Editorial Note: This book has now been posted on the Internet by "electricscotland", but the format used makes it very difficult to work on'e way through. So I have taken the text and tried to lay it out in a more readable manner. However without access to the original text I have been quite sparing in the corrections of errors which have arisen in the digitisation process.

This book works best if you have the "KELT" font installed on your computer.

About the Author: Minister of Abernethy and Kincardine (Contributor to "The Homilist", "The Homiletic Quarterly", "The Pulpit Commentary", "Good Words", "Sunday at Home", Dictionary of National Biography" etc.)

First published by The Northern Counties Publishing Company Ltd, Inverness: 1900

Dedication

Preface

My reasons for writing this book were:
(1) my love for Abernethy, where the best years of my life have been spent, where my children were born, and where the dust of my dearest kindred lies;
(2) my knowledge of the parish and people, gathered during my own time, and from tradition, which, unless preserved by me, might have perished;
(3) my desire to leave some memorial of my connection with the parish, and of my gratitude to the people for much kindness shewn to me and mine during the thirty-six years of my ministry amongst them. In pursuing my task I have received much aid and sympathy from friends, which I desire gratefully to acknowledge. To the Countess Dowager of Seafield I am especially indebted for the use of papers at Castle Grant, and for permission to make extracts from "The Chiefs of Grant."

The labour of many years is ended. To me it has been a delight to tell, however imperfectly, of bygone days, of people whom I have known and loved, and

"To speak of you, ye mountains and ye lakes,
And sounding cataracts, ye mists and winds,
That dwell among the hills where I was born."

MANSE OF ABERNETHY,
Christmas, 1899

Contents

Contents