has been changed to the east side of the building, the family arms are beautifully carved, and in the gable above is a monogram formed of the initial letters of the proprietor's name. The gable is flanked by corbelled round turrets, two stories in height, terminated with finials. Other parts of the building are decorated by round and square turrets, string courses, and dormer window-heads, the whole of the new building being in perfect harmony with the old." thriving district. The land to the left belongs to the Aberdeen estates; that to the right to one of the charitable trusts of the city of Aberdeen. Some little way to the east of Arnage A meal mill and a wayside inn conis Tillydesk. "In the year 1847, as stituted Auchnagatt before the railway some workmen were forming a road was opened. Now there is the nucleus which passes the parochial school at of a small village of substantial stone Tillydesk, they discovered, in a rocky and slated houses, this being a central knoll some forty yards from the south-station for a wide, populous, and east corner, eleven urns containing calcined bones. The whole was found within a space of eight or ten yards square. The soil lay upon loose and scattered fragments of gneiss, forming a thin covering of light black mould. The urns were sunk little more than their own depth into this shingle. Though apparently tolerably complete as they stood in the ground, yet on being moved they were found to be so cracked, and the crevices formed in them so penetrated by roots and fibres, that none of them could be removed entire. They were of the usual form and size, composed of coarsely-baked clay, with little or nothing in the way of ornamentation. On uncovering the mouths of those least injured a thin layer of charcoal was found, the particles of which were as bright and pure as if newly buried. Underneath were the bones, partly in a pulverised state and partly in small fragments. Some of the latter were of a size to indicate to what part of the body they belonged. Altogether about a bushel of dust, bones, and charcoal was collected."(Pratt.) Similar urns with charcoal and calcined bones have been found from time to time all over this part of Buchan. They seem to be the remains of extensive sepulture, probably after the battles with the Danes, about the beginning of the 11th century. From Arnage station the line passes A mile from the station, on the left, is the mansion-house of Nethermuir, formerly the property of the Gordons of Nethermuir, and lately acquired by the late chairman of the railway, William Leslie. The Ebrie, along the banks of which we have been coming from Arnage, flows through the grounds of Nethermuir, and skirts the garden. On the opposite side of the line there are extensive lime quarries, now almost entirely disused, but at one time largely resorted to for limestone for burning, both for land dressing and for building. They are known as the quarries of Barrack, Annochie, and Cairncummer. "This vein, interspersed with dykes and blocks of gneiss, and containing a mixture of magnesian earth, traverses the whole district, making its first appearance at Fraserburgh, then at Auchiries in the parish of Rathen, again at Hythie, and at Annochie, and other places in the neighbourhood. It thence proceeds down the western side of the valley of the Ebrie till it passes into the district of Formartine at Auchedlie.”—(Pratt.) Passing the woods of Nethermuir on the left, we see beyond them the rising grounds of Knaven and Auchmaleedie, the village of New Deer with its tall church tower, and the hill of Culsh, 25 71. Maud Junction. 4 miles from Auchnagatt. 31 Dyce. crowned by a monument to the late | abbey the ruins of the old castle of William Dingwall Fordyce of Bruck- Clackriah are apt to arrest the attenlay, for a time M.P., first for Aberdeen- tion and become an object of some inshire, and, on the division of the county, terest to the passing traveller. A very for East Aberdeenshire. We then erroneous impression exists among the enter a wild and picturesque ravine people of this neighbourhood that they under the farm of Altmaud. Some are the remains of a Pictish stronghold; large and aged ash-trees indicate that a visit to them, however, is calculated this spot has been a residence of some to dispel all such ideas in those who antiquity; and it has been supposed, are in the slightest degree acquainted not without reason, to have been the with the architectural antiquities of site of the residence of the Mormaers our country. The castle of Clackriah of Buchan. stands upon a slight eminence in the centre of the farm of that name. It is a quadrilangular building having a projecting wing, and its only title to the name of a castle is the fact that it has possessed a turreted staircase and arched doorway and windows, one of the latter having been secured by iron stanchions, portions of which still remain firmly fixed in the walls. With the utilitarian taste so particularly characteristic_of our agricultural friends, advantage has been taken of the walls of this building that are yet entire to form a part of a series of cowhouses and stables which have been built around it, and do not appear to be by any means calculated to add to the imposing nature of its appearance. Of course, the idea of its ever having been a Pictish tower is simply absurd, as neither in the thickness of the walls nor in the extent of the building does it much exceed the dimensions of many farm-houses of a very modern date." Here the railway bifurcates, the branch to the left going to Fraserburgh, that to the right to Peterhead. The station has been variously named Banks, Bruckley, and Maud, but the latter name has now been finally adopted. The name of the village itself is Bank. That portion of it on the right of the line is in the parish of Old Deer, the other portion is in New Deer. The school and the church, which is a Chapel of Ease to Old Deer, are in the parish of Old Deer. When the line was opened in 1861 there were only one or two thatched cottages here, now there is a considerable village of substantial houses. The Buchan Combination Poorhouse is here, and being very central, the various Presbyteries of the churches, the meetings of Road Trustees and other public bodies are held at Maud. The junction itself is on the property of Old Maud, and the houses to the south are on the estate of Clackriah, both belonging to the John Gordon of Murtle Trustees, for charitable purposes. Bank proper is the property of Colonel Ferguson of Pitfour. Proceeding on the Peterhead branch, we pass on our right the farm-house of Clackriah, up on the hill, in the yard of which are the ruins of the old castle of that name, as to which very little is known. Dr. Pratt quotes from "Gossip about Old Deer" the following notes regarding it : "About a mile to the west of the Farther on, upon the left, is Bruxie. This was once the seat of the Keiths of Bruxie, cadets of the Marischal family. It now forms part of the Pitfour estate. Leaving Bruxie, the partly bare and party planted brae face on our right is Aiky Brae, and above it is the Hill of Parkhouse, with its fine Druidical circle. "Aiky or Yackie Brae is a name derived, according to some opinions, from the oaks with which it was once clad; others, with better reason, believe it to owe its name to Achaiacus or Yochoch, a king of the Picts, and brother to Drostane, the patron saint of the parish. The removal of the relics of this saint from Aberdour to Deer is still commemorated by a fair-long famous, but now of less note-known as Aiky Fair, and held on the third Wednesday of "Though Thomas the Lyar thou callest me, after men spoke with terror of the harrying of Buchan, and it is singular that at this day the oaks which are turned up in the mosses bear upon their trunks the marks of being scathed with fire.' Here, then, in the very centre of its own domain, was the power of the noble and warlike, though turbulent and designing house of Comyn completely broken, its estates confiscated, and its name proscribed; and they who had acted so conspicuous a part in the history of the kingdom, and been able almost to cope with royalty itself, were driven from the stage, or rather perished in the last act of their own domestic tragedy."-Pratt. "There are," says the "New Statistical Account," "visible proofs still remaining that this parish was formerly the scene of warfare, occasioned by family feuds, civil strife, or the invasion of the country by foreigners. On the top of the Hill of Bruxie, and at Den of Howie, near Fetterangus, there are traces of fortifications and encampments; and near the foot of Aiky Brae there is a cluster of tumuli, pointing out the graves of warriors who fell in a bloody contest reported to have taken place between Edward, the brother of King Robert Bruce, and Cumming, the Earl of Buchan, with their followers and clansmen." Dr. Pratt says, in a note on this extract-"On the northwestern brow of the Windhill, about a mile southwards of the Hill of Parkhouse, there is a cairn, the original boundary of which may still be traced. It had been an exact circle of about 24 yards in diameter. The cairn had covered several cists; one of these, laid open in 1856, of which only one of the side slabs remains, had been about 3 feet long and about 2 feet deep. In 1863, the tenant farmer, in removing some stones from its western boundary, came upon a cist of similar size, which, he states, was filled with 'black fatty earth.' Stones to the height of 5 or 6 feet were piled over this cist. In the summer of the same year the cairn was again ex "In the time of King Robert Bruce, according to tradition, Aiky Brae witnessed the final defeat of the Comyns. After the battle of Inverury in 1308, Edward, Robert's brother, who had the command of the army during the king's illness, pursued Comyn first to Fyvie and afterwards into the lower district of Buchan. He is reported to have encamped on a hill about a mile and a half to the west of the village of New Deer, which has ever since been known as the 'Bruce Hill.' From this he marched in pursuit of his foe to a place near the village of Old Deer, called Aiky Brae. This is partly corroborated by John Major, who says (De Gest. Scot., lib. 5, fol. 83) that Edward there gave battle. Tytler, in his "History of Scotland," says: 'Into Buchan, the territory of Comyn, his mortal enemy Bruce now marched, and took ample revenge for all the injuries he had sustained, wast-amined, and about 12 feet from the ing it with fire, and delivering it over to unbridled military execution. Barbour informs us that for fifty years northern point of the circumference another cist was discovered, chiefly remarkable for its exiguity, the length being only 13 inches, the width 10, and the depth about 9. It was also full of black unctuous earth. It would seem as if the cist had been placed upon the surface of the ground, and the stones heaped up over it. This cairn was only one of a great number with which the district, till a comparatively recent period, was thickly studded. There are now (1870) few remaining [1880 still fewer.-ED.], and these few will, for utilitarian purposes, probably soon share the fate of so many others. It is to be regretted that these vestiges of a prehistoric age should wholly disappear from the face of the country. Were they to be enclosed, and planted with a few trees, these relics might be preserved, and the features of the country at the same time greatly improved." At the bottom of the slope to the north of the hill of Aiky Brae there was at one time a very interesting relic. The present Editor has heard his father describe this memorial of an olden time, but he can only now reproduce Dr. Pratt's account of it. Dr. Pratt says "At the distance of a quarter of a mile [from the Druidical circle to be presently referred to] on the northern declivity of the same hill, there were, about the middle of the last century, the remains of a village commonly called by the country people the Picts or Pechts houses. The village then consisted of between 60 and 70 small huts, from 6 to 12 feet square, irregularly huddled together; the walls were built of small stones cemented with clay, the floors were paved with stones, and a number of small yards or gardens enclosed with dykes of the same material were to be seen around it. As late as 1821 about a dozen of the huts were still standing; but now every vestige of this prehistoric village has been obliterated by the ploughshare." Ascend the steepish face of Aiky Brae, trend a little to the left towards a clump of wood on an eminence that rises a little even from this high ground; enter the wood-it is thick, stunted, difficult to penetrate, but persevere-and all at once you are on a spot that awes you with its silent solemnity. You behold a little plot of ground, grass - grown, but otherwise open, and all around it stand giant stones, as if grimly guarding a sacred spot. To this Editor it is sacred. It first burst on his juvenile eye in 1838, and he preserves still a rude map of it as it then appeared. Here is what that careful antiquary Dr. Pratt says about it : "Crossing the stream (the Ugie) by the 'Abbey Brig,' a little above the ruin [of the Abbey, which we shall reach presently], and ascending the opposite hill of Aiky Brae, and at about a mile to the south-west of the Abbey, we reach the Hill of Parkhouse, where there is a Druidical circle. A circle of great blocks of stone, some standing, some fallen down, irregular, and of unequal height, are the general features of these monuments of antiquity. It would appear that when entire there was generally an outer and an inner ditch, with a sort of intervening embankment carried round the circle, and at some considerable distance from it. To the east or north-east these ditches or embankments were turned off so as to form a sort of avenue by which the circle was approached. In this avenue, and consequently outside the ring, a single stone commonly stood, bending forward, as if to note the attitude of supplication. Within the stone circle is the altar stone, always large, and lying flat, and not unfrequently, as is the case at Parkhouse, considerably to the south of the centre of the circle. It is often the case that the stones composing the circle, and especially the altar stone, are of a different kind from that found in the neighbourhood. The space within is called The Temple. Some later writers have laboured hard to throw doubts on the Druidical claims of these circles, maintaining that they are of Scandinavian origin-the temples of Iber, on the altar stones of which deity human victims were immolated. Others, again, are of opinion that although they may have been adopted by the Scandinavian worshippers, the circles are unquestionably of Druidical or Buddhist origin, having been spread over the world from the far east, at a period long anterior to all written re cord. They were essentially religious structures; but as the Druids, and afterwards the priests of Iber, were at once the ministers of religion, and the legislature, and judges among the people, the circles were probably in many instances what the Icelandic writers term 'doom rings,' or 'circles of judgment.' That these places have been used for sepulchral purposes need not be disputed; but to argue that because the area of our old churches were places of sepulture the buildings themselves were not places of worship, would scarcely be admissible; and to assert that the marks of sepulture found in connection with stone circles are sufficient to exclude the possibility of their having been temples, seems to be equally gratuitous.' No. 4 is also a standing stone of red granite, 6 feet high; No. 5 is a similar stone; Nos. 6, 7, and 8 are stones lying flat; No. 9 is a stone 9 feet long, of trap, which has evidently been standing, but which has fallen over; No. 10 is a stone of red granite, 7 feet 9 inches high. This was standing in 1838, but now it also (1880) has fallen or been thrown down; so that there are now only three of the stones remaining upright. Excavations showed that the circle is completed by a low stone wall, some 6 inches high, carefully built of loose stones, and connecting the pillar stones. A little farther on, and on the left side of the line, we pass the ruins of the Abbey of Deer, in what are now the gardens of Pitfour. The situation of The present editor was present during the abbey had been chosen with great a long summer day, some years ago along care. It is in a sheltered hollow on with the late Colonel Forbes Leslie the banks of the Ugie, and protected of Rothienorman; Charles Elphinstone from the north and east by the hill of Dalrymple, Esq.; James Russel, Esq., Saplin Brae, which rises steeply imof Aden; James George Ferguson Rus- mediately behind it. There are the resel, younger of Aden; and Thomas mains of older ecclesiastical buildings Ferguson, Esq., of Kinmundy-when at the village of Deer, about a mile the circle at Parkhouse was thoroughly further down the stream. The abbey and carefully examined for traces of belonged to the Cistercians, and was sepulture. The central space was ex-founded by William Comyn, Earl of cavated to a depth of 6 or 8 feet, with- Buchan, in 1218. "The church was out a trace of evidence that the soil built in the form of a cross, and conhad ever before been disturbed. Numer- sisted of a nave with a north aisle, ous small cairns which looked like transepts, and chancel, the total length sepulchral monuments, and which sur- of the nave and chancel being about rounded the circle, were also thoroughly 150 feet. examined, and the day closed without any trace of graves. Dr. Pratt says of this circle :-"The diameter of the space enclosed by the inner circle is 48 feet. Only four of the upright stones now (1870) remain, and are from 14 to 17 feet apart. The principal or altar stone, placed on the south side of the circle, and lying east and west, is 14 feet 6 inches long, 5 feet 6 inches broad, and 4 feet 6 inches deep, and calculated to weigh upwards of 21 tons. This stone is of primitive trap." There are ten large stones in the circle. Calling the large altar stone No. 1, and going round by the north, No. 2 is a flat stone; No. 3 is a standing stone of red granite, 6 feet high; The The nave was divided into five bays, the chancel not extending beyond the line of pillars which divided the aisle from the nave. bases of the pillars might, till 1834, be traced along the nave. Those forming the angles of the transepts with the nave were of greater diameter. In all probability they had supported a central tower, and perhaps a spire. From the few mouldings and top arches of windows which, till lately, were to be found amidst the heaps of ruins, it is evident that the church was built in the style peculiar to the age-namely, the First Pointed or Early English. The arches were lancet-shaped, and the mouldings deeply cut in red sandstone, which is said to have been brought from a quarry at Byth, a distance of |