valence, unless in the names of the natural features and general topography of the country. These entries appear to be in different hands, apparently of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and they are of the nature of memoranda relating to the territorial possessions of the monastery to which the volume belonged, but made so long after the events which they record that they can only be regarded as the traditions of the community.1

The first and fullest of these traditions records the legend then current of the foundation of the establishment as follows:

"Columcille and Drostan, son of Cosgrach, his pupil, came

from Hi, as God had shown to them, unto Abbordoboir, and Bede the Pict was mormaer of Buchan before them, and it was he that gave them that town in freedom for ever from mormaer and toisech. They came after that to the other town, and it was pleasing to Columcille, because it was full of God's grace, and he asked it of the mormaer, to wit Bede, that he should give it to him; and he did not give it, and a son of his took an illness after refusing the clerics, and he was nigh unto death. After this the mormaer went to entreat the clerics that they should make prayer for the son, that health should come to him; and he gave in offering to them from Cloch in tiprat to Cloch pette meic Garnait. They made the

Deir, and whether it was the common Gaelic then spoken in Buchan, or a more priestly language and writings preserved by tradition of the Columbite monks of Deir, it was certainly understood at Banff and at Aberdeen (now so ultra-Teutonic in speech) in the beginning of the twelfth century," when the book was produced in the king's courts at these places in evidence of the rights of the monastery to the lands in question.-Introduction to the National Manuscripts of Scotland, p. viii.

1 Similar notitia or memoranda in connection with the ancient endowments of the Culdees of Lochleven and Monymusk are engrossed in the Register of the Priory of St. Andrews. A number of entries of a similar character are found in the Book of Kells, though these are more of the nature of charters.

prayer,
and health came to him. After that Columcille
gave to Drostan that town, and blessed it, and left as
his word, 'Whosoever should come against it let him not
be many-yeared or victorious.' Drostan's tears came on
parting from Columcille. Said Columcille, 'Let DEAR
be its name henceforward.''

This artless legend is followed by the narratives of certain grants of lands to Columcille and Drostan by friendly chiefs, apparently at various periods. Most of the granters are men whose names are not on record in any other writing, but

1 The granters are (1) Comgeall, son of Aed, who gave from Orte to Furene, to Columcille, and to Drostan; (2) Moridach, son of Morcunn, who gave Pett meic Garnait and Achad toche temni; (3) Matain, son of Caerill, who gave the mormaer's share in Altere; (4) Culii, son of Baten, who gave the toisech's share of the same lands; (5) Domnall, son of Giric, and Malbrigte, son of Chathail, who gave Pett-in-Mulenn to Drostan; (6) Cathal, son of Morcunt, who gave the clerics' field to Drostan; (7) Domnal, son of Ruadre, and Malcoluim, son of Culeon, who gave Bidbin to God and to Drostan; (8) Maelcoluim, son of Kenneth, who gave the king's share in Bidbin and in Pett meic Gobroig, and two davachs of Upper Rosabard; (9) Malcolum, son of Maelbrigte, who gave the Delerc; (10) Malsnecte, son of Luloeg, who gave Pett Malduib to Drostan; (11) Domnal, son of Mac Dubbacin, who mortified all the offerings to Drostan; (12) Cathal, who mortified in the same way his chief's share, and gave a dinner of a hundred every Christmas and every Easter to God and to Drostan; (13) Cainnech, son of Mac Dobarchon, who gave Alterin as far as the birch between the two Alterins; (14) Domnall and Cathal, who gave Etdanin to God and to Drostan; and Cainnech and Domnal and Cathal mortified all these offerings to God and to Drostan from beginning to end, in freedom from mormaer and from toisech, to the day of judgment; (15) Gartnait, son of Cainnech, and Ete, daughter of Gille Michel, who gave Pett mac Cobrig for the consecration of a church of Christ and Peter the apostle both to Columcille and Drostan; and Ball-Domin in Pet Ipair to Christ and Columcille and Drostan; (16) Donchad, son of Mac Bethad, son of Hided, who gave Achad Madchor to Christ and to Drostan and to Columcille in freedom for ever; (17) Comgall, son of Cainnech, toisech of Clan Canan, who gave to Christ and to Drostan and to Columcille as far as the Gort lie mor; (18) Colbain, mormaer of Buchan, and Eva, daughter of Gartnat, his wedded wife, and Donnachac, son of Sithec, toisech of Clan Morgainn, who immolated all the offerings to God, and to Drostan, and to Columcille,

amongst them we also find Malcolm, son of Kenneth, giving the king's share in certain lands to the monastery. This identifies him as Malcolm Mackenneth Ri Alban or King of Scotland from 1004 to 1034. Malcolm MacMaelbride, mormaer of Moray, and Maelsnectan, Lulach's son, whose deaths appear in the annals in 1029 and 1085, are also represented as giving lands to Drostan. Comgell, son of Cainnech, toisech of Clan Canan, gives to Christ and to Drostan and Columcille certain lands by their boundaries, both mountain and field, in freedom from toisech for ever, and his blessing on every one who shall fulfil this after him, and his curse on every one who shall go against it. There is what resembles an abstract of a formal grant of the eighth year of the reign of King David I. translated from the Latin into Gaelic, and setting forth that Gartnait, son of Kenneth, and Ete, daughter of Gille Michel, gave lands for the consecration of a church of Christ and Peter the Apostle, both to Columcille and Drostan, free from all exactions, with the gift of them to Cormac, Bishop of Dunkeld. The names of the witnesses, as in formal deeds, are preceded by the words Testibus ipsis, and among them are Nectan, Bishop of Aberdeen; Leot, Abbot of Brechin; Ruadri, mormaer of Mar; Matadin, the Brehon or Judge; and Domangart, ferleighin or scribe of Turriff. These memoranda, as I have said, are all in Gaelic, and the record closes with a charter in Latin, granted at Aberdeen by King

and to Peter the Apostle.-Book of Deer (Spalding Club), preface, pp. xlix., lvii.

1 The office of the Ferleighin in the Celtic monasteries was naturally an important one. Colgan describes their functions, and styles them men of singular erudition. They not only transcribed the monuments of ancient learning, but were themselves compilers of books, and specially of the chronicles and annals of the country. Thana, son of Dudabrach, wrote that part of the great Register of St. Andrews which contains the Life of St. Regulus for Pherath, son of Bergeth, King of the Picts (A.D. 839-842) in the town or monastery of Meigle. There were chronicles of Abernethy and Brechin, which

David I., in which he declares that the clerics of Deer are free from all service of laymen and undue exaction, as it is written in their book, on which they pleaded at Banff and swore at Aberdeen. This obviously refers to the fact that these memoranda had been admitted in the regular courts as evidents of the tenure of the lands to which they refer.

Leaving out of view the questions relating to the early modes of tenure and transfer of lands which are here suggested, I have to ask your attention to certain other facts disclosed by the nature and terms of these memoranda. The language in which they are written is Gaelic, the date at least not earlier than the latest grant recorded in the first paragraph, which is all in one hand-that is towards the close of the eleventh century. We may infer from this that up to that time Gaelic was still the familiar language of the community of clerics. The terms in which the grants are expressed represent Columcille and Drostan as still present in the minds of the granters as the heads of the community to whom the lands were given. It affords a striking instance of the reverence with which the founders of Christian settlements were regarded by the Celtic people, to find that down to the eighth year of King David's reign, or over a period of fully five centuries, all the grants were made either to Columcille or to Drostan, or to both, and that even after that time they are made to God, and Columcille, and Drostan, and the Apostle Peter.

Let us now recapitulate briefly the information derived from this little book. It tells us the circumstances in which

are not now extant. The compensation for the slaughter of a scribe was fixed at the same rate as for a bishop or an abbot by an Irish council of the eighth century. Up to the middle of the ninth century they were termed scribnidh or scribhneoir, but subsequently fearleginn. In 1034 the ferleighin of Kells was drowned when on his voyage to Alban, i.e. Scotland, with the books of Columcille. In 1164 the Annals of Ulster, notice Dubside, the Ferleighin of Hy, i.e. of Iona.

St. Columba founded the monastery of Deer, and left his nephew Drostan in charge of the newly established community. It shows us the civil condition of the Celtic population, divided into clans, and recognising the authority of the mormaer as representing the king, the toisech as the clan chief, and the brehon or judge. It gives us the names of the clans of the district-the Clan Canan and the Clan Morgan. It shows the division of territory into townlands, details their boundaries, and exhibits the different co-existing rights in them, and the various public burthens to which they were subject. All its information on these points refers to a period when the patriarchal polity, which had grown out of the original institutions of the people, had not given way to the feudal system, which ultimately obliterated all traces of the ancient tenures and customs, or so disguised them as to render them unintelligible. It refers also to a period when the ecclesiastical institutions were still so far conformed to their original model that territorial jurisdiction, monastic orders, and the hierarchy of ecclesiastical degrees, were still unknown among them; when dedications to the Apostle Peter were a recent innovation, and Columcille and Drostan, though five centuries had passed since they were removed from among men, were still regarded as the chiefs of the community, counting itself one in the confederation of monasteries that recognised the successors of their first founder as their spiritual superiors. Besides all this it discloses something of the culture that existed in that remote district nearly ten centuries ago. It tells us that the clerics of Deer still followed the example of their first founder, who was famed as a diligent scribe. It shows us that, besides being expert caligraphists, having some skill in painting and illumination, they were educated men, having a sufficient knowledge of at least one language besides their own to enable them to transcribe it intelligently, and to use it in the