taken for a priest. Father Blackhall, and his 'third noble Lady,' ultimately made their escape to France in a ship, come from the south to transport the recruits for the Scots regiments in that service. The Restoration was hailed with satisfaction by Buchan in common with the rest of Scotland, and, in strong contrast to the south-west, the north-east found the years that followed it under the later Stuart kings a period of rest and contentment. As a general rule there were few violent changes among the ministry of the district when Episcopacy was re-introduced; and that the form it assumed, under the mild government of Bishop Scougal,' was not uncongenial to the people, was proved by the long delay that took place after the Revolution before several of the parishes were settled anew with Presbyterian ministers, which in some cases had to be done by military force. General Mackay records the lack of support which he found north of the Tay; and it was a scion of a Buchan house, General Thomas Buchan, who commanded King James's Scottish army after the fall of Viscount Dundee. Indeed the ancient keep of Fedderate, of old reckoned a great strength,' appears for the last time in history as the scene of the final stand in their own country of the Cavalier officers who won barren glory in the service of France. After the battle of Cromdale 'several gentlemen of the king's party came there, and caused the country people carry in a great deal of provisions for them; but after the regular forces had lyen some four weeks before it, they surrendered, and were carried abroad on the Government's charge.' It was not till the 1st of March, 1718, thirty years after the Revolution, that Mr. Dunbar was removed by a sentence of the Court of Justiciary from the Church of Cruden. In 1709 Lonmay had been for two years without a minister, 'since the death of Mr. Houston, late Episcopal incumbent,' and, the people 'still differing and dividing,' the Presbytery did legally and orderly call' their own nominee. The first Presbyterian minister was ordained at Monquhitter in November 1727, and at St. Fergus a similar settlement was not made till the following year, the predecessor having been deposed in 1716 for 'abetting a mob to proclaim the Pretender king.' At Peterhead, Pitsligo, and Longside, the old incumbents were only ejected after the first Jacobite rising. But it was Old Deer which, true to its identification with prominent ecclesiastical events, furnished the most dramatic incident-rang the chapel bell, to use Mr. Gladstone's significant metaphor, to some purpose, and sowed the seed of fateful controversies in the future. In March 1711, the Presbytery, supported by seventy horse and some infantry from Aberdeen, Aberdeen, attempted to carry out the settlement of Mr. Gordon, who had a presbyterial call,' but, in the words of an old description of the parish, 'the presbytery and their satellites were soundly beat off by the people, not without blood on both sides.' This skirmish' was commemorated in verse by Meston, and the minister of Fraserburgh reported to the agent of the Church 'that the Master of Saltoun had said to him that the rabble of Old Deer procured the Acts of Toleration and Patronages.' 6 The rising of 1715 was warmly supported in Buchan, and was fateful to its interests from the ruin which fell on the ancient house of the Earls Marischal. The two gallant youths who marched from Inverugie made famous names for themselves on the Continent in after-days; but there is no more touching and spirited Scottish lyric than that composed by their haughty mother, who, when some one sighed over what had happened, replied, "If they had not done their duty I would have gone out myself with my spindle and rock,' and only gave rein to her feelings in the strains of When oor King comes ower the Water'; and no more dramatic scene than the picture of the old Earl Marischal, restored to his honours after his great service to the State in warning Lord Chatham of the Family Compact between France and Spain, halting his carriage on the brow of the hill from which he caught the first glimpse of the ruined towers of Inverugie, and, attended as he was by his good folks of Peterhead, sadly telling the driver to turn the horses' heads and drive away again. The old Chevalier landed at Peterhead, whose inhabitants, says the author of its Annals, were once, we must allow, firm Jacobites,' and where not a few traditions of the stirring days of the '15 and the '45 still linger. Indeed, the whole town was under arms in the '15, and such was the enthusiasm that among those supplied with ' sufficient gun charged with powder and bullets, and ffour spair shots beside, and ane sufficient sword,' occur the names of Geills Scott, Janet Dickie, Elspat Mitchell, Widow Bodie, Widow Brown, and others of their sex. It was a Peterhead boy who, proud of his middy's uniform, on the Pier of Leith had his career changed in a moment by the question, 'What would your father say if he saw you wearing that cockade?' tore off the black badge of the House of Hanover, and went at once to Prince Charlie's camp. He saw the campaign out, and after the slaughter of Culloden found his weary way on foot, travelling by night and hiding by day, back to Peterhead. A pebble on his sister's window revealed his presence, and he was kept for some time disguised in woman's dress as a servant, and known by the neighbours as 'the unco' lass.' At 6 ane last last a chance of escape presented itself, and how eagerly the sister watched from the pier-head for the flutter of the handkerchief on the departing vessel that told the boy was lost to his family for years, but safe! That sister made it a condition of her marriage that her husband should leave the Royal Navy, and only assented to his return to it after the death of Henry, Cardinal of York. In the '45 many of the gentlemen of Buchan followed the gallant and good old Lord Pitsligo to the field, and formed part of the small cavalry force of Prince Charles Edward. When the troop of one hundred horse paraded at Aberdeen, the old lord moved to the front, lifted his hat, pronounced with a solemn voice the awful appeal, “O Lord, Thou knowest that our cause is just," and then gave the order, " March, gentlemen."" After the rout of Culloden, many were his adventures, now kindly sending a drink to the soldiers who had almost unearthed him from the wainscot of the bedrooms of Auchiries, now lurking under the bridge of Craigmaud, now hiding in his cave on the face of the rocks on the seashore, occasionally receiving alms as a beggar and condolences on his asthma from the troops in search of him, once actually, when apparently working as tailor, acting as their guide, and again holding the lantern for the ransacking of a barn. Most trying of all must have been the moment when he listened for the reply of the half-witted fellow whose warm recognition had excited suspicion. 'He kent him ance, a muckle fairmer, but his sheep a' deed in the forty.' The country was full of fugitives, and a writer of the time says: 'It's not possible with a troop of men to get one man, although it be true in Buchan from Cullen House to Fyvie, thence to Ellon, and from the waterside down to Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Pitsligo, Troup, Banff, Boyn, Cullen, there are very many. They are thickest about Carnousie, Auchmedden, Pitsligo, Fraserburgh, Altri in Old Deer Parish, Inverugy, Fyvie, Monwheitir.' They travel in the country after transformations of all kinds: Dudwick, as I am informed, is a packman with a wallet; Pittodrie is buying so many swine a dearth of them will ensue, it's thought, and so of others.' 'The women carriers' were reported to travel among the rebels' houses day and night,' and a system of expresses existed for conveying intelligence to the fugitives; Barbara Strachan, the Jacobite postmistress of Buchan,' being a prominent person. 'There's not one place of it she travels not once a week when business is throng.' Craigston,' writes this zealous Whig, 'has a secret which hid three men: as ye goe ben the hall it is in the thicknesse of the wall anent your face at the back of the ༡ end end of the table, next the inner chamber door as ye stand looking out at the window, which window is closs at the chamber door. It's closs at your right hand; it enters from the room above; goe up stair from the inner chamber, as ye enter the chamber at the hall there's a private room, off that room for a chamber box, under which box a pavement lifts up, and so if there were a strong search in the country some might be there.' In the list of those specially excepted from the Act of Indemnity occur the names of Lord Pitsligo, Cumine of Kininmont, Cumine of Pittulie, Fullerton of Dudwick, Moir of Lonmay, Ogilvie of Auchiries, and Turner of Turnerhall; and it is interesting to note that a Buchan laird, James Ferguson of Pitfour, acted as counsel for the unfortunate prisoners at Carlisle. On this occasion the province did not wholly escape the direct ravages of civil war. That rough partisan of the fallen cause, Gordon of Glenbucket, instead of attaching himself to the main army, extended his barbarities into the Lowlands; and as the Laird of Kinmundy was known to favour the opposite side, he showed some of his rude civilities to that house, particularly to the lady, who was left in command of the garrison.' The lady referred to was equal to the occasion, and is said to have saved her house-though not its contents-by a judicious message, expressing wonder that troops commanded by an officer and a gentleman should set fire to a lady's house; that for her part she was preparing to entertain them; but as they had set fire to that part of the house, if they wanted their dinner they had better put it out. Another tradition, vouched perhaps by a deep sword-cut in an old door, tells that a recruiting party were forcibly impressing the neighbouring farmers' sons, when some of them fled to her for protection. She sent them to the upper rooms, barred her doors, posted a gun at the loopholes commanding the court gate, and announced to the soldiers that her people had come there for safety, and safety they should have, and, if they were to be taken, the house must be knocked down first.' After Culloden, an Aberdeen minister warns his correspondent, in writing to Deer, to remember that the Lady Kinmundy hath given it the name of Dear William,' and there linger traditions of the same good lady's Presbyterian zeal and active co-operation with the Campbell militia, who with Lord Mark Kerr's dragoons carried out the orders for the destruction of the Episcopal meetinghouses in Buchan. With the '45 the more stirring incidents in the history of Buchan close, though it is recorded that the artillery volunteers of Peterhead, under Captain William Ferguson, an old naval officer, officer, manned their battery and beat off a French ship in the days of the Great War. In the time of Pitt and Canning the district produced a father of the House of Commons, of whom not a few quaint stories still survive. For long well known for his caustic wit, and a friend of Pitt and Dundas, 'old Pitfour' was not ambitious of oratorical distinction. At last he rose in the House, and something good being expected by the many who knew him in the precincts, loud and repeated were the Hear, hears. I'll be d- -d if you do,' said he, and sat down; surely the shortest House of Commons' speech on record. He was dining one night with other Members, when it was reported that Pitt was up, and there was a general rush. The last to leave saw the Member for Aberdeenshire quietly continuing his repast. 'What are you not coming to hear Mr. Pitt?' 'No,' was the reply; he wouldn't come to hear me.' 'Wouldn't I though, if I got the chance,' said Pitt when he was told. The main life of the region has lain in the peaceful paths of agricultural improvement, originally set on foot with difficulty by the landowners, and since pursued by an industrious and enterprising tenantry. So far back as 1735, Lord Pitsligo, Lord Strichen, Lord Pitfour, Garden of Troup, Urquhart of Meldrum, Gordon of Ellon and others, formed the first agricultural association, calling themselves A small Society of Farmers in Buchan'; and who that looks over the laigh o' Buchan' on 'stookie Sunday' in September, can fail to be struck with the appositeness of its old heraldic honours? Many an old-world custom and many a quaint superstition lingered long in this far-away corner of the realm. Till comparatively lately the frequent fires reddened the sky, lighted from time immemorial on Hallowe'en, and it was a tradition quite in accord with scriptural teaching that gave every animal on a Buchan farm a double feed on Christmas morning. There was something characteristic of the people, and not less scriptural, in the old salutation offered to any one found busy in his lawful calling, 'Guid speed the wark,' to which the answer was, 'Thank ye, I wish ye weel.' Meston thus writes of the Buchan folk, described before his time as remarkably plain and hospitable' :The people that this land possesses, Live quietly and pay their cesses; And love a creed that's short and sound |