gave names to people and places, but left no military monuments. As little can I find any certain accounts of the military actions of the Picts, in this country. Their battles and skirmishes, whether with the Scots or the Saxons, were in the southern Provinces ; but, since the overthrow of the Pictish kingdom, we have traces of some memorable battles and conflicts, of which I shall give the most genuine account I could learn.

The character which Tacitus gives of the German Catti, may, I doubt not, be applied to the ancient inhabitants of this Province, particularly to the Highlanders,—“ Duriora genti corpora, stricti artus minax vultus, et major animi vigor; nec arare terram, aut expectare annum, tam facile persuaseris, quam vocare hostes, et vulnera mereri; Pigrum quin imo et iners videtur sudore acquirere, quod possis sanguine parare.

The great men, and chiefs of clans, in Scotland, for many ages, lived independent of the Kings, they held their land by no other tenure than a forcible possession. In the year 1590, there was brought to the Exchequer, an account of 250,000 merks, yearly rent, (a large sum in these days), to which the chieftains, in the western Isles, had no other right but Duchus or possession.

The few Royal Forts through the kingdom were not sufficient to awe the country and maintain peace; and our kings were necessitated to grant large powers, and extensive jurisdictions to great men, with liberty to build Fortalices on their own lands, and to garrison them for the maintaining peace and order. By this, the power of the Crown was weakened, and the Nobles and Chieftains became

• This race possessed a sturdy frame of body, limbs well knit, stern countenances, and a great degree of courage. You could not so easily persuade them to till their lands, and observe the respective seasons of the year, as you might bring them to face their enemies, and give and take the most deadly wounds. For they even held it slothful and cowardly to acquire by the sweat of their brows, what they could possess by the shedding of their blood.

factious and ungovernable; and insurrections, tumults, and riots, were frequent in every corner.

The Royal Forts in this Province were—

A Fort at Elgin. This Fort stood on a small hill, now called the Lady-hill, at the west end of the town, on the north side. The plain area on the top of the hill is eighty-five yards in length, and fortyfive in breadth. There are some remains of the walls of this Fort yet standing, but such as do not show the form or extent of the buildings. Generally these Forts were a square, or an oblong square, the walls about twenty feet high, and four feet thick, with towers in the angles, all wrought with run lime. Within the walls were rooms and barracks of wood,—the gate or entrance was guarded by an iron grate, and a port-cullis; and some Forts had parapets on the top of the wall. Within the court there was a draw-well, and the whole Fort was environed with a fosse, over which was a draw-bridge. Vestiges of all these things are to be seen at this Fort at Elgin. The strength of such Forts was considerable before great guns came into use. The Randolphs, Dunbars, and Douglasses, Earls of Moray, were Constables of this Fort, and had the customs of the town, the assize of ale, and, probably, the sixty-auchten parts, and the moss wards, now belonging to the town, for their salary. They had a Jurisdiction within certain bounds round the Fort, and judged in riots and trespasses committed within these bounds. not certain if, after the death of Archibald Douglas, anno 1455, any Earl acted as Constable of this Fort; but the Castle-hill, or Ladyhill, has always been the property of the Earls of Moray, and is so of the present Earl.

I am

The Fort at Forres was pleasantly situated on an eminence at the west end of the town, and was fortified as that of Elgin. It was in this Fort that King Duffus was barbarously murdered, anno 965 or 966. Donald, grand-uncle of Bancho, Thane of Lochaber, and ancestor of the family of Stewart, was Governor of the Fort, and much

trusted when the King came to Forres, in order to punish some villains. The King was a strict Justiciary, and would not grant a remission to some Criminals, for whom Donald and his wife had warmly solicited,-wherefore they caused strangle him in his bed, and hid his corpse under a bridge near Kinloss. Donald, conscious of his guilt, fled from Cullen, successor to Duffus; but his wife being put to the torture, confessed the whole scene. Donald was seized, and, with his accomplices, justly put to death, and the Fort was razed. I know not if this Fort was rebuilt, and used as a Royal Fort; but it is certain there was a Castle where it had stood, of which the Dunbars of Westfield had the property, with the Castle-lands; but I do not find that they acted as Constables.

The Royal Fort, at Nairn, stood on the bank of the river, a little above the present bridge. The river, with a rocky precipice, guarded one side of it, and it was strongly walled, and ditched about on the other sides. The Thanes of Calder were hereditary Constables of this Fort, and so was the present John Campbell of Calder, till the Jurisdiction-act, anno 1747.

At Inverness, we find in our histories a Fort, or Castle, very early. It stood on a hill close by the river, and commanded the town. What was the form of the old Fort, I find not; but it appears that it had a ditch, and an agger, or rampart of earth, on three sides. The Governor of it was appointed during pleasure, or for life, for some ages; but, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, if not sooner, the Earl of Huntly was made hereditary Constable of it, and for his fee or salary had the following lands, called the Castle-lands,— viz. the three Davachs of Dunachtin, and the two Davachs of Kinrara and Delnaford, in Badenoch, the Davach of Shevin in Strathern, the lands of Tordarach, Bochruben, and Dundelchack, in Strathnairn and Stratherick, (these lands are the property now of the Laird of Macintosh),—likewise the Davach of Essich in the parish of Inverness, now belonging to Macintosh,-the lands of Porterfield,