home-mades, but I fear the inclination is gone, and the agitation which has been carried on for the last few years has tended much to put a stop to these useful and economical occupations.

At no time does the Highlander ever seem to have had great artistic instincts, one seldom sees a bit of ornamentation or carving, or any attempt at drawing.

Occasionally the handle of a dirk or a walking-stick with a big crook is manufactured, but such articles of artistic merit as the Swiss mountaineer makes in the long winter nights in his Alpine village, are foreign to the instincts of the Highlander; not that the skill and ingenuity are altogether wanting, but the mind has been turned from it. An active, roving life better suits the Celt, and the precarious life of a fisherman, in lieu of the hunter's, pleases him better than the drudgery of agriculture and spade labour, and even the dangerous and risky occupation of smuggling has greater charms for some of them than any regular employment in the long winter nights.

I would not wish to be understood as saying that the Scottish Highlander wants the aptitude for adapting himself to his situation, nor the capacity of turning anything he requires to account. I have shown the contrary in the foregoing notes; but I think the cessation of home work and home-made appliances has rendered him too dependent on foreign aid, and led him to look for outside support, when he ought to be able to help himself, and to turn to his uses and comfort much that lies ready to hand, and which would save him actual outlay of money, and add much to his comfort and pleasure.

5TH MAY 1886.

On this date (being the concluding meeting of the Session), Paul Liot Bankes of Letterewe, was elected a life member of the Society, while Alexander Machardy, chief constable of Invernessshire; R. J. Macbeth, 42 Union Street, Inverness; Rev. John Cameron, R.C., Dornie, Kintail; John Fraser, 57 High Street, Inverness; and Hugh Bannerman, 213 Lord Street, Southport, were elected ordinary members. Thereafter, the Secretary read the following paper by Mr Alexander Macpherson, solicitor, Kingussie:

GLEANINGS FROM THE OLD ECCLESIASTICAL
RECORDS OF BADENOCH.

PART I.

In these times of never-ending ecclesiastical and political

controversies and conflicts, giving rise to such unrest in our everyday life, one not unfrequently hears long-drawn sighs for the "Good old Times" to which no particular epoch has yet been positively assigned. Amid the microscopical distinctions so unhappily prevailing in our Presbyterian Churches, and the wranglings and strife of rival factions, "the spirit of love and of a sound mind "-to use the words of the large-hearted Christian leader, so recently taken from us-"is often drowned in the uproar of ecclesiastical passion." It would, I believe, be productive of the most beneficial results in our religious as well as in our political life if, combined with the "sweet reasonableness" and large tolerance of spirit which so pre-eminently characterised Principal Tulloch, we had more of such plain honest speaking as that of the great reformer, John Knox, who learned, as he himself says, "to call wickedness by its own terms-a fig a fig; a spade a spade." But the socalled "March of Civilisation" has changed the whole current of our social and religious life, and affected the spirit of the age to such an extent that it may be reasonably doubted whether the most orthodox and constitutional Presbyterian in the Highlands would now submit to the administration of discipline to which, in days gone by, the Kirk-Sessions of Badenoch, without respect of persons, so rigorously subjected the wandering sheep of their flocks.

Knox's system of Church discipline has been described as a theocracy of such an almost perfect character, that under it the Kirk-Sessions of the Church looked after the life and conduct of their parishioners so carefully that in 1650 Kirkton, the historian, was able to say "No scandalous person could live, no scandal could be concealed in all Scotland, so strict a correspondence was there between the Ministers and their congregations." The old Church annals of Badenoch contain in this respect abundant evidence of the extent to which the Ministers and Elders of byegone times in the Highlands acted as ecclesiastical detectives in the way of discovering and discouraging "the works of darkness," and the gleanings which follow give some indicacion of the remarkable powers exercised for such a long period by the Courts of the Church. These gleanings have been extracted from the old Kirk-Session Records of the parishes of Kingussie, Alvie, and Laggan, comprising the whole of the extensive district, distinguished by the general appellation of Badenoch-so long held and despotically ruled by the once powerful family of the Comyns-extending from Corryarrick on the west, to Craigellachie, near Aviemore, in the easta distance of about forty-five miles.

So early as 1597 a deputation appears to have been appointed by the General Assembly to visit the northern Highlands, and in a report subsequently presented by the deputation to the Assembly, James Melvin (one of their number) states as the results of his own observations in the wild and then almost inaccessible district of Badenoch. "Indeid, I have ever sensyne regrated the esteat of our Hielands, and am sure gif Chryst war pretched amang them they wald scham monie Lawland professours"-a prediction which, if any fearless, independent member of the "Highland Host" would venture, after the manner of the old covenanting, trumpet-tongued lady-friend of Norman Macleod, simply to ask certain Lawland "Principals as well as Professours," to Gang ower the fundamentals-might probably be held to be verified even in the present day.

According to Shaw, the historian of "The Province of Moray," Kingussie was a parsonage dedicated to St Colum (Columba), and Insh a vicarage dedicated to St Ewan. "How early', says

Shaw, "these parishes were united I find not." Insh was erected as a Parliamentary Church, declared to be a quoad sacra parish by the General Assembly in 1833, and erected as such by the Court of Teinds in 1869. The village of Kingussie occupies the precints of the ancient Priory founded by George, Earl of Huntly about the year 1490, and traces of the Chapel of the Monastery are still to be seen in the old Church-yard behind the village. "There were," as stated by Shaw, "Chapels at Invertromie and Noid, and Brigida's Chapel at Benchar."

The existing Records of the Parish of Kingussie and Insh date back to the induction of the Rev. William Blair as minister of the Parish in September 1724. There is an unfortunate gap from 25th June 1732, to 15th June 1746, in regard to which there is an explanatory memorandum inserted to the effect "that through the frequent changes of Session Clerks, many confusions, defects, and disorders have happened in the Minuts. The Minuts in Mr John Macpherson's time, who dyed at Aberdeen, are lost, and also the Minuts in time of Mr John Grant, schoolmaster and Session Clerk." The glimpses which the Kirk-Session Records furnish of the religious and social state of the Highlands during the last century, are such as may, after all, tend to make the sighs for the so-called "Good old Times" less deep, and render us somewhat more contented with the times in which wo now live. One of the most striking features of these Records is the burning zeal which appears to have animated the Ministers and Elders of the time in ferreting out and chronicling the most minute particulars bearing upon the

wanderings of the erring sheep of the Kingussie fold. In numerous instances several closely-written pages are devoted to the narration of a single case of discipline. Many of the details recorded are such as would not certainly be regarded in the present day as tending to edification, and only such gleanings are given as are of general interest in the way of illustrating the manners and customs prevailing among the Highland people, down in the case of some parishes even to the third or fourth decade of the present century.

It would appear that there were black sheep calling for the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline in those days even among the "Ministers' men." At the Session Meeting on 21st March 1725, "John Macdonald, in Kingussie," was appointed to make "public satisfaction" for drinking a whole Sabbath night till ten o'clock next morning, and "caballing" with other men and "some women" in the Minister's house, "the Minister being that day in the parish of Insh." Apparently the too-trustful Minister had in his temporary absence, left all his belongings under John's charge, and the "caballers," it is recorded, not only consumed all the aquavitae in the Ministers house "at ye time," but also "four pints aquavitie, carried out of William Frasers house." John maintained that "they had but three chapins aquavitie," and boldly defended "the innocency of their meeting by their not being drunk as he alledges." Proving anything but obsequious to the appointment of the Session, John, as "the ringleader of the cabal," was solemnly referred to the Presbytery of the bounds for contumacy. The Presbytery in turn remitted him back to the Session, "to satisfie according to their appointment, otherwise be charged before the Comissary and be punished in his Person and Goods, in case of not satisfying for his prophanation of the Lord's day, and insnaring oyrs forsaid to ye same sin." The crest-fallen John had perforce no escape for it in the end, but humbly to stand before the congregation and be "severly rebuked for his wickedness."

Here is a singular enactment by the Kingussie Session anent "Pennie Weddings," which appear to have been prevalent in Badenoch down even to within living memory :

"April 4th 1725.-The Session enacts that no coupple be matrimonially contracted within the united parishes of Kingussie and Insh till they give in into the hands of the Session Clerk 3 lbs. Scots or a white plaid, or any other like pennieworth, worth 3 lbs. Scots as pledge that they should not have pennie weddings, otherwise to forfite their pledges if they resile.'

A few months later it is recorded that "Malcolm Bain in

Milntown of Kingussie" was delated and rebuked for a "manifest breach of the Lord's day, by selling shoes on that day to some who came to his house." Under date 31st May 1726, there is an entry to the effect that the Session had "debursed" to Alex. Glass Mertin, Kingussie, 22s. Scots for tobaco which he gave to millers for gathering meal to the orphan at their milns, and this by command of the Minister." The next extract is instructive, as indicating the starving process to which the Revenue Authorities of the time resorted in the way of recovering "debts of excise":

"May 29th, 1726.-The case of Lachlan Roy in Ruthven being represented to the Session, they find he is an object of charity, and for present at Inverness in prison for his Debt of Excise, in a starving condition, having nothing to support him for his present relief. Therefore appoint twenty sh. Scots be sent him, which was done accordingly."

The prison discipline to which the poverty-stricken Lachlan was so callously subjected in the Highland Capital appears to have not only transformed the unfortunate man himself into an abandoned and hardened criminal, but to have grievously affected his marital belongings. Some months later it is recorded that the Session "understand that Lachlan Roy in Ruthven, his wife and daughter, have been banisht out of Ruthven upon account of yr abominable practices, such as thieving and whoring, and yt they are gone out of the Parish."

Under date July 1726, we come upon the first of numerous similar entries, exhibiting a most deplorable picture of the pollution with which Badenoch was impregnated by the establishment of the Barracks at Ruthven, built by the Government of the day a few years after the Rising of 1715, on the site of the old Castle of the Comyns. It may be of interest to mention, in passing, that in the immediate neighbourhood of the Barracks stood the village of Ruthven, which, for many years previously, was distinguished as possessing the only school of importance from "Speymouth to Lorn." Here in 1738 was born James Macpherson, the celebrated translator of Ossian's poems, where, for some years after finishing his studies at King's College, Aberdeen, he filled the honourable position of parochial schoolmaster. The site of the old village is now indicated by the farm-house of the same name. The Kingussie Session could not apparently see their way to extirpate the rowdy Lowland garrison bodily, but they did not hesitate, as the following extract shows, to adopt the most summary measures to have the utterly abandoned and disreputable followers of the alien Redcoats banished out of the district :