Paragraph ...1189 Cothal Mills, on the fur- THE RIVER DON-BUXBURN, 401 Para. graph Para graph Church, 2 miles to the 37 miles. crossed, with Glenbucket to the right, 44 miles.....................1196 Glenbucket Castle, right; mouth of Deskry Water, left; House of Newe, right; Colquhony Castle, right; Colquhony Inn, 46 miles.... ..1197 Strathdon Church, left; Bellabeg House, right; Nochty Water, crossed; Doune of Invernochty, right; Candacraig House, left; Ernan Water, crossed; Inverernan House, right; Forbes Lodge and mouth of Conry Water, left; Skellater House, right; Turnahash Hamlet and Corgarff Castle, on the further side of the Don, left; Cock Bridge Inn, 56 miles 1198 regarded as far inferior to those of the Dee for salmon, but are really inferior only in the proportion of about four to five; and they contain a fair amount of excellent trout. 1186. WOODSIDE, on the Don, is a popular manufacturing village, separated from Aberdeen by an open tract, but included within its franchise boundaries. Woodside House, the seat of Patrick 1185. THE RIVER DON rises on a north-easterly spur of the Cairngorm Mountains, at an elevation of 1640 feet above the level of the sea; and runs in a crooked course, prevailingly eastward, to the German Ocean, about a mile north-east of Old Aberdeen. Its upper basin is hilly and mountainous; its lower basin embosoms much dale and meadow; and both contain a large amount of charming scenery. Its current descends, | Kilgour, Esq., and some other good resinot fitfully or in rapids, but with regular, gliding, pleasing flow. Its bed is gravelly; its banks alternately contract and expand; and its course makes two great curves to the north, between Alford and Kintore, and riots both there and elsewhere in numerous bends. Its chief tributaries are the Conry, the Carvy, and the Leochel, on the right bank; and the Ernan, the Nochty, the Bucket, the Kindy, and, chief of all, the Ury, on the left. Its waters have been proverbially dences, stand adjacent to it; Powis House, the seat of Hugh F. Leslie, Esq., and Seaton House, the residence of Lord James Hay, stand to the east, in the vicinity of Old Aberdeen; and Grandholm House, the seat of John Paton, Esq., and Scotstown House, the seat of Sir Michael Bruce, Bart., stand at short distances on the north side of the Don. 1187. BUXBURN, a brook of 4 miles in length of run, giving name to Buxburn Station, has on its banks Craibstone | it gives the titles of Baron and Earl House, amid beautifully wooded grounds; to the family of Keith-Falconer. Its and Newhills Church, an elegant and population in 1851 was 476. Thainston conspicuous edifice of 1830. New hills House, near the railway to Inverury, parish, north and south of it, 5 miles about 12 mile to the north, the seat of long and 3 miles broad, contains also D. F. Mitchell, Esq., is a fine mansion the residences of Springhill, Hazelhead, on the site of a pile which was plundered Sheddocksley, Fairley, Cloghill, Gate- and burnt by the rebels of 1745. Balside, Waterton, and Place of Newhills; bithan House, on the other side of the and Skene parish, contiguous on the Don, the property of the Earl of Kintore, west, contains the mansions of Kirkville, is a curious old structure, notable as a Easterskene, and Skene, the last a seat rendezvous of the Marquis of Montrose, of the Earl of Fife. and as an asylum of the fugitives from the field of Culloden. Hallforest Castle, near the railway, 1 mile west of Kintore, is a stately ruined tower, originally a hunting-seat of the Kings of Scotland, once visited by Queen Mary, and afterwards the property of the Earls Marischal. 1191. KEMNAY Church is an elegant recent edifice. Kemnay School is a neat building, of high scholastic note. Kem 1188. DYCE Church, an ancient building, on a rocky promontory at an elbow of the Don, commands a view of the Don's valley for upwards of 20 miles. Parkhill House, in its vicinity, on the left side of the river, amid beautiful grounds, is the seat of John Gordon Cumming Skene, Esq. Straloch and Elrick, in the same parish as Parkhill, are the seats of John Ramsay and Peter Burnet, Esqs. Pitmeddan, near the rail-nay House, the seat of J. Burnet, Esq., way, a mile north-west of Dyce Church, is the property of George Thompson, Esq. A Druidical circle, nearly entire, crowns an eminence half a mile south-west of Pitmeddan; and a number of standingstones, tumuli, and other Caledonian antiquities, occur among the neighbouring hills. 1189. KINALDIE estate, on the Don, around Kinaldie Burn, the property of George Milne, Esq., is supposed to have been a post of King Kenneth for resisting the Danes, and contains a beautiful modern mansion, in the cottage style. Fintray House, on the other side of the Don, further east, the seat of Sir William Forbes, Bart., is a large and elegant edifice in the Tudor style. Caskieben, Alexander F, Henderson, Esq.; Glasgoego, William Lumsden, Esq.; and Glasgo Forest, Mrs. Gordon, are situated to the south. 1190. KINTORE is an ancient place, with the rank of a royal burgh. It contains a post office under Aberdeen, an inn, and two places of worship; and stands amid fine grounds. Fetternear House, on the other side of the Don, the seat of Colonel Leslie, was originally a residence of the Bishops of Aberdeen. Spots around Kemnay Station command a grand view of the south-east side of the remarkably outlined hill of Bennochie, 5 miles to the north, and 1440 feet high. Castle-Fraser, 2 miles south-west of Kemnay, is the seat of C. M. Fraser, Esq.; and Cluny Castle, 21⁄2 miles further west, is the seat of John Gordon, Esq. 1192. MONYMUSK village has a post office under Aberdeen, an excellent inn, a Parish Church, an Episcopalian Chapel, and about 140 inhabitants. The Parish Church is a very ancient structure, with a modern steeple 90 feet high, and possibly includes some part of the church of a priory founded by Malcolm Canmore. The Episcopalian Chapel is a neat edifice. Monymusk House, in the north-western vicinity, the seat of Sir James Grant, Bart., is a large ancient mansion. Pitfichie Castle, further northwest, is the ruin of a fortalice which belonged some time to the family of sea. The castle originally consisted of General Hurry, who figured much one great circular tower, but afterwards among the Covenanters. Paradise, fur- comprised a pentagonal system of seven ther up the Don, and contiguous to it, towers and other buildings, covering a displays remains of picturesque pleasure-space of fully an acre, with suites of outgrounds, laid out in 1719. Castle Forbes, on the other side of the Don, 5 miles west-north-west of Monymusk, the seat of Lord Forbes, is an elegant, castellated, modern mansion. Keig Church, in the western vicinity of Castle-Forbes, is a neat Gothic edifice of 1835; and Keig parish contains striking remains of two Druidical circles. Whitehaugh House, on the same side of the Don, further west, the seat of James Forbes Leith, Esq., is a handsome edifice with a Grecian portico. Haughton, on the right side of the Don, a mile west of Whitehaugh, the seat of R. O. Farquharson, Esq., is a modern structure of finely-dressed granite. 1193. ALFORD village is a small scattered place, with a post office under Aberdeen, a banking office, and an excellent inn. A battle was fought here, in 1645, between the Marquis of Montrose and General Baillie. Breda, a quaint, pleasant, old mansion, stands 2 miles to the west; Cushnie, the seat of the Rev. H. T. Lumsden, 5 miles to the south-west; and the fine old castle of Craigievar, Sir William Forbes, Bart., 5 miles to the south. Bridge of Alford, anciently Boat of Forbes, is 2 miles to the north; and here, on the left bank of the Don, are again a post office, a banking office, and an excellent inn. The lands of Brux and Littlewood Park, the property of the noble family of Forbes, with fine features of scenery, lie a few miles further up the Don. 1194. KILDRUMMY CASTLE stands on an eminence flanked by two ravines, about a mile from the Don. The tract around it is an assemblage of knolls, with intersecting glens and hollows, overhung by mountains. The Buck of Cabrach, 5 miles to the north-west, has an altitude of 2377 feet above the level of the works covering fully two acres more. It was once a seat of the Kings of Scotland, sustained a siege by Edward I. of England, figured conspicuously in the wars of Edward Baliol, passed to the Lords Erskine, Earls of Mar, and was a hatching-place of the rebellion of 1715. It is now all a ruin of impressive appearance, and belongs to John J. Gordon, Esq. of Wardhouse. Auchindoir parish, to the north, beyond Mossat Burn, contains the mansions of Clova, Craig, and Druminnor, and the ivy-covered ruin of an ancient church, with a fine Saxon doorway. 1195. TOWIE CASTLE, adjacent to the right side of the Don, at a ford, with a frail timber pedestrian bridge, is a ruined square tower, the remnant of a stronghold of the family of Forbes, and was the scene of a dismal tragedy, in 1571, sung in a famous old ballad beginning, "It fell about the Martinmas time." Glenkindy, striking to the north from the western vicinity of Towie Castle, is the scene of a legend commemorated in the ballad, " Glenkindy was ance a harper gude." Glenkindy House, in the mouth of the glen, is the residence of Alexander Leith, Esq. The surrounding tract, within a diameter of 4 miles, contains a number of curious ancient earthen houses. 1196. GLENBUCKET brings down Bucket Water 7 miles south-eastward to the Don; is screened by mountains 1800 and 2000 feet high; and contains the Earl of Fife's hunting-lodge of Backies, and the site of the old castle of Badenyon, the residence of "John o' Badenyon," of Scottish song. Glenbucket Castle, in the mouth of the glen, is the ruin of the ancient baronial seat of the Gordons of Glenbucket, now the property of the Earl of Fife. One of the lairds of Glenbucket is the subject of the ballad, "Four |