LAND OF THE LINDSAYS. CHAPTER I. Edzell. SECTION I. My travels are at home; And oft in spots with ruins o'erspread, Origin of name-Old clergymen-Bell of St. Laurence-Ancient use of bells-Old kirkyard-Drummore Hill-Castle of Poolbrigs-Old kirk-Episcopal riotsBonnyman, parish teacher-Remarkable death of a parish minister. THE name of this parish, in old times, had a different orthography from that now in use. At the beginning of the thirteenth century it was written Adall and Edale in ancient charters, and, in the ancient Taxatio (1275), which was rated at a slightly subsequent period, it is spelled "Adel." In Rolt's Life of John Lindesay, (twentieth) Earl of Crawford, it is written "Edgehill," and so pronounced at this day by some old people. This is believed by many to be the true etymon, from the fact that the great bulk of the arable land lies from the edge of the hill southward.2 In all documents posterior to the 1 Registrum Vet. Aberbrothoc, pp. 7, 48, 240; Reg. Prior. S. Andr. p. 36. 2 Perhaps the present spelling arose from z being otten read, if not actually used, for y in old writings. But tracing the changes upon the name chronologically, we find a curious example of how a vocable grows: Edale (1204-11, 1238); Adall (1267); Adel (1275); Addelle, Adzell (1435); Edgall (1495); Edzell (1509); Egzell (1528); Eggel (1552); Eghill (1571); Adzell (1579); Egle (1653); Edgill (1654); Edgell (1655); Edzdel (1678); Eggel (1686); Egell (1687). A date of the two first, the orthography differs little from the present, and, according to the late venerable minister, the name implies "the cleft or dividing of the waters," a rendering which may seem to be favoured by the physical aspect of the parish, in so far as it is bounded on the south and west by the West Water, and on the east by the North Esk, both of which rivers unite at the south-east extremity of the parish, but it is otherwise unsatisfactory. Etymologies at best are matter of conjecture, and although, in many cases, conclusions are arrived at with much apparent reason, they are constantly subjects of doubt, arising from the obvious fact, that inferences are too often drawn from the corrupted forms now in use, instead of from the original and more ancient. It is agreed on all hands that modern names are far from improvements on the originals, which are ever descriptive of the situation, or other physical peculiarities of the soil; and, what is perhaps still more valuable, the names often furnish a key to the status and particular nature of the holdings and occupations of the tenants in the remote past. Near the site of the old castle of Dalbog, for instance, we have the "Serjan' Hill," or the place where the old serjeant of the barony resided; while the " temple lands," scattered over almost every part of Scotland, do not imply, as popularly believed, that the places were the sites of temples in early times, but that the lands were held first under the superiority of the old fraternity of Knights Templars, and afterwards under those of St. John of Jerusalem, the latter of whom flourished in Scotland until the Reformation. In like manner, the "kiln" and "sheeling" hills show the places where corn was dried and unhusked prior to the introduction of machinery; and "the sucken lands" are still well known in some districts (though few in comparison to the number of places so called in former days), indicating that, even in comparatively late times, certain payments in kind were made from them to meal and barley millers. EDZELL-ECCLESIASTICAL POSITION. 3 It must, therefore, be matter of regret that these important aids to ancient history and the manners of our forefathers are so generally beyond our reach, and that so little attention has been paid to their preservation; for even when found mentioned in family charters and the public records, the exact localities of a vast number of them are altogether unknown, either through their utter extinction, or from the orthographical change which the names have undergone. But looking at the oldest forms of the name belonging to the parish of Edzell, we can easily resolve it into the Gaelic Ath-dail, "the ford of the plain," which topographically seems most appropriate and applicable. Before the Reformation the Church of Edzell was attached to the Archiepiscopal see of St. Andrews, and rated at twelve marks. It was also one of several dependencies the revenues of which were appropriated for the repair of the parent cathedral in 1378, after its conflagration in Bishop Landel's time.1 Sir David Broun, the owner and granter of some property in Brechin to the cathedral of that city in 1553, was the last Roman Catholic vicar of Edzell; but, oddly enough, no mention is made of the parish in the Register of Ministers for 1567, although in that of the Readers for 1572, an Andro Spens appears to have held the office of "exhorter," with a stipend of about thirteen shillings and fourpence sterling.2 Like other districts that have never been dignified as the seat of a cathedral, abbey, or priory, the ecclesiastical history of Edzell is meagre and uninteresting; but the fragments of a sculptured stone found at the churchyard in 1870, and the frequency, in former times, of the name Abbe, would point to it as a centre of some ecclesiastical importance, though the amount is not fully known. Dr. Joseph Robertson thought it 1 (A.D. 1378)-Lyon, History of St. Andrews, ii. p. 312. "On the 10th of January 1552-3 Sir David Broun (all churchmen being called Sir in those days), vicar of Edzell, granted a charter of Claypots and Cobisland, on the west side of the city of Brechin, to the altar of All Saints, within that cathedral. — (Reg. Episc. Brech. i. p. 227.) |