4 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SC01"riSH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



appointment of the Right Honourable the Earl of Moray being 

 publicly read in the presence of Captain Robert Urquhart judge 

 appointed to the Roup by the said Earl and in the presence 

 of all the other Gentlemen they did proceed in the manner 

 following — Public Intimation having been made at the Towns 

 of Elgin, Forres and Nairn by beat of Drum and at the doors 

 of the Parish Churches of Rothes, Dallas, DuflFus, Alves etc. 

 The parcel of Wood is entered at ;£'4347, 17/4 Scots Money and 

 finally, James Russell Junior offers ^6,900 Scots Money, which 

 being the highest offer, the Roup is declared in the said James 

 Russell's favour." 



It was a wild country and embraced the isolated Highland 

 loch — Loch-an-dorb — and the island on which the Wolf of 

 Badenoch (1374) fortified himself, and from which he issued on 

 one of his forays to burn Elgin Cathedral, setting fire to the 

 town of Forres on the way. 



Records of the last wolves are told in this district. For 

 instance, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in his History of Morayshire 

 and Floods^ 1829, gives two records of wolves inhabiting this 

 area. They were generally believed to have been extirpated in 

 Scotland about the year 1680, but there is reason to believe they 

 existed in remote districts considerably after that period. We 

 have a letter (Box 15, No. 49), written by Alex. Clark to 

 My Lady the Countess of Moray, dated i6th October 1570: — 

 " As for the Wolf Skins ye wrute for I could get na knowledge 

 of any at the present in their partis. Gif any can be gotten 

 I sail do gud well to satisfy ; gif not ye man have patience till 

 I may get them furth of some other partis." 



During the period when the Earldom of Moray was conferred 

 on the family of Douglas (1450), it was a forest region chiefly 

 devoted to hunting, and at this time the great Hall of Dar- 

 naway was built, usually, though probably incorrectly, styled 

 Randolph's Hall. 



Here, too, about the year 1830, after the tract had been 

 afforested, John and Charles Stuart Hay — usually known as the 

 Sobieski Stuarts, supposed to be grandsons of the Prince 

 Charles Edward — built themselves a small hut on the precipitous 

 bank of the Findhorn above the little Ess pool, by permission 

 of Francis, tenth Earl of Moray. In this solitude they wrote a 

 work in two volumes — 7y/(? Lays of the Deer Forest — published 

 by Blackwood in 1848. This poetry may not appeal to modern 



