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THE OF A I{IGHLAND PARISH (ARDCLACH, NAIRNSHIRE). BY ROBERT THOMSON. I -J / NAIRN: j 4fc. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED B^ljGEORGE BAIN, 'LEOPOLD STREET. LIBRARY 757744 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO CONTENTS. Page, INTRODUCTORY . i. CHAPTER I. THE FLORA 1 General Aspect of the Parish Spring Time. CHAPTER II. THE FLORA (Continued) . 17 Early Summer Midsummer. CHAPTER III. THE FLORA (Continued) . 53 Autumn The Ferns The Grasses The Mosses- Fungi. CHAPTER IV. THE FAUNA . 81 Mammalia, Aves et Reptilia. CHAPTER V. INSECT LIFE . 131 CHAPTER VI. PLACE-NAMES OF ARDCLACH . 152 CHAPTER VII. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PARISH 195 The Bell Tower The Old Mill of Remore Traditions Cock Fighting The Burying Ground Lochindorbh The Princess Stone Callum Beg. APPENDIX . 265 A List of Plants found in the Parish of Ardclach A List of the Macro-Lepidoptera found in the Parish of Ardclach Systematic List of Flies Inscriptions in Churchyard of Ardclach. INDEX. THE PRINCESS STONE. INTRODUCTORY. DURING the last few years of my schoolboy life, I and a companion, David Moir, became deeply interested in the truths of Astronomy as presented to us in our ordinary text- books. As the schoolmaster himself had a decided favour for this branch of science, he occasionally gave us a persual of an advanced work on this subject from his own library, In school he even allowed us to spend an hour or two daily in the practical application of the knowledge thus acquired. It was, therefore, with no small degree of pleasure mingled with some pride, that we devoted ourselves for a few months to the construction of large diagrams in colour, to illustrate the plan and various effects of the heavenly bodies. From an artistic point of view our productions were fairly creditable, and the foundation thus laid proved greatly helpful to me when extending my knowledge in this department. After completing about a dozen sheets, we longed for a telescopic view of the orbs themselves, and cherished the hope of being considered real astronomers by our schoolfellows. Owing to the cost, a suitable instrument was hopelessly beyond the reach of our united means, and our parents, though indulgent above many, were neither able nor willing to gratify such an ambitious desire. As the result of long and careful consideration, we boldly resolved to attempt the ii. INTRODUCTORY. construction of a telescope for ourselves. Having each a mechanical turn of mind, we managed, with great care and at some little expense, to fit up a small turning-lathe at our respective homes, and were soon busy grinding lenses for our grand project. These were, of course, rather imperfect, and showed the same defects with which the early makers had to- contend when they combined their handiwork for similar purposes. The greater their magnifying power the more they refracted the light of the celestial bodies, and tinged the margins with all the colours of the rainbow. By and bye, we ascertained that second-hand glasses could be had very cheap from a professional instrument-maker in Aberdeen, and accordingly we stopped grinding and replaced our own pro- ductions with articles in every respect more satisfactory. With a thirty-inch acromatic field glass, somewhat dimmed with mildew, and a half-inch eye piece, I saw the Rings of Saturn, Jupiter's Moons, and the Phases of Venus with some degree of complacency. The ordinary Man in the Moon, too, had to give place to mountains, valleys and plains all over the surface. On the 6th December 1882, 1 followed with great distinctness the Transit of Venus across the sun's disc, and enjoyed a sight which no one now living will ever see again. Of the sixty-five British butterflies, from seventeen to- twenty might be expected to occur in any one locality. With the exception of Pieris Brassica, they are all comparatively harmless. For this reason the country people entertain no feelings of hostility towards them, and generally they are great favourites wherever they occur. Among our natives, none are gaudy, but everyone is chaste and pretty. At first they appeared to me, as to the uninitiated, to be simply members of one great family, and only divided into septs according to their colours red, white, blue, or dark brown. INTRODUCTORY. 111. To the former belongs the brilliant Little Copper (Chryso- takes a walk phanus Phlseas,) so well known to everybody who by the field or riverside. It was this insect which so much attracted my attention many, many years ago, that I decided to turn Entomologist. It is, indeed, a beautiful creature, for a more intimate acquaintance has only served to intensify my early admiration. By a succession of broods, it adorns the woods and moorlands for a great part of the year with its bright coppery-red wings, dotted here and there with black spots. During my first season I collected about a dozen species, and in order to identify them I procured a copy of Stainton's Manual of British Butterflies and Moths, but my progress in nomenclature was for some months rather slow. Next year, 1857, I accepted a kind of locum tenens on the coast of Kincardine. During the summer months I was a frequent visitor to the seaside. Wandering about one day, " net in hand, at the foot of the heughs," I came across a pretty little butterfly with brown wings dotted with white in the centre. It was flitting about in considerable numbers over a grassy slope which ran down to the water's edge, and appeared to be very fond of resting from time to time on the flowers of the Rag Weed (Senecio Jacoboea). My find on that occasion was easily identified. According to Stainton's Manual the insect turned out to be Polyommatus Artaxerxes a Northern species of very rare occurrence in this country. In the hope of obtaining a few Southern butterflies, by exchange, I sent a short paragraph to that effect to the Entomologist's weekly "Intelligencer." But the result was entirely beyond what I had expected. For more than a fortnight letters of inquiry and boxes containing insects in advance came pouring on me at the rate of about a dozen daily. In all, the number reaching me amounted to one iv. INTRODUCTORY. from of hundred and fifty, the great majority clergymen the Church of England and young entomologists whose note- of arms. I was now on paper bore monograms, crests or coats the horns of a dilemma the commodity I offered was flying stock, and I had not in my possession even a leg or a wing for the various applicants. Well, in the circumstances I did my best, but that was not all I could have desired. While this correspondence was going on, the local post- runner was making frequent inquiries at my neighbours as to what good luck had come the way of the young schoolmaster. Some said one thing, and some another, but all were convinced that I had fallen heir to a big fortune in some shape or other. None ever dreamed of the true explanation. In 1858, 1 was appointed Free Church teacher in the parish of Cawdor. Among the natives, my place was known as the Culcharry School, after the name of the croft on which the buildings were erected. Having no idea of Gaelic at the time, the name grated rather unpleasantly on my ear, and I decided, on the suggestion of a London gentleman born in the district, to call my new home Viewhill. Accordingly this was " the address which appeared after my name in the List of British Entomologists" for the following year. In course of time a letter came to me one day from the Kev. Dr Gordon of Birnie, asking about some local insects. I replied, and the- correspondence thus begun, continued intermittently until within a short time of his death. By and bye, the minister, in a letter to his friend Mr Stables, factor at Cawdor Castle, happened to mention my name as an authority on some point of local Natural History, and was informed that there was no such person or place in the parish. In reply, Dr Gordon stated that as he had received several letters from "Mr Thomson, Viewhill," it might be worth Lord Cawdor's while to INTRODUCTORY. V. consider the propriety of appointing a factor somewhat better posted up in the details of his Lordship's estate ! Mr Stables, who was a staunch adherent to the old Celtic place-names, a little at the was not puzzled ; but, calling post office, he found that the mystery was easily enough explained there. Soon after, I received an invitation to dinner at the Castle and was offered every facility to consult his private collection of native plants and fossils, as circumstances might require. As the latter were entirely new and interesting to me, I lost no time in paying a visit to the limestone quarry at Lethen Bar. At that time the peculiar nodules were to be found on the surface in large numbers, and the first one which I opened showed as perfect a section of the curious Pterichthys cornutus as could be wished. The others contained fairly good speci- mens of Coccosteus decipiens and Osteolepis major. For a time I devoted a good deal of attention to the Geology of the parish, The coarse Conglomerate in the Cawdor Burn interested me, and particularly that point below Glengoulie Bridge, where it is so admirably seen tilted up against the lower metamorphic rock. Conversing one day with a local farmer, he advised me to examine an old clay bank on the farm of Knockloam, where, he said, he had seen in his early years round stones very like those at Cairn Bar.

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