INTRODUCTION 



IN times less secure than our own, refuges were 

 placed down, at intervals, over the untamed 

 country, according to the special needs and dangers 

 of the place. A common site was the river bank, 

 or the entrance to the mountain pass, where the 

 traveller might rest till the brown water subsided, 

 or the daylight returned. 



Scotland abounds in flooded streams, and stern 

 passes. At the southern end of a road, leading over 

 the central Grampian ridge to and from Braemar, 

 stands the 'spital, or hospital of Glenshee. Every- 

 thing seems to point to the genesis of the present 

 hamlet in an ancient shelter. The scene is typical. 

 And if, in imagination, we refill the shades, cast by 

 the then dense woodland, with wild beasts, the 

 reason for the choice will become still more 

 apparent. It must be difficult for those who now 



