238 OCTOBER 



(windows) sal be weill and sufficientlie wrocht to 

 the said Coleine Campbell, his contentment.' 



Colin's confidence in the ' meassounes ' was not 

 misplaced : the work is rough, but substantial ; 

 the general effect is very grand; and the 'entrie 

 yet,' where the drawbridge still swings between two 

 circular towers, is so fine that one is tempted to 

 wish for the removal of four huge wych elms that 

 have been allowed to grow up in the moat, obscur- 

 ing the view of the north face of the building. 

 Colin's son, Sir Hugh, succeeded his uncle the 

 lunatic, and built the south part of the edifice as it 

 now stands, and as it appears in Billings's well- 

 known engraving. This Thane was an industrious 

 correspondent, and some of his letters contain vivid 

 pictures of the vicissitudes of Highland life in the 

 seventeenth century. Thus in June 1691 the 

 following : 



' There canie two or three parties ^off Hielanders, one of 

 them caryed away a great many cattell out of Aitnoch. 

 . . . The partie was strong, betwixt fiftie and three score. 

 . . . The nixt partie fell vpon my lands in the more and in 

 the breas (the moor and braes) off Altherg, when I wass at 

 Inshoch, and caryed such cattel as they found quit away : 

 about thirtie head and four piece of horss. . . . The third 

 partie fell upon rny lands of Boath, but then I was at home 



