some of the over-curious, and the skull, to which some hair adhered, was long preserved in the locality. Elfshot, or flint arrow-heads, are found in great plenty throughout the whole district, particularly in the neighbourhood of the "Monks' Pool;" but stone hatchets or "thunderbolts," as they are popularly termed, are rare. Still, during the summer of 1852, apart from some that were found in Fernybank haugh, a fine specimen of these was turned up in the East Ward field on Mains of Edzell. It is formed of a tough bluish-grey stone, has not been much used, is rather thicker than usual, about six inches long, and coated with a whitish substance not unlike pure size-colour. An earthenware pot was also found on this farm some years ago, containing an immense quantity of coins, principally of silver and copper, and wholly belonging to the mints of Mary and James. Fragments of querns, or handmills, have been got in many parts of Edzell and Glenesk, but those found on the farm of Mains of Edzell are the finest, and perhaps the largest. No fewer than nine of these curious relics were preserved by the late Mr. Wyllie, the tenant of Mains;1 some of them were in the best and most advanced state of manufacture, while others were of the rudest and most primitive sort. These were principally gathered on the hill of Drummore (which has already been alluded to as presenting evidence of having been peopled in old times), and vary in size from about seventeen to twenty inches in diameter. One of them, which was of native granite, had been at least two feet in diameter when in its original state, for although broken, it was about two feet by nineteen inches. With few exceptions they were pretty entire when found, and almost all contained, not only the hole for inserting the pin by which the stone was moved round, but also that into which the corn was dropped. The last-mentioned specimen was perhaps peculiar in this respect, that the centre hole bore evidence, on the under side, of having been protected by a piece of 1 Some are still preserved by Mrs. Wyllie in Brechin. GLENESK-TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 109 wood or iron with four tongues. It need scarcely be said that querns are considered the most ancient of all domestic pieces. of furniture, and were made of stone even in the time of the Patriarchs. Dr. Wilson is of opinion that in Scotland, prior to the introduction of stone for grinding corn, the mill had been fashioned of oak, but no example of this sort, so far as we are aware, has ever been found in our district. SECTION IV. I stood in a romantic pass, Near which swept many streams; C. SWAIN. View of Glenesk-Want of wood-Shooting lodge at Glenmark-DepopulationMigration down the Glen-Esk and its tributaries-Romantic sites-Droustie— Bridges-Visited by Royalty-The Queen's well-Sudden floods on the hill streams-Tarfside - Maule's cairn - Birks of Ardoch-The Modlach - St. Andrew's Tower-Death of Miss Douglas-Anecdote of Lord Panmure-The new road-The Burn: its situation, history, and improvements-Gannochy Bridge. Now that the leading features of the ancient history of Glenesk and Edzell have been shown, a brief epitome of some of the topographical peculiarities of the North Esk, from its source to the Gannochy Bridge, may not be unacceptable, since that river runs through the whole length of these parishes. Notwithstanding that considerably more than a century and a half has elapsed since the great family of Lindsay ceased to own these important districts, their name, we need scarcely repeat, is yet familiarly associated with both; and although the physical aspect of the land has perhaps undergone greater change within the last hundred years than it did during the whole half thousand that it was under the Lindsay sway, there is no reason to believe that the course of the river has been 1 Prehistoric Annals, i. pp. 200, 212 sq.; Mitchell, The Past in the Present, pp. 33 sq. materially altered even since those days when the most ancient lords and ladies of Glenesk and Edzell chased the red deer and the roe along its banks. Nothing is more striking in the general aspect of Glenesk than the scantiness of woods. With the exception of several patches of the native birch, and a few strips of cultivated firs, the whole Glen, from the plantations of The Burn northward, may be said to owe its entire beauty to the high heath-clad mountains that tower on all sides as far as the eye can reach. Towards the close of the seventeenth century, however, the scene was much more inviting than it is now, for then the forest was large, and the Glen abounded with "great plentie of wood." Nay, even a century later, the hills around the venerable tower of Invermark were covered with oaks and pines, and the castle had fine approaches shaded by stately beeches, while, on the south-east side of the hill of Drum,2 there is apparent evidence that the land was once under the plough, and possessed by various retainers; but the ridge-marks are now scarcely visible, and, barring the occasional presence of the shepherd, and the flocks that luxuriate over an ample pasturage, all signs of a living human industry are fled. But it is pleasing to know that these wilds again occasionally present something of the stirring and lively aspect that they bore in the palmy days of the Lindsays, a spacious 1 Ochterlony's Account, c. 1682. 2 A gamekeeper has long resided on this hill. The exact elevation of his house above the sea has not been ascertained, but the late Rev. Mr. Muir of St. Vigeans (who made a barometrical survey of some of the neighbouring hills) kindly informed the author that the site of Invermark Castle is about 1000 feet above the sea, and that he guessed the gamekeeper's house to be about 250 feet higher-thus making it one of the highest inhabited places in Scotland, since the mining village of Leadhills in Lanarkshire, which is not more than 1300 feet high, is said by all writers to be the highest inhabited of any place in the kingdom. He also remarks that "the most striking features of Glenesk are the clear instances of glaciers once pervading that valley. From the Loch to Edzell moraines occur continually-one at Invermark two miles long, and the terminal one at The Burn, adjacent to the Dooly Tower, are very conspicuous-all exhibiting marks of a much colder climate than the present." By the Ordnance Survey the summit of Craigmaskeldie, is 2224 feet high above sea level; that of the Wolf Craig, 2343; Monawee, 2276; Cairn Caidloch, 2117; Braid Cairn, 2907; and Mount-Keen, 3077. GLENESK-GLENMARK, GLENLEE. 111 shooting-lodge, built of native rock, having been erected by a late worthy representative of the noble house of Panmure, whose ancestors (exclusive of the long interregnum that followed the luckless forfeiture of last century) have been lords of Glenesk and Edzell for more than a century. The shooting-lodge, built in 1853 from plans provided by the late Mr. David Bryce, is in the picturesque style of English cottage architecture, with a fancy tower on the east front; and, while in harmony with the huge piles of surrounding cliffs, it also forms a pleasing contrast to the towering ruin of Invermark Castle, near to which, but on a higher level, it is erected. The whole of the north-western part of the Glen is also thrown into a deer-forest, which joins the extensive preserves of Her Majesty (with the forests of Glenmuick intervening) and of the Earl of Airlie on the north and west, and those of the Marquis of Huntly on the north-east, thereby forming one of the finest and most extensive sporting fields in Great Britain. As a matter of course, these alterations have very materially depopulated the Glen, and the number of its inhabitants, within the present century, has decreased with great rapidity. Glenlee and the Bridge of Lee, for instance, which, together with Gleneffock, were so valuable in old times as to form a part of the terce of the Duchess of Montrose,1 are now places of apparent insignificance, and almost wholly used for the pasture of sheep. At a much later period than that referred to, however, more than ten families lived on each of these places for one that has done so for many years past, as is yet to be seen by the ruins of cottages, and by the traces of many fertile patches "where once the garden smiled, And still, where many a garden flower grows wild." The old hamlet of Glenlee is now scarcely traceable, even in scattered ruins. The last of its inhabitants (who was known by the familiar name of Johnnie Gordon) died during 1 Acta Dom. Concil. Mar. 1, 1489. the summer of 1852, and, although he had resided little more than half a century in Glenesk, he remembered Glenlee being the largest clachan in the parish. It was on the decline of the population in this or the upper part of the Glen, that the parish church was removed to its present site; and now, although only about eighty years have elapsed, the population has been so reduced in the district of Invermark, that the church is more inconveniently situated for most of the people than it was of old, when it stood more than a mile to the westward. The school has already followed the population to Tarfside. But, notwithstanding that the face of nature has been so materially changed here, both as regards agriculture generally and the position of the population-though the place which knew a long race of humble retainers now knows them no more, and many of the farms that lay along the banks of the river are so completely incorporated with others that their names are only traceable in the national records, or the rent-rolls and title-deeds of their noble owner,-still, as previously said, the course of the North Esk, so far as known, has undergone little change. This, the most considerable river of Angus and Mearns, is exclusively a stream of the former county, both by birth and affiliation, so to speak, till it enters the woods at The Burn, from which point, with a slight exception, it forms the boundary betwixt those shires. It rises among the mountains of Lochlee, and the Unich and the Lee are its original sources. The former rises seven or eight miles south-west of the Loch, and the latter from four to five miles north-west. These two unite under the most northerly ridge of the majestic mountain of Craigmaskeldie, and are known from thence, for a distance of nearly four miles, by the common name of The Lee. The Unich, as its name perhaps implies, has a hurried bustling motion, and the most of its course, from the Falls northward, is wild and rocky. The Falls are from forty to fifty feet in height, and form a grand Highland cataract; but, |