38 
rod of office, which may have been borne by some 
ancient arch-priest or king in the great assemblies of 
his people, was dug up in the circle of Leys, Inver¬ 
ness-shire ; and in 1838 a gold ring and an armilla of 
beaten gold were found in the island of Islay, under 
a large standing stone. ” Xow these ‘ ‘ Standing 
Stones ” are far from uncommon in Perthshire, and it 
is possible that similar caches of gold or gold ornaments 
may occur in connection with at least some of them ! 
II. In the 14th, 15th, and 16th centukies there 
WAS A GENERAL BELIEF IN THE PREVALENCE OF 
GOLD IN SCOTLAND. 
It was quite customary, in the title-deeds affecting 
Lands at that time, specially to mclude or conclude 
gold mines. I possess extracts from charters of lands 
in the counties of Forfarj Lanark, and Linlithgow, 
containing such clauses ; and before me is a letter of 
recent date referring to an estate on the Highland 
border of Perthshire, in which ‘ ‘ the gold existing in 
the soil is CcTcepted from the subjects ” conveyed by 
charter. Whether stimulated by this fact does not 
appear ; but only a few years ago the proprietor of 
the estate in question submitted to a local geologist, 
for his opinion as to its auriferous quality, a specimen 
of ordinary bog iron ore from his lands—a mineral 
earth that is familiar on all our moorlands ! I have 
little doubt that conveyancers familiar with the title- 
deeds of the larger estates of Perthshire, drawn up 
within the period before specified, could point out 
many references to supposed or real gold mines within 
its area. A special work was indeed printed in the 
16th century on the subject of gold in Scotland—viz., 
“ The Discoverie and Historie of the Gold Mynes in 
Scotland, written in the year 1619 by Stephen Atkin¬ 
son.” (Published by the Bannatyne Club in 1825). 
Professor Young of Glasgow w^rote me sometime ago 
—“Robert Chambers in his ‘Domestic Annals of 
Scotland ’ (vol i.) speaks of the foreign Douster- 
swivels, who in the time of the Jameses overran Scot¬ 
land in search of minerals,” and especially gold, “ and 
I think gives references to the Acts they obtained, ” 
Details on this subject are also to be found in 
