sat by them while they made the bags, which in those days were a special part of a gaberlunzie man's equipment, and his lady long related with wonder how cheerful he was while superintending a work which betokened the ruin of his fortune and his state of personal danger. The disguise, though it did not deceive his friends and tenants, saved them from the danger of receiving him as his own person, and served as a protection against soldiers and officers of justice, who were desirous of seizing him for the sake of the price set upon his head. On one occasion he was overtaken by his asthma, just as a patrol of soldiers were coming up behind him. Having no other expedient, he sat down by the roadside, and anxiously awaiting their approach, begged alms of the party, and actually received them from a good-natured fellow, who condoled with him at the same time on the severity of his asthma. On another occasion, surprised in the house of a cobbler, Lord Pitsligo was for a moment compelled to assume the dress and tools of St. Crispin. And once, rumours having reached those in power that the proscribed nobleman occasionally concealed himself in a cave on the sea-shore, they sent a party in search of him who applied at the farm-house for a guide to the place of concealment. The gudewife told them she had no one to send with them "unless that travelling man would take the trouble." A beggar, who was the traveller, rose up and offered to show the road. He conducted them to the cave, but they found no Lord Pitsligo. He was not, far distant, however, being the very person who had guided them to the place. On another occasion, when sleeping in the barn of a tenant, he was made, after undergoing a strict personal search, to carry a lantern to assist a party of dragoons who were in quest of him in their further investigation of the premises, and actually received a shilling for his trouble. But, perhaps, the narrowest escape ever made was when, disguised as usual, he had gone into a house where he met with a fool called Sandy Annand. The poor creature, recognising his lordship, could not be restrained from his demonstrations of respect and affection. At that moment a party entered the house in search of him. They immediately asked the fool who it was he was thus lamenting. The momen was one of intense anxiety, as nothing but betrayal was expected from the answer of the poor creature. Sandy, however, with that shrewdness which men of his intellect often exhibit on the most trying occasions, said: kent him ance a muckle farmer, lut his sheep a' dee'd in the forty." “ He Lord Pitsligo was attainted of high treason, and in 1748 his estate was seized upon by the Crown. In this desolate situation, proscribed, penniless, deprived of rank, name, and almost the means of existence, except from the charity of the poorest of the peasantry, his life at the mercy of every informer, Lord Pitsligo mantained a resignation and patience equally superior to the feebleness of mind which sinks beneath human calamity and the affected stoicism which pretends to rise above its feelings. "The naive dignity of the following passage," says Sir Walter Scott, "rises above all Greek, all Roman praise. It is the philosophy which can be taught by the Christian religion alone. "This disposition did by no means raise me in my own opinion. I could not but own that I have ate and drank and laughed enough, everything beyond the rules of temperance; so I could not complain, but had reason to be thankful, to find myself put under restraint for the future.' By degrees the heat of civil rancour ceased, and Lord Pitsligo was suffered to remain at his son's residence of Auchiries, unmolested during the last years of an existence protracted to the extreme verge of human life. He died with a hope full of immortality on the 21st of December 1762, in the eightyfifth year of his age. He was the author of several literary works, of which the principal is "Thoughts concerning Man's Duties and Hopes." He The baronetcy is still extant in the | into the cliffs than the most adventurperson of Sir William Forbes, but most ous have ever yet penetrated. Of this of the estates passed with Sir John particular one it is related that in it a Stuart Forbes's daughter and only too curious explorer lost his life. child to the present Lord Clinton, to took with him the national musical whom she was married in 1858. instrument-the bagpipes that he might indicate by their strains to his friends on the earth how far he had penetrated into it. It requires too great credulity to believe all that is told as to the length of time his music was heard, or the distance inland at which the decreasing sounds were audible; one thing is certain,-they ceased at last, nor did he ever return to tell how he had fared. The parish church of Pitsligo is worthy of a passing notice. It is surmounted by a belfry of beautifully carved stone, very striking in appearance, and seemingly a mixture of Italian and Dutch art. It consists of an open-arched square of four pillars, within which is suspended the church bell. This rare piece of stone carving is said to have been imported from Holland; and although the belfry was not erected till 1635, it bears the same date as the oldest portion of the church, 1632. The first minister was a very famous man, Andrew Cant, born 1584. The interior contains some fine specimens of carved woodwork. The coast from Fraserburgh to this point is sandy, rising into considerable hills, and at low water presenting low flat rocks beyond the beach. wards from Rosehearty towards Aberdour it is very different, rising the whole way in an almost uninterrupted mural line of blackened and rifted precipices. About half-way down the rocks a broad platform expanded, from which, by various perilous ways, it was possible to reach near the water, but at no point to attain it. Seated here on a jutting crag, with our legs hanging over the deep green water, nought was to be seen but the wide expanse of ocean before us, unscaleable walls on either hand, and behind the rugged preciOn-pices, our line of descent adown their faces scarcely discernible. Westward, like a dim haze, rose into mid-air the old red sandstone cliffs of Troup Head, the long roll of the Moray Firth every now and then sending a cloud of spray far up their rugged sides, while they stood out as if in bold defiance or proud contempt of its buffetings. The features of solitude are periodically changed during the season of the herring fishing; at least for an hour or two every evening, when the boats from Fraserburgh may be seen shooting out in crescent form from east to northwest, and those of Rosehearty stretching away to join them in an inner segment. It is a lovely sight to watch them from these rocks on a July or August evening, as the line of boats attenuates, and they gradually grow indistinct and dim in the distance, till the scene which was but now instinct with life, and that a life full of the excitement of the deep and its perils, is again resigned to the wild solitude and undisputed sovereignty of ocean. Such is a rude picture from this rockbound coast. The present editor stayed two days in the summer of 1839 at Braco Park, about a mile west from Rosehearty. To while away a forenoon we went to fish from the rocks. The house was about a quarter of a mile from the sea. A single field lay between. To within a hundred yards of the edge of the cliff this field presented a steep descent. At that point a little marshy hollow was carpeted with Anagallis tenella, or the pale bog pimpernel, and starred with the beautiful Parnassia palustris. Vaulting a three-foot wall of loose stones, five or six yards more took us to the cliffs. These are so precipitous that there are but one or two places where it is possible to descend them. In descending, we passed a fissure going down plumb to the water, quite narrow, with equidistant sides perfectly vertical, in which the swell was roaring far into the earth with a hollow sound. This and numerous other fissures run further On the afternoon of the same day we rode along the cliffs as far as Aberdour. | The same stupendous cliffs are witnessed; but the colour of the rocks changes from the grays and blacks of the gneiss and the mica slates to the reds and browns of the old red. All along this coast deep glens run into the interior, so narrow and so steep in their declivities that it is necessary to make the roads zigzag down their sides, and so up again. In these dens, as they are called, such as the Den of Aberdour, the Den of Auchmedden, the Den of Dardar, the climate is so mild that stations for many of the rarer plants of our country are found in them. I only specify the rare and beautiful Trientalis europæa. Caves abound in the sea-cliffs, several of which derive a deep local interest from their having afforded hiding-places, after the battle of Culloden, to Lord Pitsligo, the Jacobite lord of all that land. There is also to be seen at Pitjossie a stupendous natural arch, through which the tide flows at high water, and said in grandeur and magnificence to equal, if not surpass, the Bullers of Buchan. But the astonishing feature of the latter spot is not the arch, but the basin into which the waters flow. About two miles from Rosehearty, in a bay formed by the projecting point called Quarryhead, is the Cave of Cowshaven, generally called Lord Pitsligo's cave, from his having used it as a place of refuge. "It is on the farm of Ironhill, in the parish of Aberdour. The cave is almost inaccessible, being about midway down the face of the rock. The entrance is narrow. After passing through two smaller cavities we come into a large vaulted chamber, with a spring of water issuing from a crevice in the rock, and falling into a cistern cut out by the hands of Lord Pitsligo, who was frequently compelled to resort to this place of concealment, and, by employing himself in hewing out this little reservoir, relieved the tedium of the many long hours he was obliged to spend in this cheerless retreat. In the projecting headland there are other caves well worthy of being visited. One of these is only reached at low water, and then by passing down an open | basin with an outlet only to the sea, on reaching which and turning to the left, you can enter a very lofty and beautiful cave, called the Otters' Cave, from otters sometimes frequenting it. When this editor was there the prints of otters' feet were sharply stamped on the fine sand which covers the floor. We did not penetrate to the further end. About a mile beyond the cave are the ruins of the Castle of Dundarg, or the Red Castle, a chief stronghold of the Comyns before the time of Robert Bruce. "Buchanan mentions that in the early part of the 14th century the castle of Dundarg was garrisoned by Henry Beaumont, who had married a daughter of John Mowbray, to whose ancestor Edward I. of England had given lands in Scotland. Later on the Regent Murray besieged Beaumont in Dundarg, and compelled him to surrender. Afterwards this castle was in the possession of the Cheynes of Esslemont. Then about the beginning of last century it was purchased by Lord Pitsligo. It now forms part of the Brucklay estates." Dundarg is built on a high peninsular rock. Vestiges of a large court and buildings may still be traced; but the only part remaining at all entire is a strong arched gateway which had guarded the entrance. Near the neck which joins the rock to the mainland, there are a triple ditch and ramparts of considerable extent. The Old Statistical Account gives this description of it : : "About half a mile English east from the church (of Aberdour) is the site and remains of the ancient castle of Dundargue, upon a rock of red freestone (Old Red Sandstone) 64 feet high from the beach immediately below, 261 ft. in length, 38 ft. mean breadth, making an area of nearly 21 falls surrounded by the sea when the tide flows, except a narrow neck of rock and earth, which joins the castle rock to the land, but decreases gradually till it reaches the entry of the castle, where it is only about 4 feet wide. Here the rock has been cut; but in place of the drawbridge, which (it is probable) had for merly given access to the castle, the narrow rock is made up with earth in order to enable the tenant's cattle to get at the fine grass which grows on the rock. The only part of the castle now standing is the entry. The whole breadth of the front is only 12 feet; the door is 4 feet 2 inches wide, 6 feet high, and is arched; the height of the walls 12 feet 7 inches; the length of the side walls, still standing, is 10 feet 6 inches; there are no other remains of the walls except the inside of the foundation, the outside having fallen down owing to the mouldering away of the rock on which it was built. There is a fine level green where the outworks have been, which has been secured on the land side by a wall (the foundation of which still remains) of the same kind of stone with the castle rock, cemented with lime after the manner of what is commonly called run lime, as the remains of the castle have also been, and which renders the wall so firm that you may more easily break the stone than separate it from the lime. On the outside of this wall or rampart is a dry ditch 296 feet long, and still 30 feet wide, and 6 feet deep. Running parallel to this are two other ditches of the same length with it. The first of these is 12 feet wide and 10 feet deep; the mound or the distance between it and the dry ditch or moat last mentioned is 40 feet. It must have been a very strong place; and could have received supplies of men and provisions by sea, as at full tide a small vessel could have lain to at the very foot of the castle rock. The garrison, however, might have been starved for want of water by cutting the pipes which conveyed the water to the castle from a spring about 200 paces distant, some remains of which pipes have been found of late years by the tenants in digging the ground between the castle and the spring." Dr. Pratt adds to this "The wall on each side of the gateway is perforated with small round portholes; and the ditches are more filled up than they were sixty years ago. This interesting old gateway exists no more. It was thrown down by a thunderstorm. Reference is made to Dundarg in "The Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland, or a Metrical Version of the History of Hector Boece by William Stewart." From the edition of the Rolls Series published in 1858, we extract these notices : "Henrie Quhitlaw that same tyme also, Vol. iii. p. 314, 11. 52,907-52,914. "This gouernour, gude Andro of Murra, And Alexander also of Mowbra, Thir tua Dundarg, that strang castell of stone, Be strenth and force that samin tyme hes tone, And to the captane, Henrie of Quhitlaw, Licence tha gaif, as my author did schaw, Intill Ingland to King Edward but lane, Than for to pas and neuir to cum agane." Vol. iii. p. 315, 11. 52,935-52,942 "This beand done, the governour is gone Vol. iii. p. 334, 11. 53,591-53,604. The Rev. Walter Gregor, the parish minister of Pitsligo (to whose erudition I am indebted for the above extracts), has sent me the following tradition, which he got lately in Aberdour : : "One mode of finding out where water was to be found was to keep a mare having a foal from water, tether her on the place where it was wished to dig for water. The mare, in her desire to quench her thirst, pawed over the spot under which the spring lay. If she did not paw, there was no spring within the circuit of her tether. She was removed to another place, and watched. This process of shifting the animal from place to place was con- | tinued till the desired sign was given. Here is a tradition. The Castle of Dundargue, which was built on a headland in the parish of Aberdour, was at one time besieged. The first work of the besiegers was to cut off the water which ran to the castle from a well in an adjoining field, and to efface all trace of it. When water had to be again supplied to the castle, to prevent all fruitless digging, a mare having a foal, after being deprived of water for a time, was tethered near the place where the well was known to be. In due course the thirsty animal pawed the ground right above the well.' About half a mile beyond Dundarg we reach the old church and hamlet of Old Aberdour, "standing" (we quote Dr. Pratt) “on the brink of a wild and romantic gorge studded here and there with a few cottages, and topped by the manse and some farm-steadings. The church is a ruin, and stands on a sort of ledge or table-land on the northwestern acclivity of the hill, and within 150 yards of the shore of the Moray Firth. A deep glen or ravine skirts the churchyard on the west.' The Daur or Dour (Dour, Gaelic for Otter; Aber, the Mouth; Aberdour, the Mouth of the Otterburn), a small clear stream, sweeps down the glen, in which there are a mill and cottages prettily situated on ledges of the precipitous bank. The stream is spanned by a rude wooden bridge for foot-passengers. To the west of this brook, along the base of the brae of Auchmedden, which here rises abruptly, a small mill-lade may be traced | which conducted the water to the "Waulkmill of Auchmedden." Of this place we read that "On the night of the 8th March 1784, at Waulkmill of Auchmedden, a large piece of brae slipped down and overturned the house of Thomas Torry, dyer, and killed his wife, one of his sons, and his servantmaid." Huge rugged rocks of red sandstone rise abruptly from the pebbled beach, while the clear blue sea fills up the distance in this lovely picture. There are two noted springs in this immediate neighbourhood"St. Drostane's Well" and 'Mess 66 John's Well." St. Drostane's is about 150 yards along the beach, eastward from the point where the burn of Aberdour joins the sea. It is a copious spring of the purest water, bubbling up from a rocky bottom at the mouth of Durstane's Glen, or Durstane's Slack. Drostane was a disciple and companion of Columba of Iona, and it is made clear by the Book of Deir, lately discovered, that he brought the knowledge of Christ to the shores of the Moray Firth as early as the 6th century. Although his name had long been venerated as the patron saint of the parish of Aberdour, it would not appear to have been generally known that his ministrations were exercised at so early a date, nor that his visit to the place was anterior to the acknowledgment of the Pope's authority by the Scottish Church, for in a "Description of the Parish of Aberdour" by Auchmedden, A.D. 1724 (in MS.) we have the following:-"Near the sea-bank there is a fine spring below the church called St. Durstan's Well, from a bishop of that name who lived thereabouts in the times of Popery; and the well is still reckoned sacred by the country people. In the New Statistical Account of the parish by the late Rev. George Gardiner, the history of the other well is thus recorded:"There are mineral springs in almost every corner of the parish, but one more remarkable and more frequented than the rest, called Mess John's Well, issues from a rock about 200 yards west of the burn of Aberdour. It is a strong chalybeate, and famed for its medicinal qualities. A small basin in the shape of a cup for the reception of the water, which trickles down the rock, is said to have been cut by a John White, laird of Ardlawhill, at the time that Presbytery and Prelacy contended for the mastery. Neither of the parties during the heat of the contest had regular worship at the parish church; but John attended every Sunday, prayed, sung, and read a chapter from the precentor's desk, then prayed again, and concluded the service by singing another psalm. This he continued to do till Presbyterianism was fairly estab |