liand within his barony of Keth and regalite of Spyne to be haldin of him/ his successouris / and the kirk of Murray / THAIRFOR I obleis me my airis / successouris and assignais of the saidis landis / to be lele / trew and faithfull to the said reuerend fader his cheptour thair successouris and to the kirk of Murray And to manteinne and defend the samyn and to serve the said reuerend fader and his successouris / in oure Soueranne Lord and his successouris weeris be ws or oure subtenentis of the said landis gif we be requirit thairto And als quhen we be requirit be the said reuerend fader / dene or cheptour or ony vther persoune beneficiare within the diocesy of Murraye to resaive thair teynd schavis /vpoune the forsaidis landis / wee sall graunt compotent and conuenient place and robure to ressaive the said teyndis for keping and sauffing of the samynn to the vtilite and proffitt of the awnere thairof but delay fraude gyle and decepcioun my avne teynd being exceppit / And to obserue and keip the punctis forsaid I obleis me my airis successouris and assignais / as said js. In witnes heirof I haiff affixit my propir scele to this my obligacioune and subscriuit the samyn with my hand at the penn led be maister Williame Wysman notair public / At Petlurge the levynt daye of Maij jn the yere of God jm ve and fourty yeris Befoir thir witnes master Thomas Gaderare persoune of Murthlik / - Johnne Gordoune vicar of Keyth Schir Johnne Maitland chaiplane / Thomas Bard Robert Innes and Dauid Bogy with vtheris diuers.

Sequitur subscripcionis tenor /

Johnne Gordoune of Petlurge and Lungar with my hand at the penn led be master William Wysman notair public ·

Octauo die mensis Nouembris anno Dominj millesimo quingentesimo quadragesimo.

Quo die Johannes Gordone antedictus ex eius propria confessione voluntarie monitus est pro se suis heredibus et assignatis ad obseruandam et perimplendam prefatam obligacionem in omnibus suis punctis et articulis et non contraueniendo eidem in futurum sub pena excommunicacionis maioris Thomas Gaderar commissarius .

multuris molendino de Bischope mill et molendino de Keith in fine continetur preceptum saisine, Alexandro Slorath, Alexandro Wysman ballivis: Apud Edinburgum et Elgin, 28 Decembris et 4 Januarii 1562." (Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, pp. 420, 421.)]

THE PARISH OF BOTRIPHNY.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PARISH OF BOTRIFFNIE OR FUMAC KIRK. (circa A.D.

B

M.DCC.XXVI.)

OTRIFFNIE, or Fumac Kirk, hath for its patron Saint Fumac, quhose wooden image is washed yearly, with much formality, by an old woman (quho keeps it) at his Fair (on the third of May 3) in his own well here.1

THE PARISH OF MURTHLAC.5

DESCRIPTION OF THE PARISH OF MURTLACH.6 (circa A.D. M.DCC.XXVI.)

URTLACH (so named quasi, mortis lacus) is dedicated to Saint Moloch. It is a large church. Saint Beyne lyes in the postern, and his two successors in the church-yard. It has a bell, called Ronnach, said to have been brought from Rome.

M

Hard by it is Balveyney castle, so named from Saint Beyne.

Dulan river is said to have been dammed up, and then let out upon the Danes. It runs into Fiddich, which is a swift river.

1 [From a MS. Account of Scotish Bishops in the library at Slaines.]

2 [The wooden image of Saint Fumac, having been swept away by a flood of the Ila, was carried down to the mouth of the Deveron at Banff, where it was stranded; and they y et live, it is said, who remember to have seen the statue committed to the flames, as a monument of superstition, in presence of the parish minister.]

3 ["An annual fair is held here in February." (The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. x. pp. 190, 191. Edinb. 1794; vol. xviii. p. 647. Edinb. 1796.)]

4 ["The church of Botriphnie was built in the year 1617." (The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. x. p. 192; vol. xviii. p. 645.)]

5 [See Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, pp. 649, 650.]

6 [From a MS. Account of Scotish Bishops in the library at Slaines.]

7 ["The church is indeed venerable, but only because it is old.

Tradition reports that

1

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PARISH OF MURTHLACK. (circa A.D. M.DCC.XXX.)

The parish of Murthlack, in the shire of Banff, hath to the north, the parish of Boherm; to the south, the parish of Cabrach; to the east, the parishes of Glass and Botriphny; to the west, the parish of Aberlour.

The church lies eighteen miles from the town of Banf, and six long miles from the village of Keith. It stands closs on the west side of the rivulet Dullan, which runs into the water of Fiddich, a quarter of a mile from it northwards.

There are three small rivers that have their rise in this parish; two of which are exceeded by few in the island for ther clear stream and pleasant aspect, having their banks covered, from their fountains until they run into Spey, with birch, alder, and hazle, and that in great abundance.

its walls are the very same as in the beginning of the eleventh century; and they are so strong that it is thought they may stand for hundreds of years to come. The doors and windows, and the simplicity of the whole edifice, bear witness to its age. The windows are long narrow slits of six feet high, and only ten or eleven inches wide on the outside, but so much sloped away as to measure at their utmost projection ten or twelve feet within. Its shape is that of an oblong, of about ninety feet by twenty-eight. The choir on the east end is twenty-seven feet long, and a few feet higher than the rest of the building. On the ridge of the choir is what they call The Three Bishops, a pyramid like stone of little show, with the semblance of a face on each of its sides, right rudely cut. It has been said that the effigy of Bishop Beyn is to be seen in the wall near the postern door, whereabout it is imagined the tomb of the three first bishops might be found under a vault; but this, at least as to the effigy, is not the case; and for the tomb there has been no search. Nor are there any effigies in the church, except one at full length, over the door which leads from the choir to The Leslies' Aisle, or burying ground, (with no inscription, but called a predecessor of the Kinninvie family); and two half lengths of Alexander Duff of Keithmore, and Helen Grant of Allachie, his spouse, on the south side of the choir, with a Latin inscription. There is another inscription in marble, on a monument to Mr. Hugh Innes, first presbyterian parson of Mortlach after the revolution. There are likewise some very ancient looking gravestones with Saxon characters, below the seats and in the passages. On the banks of the Dullan, a little below the church, appears the foundation of a house overgrown with grass, which would be walked over with little notice, if one were not told that here was the Bishop's palace. Not far thence is a part of the public road, on the opposite side of the same rivulet, leading to the east, called Gordon's Cross. A round stone, which is thought to bave been the pedestal of the cross, remains to be seen. There is on the glebe a standing stone, having on two of its opposite sides some rude and unintelligible sculpture." (The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xvii. pp. 430–432, 445. Edinb., 1796.) "There is on the glebe a large upright stone about seven feet high, on the one side of which are rudely carved a cross and two figures of animals, and on the other side a snake.” (The New Statistical Account of Scotland, number xi. p. 106. Edinb. 1836.) "The church was a little modernized by an addition made to it seven years ago." (Id., p. 108.)]

[From Macfarlane's Geographical Collections for Scotland, MSS. Adv. Bibl.]

The lesser of these two is Dullan, having its rise in the hill of Curquhaby, and from the foot of Belrinnis, a large mountain lying partly in Inverawn and partly in Aberlour parish, four miles from the church to the south-west.

The greater is Fiddich, having its rise partly from the hill and partly from the Alachymachan, five large miles from the church to the south-west. From thence, running north-east four miles, through a glen and forrest to which it gives name, it hath, on its northern bank, the decayed Castle of Auchindown, standing on a rising ground, a mile from the church southwards; and from thence a short half mile, the house of Keithmore, standing on the same side of the river: turning its course here north-westwards, a large mile to the place where it receives the rivulet of Dullan, a short quarter of a mile from the church to the north; and from thence running northwards a short quarter of a mile, it hath, standing on its western bank, the old Castle of Balvanie, 2 at first built by

and since rebuilt by Stewart, Earle of Athol; and from thence, a quarter of mile northwards, a new house, built by William Duff of Braco, anno M.DCC.XXIV. It is distant from Elgin to the north ten miles, from Aberdeen to the south-east thirty-two miles, from Castle Gordon six miles. Half a mile from Balvanie, northwards, stands the house of Tullich, on the east side of the water of Fiddich; and half a mile from that, to the north, stands the house of Kinninvay, on the same side of the water. This rivulet of Fiddich, half a mile below Kinninvay, turning north-west, and continuing its course that way for a large mile, falls into Spey at a place called Boat of Fiddich, in the parish of [Aberlour.]

The third rivulet is I'la, having its rise in that place where Mortleich marches with Botriphny, from a loch commonly called Loch Park, lying from Balvanie a mile to the east, scarcely a quarter of a mile in breadth where brodest, and half a mile in length, and sending forth its waters eastwards through the parish of Botriphny, gives rise to the water of Ila.

Four miles from the church, eastwards, stands the house of Edinglassie, with a burgh of barony and tolbooth, and yearly fair, closs on the west side of the river Dovern, which separates the parish of Glass from the parish of Mortleich.

It is of an fruitfull soill.

The King is patrone.

1 [The Castle of Auchindune stands on a green mount of conical shape, over the Fiddich its situation is bold and commanding." (The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xvii. p. 440.)]

2 ["Balvenie Castle is placed on a beautiful eminence on the banks of the Fiddich, a little below its confluence with the Dullan. In the front and high over its iron and massy gate, which still remains, is the motto of the Earls of Athol, 'FVRTH • FORTVIN • AND FIL. THI FATTRIS. (The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xvii. pp. 440, 441.)]

A DESCRIPTION OF MORTLACH PARISH, IN BANFFSHIRE, BY JAMES FERGUSON. A.D. M.DCC.XLII. 1

Mortlach parish is bounded, on the north, by a part of Aberlour and Boharm parishes; on the east, by part of Botriphny and Glass, as also by part of the river Dovern, and the parish of Cabrach; and on the west, by Glenlivet and part of the parish of Inner Avin. Its length, from east to west, is eighteen miles ; its breadth, about five miles.

The church lyes west by south of Huntly.

The house of Balveny, belonging to Lord Braco, lies one mile east and by north from the church.

The houses of Kininvie and Tullich lie, the first, a mile and an half, the other, two miles, north-east from the church. These houses, together with the church, have the river Fiddich running by them, which discharges itself into that of Spey a litle below Kininvie.

An old Castle, called Auchindown, now ruinous, lies three miles south from the church.

As to its antiquities and etymologie of its name, consult Boetius. It was one of the four ancient bishops sees in Scotland.

There are about fifteen hundred examinable persons. The King is, or at least is reputed to be, patron.

THE PARISH OF MORTLICH.2 (A.D. M.DCC.LXXV.)

This parish, in ancient writings, is called Morthlach, probably from Mor-Lag, id est, a great hollow; for it is a deep hollow, surrounded with hills. Before I enter this parish, I shall a little describe the two rivulets that water it: Fiddich, quasi Fiodhidh, id est, woody, because its sides are covered with wood, hath its rise in the hills south of Mortlich towards Strathdon, and running north-east about three miles, turneth almost due west for a mile, and then, after a course of three miles due north, it falleth into Spey. The other rivulet, Dulenan, (properly Tuilan, from tuil, a flood, because of its impetuous current) takes its rise in the hills of Glenlivat, and running north-east parallell to Fiddich (but separated from it by a ridge of hills) three miles, it mixes with it three miles above Spey.

The parish is in length, from north to south, four miles, and as much in breadth from east to west, besides some skirts that lye near to Botrifnie, Glas, and Cabrach. It is all environed with hills, except a small opening to the north.

1 [From Macfarlane's Geographical Collections for Scotland, MSS. Adv. Bibl.]

2 [From Shaw's History of the Province of Moray, pp. 24-28, 324, 325.]