Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/140

Rh 130 ELGIN valleys, first of the River Findhorn and afterwards of the Spey, the Garry, and the Tay. The Great North of Scot land Railway has also been extended from Keith to Elgin by a somewhat circuitous route, and is connected with the High land Railway at Boat of Garten in Strathspey. The Moray- shire Railway, joining Elgin to Lossiemouth, the first line formed north of Aberdeen, is now worked as a branch of the Great North. In 1872 there were in Elginshire 251 owners of land of 1 acre and upwards in extent, the principal among them being the earl of Seafield (Castle Grant), 96,721 ; the earl of Fife (Innes House), 40,951 ; Sir William G. Gordon Gumming, Bart. (Altyre House), 36,387 ; the earl of Moray (Darnaway Castle), 21,669 ; a-nd the duke of Richmond and Gordon (Gordon Castle), 12,271. In the same year the annual value of the land in the county was estimated to be upwards of .200,000. The number of inhabited houses was 8452. The aggregate population of the whole county was, in 1831, 34,498 ; in 1841, 35,012; in 1851, 38,959; in 1861, 44,218; in 1871, 43,612. It unites with Nairnshire in returning a member to parliament. In 1877-78 the combined con stituency was 1837 of which 1555 voters were in Elgin shire. The county contains 22 parishes. Ecclesiastically it is part of the synod of Moray, the limits of which are nearly co-extensive with those of the ancient province, except that Strathbogie has been added. There are two royal burghs in Elginshire Elgin, the county town (for which see below), and Forres. Forrcs (population in 1871, 3959) must have been a place of some importance at an early date, though it was subsequently overshadowed by the neighbouring burgh or city. Its castle was for 300 years the official residence of the hereditary sheriffs of Moray ; and of the lands anciently bestowed upon it by royal favour it still possesses upwards of 1000 acres. The town is pleasantly situated at the foot of the Cluny Hills, several wooded eminences traversed in all directions by public walks that are sheltered alike from the heat of summer and from the cold of winter. On the southern slope of one of them is a large hydropathic establishment. Forres being one of the centres of railway communication in the north, all parts of the country are easily accessible from it. Its most noteworthy memorial of antiquity is Sweno s Stone, one of those remarkable sculptured monuments peculiar to the north-east of Scot land. Besides the villages on the coast mentioned above, Elginshire contains those of Fochabers, Rothes, and Grantowu. In all parts of the county the oldest names of places are Celtic, showing clearly what race had at one time been in possession of the soil. At the dawn of authentic history we find Macbeth, Ri or Mormaer of Moray, in rebellion against &quot; the gracious Duncan.&quot; The sequel is well known. A century or so later there was a great influx of strangers into Moray Normans, Saxons, and Flemings who got large grants of land from David I. and his immediate successors. It was in those days that the family of De Moravia became the owners of the fairest part of the province. At the same period, and under the fostering influence of the same kings, the church acquired extensive lauds in Moray. In addition to the cathedral at Elgin, there were the abbey of Kinloss, and the priories of Urquhart and Pluscarden, all well endowed. Chief among its ruined castles are Spynie Palace, the country residence of the bishops of Moray ; Duffus, once the home of the De Moravias, and &quot;still the admiration of the antiquary;&quot; Rothes, for centuries the seat of the Leslies ; and, built on an island in the middle of a loch of the same name, Lochindorb, which was in the 13th century one of the mountain strongholds of the then powerful family of Comyn. Another interesting locality is the promontory of Burg- head, or &quot;the Broch,&quot; as it is still familiarly called, anciently the site of a Christian church, the date of the planting of which there is some evidence to show goes back as far as the days of Columba, and probably the site also of one of those brochs or fortresses so common in the more northern parts of the kingdom, the nationality of whose builders is still a matter of dispute. The headland was afterwards turned, apparently by the destruction of these or other buildings, into a kind of fortified camp, a plan of which has been preserved by General Roy, in his Military An tiquities of North Britain. Except a remarkable well cut in the solid rock, and x&amp;gt;f older date at least than the mounds sketched by Roy, few vestiges of the former importance of Burghead now remain. ELGIN, a royal and parliamentary burgh of Scotland, and the county town of the above county, which, from its having been once the see of a bishop, and occasionally the residence of the kings of Scotland, claims for itself the designation of a city. It occupies a sheltered situation on the banks of the small river Lossie, about five miles from where the latter enters the Moray Firth. From Edinburgh it is dis tant by railway 200 miles, from Aberdeen 71, and from Inverness 36|. Elgin has one main street about a mile in length, with several others running parallel or at right angles to it. Northwards across the Lossie is the suburb of Bishopmill, in a different parish, but within the parlia mentary boundaries of the burgh. In the outskirts of Elgin proper, as well as in the neighbourhood of Bishopmill, are a large number of villas, most of them built within the last thirty years. On an eminence at the west end of the High Street stands Gray s Hospital, opened for the recep tion of patients in 1819. It was built and is maintained out of the proceeds of a legacy of 24,000, bequeathed for the purpose by Alexander Gray, surgeon, H.E.I.C.S., a native of the town. The site of the old church of St Giles is occupied by the parish church, erected in 1828, at an expense of nearly 9000. At the eastern extremity of High Street is Anderson s Institution, &quot; for the education of youth and the support of old age,&quot; opened in 1833. This building cost nearly 12,000. Its founder, the son of a poor woman who cradled him among the ruins of the cathedral, rose from the ranks to be a major-general in the service of the East India Company, and bequeathed for the erection and endowment of this institution 70,000. On the top of Ladyhill rises a column 80 feet high, surmounted by a statue of the last duke of Gordon in his robes as chancellor of Marischal College and University, Aberdeen. Along the High Street are many handsome modern struc tures, erected mainly for business purposes, prominent among which are those belonging to various banking com panies. Other public buildings and institutions are the District Asylum, the Assembly Rooms, the Market Build ings, the Burgh Court-house and the County Buildings, the Club-house and Reading-room, the Museum, and the Morayshire Union Poorhouse. The places of worship, besides the parish church, are the High and South Free churches, the Moss Street and South Street U.P. churches, the Congregational church, and the Episcopal, the Roman Catholic, and the Baptist chapels, all of them of recent date. Elgin is well supplied with schools, the old grammar school of. the burgh being represented by the Elgin Academy. The ruins of the cathedral are situated at the east end of the town. In 1390, after it had stood 166 years, the &quot; Wolfe of Badenoch,&quot; a natural son of King Robert II., having quarrelled with Bishop Barr, set fire to the splendid pile. The destruction thus wrought was repaired but slowly, owing in part to the lawless condition of the country in those days. After the Reformation, the lead was stripped from the roof in 1568 by order of the Privy Council, and shipped for Holland to be there sold. The building being