the river is stirred from its usual quietude into the wild 

 tumult of a mountain stream. The cliffs are broken into 

 the quaint forms of rampart, and battlement, and tower ; 

 and their sheer, precipitate sides are clothed and mantled 

 with bramble thickets, and crowned with the slender 

 forms of birch and mountain ash. But the gentle rising 

 ground below, with its grey church, is the centre of human 

 interest in the parish, and it is to it and its story that I 

 am most inclined to devote the space at my command. 



The early history of the Province of Moray is a 

 peculiar one. There is first what may be called the 

 Early Period, i.e., from the remotest times till the reign 

 of Kenneth M'Alpin, in 850 — times upon the changing 

 scenery of whose great ethnological movements and amal- 

 gamations the lights of individual historians are variously 

 and somewhat confusedly cast. With the exception of 

 the Roman invasions, there are very few events in this 

 period which can be regarded in the light of definite 

 history. The Second, or, as we may call it, the Norse 

 Period (85U-1000), is both more definite in its outlines, 

 and has this peculiar interest, that in it we find Moray a 

 separate province, almost a separate kingdom from the 

 rest of the couutry, and owning the sway of Scandinavian 

 rulers. The Third Period is that of the Maormors (1000- 

 1150), a race of turbulent princes in frequent rebellion 

 against the Scottisii throne, and managing to maintain a 

 state of semi-independence. The end of this period is 

 distinguished by the occui-rence of a remarkable event, 

 which is variously described by different historians, and 

 which seems to have consisted in the forcible transporta- 

 tion of the greater part of the inhabitants of Moray from 

 their native Province to other parts of Scotland, aud the 

 introduction, in their place, of families of alien blood. 

 This was the final blow to Moravian independence ; and 



