154 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



John Innes, in 1407, and completed after thirteen years' labour. In 1506, the 

 great tower fell in, and was not restored till thirty years after. In the month 

 of February, 1568, the Regent Murray and his council, to raise money for 

 pnying the soldiers, issued an order to strip the lead from the roofs of the 

 cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, which was carried into effect ; but the vessel 

 freighted with the sacrilegious spoil, intended for the Dutch market, sank, it is 

 said, in the bay of Aberdeen. For some years past, public measures have been 

 adopted for preserving the remains of this splendid monument. Several grants 

 of money have been also judiciously expended in clearing away the great mass of 

 rubbish, so that a tolerably accurate idea may now be formed of the original 

 form and extent of the building. 



The ruins of the Abbey of Pluscardine another of these splendid relics of 

 the ancient hierarchy are situated in a vale of the same name, about six 

 miles from Elgin, and which the patriotic earl of Fife has carefully protected 

 from the effects of further dilapidation. The Castle of Spynie, the ancient 

 residence of the bishops of Moray, in the same neighbourhood, is also well 

 deserving of the stranger's attention. 



GORDON CASTLE, the subject of the annexed engraving, is proverbially known, 

 par excellence, as the palace of the North : and, certainly, no subject of the 

 British crown was more splendidly lodged than its late noble proprietor, the 

 duke of Gordon. The structure is of light coloured stone, and of extraordinary 

 dimensions, particularly in length. The main body of the building is connected 

 on either side by two straight arcades, each running one hundred and twenty feet 

 clear to the eye, and terminating at two wings of domestic offices, each sixty 

 feet long. The whole front is crowned with battlements. The accessory parts 

 are depressed in beautiful symmetry, and in subordination to the body, which, 

 in turn, is again surmounted by a massive Saxon tower, rising in lofty state behind 

 it a relic of the ancient castle of the Gordons. The effect of this combination 

 is grand and imposing, and offers the highest proof of the genius by which 

 the architect* was enabled to plan, and carry into completion, this gorgeous 

 undertaking. 



The plantations and pleasure-grounds by which this princely mansion is 

 surrounded, are beautiful in the extreme, and kept up with minute and unre- 

 mitting attention. Such an elysium as this, in the midst of a rugged and 

 mountainous country, and on the very site of a former morass, is a creation 

 which speaks loudly in the praise of human enterprise, and the judicious employ- 



Mr. Baxter, of Leith, who had the advantage of several excellent suggestions from the duke of 

 Gordon, a man of acknowledged taste and discrimination. 



