Morning journal and courier., 1890-10-11

TOmhuct OI lts ulstOfl, tue DtauIl OL L1t city itself, and the antiquarian interest and scenic grandeur of it's environment. Il Your fancy can travel 6 long way back Il here at ancient Inverness, for it was the Il original metropolis of all the Picts. Co., 1umba, Scotland's great apostle, came here II in the sixth century and converted Bru- deus, king of the Picts. William the Lion | granted it four charters, and these brave old documents are still authority for the | freedom of the city. Indeed until the in- vasion of Scotland by Edward l., Inver- ness was undoubtedly the seat, or fire quent resort, of all Scottish kings, whose presence was required in protecting the ancient capital from the incursions of the Danes and northern Vikings, or for quell- ing the instructions of rebeIlious north ern chiefs. Macbeth, of Shakespearean fame, the maormer or "great man. of Ross, became also that of Moray, inclu- ding Inverness, by marriage, and was once master of the original castle of Inverness on s'the Crown" at the mouth of the Ness, which place is regarded by some au- thorities as the scene of King Duncan's murder. Then later castle, where the
 shire buildings now stand on the crown of
 @ picturesque hill in the heart of the city,
 was afterwards in the hands of Macduff
 It also became the prison of Sir John Lo-
 vat. In 1903 it was seized for Edward l. ] Its capture by friends of Robert Bruce,
 then @ penniless fugitive in the Western
 Isles, prompted that valiant adventurer to
 the course of enterprise which finally gave
 him the throne, and Scotland noble line of patriot kings. James I. when in the north, in 1427, to castigate its turbulent chiefs, held parliament within it. Forty years later James TIL occupied it. In 1855 queen-regent Mary of Guise was here to summon courts and punish Highland robbers then termed "caterans;" and sev- en years later, when Queen Mary was driven from the castle gate and was com pelled to lodge in a comfortable matched habitation of the time, some of whose walls still stand down there by the site of l the old bridge. Just at the harbor-edge are the remains of tremendous fort II built by Cromwell, among others, to over awe the north. And it was from here
 that, after that most brilliant series of &C., complishments in the face of hopeless pe- | nury known to the annals of British war | fare, the broken remnants of Prince | Charles Edwards little army went forth
 on that fatal 18th of April, 1746, to their slaughter by the Duke of Cumberland's .
 army, and in that slaughter to forever bury on dreary Culloden Moor, just over that near ridge of hills there, the hopes of the valiant Stuart cause.
 Standing upon Castle Hill, around which | the fair city is built, with the river Ness
 beneath you, this old northern capital and its surroundings are rich with interest and
 beauty Around the base of the hill are | winding streets, full of curious old struc-
 lures with gable-ends, arched gateways,
 hanging balconies, projecting towers, and
 round turnpipe stairs, fanked by vennels,
 closes and alleys, quaint as those of old Edinburgh itself. It was at the old Cour- fer office, just below there. that rare Hugh
 Miller, while chiseling Inverness grave
 stones and pothering along the old coast
 line to trace pre-Adamite periods, got out
 his little volume of twenty poems, which.
 if you have one handy now, you can sell
 for twenty guineas to the book-collectors.
 Where you stand, once came and dwelt
 Fetish and Scottish kings. The blue riv-
 CT sweeps past from the southwest, after
 receiving the waters of that majestic chain
 of lakes which, bordered by the greatest
 mountains of Scotland, stretches straight
 as on arrow from the German ocean to the
 Western sea. In the opposite direction
 city and valley basin sweep to the harbor.
 edge in graceful circles. There and be
 yond, where once rode the Dutch and In
 dian freighters, is now, first the crescent
 of tide-fretted shore; then the splendid
 bay dotted by the lazy sails of east-coas
 fishers; then the opaline shimmering oi
 the Firth of Inverness, expanding and
 finally narrowing where Fortrose stood al
 the north, and Cromwelrs grim menace
 stupendous Fort George, jutted from tn,
 headland at the south; and then vast Mo
 ray Firth with its fierce far headlands; ans at last the blue sea. Just across the rive . there, at the northern edge of the city stands Craig -Phadric, lifting its parachute , like crowning forest above the city, an, hiding within it one of those most curiou . of antiquarian enigmas, vitrifed fort O Pagan construction, the most extensiv
 and perfect one still existing in Britain ! Down behind you in the mazes of ancien 2 2 | streets are the remains of an ancient mal ! ket-cross, nobody knows how many centr ! ries old; and in its base is embedded , blue, lozenge-shaped stone, the palladium den, or s'Stone of the Tubs" for hayin ! been for untold generations the restin. ! place for women with their tubs, as the 2 halted moment for gossip on their wa U to and from the Ness for water. Just !. mile from where you stand, at the mout t of the Caledonian canal, is one of th : most picturesque little fishing villages ( Scotland. It is in reality part of the ar cient city. It is called Clachnaharry. : clusters about the base of high, bol ! headland rock. In olden times sentine . | were btdtlOueu upou tnls TUCK to give u' U tice of the approach of caterans and oths | marauders. Clach-na-herry, ssRock of u Watchman," was its Gaelic name tu thousand years ago, and Clachnaharry ' remains to this day. Just there in u southwestern edge of the town rises fro | the plain bogle- haunted Tomnahuricl Tom-a-churiach, or "Knoll of the Canoe {, was its Gaelic name; because it resembl, U an inverted ancient curach, the hide-bo D toned canoe of the ancients. Hugh Mi !. Ter gives it rank as 'fQueen of the Scottis 2 tomhans." Tradition says the might q cairn is the tomb of Thomas the Rhymel q prophet bard of Ercildoune; @ tomb 6 2 eternal and almost as mighty as the pyrs l mid of Cheops. Fairy lore peoples it wit r colonies and legions of the wee folk. Ss want and servant quicken their pace by a at night; and all Highlanders hold it i v veneration.
 Not four miles from where you stand {. on the great Moor of Culloden, whic . sweeps in dreary ridges and scrubby plar { tations of frs around Culloden Hous, {. then, when the headquarters of "bonni 5 restoration, the property of the Forbt r family, Cumberland's ten thousan trained men butchered all the fierce an !. devoted band who remained to stand wit !. sword in hand for the line of Stuar Where all the different clans fell can be < clearly traced by the tiny headstoned { ', we can follow the old wraith-lines of ol v y own Blue and Gray on the field of Getty T burg. A step beyond Culloden Moor, ju n across the little river Nairn, is anoth . mystic city of the dead. In @ tiny wall, !, dominated by two hills called Dun Ev, = and Dun Daviot, on which can still