INVERNESS SHIRE INVESTITURE. 



105 



and other wood, and in the neighbourhood of the 

 lakes and rivers are large patches of arable lands, 

 well cultivated, though the farmers are mostly 

 engaged in rearing black cattle and sheep for the 

 southern markets. Springs, impregnated with sul- 

 phur and iron, are met with, as are veins of lead, 

 silver, and iron ore, but the absence of coal is 

 severely felt. Gaelic is generally spoken, and is 

 still the most prevalent language. Since the con- 

 struction of the military stations, Fort Augustus, 

 Fort George, and Fort William, to overawe the 

 Highlanders, after the expulsion of the Stuarts, the 

 means of communication with the south has been 

 rendered equally expeditious and convenient, by the 

 formation of various roads and bridges, at the public 

 expense, which are kept in excellent repair. 



The limits anciently assigned to this shire, com- 

 prehended the whole of that division of Scotland 

 lying north of the Grampians, the extent of which 

 entitled it to be considered rather as a vice-royalty 

 than as a secondary division of the kingdom, though 

 in the earlier annals of Scotland its kings appear to 

 have had but a doubtful authority over this part 

 of the realm, the Norwegian princes then possessing 

 the province of Caithness, with the isles of Orkney 

 and Shetland, while the lords of the isles held 

 dominion over the Hebrides, and the adjacent dis- 

 tricts of the main land, and the rest of the country 

 was peopled by rude and barbarous tribes, who 

 owned no regular authority or government. No 

 steps seem to have been taken towards the division 

 of Inverness so late as 1633, but in the act passed by 

 the first parliament of Charles I. against the clan 

 Gregor, the sheriffs of Perth, Dumbarton, Angus, 

 Mearns, Stirling, Banff, Elgin, Cromarty, &c., &c. 

 are expressly noticed, though there is no mention of 

 Argyle, Caithness, Nairn, Ross, and Sutherland, 

 which, however, appear to have been all distinct 

 from the shire of Inverness, at the Restoration, and 

 no material alteration in the limits of the latter have 

 since been made. In Glenelg are the remains of 

 several circular towers, similar to those so common 

 in the Hebrides, with galleries, and flights of steps 

 ascending to the top, which is quite open. Inver- 

 ness-shire is the country of the clans Cameron, Fraser, 

 Grant, Macpherson, Macdonald, Macintosh, &c. 

 Population, in 1831, 94,997. 



The town of Inverness is situated on the southern 

 coast of the Moray Firth, near the mouth of the river 

 Ness, from which it takes its name, and by which it 

 is divided into two parts, connected by a noble stone 

 bridge of seven arches, thrown across the stream, 

 the southern division of the town being the principal 

 and by far the most populous. The harbour has 

 depth of water sufficient not only for the admission 

 of vessels of 200 tons burden, but to enable them to 

 take in or discharge their cargoes alongside its com- 

 modious quay ; while ships of a superior class and 

 tonnage may ride with perfect safety on the Firth, 

 about a mile below. This town, a century ago, con- 

 sisted chiefly of barns, granaries, kilns, &c. ; and so 

 lately as the rebellion of 1745, presented an appear- 

 ance little better than a confused heap of ruins ; but 

 since that period it has been wholly rebuilt, and is 

 still improving in all quarters. It is now a large, 

 well-built place, containing several spacious streets 

 of handsome houses, three national churches, one 

 Episcopalian church, a Methodist chapel, a court- 

 house, and tolbooth, of elegant design, with a stately 

 tower, surmounted by a spire of beautiful propor- 

 tions, a general post-office, a public academy of high 

 repute, erected in 1790, and conducted by a rector 

 and four masters ; and several other schools, four of 

 which, here and in other parts of the parish, owe 

 their origin to the Society for propagating Christian 



Knowledge. Inverness is the capital of the county, 

 indeed, of the Highlands, and displays much of the 

 elegance of a capital, being the residence of many 

 genteel families. Population, in 1831, 14,324. 



INVERSION (from the Latin), literally turning 

 in, is a word variously used. In grammar, it is 

 contradistinguished from construction, and means the 

 arrangement of words according to the order in which 

 the ideas follow in the writer's mind, and not accord- 

 ing to the usual grammatical construction. The 

 inversion is regulated by the object of the writer or 

 speaker. The French language is the most confined 

 in this respect, and has made the natural construction 

 its first law of arrangement. The Greek and Latin, 

 on the contrary, are extremely free in the use of 

 inversion, and, under certain circumstances, can use 

 almost any order of words. The German is not so 

 free as the Gixsek, but much freer than the French. 

 Inversion seems necessary for the perfection of a 

 language, though it leads to many aberrations from 

 good sense. As a figure in rhetoric, inversion is used 

 to direct the attention to a particular point, without 

 changing the meaning, as, for instance, ' My peace I 

 give to you,' or, ' The palm of victory he soon hath 

 gained, the faithful warrior.' 



Two numbers, powers, or quantities are said to be 

 in an inverse proportion, if one diminishes as the other 

 increases ; for instance, the fleetness and the power 

 of a horse are in an inverted proportion. 



The term is also used, in tactics, to denote the 

 disordered arrangement of a battalion, when the 

 platoons composing it stand in a reversed order. 

 When the platoon which usually stands on the 

 extreme right becomes, by a manoeuvre, the extreme 

 left, the second platoon from the right becoming the 

 second from the left, and so on, then the man who 

 before stood at the right extremity of the platoon 

 should properly stand at the left ; but if, instead of 

 so doing, he still stands at the right, the position of 

 the battalion is inverted. In the following series, 



87 654321 

 qp | on | m I \ ki \ hg \fe \ dc \ oa 



let a, c, e, g t i, I, , p, be the men on the right of 

 their respective platoons, when the battalion stands 

 regularly drawn up : then the following order would 

 represent the battalion inverted, thus : 



1234567 8 

 b a \ dc \fe \ hg \ k | m - 1 \ o n \ 



Here platoon 1 stands on the left wing, yet a stands 

 on the right of his platoon. In both cases, the lii.e 

 is supposed to face the same way. 



INVESTITURE, in the feudal law, was the open 

 delivery of a feud by a lord to his vassal, thus, by 

 external proof, affording evidence of property. To 

 use the words of Blackstone, " Investitures, in their 

 original rise, were probably intended to demon- 

 strate, in conquered countries, the actual posses- 

 sion of the lord, and that he did not grant a bare 

 litigious right, but a peaceable and firm possession. 

 At a time when writing was seldom practised, a mere 

 oral gift, at a distance from the spot that was given, 

 was not likely to be long or accurately retained in 

 the memory of bystanders, who were very little 

 interested in the grant." For this reason, investi- 

 ture was performed by the presentation of some 

 symbol to the person invested, as a branch of a tree, 

 &c. In the primitive church, after the election of a 

 bishop, and his consecration, the early Christian 

 emperors claimed a right of confirmation. The 

 Gothic and Lombard kings exercised the same pri- 

 vilege. In the French monarchy, the Merovingians 

 affected the still greater power of direct nomination, 



