ut prenominati abbas et conventus prefatam ecclesiam teneant et possideant de me et heredibus meis ita libere quiete plenarie et honorifice sicut aliqua domus religionis in toto regno Scottorum aliquam ecclesiam de aliquo barone liberius quietius plenarius tenet et honorificentius Hiis testibus nationes; and the first marches that wer heard ther was the Scottish marche; afterward the Irish marche was hearde; then the English marche. But before thes noyses ceased, thes who had been trained up much of ther lyves abroade in the German warres, affirmed that they could perfectly, by their hearing, discerne the marches upon the drumme, of severall forraine nationes of Europe, such as Frensh, Dutch, Danes, etc. Thes drumms were so constantly heard, that all the countrey people next adjacent wer therwith accustomed; and sometymes thes drummers wer heard off that hill, in places two or three myle distant. Some people, in the night, travelling neer by the Loche of Skeene, within three myle of that hill, wer frighted with the lowde noyse of drummes, struck hard by them, which did convey them along the way, but saw nothing; as I had it oftne from such as heard these noyses, from the laird of Skeen and his lady, from the laird Eycht, etc., and my owne wyfe, then living ther in Skeene all that winter, almost immediatly after that the people thus terrifyed had come and told it with affrightment. Some gentlemen of knowne integritye and truth, affirmed that, neer thes places, they heard as perfect shott of cannon goe off as ever they heard at the Battell of Nordlingen, wher themselves, some yeares befor, had been present." (Gordon's History of Scots Affairs, from MDCXXXVII. to MDCXLI., vol. i., pp. 56–58. Aberd. 1841. 4to.) "A mile further on, I cross'd the skirt of a high round hill, called The Barmkin of Echt, on the summit of which are the remains of a Pictish camp; over which, if tradition may be believed, many armies were seen, many drums heard, and many an aerial bloodless battle fought, before the troubles in King Charles the First's time. On the south side of this hill are the ruins of the house of Echt." (Douglas' Description of the East Coast of Scotland, p. 254.) See, as to the remarkable structure of The Barmkin of Echt, Gordon's Itinerarium Septentrionale, p. 162. Lond. 1726. fol.; Archaeologia Scotica, vol. ii., p. 327, plates vii. and viii.; The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xiii., pp. 620, 621. Edinb. 1794; The New Statistical Account of Scotland, number xxxix., pp. 737, 738. Edinb. 1842.] 1 [From the Liber Ecclesie Sancte Trinitatis de Scon, p. 58. Edinb. 1843. 4to. On the seventeenth of December, 1226, the same church (" ecclesia de Heyth cum pertinentiis suis ") was confirmed to the same religious, by Pope Honorius III. (Id., p. 67.) In "The Rentall of the Abbacie of Scowne, A.D. 1561," occurs "The Kirk of Echt, xxvj lib. xiij sol. iiij d." (Id., p. 216.)] THE PARISH OF CLUNY. I A GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PARISH OF CLUNY. 1 SCHOOLMASTER OF... 3 BY MR. JAFFRAY, A.D. M.DCC.XXII. 2 LUNY has to the north, the parish of Monymusk; to the south, Kinnairny and Midmar parishes; to the east, that of Kemnay, and part of Kinnairny; and to the west, the parish of Touch. Gentlemen's seats in it are : Castle Fraser, one mile and a quarter east from Cluny. [See Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, p. 637.] 2 [From Macfarlane's Geographical Collections for Scotland, MSS. Bibl. Adv.] 3 ["The parish of Cluny consists of the old parish of that name, and of the half of the parish of Kinearny thereto annexed, by decreet of the court of teinds, in the year 1743: the other half of Kinearny is annexed to Midmar, and the stipend and glebe thereof possessed by these two ministers respectively. "There are three Druidical temples in the district, of the usual circular form and size, and three pillars, but without any inscription, one of them ten feet high and five feet broad above ground: it is supposed to be the place at which the vassals of the superior were obliged to assemble, in feudal times. a There are also two other pillars, one of them ten feet high, and the other eight, standing near one another, but without any inscription. About three years ago, in repairing a road, on the top of a sandy eminence, were found two stone coffins, or rather chests, each consisting of four flat stones laid on their edges, with a large flat stone for a cover: in each was found a human skull and several human bones, together with an urn of coarse earth or clay and rude figures, with ashes in each, but different in shape from Roman urns. "There is a well, called The Tipper Castle Well, generally resorted to some time ago, not for its medicinal virtues, but because of its having been consecrated; rags, threads, and small oblations in money, were wont to be made at it, so late as the settlement of the present incumbent; but all these for a considerable time have been effectually abolished. "The large rivulet or burn of Cluny breeds pearls: some years ago, a Jew employed people to fish them, and a great many were got, some of them large and of a good water, which were carried to London to be disposed of. a [By a charter dated at Aberdeen, on the eighth of July, 1468, Alexander Earl of Huntly, with consent of his son and heir apparent, George Lord of Gordon, grants to his son-in-law, William Lord of Forbes, the lands of Abergarden, in the barony of Obeyn; the lands of Tully four and Tulikery, in the lordship of Tullich, in the barony of Cluny; and the lands of Suthnahune, in the barony of Mgymar; "faciendo tres sectas ad tria placita capitalia tenenda apud le graystane de Cluny." (Original in the charter room at Castle Forbes.)] Cluny, 1 one mile south-west from Monymusk, and thirteen miles west from Aberdeen. The rectified highway, called The Skene Road, from Aberdeen, enters on the south-east side of the parish; and, passing by a village called Drumlahoy, crosses The Burn of Ton, at mill of Clunie, by a good bridge of two arches ; thence west to the church, which is about a quarter of a mile west from the house of Clunie, and enters the parish of Monymusk about half a mile to the north-west of the church of Cluny; thence north-west, along betwixt the villages of Todlachy and Tillyfoure, in the parish of Monymusk, till it enters into the parishes of Touch and Keig. The Burn of Ton rises in the west side of this parish, and runs in several windings east and northward to the mill of Clunie; a little below which, it turns east, and is mostly the boundary of the parish of Monymusk from those of Cluny and Kemnay, till it fall into the river Don, a little below the bridge, on the road from Aberdeen to Monymusk. "There is a family in the district, of the name of Robertson, originally from Athol, who uninterruptedly have possessed one of the largest farms, from father to son, for a series of upwards of two hundred and thirty years. One of this family was the first protestant incumbent at Cluny after the reformation. An heritor of the district joined himself to the Camissars; and, having wrote down the reveries of these people, as they were uttered, denominated himself clerk to the Holy Ghost." (The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. x., pp. 245-250. Edinb. 1794.)] 1 [In a roll of missing charters of King Robert I. is "Carta to Alexander Fraser of Cluny, of the lands of Cardnye, with the fishing of the loch of Skeen, in vicecomitatu de Aberdein." (Robertson's Index to the Charters, p. 16; Crawfurd's Lives of the Officers of State, p. 274.) In a roll of missing charters of King David II. is "Carta to William Earl of Sutherland, and Margaret the King's sister, of the barony of Cluny, in vicecomitatu de Aberdein, with the advocation of the kirk." (Robertson's Index to the Charters, p. 32; Miscellany of the Maitland Club, vol. i., p. 361; Sir Robert Gordon's Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland, p. 51. Edinb. 1813. fol.) "The castle of Cluny has still a double-barred iron gate, weighing thirty-two stones, with massy iron bolts, and the remains of a fosse once full of water. A large meadow of a hundred acres, great part of which was formerly overflowed, and being a marsh, was a defence to the castle, is now perfectly dry, and fit for tillage." (The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. x., pp. 246, 249.)] 2 ["Maister Mathow Lumisden of Tillicarne departitt the xxij day of June 1580 yeris." (MS. Register of Burials in the archives of the City of Aberdeen.) He was the author of " A Description of the Genealogie of the Houss of Forbes," printed at Inverness in the year 1819.] G THE PARISH OF BANCHORY SAINT TERNAN.1 A DESCRIPTION OF THE PARISH OF UPPER BANCHORY, IN THE MERNS. BY WILLIAM FARQUHAR. (A.D. M.DCC.XXIV.)2 3 HE parish of Upper Banchory, or Banchory Trinity, in The church stands in the village of Banchory, on the north side of the river Dee, (an inch straight opposit in the river,) six miles east of Kincairden, twelve miles west of Aberdeen. 1 [See Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, pp. 637-639.] 2 [From Macfarlane's Geographical Collections for Scotland, MSS. Bibl. Adv.] 3 ["The latter part of the name of this parish is that of its patron saint. Hence, one of two annual fairs, held near by, is called Saint Tarnan's Market; and a small fountain, not far distant, is called Saint Tarnan's Well." (The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. vii., p. 369. Edinb. 1793.)] 4 ["The minister here has the annual rent of a hundred pounds sterling, mortified for his behoof by Dr. Alexander Reid, whose father had been a minister here. The same Dr. Reid mortified a sum for a school for teaching Latin, English, writing, and arithmetic ; and two thousand merks for the maintenance of the mistress of a woman's school." (The Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. vii., p. 373.) Alexander Reid, M.D., was born at Banchory St. Ternan, towards the end of the sixteenth century, and died at London, where he had practised medicine with great success, in the year 1640. He published some works in anatomy and surgery, which will be found enumerated in the late Professor Dugald Stewart's Biographical Memoirs of Dr. Adam Smith, Dr. William Robertson, and Dr. Thomas Reid, p. 527. Edinb. 1811. 4to.; and in The Book of Bon-Accord, pp. 313, 314. Aberd. 1839. 8vo. His father, James Reid, was the first minister of the parish of Banchory St. Ternan, after the reformation; his eldest brother, Robert, succeeded to that benefice; and another brother, Dr. Thomas Reid, was secretary in the Greek and Latin tongues to King James VI. The benefactions which Dr. Alexander Reid bestowed on the place of his birth are thus commemorated by a contemporary: "Ante omnia loco natali, ut par erat, gratificari satagens, ibi aperiendam curavit, sumptu haud modico, scholam illustrem et liberam, structurae splendore, redituum copia, librorum supellectile, et alumnorum numero insignem: qualem nullam in villis aut pagis nostrae patriae videbitis : imo quae fere, titulis omnibus commemoratis, scholas plerasque urbicas non solum adaequet, sed et superet. Ptochodochium etiam ibi extruendum curavit, quod idoneis reditibus auxit, ut viris, pueris, hominibus omnium ordinum benefacere possit." (Andreae Crathes is one mile east of Banchory, and a quarter of a mile north of the river. Reamore is two miles north of Banchory, and two miles north-west of Crathes. It has The Hill of Fair to the north. Inchmarloch is one mile west-north-west of Banchory. Here is the wood of Glencomon, to the west, one mile long, and half a mile broad. Tilliquhilly is on the south side of Dee, one mile distant from and opposit to Banchory. A moss, south therfrom three quarters of a mile, is called The Mulloch. Two passage boats cross the river, a little above the village; the one below the water of Feuch, which falls into the river there, (a very little above Banchory, on the south side of the river Dee,) and the other immediatly above. A little above the said infall of the river Feuch is the wood of Invery, closs on the river, about half a mile long and broad. A mile north of Banchory are two lochs, 2 very near to each other. The Strachani Panegyricvs Inavgvralis, quo Autores, Vindices, et Evergetae Illustris Vniversitatis Aberdonensis justis elogiis ornabantur, publice dictus in auditorio maximo Collegii Regii ejusdem vniversitatis, 7. Kal. Sextil. anno 1630. Huic adjecta est Coronis, laudes exhibens viri clarissimi D. Alexandri Rhaedi, doctoris medicinae excellentissimi, recentis benefactoris munificentissimi, p. 34. Aberdoniis, excudebat Edwardus Rabanus, anno Domini 1631.) A tombstone in the churchyard of Banchory St. Ternan bears this inscription: "Re-erected at the public expence of the parish, 1776. 1730. Hic jacent reverendi magistri Jacobus Reid a familia de Pitfodels oriundus Banchoriensis ecclesiae pastor a reformatione primus, Robertus Reid dicti Jacobi filius, et Robertus Reid Roberti dicti nepos, uterque ecclesiae ejusdem pastores. Hic jacent magister Thomas Reid qui obiit in Eslie anno aetatis 76 et Joanna Burnet ejus conjux quae obiit anno aetatis 90. Necnon Thomas Reid quondam in Pittenkerie, qui hoc monumentum erigi curavit et obiit 31 Januarii 1733 aetatis suae 76. Et Agnes Fergussona ejus conjux quae obiit 21 die Decembris 1728 aetatis 70. Petrus Reid et Catherina Reid eorum filii." The grandson of Mr. Robert Reid, the second of that name, minister at Banchory St. Ternan, was Mr. Lewis Reid, minister of the neighbouring parish of Strachan, father of Dr. Thomas Reid, the well-known metaphysician. (Professor Dugald Stewart's Biographical Memoirs of Smith, Robertson, and Reid, pp. 400-402, 525—527.) George Campbell, D.D., principal of The Marischal College from the year 1759 to the year 1795, the author of The Philosophy of Rhetoric, and of other well-known works, was minister of the parish of Banchory St. Ternan, from the year 1749 to the year 1757.] 1 [See Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, pp. 25, 38-41, 638.] 2 ["There is a loch called The Loch of Drum, between two and three miles in circuit, at the eastern extremity; and another, of the same dimensions, near the middle of |