Page:The Story of the Cheeryble Grants.djvu/48

26 June, 23rd, 1650, and at Scoon, January 1st, 1651.”

From an early period the Grants have occupied a place of prominence and power in the North of Scotland. In the thirteenth century, in the reign of Alexander II., Gregory de Grant was Sheriff-principal of Inverness, Ross, Sutherland and Caithness. And the splendid gracefully-winged quadrangular pile of Castle Grant, on its comely eminence, once begirt with ancient forests and still adorned with many a stately tree, dates from the 14th Century. In the same century, and in the same ancient parish of Cromdale, Lochindorb Castle — in proud security then on its loch-lapped isle — sheltered the Countess of Athol after the death of the Earl in an engagement with the Earl of March; and soon after, the old stronghold successfully resisted a siege by a powerful