from the Cape of Good Hope," and died at Edinburgh in 1808. But he was known as an author long before the publication of these poems, for, while Tytler was labouring under severe mental distress (and not after his death, as several biographers state), Dr. John Gillies, his brother-in-law, superintended Callimachus through the press, and the book appeared in 1793, with a preface by the Earl of Buchan, in which that vain-glorious nobleman compares himself to Sir Philip Sidney, "in whom," he says, "every compatriot of extraordinary merit found a friend without hire, and a common rendezvous of worth" ! Happily the cloud which hung over Tytler's mind was only temporary, and about four years after the publication of Callimachus, he issued Padotrophia, or the Art of Nursing and Rearing Children, from the Latin of Scevole de St. Marthe, but enriched with valuable medical and historical notes. In the poetical dedication of this book (which extends over thirtyfive pages), he thus feelingly alludes to the Earl of Buchan's kindness to him during his illness, and to his own pre-eminent position as the first Scottish translator of a Greek poet : "With health, with ease, with sacred friendship blest, Let me attempt the heights desired before, I taught a Grecian poet English strains, Still court the Nine, secure of lasting praise, Apart from the interesting fact of the Manse of Fern being the birthplace of those two eminent men, the vicinity has other attractions, in so far as the kirk is beautifully situated on an isolated hillock in the middle of a romantic den, which, although now rendered lovely by the taste of the past and present ministers of the parish, was an uncultivated wild at the beginning of this century, shaded only by brushwood, among which the hazel and the arn, or alder, predominated. FERN- -CHURCH AND BELL. 225 The latter still abounds throughout the district, particularly on the banks of the Noran; and it is probable, as before said, that the name of the parish may have been thus assumed. The old church stood more in the middle of the graveyard than the present edifice, which was built in 1806; and, as if to support the story of Cardinal Beaton's connection with the castle of Vayne (which will be fully noticed in a subsequent section), it has long been reported that he not only presented the bell to the church, but that it bore his name and the year of his birth; and having had two bells made in Holland at the same time, he gifted the other to the church of Aberlemno, in which parish his castle of Melgund was situated! So far from these stories being credible, the date on the Fern bell, it will be seen, is only twelve years later than Beaton's birth, and refers merely to the time of its being cast, at which period the barony was in the hands of the Lindsays of Edzell, as vassals of the Earls of Crawford. The following is the legend on the bell:— "IC BEN GEGOTEN INT IAER MCCCCCVI."1 The gravestones in the churchyard are numerous, and, although some of them bear "uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture," few are so peculiarly interesting as to warrant their being specially referred to. The following, however, which appears on a stone erected to the memory of a farmer who died within the last forty years, may be cited as an example of the way in which worldly employments and Scripture ideas. are laid hold of by mortuary rhymesters : "Death daily walks his active round, On Time's uncertain stage; The best monument is a granite slab over the grave of the late Thomas Binny, proprietor of Fern, who died on the 5th 1 i.e. "I was cast in the year 1506." Nothing is known of an older bell at Aberlemno than the present, though there had doubtless been one. That now in use bears :-"THE BELL OF · ABERLEMNO • ROBERTVS MAXWELL ME. FECIT. EDR. 1728." P of March 1845. The burial-places of the families of Gall, sometime proprietors of the small estate of Auchnacree, and of Deuchar of that Ilk, are also marked by respectable freestone memorials, one recording the decease of the penultimate laird and lady of the latter name, who died respectively in the years 1802 and 1823. But of the graves of the families of de Montealto and Lindsay-the ancient superiors of the district— no trace is visible. SECTION II. Though in their day a violent band They're now a lost, forgotten thing. The de Montealtos of Fern and Both-Their other possessions-Fern passed to the Crawford Lindsays-Estate of Deuchar-Deuchar at the battles of Barry and Harlaw-Family and influence traced-Its decline-Fern under the CarnegiesWindsor-Waterstone-Commonty of Little Brechin-Balmadity. No record of any proprietor of the barony of Fern is known before the time of William the Lion, by whom it was gifted to a family bearing the surname of de Montealto, now metamorphosed into that of Mowat-a name by no means uncommon in Angus at the present time, though not in a proprietary relation. Mention of the family first occurs during the reign of David I., when Robert de Montealto witnesses several of that king's charters; but they were first settled in the south, and assumed their surname from a place in Flintshire.1 William de Montealto, knight, gave an annual of a stone of wax and four shillings to the monks of Cupar from his lordship of Fern, and is a witness to the perambulation of the marches of the Abbey lands of Arbroath and those of Kinblethmont: this took place in 1219.2 1 Chalmers, Caledonia, i. p. 531. Mohaut, Mouhaut, Muhaut, Muhauth, and Montealt are the same, and occur frequently in the ancient Scotch charters, etc. from the thirteenth century. 2 Reg. Vet. Aberbrothoc, p. 162; Reg. Cup. Abb. p. xvii. FERN-FAMILY DE MONTEALTO. 227 1 Besides the lordship of Fern, the Montealtos were proprietors of Both, in the parish of Carmyllie, and Abbot Adam of Arbroath became bound to William de Montealto, the son of Michael, to support a chaplain at the chapel of St. Laurence of Both, or, in other words, became patron of that church, which was afterwards given by William Maule of Panmure to the cathedral of Brechin.2 Michael de Montealto was one of the Justiciaries of Scotland proper in 1242,3 and his son Bernard and Abbot William of Balmerino were among the many persons of distinction who were drowned on returning from the court of Norway in 1281, after witnessing the celebration of the nuptials of Margaret, daughter of Alexander III., with King Eric1-a catastrophe that gave rise to the fine old ballad of "Sir Patrick Spens," which concludes thus Robert de Montealto was sheriff of Forfarshire in 1262,5 and a witness to the foundation charter of the Domus Dei, or Maisondieu Hospital of Brechin in 1267. William de Montealto, perhaps the son of Robert, was present at the famous convention held within the monastery of Arbroath on the 6th of April 1320, and subscribed the spirited remonstrance to Pope John XXII., asserting the independence of Scotland. And it may have been the same William de Muhaut that subscribed the letter to King Edward in 1289, regarding the marriage of our Princess Margaret with his son. In 1322 William de Montealto of Kinblethmont gave a charter of the 1 Reg. Vet. Aberbr. p. 189 (A.D. 1250); on Both, see Reg. de Panmure, i. p. xxi, ii. pp. 173, 363 sq.; Reg. Episc. Brech. i. p. 14. 2 Robertson, Index, p. 51. 42. 4 Tytler, Hist. of Scot. i. p. 48. 3 Chalmers, Caled. i. p. 532. 5 Warden, Angus, ii. p. 226. 6 Reg. Episc. Brech. i. p. 7; Reg. de Panmure, ii. p. 207. 7 Acts of Parl. i. p. 85. Robert and Michael de Montealto are charter witnesses in 1246, and Laurence in 1272 (Fraser, Hist. Carnegies of Southesk, ii. pp. 478, 480), probably the same Laurence being rector of the church of Kinnettles in 1264 and 1265 (Reg. Ep. Brech. i. p. 7; Reg. Vet. Aberbr. p. 269). lands of Brechin to Sir Gilbert de Haya of Errol:1 and on the resignation of John de Haya, Dominus de Tuly bothevyle, de Montealto had charters of the lands of Brichty, in the parish of Murroes, which were given by Richard de Montealto in the year 1379 to Sir Alexander Lindsay of Glenesk.2 This Richard was chancellor of the cathedral of Brechin; and in the same year resigned the barony of Inverlunan in favour of Alexander Stuart, the king's son by Marion de Cardny-a resignation that took place at Dundee, from the customs of which burgh, de Montealto at the same period had a pension of twenty pounds.3 Two years prior to this date, however, Richard had resigned all claim to the barony of Fern in favour of his son, William, whose charters of it were confirmed at the Abbey of Cupar, by Robert II.; and, as before noticed, a younger son was rector of the kirk of Finhaven in the lifetime of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Glenesk, and a witness to the charter of Brichty. Richard was alive in 1383, as his surname (changed for the first time into the modern form of Movat or Mowat) recurs in connection with the barony of Lunan.5 John is the last of the Mowats whom we have found connected with Fern; he had charters of Syanford (now Shandford) from Robert III., but from this period, until about 1450, there is a hiatus in the proprietary history of Fern that we are unable fully to supply." The surname of this once powerful family is now generally unknown in the district; but it is curious to observe that a place on the hill of Bruff Shank is still called "Mowat's Seat," or "Mowat's Cairn;" and, although popularly associated with the deeds of a Cateran of the name of Mowat, there is good reason to conclude that it more probably has reference to the ancient lords of the district, and is the only positive evidence of their name now in the parish. 1 Robertson, Index, p. 18. 66. 2 Fraser, Hist. Carnegies of Southesk, ii. pp. 492, 537. 3 Robertson, Index, pp. 122, 123. 5 Robertson, Index, p. 124. 15. 7 Sir William de Monte Alto was of Fern in 1410. Reg. Mag. Sig. p. 149. 108. 6 Ibid. p. 139. 5. Reg. Mag. Sig. p. 246. 8. |