A BERDEENSHIRE. 



Mackenzie, and extends to over 19,000 acres. It is 

 somewhat long for its breadth, and on the east and 

 north-east marches with Invermark forest; on the 

 south with some sheep ground and Glendoll forest, 

 which continues to bound it on the west ; on the 

 north it runs with Balmoral. At one time this 

 property was owned by the Gordons of Aboyne, and 

 tradition says — although I vouch not for its accuracy 

 — that one day the laird of Aboyne met the laird of 

 Invercauld, both being belated in pursuit of deer, at a 

 small farm-house on Glenmuick, and finding a pack of 

 cards, they began to play. Fortune was dead against 

 the laird of Aboyne, who, exasperated by an incessant 

 run of bad luck, eventually staked as his last coup 

 the property of Glenmuick against a corresponding 

 extent of Invercauld, and losing the game, Glen- 

 muick passed into the hands of Invercauld, from 

 whom it was purchased by the late Sir James 

 Mackenzie in 1870. That gentleman planted large 

 stretches of low-lying moorland with larch, spruce and 

 Scotch fir, which thriving wonderfully well affords 



