To this is to be added, 103. 2. o. bolls of oats with ftraw: and all was payable, terminis Pentecoftis et Martini. There is alfo to be added, Rentale Ecclef. Epifcop. Morav. Newmill, decimæ garbalis ecclef. de Dyke - L.16 O O Mains de Darneway Grangehill Ecclefia de Rothemay Wardlaw Rothemurchus. David Tallatice Innerelien It appears by another rental of the thirds of the bishoprick of Moray, the abbey of Kinlofs, and priory of Plufcarden, under date 1567: That of the bishoprick—of bear Priory of Plufcarden-malt, bear, meal, C. B. F. P. In eftimating the value of the money in this rental, it is to be obferved, that at this period the pound weight of filver was coined into eighteen pounds Scots; and in 1563, the boll of wheat was worth L.2; the boll of bear, L.1. 13s. 4d.; the boll of meal, L.1. 138. 4d.; the boll of malt, L.2; oats, 10s.; a carcafe of mutton, 9s.; a goofe, Is.; the dozen of capons, 12s.; the dozen of poultry, 4s.; the ftone of cheese, 6s. and 8 pennies; a fwine, L.1; a kid, I pennie; a barrel of falmon, L.4. From this short and incomplete furvey of the revenues of the bishoprick of Moray, it is evident, that their amount was very valuable, not only in money, but from the variety of articles paid in kind; and however much they have been frittered, and fold, and fquandered, the refidue is not contemptible. The bishop rents of Moray, as now collected, amount to L.192 fterling; and it is to be recollected, that this is only the feu-duties payable out of of lands, formerly the bishop's property, of which he received the real rent. The estates, or temporalia, of this bifhoprick, with the patronages belonging to the bishop, remained after the Reformation in the crown, till 1599, when King James VI. affigned them all to Alexander Lindefay, a fon of the Earl of Crawford, and grandfon of Cardinal Beaton, for payment of 10,000 gold crowns of the fun, which he had lent his Majefty when in Denmark. It was then erected into the temporal lordship of Spynie, and Mr. Lindefay created Lord Spynie. The grant of the estates and patronages was renewed in 1595 and 1604 and 1607. To obtain a revenue for the bishop, the King prevailed on Lord Spynie to refign the lands, which he did in 1620, reserving the patronages; and his Majesty erected his Lordship's lands of Boyfack and others in Forfar-fhire, into a lordship, to be called the Lordship of Spynie. The patronages difponed to Lord Spynie are thefe: Alves, Longbride, Kinedwart, Effil, Kirkmichael, Inneraven, Knockando, Urquhart, Glenmorifton, Forres, Edinkillie, Dallas, Auldearn, Rappach, Ardclauch, Bonach, Aberlour, Skirdiftown, Advie, Crombdale, Dypple, Ruthven, Innerkeithny, Lundichty, Moy, Spynie, Kingufie, Croy, Moy, Duthil, Unthank, or chapel of Duffus, Bolefkin, Kinore, Dumbennan, Botharie, Elchies, Glafs, Effie, Kincardine, Duffus, Alter, Allowae, Buccaben, Fairnway, Laggan, Abernethy, Bornoch. In thefe are included, not only what belonged immediately to the bishop, but thofe that belonged to the dignified clergy of the diocefe. These patronages, upon the extinction of the heir male of Lord Spynie in 1670, were re-affumed by the crown as ultimus hæres. The crown conveyed them, by charter 11th December 1674, to James, Earl of Airly, who difponed them to the Marquis of Huntly in 1682. It will be proper to conclude this account of the bishoprick, with Robert Keith's By recent and accurate aftronomical obfervations made at Elgyn, the latitude appears to be 57° 43' north, and the longitude 3° 34′ 45′′ weft from Greenwich. The difference of time is 14 19". CHAPTER III. OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THE PROVINCE. Preliminary Information. HE boundaries of the province of Moray were not limited to the extent of the jurisdiction of the sheriffdom. In ancient times, juftice was administered, in the halls of the refpective barons, and by the decisions of the church, more frequently than in the courts of the fheriff, which had then no influence in regulating the ideas of the people, respecting the extent of countries. The boundaries of the province of Moray are ascertained by ecclefiaftical jurisdiction, both ancient and modern; the extent of the provincial fynod having been but little altered from that of the epifcopalian diocefe; and they have been originally fixed, nearly by the natural limits of the country. The Moray Frith, from the mouth of the river Spey, weftward to the influx of the Beaulie, at the termination of the eftuary, forms the northern boundary. The limits on the weft and fouth stretch along the fummits of those mountains, which turn their waters into the Frith, between the banks of the river Beaulie and the fources of the Spey; which may be regarded as the boundary on the east: but the vallies which open from its fouthern bank, and pour their streams into that river, form a part of its ecclefiaftical jurisdiction, and have ever been regarded as within the limits of the province. The low lands, or champaign, of Moray may be conceived as a long-extended valley, bounded by the Frith upon the north, and a winding range of mountains along its fouthern fide, which bears a ftriking uniformity to the mountains on the other fide of the Frith; the conical hill of Cullen ftanding against the Morven (called the Pap of Caithnefs), and the valley opened by the Spey answering to that of the river of Helmfdale; with other corref ponding elevations and depreffions. Thefe ridges gradually ap proach proach each other, contracting the breadth both of the land and of the fea towards the weft, until they meet together, a few miles above the head of the Frith, at the fall of Kilmorac, in the river Beaulie; where fo great a change in the appearance of the country takes place, as naturally to terminate the bounds of the province at the weft. The low lands, thus fituated between the mountain and the Firth, have their surface greatly diverfified by lower intervening hills, generally difpofed in fhort ridges parallel to the Frith. It is alfo interfected by four other rivers, the Loffy, Findorn, Nairn, and Nefs, winding their courfes at unequal distances, yet almoft parallel to each other, from the mountain, acrofs the plain, into the fea. Such is the natural face of the country in the low lands of Moray; in length, from east to west, about 60 English miles, and in breadth from 2 to 12, between the bottom of the mountain and the fea; the mean breadth, about 4, makes the fuperficies equal to 240 square miles. Its latitude is between the 57° and 580 N.; and the longitude, at the mouth of the Spey, is 3o. 6'. W. The afpect of the country in the highland quarter of the distric is made up in a form very different from the low lands that have been defcribed. That which from the coaft appears to be only a narrow ridge, is a vaft mountain, extended even to the margin of the Atlantic ocean, increased confiderably in its elevation as it recedes from the eaftern fhore: it is extended far and wide on either hand, beyond the bounds of the province of Moray. Those fix rivers that have been mentioned, and the numerous ftreams from which they grow, may be conceived as having cut out each for itself a valley in this mountain, differing from each other in pofition, and varying in the extent of their breadth and depth, in the proportion to the mafs of water, combined with the crumbliness of the foil, through which each stream refpectively flows. This however is only fuggefted to convey more readily the idea of the face of this part of the country; for it is not in every cafe, that such a secondary caufe could have produced this effect, it being impoffible for the natural operation of the ftill water, which forms the expanfe of Lochness, to have excavated its bottom, generally out of folid rock, to a depth almoft unfathomable. The bottoms and fides of thefe valleys occupy in whole about |