period they have been in possession of Gask estate, and while many of
them have been distinguished in different walks of life, none of them
ever occupied the high position which the present Mr Oliphant does for
literary attainments and scholarly accomplishments. He has unfolded
the history of his family with all that fulness of information by which
he is characterised in _The Oliphants in Scotland_ and The _Jacobite
Lairds of Gask_. And I must express my great indebtedness to Mr
Oliphant for the information I have derived from these volumes in
writing this article. But I am persuaded that Mr Oliphant's literary
fame will rest more on another work he produced some years ago,
entitled _The Old and Middle English_, in one volume, and _The New
English_, in two volumes, than on the other two, interesting as they
are. In these volumes Mr Oliphant has traced the development of the
English language during the last 600 years. The most competent
scholars and critics have spoken of these volumes in the highest terms
of commendation, and declared that Mr Oliphant has done, unaided, what
would have required a company of philologists to achieve. Mr Oliphant,
however, is not only devoted to literary pursuits, but he also takes a
practical interest in the welfare of all in the parish; often visits
them in their dwellings, and has a great pleasure in promoting their
social enjoyments. In these respects he is cordially supported by Mrs
Oliphant. And I only express the best wishes of all on the estate that
they may be long spared together to dwell among their own people, and
to maintain the same friendly relations with them in the future as they
have done in the past.
AT THE HEAD OF STRATHEARN
By Rev. JOHN MACPHERSON, Comrie
The head of Strathearn may be said to be the parish of Comrie, because
it comprises some miles of the strath as well as the lake from which
the strath derives its name. The name Comrie is taken from a Gaelic
word _Comhruith_, signifying confluence or running together of streams,
and is aptly applied in this case. This one can easily see by standing
for a few moments upon the Bridge of Dalginross. Looking westward, he
sees the River Ruchill joining the Earn behind the Parish Church; and,
turning to the east, at a distance of a few hundred yards he sees the
Lednock discharging its waters into the same river. Hence the name
Comrie, probably in the first instance applied to the village built at
the junction of the three rivers, was afterwards given to the parish.
The parish of Comrie, as presently constituted, includes what was
formerly called the parishes of Comrie and Tullichettle. Hence the
minister of Comrie owns two glebes--the Tullichettle glebe in the
vicinity of the manse, and the Comrie glebe situated on the south bank
of the Earn. The date at which this union took place is not known, but
in the year 1702 the Commission of Teinds, at the request of the
General Assembly, made additions, _quoad sacra_, from the parishes of
Monzievaird, Strowan, and Muthill, and annexed a portion of the parish
of Comrie lying upon the north side of Loch Earn, also _quoad sacra_ to
the parish of Balquhidder. This arrangement holds good at the present
day. The parish _quoad civilia_ extends from the Bridge of Lednock to
Lochearnhead, a distance of thirteen miles, and is about nine miles in
breadth. It contains some of the grandest mountains of the Grampian
range--Benchonzie, 3048 feet; and Ben Voirlich, 3224 feet above the
level of the sea. The latter, it is said, can be seen from Perth,
Edinburgh, and Ayrshire.
The beauties of Strathearn have often been pictured by writers of
poetry and prose, but without reaching the head of Strathearn these
beauties can be only partially seen. The drive from Crieff to
Lochearnhead in a summer day is universally regarded as one of the
finest in all Scotland. To within a mile or so of St. Fillans the road
resembles one long avenue stretching along the base of the Grampians.
The scenery is unequalled for its mixture of grandeur and beauty.
There you have the rough, rugged hills of the Highlands combined with
the cultivated plains of the Lowlands, and waving woods, affording an
air of warmth and freshness to the landscape. The great storm of 1893
has, indeed, laid low many of our finest plantations and marred the
beauty of our scenery. Turleum Wood, which used to wave its shaggy
head so high, is now laid prostrate, and appears to the eye what its
Celtic name implies--_tor lom_, a bare hill. And yet, as far as
appearance and scenery are concerned, there are few places which can as
well afford to part with some of its trees as the head of Strathearn.
Comrie is best known to the public generally by its earthquakes, and as
a quiet summer resort, with sequestered walks over hills and dales and
along the banks of flowing streams. But to the botanist, the
geologist, the antiquarian, and the lover of ancient legend and
historic incident there is, besides all this, something to awaken
interest and engage attention. The number and variety of plants is
very considerable. Slate is the predominant rock, but there are also
limestone, whin, the old red sandstone, and granite. At one time there
were two slate quarries wrought on the Aberuchill Hills, but for the
last twenty years they have been closed. A lime quarry on Lochearnside
in former times supplied the whole district with material for lime, but
carriage, labour, and fuel have become so expensive, that both builders
and farmers find it more economical to get lime ready for use from the
south. There is granite in Glenlednock, and as the railway has now
been extended to the village from Crieff, it is possible that some day
it may be a source of industry to the inhabitants. In several places
in the district of which we write there are traces of what are supposed
to be Druidical remains. One cannot help regretting that the old
Druids should have confined the knowledge of their religion to their
own order, and that they should have left so few traces of their
mystical rites to posterity, except what may be gathered from rude
stones scattered here and there throughout the country. On the plain
of Tullybannocher, and near the east lodge of Dunira, there are several
standing-stones, which antiquarians believe to be the remains of
Druidical circles. On the plain of Dalginross, also, near the junction
of the manse road with the public road, there are three large stones,
supposed to be the remains of a Druidical temple. One of these, about
8 feet in length, stands, or rather leans, at an angle of 45 degrees;
the others are lying flat upon the ground. One of them, a round, flat
boulder, bears upon its surface cup-marks arranged in irregular
concentric circles. Was this the sacrificial stone of an ancient
Druid; or are these boulders relics of the glacial period, and were the
marks alluded to caused by the action of the weather? When we come to
deal with Roman remains we stand upon firmer ground. On the same plain
of Dalginross, and a short distance to the north of these boulders we
have referred to, is the site of the old Roman Camp, Victoria. About
the end of last century the outlines of the fortifications seem to have
been quite distinct, but since that time the plough has obliterated
almost every trace of them. There seem to have been two camps at
Dalginross--a larger and a smaller one, the former capable of holding
10,000 troops. Here, it has been held by some writers, the great
Battle of Mons Grampius was fought between the Caledonians under
Galgacus and the Romans under Agricola. This, however, is not
probable. Seven cities of the ancient world laid claim to Homer's
birth-place. About the same number of places are pointed to as the
scene of the Battle of Mons Grampius. Gordon says it was at
Dalginross, Chalmers says it was the Moor of Ardoch, some say it was in
Fife, others at Urie, in Kincardineshire. Skene, in his _Celtic
Scotland_, places it on or near the Muir of Blair, about the junction
of the River Tay with the Isla. Mr Hill Burton abandons the task of
determining the site as hopeless. If we accept the description given
by Tacitus, in so far as it says the battle was fought "_in conspectu
classis_"--that is, "in sight of the fleet," the place could not have
been Dalginross, and for this one reason, that unless the Earn was very
different in the days of Agricola from what it is in our day, the Roman
fleet could not possibly have sailed to a point within sight of
Dalginross. Judging, however, from some place-names in the
neighbourhood, there is little doubt that Dalginross has been the scene
of some bloody conflict or conflicts during the period of the Roman
occupation of Britain. The name of the farm adjoining the old Roman
Camp, for example, is Blardhearg, which in Celtic means "the red
battle-field." To the west, and beyond the River Ruchill, is
Dalrannaich, in Celtic, _Dailranaich_--"the field of mourning or
lamentation"; and a little to the north is Dalchonzie, in Celtic,
_Dailachaonaidh_--"the field of weeping." To the south of the plain of
Dalginross, and upon the road to Ardoch, there are still traces of the
Roman occupation of Strathearn. At Blairinroar there must have been a
bloody conflict between the Romans and the Caledonians. The very name
of the place implies it, for Blairinroar in Celtic is the "field of
violent onset." There are still to be seen in this neighbourhood huge
slabs of standing-stones, some of them 20 feet in height. Those upon
the level ground probably mark the graves of distinguished Romans or
Caledonians who fell upon the field of battle; but others, which run in
a line extending north and south, were probably landmarks to guide
messengers on their way from Lindum, the camp at Ardoch, to Victoria,
the camp at Dalginross.
At the west side of the new cemetery, close to the public road, there
is a curious round knoll, which at one time must have been used as a
place for the burial of the dead. The attention of the writer of this
was drawn to it about twenty years ago. There were three large slabs
of stone lying upon the ground, which apparently had been at some
former period placed erect by some loving hands to mark the last
resting-place of some departed friend or hero. By the aid of some of
the Comrie masons the stones were placed in a standing position.
Curious to know what lay beneath the surface, we dug up the earth in
front of the largest slab, and came upon a stone cist placed north and
south, 7 inches long, 1 foot 8 inches broad, and 1 foot 3 inches deep.
The only remains discovered was a thigh-bone, but whether it at one
time formed a part of the leg of a Celt, a Roman, or a Saxon we could
not tell. An old man who then lived in the village of Comrie told us
that in his young days the same mound was dug up, when an urn filled
with ashes was discovered. This, perhaps, would indicate that it
formed a place of burial for Romans rather than for Caledonians. The
spot is called Dunmoid, or "hill of judgment." Besides the parish
churchyard, there are three old burying-grounds in the parish--Leckin,
on Lochearnside; Dundurn, and Tullichettle. From an antiquarian point
of view, the most interesting, perhaps, is Tullichettle. It is
situated in a sequestered spot on a rising ground on the right bank of
the River Ruchill, near the farm-house of Cultabraggan. The name,
which is Celtic, _Tulachchadail_--"hill of sleep"--well describes the
place, for a more solitary spot could hardly be selected for the repose
of the dead. Judging from the inscriptions upon the tomb-stones it has
been for long the burying-place of the Macnivens, the Macgreuthers, the
Maccullochs, and other clans. There is a curious slab over the grave
of the Riddochs. The following description of it, extracted from the
proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, has been kindly sent by the
Secretary, Dr. Anderson:--
"It measures 5 feet 6 inches in length and 18 inches in breadth,
tapering slightly towards the lower end. It bears a sword with
straight guard in the centre of the stone, and the name James Ridoch on
the blade. In the spaces on either side are a number of trade
emblems--a square, an axe, an adze, a mallet and chisel, a millrind, an
axe-pick of the kind used by millers for dressing the mill-stone, the
coulter of a plough, a hammer and anvil (?), and an auger, indicating
probably the various mechanical aptitudes of the deceased. The
connection of the family of Reidheuchs or Ridochs with Strathearn began
in 1502, when King James IV. granted a charter of confirmation of the
lands of Tullychedile, Culturagane, &c., to his familiar servitor and
steward, James Redeheuche, burgess of Stirling. In 1573, these and
other lands acquired by him were erected into the Barony of
Tullichiddil. In 1542, James Reidheuch of Tullichiddil is mentioned as
dead, and it is not till 1610 that another James appears in the line of
the Reidheuchs of Tullichiddil. The probability is that the stone here
figured belongs to the seventeenth century, as it was only then that
the name Reidheuche began to be spelt Ridoche. Of course, it is
impossible to say whether this is the tomb-stone of the James Ridoche
of 1610, or of a successor; but there seems to be nothing against the
idea of the stone being as old at least as the date thus indicated."
Tullichettle must have been an old parish. Shortly after the
Reformation, in the year 1572, it was served by John Edmeston,
exhorter, and in 1574 by William Drummond, who had also under his
charge Comrie, Monivaird, Monzie, and Crieff. The ruins of the church
are still to be seen within the wall of the churchyard, but of the old
manse there is no trace left now. We have often been asked the
derivation of the word Ruchill, the name of the river, which, rising at
the head of Glenartney, passes the graveyard of Tullichettle and falls
into the Earn at the village of Comrie. It is compounded of two Gaelic
words--_ruadh_ (red), and _tuill_ (flood). _Ruadhthuill_, therefore,
is the red flood, and any one who has seen the red turgid waters of the
Ruchill in time of flood will see that the name is significant of the
thing itself. The word occurs in a shorter form--Ruel, a river in
Argyllshire, which gives its name to the valley through which it
flows--viz., Glendaruel. In the good old days when our Highland glens
and straths were thickly populated, every hill and dale and crag and
knoll had its name, and every strath and valley had its traditions.
From many of our Highland glens the people are gone, and their
traditions along with them. Sir Walter Scott, however, has rendered
famous at least one of the glens at the head of Strathearn and
preserved a few of its traditions. Who ever read that beautiful poem,
"The Lady of the Lake," but knows something of Glenartney, Benvoirlich,
and Uam-Var. Here the chase, which he sings in the first canto,
begins:--
"The stag at eve had drank his fill,
When danced the moon on Monan's rill,
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney's hazel shade.
* * *
Roused from his lair,
The antler'd monarch of the waste
Sprang from his heathery couch in haste.
* * *
With one brave bound the copse he clear'd,
And, stretching forward free and far,
Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var."
Uam-Var, which in Gaelic signifies large cave, is a mountain between
Glenartney and Callander, and takes its name from a cave on the south
side of it, said by tradition to have been inhabited by a giant
centuries ago. Glenartney was a Royal forest, and a portion of it is
still fenced off for the same purpose. On an eminence at the head of
the glen stands Glenartney Lodge, belonging to the proprietor, the Earl
of Ancaster. In the past as in the present the strict preservation of
game seems to have been attended with dangers and difficulties. Some
people seem to have an uncontrollable liking for hunting and poaching.
In the sixteenth century Glenartney was the scene of a terrible
tragedy. In the year 1588, John Drummond of Drummond-Ernoch was
forester to King James VI. there. One day, according to one tradition,
he discovered some of the Clan Macgregor trespassing in the Royal
forest. He seized them and cropped off their ears. The Macgregors,
incensed by the punishment inflicted upon their clansmen, vowed
vengeance against Drummond-Ernoch. They made a raid upon the forest,
seized the forester, and cut off his head, which they carried with them
in a corner of one of their plaids. "In the full exultation of
vengeance," says Sir Walter Scott in his introduction to the _Legend of
Montrose_, "they stopped at the house of Ardvoirlich and demanded
refreshments, which the lady, a sister of the murdered Drummond-Ernoch
(her husband being absent), was afraid or unwilling to refuse. She
caused bread and cheese to be placed before them, and gave directions
for more substantial refreshments to be prepared. While she was absent
with this hospitable intention the barbarians placed the head of her
brother on the table, filling the mouth with bread and cheese, and
bidding him eat, for many a merry meal he had eaten in that house. The
poor woman, returning and beholding this dreadful sight, shrieked aloud
and fled into the woods, where, as described in the romance, she roamed
a raving maniac, and for some time secreted herself from all living
society. Some remaining instinctive feeling brought her at length to
steal a glance from a distance at the maidens while they milked the
cows, which being observed, her husband, Ardvoirlich, had her conveyed
back to her home, and detained her there till she gave birth to a
child, of whom she had been pregnant, after which she was observed
gradually to recover her mental faculties." Leaving Ardvoirlich, the
Macgregors proceeded to Balquhidder, and at a meeting of the clan held
in the church--the chief presiding--they placed their hands
successively upon the dead man's head and swore to defend the author of
the deed. At one time there was a large population in this glen. In
1745 the farm of Auchinnar alone had eight tenants. An interesting
document in possession of the relatives of the M'Greuthers of Meiggar
referring to the Rebellion of 1715 shows the power of the laird in
those days, and the resources of the glen as far as fighting men were
concerned. It is as follows:--
"William M'Gruther, in Dalclaythick, you are hereby ordered to acquaint
William M'Nivan, in the same town, and Alexander M'Gruther, in
Dalchruwn, to go along with you as officers to command the company of
our men that is to come out of your glen, and all the men are hereby
ordered to obey your command on their highest peril, which you are to
intimate to them, as you will be answerable to us, and this shall be
your warrant.
"Given at Drummond Castle, the fifteenth day of August, one thousand
seven hundred and thirteen years.
"See that none of the men of Auchinnear of whatever rank be absent, as
they will be answerable, and all the men in good order.
"(Signed) DRUMMOND."
M'Gruther and his two neighbours obeyed the summons of the laird of
Drummond, and took charge of the company of Highlanders raised in
Glenartney; but the laird could not save them from the consequence of
their obedience. When the Rebellion was quelled they were banished to
America and sold as slaves. The two M'Gruthers managed to get back to
their native country, but were doomed to spend seven long years in
hiding.
The origin of place-names may not be of so much interest to the reader
as it is to the writer of this article, but we cannot resist the
temptation of recording a suggestion made to us years ago as to the
origin of the word Glenartney, by Mr James Ferguson, the present keeper
of the forest, and the worthy successor of old Drummond-Ernoch. It is
this: _Gleann-àrd-an-fheidh_--"the high glen of the deer." This would
certainly account for the last syllable of the modern name, and would
also accord with the fact of the place being an ancient forest; but we
prefer the derivation _Gleann-ardan_--"the glen of heights," and we
think the last syllable has been added merely to suit the imperfection
of the Saxon's vocal organs.
The mansion-houses of the head of Strathearn and their occupants are of
some historical interest, but, as our space is limited, our reference
to them must be brief, and confined to a few of the oldest. On the
margin of Loch Earn stands Ardvoirlich House. The present occupant of
the estate is Colonel John Stewart, who spent the first part of his
life in India, and now resides upon the estate. With the exception of
the Drummonds, who trace their ancestry back to Maurice, the Hungarian,
who lived about the time of the Norman Conquest, the Stewarts of
Ardvoirlich are the oldest family in the district. They lay claim not
only to a long ancestral line, but also to Royal blood, through a son
of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, and son of Robert II.
Among the antique curiosities of this family, it is said, there is a
large gem called _clach dhearg_--red stone, seemingly white rock
crystal, bound with four silver bands, which used to be regarded as a
talisman, giving to water into which it is dipped virtue for the cure
of all diseases of cattle. In recent times the Stewarts have been a
family of soldiers who served in India. Their burying-place is within
the old Chapel of Dundurn, but the monuments erected to the memory of
members of the family recently deceased are in the Parish Church of
Comrie. They are all handsome, and a great ornament to the interior of
the Parish Church; but one of them is worthy of special notice on
account of its artistic beauty. It is that erected by the
Governor-General of India and other dignitaries and friends to
commemorate the death of William Stewart, who, along with his wife and
infant son, was murdered in the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It is a
cenotaph of pure Carrara marble, with the figure of a Sepoy soldier
with arms reversed on the one side, and a Hindoo in a kneeling posture
on the other.
Dunira House is the seat of the Dundases. The present proprietor is
Sir Sidney James Dundas, the third baronet of Beechwood and Dunira, who
succeeded his father, Sir David Dundas, Bart., in 1877. What is the
word Dunira derived from? Is it like Dundurn, "the hill or fort upon
the Earn"? or is it _Dun aoraidh_, "the hill of worship"? It is
difficult to say; Gaelic words have been so much corrupted to suit the
tongues of the Saxon. There is little doubt, however, that in ancient
times the locality was intimately associated with divine worship. Not
far from the east lodge there are to be seen large standing-stones,
supposed, as already said, to be the remains of an old Druidical
circle. On the hillside, above Dunira House, there is a place called
Drumnakil, which signifies the "ridge of the chapel"; and farther to
the north-east, near the hill of Dunmore, is Ballochintaggart, "the gap
of the priest." At Drumnakil there is an old burying-ground, the
grave-stones scarcely discernible among the rank grass; but all trace
of the chapel, or monks' cell, if ever there was one, has disappeared.
Dunira was once the property of Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville and
Baron Dunira. He was son of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President
of the Court of Session. He was called to the bar in 1763, and elected
member of Parliament for the County of Edinburgh in 1774, and after
holding several important offices under the Crown, he retired with Pitt
in 1801, and the following year he was raised to the Peerage. After
his death his Perthshire friends paid a tribute to his memory and worth
by erecting a monument on Dunmore Hill, at Comrie. It is an obelisk,
72 feet high, built in 1812 of Innergeldie granite. A better site
could not have been chosen. From the top of Dunmore Hill there is a
magnificent view of varied landscape. To the west you have a peep at
Loch Earn, the Aberuchill Hills, and the old white-washed Castle
nestling among its trees; to the south you have the village of Comrie
and the strath, with the Earn and the Ruchill winding their way through
the plain; to the east, Sir David Baird's Monument, the Knock of
Crieff, Turleum, the Ochils, and one of the Lomonds of Fife; looking to
the north, we see Glenlednock stretching far towards Loch Tay, with
Spout Rollo at its head, and guarded on each side by the lofty peaks of
the Grampians. This, like so many others of our Highland glens, has
suffered much through depopulation during this century. An old
Glenlednock farmer still living in the parish informs us that in his
recollection there were thirty-six tenants with their cottars, where
there are now five and a few shepherds. One cannot help admiring the
industry, economy, and thrift of these old Highland farmers, who in
such numbers could live and thrive and pay higher rents to the landlord
than the few who are now in possession of the land.