Rhymer's prophetic couplets, preserved | So he defeated the Comyns, pursued in a MS. of Sir James Balfour, Lyon King at Arms in 1660

"When Dee and Don run both in one,
And Tweed shall run in Tay,
Ye little river o' Ury

Shall bear ye Bass away."

This Bass was probably the fortress of
Inverurie in primeval and prehistoric

times.

Near to it is the very old churchyard called Polnars, an abbreviation of St. Apollinaris.

In the immediate neighbourhood are many interesting antiquities, such as the remains of Roman camps on the hills of Crichie and Barra, circles, ancient tombs, etc., accounts of which may be read in Dr. Davidson's "Inverurie and the Earldom of the Garioch."

We may note, however, that here in 1308 (or 1306?) did Robert the Bruce win one of his victories, which, though not so noted in history as those over the English, had nevertheless a great influence on the course of events. His

then

adversaries were the great House of Comyn, whose two branches, those of Buchan and Badenoch, were supreme in the north. The king felt that the reduction of his rivals power was a necessary preliminary to the final struggle with the English, and for that campaign made his headquarters in the Garioch, where he possessed hereditary estates. Against him from Buchan came Sir John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, and Sir John Moubray, who, resting at Old Meldrum, sent forward "Schyr Davy of Breechyn," who drove in the outposts of the king, then lying sick at Inverurie, Barbour tells how, when the king rose from his sick-bed to go to the field of battle, his followers remonstrated with him, and how he replied that the temporary success of his foes had driven away his illness :

"Than said sum of his preve men,

What think ye Schyr thus gat to far,
To fecht, and yhat not concevit are?
Yhis, said the King, 'forouten wer,
Thar bost has mad me hale and fer,
For suld na medecin nor sone
Haf concrit me as tha haf done;
Tharfar, sa God Himself me se,
I sall outher haf them, or the me."

them into their own realm of Buchan, and, as we shall have occasion to notice in another place, ravaged their possessions and proscribed their name.

It did not

Inverurie was also the scene of another battle at a much later day, when Lord Lewis Gordon, who was acting on behalf of Prince Charles Edward in the north, and who displayed the same dash as a former Lord Lewis Gordon, the companion of Montrose, defeated a force of Government forces in 1745. The action was a sharp one, and was remarkable for its inversion of the ordinary circumstances of that struggle. For at the battle of Inverurie King James's troops were mainly Lowland levies, raised by some of the gentlemen of Aberdeenshire, while King George's men were MacLeods and Munros, detached from the in the north, and the Highlanders were Highland army under Lord Loudoun to the west of the Bass, and was as beaten. The contest took place a little decisive as it was short. last half an hour, and ended in the total overthrow of the Royalist troops, who were completely overpowered. The MacLeods were surprised in their quarters in bed, and fought at a great disadvantage, being scattered all about the town of Inverurie, and a portion of them at Ard tannes, some distance off. MacLeod fought in his shirt, having no time to dress. It was thought he had lost his life in the action. But it would appear that he did not, but retreated towards the north, and lived for at least seven or eight years after his unfortunate defeat. "It is recorded of him that one day in the winter, about seven years after the skirmish, MacLeod was passing through Huntly on his way south, when, there being a heavy fall of snow on the ground, he urged the innkeeper to procure him a guide to Inverurie. The host, old John Mellis, well known for his attachment to the Stewarts, said to MacLeod in his own dry way, in allusion to the retreat of the latter, 'I think I recollect a gentleman of your name and appearance once coming through Huntly from Inverurie without a guide.'

The house and grounds of Keithhall | and again restored, opposed the inserare worthy of a visit. The house has tion in the Act reversing his attainder been built at various periods, but retains of any clause empowering him to much of the old style. It has been succeed to titles. The title of the sufficiently modernised to make it a Earldom of Kintore was therefore in comfortable residence. The grounds, abeyance for seventeen years, from the lawns, and gardens are extensive and death of the fourth Earl to the death beautifully laid out. of the tenth Earl Marischal. At the decease of the latter, in 1778, the Kintore titles, as well as the estate, were inherited by Anthony Adrian, eighth Lord Falconer of Halkerton, who was the grandson of Lady Margaret, the second daughter of the second Earl of Kintore. This nobleman, who thus became fifth Earl, was the direct ancestor of the present holder of the title who unites both the Kintore and the Falconer peerages, being (1881) ninth Earl of Kintore and twelfth Lord Falconer. Besides the Keithhall estate there is property belonging to the Earl in the counties of Kincardine and Forfar.'

"The estate of Keithhall, like most of the parish (Keithhall), passed at an early period into the hands of the Keiths, Earls Marischal, from whom both estate and parish received their name. The Kintore family, who now possess it, derive their origin from the Hon. Sir John Keith, fourth son of the sixth Earl Marischal. Sir John is said to have assisted in the secreting and preservation of the Scottish Regalia, when the Castle of Dunottar, to which the royal insignia had been sent for safety, was besieged by General Lambert, one of the officers of Cromwell, who, had he got possession of them, would in all likelihood have converted A little to the east of the house of into hard cash such "baubles.' Sir Keithhall is to be seen the site of the John's share in the transaction does old Castle of Caskieben, the ancient not very clearly appear (for it is well name of this estate. The present known that the Regalia was conveyed Caskieben is a modern assumption of from the castle by night, by Mrs. the old name. "Previous to its com Grainger, wife of the minister of Kinneff, assisted by her servant, who buried them beneath the pulpit of the church of Kinneff, where they remained till the Restoration), but having gone to France, he was on his return apprehended on a charge of having conveyed them thither, and his admission of this charge was at least the means of staying search for the missing jewels. In consideration of his services, Sir John was at the Restoration in 1660 appointed Knight Marischal of Scotland. In the following year he had a charter of the lands of Caskieben, the ancient name of Keithhall; and in 1677 he was created Earl of Kintore, and Lord Keith of Inverury and Keithhall.

"Dying in 1714, the first Earl was succeeded by his son William, who had two sons and two daughters. The sons were successively third and fourth Earls; but both dying without issue, the estate passed in 1761 to their relative George, tenth Earl Marischal. This nobleman having been attainted

ing into the hands of the Keiths, Caskieben had been a possession of the family of Johnston, of whom one member was the famous Latin poet Dr. Arthur Johnston, to whom reference has been already made. This personage, who has in truth by his latinity created for himself a Horatian monument— every parish in the surrounding district putting in some claim to connection with him either from education or residence-was a man of no little eminence in his day. Born at Caskieben in 1587, he studied medicine on the continent, residing for many years in France, and, returning to this country was named physician to Charles the first. Johnston was a large contributor to the Latin poems issued in 1637 under the title of Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum hujus Evi Illustrium.' He also attempted a competition with Bu chanan in a Latin version of the Psalms which he issued in 1637, entitling the production Paraphrasis Poetica Psalmorum Davidis.' Johnston's merits

Sir Walter Scott has introduced into

his tale of The Antiquary some imitation of this ancient ballad, and the whole passage is so beautiful that it cannot be out of place to introduce it here. It is this:

"As the Antiquary lifted the latch of the hut he was surprised to hear the shrill tremulous voice of Elspeth chanting forth an old ballad in a wild and doleful recitative

'The herring loves the merry moonlight,
The mackerel loves the wind,
But the oyster loves the dredging sang,
For they come of a gentle kind.'

A diligent collector of these legend-
ary scraps of ancient poetry, his foot
refused to cross the threshold when his
ear was thus arrested, and his hand
instinctively took pencil and memoran-
dum-book. From time to time the old
woman spoke as if to the children,-
'Oh ay, hinnies, whisht! whisht! and
I'll begin a bonnier ane than that—

'Now haud your tongues, baith wife and carle,
And listen great and sma',

And I will sing of Glenallan's Earl
That fought on the red Harlaw.

"The cronach's cried on Bennachie,
And doun the Don and a',

And hieland and lawland may mournfu' be
For the sair field of Harlaw-

"Chafron!' exclaimed the Anti

quary, equivalent perhaps to cheve-
ron; the word's worth a dollar;' and
down it went in his red book.
They hadna ridden a mile, a mile,

A mile, but barely ten,

When Donald came branking down the brae
Wi' twenty thousand men.
'Their tartans they were waving wide,

Their glaives were glancing clear,
Their pibrochs rang frae side to side,
Would deafen ye to hear.

"The great Earl in his stirrups stood,
That Highland Host to see;

Now here a knight that's stout and good,
May prove a jeopardie:

"""What wouldst thou do, my squire so gay,
That rides beside my reyne,
Were ye Glenallan's Earl the day,
And I were Roland Cheyne?

"To turn the rein were sin and shame,
To fight were wondrous peril,
What would ye do now, Roland Cheyne,
Were ye Glenallan's Earl?"

Ye maun ken, hinnies, that this
Roland Cheyne, for as poor and auld as
I sit in the chimney-neuk, was my for-
bear, and an awfu' man he was that
day in the fight, but specially after
the Earl had fa'en, for he blamed him-
self for the counsel he gave, to fight
before Mar came up wi' Mearns, and
Aberdeen and Angus.'

"Her voice rose and became more animated as she recited the warlike

I dinna mind the neist verse weel-counsel of her ancestor—
my memory's failed, and there's unco
thoughts come ower me-God keep us
frae temptation !'

"Here her voice sunk in indistinct muttering.

""Were I Glenallan's Earl this tide,

And ye were Roland Cheyne,
The spur should be in my horse's side,
And the bridle upon his mane.

""If they hae twenty thousand blades,
And we twice ten times ten,
Yet they hae but their tartan plaids,
And we are mail-clad men.

666

My horse shall ride through ranks sae rude, | ordered Balquhain to be burned in
As through the moorland fern,
Then ne'er let the gentle Norman blude
Grow cauld for Highland kerne."

"Do you hear that, nephew?' said Oldbuck,' you observe your Gaelic ancestors were not held in high repute formerly by the Lowland warriors.

"I hear,' said Hector, a silly old woman sing a silly old song. am surprised, sir, that you, who will not listen to Ossian's songs of Selma, can be pleased with such trash. I vow I have not seen or heard a worse halfpenny ballad; I don't believe you could match it in any pedlar's pack in the country. I should be ashamed to think that the honour of the Highlands could be affected by such doggrel.' And tossing up his head he snuffed the air indignantly.

'Apparently the old woman heard the sound of their voices; for ceasing her song she called out, Come in, sirs, come in,-good will never halted at the door stane.'"

And so we have no more of Sir Walter Scott's version of the battle of Harlaw.

Over against the field of Harlaw are the ruins of the old castle of Balquhain mentioned in the ballad,

"And down and by Balquhain."

They lie to the south-east of the Church of Chapel of Garioch. The old castle is a structure of great antiquity and an ancient seat of the Leslies. The court, or quadrangle, is in ruins, but the tower or keep still stands. Hay says, "There is no tradition as to the date of the original building, but the square tower, now extant, was erected about the year 1530 by Sir William Leslie, seventh Baron of Balquhain, to replace the more ancient castle, burned by the Forbeses in 1526." The Leslies received the lands of Balquhain and others from David II. in 1340. Mary Queen of Scots visited the tower on 9th September 1562, previous to the battle of Corrichie, when, having returned from France, she was making her first progress through her kingdom. The New Statistical Account informs us that the Duke of Cumberland

1746; but there is a local tradition that this calamity was averted by one of the tenants named John Nicoll, who offered to the soldiers sent to set fire to the castle his broad bonnet full of silver pieces, and said to them, "My lads, I'll gi'e ye a' this if ye winna burn the auld place." They took his money, filled the vault with wet straw, and when from the road the Duke beheld the dense smoke which enveloped the castle he was satisfied that his orders had been executed, and proceeded northward on his way to Culloden. The castle is "placed picturesquely on a rocky knoll, which overhangs the Natrick, a mile or more eastward from the older rude Balquhain fastness on the summit of Bennachie." This older Balquhain is a fortress said to have been built by the Earl's "Master of Horse at Harlaw"-Sir Andrew Leslie of Balquhain. It is approached by a rude causeway which leads to it over the marshy ground on its only accessible side. "To that lofty stronghold he carried off young women, whose beauty excited his unbridled passions, and he had himself to take refuge in its fastness from the displeasure of his lord superior, the Earl of Mar, after some lawless proceedings of his family.' No doubt this is pure and idle tradition. The remains of the fort on Bennachie are similar to those of other numerous hill-forts in many parts of the country, and are probably attributable to the ancient Celtic inhabitants. It is possible enough, however, that this turbulent "Sir Andro" may have made use of it as a residence in time of need.

A mile or so beyond the station, on the right, is Pitcaple Castle (H. Lumsden, Esq.), beautifully situated in a hollow, and embosomed among fine trees. A portion of the house is very ancient; the date of its erection, however, is not exactly known; a large part probably dates from about the beginning of the 17th century, whilst there are also modern additions.

Queen Mary is said to have visited Pitcaple and spent a night in the house. In memory of this visit she planted a