st, 1792, at a quarter past noon,
was born to them Elizabeth Riddel, so named after Mrs Robert
Riddel of Glenriddel."
The poet has omitted to enter the birth of his son James Glen-
cairn Burns, born 1794.

312 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
susceptible period of life; it let in enchantment upon
scenes and objects which he had previously looked upon
with coldness or aversion; it gave a finer tone of hu
manity to his whole moral being. Let us not admit the
dictum of Byron, that "the cold in clime are cold in
blood," since in peasant life, among the woods of Ayr,
was nursed, in solitude and obscurity, a passion as deep
and thrilling and romantic as the loves of Tasso or
Petrarch, and immeasurably beyond those of Sidney and
Waller. Sacharissa and the fair ones of Arcadia must yield
to the dairymaid of Montgomery Castle !
When Burns's fortunes assumed a darker complexion,
and his temper was soured by disappointment and neglect,
the constitutional melancholy to which he had been ever
prone gathered force, and he delighted in stern and deso
late scenery. Amidst the gaieties and splendour of Edin
burgh, he had dark forebodings and dismal thoughts. We
have heard old John Richmond of Mauchline (with whom
the poet lodged and slept in a garret-room in the Lawn-
market) state that, on returning from the routs of the nobil
ity, the poet would throw himself gloomily on his bed, and
beg his friend to read him asleep. In later years he sought
the woods, delighted, in a cloudy winter day, to hear the
stormy wind howling among the trees, and raging over the
plain. " It is my best season for devotion," he writes ;
" my mind is wrapt up in a kind of enthusiasm to Him,
who, in the pompous language of the Hebrew bard, 'walks
on the wings of the wind.' " In another letter he says
that the first January, or New Year's day, the great
carnival of Presbyterian Scotland, where Christmas is
little celebrated — the first Sunday in May — a breezy, blue-
skied noon some time about the beginning, and a hoary

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 313
morning and calm sunny day about the end of autumn,
these had been, time out of mind, a kind of holiday with
him. What would we not give for a declaration from
Shakespeare similar to the following ? —
" I have some favourite flowers in spring, among which
are the mountain daisy, the harebell, the foxglove, the wild
brier-rose, the budding birch, and the hoary hawthorn, that
I never view and hang over without particular delight. I
never heard the loud, solitary whistle of the curlew in a
summer noon, or the wild mixing cadence of a troop of
grey plovers in an autumnal morning, without feeling an
elevation of soul like the enthusiasm of devotion or
poetry. Tell me, my dear friend, to what can this be owing?
Are we a piece of machinery, which, like the Eolian harp,
passive, takes the impression of the passing accident ? or
do these workings argue something within us above the
trodden clod ? I own myself partial to such proofs of
those awful and important realities — a God that made all
things — man's immaterial and immortal nature — and a
world of weal or woe beyond death and the grave."
This noble passage is conceived in a style of poetry
which Burns seldom reached, and never excelled, in the
fetters of rhyme. Something of the same meditative and
philosophical spirit is found in his tender lines on scaring
wild fowl on Loch-Truit, and in his verses written in
Friar's Carse Hermitage, but without the same lofty
elevation. The religious opinions of Burns were early tinged with
Socinianism. His father had written a little manual of
devotion for the use of his family (which is said still to
exist in manuscript with Mr Gilbert Burns's descendants),
in which he inclined to the Arminian doctrine. The poet

314 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
was thus led from infancy to look with some distrust on
the rigid Calvinism of the Scottish Church. Afterwards
he associated with some heterodox ministers of Ayrshire,
at a time when " polemical divinity was putting the
country half mad," and his feelings, prejudices, and pre
dilections, all tended to fix upon him the peculiar heresy
or belief to which we have alluded. It continued with
him through life. When in his latter days he praised
Cowper's " Task," he excepted its " scraps of Calvinistic
divinity." The opinion of the country people was, that
the whole Burns family were believers in the unpopular
creed of Socinus. So we were informed by an old man
named Humphrey, who found refuge in a poor's house
in Ayrshire, on whom Burns wrote a coarse epigram —
"ON A NOISY POLEMIC.
" Below thir stanes lie Jamie's banes :
O Death, it's my opinion,
Thou ne'er took such a bletherin' b — ch
Into thy dark dominion ! "
The aged polemic was a stone-mason, and built Burns's
outhouses at the farm of Mossgiel. He was in his eighty-
second year when we saw him, but lively and acute, and
still ready for a theological argument. The occasion of the
above lines he described in terms like the following : —
" I saw Burns one day coming towards me, on the road
from Mossgiel, and I began to consider what I should
say to him, for there was nobody in the whole country
side was a match for him at an argument. I had been
reading Quevedo's ' Visions of Hell', and so when the
poet came up to me with his usual question — 'Weel,
Jamie, what news ?' — I said there was strange intelligence

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 315
from the lower regions — that there was a controversy
among the condemned spirits, whether they should keep
on the ' auld diel,' or prefer, in his place, a certain wild
poet of Ayrshire : the elderly part of the assembly were
for keeping on the ' auld diel,' but the younger ones, who
knew the poet's writings, were keen for appointing him to
the command ! Burns laughed at this ; he caUed me a
bletherin' b—ch, and soon after wrote the verse." We
tried to confine this old man to Burns's history, but he
wandered into polemics, and could only speak vaguely
as to the poet's wildness of expression, and his unrivalled
powers of conversation and debate.
At Mossgiel, the house occupied by the poet, his
brother Gilbert, their mother, and sisters, remains in its
original condition. The room in which he copied out
his best productions — the fields in which he ploughed,
and where he turned up the mountain daisy and the
mouse's nest, are now paced with no ordinary emotion
by strangers from many a foreign clime, who repeat his
matchless strains, and conjure up the appearance of the
poet " In glory and in joy,
Following his plough along the mountain side."
There is a row of trees close to the house, under
which the young poet delighted to walk in the gloaming
when his field work was over. The present tenant of
Mossgiel informed us that Burns's landlord (Mr Gavin
Hamilton) used to say that Gilbert was an excellent
farmer in his arm-chair, but nowhere else, while Robert
was a first-rate worker in the field. A female cousin of
the poet, living in Mauchline, who accompanied him to
Ellisland and Dumfries, spoke of his kindly nature and his

316 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
manly spirit. She had been with him in the harvest field
at Mossgiel, while the poet bound behind his reapers ;
and he was always anxious to solace, and cheer, and assist
the younger labourers. When Gilbert spoke sharply to
them, the good-natured poet would exclaim — " O, man, ye
are no for young folk ;" and he was ready with a helping
hand, or a look of encouragement. This person re
membered the day when he composed Tarn o' Shanter,
at Ellisland, as described in Mr Lockhart's memoir. He
crooned it over in solitary walks, by the banks of the river,
wrote it on paper on afeal dyke, and, on his return to the
house, read it out to the family circle by the fireside,
amidst shouts of laughter, and tears of joy. The scene
was worthy the pencil of a Wilkie.
We had a long and memorable conversation with the
poet's eldest surviving son, who was about ten years of
age when his father died, and who remembers him dis
tinctly and affectionately. This gentleman was, after
Burns's death, placed, by some friends of the family, at
college, in Scotland, and from thence was transferred to
a situation in the Stamp Office, London, in which situa
tion he continued clerk until within the last few years.
He retired with an allowance of ^120 per annum, in
obtaining which he was aided by Lord Brougham, then
chancellor. Mr Burns now resides in the town of Dum
fries, where his illustrious father closed his brief and
glorious, but troubled career. He is fond of pointing
out the favourite walks and scenes of his father on the
banks of the River Nith. The ruined Abbey or College
of Lincluden — which stands in a solitary spot, where two
streams meet, about a mile and a-half from the town —
was one of his chosen haunts. It is surrounded with

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 317
soft swelling green mounds, the remains of a bowling-
green and flower garden, and some old ash trees. " On
one of these little knolls," says the son, " I have often
seen my father stand, while he told me to play about till
he wished to return home." On this spot he could com
mand a view of both the Gothic windows of the chapel,
through which the sky and trees seem a perfect picture,
encased in a massive frame — and it was here, after a long
midnight reverie, that he composed his " Vision."
" As I stood by yon roofless tower,
Where the wa' flower scents the dewy air,
Where the howlet mourns in her ivy bower,
And tells the midnight moon her care ;
The winds were laid, the air was still,
The stars they shot along the sky ;
The fox was howling on the hill,
And the distant-echoing glens reply. ''
When we visited this spot, we thought not of the monks
and nuns that once tenanted the place, but the poet stood
visibly before us in the light of genius, and so he will stand
to many a future generation, ennobling the scene with asso
ciations unknown before.
Mr Allan Cunningham has given a description of the
poet's death, in the midst of misery and distress. " On
the fourth day," says the biographer, " when his attendant
held a cordial to his lips, he swallowed it eagerly — rose
almost wholly up — spread out his hands — sprang forward
nigh the whole length of the bed — fell on his face — and
expired." Burns's son saw his father expire. He and
the other children had been removed to the house of a
friend, that<khe poet's dwelling might be kept quiet dur
ing his fatal illness, but on the morning that he died they

318 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
were sent for, to witness the dissolution then seen to be
inevitable. The poet's son says Mr Cunningham must
have been misinformed. Burns was too much crippled
by disease, and too much enfeebled, for such a strange
exertion. He lay a helpless wreck, his mind wandering
in delirium. His last words were — " That rascal, Matthew
Penn" — an incoherent ejaculation, prompted probably by
some dread of the law and a gaol — for Matthew Penn
was an attorney, and the poet was a few pounds in debt.
Alas ! we may say with William Roscoe —
" 'Tis done, the powerful charm succeeds ;
His high reluctant spirit bends ;
In bitterness of soul he bleeds,
Nor longer with his fate contends.
An idiot laugh the welkin rends,
As genius thus degraded lies ;
Till pitying Heaven the veil extends,
That shrouds the poet's ardent eyes."
The intense activity and energy of Burns's mind forms
a striking feature in his character, which his son remarks
has not been sufficiently dwelt upon by his biographers.
When not engaged in manual labour, he was generally
reading or writing — he read as "he drove his team a-
field" — he read at his meals. He mastered the first
six books of Euclid, and was a tolerable land-surveyor :
his son still retains his measuring chain. He made him
self a tolerable proficient in French — following up his
fortnight's instruction from Murdoch:— and we saw his
copy of Moliere, inscribed, in old Scottish phrase —
"Robert Burns aught this book."* He scribbled his
*His proficiency in that language, though it was wonderful, con
sidering his opportunities, was necessarily slight ; yet it was in show-

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 319
books over with notes and comments, and was well versed
in Scottish history and literature, particularly songs and
ballads. He established reading clubs in different villages
— he saw much society, delighting all with his rich and
varied powers of conversation — he carried on from his early
days, a most extensive and elaborate correspondence :
he wrote songs for Thomson's collection of Scottish melo
dies until within a fortnight of his death. He was a
farmer and an exciseman, and he died at thirty-seven years
of age. When before was so much intellectual exertion,
in the midst of severe labour, want, and obscurity, crowded
into so short a span ? Grave men sit in their easy chairs
amid the luxuries of life, and, ex cathedra, lift their voices
against the follies of Burns. Alas, they little think how
hard was the struggle he maintained through life— how
much he accomplished, in the face of difficulties that
would have appalled a less gifted and less energetic mind
— and how true was the touching verse that fell from him
in the bitterness of sorrow —
ing this accomplishment alone, that Burns's weakness ever took the
shape of vanity. One of his friends, who carried him into the com
pany of a French lady, remarked, with surprise, that he attempted to
converse with her in her own tongue. Their French, however, was
soon found to be almost mutually unintelligible. As far as Burns could
make himself understood, he unfortunately offended the foreign lady.
He meant to tell her that she was a charming person, and delightful
in conversation ; but expressed himself so as to appear to her to mean
that she was fond of speaking, to which the Gallic dame indignantly
replied, that it was quite as common for poets to be impertinent, as
for women to be loquacious. " — Campbell's Specimens of the Poets.
Burns's conductress on this occassion (as Mr Campbell informed us),
was Miss Margaret Chalmers, afterwards Mrs Lewis Hay, one of the
poet's favourite lady-friends and correspondents.

320 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
" Who made the heart, 'tis He alone
Decidedly can try us :
He knows each chord, its various tone,
Each spring, its various bias :
Then at the balance let's be mute,
We never can adjust it ;
What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted. "

From early habit and necessity, Burns composed his
poetry chiefly in the open air. The sun, lighting up the
woods and rivers, inspired him with joy and gladness,
and with the true materials of poesy before and around
him, and in his heart, he needed not the incentive of
books. While he held the plough, or scattered the seed
along the furrows, he was at liberty to " mutter his way
ward fancies," and shape them into verse. It was thus
that he composed his "Mountain Daisy" and the "Mouse's
Nest." Even " Tarn o' Shanter," which would seem to
have been the inspiration of flowing cups and merry nights,
was written, as we have seen, out of doors, to the mur
murs of the Nith and the waving of the woods at Ellisland.
His solitary rides, as an exciseman, were converted to the
same service, and if he crooned over a song, or conceived
a happy idea in his elbow-chair, he was never satisfied
till he had sallied out, stick in hand, and completed the
sketch in the true study of nature.
" The Muse, nae poet ever fand her
Till by himsel' he learned to wander
Adown some trotting burn's meander,
An' no think lang ;
O sweet, to stray an' pensive ponder
A heart-felt sang !"

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 32 I
Hence, Burns's rural and woodland descriptions are
true as nature itself. Such images were ever present to his
mind, and rose unbidden to his tongue and pen. When
he commemorates the death of a friend, he indulges
in no undertaker-like catalogue of mourning weeds and
trappings of woe : he does not call on the Sisters of
the Sacred Well, from the seat of Jove, to join in his
grief : but he invokes all nature — the rivers, forests, hills,
and plains —and all the seasons.
' ' Mourn, spring, thou darling of the year !
Ilk cowslip cup shall kep a tear :
Thou, Simmer, while each corny spear
Shoots up its head,
Thy gay green flowery tresses shear
For him that's dead !
" Thou, Autumn, wi' thy yellow hair,
In grief thy sallow mantle tear !
Thou, Winter, hurling through the air
The roaring blast,
Wide o'er the naked world declare
The worth we've lost."
Nor, in this exquisite elegy, are the humbler objects of
external nature, so well known to the poet, overlooked —
" Mourn, ilka grove the cushat kens !
Ye hazelly shaws and briery dens !
Ye burnies, wimpling down your glens,
Wi' toddlin' din,
Or foaming strong, wi' hasty stens,
Frae lin to lin !
" Mourn, little harebells, o'er the lea ;
Ye stately foxgloves, fair to see ;

322 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Ye woodbines, hanging bonnilie
In scented bowers ;
Ye roses on your thorny tree,
The first o' flowers !
' ' At dawn, when every glassy blade
Droops with a diamond at its head,
At even, when beans their fragrance shed,
I' th' rustling gale
Ye maukins whidding through the glade,
Come join my wail."
These were the tools with which the poet worked — the
authorities he consulted — the pandects he followed and
obeyed. We have sometimes marvelled what sort of a
poet Cowper would have been, if his lot had been cast
in Scotland. Would the northern burns have inspired a
different strain from the brooks of England ? Would he
have sung of Bruce, and Wallace, and Scotch drink, as he
sang of Wolfe, and Chatham, and ladies' employments,
and sober tea-parties? Thomson did not wholly forget
Scotland in England— Campbell was full of it. James
Montgomery was born in Ayrshire, but he owes nothing
to Scotland but his birth : he had not time to inhale the
spirit of the mountains, and his muse is wholly English.
Wordsworth would have been a sort of Ossian, if born in
the Highlands — wandering up and down, lamenting the
decay of chiefs and clans, a firm believer in the second
sight, and celebrating solitary mountains and valleys,
overhung by mists, roaring waterfalls, and the mournful
dashing of waves along the firths and lakes !
Having alluded to Burns's eldest son, we shall here
subjoin a pleasing and spirited copy of verses by that
gentleman, on the accession of Queen Victoria. Poetical

A RAMBLE AMONG THE SCENERY OF BURNS. 323
talent is seldom hereditary ; but we believe our readers
will admit that a portion of Burns's lyrical genius has des
cended to his son: —
"THE GATHERING OF SCOTLAND.
Air — " The Campbells are coming."
"Oh, come ye to welcome our gallant young queen !
Oh, come ye to welcome our gallant young queen !
Of the blue-bell and gowan, and thistle so green,
Oh, twine ye a wreath for our gallant young queen !
•
¦" Let the Lion of Scotland wave bright in the gale,
With the cross of her glory all stainless and pale ;
Let them shine o'er our hills and our valleys so green,
As they shone o'er the sires of our gallant young queen.
Oh, come ye, &c.
" With the spear of Kis fathers the Johnstone shall ride,
The spears of the Border shall gleam at his side ;
The Flowers of the Forest in pride shall be seen,
The men of Buccleuch, round our gallant young queen.
Oh, come ye, &c.
" The Gordon shall march through the mist and the dew ;
And Douglas, the noble, the tender, and true ;
The Grseme and the Ramsay the battle shall glean
With the swords of their fame, for our gallant young queen.
Oh, come ye, &c.
' ' Macgardh* his banner with pride shall display,
With its well-crimsbn'd buckler of Luncarty's day ;
Argyle and Breadalbane in might shall convene
Clan-Dermid's bold race round our gallant young queen.
Oh, come ye, &c.
* Hay, Earl of Errol. " Macgardh, son of the hedge," after
wards changed into the more courtly and Norman appellative —
" De la Haye, of the hedge." Macgardh, the husbandman, and his

324 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
" Like the mist of Ben Nevis, that darkens the glen,
The clansmen shall shadow the heather again ;
The swords of their chieftains in light shall be seen,
Like the sunbeams of war, round our gallant young queen.
Oh, come ye, &c.
" The fir on our mountains in triumph shall wave —
Our mountains where wander the free and the brave —
With the oak of Old England, majestic and green,
True liberty's tree, o'er our gallant young queen !
O, come ye, &c."

A TOUR FROM INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN
CASTLE, SUTHERLANDSHIRE.
Crossing the ferry at Kessock, a bare bleak table-land
leads on to Dingwall. As the road ascends, a fine view
is obtained, by looking backwards, on the firth, the town,
and the neighbouring scenery; but in front all is dark,
rugged, and uninviting, till, at the distance of about nine
miles, we survey the vale of the Conon, the woods of
Brahan, and the fertile slopes waving with grain, or
studded with green fields and pastures. The scene is
extensive and picturesque.
two sons, stopped the flight of the Scottish army at the battle of
Luncarty, and led them back to a glorious victory over their Dan
ish invaders. After the battle, the gallant husbandman and his
two sons were brought to the Scottish king, with their shields
covered with blood. In memory of their ancestors, the Earls of
Errol bear « bloody shield in their coat of arms. It is worthy of
remark that this romantic incident was one of the subjects which
Milton, in his early days, considered worthy of forming a drama. —
See his manuscripts in Trinity College Library, Cambridge.

INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN CASTLE. 325
Descending to Conon-Bridge, we advise the tourist to
proceed to Brahan Castle, though it lead him a few miles
out of his direct course. Nature has done much for
Brahan, and man but little. The last Earl of Seaforth
stultified the old castle by modernising it, and divesting
it of its castellated appearance, like an old knight or
baron stript of his armour and set down, his huge bulk
and grizzled aspect looking bleak and bare. In the
court-yard of the castle, the poor Highlanders, pursuant
to the orders of Government, surrendered up their arms
to General Wade — a bitter pill for many a proud spirit.
The castle contains some valuable original paintings, by
Salvator Rosa and other masters — a large family piece,
by West, which cost ^3000 — and three rare pictures
connected with Scottish story. The most valuable of
these is a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots — a full length,
finely executed. This valuable picture came into the
family through one of the Earls of Seaforth, who was of
the Queen's Privy Council. We are surprised that it
should not have been engraved, as it is a more interest
ing likeness than that in the collection of the Earl of
Morton, from which Mr Lodge and others have drawn
their portraits of Mary. Some doubts have been enter
tained as to the name of the artist, but it has lately been
pronounced, by one of the best living judges, to be the
production of Zucchero. A miniature, in oil colours, of
Mary's rash and heartless husband, Darnley, taken at an
early age, is in another room. This has been engraved,
and will be found in Lodge's Portraits. The execution is
good — the countenance that of a big blubberly boy. A
portrait of David Rizzio, with his violin in his hand, is
the last of these three curious pictures. Rizzio seems to

326 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
have been a man of fair complexion, sandy-coloured hair,
and light peaked beard. The countenance is mean and
commonplace, but " indifferent honest," as Hamlet says;
so that if Mary was actually captivated by the Italian
musician, it must have been by his mind, or his Cre
mona fiddle, and not by his face. The portrait of Rizzio
is dated 1564, on the back of it is the following writing: —
" This picture of David Rizzio I had from Dr Webster
of the King's Road, Chelsea, near the burying-ground.
He had it from Edinburgh. It was exhibited at Mr
Bowyer's Gallery, Pall Mall, who makes mention of it in
his catalogue. At the bottom of this picture is an account
of the circumstances attending the death of Rizzio, and
also of the picture being in the possession of Archibald
Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyle. — J. Hill."
In the castle are two pictures by Kneller, and some
of the beauties of. Charles the Second's Court. Family
pictures seldom possess much interest, and hence we
shall only remark, that Brahan Castle has its due propor
tion of these private memorials (two of them by Lawrence),
and that the ladies are all splendid, and the males "gentle
men born," like Cousin Slender, " who wrote themselves
Armigero (and something more) in any bill, warrant,
quittance, or obligation." One of the Earls of Seaforth,
whose portrait is in the large hall, fled to Spain, after an
unsuccessful effort at insurrection in favour of the Stuart
family, in the year 17 18. The family bard composed
a Gaelic song on the occasion, the chorus of which is
adapted to the double pull upon the oars of a galley. A
Highland lady (Mrs Maclean) gave Sir Walter Scott a
literal translation of these Gaelic verses, and the poet
having made a paraphrase of the most striking thoughts

INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN CASTLE. 327
and images in the best stanzas, presented them to the
Hon. Mrs Stewart Mackenzie, then Lady Hood. The
piece opens in the true vein of Celtic poetry —
" Farewell to Mackenneth, great Earl of the North,
The Lord of Lochcarron, Glensheal, and Seaforth;
To the Chieftain this morning his course who began,
Launching forth on the billows his bark like a swan.
For a far foreign land he has hoisted his sail —
Farewell to Mackenzie High Chief of Kintail."
A circumstance is related respecting one of the Earls
of Seaforth and the park in front of the castle. The earl
was enthusiastically fond of his trees ; but, before going
to London on one occasion, he was prevailed upon to con
sent to the destruction of certain of the great family, the
most worthless of the race, who were decayed, and stood
in the way of its better members. He went round in the
evening, and put a mark on all those he wished to remain
untouched, instead of marking those he desired should
be cut down, as is generally done. The man misunder
stood the earl's orders, and when the latter returned, he
found the flower of the forest — the noblest trees that
graced his park — lying prostrate on the ground. The
shock is said to have been such that the earl's friends
feared he would have lost his senses : like Rachael
mourning for her children, he refused to be comforted,
and never ceased to deplore the loss of the sylvan mon-
archs of the plain, who had waved over it for centuries.
Washington Irving mentions a remark made by an aristo
cratic old friend, when speaking of the sumptuous palaces
of modern gentry, and which is strikingly applicable to
this rural calamity at Brahan Castle, that " money can do

328 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
much with stone and mortar, but there is no such thing
as suddenly building up an avenue of oaks." Sir Henry
Steuart, however, has gone far, by his system of trans
plantation, to remove this difficulty.
A colony of rooks has long been established at
Brahan, and attempts have lately been made to lessen
the number. The reason assigned is, that the nests of
the birds injure the trees. The nests are strongly made,
vigorous, compact, and durable — for the rook is an
admirable architect and builder — but they get filled with
rain, which is constantly overflowing in times of storm
and tempest, and thus the branches of the trees become
decayed. There seems something in this dictum, though
we never heard it propounded before. But the rook is as
strongly attached to the tree on which it has been cradled,
as the salmon is to its native stream, and it will be no easy
task to dislodge him. He is also so interesting a feUow
when wheeling about with his companions, in his usual
picturesque style, before going to roost on a calm summer's
evening, that we should be sorry to see the social tribe
driven from their old immemorial haunts.
Dingwall is the key to some of the choicest scenery in
the Highlands — a sort of ancient duenna, that keeps guard
over the beauties of Ross-shire. Following out the prin
cipal street, to the west, with its "wearisome but needful
length," and its row of poplars, the traveller will soon find
himself in the valley of Strathpeffer. He may linger
among the manifold attractions of the Spa — the fine old
baronial-looking pile of Castle Leod —or if he be under
forty-six years of age (at which period, according to Crabbe,
men become less fond of climbing hills), he may scramble
up to the vitrified heights and mountains around, which

INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN CASTLE. 329
bulwark in the peaceful strath below. We advise him to
continue his route about ten miles further, to pass up by
Coul, to visit the falls of Rogie, to drive round the foot
of Tor-Achilty, to take a sail on the exquisite little lake at
its base, and loose himself and all earthly concerns for an
hour or two, in wandering through the birch wildernesses
that are here found in the full perfection of wild, yet
graceful nature.
On the present occasion we took the more prosaic
route by the coast, and travelled, pursuant to Act of
Parliament, on the highway to Invergordon. From
Dingwall to the Water of Alness is called the Ferrin-
donald district, the Ferrintosh country being directly
opposite, on the other side of the firth. This is the
ancient country of the Munroes. The high sloping bank
overlooking the sea is well wooded, and the farms on
the estates of Mountgerald, Foulis, Inchcoulter, and
Novar, appear richly cultivated. A considerable quantity
of grain is annuaUy exported from this country. But its
most conspicuous object, in a picturesque point of view,
is Ben-Wyvis — a mountain little inferior in height to
Ben-Nevis, in Inverness-shire, with which it is often con
founded, by those whose study of maps is as lax as that
of the engravers commemorated by Swift —
" Geographers who, on pathless downs,
Place elephants for want of towns."
Formerly a fine deer forest graced the huge shoulders
of Ben-Wyvis. It was disparked about the year 1790,
when sheep farming was introduced. The country people
were indignant at this innovation ; many of them occu
pied the hill ground rent free, and, when the sheep-

33° HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
walks were established, they were deprived of what they
considered a hereditary right. So far was this feeling
carried, that public tumults took place, and it was found
necessary to call in the aid of the military to quell the
disturbances. The 42nd Regiment were sent from
Edinburgh for this purpose, which they soon accom
plished. We were told that some painful scenes took
place in this collision. A number of the soldiers were
Highlanders, born in the district, and when they at
tempted — -to use the figurative speech of the Celts — to
quench the fire on the hearth-stones of their fathers,
language of strong passion, upbraiding, and pathos, with
abundance of tears, passed on both sides.
The forest of Wyvis was held by the Munroes of
Foulis under a singular tenure — that they should present
the king with a snow-ball whenever it was demanded of
them. Mary Queen of Scots was the last who required
the fulfilment of this condition, when she lay in Inverness-
and we suppose the request was made by way of amuse
ment to the Court. It is a condition that could always
be complied with, even in the dog-days. The Munroes
were faithful to the Hanover succession at the time of
the Rebellion, and as a compliment to the Duke of Cum
berland, some snow was sent to him at Inverness from
Ben-Wyvis, to cool his wine. "It would may-be be more
useful to him now" said an old Highlander drily, " but
we would not be so fond of taking it to the camp." Some
of the names of the grazings on this hill would puzzle a
Southern tongue to pronounce. There is Ballachladdich,
with Kianlochninochin, Altitudinem, Lubreacht, Inrich-
nidow, Reballochoilie, Corriennafoile, Corrinadog, Cor-
rienastrach, Carnafearanvorar, Frarich-giUandrish, and

INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN CASTLE. 33 1
others equally euphonous and delightful — the whole being,
as Tony Lumpkin says, "in a concatenation accordingly."
Such a muster-roll of consonants reminds us of a practical
joke played off once, during the late war, by a mischievous
printer's devil, who mixed up indiscriminately a number
of large types — dividing some into words of twenty and
others of two or three letters each, putting over the whole
the attractive title of " Russian Bullettin," and printing
the curious melange in the form of a bill, which was stuck
up throughout the town. The attempts to decipher the
bulletin by grave politicians, with spectacles on nose, was
fully more comical, though scarcely less difficult, than any
efforts of our English readers will be to express the locali
ties of Wyvis.
You seldom meet with a large stone in a solitary part
of the Highlands, but it has some tradition connected
with it. There is one of this discription on a part of Ben-
Wyvis, and the story affords an amusing illustration of
the feudal times. We may first mention, that there are
several small lochs on the hill, most of which afford good
trout fishing. Near one of these, that rejoices in the
name of Loch-Ballochiovlie, is an upright stone, about
twelve feet high, and six square. This stone is known
by the name of Clach-na-cluish, or Stone of the Ears.
It seems that there was a dispute in the sixteenth century,
between the Munroes of Foulis and the Bains of TuUoch,
about settling the marches in that mountainous district.
The Munroes insisted upon the march being considerably
to the south of the loch, along the ridge of the hill, " as
the wind and water shears." The Bains, on the other
hand, contended as stoutly that the march was at the
stone. One of the gillies, a retainer of the Bains, ex-

332 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
claimed that he was standing on TuUoch ground. Some
thing in the man's manner struck the opposite party, and,
on being examined, his shoes were found to be filled with
earth, which he had taken from the land of the Tullochs.
As a punishment, the Munroes instantly cut off both his
ears — a merciful sentence, considering that dirks were
drawn, and that the law had not then extended to Ross-
shire ! A clan-battle was also fought near this spot, at
which seven score of persons of the name of Dingwall are
said to have been slain ; and eleven of the Munroes of
Foulis, who were to succeed one another in the family
honours and possessions, also fell, so that the succession
developed upon an infant, which, in the Highlands, was
always considered a great calamity.
Few strangers pass the village of Evanton without
visiting the remarkable burn designated Ault-Grand. This
water takes it rise from Loch-Glass, a fresh water lake,
near Ben-Wyvis, and about six miles from the sea. It
affords, in its progress, an extraordinary example of the
power of water, and might almost be cited as an illustra
tion of the Wernerian theory of the earth. The burn has
forced a passage through the rugged rock called Craig-
Grand, through which it runs for two miles, at a depth of
about one hundred and thirty feet from the surface, and
is so narrow at the top, that you may easily leap across.
The hollow murmuring sound below, and the appearance
of the dark solid rock reft asunder from top to bottom,
with the water toiling like a condemned spirit, in its con
fined and gloomy channel, suggest an idea of the infernal
regions more vivid than that of the poets or painters of
antiquity. An acquaintance of ours once said that it was
the most stiicidal-looking place he had ever seen ; and,

INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN CASTLE. 333
unfortunately, this gentleman himself committed suicide,
but it was in the heart of a great city.
If the admirer of nature finds much to engage him
in this district, the lover of the arts will be surprised to
learn that, in a mansion here — Novar House — there is
one of the most valuable private collections of paintings
in the kingdom. The house of Novar was built by the
late Sir Hector Munro, and the grounds laid out, after
his Indian toils and campaigns, at an expense of about
,£70,000 — no less than £10,000 of which are said to have
been expended in forming the garden. He garnished all
the hills on his property with pillars and imitations of
ruins, which have a singular appearance from the road —
he constructed a pond with an artificial fountain — and
(far better) he planted trees in all directions. His
descendant, the present laird, seems to have added the
last and highest touch of refinement, in furnishing out
this splendid collection of pictures. We spent some as
delightful hours as we can remember in exploring these
treasures, gathered from various quarters of the world, at
an expense which could not be less than nearly £60,000
or £70,000, and apparently with a taste and knowledge
which are rarer still. We took a note of the principal of
the paintings in each room, but it would extend this
sketch to too great a length to enumerate them. Many of
them have also been engraved. Here we have landscapes
by Salvator Rosa, Ruysdael, Poussin, Watteau, Swanevelt,
De Witt, Both, and various native artists ; an allegorical
piece, by Rubens ; a Holy Family, by Titian ; and Scrip
tural subjects, by Carlo Maratte, Vanderwert, Parmigiano,
Bassano, and Le Bran. Here Jan Steen revels in his
inimitable Dutch humour and character ; Teniers has his

334 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
bowl-players ; Murillo, his Spanish archness and beauty ;
Wouvermans, his battle pieces ; Vernet and Vandervelde,
their marine views ; while productions of our own Rey
nolds, West, Gainsborough, Glover, Stothard, Smirke,
Bonnington, Turner, Constable, &c, cover the walls.
Strange that these should be found in so remote a place !
The painter, like the poet, works for immortality, but his
genius is destined to delight only a few — he " steals but
a single glance from Time," and his triumph is propor
tionally limited. The results of many years of anxious
study and labour, and of the highest genius, are here
crowded together — many an hour of inspiration, sleepless
nights and throbbing hearts, have these works cost,
amidst the fairest scenes and objects of creation ; and
we ask ourselves if the " bright reversion " of a fame so
uncertain and limited is worthy of the sacrifice ? But
this seems quarrelling with the destiny of nature ; and
we are, moreover, reminded that it is five or six miles to
Invergordon. The village of Invergordon has a thriving appearance,
which it seems to owe chiefly to its central situation and
harbour. In this respect it bids fair to eclipse Cromarty,
emporium for trade. Two-thirds of the exports
and imports of the districts of Easter and Wester Ross are
now shipped and received here. Invergordon Castle, the
seat of Mr Macleod, has a singular aspect at first sight.
It seems half grey and half green — a ruin, yet a com
modious mansion. The central buildings were destroyed
many years ago by fire, on which occasion a valuable
library was lost; but the east and west wings of the
castle, which are spacious and elegant, are occupied by
the family.

INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN CASTLE. 335
Two other fine residences adorn the road to Tain.
Tarbat House, the seat of J. Hay Mackenzie, Esq. of
Cromertie, commands a noble view of the Bay and
Sutors of Cromarty, and here, as elsewhere, along the
cultivated coast, we have abundance of wood and verdant
fields. Planting, draining, road-making, and other rural
operations, seem in active progress. Balnagowan Castle
is a more ambitious structure. Part of it seems of great
antiquity ; and a new wing has recently been added, at
an expense of upwards of £4000. The park in front of
the castle is the most extensive we have seen north of
Dingwall. It has a superb row of lime trees, and
scattered clumps and avenues of beech. As this tree is
of less value than the oak, elm, or ash, it is difficult to
account for its being so generally found in this district,
particularly in fine situations and soils like those of Balna
gowan. Gilpin pronounces the massy, full-grown, luxuri
ant beech to be rather a displeasing tree ; but it is seldom
so massive in Scotland, and with its smooth bark, and
occasionally fluted trunk, the beech is often a picturesque
object. Pennant, who made his tour in 1769, says, that from
Balnagowan we " ride along a tedious black moor to Tain,
a small town on the Firth of Dornoch, distinguished for
nothing but its large square tower, decorated with five
small spires." The "tedious black moor" — probably
the King's Causey~is not now the usual road to Tain.
The tower and spires still remain, but, fortunately, are
no longer the only distinguishing objects of interest in this
ancient burgh, which has been greatly improved. An
English cavalier traversed this district in the time of
Cromwell, and his description of Tain is amusing. He

336 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
says, it is "as exemplary as any place for justice, as it
never uses gibbet or halter to hang a man, but sacks all
their malefactors, and so swims them to their graves."
Whether the cavalier meant that, after being sacked, their
bodies were permitted to swim to their graves on the
formidable bar of the firth, or were drawn ashore, and
placed in St Duthus's lonely burying-ground, is a point
we must leave to the decision of the malefactor's descend
ants, if any such now remain !
The drive up the ancient Port-na-cuter, from Tain to
Bonar-Bridge, and thence, on the left bank of that water,
to Dornoch, is exceedingly varied and interesting. The
country is well cultivated as far as the base of the hill of
Stray, which is the natural barometer of the country
people in this district ; for they say that rain is always a
certain occurrence when Stray puts on his hood of grey
mist. At Criech, on an elevation commanding a view of
the Moray Firth, is the site of a Pictish tower — those little
venerable-looking circular heaps of stones which are in
this county found in great numbers, to amaze the rustic,
and baffle the antiquary. Whence they came — " by whom
remembered, or by whom forgot" — is still a mystery.
They are undoubtedly the first rude attempts at castle-
building, before mortar was known as a cement, and
when men were penned together for safety like sheep in a
fold. Could one of these Picts now emerge from his
mural shell and survey this beautiful country, with its cul
tivation and refinement, what would be his sensations !
On to Spinningdale — a name that seems to smack of
Cumberland or Westmoreland — the hillside is lined with
young and vigorous oaks. This is a natural wood or
forest, belonging partly to the noble family of Sutherland,

INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN CASTLE. 337
and partly to Mr Dempster of Skibo. " The bank of the
portion which belongs to the latter owner," as stated by the
Rev. Mr Cameron, minister of the parish, " was last year
sold for £500 ; and that of the former was sold some years
ago for a much larger sum." The oak wood is about one
hundred and fifty acres in extent. We were glad to learn
that Mr Dempster of Skibo is an extensive planter, and
that he has covered fifteen hundred acres with oak, ash,
larch, and fir. His residence — Skibo Castle — is a fine
mansion, with tastefully laid out pleasure grounds, well
stocked with pheasants.
The ruined manufactory at Spinningdale awakens a
new and different train of associations in this secluded
and romantic country. Thirty or forty years ago a com
pany of Glasgow merchants established a cotton factory
on this spot. They built a lofty and spacious range of
buildings on the bank overhanging the Dornoch Filth.
Houses for the workmen were erected near the place,
and a village was soon formed. It could not be thrown
into a more charming situation. Campbell has described,
in a few touching and picturesque stanzas, his sensations
on revisiting his native Clyde, and finding the rural spots
he used to delight in covered with huge buildings and
clanking steam-engines. He laments the change, be
cause the mind, like the body, loses its healthful tone,
and contracts a fetid stain from an impure atmosphere
and crowded artificial state of existence. It cannot, how
ever, be said of the Glasgow adventurers, who invaded
this Highland solitude, that,

' ' To gorge a few with trade's precarious prize,
They banish'd rural life, and breathed unwholesome skies.' Y

33§ HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
All around them were the pure air and the cloudless sun
shine — the fresh sea and the waving wood. Nor was the
prize of excessive wealth held out to them as a glittering
lure. In short, the scheme was unsuccessful — the situa
tion was too remote, thereby entailing considerable expense
in the transit of goods — and the whole establishment was
destroyed, never to be revived, by an accidental fire. The
large factory is now a ruin, and the decay of a once thriv
ing and populous village is apparent in the roofless cottages
scattered round the spot.
The road here has a very steep ascent, and we believe
it is in contemplation to alter the line, and carry it along
the shore — a very desirable improvement. Three miles
farther, we come upon another dale — Ospisdale — which
is said to have derived its name from a Danish chief,
called Hospis, who was slain on a spot still marked by a
pillar or stone, about ten feet high. The seat of the pro
prietor, D. Gilchrist, Esq., is close by, embosomed in
woods, sheltered by hills and plantations, and embellished
equally by art and nature. The country continues finely
wooded, terminating in high pastoral hills.
Dunrobin Castle has still the air of an ancient feudal
stronghold. It is situated near the village of Golspie, and
stands on a high bank overlooking the sea, or Moray Firth,
which approaches close to its base. There is a profusion
of wood around it, and a large sloping garden ; but the
noblest feature in the landscape is undoubtedly the sea,
which suits the character of the antique towers of the
castle, rising with a sort of baronial pomp and stefnness
over the waves. A few pieces of cannon, like retired
veterans, still do duty on parade, on the edge of the bank
near the castle, but moat and portcullis are gone. The

INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN CASTLE. 339
walls are of enormous thickness ; the recesses in the win
dows seem capable of accommodating a band of men-at-
arms. A large addition was made by the late Duchess-
Countess of Sutherland, with the view of affording addi
tional accommodation for servants. The interior of the
castle has been kept as much as possible in its primitive
simplicity ; and the noble family do not appear to have
transplanted thither any number of those splendid paintings
which adorn their English collections. In the drawing-
room is one curious picture, representing the Duke of
Alva sentencing Protestants to death. The. figures are
genuine portraits, as has been ascertained from an old en
graving in the British Museum : but the piece is partly
allegorical, as in one place a cardinal is made to blow
with a pair of bellows into the ear of the duke, while the
devil stands by, witnessing the scene with evident satis
faction. Portraits of some of the beauties of Charles the
Second's court, so plentifully scattered over the kingdom,
are also found here ; and the merry monarch himself, with
his usual aspect of grim voluptuousness, darkens the walls.
A Scottish poet (Macneil) laments that Burns degraded
his muse by chanting the praises of whisky : we may
equally lament that the fine invention and brilliant colours
of Lely and Kneller were devoted to immortalise the
coarse sensuality of Charles the Second and his court.
The country and grounds around Dunrobin Castle
are highly picturesque, from the mixture of cultivation
with mountainous scenery, and from their extent and
variety. A famous breed of cattle are reared in the park.
One of the most perfect Pictish towers that ever delighted
an antiquary stands to the east of the castle, and, digging
at the spot lately, some bones and charcoal were found.

34° HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
This seems to prove that these ancient remains were
places of sepulture. The burn, or brook of Golspie is a
romantic little picture — a Ruysdael. in miniature. It
flows through a deep-wooded ravine, of singular wildness
and beauty ; the banks being precipitous, and the bed of
the stream rough and rocky, and it is enriched with a series
of waterfalls.* A gentleman informed us that he once
witnessed a very interesting scene at the bridge over this
burn. A clergyman from Orkney had brought his son,
a fine intelligent boy, with him, on a visit to some friends
in the south. They had travelled during the night, and
when the scenery of Golspie, seen on a bright sunny
morning, burst on the view of the boy, who had been a

* Golspie burn unites the utile with the duke, in a way worth
mentioning, by way of example, to all improvers and embellishers of
rural domains. In the mcst picturesque part of its progress — a spot
resorted to by tourists and sketchers — the burn is adapted to the fol
lowing useful purposes. A scarcity of water for the castle, and
several of the parks, induced the late duke to pen up the waters of
the brook, and by means of an under-ground drain — unseen by the
visitor, who stands above it, on a beautiful walk — to convey an
abundant supply of the pure element to the barnyards, thus enabling
them to thrash the, produce of an extensive arable farm. From the
farm the water is conveyed to the parks and stables, and from them
to the castle, reaching to its summit ; whence it is taken to the har
bour below, which it cleanses effectually when any accumulation of
sand occurs. This improvement does not, in the slightest degree,
mar the character of the burn as an object of admiration, while it
undoubtedly is calculated to excite the surprise of the visitor. The
space through which the water is conveyed must be considerably
above a mile : but the burn continues flowing on by rock and tree,
fulfilling its double destiny, like many other sources of improvement
and happiness, unseen and unknown to those who gaze only upon
the surface.

INVERNESS TO DUNROBIN CASTLE. 34 1
total stranger to woods and trees, and familiar only with the
bare rocks and ocean of his native island, he seemed
perfectly entranced with astonishment and delight. He
ran about wondering at all he saw, and eagerly exploring
every leaf and flower, as if entering on a new world of
enjoyment. The late Duchess-Countess of Sutherland was famed
for the hospitality she maintained at her Highland castle.
She used to send regularly to the inn, during the travelling
season, to inquire after the arrival of strangers ; and if
their name, or family, or external bearing, were aught
promising, they seldom failed to receive an invitation to
the ancient pile. The manners of the old duchess were,
as Byron remarks, truly princessly. She had seen and
read much — had travelled far and wide — and was in France
at the time of the great revolution, when she succoured
Marie Antoinette in her distress. On this subject she
spoke impassionedly and eloquently. She had a fine
taste for drawing ; and in talking of the countries in
which she had been — in describing an Italian or Swiss
province, or line of road — she seemed to have treasured
up a recollection of all the picturesque turns and windings,
and objects that lay in her way. At this time we thought
there was something of delicate art and concealed pride
and tenderness in the manner she pointed out a favourite
view from one of the drawing-room windows. A mass of
wood and foliage, then slightly tinted by the autumn, lay
below; a range of lofty mountains formed the back-ground,
and on one of these, full in view, was part of a monument
in process of erection, by the tenantry on the estate, to
the memory of the late duke. It was to be surmounted
by a colossal statue, designed by Chantrey ; and the

342 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
duchess went to the window duly every morning, to watch
the progress of the works.
The good old duke and duchess now rest together,
their long career of worldly honour and prosperity over, in
the cathedral church of Dornoch, about ten miles from
the castle. The Duchess had, after her husband's death,
restored the cathedral, with a splendour which throws
every other Presbyterian place of worship into the shade.
An inscription at the west end of the edifice records that
— " This ancient cathedral, having fallen into decay and
ruin, was re-edified, decorated, and restored to religious
service, by Elizabeth, Duchess and Countess of Suther
land, in the year 1835, 6, and 7. The Lord is in his holy
temple. — Psalm xi." In the transept, between the year
1248 and 1766, were deposited the remains of many of
the Earls of Sutherland, and of various branches of that
ancient family. It is said that the duchess was desirous
of constructing the windows of the cathedral of stained
glass, which would have had a pictorial and solemn effect,
shedding a " dim religious light " over the interior of the
structure; but the clergymen of the parish objected to
such an innovation. A sort of frosted glass, divided into
small compartments, has been substituted. It is certainly
to be regretted that so admirable a design was frustrated
by such a puritanical objection. The stern, austere sim
plicity of the Presbyterian church has rejected, on all oc
casions, the aid of ornament, with too rigid and exclusive
a spirit. At no time do men feel more impressed with
religious awe and veneration of the Deity, than when
worshipping in one of those old majestic cathedrals that
still adorn the lordly soil of England. A feeling of self-
abasement quells all emotions of vanity and pride, for we

STAFFORD HOUSE, LONDON. 343
feel how utterly insignificant we are in such a place and
presence ; and when the organ peals its deep thunder
notes through the aisles, the most careless are melted into
adoration. The sensations thus produced may not be
altogether devout, but they are so closely blended with
devotion, that only a severe casuist could distinguish the
difference, or separate them.
Vast additions to Dunrobin Castle have been made,
which render it the most magnificent residence in the
North of Scotland.

STAFFORD HOUSE, LONDON.
As a 'pendent to this note of Dunrobin Castle, we may
¦subjoin a short description of the Duke of Sutherland's
town residence, which overlooks St James's Park, and
rivals its neighbour, Buckingham Palace, in extent and
massive splendour of appearance. The London mansion
is of modern growth; but it has, like the creation of some
Eastern tale, risen into almost unparalleled beauty and
magnitude — the result of years of study, taste, liberality,
and genius. In the country, the great charm of such
baronial residences is their out-of-doors' accompaniments,
the lawn, pleasure grounds, conservatories, and gardens.
Art and nature are thus found in union, and new trains
of sentiment and feeling arise in passing from halls and
pictures to shady walks, lofty trees, flowers, and fountains.
A town residence is denied most of this picturesque
beauty; but with respect to Stafford House, St James's
Park, in some degree, supplies the deficiency. The
.bright leaves and tall black stems of the elm trees that

344 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
stud the Park, are visible from most of the windows, and
the various groups that saunter along the walks, are not
unpleasing accompaniments, like the figures in some -of
the wood scenes of Watteau's pictures. What, after all,
are the finest scenes in nature, without the reflected
sympathies of our fellow-mortals — all treading, though in
divers ways, the same round of humanity, its cares and
pleasures, its clouds and sunshine? But let us glance at
the various apartments of this truly ducal mansion. The
courtesy of the noble proprietor has permitted us to range
over them, and, as honest Dogberry says, if we were as
tedious as a king, we could find in our hearts to bestow
it all on our readers.
The door being opened, we enter a large vestibule, in
which are Ionic columns, in imitation of Sienna marble.
Thence proceeding to the grand stair-case, or entrance
hall, we are struck with the magnificent arena that spreads
around. The dome-like roof, with its gilded tracery and
bronze supporters, is seventy-three feet high, and the hall
is seventy-nine feet long, and forty-five wide. On each
side are four pillars of Oriental granite, and the walls are
cased with Scagliola marble, the lower part red, and the
upper yellow — the latter predominating, and diffusing an
appearance of warmth and lustre over the place. A
gallery, which communicates with the principal apart
ments, occupies three sides of the space, and is reached
by a spacious double stair-case. In front of this ample
wall is a large picture, a copy of the celebrated composi
tion by Paul Veronese, from the church of St Sebastian
in Venice. The size of the picture may be gathered from
the fact that it contains two hundred and twenty-four
square feet of canvass. The colouring is vivid, and the

STAFFORD HOUSE, LONDON. 345
figures good; but we should prefer two smaller pictures
fronting it, one on each side of the entrance door, by
Canaletti, representing the marriage of the Doge of Ve
nice to the Adriatic. These pictures formerly belonged
to the King of Poland; and, as Poland at one period
wished to select a branch of the English nobility — the
chivalrous and accomplished Sir Philip Sidney — as king
of that country, it seems but just that the pictures of their
monarch, should, with a kindred feeling of admiration, or
regard, be transferred to the hall of an English nobleman.
The interior style and furnishings of Stafford House
are those known by the name of Louis Quatorze, namely,
white and gold, which possess a peculiar rich, yet delicate
appearance. The gilt mouldings relieve the large white
pannels, and set off the darker colours of the pictures,
and the green foliage seen from the windows appears with
striking effect. The lower suite of apartments was finished
by the late duke, and the upper suite, including the
splendid gallery, by the present noble representative of
the family. The same style is preserved throughout,
with, perhaps, more profusion and splendour of embellish
ment in the recent additions.
We begin our survey with the dining-room. This is
a large apartment, which looks into the garden. Over
the fire-place is the well-known painting, by Lawrence, of
the Duchess of Sutherland and Lady Elizabeth Leveson
Gower : it has been very finely engraved, and adorns
many a drawing-room and parlour. It is scarcely possible
to conceive a more finished representation of grace and
loveliness ; but, instead of dwelling on the subject, we
may say of the artist, that he was born to be a courtly
painter, and would have done honour even to the palace

346 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
of Augustus. Rome, in the palmiest days of the empire,
witnessed no more accomplished minister to the arts and
refinements of a poetical and splendid luxury than Eng
land possessed in Sir Thomas Lawrence. His pictures
have that air of high life and self-possession which is as
rare on canvass as in real existence. Lawrence was him
self one of nature's nobility, and became as aristocratic
and complaisant as a member of the old French noblesse.
Another picture in this room carries us into a different
strain of reflection ; it is the Assuaging of the Waters
after the Deluge, by 'Martin. There is here, as in all
Martin's pieces, a great breadth of canvass — the sea
tumbles along its billows, but the deluge is evidently sub
siding ; a dove, large enough for a heron, flutters its white
wings on a dry piece of land, and a raven regales on the
carcase of a dead snake. Some aquatic plants, shells,
&c, are seen in the foreground ; but the effect of the
picture consists in the extent of sea before the eye, con
veying a picture of power and desolation, just mitigated
by divine mercy. An ancient piece, the Woman taken
in Adultery, by Pordenone ; a sculptured figure of Gany
mede, by Thorwaldsen ; and a cast from Raphael's statue
of Jonah, in the Chigi chapel at Rome, are also in this
apartment. Men of great genius are sometimes very
careless about minor details. The anachronisms of
Shakespeare have afforded a rich harvest for his commen
tators ; and Scott was still more incorrect. Here we have
Raphael representing Jonah and the whale, the man being
much larger than the fish, as we have in one of his car
toons, the fishermen in boats that would scarce suffice
for a single draught of minnows.
To the dining-room is attached a smaller apartment,

SPAFF0RD HOUSE, LONDON. 347
named the anti-dining-room, which is furnished in the
same gorgeous style. Among the pictures is an exquisite
cabinet piece by Wilkie, still unengraved, a breakfast
scene. An old woman (such as Wilkie loved to paint),
is represented making tea, and a young girl pours out
water from the kettle, while a son reads to his father the
newspaper of the day. It is a bit of homely nature — a
scene of domestic life snatched from oblivion. Such
objects formed the inspiration of Wilkie. In his
latter days he admired the romantic gallantry and heroism
of Italy and Spain, and he endeavoured to transfer them
to canvass ; but his hand did not so willingly respond to
the summons. His style had been formed and rooted in
his nature, and was too old to transplant, even to a more
genial soil and climate. The other pictures here are, the
Passage of the Red Sea, by Danby (an original and
forcible picture), and a Scene before the Flood, by Etty,
who seems, like Rubens, to luxuriate in rich and luscious
scenes, without " let or hindrance " from any puritanical
notions. Some of his figures in this piece are finely
drawn, and have been reproduced in his subsequent pro
ductions. A figure of Cassandra, by Haydon, and two
Lawrence portraits (Lady Grosvenor and Lord Clan-
william), are also contained in this room.
The drawing-room is fifty feet long, and twenty-eight
broad. The walls are of amber-coloured brocade, and
the curtains and chairs of the same pattern upon a blue
ground. The chimney-pieces are fitted with looking-
glass, and the mirrors are also carried down to the
ground, under the pier tables, which aids the effect of
the rich furniture. This system of multiplying, by means
of mirrors, which is now common in "good men's houses,"

348 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
was, we have heard, first introduced in Stafford House.
The principal paintings here are two female Saints, by
Murillo; a Mill, by Vangoyen; and an early copy of
Raphael's Madonna, supposed to be done by one of his
scholars. The anti-drawing-room here, also corresponds in de
corations and furniture, and contains a number of land
scapes by Pynaker, Moucheron, Hackaert, Teniers, and
Guardi. The landscape by Hackaert, representing some
" tall ancestral trees," lighted at sunset from behind, is a
perfect gem.
Adjoining the anti-drawing-room is the " Green Lib
rary;" the walls and chairs of green silk, with rich gold
mouldings, presenting, in their contrasted brilliancy, a
rich and gorgeous effect. The room is surrounded with
what are called dwarf book-cases, well filled, and a few
pictures — one by Edwin Landseer, containing portraits
of Lord Stafford and Lady Evelyn Leveson Gower, the
latter wreathing a tame stag with flowers, and a lap-dog
and Skye terrier in the foreground. Landseer's animals
are fully equal to the " human face divine " of any other
painter; but he seems here to have caught, with equal
felicity, the leading traits of youthful grace and beauty.
As old Izaak Walton considered a lover of angling to be
synonymous with a lover of virtue and goodness, we think
it might be argued that men fond of natural history —
fond of tracing the habits, the haunts, and forms of birds
and beasts — loving the various creatures whom God has
endued with life, to people the woods, mountains, and
streams — must also, per se, be men of gentle and affec
tionate natures, delighting in the joyousness and unre
strained freedom of youth. Chantrey, who was an en-

STAFFORD HOUSE, LONDON. 349
thusiastic naturalist and angler, was happiest with his
chisel when, venturing out of mere portrait sculpture, he
represented forms of innocence and youth, as in the Two
Children at Lichfield, and the statue of Lady Lousia
Russell, in the act of caressing a bird. Let Landseer also
look to his laurels in this department — the feeling with
which he works among animal life and Highland rocks,
may enable him to portray the moral beauty of human
existence in its most engaging forms and winning aspects.
In the Green Library of Stafford House is also the water-
colour portrait of the Duchess, by Chalon, which has been
engraved in the Book of Beauty: it is exquisitely finished;
but the flutter of dress detracts from the effect of the like
ness, and gives a milliner look to the picture. Near a
window is a bronze statue of the Marquis of Stafford, in
Highland costume, cast at Paris.
The adjoining rooms contain a collection of historical
portraits, principally French, made by Lenoir, during the
Revolution. In one of these also is the Orkney portrait
of Mary Queen of Scots, engraved in Mr H. G. Bell's
Life of Mary, first published in Constable's Miscellany.
It is an undoubted original, but taken at so early a period,
when Mary was only fifteen or sixteen, that there is little
of passion or character in the countenance. Still it is the
portrait of a youthful beauty, and almost justifies the
chivalrous devotion of old George Chalmers, and other
apologists of the unfortunate Queen, who were ready to
resent, as a personal insult, the slightest aspersions on her
character and memory. The colour of Mary's hair has
been made the subject of controversy, and two of the char
acters in Dr Moore's novel of Zelucco fight about it. It
is certain that, in accordance with the fashion of the day,

35° HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
she often wore false hair, of different colours ; but, in this
early picture, she is represented with luxuriant auburn
locks, which was probably the natural colour.
Having taken a hasty glimpse of the lower suite of
apartments in Stafford House, we shall proceed up stairs,
to the principal apartments, which were finished in 1841
for the reception of her Majesty. We enter first into the
south-west drawing-room, thirty-four feet long, twenty-four
wide, and twenty-four high. The walls are of green velvet,
relieved with rich gold mouldings, the bulrush and ivy
being the principal ornaments. There is an exquisite
marble chimney-piece, of the purest white, by Westma-
cott, junior, formed of allegorical figures and devices of
autumn and winter — the one a jolly Bacchus-looking boy,
with fruits and bunches of grapes— the other a little
shivering wintry figure — -her head bound with a napkin,
and a bird, a Robin, tamed and familiarised by the storm,
perched on her knee. White marble tables and flower-
stands also ornament the room ; and, in keeping with the
aquatic character of the ornaments, figures of swans are
introduced on the carpets, and as supports to the tables.
Two sculptures — copies of the Venus of Canova — are in
this room.
The principal drawing-room is a superb apartment,
fifty feet long, twenty-eight wide, and twenty four high.
The walls and ceiling are richly gilded ; the curtains and
furniture of rich white brocade, relieved by wreaths of
roses, which have the effect of embroidery, though wrought
in the loom. There is also a splendid Aubusson carpet
— a table in the centre (of white marble), the lower part
of which affords a fine specimen of English carving in
wood, representing dolphins, shells, &c; two Florentine

STAFFORD HOUSE, LONDON. 351
cabinets, formed of porphyry, jasper, and lapis lazuli; and
rich candelabra, supported by bronze figures. Connecting
the foregoing apartments are two anti-drawing-rooms, con
taining some of the pictures of Watteau, and two portraits
of Henry IV, and Louis of Orleans, in Gobelin tapestry.
The dining-room is sixty-two feet long, thirty-seven
wide, and twenty-eight high. It is furnished in the same
rich manner — the chairs and tables, and " all appliances,"
being equally superb. The arms of the Duke and Duch
ess are carved on several shields.
But the most splendid of all these rooms is the gallery
— a noble apartment, like the old baronial halls in which
hundreds used to feast. This is consecrated merely to
the fine arts. It is one hundred and twenty feet long,
thirty-two wide, and forty-two high. It is lighted by
what architects term a lantern, supported upon arches by
palm trees, and containing, in the centre, a picture by
Guercino, from the Church of St Chrysogonus in Rome,
and representing the apotheosis of that saint. The light
streams in from large plates of glass in the lantern, each
containing an allegorical figure, engraved on the glass.
The floor of this magnificent room is inlaid with oak.
On the walls are pictures, by Corregio, Annibal, and
Ludovico Caracci, Paul Veronese, Titian, Spagnoletti,
and Fuibens. On each side of the fire-place is a com
partment, made to receive two pictures, by MuriUo, and
surmounted by busts of the artist. The paintings were
obtained from Marshal Soult's collection, and represent
the return of the Prodigal Son, and Abraham entertain
ing the Angels. MuriUo is now the most popular and
fashionable of established artists. His pictures fetch
enormous prices, and are eagerly sought after. He has

352 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
exquisite delicacy and softness of colouring, with great
simplicity of design, but he is deficient in the fire and
grandeur of some of the old masters. He delights, but
never thrills the spectator, who gazes on his loftiest subjects
with pleasure, unmingled with feelings of awe or sublimity.
A strong national character pervades all his productions.
His scriptural characters are all Spaniards in face ; and
the Virgin Mary, in his hands, seems a native of Cordova
or Seville. The other pictures in this room are Christ
before Pilate, by Gerardo Delle Notte (lately in the Duke
of Lucca's collection), two portraits by Vandyke (one of
Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel), the celebrated por
trait, often engraved, of a Jesuit, by Moroni ; and a large
French picture, by Paul de la Roche, representing the
Earl of Stafford going to execution. The last is a showy
picture ; but we should gladly exchange it (had we power
to exchange) for any of the heads of Stafford, by Vandyke
— one is at Wentworth House, and another at Warwick
Castle — which possess all that intellectual energy and
compressed fire, without mercy or principle, which hur
ried on Stafford to his splendid downfall and destruction.
In the centre of the gallery is a crimson velvet ottoman,
surrounding a piece of sculpture, representing a sleeping
Cupid. A large sofa, also of crimson, fills the whole of
the recess ; and cabinets of buhl, and candelabra of
ormolu, in this and the other apartments, are rich and
massive. Over the chimney-piece is a clock, and two
figures, after Michael Angelo, from the tomb of the
Medici at Florence.
All descriptions of such apartments must have some
thing of the appearance of an upholsterer's catalogue :
words cannot convey the effect produced by architectural

STAFFORD HOUSE, LONDON. 353
beauty or grandeur, by pictures, or furniture; for the
mingling lights and shades, the richness of peculiar
mouldings, the contrasts and blendings of colours, to be
felt and appreciated must be seen. One peculiarity we
may notice — the effect produced by mirrors at each end
of the whole suite of apartments. This gives the idea of
an interminable range of apartments; and, when the
rooms are lighted up, must be highly imposing and
brilliant. Part of the upper suite is occupied as the
private rooms of the Duke and Duchess, and a third
storey, added lately, is entirely devoted to the accommo
dation of the family. Below, also, are two long corridors
running parallel with the entrance hall, each filled with
busts and cabinet pictures — fully fifty in each. Indeed,
the mere fragments and recesses of this house would fur
nish forth no inconsiderable collection of works of virtu
and art, embodying various styles and peculiarities of
workmanship and genius. We must leave these unnoticed,
and have barely glanced at the more striking features of
the mansion. We passed two hours of a sunny forenoon
with great delight, in rambling over its gay and gorgeous
rooms. There is always a pleasure in marking the
triumphs of art and skill ; for by these taste and industry
are employed, and the means of enjoyment are multiplied
through various ranks and classes of society. The furni
ture which gratifies the splendour of the nobility also
gladdens the home of the artizan, and diffuses comfort
through innumerable families. Mere external splendour
cannot, indeed, confer happiness on its possessor — one
touch of sickness or affliction will dispel the charm of
gilded halls and pictured galleries. But there is a per
manent happiness in extending the means of subsistence z

354 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
to others, in encouraging art, or rewarding genius. We
believe, also, it may be said without adulation, that in the
case of Stafford House, the domestic virtues are never
absent, and the still current of peace and happiness flows
as purely and tranquilly as in the unadorned walks of
society.

BELLEVILLE HOUSE.
MACPHERSON, TRANSLATOR OF OSSIAN.
The traveller from Perth to Inverness, as he wends
his way along that sterile and rugged road north of Blair-
Athole, passes the Village of Kingussie. On his left the
hills rise up and intercept the view, but on his right wide
fields and meadows slope down to the River Spey, and
are protected by green embankments from the winter
floods. Herds of cattle graze on the banks of the river,
which winds along the level plain. Having travelled
about two miles from the village, a white object appears
glittering through an opening in a clump of trees slightly
elevated above the road. This is a marble pillar raised
to the memory of James Macpherson, Esq. of Belleville,
translator of Ossian. A fine medallion portrait of the
poet ornaments one side of the pillar ; on the other is an
allegorical female figure bending over an urn ; and above
is the family crest. We are now within a few yards of
Belleville House — an imposing structure, in the style of
an Italian villa, designed by the Adelphi Adams. This
mansion was built by the poet when fame and fortune
had crowned him ; here he died ; and here his eldest

BELLEVILLE HOUSE. 355
daughter, Miss Macpherson, still resides. The situation
of the house is beautiful, commanding a full view of the
valley and river, and bounded in front by two ridges of
hills, those of Invereshie, and the grey mountainous ridge
of the Grampians. The property was purchased about
the year 1 790, by the poet, from the family of Mackintosh
of Borlum — a small Highland laird who disgraced his
clan and descent by highway robbery — committed not in
the old legitimate, piratical way of levying black-mail, but
by attacking travellers. His last exploit was the robbery
of a carriage, for which his associates were hanged ; but
the prime offender contrived to escape to America. A
cave is shown in the rock, where the bandit-group used
to watch the approach of travellers, and rush down on
their unsuspecting prey. The hill-side is now covered
with trees, and near the mansion are some fine old elms,
planted by Brigadier-General Mackintosh, who was so
intimately connected with the public insurrection of 171 5.
The brigadier was a rough soldier, trained to war in
France, and, when confined in prison for his share of the
rebellion, he had the taste to order a row of trees to be
planted along the road-side, below his residence. The
poet changed the name of the estate from Raitts to
Belleville, and, pulling down the old Highland domicile,
erected the present stately structure.
The interior of Belleville House is handsomely fur
nished, and contains an excellent portrait of the poet, and
another of one of his intimate friends— Caleb Whitefoord*
* Whitefoord, popularly called by his friends, " the witty wine-
merchant," was a man of good family, being the son of Colonel
Whitefoord of the 5th Regiment, and grandson of Sir Adam White-

356 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
— both by Sir Joshua Reynolds. A view of the house
and grounds, by Thomson of Duddingstone, and two
private portraits, also ornament the walls. In the draw
ing-room is a small enamel portrait of Macpherson, the
duplicate of one painted for the Nabob of Arcot, also by
Sir Joshua; and it is said to be curious, as the only
miniature on ivory which the distinguished artist was ever
known to execute. The poet was a handsome man — six
feet three inches in height, of a fair and florid complexion,
the countenance full, and somewhat inclining to the
voluptuous in expression, but marked by sensibility and
acuteness. In the library is a curious trio of small
volumes, presented in 1785, by the Prince of Wales
(George IV.) to the poet. They contain a collection of
the Delia Cruscan poetry, by Anna Matilda and others,
which was so unmercifully and so justly lashed by Gilford,
in his Baviad and Maeviad. The volumes are splendidly
bound in morocco, with a profusion of tawdry gilding,
foord, Bart., Ayrshire. He embarked his patrimony in the wine
trade in London ; but was more a man of pleasure than of business.
He was a celebrated wit and punster, and a popular writer in the
newspapers. In 1782, Whitefoord went to Paris, as Secretary of
the British Commission, to treat of a general peace with the United
States ; and he had the honour of writing the treaty which established
the independence of America. He lived to the advanced age of
seventy-five, dying in London in 1809. He appears, from the
Belleville portrait, to have been a fine-looking man, with something
of a military air — thin compressed lips and square chin, contrary to
what might be predicted of his convivial habits. Goldsmith has
immortalised him in his poem of Retaliation —
" Merry Whitefoord, farewell ! for thy sake I admit
That a Scot may have humour, I had almost said wit."

BELLEVILLE HOUSE. 357
and are placed in a small box, also covered with gilt
morocco. We looked with more interest on the different
publications of Ossian, from the first work, a small duo
decimo, of about sixty pages, entitled — " Fragments of
Ancient Poetry, translated from the Gaelic or Erse lan
guage," the quarto Fingal and Temora, dedicated to
the Earl of Bute, then the prime dispenser of government
patronage, " in obedience to whose commands," as the
dedication states, " they were translated." At length, in
the course of publication, after some years, comes the
entire collection, with its ambitious preface, in which the
translator appears not unwilling to usurp the honours of
old Ossian — "Assumes the god,
Affects to nod,
And seems to shake the spheres."
The courtesy of Miss Macpherson threw open to us
some new facts and information relative to the celebrated
translator. We had previously gleaned part in the course
of a day — one of the dies notandi on which we delight to
look back — spent on the banks of the Spey with Sir
David Brewster, the distinguished son-in-law of Macpher
son. The poet left a mass of manuscripts and corre
spondence behind him. Part of these his executors lent
to Sir Nathaniel Wraxall who made use of them in his
Historical Memoirs ; and in this way, through negligence,
many valuable papers were lost. There is not a line ex
isting among the manuscripts to throw any light on the
Ossianic controversy. Macpherson left a sum of £1000
for the purpose of completing a translation of Ossian into
Gaelic; and this subject appears to have engaged his at-

35^ HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
tention in the latter years of his life. Various notes
passed between him and his friend Mr Mackenzie, of the
Temple, appointing meetings in London and its vicinity,
to enjoy what they termed " a dish of Gaelic." The
turmoil of politics and party warfare, added to the labour
of historical compilation, would seem to have withdrawn
the translator of Ossian, in a great degree, from service
to the Muses. It is not generally known that Macpher
son was the Sccevola of Junius. He attacked Junius
under a dozen of other signatures, in defence of the
Ministry of the day. He wrote some successful political
pamphlets, and was a regular ally of the administration.
The acrimonious attack on Johnson irritated him ex
tremely; and there are many coarse epigrams, lampoons,
and parodies, among his unpublished papers, in which
the great moralist is treated very unceremoniously.
Macpherson's genius was, at all times, an overmatch for
his taste, and his principles were liable to be overpowered
by the impulse of the moment. His returning good
sense, or right feeling, however, prevented the publica
tion of such effusions, which appear to have been thrown
aside when the fit was off. The following lines are
worthy of preservation. Macpherson was mediocre
enough when he had not the groundwork of Ossian to
build upon ; yet this stanza has a portion of classic
elegance, as well as warmth, with a touch of the polished
diction of Gray. It is indorsed on the back, " First
Stanza of an Address to Venus — 1785."
" Thrice blest, and more than thrice, the morn
Whose genial gale and purple light
Awaked, then chased the night

BELLEVILLE HOUSE. 359
On which the Queen of Love was born !
Yet hence the sun's unhallow'd ray —
With native beams let beauty glow ;
What need is there of other day
Than the twin-stars that light those hills of snow ?"
James Macpherson was a remarkable man, full of lofty
aspirings, true genius, and certainly of marvellous success.
The publication of Ossian formed an era in the history of
British literature. We ridicule it now as a sort of spurious
coin, a copper-gilt ?ifaccimento of the antique. The
poems were not so thought of in their day. Read what
Gray says of the " Celtic Fragments," which so powerfully
caught his imagination. David Hume, too, pored over
them as a precious bequest to these later days. But
David, who wrote his history on a sofa (not much of a
" task" to him), could never rise to the region of poetical
imagination ; he thought Shakspeare somewhat of a
barbarian, and, therefore, we do not place much faith in
his critical judgments. But Macpherson's Ossian was the
Scott or Byron of his day — a new day to the blind, old
Celtic bard, when he was chanted in hall and boudoir,
and in the sunny regions of the south, so different from
his stern mountain solitude in Glen-Almond, where
" He sang of battles, and the breath
Of stormy war and violent death."
Napoleon carried Ossian about with him even in his
camp. It is true he wrote the bard's name Ocean — but
Sheridan could not spell — the Duke of Marlborough was
not over correct (as, for example, " pictars " for pictures);
and the man who is imbued with a taste for orthoepy,
may afford occasionally to despise orthography ! The

360 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
poetical schoolmaster of Badenoch became a Napoleon
among authors, overturning old dynasties, and erecting
in their stead the rude produce of moor and mountain,
glen and stream. Strains which had cheered the firesides
of cottars in their lonely huts, when winter nights were
long and dark, were suddenly elevated into a rivalship
with Homer and Shakspeare. A thousand pens were at
work inditing dissertations and criticisms ; even Johnson
was moved to leave Bolt Court, and forego the Mitre.
Tavern and the club, to travel to the Hebrides — in quest
of Ossian, and in search of trees! Abroad, the poems
were translated into various languages, and found ad
mirers among all classes. James Macpherson's fortune
was made : he rose like an aeronaut. The poems them
selves brought in large sums ; his short enjoyment of
the situation of surveyor of the Leeward Islands secured
him a pension of £300 per annum ; his labours for the
Ministry would, in those unscrupulous times, be well re
warded ; his History of Great Britain was sold for £3000;
and his situation as Secretary for the Nabob of Arcot was
a mine of wealth. So faithfully did he discharge those
duties, that the nabob's son wished him to undertake the
management of his affairs, and sent him a bond for
£20,000. Six months before the bond became due,
the secretary died, and his family have never been able
to recover the money. The poet, after attaining honour
and riches, retired to his native mountains, built this
splendid mansion among the scenes where, in lowly life,
he first felt the aspirations of genius, and laboured to
improve the condition of his countrymen, the broken and
dispersed Gael. We were once ferried over the Spey by
an old grey-headed Celt — a capital head for Caravaggio —

BELLEVILLE HOUSE. 36 1
who had, fifty years before, done the same duty for
Macpherson. The poet was a great man from London
and the court, bedizened with rings, gold seals, and furs ;
but he looked with a moistened eye on the turf school-
house in which he had once taught English, and on the
hiUs on which he had run in his youth. They were then
his own property, and he told the ferryman, with strong
emotion, and no doubt with Highland pride, that he
would make every poor Highlander on his estate a com
fortable and a happy man ! We have always thought
more of Macpherson since.
An act of generosity is recorded of him, connected
with the chief of his clan, Cluny Macpherson. Cluny
had been " out in the forty-five," and his estate was con
fiscated. When Macpherson rose into favour with the
Government, he exerted himself to have the property
restored. It was offered to himself ! He had the virtue
to decline the offer ; and at length he succeeded in plac
ing it again in the hands of the rightful owner.
To the poor around Belleville he seems uniformly to
have been kind and generous. For several years before
his death, he had been in the habit of spending a few
weeks during summer on his Highland property. He
built his house not by contract, but by native workmen,
whom he paid liberally, on day's wages ; and he was the
first person in Badenoch who gave a shilling a-day to
agricultural labourers, who had previously received only
eightpence and ninepence. Scores of them were employed
on his grounds, and in forming his embankments. His
gay and social habits drew around him much company.
After a forenoon's writing, he used to mount his horse,
sally out, and bring home with him " troops of friends "

362 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
from both sides of the Spey. Then with wine and jest —
and no man was more various and fascinating in society —
the festivities were prolonged far into the deep, dark night
of the mountains. A fatal close soon came to his pro
sperous career. He had been late in visiting the High
lands, in the summer of 1795, and, feeling unwell, he
resolved on remaining through the winter. For two
months he was confined to his bed ; and he died in
February 1796. His death was deeply mourned by the
people of his native district, who were proud of their
countryman, and benefitted by his exertions.

M O Y HALL,
THE SEAT OF MACKINTOSH OF MACKINTOSH.
It has been finely remarked by Scott of the system of
¦clanship, as it existed in the time of the last generation,
that the view which we now cast upon it is like looking
back on a Highland prospect, enlivened by the tints of a
beautiful summer evening. " On such an occasion, the .
distant hills, lakes, woods, and precipices, are touched by
the brillancy of the atmosphere with a glow of beauty,
which is not properly their own, and it requires an exer
tion to recall to our mind the desolate, barren, and wild
character, which belongs to the objects we look upon."
It was under an influence of this description that we first
saw Moy Hall, the seat of the chief of the Mackintoshes.
The district is high and bleak, about a thousand feet
above the level of the sea. The mountain ranges, which
enclose the strath, are monotonous, and undulating,

MOY HALL. 363
rather than of a bold and serrated character, and are clad
with dark brown heather and moss, without any extensive
plantations. A number of morrasses, and small lakes,
are scattered over the capacious bosom of this wide
wilderness of heath, but they are seldom surrounded
with woods, and have a solitary character. Seen on a
stormy day, with drizzling mist and rain, the district of
Moy must bear a most unprepossessing appearance ; and
we can easily fancy that, when poor Prince Charles, the
Pretender, rode through it, after his defeat at Culloden —
scarcely knowing whither he went — the rugged gloominess
of the landscape must have harmonised with his own
dark bewildered thoughts, and deserted situation. But,
as we have hinted, we witnessed the scene under more
favourable circumstances. The day was clear and warm;
the hills possessed a variety of light and shadow, if not
of outline ; the island and lake of Moy, with their tall,
monumental pillar, reposed in sunshine, and the birch
trees, round the margin of the water, with the green lawn
and park in front of the mansion house, seemed to form
a scene like the oasis, or happy island, amidst the sands
of Lybia, harmonising and beautifying the desert.
Moy Hall is situated about twelve miles from Inver
ness, on the Perth Road — that great artery of communi
cation with the Highlands. The chief of the Mackin
toshes pitched his tent, or took up his residence here, so
early as the year 1337. Exactly one hundred years after
wards—in 1437 — the chief received a charter, securing
him in possession of the place, on the payment of a feu
duty to the Bishop of Moray; and the present Mackin
tosh still pays this duty, amounting to £1. 17s. per annum.
The lake of Moy is about two miles long, and three-

364 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
quarters of a mile in breadth. In the centre of it is an
island, two acres in extent ; and in this secluded spot the
chief erected his first stronghold, and accommodated a
garrison of four hundred men. The ruins of the house
in the island are still visible, occupying a space of sixty
by twenty-two feet. The remains of a street, or causeway,
can also be traced ; and two gean trees, on the southern
edge of the lake, seem to point out the former existence
of a garden or orchard. Some old plane trees on the
opposite side, and one fine ash, are also mementos of the
previous inhabitancy of the island. The lake abounds
with char and trout, which are taken with the net in hun
dreds, and are of delicious flavour. The clansmen had,
no doubt, cattle on the hills and plains, and they must
latterly have indulged in the luxury of bread ; for, in the
year 1760, two ovens were discovered, capable of contain
ing each four bushels of meal made into bread. A few
hundred yards from this island is a small artificial island,
thirty-six feet in diameter, and composed entirely of loose
stones, which is said to have been used for the confine
ment of malefactors. When the lake was low, the criminal
could scarcely stand with dry feet, but after rains, the
water rose to his middle. A gallows also stood on this
watery prison-house — a stern indication of feudal power
and severity.
The waters of the lake were once made the scene of a
fatal incident in the history of the Mackintoshes and
Cummings. These clans were often at war ; and many
green spots on the surrounding heights are said to mark
the graves of the slain. On one occasion, it is related,
the Cummings had, at length, driven the Mackintoshes
for refuge into the island of Loch Moy. Here they

MOY HALL. 365
formed the resolution of damming the loch, where the
Funtack issues from it, and thus, by raising the water, to
cover the island, and drown them. They proceeded with
their plan, till the Mackintoshes were on the eve of de
struction, when one of the latter offered, if allowed, to
liberate themselves, and destroy the Cummings. He,
accordingly, got a raft made, and supplying himself with
corks, or wooden plugs, and string, he descended, in the
dead of the night, to the dam. This was lined, towards
the water, with boards, through which the adventurer
bored a number of holes with an augur, and in each hole
he put a plug, with a string attached. All these were at
tached to one general rope, which, when all was ready,
he pulled. When the plugs were extracted, the water
rushed out with fearful force, carried away the turf bank,
and the whole army of the Cummings, who were encamp
ed behind it. The daring adventurer perished with his
enemies — the force of the water being so great, when the
dam gave way, that it swept raft and man along with it.
That this event took place at Loch Moy, is evident from
uniform tradition, from the nature of the place where the
dam was erected — it being a narrow gorge, easily admitt
ing of such a construction — and also from the fact, that,
in cleaning the mouth of the lake, some years ago, a num
ber of stakes and beams were discovered, fixed about six
feet under the surface of the ground, which were evidently
fitted for cross boards, and which, from their appearance,
must have lain there from time immemorial.*
Before quitting the island of Moy, and its clan as
sociations, we may advert to the monument erected here
lately to the memory of Sir ^Eneas Mackintosh. This
*See Statistical Account of Scotland.

366 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
is a granite needle-shaped pillar, seventy feet in height,
with a large pediment of freestone — the whole costing
about £700. On a plate of copper is the following in
scription, surmounted by the family arms : —
" Sacred to the memory of Sir ^Eneas Mackintosh,
Baronet, Captain of Clan Chattan, who died at Moy
Hall, on the 21st day of January 1820, in the 69th year
of his age. Having in youth, after the example of his
forefathers, served his country in war, he early retired to this
ancient seat of his family, and married Margaret, young
est daughter of Sir Ludovick Grant of Dalvey, Baronet,
and grand-daughter of Sir Patrick Grant of Dalvey,
Baronet, and Sir James Innes of Behennie, Baronet.
Without relinquishing the patriarchal character of a High
land chief, he combined it with an exemplary observance
of all the duties of civilised society, and with the exercise
of every domestic and social affection. His charities were
extensive, unostentatious, and discriminating. His hospi
tality and kindness were peculiarly felt by all those whom
the remains of the ancient usages and feelings of his
country recommended to his protection. His paternal
regard to his tenants displayed itself in a spontaneous re
mission of a third part of their rents during the general
distress which prevailed in the last years of his life ; and
it may be truly said of him that it was his constant and
earnest desire to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with his God. This monument is erected by
his widow, Dame Margaret Mackintosh."
If we could indulge the pleasing supposition, that a
monumental inscription ever spoke the simple truth, un-

MOY HALL. 367
mixed with pride or adulation, the character of Sir ^Eneas
Mackintosh is precisely what would be considered the
beau ideal of a Highland chief, softened and improved by
modern manners. It was not till the year 1665, that the
chief of clan Chattan removed from his solitary residence
in the island, and built a house on the mainland. This
was a two-storey building with wings. It has now disap
peared ; but the site of the building is pointed out by a
lilac and an oak tree, planted in commemoration of the
house which received the Pretender in 1746. Charles
stopt several days in the castle of Moy. The chief,
y£neas Mackintosh, was attached to the Hanover succes
sion, and was a captain in Lord Loudon's regiment. He
was, however, a man of weak, indecisive character ; and
his lady partook strongly of the Jacobite enthusiasm of
the times. She raised three hundred men of the clan
Mackintosh, and rode at their head, wearing a man's
bonnet, a tartan habit richly laced, and pistols at her
saddle-bow. How " Moy of the Lake" relished this con
jugal rebellion is not stated, but Lady Mackintosh ren
dered essential service to the young adventurer; and we
are tempted here to transcribe a short notice of a memor
able and well-known incident in the history of Moy : —
" Charles Edward was living there in perfect security,
and had not more than three hundred men about his
person, when Lord Loudon made a bold attempt to end
the civil war, by making the adventurer prisoner. For
this purpose, he proposed to employ chiefly the High
landers of Macleod's clan, as well qualified to execute a
swift and secret enterprise. They were accompanied by
several volunteers. It is said that Lady Mackintosh had.

368 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
private intelligence of this intention; at any rate, she had
employed the blacksmith of the clan, a person always of
some importance in a Highland tribe, with a few followers,
to patrol betwixt Inverness and Moy Castle. On the night
of the 1 6th February, this able and intelligent partisan fell
in with the vanguard of the Macleods, bending their course
in secrecy and silence towards Moy. The party thus
advancing consisted of one thousand five hundred men.
The smith and his followers, not above six or seven in all,
divided into different parts of the wood, and fired upon
the advancing columns, who could not discover the num
bers by which they were opposed. The Mackintoshes, at
the same time, cried the war-cries of Lochiel, Keppoch,
and other well-known sounds of the most distinguished
clans; and two or three bagpipers played most furiously
the gathering tunes of the same tribes. Those who were
engaged in an attempt to surprise others, are generally
themselves the most accessible to surprise. The sudden
attack astonished the Macleods, who conceived that they
had fallen into an ambush consisting of the Chevalier's
whole army. The consequence was, that they turned theii
backs, and fled back to Inverness in extreme confusion,
incuiring much danger and some loss, not from the fire
of the enemy, but from throwing down and treading upon
each other. The confusion was so great, that the Master
of Ross, a gallant officer, who was afterwards in many
perils, informed Mr Home, that he had never been in a
condition so grievous as at what was called the Rout of
Moy."* The grandson of the blacksmith who performed this
* Scott's Tales of My Grandfather.

MOY HALL. 369
ingenious and courageous feat, lives in the parish, and
considers the exploit of his ancestor as the most honour
able event in the family history. The anvil of the famous
Vulcan has been preserved and is placed in front of Moy
Hall. Lady Mackintosh was, previous to her marriage,
Miss Ann Farquharson of Invercauld. She was united
to the chief in 1741, and at the period of the rebellion
was a young and beautiful woman. Her portrait hangs
in the hall of the present mansion — a fine three-quarters
picture. She is elegantly dressed in white satin — has a
fair complexion, and lively agreeable features, without
any trace of the Amazon. A few such women, equally
enthusiastic for the young prince, would have been more
formidable than Barell's artillery, or the German troopers !
Shortly after her marriage, Lady Mackintosh planted a
larch tree and a mountain ash, which she had brought
with her to Moy. The remains of the former have been
converted into a seat ; the trunk of the latter stands in
front of the house, the tree having been blown down on
the stormy nth of October 1838. The bed on which
Charles slept has been carefully preserved, with its red-
stained posts, and dark printed curtains; and it is worthy
of mention that, when the late Glengarry used to visit at
Moy, this receptacle of royalty was prepared for his
reception ! Pope said, after reposing in the bed in which
Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, slept —
" With no poetic ardour fired,
I press the bed where Wilmot lay ;
That here he lived, or here expired,
Begets no numbers, grave or gay."
Glengarry, however, would not be so unmoved in the bed
of Prince Charles. He was the Don Quixote of High-
2 A

370 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
land chiefs ; and we have no doubt he would muse on all
the clan exploits of his ancestors, and the departed
grandeur of feudalism. Charles was sleeping soundly in
this bed on the night of the blacksmith's exploit, uncon
scious that the lady of the mansion and her retainers
were perilling themselves for his safety. The prince left
at Moy a blue bonnet, which he sometimes wore. It
was then lined with silk, and decorated with a rosette ;
but these have been carried off in shreds and patches, by
devotees and admirers, and the bonnet is now a homely
enough relic, though carefully wrapped up, labelled, and
preserved by the present chief. If a large head indicates
power, as the phrenologists state, Charles was wanting
physically, as he undoubtedly was mentally, in force of
character ; for this bonnet would only fit a small-sized
head. Among the antiquities at Moy Hall are several swords,
two of which are said to have been used at the fight be
tween the Mackintoshes and the clan Cameron, in 1396.
These are huge two-handed weapons, measuring four feet
ten inches each — the handle being about fifteen inches in
length. Even this, however, is several inches shorter
than Wallace's sword, at Dumbarton Castle. Such gig
antic weapons must have been unweildy in a close
combat, and by engaging both hands would leave the
body exposed.
The other swords are more manageable ; one is the
weapon used at Killiecrankie, by Viscount Dundee, which
was given by his lordship's relatives to Lachlan the
twenty-first Laird of Mackintosh. It is a horseman's
sword, ornamented with silver, and having the coronet
and the Graham's arms on the hilt. The remaining

MOY HALL.

371

sword was given by Charles the First to the chief of that
day : on the blade is the name " Jesus." The charter
chest at Moy is full of ancient deeds — conveyances of
land — bonds of manrent — or leagues between the chiefs
for mutual confederacy. Some of these were enclosed
in a strong box and sunk in the lake during the troubles
of the Forty-five, by which the writing has been much
effaced. The leagues of the chiefs bound the parties,
"and all and sundry their kinsmen, party, and inherit
ance that will adhere to them, to keep hearty friendship,
kinrent, love, and tenderness, and to take open upright
parts in all and sundry their causes and quarrels." The
terms of these agreements are solemnly sworn to. In
one indenture, dated 1467, betwixt. Lord Forbes and
several others of the same name, Duncan Mackintosh,
chief and captain of clan Chattan, Hutcheon Rose, Baron
of Kilravock, &c, after an assurance of mutual protec
tion, it is stated that the parties made to each other their
bodily oaths, the holy Evangel was touched, and whoeyer
should break any of the conditions should be held in
famous, men sworn to renounce their faith of Christ, and
never to be heard in proof nor witness; nor lie in kirk,
nor Christian burial ! Thus knit together, and supported
by their followers, the chiefs might well assume a lawless
power, and, from their rude fortresses on lake or mountain,
hurl defiance at their brethren on the plain. We looked
in vain amongst this mass of curious parchment for any
private domestic letters of former times that might illus
trate the social condition of the people — that would show
us what sort of hearts beat under their rugged exterior —
and how far the arts and decencies of life had penetrated
into their fastnesses. The schoolmaster was not then

372 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
abroad. The notary-public seemed to have been the
chief and almost the only penman. In 1650 the well-
known — we may say the 7iotorious, General Monk had
some correspondence with Mackintosh, relative to the
settlement of a dispute with Cameron of Lochiel. His
letters only evince the illiterate character of that coarse-
minded, unprincipled soldier.
We have alluded to the erection of the old house of
Moy, in 1665, when the increasing security of the country,
or the greater strength and ascendancy of the clan, in
duced the chief to leave the island for the mainland of
Moy. Sir ^Eneas Mackintosh, whose epitaph we have
copied, came to the property in 1782. He planted the
hill sides with fir, and otherwise improved the estate.
Its rental was then only £400 per annum, and at his
death, in 1820, it had risen to £6000 — a striking proof
of the rise in the value of Highland estates, caused by the
rearing of sheep, and the advance in the value of wool
and cattle. In 1803, Sir ^Eneas threw down the old
mansion, and erected the present, nearer to the central
front of the lake. Moy Hall is a substantial three-storey
house, with wings, in one of which is the hall — a hand
some room, thirty-one feet by twenty, well proportioned,
and elegantly furnished. In this apartment is the portrait
of Lady Mackintosh of the Forty-five, an original of
Duncan Forbes, and a likeness of Mr Forbes of Alford,
who is said to have been a passionate but unsuccessful
suitor for the hand of the fair heroine of the rebellion.
Some modern family pictures also grace the walls. The
present chief has done much to improve the property,
and give employment to his people. He has planted,
drained, ploughed, and sown, where all was barrenness

TAYMOUTH CASTLE DURING THE QUEEN'S VISIT. 373
before ; and though necessarily restricted, by the situ
ation and the climate, the grounds and walks about the
place are tastefully embellished. We can aver that the
ancient hospitality of the hall has not degenerated in the
family of the present chief; and the honours of the clan
could not, we sincerely believe, be borne by one more
worthy to enjoy, or more determined to uphold them.

TAYMOUTH CASTLE DURING THE
QUEEN'S VISIT.
The circumstances attending the visit of her Majesty,
Queen Victoria, to Taymouth Castle, in September 1842,
constitute, in our imagination, what may be termed
oriental splendour in the Highlands. The whole country
is beautiful, and the drive from Dunkeld to Kenmore is a
succession of noble pictures — a gallery of landscapes, then
fresh from previous showers, and glittering in dewy bright
ness. Scarcely a single leaf had been lost or tinted by
the storms of autumn ; and the highest mountains were
wooded — waving like a sea of verdure. Coming imme
diately after the noise and excitement of the royal recep
tion at Dunkeld, the calmness and retirement of the
scene formed a delightful contrast. Groups of country
people were sitting on the hills, waiting the royal approach
— others were shearing in the fields — and one old vener
able dame sat at her door, reading her Bible, as solitary
as the Sabbath service of the shepherd boy, described by
the amiable Grahame —

374 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
" In some lone glen, where every sound is lulled
To slumber, save the tinkling of the rill,
Or bleat of lamb, or hovering falcon's cry, t
Stretched on the sward, he reads of Jesse's son ;
Or sheds a tear o'er him to Egypt sold."
The rustic arches, formed of heath, and decorated with
flowers, also added interest to the scene ; and the wind
ings of the noble Tay were a constant source of pleasure.
Onwards, passing the village of Aberfeldy, the scenery be
comes more wild and striking ; the deer are seen bounding
in the park, and cultivated fertility is blended with rugged
grandeur. Troops of moose-deer —fine picturesque-look
ing animals — appeared at intervals within the enclosure
near the road ; and in the grounds were the lama, the
emu, the bison, and buffalo. Loch Tay spreads its clear
expanse of water at the foot of a chain of lofty hills.
Taymouth Castle stands in a fine green valley, about
four miles long, and from two to three broad. It is about
a mile from the head of the lake. It is a large and mas
sive pile, of a quadrangular shape, built of dark grey stone,
in the castellated Gothic style, with a tower at one end.
On the queen's approach, the royal standard waved from
this tower. A colonnade, overgrown with ivy, extends
along part of the central front, and from its various pro
jections flags were suspended. The white tents in which
the Highlanders bivouacked, glittered in the distance, and
the two approaches to the castle, canopied with rows of
trees, disclosed at every opening, bands of visitors hasten
ing to the scene of action. Numbers of children, and
scattered family parties, sat on the rising knolls, eyeing
the general scene with that unqualified delight with which
the poor, released from labour, ever enjoy a sunshine

TAYMOUTH CASTLE DURING THE QUEEN'S VISIT. 375
holiday. The capacious lawn — soft and smooth as velvet
— is studded with noble trees (lime, elm, and oak), and in
front rises a majestic range of mountains wooded to the
summit. Behind the castle is another range, at the foot
of which flows the river, just issued from the parent lake.
An immense flag waved from the highest point of these
mountains. Such a valley or park we never before saw
— so magnificent in its general outline, so rich and varied
in its details.
On the lawn were drawn up about two hundred and
fifty Breadalbane Highlanders, in their tartan dresses,
with broadsword 'and target, and another party of about
fifty, " the following" of Sir Neil Menzies. The Camp
bell tartan is chiefly green, that of Menzies red. On the
ground were also assembled sixty Argyllshire boatmen,
in an appropriate costume, a party of the 92nd High
landers (with their fine band), another party of the 6th
Dragoons, and about eighty gentlemen in various clan
tartans. Relieving the formal appearance of the mar
shalled ranks, and adding to the variety and completeness
of the picture, numerous parties of ladies and gentlemen
walked about, admiring the noble landscape, or listening
to the music. The marquis himself was arrayed in a
rich suit of the native costume. Hours were spent in
sauntering about ih this scene of enchantment, waiting
for the royal approach. At length a flag was raised on a
distant hill intimating that the cavalcade was in sight. It
was still, however, nine miles distant. The spectators
took their places, the Highlanders forming a line of ap
proach, and the dragoons, who had been standing beside
their steeds, mounted to be in readiness. In this "hush
of expectation" we were glad to see Mr Duncan, the

376 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
artist, step forth, and take his place near the castle door
to obtain a sketch of the scene when her Majesty
alighted. His faithful and truly Scottish pencil was well
employed on such a subject, and thus the impressive
spectacle will be transmitted to distant generations, when
all who graced it — the fair forms and manly hearts — have
mouldered into dust. The sound of a bugle echoing
among the woods announced that the queen had entered
the park, and in a few minutes the carriages were seen
winding along the wooded approach. Again came the
loud and fervent cheer — the youthful pair, on whom all
eyes were cast, in their fulness of heart, showered smiles
and acknowledgments around — and when the procession
stopped, and her Majesty touched the ground, the guns
of the battery, far up among the hills, gave a tremendous
volley, that was reverberated by all the mountains that bul
wark in the splendid vale. Her Majesty seemed lost in
astonishment, and Prince Albert literally held up his
hands. While the cheering continued, her Majesty
entered the castle, and instantly appeared on the balcony
above the colonade. She bowed repeatedly to the con
gratulations of the spectators. The interior of the castle
had been splendidly prepared for the reception of the
queen. The baron's hall, dining-room, and drawing-
room, are superb apartments, graced with pictures, by the
ancient masters ; and a vast addition had been made to
the furniture and decorations ; and here, surrounded by
some of Scotland's ancient and best nobility, the Queen
of England reposed, in befitting splendour, though in the
" wild Highlands " — their rugged mountains, streams,
lakes, Gaelic speech, tartans, and bagpipes !
In the evening the whole of the noble expanse of

1 1

TAYMOUTH CASTLE DURING THE QUEEN'S VISIT. 377
mountain and woodland was lighted up, as never High
land scene was lighted up before. About thirty thousand
various coloured lamps had been provided for the occa
sion. Part of these were hung on the trees, like golden
fruit " in the gardens of the Hesperides ;" but the greater
portion were suspended to a wire fence that separates the
lawn from the deer park — running along a line of above
two hundred feet, or hanging down in festoons — and
thus the castle seemed to be enclosed in a chain of fire.
On a swelling part of the lawn, the words "Welcome
Victoria and Albert " appeared in characters of gold, the
lamps being disposed to form letters of about four feet
each. Half-way up the hill, in front, was an erection
containing a crown and the initials "V.A.," on each
side, that shone with great splendour ; and, still higher,
at a considerable distance from each other, a small tower,
used as a residence for one of the keepers, and a Turkish
fort, with a crescent at each end, were illuminated in a
similar manner. Surrounding the whole, within a dis
tance of five or six miles, were twenty-two bonfires —
some fading away, in the darkness, like " fires of funeral
light," and others, in massive brilliancy, made all the
neighbourhood one sheet of flame. The scene literally
baffles all description. It seemed like the enchantments
of the Arabian Nights ; and the thousands who witnessed
it, for some time moved about in silence, or sat gazing
under the shade of the huge trees, as if afraid to break
the spell that bound them in speechless rapture. The
towering hills were wrapt in darkness, excepting where
illuminated by these brilliant lights, and their gigantic
shadows, stretching away in the remote distance, or re
posing against the sky, had an aspect of stern and solemn

378 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
grandeur, that gave the effect of powerful contrast to the
courtly splendour below. The glancing lights of the
castle, and the fair figures that, ever and anon, appeared
and disappeared on the balcony, with the groups of
Highlanders and soldiers scattered around, added addi
tional picturesqueness to the scene. Nature had united
with art to form the magnificent spectacle. At Taymouth
alone, of all the seats of our nobility, could such a scene
have been presented. The most gorgeous spectacle,
however, without human sympathy and interest, soon be
comes but a lifeless painting to the eye — and we employed
ourselves in conjecturing what must have been the sensa
tions of the queen at this moment ? She sat gazing on
it for some time from the balcony. — and what were her
thoughts? First, we suppose, a feeling of deep but
general admiration and gratitude must have been pre
dominant. Then, the appearance of the Highlanders
below would recall the troublous times of the Stuarts ;
and the shouts of the people would convince her that all
the discordant elements of former times had given place
to one feeling of attachment to the reigning family.
Chiefs and clans had united their suffrages and their
swords in her support — and she was there the sovereign of
a united people. The contrast presented by such a scene of
splendid embellishment to the rugged wildness of former
times, when the feudal system exercised its ample and
ferocious power, must have suggested the vast increase of
art and refinement that has penetrated into the most
remote recesses of the Highlands — and thus musing,
though but momentarily, on these various topics, we can
not but believe that they were all finally merged in one
overpowering feeling of patriotic devotion, in which she

TAYMOUTH CASTLE DURING THE QUEEN S VISIT. 379
resolved, under Divine assistance, to build her empire
solely on the happiness and advancement of her people.
We were recalled from our sentimental reverie by the
guns of the battery announcing the appointed signal that
the fire-works were about to commence. Rockets,
wheels, stars, &c, were let off in profusion, and lights of
all shapes and colours gemmed the " blue serene." One
immense pyrotechnic show excited great admiration.
First, after a preliminary flourish of sparks, appeared in
large characters of flame, the word " Queen ;" a few
more flourishes brought out " the ;" and then, some
additional whirls of the fiery machine evolved, in lucid
brightness, " Long live." When the exhibition stood
complete, the people greeted it with a long cheer. The
fire-works occupied about an hour. Next came another
note of preparation — the noise of some scores of work
men fitting up a platform on the lawn for the purpose of
dancing. The erection was soon made, and scores of
the Gael and gentlemen present (Mr Fox Maule among
the number), prepared for this favourite pastime. The
weather was, for some time, unpropitious — shower suc
ceeded shower, but none were very heavy ; not a lamp
was quenched — and the trees offered plenty of shelter.
At length the rain ceased, and the bagpipe called the
athletic dancers into action. Round the platform stood a
party of Highlanders, each holding a torch in his hand;
and, as the light fell fitfully on the different groups, and the
dancers whirled rapidly round, with abundance of energy,
the scene had a wild and dramatic appearance. The
Queen, Prince Albert, and all the titled and fair guests,
forsook the drawing-room for this unwonted sight. It
was now past twelve o'clock, and the entertainments

380 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
closed. The spectators left the spacious lawn in different
parties, often stopping as they went along, to take another
look at the brilliant scene — for the lamps still burned
among the trees with undiminished lustre, and the bon
fires long afterwards shed their light on the vast mountain
slopes and terraces.
Objections have been made to the display of lamps,
as too theatrical for a Highland scene. We dislike vulgar
glare as much as any one ; but all idea "of strict nationality
must be abandoned in a pageant of this kind. If entirely
Highland, the embellishments would have been rude
enough : for the peculiar feudal character, proper to the
north, was characterised by wild energy and daring, not
by art and elegance. As part of the illumination, the
lamps had a fine effect : they were picturesque in them
selves, and had the useful quality of displaying the lawn,
the castle, and spectators.
The departure of the Queen formed another splendid
spectacle. After the prince had enjoyed his sport among
the hills, it was wisely and tastefully resolved to resume
the royal journey, by proceeding up Loch-Tay to Killin.
A barge and nine smaller vessels were on the lake, ac
companied by the band of the 92nd, who played the
national anthem. The bridge of Kenmore was covered
with spectators, who had come to have a parting look of
her Majesty, and they cheered the royal pair with de
voted enthusiasm as they embarked on their pleasure sail,
and proceeded westwards. The appearance of the various
vessels, with their flags and numerous parties on board —
the strains of the music, and the shouts of the spectators
— the smooth waters of the lake expanding in their beauty,
as if proud to bear on their surface the fair form of a British

IONA. 381
Queen — and the lofty Ben Lawers and his brother moun
tains looking down from their cloudy thrones on the un
wonted sight, all formed a combination of objects that at
once dazzled the eye and touched the heart. Tears fell
from many a fair spectator, as the little fleet set sail with
its precious freightage; for strong emotions of delight
can often only be expressed by tears ; and it was im
possible to suppress the idea that, in a few years, the
actors in this splendid scene would be mingled with com
mon clay, and would never, it was certain, all meet to
gether again under the shadow of these Highland moun
tains.

IONA.
" Peace to their shades ! the pure Culdees
Were Albyn's earliest priests of God,
Ere yet an island of her seas
By foot of Saxon monk was trod. " Campbell.
Who ever visited or thought of Iona — that moral
oasis in the wild waste of the Hebrides, with their archi
pelago of low browed rocks and islands — without at the
same time recalling the memory of Dr Johnson? The
great moralist has stamped his name upon the spot, and
his voice, figure, and countenance seem present with us
as we explore the venerable relics of what was once the
" Instructress of the West." Many changes have come
over the Highlands of Scotland since Johnson meditated
among the ruins of Iona. Much of the romantic and

382 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
exclusive character of the people has faded away before
the progress of modern manners and improvement. The
spirit of clanship has "paled its ineffectual fire;" the poor
Gael are broken down or dispersed ; parliamentary roads
and bridges traverse the whole land, instead of the rough
old foot-paths, fords, and bridle-tracks ; the everlasting
paddles of the steam-boats are heard on its loneliest
shores ; the sturdy cattle-drivers — the Robin Oigs of the
last century — are converted into shepherds tending flocks
of Cheviot sheep, not the little dun or blackfaced abo
rigines of the hills ; ploughs and bone-dust are rife even
in the Glengarry country, though the man still lives who
drew the first straight furrow in the Highlands; the
Caledonian Canal has realised the prophecy of the seer,
that ships would sail where the broom and heather were
growing : and, in short, nearly all has been accomplished
that was possible, in changing the external aspect of a
country, and assimilating rugged mountains and narrow
vales to the fertile fields and rural occupations of the
Lowlands. There is matter for joy, as well as wonder,
in all this transformation. Agriculture has become a
science — the fisheries a trade and commerce — the once
lonely sea a highway for business and pleasure.
Iona, however, is still the Iona of Johnson. Its ruins
constitute its riches; and, save that the well-directed
bounty of government has graced it with a church, the
appearance of the island is the same.
We approached it on a lovely afternoon in summer.
The steam-boat had left Oban crowded with tourists—
some from America, two Germans, and a whole legion of
" the Sassenach." The quiet beauty of the scene subdued
the whole into silence — even the Americans, who had

IONA. 383
bored us about their magnificent rivers, and steam-boats
sailing twenty-five miles an hour. The sea was literally
like a sheet of molten gold or silver. Not a breath agi
tated its surface, as we surveyed it from beneath a tem
porary awning, thrown up on the quarter-deck. The only
live objects that caught the eye were an occasional wild
fowl or porpoise. As the vessel moved on among the
silent rocky islands, the scene frequently shifting, yet
always bearing a stern, solemn, and primitive aspect, it
was impossible not to feel that we could not have ap
proached Iona under more favourable circumstances.
While we were still paddling in the sound, the captain
of the vessel related an anecdote of a reputed witch, who
lives by the shore in a state of "looped and windowed
raggedness," and total solitude. Many years ago the
withered beldame resided on the mainland, but the hue
and cry of witchcraft was raised against her by the peas
antry. She had the misfortune also to quarrel with the
proprietor of the estate on which she was suffered to live
— a rent-charge on Providence, and no one else. She
was ejected from her small holding. In this extremity,
without friend or worldly means, she took refuge in the
island of Lismore ; she got some good-natured boatman
to row her over the sea, and under the sheltering cover of
a ledge of rock, she constructed a kind of rude dwelling.
She had no furniture but an iron pot, and a truss of straw
served for her bed. In Lismore she was also taken for a
witch, and the superstitious islanders shunned her society.
The old woman, however, contrived to pick a subsistence
from the sea and land, and continued to vegetate on the
rock. Years rolled on in this dreary solitude, when one
night a violent storm arose, and a boat was driven into

384 , HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the creek, near Mary's house. The men found out the
aged dame, and implored her to afford shelter to a lady
and gentleman for the night, as no living thing could stay
on the sea during the tempest, and it was equally impos
sible to proceed to the mainland. The witch smiled,
" like moody madness laughing wild," but complied with
the request. The strangers were ushered in ; and Mary
saw, with malignant satisfaction, the proprietor and his
lady who had turned her destitute off their estate. Her
turn had now come, but the better feelings of humanity
prevailed over the spirit of revenge, and she uttered but
few words of upbraiding. The visitors were deeply af
fected by this incident : the storm abated during the night,
and after he had taken leave of his benefactress, and re
turned home, the laird sent Mary a bed, to add to her
comfort. This article of comfort she shows with pride,
but she seems to consider it a luxury — so completely has
her nature been inured to the rugged severity and desola
tion around her. The adventure would suit dramatic
representation. If it had happened on the coast of
Suffolk it would have been immortalised by Crabbe. But
to return to Iona.
Iona ! There is something magical in the name.
Whether its etymology be I-thonna, the Island of the
Waves, or I-shonna, the Blessed or Holy Isle, we care
not. The combination of letters is most musical, and
harmonises completely with the associations called up by
the venerable spot. Some places we admire for their
rural or pastoral beauty and simplicity — others for their
naked grandeur and sublimity. Iona belongs to neither
of these classes. Its rocky outline is softened down by
green panoramic views of Coll, Tiree, and the surround-

IONA. 385
ing islands — it is small of extent, contains no very high
hills,' and, though isolated, does not possess that wild and
gloomy grandeur which marks some of the mountain soli
tudes in other parts of the Highlands. It has not the
savage magnificence of Mull, nor the fertile and cultivated
beauty of Lismore ; yet, undoubtedly, in interest it sur
passes them all. As the seat of learning and religion when
all around was dark and barbarous — as the burial-place of
kings, saints, and heroes — solitary and in ruins — inhabited
by a few poor and primitive people — and washed by the
ever-murmuring Atlantic, Iona possesses most of the
elements of romance and moral beauty. Its natural dis
advantages would be counted attractions by Columba and
his pious votaries, when, some twelve centuries ago, they
first steered their skiff across the ocean to plant the tree
of life and sow the seeds of knowledge on its desert and
barbarous shores. The greater the sacrifice, the higher
the virtue ; and from this solitary spot Columba sent forth
disciples to civilise and enlighten other regions, till the
fame of Iona and its saints extended over the kingdom,
subdued savage ferocity, and made princes bow down be
fore its influence and authority. Here kings and chiefs
were proud to send votive altars, crosses, and offerings,
and to mingle their dust with its canonised earth — here
Christian temples rose in the midst of Pagan gloom —
knowledge was disseminated — and Iona shone like the
morning star after a long night of darkness! The whole
seems like a wild confused dream of romance, as we look
on that low rugged island, with its straggling patches of
corn land, its miserable huts, and poor inhabitants.
As our vessel drew up to the usual landing-place,
every cottage sent forth its inmates, young and old, and
2 B

386 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the beach was lined with spectators. The children
came forward, and stood on the crags and stones at the
shore holding out collections of the small green and white
pebbles and shells, which abound in the island, and
vociferating " twopence," " threepence," " fourpence," or
" sixpence," according to the amount or rarity of the store
offered for sale. Some of the islanders advanced to the
shore, "Where once came monk or nun, with gentle stir ;''
and at their head was an old -man, with keen eye and
stentorian voice, who bawled out that he was the guide,
and would show the ruins. This declaration was denied
by such of the people as could speak English, who stated
that the schoolmaster was the true guide, and would
soon be on the spot. In a few minutes a little round-
faced man appeared, his chin new reaped, and on his
head a smart beaver-hat that shone conspicuously among
the bare heads or blue bonnets of the fishermen. He
had a staff in one hand, and a little book, hight " The
Historical Account of Iona," in the other. One of the
passengers, to flatter the old man, asked him if he was
the author of the work. He said he was not, but added,
with complacency, " I am of the same clan, the Mac
leans, and I have some copies to sell." He then en
tered on his task of cicerone, which he said he had
exercised for forty years in the island. His opponent,
the pretended guide, denied this statement, and a warm
altercation ensued. The schoolmaster assured us that
he was the real guide, and that his rival only began the
trade this season ; " but if you ask himself," said he, with

IONA. 387
a ludicrous expression of pity and contempt, " he -will
tell y"ou that he has been a guide for fifty years ! " It
was obvious that the schoolmaster was the real Simon
Pure, and that his rival was an idle, talkative old fellow,
who envied the dominie his glory and his gains. The
party went on towards the religious buildings, which lie
at a short distance from the shore ; but the guides kept
up a constant war of words, the pretender being, of
course, the most noisy and most confident. The latter
had also some picquant stories to tell respecting the nuns,
who had yielded pell mell to a ruthless despoiler from
Ireland — " a Macgruishen"; at all which graceless dis
courses the schoolmaster shook his head and his new
beaver hat, but said nothing. The people crowded for
ward to settle the disputes of the guides, as to the history
of the respective objects, all talking in Gaelic, while the
passengers broke out into fits of laughter, and the ragged
children thrust in their hands and shells for money.
The whole scene was so much at variance with the
objects around, and the feelings they are calculated to
•excite, that we are glad to steal away from the rout, and
take a solitary perambulation among the mouldering
tombs and churches.
Byron left " to learned fingers and wise hands " the
task of describing the glorious sculpture of the Eternal
City. Following the spirit, not the fulfilment of this
resolution — for the glowing and picturesque sketches 'of
the noble poet transcend, even in fidelity and truth of
effect, a thousand of the artist's full-length portraitures
and measurements — we leave to the antiquary the duty
of depicting the fallen glories of Iona. The ruins are
more extensive than we had expected to find them, but

388 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
none are very ancient. The gravestones lie huddled to
gether in considerable numbers, and are richly carved —
impressing the visitor with a much stronger conviction of
the former grandeur and sanctity of the island than is
conveyed by the contemplation of its ruined structures.
Whether Scottish, Irish, and Norwegian kings are here
interred, we shall not stop to argue with ancient Dean
Munro and Buchanan, or to doubt with later authorities.
It is certain that the body of King Duncan was, as Shak
speare describes it, " Carried to Colm's kill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
And guardian of their bones. "

" Kill," in the Celtic language, signifies a burying-ground ;
and hence the names of many towns in Scotland, distin
guished as containing the ashes of primitive saints, retain
this prefix.
The cathedral or abbey church at Iona has a tower of
three stories, still accessible by a winding staircase, and is
seventy feet high. The capitals of the pillars in the chan
cel are decorated with scriptural representations as is com
mon in old conventual buildings, such as figures of Adam
and Eve, with the serpent and the apple ; Cain murder
ing Abel, and other pieces of a similar description. One
"of the designs contains a touch of quaint monkish hum
our : An angel is represented weighing souls in the
scales of justice, or balancing the good with the evil deeds
of a man, while the devil is seen slily slipping his paw
into one of the scales, and depressing it below the other !
Conceits of this kind have been legitimate subjects of

IONA. 389
satire and pleasantry from Chaucer downwards ; and the
old guide, who had just come up as we were poring over
the pictorial " mystery," remarked that it was " an excellent
invention," and was thought by some of the English ladies
and gentlemen to' be the best thing worth seeing in the
island !
We gratified this primitive and original cicerone, by
purchasing a copy of the " Historical Account," which he
so strenuously recommended. It is an equally original
and curious compilation. The Celtic enthusiasm of the
author breaks forth on all occasions, and he thus eulogises
the chieftains buried in Iona : —
"They were the spirit of night, which carry the col
lected blast of heaven in his fist when he intends to pour
it on the groves of Morven. The oaks hear its sound at
a distance, and, trembling for its approach, already
shake their leaves ! ! "
This is equal to Macpherson. With a kindred zeal
and clannishness, the author says of the Macleans : —
" Their souls were not the little souls that, like a
vapour, hover round the marshy lake, which fears to
ascend the green hill least the winds meet it there."
He remarks that " the fair sex — last at the cross and
first at the grave — have not been unmindful of the deeds
of Iona." Considering the usual piety and longevity" "of
women, we should be disposed to reverse this eulogium
of Iona, and style them as first at the cross and last at
the grave. It is gratifying, however, to find the ladies
first in all works of benevolence. An English lady col
lected a sum of twenty-five pounds, and placed it in the
hands of the minister to form a nucleus for the establish
ment of an infant school ; another lady subscribed

390 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
twenty-seven pounds for the same object, and the school
has been opened.
Highland music is a kindling theme with the natives
of these mountains, and the historian of Iona waxes
eloquent on the "laments and piobrachds." On this
subject he reasons in the following manner: —
" If a man naturally rough becomes for the time
softened by music, and those times are frequently renewed,
habit may take place of nature, and that man's character
will, to a certain degree, change."
It may be doubted whether, even the "piobrachds"
would be great reformers of character. They would not
prove potent auxiliaries to the chaplain in our gaols and
bridewells. English villany requires other sort of "dying
falls." Yet, without so full a belief in its efficacy, all must
admit that the cultivation of music has a soothing tend
ency, and we love the piobrachd on lake or sea, or in
the pine-wood of the hills, dim and obscure as the forest of
Dante. A pipe air, well played, breathes the very soul of
wild music or rhythm, the harmonious succession and
dependence of sounds. Even Johnson seemed fond of
the music of the bagpipe, and, as Boswell faithfully
relates, used often, when in Skye, to stand for some time
with his ear close to the great drone! — a most delectable
employment, which must have made the tuneless lexico
grapher quite familiar with the rhythm of the Highland
melodies. There is a note in the "Historical Account" worth
quoting, as characteristic of poor Hogg, the Ettrick
Shepherd. In an album, kept at the Sound of Ulva Inn,
James wrote the following verse, no doubt immediately
after settling with Donald for his time and his boat : —

IONA. 391
' ' I have sailed round the creeks, and the headland of Mull ;
Her vales are uncultured, unhallowed, and weedy ;
Her mountains are barren — her haven is dull ;
Her sons may be brave, but they're cursedly greedy."
Next day a son of Morven happened to call at the
inn, and, seeing Hogg's lines, wrote the following smart
rejoinder: —
" Ah, shepherd of Ettrick, why sorely complain,
Though the boatmen were greedy for grog ?
The beauties of Staffa by this you proclaim,
Were pearls cast away on a Hog !"
Sir George Head, in his second "Home Tour," con
demns the neglect and exposure of the ancient tombs at
Iona, and is surprised that Scottish families should be so
indifferent to the remains of their ancestors. Who can
distinguish or discriminate among these sepulchral relics?
Even the antiquary, bewildered with unintelligible carv
ings and devices, where name or crest is not, cannot ex
claim, " Eureka," it is clear.
" Chaos of ruins ! who shall trace the void,
O'er the dim fragments cast a lunar light,
And say, 'here was, or is,' where all is doubly night."
The entire island of Iona is the property of the Duke
of Argyll ; and it is said, that when his Grace, on one
occasion, visited it, the simple islanders whitewashed all
the tombs and crosses in honour of the memorable event.
At present the Duke derives a revenue of £300 per annum
from Iona, which contains about five hundred souls. The
inhabitants live by rearing cattle, which they sell in Mull,
and by cultivating small " crofts," or farms. They also

39 2 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
ply the trade of fishermen, when the weather and op
portunity serve. Sometimes they import a little oatmeal
from Mull ; but with this exception, Iona, though only
three miles long, and one broad, and chiefly covered with
crags, maintains, from its own produce, its hardy popu
lation. The schoolmaster has seventy scholars daily.
Neither a doctor nor a lawyer has yet taken root in the
island ; but Mull is not more than half a mile distant, and
the Sound is generally navigable. The new Presbyterian
church (the Catholic faith cannot now number a single
adherent here) is an inestimable benefit to the people,
who had formerly only a chance sermon, preached from
a rock or tent, by the clergyman of Mull. As we sur
veyed the church, and the neat parsonage, and cultivated
garden of the minister of Iona, we were strongly reminded
of the incalculable advantages which were conferred on
such remote places by a national religious establishment.
The church forms to the poor islanders a centre of civili
sation and piety — rational but devout, their guide and
stay in all seasons. These are blessings too valuable to be
left to chance.
Men, " in populous city pent," are apt to forget the
advantages springing from the regular stated ministrations
of a resident clergyman in all parts of the kingdom.
They see churches in every street, open every day, and
religious sects and societies pressing home earnestly the
truths of everlasting import. It seldom occurs to them
to ask, what would become of the scattered population of
the country parishes — poor, like the people of the Heb
rides, and "Placed far amid the melancholy main '' —

iona. 393
if the " saving light," now burning permanently on rock
and in glen, were withdrawn ? There a few individuals
own the wild domain. They are mostly non-resident.
They might voluntarily build churches and supply mini
sters from their own spontaneous bounty, but it is at
least as probable that they would not. The trustees of
some would grudge and stint the pious dole. The
natives are too poor to endow a church themselves ; and
without any lessons of improvement — without a living
model before their eyes — without the awful sanctions, and
authority, and promises, of the Divine Revelation duly
enforced, the love of virtue, and the fear of vice, would
gradually become obliterated, and the decencies and
charities of life be obscured and lost. There are parts of
England, as for example the fens of Cambridge and Lin
coln, where the consequences of the withdrawal of a
national church would be as severely felt. The local
situation of the Highlander, amidst stormy seas and
mountains, might keep in his mind a rude sense of the
Divine presence, but this would not be felt to the same
extent amidst the level plains, the comparative ease and
plenty of rural life in England. Fervently, therefore, do
we repeat the noble aspirations of the poet of the lakes.

" Ye swelling hills and spacious plains,
Besprent from shore to shore with steeple-towers,
And spires, whose ' silent finger points to heaven ;'
Nor wanting, at wide intervals, the bulk
Of ancient Minster, lifted above the cloud
Of the dense air, which town or city breeds
To intercept the sun's glad beams— may ne'er
That true succession fail of English hearts,
Who, with ancestral feeling, can perceive

394 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
What in those holy structures ye possess
Of ornamental interest, and the charm
Of pious sentiment diffused afar,
And human charity, and social love.
— Thus never shall the indignities of time
Approach their reverend graces, unopposed ;
Nor shall the elements be free to hurt
Their fair proportions ; nor the blinder rage
Of bigot zeal madly to overturn ;
And, if the desolating hand of war
Spare them, they shall continue to bestow — •
Upon the thronged abodes of busy men,
(Depraved, and ever prone to fill their minds
Exclusively with transitory things),
An air and mien of dignified pursuit ;
Of sweet civility, on rustic wilds."

STAFFA.
After surveying the various objects in Iona, we sailed
for a spot no less interesting. Thousands have seen
Staffa, and thousands have described it. Few, however,
have seen it by torch or candle light, and in this respect
we differ from most tourists. All description, however,
of this far-famed wonder must be vain and fruitless. The
shades of night were fast descending, and had settled on
the still waves and the little group of islets, called the
Treshnish Isles, when our vessel approached the cele
brated temple of the sea. We had light enough to dis
cern its symmetry and proportions, but the colour of the
rock — a dark grey — and the minuter graces of the
columns, were undistinguishable in the evening gloom.
The great face of the rock is the most wonderful produc-

staffa. 395
tion of nature we ever beheld. It reminded us of the
west front of York or Lincoln Cathedral— a resemblance,
perhaps, fanciful in all but the feelings they both excite —
especially when the English Minster is seen by moon
light. The highest point of Staffa at this view is about a
hundred feet; in its centre is the great cave, called
Fingal's Cave, stretching up into the interior of the rock,
a distance of more than two hundred feet. After admir
ing, in mute astonishment, the columnar proportions of
the rock, regular, as if chisseled by the hand of art, the
passengers entered a small boat, and sailed under the
arch. The boatmen had been brought from Iona, and
they instantly set themselves to light some lanterns, and
form torches of old ropes and tar, with which they com
pletely illuminated the ocean-hall into which we were
ushered. The complete stillness of the scene, except the
low plashing of the waves — the fitful gleams of light
thrown at first on the walls and ceiling, as the men
moved to and fro along the side of the stupendous cave —
the appearance of the varied roof, where different stalac
tites, or petrifactions are visible — the vastness and the
perfect art, or semblance of art, of the whole, altogether
formed a scene the most sublime, grand, and impressive,
ever witnessed. The Cathedral of Iona sunk into insignifi
cance before this great temple of nature, reared, as if in
mockery of the temples of man, by that Almighty Power
who laid the beams of his chambers in the waters, and
who walketh upon the wings of the wind. MaccuUoch
says that it is with the morning sun only that the great
face of Staffa can be seen in perfection ; as the general
• surface is undulating and uneven, large masses of light or
shadow are thus produced. We can believe, also, that

396 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the interior of the cave, with its broken pillars, and
variety of tints, and with the green sea rolling over a
dark red, or violet-coloured rock, must be seen to most
advantage in the full light of day. Yet we question
whether we could have been more deeply sensible of the
beauty and grandeur of the scene, than we were under
the unusual circumstances we have described. The
boatmen sung a Gaelic joram, or boat song, in the cave,
striking their oars violently, in time with the music, which
resounded finely through the vault, and was echoed
back by roof and pillar. One of them also fired a gun,
with the view of producing a still stronger effect of the
same kind. When we had fairly satisfied ourselves with
contemplating the cave, we all entered the boat, and
sailed round by the Clamshell cave (where the basaltic
columns are bent like the ribs of a ship) and the rock of
the buachaille, or the herdsman, formed of small columns,
as regular and as interesting as the larger productions.
We all clambered to the top of the rock, which affords
grazing for sheep and cattle, and is said to yield a rent of
£20 per annum to the proprietor, Mr Macdonald of
Staffa, whom Sir Walter Scott has described as " the
king of all kind fellows." Nothing but the wide surface
of the ocean was visible from our mountain eminence,
and, after a few minutes survey, we descended, returned
to the boat, and, after regaining the steam vessel, took
our farewell look of Staffa, and steered on for Tobermory.
Little can be said of this place, except that it is a
small sea-port town and fishing station, founded about fifty
years ago, by the British Society, for the encouragement
of fisheries. It is picturesquely situated, at the head of a
fine bay, like Oban, but it is not so neat or attractive a

staffa. 397
town as the last-mentioned " gem of the sea." We were
glad to find, however, that the inhabitants were sensible
of the natural beauty of Tobermory, and had busied them
selves to improve it : they have joined in making a fine
path, extending about a mile on each side of the
town, whence they have a noble prospect of island and
ocean scenery. We now sailed down the Sound of Mull,
and were highly gratified with the ever-varying landscape
which greeted our progress. A succession of ruined keeps
or fortresses intervene between Tobermory and Oban,
and carry back the imagination to those feudal times,
when the Lords of the Isles held absolute dominion over
this wild region. The Bay of Aros first attracts the
stranger, and close beside it, on a rocky eminence, is the
ruined. Castle of Aros. Then we have the Castle of Ard-
tornish, celebrated as the residence of the Lord of the
Isles, and as the scene of the first part of Sir Walter Scott's
poem of the same name. It has dwindled down into one
stately room, but is splendidly situated on a rocky pro
montory. Here the Lords of the Isles, during the period
of their stormy independence, assembled their courpleniere,
or assembly of feudal and patriarchal vassals and depend
ants ; and here John de Yle, in 1461, granted, in the style
of an independent sovereign, a commission to his cousins,
Ronald of the Isles, and Duncan, Archbishop of the Isles,
for empowering them to enter into a treaty with Edward
IV. of England. The conference terminated in a treaty
which no Scotsman can remember with pleasure, by which
the Lord of the Isles agreed to become a vassal to the
crown of England, and to assist Edward IV., and James,
Earl of Douglas, then in banishment, .in subduing the
realm of Scotland. Sir Walter Scott publishes, from

39§ HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Rymer's Federa, the terms of this treaty, but adds justly,
that it does not appear that the allies ever made any very
active effort to realise their ambitious designs. However
powerful they were at home, in their mountain fastnesses
and strongholds, the Lords of the Isles must have quailed
before the chivalry of England, and could have rendered
even little aid in subduing the Lowlands of Scotland.
We looked with strong interest on these "rugged halls" in
the morning sunshine, when all around was calm and
beautiful —" Lull'd were the winds on Inninmore
And green Loch Alline's woodland shore."
Loch Alline is a fine saltwater lake, at the extremity of
the precipitous range of mountains from which Ardtornish
projects into the sea. It is well wooded towards the shore,
and on the sloping surface of the hill above we observed a
regular fold of black cattle, in the primitive fashion, now
rarely to be met with. We passed the spot about nine
o'clock in the morning, when the herds were engaged in
milking the cows.
The most imposing of the island castles on the Sound
of Mull is that of Duart, once the residence of the chiefs
of the clan Maclean. It is a large square tower, frowning
majestically from a peninsular headland over the sea, and
about half a mile from it is the Lady Rock, on which
one of the chiefs is said to have placed his lady, and left
her to be drowned by the tide, which, at high water, over
flows the spot. Like all the true heroines of romance, the
lady was rescued by her kindred, before death had ap
proached, and her oppressor was sacrificed to their ven-

ST KILDA. 399
geance. The fine little romantic ballad of Campbell, en
titled " Glenara," seems to have been founded on this
incident, and it has also been made the subject of Joanna
Baillie's tragedy, the Family Legend.

ST KILDA.
This solitary and remote island was first visited by a
steam vessel on the 28th of July 1834. A friend who
was present at this time has described to us the state of
the forlorn islanders. The subject is a painful one, for
we cannot help regarding it as a national humiliation and
disgrace that a people situated almost at our own doors,
should have been so utterly neglected. Our friend de
scribes the inhabitants of St Kilda as placed in one of the
lowest grades of civilisation. Like all semi-barbarous
people, he says, their sources of emotion are few, but the
emotions themselves vivid and strong. Curiosity and
wonder were depicted on their countenances in the
most lively colours. The dresses of the ladies of the
party called forth exclamations of surprise and de
light. Sweetmeats, gaudy colours, and silver money, at
tracted equal attention, and some of them very speedily
displayed considerable shrewdness in making what they
thought a good bargain, in the sale of dogs, cheeses,
brooches, &c, which the passengers were eager to pur
chase as memorials of the island. This proves them not
deficient in natural capacity, however wanting in cultiva
tion. In the latter respect, indeed, we can scarcely im
agine anything more deplorable. Their huts are of the
most wretched description, resembling, from a little dis-

400 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
tance, a Hottentot kraal, except that they have not the
regularity which marks the kraal. Every hut is nearly in
accessible from the filth which lies before its door, consist
ing of putrid sea-fowl, and refuse of all disgusting kinds.
The interior is scarcely better, consisting generally of two
apartments, one being divided from the other by a rude
partition of loose stones, within which is the dunghill,
which is also the bed of the wretched inhabitants, and
which is composed of alternate strata of feathers and long
moss, new strata being added from time to time, as the
others decay, and the whole gradually growing into a pile
of manure, which is removed once a-year to the tilled
ground adjoining. The stench, both inside and outside,
it may well be conceived, is intolerable. Their personal
cleanliness is upon a par with that of their houses. Their
squalid attire, slovenly habits, and diminutive stature
gives them a mean appearance, which is, however, some
what redeemed by an expression of countenance consider
ably intelligent, and, when we saw them, lighted up with
curiosity and kindness. There are about five or six dif
ferent names, indicative of different families, among them;
but owing, probably, to their frequent inter-marriages,
their features have all, what might be termed, a family
likeness. They marry young, yet their numbers do not
seem to increase percepitibly, owing to the excessive
mortality among the infants. Out of ten infants born,
not more than one survives the ninth day. This is caused,
probably, in a great measure, by the mephitic air which
the new-born infant is compelled to breathe, and which ab
solutely poisons its tender lungs ; together with the delete
rious food, melted butter and milk, with which they are
at first fed, instead of that nourishment with which nature

ST KILDA. 401
blessed the bosom of the mother. Yet though they can
not shake off these pernicious habits, nature displays
in them her own fine workings, despite their wretched
customs. Every child which survives is regarded as a
common boon, as might be seen in the eagerness which
every female displayed to get into her arms any infant
whose healthy appearance had attracted the favourable
notice of the party ; while the exulting looks, and the ap
propriating embrace of the real mother, spoke a language
which could not be misunderstood.
The population of the island at present is ninety-
three, of whom forty-one are males and fifty-two females.
Not much of the land is arable ; and of that which is at
tempted, the style of culture is very unskilful. They
grow a species of long-bearded black oats, barley or bere,
and potatoes ; but the crop of weeds far surpassed that
of grain, showing at once the tolerable fertility of the soil,
and the negligence of its cultivators. Their chief food
seems to be sea-fowl, and their chief commodity the
feathers of sea-fowl, which they catch very easily, and in
great numbers, on the cliffs, with a long and a running
noose. In this employment they consume the greater
part of their time, which might be much more profitably
expended in the improvement of their habitations, and
the cultivation of the ground, if either their habits or
their information should induce them to make the at
tempt. The manse and ' church are both respectable
buildings, and their clergyman (a very respectable man)
has resided among them about four years ; yet it does
not appear that they have made much progress in civili
sation. Surely Britain, while claiming to be the leader
in every kind of civilisation, and the very patroness of
2 c

402 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
all benevolence, while sending missions of instruction
and of mercy to the farthest limits of the world, will not
permit an island so near her own shores, and owing
allegiance to her own sovereign, to remain much longer
in such a state of degradation and even barbarism. A
very little effort on the part of the proprietor of the island
aided by other active friends of benevolence, might easily
rescue these unhappy people from their physical and
moral lethargy ; and we hope that effort will not much
longer be wanting. Like all semi-barbarians, they are
subject to prejudices, and strongly attached to old cus
toms; but these may be removed, or even brought to co
operate by skilful management. They are contented
with their present miserable hovels, and will not be at the
trouble to make them more comfortable ; but they love
their children, and if made to understand that the mor
tality of their infants is caused by the filth and stench of
their houses, it would be easy to induce them to do their
best to save the lives of their beloved progeny. The
same master-feeling might be brought to bear on their
style of cultivating their fields, as furnishing food of a
more salubrious kind. These brief hints we throw out
for the consideration of those who may have it in their
power to take some efficient steps towards ameliorating
the condition of that small but interesting portion of our
fellow-creatures and our fellow-subjects.
When about to leave the island, a considerable num
ber of the male inhabitants were brought on board ; and
it was not a little amusing to see the simple and child
like curiosity and astonishment with which they gazed on
the mirror and gildings in the cabin, and the machinery
of the " Glenalbyn." They thought a vessel of such

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 403
beauty and magnitude could belong only to the king ; or
might even be the production of superhuman power. At
length the party took leave of that simple-minded and
warm-hearted little community, with feelings of deep
interest and commiseration, hoping that the visit might
be remembered in their annals as the commencing point
in an era of improvement. Yet they could not alto
gether suppress their fears, that if a visit to St Kilda
should become a common occurrence in parties of plea
sure, it might unfortunately happen, that the vices of
civilised life would be imparted to them sooner than its
virtues and its blessings.

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS.
The spring of 1842 came upon the Highlands like a
premature burst of summer — a flush of Italian or Grecian
beauty. With a friend we resolved on making a tempor
ary migration southwards. We determined to sally out,
and proceed as far as London. " We shall once more,"
we exclaimed, " see the great tide of human life, and hear
its multitudinous roar through all the gates of the metro
polis. The woods of England will be in full leaf, and her
meadows and hedges as green as an emerald. Her warm
skies will breathe health and strength, and the mind, like
the body, will be quickened and renovated by the genial
change." The facilities of communication have been
multiplied so amazingly that, in travelling, time and space
are in some measure annihilated. Rapid coaches, steam
boats, and railways, traverse the whole country, and woo
the wanderer abroad. One day conducted us, by the

404 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
route described in our first tour, through the central High
lands, to Edinburgh. The first half of the journey is bare
and rugged enough ; but when the sun began to brighten
up the wild series of mountains about Dalwhinnie — ting
ing the cold brown heath with a warm red glow — the
scene was not without its attractions. The outline of
the hills became distinctly defined, and engaged the eye
and imagination with their varied forms. It is these ap
pearances that remain in the memory of the mountaineer
when wandering in distant countries. The level plains,
rich verdure, and woodland scenery of England are all
so much alike, that there is little individual character or
local attachment. But with the Scotsman the particular
look of each mountain, the position of the burn or river
that flows beside it, and the small glen, with its birch
trees and solitary church-yard, remain indelibly imprinted
on his recollection, and rise, with the vividness of an opti
cal illusion, wherever his fortunes may chance to conduct
him. We need say nothing here of the fine scenery about
Blair-Athole and Dunkeld. The whole country is like
fairy-land — rich in wood and water, towering mountains
and fertile vales. Edinburgh is equally familiar. The
only novelty we witnessed was the progress of the Scott
monument, which promises to add another grace to the
city of palaces. Well does the memory of Sir Walter
Scott merit such a tribute from his native country, which
he has enriched with so many proud and interesting as
sociations — and this monument, so admirably situated for
effect, and so exquisitely designed, will long remain an in
teresting memorial of national pride and gratitude. It
will undoubtedly be the finest erection of the kind in
Britain. The marble statue in the Gothic temple will be

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 405
at once protected and adorned by the union, and is
characteristic of Sir Walter's genius, which, though erect
in native dignity, yet was enshrined in the associated
glories of the past.
From Edinburgh we proceeded to Glasgow, by the
railway — a stupendous work, which has cost an enormous
sum, in consequence of the natural difficulties which lay
in the way. The route is pleasant : the wooded heights
at Corstorphine seem to welcome the tourist on his new
course, and the vale of the Almond Water has a sweet, re
tired, and pastoral appearance. The viaduct over this vale
is a noble work of art : it is composed of thirty-six arches,
each fifty feet in span, and commands a finely diversified
view of the country. There is also a glimpse of the
ancient town of Linlithgow — the modern town of Falkirk
— and the unfortunate field of Bonnymuir, " where," ac
cording to the Guide-book, " perished the victims of
political delusion." At one time the railway is high up
in the air, careering along a viaduct ; at another time it
is hid between precipitous banks ; and in other portions
of the line it is dug through tremendous masses of whin-
stone. The rapidity of motion by such conveyances is
undoubtedly highly exciting. The eccentric Lord Mon-
boddo (who used to maintain that mankind were origin
ally born with tails, like monkeys) never would enter a
carriage, as he considered it degrading to be drawn be
hind a horse, when you could mount his back and con
trol him. True to this opinion, the old lord every year
rode all the way to London on horseback, even when he
was past eighty years of age. We could not help regret
ting that he had not lived to witness the railways ! No
horses would there mar his speculations or his progress,

406 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
and the dignity of man is exhibited in making " fire,
flood, and earth, the vassals of his will." Two hours
and ten minutes brought us over the forty-six miles, and
plunged us in the midst of the smoke and stir of Glasgow.
An English gentleman, who travelled part of the way
with us, maintained that Glasgow was a finer town than
Edinburgh ; and certainly some of the new streets — as
Blythswood Square- — are equal to any in the Scottish
capital. There is wanting, however, the noble situation
of Edinburgh, and all its historical interest — the old
Castle, which is itself a study, the ancient palace of Holy-
rood, and streets like the Canongate and High Street,
which carry back the mind to the character, manners,
and events of former ages. Without such associations, a
town is a mere wilderness of stone, or brick and mortar.
Money can do much, but it cannot invest the most splen
did square or crescent with that interest which mantles
over the high and dingy streets of the old town of Edin
burgh. Ages have passed over them ; the high-born and
illustrious have long since fled their recesses ; they have
become the abodes of squalid poverty and wretchedness ;
yet we still associate them with Queen Mary and her
nobles ; with the early founders of the Reformed Church,
and the stern martial spirits that alternately adorned and
cursed their native country.
At Glasgow, we went to see the Necropolis, or
fashionable burying-ground, which may be considered the
Pere-la- Chaise of Scotland. The number of tombs has
vastly increased within the last two or three years, but
the same style is preserved in most of them. Flowers
and evergreens ornament the graves, and fine walks inter
sect the ground, overlooking the Cathedral and part of

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 407
the town. The situation is beautiful, and the whole
place picturesque and striking ; yet we could not admire
this innovation on the old Scottish habits and feelings.
A plain hill-side, or common church-yard, seems to us to
be more in harmony with the emotions called up by the
place of the dead. The melancholy and solemnity — the
vain regrets and ineffectual sorrow — with which we look
on the graves of our departed fellow-mortals, are here
broken in upon by scenic display and vulgar admiration.
Glittering objects attract the eye and call off the attention,
and though the fancy is gratified, the heart is little
touched. Two separate classes of associations are thus
brought into contact, and each is weakened and diluted.
We know that such impressions or opinions are un-
philosophical, and that no locality can affect the peace
and repose of the dead ; but we are all such creatures of
impulse, and so prone to forget the things that belong
not to time, that it is wise to cherish even prejudices
when they lead to seriousness and reflection.
Having spent two or three hours in wandering about
Glasgow, we went on board a steam-boat for Liverpool.
The passage is usually made in about twenty hours, and
the accommodations are all superb. The " fittings up "
of the saloon, what with fine mirrors, paintings, rosewood,
and gilding, are magnificent in display ; but the bed
rooms are close and confined. A voyage of one day
seldom brings the passengers into friendly union with
each other, or smooths off those selfish asperities which
spring up most luxuriantly in travelling. What scrambling
for the best beds, the best seats, and other comfortable
appliances ! Human nature, it must be confessed, is not
seen to advantage in such situations. Our passage was

408 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
agreeable enough, and was varied by a fine view of the
Isle of Man, whence we received an accession of new
passengers. The town of Ramsay stands beautifully on
the sea-side, at the foot of a range of high green hills,
cultivated almost to the top. In summer it is much fre
quented by strangers, as it possesses the recommendations
of fresh air, sea-bathing, and cheapness of living. How
ever agreeable may be the circumstances of a journey,
the end of it is always the most pleasant. There is also
something exciting and amusing in the last hour of a voy
age, though the whole should only occupy a single day.
Every one is looking after his luggage, piling up box and
portmanteau, " like stones of lustre from the brook " —
brushing hats and coats — peering anxiously towards the
shore — and all wearing a look of pleasure and expecta
tion. The rough sailors, begrimed and dirty from their
occupations in the fiery regions below, apply sedulously to
the water-barrel ; while poor women, wearied out with the
discomforts of the forecastle, hold up their children with
delight, to catch a glimpse of the cultivated shores and
distant spires, whither they are tending.
Liverpool, with its forest of masts, is well worth seeing:
it is a town of immense trade and bustle, and gives one a
lively impression of the inexhaustible energies and daunt
less enterprise of British merchants. On this occasion,
however, we remained only one hour in its precincts, be
ing anxious to push on for Birmingham. At seven o'clock
in the evening we took our seat in one of the railway
trains, and in four hours and a-half had accomplished the
ninety-eight miles. The furnaces and iron-works around
Birmingham blazed away in the silence of night, like so
many conflagrations, and produced a very picturesque

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 409
effect. A circumstance occurred, during the journey,
which shows that railway travelling has some incon
venience for invalids. A young lady fainted by the way.
We opened the window, but it was impossible to make the
workmen hear — on went the fiery machine, like a demon
of mischief careering through the earth, and it was im
possible to arrest it in its progress. The lady was laid at
length across the knees of the other passengers, fresh air
was admitted, and in about half-an-hour she recovered, by
which time we had arrived at a station, and obtained a
draught of water.
In the neighbourhood of Birmingham lies the scenery
of Shenstone, the poet — his paternal seat, the Leasowes.
The spot is eminently beautiful; and, though only two
miles and a-half in extent, a variety of landscapes are pre
sented. The poet spent his fortune in ornamenting the
property : new channels were cut for the river — waterfalls
were made — a lake was spread out below — thickets and
groves were raised up — urns and inscriptions ornamented
the walks — and the spot was, altogether, the wonder of
the country. One of the inscriptions has been much ad
mired for its pathos and beauty : it was to the memory of
a young lady, and, in classical Latin, related " how much
inferior the living converse of others was to the bare
remembrance of her." The thought has been copied by
Moore in one of his songs —
" Though many a gifted mind we meet,
Though fairest forms we see,
To dwell with them is far less sweet
Than to remember thee."
No neglect can destroy the natural beauty of the Leas-

410 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
owes, but the glory of the place, as planned and reared
up by Shenstone, has long since departed. The walks
are overgrown with weeds, the cascades have ceased to
flow, and all the urns and vases, on which he squandered
much classical taste and good money (which he could ill
spare), have been thrown down, mutilated, or carried off.
The scene is an instructive lesson — a homily on the vanity
of worldly hopes and ambition.
In Birmingham we went to see the celebrated pictures
of Adam and Eve, by the French artist, Dubufe, which
have been exhibited in most of the large towns. They
are certainly exquisite works of art. Nothing can surpass
the delicacy and perfection exhibited in the representation
of Eve, as she presents the apple to Adam —
"The fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe. "
The figure of Adam, however, seems deficient in dignity.
He is too young and sentimental — with dark hair, and an
Italian cast of countenance. All our ideas of Adam are
derived from the description of Milton, who invests him
with "fair large front and eye sublime," and also with
" hyacinthine locks, that hung clustering, parted in front,
to his shoulders. The French artist has been no student
of Milton : he has given a totally different expression to
the features, and has fallen below the conception of the
poet. Our next journey was to Coventry — also by the rail
way—where there is little to detain the stranger, except a
few remains of antiquity, and two very high church spires,
that are seen over all the country to a great extent. Five

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 41 1
miles southwards bring him to Kenilworth, chiefly re
markable for its ancient castle, the seat of Dudley, Earl
of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favourite, and now associ
ated with the genius of Sir Walter Scott. A more splen
did ruin can hardly be conceived. It covers a large
extent of ground, standing on an elevated situation,
below which is a range of fair green meadows, once a
lake, that spread around the princely mansion. The
towers still remain, covered with ivy; the banqueting
hall, eighty-six feet long and forty-four wide, with its
finely ornamented windows, is also seen ; and part of the
buildings — a mere fragment — has been converted into a
comfortable, and even magnificent dwelling-house for a
farmer. The memorable visit of Queen Elizabeth to Ken
ilworth is the most remarkable event in its history, and
has been immortalised by the genius of Scott. Dudley's
entertainment of his royal mistress is said to have cost
him a thousand pounds a-day (fully five or six thousand
of our money), and it lasted seventeen days, during all
which time the great clock on the tower was stopped, and
the hand kept constantly pointing to two o'clock, the
hour of banquet ! Truly, as old Chaucer has said, it
must have snowed oi meat and drink during the period of
the revelry. Then there were, for the especial gratifica
tion of the queen, the amusements of bear-baiting, morice-
dancing, boxing, and tumbling; and a regatta on the
lake lent its more polished and pleasing attractions. A
circuit of twenty miles comprised the park, diversified
with woods and lawns, and a "goodly chase;" and under
its old trees the courtly groups might be discerned, linger
ing, in their antique dresses and costly attire. Now the
plough may be seen where once was the lake and the

412 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
deer-park. Dudley and all his magnificence has de
parted, leaving only the name of a proud, unprincipled,
and unhappy courtier : Cromwell's soldiers destroyed the
castle which he spent such enormous sums to adorn and
improve; and the gilded carvings and marble ornaments of
his hall and presence-chambers serve for the accommoda
tion of a farmer, who, tending his fields, and drinking his
home-brewed ale, is a happier man than the lordly earl,
or even the haughty queen whom he was so proud to
entertain. Leamington, Warwick, and Stratford-on-Avon all lie
within a few miles of each other, and may be easily
visited and explored in one day. The first is a very gay
and handsome town — a sort of miniature new town of
Edinburgh — and is still half-supported by Dr Jephson,
the quack doctor. Crowds of dyspeptic patients fill the
fine houses, and saunter about under the noble elm trees
or drink the waters. The country on all sides, though
flat, is richly wooded and cultivated, and the climate
seems deliriously mild and genial. Warwick is an old
town, irregularly built, with ancient churches and gate
ways. Its castle, the seat of the Earl of Warwick, is the
chief attraction of the place. George the Fourth is re
ported to have said that it was the only castle in England
he envied for a royal residence ; and the saying proves
his good taste. The approach to this splendid baronial
pile is partly cut out of the solid rock, the sides of which
are covered with shrubs and evergreens ; and the castle
bursts suddenly on the view, with two huge towers, one as
ancient as the Norman conquest, and the other erected in
the reign of Richard the Second. The rough old gran
deur of the castle is fitly accompanied by some trees of

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 41 3
equally venerable aspect, among which are two noble firs,
that seem to transport the Scottish tourist to the " banks
and braes " of the north. In the grounds are a collection
of cedar trees of gigantic dimensions, the largest in Eng
land, and some fine chestnuts. The river winds through
the park and pleasure grounds, and adds greatly to the
effect. The interior of Warwick Castle is not unworthy
of its external appearance and situation. The hall is an
immense room, with oak roof and marble floor, and its
walls are decorated with ancient armour, spears, gloves,
and other insignia of former ages. When the doors are
thrown open there is a vista of three hundred feet from
one end of the castle to the other, terminated at each ex
tremity by windows of painted glass. Another passage
is closed by a large picture of Charles I., on horseback,
by Vandyke ; and, as you approach it, the horse and rider
seem instinct with life and motion. Among the fine col
lection of paintings in the castle is a portrait of Ignatius
Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, by Rubens — -a magnificent
picture. There are also originals of Henry VII. and Anne
Boleyn, by Holbein; various portraits by Vandyke, Titian,
and Lely ; and landscapes by Salvator Rosa. The castle
is richest in historical portraits ; and to traverse its rooms
seems like walking in a gallery with those distinguished
personages — the glory or wonder of the past — who have
amused our day-dreams with images of feudal power,
female loveliness, and chivalrous devotion. One of the
apartments is wainscotted with cedar wood, which emits
a pleasing fragrance ; and all the windows look out on the
smooth shaven lawn, towering trees, and sparkling waters
that form a picture not less beautiful than any which the
genius of ancient or modern art has embodied on canvas.

414 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
Visitors are -directed to the Green-house — a plain new
building, with a Gothic front, in which is placed the cele
brated antique vase — a noble remnant of antiquity — found
at the bottom of a lake, near Adrian's Villa, Tivoli, about
fourteen miles from Rome. The vase is of a white marble,
somewhat injured by time, as the smooth and polished
surface of the marble has been worn off. But nothing
can be more exquisite than the sculptures on this gigantic
punch-bowl. The handles are formed in the shape of
vine-branches ; and satyrs, with ivy-bound hair, smile
round its ample proportions. The thyrsus, the spear of
Bacchus, the head of a panther, and other classical de
vices, are also carved on the vase. There is "ample
room and verge enough" for ornament, for the vase is
calculated to hold one hundred and sixty-three gallons!
Burns has made much of the small black punch-bowl of
Inveraray marble, in which he, William Nicol, and Allan
Masterton- — the "three blithe lads" of his famous bac
chanalian song— celebrated the "lee-lang night" in -which
they met at Nicol's house-heating in Laggan ; but if this
antique vase had been erected in all its "pride of place"
before them, with what enthusiasm would the poet and
his mirthful compeers have surveyed the noble bowl ! It
might regale the whole poets of Great Britain ; and if the
Earl of Warwick were to summon the tuneful band to his
ancient castle, we have no doubt that Moore would grace
the classic symposium with another of his matchless
melodies. When Napoleon dreamed of conquering England, he
intended sending to the Louvre some of the choicest
works of art in Britain, and the Warwick vase is one of
the objects that he enumerated among his anticipated

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 415
spoils. Here, however, it still remains, while Napoleon
himself has
" Gone, glittering through the dream of things that were."
It is a curious fact that the old armour found in
these baronial castles is generally too small for the existing
generation of men. This was first discovered at Eglinton
tournament, when so many rusty suits were furbished up,
nearly all of which had to be enlarged. The mail-clad
warriors of former times would thus seem to have been
worse fed than their luxuriant descendants, or worked
down to mere bone and muscle.
Six miles from the interesting town of Warwick lies
Stratford-on-Avon. The whole place seems merely a
monument to Shakspeare — for his genius has invested it
with never-dying interest, and his name meets you at
every turn and winding. The town is prettily situated.
The fields and meadows have a rich appearance, the
hedge-rows are all in fine order, and the elm tree is as
plentiful as if timber were of no value. There is some
little variety of landscape, but, on the whole, the country
is flat, and presents scarcely a single elevation that a
Highlander would dignify with the name of a hill. It
was eight o'clock in the evening when we set off, but
there was still daylight enough left on our arrival to take
a glance at the birth-place of the poet. It is a very humble
mansion, of the old timber and plaster school, and is open
at front, having been at one time used as a butcher's
shop. A tidy little old woman shows the house, and
points with pride to the hundreds of names that cover the
walls of the apartment. " Here is the name of George
the Fourth, written when he was Prince Regent, in 1815"

41 6 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
— "here is that of the Duke of Clarence, the Duke
of Wellington, Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Madame
Vestris, the great Mr Kean, Lord Byron's foreign lady,
the Countess Guiccioli, Dr Lardner, Washington Irving,"
and a whole host of titled or distinguished persons, whom
the worthy hostess has been long accustomed to call over.
The walls have been so completely filled, that no room is
left for additional signatures, and a book is now presented,
in which the visitor is requested to write his name. From
the number of names on each page, and the number of
pages filled last year, there must be annually about three
thousand visitors. Great numbers are foreigners — Ameri
cans and Germans in particular — who appear to have
inherited a portion of the English idolatry for the great
poet. Of a spot so well known, and so often described,
it would be idle to say much. It is even uncertain
whether it was Shakspeare's birth-place, as the house was
not purchased by his father till ten years after the date of
his birth. Tradition, however, has immortalised the
humble tenement ; and, if the poet was not born in it, it
is more than probable that he passed some of his early
years under its roof. The only undoubted spot is the
church, for there his ashes lie, and there remains that
celebrated monument, erected by the relatives of the poet.
The church is a fine collegiate building, and has just been
improved, at an expense of no less than £7000, raised
by subscription. An interesting, and even elegant struc
ture is the Stratford monument. The bust and ornaments
are tastefully executed; and as it is probable that the
artist had some portrait to guide him, to it we must look
for the most authentic likeness of Shakspeare. The fea
tures are smooth and regular, the head bald, and that

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 417
immense pile of forehead, which all the engravings assign
him, is here conspicuous. Yet the face is more expressive
of benevolence and good nature than of genius — it is that
of a happy and prosperous man, who took the world easy,
and rejoiced in seeing others as cheerful as himself. A few
wrinkles are visible on the forehead, and this circumstance
has countenanced the idea that the bust was made from
a cast taken after death. If such was the case, the poet
must have died without any long or wasting illness, for
the features are full, and the general expression that of
perfect health. We know that Shakspeare died early, at
the age of fifty-three, after a highly successful life. From
recent discoveries it appears that, within two or three
years after his arrival in London, he was a shareholder in
the Blackfriars' Theatre. In 1608, eight years before his
death, his property in the theatre, including the wardrobe
(which was exclusively his), was estimated at more than
£1400, which would be equal to six or seven thousand
pounds of our present money, and if we conclude that the
Globe Theatre (of which he was also a proprietor, and
which was the larger building) was equally profitable, we
must assign to the poet a princely income — full £1500
per annum. He had the best house in Stratford, he had
meadows, tithes, and messuages; and, though he early
abandoned the city and the court, where he was highly
honoured, he was, doubtless, a happier man in his native
vale, surrounded by the glory of his fame, and his pro
vincial opulence, no less than by his early friends, than
he could have been pursuing a profession which he
disliked, with all its superadded emoluments. The his
tory of literature presents few such pictures of calm felicity
and satisfied ambition. About a mile from Stratford is
2 P

4 1 8 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
the little village of Shottery, where Ann Hathaway, the
poet's wife, resided. The cottage still stands ; and an
ancient carved bedstead is shown, which is old enough
to have existed before the time of the poet. The woman
who shows the relic (and who is a descendant of the
Hathaways) vouches for its being in the possession of her
grandmother some eighty years since. There is an old
wooden seat in the passage equally venerable in appear
ance, which, by no great stretch of imagination, we may
suppose to have often borne Shakspeare and his rustic
beauty, and the door is still opened by a wooden latch,
such as the boy-poet may have handled in his visits to
the place. These rural cottages seem fitted to last for
ages — as long as the proud castles under which they once
sought protection. The timber is all good sound oak,
solid and abundant, from floor to roof; the doors and
window frames are of the same hardy material ; and the
plaster or brick, which fills up the pannels, seems bedded
in adamant. In the garden of this interesting cottage are
some old apple trees, and the walls are covered with
roses. The Hathaways were a comfortable people, "sub
stantial yeomen," as they were called, and they long
enjoyed this inheritance -of peace. Four miles from
Stratford is Charlecote Park, the seat of Sir Thomas
Lucy, by whom Shakspeare is said to have been pro
secuted for deer-stealing. The story is doubtful, but the
house is a fine Elizabethan mansion, sloping down to the
edge of the River Avon and its bank of willow trees. The
proprietor is still a Lucy, and maintains the dignity of
the family ; some hundreds of fallow deer were reposing
under the shadow of the old trees when we strolled in
the park; and the whole spot looks exactly as it must
have done in the days of Shakspeare.

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 419
We have detained the reader too long by noting these
familiar scenes. Interesting they must always be, but
they must be seen to be duly appreciated. The associa
tions that spring up on the spot cannot be transferred to
paper. So adieu to fair Stratford and the River Avon,
and the fine church spire, which shines so conspicuous,
and which, as Washington Irving says, has become " a
beacon towering amidst the gentle landscape, to guide the
literary pilgrim of every nation to Shakespeare's tomb."
But let us change the theme, and take a glance at
rural affairs. It is impossible to pass along the roads and
not see that the waste of horse labour in England is pro
digious. In ploughing, never less than three horses, and
often four and five, are engaged. In one small field we
observed four ploughs at work, two of which were drawn
by four horses, and the other two by three each ! Thus
fourteen horses, four men, and four boys, were employed
to accomplish what a Scottish farmer would have done
better, in little more time, with two horses and a single
man. In another field we observed a team of six horses
drawing a harrowing machine ! No good reason can be
given for this excessive waste of animal power; the Eng
lish farmer plods on as his father did before him, and to
all remonstrances he returns, what we found to be the
universal answer, " Lord bless you, sir, it will never do
to distress the horses." The " turn out " along the roads
is imposing : the horses are yoked a la tandem, in a row,
and the ploughman stalks loftily along, in his smock
frock and half-boots, cracking his huge whip by the side
of the horses, while a boy leads them in front. Another
peculiarity in some of these midland districts is the
quantity of land still cultivated in the common-field style,

420 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
or run rig, as it used to be termed in Scotland, by several
tenants or small proprietors. Each has his own number
of furrows, separated from that of his neighbour by a
stripe of greensward, and the appearance of the fields
divided in this way, with walks between the rigs, is singu
lar enough. We say nothing of the loss of ground : the
farmer never thinks of arranging with his neighbours to
alter the system, because he says they must cultivate the
lands in that way till there is an Act of Parliament to
enclose them. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the
fields around Kenilworth and Warwick. They are well
cultivated, and enclosed by neat hawthorn hedges and elm
trees. We now pushed on for Woodstock and Blenheim
Castle. No railway has broken in on the country quiet
of these roads, which have a completely rural and pri
mitive appearance. We passed some considerable heights
and elevations— an agreeable novelty — but they are green
and cultivated to the top. The road gradually ascends
from Stratford, and the church spire is long visible.
Woodstock is but a small town. It was celebrated for its
manufacture of gloves, and about four hundred persons
are still engaged in the trade — the men at tanning
and preparing the leather, and the females at sewing the
gloves, The ancient palace of Woodstock, where Fair
Rosamond was kept by Henry II., and the celebrated
bower which the poets and annalists have commemorated
as her retreat, have entirely disappeared. In the park, how
ever, are some oak trees, which seem as old as the time of
the conquest — enormous trunks, some of them more than
thirty feet in circumference. Such a breadth of woodland
shade and splendour as is presented in this spot, can

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 42 1
with difficulty be matched in England. Many of these
forest giants, we have no doubt, were seen and admired
by Chaucer, who has laid the scene of one of his poems
in Woodstock Park, and who resided in the town. The
palace was destroyed by order of the Long Parliament
in 1649, and Sir Walter Scott has laid the plot of one
of his inimitable historical romances among the scenes
of that devastation. The park and manor were afterwards
granted to the Duke of Marlborough, and Blenheim
Castle was also built, in token of the nation's gratitude.
The architecture of this celebrated national tribute has
given rise to much diversity of opinion. Sir John Van-
brugh, by whom it was designed, delighted in magnifi
cence and display, and so extensive is the range of build
ing, that the castle has been pronounced by some ill-
naiured critics, a mere quarry of stones. A ludicrous
epigram on Vanbrugh also speaks of the same supposed
defect — " Lie heavy on him earth, for he
Laid many a heavy load on thee. "
Yet Blenheim Castle is a grand and imposing structure.
The great front is three hundred and fifty feet long. On
the southern front is a colossal bust of Louis the Four
teenth, which Marlborough brought from the gates of
Tournay. If an additional height of thirty or forty feet
had been added to the building, the effect would have
been more striking, yet the extent of the whole, and the
magnificent park surrounding it (about twelve miles in
circumference), render the place one of the most splendid
in Britain. A stream of water winds through the grounds,
and diversifies the landscape. A noble grove of elm trees

422 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
was planted by Marlborough, in exactly the same order
in which his battalions were ranged at the battle of Blen
heim ; but as they are now of great height and dimensions,
this warlike conceit is not recognised at first sight. The
interior of the castle is fitted up with taste and splendour,
and is open to the public on all days but Saturday.
Oxford is about ten miles distant. The country is
not interesting, but the spires and colleges and ancient
trees of the far-famed city render the first glance of it a
sight never to be forgotten. For miles in the neighbour
hood groups of collegians may be seen, in their black
gowns and square caps, enjoying a walk or drive — some
of them not over studious or choice in their language or
appearance ; for the " gay men," as they are termed, seem
fully as numerous as the plodding and industrious por
tion. Where some three thousand young men, most of
them wealthy, are congregated together, it would be
absurd to expect that all should be correct or decorous,
yet we believe everything is done that can be to prevent
any unseemly dissipation. The ordinary expenses of an
under-graduate, as we were informed by the guide, are
about £200 a-year, but many of them spend treble the
amount. The members of each college dine together,
and the scene is striking, on account of the number pre
sent, and the appearance of the oaken roofs and pictured
walls of the ancient college halls. Oxford has a decided
advantage, externally, over Cambridge, as the streets are
wide and regular, and the shops of a more brilliant and
showy description. The college buildings, however, are
inferior to those of the sister university, and King's
College Chapel alone would give the palm, in archi
tectural beauty, to Cambridge. The High Street of

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 423
Oxford has been termed the finest in England. It is,
perhaps, the most interesting, owing to the number of
colleges it contains, its width and length, and the height
of some of the ancient buildings. We confess, however,
that we were disappointed by its general appearance ;
and felt less enthusiasm than some tourists have described
in pacing its silent pavements. The college grounds are
finely laid out ; and a monument is at present erecting,
and nearly completed, to commemorate the martyrdom of
Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer, which is finely situated;
and will be picturesque and striking. There are twenty
colleges in Oxford — some small enough — and the noble
Radcliffe Library, the Clarendon Printing Office, the
Theatre (where the academical honours are awarded),
and other public buildings of various descriptions, are
also rife over the city. A week would be well spent in
exploring them all, and it is only by patient and minute
survey that the treasures of the place become sufficiently
apparent. The associations connected with the city, as
the most distinguished and ancient seat of learning — as
the nursery of many great and noble minds, from the
times of Alfred the Great to the present period — seem to
be the richest inheritance of Oxford. These can never
be destroyed, and their influence is constantly felt by
those who tread the same halls, and pursue the same
studies, inspired with a manly and generous emulation.
It was Sunday when we were in the city, and we went to
St Mary's Church — a lofty Gothic structure. The vice-
chancellor, preceded by his mace-bearer, and accom
panied by the heads of colleges, was present in his robes,
the masters of arts filled the lower body of the church,
and the students crowded the gallery. The scene was

424 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
impressive; and an excellent discourse was delivered by
Dr Garbett, the new Professor of Poetry.
The Bodleian Library at Oxford is one of the largest
in the kingdom, and contains about 200,000 printed
books, and volumes of manuscripts. The University
Library of Cambridge numbers 150,000; and the British
Museum nearly 300,000. The largest collection, we be
lieve, in Europe, is the Royal Library of Paris, consisting
of about 800,000 volumes. We remember, however,
hearing Sir Henry Ellis, the principal librarian of the
British Museum, remark, with something of jealousy, that
our Parisian neighbours swelled out their list, by forming
pamphlets and smaller works — usually bound up into
good sized volumes in this country — into separate and
independent works. The books are not allowed to be
taken out of the Bodleian Library, which some of the
studious collegians regret; but if they are so eager to
study and transcribe as the thousands who frequent the
British Museum, its treasures will not lie neglected.*
* We are tempted to allude, in a note, to the visit which we paid
to the library of the British Museum. Mr Campbell, the poet, did
us the honour to accompany us. The large room of the library
has a superb appearance : it contains seventy thousand volumes
"I did not think," remarked the poet, "that books could have
made so fine a sight" — and the numerous rows of tall volumes,
rising on the lofty walls in their varied colours and "gay and
gilded trim," really form a striking spectacle. Some of the rare
volumes and autographs are kept in glass cases on the tables, and
among them is a copy of the first edition of Shakspeare. The
heavy portrait prefixed to this unique volume bears a general re
semblance to the Stratford bust, and both certainly give a much
less poetical countenance than the Westminster statue. We looked
at the Shakspeare autograph in Florio's Montaigne, for which

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 425
The whole of the road from Oxford to London may be
said to be classic ground. The banks of the Thames are
also cultivated with the utmost care and taste; villas are
scattered on all hands, and a strong impression is conveyed
of the luxury and opulence of this great nation. We took
the railway at Steventon, ten miles from Oxford, and were
soon whirled along its spacious and easy course. The
towers of Windsor Castle are finely seen from the road,
and every mile has some classic mansion, or rich green
a hundred guineas were paid : it seems a genuine signature.
Volumes with the handwriting of Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Ben
Jonson, &c. , lie together in the same repertory of literary curiosities-
An original copy of the Elegies written and published on the death
of Mr King, the subject of Milton's Lycidas, is also in the Museum,
with some corrections of the text, supposed to have been made by
the great poet himself. One entire line was omitted by the printer,
and is supplied in the margin. After we had turned over the whole,
and examined the Lycidas (not quite certain that it was a true Mil-
tonic relic, for it certainly differs from the Cambridge MSS. though
very antique), Mr Campbell took the little old dingy volume into his
hand, and read aloud — to the astonishment of some visitors — with
poetic feeling and enthusiasm, the exquisite concluding lines of the
poem : — ' ' Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills,
While the still morn went out with sandals gray ;
He touched the tender stops of various quills,
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay ;
And now the sun had stretch'd out all the hills,
And now was dropt into the western bay :
At last he rose and twitch'd his mantle blue —
To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new! "
"Ay " exclaimed the Poet of Hope, as he shut the book, "that
man beats us all ! "—part of a saying attributed to Dryden. The
visit altogether was an incident which we shall never forget.

426 HIGHLAND NOTE-BOOK.
lawn and swelling park to display. We were told that
Prince Albert was conveyed from Slough — two miles from.
Windsor — to the terminus at Paddington, a distance of
eighteen miles, in twenty minutes. When informed of the
compliment that had been paid him by this increased
speed, the Prince remarked that he would have been quite
content to have been conveyed in the ordinary way —
certainly as pleasant, and more safe. At every station,.
crowds of passengers flocked to the train — we were now
approaching the metropolis. The terminus of the railway
is four miles from the busy parts of London; but omnibuses
are ready at all hours, and passengers are dropt at every
street. We went on to the Strand, and found a comfort
able resting-place in a private hotel, 40 Craven Street,
near Charing Cross, which, after a fortnight's experience,
we can safely recommend to all visitors of London. The
owner, a lady, bears the -sonorous Scottish name of Mrs
Macfarlane, and is no less active than intelligent and
obliging. Within a minute's walk of the bustle of the
Strand, Craven Street is as still as the heart of the High
lands. Here, therefore, we pitch our tent, "for we are
come into a quiet road," as Spenser sings, and we have
dallied too long by the way. The great fertility and
beauty of English scenery can never be witnessed without
pleasure : its woods seem still to rise before us, and its
parks to extend in all their taste and luxuriance : the
waters, it must be confessed, are seldom very attractive —
slow and sluggish — but the air of comfort and home-felt
enjoyment spread over the whole country produces a
sensation of exquisite pleasure and delight. Then, there
are great marts of commerce, merchants like princes, and
ships like floating palaces — all conveying an image of

A JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS. 427
majesty characteristic of the freest and greatest nation of
the world. That scenes of acute suffering and distress
are often concealed under this gay and flourishing exterior,
and that the fluctuations of trade often involve whole
classes in misery, it unfortunately requires no philosophy
to tell — ' ' Here is still mingled in the city's pomp
Of life's extremes the grandeur and the gloom. "
Such vicissitudes are common to all commercial and
ancient countries, where the population is dense, and the
state of society artificial. But, on the whole, there is more
comfort in England than in any other European state,
and her free institutions have ever been associated with
domestic virtue and happiness.

THE END.