MANSE OF FYVIE 



ABERDEENSHIRE 



HE Ythan, beloved of trout-fishers, flows 

 through a fair strath enriched with 

 many memories and set with many 

 an ancient fortalice. Transcending all 

 others in Aberdeenshire perhaps in all 

 Scotland for architectural interest is the magnificent 

 castle of Fyvie, whereof the history has its source 

 in days long before Edward I. of England made 

 it his lodging in 1296, and bids fair to outlast by 

 many centuries the visit of Edward VII. of Great 

 Britain and Ireland (and a good deal else besides) 

 in 1907. When the annals of a house extend over 

 so many centuries, trifling chronological inexactitudes 

 may be treated with leniency ; still, it taxes our 

 credulity rather beyond its limits to be shown in the 

 fifteenth century Seton tower at Fyvie the actual bed- 

 room occupied by the first Edward in the thirteenth 

 century ! In truth, there is no part of the building 

 which can be declared confidently to have belonged 

 to the original stronghold, so completely has the 

 whole castle undergone reconstruction by successive 



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