Chronicles of Strathearn
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Title: Chronicles of Strathearn
Editor: John Hunter
Illustrator: W. B. Macdougall
Release date: August 18, 2008 [eBook #26342]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26342
Credits: Produced by Al Haines
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRONICLES OF STRATHEARN ***
Produced by Al Haines
[Illustration: Title page]
CHRONICLES of STRATHEARN
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
W.B. MACDOUGALL
COVER DESIGNED BY
A. L. RANKIN
CRIEFF
PUBLISHED BY DAVID PHILIPS
1896
[Transcriber's note: the errata below has been applied to this etext.]
ERRATA
The arched stone (Forteviot) does not appear, p. 77 having, through
inadvertence, been printed off without allowing space for it.
In note at the foot of p. 89, "scallop-shel" should be scallop-shell."
In note at the foot of page 90, "1896" should be "1890."
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
By Rev. JOHN HUNTER, M.A., Crieff.
CELTIC SAINTS AND ANCIENT CHURCHES OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JAMES RANKIN, D.D., Muthill.
NEAR THE PICTISH CAPITAL
By Rev. P. THOMSON, B.D., Dunning.
THE HISTORIC PRESBYTERY OF AUCHTERARDER
By Rev. G. D. MACNAUGHTAN, B.D., Ardoch.
MEMORIES OF GASK
By Rev. JAMES MARTIN, Gask.
AT THE HEAD OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JOHN MACPHERSON, Comrie.
ON THE BANKS OF THE DEVON
By Rev. E. B. SPEIRS, B.D., Glendevon.
BY THE WELL OF ST. FILLAN
By Rev. THOMAS ARMSTRONG, Dundurn.
THE PLAIN OF THE BARDS
By Rev. A. GORDON, M.A., Monzievaird.
BETWEEN STRATHALLAN AND STRATHEARN
By Rev. J. MACGIBBON, B.D., Blackford.
THE ABBEY OF INCHAFFRAY
By Rev. JAMES BROWN, M.A., Maderty.
A SOUTHERN OUTPOST ON THE EDGE OF THE HIGHLANDS
By Rev. HUGH M. JAMIESON, Monzie.
THE CASTLE, BARONY, AND SHERIFFDOM OF AUCHTERARDER
By A. G. REID, F.S.A., Scot., Auchterarder.
AT THE GATE OF THE HIGHLANDS
By Rev. JOHN HUNTER, M.A., Crieff.
ILLUSTRATIONS
INCHAFFRAY
GATEWAY, FOULIS CHURCH
[Transcriber's note: The illustration captions below were those in the
source book. The captions above match the actual illustrations.]
AULD HOUSE OF GASK
CHURCH GATE AT FOULIS
PREFACE
This book has been written in connection with a Bazaar held in Crieff
in the month of August, 1896, for the better endowment of the Parishes
of ARDOCH, CRIEFF WEST, GLENDEVON, and MONZIE. The Editorial Committee
venture to hope that the contents will be of some interest to the
dwellers in Strathearn, especially those within the bounds of the
Presbytery of Auchterarder. The warm thanks of the promoters of the
Bazaar are due to the ladies and gentlemen who composed the various
Committees. To them, as representing many hearty sympathisers and
willing workers, the "CHRONICLES OF STRATHEARN" is respectfully
dedicated.
In name of the Editorial Committee,
JOHN HUNTER, M.A., CRIEFF.
HUGH M. JAMIESON, MONZIE.
INTRODUCTION
THE OPENING UP OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JOHN HUNTER, M.A., Crieff
Quite recently it was said to me by a man who had been holiday-making in
Switzerland, that he greatly missed the Alps in every home landscape.
The remark was made on the Knock of Crieff, one beautiful afternoon in
the late autumn, when the sun was setting and the after-glow lay like a
purple semi-transparent mist all along Glenartney from Ben Ledi to
Comrie. I felt rich enough in the enjoyment of the surpassing loveliness
of our own Strath to say "Laich in"--(I would not hurt any person's
feelings for the world)--"Plague take your Alps, with their sky-scraping
ridges and peaks and winding sheets of snow,--we don't want them here;
they would simply spoil a scene like that before us." I don't know, and
may never know, the meaning my companion read into my silence. Having
shortly before made the frank confession that I had never seen the Alps,
he may have intended to excite envious feelings within me, and imagined
he had succeeded. But I can deny the fact with a good conscience, and
until some benevolent person shall give me the opportunity of making a
comparison between home and foreign landscapes, I shall continue to
assert--happy in my ignorance, it may be, but still happy--that there is
no fairer prospect upon earth than the Strath of Earn from the Knock of
Crieff. "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."
Let me adventure to describe it. Right opposite to the south-west is
Turleum--rising to the height of 1300 feet--the highest hill in Scotland
wooded to the top, as our local boast was--shorn of its beauty somewhat
in recent years, but, although bare, still picturesque enough with its
comb of sturdy fir-trees, survivors from the destructive gale of
November, 1893. To the right of it, and running due west, is the pass
into the misty hill country by Comrie and St Fillans--the glen of Bonnie
Kilmeny and Dunira. Midway between us and the mouth of the pass is a
miniature Turleum--Tomachastel to wit, the site of the old Castle of the
Earn, famous in the days when the Celtic Earls of Strathearn were a power
in the land. Lovers of the old ways were these proud and wily
Earls--fiercely impatient of the incoming Saxon customs which found
favour at the Court of Malcolm Canmore and his sons--genuinely pious men,
too, in some instances--(did not Earl Gilbert found or endow Inchaffray,
so that masses might be said for his soul?)--of a keen courage as with
Earl Malise, who at the Battle of the Standard dared his mail-clad
fellows--the barons of King David--to show themselves a single foot in
advance of his naked breast. Right worthy and most noble men they were
in their noblest--they were not all so--cherishers of the national spirit
in the dreary times that followed upon the death of Alexander III. at
Kinghorn, like the one who gave a fair daughter of the house and land in
tocher to the son of Sir Andrew Moray, patriot and friend of Wallace, in
whom the Morays of Abercairny find their origin. Such were the men; and
over there on Tomachastel was their home--a place famous then, and very
noticeable still, with its gleaming memorial obelisk to "oor Davie" of
Ferntower, the hardy soldier who overcame the fierce Tippoo Sahib at
Seringapatam. Beyond lie the Aberuchill Hills, with the flat pyramidal
face of Ben Voirlich filling up a gap, and sending its roots, on one
side, down into "lone Glenartney's hazel shade," and, on the other, into
Loch Earn--sixteen miles away. Further off, and only to be seen on rare
days, when the sun's rays are dancing to be dry after rain, are sturdy,
broad-shouldered Benmore, and slender, graceful Binnein, the twin
guardians of the enchanted region beyond, where Beauty lies in the lap of
Terror, and the Atlantic surf sings lullaby. There are the Monzievaird
hills to the right, rising in Benchonzie to the height of 3048 feet, and
to something under this figure in the Cairngorm or Blue Craig, upon which
you see the stone-heap of Cainnechin--memorial, as it is said, of a
battle fought within what are now the policies of Ochtertyre, and as the
result of which Malcolm II. came to the throne of Scotia, having defeated
and slain his rival Kenneth Duff or Don--Kenneth, the swarthy--"at a
place where two valleys meet." Many battles have been fought out in the
Strath, for it must always have been a rich prize; but this one has a
special historical interest, inasmuch as it connects us with one of the
great tragedies in our annals, in which the genius of Shakespeare found
material for one of his masterly delineations of the strange workings of
human passion. It is said that Fraoch, wife of Macbeth Maormor of Moray,
had a good claim to the throne as the grand-daughter of this Kenneth
Duff, and, prompted by ambition and revenge, instigated her husband to
the murder of his Sovereign and guest--the gracious Duncan, grandson of
Malcolm II., at Bothgowan, near Elgin. Loch Turret lies in the gorge
that separates Benchonrie from the Blue Craig. It is likely enough that
the descendants of the wild fowl that Robert Burns scared on the occasion
of his visit to Ochtertyre still nest and pair in the solitude.
To the left of Turleum is a wider expanse, that carries the eye to the
Moor of Orchill, which overlooks the plain of Ardoch--the Lindum of the
Romans--traditional scene of the battle of Mons Grampus. Some miles away
Stirling finds shelter under its rock,--not visible to us, however, where
we stand, and only audible across the intervening twenty-two miles when
birthday and other honours are paid to Royalty.
The Ochil range--memorial of fierce volcanic action when the lower old
red sandstone was being deposited in the inland lake which stretched from
east to west across the Lowlands of Scotland, and away southward without
a break to the southern uplands, close to the border of England;--this
Ochil range, which means high ground, as Glenogle means high glen, bounds
our view to the south-east. It has no towering peaks, but Bencleuch and
its neighbour, King Seat, command magnificent panoramic views to north
and south from an elevation of 2000 feet. The gap before us is
Gleneagles,--Glen-eccles--Kirk glen--one of the passes into the Lowlands
of Fife and Kinross, by which, it may be, Agricola found his way into
Strathearn after the conquest of Fife. In the very heart of the Ochils
its name changes from Gleneagles to Glendevon. Here again we are upon
classic ground--in the vale of the clear winding Devon, which more than
any other stream recalls Yarrow with its hills green to the top and its
pastoral melancholy. And let me note the fact that here, too, is the
tiniest and daintiest parish church in Scotland--the outpost of the
Presbytery of Auchterarder in this direction.
Between us and the gap, but much nearer the gap, is a bit of rising
ground, running eastward almost parallel with the Ochils, with a downward
slope from west to east, upon which may be seen, if the atmosphere is
clear, smoking chimneys and a faint ruddy hue, as if with the memory of
tiles now discarded for the prosaic if more permanent roofing slate.
That is the "lang toon" of Auchterarder, climbing up the slope somewhat
after the fashion of the Canongate and High Street of Edinburgh, not so
conspicuously or hurriedly, however, as if aware that there was no Castle
Rock from which to view the fertile Strath below. An ancient place,
truly, pedigreed, but by no means penniless, the Presbytery seat, famous
in ecclesiastical annals for its creed, crotchets, and conflicts;
resonant, too, in profane history for its fifty drawbridges--the gift of
the imagination and pawky Scotch humour of George Buchanan, Latinist,
publicist, and tutor to that high and mighty Prince, the British Solomon,
James I. of England and VI. of Scotland. The drawbridges are no more,
for the "lang toon" is a burgh now, with a douce Provost of its own, and
Bailies, and such like novel things and persons. But this we cannot tell
from our present standpoint, and we might easily persuade ourselves this
afternoon that Auchterarder has suffered no sea change, were it not that
every now and again the columns of our local newspaper foam under the
rage of its municipal contendings.
In the far east, the Strath seems to be shut off by the Moncrieffe
Hill--wooded still, as in the days when it was first named. But the Earn
slips between this seeming obstacle and the spurs of the Ochils, making
such haste as it can through carse-like land to join the lordly Tay hard
by Abernethy--the ancient capital of the Southern Picts--the centre of
missionary enterprise, when darkness was thick upon the land after Ninian
had died at Whithorn, on the Solway, and before Columba had set foot upon
Iona. The valley at our feet, the limits of which I have attempted to
mark off, is Strathearn--a right noble expanse of fertile soil, richly
wooded, abundantly watered, dotted over with villages and guardian Parish
Churches, like that of Muthill; bright with Castles that have left their
names in history, and with mansion-houses of hardly less fame, that gleam
from among their ancestral trees--a Strath that may be fitly
characterised as the Scottish Esdraelon, in which many things have
happened, and many men have been well worthy of being held in remembrance.
I had intended in this paper to give an account of some early inroads
into Strathearn, but the exigencies of space have determined for me that
I can deal with only one--the earliest of all--the Roman invasion. I
should have liked to have told the story of the invasion by Egfrid of
Northumbria, which ended so disastrously for him at Nechtansmere--most
likely Dunnichen, in Forfarshire, in the year 685 A.D., and of which it
may well be that we have a solitary trace in the name Abercairny--plainly
identical with Abercornig--Abercorn in the Lothians--where the Angles
founded a monastery under Abbot Trumuini, who, being engaged in
Strathearn advocating the adoption of the Roman in opposition to the
prevalent Columban cult, had to beat a hasty retreat beyond the Forth
when disaster came to Egfrid. The larger subject would have included
also the invasion by Siward, Earl of Northumberland, in support of the
claims of Prince Malcolm, afterwards Malcolm Canmore, in opposition to
Macbeth, the usurper, as he is commonly, perhaps unfairly, called. The
first stage of the inroad ended with an encounter at Tula Amon--at the
junction of the Tay and the Almond, near Perth. The result was not
decisive, for it would seem that for a little while Macbeth kept
possession of the country north of the Forth, being especially strong in
Fife, where he had powerful family connections and friends in the Culdee
brotherhood at Lochleven, while Malcolm reigned in the Lothians. And a
little later, in connection with the complications into which Malcolm was
forced through his fortunate marriage with Margaret, sister of the
Atheling, we have traces--somewhat indistinct, truly, but still
historical--of an inroad by the grim conqueror of England--William, and
of a meeting between him and Malcolm at Forteviot. All this might have
proved instructive in detailed exposition, but I must content myself with
this condensed reference. My subject is, therefore, the earliest
historical inroad into Strathearn--the Roman inroad, which I have called,
in the heading of this paper, the Opening Up of Strathearn.
Everybody knows that Julius Caesar set foot in Britain and conducted a
campaign against the native tribes in 55-54 B.C. He made no permanent
impression. But successive expeditions were sent out, and the tide of
conquest flowed further and further east and west and north till it
reached the Solway. The details of the conflict do not concern us here.
But it would be unpardonable to omit mentioning Boadicea, Queen of the
Iceni, in the East, and of Caractacus, leader of the Silures, in the
West, both of whom offered strenuous opposition to the Roman advance.
The powerful tribe of the Brigantes, who possessed the country between
the Humber and the Solway, made a stout defence in the North, but by the
year 70 A.D. the Roman province was coterminous with the present southern
boundary of Scotland. It was now that the Romans heard the name of a new
tribe--the Caledonian Britons, who, according to report, lived upon fish
and milk, clearly indicating a less advanced stage of civilisation than
that of the tribes they had encountered hitherto. The unexplored
territory in which they dwelt was vaguely called Thule. Tacitus, the
historian, and son-in-law of Julius Agricola--the discoverer of
Strathearn--imagined it to be an island formed by the meeting of the
Firths of Forth and Clyde. But the time was now come when more accurate
information was to be obtained concerning Caledonia and its inhabitants.
Some external characteristics had been noted. The Caledonians were
described as Caerulei, from the green colour with which they stained
their bodies. It was also said that they fought with chariots like the
Britons of the interior, whom Caesar heard of 125 years before.
Julius Agricola was the man who first brought the Caledonians within the
ken of distinct history. He came to Britain in 78 A.D. His first
campaign was on the Welsh border, his second in the territory of some
outlying Brigantian tribes along the northern shores of the Solway.
These were the Selgovae, who occupied what is now the county of Dumfries,
and the Novantes further to the west in the modern counties of
Kirkcudbright and Wigton. To the north of these lay the great nation of
the Damnonii--of the same stock as those who occupied Devonshire in the
south of England. They held extensive territories in the centre of
Scotland, including the counties of Ayr, Lanark, Renfrew, south of the
Firths of Forth and Clyde, and, north of these estuaries, the counties of
Dumbarton and Stirling and the districts of Menteith, Stratherne, and
Forthreve, or the western half of the peninsula of Fife. They were the
"novae gentes," or new nations, whose territories Agricola ravaged as far
as the "Tavaus," or Tay, in his third campaign. They were somewhat
civilised, having towns, of which we know the names of six--three lying
south of and three north of the Firths. The chief of the southern towns
was Coria--Carstairs, near Lanark, on the Clyde. North of the Forth
there were Alauna, where the Allan joins the Forth; Lindum--that is
Ardoch, at our own doors; and Victoria, in Fife, situated on a small
lake. The lake has disappeared, but the name Lochore remains, and is
otherwise famous than as a town of the Damnonii. The natural division
line between the Selgovae, Novantes, and Damnonii was the hilly country
which separates the waters that flow north from those that find their way
into the Solway--the Ituna Aestuarium, as its name then was. Crossing
this mountain barrier, Agricola struck into the valley of the Clyde,
passed with his legions through Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire, then by
the fords of the Forth and the Vale of the Allan into Strathearn, thence
onward to the Tay. There was an alternative route. A fleet accompanied
his movements. He might have crossed the Firth of Forth--the Bodotria
Aestuarium--and penetrated through Fife to the Tay. But Tacitus usually
mentions the crossing of estuaries, and he omits it in this case.
Besides, he states that the natives on the north shore of the Forth were
new to him in the fifth campaign.
It was, therefore, in the year 80 A.D., during his third campaign, that
Agricola entered Strathearn by way of Alauna. He did not effect a
permanent conquest. His operations rather resembled a reconnaisance in
force. But he meant serious business. He planted forts in commanding
situations, choosing so wisely, from a strategic point of view, that not
one of them was ever taken or surrendered. They were placed so as to
command the principal passes into the Highlands. They form a ring-fence
round the territory hastily overrun by Agricola in this third campaign.
Beginning in the west with Bochastle, at the Pass of Leny, near
Callander, we come successively to Dalginross, at Comrie; Fendoch, at the
mouth of the Sma' Glen; the camp at the junction of the Almond and the
Tay; and, Ardargie, in the parish of Forgandenny, on the River May,
commanding an extensive prospect of the Ochils, and along the course of
the road from the Tay to the great camp at Ardoch. Here was evidently
the base of operations, with accommodation, if need arose, for the entire
Roman army in Scotland.
Having thus viewed the land and pegged out his claim by means of forts,
Agricola returned to winter quarters. In the following summer--the
summer of 81 A.D., he made no forward movement. But he was meditating a
great enterprise--no less an enterprise than to penetrate beyond the Tay
and break the power of the Caledonians in their remote fastnesses. It
behoved him to be cautious, so he constructed the chain of forts which
afterwards became the Wall of Antonine--from Borrowstonness, on the
Forth, to Old Kilpatrick, on the Clyde. Meantime he was laying his plans
with admirable foresight. He entrusted the forts in Strathearn to the
courage of their slender garrisons, and the issue proved that he could do
so safely. But there was unexplored territory westward and eastward.
Nobody knew what dangers might be lurking there, ready to assail him in
rear the moment he left the security of his fortified place. So we find
him in the summer of 82 A.D., in Argyll and Kintyre, with a small force,
not fighting so much, as simply exploring, at one point feasting his
Roman eyes, greedy for conquest, upon the coast of Ireland, seen dimly in
the distance, and perhaps scheming in his heart and head to add it also
at a fitting time to the Roman domains.
Returning from the west country, Agricola entered upon the campaign of
three years' duration, which issued in the Battle of Mons Grampus, the
crowning glory of his arms in Scotland, and the immediate occasion of his
recall. He chose the alternative route this time. From his chain of
forts he could see the broad expanse of the Firth of Forth, the coast of
Fife, the central Lomonds, and the distant hill-country, whose
acquaintance he had already made. That distant point was the goal of his
endeavour, and the shortest way to it was across the Firth of Forth,
through the western division of Fife, and on by one of the Ochil
passes--Glendevon, or some other further east into Strathearn. There was
no time to lose. For, while he was engaged in the subjugation of Fife,
the fleet, after exploring the harbours, had doubled the East Neuk,
passed safely through St Andrews Bay, and entered the Firth of Tay. Its
unexpected appearance caused the greatest consternation among the
Caledonians. The immediate result was to greatly increase the peril in
which the devoted garrisons in Strathearn stood. So great was their
danger, and so well was it known, that there were those with Agricola who
advised a retreat to the chain of forts between the Firths. But Agricola
was not to be shaken in his resolve, which was to finally break the power
of the tribes who dwelt to the north and east of the Grampians, and who,
so long as they remained free and unchastised, were a standing menace to
the Strath of the Earn and to the garrisons who held it at the hazard of
their lives. He formed a camp to winter in at a place called Grassy
Walls, on the east side of the Tay, near to Perth. But there was still
time, before the winter set in, for a little exploration and a brush with
the enemy to revive the courage of his soldiers, which had begun to droop
a little. Advancing northward on the left bank of the river, Agricola
reached the Isla, and not caring to cross it so late in the year, in the
face of the enemy who were massed upon the Hill and Muir of Blair beyond,
he diverged to the right, following the course of the Isla until he came
to the place where Coupar Angus stands now. Here he paused. He had
marched from Perth in three divisions to prevent surprise, and in this
neighbourhood there are three positions marked by Roman remains that
correspond with these divisions. The main force was stationed at Coupar
Angus; the Ninth Legion at Lintrose, two miles south-east; a third small
body at a place two miles south-west, overlooking the Tay, and guarding
the passage. These details are important, as helping to determine the
true site of the Battle of Mons Grampus. It may be taken for granted
that the Roman General made good use of his opportunity to survey the
ground upon which the decisive battle was fought. Before retiring to
winter quarters at Grassy Walls, the Roman soldiers had a chance given
them of testing the strength and valour of the Caledonians. The Ninth
Legion was stationed at Lintrose, and here the enemy delivered their
attack under cover of night. They had penetrated into the camp ere they
were discovered, and it might have gone hard with the Legion if help had
not been at hand. But the alarm quickly spread to where Agricola was
stationed with the main body. On his arrival the Caledonians took to
flight. With the first touch of winter the march southward was begun,
and when the summer came the legionaries and the auxiliaries clamoured
impatiently to be led northward to the final encounter.
The theory maintained in this paper regarding the last campaign of
Agricola, and the site of the Battle of Mons Grampus was first broached
in the Statistical Account of the parish of Bendochy, published in 1797.
It has been since adopted by Skene in his classical work on Celtic
Scotland, to which I desire in this place to acknowledge my great
indebtedness. Other sites have been fixed upon, but there are none that
can fairly be put in comparison with the neck of land at the junction of
the Isla with the Tay. What may be called the traditional view of the
site of the battle locates it at Ardoch, in the vicinity of the great
camp. No doubt, good authorities can be quoted in favour of the
correctness of the traditional view. But there are several reasons which
render it highly improbable that the great battle was fought at Ardoch.
The very name Mons Grampus implies the existence of some conspicuous
eminence in the near neighbourhood. There is no such eminence near
Ardoch. Further, we know that Agricola's scheme of operation embraced
joint action on the part of the fleet and land forces. There could have
been no such co-operation if the movement of the legions had been west of
the Tay. And it is a fatal objection to the Ardoch site that there are
not three stations corresponding to those which we have seen the three
divisions of Agricola's force occupied on the night of the surprise.
General Roy, indeed, has tried to turn the edge of this objection by
placing the Ninth Legion at Dalginross, the main body under Agricola at
Ardoch, and the other division at Strageath, overlooking and guarding the
Earn. But it has been retorted upon him that Agricola could have made no
worse disposition of his forces, from a strategic point of view, than to
have stationed his weakest division at Comrie, nine miles distant from
the main body, in the very heart of the enemy's country, close to the
hills, from which they could rush down upon any favourable opportunity,
and to which they could retreat in the event of a repulse.
Besides, help came from the main body in the course of a few
hours--between night and morning. It would be a difficult task even now
for a body of men to cover the ground between Ardoch and Comrie in the
dead of night; and we must remember that in the time of Agricola the
country was a pathless wild, rough with woods in the higher parts, and
covered with treacherous morasses in the valleys. The Damnonii--within
whose territories Ardoch, Comrie, and Strageath lay--were more highly
civilised than the Caledonians beyond the Tay and the Grampian range.
They had towns, as we have seen; they probably engaged to some extent in
agriculture; their food did not altogether consist of fish, milk, and the
produce of the chase. But their towns were few and far between, and the
means of communication very imperfect. The native tribes were not
road-makers, and the Romans had not been long enough in possession, nor
had leisure been granted them to form the solid and straight lines of
communication upon which, everywhere, their power was based. We have
Roman roads in Strathearn, and I daresay a careful student of the
district could walk every foot of the way from Ardoch to Perth along
these roads--street-roads, they are called locally, as I discovered one
night to my surprise on making inquiries as to the shortest route between
the manses of Gask and Trinity-Gask. But these roads were not in
existence when the Battle of Mons Grampus was fought. Much rough
pioneering work had to be gone through ere it was possible to lay them
down. Meantime, the respective positions of the Romans and Caledonians
had changed somewhat. The tide of conquest did not remain at the
high-water mark of Agricola's advance. The Roman garrisons were
withdrawn from Strathearn and from Ardoch. The Wall of Hadrian, between
the Solway and the Tyne, was substituted for the frontier chain of forts
between the Forth and Clyde, and, in consequence, the native tribes kept
pressing ever southward. Hadrian's Wall checked their progress, but
their presence in ever-increasing numbers was a danger to the province.
They had now come to be known as the Caledonii and the Meatae--the men of
the hills and the men of the plains. At length the spirit of Rome
revived in the Emperor Severus, who determined to revisit the scene of
Agricola's early conquests. He came to Britain in 208 A.D., fully one
hundred and twenty years after the Battle of Mons Grampus had been fought
and won. He moved slowly, but did his work effectively. It was a costly
process both in treasure and human life; but, from the point of view of
permanent conquest, it was well done. Roads were formed, bridges built,
and the habits of civilisation introduced into the wilds of Strathearn,
and far away in the North. For, marching by way of Forfar, Kincardine,
and Aberdeen, Severus reached the Moray Firth, and got from the
Caledonians a cession of land to the north of the Tay. It has been
conjectured that he returned south by way of Fortingall and Fendoch and
Ardoch, where are Roman remains of a peculiar kind, of which no more
satisfactory explanation can be given than that they mark the sites of
his stations. Severus was borne on a litter in his northward march,
frail and aged. He accomplished his purpose, but the undertaking was
greater than his strength had warranted. He died at York in 211 A.D.
But to return to Agricola--to whom the honour belongs of opening up
Strathearn. He had gone into winter quarters near Perth, after his
autumn expedition to the Isla. All hesitation had vanished from the
minds of his soldiers. They were impatient to try conclusions with the
barbarian Caledonians; and so soon as the season permitted, the camp was
broken up. They retraced their steps to the Isla, and found the enemy
occupying the old position on the lower slopes of the Hill of
Blair--battle-hill; probably so called in memory of the big fight now
impending. It was a well-chosen position, showing no little military
skill on the part of Galgacus, the Caledonian chief. From the foot of
the hill a plain extended southward to the junction of the rivers. The
Isla bounded the plain on the east, while a series of morasses, moors,
and small lochs stretched to the west, in the direction of the Grampian
range. Upon their defeat, the Caledonians made their escape this way.
The Roman army boldly crossed the Isla this time, and began to throw up
entrenchments. Traces of a rampart are to be seen extending from
Meikleour on the Tay across country to the Isla. In connection with this
a fort was constructed and a triangular bit of ground enclosed, capable
of containing the whole force. The local name of the rampart is Cleaven
Dykes, and all the while the Caledonians were gathering from all
parts--from the distant Highlands and from the siege of the Strathearn
forts. The Buzzard Dykes, on the lower slopes of the Hill of Blair,
marks their position. At length they thought themselves strong enough to
begin the attack. A defensive policy would have been wiser. But the
concentrated power of a trained army--the very regularity of its motions
always draws the attack of a less highly disciplined force. Probably the
Caledonians deceived themselves into thinking that fear was the cause of
the inaction of their opponents. It was not so. Agricola had come so
far in order to fight, and his soldiers were impatient to be led against
the enemy. They had gained confidence from the experience of the year
before--they were hungry as wolves for the honour of victory. They knew
that upon their valour depended the lives of their fellow-soldiers, who
had been fighting for well nigh four years against tremendous odds away
west in Strathearn. And when the Caledonians came on, Agricola promptly
advanced to meet them, having 8000 auxiliaries in his first line,
protected on the wings by 3000 cavalry. The legionaries were stationed
behind these--veteran Roman soldiers, upon whose steadiness he could rely
if there should come repulse and panic. The rampart at Meikleour was in
the rear of the reserve force--to serve as a last defence if the worst
happened. Agricola himself went to the front with the colours. As
usual, the battle began with a discharge of missiles from a distance.
The darts and stones flew thick, and all the while the Caledonians were
edging away to right and left in the hope of surrounding the Romans.
Agricola strained his thin line almost to breaking point, but his
opponents had the advantage of numbers, and still pressed him. The
danger of a gaping centre grew imminent. The crisis of the conflict
came. Three Batavian and two Tungrian cohorts charged sword in hand.
The issue was not long in doubt. The small shields and long swords of
the Caledonians were ill-fitted to encounter the straight home-thrust of
the finely-tempered blade, 19 inches in length, with which the Roman
soldiers were armed. They wavered, and then the end came quickly. The
whole line of the auxiliaries charged uphill and carried everything
before them, and although the war chariots, armed with scythe-blades,
were brought into action, they did more harm than good. The ground was
rough, and unsuitable for the effective use of these murderous weapons of
warfare. Their own men, now in hopeless confusion, were the chief
sufferers from them. And although the Caledonian reserve succeeded in
getting behind the Roman first line, they were promptly checked by a
cavalry attack. It was never necessary to bring the Roman reserves of
legionary soldiers into action. The fight was over, and the Caledonians
sought safety in headlong flight among the morasses which stretched
westward in the direction of the Grampian range.
Agricola did not push his advantage further. He was content with the
victory he had gained, He could now hope that there would be peace in
Strathearn, bringing with it the opportunity of extending the boundary of
the Roman province to the Tay. His eager Roman spirit was planning other
enterprises. He had seen the coast of Ireland from Kintyre, and
doubtless courted the distinction of annexing it to the Empire. One
can't help thinking what a pity it was that the opportunity of doing so
was not given him. Had the distressful country got the benefit of the
firm and civilising Roman rule, a happier history might have been hers.
From his winter quarters behind the Firths of Forth and Clyde, Agricola
sent his fleet to explore the distant northern parts. His sailors
visited and took possession of the Orkney Islands--sighted a distant
peak, which became the "Ultima Thule" of history; noted the peculiar
feature of the West Coast of Scotland--the sea-lochs now so well known to
the tourists of every land; circumnavigated the island till they reached
the Trutulensian harbour--Dover, as we call it now; and then returned to
their station in the Firth of Forth. It was not permitted to Agricola to
turn the information thus acquired to practical use. His brilliant
success in Scotland had excited the jealousy of the Emperor Domitian, and
he was recalled under the pretence of appointing him to a higher command.
The traces of him in Strathearn and elsewhere were speedily obliterated.
The Roman province shrank to the wall of Hadrian between Tyne and
Sol-way; civilisation was beaten back, and kept back for four generations.
CELTIC SAINTS AND
ANCIENT CHURCHES OF STRATHEARN
S. FILLAN, DUNDURN
S. RONAN, STROWAN
S. BEAN, KINKELL AND FOULIS
S. SERF, DUNNING AND MONZIEVAIRD
S. KESSOG, COMRIE AND AUCHTERARDER
S. PATRICK, STROGEATH
S. FERGUS, MUTHILL
S. CATTAN, ABERUTHVEN
S. BRIDE, ABERNETHY
CELTIC SAINTS AND ANCIENT CHURCHES OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JAMES RANKIN, D.D., Muthill
The vale or strath of the Earn may best and simplest be said to extend
from the head of Loch Earn along the course of the River Earn to its
junction with the Tay, two and a quarter miles above Newburgh. The
distance from top to bottom as the crow flies is about thirty-six miles,
and the direction is very nearly due west and east. The valley may be
sub-divided into four portions. The uppermost is Loch Earn itself, which
is six and a half miles long and 306 feet above sea-level, so that the
descent of the river in its thirty miles of course is not much. The
surface of Loch Earn, James' Square in Crieff, and the Manse of Muthill,
across the valley, are as nearly as possible on the same level. The Earn
may be sectioned as follows:--From Loch Earn to the Bridge of Comrie;
thence to the Bridge of Crieff; thence to the Bridge of Kinkell; thence
to Bridge of Earn; thence to junction of Earn with Tay. For our present
purpose we may stop near Forteviot, at the Earn boundary of the
Presbytery of Auchterarder.
Before we can rightly appreciate the more or most ancient Christian
history of the Strath, we require to lay aside, and partly reverse,
certain modern associations as to lines of travel. We think of
Strathearn as running westward from Auchterarder, which lies on both the
turnpike and railway route from Stirling to Perth. But in the days of
our early Christianity it was mainly the sea on each coast that joined
north and south of Scotland; whereas the more frequented routes were
across country from west to east, because the west was then the seat of
government and source of culture. Our early Christianity came from
Ireland, and the route was by the Firth of Clyde, where Kintyre, Arran,
Cumbrae, Bute, Kilmun, Dumbarton, Luss, and Balquhidder were all already
provided with places of worship. The Vale of Leven and Loch Lomond were
the natural approaches from the west to the upper end of Loch Earn and
Strathearn. Another route connecting Perthshire with Iona was by Loch
Etive, Dalmally, Tyndrum, and Glendochart. But the Leven and Loch Lomond
route, judging by the saints to whom the oldest churches were dedicated,
was the actual one usually traversed in reaching the valley of the Earn.
The oldest settlement is that of S. Fillan, at Dundurn. His day in the
Kalendar is June 22, and he died about 520 A.D. Dundurn=Dun d'Earn. In
the martyrology of Donegal (for he was a pure Irish Celt) he is called of
Rath Erann--_i.e._, the fort on the Earn. Besides the old chapel and
burial-ground, a memorial of the Saint is in Dunfillan, where are his
chair and well. A fine eye for the picturesque the good man must have
had to select a hill of so striking aspect and commanding so charming a
landscape as Dunfillan. A little later Dunfillan became a king's seat or
fort. S. Fillan is called _an lobar_, leper, or perhaps stammerer, to
distinguish him from S. Fillan the abbot, connected with Strathfillan and
Killin, whose day is January 9, and who died about 703, nearly 200 years
after his namesake the leper. He of Dundurn was of the race of AEngus,
King of Munster, and was trained under S. Ailbe of Emly. Dr. Marshall,
in his "Historic Scenes in Perthshire," in company with several other
writers, mixes up the two S. Fillans. Bishop Forbes, in his "Kalendars
of Scottish Saints," gives a clear account of each, mentioning that
Aberdour, in Fife, is dedicated to him of Dundurn, as was also Cill or
Kil-Faelin, in Leinster.
Tullichettle and Comrie may be taken together, the distance between them
being only one mile; the former meaning "The Vale of Sleep," now known
mainly by its little kirkyard, having once been the more important of the
two. The proof of this is seen in an extract from the Register of
Ministers and Readers in the Miscellany of the Wodrow Society. In 1574,
where our Presbytery has now sixteen parishes, there were only four
ministers and sixteen readers, thus grouped:--Auchterarder--Stipend,
£100, and kirk-lands--had readers at Auchterardour, Kinkell, Abirruthven,
and Dunnyng. Strogeith--£60, and kirk-lands--had readers at Strogeith,
Muthill, and Strowane. Foulis--£80, and kirklands--had readers at
Foulis, Madertie, Trinite-Gask, and Findo-Gask. Tullichettil--£100, and
kirk-lands--had readers at Tullichettil, Cumrie, Monivaird, Monzie, and
Crieff. The system of readers was a beggarly makeshift for the Christian
ministry, and shows the sore straits to which the Reformed Church was
reduced after what was supposed to be the grand victory of 1560. Then
Tullichettle was more than Comrie, as Strageath was more than Muthill.
The dedication of Tullichettle does not appear in any record that I have
seen, but that of Comrie is evident from its fair, which bears the name
of S. Kessog. There is also a Tom-na-chessaig, just behind the old Free
Church, now a public hall. The old name has a modern recognition in a
local Freemasons' Lodge of S. Kessack. What is known of the Saint is
given further on under Auchterarder.
Downwards on Earn the next ancient riverside church is Strowan, which,
being a small parish, was united to Monzievaird before 1662. The site is
one of remarkable beauty and quiet, almost ideal as a place of worship
and burial. Ronan or Rowan was a bishop and confessor under King
Maldwin, Feb. 7, 737, according to Adam King's Kalendar. He was of
Kilmaronen or Kilmaronoc, in Lennox. Other dedications to him are
Kilroaronag, in Muckairn; Teampull Ronan of Ness, in Lewis; Port Ronan,
in Iona. At his death in 737 A.D., S. Ronan was abbot of Kingarth, in
Bute. Connected with the church of Strowan is a Ronan pool on the Earn,
and a bell remains from the old days. An adjacent farm is called Carse
of Trowan.
The old church of Monzievaird on the east avenue to Ochtertyre, and now
the private burial-place of the Murrays, is dedicated to S. Serf. But
his legend may be reserved till we reach Dunning, at the end of our
narrative.
The next in order of the old Celtic Churches on the Earn is that at
Strogeit, or usually Strageath. This church and churchyard are close on
the Earn, at a very picturesque spot, where are two very old mills--one
on each side of the river--and a mill-dam between, and serving for both.
The church is dedicated to S. Patrick, of Ireland, and was planted by an
Irish missionary called S. Fergus.
Patricius was bishop and confessor--his day of death and commemoration,
March 17, 493. He was the son of Calphurnius, a Roman decurio or
magistrate at Dumbarton, his mother being Conkessa, sister or niece of
the great S. Martin of Tours. He was born at Kilpatrick, on the Clyde,
and called Succat=Succoth, the name of a neighbouring estate. At
sixteen, Patrick was carried off to Ireland by pirates, and sold to a
chief, Michul of Antrim, where he served six years, when he escaped to
Scotland. He then went to S. Germanus of Auxerre for forty (more
probably four) years' study. After becoming monk with his uncle S.
Martin, he visited Rome, and was sent to Ireland, where he laboured sixty
years, consecrating 365 churches and bishops, and ordaining 300--some say
3000--presbyters. Writings of S. Patrick are his "Confessions"--"Hymn
before Tara," called "Breastplate," in eleven verses, and "Letter to
Caroticus, Caradoc, or Ceretic Guledig," from whom the kings of Alcluith,
Patrick's birthland, were descended. (See Christian Classics--The
Writings of Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland. Religious Tract Society,
London.) S. Patrick's churches in Scotland are sixteen, of which three
are in Muthill--viz., Strogeit, on the Earn; S. Patrick's, at
Blairinroar; and S. Patrick's, at Struthill; each of the two latter
having a S. Patrick's Well, anciently used in baptism. At Blairinroar,
five miles west from Muthill, two or three cot-houses still bear the name
S. Patrick's, but I don't know that the site of the original chapel is
identifiable. At Struthill, two miles south of Muthill, both chapel
walls and ancient burial-ground remained till about 50 years ago, when
they were shamefully turned--the one into dyke material, and the
consecrated soil and remains into top-dressing for corn land. The sacred
well was also run off into a drain, and the site marked by a modern
cattle trough. The burial-ground at Strageath is still in use, but the
corner stones of the old church have been brutally abstracted for use in
neighbouring buildings. These desecrations ill agree with what is truly
stated by my predecessor in the New Statistical Account, that "the
inhabitants of Muthill, until very lately (_i.e._, about 1835), held S.
Patrick's name in so high veneration that on his day (March 17) neither
the clap of the mill was heard nor the plough seen to move in the
furrow." Across the Earn from Strageath is a farm called Dalpatrick, and
a ford known as Dalpatrick Ford.
This well-deserved honour to the patron saint of Ireland is traceable
here to the presence of one of his disciples and countrymen, S. Fergus,
whose work, however, must have been about 150 years after S. Patrick's
death. After his work of chapel building in Muthill, S. Fergus quitted
his hermitage at Strageath and went northward to Caithness and Buchan, on
the same gospel errand, where, after good work again, he moved southwards
to Glamis, the scene of his death and burial. The churches dedicated to
him are six--viz., Wick, Halkirk, S. Fergus or Lungley, Inverugy, S.
Fergus, at Banff; Dyce. Glamis has S. Fergus' cave and well. There was
a S. Fergus chapel in the church of Inchbrayock, at Montrose, and a
chapel and well at Usan, three miles south-east of Montrose. His head
was preserved at Scone in a silver casket, his arm in a silver casket at
Aberdeen, and his staff, baculus or bachul, at S. Fergus, in Buchan. In
721, _Fergustus Epis. Scotiae Pictus_ signed at Rome canons as to
irregular marriages. He belonged to the party that conformed to Rome as
distinguished from the strict adherents of the old Celtic ritual.
About one mile below Strageath is the old Collegiate Church of
Innerpeffray, dedicated to S. Mary, mentioned in 1342, and made
collegiate in 1508 by the first Lord Drummond. But as this belongs to a
later ecclesiastical system (1200-1560) it may be passed over for the
present.
About two miles lower than Innerpeffray is Kinkell Church, dedicated to
S. Bean. Here we come on a group of three, the next being Aberythven,
three miles east of Kinkell, dedicated to S. Cathan; and Auchterarder,
one mile south of Aberuthven, dedicated to S. Makessock. These three
churches, along with Strageath and Madderty, have this in common at a
later date--viz., 1200 A.D., that they were granted by Earl Gilbert of
Strathearn and his Countess Matildis, as endowment to the newly-founded
Abbey of Inchaffray. A few years later the Church of S. Bean of Foulis
and the Church of the Holy Trinity of Gasc were added to the same
endowment. Although now desolate, and appearing as a pendicle to an
adjacent farm-steading, the old Kirk of Kinkell occupies a beautiful site
in the valley, on a knoll, close by the river, and the kirkyard is still
occasionally used. S. Bean, who was bishop and confessor, died about
920, and his day in the Kalendar is 26th October. He was uncle of S.
Cadroe, who was taught at Armagh, and whose mission in Scotland marks the
origin of the Culdees, strictly so-called, as is traced in Skene's Celtic
Scotland, II., 346, in connection with Kinkell and Abernethy.
Particularly interesting is the Church of Aberuthven, now in the parish
of Auchterarder. The eastern end of the building is evidently of extreme
antiquity, with two narrow windows, between which would stand the altar,
probably of stone. The dedication was to S. Cathan or Cattanus, bishop,
May 17, 710. Cathan was uncle of S. Blain, of Bute, whom he ordained and
consecrated bishop. Cathan is most closely associated with Bute, his
original chapel having been on the south side of Kilchattan Bay. Cattan,
the Pict, planted a church in Gigha, then went to Colonsay, which has
another S. Cattan's, and to Iona, and settled at Scarinche, in Lewis,
where his remains were preserved, and where, after Bannockburn (1314), a
church was built and dedicated to S. Cattan, and affiliated to
Inchaffray. There was also a Clan Chattan. (See Hewison's Bute, I.,
136-8.)
Kessog, Kessogus, or Makessock, was born at Cashel, the capital of
Munster, of the line of the Kings of Ireland, and miracles are attributed
to his early years. He is depicted with bow and arrow as patron of the
warriors of Leven and patron saint of Cumbrae. He lived as hermit in the
island of Inch-ta-vanach, in Loch Lomond, and was martyred at Luss, where
a cairn, Cam Machaisog, remained till 1796. (Anderson's Early Christian
Times, I., 212). His day is 10th March, and the date of martyrdom, 520.
Coming between the times of S. Patrick and S. Columba, S. Kessog and
several saintly contemporaries are the fruits of the fervour of the
former and the pioneers of the latter. The doctrines and rites of these
earlier missionaries are described in Hewison's Bute, I., 118-131. S.
Kessog's bell was preserved and honoured in Lennox in the 17th century.
Besides Auchterarder, the Churches of Comrie, Callander, Luss, and
Cumbrae were dedicated to S. Kessog. Callander has a fair on the 21st
March=10th March (old style), called Fel-ma-chessaig, and the site of the
old kirk, on a conical hill, is called Tom-na-chessaig. Cumbrae has a
Kessog's Fair on the third Wednesday in March. Kessog Ferry, at
Inverness, is another memorial of the Saint; so is the Strathearn name of
M'Isaac, Makisaig, and Kessack. The old Kirk of S. Makessok lies in a
hollow to the north of modern Auchterarder, whose church dates only from
about 1660, and was enlarged in 1811. Makessock's Well still exists on
the farm of East Kirkton, beside the old glebe and manse, which are now
part of that farm, having been "excambed" about 1800.
There is a dedication to S. Mungo connected with Auchterarder, but as it
seems not to have been a distinct building, we may consider it to have
been only an altar, or side chapel, in the Church of S. Makessog. (The
evidence for the S. Mungo dedication is "Historians of Scotland, Vol. V.,
p. xc."; also New Statistical Account, Perth, 290.) Craigrossy paid dues
to S. Mungo's altar in Glasgow. (Historians of Scotland, V., 357, and
Orig. Par., I., 2.) The name Mungo has a marked currency in Strathearn.
I have known six examples.
Before passing to Dunning, allusion may be made to Gask and Trinity-Gask,
both of which are bounded by the Earn, the latter especially to a great
extent. Gask was anciently known as Findo-Gask, the dedication being to
S. Findoka, Fincana, or S. Fink, one of the nine daughters of S. Donevald
or Donaldus, who led a religious life in the Glen of Ogilvie, in
Forfarshire. S. Donevald's day is 12th July, and he died in 712. The
Churches of Bendochy and Innishail (in Glenorchy) were also dedicated to
S. Fink; while Finhaven, Strathmartin, and Touch were dedicated to S.
Donevaldus. Trinity-Gask is mentioned under this name in a charter of
Inchaffray shortly after 1200. To the Holy Trinity was a favourite
dedication of the Culdees, who held firmly by the Apostles' Creed. The
Cathedral of Brechin was dedicated by King Kenneth (971-995) to the Holy
Trinity, and Culdee abbots continued in Brechin till 1219, although the
See was founded in 1150 by David I., and re-dedicated to the Trinity.
Thus the very name carries back the Church of Trinity-Gask to the times
of the Culdees, if not to the Celtic Church directly.
The patron saint of Dunning is S. Servanus or Serf, who appears in the
Kalendar as bishop and confessor, his day being July 1. He is said to be
the son of Alma, daughter of a Pictish King; was ordained by Palladius,
and dwelt at Culross in a monastery, where his most famous scholar was
Kentigern, of Glasgow. Palladius died in 432, and Kentigern in 603, so
that the same man in an ordinary life-time could not be _ordained_ by
Palladius and teach Kentigern. To escape this difficulty, the Aberdeen
Breviary makes two S. Serfs. The legend runs--"In a place called Dunnyne
the inhabitants were harassed by a dreadful dragon, which devoured both
men and cattle and kept the district in continual terror. S. Serf, armed
with a breastplate of faith, attacked the monster in his lair, and slew
him by a blow of his pastoral staff." In proof of this legend, and in
memory of this event, the scene to this day is called the Dragon's Den.
The oldest part of the Church of Dunning, which dates between 1200 and
1219, would be the successor of the humbler Celtic building of the
original dedication. If there were two S. Serfs, he of Dunning is the
later, and is the same who is associated with Airthrey, Tillicoultry,
Alva, Culross, and especially Pitmook, or Portmoak, and S. Serf's Isle,
in Loch Leven. Other dedications are Monzievaird, Creich, Dysart,
Redgorton. A S. Serf--probably the earlier, if there were two--was
associated with Orkney. In the west of France, near St. Malo, is a town
of St. Servan. The neatest of all the S. Serf legends, probably invented
to suit some prehistoric soiree at the foot of the Ochils, tells of a
robber who had stolen and eaten a pet lamb of the Saint, and who, having
cleared himself by an oath taken over the Saint's staff, was immediately
contradicted from within by a ba, ba, in response to the Saint's voice
and the false oath. In Glasgow on the Thursday of the Fair week is a
horse market known as Scairs, Skeers, or Sair's Thursday, Sair being one
of the forms of Serf. There is a S. Sares Fair in Aberdeenshire, at
Monkedge or Keith Hall, which has been removed to Culsalmond.
Although lying beyond our Presbytery limits, allusion may be made to the
very ancient religious house at Abernethy, one mile south of the Earn,
and near its junction with the Tay. The dedication of Abernethy is to S.
Brigid or Bride. About 590, when Abernethy was the seat of the Pictish
rule, Columban monks were planted here under King Lartnaidh. In 717 they
were expelled by Nectan III. for non-conformity to Rome; but in 865 the
old order was re-established by Abbot Kellach, of Iona. This continued
to 908, when the See was transferred to St. Andrews. Culdees appear at
Abernethy in the reign of Edgar (1097-1107), and they still held the old
nunnery associated with S. Brigid in 1189-1198; and in 1272 the Culdees
were changed into a priory of Augustinian monks. The famous Round Tower
is assigned by Dr Petrie to 712-727, under Nectan III.; by Dr Skene to
865, the year of Kellach's visit; Dr Muir makes it later than Brechin,
_i.e._, 950; while Mr Anderson makes it one or two decades later still.
For our purpose here the most important fact relative to Abernethy is the
original dedication to S. Brigid. She was Abbess of Kildare, and died
Feb. 11, 523 (Feb. 1 in Irish Kalendars). She received the veil from S.
Mel, nephew of S. Patrick; wore a leathern belt over a white kirtle, and
had a veil over her shoulders. Her cell was under a large oak, Kildara =
cell of the oak, and she founded communities of women; died at the age of
70. Many miracles are ascribed to her, one of which reveals a very
ancient ecclesiastical usage, parallel to the buns and ale associated
with Scottish communions of three generations ago, as described in "The
Holy Fair." From one barrel, S. Bride supplied beer to eighteen
churches, the beer lasting from noonday, Thursday, in Holy Week, till
after Easter.
Reviewing these primitive local churches and churchmen, we see that the
general Christianisation of our Strath began about 500 A.D., and has
continued and grown ever since. The three earliest dates above, given
are S. Fillan, +520; S. Kessog, +520; and S. Brigid, +523. The three
latest are S. Cattan, +710; S. Rowan, +737; and S. Bean, +920; all these
being dates of death. This Celtic form of church began earlier in
Scotland, and especially in Ireland, but in this district we see it in
considerable strength from 500 onwards, and we know that it continued in
vigour till about the year 1200, when it was superseded by a better
organised and more developed form of Christianity, with direct
recognition of Rome as the seat of authority.
The difference between the Roman and the Celtic or Culdee Church
consisted in such matters as these:--The Celtic Church, while
acknowledging many of the saints common to Christendom--especially those
of the East--had in addition a very extensive local calendar, deeply
venerated, which outnumbered the Roman element. It had also
peculiarities in a frontal instead of a coronal tonsure for monks; in a
shorter Lenten fast, which made up the forty days by including Sundays,
and began on Monday instead of Wednesday; in a different time for Easter,
dependent on a more ancient method of reckoning; in the absence of
special or obligatory Easter communion; in the regular celebration of the
Holy Supper with what were by Romanists called "barbarous rites."
The most marked features of the Celtic Church were its government and
orders, where monasteries took the place of dioceses, where abbots were
above bishops, where bishops were without dioceses, where ordination was
conferred occasionally, if not habitually, by one single bishop instead
of three, where bishops were too numerous to be diocesan, and where
(latterly at least) abbots were frequently married, making church lands
hereditary in their families.
A further characteristic of the Celtic Church was the rudeness and
smallness of its buildings, which were of three styles--wattle and daub,
timber beams, and unhewn stones. No examples of the two former survive,
but the third and more solid style is still visible in Teampull
Bennachad, in Lewis; Tempull Ronan, in North Rona; and the Beehive Cells,
in Eilan na Naoimh (Nun's Island.) These old Strathearn churches would
seldom be larger than 12 feet wide by 20 long, built of undressed land
stones (like a field dyke), and thatched with heather, bracken, or sedge.
The great storehouse of reliable material with minimum of controversy
relative to the early Christianity of Scotland is Warren's Liturgy and
Ritual of the Celtic Church. (Clarendon Press, 1881.)
The view given by Mr Hewison in "Bute in the Olden Time" (Vol. I., p.
119) of the doctrine and ritual of the Celtic Church in Ireland in the
days of S. Patrick may safely be accepted as generally applicable to the
Celtic Church in Scotland from 500 to 1000 A.D.:--
"We are dependent upon the 'Tripartite Life of S. Patrick' for definite
information regarding the teaching and modes of worship in the Church in
his day. It is clear the early teachers faithfully maintained the Holy
Scriptures as the rule of faith, and used the version of the Bible
prepared by S. Jerome. There are substantial reasons for believing that
they also possessed a vernacular version, if not of all, of some of the
books of the Bible, the Greek portions of which were studied by the more
famous evangelists, like S. Brendan. A liturgy was also used, and, from
surviving fragments, it appears to have been related to the 'Ephesine,'
rather than to the 'Petrine' family of liturgies--that is to say, it was
different from the Roman, and if not identical with the Gallican liturgy,
was similar to it. Of the co-equality of the Trinity they had no doubt.
In the 'Tripartite Life,' Baptism and Eucharist are mentioned as
sacraments, but penance, marriage, holy orders, and extreme unction are
not referred to as sacraments; while confirmation, if not accepted as of
divine institution, was esteemed to have an imperative importance. There
is only a slight trace of the honours paid to the Virgin Mary in the same
work. According to the editor, 'The Blessed Virgin Mary is never
mentioned either by Patrick, or Secundinus, Muirchu, or Tirechán.'
Communion was partaken of in both kinds, the wine being mixed with water
in the chalice, and sucked through a fistula. Prayers and fasting on
behalf of the dead were indulged in, and much virtue was attached to
severe fastings and ascetic mortifications of body and soul. Every day
was consecrated to unremitting labours in the Gospel. Sunday was,
indeed, a day of worship, divided into eight watches, like the other days
of the week, and was fully observed in the saying of mass, the chanting
of the 150 psalms, and preaching to the people. The clergy--deacons,
presbyters, and bishops--were married. A notable feature of consecration
of bishops was the practice of consecration by a single bishop, sometimes
at a leap, without the candidate having received orders as a deacon or
priest. Priests and virgins had a 'roving commission' to 'sing and say'
over the land. It is interesting to find that the catacombs in Rome have
preserved the monuments of 'virgines peregrinae,' like those of the
Celtic Church. The size, importance, and influence of a complete
ecclesiastical establishment (_muintir_), such as that presided over by
S. Patrick, may be inferred from the functions of the 24 persons who were
in office along with him--viz., bishop, priest, judge, bishop-champion
(polemic), psalmist, chamberlain, bell-ringer, cook, brewer, two waiters,
charioteer, fire-wood man, cow-herd, three smiths, three artizans, and
three embroideresses."
II.--RELATION OF AUCHTERARDER PRESBYTERY
TO THE DIOCESE OF DUNBLANE.
Of the thirteen dioceses in Scotland, that of Dunblane was the
smallest. In its Parochiale, or list of parishes, were 43 entries; but
3 of these were not parishes at all, but prebends, representing
respectively the Abbots of Cambuskenneth, Arbroath, and Inchaffray. Of
the churches and parishes proper that constituted the diocese, no fewer
than 18 are now included in the Presbytery of Auchterarder; while 12
constitute the Presbytery of Dunblane, and 6 are in the Presbytery of
Perth. Thus quite one half of the old diocese finds its corporate
representative in Auchterarder, while the other half is subdivided
between Perth and Dunblane.
Dunblane was formed into a bishopric by David I. out of the old Pictish
Bishopric of Abernethy, which in the division was allotted as a parish
to Dunblane. The date of erection was previous to 1150--some say 1140.
Dunblane was already a Columban, and (notwithstanding Dr. Skene's
argument to the contrary[1]) also a Culdee settlement. The church
dates back to the seventh century, and was an offshoot of the Church of
Kingarth, in Bute, for its founder was St. Blane. He was of the race
of the Irish Picts, and nephew of that Bishop Cathan who founded
Kingarth; he was himself bishop of that church, and his mother was a
daughter of King Aidan of Dalriada. Dunblane and its church were burnt
under Kenneth MacAlpin (844-860) by the Britons of Strathclyde, and in
912 were ravaged by Danish pirates, headed by Rognwald.
"At Dunblane," says Goodall,[2] "the Culdees continued near a hundred
years longer than at Dunkeld. Cormac Malpol, their prior, with
Michael, parson of Mothil, and Macbeath, his chaplain, are witnesses to
a confirmation by William, bishop of Dunblane (1210 ----), of a gift of
the Church of Kincardine to the monks of Cambuskenneth, to be seen in
their chartulary, fol. 80; and Malpol, the prior, and Michael and
Malcolm, Culdees, are witnesses to a charter by Simon, bishop of
Dunblane (1170 ----), one of William's predecessors.[3]
"At last, in the year 1240, the election of the bishop of that See was
devolved upon canons-regular, by a mandate of Pope Gregory IX., which
was obtained in this manner: Clement, bishop of Dunblane, went to Rome,
and represented to that Pope, how of old time his bishopric had been
vacant upwards of a hundred years, during which period almost all the
revenues were seized by the seculars; and although in process of time
there had been several bishops instituted, yet, by their simplicity or
negligence, the former dilapidations were not recovered, but, on the
contrary, the remainder was almost quite alienated; so that, for near
ten years, a proper person could not be found to accept of the charge;
that the case having been laid before the Pope, he had committed the
trust of supplying that vacancy to the bishops of St. Andrews, Dunkeld,
and Brechin, who made choice of this Clement; but he found his church
so desolate that he had not where to lay his head in his cathedral:
there was no college there, only a rural chaplain performed divine
service in the church that had its roof uncovered; and the revenues of
the See were so small that they could hardly afford him maintenance for
one half of the year.
"To remedy these evils, the Pope appointed William and Geoffry, the
bishops of Glasgow and Dunkeld, to visit the Church of Dunblane; and if
they should find these things to be as represented, he authorised them
to cause the fourth part of the tithes of all the parish churches
within that diocy to be assigned to the bishop thereof; who, after
reserving out of these tithes so much as should be proper for his own
sustenance, was, by the advice of these two bishops and other expert
persons, to assign the rest to a dean and canons, whom the Pope
enjoined to be settled there, if these matters could be brought about
without great offence; or, if otherwise, he ordered that the fourth of
the tithes of all such churches of the diocy as were in the hands of
seculars should be assigned to the bishop, and that the bishop's seat
should be translated to St. John's monastery of canons-regular (_i.e._,
Inchaffray) within that diocy, and appointed that these canons should
have the election of the bishop when a vacancy should happen
thereafter."
As the bishop's seat was not transferred from Dunblane to Inchaffray,
we may infer that the _former_ part of the alternative was carried
out--viz., that dean and canons were found for Dunblane, and the bishop
also provided for out of the fourth of the tithes of all churches in
the diocese. The decay of clerics at Dunblane in Bishop Clement's time
(1233-1258) may as well have applied to _Keledei_ declining there, and
does not imply that they never were there, but existed only at Muthill
(13 miles to the north), and that the Culdees of Muthill, being in the
diocese of Dunblane, were called Culdees of Dunblane. "We find," says
Skene,[4] "the _Keledei_ with their prior at Muthill from 1178 to
1214,[5] when they disappear from the records, and Muthill becomes the
seat of the dean of Dunblane, who had already taken precedence of the
prior of the _Keledei_. It is probable that, under the growing
importance of Dunblane as a cathedral establishment, the possessions of
the _Keledei_ had fallen into secular hands." This would be the more
easy, as the monastery of the Culdees was a distinct institution about
a mile south of the church and village of Muthill.
The foundation of the present cathedral is attributed to Bishop
Clement, originally a monk, who received the tonsure from St. Dominic
himself. The cathedral which he has left has since his day been
extended both to east and westward; and what he built he joined on to
the more ancient square and perpendicular tower. The cathedral
consists of an aisled, eight-bayed nave (130 by 58 feet, and 50 feet
high), an aisleless choir (80 by 30 feet), with a chapter-house,
sacristy, or lady chapel, to the north. The nave is almost entirely
pure first-pointed. In the clerestory the windows are of two lights,
with a foiled circle set over them, plainly treated outside, but
elaborated by a range of shafted arches running continuously in front
of the windows within, so much apart from them as to leave a narrow
passage round the building in the thickness of the wall. The east
window is a peculiar triplicate, with the centre light much taller and
wider than the others. The west front has over the doorway and its
blind arch on either side three very long and narrow two-light windows
of equal height, with a cinquefoil in the head of the central window
and a quatrefoil in the head of the side windows; whilst above is a
vesica, set within a bevelled fringe of bay-leaves, arranged
zigzag-wise, with their points in contact--the last the subject of a
well-known rhapsody by Ruskin. The root of the cathedral history in
this case lies in the tower. It stands awkwardly a little out of line
in the south aisle of the nave, an evident remnant of an older church,
exactly like the similar tower in Muthill, of the eleventh century,
retained in a church built c. 1430. A tower, almost exactly similar,
but more ornate, probably twenty or thirty years later in date, exists
at Dunning, in the same diocese, and also a Celtic Church settlement
associated with St. Serf. The old Culdee Church of Markinch has a
tower of the same peculiar style, originally with a square, upright,
saddle-backed roof, and crow-stepped gables. Some vestiges remain of
the bishop's palace, overlooking the Allan on the south-west of the
cathedral; and the triangular space in front of the south side of the
cathedral, and forming the end of the High Street, has some old houses
which are believed to have been canons' manses.
The chapter consisted of--Dean (Muthill), praecentor, chancellor,
treasurer, archdeacon; _Prebendaries_--Abbot of Cambuskenneth in 1298,
Abbot of Arbroath for Abernethy from 1240; Crieff _primo_ (probably
parish of), Crieff _secundo_ (probably St. Thomas at Milnab), Logie,
Fordishall, Kinkell, Kippen, Monzie, Comrie. Eighteen finely carved
oak stalls of the dignitaries and canons belonging to the sixteenth
century still survive. Other carved work was destroyed in 1559 by the
Prior of St. Andrews and the Earl of Argyll. The line of bishops ended
with three of the neighbouring family of Chisholm of Cromlix. Bishop
James Chisholm was eldest son of Edmund Chisholm, and was a good
administrator. Bishop William Chisholm, his half-brother, was an
ecclesiastic of the worst possible type for fornication, church
robbery, and persecution of so-called heretics. Bishop William
Chisholm, nephew of the robber-bishop, became, after the Reformation, a
Carthusian monk at Lyons. He is supposed to have taken with him the
writs of the See, which have been lost. Marshall[6] gives an account
of this branch of Chisholms. The same writer says[7]: "Among the
sepulchral monuments in the cathedral is that of Malise, eighth Earl of
Strathearn, and his countess. It is in the vestry of the choir, and is
a flat block of gritstone, having on it full-sized figures of the Earl
and Countess. When discovered in the choir, the block was above a
coffin of lead with date 1271. In the centre of the choir is the dust
of Lady Margaret Drummond, mistress (but probably privately married) of
James IV., and her sisters the Ladies Euphemia and Sybilla, daughters
of Lord Drummond, who were poisoned (apparently to clear the way for
the King's marriage to the Princess Mary of England in 1503). Their
remains were deposited here by permission of their uncle, Sir William
Drummond, then Dean of Dunblane. Three blue slabs covered and marked
their resting-place. The recumbent figure attired in pontifical
vestments and mitre, and which is in a niche of the wall under a window
of the choir, on the right of the pulpit, is supposed to represent
Bishop Finlay Dermock, and to be his sepulchral monument. The other
recumbent figure under one of the windows of the nave represents Bishop
Michael Ochiltree, who greatly added to the rich adornments of the
cathedral."
BISHOPS OF DUNBLANE.
Laurence, attests a charter of Malcolm IV., 1160.
Simon, 1170.
Jonathan, archdeacon, buried at Inchaffray. Great endowment of the See
by Gilbert, earl of Stratherne, c. 1195-1210.
William de Bosco, chancellor, 1210.
Abraham, 1220 to c. 1223.
Osbert, abbot of Cambuskenneth, +1231.
Clement, a Dominican friar, consecrated by Bishop William of St.
Andrews at the Stow Church of Wedale; founded cathedral; made
exaggerated wail of poverty to the Pope, who in 1238 appointed a
commission of inquiry, 1233-1258.
Robert de Prebenda, dean, ambassador in 1277 to Edward I.: in 1265 was
Conservator of Council at Perth, 1258-1283.
William, one of the arbiters between John Baliol and Bruce, 1290 to c.
1292.
Nicholas de Balmyle, monk of Arbroath, parson of Calder, lord
chancellor, 1307-1320.
Maurice, abbot of Inchaffray, Bruce's chaplain at Bannockburn with
crosier of St. Fillan; a brave patriot priest, with the old piety that
reverenced relics, yet was true and fervent, 1320-1347.
William, 1347-1361.
Walter de Cambuslang or Conentre, 1362-1370.
Andrew, seals Act for succession of crown at Scone, 1st April, 1373.
Dougal, c. 1380-1399.
Finlay Dermoch, built bridge over Allan Water, tomb in cathedral on
north side of nave, 1400-1419.
William Stephen, divinity-reader in 1411 at St. Andrews, Conservator of
Council at Perth, 1420, 1420-1429.
Michael Ochiltree, dean in 1425, built Knaik Bridge at Ardoch, Bishop's
Bridge at Culdees, rebuilt Culdee Church at Muthill; crowned James II.
in 1437 at Holyrood, 1429-1447.
Robert Lauder, sent on several embassies, founder of several prebends,
1448-1458.
Thomas, 1459.
John Hepburn, a lord of session, 1467 to c. 1479.
James Chisholm, son of Edward Chisholm of Cromlix, chaplain to James
III., 1534; a careful administrator and good bishop, 1489-1527.
William Chisholm, half-brother of the preceding, who resigned in his
favour; a shameless wretch, who wasted the See by fraudulent tacks to
his three bastards and his nephew, and who burned men for heresy,
1527-1564.
William Chisholm, nephew of the robber bishop, appointed by Papal brief
of 2nd June, 1561, and nominated by Queen Mary in 1564; was in exile
Bishop of Vaison in France, became a Carthusian of Grenoble, and died
at Rome, 1564-1593.
PAROCHIALE DUNBLANENSE
Dunblane, St. Blain. Chapelry of Kilbride at Kilbride Castle.
Aberfoyle in Menteith. Dependent on _Inchmahome_. Has five lakes.
Abernethy, St. Brigid. _Arbroath_. Prebend, 1240. In See of Dunkeld
in 1446. For four vicars. Probable date of round tower, 854. At
first had Dron, Dunbulg, and Erole as chapels.
Auchterarder, St. Mungo. _Inchaffray_. Old church in a valley, one
mile westward. Mackessock in charter of Innerpeffray.
Aberuthven, St. Cathan. _Inchaffray_, 1200. Later to Arbroath. Now
joined to Auchterarder. Very ancient church survives.
Tullibardine. A collegiate church. Now in parish of Blackford.
Bondington or Boddington. _Arbroath_. In 1369 the lands of Boddington
belonged to Peter de Innerpeffry. Bonnyton, near Montrose. (Jervise,
93.)
Blackford, St. Patrick. Original church was Strogeith, now in Muthill.
Dundurn, or St. Fillans. St. Fillan the Leper. Church here since c.
550. Associated with a fortress on Dunfillan. Now in Comrie.
Comrie, St. Kessog, R.[8] _Paisley Abbey_. Prebend. Chapel at
Tullikettle. Had St. Kessog's Fair, third Wednesday of March.
Dron. Once chapel under Abernethy. Now includes Pottie, at the mouth
of Glenfarg (see deanery of Gowrie, St Andrews), and Ecclesia Macgirdle
("Exmagirdle") at Glenearn.
Dunning, St. Serf, c. 1200.
Dupplin. Family chapel of castle. In 1618 joined to Aberdalgie.
Foulis, St. Methven and St. Bean (Foulis-Wester.) _Inchaffray_. Chapel
of St. Methven at Buchanty Bridge. Also chapel at Gorthy, 1266.
Renewed in 1454 by agreement between Abbot of Inchaffray and Tristam of
Gorthy.
Fordishall or Ferdshaw. Prebend. Again under Dunkeld.
Gask, Holy Trinity (Trinity-Gask). _Inchaffray_.
Innerpeffray, St Mary. Mentioned 1342. Collegiate, 1508, by first
Lord Drummond. In Monzie, _quoad sacra_ to Muthill. Had Lady Fair on
25th March.
Kilmadoc, St. Madocus or Aidus (Doune.) _Inchmahome_ Priory.
Kincardine, St. Latan or Lolan. Mentioned c. 1190 (Kincardine in
Menteith). _Cambuskenneth_. Old parish of Lany in Kincardine, and
chapelry of Balquhapple.
Kinkell, St. Bean. Prebend. _Inchaffray_. Now in Trinity-Gask.
Minister of Kinkell hanged at Crieff, 1682.
Logie, St. Woloc (Logie, Stirling). Prebend.
Kippen, St. Davius or Movean. In Menteith. Prebend.
Lecroft or Leckraw, St Moroc or Maworrock (Lecropt, Bridge of Allan).
_Cambuskenneth_.
Monzie in Stratherne. Prebend. St. Laurence Fair, 22d August.
Included Logiealmond. Chapel at Tomenbowie, and Stuck Chapel with
burial-grounds.
Monedie. Included Logiealmond, detached from Monzie.
Monyvaird, St. Serf, with Strowan (St. Rowan or Ronan). United before
1662.
Madertie, St. Ethernan (Maderty). An old abthane. Has Abbey of
_Inchaffray_.
Capeth Moothill (Muthill). The Dean. Chapels and wells of St Patrick
at Struthill and at Blairinroar; also, Dalpatrick across the Earn, from
St. Patrick's of Strageath; Easter and Wester Feddal and Bennie (now in
Ardoch), belonged to _Lindores Abbey_ from 1198.
Port [of Monteith]. Included old parish of Lany or Leny.
St. Madocus or Aidus (St. Madoes, Perth), R. Also Samadoss.
Tullicultrie, St. Serf. _Cambuskenneth_. Colvilles of Tillicoultry,
1483-1634.
Crieff, St. Michael, R. Prebend. Religious house--St. Thomas at
Milnab (= Abbot's Mill), belonging to Inchaffray. Besides Crieff
_primo_ and Crieff _secundo_ in Strathearn, there was also a Crieff
_tertio_ in Perthshire, probably the outlying portion of the parish in
Glenalmond round Corrymuckloch.
Logie-Airthray, St. Serf (Airthrey, Bridge of Allan). _Nuns of North
Berwick_.
Strogeyt or Strageith, St Patrick. Once church of Blackford, now in
parish of Muthill. _Inchaffray_. Planted by St. Fergus c. 700.
Callender, St. Kessaig. Chapel of Kilmahog or St. Chug.
Fyndogask, St. Findoca (Gask). _Inchaffray_.
Tuelliallan (Tulliallan), R. Seat of the Blackaders, who gave an
archbishop to Glasgow.
Glendovan (Glendevon), R. Old church in Gleneagles (= Glen Eglise).
_Cambuskenneth_.
Fossowy (Fossoway). _Cupar Angus_, c. 1310. Included Tullibole,
_Culross Abbey_. United in 1614.
Buffuder, St. Angus (Balquhidder). Has Strathyre and Glenogle.
Prebendary, 1298, Abbot of Cambuskenneth _ex officio_.
Prebendary, 1240, for parish of Abernethy, Abbot of Arbroath _ex
officio_.
Preceptor or Provost of Dunblane, Abbot of Inchaffray _ex officio_.
[1] II. 403.
[2] Preliminary Dissertation in Keith's "Bishops," iv.
[3] See Crawford's "Officers of State," vi.
[4] II. 404.
[5] Reeves' "British Culdees," Evidences, S., 141.
[6] "Hist. Scenes in Perthshire," 346.
[7] Ibid., 343.
[8] R=Rectory.
NEAR THE PICTISH CAPITAL
By Rev. P. THOMSON, B.D., Dunning
The title is retained as it was given. But it would be more correct to
say, "Near a Pictish Capital," for, as is well known, of such capitals
there were more than one. Nobody, however, who keeps in mind the origin
and range of the present volume will need to be told that "The Pictish
Capital" here meant is Forteviot--or, as it is often otherwise spelt in
legends, and chronicles, and charters--_Fertebeith, Ferteuioth,
Fertenyoth, Ferthevioth, Fetherthauethn, Fethirthant, Fothuirtabaicht,
Fortewyot, Fetherteviot_.
When Forteviot attained the dignity of being a royal abode cannot be
definitely ascertained. Dr Stuart gives it as his opinion that the royal
residence is to be identified with the "Dun Fothir" mentioned in the
Irish annals, which is recorded to have been twice besieged--in 681 and
694 A.D.; and it has been suggested by the same authority that probably
the name means "the dun of the district, or of the men, or of the King of
Fortren," which term latterly meant the kingdom of the Southern Picts.
Whatever probability there may be in the above suggestion, when we refer
to the Legend of S. Andrew, we find what appears to be corroborative
evidence that Forteviot was the residence of Pictish kings from a very
early period. According to this legend, it was to Forteviot, in the hope
of seeing the King there, that S. Regulus and certain of his followers
made their way with the relics of the most holy Apostle Andrew, after
their landing at Muckros or Kylrimont (now Saint Andrews). It so
happened that the King (Hungus, or Ungus, or Angus, who died A.D. 761)
was not at home, having gone on an expedition into Argyle (Argathelia).
But they found his three sons[1] residing at Forteviot, and these princes
gave the tenth part of the town[2] to God and S. Andrew, the holy men
blessing the place and the royal family who abode there. They then went
in further search of the King himself, and having met him at Kindrochet,
in Braemar, and subsequently at Monichi (Monikie), they returned in
company with him to Forteviot, where he built a church ("basilica"[3]) to
God and S. Andrew.
But these are not the only references that we have. According to one of
the Pictish chronicles, it was at Fothuir-tabaicht that Drust (Filius
Ferat), the last King of the Picts, was killed.[4] It was here--"in
palacio suo de Fothuir-tabaicht"--where Kenneth MacAlpin, the first of
the Scotic dynasty (formed by the union of the lines of the Picts and the
Dalriadic Scots), died in 860. It was here, in Fothuir-tabaicht, where
Donald I., Kenneth's brother and successor, established with his council
the mode of succession to the throne, confirming "the rights and laws of
the kingdom of Aodh, son of Eocha."
According to Skene, Forteviot continued to be a royal residence until the
reign of Donald II., the son of Constantine, when the capital was
transferred to Scone. But it would appear that the ancient "palace" at
Forteviot was subsequently restored by Malcolm Canmore, and that his
successors at least occasionally came to live in it. Malcolm the Maiden
(1153-1165) is found to have granted at Fetherteviot a charter conveying
certain lands--the names of Ada, the King's mother, and of William, his
brother, appearing as witnesses. And even so late as 1306, during the
English invasion, there is mention of a letter, dated from Forteviot by
Edward, Prince of Wales.
The traditional site of the "palace," which would, no doubt, correspond
also with the site of the early church dedicated to S. Andrew, as before
mentioned, is still pointed out a little to the west of the village, and
is known as the Halyhill or Holyhill. Whether this first church was
built of stone is not known. But that there was a stone church at
Forteviot at an early date is made comparatively certain by the
discovery, in 1830 or thereby, of a large semi-circular and arched stone
lying in the bed of the River May, and directly under the Halyhill. How
long this most interesting arch had been hid away no one can tell; but it
was a fortunate "spate" that washed it bare and exposed it to the light
of day. It is now in the Antiquarian Museum in Edinburgh, where the
writer recently made an inspection of it. An excellent engraving of it
is contained in J. Romilly Allen's _Christian Symbolism in Great Britain
and Ireland_, and with the kind permission of that gentleman it is here
reproduced.[5]
The arch is 4 feet in span and 21 inches high. Carved in relief in the
centre of the stone is a cross, on one side of which is an animal--very
probably intended for the Agnus Dei; while, on the same side, a little
below the Agnus Dei, there are three figures with helmets on their heads
and swords in their right hands. On the other side of the cross there is
a robed figure in a sitting posture, with a sword across his knees, and
with one foot resting on the back of a horned animal.
It has been erroneously supposed by some that this arch must have formed
part of the principal doorway of the "palace," but from the fact of its
bearing such symbols as the Cross and the Agnus Dei, there is no doubt
that it belonged to an early church.[6] Bearing in mind the legend of
the founding of a church to S. Andrew in the time of Hungus, perhaps the
suggestion of Dr Joseph Anderson has great probability--viz., that the
four figures are "not contemporary, but early representations of King
Hungus and his three sons."[7]
All lovers of antiquarian lore will be interested in knowing that, a few
years ago, there was brought to light at Forteviot, and through the
kindness of the parish minister, Dr Anderson, exhibited to the Society of
Antiquaries a fine specimen of a bronze bell of Celtic type (the fifth of
the kind known in Scotland), whose date is believed to belong to about
the middle of the 10th century.
NEAR THE PICTISH CAPITAL would be found, as a matter of course, the royal
hunting-grounds. Very probably these were on both sides of the
Earn--stretching westward into the neighbouring parish of Dunning, the
northmost part of which is still called Dalreoch or Dailrigh, a word
which, in Gaelic, means the King's haugh or field.
To DUNNING, or rather to some of the objects in it, that are of the
greatest archaeological or antiquarian interest, the remainder of this
chapter will be devoted.
In many ways that we can readily conceive, traces of the proximity of
Dunning to a royal residence must have existed from an early period. The
existence of hill forts, as at Rossie-Law, and the discovery, from time
to time, of arms and stone coffins, indicate that the parish must have
been often the theatre of strife and bloodshed. Duncrub,[8] or, as it is
called in a Pictish chronicle, "Dorsum Crup," is said to have been the
scene of a battle, which is thus referred to by Robertson in his _Early
Kings_--"The reign of Duff, the eldest son of Malcolm the First, and
representative of the senior branch of the Royal family, appears to have
been passed in a continued struggle against the pretensions raised by the
now rival line of Aodh in the person of Indulf's son Colin, and, though
at first successful, defeating Colin at the Battle of Duncrub (A.D. 965),
in which the Mormaor[9] of Atholl and the Abbot of Dunkeld, partizans
apparently of the defeated prince, were numbered amongst the slain, he
was subsequently less fortunate, and was driven by his rival from the
throne, losing his life on a later occasion at Forres ... where his body
is said to have been hidden under the bridge of Kinloss, tradition adding
that the sun refused to shine until the dishonoured remains of the
murdered monarch received the burial of a king."[10] Part of the ground
which is believed to have been the site of the Battle of Duncrub now
forms the village tennis-ground and the village bowling-green, and yearly
are witnessed on it fightings still--though of a very different kind.
The traditional spot where the Abbot (by name Doncha) was slain is marked
by the "Standing-Stone," on "the acres," a little to the east of the
tennis-ground, while a similar "standing-stone," on the farm of "The
Knowes," is said to mark the place where the Mormaor met his doom.
The spelling of the name Dunning, at various times, and in various
records and charters, is rather interesting--_Donyng, Dunnyne, Dunyne,
Dinnin, Dunin_, or (as _e.g._, in the inscription on the Communion cups
presently in use, of date 1702) _Duning_. The word is generally thought
to be derived from the Gaelic term dún (already referred to), which means
a hill, or a hill with a fort.[11]
On first appearing on the page of tolerably trustworthy history, Dunning
formed part of the Stewartry or Earldom of Strathearn, which dates back
to a remote period. Among the ancient Earls of Strathearn there were
some very notable figures. Particularly so was Malise, the Earl of
Strathearn, who figured prominently in the Battle of the Standard. But,
more particularly notable still, was his grandson, Gilbert, who held the
Earldom in the reign of David I. Like his King--proverbially known as
the "sair sanct for the crown"--Gilbert was most lordly in gifts to the
Church, which was then fast rising into power. Dr Wilson[12] quotes an
old writer to the effect that, at this time, the Earldom of Strathearn
included "the haill lands lying betwixt the Cross of MacDuff, at
Newburgh, and the west end of Balquhidder, in length, and the Ochil Hills
and the hills called Montes Grampii, or the Grampians, in breadth." Even
though we make some reduction as to all this, and regard as somewhat
legendary what Fordun tells us--viz., that Gilbert divided all his huge
territory into three equal parts, giving two to the Church, and keeping
only one to himself, still there cannot be a doubt but that he was one of
the most liberal and extensive church-endowers on record. It was by him
that the Bishopric of Dunblane was founded; it was by him that the Abbey
of Canons-regular, at Inchaffray, was richly endowed through his
attaching to it the tithes of many of the neighbouring parishes. The
foundation charter of the Abbey, dated 1200 A.D., in the thirty-fifth
year of the reign of William, records the giving and making over to the
Abbey of the Church of S. Kattan, at Aberuthven; the Church of S.
Ethirnin, at Madderty; the Church of S. Patrick, at Strageath; the Church
of S. Mockhessoc, at Auchterarder; and the Church of S. Bean, at Kynkell.
It will be seen that Dunning is not in this list. But it appears along
with some other parishes in a second charter granted by the same Gilbert
in 1217, which charter confirmed the grant of previously gifted parishes,
and adds "the Church of S. Serf at Monzievaird, S. Bean at Foulis, S.
Bridget at Kilbryde, the Holy Trinity at Gask, Tullichettel at Comrie,
and S. Serf at Dunnyne."
It is highly probable that between 1200 and 1219--say, about 1210--the
Church of S. Serf at Dunning was built. And that we have a considerable
portion of the original building still remaining is rendered almost
certain from what is known of the style of architecture of the period
referred to--viz., the Norman in transition--the Norman entering on a
First Pointed. The grey Tower, with its quaintly-mullioned windows and
saddle-back roof; the wall adjoining the Tower on the north, and
containing a fine Norman doorway and an interesting line of corbels; the
handsome arch rising from massive pillars, and showing beautifully
scolloped mouldings, all afford corroborative proof of the date above
assigned.[13]
If Dunning Church was built about the time we have mentioned, it would,
no doubt, be about the same time when the lands around it were erected
into a parish. We have one or two very early references. In a charter
of date 1247, Malise, Earl of Strathearn, granted 20 merks annually "de
Thanagio de Dunnyne et Pitcairn." In 1283 we find that there was made to
the Church of S. Serf a grant of "20 merks from our fermé[14] at Dunin,
to be paid half-yeirlie, at the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of S.
Martin; and 10 merks of silver from our holding of Pitcairn, to be paid
in the same manner." And in 1358 there is ratified a grant, previously
made, of "42 merks yearly from the Thanage of Dunnyne"; also "the tithe
of all the rents, cane, corn, cheese, flesh, fish, fowl, and game, and of
all the food used in the Earl's Court, and 20 merks from our fermé at
Dunnyne."
It may interest lovers of archaeological studies to know that when the
Church of S. Serf at Dunning--originated and endowed as above
described--was being re-floored some thirty-five years ago, there was dug
up, from among earth and bones in the nave, a good specimen of a Celtic
cross, which is now erected in a fitting place underneath the Tower. Mr
A. Hutchison, F.S.A., Scot., Dundee (a reliable authority), has examined
it, and has pronounced it "of the true Celtic type." He adds the opinion
that "the fact that no mention is made in contemporary documents of an
earlier church (_i.e._, earlier than 1210) does not prove that such a
church did not exist.... It is a fair inference from the existence of
this early cross that an earlier ecclesiastical settlement existed at
Dunning, and that the present church superseded a pre-Norman, or Celtic
Church, in all probability on the same site."
At the risk of its being regarded as an unpardonably wide digression,
reference may here be made, not to another cross, but to a monumental
stone of another kind and of a much later date (although no date is
inscribed upon it.) It is what is known as the "Ebenezer" stone of the
parish. Though at one time lying flat and covered with crop-bearing
soil, it now stands erect, and on what is believed to have been its first
site. It is placed on a field on the farm of Easter Gatherleys, and
about three-quarters of a mile west of the farm-house. Its origin is
said to have been this:--The farmer of Gatherleys of the time--who was
also "laird" of the place--had for long been in doubt and spiritual
darkness--to all appearance hopelessly perplexed. Sitting down, here,
one day, he found comfort, peace, and light. Showing a most laudable
example, he not selfishly received the blessing, but most gratefully
acknowledged it, raising on the spot his "Ebenezer" of indebtedness to
Him from whom our blessings flow. On the surface of the stone facing the
east are inscribed in English the words of Is. l., 10; while on that
facing the west we have the following:--
EBENEZER
========
Hic
EX TENEBRIS
LUX LUXIT
ERGO
PATER, FILIUS, ET
SPIRITUS SANCTUS
MEUS DEUS,
ET NOMEN
HUJUS LOCI
LUX[15]
Both as to size and shape the stone is similar to the quaint early 17th
century "head-stones" in the older portion of the graveyard around
Dunning Church.
Something must be written of the bells which have been connected, at one
time or another, with the Church of Dunning. One bell, no longer in the
Tower, came to sudden grief when discharging its duty on a certain happy
occasion. The Master of Rollo of the time, who was living at
Masterfield, having been blessed with four daughters, but no son and
heir, was met one evening by a messenger bringing the welcome news that a
son had just been born to him. "Go," he said, "and make the bell ring
till it crack." The order was literally obeyed--a broken bell being the
result. Its fragments having been taken to Duncrub, were, many years
after, re-cast into a bell, now used in connection with the private
chapel there. The inscription on the cracked bell, for a copy of which
the writer is indebted to the present Lord Rollo, was of a very
interesting and suggestive nature. Round the top were the words--"Soli
Deo Gloria. Joannes Oaderogge me fecit. Roterodami, 1681"; and on the
body of the bell, the following words placed thus:--
"HAEC AD EVANGELIUM
HOC AD CHRISTUM
HIC AD CAELUM
VOCAT PBCCATORES."[16]
His Lordship adds--"The bell, I believe, was in a vessel that was
captured in the American War, and it was brought here by my predecessor,
Andrew, fifth Lord Rollo.... It was broken in April, 1773, and I had it
re-cast by Mears in 1860, with the original inscription replaced."
Of much interest, also, are the two bells still in the Tower of Dunning
Church. The older and smaller bears the Dutch inscription:--"IC BEN
GHEGOTEN INE IAER ONS HEEREN MCCCCCXXVI."[17] But in addition to this,
the bell shows a two-fold representation that seems to give it a value
quite unique. What we have is--(1) a scallop-shell,[18] on which are
three figures--a central-seated figure, and two smaller figures kneeling
alongside. The central figure seems to hold something, which may be a
book, in the left hand close to the breast. The right hand is extended,
and seems to hold a staff and a garland. The figure has a _nimbus_, and
a curious triangular head-dress. (2) On the side opposite the shell and
figures is what appears to be a representation of the Virgin and Child,
alongside of which is a figure of the Crucifixion.[19] This old bell is
used to announce the half-hour as measured on the Steeple Clock,[20] as
also to tell the living that the mortal remains of some brother or sister
are about to be laid beneath the turf.
The large bell--used to announce the services of the church, and, through
the kindness of Lady Rollo, to ring at "matins" and at "even-song"--is of
very full tone. It was a gift to the church by a highly-respected
heritor of the parish, and bears this inscription:--
"T. Mears of London fecit.
"This Bell was presented to the Parish Church of Dunning by Mark Howard
Drummond, Esq. of Kelty, Major of the 72nd Regiment of Albany
Highlanders, in token of his attachment to his native parish, and of his
zeal to promote religious, industrious, and early habits among the
parishioners.--August 3d, 1825."
Mention has already been made of the fact that the patron Saint of
Dunning was S. SERF. The same Saint had churches dedicated to him at
Monivaird (Monzievaird), at Creich, and at Dysart. But, inasmuch as he
seems to have lived for some considerable time at Dunning, and also to
have died there, perhaps this is the most fitting place for a page or two
as to his history.
That he was a real historic personage does not admit of doubt; but the
exact time at which he acted his part on the world's stage is involved in
great obscurity. The legends of him are very conflicting, so much so,
that it has been supposed by some that there were two S. Serfs. It is
the legends, however, that are two-fold, and not the Saint. According to
the Aberdeen Breviary, and writers who follow its guidance, S. Servanus,
or S. Serf, or S. Serb, or (in Aberdeenshire) S. Sair, belonged to the
5th century, and was the disciple of S. Palladius; others putting him a
little further on, and making him out to have been the instructor of S.
Kentigern at Culross. But most people who carefully read the pages of
Skene[21] will be satisfied that S. Servanus belongs to a later period
still. It so happens that there is preserved in the Marsh M.S., Dublin,
and printed in Skene's _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_ (p. 412, ff.),
a Life of the Saint, which, notwithstanding some excessively wild and
incredible-looking stories mixed up with it, is the only life of his that
is consistent with itself and with otherwise-ascertained contemporary
facts. This life makes the Saint contemporary with Adamnan, Abbot of
Iona, who belonged to the 7th century, and with Brude, son of Dargart,
King of the Picts. According to Skene,[22] this Brude, son of Dargart,
may be identified with Brude, son of Derile, who reigned from 697 to 706,
and preceded that Nectan, son of Derile, who expelled the Columban monks
from his kingdom. And confirmatory proof of this identification being
correct is furnished by Gray's _Scalacronica_, which has under this Brude
that we have been referring to--"En quel temps veint Servanus en
Fine."[23] Moreover, in the Chartulary of S. Andrews there is reference
to an early charter of the Celtic period, by which "Brude, son of
Dergard, gives the Isle of Lochlevine to the Omnipotent God, and to Saint
Servanus, and to the Keledei hermits dwelling there, who are serving, and
shall serve God in that island."
According, then, to the life in the Marsh Library M.S.--the life which,
its many wild accounts notwithstanding, seems most free from
anachronisms--the Saint is the son of Obeth, King of Canaan, and Alpia,
daughter of the King of Arabia. His father dying, he gives up his right
to the throne in favour of his twin brother Generatius, takes orders, and
is appointed Bishop of the Cananeans. After twenty years as Bishop in
that region, admonished by an angel, he comes to Jerusalem, where he is
Patriarch for seven years. He then goes to Constantinople, and thence to
Rome, where, for seven years, he reigns as Pope. Quitting Rome, and
accompanied by a band of pilgrims, he makes his way into regions remote
and crosses the Mare Icteum (Straits of Dover) dryshod, and, after
travelling from place to place, arrives at the Forth. Adamnan, who, at
the time, was an abbot in Scotland, receives him with great honours on
the island of Inchkeith, and afterwards gave him, as his field of labour,
Fife, and from the Mons Britannicus to the Mons Okhel (from the mount of
the Britons to the Ochils.) He is next found at Kinel, then at Culenros,
where he met King Brude and founded a church; then at an island, in Loch
Leven, where he meets Adamnan and has the island presented to him. After
constructing churches throughout the whole region of Fife, and labouring
for years in the province assigned to him, and at many other places, he
died at Dunning, and was buried at Culross. The deeds ascribed to S.
Serf are certainly astounding, and the stories associated with him
extraordinarily "wild"; still, as the scenes of not a few of them are
laid at places in the Ochils district, and, accordingly, "Near the
Pictish Capital," it may not be inappropriate if a few of them are
rehearsed here.[24]
At Tuligbotuan (Tullybody) the Devil, having entered into a poor man,
filled him with an insatiable appetite. He ate and ate, and still the
wolf within craved for more. Though he consumed a cow and a calf, a
sheep and a lamb, all was of no avail. At length, when the family were
eaten "out of house and hall," his relatives take him to S. Serf, who
clapped his thumb[25] into the man's mouth, which immediately satisfied
him--the Devil flying out of him with a howl.
At Alveth (Alvah) Servanus and his company lodged, on one occasion, at
the house of a very poor man, who had nothing to put before them but his
one pig. It was forthwith cut up and eaten, the bones, however, being
carefully preserved from being broken. Next morning, to the great
delight and surprise of the poor man, the pig came grunting to the door,
restored to flesh, and life by the Saint.
At Atheren (Airthrey) a robber, one night, broke into S. Serf's cell,
and, finding a sheep roasted in his larder, comfortably sat down and
entirely consumed it. Next day Servanus met the fellow and charged him
with the robbery. The man swore innocence, but it was of no use; he was
instantly convicted, for the wether bleated in his bowels.
At Dunning, S. Serf is said to have healed three blind, three lame, and
three deaf men. But his great feat here was killing the dragon. (Had no
princes or knights come to Forteviot as yet, that such work was left to
the priest?) The story, as given in the Marsh M.S., is as follows:--"At
that time the Saint was in his cell at Dunning (_in cella Dunenensi_),
and news was brought to him that a dragon, great and terrible, and very
loathsome (_deterrimus_), was coming into his township (_civitatem
suam_), whose aspect no mortal could suffer. Saint Servanus, however,
coming out to meet it, and taking his staff in his right hand, fought
with the dragon in a certain valley, and killed it. From that day,
moreover, that valley was called the Valley of the Dragon."[26]
The circumstances connected with the Saint's death and burial are
touchingly described. The holy man, after many miracles, after divers
works, after founding many churches in Christ, when his peace had been
given to his brethren in his cell at Dunning, gave up and commended his
spirit to the most High Creator on the first day of the Kalends of July.
After his death his disciples and the people of nearly the whole province
carried his body to Culenross (Culross), and there, with psalms and hymns
(ymnis) and chantings (canticis), honourably buried him, where flourish
his merits, and the virtues of his merits unto this day--to the glory and
honour of the Omnipotent God, who in the Perfect Trinity liveth and
reigneth through endless ages of ages.
Only the limits of space forbid allusion to additional features of
considerable importance near the Pictish Capital, and connected with the
parish of Dunning. Room, however, must be found for stating that, as is
to be expected, Dunning, like other places in Strathearn, is not without
interesting traces of the "Rising" of 1715. In the Session records,
under date 18th September, 1715, there is the following entry:--"There
was no sermon this day, and for several Sabbaths following, on account of
the commotions that were in the county by reason of Mar's unnatural
rebellion." When Mar quitted the field of Sheriffmuir, he, on the 12th
November, 1715, withdrew his army into Angus, and in order to hinder the
progress of the Royalist forces, he burned down all the villages on the
line of march as far as Perth. The villagers of Dunning, actuated by the
same feelings as led the citizens of London to erect the "Monument" after
the great fire of 1666, planted a thorn tree to commemorate the
destruction of their village. This ancient tree, standing in the square
opposite the east approach to the manse, is well protected, and is likely
to be spared to tell its memorable story to generations to come.
[1] _Hwonam et Nechtan et Phinguineghert_.--(See Skene's _Chronicles of
the Picts and Scots_, p. 185).
[2] _Decimam partem de urbe Fortevieth_.--(See Skene's _Chronicles of the
Picts and Scots_, p. 185).
[3] This word, originally, was the name applied by the Romans to their
public halls, either of justice or of exchange. Inasmuch as the early
Christian Churches generally followed the ground plan of these buildings,
such churches long retained the same appellation.
[4] Other chronicles give the place as Scone.--(See Skene's _Chronicles
of the Picts and Scots_, p. 174).
[5] Both palace and church would be within the King's Rath or circular
fortification.
[6] "The custom of placing a cross over the doorway of a Christian
building may be traced back to the sixth century in Palestine, where the
Chi-Rho monogram occurs on the lintels of the doorways of the houses.
The meaning of the symbolism is explained by the blood of the lamb, which
was struck upon the lintels of the doors of the houses of the Israelites
in Egypt at the Passover (Gen. xii., 21-23), and our Lord's words--'I am
the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,' (John x.,
9)."--(J. Romilly Allen's _Christian Symbolism_, p. 238).
A good example of such a cross is on the lintel of the doorway of a 7th
century church at Fore, Co. West Meath; and another, equally good, is on
the doorway of one of the oldest churches in Ireland, on High Island, off
the coast of Connemara. In connection with the Round Towers at Antrim
and at Brechin there are similar crosses.
[7] See _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_ (Vol.
xxvi., p. 438.) Dr Wilson, in his _Dunning: its Parochial History_,
states that the large figure with the sword "is said to be a
representation of Alexander the First, who died in the year 1124" (p. 3.)
[8] Sir Herbert Maxwell, in his _Scottish Land-Names: their Origin and
Meaning_, gives as the derivation of Duncrub, the old Gaelic dún
craeb=hill of the trees.
[9] Otherwise spelt _Mormaer_. Except that the constituent elements are
inverted, it is the same word as _Maormor_ (Gael. _maer, maor_, a
steward, and _mor_, great), and was the ancient name for a royal steward
of high dignity, placed by a Scottish king over a province, and acting as
a royal deputy.
[10] Robertson's _Early Kings_ (Vol. I., p. 77).
[11] Sir Herbert Maxwell states that dún in its original and restricted
sense means "Enclosure or fortress, being closely related to A.S. tûn,
Eng. town.... The diminutive, or noun plural, yields innumerable names,
like _Dinnans_ and _Dinnance_, in Ayrshire and Galloway; _Duning_ and
_Dinnings_ in Dumfriesshire; and _Downan_, near Ballantrae." Ought not
Sir Herbert to have added _Dunnin_ or _Dunning_, in Perthshire?
[12] See _Dunning: its Parochial History_, p. 4.
[13] The marks of a gable of a former nave with a very highly-pitched
roof are still distinctly seen on the Tower.
[14] The word here used, occasionally spelt _ferm_, sometimes means not
so much a piece of land turned to agricultural use and cultivated by
owner or tenant, as _an account, a reckoning_: It is akin to _farm_ from
the A.S. fearm or feorm=food, a meal. A trustworthy authority says that
the meaning of farm "arose from the original practice of letting lands,
on condition that the tenant should supply his lord's household with so
many nights' entertainment." Hence "Reddet firmam trium noctium." (He
will supply three nights' entertainment).--_Doomsday Book_.
[15] Here, out of darkness Light shone. Therefore the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost [shall be] my God, and the name of this place Light.
[16] This [bell] calls sinners to the Gospel, it to Christ, He to Heaven.
[17] I was born in the year of our Lord, 1526.
[18] In heraldry a scallop-shell is the badge of a pilgrim. It is the
symbol of S. James the Greater, who is generally represented in pilgrim's
garb. In this sense it is sometimes written _Escallop_.
[19] The writer is indebted to Dr Joseph Anderson for kindly examining
two casts of these figures, carefully prepared by Mr James Henderson,
F.S.A., Scot., Dunning.
[20] Erected by public subscription, and inaugurated 3rd November, 1890.
(For architectural correctness, its four dials are omitted in Mr Ross's
drawing of the Tower).
[21] See his _Celtic Scotland_, p. 31, ff.
[22] See _Celtic Scotland_, p. 259.
[23] See _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, p. 201.
[24]In telling one or two of these stories, we have tried to combine with
the Marsh M.S. version the somewhat fuller details of the Aberdeen
Breviary.
[25] Baring Gould (_Lives of the Saints_. London, 1874), using probably
a version of the legend reading _pulicem_, instead of _pollicem suum_,
has _clapped a flea into the man's mouth_.
[26] The Dragon is the name still given to that part of the parish in
which is situated the Village of Newtown of Pitcairns.
THE HISTORIC PRESBYTERY OF AUCHTERARDER
By Rev. G. D. MACNAUGHTAN, B.D., Ardoch,
_Clerk of Presbytery_
The district embraced within the bounds of the Presbytery of
Auchterarder belonged for the most part to the ancient Diocese of
Dunblane. Within it lay the famous Abbey of Inchaffray, and the
minister of Muthill was usually Dean of Dunblane. As originally
erected, the Presbytery was, indeed, the Presbytery of Dunblane, but in
1593 the General Assembly ordained the Presbytery of Dunblane "to be
transportit to Auchterardour, with liberty to the brethren of Dunblane
appealing to resort either to Auchterardour or Striviling as they
please." When at last it got into shape it consisted of the following
fifteen parishes, viz.:--Auchterarder, Blackford, Comrie, Crieff,
Dunning, Fossoway, Foulis-Wester, Gask, Glendevon, Madderty, Monzie,
Monzievaird, Muckhart, Muthill, and Trinity-Gask. Beginning on the
shores of Loch Earn, it followed on both banks the river of that name
for more than twenty miles, stretching upwards on either side to the
surrounding hills. Northwards it reached even the banks of the Almond,
while southwards it found its way into the uplands of Strathallan, and,
breaking by the pass of Gleneagles into the Ochils, it went right
through them to the level ground beyond, following the windings of the
Devon. As a background, rose the mighty peaks of the Grampians; in the
foreground lay the gentler, greener, rounded heights of the Ochil
range. The seat of the Presbytery was Auchterarder, a long, straggling
village, built along the crest of a rising ground; a mile or two
distant from the south bank of the Earn, and at the same time not far
from the top of Strathallan. Towards the close of the sixteenth
century we have to think of the various parishes above named as being
duly supplied with Protestant pastors, who met regularly in
Auchterardour for the "weekly exercise," and to dispose of any church
business that came before them. Most of these first members of the
Presbytery seem to have been cadets of the leading families of the
district, and, amongst them, Drummond, Graeme, Murray or Moray were
common names. The Presbytery of Auchterarder first begins to take a
prominent part in public affairs during the religious troubles of
Charles I. The Jenny Geddes riot in St Giles has just taken place, and
petitions are pouring in from all quarters against the ill-fated
service-book. The Privy Council is at its wits' end as between a king
resolved on innovations and a nation that will have none of them. It
sends up to London specimens of the petitions received--one from the
nobility, one from the gentry, one from the burghs, and a fourth from
the clergy. The clerical petition thus honoured was that from the
"Presbytrie of Auchtererdoch." The petition of this Presbytery was
probably selected not on account of the zealous character of the
opposition of its members, but on account of their known loyalty. The
impression to be produced on the King's mind was that, if even
Auchterarder opposed his designs, his projects were hopeless. The
Covenant was sworn, but Auchterarder was not zealous for the Covenant.
In the divisions of opinion, which led eventually to the rising of
Montrose, Auchterarder sympathised with the minority. A Warning and
Declaration with reference to these divisions was ordered by the
General Assembly to be read from every pulpit, and "the brethren of
Auchtererdoch" took it upon them to disobey. It was the first
illustration of that independence of judgment for which they have more
than once been famous. It was resolved to make an example of this
disobedient Presbytery, and they were cited before the Assembly of
1643. "The Presbytery of Auchtererdoch was under the rod," writes
Baillie, "to be made an example to all who would be turbulent." "After
long examination of their business," he continues, "at last they were
laureat. Some two or three of that Presbytery (when many of the gentry
who were not elders were permitted to sit among them and reason against
the Warning and Declaration, and when Ardoch presented reasons in write
against these pieces, yet they were proven to have been forward for the
present reading) were commended. Others who, notwithstanding of the
Presbytery's conclusion of not reading, yet did read, were, for voicing
the continuation, gently rebuked. Others who at last caused read parts
of them, and Mr James Rowe, who caused read them before himself came
in, were sharply rebuked, and their names delete from among the members
of this Assembly. Ardoch, ane old reverend gentleman, for his former
known zeal was spared, only, was urged upon oath to reveal the persons
from whom he had the reasons contrary to the Warning." This is a
curious picture of the internal condition of the Presbytery, and
exhibits in strong relief the friendly relations existing betwixt its
members and the gentry of the district. The James Rowe referred to was
minister of Muthill, and was married to Margaret Stirling, a daughter
of the laird of Ardoch, the "old reverend gentleman" above named.
When, after the Restoration, Episcopacy was re-established,
Auchterarder once again formed part of the Diocese of Dunblane, and was
for a time under the mild sway of the Episcopate of Leighton. The
Episcopacy was almost nominal. There was no liturgy; the service
continued to be much what it had been before, though Leighton
encouraged the brethren to make their preaching "plain and useful for
all capacities, not entangled with useless questions and disputes, nor
continued to a wearisome length"; "to read larger portiones of the
Scriptures"; "to restore the Lord's Prayer to more frequent use,
likewyse the Doxologie and the Creed." The Presbytery continued to
meet as usual, and virtually elected its own Moderator. The chief
difference was that at the Synod the Bishop as of right occupied the
chair. At this period we have another interesting glimpse of the
internal condition of the Presbytery. It was complained to one Synod
that "some young men, ministers within the Presbytrie of Ochterarder,
had behaved themselves somewhat irreverendlie and undeutifullie towards
some of the brethren who were older than themselves both for age and
work of the ministrie. The Bishop having taken the samyne to
consideration, desired the Moderator of the Presbytrie of Ochterarder,
that at their first Presbyterial meeting, to admonish such brethren,
that in time coming they should absteine from such unbeseeming
misbehaviour, otherwyse to shew them that he would advert to it
hereafter." The young lions of Auchterarder had evidently {107} begun
to roar, catching something of the independent spirit of their seniors.
In this district there was but little of the Covenanting feeling that
was rampant in the West. An Abdiel, however, was found among the
faithless in the person of William Spence, minister of Glendevon. In
1678 he laid a paper on the table of Presbytery in which he testified
against the errors of the times. He was dealt with with great leniency
and patience, but in the end he proved incorrigible. After long delay
he was at last, in the beginning of 1681, deposed and excommunicated by
the Bishop and Synod. From that time onwards he became a political
agent, and was mixed up in the plots which filled the closing years of
the reign of Charles II. In 1684 he was arrested and questioned.
Though made to undergo the torture of the boot, he refused to disclose
anything. He was then handed over to the tender mercies of General
Dalziel, the "Muscovy beast who would roast men," and was kept from
sleeping for eight or nine days till his enemies themselves were weary.
He had to be thumbscrewed, and told that they would screw every joint
of his body, one after another, before his courage began to fail. "Yet
{108} such was the firmness and fidelity of this poor man," writes
Bishop Burnet, "that even in that extremity he capitulated, that no new
questions should be put to him, but those already agreed on; and that
he should not be obliged to be a witness against any person, and that
he himself should be pardoned." After the Revolution he came back to
Glendevon; in 1691 was translated to Fossoway, and, having outlived all
his troubles, died there in peace in 1715 at the age of eighty. The
policy, with which he had associated himself as a minority of one, had
triumphed.
The Revolution fell upon the Presbytery of Auchterarder like the very
crack of doom. All its members, with two exceptions, were ousted.
These were the Rev. James Roy, minister of Trinity-Gask, and the Rev.
Robert Sharp, M.A., minister of Muckhart. Unfortunately, at this
interesting period the Presbytery records are a blank. The last minute
before the Revolution is that of September 7, 1687; the next is that of
November 9, 1703. When the curtain thus rises again at the beginning
of the eighteenth century the _personnel_ of the Presbytery has
completely changed. Elsewhere the transformation seems to have been
accomplished with little difficulty; but it was different in the
Episcopal stronghold of Muthill. That parish, we find, has not yet
submitted to the authority of the Presbytery, and is still vacant. It
was not till August 3rd, 1704, that Mr William Haly was ordained as
minister of Muthill. On the day of his ordination there was a riot,
"several in the parish keeping the doors of the kirk and kirkyard with
swords and staves"; and not until the following year (March 20, 1705)
were the keys of the church of Muthill finally laid upon the table of
the Presbytery. The new members of the Presbytery were very different
from the old. They were now strongly Presbyterian in feeling, and
ultra-evangelical in theology. In 1711, when threatened with the Queen
Anne Act restoring Patronage, we find them instructing their
commissioners to the Assembly "to take all care that Patronages be not
again restored," and in the following year "to give a testimony against
the encroachments made on this church by the tolleration and
patronages." They were earnest in prayer on behalf of the Protestant
Succession of the House of Hanover. On account of the Jacobite rising
of 1715 there was no meeting of Presbytery from August 30, 1715, till
February 9, 1716. At this meeting reference is made to "the Popish and
Jacobite rebells who had infested the bounds, threatening ministers not
to pray against them and their pretended king, by reason whereof
ministers were forced to flee; and spoiling the goods of the people,
and robbing and burning their houses and corns; and now that they were
driven out of their bounds by the good providence of God accompanying
the king's forces with success against them."
The Presbytery of Auchterarder had now to deal with a matter, small in
itself, which, nevertheless, created considerable stir in the Church
Courts, and ultimately led to secession. On December 11, 1716, Mr
William Craig, student of divinity, appeared before them for license.
The Presbytery being deeply impressed with "the errors of the times,"
examined him strictly as to his soundness of faith. Further
consideration of the matter having been delayed for about a month, Mr
Craig was again (January 15, 1717) before the Presbytery; was asked by
them to sign the answers formerly given by him, and though he "seemed
to scruple a little at something of the wording" of some of them, he
finally did so, and was licensed. His signature still stands at that
date in the Presbytery's copy of the Confession of Faith. The most
famous statement signed by him was to the following effect:--"And
further, I believe that it is not sound and orthodox to teach that we
must forsake sin in order to our coming to Christ and instating us in
covenant with God"--language capable of bearing an Antinomian meaning,
and soon to be known as the "Auchterarder Creed." At next meeting of
Presbytery (February 12, 1717) Mr Craig came back, representing that he
was troubled with scruples anent the paper he had subscribed, that he
had done so hastily, and that he now wished to explain his explanation.
The Presbytery, after hearing him, resolved to declare his license null
and void, and in the end he had to appeal to the Assembly. The
Assembly of 1717 was somewhat startled at the theological language of
Auchterarder, ordered the Presbytery to restore Mr Craig's license,
declared the chief article of the new creed to be "unsound and most
detestable," and asked them to explain its meaning to a meeting of the
Commission. The Presbytery was of course able to show that their
meaning was both pious and orthodox, and that they had been only a
little over-zealous for the purity of the faith. In the old
Auchterarder fashion, they had been thinking for themselves, instead of
taking ready-made opinions from other people. One good result of the
commotion was that Presbyteries were henceforth prohibited from putting
queries of their own, preliminary to license, but "those and no other"
which had received the authority of the Church. Yet it had other
results which were evil. The discussion over the "Auchterarder Creed"
led to the re-publication of the "Marrow of Modern Divinity," and the
"Marrow Controversy" led directly to the secession of the Erskines.
The _origo mali_ was in Auchterarder.
The "Rising" of 1745 did not interfere so much with the business of the
Presbytery as that of 1715 had done. During that eventful year it
continued to hold its meetings as usual. The only reference is that on
May 1, 1746, a fortnight after Culloden, the Presbytery appoints that
if His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland shall come this way in his
return from the North, certain members should wait upon him to
congratulate him upon the victory obtained by him over the rebels.
On December 14, 1756, the celebrated tragedy of _Douglas_, written by
John Home, minister of Athelstaneford, in East Lothian, was acted in
Edinburgh. This atrocious fact caused much searching of heart in all
ultra-evangelical circles. The awful news reached Auchterarder.
Meeting in Glendevon Church on May 12, 1757, for the ordination of Mr
David M'Gibbon, the Presbytery came to the following resolution:--"The
Presbytery, taking into their serious consideration the general fame
that a minister of this Church has composed the tragedy of _Douglas_,
and has been at great pains to get it represented on the stage both at
London and at Edinburgh, to the scandal of very many; and the
Presbytery further considering how hurtful stage plays are to the
interest of religion, and to the morals of the people, and always were
held to be so in every well-regulated government, heathen as well as
Christian, therefore did and hereby do instruct their representatives
in the ensuing General Assembly humbly to insist with the venerable
Assembly that they would be pleased to make effectual enquiry, without
loss of time, into the ground of the above flame; and if it shall be
found to be indeed true {114} that ministers of the Gospel, members of
this Church, have done and behaved as above alledged, that the General
Assembly would be pleased to enquire if such adequate censure has been
inflicted on these brethren as their crime deserves; and if it has not,
that the venerable Assembly would order it to be done, and that they
would be further pleased to give some publick testimony of their
abhorrence of such practices, that the world may see the just
resentment of this Church against so uncommon and unprecedented a
behaviour in some of her undutiful sons, and that they would do this in
such a manner as shall appear to the venerable Assembly to be most
effectual for preventing the like in any of their members of whatever
degree in time coming." The zeal of Auchterarder was burning with a
holy fire.
In the course of the eighteenth century the best known members of the
Presbytery were the dynasty of Moncrieffs at Blackford, and Dr. John
Kemp, of Trinity-Gask. Of the former, three generations succeeded each
other from 1697 to 1775, in which year Sir Henry Moncrieff left
Blackford to become minister of the West Kirk, Edinburgh. Of Dr. Kemp,
who left Trinity-Gask {115} in 1776, to become minister of New
Greyfriars, Edinburgh, a full account will be found in Kay's _Edinburgh
Portraits_. He was three times married, his second and third wives
being Earls' daughters.
The century was now drawing to a close. Since the Reformation there
had been no church extension within the bounds of the Presbytery. At
last, however, there was to be an awakening from this long sleep. The
district of Ardoch formed the southern portion of the parish of
Muthill. In the centre of it lay the famous Roman Camp, one of the
most ancient historic spots in Scotland, whose earthen trenches had
been thrown up by the soldiers of Agricola. It was the traditional
site of the Battle of Mons Grampius, where Galgacus and his Caledonians
fought for liberty, and, after all that has been written on the
subject, is as probably the real site as any other. There, in 1780, a
chapel of ease was built, and opened for worship on March 25, 1781.
The bounds of the chapel also included a small portion of the parish of
Blackford, and a larger portion of that of Dunblane, the Presbytery
thus extending its jurisdiction down the banks of the Allan to within a
few miles of the cathedral city. The Chapel at Ardoch was the
Presbytery's first-born child. In later years, in connection with the
Church Extension movement, promoted by Dr. Chalmers, the West Church
was built in Crieff in 1838, and the Chapel of Blairingone, in the
parish of Fossoway, in 1840. Thus equipped, the Presbytery of
Auchterarder was to meet the storm of 1843.
In the earlier years of the nineteenth century there were even to
observant eyes no signs of the coming blast. The Act of Queen Anne,
restoring Patronage, though long protested against, had been sullenly
acquiesced in by the Church. Moderates and Evangelicals, though
contending together in the several Church Courts, kept themselves
carefully within the limits of the Church's constitution. But a new
era was about to dawn. The struggle for political liberty which found
expression in the great Reform Act of 1832, had its counterpart also in
the ecclesiastical world. Patronage was again felt to be an
intolerable burden, and the rights of the Christian people to require
vindication. In these changed circumstances it became a difficult and
delicate matter to "redd the marches" between the Church and State.
With level-headed common-sense upon both sides it might have been done.
Unfortunately, in the struggle our most prominent national
characteristics, instead of being combined, got opposed to one another.
The proverbial "canniness" of the Scottish nation was all upon the one
side; the equally proverbial _perfervidum ingenium_ was all upon the
other. Led by the latter feeling, the Church resolved to fall back on
her own inherent rights and to get quit of Patronage by a side wind.
In 1834 she passed the Veto Act, giving power to "the major part of the
male heads of families, members of the vacant congregation," in any
parish to get quit of an unpopular presentee. The Presbytery of
Auchterarder was doomed to be the cockpit in which this great fight was
to be fought out. In the autumn of 1834 the Rev. Robert Young was
presented to the parish of Auchterarder by the Earl of Kinnoull. At
the moderation of his call on 2nd December the Rev. John Clark,
Blackford, preached from Mark xii., 10-11, a text somewhat interesting
in the light of what afterwards took place--"And have ye not read this
scripture: The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of
the corner: This was the Lord's doing, and is marvellous in our eyes?"
Mr Young's call was signed by three persons, for the Earl of Kinnoull
as Patron, and by two members of the congregation. He was vetoed by
287 male heads of families, and the Presbytery had no option under the
Act but to reject the call. This decision was confirmed on appeal to
the Assembly, and Mr Young and the Earl of Kinnoull had to seek redress
in the Civil Courts. The "Auchterarder Case" now attracted the
attention of the whole country. It raised the question of the legality
of the Veto Act. In November, 1837, it was heard before the whole
Court of Session, and the Judges by a majority found that, Mr Young
having been duly presented, the Presbytery was bound to take him upon
trials. An appeal was ultimately taken to the House of Lords, and by
it, in 1839, the decision of the Court of Session was re-affirmed. By
the highest legal authority the Veto Act was found to be worthless.
But the Church had gone too far to retrace her steps, and she now
raised the banner of Spiritual Independence. Other questions had come
to the front which heightened and intensified the feeling that
prevailed. By the equally illegal Chapel Act, also passed in 1834,
chapel districts were formed into parishes _quoad sacra_, and their
ministers found entitled to seats in the Church Courts. The minister
of Ardoch Chapel at once took his seat in the Presbytery, and was
followed in due time by the ministers of the West Church, Crieff, and
the Chapel at Blairingone. The Church had been led into an _impasse_
from which there was no outlet but by secession. The secession came.
In defence of their somewhat mysterious principles no fewer than 451
ministers, on the 18th day of May, 1843, left the Church. All the
world wondered. It was said that in no country other than Scotland
could such a spectacle have been seen. Yet one cannot help looking
back with sorrow upon the blundering that made it possible. Like the
Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, it was "magnificent, but not
war."
With the addition of the chapel ministers the membership of
Auchterarder Presbytery had risen to eighteen. The parish of
Auchterarder was still vacant. Of the remaining seventeen, eight were
found to have seceded. Of these, five were legal members of
Presbytery--viz., James Carment, Comrie; Peter Brydie, Fossoway; John
Reid Omond, Monzie; John Ferguson, Monzievaird; and James Thomson,
Muckhart. The three others were the chapel ministers--Samuel Grant,
Ardoch; Finlay Macalister, West Church, Crieff; and Andrew Noble,
Blairingone. The case of Mr Brydie, of Fossoway, was somewhat
peculiar. On October 13, 1843, he petitioned the Presbytery asking it
to annul its judgment with regard to him, and submitted a medical
certificate to the effect that at the time of his secession he was "in
a state of lunacy." The Presbytery, having consulted the Synod,
reponed him, on the ground that at the time he separated himself from
the Church he had been in a state of unsound mind.
The Presbytery now once more consisted of fifteen parishes and three
chapels. The vacancies in the parishes were easily supplied. It was
different with the chapels. A new minister was, indeed, ordained at
Ardoch in December, 1844, but it was 1848 before the West Church,
Crieff, and the Chapel of Blairingone were once more re-opened for
worship in connection with the Church of Scotland. The decks had been
cleared after the storm, the rigging re-fitted, and the sails spread
once more to catch the favouring breeze. In a few years the
Presbytery's organisation had become more efficient than ever. In 1854
certain portions of the parishes of Monzie and Foulis were disjoined
from the Presbytery to form a part of the new parish of Logiealmond.
In 1855, Ardoch was erected into a parish _quoad omnia_. In 1864, the
West Church, Crieff, became a parish _quoad sacra_. The Chapel of
Blairingone was also by and by to become a parish; yet, when it did so,
it no longer formed a part of the Presbytery of Auchterarder. In 1856
the General Assembly determined to create a new Presbytery of Kinross,
and for this purpose to disjoin the two parishes of Muckhart and
Fossoway (the latter including Blairingone) from the Presbytery with
which they had been associated for two hundred and fifty years.
Auchterarder refused her consent, and protested, but in vain. She was
bereaved of her children.
This change somewhat altered the centre of gravity of the Presbytery.
Hitherto Auchterarder had been its natural centre, and its most
convenient place of meeting. From this time onwards it began
occasionally to meet at Crieff. In 1866 an Act of Assembly was passed
ordaining it to meet alternately in Auchterarder and Crieff.
After the Secession of 1843 a subtle change began to creep over the
opinions of the Presbytery. It was no longer the ultra-evangelical
body which it had been for more than a century. It began to take
broader views of culture and of human life. Were another minister of
the Church of Scotland now to write a new tragedy of _Douglas_ he would
be likely to receive its congratulations rather than its denunciations.
Its theology became sweeter, and it is in no danger of framing a new
"Auchterarder Creed" upon the lines of the last. When the new movement
began for the improvement of public worship there was, indeed, enough
of the old leaven left to lead to a vigorous resistance. This struggle
centred round "The Crieff Organ Case" in 1866-67. Ultimately, however,
the new views prevailed, and at the present moment (1896) the once
hated "kist of whistles" has found its way into no fewer than thirteen
out of the sixteen parishes which at present compose the Presbytery.
Since the days of that conflict, indeed, its spirit has broadened and
broadened. The old independent tone, for which it had been conspicuous
even in the seventeenth century, has become more and more marked. In
recent years the Presbytery has never been willing tamely to follow the
lead of Assembly leaders and Assembly Committees, but has insisted on
expressing a vigorous opinion of its own upon all the questions of the
day.
In the course of the present century several ministers, afterwards to
become better known, have begun their respective careers within the
bounds of the Presbytery. Dr. William Robertson, latterly minister of
New Greyfriars, Edinburgh, was ordained as minister of Muckhart in
1831. Dr. Robert Home Stevenson, minister of St. George's, Edinburgh,
Moderator of the General Assembly of 1871, was ordained in 1840 as
assistant and successor in the parish of Crieff. Dr. John Cunningham,
minister of Crieff from 1845 to 1887, was Moderator of the General
Assembly of 1886, and was latterly Principal of St. Mary's College, St.
Andrews. His successor in the Moderatorship of Assembly, Dr. George
Hutchison, Banchory-Ternan, was ordained as minister of Monzie in 1845.
Dr. Paton J. Gloag, then of Galashiels, Moderator of the Assembly of
1889, was ordained in 1848 as assistant and successor in the parish of
Dunning. Dr. John Wilson, a genial man, much beloved by all his
brethren, was minister of Dunning from 1861 to 1878, Clerk of
Presbytery from 1864, and author of "Index to the Acts of Assembly."
Dr. William Mair, minister of Ardoch from 1865 to 1868, is now of
Earlston, and author of the well-known "Digest of Church Laws."
The loss of Muckhart and Fossoway, the addition of Ardoch and Crieff
West left the Presbytery still with its original number of fifteen
parishes. There was yet another to be added. In the extreme west of
the parish of Comrie, at the point where the River Earn leaves its
parent lake, was the district of Dundurn. Next to Ardoch, it was
probably the oldest historic spot within the Presbytery. There, first
of all places within the bounds, had the Gospel in the course of the
sixth century been preached by the saintly Fillan. It was still
haunted by sacred memories. It had been the site of a pre-Reformation
chapel. It had long been a preaching-place for the minister of Comrie.
Latterly there had sprung up by the shores of the beautiful lake a
hamlet which called itself St. Fillans. It became a favourite place of
summer resort. In 1879 a new chapel was built, and in 1895 the
district of Dundurn was erected into a parish _quoad sacra_.
At the present moment (1896) the Presbytery thus consists of sixteen
parishes, all fully equipped; 94 elders and 5023 church members form
its effective strength as a part of the Church militant. It has faced
many a serious crisis in the past; with a calm cheerfulness it faces
the future.
MEMORIES OF GASK
By Rev. JAMES MARTIN, Gask
The parish of Gask is a comparatively small one both in population and
in territorial extent. The earliest historical record we have of it
goes back to the time of the invasion of Britain by the Romans. The
road which passes along the ridge of high ground was originally made by
the Romans, and was designed to form a line of communication between
the camp at Ardoch and the camp at Bertha, near the junction of the
Almond with the Tay. On the north side of it, in this parish, there
are still to be distinctly seen two small camps or stations, and on the
south side of it there is a larger one. The Romans have left traces of
their presence here in the works they constructed, which the lapse of
eighteen centuries has not entirely obliterated.
Coming down the stream of time, we find that Wallace, that noble and
disinterested patriot, sought a hiding-place in time of danger amid its
dense woods. During a visit to Perth in 1296, a plot was laid by the
English to capture him, but, having received timely warning, he made
his escape with his small band of followers to Gascon Ha'. This is
generally supposed to have occupied a different site from the ruin near
the River Earn which now bears that name, and which is celebrated by
Lady Nairne in the song of "Bonnie Gascon Ha'." The Gascon Ha' to
which Wallace repaired for safety from his treacherous and relentless
enemies is said to have stood a mile and a half to the north-east of
that ruin in the midst of the Gask woods. Here they prepared to pass
the night, and having obtained two sheep from a neighbouring fold, they
kindled a fire and made ready their evening repast. Greatly exhausted
with their long and fatiguing march, Wallace proposed that his
followers should rest while he would keep watch. During the course of
the night he was startled by the "blowing of horns mingled with
frightful yells, proceeding apparently from a rising ground in the
immediate neighbourhood." Scouts were sent out from time to time, but
all failing to return, the patriot was at last left alone. He wandered
about till morning, killing two of the English whom he encountered, one
of whom was Sir John Butler, and then hastened with all speed to
Torwood, near Dunipace, where his uncle was parish priest.
At an early period the lands now comprehended in this parish belonged
to the Earl of Strathearn, the great landowner in this district at that
time. It is said that he possessed all the lands lying between the
Cross of Macduff, near Newburgh, and the west end of Balquhidder in
length, and between the Ochils and the Grampians in breadth. It was
out of his lands of Nether Gask that he granted liberty to quarry
stones for building the Abbey of Inchaffray, along with two acres of
ground on which to erect workshops.
The lands of Gask have now been in the possession of the Oliphant
family for nearly six hundred years. The name was originally written
Olifard, then Olyfaunt, and now Oliphant. Sir William Olyfaunt was the
first of that name on whom these lands were bestowed by King Robert the
Bruce. Sir William occupied a prominent position in the early history
of our country. He was Governor of Stirling Castle, and when summoned
in the name of Edward I. to surrender it, made the noble reply, "I have
never sworn fealty to Edward, but I have sworn to keep the Castle, and
must wait the order of my constituent." And when the Castle was
besieged by Edward and his army he defended it for three months, and
only capitulated from the scarcity of provisions. He was a member of
the Parliament held at Aberbrothock in 1320, and subscribed along with
some other Scottish Barons the famous letter to the Pope, which so
nobly asserted the independence of Scotland. To that document were
affixed the seals of Sir William Olyfaunt and Malise, Earl of
Strathearn. He died in 1329, and was buried in the Church of
Aberdalgie, where a monument of black marble was erected to his memory.
When the present Church of Aberdalgie was built in 1773 the site was
changed, and the monument to Sir William Olyfaunt was left in the open
churchyard. In 1780, Mr Oliphant of Gask erected a stone covering over
it to protect it from injury by the weather.
Sir William was succeeded by his son, Walter Olyfaunt, who married a
daughter of King Robert the Bruce, and, "having resigned the lands of
Gask into the hands of his brother-in-law, David II., obtained, in
1364, a new charter confirming them to the said Walter and his spouse
Elizabeth, our beloved sister, on a peculiar tenure for the reddendum
of a chaplet of white roses at the feast of the nativity of St. John
the Baptist at the manor place of Gask." This incident has been
happily expressed in a poem by Miss Ethel Blair Oliphant, now Mrs
Maxtone Graham, who inherits much of the poetic genius of her
great-grand-aunt, Lady Nairne.
THE TRIBUTE OF GASK
Now ken ye the gift Gask has brought to the King?
'Tis an off'ring sae royal, sae perfect, and fair,
Than jewels o' siller more dainty and rare,
A crown for a maid or a monarch to wear.
The courtier's tribute is but a poor thing,
For what can he offer and what can he bring,
Than the crown of White Roses from Gask to the King?
Now ken ye the service Gask does for the King?
All for his sake, in the bloom of the year,
In the gardens of Gask the white blossoms appear--
The Royal White Roses to Scotland sae dear.
Then far o'er Stralhearn let the praise of them ring,
Let them live once again in the song that we sing,
The crown of White Roses from Gask to the King.
Now ken ye what Gask will yet do for the King?
In the days that may come, when the roses are dead,
When the pledge is forgotten, the vows left unsaid;
What then shall lie found for an off'ring instead?
Oh! then at his feet his heart he will fling.
Truth, Honour, Devotion, as tribute will bring
For the crown of White Roses from Gask to the King!
This charter, which has always been highly prized by the Gask family,
had a rather singular history during the last century. In 1746 the
Duke of Cumberland sent out Sir Joseph York from Perth to search the
House of Gask, when he took away a box containing the charter, and it
was not till forty years after that it was traced to its hiding-place,
restored to its rightful owners, and safely deposited in the Gask
charter chest. The Oliphants obtained large estates in different parts
of Scotland, and were raised to the Peerage by James II., in 1450, by
the title of Lord Oliphant. The fifth Lord, styled in the Gask papers
"ane base and unworthy man," squandered away the large estates he
inherited not only in Perthshire, but also in Forfarshire, Kincardine,
Caithness, and Haddington. One of the younger branches of the Oliphant
family purchased from his spendthrift cousin the lands of Gask, which
have ever since continued in the same family.
Laurence Oliphant was, in the year 1650, knighted by Charles II., when
that monarch was at Scone. He for a capricious reason disinherited his
eldest son, Patrick, and gave the lands of Gask to his second son and
his heirs. About fifty years thereafter the estate of Gask, from the
failure of heirs in the younger branch, came into the possession of
James, the eldest son of the disinherited Patrick.
While James Oliphant resided at Williamston, before he succeeded to
Gask, he devised and carried out a great practical improvement in that
locality. He along with some others applied to the Scotch Parliament
in 1690 for an Act to compel all the adjoining proprietors to
contribute their share towards the expense of cutting a channel
sufficiently deep and broad to carry off the water, which at that time
must have frequently flooded the fields, and thus reclaimed much
valuable land. About forty years ago a considerable sum was expended
in still further deepening and broadening the Pow, and that stream
never overflows its banks now unless in very rainy seasons. As the
estate of Gask is bounded by the Pow on the north side, it shared in
the benefits resulting from that improvement. Mr Oliphant succeeded to
Gask in 1705, and would doubtless display the same practical sagacity
in carrying out improvements on the estate which then came into his
possession. He probably planted some of those noble trees which still
surround the mansion-house, and which are undoubtedly of great age.
At the Revolution in 1688, when James II. was driven from the throne
of Britain, the Oliphants still retained their steadfast allegiance and
devoted loyalty to the exiled monarch, and regarded his successors as
usurpers. Cherishing these sentiments, we can well imagine they would
hail every enterprise that had for its object the restoration of their
hereditary king. An opportunity soon occurred. In 1715, a "Rising"
took place to accomplish this end. The laird of Gask, though strongly
favouring the movement, yet with great prudence remained at home, and
saved his estate from forfeiture. But he sent his two elder sons to
join the standard which the Earl of Mar had reared for the restoration
of the Chevalier St. George, the only son of James II. They both took
part in the battle which was fought at Sheriffmuir, on the 13th
November, between the Jacobite forces, led by the Earl of Mar, and the
Government forces under the command of the Duke of Argyle. It was an
indecisive battle, both sides claiming the victory. The Jacobites,
retreating through Strathearn, burned many of the villages, inflicting
great hardships on the peaceful inhabitants by rendering them houseless
during the rigour of winter. The attempt to restore the Chevalier St.
George soon collapsed, but it does not seem to have been followed by
the thrilling scenes, the hairbreadth escapes, and the rigorous
treatment which marked the close of the subsequent rebellion.
James Oliphant died in 1732, and was succeeded by his eldest son
Laurence, who is styled the "Jacobite Laird, _par excellence_." He had
been in hiding for some time after the "Rising" of 1715. He, however,
soon returned home, freed from all Suspicion of disloyalty. He
married, in 1719, a daughter of the second Lord Nairne, "who was as
staunch a Jacobite as himself." At Gask House there is a wooden cup,
with a silver rim near the top and another near the bottom. The upper
one has the inscription--"_Spumantem calicem paternum in regis legitimi
hoeredetarii salutem redditumque felicem loete haurimus_"; and a free
translation of this inscription is on the lower one--"Our grandsires'
flowing cup we drink, and sing God save; restore our true-born lawful
King. Amen. L.O.G. June 10th, 1740." This discloses the strong
Jacobite tendency which he cherished, and the ardent longing which he
felt for the happy return of his hereditary King. He had not long to
wait till another opportunity occurred of making a second attempt to
accomplish the object so dear to him. In 1745, Prince Charles landed
in the Western Isles, when the Highland Clans rallied to his standard
with many others favourable to his cause. The laird and his son--both
Laurence--joined Prince Charles at Perth, and incurred the risk of loss
of life and property. Gask was greatly annoyed that he could not
induce his tenants to enlist in the cause of the Prince, and he had
recourse to a very extreme measure to enforce compliance with his
wishes. In connection with this we have a very interesting statement
in "The Jacobite Lairds of Gask," being a quotation from Dr. Chambers'
_History of the Rebellion_. Perhaps no one experienced so much
difficulty in his levies as the good laird of Gask, though he was at
the same time, perhaps, the person of all others the most anxious to
provide men for the service of his beloved Prince. This enthusiastic
Jacobite was, it seems, so extremely incensed at the resistance he
received from some of his tenants that he actually laid an arrestment
or inhibition upon their corn-fields, in order to see if their interest
would not oblige them to comply with his request. The case was still
at issue when Charles, in marching from Perth, observed the corn
hanging dead ripe, and eagerly inquired the reason. He was informed
that Gask had not only prohibited his tenants from cutting their grain,
but would not permit their cattle to be fed upon it, so that these
creatures were absolutely starving. Shocked at what he heard, he
leaped from the saddle, exclaiming, "This will never do," and began to
gather a quantity of the corn. Giving this to his horse, he said to
those that were by that he had thus broken Gask's inhibition, and the
farmers might now, upon his authority, proceed to put the produce of
their fields to its proper use. It was on this occasion that the laird
of Gask had the high honour of receiving and entertaining the Prince at
his house. The table on which he breakfasted is still in the House of
Gask, and in good preservation. It bears the inscription--"Charles,
Prince of Wales, breakfasted at this table in the low drawing-room at
Gask on the 11th September, 1745." The chair on which he then sat was
not allowed to be occupied by any other for many years thereafter.
There are still at Gask House several interesting relics of Prince
Charles, which are carefully preserved--viz., his bonnet, the Royal
brogues, crucifix, and ribbon of the Garter, his spurs, and a lock of
his hair, &c. The high honour conferred on the Gask family by this
visit from their Prince would tend to inspire them with greater zeal
and ardour in advancing his cause. They continued faithful and devoted
followers of the Prince in the romantic attempt he made to regain the
throne of his ancestors, and they took part in many of the battles that
were fought to secure that object. They were both present on the field
of Culloden and fought with great bravery on the fatal day that proved
so disastrous to the Prince's cause, and which must have all but
extinguished the most sanguine hopes of the keenest Jacobite. After
the Battle of Culloden the Oliphants endured great hardships for six
months while hiding among the hills of Buchan, and had many narrow
escapes, until at last they landed in Sweden on the 10th November, 1746.
But while they were involved in many troubles in those trying times,
there arose one from an unexpected quarter, which caused them great
annoyance. In 1740, Mr Oliphant, as almost sole heritor, intruded the
Rev. John M'Leish into the parish, in opposition to the wishes of a
large majority of the people. But he lived deeply to regret the step
he then took, for, on the outbreak of the Rebellion in 1745, the
minister became one of his most bitter enemies. Some of the colours
taken at the Battle of Prestonpans "fell to Mr Oliphant, which he sent
to his own house at Gask." Mr M'Leish, knowing this, searched for them
to deliver them to the Duke of Cumberland, but Emily Dewar, a faithful
servant at the house, hid them in the pump, so that the minister could
not find them. He told the tenants not to pay their rents to a rebel
landlord. When the Duke of Cumberland, at the request of Lady Gask,
sent out a guard from Perth to protect that lady in those troublous
times, the minister, on hearing this, was highly indignant, and
said--"What right had they to protect a rebel lady?" He also said that
he would go to Perth next day and speak to the Duke of Cumberland about
this. He said and did so many things calculated to annoy and irritate
the Gask family, that years after, when hiding on the Continent, Mr
Oliphant wrote saying--"That ingrate man's actings have tried my
patience more than all that has happened to me." The conduct of the
minister to the laird during this trying period was surely most harsh
and unkind, even though he entertained different political views. Mr
M'Leish would probably regard, as a national calamity, the restoration
of the Stuarts, knowing well the arbitrary and unconstitutional way
they often acted when in power. He might also fear that there would be
great danger to the Protestant cause were a Roman Catholic to occupy
the throne of Britain. But while we sympathise with these sentiments,
and think that Mr M'Leish was quite entitled to hold them, it was
surely ungrateful and unkind to act in the way he often did, not only
to Mr Oliphant, but also to his lady. The Oliphants were thoroughly
conscientious in holding their principles, and they gave the strongest
proof of this in risking their life and the loss of all their worldly
substance in maintaining them. At the same time, we are of opinion
that theirs was a mistaken loyalty, and it was well that they did not
succeed in accomplishing their object. Had they done so, it is
probable that the civil and religious history of our country would have
been different, and Britain might not have attained to the high
position she now occupies among the nations. But, while holding this
opinion, we cannot fail to admire the inflexible steadfastness with
which they adhered to their principles, and the noble sacrifices they
made in support of them. It is supposed that, as Lady Nairne would
often hear from her father of the doings of Mr M'Leish, she has a hit
at him in one of her songs--
"M'Leish's ae daughter o' Claverse-ha' Lee,"
In his latter days, Mr M'Leish was in a very infirm state, and unable
to discharge his ministerial duties. During the two last years of his
life there was only public worship in Gask Church once a month. The
days on which divine service was held, and the names of the ministers
who officiated, are still to be seen in our Session records. During
his long illness it is interesting to read of the tender sympathy which
Mr Oliphant expressed for him, and the Christian spirit of forgiveness
which he manifested towards him. He wrote from the Continent:--"I'm
sorry to hear that Mr M'Leish has been so much distressed in his
health. It will perhaps be agreeable to him, and let him know that I
do heartyly forgive him all the injurys he has done me undeservidly....
I shall mention no other particulars of the way he has treated me, but
as I have sincerly forgiven, I pray our commune Father to forgive him,
which I hope he will be earnest to obtain." There is no record that Mr
M'Leish ever felt or expressed regret at the unkind way in which he had
treated his benefactor.
The Oliphants, after making their escape from this country to the
Continent in 1746, continued to reside in different places there for
seventeen years. And during that long period they sent home to their
friends in this country a great many letters giving a detailed account
of their movements, and of their meeting with other exiles suffering
with them in the same cause and for maintaining the same principles of
loyalty. And these papers and letters, preserved in the Gask
charter-room, have been turned to excellent account by the present Mr
Oliphant in the very interesting volume he compiled entitled _The
Jacobite Lairds of Gask_.
As both father and son took part in the Rebellion, the estate of Gask
was forfeited. But it was re-purchased from the Government in 1753 by
Mr Oliphant of Condie, who was understood to be acting for the Gask
family, at the sum of £17,800. The estate was, however, larger then
than it is now, including both Cowgask and Williamston. The two latter
were afterwards sold to pay part of the purchase money for Gask. It
was at one time proposed to sell the Ross and Newmiln, but Mr Oliphant
objected to this, as he considered these two farms the most improvable
part of the estate. We are told in _The Jacobite Lairds of Gask_ that
few lost more than the Oliphants by the "Rising" of 1745. If we reckon
the seven years in which the estate was withheld from them, and the
large sum for which it was bought back from Government, these losses
would come to about £60,000 of our money.
The Oliphants returned to Gask after an absence of seventeen years, in
November, 1763. As Mr M'Leish died on the 24th March of the same year,
the laird and the minister never met again.
After all the dangers to which they had been exposed on the field of
battle, and all the hardships they had to encounter during the long
period they were in hiding on the Continent, they were at last
permitted to return in safety to their native land, to spend the
evening of their days in their "Ain dear wee Auld House."
The elder Jacobite laird died in 1767, and was gathered to his fathers
in the old Kirk of Gask. He was succeeded by his only son, the younger
Jacobite laird. He continued to adhere with the most unshaken
steadfastness to the cause of the Prince, for whom he had done and
suffered so much, and brought up his family in the strictest principles
of loyalty to the King over the water. When his family read the
newspapers to him after his eyesight became impaired, if the names King
or Queen occurred, they must only indicate this by employing the
initials K. or Q., otherwise he sharply reproved them.
When Prince Charles died in 1788, leaving an only brother, Cardinal
York, many of the Jacobites transferred their allegiance to George
III., and most of the Scotch Episcopalian clergy began to pray for the
reigning family, which they had not hitherto done. Among these was Mr
Cruickshanks, Episcopal minister at Muthill, who occasionally
officiated at Gask. When Mr Oliphant heard this, he at once wrote to
Mr Cruickshanks that, as he had now disqualified himself for
officiating at Gask, his services would be henceforth dispensed with.
He sent to him his official robes, and returned some books, the reading
of which he had got from Mr Cruickshanks. It is said that George III.,
hearing of Gask's unswerving constancy, sent, by the member of
Parliament for Perthshire, his compliments--not the compliments of the
King of England, but of the Elector of Hanover--to Mr Oliphant. He
died in 1792, and was succeeded by his eldest son Laurence, the third
of that name in succession. It was this laird who pulled down the
"Auld House" in 1800, except a part of the front wall, which was
allowed to stand, as an interesting ruin, and around which now centre
so many tender and hallowed associations. He also built the present
large and substantial mansion-house, which occupies a commanding
situation a few yards from the "Auld House." With the concurrence of
the Presbytery, he removed the Parish Church and manse from the site on
which they had stood for several centuries to another about a mile to
the north. This must have been in many respects a very desirable
change, both for the laird and the minister. There were only a few
yards formerly between the mansion-house and the manse, and this
proximity must have at times been rather uncomfortable for both. A
more eligible site, however, could easily have been got on which to
build the new church and manse, but it possesses the great advantage of
being central for the whole parish.
About the period at which we have now arrived in our narrative there
was emerging into fame a member of the Oliphant family, who was
destined to throw as bright a lustre around that name as any who had
ever borne it--who is styled "the brightest jewel in the Oliphant
crown." I refer to Carolina Oliphant, who was the third daughter of
the younger Jacobite laird, and who was named after the King over the
water. She was born in the "Auld House"--which she afterwards
celebrated in song--in the year 1766. She gave early indication of
superior poetic genius and high musical accomplishments. Her great aim
was to purify the national songs, and to render them more suitable for
the use of the people. And she was led to attempt this from an
incident related in her memoirs. "Driving, during the annual fair,
through a small hamlet in the neighbourhood, she remarked many persons
holding in their hands a small book with a yellow cover. Desirous of
ascertaining what a publication so popular might contain, she
despatched her footman to purchase a copy. It proved to be a
collection of songs and ballads, many of which were ill suited for the
hands of youth." But she also composed a large number of original
songs of great excellence, two of which are of exquisite beauty and
tenderness--"The Land o' the Leal" and "The Auld House." In early life
Miss C. Oliphant had an intimate friend and companion in Miss Erskine,
daughter of the Episcopal minister at Muthill. Miss Erskine was
afterwards married to Campbell Colquhoun of Killermont. Their first
child died when scarcely a year old. This led Carolina Oliphant to
write "The Land o' the Leal," which she sent with a letter of
condolence to Mrs Colquhoun in her sad bereavement. But the strictest
secrecy was enjoined as to the writer of it, and for many years
thereafter only a very few knew that this beautiful and touching song
was written by Carolina Oliphant. At one time it was supposed to have
been written by Burns on his death-bed, and the first line then
was--"I'm wearin' awa', Jean"; but it never appeared in any collection
of his poems. The songs of Lady Nairne have now become so well known
and so highly appreciated, that it is scarcely necessary to refer to
them at fuller detail here. She was married to Major Nairne in 1806 in
an upper room of Gask House. As Major Nairne then held an official
appointment in Edinburgh, they took up their abode in that city, in a
cottage built for them by the old Chief of Strowan, called Carolina
Cottage. She there employed her pen in composing songs for the
_Scotish Minstrel_, while she enjoyed the intellectual society into
which she had been introduced, and in which she was so well fitted to
shine. One of her songs, "The Attainted Scottish Nobles," had a great
influence in restoring them to their former titles. When George IV.
visited Edinburgh in 1822, Major Nairne and other attainted Scottish
Peers were introduced to the King at Holyrood. And when it came to the
knowledge of the King that Mrs Nairne had written that song it made him
favourable to the introduction of a measure which passed through both
Houses of Parliament, and received the Royal sanction in June, 1824,
for the reversal of the attainders. Major Nairne was then restored to
his rank in the Peerage as Lord Nairne, and Mrs Nairne became Baroness
Nairne, by which she has ever since been known.
Lord Nairne died in 1830, and was succeeded in the title by his only
son, William, sixth Lord. Lady Nairne felt deeply her bereavement, but
was sustained under it by the comforts and consolations of religion.
She henceforth devoted all her efforts to the mental culture and moral
and religious training of her only child. She removed to different
parts of the country for the benefit of his health. But with all her
maternal care he sickened and died at Brussels in 1837. By the death
of her son the ties which bound her to the world were in a great
measure severed, and her thoughts and affections were raised to that
higher and holier state on which those who were nearest and dearest to
her had now entered. She returned to Gask in 1845, and spent the last
two years of her life within a few yards of the spot where she was
born. She had received early religious impressions when on a visit to
Murthly Castle, and these were greatly deepened by the successive
trials and bereavements wherewith she was visited. She still continued
to take a great delight in doing good and in contributing to advance
the cause of religion in the world. Having a sum of money at her
disposal, she consulted Dr. Chalmers as to the most useful and
charitable purposes to which it might be applied. And it was at this
time that she contributed £300 to Dr. Chalmers' West Port Mission, on
the condition that he should never reveal the name of the donor. She
was as careful to conceal her good deeds as she had been to conceal the
authorship of the beautiful songs she composed. She gradually became
weaker and weaker, but as the "outward man decayed the inward man was
renewed day by day." In her song of the "Auld House" she beautifully
describes how, at the evening of the day,
"The setting sun, the setting sun,
How glorious it gae'd doon."
So in the evening of the day of her life her sun went gloriously down
to rise and shine in a fairer land--"The Land o' the Leal." She was
buried in Gask Chapel, which is erected on the site of the old Parish
Church, and to the building of which she contributed. A few years ago
a granite cross of beautiful design and workmanship was erected to her
memory by Mr Oliphant in the grounds of Gask. It bears the appropriate
inscription:--
CARMINA MORTE CARENT
CAROLINA OLIPHANT
BARONESS NAIRNE
BORN AT GASK, 1766
DIED AT GASK, 1845
If superior poetical genius, great moral worth, and high Christian
character deserve to be held in remembrance, there are few more
entitled to this honour than Lady Nairne. Nor could a more appropriate
spot have been chosen by Mr Oliphant on which to rear this tribute of
affectionate regard to the memory of his grand-aunt than in the midst
of that beautiful scenery which she loved so well, and which she has
immortalised in her songs. Lady Nairne, however, has reared for
herself a monument far more durable than that of brass or granite, in
her beautiful songs, which, as the inscription truly says, will never
die.
I must here make a brief reference to a native of this parish, who,
although born and brought up in humble life, yet attained to great
eminence in his profession. I refer to Laurence Macdonald, who for
some time wrought as a common mason, but who showed a strong genius for
sculpture. The first piece of work of that kind that he did was the
family coat-of-arms of Garvock House. Mrs Oliphant discerning his
rising genius in this direction, took him to the Continent when the
Gask family removed there in 1822, to afford him better opportunity for
the cultivation of this art. He ultimately settled in Rome, and became
one of the first British sculptors in that city. He was there known as
Lorenzo de Gasco, from his native parish. In recognition of the
kindness he had received from the Gask family, he afterwards sent as a
gift to the laird one of his best works, which now occupies a prominent
position in the House of Gask.
James Blair Oliphant died in 1847, and was buried in the Gask Chapel.
"He was the eighteenth in unbroken male succession from the William
Oliphant upon whom Robert Bruce bestowed the lands of Gask." After his
death the estate was under trustees for nearly twenty years. And
during this period a litigation was carried on as to the right of
succession. Mr Oliphant of Condie was confident that he could
establish his claim to be the nearest male heir. But there was a link
wanting in the chain of evidence, and he failed to realise his sanguine
expectations. The estate then came into the possession of the late
laird's sister's family, when the eldest son, Mr Kington Oliphant,
succeeded to it nearly thirty years ago.
We have briefly traced the history of the Oliphants during the long
period they have been in possession of Gask estate, and while many of
them have been distinguished in different walks of life, none of them
ever occupied the high position which the present Mr Oliphant does for
literary attainments and scholarly accomplishments. He has unfolded
the history of his family with all that fulness of information by which
he is characterised in _The Oliphants in Scotland_ and The _Jacobite
Lairds of Gask_. And I must express my great indebtedness to Mr
Oliphant for the information I have derived from these volumes in
writing this article. But I am persuaded that Mr Oliphant's literary
fame will rest more on another work he produced some years ago,
entitled _The Old and Middle English_, in one volume, and _The New
English_, in two volumes, than on the other two, interesting as they
are. In these volumes Mr Oliphant has traced the development of the
English language during the last 600 years. The most competent
scholars and critics have spoken of these volumes in the highest terms
of commendation, and declared that Mr Oliphant has done, unaided, what
would have required a company of philologists to achieve. Mr Oliphant,
however, is not only devoted to literary pursuits, but he also takes a
practical interest in the welfare of all in the parish; often visits
them in their dwellings, and has a great pleasure in promoting their
social enjoyments. In these respects he is cordially supported by Mrs
Oliphant. And I only express the best wishes of all on the estate that
they may be long spared together to dwell among their own people, and
to maintain the same friendly relations with them in the future as they
have done in the past.
AT THE HEAD OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JOHN MACPHERSON, Comrie
The head of Strathearn may be said to be the parish of Comrie, because
it comprises some miles of the strath as well as the lake from which
the strath derives its name. The name Comrie is taken from a Gaelic
word _Comhruith_, signifying confluence or running together of streams,
and is aptly applied in this case. This one can easily see by standing
for a few moments upon the Bridge of Dalginross. Looking westward, he
sees the River Ruchill joining the Earn behind the Parish Church; and,
turning to the east, at a distance of a few hundred yards he sees the
Lednock discharging its waters into the same river. Hence the name
Comrie, probably in the first instance applied to the village built at
the junction of the three rivers, was afterwards given to the parish.
The parish of Comrie, as presently constituted, includes what was
formerly called the parishes of Comrie and Tullichettle. Hence the
minister of Comrie owns two glebes--the Tullichettle glebe in the
vicinity of the manse, and the Comrie glebe situated on the south bank
of the Earn. The date at which this union took place is not known, but
in the year 1702 the Commission of Teinds, at the request of the
General Assembly, made additions, _quoad sacra_, from the parishes of
Monzievaird, Strowan, and Muthill, and annexed a portion of the parish
of Comrie lying upon the north side of Loch Earn, also _quoad sacra_ to
the parish of Balquhidder. This arrangement holds good at the present
day. The parish _quoad civilia_ extends from the Bridge of Lednock to
Lochearnhead, a distance of thirteen miles, and is about nine miles in
breadth. It contains some of the grandest mountains of the Grampian
range--Benchonzie, 3048 feet; and Ben Voirlich, 3224 feet above the
level of the sea. The latter, it is said, can be seen from Perth,
Edinburgh, and Ayrshire.
The beauties of Strathearn have often been pictured by writers of
poetry and prose, but without reaching the head of Strathearn these
beauties can be only partially seen. The drive from Crieff to
Lochearnhead in a summer day is universally regarded as one of the
finest in all Scotland. To within a mile or so of St. Fillans the road
resembles one long avenue stretching along the base of the Grampians.
The scenery is unequalled for its mixture of grandeur and beauty.
There you have the rough, rugged hills of the Highlands combined with
the cultivated plains of the Lowlands, and waving woods, affording an
air of warmth and freshness to the landscape. The great storm of 1893
has, indeed, laid low many of our finest plantations and marred the
beauty of our scenery. Turleum Wood, which used to wave its shaggy
head so high, is now laid prostrate, and appears to the eye what its
Celtic name implies--_tor lom_, a bare hill. And yet, as far as
appearance and scenery are concerned, there are few places which can as
well afford to part with some of its trees as the head of Strathearn.
Comrie is best known to the public generally by its earthquakes, and as
a quiet summer resort, with sequestered walks over hills and dales and
along the banks of flowing streams. But to the botanist, the
geologist, the antiquarian, and the lover of ancient legend and
historic incident there is, besides all this, something to awaken
interest and engage attention. The number and variety of plants is
very considerable. Slate is the predominant rock, but there are also
limestone, whin, the old red sandstone, and granite. At one time there
were two slate quarries wrought on the Aberuchill Hills, but for the
last twenty years they have been closed. A lime quarry on Lochearnside
in former times supplied the whole district with material for lime, but
carriage, labour, and fuel have become so expensive, that both builders
and farmers find it more economical to get lime ready for use from the
south. There is granite in Glenlednock, and as the railway has now
been extended to the village from Crieff, it is possible that some day
it may be a source of industry to the inhabitants. In several places
in the district of which we write there are traces of what are supposed
to be Druidical remains. One cannot help regretting that the old
Druids should have confined the knowledge of their religion to their
own order, and that they should have left so few traces of their
mystical rites to posterity, except what may be gathered from rude
stones scattered here and there throughout the country. On the plain
of Tullybannocher, and near the east lodge of Dunira, there are several
standing-stones, which antiquarians believe to be the remains of
Druidical circles. On the plain of Dalginross, also, near the junction
of the manse road with the public road, there are three large stones,
supposed to be the remains of a Druidical temple. One of these, about
8 feet in length, stands, or rather leans, at an angle of 45 degrees;
the others are lying flat upon the ground. One of them, a round, flat
boulder, bears upon its surface cup-marks arranged in irregular
concentric circles. Was this the sacrificial stone of an ancient
Druid; or are these boulders relics of the glacial period, and were the
marks alluded to caused by the action of the weather? When we come to
deal with Roman remains we stand upon firmer ground. On the same plain
of Dalginross, and a short distance to the north of these boulders we
have referred to, is the site of the old Roman Camp, Victoria. About
the end of last century the outlines of the fortifications seem to have
been quite distinct, but since that time the plough has obliterated
almost every trace of them. There seem to have been two camps at
Dalginross--a larger and a smaller one, the former capable of holding
10,000 troops. Here, it has been held by some writers, the great
Battle of Mons Grampius was fought between the Caledonians under
Galgacus and the Romans under Agricola. This, however, is not
probable. Seven cities of the ancient world laid claim to Homer's
birth-place. About the same number of places are pointed to as the
scene of the Battle of Mons Grampius. Gordon says it was at
Dalginross, Chalmers says it was the Moor of Ardoch, some say it was in
Fife, others at Urie, in Kincardineshire. Skene, in his _Celtic
Scotland_, places it on or near the Muir of Blair, about the junction
of the River Tay with the Isla. Mr Hill Burton abandons the task of
determining the site as hopeless. If we accept the description given
by Tacitus, in so far as it says the battle was fought "_in conspectu
classis_"--that is, "in sight of the fleet," the place could not have
been Dalginross, and for this one reason, that unless the Earn was very
different in the days of Agricola from what it is in our day, the Roman
fleet could not possibly have sailed to a point within sight of
Dalginross. Judging, however, from some place-names in the
neighbourhood, there is little doubt that Dalginross has been the scene
of some bloody conflict or conflicts during the period of the Roman
occupation of Britain. The name of the farm adjoining the old Roman
Camp, for example, is Blardhearg, which in Celtic means "the red
battle-field." To the west, and beyond the River Ruchill, is
Dalrannaich, in Celtic, _Dailranaich_--"the field of mourning or
lamentation"; and a little to the north is Dalchonzie, in Celtic,
_Dailachaonaidh_--"the field of weeping." To the south of the plain of
Dalginross, and upon the road to Ardoch, there are still traces of the
Roman occupation of Strathearn. At Blairinroar there must have been a
bloody conflict between the Romans and the Caledonians. The very name
of the place implies it, for Blairinroar in Celtic is the "field of
violent onset." There are still to be seen in this neighbourhood huge
slabs of standing-stones, some of them 20 feet in height. Those upon
the level ground probably mark the graves of distinguished Romans or
Caledonians who fell upon the field of battle; but others, which run in
a line extending north and south, were probably landmarks to guide
messengers on their way from Lindum, the camp at Ardoch, to Victoria,
the camp at Dalginross.
At the west side of the new cemetery, close to the public road, there
is a curious round knoll, which at one time must have been used as a
place for the burial of the dead. The attention of the writer of this
was drawn to it about twenty years ago. There were three large slabs
of stone lying upon the ground, which apparently had been at some
former period placed erect by some loving hands to mark the last
resting-place of some departed friend or hero. By the aid of some of
the Comrie masons the stones were placed in a standing position.
Curious to know what lay beneath the surface, we dug up the earth in
front of the largest slab, and came upon a stone cist placed north and
south, 7 inches long, 1 foot 8 inches broad, and 1 foot 3 inches deep.
The only remains discovered was a thigh-bone, but whether it at one
time formed a part of the leg of a Celt, a Roman, or a Saxon we could
not tell. An old man who then lived in the village of Comrie told us
that in his young days the same mound was dug up, when an urn filled
with ashes was discovered. This, perhaps, would indicate that it
formed a place of burial for Romans rather than for Caledonians. The
spot is called Dunmoid, or "hill of judgment." Besides the parish
churchyard, there are three old burying-grounds in the parish--Leckin,
on Lochearnside; Dundurn, and Tullichettle. From an antiquarian point
of view, the most interesting, perhaps, is Tullichettle. It is
situated in a sequestered spot on a rising ground on the right bank of
the River Ruchill, near the farm-house of Cultabraggan. The name,
which is Celtic, _Tulachchadail_--"hill of sleep"--well describes the
place, for a more solitary spot could hardly be selected for the repose
of the dead. Judging from the inscriptions upon the tomb-stones it has
been for long the burying-place of the Macnivens, the Macgreuthers, the
Maccullochs, and other clans. There is a curious slab over the grave
of the Riddochs. The following description of it, extracted from the
proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, has been kindly sent by the
Secretary, Dr. Anderson:--
"It measures 5 feet 6 inches in length and 18 inches in breadth,
tapering slightly towards the lower end. It bears a sword with
straight guard in the centre of the stone, and the name James Ridoch on
the blade. In the spaces on either side are a number of trade
emblems--a square, an axe, an adze, a mallet and chisel, a millrind, an
axe-pick of the kind used by millers for dressing the mill-stone, the
coulter of a plough, a hammer and anvil (?), and an auger, indicating
probably the various mechanical aptitudes of the deceased. The
connection of the family of Reidheuchs or Ridochs with Strathearn began
in 1502, when King James IV. granted a charter of confirmation of the
lands of Tullychedile, Culturagane, &c., to his familiar servitor and
steward, James Redeheuche, burgess of Stirling. In 1573, these and
other lands acquired by him were erected into the Barony of
Tullichiddil. In 1542, James Reidheuch of Tullichiddil is mentioned as
dead, and it is not till 1610 that another James appears in the line of
the Reidheuchs of Tullichiddil. The probability is that the stone here
figured belongs to the seventeenth century, as it was only then that
the name Reidheuche began to be spelt Ridoche. Of course, it is
impossible to say whether this is the tomb-stone of the James Ridoche
of 1610, or of a successor; but there seems to be nothing against the
idea of the stone being as old at least as the date thus indicated."
Tullichettle must have been an old parish. Shortly after the
Reformation, in the year 1572, it was served by John Edmeston,
exhorter, and in 1574 by William Drummond, who had also under his
charge Comrie, Monivaird, Monzie, and Crieff. The ruins of the church
are still to be seen within the wall of the churchyard, but of the old
manse there is no trace left now. We have often been asked the
derivation of the word Ruchill, the name of the river, which, rising at
the head of Glenartney, passes the graveyard of Tullichettle and falls
into the Earn at the village of Comrie. It is compounded of two Gaelic
words--_ruadh_ (red), and _tuill_ (flood). _Ruadhthuill_, therefore,
is the red flood, and any one who has seen the red turgid waters of the
Ruchill in time of flood will see that the name is significant of the
thing itself. The word occurs in a shorter form--Ruel, a river in
Argyllshire, which gives its name to the valley through which it
flows--viz., Glendaruel. In the good old days when our Highland glens
and straths were thickly populated, every hill and dale and crag and
knoll had its name, and every strath and valley had its traditions.
From many of our Highland glens the people are gone, and their
traditions along with them. Sir Walter Scott, however, has rendered
famous at least one of the glens at the head of Strathearn and
preserved a few of its traditions. Who ever read that beautiful poem,
"The Lady of the Lake," but knows something of Glenartney, Benvoirlich,
and Uam-Var. Here the chase, which he sings in the first canto,
begins:--
"The stag at eve had drank his fill,
When danced the moon on Monan's rill,
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney's hazel shade.
* * *
Roused from his lair,
The antler'd monarch of the waste
Sprang from his heathery couch in haste.
* * *
With one brave bound the copse he clear'd,
And, stretching forward free and far,
Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var."
Uam-Var, which in Gaelic signifies large cave, is a mountain between
Glenartney and Callander, and takes its name from a cave on the south
side of it, said by tradition to have been inhabited by a giant
centuries ago. Glenartney was a Royal forest, and a portion of it is
still fenced off for the same purpose. On an eminence at the head of
the glen stands Glenartney Lodge, belonging to the proprietor, the Earl
of Ancaster. In the past as in the present the strict preservation of
game seems to have been attended with dangers and difficulties. Some
people seem to have an uncontrollable liking for hunting and poaching.
In the sixteenth century Glenartney was the scene of a terrible
tragedy. In the year 1588, John Drummond of Drummond-Ernoch was
forester to King James VI. there. One day, according to one tradition,
he discovered some of the Clan Macgregor trespassing in the Royal
forest. He seized them and cropped off their ears. The Macgregors,
incensed by the punishment inflicted upon their clansmen, vowed
vengeance against Drummond-Ernoch. They made a raid upon the forest,
seized the forester, and cut off his head, which they carried with them
in a corner of one of their plaids. "In the full exultation of
vengeance," says Sir Walter Scott in his introduction to the _Legend of
Montrose_, "they stopped at the house of Ardvoirlich and demanded
refreshments, which the lady, a sister of the murdered Drummond-Ernoch
(her husband being absent), was afraid or unwilling to refuse. She
caused bread and cheese to be placed before them, and gave directions
for more substantial refreshments to be prepared. While she was absent
with this hospitable intention the barbarians placed the head of her
brother on the table, filling the mouth with bread and cheese, and
bidding him eat, for many a merry meal he had eaten in that house. The
poor woman, returning and beholding this dreadful sight, shrieked aloud
and fled into the woods, where, as described in the romance, she roamed
a raving maniac, and for some time secreted herself from all living
society. Some remaining instinctive feeling brought her at length to
steal a glance from a distance at the maidens while they milked the
cows, which being observed, her husband, Ardvoirlich, had her conveyed
back to her home, and detained her there till she gave birth to a
child, of whom she had been pregnant, after which she was observed
gradually to recover her mental faculties." Leaving Ardvoirlich, the
Macgregors proceeded to Balquhidder, and at a meeting of the clan held
in the church--the chief presiding--they placed their hands
successively upon the dead man's head and swore to defend the author of
the deed. At one time there was a large population in this glen. In
1745 the farm of Auchinnar alone had eight tenants. An interesting
document in possession of the relatives of the M'Greuthers of Meiggar
referring to the Rebellion of 1715 shows the power of the laird in
those days, and the resources of the glen as far as fighting men were
concerned. It is as follows:--
"William M'Gruther, in Dalclaythick, you are hereby ordered to acquaint
William M'Nivan, in the same town, and Alexander M'Gruther, in
Dalchruwn, to go along with you as officers to command the company of
our men that is to come out of your glen, and all the men are hereby
ordered to obey your command on their highest peril, which you are to
intimate to them, as you will be answerable to us, and this shall be
your warrant.
"Given at Drummond Castle, the fifteenth day of August, one thousand
seven hundred and thirteen years.
"See that none of the men of Auchinnear of whatever rank be absent, as
they will be answerable, and all the men in good order.
"(Signed) DRUMMOND."
M'Gruther and his two neighbours obeyed the summons of the laird of
Drummond, and took charge of the company of Highlanders raised in
Glenartney; but the laird could not save them from the consequence of
their obedience. When the Rebellion was quelled they were banished to
America and sold as slaves. The two M'Gruthers managed to get back to
their native country, but were doomed to spend seven long years in
hiding.
The origin of place-names may not be of so much interest to the reader
as it is to the writer of this article, but we cannot resist the
temptation of recording a suggestion made to us years ago as to the
origin of the word Glenartney, by Mr James Ferguson, the present keeper
of the forest, and the worthy successor of old Drummond-Ernoch. It is
this: _Gleann-àrd-an-fheidh_--"the high glen of the deer." This would
certainly account for the last syllable of the modern name, and would
also accord with the fact of the place being an ancient forest; but we
prefer the derivation _Gleann-ardan_--"the glen of heights," and we
think the last syllable has been added merely to suit the imperfection
of the Saxon's vocal organs.
The mansion-houses of the head of Strathearn and their occupants are of
some historical interest, but, as our space is limited, our reference
to them must be brief, and confined to a few of the oldest. On the
margin of Loch Earn stands Ardvoirlich House. The present occupant of
the estate is Colonel John Stewart, who spent the first part of his
life in India, and now resides upon the estate. With the exception of
the Drummonds, who trace their ancestry back to Maurice, the Hungarian,
who lived about the time of the Norman Conquest, the Stewarts of
Ardvoirlich are the oldest family in the district. They lay claim not
only to a long ancestral line, but also to Royal blood, through a son
of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, and son of Robert II.
Among the antique curiosities of this family, it is said, there is a
large gem called _clach dhearg_--red stone, seemingly white rock
crystal, bound with four silver bands, which used to be regarded as a
talisman, giving to water into which it is dipped virtue for the cure
of all diseases of cattle. In recent times the Stewarts have been a
family of soldiers who served in India. Their burying-place is within
the old Chapel of Dundurn, but the monuments erected to the memory of
members of the family recently deceased are in the Parish Church of
Comrie. They are all handsome, and a great ornament to the interior of
the Parish Church; but one of them is worthy of special notice on
account of its artistic beauty. It is that erected by the
Governor-General of India and other dignitaries and friends to
commemorate the death of William Stewart, who, along with his wife and
infant son, was murdered in the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It is a
cenotaph of pure Carrara marble, with the figure of a Sepoy soldier
with arms reversed on the one side, and a Hindoo in a kneeling posture
on the other.
Dunira House is the seat of the Dundases. The present proprietor is
Sir Sidney James Dundas, the third baronet of Beechwood and Dunira, who
succeeded his father, Sir David Dundas, Bart., in 1877. What is the
word Dunira derived from? Is it like Dundurn, "the hill or fort upon
the Earn"? or is it _Dun aoraidh_, "the hill of worship"? It is
difficult to say; Gaelic words have been so much corrupted to suit the
tongues of the Saxon. There is little doubt, however, that in ancient
times the locality was intimately associated with divine worship. Not
far from the east lodge there are to be seen large standing-stones,
supposed, as already said, to be the remains of an old Druidical
circle. On the hillside, above Dunira House, there is a place called
Drumnakil, which signifies the "ridge of the chapel"; and farther to
the north-east, near the hill of Dunmore, is Ballochintaggart, "the gap
of the priest." At Drumnakil there is an old burying-ground, the
grave-stones scarcely discernible among the rank grass; but all trace
of the chapel, or monks' cell, if ever there was one, has disappeared.
Dunira was once the property of Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville and
Baron Dunira. He was son of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President
of the Court of Session. He was called to the bar in 1763, and elected
member of Parliament for the County of Edinburgh in 1774, and after
holding several important offices under the Crown, he retired with Pitt
in 1801, and the following year he was raised to the Peerage. After
his death his Perthshire friends paid a tribute to his memory and worth
by erecting a monument on Dunmore Hill, at Comrie. It is an obelisk,
72 feet high, built in 1812 of Innergeldie granite. A better site
could not have been chosen. From the top of Dunmore Hill there is a
magnificent view of varied landscape. To the west you have a peep at
Loch Earn, the Aberuchill Hills, and the old white-washed Castle
nestling among its trees; to the south you have the village of Comrie
and the strath, with the Earn and the Ruchill winding their way through
the plain; to the east, Sir David Baird's Monument, the Knock of
Crieff, Turleum, the Ochils, and one of the Lomonds of Fife; looking to
the north, we see Glenlednock stretching far towards Loch Tay, with
Spout Rollo at its head, and guarded on each side by the lofty peaks of
the Grampians. This, like so many others of our Highland glens, has
suffered much through depopulation during this century. An old
Glenlednock farmer still living in the parish informs us that in his
recollection there were thirty-six tenants with their cottars, where
there are now five and a few shepherds. One cannot help admiring the
industry, economy, and thrift of these old Highland farmers, who in
such numbers could live and thrive and pay higher rents to the landlord
than the few who are now in possession of the land.
Aberuchill Castle was for nearly three centuries the seat of the
Campbells of Aberuchill and Kilbryde. It was originally built in 1602,
but has since been modernised and enlarged. The Crown granted a
charter of the lands of Aberuchill in 1596 to Colin Campbell, second
son of Sir Colin Campbell of Lawers. His son James was made a baronet
of Nova Scotia by Charles I. in 1627. He fell fighting for Charles II.
at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Sir Colin, only son of Sir James,
succeeded him. He was the most distinguished of the family. Bred to
the law, he rose to the position of Lord of Session with the title of
Lord Aberuchill. Sir Colin was a Whig and a Presbyterian when the most
of the gentry of Strathearn were either Episcopalians or Popish
Jacobites. His name is associated with the massacre of Glencoe,
inasmuch as he was a member of the Council that refused the certificate
of the Sheriff-Depute of Argyle that M'Donald of Glencoe had taken the
oath of allegiance to King William, unless they got a warrant to
receive it from the King. From 1693 to 1702 he represented the County
of Perth in the Scottish Parliament, and died in 1704. From the
Campbells, the estate passed into the hands of the Drummonds. It is
now the property of Captain Robert Dewhurst, son of George C. Dewhurst,
Esq., lately deceased.
It would be unpardonable to write anything about Comrie without making
allusion to the earthquakes which have made it famous. In the
Statistical Account of Scotland, published in the year 1794, the Rev.
Mr M'Diarmid, minister of the parish, gives an account of the first
recorded earthquake in the district. During the autumn of 1789 loud
noises, unaccompanied by any concussion, were heard by the inhabitants
of Glenlednock; but on the 5th of November of that year they were
alarmed by a loud rumbling noise, accompanied with a severe shock of
earthquake, which was felt over a tract of country of more than twenty
miles in extent. The Rev. Mr Mackenzie, successor to Mr M'Diarmid,
writing in 1838, in the last Statistical Account, says that "at and
after the time of the last Statistical Account the earthquakes were so
frequent and violent, and accompanied with such noises, as to occasion
great alarm, especially one which occurred on a Sabbath while the
congregation was assembled." The year 1839, however, was the time of
the great earthquakes. Writing in 1842 in the last Statistical
Account, the Rev. John Ferguson, minister of Monzievaird, says:--"At
this time they began to be frequently felt, nearly 20 shocks being
occasionally experienced in 24 hours. The most violent one happened
about ten o'clock on the evening of 23d October, 1839. The shock
seemed to pass along through the parish of Monzievaird from north-west
to south-east. For a second or two every house for miles around the
village of Comrie was shaken from top to bottom; and while the motion
was passing away to the eastward it was accompanied by a tremendous
noise like the roar of 100 pieces of ordnance discharged at once and
gradually dying away in the distance. This earthquake was partially
felt throughout a great part of Scotland, as far as Inverness, Dunbar,
Berwick, and the banks of Loch Awe. In this neighbourhood it was very
alarming. Several individuals fainted, and most of the inhabitants of
the village of Comrie spent the whole night in the streets, or in the
churches, which were very properly opened for prayer. Many stone dykes
were thrown down, walls of houses rent, and chimney-stalks shattered,
the stones being frequently shifted from their places, but no serious
damage was sustained. The shocks have again diminished both in
frequency and violence since the autumn of 1839." Another severe shock
occurred in November, 1846, but from that date they have decreased both
in number and intensity. The cause of these subterranean commotions is
in this as in similar cases a matter of conjecture, but there is good
cause for thankfulness that they have hitherto been attended with no
serious damage to life or property.
The Session records of some parishes in Scotland are of some historical
value, but this is not so with those of Comrie. Beyond the perpetual
reiteration of cases of discipline and doles to the poor, there is
little to be found in them to throw light upon the Christian life and
work of the parish. So meagrely kept were these records that until the
year 1829 the Christian name and surname of the Moderator and Clerk
never appear in the minutes--not even the Secession of 1843 is
recorded, though the minister left the church with a great majority of
the congregation to worship upon Tomachessock. The only exception to
what we have just stated, perhaps, is a minute of Kirk-Session dated
17th November, 1772, recording the honour due to Patrick Campbell, Esq.
of Monzie, then deceased, and the Rev. Robert Menzies, minister of the
parish, for the active and benevolent part they took in the building of
the Dalginross Bridge over the Earn. The bridge was built in 1756 at a
cost of £230.
The Parish Church was erected in 1805, and holds 1044 sitters. The
manse was built in 1784, and an addition was made to it in 1822. A new
church was built in St. Fillans in connection with the Church of
Scotland in 1878, and in March, 1895, it was endowed and erect
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