Obituary JStotices, 
XXV 
garment worn by St Columba, which was thought, long after his 
death, to be the omen and pledge of victory, by preserving some of 
the saint’s miraculous virtue. [Bishop Reeves gives a notice of the 
Breach Bannoch in his edition of Bishop Adamnan’s Life of St 
Columba^ and it is figured in Dr Joseph Anderson’s Scotland in Early 
Christian Ti'tnes.^ This Sir Alexander Irvine was one of the hostages 
for the ransom of James I. It was he who built Drum’s Aisle or 
Chantry in the church of St Nicholas, Aberdeen, where the brass 
effigies and brief epitaphs of “ Honorabilis et famosus miles dominus 
Alexander de Irwin,” and his wife, ‘‘ Nobilis domina Elizabeth de 
Keth militis marescalli Scotiae filia,” still remain, though the “ Hie 
sub ista sepultura jacet ” has been falsified by their removal from 
the site of the tomb to the wall of the church. 
Another Sir Alexander, in the reign of James IV. and James V., 
held the office of Sheriff of Aberdeenshire, and appears in the Ex- 
chequer Rolls as Crown Receiver for Kintore, Coul, and O’Neil. 
His son took part in the defence of Scotland against Henry YIII., 
and lost his eldest son at the Battle of Pinkie. 
Three other Lairds of Drum deserve a passing notice even in the 
brief genealogical reference which such a notice as the present 
permits. Sir Alexander Irvine of the time of James I.’s English 
reign and the commencement of that of Charles I. is described by 
Sir Samuel Forbes, writing in 1715, as “that Laird of Drum, who 
lived in our grandfathers’ times, for his benignity and ample bounty 
to the poor, deserves to be remembered and praised. He lived 
decently, was a plain man, nicknamed Little Breeches, increased in 
wealth, bequeathed lands for maintenance of poor widows, poor 
maids, and for the education of several children at school, and of 
young men to be taught philosophy and theology.” Neither the 
pious founder nor his panegyrist probably contemplated how ample 
this bounty was to become. Let us hope the bursars of Aberdeen 
bless the memory of “ Little Breeches.” 
His son and successor was appointed Sheriff of Aberdeenshire by 
Charles I. and suffered much in the troubles of the civil war and 
ecclesiastical revolution. Drum Castle was taken in his absence by 
General Monro, who granted to the Lady Drum, its defender, that 
the garrison might retire with the honours of war. The forces of 
the Covenant for a considerable time garrisoned Drum, lived on the 
VOL. XIX. 29/3/93. 
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