barons of the kingdom, was reduced to its present lowly, and it may be said, inglorious position. ""Tis now the raven's bleak abode : Huge heaps of hoary moulder'd walls." Nor did a better fate await the castle of Auchmull, but its destruction is not to be ascribed to the same party as that of Edzell. So far indeed from its being so, the York Buildings Company declared that the tenant should "have no concern with the stone house, commonly called the Castle of Auchmull, except in so far as he shall damage it by his use or neglect of it," in which case he was bound to repair all injury to the same as if it had been a part of the mill or farm-steading.1 It was occupied by the farmer down to 1772-3, about which time he found it so inconvenient, that he offered to bear the cost of a new house, provided the proprietor would allow him the wood, iron, and other materials of the castle with which to erect it. This was unfortunately acceded to, and the famous refuge of the murderer of Lord Spynie was soon unroofed, and otherwise destroyed. But the work of destruction, once begun, did not terminate here, having its limit only in the complete annihilation of the stronghold. For although, after the building of the farm-house originally stipulated for, a goodly fabric in the form of a square tower, similar to that of Invermark, graced the banks of the romantic rivulet where it stood; yet that too was demolished for the purpose of building fences and filling. drains. Thus all that now exists is only a small part of the foundations, and the comparatively entire and interesting carving of the Lindsay and Wishart arms, with the initials and date, "D. L.: M. W., 1601." These refer to "young Edzell," and his wife Margaret Wishart, daughter of the laird of Pit 1 Tack-Mr. Francis Grant to David Lindsay, 17th Feb. 1756, in possession of his descendant, the present tenant. EDZELL-CASTLE OF AUCHMULL. 71 arrow, to whom he was married sometime before November 1597, and who died in 1646, having survived her unfortunate husband for the space of three years.1 So late as 1854, a gold finger-ring, with a blue precious stone, was found in the digging of a garden at Auchmull. It is said to have been given to a Martha Gall, his paramour, by the last Lindsay of Edzell; and on its recovery, after being lost, it was purchased by the late Lord Panmure. Truly, it may be said, that "heartless man," together with "[Old] Time, hath done his work of ill On statues, fount, and hall; Ruin'd, and lone, they year by year, Fragment by fragment, fall." 1 Crawford Case, pp. 181, 187. This stone had been built into the wall of a neighbouring cottage, and was found in the summer of 1854, when the cottage was demolished. It is now placed within the flower garden at Edzell Castle. CHAPTER II. Glenesk. SECTION I. The little churchyard by the lonely lake, All shaded round by heath-clad mountains hoar; And raised the supplicating prayer of yore. There sleeps the Poet who tuned his magic lyre And sung the curious freaks of days gone by; Glenesk-St. Drostan--Neudos-Old church of Lochlee-Origin of parish-Its ministers-Mr. Ross as session-clerk-Episcopacy in the parish-Rev. David Rose, the illegal meeting-house keeper-Illiberality of parish ministers-Change of views Chapel built on the Rowan-Rev. Peter Jolly-New churches at Tarfside-Free church at the Birks of Ardoch-Memorial windows-Description of old parish church-Ross the author of Helenore-His abode, biography, and poetry-Present church and manse-Drowning of the brothers Whyte-Benevolence of Rev. David Inglis-Lines on a stranger. THOUGH the church of Glenesk, or Lochlee,1 as this fine pastoral district is indiscriminately termed, is one of the oldest established in the county, little is known of its history beyond the name of its founder, and the period of his settlement. St. Drostan, a saint of the blood royal of Scotland, was Abbot of Donegall in Ireland and Holywood in Wigtonshire. On returning from the sister country in the sixth century, he took up his abode in Glenesk, and proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation there, during the remainder of his long life. He flourished about the year 600, and his feast is held on the 11th of July.2 1 Gleann-uisge, "the glen of water."-Loch-le, "the smooth lake.” 2 The saint has a double tradition: the Breviary of Aberdeen counts him a contemporary of St. Columba in the sixth century, while the Scotch annalists place him in the eighth and ninth. His feast is unfixed, but perhaps most frequently on July 11 and December 14.-(Dr. Wm. Smith and Prof. Wace, Dict. Christ. Biog., i. p. 907.) GLENESK-TRACES OF ST. DROSTAN. 73 Though St. Drostan's relics, like those of most of the saints, survived his decease for many ages, and may perhaps survive and work miracles in some obscure corner to this day, it is not to be supposed that the church, of which the ruins still remain, though said to be of unknown antiquity, was the theatre of his ministry. The little wooden cell in which he dwelt, and every fragment of the rude cross that he raised, have long since passed away, even their exact sites having become unknown. And this is no great wonder, for it is only remarkable that St. Drostan's name should at all exist in the district, as it will be perceived that it is more than a thousand years since his fervent prayers resounded in this glen, and since the mournful train of grateful converts and holy brethren bore his relics across the hills, and had them deposited in a stone chest, that was prepared for them at the church of Aberdour in Aberdeenshire, of which he was patron.1 From the site of the present manse of Glenesk being called "Droustie," and an adjoining fountain "Droustie's Well," it may be inferred that these are corruptions of the name of St. Drostan, and point out the sites of his residence and church. "Droustie's Meadow" is also the name of a piece of ground near the Parsonage at Tarfside, and these, with St. Drostan's well at Neudos, are the only places in the district bearing similar designations. But it seems probable that the district of Cairncross, lying between the Tarf and Turret, formed more or less of the monastic lands of St. Drostan's foundation, and followed the usual course of such lands by falling into the hands of lay abbots, and then becoming wholly alienated and secularised. Though now annexed to Edzell, the parish of Neudos was, from early times, a separate cure, and, so far as known, had never any connection with Glenesk. In fact the situation of the old kirk of Neudos, and more particularly that of the well (both of which lie consider 1 Collections on Aberdeenshire, p. 442; Butler, Lives of the Saints, July 11. 2 Reg. de Panmure, i. p. cliii. ably east of the glen) favour this idea; and, as previously hinted, the presence of the fountain is only to be taken as implying that the church was dedicated to St. Drostan, while Droustie in Glenesk may be considered as having been the principal place of his residence and ministry.1 The old kirk of Lochlee, which stands at the lower end of the Loch, is also sometimes called the "kirk of Droustie;" and a deep pool in the river Lee, immediately south of the farm-house of Kirkton, now used principally for sheep-washing, has, time out of memory, borne the significant appellation of the "Monks' Pool," so termed, it is said, because the monks had right to fish in it for salmon during the flesh-proscribed season of Lent. Fine large fish are taken out of it to the present day. From the time of St. Drostan, down to the year 1723, when the district was erected into an independent parish, little is known of its ecclesiastical history; before that date, the most we know is that in 1384 it was merely a chaplainry of the adjoining parish of Lethnot, and Sir Andrew Joly is designed "curate of Lochlie" in 1558.3 About the time of the Reformation, a Mr. Hay was appointed reader with the scanty salary of twenty-four merks a year, or about twenty-six shillings and ninepence sterling, for which he prayed and read portions of Scripture to the people in the absence of the minister, while the latter preached there only once every three weeks, "weather permitting." In a district so large (for the parish embraces an area of more than a hundred square miles) and so far removed from the residence of the clergyman, the office of reader, if we are to suppose that matters stood then as they did at a later period, had been onerous in the extreme. But an augmentation extending to 100 merks Scots, six bolls of oatmeal, two crofts of land adjoining the church with pasture 1 The late Dr. Joseph Robertson, Register House, Edinburgh, has given reasons for thinking that St. Drostan's monastery was at Edzell. See above, page 4, and Lives, i. pp. 103, n., 424, App. No. x. 2 Reg. Episc. Brech., i. p. 22. 3 Crawford Case, pp. 174-187. |