Of the Province of MorayOF THE
OF THE
PROVINCE OF MORAY .
Comp ris ing the Count ies ofElg in and Na irn, the greater p art of the County of Ini'
erness, and a p ort io n of the County ofBanfi— all called the P rovince ofM oray before there was a d ivis ion into Counties .
BY LACHLAN SHAW .
NEW EDITION. —IN THREE VOLUMES.
En larged and brought dow n to the Presen t Tim e
BY J . F . S. GORDON ,
Author of “ Scotiehronicon,
“ M onastieon, ” cbc .
GLASGOW
firinteb at the finibergitg 39m g,
AND PUBLISHED BY H AM I L T ON, ADAM S, C O . , L O ND O N,
AND
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.
,
,
,
,
The Parish OfRafi '
ord ,
Fam ily OfCUMM INE, The Parish OfEdinkillie , Fam ily OfCUMMINE OfRylucas, Fam ily ofCUMMINE of Logie ,
,
The Parish ofCalder, The Fam ily OfCALDER,
Esq—Lo
vi CONTENTS.
Th e Parishe s OfDaviot and Dunlich ty ,
The Parish OfArdersier, Th e Par ish Of Pettie , The Tow n and Parish Of Invern e ss , The Pari sh OfDurris, Th e Parish OfBole skin ,
Fam ily OfLOVAT ,
Fam ily ofMACDONALD OfGlengary, The Parish OfUrquhart
,
Fam ily ofCHISHOLM ,
HISTORY OF THE
ANTIQUITIES OF MORAY— ELGIN PAST AND PRESENT .
A Lecture de livered ou 2 3 rd October, 1 860, for the benefit of the Elgin Literary and Scientific Associa tion
, and printed at the ir reque st.
By Cosm o Inne s, form erly Sheriff ofMoray.
Mr. Presiden t, and Ladie s and Gentlem en , —When the
,
the ir reque st found m e very ill prepared. I w as at a dis tance from my usual books and librarie s of reference .
Even som e note s of m y own , the m em oranda of m any
years, are shut up at hom e and inaccessible . I was sepa rated from the sm all but com pact band of literary and
an tiquarian friends, am ong w hom for a long tim e I have been accustom ed to w ork, and from w hose store s I draw m ore than it m ight b e discre e t to m ake know n . I w as not even in Elgin, or on e ofyour good burgh towns , where local inform ation could b e readily had. You know I w as dw e lling in the ghostly old palace of Gordonstown . But alas ! the Gordon stow n l ibrary is gon e , and though I did take counse l w ith the shade of the w izard
, Sir Robe rt,
who never failed to join com pany w ith m e w hen Itrimm ed my lam p at m idn ight, preparing for a spell of w ork after th e w orld w as quie t— Ifound his line ofstudy w as different from m in e . He spoke know ingly about a pum p of his
V OL . II. 1
2 ELGIN PAST AND PRESENT BY COSMO INNES.
ow n construc tion , that w as to raise wate r highe r w ith le ss
pow er than w as eve r done before , but I soon saw , that
was on ly com pany talk and at last the old m an— h e is a fine bearded old fe llow ,
w ith som e of th e feature s w e see
in Sir Al exander Cumm ing— told m e hon e stly that his w hole heart was in his cruc ible s and large alem bic, w hich h e had fitted up in th e vault ‘
of the w e st w ing of the
chateau, and w hich are yet to produce the philosopher ’s
stone , and to yie ld gold and l ife as m uch as the possessor
de sire s to have .
You m ay b e sure I asked the w izard all about old Moray and its w ays— how the people lived and thought in the old tim e . But, ble ss you !h e knew and cared nothing about that. He told m e how his grandfather, the tutor of Sutherland
, m ade Gordon stown— j oin ing Ogstown and
Pethnik and Burnside to Plew lands, w here the Marquis of Hun tly had a grote sque Old chateau before— and how
the son , educate d in Holland, had ornam ented it w ith
canals , and straight terrace s, and avenue s— and how he ,
the w izard him se lf, had pulled down th e m iddle of th e
old house and built the pre sent centre , leaving the w ings
as they w ere in th e first chateau . All that he told m e
very accurate ly— also th e exact n um ber Of bolls victual that cam e into his granary— oats and be re ; but for the people that paid the ren t, and the land that produce d it, h e took n o care . They w e re not w orth the thought of a
gen tlem an of coat arm our , and
, m oreover
, a philosopher
o n the very point of discove ring the great secre t ! But som ething too m uch of this fooling. Iwish
i
only t o explain to you that I have be en taken unaware s- that Im ight have de clined com plying, and found good excuse ; b ut, con sc ious of n o am bitious m otive but the de sire of
g iving you pleasure , and doing som e l ittle thing for th e honour of old Moray
, and re lying on your forbearan ce
w ith faults and errors, I hope to put toge ther som e
thing to he lp us to pass aw ay an autumn even ing pleasantly.
Having disclaim ed the he lp of th e dead m agician , Im ay
b e allow ed to take som e pride in the assistan ce of living.
m en . My fr iend, Captain Edward Dunbar— I m ay say m y hereditary friend, for our grandfathers w ere close allie s, and con stan t, alm ost daily, corre spondents— has
brought m e a m ass of fam ily papers, accounts, letters ,
THE RUNIC PILLAR o r ELGIN. 3
note s, m any of the m ost trivial kind, but al l how inte r e sting after the lapse ofa century or tw o He has told m e, too, the re sults of his own study and intimate ac
quaintance w ith those stores. He is n ot like the m agi cian of Gordonstow n
, and nothing fails to in te rest him that le ts in the least light on old m ann ers. Shal l w e blam e him if he se eks his favourite sport chiefly on the
ground occupied by the great nam e ofDunbar ! I have an other debt to acknow ledge . A gen tlem an
am ong you, m ore kn ow ing than m ost , perhaps than any
o ne , in the local antiquitie s of Elgin ,
and whose tim e is very valuable
, did n ot he sitate to spend an afternoon in
pointing out to m e scene s and house s in Elgin that inter e sted m e . He has e ven be en kind enough and zealous enough for our comm on object, to put down for m e
, in
w riting, a little volum e of intere sting note s , taken from
the title de eds that have passed through his hands, and w hich Ihope to m ake use of for your benefit this even ing.
Before Inam e him , you all know that the person to w hom
Iallude 1 s Mr. Rohe it Young .
Iw on ’t begin w ith the Rom ans, w ho 1nde ed had a very s lender grip
cJ
of Scotland , and Dr . Taylor and Mr. Mac
donald have n ot ye t determ ined w he ther they w ere ‘
in
but nothing m ore . Those unaccoun table m ounds at
Burghead m ay b e the irs , and the singular custom of
car1ying the Yule fi1 e round the Village and h rhour, and ble ssing th e boats, savours of Scandinavia.
-T at curious head - land
, w ith its harbour she ltered from the n orth - east,
w as a like ly haven for a band Of sea- faring adven turers . But I give them nothing m ore . The .Forres Ston e is a native Monum en t ; so is the an cien t lllonnim en tl
e at Elgin ,
The Elgin Pillar was discovered in 1 82 3 when the streets w ere unde r repair, lying about two fe et below the surface in a
horizontal position, as if it had been thrown down there by accident, a little to the north- east of the old Church of St .
G iles. Nothing whatever is known of its previous history. It
,
composed of a reddish grey gran ite , very like that ofAberde en shire . The base of this stone is of less breadth than the top,
4 THE RUNIC PILLAR OF ELGIN.
now pre se rved in your Cathedral . Both have the Cross and Christian sym bols, w hile the Norse invaders w ere all
Pagans ; and w hat , inde ed
, of lasting edifice could w e .
expe ct from those horde s of plunderers , spending the ir
,
to drink ale and m ead , and sing the glory and the
”
then , to Mr. Macdonald, w ho w ill dig them out if any
body can , and pass on to the next picture in th e pe ep
show .
When w e first knew som e thing of our ow n people '
— say in or about th e year 1 200— Moray w as the seat of a pro tracted rebe llion , supporting w hat w e m ay call the Mac
be th fam ily , against th e re ign ing dynasty. That rebe l
lion w as at length crushed, and w ith such violen ce that our chron iclers assure us the w hole people ofMoray w e re carried aw ay
, and the land given to strange rs— evidently
a great exaggeration . The tillers of the soil w ere never cleared out. But at that tim e— during the re ign ofDavid I.
, and his grandson s Malcolm and William — w e have
evidence ofa great influx of Southern strangers— Norm an
and Saxon lords , and Flem ings, who got large grants of
lands in Moray. Whe ther of the se n ew se ttlers or de
which is the case w ith the Mor tlich Stone. One side repre sents v‘
ery distinctly a hunting party, consisting offour m en on horse back, and thre e dogs : one of these is seizing a de er by the flank. On each side of the upperm ost horsem an are tw o birds, m ost probably hawks. It is difficult to say what the figure s above this hunting party repre sent. One is a cre scen t reve rsed ; above this are tw o circular bodie s un ited by tw o bands, through which passes a zig
- zag belt or band. Probably the whole is som e form of the mystic knot
, so comm on in Runic carvings
'
In the upper division is a. cross ofvery e legant proportions, also covered w ith the Run ic convolutions. Several figures of priests occupy the spaces at e ach of the four corn ers : the one on the left appears to have som e ornam ent round his n eck. The Elgin Pillar m ay have be en comm em orative of the death and burial of som e great general o r chief or the boundary-m ark of hunting grounds.
(Rhincl ’
THE DE MORAVIAS. 5
s cendan ts of th e old lords of the soil , the Fam ily ofDe
Moravia (Moray) , taking its surnam e from the Province , w as forem ost in pow e r and im portance , w hen charters and re cords first throw som e light upon the population of
th e province . Undoubtedly they w ere great Lords, those De Moravias— Lords of Duffus and all its plain ,
of
and Botriphny over Spey, of
C roy and Artirlie , of Pe tty and Brachly, be side s Inver
n e ss. All the se are the ir proved posse ssions , proved by c harter evidence . But I think it very probable they had m oreover Darnaw ay ,
Alve s, and th e other great posse ssion s o f the Earls ofMoray. They built castle s
, one of w hich
is still the adm iration of the antiquary. They sent som e of the ir fam ily to civilize the w ild Norse Earldom of Caithn e ss, and in re com pen se had a grant of the
southe rn side of it, w hich w as e rected for them into the Earldom of Suthe rland. They w ere great friends o f the Church too, giving lands and tithe s w ithout num ber to the Cathedral, of w h ich one of them se lve s w as Bishop.
'
us , still so im posing. Witne ss th e
strengths which still give in te re st to the banks of the
Fiddich and the Spey. The De Moravias w e re m en of
som e adventure , or they w ould not have be en put forward to reclaim Caithn e ss, and they m ust have be en stout w arriors— good m en - at - arm s— or they w ould no t have gain ed th e Earldom ofSutherland . But for the ir dom estic and personal m anne rs w hat shall w e say ! NO doubt they had som e fe e ling ofthe ir own dign ity and kn ightly honour, they had assuredly the gen erous fe e l ings of strong and
brave and n oble m en , of m en imm easurably above all
that surrounded them , and Iam far from undervaluing th e
qualitie s that w e re laced up in the corsle t and cuirass of the iron age of chivalry . Ofdom e stic com forts they had not dream t. The ir Castle ofDufius had no chim n eys nor any w indow -
glass. When the w inter w inds blew fierce ly across the fen , th ey shut the ir stout w indow - boards— out side w indow shutters— and crow ded round a fire of peats in the m iddle of the hall, w hile the sm oke found its w ay out as it could, and was w e lcom e , as comm un icating som e
6 THE LADYHILL OF ELGIN .
fee ling of heat to the upper cham bers . There w as then no m iddle class of rural population .
What was the condition of the other extrem e of society —th e labourers of the soil ! Ifear they w ere ill - housed , ill—clothed
, ill - fed
, except
as hew ers ofw ood and drawers of w ater. The beasts of the ir plough , though starved also
, w ere som ew hat be tter off— the ir hide , at least, w as thicker . It fared ill w ith such a population in season s like this
, for a b ad harve st
sure ly brought fam ine , and fam ine brought pe stilen ce ; and the m arsh feve r and ague sw ept off those w hom hunger and the plague spared . For the m ost part they w ere slave s , bound to the soil, and bought and sold w ith it. They w e re happy only in know ing no be tter lot. Still, all is not barren from Dan to Beersheba.
There are tw o pleasant spots for the eye to re st upon ,
in that dreary tim e . The little burgh built on the
she ltered bank of the Lossie , long before th e bishop had chosen it for his seat, was strong in the union of its inhabitan ts
, and secured by the protection w hich the
good King David threw around his burgesse s. The King had erected a Castle on the gre en m ound at its w e stern extrem ity— Ladyhill (calle d so from a Chape l dedicate d to the B. Virgin , originally w ithin the Royal Castle , but w hich survived it)— for defence against m arauding pirates from the sea, and the law less bands from the hills, but still m ore to support th e burghers against the Oppre ssion of the n e ighbouring baron s, who w ere j ealous of this little knot of plebe ian s pre sum ing to b e independent— to prefer the gove rnm ent of the ir ow n Alde rm en,
and the jurisdic tion of th e King
’s Court , to the te nder m ercie s of the
court of th e Lord Baron . I say that w as on e bright spot to re st the eye upon . It w as pleasan t to see trade , com
m erce and m anufacture s bursting into life , am idst an
industrious pe ople , n ow first hoping to enj oy th e fruit of the ir ow n industry. It w as pleasant to see the sim ple dom estic com forts w hich a town life renders possible for the poor— the cheap luxurie s— the m ere se curity, and
w arm th , and dryne ss, w hich form ed a con trast w ith th e c ircum stance s of the rural population ofMoray ofthe 1 3 th cen tury.
[On the top ofLadyhill, n ear th e ruin s of the Castle , a
Tuscan colum n , 80 fe e t high , w as e re cted in 1 8 3 9 to the
EXCAVATIONS ON LADYEILL. 7
m em ory of the last Duke ofGordon, the funds for w hich w ere raised by subscription w ithin the country. A
w heeling stair leads to the top, from w hich is a m ost extens ive panoram ic view , extending from Covesea to
Cullen , and also the shore s of the '
Caithness coast. In
1 855 , a statue of the Duke w as placed on the top of the
colum n— the late Alex . Craig of Craigton having left a beque st therefor, w hich w as further augm ented princ i pally by the Morayshire farm er club. The statue is 1 2 fe e t high , and is from the chise l ofT. Goodw illie , Elgin .
In 1 858 , the Elgin Literary and Scien tific Association
conducted excavations on the top ofLadyhill , w hen th e remain s of thre e hum an bodie s w ere discovered a little to the north of the m onum ent . One of the ske leton s is in a
sitting posture ; th e others w e re in a hor izontal position and placed just outside th e outer w alls of the Castle . A
flint arrow - head , several piece s of pottery, a copper coin of
Charle s II. , a quern , and seve ral de tached bon e s w e re also
found ] (Morayshire Described.) Another gre en oasis in the de sert w as the Church.
‘
, the people
, th e circum stan ces,
the first se tting up of th e Christian m iniste r to teach Christian ity is
, afte r all, th e greatest step in th e civiliza
tion of the w orld . You m ust think first— and it isn ’t very easy for us n ow —you m ust think of the utter ignorance — or w orse
, the degraded Pagan w orship of stocks and ston e s— you m ust think of the real savage— not the
m e lodram atic Oscars and Se lmas ofOssian— but the true , starving, half cann ibal savage , w ithout food, o r clothes, o r she lter, w ithout com fort or support in this w orld, or hope beyond it — to e nable you to appre ciate the ble ssing of
the sim ple m essage of truth and peace and Divine love .
Sim ple the m e ssage m ust b e to suit the people , and sim ple though the m e ssenger and m inister of truth b e also, the first revealing of his divine e rrand is still th e great event in m an
’s history.
, w as the
8 THE PARSONAGE HOUSE OF ALDEARN.
binding . of Christian m en toge ther by th e organ ization of the Church. An e stablishm en t Of a Cathedral in the
Old tim e w as a ve ry diffe rent affair from the se tting up ofManche ster or any n ew m odern Bishopric .
The Bishop of Moray— Often a dign ified statesm an in
the King ’s Court — som e tim e s a m an of high fam ily and
even royal conne ction , pre siding over 24 dignified cle rgy
m en of th e Provin ce— all bound to residence for a stated period of the year in the ir college— and a countle ss num b er of chaplains, choral vicars, and subordinate s of the choir— form ed a socie ty ofgreat influence m rivalling,
and
even coun te racting, th e w arlike e lem ent— the rule of the
stronge st, which prevailed around— introducing a respect for re ligion and its rite s ; for peace ; for learn ing, such as
then w as ; for cultivation , of a higher standard than the
burghers could otherw ise have attained.
Th e Bishop and Chapter kept up an intercourse w ith churchm en Of the ir ow n country and England , from whence they drew the ir con stitution . Many of them trave lled to Rom e . On e Bishop ofMoray early founded a college for educating his countrym en at Paris— w hen Paris w as the great Unive 1 sity ofEurope . Now se tting aside the ir study and learning— the ir know ledge of books (they w ere the sole depositar ie s of som e m em ory of the
great an cients) — se tting aside the ir highe r accom plish m ent— th ink how the ir com m un ication w ith the outer w orld m ust have raised them above the rough warriors the poor serfs w h o cultivated the fie lds around the ir Cathedral . Refle ct
, too
, how that c ivilization w as spread
abroad , w hen the Canon s of the Cathedral , each in turn ,
”
n ow— and w en t to pass his summ er m onths at his great stone house ” Of Boath— fo r so he proudly de signated th e old Parsonage House of A ldearn— still m ore , w hen a Canon conn ected w ith a Highland Cure , like the
Parson Of Kingussie w en t out of Cathedral re sidence and return ed for his annual sojourn in his Strath spey parish . Be sure they carried w ith them som e
report of the e vents and speculation s that w e re agitating Christendom— rum ours of an outer w orld w hich could never otherw ise pen etrate the se fastne sse s. SO when a Monastery w as planted in a rural district ,
10 THE GREAT DOUGLAS REBELLION.
Taylor) , that I should on ly spoil his w ork by touching on
it. Let m e lead you a l ittle forward, but stopping fo r one in stant to note the change s that tim e and c ivilization and
e ven the se great w ars had brought in our province .
Th e National patriotic War , in tere sting all c lasse s,
brought them n eare r , and bound them in closer tie s than
had he ld the n oble and th e peasan t before . Ifw e m ust have w ar, it is a great thing to have a good w ar - cry ; and
I on ly hope that Garibaldi’s cry of Italy Independent m ay carry his countrym en through the ir trouble s as w e ll as Scotland and fre edom did the follow ers of Wallace and Bruce . It is som e com pen sation for th e horrors of w ar
, even at th e tim e , to have the enn obling fe e ling of
fighting and suffe ring for a great and sacred cause . To afte r gen eration s the agony of th e great w ar of Scotch independence brought ye t greater recom pen se . Be lieve m e that even th e ble ssings of peace and plenty are not
the w hole Ofa nation ’s w e ll - be ing. It is som e thing to b e a nation ,
to b e entitled to cher ish national traditions, to b e able to look back w ith pride to the gallan t deeds of our forefathe rs, to sing th e songs of our fathe rland, and still to call it ours. It is to that w ar w e ow e it that w e are not a m ere English county— a le ss fertile Yorkshire a larger Wale s. We ow e to it that w e have a national history and national literature .
Pass w ith m e n ow , ifyou please , to the year 1457.
Moray w as in great exc item en t in the year 1 457. That w as the year of the great Douglas Rebellion ,
and w hen the Rebe llion w as suppre ssed
, and the Douglases
— on e of
w hom w as Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray— w e re all
slain or forfe ited and ruin ed, th e young King Jam e s II.
dete rm ined to give the earldom to his infant son , the
Prince David , a Prince w ho has e scaped the notice of our
historian s. To carry out that re solution , h e cam e dow n
to Moray in pe rson to se t the Province in orde r, and e spe cially to arrange anew the rentaling Of the Earldom lands
, which stood as they had done in th e days ofBan
dolph . But w h e n h e had com e dow n and se en the Spey and th e Lossie
, l ived for a tim e at Darnaw ay,
Elgin , and
, as all m en have done , the fascination
of the country. He ordered his horse s to b e brought dow n
, and dire cted certain districts of Earldom lands to
b e left untilled , for hun ting— carefully paying, how eve r,
KING JAMES IV . ON PILGRIMAGE. II
the dam age to the tenants— or rather abandoning all rent for those years. He chose Darnaway as his hun ting- seat, and com ple te d the repairs ofRandolph ’s hall the re , begun by the Douglases . But h e had taste to like Elgin and
its cultivated society ofdign ified churchm en . He som e
tim e s took the hospitality ofthe Bishop (John Win che ste r, an old and faithful servan t Ofthe Crown ) at Spynie ; som e
tim e s dw e lt in th e Manse ofDufl ’
us, the residence ofhis ow n
kinsm an , David Stuart, parson ofDuffus— then em ployed
in rentaling the Earldom , afterwards him se lf Bishop, and
rem em bered as builde r of the m agn ificen t great Tow er of
Spynie . While the King stayed in th e Manse of Dufl '
us
an acciden tal fire took place , w hich did som e dam age to his Maj esty’s sim ple plen ishing. But beside s th e m ischief from the fire , it is evident he found the Manse too sm all for the accom m odation of a Court
, for w e find in the
Exchequ er accounts of that year, the expense allow ed of
building a n ew kitchen at the Man se of Dufl '
us , in Elgin ,
w hile the King dw e lt there . It stood , you know , till
quite late ly , w hen the picture sque Old Man sion ,
w hich had rece ived a King and his little Court, w as pulled dow n
to m ake w ay for the com fortable square box which is n ow occupied by Mr. Allan .
And now fo r another very long jum p— over quite tw o
cen turie s— no t for w an t ofm aterials of intere st, but w ant of room and tim e . I could te ll you how King Jam e s IV .
paid a visit to Inn es , in on e ofhis northe rn Pilgrim age s , in 1 490. Then ,
w hat curious local h istory doe s Moray afford in the early stage s of the Reform ation
, w hen th e
stout old reprobate Bishop Hepburn w ould have n othing to do w ith the ir new - fangled w ays , but shut th e gate s of
his Castle ofSpynie against the Lords of the Congrega tion ,
and se t the Reform ation at defiance ! Then poor Que en Mary cam e across Spey, and left th e intere st which attache s to every place w here she se t her foot. Her
brothe r, “ the good Regent, ” w as your Earl, but h e had
little tim e for his ow n affairs, and I don ’t find him m uch
in Moray. Not so his w idow , Annas Ke ith (daughte r of
Ke ith Marshall) . While She m anaged the affairs of her daughte rs, even after h e r se cond m arriage to Argyll , sh e w as often here— dw e lling at Darnaw ay ,
or at Elgin ke eping up great state , but kindly and ne ighbourly w ith th e gentry around. Still
, later dow n
1 2 THE WEST PORT , ELGIN .
Covenant , th e Moray baron s w ere active on the Covenant
side , w ith th e succe ssive lairds of Inne s at the ir head.
But all that Im ust pass, and m ust carry you w ith m e , if
Im ay; down to later scene s. Most of you know that Iam m ore than halfan Elgin
m an m yse lf. My grandfather lived at the West Por t, now called West Park.
* My father was born there , and alw ays assured m e
, I am sure quite hon e stly, that th e
n ectarin e s and apricoks (he spe lt the w ord w ith a lo , n ot
in the m odern w ay) , on the Open w all there , w ere better than any that grew e lsewhere . Most of m y Old Moray shire know ledge is from m y father, w ho lived to b e an
Old man , and the reports of his re collection s enable s m e
to speak of m ore than a century. He inherited som e
lands to the east of the tow n , and I w e ll rem em ber his
de scription of the yearly scouring of the deep ditches , and
the care that required to b e taken of th e em bankm en ts of the Lossie . He told m e of th e fre sh - w ate r m usse ls that som etim e s yie lded pearls— ofthe fat e e ls, w hich the poore st labourers refused to eat— (perhaps they know be tter now .) He told m e that the Highlande rs w ho cam e dow n in
IVest Park is now the property of the Hon . Lew is A.
G rant, youngest son of the late Francis William , Earl Of
Seafield, who changed the Entrance to the Grounds and
greatly improved the House .
It was here whe re the WEST PORT of the Burgh stood, and where the heads
, arm s
, &c. , of fe lons w ere Spiked.
Andrew M ‘Pherson , a Deserter , w as th e last Culprit who
w as thus served, for the Murder of John Gatherer, Farmer , Ne therbyre , Pluscarden ,
in 1 71 3 .
The West Port stood right across the High Street near the kitchen -
gate ofWe st Park. Francis Russell , Advocate , finding
this Old Entrance to the City to b e in his way, pulled it dow n
o ne night or m orning in Oct . 1 78 3 , and built his Park walls w ith the stones. For this unwarrantable act the Magistrate s and Council re solved to prosecute the ir Ruling Elder before the Court ofJusticiary along w ith the workm en h e employed.
In 1785 the dispute was hushed up, and the West Port was irrevocable . At this period
, a line of boulders, called “ the
c ronn of the causeway,” extended from the West Port to the Little Cross, upon which the people walked in w et weather.
There w ere no drains but open gutters, w ith every deposit unve iled to eye and nose . (ED. )
COSMO INNES ’ FORBEARIS. 1 3
bands to shear his harve st at Leuchars and Dunkinty,
used gen erally to take hom e w ith them a shaking ague from the m arshy land. When I told that to m y friend, Dr . Sim pson ofEdinburgh, h e said, Ah , w e have driven out th e ague ! That is on e of the disease s w e have eradi
”
If it b e SO— w ith all deference for Dr. Sim pson— w ith all
honour to his noble profe ssion— I m ust say w e ow e that victory m ore to th e farm er w ith his drain ing tile s than to the doctor w ith his quin ine .
’
the Hie lands, but live in the
laigh ! He had a very confide nt Opin ion of the superi ority of th e Clim ate and Soil Of Moray. to anything e lse in all the w orld ; and w hen he had m igrated to a half Highland Estate on De e side , h e used to deplore th e early frosts that m ildew ed his barley on the haughs, and cut
down the autum n grow th of his young oaks by the burn side , before the w ood w as ripen ed. Som e of his young experience serve s to illustrate the change of m ann ers . My grandfather had m any transactions w ith the then Gordon ofCluny
, w hich produced som e intim acy be tw e en
the fam ilie s. Cosm o Gordon , th e e lde st son , the he ir of a
good fortun e , w as bred to the Bar, and l ived to b e a Baron ofExcheque r. Charle s, the second , w as a Writer to th e Signet, in Edinburgh, and took my fathe r as apprentice in his Oflice . Notw ithstanding som e differen ce of age , th e
young m en w ere great friends and, seve ral seasons, Cosm o Gordon , the young councillor, and John Inne s, the appren tice , travelled to Edinburgh l n com pany. Both rode th e journ ey on horseback, as all m en did— but “ w ith a. diffe 1 enee .
” The advocate and he ir - apparen t of Cluny, rode
his ow n horse , and his groom follow ed, m ounted on
anothei . My father 1 ode a horse , hired from a stable 1n
Elgin, w hich cairied him and his saddle bags, in five or
Six days to Kinghorn ; and a bare footed boy (the stabler ’s
Servan t) , ran at his foot , to . care fO1 the beast, and to take
him back from th e Ferry. That w as m ore com m on than riding post,
” and w as e ste em ed safe 1 - th e post - h orsc
of the stage s having an indifferen t character for sound n e ss . The road w as by Huntly th e Sow ie — A1ford Cuttie s—hillock— th e Cairn - o
’ - m onth - and so forth . Plea
sant j ourneys, be lieve m e , they w ere , for tw o young m e n
1 4 THE PA'NS PORT ; THE MANSION OF MORIESTON.
w ith life open ing before them ! and m y informan t neve r lost his love for the prim itive ru1 al hoste lry
, w here
coun try luxurie s w ere so good, and the known hoste ss rece ived you w ith a fam iliar
, alm ost m otherly w e lcom e .
From m y rem em brance ofm y father ’s conve rsation
, and
from a great m ass Of m y grandfather ’s le tte rs ; from Mr.
Robert Young ’s note s— (he lped by som e Papers w hich
m y frie nd Captain Dunbar has dug out of the Charter Room at Dufq ) — I w ill try to de scribe Elgin and its
Ne ighbourhood, the Town and the Country , in the begin
n ing of last Century, say 150 years ago . And first ,
J oin m e in a walk from end to end of your Tow n , and
I w ill try to repre sent it as it stood 1n the beginn ing of
last Century— On ly 150 years ago ! Leaving Gray ’
8
Hospital behind us, w e en te r old Elgin by the Wes t Por t, unde r an arch or p ort, like that still pre served at the
Pan s P or t."e Adjoin ing to that Gateway, on th e south s ide of the stree t, w as the house of my grandfather , Robert Inn e s, styling him se lf m erchan t in Elgin . It
stood on a large and very good o O '
ar ,
den quite re tiied from the noise of the Stree t— a com fortable old m ansion
, I
assure you . I could te ll you som e storie s of its hospi tality
, and of th e clare t drunk there , but I m ust pass on .
,
w ished to ke ep up the old “ House , but the w alls w e re
found too m uch de cayed to b e saved.
Nearly Opposite , reposing at th e foot Of “ the bonny
Lady - hill ,
” stood the Man sion of the Mar tin s of Mories
town — a w arm , she ltered
, sunny spot. Th e fam ily w as
of good estim ation , but they and the ir House have alike passe d aw ay.
Still on the north Side of the stre e t , a little to the east
The Eastern Gate, called THE WATER-GATE , or Paun
’ s or
s Gate , still stands at the north - east corner
ofSouth College . The m eadow - land lying east of PANNS PORT is term ed “ Pannis
” in the Oldest de eds
, and se em s to b e an
abbreviation ofPannagium , a m eadow or pasture land.
,
still adorn s these precincts. This PORT had an iron Portcullis, the groove for which is still to b e se en . In 1 857, the truste es of the Earl of Fife substantially repaired this only rem aining o riginal entrance to the Cathedral. (ED. )
ELCHIES HOUSE ; THUNDERTON HOUSE. 15
ofMurdoch ’s Wynd, an o ld ha lf ruin ous House is st ill standing,
w hich has se en be tter days. Of Old, it belonged to the Dunbars ofHillhead, then to Jam e s ‘ Stephen ,
Pro
vost ofElgin, w ho m arried a daughter of Sir Harry Inne s
of Inn e s, latterly to a Fam ily of Dufl '
us , w ho still pos
se ss it. On the south side Of the stre e t— on th e Site of the
Caledonian Bank Office— stood a fin e Old Mans ion , buil t on squat pillars and arche s, known to m ost of you as
“Elchies House.
” It w as built about 1 670 by George Cumm ing, Provost of Elgin ,
or William Cum m ing of
Achry, his son ,
w ho dw e lt the re at th e tim e w e are
,
”
Later , it w as Miss Shand ’s boarding- school
, and, last of all, it m ade way for th e bank . I think there are several view s of it engraved.
On the sam e Side Of th e stree t , a little to th e eastward ,
stood the Mans ion w hich w as latterly know n as Thun
derion House . It w as th e town - re sidence of th e Earls of Moray, after the Castle on Lady
- hill was disused and
ruined , and earlier, pe rhaps, of th e hereditary Sheriffs
the Dunbars ofWestfield. It passed into th e possession of th e Lords Duffus in 1 653 , but they fe ll into pove rty long before the ir forfe iture , and this Man sion passed from them to the Dunbars of New ton and Northfield
, now of
Duffus . It w as a very fine Spec im en of town - house , and
partook of th e ornam ents of several periods. The Old
part of th e building which still stands w as built , I sup
,
“ Sutherland ”— by th e Lords Duffus. The room s w ere
la1ge , and th e corn ice s and ce ilings m uch ornam en ted .
One cornice still rem ain s. In th e garden s w e re in cluded orchards and a bow ling gre en— one
b
of the luxurie s of our rathe r lazy ance stors.
t 3
Wh en th e body of th e first Duke ofGordon (w ho died at Le ith in 1716) w as brought down This House had open piazzas , which w ere comm on during
the 17th century. (ED. )
1 6 BRODIE or ARNHALL ; LADY ARRADOUL.
to b e b uried in the Cath ed1a1 here , his son , Duke Alex ander
, borrow ed Thunder ton House, as the o ne in Elgin
m ost suitable for the cerem on ial of his in te rm ent— in cluding, no doubt, the funeral banque t— and prayed the Lady Thunderton to take som e trouble in arranging th e solem n hospitalitie s. At th e close of last century th e
house w as occupied by Alexander Brodie , Esq , of Am
hall, father of Elizabe th [and w here in He r Grace w as
born] th e Duche ss of Gordon , w ho l ived in great style ,
and had a large e stablishm en t , w ith horse s and hounds ;
but th e fine old House , like eve 1y thing old and vene rable in Elgin ,
w as doom ed . In 1 800 , th e late Sir Archibald
Dunbar sold the prope rty to John Batchen . It has since been aHaldan ite Church ,afurn iture w are room
, a preaching
station , and a w indm ill ! The curious balustraded tow e r
w as then pulled dow n ; and it require s careful inspection now , am ong th e m ean and crow ded lan e s that press upon it
, to distinguish the ciphe rs and heraldic bear ings of the
Earls, Sherifis, and Lords, that once dw e lt the re .
The Chape l , built in its garden , is the sam e w hich w ent
through such a brilliant care er of occupan ts , and at last
blazed Off in such a bright final conflagration , last yearfi"
On the Opposite Side of the High Stree t— at the top of
w hat is n ow North Stree t— stood a state ly Old m an sion, Calde r House , w ith turre ts to th e stre e t, the property of
succe ssive gen eration s of th e Calde rs, Baron e ts of Muir tow n . When they w ent down
, th e house and large
garden , reaching back to w here the Episcopal Chape l now
is , becam e the prope rty ofLaw rence Sutherland of Gre en
Capt. Dunbar - Dunbar, in his intere sting “ Social Life in Form er Days.” p. 282, says : It was
, w e believe
known as the King ’
s House. In 1 601 , it belonged to the thre e
,
s House.
At the back entrance w ere tw o savage s cut in stone , which w ere rem oved to the Priory ofPluscarden , where they now are .
In the Spring of 1 746, a few w e eks before the Battle of
Culloden “ Prince Charlie ” Slept several nights at this Man
sion , at that tim e inhabited by LadyArradoul, e lde st daughte r ofDunbar ofThunderton , who was shrouded and buried in the she ets which the Prince slept in , according to her dying orders. (ED. )
1 8 ISAAC FORSYTH ; ELGIN STREET ARCHITECTURE .
Ritchie s. It has never be en a great .Man sion , but asit now stands, is the pre ttie st of the Old Elgin Houses they have left us . Next, w e com e to a House w ith a s tair tow er, marked
repeatedly w ith the date of 1 6 3 4 and the arm s of Le slie of Rothe s, and distinguished by th e Iron Cross at the
top , w hich m arks the house s he ld under the Kn ights of
St. John . The Old title s are lost, and I cannot te ll you w hat Le slie s dw e lt there in 1 700 (the tim e w e are trying to look back upon ) . Alexander Forsyth , m erchan t in Elgin ,
‘
an adm irer, of Dr .
Isaac Watts , the great English non - conform ist divin e , and nam ed his son after him . We all knew and loved Isaac Forsyth,
* the late posse ssor of that quain t old edifice , and m any of you can rem em ber w hen h e had a bookse lling shop there , w here he e stablished a library, issued several e xce llen t w orks of local history, and m ade it the centre of literature for the city and county. That venerable old m an w ould have loved to he lp m e in my pre sen t under taking.
Mr. Billings give s an adm irable Plate of street archi t ecture at Elgin — When the w anderer has en tered the town itse lf, he w ill find him se lf surrounded by objects that m ight occupy his pencil or his pen for w eeks. Be side s the grand m ass of the Cathedral, and th e clus tered caste llated rem ain s of its CloSe
, every stre e t and
turn ing pre sents som e curious quaint archite ctural peculi arity,
from the graceful gothic arche s of th e Maison Dieu to the old grey burgher
’s house , sticking its narrow crow stepped gable , and all its fantastic , irregular, blinking little w indow s
, into th e centre of the stre e t. Many
decorated n iche s, le t in to abrupt corn ers, now tenantle ss, m ark the spots w here once stood the im age of the Virgin and the lam p, to arre st the notice of the passer - by ; an
indication of the great antiquity of the stree t architecture of Elgin . In m any case s the house s are ranged in the
o ld French m anner, round square court - yards comm un i * Isaac Forsyth died on the 17th May, 1 859 , set . 90. He bought the property from his niece , Ann Forsyth, w ife of Adam Longm ore of the Exchequer, Edinburgh.
A slate r, in his w isdom , tore up the J erusalem Cross as be ing an encumbrance , when repairing the roof. (ED.)
CHARACTERISTIC OF THE STREETS OF ELGIN. 1 9
eating w ith the stree t by low heavy - brow e d arche s. A
large b
num b er of the house s are supported on colonnade s ,
the de sign s of w hich have considerable m erit, e spe cially in that character ofm assivene ss w hich seem s to adapt the pillar and arch to bear the superincum bent w e ight. From this feature , som e of th e stree ts of Elgin rem ind one of
those ofBerne ; but they are still m ore quaint, fantastic, and venerable looking than those of th e gloomy Sw iss city.
Never having had e ither m anufacture s o r trade , Elgin has
changed little in the course of a century or tw o ; w hile , as the centre of a rich agricultural district, w ith its c lubs and county m eetings, it has had enough of vital ity to save it from total decay by th e rem oval ofits e cclesiastical honours. It is inhabited by a con siderable num be r of
pe ople w ith good connexions and small incom es, w ho naturally surround them se lve s w ith the attribute s of
’
s tow e r, and a picture sque old house on piazzas
, w hich has been rem oved since the
date of that w ork— such 1s the rapid pace of dem olition am ong you ! That House be longed succe ssive ly to Cra m onds, Mills, Captain Pe ter Inne s
, Charleses
Edintore , and lastly to Mr. Anderson , w ho pulled it
down , and has built a very fine n ew house and shop on
the site .
A little to the eastward, a large old House still stands , covered w ith grey slate s, once th e property of Thom as Stephen ,
Provost ofElgin , w ith whose daughte r it passed to Miln ofMilnfield.
Now , cross Lossie Wynd, and, still ke eping the north s ide of th e High Street, at the corner . stood a fine old House w ith a double roof and a bartizan . Th e property of Old extended from the High Stree t to the back of the
burgh at the north , the northe rn part be ing a fin e garden .
Very early , it be longed to An nand of Morr iston ; then ,
before 1 600, to Al exander Inn e s of Coxton . Near a cen
tury late r (1 669 ) Sir Alexander Inn e s of Coxton , w ith c onsent of George Inne s, m inister of Prem nay, disponed it to Jam e s Donaldson
, m erchant, ance stor of the respe ct
able fam ily w h o took the ir style from the pretty little Estate Of Kinnairdy on the Dovern . The last laird of
20 OUR LADY HIGH HOUSE.
that fam ily m arried Anne Inne s, daughter of Sir Jam es
ofCoxton (1777) ,who lived to b e old,and is yet rem em bered as a perfe ct specim en of
_ a state ly lady of the old school.
Over th e w ay, on th e site of the pre sent Cour t House , ‘
-
_
the first ofw hom w as in the em ploym ent of the fam ous Sir George Mackenzie , King
’s Advocate in the re ign of
Charle s II, w ho gave him som e lands in Pluscarden .
Passing by the House w ith the m ysterious and unex
plained nam e of Lady High House, 1 ‘
w e com e on th e
n orth Side of the stre e t, to an old House originally built on arcade s, just opposite the Little Cross . It w as occupied as a place of busine ss by William Duff ofDipple , father of William first Earl ofFife . Th e late Mr. William Young used to report the tradition that
, w hile carrying on busi
n e ss here , Dipple bought the Estate of Coxton at w hat
people ignoran tly thought a very high price— so high that th e Kn ight of Coxton ce lebrated th e event by an
entertainm ent which w as n ot tem perate , and very noisy.
Dipple , in the e ven ing, as h e w as Shutting up his Office , heard the noise of the riotous feast, and asked th e cause .
They told him it w as Coxton rejoicing w ith his friends at the price he had got for his land.
“ Poor fe llow !"
said Dipple ,
“ h e is as w e ll pleased at parting w ith his inheritance as I am at ge tting it.
” William Dufl '
Dipple died in 1722 .
The Court House and Jail w ere erected in 1 842. Elizabeth, the last Duchess of Gordon , he ired it through her aunts, and sold it to the Magistrate s ofElgin for the above uses. (ED .
1 ‘ Our LadyHigh House suggests its dedication to the B. V
Mary. In 1546, Sir Thom as Ragg was one of the chaplains m S. G ile s
, and also taught a school in this house . This sam e
year the Murrays ofFochab eris, by de ed disponed it to Jam es
Innes ofCrombie . From 1770 till 1 8 12 it was possessed by the A ndersons ofLinkwood
, who sold it to Alexander Brodie
ofArnhall, and was occupied by his sisters, the M isses Brodie of Spynie . Elizabeth, the last Duchess of Gordon (the only child of Brodie ofArnhall) , heired this house after the death of he r aunts
, and in 1 8 3 5sold the subje cts to Provost Grant, who ,
in 1 840, sold them to Provost Russell, who e rected on the site buildings for a printing office and abode . (ED. )
DUNKINTY HOUSE ; OLD COLLEGE ABODES. 2 1
Iam sorry Im ust not de tain you w ith an accoun t of
that m ost w orthy family of your c itizens , the Kings of
Newm ill who acquired the Greyfriars, m any canons ’
c rofts , the lands of Newm il l, and Pan s, and w ere peculi
arly an Elgin burgh fam ily, and an honour to the burgh .
The Huntly Fam ily had a re sidence in Elgin , at the
head of the College, no t now to b e traced. My ’3
ance stors, the Innesses ofDunkinty, lived in that old House which stood till late ly at the com er of Gran t Lodge gardens.
You know it l n Mr. Rhind ’s Ske tche s ofMoray. After
my forebears succe eded to Leuchars, it w as un inhabited, and it w as rather ruinous even before it w as acquired by the Seafield Fam ily, who pulled it down a few years ag o .
Iused to adm ire the gable s of the dorm er w indow s , deco
rated w ith coats ofarm s, the rem ain s Of the old hangings of stam ped Span ish leather, and th e little concealed ora
tory , w here the fam ily, zealous Nou - jurors
, could keep the ir
service - books and say the ir prayers in tim e s of trouble .
Th e entran ce was from the w e st, at the end ofthe Garden s o fElgin ,
entering at the foot ofLossie Wynd.
At the beginn ing of last century th e interesting old
’
s Town Palace— th e w ork of that great archi teet the Chance llor Lord Dunferm lin e— w as then in the
Gordon Fam ily.
The Nor th College— the house standing where th e Dean ’s
re sidence was , and pre serving som e of its walls— include s in its garden s and grounds the re sidence s or m anse s of the can on s of Botarie
, Inverke ithny, the Treasure r
’s ,
Croy, th e Chance llor ’s— as w e ll as the Deanery. It w as
for a tim e the town house of the Dunbars of Burgie , and w as acquired by the Fam ily of Robertson , its pre sent proprie tors, about a century ago . The lands of Dean s haugh , w ith th e Dovecot, w ere of old attached to the Deanery, and th e Lossie , w hich now separate s “them ,
seem s to have run m uch to the north of its pre sent chann e l. [The Manse ofDufius, as old as the 15th century
, in
the College ofElgin , w as pulled down about 48 years ag o .
A good ske tch of th e quain t house , w ith corner square
turre t, is given in Rhind ’
s Sketches of Moray. It stood on the east corne r ofKing Stre e t. King Jam e s 1 1 . found lodging for him se lf and small court in this little m ansion .
22 DUFFUS AND UNTHANK MANSES ; SUBDEAN ’S HOUSE.
His kin sm an David Stuart (then Parson of Duffus , and
afterwards Bishop ofMoray) , w as absen t at th e tim e on
som e em bassy, w hen the kitchen of th e Man se accidentally took fire , and was re - built at the King
’s expen se . The
house w as long the posse ssion of the Fam ily of King of
Newm ill , then of Captain Stewart, w ho sold it to Pe te r
Brow n of Linkw ood, w ho built on the stance th e abode ,
now the property of John Al lan .
’
'
Young ’s Ann als ofElgin ,
page w ith th e in itials WB. IO on e ither side
, and fierce ere ct Lion - Sup
porters . The se fin e jam bs are n ow at one of the garden gate s at Gordon stown House .
Un thank Manse was also purchased by the above Mr.
Pe ter Brow n , who built thereupon the dom icile occupied
’
, son of
Wiliam , first Earl ofFife . Non e of th e original building rem ain s, but the m assy precinct wall of the Cath edral run s to th e south of the garden ; and. w ith its fine old tree s, it form ed the pleasan t quie t re sidence which Charle s St . John so m uch loved . All that w e call King Street w as occupied by th e re siden ce s and garden s of the Canons ofold. DufiusMan se, the picturesque Old Man sion w here King Jam e s II. kept his court
, is now Mr. Allan ’s ; Un
thanh Manse , Sheriff Cam eron ’s. A hundred and fifty
years ago , the se and m any other m an sion s of good burghers— of country gentry of Moray and Banff— lined your High Stre et on both side s— affording covered w alks alm ost from end to end
, w ith the ir low arcade s or
“ piazzas.” The foot pavem en t did not then proj ect in to the stre et, and perhaps the causey w as not so clean in its eve ry - day state as it is now . But on days of state or
holidays , and, of old, on occasions of Church - proce ssions,
a great clean sing and “ ornam en ting took place . Then
think how the centre of the spacious stree t was occupied, at th e tim e of our visit— the beginning of last cen tury.
First— and just on the site of the m odern foun tain
THE MUCKLE AND LITTLE KIRKS AND CROSSES. 2 3
stood, during all last century, the J ail and Burgh Cour t House . It w as built only about th e beginn ing of th e
'
1 here w as n ot m uch architectural m erit in th e fabric, but it was quaint and characteristic. Next there w as the “Muckle Kirk — the ven erable
and m ost anc ien t Church of St. Giles— the Parish Church
of Elgin ; a place so an c ient , so vene rable , so m ixed up
w ith th e history ~and tradition of the c ity , that on e m ight
have expecte d it to have be en spared, ifanything w ere to
rem ain of old Elgin . It stood just w here the n ew Church
stands ; and of old w as surrounded by its cem e tery, in w hich am ong later grave s m ust have stood the e laborate Monum ent of prim eval Christian ity
, now placed for safety
in the Cathedral, w hich was found in leve lling the stre e t n ear the Church . Probably on ly the low er walls of the
Muckle Kirk w ere of high an tiquity. The roof and the
upper part of the fabric fell m 1 679 , on a Sunday , after
,
and so continued till 1 828 . DO the Bailie s and the “ Trade s ” fill the eye as w e ll in the ir fine n ew Church as w hen dear William Hay sang of the ir glories in that ghostly Old fabric ! The I/ittle Kirk, though separated, and m ade of late
to open eastw ard , was originally th e Choir of the great
Church ofSt . Giles . Where you m ay still see the paving stones of the street
”
What its an cien t form and structure w ere , w e do not
know . That w hich stood there all last cen tury w as a
hexagonal Pillar of dre ssed ashlar, 1 2 fee t high , and large enough to contain a Spiral stair. Around its base w as a
stone seat. From the top of the pillar rose a Shaft of
stone , surm ounted by the Scotch Lion Ram pant, and th e in itials (C. R.) ofKing Charles II.
The Little Cross, I suppose , is n ot m uch changed in a
’
us , and other
Moray Churche s ; but from its situation , this of Elgin is liable to injurie s, and the Shaft m ay have been re
new ed .
[The Muckle Cross was rem oved about 86 years ago for be ing an obstruction . It was a poor spec im en of archi
241 THE LITTLE CROSS AND HOUSE NEAR IT.
tecture , con sisting ofa sm all hexagonal roofle ss apartm en t in which the loons used to stow sticks and other collee tions for the annual bonfire on the King
’S Birthday. This cham ber was carefully guarded w ith an oak door. A
free stone colum n Sim ilar to that of the Little Cross Shot up from the centre , surm ounted w ith the Scottish lion ram pan t w ith crow n and cross. The latter is placed on
the South College garden wall. The Little Cross still rem ain s entire in its original posi
tion . It has four circular steps or pedim ents, from w hich r ise s a round slender Ion ic Monolith about 15feet high , t opped by a sun dial
, upon w hich is cut the arm s of the
c ity. The summ it has three sm all 1ron rods , on e perpen
dicular and tw o crossways , indicating the four poin ts of
the com pass. A correct e tching is given in Rhind ’
s
Sketches of Moray, p . 57. Al exander, 3 rd son of the
Lord of the Isle s, w ith his captain s, on th e 3 rd July ,
1 402, plundered the Chanonry of Elgin : and on the 6th
Oct , the sam e year, on due con trition , w as absolved by William Spynie , Bishop ofMoray, before the doors of the Church, and then before the High Altar. He and his troopers also paid as penance a sum of m oney, w ith part ofwhich a Cross w as erected w here th e Chanonry begin s. This is reckoned to b e w here the Little Cross stands and has stood for nearly 800years— n o t certain ly the pre sent superstructure . From th e Tow n Counc il Minute s of th e l st April , 1 867, the Little Cross be ing in a ruinous and dilapidated state , and threaten ing to fall, w as ordered to b e repaired.
In the Burgh Re cords of 1542, there is a refe rence to a Cross at the east end of the town , but as it is the re called a tree, it was ne ce ssarily ofw ood.
In Rhind '
s Sketches, an e tching is given at page 57 of a
Hou se near th e Little Cross of the old burgh architecture , yet in good pre servation , e rected on piazzas. The original posse ssors are not know n . It bears the date 1 694, and the in itials I. D. above the w indow s. It is said that it w as occupied as a place of busine ss by William Duff of Dipple , father ofWilliam l st Earl ofFife , when h e re sided in Elgin from 1703 to 1722 , at which latte r date he died.
It IS a fact that Mr . Dufl '
had a m ortgage upon it for 800 m erks be tw e en 1709 and 171 6. It afterwards passed to the fam ily ofAnderson of Linkw ood, and from them ,
26 THE GREYFRIARS’ MONASTERY, ELGIN .
tality, as w e ll as its beautiful flow ers , from the old
Friars ! There w as a Conven t of Franciscan s, Minorites, or
Grey Friars, at Elgin , endow ed as early as 1 28 1 , w hen it
is de scribed as near th e Cathedral church. Could that b e th e place w hich w e know as the Greyfriars, or is this a later foundation ! The architecture of that beautiful Ruin is plain ly of the 15th century. It has
been supposed that the older House— that de scribed as
near the Cathedral chure — occupied th e Site of Mr.
Cooper’s house and garden , where som e an cient founda tion s and vaults below
, w ere visible until late ly .
I think there w ere no Nunn eries in Elgin .
The society ofElgin w as very differen t at th e beginn ing of last cen tury from what it is now . You observe , a good m any country fam il ie s lived ln the town ,
som e preferring it to the ir country hom e s— at least 1n w inter ,
others , like
the Laird of Dunkinty, having n o dw e lling- house s on
the ir e state s . Th e last Dunkinty w ho inhabited that old house close to the North College , w as on e of the last sur vivors of that socie ty. Though h e w as my grandun cle and the re is said to b e a fam ily re sem blance— I b eg to state that he w as a very good - looking old gentlem an .
His picture hangs in m y din ing- room , in full pow dere d
w ig and chap eau bras. You know it is a sm all property, for he did not l ive to inherit Leuchars ; but the old m an
drove about the tow n , and out to Calcotts, in his coach
and pair, chiefly to prove his gentility. I think w hen I
cam e here as Sh erifl '
, my friend, Mr. Cam eron ,
show ed m e
the Old Dunkinty coach , w ith its on ce Splendid gilt nails and corners, converted into a summ er house in an
inn garden .
Am ong all that class there w as a good deal of society a very genuine , hearty hospital ity— a kindly w e lcom e— a
full table , and at least enough of that w ine w hich was to b e had pre tty cheap, paying no odious dutie s. But to te ll the truth, the great enj oym en t of the gent1y at that tim e w as not in dom e stic partie s. When m en found the ir days tedious, and longed for som e thing to stir th e blood, they did no t assem ble the ir friends at the board of a
state ly dam e , w ith lappe ts, and hOOp, and high he e led shoe s. They m e t at a tavern— the British Arm s
, or Mrs.
Crom bie ’S— and drank till the care s and sorrow s of l ife
SOCIETY AT THE BEGINNING OF LAST CENTURY. 27
w ere forgotten . Or, if they w ere n ot fortunate enough to b e in Elgin ,
half a dozen ne ighbour gentlem en w ould m ake a tryst at Findhorn
, or still often er at the little
solitary alehouse on th e Muir , where Lucky Lightfoot
supplied them w ith pure , cheap claret (it m ight w e ll b e cheap !) and w here the want of cerem ony and the hom eli
ne ss of everything around , gave it a zest w hich it wan ted
in the ir ow n castle s. You m ust not im agin e they w ere
habitual drunkards , or even in the habit of drinking a
glass of w in e daily. The m en w ere fine gentlem en , I
assure you, though the young fe llow s sw ore a little , bragged a little of the ir five bottle s at a sitting, and
other peccadilloe s w hich w e think better t o hide . Som e
of the picture s of our forefathers of that tim e Show a
quantity of lace at breast and w r ist— a pow de 1ing of
periw ig, and sm art cock of hat— that m ust have rendered it horr ibly inconven ien t to b e caught out in such a gale as blew dow n our valley on th e 3 rd of this m onth . The
expense of that dre ss w as m onstrous. Sir Richard Ste e le ’s black periw ig, w e know , cost him forty guin eas, and to m aintain such a head - piece in curl and beauty w as n o
trifle . DO you rem em ber the e legant Love lace (th e lady killer ofRichardson ’s im agination) lam enting his wig and his linen dabbled w ith hear - frost w hen h e had been ex
posed to th e cold in ke eping an assignation ! The rich and som ewhat taw dry dress of the m en w as
,
I don ’t find that they w ere m uch addicted to out - door Occupations. Ifind n o letters of enthusiastic farm ing and
planting, no passion for sport; no fishing, and very little of shooting— on ly a grey - hound or tw o w ere kept about a house for killing hare s, and frequently lent from hand to hand. You w ill find that the m en then w ere le ss accustom ed to that hardy exercise w hich begins w ith us at school, and lasts as long as health and strength w ill allow .
The ladies w ere m ore stay - at- hom e than the ir grand daughters ; m any Of them ,
ladie s of quality or fortune , n ever left Moray after re turn ing from the boarding - school in Edinburgh . They w ere not for the m ost part aecom plished, in our sense of the w ord. A slender kn ow ledge
28 MORAYSHIRE LADIES OF LAST CENTURY.
ofm usic, playing on the harpsichord or the viol - de -
gam ba, ‘
and a sort of sam pler em broide ry— no t so conven ien tly e asy as our m odern ladie s’ w ork— form ed th e w hole .
They w ent to church , or to th e Non - Juring Chape l, but w ere n ot m uch addicted to theological study— the age for
that had gone by. They didn ’t read m uch indeed , books
w ere very few , and the taste for them confined to tw o or
thre e fam ilie s. But then they w ere n otable housew ive s —the Counte ss ofMoray and the Lady of Gordon Castle
vieing w ith the Squire s’ w ive s in the m ysterie s of the kitchen and the com forts Ofgood housekeeping.
"e
Ican call to m ind a good m any ladies ofMoray who made an impre ssion on society in the ir tim e
, and have left a m em ory
behind them 1 . ANNAS KEITH
, Countess ofMoray andArgyll, who filled a large sphere in this county for a tim e , m anaging the proper ties of both earldom s. Her house at Darnaway, and her “ lodging
” in Edinburgh, w ere resorted to as a little court by
M oray m en , by all of Whom she was beloved for he r own
qualities of m asculine sense and kindn ess , and revered as the
wife and w idow of the Good Regent. ”
2. HENRIETTA STUART , daughter of the Earl ofMoray, w ife
ofSir Hugh Campbell of Caw 'dor , was a notable housekeeper
and careful econom ist , learned in the qualities of tea and
chocolate , and of great taste in “ napery.
” She was long
rem em bered as a good ne ighbour and am iable l ady. Her
books w ere a thought too Puritanical for the present taste ; but am ong Sighs from He ll,
” and Rutherford’s Lette rs,” are
placed Hodder ’ s Arithm etic,
” and Speed’s Husbandry
together w ith a treatise on Psalm istry.
3 . The Mordaunt DUCHESS OF GORDON , w ife of the second Duke , who changed the religion of the fam ilyfor a consideration
- and, during a long Widowhood , m anaged her affairs and
those of her children w ith great vigilance and the Skill Of a
m an ofbusiness , and ye t was a un iversal favourite .
4. MARY SLEIGH, was the English w ife of the Laird of
Brodie— the laird who was long Lord Lyon , and was univer sally known in Scotland as “ The Lyon —a very popular lead ing m an in Moray, though Lord Lovat, who didn
’t love him ,
called him the “ king of beasts.” I im agine his w ife was an he iress. At any rate She was allow ed to m anage and spend liberally. She attended to farm ing as w ell as housew ifery, and directed, herself, the breeding of her horses
, (t o. She was
also an early planter of hardwood. I have noticed a present
MRS. ROSE or KILRAVOCK ; THE QUEEN OF FORBES. 29
I don ’t find that the ladie s attended to the garden or
cared for flow ers. The on ly exception I can nam e i s Kilravock. But the gentlem en in and round Elgin , and
indeed all through Moray, w ere fond of garden ing, and
w e m ust not censure them if in the ir eye s the fruit garden and the orchard took precedence of the flow er
border. They inherited that taste from the Monks of Plus carden and Kin loss, who m ay have adm ired a clove gilly flow er, but gave the ir w hole hearts to the produce of the ir pear trees. It m ay b e w orth recording that th e exce llent Robert
she made to the Laird of Kilravock, in 1750, of fifty beech plants— probably those which now adorn “ the birch- ward at
Kilravock, and the charm ing bank ofCoulm ony. The tradition of the country is, that she was the great planter and ornam ente r of Brodie ; and
, m oreover, that she planted (and protected)
that double hedgerow of ashes which still , at intervals, shades the high road from the Hardmuir to Forres. I w ish she had
left m ore imitators. 5. Mrs. ELIZABETH ROSE ofKilravock, a lady adm irable in
‘
In conversation she was always an im ated and natural, full of genuine hum our , and keen and
quick perception of the ludicrous. She has been de scribed as
the leader of all che erful amusem ents, the hum orous story teller, the clever m im ic, the very soul of society. She was a.
good musician , and very fond ofmusic. Those w ere her surface
accom plishm ents. She was the m ost ardent of friends , bene
volent, hospitable , kind and generous beyond her m ean s, zealously religious, w ithout parade , ever anxious to help forward hum ble talent. 6 . If it w ere not too near her own tim e , I should like to
place here a m em orial of Miss MADDY MACPHERSON , the
Que en ofForres,” as she was called. I do not think she has
left so good and characteristic a specim en of the Highland lady behind her. Without any superfluous education ,
she had a
consciousness of Highland gentry— never found herself unfit for the society of the highest and m ost cultivated. Her know ledge of her countrym en was very accurate
, and she communi
cated it in the pleasantest way. With good broad hum our, and a play of satire quite fre e from m alice , she m ade he r draw ing- room a pleasant place of resort for all com ers, while to her friends she was ever hospitable
, kind, and cordial.
Re id , Abbot of Kin loss
, afterwards Bishop of Orkney,
am ong other schem e s for c ivilising his house , brought to Kin loss from Die ppe a French gardener, nam ed Guillaum e
Lubias, ve ry skilful in planting and grafting fruit- tre e s, w ho , w rite s the chron icler of the Abbey, executed many w orks in the Abbey garden and round the place , and indeed through all Moray, m ost useful and w orthy of
observation .
have quoted so Often , that w hen ,
100 years ago , the la s t of the old pear tree s of Kin loss w ere blow n
o
down in a
storm , it was found that they had been under - paved w ith
flat flag - stone s
, after th e m ost approved m anner ofm odern
orchard cultivation— a m anner which w e m odern s, w ith our usual van ity, had declared to b e an invention unknow n to the old gardene rs. Som e papers at Kilravock Show that the m akers of that good old garden got som e of the ir tree s from Kinloss, w hile the finer kinds cam e from Normandy.
’
us. I am sure they never even dream ed of such carnation s and aste rs as our friend
, Mr.
Grigor, grow s in his little garden at - the Haugh.
At the tim e w e are speaking of— rem em ber it is 150 years ago— Elgin m ust have be en a com fortable place to l ive in as regards vivers. There is a certificate very form ally issued by tw o w orshipful Justice s of the Peace , Sir Thom as Calder ofMuirtow n
, Bart
dated the last day of the year 1710.
What warrant or reason they had for setting forth th e statem en t I cannot tell, but certified as it is w e cann ot doubt its truth .
We , Sir Thom as Calder ofMuirton, Knt. , Rob. Dunbar of
Newt on ,Esq. J.PS. w ithin the shire ofElgin, do hereby testify and declare to all concerned, that the m anner of living in the town ofE1gin , w ithin the said shire , for m erchandise of all sorts of w ines,
g victuals, and other necessarie s for fam ilies,
being to b e had at low rates as follows, viz. z— Ane carcase of
best beef in the shambles, at 8 pand Scotts. Item— Ane
m utton bulk at 2 m erks Scotts. Item— Ane good hen at 2s.
Scotts, and 2s. 6d. the dearest. 14 eggs for ane shilling Scotts.
MERCHANDISE DURING THE LAST CENTURY. 3 1
Fourteen haddocks forane shill ing and six penn ies Scotts , or
2s. at m ost. 14 whitings for l s. Scotts. Ane stone ofbutter ,
of the best sort, at 3 pund Scotts, quhereof there goes 22 lb .
to the stone . Ane stone of the best che ese of the north country m ake , 2 m erks Scotts, or 3 08 . Scotts at m ost, quhereof there is given 22 lb. to the stone . Ane pint ofm ilk for sixteen penn ies Scotts. Muirfow l and partridge , at 2 shillings Scotts the pair . Waterfow l as follow s, viz . z— Ane goose at 8s. Scotts ; duck and drake , w ild or tam e
, at four shillings.
”
Take the price s of som e other comm oditie s , in that
sam e year, gathered from old shop - bills and inn - reckon ings. A m an
’s living w as charged so m uch a m eal or diet. Each diet w as 2d. English . A Chopin ale
, 1d. Clare t,
1 s . 3 d. a bottle . Brandy, IS. 2d. Sugar, 1 s . 4d. a pound .
Bohea (the only tea used) , £1 58 . to 1 8s. Cheshire che e se , 5d. per pound.
To re turn for a m om ent to the socie ty of Elgin at the
beginn ing of last century, there w as m ixed an e lem ent one hardly expected— a class of m erchan ts— and I w ill de scribe to you the ir dealings. When the lord and laird drew all the ir rents in corn ,
it cam e to b e of consequence , I m ay say,
of necessity, to find a m arke t for so m uch grain . The proprietors soon found they did not thrive be st w hen they w ent to a fore ign m arke t on the ir own
account, and thus sprung up a se t ofm en w hose chief, or at least w hose first
, dealing was in buying up the m eal
and barley of the laird’s granary, and shipping it to southern m arke ts, often to Holland and Flanders or
France , but m ore comm on ly to Le ith , New castle , and
London . The return cargo was often w ine ; but it was by no m eans beneath the dign ity of the trade to inve st a part of the produce in fore ign fruit, in sugar, and such tem pting com m oditie s for the hom e m arke t. The younger sons of the landed gentry soon took to that busine ss, and a few heads of decayed house s sought to retrieve the ir fortune s by its m oderate profits. I find Sir Jam es Calder of Muirtow n
, a Baronet, was such a m erchant in Elgin
before 1700, and his e lde st son , Sir Thom as, carried on
the sam e trade about 173 0 and low er. Before 1700 Cumm ing of Relugas, and about 173 0 Charle s Brodie of Le then and Dunbar ofKinCOIt h
, w ere corn - m erchants in
Inve rne ss . The first coals I have found in the North w ere im ported by Charle s Brodie . A little later m y
' MERCHANTS or LAST CENTURY IN ELGIN.
grandfather, Robert Inn e s, a younger son of Dunkinty and he ir of. Leuchars, who , I told you, lived at the We st Port of Elgin ,
carried on such a trade . I stop in passing m ere ly to observe that he paid for his purchase s by bills on Thom as Coutts 85 Co . of Edinburgh, and those bills w ere in great dem and, for you m ust rem em ber there w ere no banks then n orth of Edinburgh, and bank n ote s w ere
m aking the ir w ay so slow ly that, in the m iddle of the
century, the Barone t of Gordon stow n asked as a great favour from his ne ighbour, Dunbar of Duffus
, to le t him
have a bill on London for a sm all sum of m oney— som e
thing, I think, unde r
There w ere m any of the se m erchant gentlem en con
n ected w ith Elgin and Inverne ss during the first half of
the last cen tury, but none SO extensive in the ir deal ings, nor in all w ays so rem arkable , as several m em bers of the Fam ily ofDuff, who w ere then laying the foundation s of that great fortune w hich the ir de scendan ts still inherit. It is a peculiarity of our countrym en of the low er orde rs to se ek to le ssen and disparage m en who have risen rapidly to great w ealth and station
, and they have been
in th e habit of speaking Slightly of those founders of the Fife fortune s— altoge ther unjustly, so far as I can gather from the corre spondence of th e tim e . Like the other gentlem en
, som e ofw hom I have m entioned— and the list
could b e easily and large ly increased— the Duff '
s— William Dufl"
, younger and e lder, ofDipple , m erchants in Invern ess
and Elgin, and William Duff of Drummuir, at Inverne ss
- bought and exported corn , and im ported and sold
fi
all
comm oditie s , great and sm all
, from 1 650 to far down in
the follow ing century. They supplied the ir custom ers w ith w ine and brandy, lead for the ir roofs
, and m uske t barre ls for the ir defence ; and the notable housew ive s of
the county w ith dried fruit, capers, olive s anchovie s, bottle s, and dom e stic utensils
, and the fine dIaper, which
was very early a . prized luxury of our Scotch houses.
But they had other dealings than the se . When a great barony was to b e bought, and no ready m oney forth com ing, th e Duff
's found the m oney for the purchase , taking a m ortgage , or wadse t, over th e land, toge ther
A good deal of light is thrown on that trade , and the early banking ofScotland, by SirW. Forbes’ H istory ofhis Banking house , lately published.
3 4WRETCHED SLAVERY a LIVELIHOOD or AGRICULTURISTS.
crop, are of m uch later date . But to re turn— When the
'
th e
straw always a short crop. It is w e ll if th e poor m ilk c ow s can stagger out on the ir ow n legs when the byre door is opened at the disappearance of the snow . It . is w e ll if the poor hum an inm ate s of the farm have not be en d riven to ble ed the starving cattle to keep the ir own life in . Do not accuse m e of exaggerating. I have m et w ith m any in stance s of people convicted of bleeding the ir n e ighbours
’ cattle to obtain the blood as food. Even in
the houses '
of th e gen try, food w as often wanting in w inter.
When Sir Robe rt Gordon w as tutor of his nephew , th e
Earl ofSutherland, he kept careful accoun ts of household m atte rs at Dunrobin . In m ore than on e of the se yearly accounts, the m eal of th e household is exhausted in Spring, and I rem em ber at least tw o in stance s where orders are g iven to send and kill de er on the hill for the suppor t of the Earl ’s fam ily, in the m onths ofApril and May, when red de er is m ere carrion ! You m ust not expect m e to dw e ll on the m anner of
living and thinking of those poor creature s, the cultivators of the soil of fertile Moray 150 years ago . When the
struggle is for life , the com fort, the cultivation— nay,
the very decencie s and char itie s of life— are apt to b e forgotten .
It is no w onder that in those days a farm er never becam e rich. We have no such thing in the old tim e as
a farm er acquiring property. That w as reserved for our
own century, w ith all its high rents and expensive m ode s o f cultivation . But the farm ing population did at last begin to im prove, at the sam e tim e when Scotland gene rally took such a start forward, its progre ss dating from 1760. In the latter half of the last century
, a new m ode
o f cultivation was introduced. More skill and energy w ere required— perhaps m ore stock and capital— but the results w ere , plenty and com fort, and com parative w ealth .
Som e ofyou m ay rem em ber— all of you have heard o f the manner of the farm er
’s life am ong us sixty years
ADVANTAGES OF THE PRESENT GENERATION. 3 5
ago . The farm s w ere not so large as they are n ow , but
-
grass for summ er food, and hay for the horses in w inter. There w as turn ip enough to m ake the season of
w in ter the m ost plentiful of the year . A few m en actu ally began to feed fat for th e butcher ; but the milk cow
and her calve s at least w ere always w e ll Ofli There w as no bothy of hired servants
, but a ne ighbour
farm er ’s son w as often one of the ploughm en ; and h e w as
not despised if he fe ll in love w ith the daughter of the
house . I am old enough to look back to those good, sim ple m anners, and Iam not sure that in som e re spe cts w e have im proved in the last generation . Let m e not b e
m isunderstood. I am not here to undervalue the farm ers ofMoray. Ihave know n them long, and have this season l ived am ong them ,
and been indebte d to them for m uch cordial kindne ss. With th e Shrewdne ss and sagacity, the industry and activity that m arked the ir fathers, they have j oined a higher cultivation and a proper fe e ling of
independence . I don ’t obj e ct to the smart gig and the
clever nag that take s the faIm er to m arke t any m ore than I regret that the uncom fortable square hat has taken the
'
em inacy,
w ith the ir pursuits, as any one w ould say who has w atched the patient hopefulne ss, the gallant courage w ith w hich they struggled through all the aggravating difficultie s of this harve st. You m ight as w e ll fear the dandyism of
m en w ho had lived through the siege of Lucknow , Or
served in the trenche s before Sebastopol. I don ’t find fault w ith the piano and its use , w e re it only to aecom pany the goodm an
’s daughter in a good Scotch song, or to se t the children to dan ce at a Christmas m erry- making.
But let m e give one w ord of caution. AS an old m an
w ho has seen som ething of th e w orld , Iw ould w arn the
farm ers ofMoray and the ir w ive s again st educating the ir daughters for gove rne sse s. Better far, teach them the
m anagem ent of the dairy and of the kitchen— to re l ieve the ir m others of houseke eping— to take charge of the
3 6 THE VULGAR MODERNIZ ING or ELGIN.
younger children— than to change the pure air and free
life of the fields and w oods for re strain t and the l ife of
c itie s w ithout its pleasu re s— to leave a happy hom e for
one which is se ldom other than unhappy.
May I venture one w ord to m asters and servants of the agricultural class ! We cannot return to th e old w ay of life , perhaps, and in m any re spects w e are better. But
why should the farm er and the ploughm an stand so far apart ! I know the insufficiency of house s on the farm s, and the wandering tendency, the love of change , of th e farm servants
, are pleaded as the reason or the excuse for
the con stant shifting, w hich goe s far to de stroy the
m aster’s intere st in his labourers. Iw ish , indeed, these easons or excuse s could b e rem oved
, and Iam quite sure if th e Moray farm er take s this view of the m atter, and se e s that what serve s to change the ploughm an from an
indifferen t hire ling to a
'
friendly dependent— a zealous m ember of the household— is an imm en se advantage to him se lf
, he w ill not b e long of finding m ean s to bring
about that end.
I b eg pardon for this digre ssion , and return w ith all
hum ility to my own departm en t— the City '
ofElgin and
its An tiquities. You know I am a profe ssed lover of
picture sque antiquity, and, as such, I cannot but fee l som e indignation at the vulgar m odern izing which Elgin has undergone in our tim e .
If it w as absolute ly necessary to rem ove the ancient Parish Church of St. Giles, w hy place a sham Greek Tem ple in its place ! The old Town -Hou se, w ith its heavy double fore stairs,
and the rude old Tolbooth Tower , w ere perhaps j ustly condem ned
, though I loved the ir hoary quaintne ss . But
w hat ill had the Muckle Cross don e that caused it to b e ejected from the spacious street w hich it adorn ed 7 The irregular tall house s standing on m assive pillars
and arcade s— the roofs of m e llow grey stone , broken picture sque ly w ith frequent w indow s— the tall cross stepped gables— are poorly exchanged for the prim and
trim , square , m odern houses and shops. It is not m ere ly m y love of antiquity
, though I confe ss, w ith a true
”
MORAY AND ELGIN As THEY ARE. 3 7
Ye t , in this m atter, I w ould give up the antique , the
picture sque , if i t w ere nece ssary to repudiate them in
s tudying the com forts and conven ience s ‘
of life . Ido not think they are incom patible . Latterly, a som ewhat be tter s tyle of architecture has sprung up, and to b e succe ssful, the architects of the se later buildings only require to study the gen ius of the place— to reflect that Elgin has a peculiar and not ungrat eful style of stre et architecture of
ts own , capable ofadaptation , Iventure to say, to all the
purpose s of shop and dw e lling- house .
Excuse this last antiquarian grow l, and let m e lay the
antiquary aside , and speak a w ord ofMoray and ofElgin as they are .
They te ll you that our flat country— our laigh ofMow y - is not picture sque . NO doubt it isn ’t a land of rock
and wood, and flood ; n e ither is it the rich English vale , w ith its gre en pasture s shaded by hedge - row e lm s. But th e view from the rocks of Covesea, or old Burghead taking in the firth and the Ross - shire hills, and the Open ing ofCrom arty Bay, and all down from Dunrobin to the airy and unknown heads that m ay b e Caithne ss or
Orkney— is picture sque in the highe st m ean ing of the
term . For m e , I confe ss our view from Dufl '
us , over the
long flat, broken by the old Ke ep of Duffus , the setting
sun glancing on the Loch ofSpynie , w ith its fine Palace Castle , the sm oke m arking the w hereabouts of the little City of Elgin over the Quarryw ood, the Open ing of the
Glen of Rothe s, and the tw o he ights that term inate our
landscape on that side— Ben rinnes and the Bin ofCullen —have charm s that m ore adorned landscapes do not
posse ss. But if you are no t to the m anner born— if you don ’t enj oy that pe culiar Moray landscape— wait till to m orrow m orn ing, then m ount on m y rough Irish car, and le t m e drive you to Elgin— n ot the dire ct w ay, but a little round— past the Lim e Kiln ,
under Lesm urdie ’s Cotta g e ,
and— as you gaze from that turn above Newm ill at t e
old Cathedral tow ers crown ing the rive r bank, rising from am ong what appears a goodly w ood of fore st tree s, w ith the tow ers and spire s of the burgh churches behind, lighted w ith an early m orn ing sun— confe ss that no m an
can look on that landscape unm oved , even se tting as ide
all the assoc iation ’
s w hich crow d upon us . I fancy tha is the view that oftenest rise s to the m ind of the Moray
3 8 THE ATTRACTIONS OF ELGIN FOR OLD NATIVES.
loon in his log - hut or dark shanty, far away in the
backw oods, w hen h e Shuts his eye s and pre sses his hands upon them ,
"
days of the scan tackand pap erap .
The town , with all its faults ofm odern art, has still an air ofsom e dign ity that distinguishes it from country towns in general . Out of th e stre e ts, there is n othing to blam e .
The villas that have grow n up , and are daily springing up
around, de light the eye w ith the ir appearance of com fort, the ir n eatn e ss, and e ven e legance , and w ith th e proofs of a taste for garden ing— a great sym ptom of c ivilization .
I don ’t w onder that old Moray native s draw round Elgin to spend the even ing of life . I am not surprised that m any strangers are attracted by the charm ing cl imate and the m any conven ience s of the ne ighbourhood .
Your society now show s a cultivation w hich I se ek in vain in other country tow n s. Your Museum alone prove s a great am ount of concentrated inte lligen ce in antiquitie s and natural science . A hundred years ago , Lachlan Shaw ,
then m in ister he re , put forth his History of Moray, the second published county history of Scotland— a ve ry creditable book for its tim e . But he stood alon e— w ithout sym pathy, w ithout he lp
, w ithout fe llow w orkm an or
succe ssor. What a differen t book m ight b e m ade of a
history of Moray now ! You have in your ow n c ircle alm ost all the e lem ents ofa m ost efficien t band of statis tical w orkm en . Let Dr . Gedde s take the com m and. In
m ediaeval antiquitie s he w ill b e supported by Dr. Taylor and Mr. Jam e s Macdonald. For charter know ledge— th e
intere sting subj e ct of the de scen t of lands as w e ll as of fam ilie s— Mr. Robert Young
’s store s are am ple , and
, w hat
is rare , are all at comm and n or should Ib e found wan t ing in that departm en t . Then ,
for fam ily history and the successive change s in m anners, Captain Edward Dunbar has accum ulated great store s. In natural scien ce w e are
ye t richer. In geology have w e not Mr. Patrick Duff (Iw ish he w ere stronger and younger) - and Mr. Martin and Mr. Macdonald again ! Botany is safe in the hands ofMr. Stables and Dr. Inne s of Forre s . But
, for natural
sc ience, what is there in all the dom in ion s of nature earth, air, water— that e scape s the observation of Dr.
Gordon of Birn ie !
With such a band from volunteers on the Spot , already
drilled— w ith assistance ofall lovers ofnature and of our
country— w ith a rising generation striving to en te r our
ranks, w e could do m ore than Shaw dream t of— som e
thing really w orthy of the Province of Moray, w hich w e love so w e ll ! And n ow
, Ihave but to thank you for the kind recep tion you have given your old Sheriff, and the patience w ith w hich you have heard him ] (Cosm o Innes.)
Next up th e river is
THE PARISH OF B IRNIE ,
An ciently Brenoth , i . e .
, a Brae or High Land
,
it extendeth on th e e ast bank of Lossie , 3 m ile s
from n orth to south , and a m ile from e ast to
vve st .
Th e Church " standeth n ear th e river, a half
m ile above th e n orth end of th e parish , 2 m ile s
south from Elgin , and 4 m ile s north e ast of
Dallas .
This sm all Fane , next to the Church of Mortlach , is the
oldest entire in the Province ofMoray. It has been repeatedly re - roofed. The w indow s have all been tampered with— the
parishioners not having been content w ith “ the dim religious light.
” There was no Altar or East Window , the tapers lit at
Mass be ing artificially effective . There w ere tw o small side w indows, de eply splayed, b ehind round arche s w ith unequal side s. A plain deal Pulpit is upreared in the centre of the
Kirk , at the fine Norman arch which divides the Chance l
from the Nave . The form er is boarded off for a Kirk Session house , while the site of the Altar is or was lately supplanted by a poor stove . The Church is built m ost substantially, inside and outside , of w ell- cut ashler freestone . It se em s to date at the 1 1 th or 1 2th century, and m ay stand as long as
it has stood.
placed at the
w est pillar of the northern entrance to the Churchyard. At a
40 THE BIBLE STONE OF BIRNIE.
The whole parish was a part of th e Bishop “
lands ofMoray ; and when Patrick Hepburn, the
last Rom anCatholic Bishop , harboured his . out
,
h e re sign ed the se and othe r lands to th e Earl of
Moray Regent ; and this parish is a part of th e
e state of th e Earl of M oray, but he ld in feu by
the Earl Fife , William King of Newm iln , Le slie
of Finrossie , Coupland of Stackhouse , Duff of
Tom shill , &c . But of late th e Earl of Findlater
has purchased,and is n ow sole proprietor of th is
parish .
BIRNIE.
,
in the chain of m ountain stretched along the southern s ide of the low lands ofMoray
, on e valley, in w hich there
is no rive r, open s southward from the wide st part of the plain ,
where the w e ste rn Side of the parish* of Elgin borders w ith the east ofBirn ie , and extends quite through the m ountain to th e banks ofth e Spey. A square hill
, about
6 m ile s along th e base ofevery side , is hereby insulated on the east of th is defile , having the plain ofRothe s on the south, on the east partly Rothe s
, and partly Speym outh ,
and the cham paign of