414 THE RIVER SPEY-ELGIN. Keith, New Keith, and Fife Keith. | Mylne, Esq.; has also a key post office, a banking office, a subscription library, and three chief inns-the Gordon Arms, the Crown, and the Plough. Its population in 1851 was 1135. Gordon Castle, a seat of the Duke of Richmond, formerly the seat of the Dukes of Gordon, stands in the northern neighbourhood of the town, within a grand park of 1300 The greater portion of it is well arranged, well built, and pleasant. It contains a key post office, three banking offices, a town hall, and six places of worship. The Parish Church is an elegant edifice of 1816, with a tower 120 feet high; the United Presbyterian Church is a handsome Gothic structure of 1853; and the Roman Catholic Chapel is a beautiful | acres; shows a magnificent façade, with édifice in Roman-Doric. The population of the town in 1851 was 2679. Edintore, the seat of George P. Hay, Esq., is in the neighbourhood. Orton 568 feet of frontage; and comprises a 1234. GARMOUTH, on the left side of the mouth of the Spey, 4 miles north of Fochabers, is a small sea-port, with 1232. THE RIVER SPEY rises midway between Loch Laggan and Loch Lochy, and runs 82 miles, chiefly in a north-easterly direction, to the Moray Frith at Garmouth. It is the largest of the Scottish rivers, except the Tay, in both extent of basin and volume of water; but it bears no comparison to at least seven or eight in either picturesque-regular streets, a post office under Fochness or utility. Most of its basin is loftily Highland, and nearly all exhibits much diversity of contour; while not much possesses prime characters of either force or beauty. Its current is almost everywhere rapid, seldom for a moment becomes tranquil till near the sea, and is wildly and capriciously subject to prodigious freshets. The chief tributaries are the Markie, the Calder, and the Dulnain, on the left bank; and the Truim, the Feshie, the Nethy, the Avon, and the Fiddich, on the right. The salmon fisheries of the Spey are excelled in Scotland only by those of the Tweed and the Tay. abers, a banking office, a subscription library, a Free Church, and about 650 inhabitants. A vast trade was formerly done in the disposal of timber, floated hither down the Spey; and this trade is still considerable. Kingston-Port village, with about 400 inhabitants, stands adjacent. Charles II. landed here on his return from Holland. 1235. LHANBRYDE village, in the northern neighbourhood of Lhanbryde Station, has a post office under Elgin, and a parish church. A priory, connected with Dunfermline Abbey, stood a little to the east, but has disappeared. Innes House, 2 miles to the north-northeast, a seat of the Earl of Fife, is a renovated ancient mansion of curious archi 1233. FOCHABERS stands on the right bank of the Spey, 4 miles north-east of Fochabers Station. It is a neat, well-tecture. Nine tall stones, which formed built, modern town, of quadrangular out- part of a Druidical circle, stand in its line, with central square and streets at vicinity. right angles; and has a handsome Parish Church with portico and spire, a Free Church, an Episcopalian Chapel, an elegant Roman Catholic Chapel, and a splendid free school, built in 1846, from a bequest of £20,000 by Alexander 1236. ELGIN is a royal burgh and a county capital, and was formerly the seat of the bishopric of Moray. It stands on Lossie Water, chiefly on the right bank, partly on haughs and partly along a ridge. Its environs are fertile, ornate, garden esque, and partly spangled with villas. | founded in 1224 by Bishop Moray, de Its principal thoroughfare extends about a mile from east to west, expands at one part into a central square, sends off transverse thoroughfares north and south, and is winged with lanes and closes like ribs from a spine. The new parts of the town are neat or elegant; and the old parts are modernized or cleansed. The Court House is an ornamental edifice of 1840. The Parish Church is a spacious structure of 1828, adorned with a hexastyle Doric portico, 54 feet broad, and surmounted by a tower terminating in a cyclostyle lantern, at the height of 112 feet from the ground. The South Free Church, the Episcopalian Chapel, and the Roman Catholic Chapel, are handsome buildings. The Elgin Institution, for supporting aged persons and educating youths, sprang from a bequest of £70,000 by General Anderson, a native of Elgin, and is a splendid edifice of 1822, with two Grecian fronts and a circular tower and cupola. Gray's Hospital, an infirmary, founded and endowed by Dr. Gray, another native of Elgin, is a conspicuous edifice of 1819, with a Doric portico and a dome. A pillar, to the memory of the last Duke of Gordon, and some remains of an ancient fort, stand on a small green hill, at the west end of the town, commanding an extensive view. Grant Lodge, a seat of the Earl of Seafield, is adjacent. Some buildings of ancient note, particularly a grand town mansion of the Lords Duffus, called Thunder House, a fine Market Cross, a massive Gothic church, a Maison Dieu, a Leper House, a Greyfriars' Monastery, and a Blackfriars' Monastery, are either dilapidated or extinct. The grandest pile, far surpassing all others, long the glory of the North, was the Cathedral; and this is still an interesting ruin, with symmetry of composition, lightness of construction, wealth of ornament, and delicacy of sculpture, nowhere matched in Scotland except in Melrose Abbey. The Cathedral was stroyed in 1390 by the Wolf of Badenoch, rebuilt through a long series of years by a series of bishops, and demolished at the Reformation. A high wall surrounded it, 1000 yards in circuit, pierced with four gates. The church had the form of a Latin cross, with two towers at each end, and a great tower in the centre. Its length from east to west was 282 feet; from north to south, along the transepts, 115 feet; and the height of its central tower was 198 feet. Its style of architecture was the early decorated Gothic, with mixtures of Saxon and Norman. The only important portions now standing are the western towers, without their spires; the western large doorway and part of the window above it; considerable part of the choir and its cloister; and nearly the entire adjoining chapter-house,-the last an exact octagon, 37 feet wide, with a flat, stone roof, supported in the centre by a clustered pillar 9 feet in circumference, and with windows, groined arches, and sculptured devices, of exquisite beauty. Much money and labour have, in recent years, been expended to preserve the ruins from further dilapidation. Elgin has considerable trade, carries on some manufactures, and enjoys fine facilities of communication. It contains a key post office, seven banking offices, elegant assembly rooms, several literary institutions, and two chief inns-the Gordon Arms and the Star. It is governed by a provost, four bailies, and twelve councillors; and it unites with Banff and four other burghs in sending a member to Parliament. Its population in 1851 was 6337. It gives the title of Earl, in the peerage of Scotland, to a branch of the royal house of Bruce. 1237. LOSSIEMOUTH, as its name indicates, stands at the mouth of Lossie Water. This stream rises among uplands 4 miles north-east of Edenkillie, and runs 18 miles north-north-eastward to the sea. Much of the lower part of 416 SPYNIE CASTLE--FORRES. its course traverses low, flat ground, and | part of the 15th century, long a stronghold of the Comyns; and Dallas Lodge, in the same vicinity, is a seat of their descendant, Sir Alexander Gordon Cumming, Bart. is restrained within embankments. Lossiemouth is a sea-port, with an excellent artificial harbour, formed in 1829; it is reached by a branch railway of 6 miles north-north-eastward from Elgin ; and it contains a post office under Elgin, a hotel, three places of worship, and about 1600 inhabitants. Covesea Hill, on the coast, 2 miles to the west of it, shows a deep, mural, romantic sea-face, torn with fissures, arches, and caverns; and Covesea Skerries, in front of the hill, are crowned by a light-house, with a revolving light, visible at the distance of 18 nautical miles. 1240. BURGHHEAD, on the coast, 5 miles north by west of Alves Station, is a small sea-port and a watering-place; presents a regular, well-built aspect; and contains a post office under Elgin, a good inn, three places of worship, and about 900 inhabitants. Burghhead Promontory, contiguous to it, presents to the sea a bold crest about 80 feet high, and was a Roman station. Alves village, in the northern vicinity of Alves Station, has a post office under Forres, and a parish church. Aslisk Castle, 2 miles south-west of it, on the other side of the railway, is a ruined old baronial fortalice. Milton-Brodie, in the vicinity, is the seat of H. J. Brodie Dun, Esq. 1238. SPYNIE CASTLE, 13 mile northnorth-east of Elgin, is the haggard ruin of an ancient, spacious, magnificent mansion, the palace of the Bishops of Moray. Spynie gave the peerage title of Baron, from 1590 till 1672, to the family of Lindsay. Duffus Castle, 2 miles west of Spynie Castle, is a ruined baronial fortalice, built in the reign of David II., and long the seat of the family of Suther-cian abbey, founded in 1150 by David I. ; land, who bore the peerage title of Lords Duffus from 1650 till 1843. Gordenston House, 1 mile north of Duffus Castle, is a seat of Sir Alexander Gordon Cumming, Bart. 1239. PLUSCARDINE ABBEY, situated in a pleasant vale 5 miles southwest of Elgin, is the ruin of a Cistercian monastery, founded in 1230 by Alexander II. The church resembles that of Melrose Abbey, but is smaller and less ornate; the chapter-house is similar to that of Elgin Cathedral; and a portion of the cloisters has been refitted into a Free Church. Birnie Church, in the vale of the Lossie, 2 miles eastsouth-east of Pluscardine, consists of nave and choir, is one of the oldest places of worship in use in Scotland, and contains an old stone baptistry, and a curious ancient bell, made of a mixture of silver and copper. Tor Castle, some miles further up the Lossie, is a ruined baronial fortalice of the early 1241. KINLOSS village, 1 mile north of Kinloss Station, contains a Parish Church of 1765, and vestiges of a Cister and gives the title of Baron to the Earl of Elgin. Edward I. of England spent twenty days in Kinloss Abbey, and made it the turning-point of his inroad to the north of Scotland; and Oliver Cromwell used it as a quarry for his fort at Inverness. Grangehall and Seapark, in the neighbourhood, are the seats of Colonel P. G. Peterkin, and E. D. Dunbar, Esq. Findhorn village, 2 miles to the north-north-west, is a sea-port, with a post office under Forres, a Free Church, a public library, and about 850 inhabitants. Rafford village, 23 miles south of Kinloss Station, has a handsome Gothic church of 1826; and Rafford parish, around it, contains the mansions of Burgie, Mr. Tulloch; Blervie, E. Grant Duff, Esq.; and Altyre, Sir A. P. Gordon Cumming, Bart. 1242. FORRES was a royal burgh as early as the time of William the Lion or Alexander II., and has acquired notoriety from Shakespeare's drama of Mac EDENKILLIE BRODIE HOUSE. 417 beth; but it ceased in the middle ages to maintain its early consequence, and it presents little in either its records or its antiquities to distinguish it from a modern town. It stands along a ridgy swell, extending from east to west; consists chiefly of one main street, with lateral lanes; and has a well-built, clean, pleasant aspect. The Town Hall, in its centre, is a beautiful Tudor edifice of 1839, with a square tower of two stages, surmounted by a cupola. Anderson's Institution, a free school for three parishes, is a handsome Grecian structure, with a spire. Lord Nelson's Monument, on a high adjacent hill, is an octagonal tower, 70 feet high, and commands a gorgeous prospect. Dr. Thompson's Monument, on the Castle Bank, is an elegant erection of 1857. A Roman station, next a royal castle, next a strong town-fort, crowned the Castle Hill; but all, except the subbasement of the last, have vanished. The Witch's Stone, over the remains of a woman burnt for witchcraft; and the Forres Pillar, or Sweno's Stone, a remarkable ancient obelisk, 23 feet high, 1244. FINDHORN RIVER rises covered with sculptures and Runic knots, among the Monadhleadh Mountains, 9 and supposed to be commemorative of a miles south-east of Fort-Augustus, and pacification between Malcolm II. and falls into the Moray Frith at the vilSweno the Dane, are in the eastern en- lage of Findhorn. Its course is northvirons. The mansions of Forres House, easterly, and measures 57 miles geoRobert Grant, Esq.; Inverearn House, graphically, and about 85 along the bed. Colonel Grant Peterkin; Sanquhar Its tributaries are numerous, but all House, Captain W. F. Tytler; Drum- small. Its scenery passes from Alpine duan, A. Smyth, Esq., and several good to Lowland, exhibits almost every variety villas, stand in the neighbourhood. For- of the picturesque, strikes the eye with res contains a key post office, four bank-force or with delight all the way from ing offices, a mechanics' institute and library, five places of worship, and a good hotel. It is governed by a provost, three bailies, and thirteen councillors; and it unites with Inverness and two other burghs in sending a member to Parliament. Its population in 1851 was 3468. 1243. EDENKILLIE parish, extending 12 miles southward from the vicinity of Forres, up the right side of Findhorn River and up Dorback Water, rises with gradual ascent to the height of about | 1000 feet, often bears the name of BraeMoray, and embosoms a series of picturesque vales and ravines. Lochindorb, on its southern boundary, a hill-girt lake 23 miles long, contains an islet with remains of a strong castle, where Edward I. of England received the submission of some of the northern chieftains. KnockMoray, below the foot of the lake, commands extensive and diversified views, and has, at its north-west base, a handsome shooting-lodge of the Earl of Moray. Duniphail Castle, now a fragmentary ruin, on a steep, conical hill, below Edenkillie Church, 63 miles south of Forres, withstood a siege by Randolph, Earl of Moray, after the battle of the Standard. Doune Hill, on the estate of Relugas, immediately west of Duniphail, was crowned by a Roman station, and shows vestiges of a very ancient fort. Duniphail House, Relugas House, and Logie House, are the seats of C. L. C. Bruce, Esq.; R. Smith, Esq.; and Captain Lockhart M. V. Cumming; and the first is an elegant edifice of 1829, after a design by Playfair. the source to the sea, and is not excelled in aggregate richness by the scenery of any stream north of the Tay. Its waters abound with trout and salmon. A lagoon is formed by it, 3 miles long and 13 mile broad, from the vicinity of Forres to within a mile of the sea. The basin of the Findhorn bears the name of Strathdearn; and the river itself was anciently called the Earn. 1245. BRODIE HOUSE, in the southern vicinity of Brodie Station, the seat 418 AULDEARN-FORT-GEORGE. of William Brodie, Esq., is an irregular | side of Nairn Water, 5 miles south- rochial church of 1619, and about 150 ants. 1246. AULDEARN village, a little south of the railway, nearly midway between Brodie and Nairn, is an ancient place, and has a post office under Nairn, a parish church, and about 430 inhabitA tract in its south-eastern vicinity was the scene of a great battle, in 1645, between the Marquis of Montrose and General Hurry; and monuments exist in the church and church-yard to the memory of leading men who fell in the battle. Inchock Castle, an old fortalice near the railway, north-east of the village, was the seat of the Hays of Lochloy. Lethen House, in the south-eastern vicinity, a large edifice of last century, is the seat of Thomas Brodie, Esq.; and Boath House, in the northern vicinity, an elegant structure of 1830, is the seat of Sir James A. Dunbar, Bart. 1247. CAWDOR village, on the right 1248. NAIRN, a royal burgh and a sea-port, stands on the left side of the mouth of Nairn Water. This stream flows from mountains 8 miles east of the middle of Loch Ness, and has a total north-easterly course of 31 miles, but is not remarkable for scenery or of high note for fishing. The tract around its lowest reach, within the parish of Nairn, is ornate Lowland, and contains fragments of Rait Castle, once a residence of the Comyns; and the mansions of Geddes, George M'Intosh, Esq.; Viewfield, James A. Grant, Esq.; Newton, Henry Robertson, Esq.; Firhall, Augustus Cameron, Esq.; Househill, Colonel H. R. Murray; Auchrhea, Millbank, and Ivybank. Nairn town is partly old, confined, and dingy, partly new and airy; includes a principal street nearly half a mile long; and contains a handsome suite of town and county buildings with a spire, six places of worship, a neat academy, a key post office, three banking offices, a suite of baths, and two chief inns-the Commercial and the Marine, the latter new and elegant. It is governed by a council of seventeen, and grouped in the parliamentary franchise with Inverness. Its population in 1851 was 2977. It gave the title of Baron from 1681 till 1746, and again from 1824 till 1837, to the family of Nairne. 1249. FORT-GEORGE, on a peninsular projection at the contraction of the Moray |