18 
favourite resort for health seekers, the Excursionists were served 
with tea in the Drill Hall. After a stroll for half an hour to see 
the interesting village, the Members entered their carriages, and 
a short drive brought them to Broomhill Station—passing, on 
the left, a small hillock which is said to indicate the extra- 
ordinary height reached by the river Spey in the famous flood 
of 1829. 
Broomhill was left by train at 8.30 for Elgin, and at Grantown 
Station Mr Smith, Mr Grant Thomson, and other gentlemen from 
Grantown, left the party amid ringing cheers. The route lay 
along a stretch of birch and pine woods, mostly of natural repro- 
duction, and passed on the right the favourite summer resort of 
Grantown, a pleasantly situated little Highland town, embosomed 
in the natural woodlands, and Castle Grant, standing on a com- 
manding site in the midst of an extensive and richly-wooded 
demesne. Soon after the woodlands were left behind, and the 
line traversed Dava Moor, now a bleak, bare, and exposed upland 
track, over which the storms sweep with great fury, and often 
block the railway with snow-drifts, but which in an earlier period 
appears to have been covered with forests, evidence of which was 
seen in the exposed remains of numerous trees that lay buried in 
the deep peat now covering the surface. Crossing high over the 
deep ravine of the river Divie, at Edinkillie, the country improved 
in aspect at every turn. The picturesque valley of the Findhorn, 
and the wide extent of Darnaway Forest, the scene of an excursion 
of the Society in 1881, are seen on the left for some miles; and 
passing through the richly-wooded estate of Altyre, also visited by 
the Society in 1881, Forres was reached at 9.30 p.m. An ancient 
royal burgh, Forres stands on a pleasant and well-sheltered site, 
and is considered one of the healthiest places in Scotland, the 
natives calling it the ‘‘ Montpelier of the North.” In olden times 
it boasted a royal residence, of which some picturesque ruins are 
seen on the Castle Hill, a green mound at the west end of the 
town. The “ gracious King Duncan” of Shakespeare held court 
here, and for several centuries afterwards it continued a royal 
castle, but it has long ago passed into private hands. A local 
bard has sung— 
‘¢. , . Forres in the days of yore, 
A name ’mang Scotia’s cities bore ; 
And there the monarchs of the land 
In former days held high command.” 
